Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c5.s3.11

c5.s3.11

Vedāntism formed the topic of conversation of the cultured few, who looked down upon the emotional abandon of Bhakti as weak and vulgar,¹ but they are characterised by Karṇapūra as pantheists who believed in no other gods than their own selves. The self-satisfied formalism of the orthodox Smārta system, which prescribed religious merit and absolving efficacy to a somewhat mechanical observance of fixed duties and ceremonies, hardly encouraged any exhibition of personal devotional fervour, or any inner sensibility for morality or religion.²