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THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERATION IN INDIAN RELIGIONS
of individuality is the first requirement. Another equally important requirement is the destruction of ignorance with which ceases plurality in the universe. The Upanişidic path to liberation therefore includes moral perfection as well as inner awakening.
THE BHAGAVADGITĀ
A most famous and popular textbook of developed Brähmanism is the Bhagavadgitā. In its colophon it is called a treatise on brahmavidyā and a yogaśāstra. It is a part of the Mahābhārata and its authorship is attributed to Vyāsa. The period of the composition and compilation of the Mahābhārata is spread over several centuries. Some scholars hold that the kernel or the nucleus of this great book may have originated in about the second century B. C. The present form of the Mahābhārata dates from the fourth century A.D. The Bhagavadgitā forms a part of the Bhismararvan of the Great Epic. D.D. Kosambi and many others have suggested that the Bhagavadgitā has been influenced considerably by Buddhist thought and ethics. He has placed it in the second century A.D. Although the Mahābhārata is not a text of the śruti class, the Bhagavadgita has acquired in the course of time the status of a śruti text, : The Gītā is a remarkable book which discusses in detail the nature of God, the soul, the universe and man's relation to God. It represents a synthesis of the pathways of karma (action), jñāna (knowledge) and bhakti (devotion). It derives its main inspiration from the Upanişads but incorporates different elements of thought and ethics often mutually contradictory : elements of Vedic cult of sacrifice, Upanişadic teaching of brahman as the ultimate reality, the Bhagavata theism centering round the worship of Vis Sāņkhya dualism of prakrti and purușa, the yoga technique of meditation and the principles of Buddhist and Jinist ethics. All these elements of Indian religions and philosophies have been woven into the texture of theistic Vedānta. Krsna, an avatāra of the supreme Divinity called Vişnu, Vāsudeva or Purusottama, is the traditional revealer of this form of Vedāntika religion.
The Upanişadic idea of brahman is accepted. The Vedic deity Vişņu is identified with brahman on the one hand, and with KrşņaVäsudeva on the other. The Gitā also teaches the worship of a personal God. Lord Krşņa is represented both as an absolute Reality as well as a personal God. He is the supreme, omnipotent and all pervasive Deity. We read in the Gita :
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