its insistence on
personal affection for the Lord should not have been self-evolved. The
old omnipotence of inherited knowledge stops with the Upanishads, To
their authors the Vedas are but a means. They desired wisdom, not
knowledge. They postulated the desire for the Supreme Spirit as the
true wisdom. From this it is but a step to yearning and love for the
Supreme. That step is made in the Divine Song. It is recognized by
early Buddhism as a Brahmanic trait. Is it necessarily imported from
Christianity? The proof is certainly lacking. Nor, to one accustomed
to the middle literature of Hindu religion, is the phraseology so
strikingly unique as would appear to be the case. Taken all in all,
the teaching of Christianity certainly may be suspected, but it cannot
be shown to exist in the Divine Song.

Quite different is the case with the miraculous matter that grew up
about the infant Krishna. But here one is out of the epic and dealing
with the latest literature in regard to the man-god. This distinction
cannot be too much insisted upon, for to point first to the teaching
of the Divine Song and then to the Krishna legends as equally
reflecting Christianity is to mix up two periods as distinct as
periods can be established in Hindu literature. And the result of the
whole investigation shows that the proofs of borrowing are as
different as these
periods. The inner Christianity thought to be copied by the re-writer
of the Divine Song is doubtful in the last degree. The outer
Christianity reflected in the Puranic legends of Krishna is as
palpable as it is shocking. Shocking, for here not only are miracles
treated grotesquely, but everything that is meant spiritually in the
Occident is interpreted physically and carnally. The love of the
Bridegroom is sensual; the brides of God are drunken dancing girls.

The 'coincidences,' as some scholars marvellously regard them, between
the legends of Christ and Krishna are too extraordinary to be accepted
as such. They are direct importations, not accidental coincidences.
Whatever is most marvellous in the accounts of Christianity finds
itself here reproduced in Krishnaism. It is not in the doctrine of
_avatars_, which resembles the doctrine of the Incarnation,[61] it is
in the totality of legends connected with Krishna that one is forced
to see Christian influence. The scenes of the nativity, the adoration
of the magi, the miracles during the Saviour's childhood, the
transfiguration,