Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c5.s1.9

c5.s1.9

Theoretically, the doctrines of most of the sects do not single out any particular incarnation of the incarnate supreme deity for special worship; but, as the faith was personal in in ardour and concrete in expression, one or other of the incarnations was in actual practice preferred as the principal object of adoration. In spite of its inclusiveness and catholicity in this respect, the Rāmānuja sect, for instance, mostly prefers Śrī and Viṣṇu, or the Rāma-incarnation; but in Northern India the other three sects, the Madhva, Vallabha and Nimbārka, are almost definite in their adoration of Kṛṣṇa, who was thus popularly installed as the centre of the Vaiṣṇava faith. Keen minds soon sought to utilise abstruse philosophies and appropriate them to the exaltation of the sectarian worship of Kṛṣṇa. The Kṛṣṇa of these sects, however, is very different from the Kṛṣṇa of the *Bhagavad-gītā*, and is yet identified with him. Though invested with an identity with the eternal Brahman, he yet retains his personal character as the youthful hero of wonderful feats and amorous exploits at Vṛndāvana. The Kṛṣṇa-legend was exalted with a wealth of devotional fancies, and all its mystical and emotional possibilities were worked out in detail.