Towards an Integrative Religious Pluralism: The Inclusivist/Exclusivist Question in Gaudiya Vaishnavism: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

This expository article aims to systematically present Kedarnath Datta Bhaktivinoda’s (1838–1914) systematic theology on the differences between the various religious traditions of the world, and his strategy of presenting these in an integrative way in relation to his own tradition, Gau∂îya Vaishnavism. In this article I’ve extracted relevant sections from select primary sources and traced the development of his thoughts on inter-religious conflict and his innovative way of engaging with the framework of Advaitic pañcopåsanå (monistic fivefold worship)3 to come up with the categories of an ‘essential’ Vaishnavism, and a ‘sectarian’ one. In the works that I explore here, Bhaktivinoda develops his ideas on what can be called a pluralistic and ‘integrative’ approach to Gau∂îya
Vaishnavism in relation to other religious traditions and it could be said that his approach to the variety of religious traditions is neither exclusivist nor inclusivist. Rather, like the central Chaitanya Vaishnava doctrine of ‘inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference’ (acintya-bhedåbheda), it is rather integrative, taking a simultaneously inclusivist and exclusivist position. After a brief overview of the historical context, this article will explore Bhaktivinoda’s perspectives on the reasons behind the different types of
adherents and the causes of religious conflict between them and then move on this his integrative approach.