[Sidenote: Krishna.
His early life a travesty of the life of Christ, according to
the Gospel of the Infancy.]
Very different morally from that of Rama is the character of Krishna.
While Rama is but a partial manifestation of divinity Krishna is a full
manifestation; yet what a manifestation! He is represented as full of
naughty tricks in his youth, although exercising the highest powers of
deity; and, when he grows up, his conduct is grossly immoral and
disgusting. It is most startling to think that this being is by grave
writers--like the authors of the Bhagavad Gita and the Bhagavata
Purana--made the highest of the gods, or, indeed, the only real God.
Stranger still, if possible, is the probability that the early life of
Krishna--in part, at least--is a dreadful travesty of the early life of
Christ, as given in the apocryphal gospels, especially the Gospel of the
Infancy. The falling off in the apocryphal gospels, when compared with
the canonical, is truly sad; but the falling off even from the
apocryphal ones, in the Hindu books, is altogether sickening.[27]

A very striking characteristic of modern Hinduism is what is termed
_bhakti_, or devotion. There are three great ways of attaining to
salvation: _karma marga_, or the way of ceremonial works; _jnana
marga_, or the way of knowledge, and _bhakti marga_, or the way of
devotion.

[Sidenote: Doctrine of _bhakti_ introduced.
Influence of the system.
Mixed with Buddhist elements.
Exaltation of the _guru_.]
The notion of trust in the gods was familiar to the mind of India from
Vedic days, but the deity was indistinct and unsympathetic, and there