The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c11.84

c11.84

Yājnavalkya’s step marks not only the new order of thought but also the new order of life which the religion of the *ātman-brahma* imposes upon India. In fact we may say that henceforth India leads a double life. The first is the life of every day. The fragile human creature enters through the mother’s womb, where it has been protected by the pious prayers and ceremonies of its parents, into the bewildering sunshine of this world. If it only knew it, it would be glad that the *karma* of its former existence entitles its soul in the present existence to the shelter of a human body, howsoever lowly. Worse might have happened in the hazard of the lottery of transmigration. Birth means that the soul in question has not yet joined Brahma. He who has not done so, alas, is born again as worm or as fly; as fish or as fowl; as lion or as boar; as bull or as tiger, or man; or as something else—any old thing as we might say—in this place or in that place, according to the quality of his works, and the degree of his knowledge, that is in accordance with the doctrine of *karma*.¹ Thanks to the past the present is secure: worse might have happened than to pass through the temporary shelter of a human mother's body into the more enduring shelter of the mother's love. The Hindu mother, like any other mother, rejoices in her child, especially if he is a boy, and asks no questions about his ultimate cosmic destiny. Father and mother now bend every energy to raise the child so that he may become an honored member of the Brahmanical community, beloved alike of god and man. The Hindu books of Rules of Home Life, the so-called Grihyasūtras,² tell a touching story of the pious care with which the child is piloted through infancy. Indeed the life of the Brahmanical Hindu is sacramental throughout. Every important phase of his life has its own sacraments. The most important of them are the investiture by his teacher with the sacred cord, and his marriage.