LEARNED VERSUS POPULAR IDEAS OF GOD 159 that the existing beings are not and that he is, but it is impossible to think that he is not and that they are. If we now pass from the ideas of the educated people among the Hindus to those of the common people, we must first state that they present a great THE GOD KRISHNA, OR VASUDEVA. variety. Some of them are simply abominable, but similar errors occur also in other religions. Nay, even in Islam we must decidedly disapprove of the anthro- pomorphic doctrines, the teachings of the Jabriyya sect, the prohibition of the discussion of religious topics, and such like. Every religious sentence des- tined for the people at large must be carefully worded, as the following example shows. Some Hindu scholar calls God " a point, " meaning to say thereby that the
