Forlong - Rivers of Life

120
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
The Vishnoovas undoubtedly show a greater attention to the decorations, or if I
may say so, the amenities of the faith, and make more of the Tree element and of all
the softer emotions than Sivaites. Fig trees, Toolsi and floral decoration are more
prominent with them, but their festivals display a more sexual elewent, although there
is not much to choose between them and other religions during the chief solar phases;
or the festivals corresponding to our Christmas and Easter. Several great
Serpent dynasties of ancient India called themselves Serpents or Nāgas. Their “holy
scriptures” say they were a race of demi~gods who lived in the realms below, and who
at will assumed man’s form and came on earth, but always retained the serpent’s
tail. Nagas are to be dstinguished from the Sārpas or true snake, who according to
the Poorānas never act or speak as men, and are never worshipped by Brahmans.
The Sārpas is not therefore our early Eden demi.god—the instructor of youthful Eve.
All coiling roots and fantastic shrubs represent the serpent and are recognised
as such all over India. In Bengal we find at the preset day the fantastically grow-
ing Euphorbia Antiquorum regularly worshipped, as the representative of the Serpent
God. The sacred thread worn alike by Hindoo and Zoroastrian, is the symbol of that
old faith; the Brahman twines it round his body and occasionally around the neck of
the sacred bull, the Lingam, and its altar. The serpent dances with Pentecostal tongue
of fire, in and about the Argha, or that “boat of Life” in which the Argha-Nāt (Eshwāra)
stands. (See Fig. 42) With the orthodox, the serpent thread should reach down to
its closely allied faith, altbough this Ophite thread idea is now no more known to Hindoos
than the origin of arks, altars, candles, spires, and our Church fleur-de-lis is to Jews
and Christians. I give here an ordinary Maha Deva or Lingam-in-Yoni stone, such
as we meet with every day in Indian
temples, but whieh I take, by Dr
Inman’s kindness, from his 2d vol. at
p. 220. Here the symbolic God lies
resting in the fiery circle of Eternity,
and I suspect also is the band which
we see round “the column of Life,”
or Lingam; and that it is the
Pythic head which reaches up and
kisses the Lotus or Fertility on the
crown. I have often so seen the
Fig. 39—MAHA DEVA OR STRI-LINGA, WITH NANDA OR BULL
Maha Deva (Lingam) adorned. The
heads embrace the whole world
of man as Truth or Religion, Matter
and Passion. Taurus or the Bull (here called Nanda) kneeling at the entrace of the door
of life is intensified passion, power, and fertility, just as are Aries and Taurus, the young
Ram, and the Bull of the vernal Equinox. I beg my readers will remember here,