Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c9.s1.4

c9.s1.4

It would appear, therefore, that as it is chiefly a system of mystical-emotional dogmatics, the strictly philosophical views of the Bengal school of Vaiṣṇavism are intimately mixed up with the details of its devotional theologism and its emotional erotic mysticism, which are set forth in its pious text-books of legend and fancy. Its purely speculative thought, therefore, cannot be easily disentangled from its sentimental and mythical envelopment. The Bengal Vaiṣṇavism, no doubt, presents itself as a deliberate historical religion promulgated by a definite founder, but in the practical working out of the system by the Vṛndāvana Gosvāmins the direct intuitive realisation or the teachings of the Master¹ hardly find a place.