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HINDU faith'. In claiming, however, supremacy for KRISHNA, the Brahma Vaivartta Purána is most decided, and this work places KRISHNA in a heaven, and society exclusively his own, and derives from him all the objects of existence *.
RELIGIOUS SECTS
According to this authority, the residence of KRISHNA is denominated Goloka; it is far above the three
1 Thus in the Tana Parva of the Mahābhārat [v. 12895 ff.], MÁRKANDEYA MUNI, at the time of a minor destruction of the world, sees, amidst the waters, an Indian Fig tree of vast size, on a principal branch of which was a bed ornamented with divine coverings, on which lay a child with a countenance like the moon.” The saint, though acquainted with the past, present, and future, cannot recognise the child, who therefore appears of the hue, and with the symbols of KRISIINA, and desires the sage to rest within his substance from his weary wanderings over the submerged world.
In the Bhagavat [X, 3, 9. 10.] it is stated, that when first born, VASUDEVA beheld the child of the hue of a cloud, with four arms, dressed in a yellow garb, and bearing the weapons, the jewels and the diadem of VISINU:
तमद्भुतं बालकमम्बुजेक्षणं चतुर्भुजं शंखगदायुदायुधं श्रीवत्सलमं गलशोभिकौस्तुभं पीताम्बरं सान्द्रपयोदसौभगं । महार्हवैदूर्यकिरीटकुण्डल त्विषापरिष्वक्तसहस्रकुन्तलं उद्दामकाच्यङ्गदकङ्कणादिभिर्विरोचमानं वसुदेव ऐचत ||
and the same work describes YASODÁ, his adoptive mother, as seeing the universe in the mouth of the child [X, 7, 36. 37. (30. 31. Calcutta edition):
पीतप्रायस्य जननी सुतस्य रुचिरस्मितम् । मुखं लालयती राजन् जृम्भतो ददृशे इदम् ॥ खं रोदसी ज्योतिरनीकमाशाः सूर्येन्दुवहिश्वसनाम्बुधश्च । द्वीपान्नगांस्तद्दुहितृर्वनानि भूतानि यानि स्थिरजङ्गमानि ॥]
[Journal of the As. Soc. of Bengal, Vol. I, p. 217 - 37.]
