eared in Bengal. Many essays have
appeared comparing Krishna with Christ. There have been likewise many
editions of the Bhagabat Gita, or Divine Song, the episode in the
Mahabharat, in which Krishna figures as religious teacher. It may be
called the New Testament of the Neo-Krishnaite. Perhaps the most
striking of these Neo-Krishnaite publications is _The Imitation of
Sri-Krishna_, a daily-text book containing extracts from the Bhagabat
Gita and the Bhagabat Puran. The title is, of course, a manifest echo of
"The Imitation of Christ," which is a favourite with religious-minded
Hindus. The _Imitation of Buddha_, likewise we may observe, has been
published. About "The Imitation of Christ" itself, we quote from a
Hindu's advertisement appended to the life of a new Hindu saint,
Ramkrishna Paramhansa. "The reader of 'The Imitation of Christ,'" it
says, "will find echoed in it hundreds of sayings of our Lord
Sri-Krishna in the Bhagabat Gita like the following: 'Give up all
religious work and come to me as thy sole refuge, and I will deliver
thee from all manner of sin.'" The notice goes on: "The book has found
its way into the pockets of many orthodox Hindus."

[Sidenote: Christ and Chaitanya of Bengal.]

From Krishna we turn to Chaitanya, surname Gauranga, the fair, a
religious teacher of Bengal in the fifteenth century, who is also being
set up as the Christ of Bengal, in that he preached the equality of men
before God and ecstatic devotion to the god Krishna. A Christ-like man,
indeed, in many ways, Chaitanya was, and the increased acquaintance of
educated Bengal with Jesus Christ naturally brought Chaitanya to the
front. The new cult of Chaitanya and his enthronement over against Jesus
Christ are manifest in the titles of two recent publications in Bengal,
the first entitled, _Lord Gauranga, or Salvation for all_, and the
other, _Chaitanya's Message of Love_. Chaitanya and his two chief
followers, it should be said, were called the great _lords_ (prabhus) of
the sect, but the title "Lord Gauranga" is quite new, an echo of the
title of Jesus Christ. With regard to the new power of Christ's
personality, it should be noted that the author of _Lord Gauranga_
strongly deprecates the idea that his desire is to demolish
Christianity, or other than to extend the kingdom of Jesus Christ. He
declares that Jesus Christ is as much a prophet as any avatar of the
Hindus, and that Hindus can and ought to accept him as they do Krishna