Vaishnavism

From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.

Vaishnavism is the branch of Hinduism in which Vishnu or one of his avatars (i.e., incarnations) is worshipped as the supreme God.

Major branches of Vaishnavism include Srivaishnavism, (espoused by Ramanuja) who advocated Vishishtadvaita, Dvaita (espoused by Shri Madhvacharya) and Gaudiya Vaishnavism (espoused by Shri Caitanya Mahaprabhu adhered by ISKCON).

The distinction between this branch and others is made by those who study religion. However it may not always be clear to practising Hindus who often take freely from the practices of the different branches. It is likely that a majority (75-80%) of today's Hindus would consider themselves Vaishnava, if pressed to make a distinction. Of the remainder, most would probably consider themselves Saivites.

Vishnu and Shiva are sometimes visualized as a single divinity named Harihara.

External links

• http://www.vaishnava.com/aboutvaishnavism.htm
• http://www.dlshq.org/download/hinduismbk.htm#_VPID_73 (What are the Vaishnavas?)
• http://www.dlshq.org/download/hinduismbk.htm#_VPID_96 (describes philosophical schools of Vaishnavism)
• http://www.dvaita.org/docs/srv_faq.html (Who is Vishnu? and the nature of Him.)
• http://www.dvaita.org/shaastra/gita/gita_sara/gs-007.html (See #56 and #57.)
• http://www.srivaishnavan.com/srivaishnavan/servlet/section
• http://www.prapatti.com/index.html
• Krishna.com All about Krishna. Info, books, MP3s, images, radio. . .
• ISKCON.com Official ISKCON site.
• http://www.harekrishna.com/~ara/col/books/BG/tsem1.html

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