134 



EEV. G. U. POPE, B.B., ON 



' Again, trki'le the cause continues to exist, the effect perishes. This is 

 the doctrine of oitr Agamas. But with you it seems that the soul's 

 perishing with the body is its salvation. Your creed is that when the 

 ' Five Kandas ' perish the soul is released. Tell me where and what is 

 the released soul, whose only existence was in the momentary and 

 fluctional existence of the ' Five Kandas.' Surely form and existence and 

 deliverance jierish together ! ' Here the Buddhist guru, beside himself 

 with rage, intei^josed : 'Thou sayest that we possess neither god nor 

 salvation. What then is your god, and what is your salvation / ' To 

 this Miinikka Va9agar replied, ' Our god, seated in the shade of the 

 beautiful banyan tree, taught the laws of right ; and many have beheld 

 His beauty as He performed the mystic dance. His adornment is the 

 sacred ashes. Umai is the half of His form. He is full of grace ; who can 

 worthily proclaim our god? In Tillai's beauteous Golden Hall, He 

 dwells, wearing as a jewel the crescent moon. Is there any end to the 

 story of His greatness ? ' Here the Buddhist interposed, as indeed seems 

 quite natural, with the inquiry : ' Whither tends all this verbiage 1 

 Answer me plainly these questions : Your god, as He sits beneath the 

 shade of the banyan, has a rosary and repeats His prayers. Is it because 

 He strives to think of some other gracious deity beyond Himself to whom 

 He prays ? You tell me He dances in Tillai. Does one dance for the 

 edification of a select company of the wise, or to gratify one's own 

 phantasy ? Again, " our god wears ashes on His sacred body," you say, 

 with proud complacency. Is it because even white ashes look pure upon 

 His dark red skin ? Then you tell me that half His form is woman ! 

 Who has never heard of half a woman in the world ? And if Umai even 

 thus shares His being, it is indeed to be wondered at that your hermits 

 leave wife and home to dwell quite alone in the wilderness !' But the 

 mocking, cynical laugh of the Buddhist company was too much for the 

 Caiva champion, who scornfully interposed, ' Thou art unworthy to listen 

 to high mysteries, the knowledge of which constitutes the blessedness of 

 these assembled devotees. None can know these things who have not 

 first performed penitential acts to which thou art a stranger. Yet know 

 thou that our god carries the prayer-rosary in order that all His saints 

 may from His example learn to pray and moi'tify themselves. The 

 losary is like the weapon in the Master's hand, with which. Himself 

 unassailable. He is teaching His neophytes to make war. Thou sayest that 

 our god dances as dance the wanton ones of earth, that eyes of flesh may 

 see Him. Nay, but as the fire runs through the fuel uncontaminated, so 

 doth our god pervade all souls and all bodies with His mystic energies : 



