Essays Lectures on Religion of Hindu Vol 01

Author(s): H H Wilson
Publisher: Trubner and Company London

Page 32

16
RELIGIOUS SECTS
his neighbours, and who especially occupies his mind with spiritual considerations: the Bhagavat is one who follows particularly the authority of the Sri Bhagavat Purána.
The Vaishnavas adored VISHŃU as NÁRÁYAŃA, they wore the usual marks, and promised themselves a sort of sensual paradise after death, in Vaikuntha, or VISHŃU's heaven; their tenets are still current, but they can scarcely be considered to belong to any separate sect.
The Chakrinas, or Pancharátrakas were, in fact, Śáktas of the Vaishúava class, worshipping the female personifications of VISHNU, and observing the ritual of the Pancharátra Tantra : they still remain, but scarcely individualised, being confounded with the worshippers of KRISHNA and RÁMA on tlie one hand, and those of Sakti or Deví on the other.
The Vaikhúnasas appear to have been but little different from the Vaishnavas especially so called; at least ÁNANDA Gırı has not particularised the difference; they worshipped NÁRÁYAŃA as supreme god, and wore his marks. The Karmahinas abstained, as the name implies, from all ritual observances, and professed to know Vishnu as the sole source and sum of the universe, në fquai hota; they can scarcely be considered as an existent sect, though a few individuals of the Rámánujiya and Rámánandi Vaishnavas may profess the leading doctrines.
The Vaishnava forms of the Hindu faith are still, as we shall hereafter see, sufficiently numerous; but