The present leader of the main Mahima Dhara Group, Visvanatha Baba, has dedicated his considerable philosophical life-work to reconcile the classical, non-theistic Advaita Vendanta with the conceptions of Mahima Dharma. It is fascinating to see, how tht two main streams of Indian Philosophy are newly tried to be combined in what is, for the moment being the last contemporary chapter of Theism in Orissa. It can rightly be called thus, because though taking up Advaita as much as possible, Visvanatha Baba still has to declare Mahima Svami, the divine redeemer announced by medieval Vaishnavism, as a true embodiment of the highest reality, in its theistic conception peculiar to Orissa, the Shunya purusha in its svarupa.

The sixteenth century:    Now we have to ask for the regional differences and particularities of these movements in India. This is not yet possible on a large scale, as so far few scholarly work has been done on the regional movements. But it it of great important as it can illuminate the individual character of each regional culture as well as complete the general picture of all these movements. As regards Orissa again the pioneer work is to be found in the book of Prof. P. Mukarjee. He has pointed out the differences between the Bengal school of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and the Orissa Vaishnava movement as represented by the Panchasakha. With one exception, namely the difference in the conception of Radha, essential only as compared to the Chaitanya school, the differences pointed out by Sri Mukarjee distinguish the Oriya Vaishnava School not only from the Bengal one but from other regional movements as well. The special features of the Panchasakha school are in short:

- The worship of Sunya- a Buddhist concept.
- The special mantra of 32 letters.
- The notion of Purusottama Ksetra (=Puri) as the highest sanctuary.
- The theory of Pinda-Brahmanda, that is the theory of correspon-dence between the universe and the body, the Macro and the Microcosmos.

The nineteenth century:    A modern development of Theism in Orissa took place. Mahima Gosvami, the founder of the Mahima Dharma movement, was believed by his disciple to be that very redeemer, the personification of Shunya Purusha, predicted in the medieval texts. According to his disciples, he had come to bring the final revelation, thereby putting an end to the reign of Jagannatha. In fact Lord Jagannatha is believed to have immediately noticed the advent of his successor, and therefore at once leaving his temple in Puri, to have rushed to the tenets of Mahima Dharma, Lord Jagannatha is no longer residing in Puri and wrongly worshipped there. This idea was at the bottom of the spectacular attempt of some members of this movement to burn the images of Lord Jagannatha in Puri.

Mahima Dharma is to some extent a further chapter in the history of Theism in Orissa, as it is in many respects the continuation and fulfillment of the Panchasakha's doctrines.

The discovery of the relationship between these two movements also is a result of the famous book of our chief guest. Because, up to recently Mahima Dharma as well as the Panchsakha school was considered to be a crypto Buddhist movement, because of its employment of Buddhist terminology. Only after having established the true character of the medieval Vaishnavism also this modern movement can be truly appreciated.

The claim of Mahima Dharma to be the fulfillment of the preachings of the Panchasakha is to a certain extent true. Not only is there, as first pointed out by Chittaranjan Das, a close philosophical tie between the two schools. Most of the tenets and secret doctrines of the Panchsakhas have become general rules and regulations in Mahima Dharma. The idea of the fundamental equality of all souls is practically expressed by admitting all castes to the new creed and stressed by taking up the custom of inter-dining.

The idea of Medieval Vaishnavism, that true worship is opposed to temple cult and pilgrimage has developed into the prohibition for all Mahima Dharins to worship or even posses the image of a God, or visit temples. Mahima Dharma has no temples and if so- they are voice cult and ritual have been continually reduced. And true to the idea of Pinda Brahmanda not a ritual to be applied on an image, but a personal gurus of yogic prayer, sarana and (...).is considered to be (...)