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The Ninth Lesson: The Religions of India. Part I.1307
Brahmins more or less, but were finally compelled to modify their original
position, until to-day they are looked upon more in the light of moderate
dissenters than as heterodox outsiders.
And, so, gradually there came to exist but two great schools of the Hindu
Religion—(1) the Vishnuites, or Vaishnavas, who are the worshipers of
Vishnu; and (2) the Shivaites, or Shaivas, or the worshipers of Shiva, including
the cult of the Shaktas, or worshipers of the feminine principle of Shiva.
Although there are a number of scattering cults and sects outside of these
two great divisions of the Hindu Religion, still the majority of the cults and
sects, high and low, advanced or degraded, may be classed under the head
of one or the other of these two great schools or cults. And, in the next
lesson we shall proceed to a consideration of these two great cults as they
exist to-day, with their many subdivisions and characteristics of each. But
before so doing, let us consider the development of the two schools from
their ancient condition to the present, state, particularly as concerns the
influence of the philosophical thought of the land, and the teachings of
the several leaders who arose to influence the trend of the religious and
philosophical thought in India.
While the cults of Vishnu and Shiva were developing, and the school
of Buddhism and Jainism were churning up public opinion and beliefs,
the purely philosophical minds of India were not idle. There were many
such minds in India, and they held close to the fundamental principles of
Brahman the One Supreme Being, and to the Inner Teachings concerning
that. The Upanishads were being studied as never before, and additions
to their number were being made by the great teachers. The philosophers
were advancing the teachings of pantheistic monism along the lines of
the Vedanta System, and the Sankhya System had gained many followers.
Especially important was the work and influence of Sankaracharya, the
great systematizer of the Vedanta System, who lived about the eighth
century a.d.—he reestablished the System which had lapsed in energy, and
really founded the Advaitist, or non-dualistic, school of the Vedanta. This