116 RELIGIOUS SECTS 



tion of his possessing, in that character, sensible and real attributes, in opposi- 

 tion to the Vedanta belief of the negative properties of God: these postulates 

 being granted, and the subsequent identity of Krishna and Chaitanya be- 

 lieved, the whole religious and moral code of the sect is comprised in one 

 word, Bhaliti^ a term that signifies a union of iinplicit faith with incessant 

 devotion, and which as illustrated by the anecdote of Hari Das, above given, 

 is the momentary repetition of the name of Krishna, under a firm belief, 

 that such a practice is sufficient for salvation. 



The doctrine of the efficacy of Bhahti seems to have been an important 

 innovation upon the primitive system of the Hindu religion. The object of 

 the VedaSy as exhibiting the Vedanta, seems to have been the inculcation of 

 fixed religious duties, as a general acknowledgement of the supremacy of the 

 deities, or any deity, and, beyond that, the necessity of overcoming material 

 impurities, by acts of self denial and profound meditation, and so fitting the 

 spiritual part for its return to its original sources j in a word, it was essentially 

 the same system that was diffused throughout the old pagan world. But the 

 fervent adoration of any one deity superseded all this necessity, and broke 

 down practice and speculation, moral duties, and political distinctions. Krishna 

 himself declares, in the Blidgavaty that to his worshipper, that worship presents 

 whatever he wishes — paradise, liberation. Godhead, and is infinitely more effica- 

 cious than any or all observances, than abstraction, than knowledge of the 

 divine nature, than the subjugation of the passions, than the practice of the 

 Yoga, than charity, than virtue, or than any thing that is deemed most meri- 

 torious.* Another singular and important consequence results from these 



Bhdgavat, 11th Section. 



