ound these problems that Hindu theology turns. The innumerable
solutions lack neither boldness nor variety but they all try to satisfy
both the philosopher and the saint and none achieve both tasks. The
system of Sankara is a masterpiece of intellect, despite his
disparagement of reasoning in theology, and could inspire a fine piety,
as when on his deathbed he asked forgiveness for having frequented
temples, since by so doing he had seemed to deny that God is everywhere.
But piety of this kind is unfavourable to public worship and even to
those religious experiences in which the soul seems to have direct
contact with God in return for its tribute of faith and love. In fact
the Advaita philosophy countenances emotional theism only as an
imperfect creed and not as the highest truth. But the existence of all
sects and priesthoods depends on their power to satisfy the religious
instinct with ceremonial or some better method of putting the soul in
communication with the divine. On the other hand pantheism in India is
not a philosophical speculation, it is a habit of mind: it is not enough
for the Hindu that his God is lord of all things: he must _be_ all
things and the soul in its endeavour to reach God must obtain
deliverance from the fetters not only of matter but of individuality.
Hence Hindu theology is in a perpetual oscillation illustrated by the
discrepant statements found side by side in the Bhagavad-gita and other
works. Indian temperament and Indian logic want a pantheistic God and a
soul which can transcend personality, but religious thought and practice
imply personality both in the soul and in God. All varieties of
Vishnuism show an effort to reconcile these double aspirations and
theories. The theistic view is popular, for without it what would become
of temples, worshippers and priests? But I think that the pantheistic
view is the real basis of Indian religious thought.

The qualified monism of Ramanuja (as his system is sometimes called) led
to more uncompromising treatment of the question and to the affirmation
of dualism, not the dualism of God and the Devil but the distinctness of
the soul and of matter from God. This is the doctrine of Madhva, another
southern teacher who lived about a century after Ramanuja and was
perhaps directly influenced by Islam. But though the logical outcome of
his teaching may appear to be simple theism analogous to Islam or
Judaism, it does not in practice lead to this result bu