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RELIGIOUS SECTS
however, comprehended within wide limits: we have seen that it prevails amongst the followers of Chaitunya generally, and it need scarcely have been adopted as a schismatical distinction: the real difference, however, is the person, not the character of the Guru, and the innovation is nothing, in fact, but an artful encroachment upon the authority of the old hereditary teachers or Gosáins, and an attempt to invest a new family with spiritual power: the attempt has been so far successful, that it gave affluence and celebrity to the founder, to which, as well as his father's sanctity, the son, RÁMDULÁL Pál has succeeded. It is said to have numerous disciples, the greater proportion of whom are women. The distinctions of caste are not acknowledged amongst the followers of this sect, at least when engaged in any of their religious celebrations, and they eat together in private, once or twice a year: the initiating Mantra is supposed to be highly efficacious in removing disease and barrenness, and hence many infirin persons and childless women are induced to join the sect.
The remaining division of the Bengal Vaishnavas allow nothing of themselves to be known: their professions and practices are kept secret, but it is believed that they follow the worship of Sakti, or the female energy, agreeably to the left handed ritual, the nature of which we shall hereafter have occasion to describe.
The chief temples of the Bengal Vaishắavas, besides those which at Dwáraká and Brindávan, and particularly at Jagannáth, are objects of universal reverence,
