have clung tenaciously to their
prophets as the only true messengers from heaven, and the Mohammedans have
refused, until the present century, to even sit at the table with the
"infidels" who would not acknowledge Mohammed as the only true incarnation
of Allah.

It is well to remember that these claims have been made by the blind
followers of these great teachers, and that it is almost certain that not
any one of them made such claim for himself. Certainly he did not, if he
had attained to spiritual consciousness.

One passage from the doctrines of Gauranga is almost identical with many
others who have sought to express the feeling of security, of
_deathlessness_ which comes to the soul which has realized cosmic
consciousness. He says:

"My Beloved, whether you clasp me unto your heart, or you crush me by that
embrace, it is all the same to me. For you are no other than my own, the
sole partner of my soul."

The gospel of Gauranga and his followers is, indeed, much more a gospel of
love, than of methods of worship, or of intellectual research.

The realization of our union with God, in deathless love, is the key-note
of the message, and this great joy or bliss comes to the soul as soon as it
has attained Illumination through love.

God is alluded to in Vaishnavism most frequently as _Anandamaya_--meaning
all joy. Vaishnavism more nearly resembles the gospel of Jesus, as taught
by orthodoxy, than it does the Vedantic systems, since it does, not claim
that God is _within each_ human organism, as the seed is within the fruit,
but that, by love, we may gain heaven or the state or place where God
dwells.

"If you would worship God, as the Giver of Bounties, then shall the prayer
be answered, and further connection cut off, God having answered the
demand. So if you would worship God in simple love, He will send love. The
real devotee seeks to establish a relationship with God which will endure.
He will ask only to worship and love God, and pray that his soul may cling
to God in divine reverence and love." Thus, say the Vaishnavas, "God serves
as he is served, in absolute justice."

Another salient point which the followers of Lord Gauranga emphasize, is
the "All-Sweetness" of God. This idea is impressed, doubtless that the
devotee may not feel an impossible barrier between himself and so great and
all-powerful a being, as God, when His Omnipotence is considered. The idea
is similar to that of the Roman church, which