Hinduism tends to be depicted as a complex and difficult religion, standing indeed for everything that militates against simple religion. This paper seeks to alter this perception, to suggest that the tension between simple religion and it opposites is as lively a part of the Hindu understanding of religious experience as any other. Hinduism with its great attention to ritual, its preoccupation with the intricacies of purity and pollution, its theological sophistication, and above all its devotion to the rigors of yoga, continues to serve in our imaginations as the Pharisee among world religions.
