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834
Presidential Address
sophers and theologians of the West has been opened up on all sides, and today we almost literally realise scientific truth of the passage of the Bhāgavata which declares that innumerable solar systems fill each hair of the body of Vishnu-the all-pervading One. It may be mentioned in this connection that in India God was never supposed to be co-extensive with Reality as conceived by the human mind, and in that senseif that be the sense of the word—it has never deserved the name " Pantheism". That “God transcends all Being after encompassing it all round,"* that "All creatures are but a quarter of God, the other three quarters which are immortality being in heaven ” + are old Vedic texts. The author of the Bhāgavata has clothed their truth in a figure of wonderful poetic beauty in the story of Dāmodaralīlā. 1 He relates how Yaśodā failed to tie Krshṇa with a rope, every rope which she tried falling short by an inch, till at last she gave up the futile attempt and stood wondering before her child. To take off the metaphors: + स भूमि विश्वतो वृत्वाऽत्यतिष्ठदशाङ्गलम् + पादोऽस्य विश्वा भूतानि त्रिपादस्यामृतं दिवि । न चान्तन बहिर्यस्य न पूर्व नापि चापरम् । पूर्वापरं बहिश्चान्तर्जगतो यो जगञ्च यः॥ तं मत्वात्मजमव्यक्तं मर्त्य लिङ्गमधोक्षजम् । . गोपिकोलूखले दाम्ना बबन्ध प्राकृतं यथा ॥ तहास वध्यमानस्य स्वामकस्य कृतागसः । व्यङगुलोनमभूत्तन संदधेऽन्यच्च गोपिका।। यदा सीत्तदपि न्यूनं तेनान्यदपि संदधे । तदपि द्वयङ्गुलं न्यूनं यधदादत्त बन्धनम् ।। एवं स्वगेहदामानि यशोदा संदधत्यपि। गोपीनां सुस्मयन्तीनां स्मयन्ती विस्मिता भवत् ॥ भागवत ॥
