Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c5.s1.8

c5.s1.8

Whatever justification is offered by these schools of its ultimate philosophical position, the subsequent history of Vaiṣṇavism as a religious persuasion follows the lines of worshipping God as a person (Saguṇopāsanā) and through symbols and manifestations (Pratikopāsanā). The faith is monotheistic, whether the object of adoration be Viṣṇu, Nārāyaṇa, Vāsudeva, Rāma, Kṛṣṇa, or one of the numerous incarnations of them; but this loving adoration of a supreme personal god, to whose grace (Prasāda) the devotee must surrender himself (Prapatti), is often found not unaccompanied by a popular polytheistic reverence for "other gods"—Brahmā, Śiva and a million of godlings—who are classed as subordinate creatures and given well-defined powers and functions. The faith believed in a personal creator, in various theories of personal-impersonal creation (Sṛṣṭi) or emanation (Vyūha), in the energic power (Śakti) and incarnation (Avatāra) of the divinity, in a peculiar eschatology which postulates various degrees or stages of liberation, in sin as antithetical to Bhakti, in the necessity of a spiritual guide (Guru-vāda), in the efficacy of Mantra or recitation of some form of the blessed name (Nāman), in the worship of symbols and manifestations (Rūpa), in the complete surrender to divine grace and compassion, and, above all, in the supremacy of a mystic and emotional form of adoration or communion over intellectual conviction adduced by mere knowledge. Different modes of worship and ritualism were developed by each of these schools; different symbols and manifestations were preferred; distinct sectarian marks were worn; *Acta Sanctorum*, consisting of the legends of mythical and mediaeval saints, were elaborated; but all the sects agreed in exalting Bhakti as the heart of worship, as the sole religious attitude of love and service towards a personal god.