54 SOCIAL SCIENTIST the fantastic reflection in men's minds of those external forces which dominate their daily life, a reflection in which terrestrial forces assume the form of supernatural forces. This aspect of religion is most evident in its original form in the Hindu scriptures, the Vedas. With the advance of time, social forces also begin to be active—forces which confront man as alien and at first equally inexplicable, dominating him with the same apparent natural necessity as the forces of nature. The fantastic figures which at first only reflected the mysterious forces of nature at this point acquire social attributes and become representatives of the forces of history. At a still further stage of evolution, all the natural and social attributes of the numerous gods are transformed to one Almighty God, who is but the reflection of the Abstract Man. Such was the origin of monotheism. In this convenient, handy and universally adaptable form, religion can continue to exist as the immediate, that is, the sentimental, form of men's relation to the alien natural and social forces which dominate them as long as men remain under the control of these forces. Real knowledge of the forces of nature and society will dislodge the divine powers from the citadels of strength, and then religion and religious reflection will have no place in human life. But until then, religion, H^e all brands of idealism, will act as the hand-maid of the oppressing classes hindering the revolutionary action of the oppressed, No Meeting Point Kishan Singh makes a mistake in trying to reconcile Marxism with the hostile concept of religion. He errs again when he examines the "confrontation of two religions, or two rival interpretations of the same religion"8 from the point of view of the positive interests of the various classes, and passionately sympathizes with either of them. He refers to the Koran having a revolutionary content which vanished, according to him, when Islam conquered Iran and formed an empire.4 To Kishan Singh, the conversion of Hindus to Islam at the early stage of the Muslim conquest of India was also a revolutionary act. Equally, the heretical movement of Sufis against the established religion is called revolutionary; as also the spiritual strife of the Bhakti movement with Brahmavad during the Middle Ages. Kishan Singh finds the root cause of these oppositions in the outworn, rotten systems which were corrupted with 'maya', the incarnation of 'this-worldliness/ One must confess that all this has the appearance of a spiritual wrangling on purely subjective lines, and nothing more. But what has it to do with the .revolutionary "guerilla warfare which the peasant-plebeians ... were waging against the established order"?6 Following an identical line of thought, Kishan Singh discovers 'revolution'in the love story of Heer and Ranjha. He interprets ishk as "completely humanized sexual passion" which wafted the lovers to glorious heights. Love at first sight Declassed' both the lover and the beloved i Ranjha is compared to a secular Gurmukh,6 and Kishan Singh's