The Development of Hindu Iconography c10.4.4

c10.4.4

to him the Ātman reveals its own essence (or person).’ Here, even though the idea of faith or love is not distinctly present, yet the positive assertion that Ātman selects its own and it cannot be gained by proficiency in the Vedic lore and other things does forcibly remind us of the free grace of the personal god.¹ This again seems to be clear in the Kaṭhaka passage (II. 20) which speaks of the ability of a person to see the glory of the Ātman if he is graced by the creator, if the word in this verse is taken to mean ‘by the grace of the creator’ *dhātuḥ prasādāt* and not ‘through the tranquillity of the senses’ (*dhātu-prasādāt*) as Śaṅkara explains it. The Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (III. 20) which contains much that is theistic in nature contains the same passage with an alteration which, though slight, is material.² It is in this Upaniṣad among the major ones, that we find for the first time the mention of the word Bhakti which occurs in the last verse of the work.³ From this time onward references to it become clearer and clearer, and Pāṇini in the several sūtras of his Aṣṭādhyāyī lays down rules for various word-formations in which the etymological sense of the word Bhakti, viz., ‘resorting to and then loving the thing resorted to with faith and devotion’ is the central idea.¹