been
compared to the sublime dogma of the Christian Incarnation. This is one of
the grossest errors that ignorance of the ideas and beliefs of a people
has produced. Between the _avatars_ of India and the Christian Incarnation
there is such an immensity of difference that it is impossible to find any
reasonable analogy that can approximate them. The idea of the _avatars_ is
intimately united with that of the Trimurti; the bond of connection
between these two ideas is an essential notion common to both, the notion
of Vishnu. What is the Trimurti? I have already said that it is composed
of three Gods, Brahma (masculine), Vishnu the God of _avatars_, and Siva.
These three Gods, who when reduced to their primitive and most simple
expression are but three cosmogonical personifications, three powers or
forces of nature, these Gods, I say, are here found, according to Indian
doctrines, entirely external to the true God of India, or Brahma in the
neuter gender. Brahma is alone, unchangeable in the midst of creation: all
emanates from him, he comprehends all, but he remains extraneous to all:
he is Being and the negation of beings. Brahma is never worshipped; the
indeterminate Being is never invoked; he is inaccessible to the prayers as
the actions of man; humanity, as well as nature, is extraneous to him.
External to Brahma rises the Trimurti, that is to say, Brahma (masculine)
the power which creates, Vishnu the power which preserves, and Siva the
power which destroys: theogony here commences at the same time with
cosmogony. The three divinities of the Trimurti govern the phenomena of
the universe and influence all nature. The real God of India is by himself
without power; real efficacious power is attributed only to three
divinities who exist externally to him. Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva,
possessed of qualities in part contradictory and attributes that are
mutually exclusive, have no other accord or harmony than that which
results from the power of things itself, and which is found external to
their own thoughts. Such is the Indian Trimurti. What an immense
difference between this Triad and the wonderful Trinity of Christianity!
Here there is only one God, who created all, provides for all, governs
all. He exists in three Persons equal to one another, and intimately
united in one only infinite and eternal substance. The Father represents
the eternal thought and the power which created, the Son infinite love,
the Holy Spirit univ