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RELIGIOUS SECTS
KRISHŃA: according to them he is Paramátmá, or supreme spirit, prior to all worlds, and both the cause and substance of creation: in his capacity of creator, preserver, and destroyer he is BRAHMÁ, VISHẢu, and Siva, and in the endless divisions of his substance or energy he is all that ever was or will be: besides these manifestations of himself, he has, for various purposes, assumed specific shapes, as Avatárs, or descents; Ansas, or portions; Ansánsás, portion of portions, and so on ad infinitum: his principal appearance and, in fact, his actual sensible manifestation was as KRISHNA, and in this capacity he again was present in CHAITANYA, who is therefore worshipped as the deity, as are the other forms of the same god, particularly as Gorál, the cow - herd, or GoPiNÁTH, the lord of the milk-maids of Brindávan; his feats, in which juvenile characters are regarded, are lis Lilá, or sport.
It is not worth while to enter upon the prolix series of subtle and unmeaning obscurities in which this class of KRISHNA's worshippers envelop their sectarial notions: the chief features of the faith are the identification of Vishắu with Brahma, in common with all the Vaishnava sects, and the assertion of his possessing, in that character, sensible and real attributes, in opposition to the Vedanta belief of the negative properties of God: these postulates being granted, and the subsequent identity of KŘISHŇA and CHAITANYA believed, the whole religious and moral code of the sect is comprised in one word, Bhakti, a term that signifies
