ibal god in whose
hands he believes his affairs to be, and through whom prosperity can flow
into his life for time and eternity; and yet he holds, with equal, yea
with greater, persistence, the law of _Karma_, that is, the law of works,
according to which law alone future life, both to himself and to all men,
must be wrought out even to the last detail. It is strange that a man
whose pantheon is so crowded as that of the Hindu, and who believes in
such constant divine guidance and interference, should, also, at the same
time, maintain a theory of life which practically dispenses with all
divine action and makes human life the product of a blind and grinding
fate. Nothing is more marked as a characteristic of Hindu thought today
than a possession by the people of these mutually conflicting and
contradictory views of life.

(_c_) Looking at the Hindu from a social standpoint we see him largely
affected by the caste system. Not only is his life in bondage to this
system, his view of life, too, is thoroughly coloured by his caste
sentiments.

Just as ceremonialism covers all his personal life, even so caste
observance defines for him all his social relations. There is not a tie or
an influence which binds man to man that is not, to the Hindu, a part of
the great and all-embracing caste system. So all-pervasive is this social
tyranny that a man dare not withstand it; yea, more, he has learned to
look at it as the prime necessity of his social being and therefore
invariably regards it as the highest good. He may indeed believe that, in
the abstract, caste is an evil and that it has been a curse to the people
of the land. But he nevertheless maintains that, as it is an ancient part,
and a most important part, of his ancestral faith, it must be submitted to
in all obedience and regarded as the ideal of life.

The Bhagavad-Gita is regarded today not only as the gem of all Hindu
literature; it is also held up by educated Hindus as the highest authority
among their _Shastras_. Concerning caste duties this "Divine Song" speaks
as follows:

"Better to do the duty of one's caste,
Though bad and ill-performed and fraught with evil,
Than undertake the business of another,
However good it be. For better far
Abandon life at once than not fulfill
One's own appointed work; another's duty
Brings danger to the man who meddles with it.
Perfection is alone attained by him
Who swerves not from the business of his caste."

Therefore the