VML-2/26/01

[Guest guest]

That is why the mother is regarded as God in India. This particular

woman, the mother of our subject, was the very type of a Hindu

mother. The higher the caste, the greater the restrictions. The

lowest caste people can eat and drink anything they like. But as men

rise in the social scale, more and more restrictions come; and when

they reach the highest caste, the Brahmin, the hereditary priesthood

of India, their lives, as I have said, are very much circumscribed.

Compared to Western manners, their lives are of continuous asceticism.