Penances have become a farce in Modern India. Like the dispensations of the Popes of Rome, penances can be compounded by the payment of amounts ranging from a cowrie shell to thousands of rupees to Brahmins. It is not that the gifts to a deserving man washes away sins, for modern Hinduism has done everything in its power to throw in 'the background that rational idea, but a gift to a Brahmin, however bad he may be, as the saying goes that no one feeds a docile donkey, but a kicking cow, for the sake of her milk. This presupposes that a kicking Brahmin has milk to give, which is far from the truth.

The practice of Prayas'chittas or penances is based upon a more rational basis. Repentance for sin is the highest prayas'chitta, the infliction of bodily pains is of secondary importance. One who has performed such penance has exhausted the evil effects of his sins and for him there is no penance.

Footnotes

^iii:* "Afterwards freed from all sins, they are born in high families, where they enjoy pleasures, and become accomplished in arts and sciences, and possessed of wealth."

^iii:+ Mandalik's Hindu Law, p. 265, verse 219.

GARUDA PURANA.

HOMAGE TO THE BLESSED GANESA.