History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c86.s3.2

v5.c86.s3.2

No enlightened or patriotic priesthood arose to save the Hindu peoples. The separatist tendency is as strong in their religion as in their society; and, indeed, an organised priesthood or State Church is opposed to the root principles of the Hindu scheme of salvation. Stray sheep running after stray shepherds fall easy victims to the quack and the voluptuary. Even if we pass over the degrading forms of man-worship that marked the religious practices of the Vallabhacharya, Kartabhaja and other sects of *guru*-adorers, or the licentiousness promoted by temple dancers (*devadasis* or *muralis*) and small prurient esoteric sects, and turn our eyes to the ordinary idol-worship of the millions, we find the priesthood bringing their worshippers down to the lowest intellectual level by holding up to their adoration a god who eats, sleeps, falls ill of fever (as Jagannath does for a week every year), or pursues amorous dalliances which a Nawab of Oudh might envy or a Qutb Shah imitate in his own harem. Reform was possible only outside the regular Hindu Church followed by the masses,—*i.e.*, among the small non-conforming sects, where men were prepared to leave all things and follow truth; but even there only during the first generation or two after their foundation, before they too sank into gross guru-worship.