ies in their previous births[722]. But in Hinayanist
Buddhism legend and mythology are ornamental, and edifying, nothing
more. Spirits may set a good example or send good luck: they have
nothing to do with emancipation or nirvana. The same distinction of
spheres is not wholly lost in Hinduism, for though the great philosophic
works treat of God under various names they mostly ignore minor deities,
and though the language of the Bhagavad-gita is exuberant and
mythological, yet only Krishna is God: all other spirits are part of
him.

The deities most frequently mentioned in Buddhist works are Indra,
generally under the name of Sakka (Sakra) and Brahma. The former is no
longer the demon-slaying soma-drinking deity of the Vedas, but the
heavenly counterpart of a pious Buddhist king. He frequently appears in
the Jataka stories as the protector of true religion and virtue, and
when a good man is in trouble, his throne grows hot and attracts his
attention. His transformation is analogous to the process by which
heathen deities, especially in the Eastern Church, have been accepted as
Christian saints[723]. Brahma rules in a much higher heaven than Sakka.
His appearances on earth are rarer and more weighty, and sometimes he
seems to be a personification of whatever intelligence and desire for
good there is in the world[724]. But in no case do the Pitakas concede
to him the position of supreme ruler of the Universe. In one singular
narrative the Buddha tells his disciples how he once ascertained that
Brahma Baka was under the delusion that his heaven was eternal and cured
him of it[725].

3

All Indian religions have a passion for describing in bold imaginative
outline the history and geography of the universe. Their ideas are
juster than those of Europeans and Semites in so far as they imply a
sense of the distribution of life throughout immensities of time and
space. The Hindu perceived more clearly than the Jew and Greek that his
own age and country were merely parts of a much longer series and of a
far larger structure or growth. He wished to keep this whole continually
before the mind, but in attempting to describe it he fell into that
besetting intellectual sin of India, the systematizing of the imaginary.
Ages, continents and worlds are described in detailed statements which
bear no relation to facts. Thus, Brahmanic cosmogony usually deals with
a period of time called Kalpa. This is a day in the life of Brahma, who