Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c9.s3.34

c9.s3.34

The author refers to the fact that in the Nārāyaṇīya¹, Pradyumna is presented as presiding over Manas, and Aniruddha over Ahaṃkāra, but the above view, in his opinion, is supported by all Pañcarātra scriptures. The four arms of Hari are said to represent the four Vyūhas. In some Sātvata Tantra, we are told, there is an enumeration of nine Vyūhas², viz. Nārāyaṇa, Nṛsiṃha, Hayagrīva, Mahāvarāha and Brahmā, in addition to the four mentioned above; but the four appear to be the original and generally accepted Vyūhas. The Vyūha-doctrine is accepted by our author from these older sources, but its exact bearing upon the theology of his own school is not clearly explained. It appears, however, that the school does not accept fully the older position that each of these Vyūhas is a cosmic spiritual evolute or creative emergence in successive order, parallel to the order of cosmic material evolutes of Ahaṃkāra etc.; but it would regard each of the Vyūhas (Saṃkarṣaṇa etc.) as independent creative manifestation of the primal Puruṣa-Avatāra of the supreme being, each having (as already explained) a distinctive character and habitation of his own, like every other kind of Avatāra. Nor can each of these, in the opinion of the Bengal school, be regarded as corresponding to the series of cosmic material causation like Ahaṃkāra, Manas and Buddhi, which are, in its theory, the result of the extraneous Māyā-śakti of the Bhagavat and are therefore non-conscious (jaḍa) evolutes. In other words, these Vyūha manifestations are aspects of the Puruṣa-Avatāra of the Bhagavat, who do not correspond but apparently have presiding functions over the creative evolutes of Ahaṃkāra, Manas, etc.