Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Minor Religious Systems v2.c12.60

v2.c12.60

This passage is noticed in the Bhaktisūtra 83 and its commentary, in which it is stated that Ekāntabhāva (which is the subject of the Nārāyaṇīya), or devotion to one only, is Bhakti alone, since the former is recognised in that passage as identical with the main topic of the Bhagavadgītā. But the Bhagavadgītā contains no allusion to the Vyūhas or forms of the Supreme, Saṃkarṣaṇa and others, while the latter form a characteristic of the Bhāgavata school. The Gītā, however, mentions as the Prakṛtis of Vāsudeva the five elements, the mind, Buddhi or knowledge, and egoism as well as Jīva (VII, 4, 5). The last is identified with Saṃkarṣaṇa in the Bhāgavata system, egoism with Aniruddha, and mind, with which probably Buddhi is associated, with Pradyumna. What appears to be the fact is this: The Bhagavadgītā was composed before the doctrines of the Bhāgavata school were reduced to a system, and it was then that the three of the Prakṛtis of the Supreme were personified into Saṃkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha, who were members of the family of Vāsudeva. In the prevalent worship, however, Saṃkarṣaṇa alone is found associated with Vāsudeva in early times, as is seen from the inscriptions and the passage from the Niddesa noticed in the beginning. Patañjali also notices, under P. II, 2, 34, a verse in which it is stated that certain musical instruments are sounded in a gathering in the temple of Dhanapati, Rāma and Keśava. Here Rāma and Keśava are Balarāma and Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa, and it is clear that there were festive gatherings at their temples in Patañjali’s time. If the passage in Patañjali under P.VI, 3, 6 “Janārdana with himself as the fourth”, i. e. with three companions, may be taken to allude to the three Vyūhas, then it must be understood that the four Vyūhas, Vāsudeva, Saṃkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha, were known in Patañjali’s time. Still it is doubtful, and it may be taken for granted that the two Vyūhas, Vāsudeva and Saṃkarṣaṇa, only were known up to the time of the latest inscription which is to be referred to about the beginning of the first century before the Christian era, so that the system of four Vyūhas was not fully developed up to that time. If this reasoning is correct, it will be seen that the date of the Bhagavadgītā which contains no mention of the Vyūhas, or personified forms, is much earlier than those of the inscriptions, the Niddesa and Patañjali, i. e. it was composed not later than the beginning of the fourth century before the Christian era. How much earlier it is difficult to say. At the time when the Gītā was conceived and composed, the identification of Vāsudeva with Nārāyaṇa had not taken place, nor had his being an incarnation of Viṣṇu come to be acknowledged, as appears from the work itself. When his Virāj or universe-form was shown to Arjuna, as represented in the eleventh chapter, he is twice addressed by the latter as Viṣṇu on account of his dazzling brilliance which rendered everything hot and filled the whole universe. Here Viṣṇu is alluded to as the chief of the Ādityas and not as the supreme being, and Vāsudeva was Viṣṇu in this sense, as mentioned in chapter 10, because the best thing of a group or class is represented to be his Vibhūti or special manifestation.