--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Harris, Franklin S. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 30 number: 5 published: 1927-03 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Harris, Franklin S., “Fire and Philosophy on the Ganges,” *Improvement Era* 30, no. 5 (March 1927): 399–404." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3005unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera3005unse start_page: 399 end_page: 404 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1927-03) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3005unse publication_year: 1927 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1927, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Fire and Philosophy on the Ganges Improvement Era Vol. XXX MARCH, 1927 No. 5 FIRE AND PHILOSOPHY ON THE GANGES By Dr. Franklin S. Harris, President of the Brigham Young University I just read in yesterday's Calcutta paper that four actresses had been burned in a theatre fire in Rome. The news was flashed to all the world. Today I saw many times this many people burned without the least attention being given to them. I seemed to be the only one outside of the families who was really interested, even though hundreds of people were on the banks of the river where the burning was taking place. Most of them were bathing in a very casual way. THE SACRED GANGES All my life I have read of the sacred Ganges of India and what it means in the lives of the Hindus. Today I have seen a panorama of the things I have heard of since I was a boy. I am at Benares, which is the oldest city in India. It is also the religious center since two great religions, Buddhism and Hinduism, hold it sacred, and the third, represented by the Mohammedans, has a Mosque here. It was here that Buddhism had its origin. Siddhartha Gautama, afterwards called Buddha, who was born about 563 B. C, began his work here. This afternoon I visited the ancient ruins of a temple built more than 2000 years ago on the spot where he is thought to have delivered his first sermon more than 500 years before Christ delivered his sermon on the mount. This temple has been in ruins for many hundreds of years and has only recently been excavated. These excavations have thrown much new light on the life of their great teacher whose religion has spread throughout China, Japan, Korea, Tibet, Burma, and Ceylon but has almost vanished from most parts of India proper. Bernares is tremendously important in the religious thought of the Hindus. They believe that if they can die here and have their Entered at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, as second class matter. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 2, 19 18, $2 per annum. Address Room 406, Church Office Building, Salt Lake City, Utah. 400 IMPROVEMENT ERA bodies burned and the ashes thrown into the Ganges they are sure of a place in heaven. My guide, who is a Hindu, explained that there are so many people in the world that there is not room for all of them in heaven which is a small place; hence it is important to do the things which will insure a place there. They believe in the Photos by Dr. F. S. Harris Top: Bathing in the sacred Ganges at Benares, India. Bottom: Bathing and burning "Ghats" along the Ganges at Benares, India. transmigration of souls and that those who die here at Benares, will have all the advantage on their side when it comes to being born again. BATHING IN THE GANGES The bathing in the Ganges at the ghats (steps leading to the water's edge) is supposed to have all sorts of beneficial effects, both FIRE AND PHILOSOPHY ON THE GANGES 401 Photos by Dr. F. S. Harris Top: Four stages in cremating corpses on the banks of the Ganges at Benares, India. At the left, where the sticks are against the wall, the fire has burned out. In the center below, the fuel is about half burned. In the center above, the fire has just been lighted at the right, just below the top row of wood. Bottom: Sacred structures along the Ganges at Benares, India. The two towers are from a Mohammedan mosque. here and hereafter. As a result thousands of people bathe here each day. Every Hindu is supposed at sometime in his life to come to Benares and bathe in the Ganges. This he does with great seriousness. I saw hundreds of them with hands clasped in an attitude of prayer, while they were bathing today. I was at the river just at sunrise and already the banks were covered with people bathing, and the stream of bathers kept up all day, although many more people came early in the morning. I secured a boat and was rowed up and down for several hours near the bank 402 IMPROVEMENT ERA where the people were bathing and where bodies were being burned and ashes thrown into the river. My guide explained about the different points of interest; the ghats, the temples, and the people. A PERIOD OF GREAT EMOTIONAL AND INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY For me it was a period of great emotional as well as intellectual activity. To be at the center of religious thought of over 216,000,000 people who believe in Hinduism at the present time and to realize the untold millions who have turned their devotion toward this place is in itself no small experience. Then to see all of these strange ceremonies going on before one's eyes increased the effect. In India there are over 68,000,000 Mohammedans; and, of course, most of the followers of this religion dwell in other coun- tries. When the Mohammedans conquered India during the latter part of the twelfth century they destroyed many Buddhist and Hindu sacred places; they even erected a mosque right among the Hindu ghats on the banks of the Ganges, but they were not able to suppress the Hindu practices and philosophy. India is essentially Hindu today in spite of hundreds of years of Mohammedan rule and in the face of Photos by Dr. F. S. Harris Left: Part of the ruins of the temple which stood where Buddha delivered his first sermon 500 years before Christ gave the sermon on the mount. Right: The Buddhist Pagoda, Rangoon, Burma. FIRE AND PHILOSOPHY ON THE GANGES 403 the efforts of Buddhism, and of several centuries of Christian in- fluence. Today I have seen all of these forces in action: I have seen the Hindus in their temples, at their bathing, and on the burning altar; I have seen Buddhist pilgrimsi from far-away lands paying their devotions at the birthplace of their religion; I have observed Mo- hammedans praying in their mosque; I have seen Christians in their mission schools and churches. The four great religions of mankind have been before my eyes, and I have talked with adherents to each. I believe that I have been able to catch something of the point of view of the different groups. This, of course, has not been possible in any one day's observations and study, but during nearly four months I have had many splendid opportunities to observe in Japan, Korea, China, the Philippines, Malaya, Burma, and India. I have visited places of worship; I have read many books, I have talked with hundreds of adherents in all walks of life. WORSHIP, THE MOST DEEP SEATED TENDENCY Out of all this, there comes one impression that far outweighs all others, and that is the conviction that the tendency to worship is the most deep-seated of all of the higher tendencies of mankind. I am reminded again of an experience of college-days. Another student and I sat on a ledge of rock which we had been studying in connection with a geology course. Our conversation shifted from geology to religion, and he told me that he belonged to no church and did not believe in a God. Later in the day we and a number of others were in great peril in an avalanche of boulders. Most of us were busy dodging rocks; but my friend of the conversation was praying with a fervor which I have heard from few people. Since then I have had a little doubt of the sincerity of anyone who has told me he did not believe in a God and was not interested in religion. I find in all of the great peoples of the world a devotion to the religious idea which far outweighs any other devotion. The great structures which have been erected by man have had religion as some part of the motive. I also find that the lives of people every- where are shaped to a very large extent by their religious ideas. Another proof of this interest came to my attention recently in a list of book sales by subjects. Religious books easily led the list. ONE GOD, NAME ONLY DIFFERENT This morning as my guide and I rode up and down the' Ganges discerning the practices of the people and the points of interest, he said something which has kept me pretty busy thinking ever since. We were on a boat rowed by four coolies. They were below at the oars; we were above them on a platform. I, as the master, sat in the big chair in front; he, as guide and servant, sat behind me on a small chair. We had just passed five burning corpses and were opposite the Jalsain Ghat and facing the Mohammedan mosque. We had 404 IMPROVEMENT ERA been discussing Siva, Brahma, Vishnu, Allah, and Jehovah, when I asked him to compare certain attributes of Siva and Allah, to which he replied: "You see, master, it is this way; these are not all different gods; they are all just the same one God; it is only ,the names that are different. You see, the Mussul man, the Buddha man, the Christian man and the Hindu, they all think they have each one his own God. That is one great mistake. All the men in all the world, they have only one God; it is just the name that is different." — This from a man whom some would banish to the fate which they prescribed for the "heathen." — TREMENDOUS SERIOUSNESS IN WORSHIP In this center of worship I find a tremendous seriousness, the same kind of seriousness which I found in the Shive Dagon Pagoda in Burma, in the Mosque at Jahore, in the Cathedral in Manila, in the Shrine at Nikko, and in the temple at Peking. People are very much in earnest about their religion, but I am afraid that they have their minds so much on the water in the Ganges, the Buddah in the pagoda, the altar in the cathedral, and the direction of Mecca, that they have forgotten what it is all about. RITUAL SHOULD NOT BLIND US TO MEANING OF TRUE RELIGION We need the best intellects of the world with the best training they can be given, to devise ways of helping all mankind to see that the place and the ceremony and the structure should not be allowed to blind our eyes to the meaning of true religion. People everywhere are devout; they are sincere;, but how terribly ignorant they sometimes are — and how superstitious! When all of this devotion can once be turned away from the river, the brass, and the incense and directed into channels of spirituality which are un- polluted by prejudice and ignorance, then we ' may expect a world which is spiritualized in the true sense; one in which religion will take the form of service to one's fellowmen instead of being dissipated on meaningless ritual. Agra, India. Ignorance "It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance." "Let him that is ignorant learn wisdom by humbling himself and calling upon the Lord his God, that his eyes may be opened that he may see, and his ears opened that he may hear. "For my Spirit is sent forth into the world to enlighten the humble and contrite, and to the condemnation of the ungodly." — Joseph Smith, D. and C, 131:6; 136:32, 33.