________________
144
RELIGIOUS SECTS
made'. This primeval Vishńu they also affirm to be endowed with real attributes’, most excellent, although indefinable and independent. As there is one independent, however, there is also one dependent, and this doctrine is the characteristic dogma of the sect, distinguishing its professors from the followers of RÁMÁNUJA as well as SANKARA, or those who maintain the qualified or absolute unity of the deity. The creed of the Madhwas is Dwaita, or duality". 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 Jívátmá from the Paramátmá, or the principle of life from the Supreme Being. Life, they say, is one and eternal, dependent upon the Supreme, and indissolubly connected with, but not the same with him. An important conse
आनन्द एक एवाग्र आसीनारायणः प्रभुः । "Happy and alone before all was Náráyana the Lord.”
1 “The whole world was manifest from the body of Visuľu," विष्णोदेहाज्जगत्सर्वमाविरासीत् ।
? "VISHŃU is independent, exempt from defects, and endowed with all good qualities." --- Tattwa Vivek.: Fata H atfoto प्णुर्निर्दोषो ऽशेषसद्गुणः ।
3 “Independent and dependent is declared to be the two-fold condition of being." -- Tattwa Vivek.: FA Tari fafqui agafava i (Sarvadarśana Sangraha, p. 61.]
4 “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
