| More than other religions, Hinduism appeals to the | | | | or skies that withhold the rain. To such people |
| soul's immediate knowledge and experience of God. | | | | nature-myths and sacred animals appeal with a force |
| It has sacred books innumerable but they agree in | | | | that Westerners rarely understand. The parrots that |
| little but this, that the soul can come into contact and | | | | perch on the pinnacles of the temple and the oxen |
| intimacy with its God, whatever name be given him | | | | that rest in the shade of its courts are not intruders |
| and even if he be superpersonal. The possibility and | | | | but humble brothers of mankind, who may also be |
| truth of this experience is hardly questioned in India | | | | the messengers of the gods. |
| and the task of religion is to bring it about, not to | | | | More than any other religion it is a quest of truth and |
| promote the welfare of tribes and states but to | | | | not a creed, which must necessarily become |
| effect the enlightenment and salvation of souls. | | | | antiquated: it admits the possibility of new scriptures, |
| The love of the Hindus for every form of argument | | | | new incarnations, new institutions. It has no quarrel |
| and philosophizing is well known but it is happily | | | | with knowledge or speculation: perhaps it excludes |
| counterbalanced by another tendency. Instinct and | | | | materialists, because they have no common ground |
| religion both bring them into close sympathy with | | | | with religion, but it tolerates even the Sânkhya |
| nature. India is in the main an agricultural country and | | | | philosophy which has nothing to say about God or |
| nearly three-quarters of the population are villagers | | | | worship. It is truly dynamic and in the past whenever |
| whose life is bound up with the welfare of plants and | | | | it has seemed in danger of withering it has never |
| animals and lies at the mercy of rivers that overflow | | | | failed to bud with new life and put forth new flowers. |