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XXX11] Ontology
401 by an extension of the metaphysical formula to defend their religious belief in the theological nature of the episodes of Krşņa in Vịndāvana, as related in the Bhāgavata. Thus they held that Krşna, including His body and all His dress and ornaments and the like, the Gopis, with whom He had dalliance, and even the cows and trees of Vịndāvana, were physically existent in limited forms and at the same time unlimited and spiritual as a manifestation of the essential nature of God. The Vaisnavas were not afraid of any contradiction, because in accordance with the ingeniously-devised metaphysical formula the supra-logical nature of God's power was such that through it He could manifest Himself in all kinds of limited forms, and yet remain identical with His own supreme nature as pure bliss and consciousness. The contradiction was only apparent; because the very assumption that God's power is supralogical resolves the difficulty of identifying the limited with the unlimited, the finite with the infinitel. The author of Şaț-sandarbha takes great pains to prove that the apparent physical form of Krsna, as described in the Bhāgavata-purāna, is one with Brahman. It is not a case in which the identity is to be explained as having absolute affinity with Brahman (atyanta-tādātmya) or as being dependent on Brahman: if the Brahman reveals itself in pure mind, it must appear as one, without any qualitative difference of any kind; if, in associating Brahman with the form of Krsna, this form appears to be an additional imposition, it is not the revelation of Brahman. It cannot be urged that the body of Krşņa is a product of pure sattra; for this has no rajas in it, and therefore there is no creative development in it. If there is any rajas in it, the body of Krsna cannot be regarded as made up of pure sattva; and, if there is any mixture of rajas, then it would be an impure state and there can be no revelation of Brahman in it. Moreover, the text of the Bhāgavata-purāna is definitely against the view that the body of Krsna is dependent only on pure sattva, because it asserts that the body of Krsna is itself one and the same as pure sattva or pure
1 Ibid. pp. 70-92. satya-jñānānantānandaika-rasa-mūrtitvād yugapad eva sart'am api tat-tad-rūpam vartata eva, kintu yūyam sarvadā sarvam na paśyatheti (p. 87). tataśca yadā tava yatrāmse tut-tad-upāsanā-phalasya yasya rūpasya prakāśanecchā tadaiva tatra tad-rūpam prakāśate iti. iyam kadety asya yuktih. tasmāt tat tat sarvam api tasmin sri-kysna-rūpe'ntarbhūtam ity evam atrāpi tātparyam upasamharati (p. 90). tad ittham madhyamākāra eva sarvādhāratvãt bibhutvam sādhitam. sarva-gatatvād api sādhyate. citram vataitad ekena vapusā jugapat prthak giheșu dzyaşta-sähasram striya eka udāvahat.
