s. He
became Arjuna's charioteer and rendered him counsel and help in that low
disguise. He was a sharer of burdens--a counsellor and friend. And he
became the most popular of all Hindu deities.

The important point in all this is that this old system, so
self-sufficient and self-satisfied, should have groped its way toward a
divine sympathizer in human form, a living and helpful god among men.
Hinduism had not been wanting in anthropomorphisms: it had imagined the
presence of God in a thousand visible objects which rude men could
appreciate. Trees, apes, cattle, crocodiles, and serpents had been
invested with an in-dwelling spirit, but it had found no mediator. Men
had been trying by all manner of devices to sublimate their souls, and
climb Godward by their own self-mortification; but they had realized no
divine help. To meet this want they developed a veritable doctrine of
faith. They had learned from Buddhism the great influence and power of
one who could instruct and counsel and encourage. Some Oriental scholars
think that they had also learned many things from Christian
sources.[182]

However that may be--from whatever source they had gained this
suggestion--they found it to accord with the deepest wants of the human
heart. And the splendid tribute which that peculiar development bears to
the great fundamental principles of the Christian faith, is all the more
striking for the fact that it grew up in spite of the adamantine
convervatism of a system, all of whose teachings had been in a precisely
opposite direction. It was old Hinduism coming out of its intrenchments
to pay honor to the true way of eternal life. Probably the doctrine
first sprang from a felt want, but was subsequently reinforced by
Christian influences.

The late Professor Banergea, in his "Aryan Witness," gives what must be
regarded as at least a very plausible account of the last development of
the so-called Krishna cult, and of this doctrine of faith. He thinks
that it borrowed very much from western monotheists. He quotes a passage
from the Narada Pancharata, which represents a pious Brahman of the
eighth century A.D., as having been sent to the far northwest, where
"white-faced monotheists" would teach him a pure faith in the Supreme
Vishnu or Krishna. He quotes also, from another and later authority, a
dialogue in which this same Brahman reproved Vyasa for not having
celebrated the praises of Krishna as supreme. This Professor Banergea
reg