________________
768
GITA-RAHASYA OR KARMA-YOGA
w
omann
annuuwwavuusmuus nisam
Bhāgavata-Purāna and the Nārada-Pancarātra. In the Nārāyanīyākhyāna, there is a statement that the Bhāgavata religion, that is, the Nārāyaniya religion, was originally founded by the two Rsis Nara and Nārāyana, who were the incarnations of the Parabrahman; and that when the Rsi Nārada went at their direction to the Svetadvīpa, the Blessed Lord Himself first preached this religion to him there; the statement in the Nārāyanīyākhyāna that the Svetadvipa, where the Blessed Lord resided, was in the Ksira-samudra, which was stated to be to the north of the Mountain Meru, is consistent with the ancient description of the Cosmos given in the Purānas; and no one on our side attaches much importance to it. But the Western Sanskritist Webber has perverted this very story, and started the argument that the Philosophy of Devotion mentioned in the Bhāgavata religion was imported into India from the Svetadvīpa, that is to say, from some country outside India; and that in as much as this Philosophy of Devotion was in those days not in vogue in any religion except the Christian religion, the idea of Devotion was picked up by the followers of the Bhāgavata religion from Christian countries. But, there is proof that Pānini knew the doctrine of Devotion to Vasudeva, and there are references to the Bhāgavata religion or to the Philosophy of Devotion both in the Buddhistic and Jain religious treatises ; and there is no doubt that both Pānini and Buddha lived before Christ. Therefore, even Western philosophers have now pronounced this argument of Webber to be without foundation. I have stated above that Devotion, as a part of religion, came into existence in India after the date of the Upanisads which contain Spiritual Knowledge. It is, therefore, beyond doubt that the Bhāgavata religion, which consisted of Devotion to Vāsudeva, came into existence after the Upanisads, which preached Spiritual Knowledge, and before Buddha. The only question is how many centuries * before Buddha that religion
*The word 'bhaktiman' (in Pali, bhattima') appears in the Ther Gathā (atanza 370); and one Jātaka even contains a reference to Devotion. Besides this, the well-known French Pali scholar Separt, delivered & lecture on the subject of The Origin of the Baddhistio religion' in 1909, in which he has clearly said that the Bhagavats religion existed before the Buddhistic religion. of:
