Page:Bengal Vaishnavism - Bipin Chandra Pal.djvu/53

 BENGAL VAISHNAVISM 8S of the age-long genius and culture of the Bengalee people, which proves that there must have been what may be called a Humanistic school of Bengalee thought and theology before Shree Chaitanya, from which his own Yaishnavisni must have received its inspiration. The Bengalee poet Chafldidasa. who was born quite a hundred years before Shree Chaitanya, delivered the message of this Humanism in the remarkable verse : m f wf ! fRT?: ^ which means, “Hear O Brother Man ! Above all is the Truth of Man ; there is none higher than this,” The divinity' of man as guru had been proclaimed by the Bengal school of Buddhism. Upto this day many Hindu sects in Bengal worship their guru as their God. This doctrine of the guru has been an attempt to universalise the doctrine of historical incarna- tion. The need which led to the doctrine of incarnation failed to be completely met by it. The Absolute is unknown and un- approachable. He has, for purposes of our realisation, to come down to our plane, to be revealed in the flesh, assume a human form