We must always keep in mind here the common, contrasting Sanskrit philosophical terms: vyavaharika, ‘relating to ordinary or mundane affairs, usage or practice’ and paramarthika, ‘relating to a spiritual object, or to supreme, essential truth.’ It seems fair to say that according to O’Connell’s survey of sixteenth to eighteen century Gaudiya Vaisnava literature, the Vaisnava devotees considered themselves Hindu in a vyavaharika sense, but never in a paramarthika sense. Indeed, from the paramarthika viewpoint, ‘Hindu’ is simply another upadhi, or worldly designation. After all, a Hindu may convert to another religion, but on the spiritual platform, the pure soul,atman, can never become anything else in an ontological sense, though the soul may forget its true identity.
We must always keep in mind here the common, contrasting Sanskrit philosophical terms: vyavaharika, ‘relating to ordinary or mundane affairs, usage or practice’ and paramarthika, ‘relating to a spiritual object, or to supreme, essential truth.’ It seems fair to say that according to O’Connell’s survey of sixteenth to eighteen century Gaudiya Vaisnava literature, the Vaisnava devotees considered themselves Hindu in a vyavaharika sense, but never in a paramarthika sense. Indeed, from the paramarthika viewpoint, ‘Hindu’ is simply another upadhi, or worldly designation. After all, a Hindu may convert to another religion, but on the spiritual platform, the pure soul,atman, can never become anything else in an ontological sense, though the soul may forget its true identity.