306 Timehri. 
by the Brahmans twice a day at least. Here is a very short one which 
many of our Indians say, ‘‘ Let us meditate on the excellent glory of 
the Divine Vivifier. May he enlighten our understanding.” This is 
repeated from 5 to 100 times on a rosary. The reader may be surprised 
to hear that one way of worshipping God is by getting married! Mar- 
riage is a religious duty incumbent on every one. One reason why 
many of our people are desirous to return to their own country is to get 
husbands or wives of the same social status as their own for their children. 
There are several places of worship called Temples all over the 
colony. The writer has been obliged to remove his boots so as to be 
allowed to have a look at the objects of worship. In India there are 
Temples that have cost millions of money to build. In this colony 
everything in the “Temple” is very tawdry, but clean. The places are 
generally very dark and awe-inspiring. Many idols of brass, terra cotta, 
or painted by hand, fill the “Temple.” The images that can stand it 
are washed morning and evening and decked with flowers. One of the 
images that the writer saw named Genesa, was a very ugly black dwarf 
with an extended stomach, four arms and an elephant’s head. Another 
called Hanuman, was a representation of a monkey holding his tail, 
smeared over with vermilion. A third was a female, Kali by name. She 
also had four arms; with one hand she held a sword, with another a 
bleeding head, and on her neck she wore a necklace of skulls ! 
There was still another idol, but its indecent appearance was so 
disgusting as not to bear description. 
A great many of the gods of the Hindus were very lascivious and 
committed the most awful crimes. But the Hindu says “ to the powerful 
all things are lawful.” And as far as one can gather, the more immoral 
a god has been the greater the evidence of his might. A Hindu will say, 
when twitted about the immoralities of his gods, ‘‘ which mortal could 
commit what you call crimes such as Krishna committed ?” Brahma, the 
chief of all the deities, was guilty of such heinous crimes that he was 
punished. He has hardly any worshippers. In India there is only one 
Temple dedicated to him, whilst to other deities thousands of temples and 
shrines are reared in their honour. 
The Gods have not attributes of omniscience and omnipotency. As, 
for instance, we meet the God Ram wandering in a desert enquiring from 
passers-by where a certain individual lived. We find Krishna—one of 
the most powerful of their Gods—weeping bitterly because he had heard 
that his father was in gaol, which, however, was not the case, but merely 
a practical joke played on him! For a God to utter a falsehood to serve 
his ends is a very common thing. 
There is another point that we must bear in mind. Man is an 
incarnation of God; a portion of godhead comes and dwells for a time 
in man. The devout Hindu yearns for the time when he may divest 
himself of this mortal coil and become absorbed into godhead. Man can 
never be lost eternally—his soul may pass from body to body until it is 
purified and considered fit to become part and parcel of God Himself. 
