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The Ninth Lesson: The Religions of India. Part I.1309
worshiping Krishna was by sanctifying all human joys and pleasures to his
service—the laying of the offering of the sacrifice of human pleasure upon
the laps of the deity. This teaching which was called Pushti-Marga, or “The
Way of Pleasure,” had its idealistic and refined aspect, but unfortunately it
afterward degenerated into sensualism among some of the more ignorant
followers. In the early part of the nineteenth century, one Svami Narayana
did much to reform this cult, and to bring it back to its original purity. He was
a man of high morality and exalted religious nature, and he left a devoted
band of followers whose successors exist to this day in some parts of India.
The fifteenth century gave birth to another great teacher whose influence
in Hindu religion was quite marked. This man, a Brahman, was named
Visvambhara and Nimai, but afterward took the name of Chaitanya upon
the occasion of the taking of vows. He began to show signs of religious fervor
in his youth, but at first hesitated to identify himself with the Vaishnavas
who were strongly opposed by the Shakta cults in his part of the country.
However, before long he became overcome with the emotional and ecstatic
phases of the Bhakti, or love-worship of Krishna, and soon was regarded as
the chief earthly apostle of the latter. He announced no new doctrine, but
devoted himself toward stirring up a strong Bhakti movement in favor of
Krishna, and before long was at the head of a tremendous following of the
most ardent, ecstatic, rapturous Bhaktis, who filled the air with shouts of
“Krishna! Krishna! Krishna!” It was one of the greatest “revivals” that India has
ever witnessed. Under Chaitanya, the worship of Krishna (the incarnation or
avatar of Vishnu) received a strong impetus, which persists until the present
time. This teacher held that the individual soul’ emanated from the Supreme
Being, but was not identical therewith, his teachings resembling those of
Ramanuja, with an admixture of the higher parts of those of Vallabhacharya.
In our next lesson we shall explain the various avatars or incarnations of
Vishnu, of which Krishna was one, and which has much to do with the later
development of the Vaishnava cults, as above indicated.