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The Tenth Lesson: The Religions of India. Part II1315
million of the whole number being in Burmah alone; Buddhism being extinct
in many parts of India, and existing only as a dead religion there.
Under the head of “Orthodox Hindu Faiths” are included followers of the
several sects and schools of religion and philosophy, or religious-philosophy,
which are generally grouped under the term and class of “Brahminism,” the
various sects and schools differing very materially from each other, but all
having a common root, origin, and relation to that Original Religion of the
Hindus, which they themselves call the Sanatana or Eternal Religion, and
which has as its basis the belief in a One Infinite Reality, Being, or Existence,
from which the phenomenal universe and the individual souls proceed. The
different Hindu sects, while practically appearing as different religions, in
reality regard themselves as but different sects and divisions of the One
Eternal Religion of India, of which each, of course, considers itself the best
and most favored channel of expression and interpretation. None of the cults,
or sects, or schools are regarded as “outlanders,” heretics, or unbelievers—
all are included in the great fold—all are regarded as seekers after the great
Truth—all are looked upon as travellers upon many roads, each choosing
his own path, of which the number is countless. As a respected Hindu has
said: “The prevailing religion of India may be compared to a great mosaic,
inlaid with every kind of religious idea, and every form of worship which the
human mind can possibly conceive.” And, as Max Müller says: “No phase of
religion, from the coarsest superstition to the most sublime enlightenment,
is unrepresented in that country.”
The various sects and schools of the Hindu Religion, which is generally
regarded under the head of “Brahminism,” or “Hinduism,” by Western
authorities, but which is spoken of as the Sanatana or “Eternal Religion,”
or the “Religion of India” by the Hindus themselves, and which comprises
two hundred and twenty-five millions (225,000,000) of people in India,
may be grouped into three general classes, namely, (1) Vishnuites, or
Vaishnavas; (2) Shivaites, or Shaivas; and (3) Abstract Monists. The origin
of the first two classes has been given in the preceding lesson, where the