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OF THE HINDUS.
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a union of implicit faith with incessant devotion, and which, as illustrated by the anecdote of Hari Dás above given, is the momentary repetition of the name of KRISHNA, under a firm belief, that such a practice is sufficient for salvation.
The doctrine of the efficacy of Bhakti seems to have been an important innovation upon the primitive system of the Hindu religion. The object of the Vedas, as exhibiting the Vedanta, seeins to have been the inculcation of fixed religious duties, as a general acknowledgment of the supremacy of the deities, or any deity, and, beyond that, the necessity of overcoming material impurities by acts of self-denial and profound meditation, and so fitting the spiritual part for its return to its original sources; in a word, it was essentially the same system that was diffused throughout the old pagan world. But the fervent adoration of any one deity superseded all this necessity, and broke down practice and speculation, moral duties, and political distinctions. KŘISHỨA himself declares in the Bhagavat, that to his worshipper that worship presents whatever he wishes--paradise, liberation, Godhead, and is infinitely more efficacious than any or all observances, than abstraction, than knowledge of the divine nature, than the subjugation of the passions, than the practice of the Yoga, than charity, than virtue, or than any thing that is deemned most meritorious". Another singular and important consequence
। यत्कर्मभिर्यत्तपसा ज्ञानवैराग्यतश्च यत् । योगेन दानधर्मेण
