During all our wanderings, whether in India, Cashmere, or Thibet,
the most striking feature throughout, was the outward display of
religion and the prominent part which religious forms of worship
take in the every-day life of the people.
Monuments and temples
everywhere bear testimony to the universal belief in a Supreme Being;
and Hindoo, Mussulman, and Buddhist alike, by numberless prayers and
frequent offerings, confess their desire to propitiate His power and
to cultivate His favour.
Every little village has its "Musjid" or "Shiwala," and everywhere,
and at all hours, votaries of the different sects may be seen, in
the fashion they have learnt from childhood, openly REMEMBERING,
at least, their Creator.
The naked Hindoo, with loosened scalp lock and otherwise closely-shaven
head, stands in running water, and with his face upturned to the sun
apostrophises the Divine Essence, whose qualities and attributes he has
alone been taught to recognise, through the numberless incarnations
of his degenerate creed. Five times a day the Mussulman kneels in
open adoration of his Maker, and, doffing his slippers, repeats, with
forehead to the ground, the formula laid down for him by the only
Prophet he has learnt to believe in. The Buddhist, too, mutters his
"Um mani panee" at every turn, and keeps his praying wheel in endless
motion, with entire confidence in its mystic virtues, and fullest
faith in the efficacy of those forms which he has thus been taught
to follow from his cradle.
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