s to be embarrassed by such denials of free
will, the inference is that in some matters at least the Hindus had
strong common sense and declined to accept any view which takes away
from man the responsibility and lordship of his own soul.

19. _The Origin of Evil_

The reader will have gathered from what precedes that Hinduism has
little room for the Devil[72]. Buddhism being essentially an ethical
system recognizes the importance of the Tempter or Mara, but still Mara
is not an evil spirit who has spoilt a good world. In Hinduism, whether
pantheistic or polytheistic, there is even less disposition to personify
evil in one figure, and most Indian religious systems are disposed to
think of the imperfections of the world as suffering rather than as sin.

Yet the existence of evil is the chief reason for the existence of
religion, at least of such religions as promise salvation, and the
explanation of evil is the chief problem of all religions and
philosophies, and the problem which they all alike are conspicuously
unsuccessful in solving. I can assign no reason for rejecting as
untenable the idea that the ultimate reality may be a duality--a good and
an evil spirit--or even a plurality[73], but still it is unthinkable for
me and I believe for most minds. If there are two ultimate beings,
either they must be complementary and necessary one to the other, in
which case it seems to me more correct to describe them as two aspects
of one being, or if they are quite separate, my mind postulates (but I
do not know why) a third being who is the cause of them both.

The problem of evil is not quite the same for Indian and European
pantheists. The European pantheist holds that since God is all things or
in all things, evil is only something viewed out of due perspective:
that the world would be seen to be perfect, if it could be seen as a
whole, or that evil will be eliminated in the course of development. But
he cannot explain why the partial view of the world which human beings
are obliged to take shows the existence of obvious evil. The Hindus
think that it is possible and better for the soul to leave the vain show
of the world and find peace in union with God. They are therefore not
concerned to prove that the world is good, although they cannot explain
why God allows it to exist. The Upanishads contain some myths and
parables about the introduction of evil but they do not say that a
naturally good world was spoilt[74]. The