104 RELIGIOUS SECTS 



primeval Vishnu, they also affirm to be endowed with real attributes,* most 

 excellent, although indefinable and independant. As there is one indepen- 

 dant, however, there is also one dependant, and this doctrine is the charac- 

 teristic dogma of the sect, distinguishing its professors from the followers of 

 Ramanuja as well as Sankara, or those whomaintain the qualified or absolute 

 unity of tlie deity. The creed of the M<^c?A7wa5, is Dwaita, or duality .t It is 

 not, however, that they discriminate between the principles of good and evil, 

 or even the difference between spirit and matter, which is the duality known 

 to other sects of the Hindus. Their distinction is of a more subtle character, 

 and separates the Jivdtmd from the Paramdlmd, or the principle of life from 

 the Supreme Being. Life, they say, is one and eternal, dependant upon the 

 Supreme, and indissolubly connected with, bat not the same with him.t 

 An important consequence of this doctrine is the denial of Moksha, in its more 

 generally received sense, or that of absorption into the universal spirit, and 

 loss of independant existence after death. The Yoga of the Saivas, and Sd- 

 yujyam of the Vaishnavas, they hold to be impracticable. § 



* Vishnu is independant, exempt from defects, and endowed with all good qualities Tatwa 



Vivek. -^ff^T i?7TWT^ t%^r^f T^^W ^^W: I 



•f Independant and dependant, is declared to be the two-fold condition of being. — Tatwa Viveh. 



X As the bird and the string, as juices and trees, as rivers and oceans, as fresh water and salt, 

 as the thief and his booty, as man and objects of sense, so are God and Life distinct, and both are 

 ever indefinable.— iffaAo^jawzVia;. 1J1IT "'^^^"^'^ ^T'fT'^W^^^J^T ^If* ^^"in"^ ^^T^ 



^ In confirmation of which they adduce texts from the Purdnas and Vedas. 

 " From the difference between Omniscience and partial knowledge, Omnipotence and inferior 

 power, supremacy and subservience, the union of God and Life cannot take place." — Garura Pu- 



W ^ST "'I'^C \\ " Spirit is Supreme, and above qualities ; Life is feeble and subordinate." — Bhdllavaga 



