"devotion
to Vishnu supersedes all distinctions of caste"; and again, "Vishnavism
[Vishnuism], notwithstanding the gross polytheistic superstitions and
hideous idolatry to which it gives rise, is the only Hindu system worthy
of being called a religion."[130] In actual practice the repudiation of
caste no doubt varies greatly. In some cases, caste is dropped only
during the fit of fervour or bhakti. At Puri, _during_ the celebrated
Juggernath (Jagan-nath, Lord of the world) pilgrimage, high caste and
low together receive and eat the temple food, afterwards resuming their
several ranks in caste. As a matter of fact it was found at the census
of 1901, that with the exception of a few communities of devotees, all
the professed Vishnuites returned themselves by their caste names. Hindu
bhakti, like Christianity, is in conflict with caste, and bhakti has not
proved fit to cope with it.

[Sidenote: Bhakti in other religions.]

[Sidenote: In Christian worship.]

Bhakti, then, is simply the designation for fervour in worship or in
presence of the Deity, as it appears in Hinduism. For fervour is not
peculiar to any religion, even ecstatic fervour. We see it among the
Jews in King David's dancing before the ark of the Lord, and we see it
in the whirling of the dervishes of Cairo, despite Mahomedans' overawing
idea of God. May we not say that the singing in Christian worship
recognises the same religious instinct, and the necessity to permit the
exercise of it. Many of the psalms, we feel we must chant or sing;
reading is too cold for them--the 148th Psalm for example, "Praise ye
the Lord from the heavens; praise Him in the heights: praise ye Him, sun
and moon," and so on.

[Sidenote: Bhakti a natural channel for religious feeling, now being
reconsecrated.]

We pass over the extravagances and gross depths to which bhakti,
devotion or faith or love, may degenerate in the excitement of religious
festivals--_corruptio optimi pessimum_. Even, strange to say, we find
the grossness of bhakti also deliberately embodied in figures of wood
and stone. Passing that over, we repeat that in bhakti or devotion to a
personal God, or even only ecstatic extravagant devotion to a saint or
religious hero semi-deified, we have a natural channel for the religious
feeling of Indians, a channel that in these days is wearing deep. I
speak of the middle classes, not of the ignorant masses, and my point is
that the middle classes and the new religiou