WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
The religion is almost incomprehensible to the Western mind. Its keynote is a philosophic pessimism. Life must be endured; existence is not a boon in itself. "In the union of soul and body lies the source of human misery."
In India there are some millions of widows of the Hindu faith, forbidden by religion to marry a second husband. There are one thousand men to about nine hundred women. Marriage is enjoined upon all adults except widows and religious celibates.
The ethics of Hinduism may perhaps be summed up in this passage from the sacred writings:—
"Joy, pleasure, nobility, enlightenment and happiness also, absence of stinginess, absence of fear, contentment, faith, forgiveness, courage, harmlessness, equability, truth, straightforwardness, absence of wrath, absence of calumniation, purity, dexterity, valour."
Parents and women are to be held in honour:—
"By honouring his father, his mother, and his teacher, all that ought to be done by man is accomplished; that is clearly the highest duty; every other act is a subordinate duty."
"Where women are honoured there the gods are pleased, but where they are not honoured, no sacred rite yields rewards."
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