DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.611#0155
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF BENARES. 109
few widows also come to spend their last years here.
It may interest some to know that some of the temple
authorities make an annuity arrangement with widows
who desire it. The widows make over to them such
money as they possess and are then entitled to subsist-
ence as long as they live.
Among the religious influences which are at present
operative in Benares no mention has been made of
Theosophy, which has made the city its head quarters
for this part of India. So far as Theosophy has become
identified with the life of Benares, it has become an
interpretation of Hinduism. Doubtless, however, it
brings much from the West, and endeavours to read it
into Hinduism, and in this way is influencing Hinduism.
Ethical teaching nurtured and developed by Christianity,
and incorporated into the life and thought of the West,
is read into the Hindu shastras, and taught as Hinduism.
It may be freely granted that much of the teaching may
be found in the Hindu books, but never focused and
enforced as it is being now done through agencies which
are, in their sources, distinctly Christian. This state-
ment may not pass unchallenged, but it is written thought-
fully and deliberately.
This is a very imperfect sketch of the variegated
religious life of Benares. The question now suggests
itself—What is the significance of it ail ? Benares is
often spoken of as a conservative centre of Hinduism, but
is this the case ? Conservatism there doubtless is. There
are not a few whose conservatism can be respected,
though we may not agree with their position, the
conservatism of those who are wedded to the past, and
who are convinced that what has been established from
of old must be right. There is the conservatism of those
who " love to have it so," whose bread and butter it is.
" But you know these things are not right, why do you
few widows also come to spend their last years here.
It may interest some to know that some of the temple
authorities make an annuity arrangement with widows
who desire it. The widows make over to them such
money as they possess and are then entitled to subsist-
ence as long as they live.
Among the religious influences which are at present
operative in Benares no mention has been made of
Theosophy, which has made the city its head quarters
for this part of India. So far as Theosophy has become
identified with the life of Benares, it has become an
interpretation of Hinduism. Doubtless, however, it
brings much from the West, and endeavours to read it
into Hinduism, and in this way is influencing Hinduism.
Ethical teaching nurtured and developed by Christianity,
and incorporated into the life and thought of the West,
is read into the Hindu shastras, and taught as Hinduism.
It may be freely granted that much of the teaching may
be found in the Hindu books, but never focused and
enforced as it is being now done through agencies which
are, in their sources, distinctly Christian. This state-
ment may not pass unchallenged, but it is written thought-
fully and deliberately.
This is a very imperfect sketch of the variegated
religious life of Benares. The question now suggests
itself—What is the significance of it ail ? Benares is
often spoken of as a conservative centre of Hinduism, but
is this the case ? Conservatism there doubtless is. There
are not a few whose conservatism can be respected,
though we may not agree with their position, the
conservatism of those who are wedded to the past, and
who are convinced that what has been established from
of old must be right. There is the conservatism of those
who " love to have it so," whose bread and butter it is.
" But you know these things are not right, why do you