admiration of
them. Religion is not merely a philosophy, or even an aspiration; it
is something vastly more than this.

The Hindu Swami will visit the West and discourse sweetly, in
persuasive English, upon Hindu philosophy. But he will not practise
his religious rites or reveal his idolatrous habits and his bondage of
caste to those western people who admire him. These things would at
once create a revulsion of feeling against him and his philosophy. And
yet these are much more an essential part of his faith than all his
moral platitudes and eloquent disquisitions.

And it should not be forgotten that this same Swami, in the very act
of crossing the oceans to visit the West, violates one of the most
prominent commands of his faith.

II

_What, then, is Popular Hinduism?_

I shall endeavour to analyze it and present some of its outstanding
features, such as are witnessed all over the land.

1. That which obtrudes itself upon all sides and which is, perhaps,
its most determining factor is its caste system. In other lands, mean
social distinctions obtain and divide the people. In India only, Caste
is a religious institution, founded by the authority of Heaven,
penetrating every department and entering into every detail of life,
and enforced by strictly religious penalties. One has well said that
Hinduism and caste are convertible terms.

2. Another outstanding feature of popular Hinduism is its Polytheism.

While pantheism is the essential philosophy of the land,--a pantheism
which denies the existence of all beings and everything save Brahm
(the Supreme Soul),--nevertheless this pantheism has, in the popular
mind, degenerated into the greatest pantheon the world has ever known.
Even ten centuries ago its gods were said to number three hundred and
thirty millions! And this army of deities has been multiplying ever
since. Even twenty-five centuries ago, the fertile imagination of the
Brahman had so peopled this world with gods and godlets of all grades
that the stern and sensible mind of the great Buddha became disgusted
with the whole pantheon; and he established his new faith as a
reaction from the old to the extent of ignoring _any_ Divine Being.

If, in these earlier days, such a man was unable to endure this
manifestation of human folly, what can we not say in these days, when,
in addition to the acknowledged host of well-known Hindu deities,
every family has its god, and every hamlet its protecting demo