Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c10.s3.6

c10.s3.6

spite, being of the essence of truth, equable, faultless, generous, gentle, pure, possessing nothing, doing good to all, tranquil, wholly surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, desireless, harmless, steadfast, victorious over the six passions, eating sparingly, never unbalanced, honouring others, not desiring honour for himself, grave, tender, friendly, poetic, skilful and silent." The inspiration of the ideal is clearly the life of Caitanya as idealised by his followers. There is also a well known Sanskrit verse¹, attributed to Caitanya himself, which briefly summarises the outstanding moral excellences of a Vaiṣṇava by stating that a true devotee should be more humble than a blade of grass, forbearing like a tree, not caring for honour himself but rendering honour where honour is due. All this, no doubt, implies an exalted moral ideal and must have helped to promote some of the traditional, but great, virtues of the human mind. It is recognised that moral training is an essential requisite for purifying oneself in order to attain the supreme being, who is presupposed to possess all moral excellences and to be absolutely pure and free from moral defects. It is believed that, however imperfect, man is essentially divine, and can, by divine grace, as well as by his own exertions, mental and moral, enter into communion with the divine being. The faith is, therefore, not inconsistent with an elaborate ritualism of worship, in so far as ritualism tends to the discipline and purification of the mind and body, and becomes a step to the attainment of a higher devotional attitude which discards outward form and ceremony.