The Concept of Vasudeva As the Hindu Bhagavat

The Concept of Vasudeva 密

as the Hindu Bhagavat 教

文

Mitsunori MATSUBARA 化

As against Visnu, who holds the original priority of transcendence and omnipresence, the outstanding characteristic of Vasudeva defini- tely consists in the immanence of God. To cite a few examples from our Samhita texts, sarva-bhutadhivasas ca vasudevas tato by aham / (MBh 12.328.36) sarva-bhuta-krtavaso vasudeveti cocyate // (MBh 12.335.87) samasta-bhuta-vasitvad vasudevah prakirtitah // (AS 2.28) vasaty asmin yato visvam, tatrapi ca vasaty aham // (AS 52.65) Similar explanations are also found in the Puranas, e. g. , sarvatrasau, samastam ca vasaty atre ti vai yatah / tatah sa vasudeveti vidvadbhih paripathyate // (VP 1.2.12) sarvani tatra bhutani vasanti paramatmani / bhutesu ca sa sarvatma, vasudevas tatah smrtah //

(VP 6.5.80, cf. 82) sa sarva-vasi-devatvad vasudevety udahrtah /

(Visnudharma 102) (1)

(1) R. C. Hazra, Studies in the Upa-Puranas, Vol. 1, Calcutta 1958, p. 133, note 58.

-164- Hence Vasudeva as the immanent God is often called (Parama-) Atman (2) or the Ksetraj na (3) of all creatures; e. g., cf., T h e sarva-bhutatma-bhuto hi vasudevah C o n c (MBh 12.326.31; cf. VP 6.4.7) pe t of ksetrajnam sarva-bhutanam V a (AS 15.17, LT 2.5; cf. MBh 12.326.38, 332.17) us d ve He is also visvesa (SS 6.131) or sarvesvara (SS 19.119), the lord of all. a a s As Vasudeva is thus immanent in this world, He is accessible to all ht e H beings, for which fact we have already adduced textual evidence. The in du teaching that everybody can participate in the worship of Vasudeva b h ga with bhakti (sarvaih sambhajaniyah, AS 52.70) seems, as we have seen, a v ta to have been prevalent already at the time of Panini (4.3.98), and is the well-known central theme of the Bhagavad-gi ta. (4) The God of the BhG declares:

ye yatha main prapadyante, tams tathaiva bhaj amy aham / mama vartmanuvartante manusyah partha ! sarvasah // (4.11)

yo mam evam asammudho janati purusottamam / sa sarva-vid bhajati mam sarva-bhavena bharata! // (15.19; cf. 6.31, 9.13 & 29) ...... bhajante mam janah (7.16 & 28; cf. 6.47, 9.32, 10.8 & 10)

(2) E. g., SS 8. 99-100, 23. 52; BhG 13.22 & 31. Hence Visnu is paramat- matman (VP 1.4.14). The paramdtman is also applicable to Visnu (VP 6.4.37-40, LT 7.10) 11.48) and Narayana (AS 6.1, 51.5, LT 13.18). Also cf. LT 2.5-61 11.1, and Visnudharma 96 (Hazra, op. cit., note 134): bhedas ca karma-janitah ksetrajna-paramatmanoh /. Vasudeva is called "the para tattva" in NS 1.4. (3) E. g., BhG 13.2 & 33, MBh 12.336.54, 339.56, H 1.8.30 (4) E. g., BhG 9.22-34, 10.9-11, 12.13-20.

-163- These words eventually mean that God is reciprocally accessible by means of bhakti: bhaktya labhyah (BhG 8.22; cf. 11.54, 18.55). 密 Among the later Pancaratra Samhitas, the Parama specifically adopts this kind of teaching: e. g., 教 bhaj ate yadi mam eva saranam purusah svayam / 文 (30.23; cf. LT 28.59) bhaj ante tatra mam eva...... (30.92) 化 bhaj ate mam ekagrena cetasa / (30.103) bhaj asva sarva-bhavena paramatmanam acyutam // (31.50; cf. BhG 9.33, LT 28.19) and characterizes the bhaktas as follows:

yady asya hrdayam tivram sahasa bhajate harim // apriye va priye vapi, sa bhakta iti kirtyate / (24.14-5) Accordingly, Vasudeva is the God whom Ekantin bhaktas worship with ardent bhakti and sraddha: ekantino muda-yukta visnu-bhakti-parayanah / sraddhaya parayopeta vasudevam upasate // (31.30) So far as our earliest texts are concerned, this conception of Vasude- va is not so distinct as in the Parama. And significantly, it is already anticipated in those older texts, for they totally exclude the abhaktas from their religious worship (PauS 30.210-9), and forbid the teaching of the secret(" doctrine of the Pancaratra to those who have no devo- tion") to Vasudeva idam akhyanam arseyam paramparyagatam nrpa ! / navasudeva-bhaktaya tvaya deyam kathamcana //

(5) E. g., JS 33.80, AS 59.70. (6) Further, cf. abhaktaya na, BhG 18.67, PauS 6.84, 18.56-7, 33.128, JS 33.807, AS 59.75, 60.20-v6, VS 30.83-v4.

-162- (MBh 12.326.113) samhiteyam mahd guhyd...... // navasudeva-bhaktaya tvayd T h e deya kathamcana / (AS 59.701; cf. LT 57.41) C o n To avoid misunderstanding, it may be mentioned here that, as already c pe t o in the BhG the identification of Vasudeva with Visnu (or Krsna) is f V a complete, devotees can participate in the worship of the supreme God us d ve under the other names as well; for instance, cf., a a s bhajante ye nard visnum manasa karmana gird / ht e H na tesam durlabham kimcid iha loke paratra ca // (PS 31.43) ni d u In this connection, the following verse from the Sahityadarpana (10. b h ga 37) may be of some interest: a v a t priya iti gopa-vadhubhih, sisur iti vrddhair, adhisa iti devaih / narayana iti bhaktair, brahmety agrahi yogibhir devah // The accessibility of Vasudeva naturally forms a striking contrast to the supremacy of Visnu. This contrast is better illustrated in the usage of the root vis- or pra-vis-, which is also used together with Vasudeva. In both cases, with Visnu and Vasudeva, the root retains the same basic meaning, 'to enter,' and indicates how is maintained the God's relation to this mundane world. But there is a difference in its usage. With regard to Visnu, as the root is primarily employed in order to give an etymological explanation for the name by way of int- roducing His immanence, the agent is God Himself. But in the case of Vasudeva who is accessible to man, the agent is often shifted to His devotees. Upon entering God, they are said to attain moksa. Thus our earliest texts read, for instance, as follows

yam pravisya bhavantiha muktd vai dvija-sattama! / sa vasudevo vijneyah paramatma sanatanah // (MBh 12.326.24; cf. BhG 7.19, 11.54-5)

-161- tatas traigunya-hinds to paramatmanam anjasa /

pravisanti dvija-srestha! ksetrajnam nirgunatmakam / 密 sarvavasam vasudevam ksetrajnam viddhi tattvatah //

samahita-manaskas ca niyatah samyatendriyah / 教 ekanta-bhavopagata vasudevam visanti to // 文 (MBh 12.332.17-8)

ksetrajnam sarva-bhutanam vasudevam visanti to // 化 (AS 15.17; cf. BhG 18.55, VP 2.12.46) However, it seems the immanent aspect of God that has promoted the identification of the Vedic god Visnu with Vasudeva of the popul- ar Bhagavatas. Originally these two gods had no relation whatever to each other, belonging to the different religious traditions in ancient India. But, as is already pointed out, Visnu among others was an all- encompassing god of the Vedas and probably obtained His immanent character from the notion of the cosmic Purusa in RV 10.90. When it is true, He must thereafter have been identified with the immanent, accessible Vasudeva, who was the supreme God of the Bhagavatas, the then popularly flourishing religious cult. This identification is a prob- lem to be discussed in detail separately. Since the immanent accessibility of Vasudeva is much emphasized in our Samhita texts, there are not many examples of His being identified with Brahman, the transcendent and nonpersonal, in a single verse. But those instances" are at least a few more in number than the identification of Visnu with Brahman. The only example that the Jayak- hya furnishes indicates that the Absolute Brahman, when called Vasu-

(7) They increase in the later texts; e. g., LT 14.1, 15.9, 32.29 & 33, PMS 1.33. The identification is already in the BhG (e. g., 10.12) and deve- loped in the VP (e. g., 1.2.13, 3.3.278, 6.4.4, 6.5.76).

-160- deva, is accessible dhyatva parityaj ed deham nityabhyasa-rato yadi / T h e sa brahma param abhyeti vasudevakhyam avyayam // (33.59) C o n o A similar implication is to be found also in the Pauskara: pe t fO parasya brahmanah...... / murtir vai vasudevakhya...... V a (38.192; further, cf. 36.83-4 & 268, 38.306) us d ve It is here explicit that Vasudeva is a form of the Absolute Brahman. a a s According to the Satvata, the name Vasudeva is often applied to that ht e H Brahman which is born into this world with a distinct form, although ni ud Vasudeva himself is in reality said to be sarva-ga and amu rta (SS 8. b h a q 52-3, 19. 119-20). a v a t j ayate tat param brahma vasudevakhyam avyayam // (SS 19.140) sa sadgunya-mayo brahma vasudevo 'dhva-murti-bhrt // (SS 19.148; cf. 19.42-3) vasudevaya...... / ...... ananta-murtaye (SS 23.52) Brahman in the SS 2.4, which is quoted by Ramanuja in his ribhasya on 2.2.41, should be interpreted as the embodied. Furthermore, the Ahirbudhnya, by way of applying this equation,

gets to suggest that the supreme Vasudeva is immanent and accessible at the same time. For, in AS 4.69 and 53.10 (cf. PauS 20. 65-6 & 70), the identification is only allowed between Brahman and the first Vyu- ha, Vasudeva. According to the Pancaratra system, the supreme Vasu- deva and the first Vyuha are not separate, but represent two aspects of one and the same God.(8) The only difference between these two is

(8) Followed by Ramanuja; cf. VAS 113 (p . 144.4), 124 (p. 152.13), Bh on 2.2.41 (p. 6967), SDS 4.238-9 & 251-v2. Also see AmrtabinduUp 22.

-159- that the former is unmanif est and inactive, whereas the latter becomes manifest and active (PauS 20.72, AS 5.32-4). To explain the matter 密 figuratively, one is asleep at night, while the other is awaking in the early morning." Here again we see analogy with man: one and 教 same person sleeps at night and becomes active after waking in the 文 morning. At the break of cosmic Day, Pancaratra explains, the world creation 化 theoretically begins within the first Vyuha, Vasudeva, in whom the Sakti of Visnu becomes manifest as though awaking consciously for Her further evolution (AS 3. 26-9, 5.2-7). During a cosmic Day, the world remains created; hence the second Vyuha, Sarikarsana, is said to be the lord of cosmic Day (AS 4.66 & 78, 5.30-1). The beginning of the cosmic creation is, first, differentiated within the 3rd Vyuha Pradyumna, and then is carried to the 4th VyUha Aniruddha, who in his turn entrusts it to Brahma, the Creator, to carry out the practical further creation of this diverse universe. When the cosmic Evening comes, the universe procedes to dissolve in the reverse order finally into Vasudeva, the indescribable transcendent Brahman (AS 4.68-9); hence this Vasudeva or Brahman is said to be the cosmic Night (4.70). The above given scheme of the Pancaratra cosmogony would clearly establish the immanent accessibility of Vasudeva retaining all the supremacy of Brahman well integrated within the transformational

(9) See JS 2.32-3 (cf. BhG 8.17-9), AS 3.6, 4.701 & 78, 8.38. This idea may be related to the deep-sleep theory of the Ups. For that theory, cf. P. Deussen, The Philosophy of the Upanishads, New York 1966, pp. 296ff; B. Heimann, Studien zur Eigenart Indischen Denhens, Tiibingen 1930, pp. 130-45.

-158- process of the four Vyuhas, wherein the first Vyuha is God's primal manifestation. So Vasudeva is the Adi-deva of the Pancaratra (SS 5. T h e 98, 7.77, 8.158) to manifest in theory at the very first stage of world C on c creation, for which reason presumably He is said to be the highest pe t o f god and His name is most popularly found throughout in the Pancara- Va tra Samhitas. us d ve a a s 〈キーワード〉パンチャラ-トラ, バガヴァット, ヴァースデーヴァ, ht e H Vyuha & Cosmogony. ni d u b h a q a v a t

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