Note 46 — G

Gauriya; Bangâli Gusâîn.—A Vaishnava order of recent origin. This community “has had a more marked influence on Brindaban than any of the others, since it was Chaitanya, the founder of the sect, whose immediate disciples were its first temple builders. He was born at Nadiya, in Bengal, in 1485 A.D., and in his youth is said to have married a daughter of Vallabhachârya. However that may be, when he had arrived at the age of twenty-four he formally resigned all connection with secular and domestic affairs and commenced his career as a religious teacher. After spending six years in pilgrimage between Mathura and Jagannâth he finally settled down at the latter place, where, in 1527 A.D., being then only forty-two years old, he disappeared from the world. There is reason to believe that he was drowned in the sea, into which he had walked in an ecstacy, mistaking it for the shallow waters of the Jamuna, where he saw in a vision Krishna sporting with the Gopis. His life and doctrines are recorded in a most voluminous Bengâli work entitled Chaitanya Charitâmrita, composed in 1590 by one of his disciples Krishna Dâs. Two of his colleagues Adwaitanand and Nityanand, who like himself are styled Mahâ Prabhus, presided over his establishments in Bengal, while other six Gusâîns settled at Brindaban. Apart from metaphysical subtleties, which naturally have but little hold on the minds of the populace, the special tenet of the Bengali Vaishnavas is the all-sufficiency of faith in the divine Krishna; such faith being adequately expressed by the mere repetition of his name without any added prayer or concomitant feeling of genuine devotion. Thus roughly stated, the doctrine appears absurd; and possibly its true bearing is as little regarded by many of the more ignorant among the Vaishnavas themselves, as it is by the majority of superficial outside observers. It is, however, a legitimate deduction from sound principles; for it may be presumed that the formal act of devotion would never have been commenced, had it not been prompted at the outset by a devotional intention, which intention is virtually continued so long as the act is in performance. The sectarial mark consists of two white perpendicular streaks down the forehead united at the root of the nose and continued to near the tip. Another characteristic is the use of a rosary of one hundred and eight beads made of the wood of the tulasi.”46