Πάπυροι - Επιστημονικό Περιοδικό τόμος 5, 2016

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1 LAMPROS I. PAPAGIANNHS, Ph.D. of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Περίληψη Ως μπάκτι στην ινδουιστική λατρεία και φιλοσοφία εννοείται η κίνηση κατά την οποία ο πιστός αφιερώνει τη λατρεία του σε έναν επιλεγμένο θεό του ινδουιστικού πανθέου χωρίς να αποκλείει τους υπόλοιπους, καθώς ο Ινδουισμός είναι αυστηρά πολυθεϊστική θρησκεία. Κατά τον τέταρτο αιώνα (πιθανότατα) στην Ινδία αναπτύχθηκε ένα καινούργιο λογοτεχνικό και παράλληλα λατρευτικό είδος, οι Πουράνα. Πρόκειται για κείμενα που αφιερώνονται σε ένα κάθε φορά θεό και επεξηγούν τη λατρεία του και τα κατορθώματά του. Μία από τις σημαντικότερες και πιθανότατα η γνωστότερη όλων είναι η Σριμάντ-Μπαγκαβάντα Πουράνα. Εδώ εξετάζεται πως αυτή η Πουράνα συνετέλεσε ώστε να εξελιχθεί γρηγορότερα η εξατομικευμένη/προσωπική λατρεία του μπάκτι με παραδείγματα από το ίδιο το κείμενο, καθώς και από άλλα της αρχαίας ινδικής θεοσοφίας και φιλοσοφίας. Λέξεις-Κλειδιά: ηθική, καλό και κακό, γνώση, αρετή, άνθρωπος, ινδική φιλοσοφία, ινδικά έπη, Πουράνα, παγκαβάντ-γκιτά, Σριμάντ-Μπαγαβάντα Πουράνα Abstract This article attempts to define to which extent the Srimad Bhagavada Purana, possibly the most famous among all Puranas, has influenced the bhakti movement and thus to which extent it has played a role to the bhakti movement development. It is a matter that tries to bridge the gap between religion and philosophical thinking as the Puranic tradition shares both aspects of human cognition. Several examples from the Purana have been used only to investigate whether they match those from other Indian classical texts, such as the epics, the Bhagavad-Gita or other Puranas. Keywords: good and evil, knowledge, ethics, ontology, Indian philosophy, Puranas, Srimad-Bhagavada Purana, Bhagavad-Gita 98

2 Hindus claim the Vedas to be the basic scriptures of Hinduism. From the highly poetic hymns in the Rig-Veda, the oldest of all, and the brahmanas, the commentaries on the Vedas, we can detect the evolution of Hindu religious ideas in the Upanishads in a more philosophical way, yet not at all nonreligious, as the Upanishads do preserve the idea of divinity, although expressed in a sense probably less celestial, but more earthly and humane. Following the Upanishads the two great epics are there to remind us of the tremendous achievements of the heroes, their supernatural, and yet natural deeds, the teachings, the holiness of the Hindu world. Lastly, the Puranas, the holy texts which describe the religious practice and through that the way of approaching God. In addition to that, the Puranas contain issues such as mythology and history, cosmography and cosmogony and provide us with information not to be found elsewhere, expanding their value to a greater background than that of religion alone. Their importance has been identified at such level, that made several sociologists of modern time to consider them as defenders of the Hindu world and society against the penetration of foreign elements, especially foreign religions, as well as internal problems, which could have resulted in an unexpected deconstruction of the society itself, had it not been for the Puranas 1. To be more exact, as the author puts it, the Puranas have managed to keep the core of the religion intact 2. Of the thirty-six Puranas, the Srimad Bhagavada is probably the best well-known. Its popularity among the devotees of Vishnu is even greater than that of the Vishnu Purana itself, though the latter is the oldest 3. Although Puranas must be seen as a whole, in terms of their importance to the historical evolution of Hinduism, there should be an exception as for the importance of this particular Purana, judging by the fact that, unlike the rest, the Srimad Bhagavada was written in a language highly influenced by the Vedic Sanskrit, something that probably has a lot to indicate about its holiness. Although holiness may be identified in many senses, it is the idea of bhakti that strikes as the most influential, and closest to the very idea of sanctity. Bhakti as a movement was introduced in the Bhagavad-Ghita, so it can be argued that the version of bhakti found in the Srimad Bhagavada has evolved. Generally speaking bhakti is to be seen as devotion to a personal God 4. Before moving on to evaluating the Srimad Bhagavada in relation to the bhakti movement it becomes rather necessary to mention the aspects of dualism of bhakti. Firstly, we face a dilemma as to whether God makes his appearance in a formless way or not. Non-quality (nirguna) opposes to quality (saguna), but only in relevance to how God becomes present, as God is, indeed, formless anyway 5. Secondly, bhakti is all about the dialectical relationship between God and creation 6. It is, however, to be put under examination, as to the extent of this dualism, since creation derives originally from God himself. According to some the value of the Srimad Bhagavada is that it compensates for the drawback of the Vedas no to include the bhakti, as devotion is the way to knowledge, action and worship 7. If that is so, could someone argue that bhakti is a new beginning as for the evolution of worshiping, and that from here after the idea of the Absolute is abandoned? Not quite, should we take under consideration the opinion according to which an object of worship must be beyond human level of comprehension and at the same time accessible to humans, with those two opposing aspects of the very same need to be capable of dealing with bringing them in reconciliation 8. Furthermore bhakti as a term (from the religious and philosophical perspective) can be quite problematic, even misleading from a deterministic point of view. And by that what is meant here is whether bhakti presupposes the love that a devotee owes to God, so it is in a way pure or it is a means through which the devotee reaches salvation. That brings us to the opinion that since it is the 1Pruthi R. K., An introduction to Puranas. UBS Publisher s Distributors Pvt., Kundhi, 2005, p Ibidem, p Ibidem, p Chandola A., The way to true worship. University Press of America Inc, USA, 1991, p Ibidem, p Ibidem, p Ibidem, Matchett F., Krsna: Lord or Avatara? The relationship between Krsna and Visnu. Curzon Press, Richmond, Surrey, 2001, p

3 highest good, it is not produced, but exists already in the heart; it is eternal 9. Moreover bhakti is participation of the soul in the divine, according to Gonda 10, however, nowhere is it argued whether this should mean a totally humane soul which waits to be unified with God. It would be rather fare to accept this participation as the ultimate goal of the soul 11. A combination of all of the above would still not be enough for a direct definition of bhakti and although such complicated terms sometimes work better through their vagueness, if it becomes necessary to give a certain definition, this would perhaps be bhakti is the act of devotional worshiping of a particular deity leading to salvation through unification with God. Thus, it becomes obvious why the avatara 12 myths are so strongly connected to the bhakti movement. The more the idea of divine absoluteness is abandoned the easiest it becomes for the devotee to worship a personal God, or even better a personalized God. The case of Krishna is possibly the most interesting one within the history of bhakti, due to Krishna s strong connection to Vishnu. Nowhere else do we see an avatara having emerged in such a degree so as to be considered a Lord Himself. The idea of incarnation is first detected in the Rig-Veda. 13. That simplifies things to a certain degree so far as how avataras and bhakti are associated. Given the fact that avataras preexist this suggests that bhakti owes its raise to the avataras, rather than the other way round. Incarnation in the Rig-Veda, however, appears by the concept of overcoming an obstacle (etymologically ava+ tarih) 14. Nevertheless, incarnation must not be confused with reincarnation, as the latter phenomenon seems to be traced in the epics, not in the Vedas 15. But, since Vishnu s avatara of Krishna is important enough to be worshipped as god Himself, it is like as if we are now dealing with bhakti within bhakti 16. The importance of Krishna, as well as how the Srimad Bhagavada has cultivated this importance, is related to the evolution presented through the avataras described. The first thing to notice is that unlike most Puranas, which only mention ten avataras of Vishnu, the Srimad Bhagavada mentions twenty-four 17. However, elsewhere it is mentioned that only ten of those are commonly accepted 18.The idea of avatara is somehow related to the human limitation as for the ability to witness God in his full form. The innumerous eyes, hands, legs and faces of Vishnu make it impossible for a man to see him, thus he descents into the humane world incarnated 19. In addition, there is always a reason why Vishnu would incarnate into the world only to restore justice and morality to the world, whenever evil has taken over. It has been argued that the avataras of Vishnu show an evolution that resembles the evolution in the animal kingdom 20. The particular avatara owes its religious significance to the saving of Manu from the deluge and the saving of the world in general. Therefore it can be assumed that the salvation of the world has been a matter of divine interference 21. The tortoise, on the other hand, signifies holiness already from the Mahabharata, where the animal assists gods and demons. Of course, it is assumed that gods or demons would not be in the need of a small, weak creature, as a tortoise, thus the tortoise implies holiness, rather than signifies it. In addition, there is an attempt to show a generally sacred status of this particular animal in the East, 9 Gonda J., Aspects of early Visnuism. Motilal Banarsidass, India, 1993, p Ibidem, p The participation of the soul in the divine, as stated by Gonda, bares much resemblance to Plato s myth of the cave (The Republic, Book VII). 12 Avatara: the incarnation of god in the world of humans. 13 An example of that is the incarnation of Vishnu as dwarf, Rig-Veda, Prakahsan P., Theory of incarnation. Its origin and development in the light of Vedic and Puranic references. Rabiprashad Mishra, Delhi, 2000, p Ibidem, p One might argue that Buddha as an avatara of Vishnu is also worshipped as God, but this is something outside orthodox Hinduism, as Buddhism does not accept the Vedas as the Supreme Truth 17 Debroy B. & D., The holy Puranas. B. R. Publishing Corporation, India, 2002, p Dange S. S., Bhagavada-Purana: Mytho-Social study, South Asia Books, India, 1984, p Debroy B. & D., The holy Puranas. B. R. Publishing Corporation, India, 2002, p Prakahsan P., Theory of incarnation. Its origin and development in the light of Vedic and Puranic references. Rabiprashad Mishra, Delhi, 2000, p The story of the deluge is quite popular; it is also found in the Christian tradition, as well as in the epic of Gilgamesh. 100

4 as it is has been personified as the creative e force in Chinese, as well as in Japanese mythology. The animal s shape might have played its role, since its circular form gives the picture of the sun, and therefore fertility, possibly related to Vishnu s role in the Rig-Veda as a solar deity 22. Vishnu s incarnation into a boar is related to the folk-beliefs 23, but, here we are also able to detect the evolution in the sequence of avataras, as the boar belongs to an animal family superior to that of the first two. On the other hand, though, Dange categorizes it with the first two, due to the fact that all three are water avataras 24. Narasimha is the first land avatara 25, and the idea of evolution is even clearer, since Vishnu takes the form of a creature, which is half human and half lion. Vishnu incarnates in fully human form as a dwarf, but its small size not only does not indicate weakness, but, on the contrary, shows miraculous powers 26. After the incarnation into a dwarf what can be expected (in relation to the evolutionary course) is a normal size man. Indeed, the sixth avatara of Vishnu is Parashurama, a man somewhere in-between a Brahmin and a ksatriya 27. The feature of a Brahmin is that he destroys evil, and the evil-doers, and thus we would expect him to be the avatara clearing the ground before the four holy avataras 28, but, surprisingly enough, Kalki is yet to come, possibly symbolizing hope for the destruction of evil and also the never-ending flux of things. Throughout the tenth chapter there are plenty of examples suggesting how the bhakti movement (Krishnabhakti) has evolved. Apparently we shall not go through all of them, but it is essential that we refer to those of greater importance. First of all, Krishna s birth takes place in deep darkness 29. Moreover, it is Vishnu who appeared in front of Devaki, which makes the birth of Krishna extraordinary, and Vasudeva s realization of his son being the Bhagavan reinforce Krishna s divinity. Following his birth the miracles of his childhood make the reader (or listener) realize Krishna as pure God setting the idea of the divine one step closer to this particular figure than the Absolute or any other figure at all. Putting many miraculous deeds aside let us focus on the fifty-ninth chapter, as an aspect of bhakti appears. Krishna makes his appearance in the capital of Heaven and the gods worship him with devotion and humility. This kind of devotion from other gods, Indra among them, symbolizes the superiority of Krishna. One thing we need to take under consideration is that the Bhagavad-Ghita is as complicated as the Srimad Bhagavada as far as the relation between Vishnu and Krishna is concerned. Although it is true that Krishna teaches Arjuna that all offering to the gods are nothing more than offerings to Krishna himself, it is still impossible to come to a certain conclusion as for who the ultimate god is, especially owing to Krishna s declaration that he is indeed a manifestation of Vishnu. According to Matchett Krishna offers the way to salvation in the Bhagavad-Ghita 30, however, this is not enough as to pronounce him the ultimate god. Krishna s statement that he himself directs prakriti and is born (even by his own creative power) leads Matchett to consider that as a proof of Krishna s being a manifestation of Vishnu 31. In order to evaluate not only the usefulness, but also the quality of the Srimad Bhagavada, as far as the development of the bhakti movement is concerned, perhaps we ought to see the latter (in relation to the VishnuPurana and the Harivamsa) as continuity of the Bhagavad-Ghita and to acknowledge it as such. A parallel reading of the two texts reveals this continuity, although it is set backwards from the perspective of time order. We would expect to find Krishna s legendary life beforehand and his evolution to the supreme god afterwards. However an element one should bare in 22 Dange S. S., Bhagavada-Purana: Mytho-Social study. South Asia Books, India, 1984, p Ibidem, p Ibidem, p Ibidem, p Ibidem, p Ksatriya: the soldier, one of the five categories of the Indian society. 28 By holy I mean Rama, Buddha, Krishna and Kalki, since all of them imply holiness; however, I shall not focus on this subject. 29 Srimad Bhagavada X-3, 8. 30Matchett F., Krsna: Lord or Avatara? The relationship between Krsna and Visnu. Curzon Press, Richmond, Surrey, 2001, p Ibidem, p

5 mind is that time and order do not act in a rational way when it comes to religious texts, especially of that kind, texts that is, which establish new dogmas; The fact that Krishna is presented within a context totally humane preoccupies the reader and makes him think of Krishna as someone who lays in-between human and the divine. Bhakti, presupposes a deity not as neutral and indefinite as the absolute Brahman, for instance, but a specific, personalized god on which the devotee can rely. In addition, bhakti relies on the democratization of religion on the basis of which a deity embraces the humanitarian values of pluralism, such as the eligibility of women to worship Krishna 32 and, in the final analysis, Krishna manages to incorporate both vaisya and ksatriya elements to his story with that having as result a more universal divine figure 33. From the above it becomes clear that the way to true worship is not easy and definitely not unequivocal. In order for the devotee to reach perfection of knowledge he must realize much more that the simple difference between matter and spirit 34. He must give up all other religious principles and surrender upon Krishna 35. Therefore it is not at all safe to jump to conclusions about bhakti, or its development through time. What can be stated, though, is that bhakti gains more and more devotees in spite of its complexity, due to the need of humans to worship the definite, and not the indefinite 36. Lastly, in an effort to evaluate the contribution of the Srimad Bhagavada in the development of bhakti we need to bare in mind its initially oral transmission. According to Matchett verbal teaching would allow time for questions to arise from the audience, which would be answered in the next episode 37. This opinion leads us to think that all aspects that might have been obscure or opposing to common belief or will could have been solved or at least detoured and therefore the written version of a Purana could be presented perfectly giving the devotee the opportunity to make the most out of it and fully surrender unto bhakti. Let us not forget that bhakti is love of purification and that through bhakti the devotee is capable of seeing god in every aspect of his life. To sum up the BhagavadaPurana has contributed the most in the development of bhakti in such extent that it would not be an exaggeration to state that owing to the Bhagavad-Gita and the BhagavadaPurana bhakti has risen to a new religion with its connection to orthodox Hinduism, although of extreme power and significance, sometimes being hard to detect. The BhagavadaPurana managed to combine the identity of Brahman with eter nal devotion to Krishna as two equally valid and ultimate forms of the goal for which worshippers could aim Ibidem, p Ibidem, p Prabhupada S. B. A. C., Krsna, The supreme personality of Godhead: A summary study of Srimad-Bhagavadam s tenth canto. Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, India, 1997, p Ibidem, p We can detect this idea in all major religions. 37 Matchett F., Krsna: Lord or Avatara? The relationship between Krsna and Visnu. Curzon Press, Richmond, Surrey, 2001, p Ibidem, p

6 Bibliography Pruthi R. K., An introduction to Puranas. UBS Publisher s Distributors Pvt., Kundhi, 2005 Chandola A., The way to true worship. University Press of America Inc, USA, 1991 Matchett F., Krsna: Lord or Avatara? The relationship between Krsna and Visnu. Curzon Press, Richmond, Surrey, 2000 Gonda J., Aspects of early Visnuism. Motilal Banarsidass, India, 1993 Doniger W., The Rig-Veda, An Anthology. Penguin Books, England, 1983 Prakahsan P., Theory of incarnation. Its origin and development in the light of Vedic and Puranic references. Rabiprashad Mishra, Delhi, 2000 Debroy B. & D., The holy Puranas. B. R. Publishing Corporation, India, 2002 Dange S. S., Bhagavada-Purana: Mytho-Social study. South Asia Books, India, 1984 Prabhupada S. B. A. C., Krsna, The supreme personality of Godhead: A summary study of Srimad- Bhagavadam s tenth canto. Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, India,