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BEGINNING, middle, nor end, shape, nor want of shape." Remark, that though he was to be a son! he was, also, to be without BEGINNING! Again, it is recorded in another place in the same work, "Shapeless, yet possessing shape, and without BEGINNING. Being one, yet not one, but many." Pārvati, the consort of Siva*, enquired of him, "What are the powers of Scandan your son ?" to whom he replied, "He is my own ENERGY: between myself and him there is no difference; like myself, he is omnipresent, and though but an infant, he is not only omniscient, but able to bestow divine wisdom, and the bliss that results from it, on all who desire it." This son was the energy of Siva, he was a part of himself, and, therefore, was without beginning.+ Notice, also, the object for which this son sprang from Siva : it was to destroy the fiendish Assurs, who were the ENEMIES of the gods; and he accomplished that object, for he extirpated them all.

VI. 27.-" Him hath God the Father sealed." (2 Cor.

i. 22. Eph. i. 13. iv. 30. Rev. vii. 4.)

The holy ashes which are rubbed on the foreheads of the heathen are called "the seal of Siva." The Brahmins are named "the seals of the gods." Should a man refuse to worship, to reverence a priest, it is said to him, "Ah! can you do so? has he not the seal of God?"

68.-"To whom shall we go? thou hast the words of
eternal life."

The gods, in their complaints to Siva against their enemies, said, "Except yourself, who is there of whom we can implore help? As the crow flies again and again ROUND THE MAST OF

* Scandan, the son of Siva, was not produced by sexual intercourse; he sprang from the frontal eye of his father. Minerva had not a mother, she came from the head of Jupiter.

+"Siva is eternal," Scandan is a part of Siva, therefore Scandan is eternal!

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THE VESSEL IN THE ROLLING SEA*, so Swamy, whenever afflictions come, with the exception of Cailāsum†, we have no other place of refuge: except yourself, there is no one can remove our distress. We could eat poison, we could leap into the raging fire, but the distress inflicted by our enemies we cannot endure, we cannot endure." Scanda Purana.

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In eastern language it is common to apply the word brother or sister to those relations who have no right to it in England. Thus, cousins are called "brothers;" i. e. the sons of brothers are called brothers; but a daughter, though she would be called sister by her cousins, yet her children would not be addressed in the same way, but "machān,” i. e. cousin, would be their proper title. The name sister, which Abraham gave to his wife, is still degree of relationship. Gen. xx. 12.

given to the same "She is the daughter

of my father, but not the daughter of my mother."

38.-"Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

It is said of divine sages, of great gooroos, "Ah! in their heads are kept the rivers of life, or life-giving rivers." The figure in reference to them is, I doubt, not, taken from Siva, as the Ganges is said to flow from his head.

XI. 31." She goeth unto the grave to weep."

An affectionate widow goes occasionally to the place of burning, or where her husband is interred, to weep there. Fridays and Sundays are the especial days for such a visit. Should the white ants have made their nests there, she pours milk on them.

This passage is very curious. Can there be any allusion to the "raven which went forth to and fro until the waters were dried up from off the earth ?"

†The abode of Siva.

XII. S.—“Then took Mary a pound of ointment of

spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair.”

When a great priest is going on a pilgrimage to a distant country, or when he has returned, or when he is about to die, then either a man or a woman can perform the following ceremony: the individual who makes the offering, on coming near the holy man, prostrates himself at his feet, he then washes them with scented or holy water, strews flowers over them, and kisses them. (See on Luke vii. 45.)

XIII. 38. "The cock shall not crow till thou hast

denied me thrice."

It is very common for people to regulate their time in the night by the crowing of the cock: thus, "I did not leave the temple till the Sama-koli," i. e. midnight cock. "I left my home at the Vudeya-koli,” i. e. the morning cock. The people attach a high value to those birds which crow with the greatest regularity; and some of them keep the time with astonishing precision.

XIV. 2.-" In my Father's house are many mansions.” (2 Cor. xii. 2. "Caught up to the third heaven.") The Jews believed there were seven heavens*, and the Hindoos have the same opinion; for Brahma, in endeavouring to find out the summit of the pillar of fire, soared into the "seventh heaven.”+ The latter people also have four especial degrees of bliss:-the first is called Sara-logo, God's world; the second, Sameeba, near to God; the third, Saroobam, God's image; the fourth, Sayutcheyam, to be united to or absorbed in him.

"To the first degree of bliss, go those who have made a

* 1. The velum, or curtain; 2. The firmament, or expanse; 3. The clouds, or ether; 4. The habitation; 5. The dwelling-place; 6. The fixed residence; 7. The araboth.— Dr. A. C.

†They have, however, many heavens, but the seventh is the place of eminence.

pilgrimage to a holy place, or who have paid for the lights of a temple, or who have used holy ashes or holy water, or those who wear sacred beads, or who praise the gods, or those who honour Brahmins, or who perform poosy to Siva, or those who use the five letters, i. e. a, e, i, o, u, for invocations, or who perform the thirty-two charities.* In that state there is great happiness; there are the five books; there beautiful females, who dance and sing; there no work, no sickness, no sorrow; there the water is like ambrosia, and there all the wishes are satisfied.

In the second degree of happiness, go those who are called Keerikārar, i. e. workers; who perform the Yagam, or who take holy waters (from the Ganges) to distant countries; or those who place iron pins on their heads, so as to make it impossible for them to sleep in a recumbent position: those who fast much, or who roll after the car, or who walk on fire, or who tie thorns on their body, or who in any way mortify their persons. Their happiness consists chiefly in praising God, and their holiness cannot be expressed.

In the third state go the Yogees; those who are ignorant of the sex, who never shave or cut the hair, or pare the nails, who

The following is a list of the charities: "1. To have a room for beggars where they may repose; 2. To give food to teachers; 3. To give food to the six sects; 4. To give food to the cow; 5. To give food to those who are in prison; 6. To give alms in general; 7. To give eatables; 8. To give rice at the funeral anniversaries of those relations who are incapable of doing it; 9. To burn the bodies of those whose relatives cannot afford to bear the expenses; 10. To pay for the beating of drums to the place of burning; 11. To assist a woman in childbirth; 12. To bring up children; 13. To give milk to a child; 14. To give holy ashes; 15. To give medicine to the sick; 16. To pay the washerman for those who are incapable; 17. To pay the barber; 18. To give a mirror; 19. To give an olah for the orifice in the ear; 20. To give medicine for the eyes; 21. To give oil for the head; 22. To give ; 23. To relieve a distressed person; 24. To have water by the road-side for travellers to quench their thirst; 25. To build a rest house; 26. To dig a tank; 27. To plant a grove; 28. To put up a post for the cow to rub itself against; 29. To give food to animals in general; 30. To set at liberty a bull, i. e. for sacred purposes; 31. To save life by giving money; 32. To assist a poor virgin in getting married."- See the Sathur-Agarāthe.

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never speak, who wander about the earth from the left to the right, who live in a constant state of abstraction on divine subjects, who eat nauseous food, who live in the desert, who go about in nakedness. In this world they gain the image of God, and in the other, they are his servants and messengers.

To the fourth degree of happiness go the Nyane, literally, philosophers: they are the highest kind of ascetics, and are perfect stoics: "they pay no respect to temples, to ceremonies, to tanks, to works, to castes; they have no sweets, no bitters, no sorrows, no joys, no sickness, no health, no heat, no cold; they hate the world, and the world hates them; they have no friends, and they know no enemies; they live and are dead, they are dead and yet live. After this world they are free from births and deaths; they are absorbed in the deity, which is supreme bliss." +

The Hindoos also believe there is a glorious city situated on a lofty mountain in the heavenly world. The walls form a square, are made of solid gold, and are beautified with precious stones. The gates are large, and are ever open to the good; and there stand the guards, there the light is as if produced by ten millions of suns; there lives the supreme Siva, and from his head flows a sacred river. There are the five trees, which give whatsoever is asked of them: their names are Arechanthanum, Katpagam, Santhānam, Paresātham, and the Mantharam. There are also four other trees in the celestial mountain. To go to the mount of Siva signifies to go to the heavenly world.

In reviewing this account the mind can scarcely fail to be struck with the following particulars :-The seven heavens

* Bishop Heber says, of some he saw near Umeer, "Those grim and ghastly Yogees, with their hair in elf-knots, and their faces covered with chalk, sitting naked, and hideous, like so many ghoules amid the tombs and ruined houses." Vol. ii. 416. See on 1 Sam. xix. 24. and Isa. lxv. 4.

+ Those who gain the other degrees of bliss may lose them, as they are subject to births and deaths.

Heb. xii. 22. Rev. iii. 12. also xxi. 10.

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