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Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Minor Religious Systems v1.c4.s8: VIII. Identification of Vāsudeva with Viṣṇu

Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism and Minor Religious Systems v1.c4.s8

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VIII. Identification of Vāsudeva with Viṣṇu

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§ 35. Viṣṇu is a Vedic deity. There are but few hymns addressed to him in RV., but his personality is by no means unimportant. The long strides which he takes, and the three steps by which he measures the universe, are always described with an enthusiastic spirit. His first two steps can be discerned and approached by men, but the third no one can dare transgress, and it is beyond the flight of birds (RV. I. 155, 5). The wise see the highest place of Viṣṇu (paramam padam), as it were an eye fixed in the heaven (RV. I. 22, 20). In the highest place of Viṣṇu there is a well of honey, and there the gods rejoice (RV. I, 154, 5). Viṣṇu appears as the comrade and helper of Indra.

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Viṣṇu, however, in spite of his comparatively subordinate position in RV. began to rise in importance in the time of the Brāhmaṇas, while during the epic and Purāṇic period he rose to the rank of the supreme spirit. The moment which seems to have been in operation during this process of elevation, was reverence for the third step or the mysterious highest abode of Viṣṇu beyond the ken of all. In the Brāhmaṇic period we have the mention of Agni as the lowest of the gods and Viṣṇu as the highest (AB. 1, 1). Then we have a story in Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa and Taittirīya-Āraṇyaka of a sacrificial session held by the gods for the attainment of splendour, glory and food. They proposed to themselves that he amongst them, who by his deeds reached the end of the sacrifice before the others, should attain the highest place among them all. Viṣṇu reached the end before the others, and he thus became the highest of the gods; and therefore they say that Viṣṇu is the highest of the gods (ŚB. XIV, 1, 1). When this was written, Viṣṇu had already attained to the supreme dignity, and the story is invented to account for it. There is again in the same Brāhmaṇa (I, 2, 5) the story of Viṣṇu the dwarf. When the gods and Asuras were contending for a place for sacrifice, the latter agreed that they would allow as much land for the former as was equal to the size of the dwarf. Viṣṇu was then made to lie down, but gradually he grew so large as to encompass the whole earth, and so the gods got the whole earth. Here a miraculous power has been attributed to Viṣṇu, though he is not necessarily the Supreme Spirit. In the Maitri-Upaniṣad (VI, 13) food is called the form of Bhagavad-Viṣṇu, which sustains the universe. In the Kaṭha-Upaniṣad (III, 9) the progress of the human soul is compared to a journey, and the end of the path which he traverses is called the highest place of Viṣṇu (paramam padam). This is the final goal and the abode of eternal bliss, and the use of the word in this sense lends support to the view that the elevation of Viṣṇu to the dignity of the Supreme Being was due to the fact that the expression was capable of being used to denote this sense. Some time after, Viṣṇu became even a household god. In the ceremony of the seven steps contained in the marriage ritual the bridegroom has to say to the bride, when she puts forth a step: "May Viṣṇu lead you or be with you." This formula occurs in the Gṛhyasūtras of Āpastamba, Hiraṇyakeśin and Pāraskara, but not in that of Āśvalāyana. In epic times Viṣṇu grew to be in every respect the Supreme Spirit; and Vāsudeva is identified with Viṣṇu. In chapters 65 and 66 of the Bhīṣmaparvan noticed before, the Supreme Spirit is addressed as Nārāyaṇa and Viṣṇu and is identified with Vāsudeva.

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In the Anugītā portion of the Āśvamedhikaparvan (chaps. 53—55) Kṛṣṇa, while returning to Dvārakā, meets on the way a sage of the name of Uttaṅka of the Bhṛgu race. The sage asks Kṛṣṇa whether he had established peace between the contending kinsmen, Pāṇḍus and Kurus, and established affectionate relations between them. Kṛṣṇa replies that the Kurus had been destroyed and the Pāṇḍus were in possession of the supreme sovereignty. The sage got angry and said that he would pronounce a curse against Kṛṣṇa, but if he explained to him the philosophy of the soul (Adhyātma), he would desist. Kṛṣṇa then does explain this philosophy at the request of Uttaṅka and shows him his universal form (Virāṭ svarūpam). The Svarūpa is the same as, or similar to, that shown to Arjuna according to the Bhagavadgītā, but it is here called the Vaiṣṇava form (rūpa), which name does not occur in the other passage. Thus then between the period of the Bhagavadgītā and that of the Anugītā the identity of Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa with Viṣṇu had become an established fact. In the Śāntiparvan (chap. 43) Yudhiṣṭhira addressing Kṛṣṇa sings a hymn of praise, in which Kṛṣṇa is identified with Viṣṇu. In the epic times, Viṣṇu is regarded as the Supreme Spirit, but the names of Nārāyaṇa and Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa apparently occur more frequently or are more prominent.

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§ 36. Still many parts of the Mahābhārata represent a condition of things in which the divinity of Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa was not generally acknowledged. In the above passage from the Anugītā, the sage Uttaṅka is about to pronounce a curse on Kṛṣṇa, as if he was an ordinary individual, and desists only when his universal form is shown to him. Similarly in many passages noticed by Dr. Muir (O. S. T. IV, pp. 205ff.) Kṛṣṇa's divinity is denied; and Saṃjaya and Bhīṣma make strenuous efforts to establish it. What appears to be the fact is that the religion of Vāsudeva, in which divine honours were paid to him, was professed by the Sātvatas, as observed in several of the passages noticed above, and its gradual extension to other tribes and people of the country is shadowed forth in these portions of the great epic. In the Purāṇic times, however, the cult of Vāsudeva ceased to be militant, and three streams of religious thought, namely the one flowing from Viṣṇu, the Vedic god at its source, another from Nārāyaṇa, the cosmic and philosophic god, and the third from Vāsudeva, the historical god, mingled together decisively and thus formed the later Vaiṣṇavism. There is, however, a fourth stream, which in modern times in some of the systems of Vaiṣṇavism has acquired an almost exclusive predominance, and to this we shall now direct our attention.

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