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of 'devotion,' erotically expanded[80]), this worship obtains both among C[=ajitanyas and Vallabhas, sects that arose in the sixteenth century.[81]
C[=alitanya, born in Bengal in 1485, of whom it is fabled that wise men came and gave homage to him while he was yet a child, was active in Bengal and Orissa, where his sect (named after him) is one of the most important at the present day. C[=a]itanya preached a practical as well as a theoretical reform. He taught the equality of all worshippers of whatever caste, and the religious virtue of marriage. At the present day caste-feeling and religious profession are somewhat at variance. But a compromise is affected. While in the temple the high-caste C[=ajitanyas regard their lowly coreligionists as equals; when out of it they become again arrogantly high-caste, Making a virtue of marriage instead of celibacy caused the sect to become popular with the middle and lower classes, but its adherents are usually drawn from the dregs of the populace.[82] The principle of love for God (that is, for Krishna) is especially dwelt upon by C[=ajitanya. The devotee should feel such affection as is felt by a young man for a girl. To exercise or inspire this rapt and mystic devotion, recourse is had to singing, dancing, and other familiar means of arousing religious fervor. If the dancing devotee swoons it is a sign that God accepts his love. At the present day C[=ajitanya himself is regarded as the incarnate deity. He and his two chief disciples, who (like all Gosains, religious Teachers) are divine, form a little sub-trinity for the sect.[83] This sect, like so many others, began as a reform, only to become worse than its rivals.
Vallabha or Vallabh[=a]e[=a]rya, 'Teacher Vallabha,' was also of the sixteenth century, but his sect belongs especially to the Northwest, while the sphere of C[ra]itanya's influence was in the Northeast. He lived near the Ganges, is said to have been a scholar, and wrote a commentary on the early life of Krishna in the tenth book of the Bh[=a]gavata Pur[=a]na, and on the Divine Song. In Bombay and Kutch his disciples are most numerous, the Epicureans of Vishnuism. For their precept is 'eat and enjoy.' No mortification of the senses is allowed. Human love typifies divine love.[84] The teachers acquired great renown and power, assuming and maintaining the haughty title of mah[=a) r[=a]jas ('great kings'). They are as gods, and command absolutely their
