arded as proof that previously to the eighth century Krishna has been
worshipped only as a demigod. But the whole drift of the old Brahmanical
doctrines had been toward sacrifice as a debt and credit system, and
that plan had failed. It had impoverished the land and ruined the
people, and had brought no spiritual comfort. Men had found that they
could not buy salvation.

Moreover, Buddhism and other forms of rationalistic philosophy, after
prolonged and thorough experiment, had also failed. The Hindu race had
found that as salvation could not be purchased with sacrifices, neither
could it be reasoned out by philosophy, nor worked out by austerities.
It must come from a Divine helper. Thus, when Narada had wearied
himself with austerities--so we read in the Narada Pancharata--he heard
a voice from heaven saying: "If Krishna is worshipped, what is the use
of austerities? If Krishna is _not_ worshipped, what is the use of
austerities? If Krishna is within and without, what is the use of
austerities? If Krishna is _not_ within and without, what is the use of
austerities? Stop, O Brahman; why do you engage in austerities? Go
quickly and get matured faith in Krishna, as described by the sect of
Vishnu who snaps the fetters of the world." "We are thus led," says
Professor Banergea, "to the very genesis of the doctrine of faith in
connection with Hinduism. And it was admittedly not an excogitation of
the Brahmanical mind itself. Narada had brought it from the land of 'the
whites,' where he got an insight into Vishnu as the Saviour which was
not attainable elsewhere." And he then persuaded the author of one of
the Puranas to recount the "Lord's acts"--in other words, the history of
Krishna, with the enforcement of faith in his divinity: "Change the
name," says Banergea, "and it is almost Christian doctrine."[183]

It is an interesting fact that Buddhism, in its progress through the
centuries, has also wrought out a doctrine of faith by a similar
process. It began as a form of atheistic rationalism. Its most salient
feature was staunch and avowed independence of all help from gods or
men. It emphasized in every way the self-sufficiency of one's own mind
and will to work out emancipation. But when Buddha died no enlightened
counsellor was left, and another Buddha could not be expected for four
thousand years. The multitudes of his disciples felt that, theory or no
theory, there was an awful void. The bald and bleak system could no