Page:Monier Monier-Williams - Indian Wisdom.djvu/30

 creed has been the source of great diversities among the people of India.

Every religion worthy of the name may be said to develope itself in three principal directions : 1. that of faith, 2. that of works and ritual, 3. that of doctrine or dogmatic knowledge; to one or other of which prominence is given according to peculiarities of mental bias or temperament. I have endeavoured to show at pp. 36 and 327-329 that the first two lines of development represent a religious exoteric or popular side, while the third exhibits its esoteric aspect, and is the only exponent of its more profound meaning.

Nothing can possibly be more simple than esoteric Hinduism. It is a creed which may be expressed by the two words—spiritual Pantheism (see p. 36). A pantheistic creed of this kind is the simplest of all beliefs, because it teaches that nothing really exists but the one Universal Spirit; that the soul of each individual is identical with that Spirit, and that every man's highest aim should be to get rid for ever of doing, having, and being, and devote himself to profound contemplation, with a view, to such spiritual knowledge as shall deliver him from the mere illusion of separate existence, and force upon him the conviction that he is himself part of the one Being constituting the Universe.

On the other hand, nothing can be more devoid of simplicity, nothing more multiform and capable of divergence into endless ramifications than the exoteric and popular side of the same creed. This apparent gulf between esoteric and exoteric Hinduism is bridged over by the simple substitution of the word emanation for identification.

Popular Hinduism supposes that God may for his own purposes amuse himself by illusory appearances; in other words, that he may manifest himself variously, as light does in the rainbow, and that all visible and material objects, including superior gods (isa, isvara, adhisa), secondary gods (deva), demons (daitya), demi-gods, good and evil spirits, human beings, and animals, are emanations from him, and for a time exist separately from him, though ultimately to be reabsorbed into their source. Both these aspects of Hinduism are fully explained at pp. 36 and 323-336 of the following Lectures. From the explanations there given, the multiform character and singular expansibility of the Hindu religious creed will be understood.

Starting from the Veda, it ends by appearing to embrace something