Page:Bengal Vaishnavism - Bipin Chandra Pal.djvu/17

 we are able to see with our eyes. As space is the logic of our knowledge of dimension, even so is this all-pervasive Vishnu the logic of all our visions of material objects. Vishnu has also been identified with the Sun-God. Many of our old Vaishnavic temples are therefore really temples for the sun. Vishnu is also identified with the Sky-God of the Vedas, the Jupiter of the Greeks. Though in the Hindu tradition Vishnu is the Preserver of the universe, in actual Vaishanvic thought he is practically conceived as Brahman, from Whom all objects have come to being, coming to being by Whom all objects continue to be, and towards Whom all objects move and into Whom all objects enter at the final dissolution. So Vishnu holds within Himself both Brahma the Creator and Shiva the Destroyer of the Hindu triad. The Vaishnavas worship Him not as a god but as the God. Vaishnavism, therefore, stands for what may be appropriately called Hindu theism.

But though Vaishnavism is found in all the Indian provinces as a Hindu school of thought and denomination of worshippers, both the philosophy and disciplines of Bengal Vaishnavism differ unmistakably from the