Modern Hinduism - Tapa blanda

CHAPTER I. BIRTH AND ITS CEREMONIES. The well-known lines of Wordsworth- " Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting ; The soul that rises with us, our life's star Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar ; Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God who is our home," are in perfect harmony with the spirit of Hinduism ; hence it teaches that before a child is ushered into the world certain ceremonies should be performed on its behalf. About four months before its birth there is the Uncooked Food ceremony. The astrologer having been consulted on this, as on other important occasions, and a suitable day having been fixed by him, restrictions respecting food, at other times rigorously observed by the expectant mother, are removed, and she is permitted to eat fruits, preserves, pickles, etc., rice and grain only being prohibited. Two months later comes the Cooked Food ceremony, when she

Table of Contents

CONTENTS; LIFE AND WORSHIP; CHAPTER PAGE; I Birth and its Ceremonies i; II The Home 16; III The Guru, and Initiation into Hinduism 26; IV Worship :-How sustained, and the objects; sought by it 32; V Worship in the Home and Temples 44; VI Festivals 62; VII Pilgrimages 85; VIII Religious Ideas expressed in Worship 136; MORALS 145; WOMAN; I The Position of Woman as taught in the; Sastras 179; II The Present Position of Woman 189; III Widows 211; CASTE; I Origin of Caste 235; II Growth of Caste 249; III Caste as it now exists 265; IV Kulinism and Polygamy 284

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