rom the lips of the
Guru, who thus becomes an oracle and source of truth. In Bengal, the
family Guru is a regular institution in respectable castes. In many
sects the founder or other prominent saint is described as an
incarnation and receives veneration after death.[435]

This veneration or deification of the Guru is found in most sects and
assumes as extreme a form among the Saivas as among the Vaishnavas.
The Saiva Siddhanta teaches that divine instruction can be received
only from one who is both god and man, and that the true Guru is an
incarnation of Siva. Thus the works of Manikka-Vacagar and Umapati
speak of Siva coming to his devotees in the form of the Guru. In the
sects that worship Krishna the Gurus are frequently called Gosain
(Goswami).[436] Sometimes they are members of a particular family, as
among the Vallabhacaryas. In other sects there is no hereditary
principle and even a Sudra is eligible as Guru.

One other feature of Sectarian Hinduism must be mentioned. It may be
described as Tantrism or, in one of its aspects, as the later Yoga and
is a combination of practices and theories which have their roots in
the old literature and began to form a connected doctrine at least as
early as the eighth century A.D. Some of its principal ideas are as
follows: (i) Letters and syllables (and also their written forms and
diagrams) have a potent influence both for the human organism and for
the universe. This idea is found in the early Upanishads[437] and is
fully developed in the later Sectarian Upanishads. (ii) The human
organism is a miniature copy of the universe.[438] It contains many
lines or channels (nadi) along which the nerve force moves and also
nervous centres distributed from the hips to the head, (iii) In the
lowest centre resides a force identical with the force which creates
the universe.[439] When by processes which are partly physical it is
roused and made to ascend to the highest centre, emancipation and
bliss are obtained. (iv) There is a mysterious connection between the
process of cosmic evolution and sound, especially the sacred sound
_Om._

These ideas are developed most thoroughly in Saktist works, but are by
no means peculiar to them. They are found in the Pancaratra and the
later Puranas and have influenced almost all modern sects, although
those which are based on emotional devotion are naturally less
inclined to favour physical and magical means of obtaining salvation.

FOOTNOTES