SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

THE FOUE PATHS.
RELIGION THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Good deal of attention has
been paid of late to the Theore
tical aspects of our Hindu Religion, and most people are familiar
with the various systems of Hindu Philosopy of the Dvaita,
Ybishtadvaita and Advaita aspects in particular. And in such
a study, one is likely to lose sight of the practical aspect of the
Religion, and it is to this aspect, 1 wish to-day to draw your
particular attention.
DIFFICULTIES IN UNDERSTANDING HINDU RELIGION.
To the ordinary foreigner, Hinduism appears as a fantastic
combination of the grossest
superstitions and the most dreamy
speculations.
Even the sympathetic student of our religion,
though he is prepared to admire and appreciate particular
aspects of our philosophy, looks down with pity on our so-called
errors. And one Christian friend put it to me whether, in
Hinduism, we have any real and practical religion. Of course,
to the onlooker, the contrast between Temple-worship and its
attendant festivals and the austerer practices of the Sanyasins,
the ablutions and pujah of pious people and the Tatvamasi
and Ahambrahmasmi meditations of others, cannot but be
bewildering. Even some of us are apt to look upon so much
labour and money spent on Temples and in Temple-worship as
so much waste, or we are prepared to relegate these practices
to the illetirate lower orders, as we are pleased to call them.
Can all these various practices have any real meaning and pur
pose or can they
not ? Can all these be reduced to certain
definite principles or not ? These arre the questions wnich T
propose
to discuss in this paper.