Religions Before Christianity
Format: Paperback
ISBN13: 9780217982979
Paperback|9780217982979
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. THE HINDU RELIGION. 1. The ancestors of the Hindus remained longer in their ancient Aryan home than those of other peoples, and their religion may be regarded as a direct continuance of the ancient Aryan faith. 2. The Vedas contain the earliest records of the Hindu religion. These consist of hymns addressed to various divinities. Some of these hymns are of great beauty. They show that the nation was already far advanced in literary skill. They are very ancient. Their precise date is unknown, but they must have been written earlier than the twelfth century before Christ. 3. The god Varuna. is recognized in the earlier Vedic hymns as filling the chief position. Varuna represented the heavens which envelop the earth. He was a god of great sublimity and holiness. Nothing escaped his knowledge. The thoughts of men's hearts were known to him. The winkings of their eyes were numbered. Where two talked together, there was the god Varuna as the third. Some of the hymns addressed to him are very lofty, and express exalted religious feeling. I will give in prose translation a part of a hymn addressed to Varuna. The great one who rules over these worlds beholds all things as if he were close at hand. When any man thinks he is doing aught by stealth, the gods know it all; and they perceive every one who stands or walks or glides along secretly ot withdraws into his house or into any lurking place. Whatever two persons, sitting together, devise, Varuna, the king, knows it, being present there as a third. This earth, too, belongs to the king Varuna; and that vast sky, whose endsare so remote. ... He who should flee far beyond the sky would not there escape from Varuna the king. His messengers, descending from heaven, traverse this world; thousand-eyed, they look across the...
| ISBN-13 | 9780217982979 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217982972 |
| Weight | 0.20 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.12 In |
| List Price | $14.14 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 50 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
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