Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c9.s4.t4.36

c9.s4.t4.36

There are also some passages in which Mahākāla or some such deity is represented as the supreme being; but such a view is inconsistent with the general purport of the Bhāgavata, which is represented by the Mahāvākya cited above. Such passages, therefore, are as a matter of course rejected. The Purāṇas which give expression to such views belong to the Tāmasika class of Purāṇas, which are inferior in authority to the Bhāgavata, the greatest Sāttvika Purāṇa, and which cannot therefore establish the superiority of such deities as Mahākāla to Kṛṣṇa. It is next shown that even in the Vaiṣṇava Purāṇas, which are Sāttvika, there are passages or legends which appear conflicting; for instance, the legend narrated in the *Mahābhārata* and the *Viṣṇu-purāṇa* that Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma sprang respectively out of a piece of black and white hair of Nārāyaṇa. Such a legend is not entirely rejected, but it is suitably explained. It is shown that a literal interpretation cannot be given to the legend, for it is absurd to suppose that a god who is not subject to old age could possess white hair. A symbolical meaning, therefore, is found of the legend. The word *keśa* (hair) is interpreted to mean lustre (*aṃśu*), and the white (*sita*) and black (*kṛṣṇa*) lustres serve figuratively to indicate the prowess of Vāsudeva and Saṃkarṣaṇa as emanations of the supreme deity, while Nārāyaṇa, as a partial aspect of Bhagavat-Kṛṣṇa, shows these lustres at Kṛṣṇa's will to the gods.