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In the Upanisads also the notion of Igvara ‘and the notion of Brahman are sometimes found side by side. As regards God as Ivara, the Gita not only does not think him to be 534 The Philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita [cH. illusory, but considers him the highest truth and reality. Thus there is no way of escaping from any of the categories of reality— the two avyaktas, prakrti, jiva and the super-personality of Igvara comprehending and transcending them all. The concepts of Brahman, jiva, the unmanifested category from which the world proceeds, and the gumas are all found in the Upanisads in passages which are probably mostly unrelated. But the Gita seems to take them all together, and to consider them as constituents of Igvara, which are also upheld by Him in His superior form, in which He transcends and controls them all. In the Upanisads the doctrine of bhakti can hardly be found, though here and there faint traces of it may be perceived. If the Upanisads ever speak of Igvara, it is only to show His great majesty, power and glory, as the controller and upholder of all. But the Gita is steeped in the mystic consciousness of an intimate personal relation with God, not only as the majestic super-person, but as a friend who incarnates Himself for the good of man and shares his joys and sorrows with him, and to whom a man could cling for support in troubles and difficulties and even appeal for earthly goods. He is the great teacher, with whom one can associate oneself for acquisition of wisdom and the light of knowledge. But He could be more than all this. He could be the dearest of the dear and the nearest of the near, and could be felt as being so intimate, that a man could live simply for the joy of his love for Him; he could cling to Him as the one dear friend, his highest goal, and leave every- thing else for Him; he could consider, in his deep love for Him, all his other religious duties and works of life as being relatively unimportant; he could thus constantly talk of Him, think of Him, and live in Him. This is the path of bhakti or devotion, and the Gita assures us that, whatever may be the hindrances and whatever may be the difficulties, the bhakta (devotee) of God cannot be lost. It is from the point of view of this mystic consciousness that the Gita seems to reconcile the apparently philosophically irreconcilable elements. The Gita was probably written at a time when philo- sophical views had not definitely crystallized into hard-and-fast systems of thought, and when the distinguishing philosophical niceties, scholarly disputations, the dictates of argument, had not come into fashion. The Gita, therefore, is not to be looked upon asa properly schemed system of philosophy, but as a manual of right conduct and right perspective of things in the light of a mystical ap- proach to God in self-resignation, devotion, friendship and humility. XIV] Visnu, Vasudeva and Krsna 535 Visnu, Vasudeva and Krsna. Visnu, Bhagavat, Narayana, Hari and Krsna are often used in a large section of Indian religious literature as synonymous names of the supreme lord. Of these Visnu is an important god of the Rg-Veda, who is one of the adityas and who makes three strides in the sky, probably as he manifests himself in the eastern horizon, as he rises to the zenith and as he sets in the west. He is also represented in the Rg-Veda as a great fighter and an ally of Indra. It is further said that he has two earthly steps and another higher step which is known only to himself. But in the Rg-Veda Visnu is certainly inferior to Indra, with whom he was often associated, as is evident from such names as Indra-visnu (R.V. IV. 55. 43 VII. 99. 5; VI. 10. 2, etc.). According to later tradition Visnu was the youngest, the twelfth of the ddityas, though he was superior to them all in good qualities. His three steps in the Rg-Vedic allusion have been explained in the Nirukta as referring to the three stages of the sun’s progress in the morning, at midday and at evening. One of the names of Visnu in the Re-Veda is Sipivista, which Durgicarya explains as ‘surrounded with the early rays” (sipi-samjnair bala-rasmibhir Gvista)*. Again, the sage praises Visnu in the Rg-Veda in the following terms: “‘T, a master of hymns and knowing the sacred customs, to-day praise that name of thine, Sipivista. I, who am weak, glorify thee, who art mighty and dwellest beyond this world®.” All this shows that Visnu was regarded as the sun, or endowed with the qualities of the sun. The fact that Visnu was regarded as dwelling beyond this world is probably one of the earliest signs of his gradually in- creasing superiority. For the next stage one must turn to the Satapatha-brahmana. In 1. 2. 4 of that work it is said that the demons (asura) and the gods were vying with one another; the gods were falling behind, and the demons were trying to dis- tribute the world among themselves; the gods followed them, making Visnu the sacrifice as their leader (te yajfiam eva Visnum puraskrtyeyuh), and desired their own shares; the demons felt jealous and said that they could give only so much ground as would 1 Ekdadasas tatha Tvasta dvddaso Visnur ucyate jaghanyajas tu sarvesam adityanam gundadhikah. Maha-bharata, 1. 65. 16. Calcutta, Bangavasi Press, second edition, 1908. 2 Nirukta, v.9. Bombay edition, 1918. 8 Rg-Veda, vil. 100. 5, translated by Dr L. Sarup, quoted in Nirukta, Water 536 The Philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita [cH. be occupied by Visnu when he lay down, Visnu being a dwarf (vamano ha Visnur asa). The gods felt dissatisfied at this, and they approached him with various mantras and in consequence attained the whole world. Again, in xiv. 1 of the same work, Kuruksetra is referred to as being the place of the sacrificial per- formances of the gods, and it is said there that in industry, rigorism (tapas), faith, etc. Visnu was the best of all gods and was regarded as being superior to them all (tasmad ahur Visnur devanam Sresthah), and was himself the sacrifice. Again, in Tazttiriya- samhita, 1. 7. 5. 4, in Vajasaneyi-samhita, 1. 30; 1. 6. 8; Vv. 21, in Atharva-Veda, Vv. 26. 7; VIII. 5. 10, etc., Visnu is referred to as the chief of the gods (Visnu-mukha deva). Again, Visnu as sacrifice attained unlimited fame. Once he was resting his head on the end of his bow; and, when some ants, perceiving that, said, ‘‘ How should we be rewarded, if we could gnaw the strings of the bow,” the gods said that they would then be rewarded with food; and so the ants gnawed away the strings, and, as the two ends of the bow sprang apart, Visnu’s head was torn from his body and became the sun}. This story not only shows the con- nection of Visnu with the sun, but also suggests that the later story of Krsna’s being shot with an arrow by an archer originated from the legend of Visnu’s being killed by the flying ends of his bow. The place of Visnu (Vizsnu-pada) means the zenith, as the highest place of the sun, and it is probable that the idea of the zenith being the place of Visnu led also to the idea that Visnu had a superior place transcending everything, which was, how- ever, clearly perceived by the wise. Thus, at the beginning of the daily prayer-hymns of the Brahmans, known as sandhyd, it is said that the wise see always that superior place of Visnu, like an open eye in the sky?. The word vaisnava is used in the literal sense of ‘‘belonging to Visnu” in the Vajasaneyi-samhita, v. 21, 23,25, Tatttiviya-samhita, Vv. 6.9. 2. 3, Aitareya-brahmana, 11. 38, Satapatha-brahmana, 1. 1. 4.9; Ill. 5. 3. 2, etc.; but the use of the word in the sense of a sect of religion is not to be found any- where in the earlier literature. Even the Gita does not use the word, and it is not found in any of the earlier Upanisads; it can be traced only in the later parts of the Maha-bharata. 1 Satapatha-brahmana, xiv. 1. _ * tad Visnoh paramam padam sada pasyanti sitrayah diviva caksur atatam. Acamana-mantra of the daily sandhya prayer-hymn. XIV] Visnu, Vasudeva and Krsna 537 Again, itis well known that the supreme man, or purusa, is praised in very high terms in the man-hymn (Purusa-sikta) of the Rg-Veda, X. 90, where it is said that purusa is all that we see, what is past and what is future, and that everything has come out of him; the gods performed sacrifice with him with the oblations of the seasons, and out of this sacrifice purusa was first born, and then the gods and all living beings; the various castes were born out of him; the sky, the heavens and the earth have all come out of him; he is the creator and upholder of all; it is by knowing him that one attains immortality ; there is no other way of salvation. It is curious that there should be a word na@ra@yana, similar in meaning (etymologically nara + phak,born in the race or lineage of man) to purusa, which was also used to mean the supreme being and identified with purusa and Visnu. In Satapatha-brahmana, xiv. 3. 4, purusa is identified with narayana (purusam ha narayanam Prajapatir uvaca). Again, in Satapatha-brahmana, xi. 6. 1, the idea of the purusa-siikta is further extended, and the purusa narayana is said to have performed the pajica-ratra sacrifice (paficaratram ya- jna-kratum) and thereby transcended everything and becomeevery- thing. This pafica-ratra sacrifice involves the (spiritual) sacrifice of purusa (purusa-medho yajfa-kratur bhavati, x11. 6. 7). The five kinds of sacrifice, five kinds of animals, the year with the five kinds of seasons, the five kinds of indwelling entities (pavica-vidham adhyatmam) can all be attained by the pafca-ratra sacrifices.