the right hand of Hinduism, and it has supreme authority in the
direction of most of its affairs.

Add to this the belief in omens, which enters very largely into human
life and thought. A Hindu will not start upon a journey save on what
is astrologically an auspicious day; and if even a crow crosses his
path from left to right, after he has begun his journey, it is
regarded as an ill omen, and he will at once return home. He spends
much of his time in watching such omens; even an ass's bray carries a
significance to him. If it is heard in the east, his success will be
delayed; in the southeast, it portends death; in the south, it means
wealth; etc. It matters not how important it may be that a man should
undertake a journey or a task at a certain time, he will not do it at
that time if he finds it to be inauspicious. When the new governor of
Madras recently arrived at his destination, the reception to be given
to him by the Hindus had to be postponed because it was ignorantly put
at an hour which was _Rahu Kala_--an inauspicious hour!

In a thousand similar ways, the Hindu people are controlled and
handicapped by silly superstitions which make life a burden to them
and which rob them of efficiency and sanity.

This, then, is the Hinduism of the masses; and no other people devote
themselves so faithfully to their faith as do these. And none, for
this very reason, are more worthy of our sympathy and of our
assistance to rise to better things in the realm of faith.

CHAPTER VIII

HINDU RELIGIOUS IDEALS AS THEY AFFECT THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY

To the student of comparative religion there appear many striking
consonances between Hinduism and Christianity. Many a deep note in
religious thought and life finds common expression in these two great
faiths. Yet their dissonances are much more marked and fundamental.

In nothing are Christianity and Hinduism more antipodal than in the
ideals which they exalt, respectively, before their followers; and
this conflict of ideals is the most stubborn, as it is the most
pervasive, that Christianity has to face in India. The vision of God
and of man, of human life and attainment, which we present before an
orthodox Hindu, does not impress him as it should, simply because it
does not fit into his thinking. It antagonizes his inherited
prepossessions; it violates many of the most cherished ideals of
religious life and spiritual endowment, which, from time immemorial,
h