Sambodhi 2003 Vol 26

Author(s): Jitendra B Shah, N M Kansara
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 9

Vol. XXVI, 2003
THE EARLY THEISTIC VEDANTIC...
And in the same Upanisad the principle of grace has been mentioned of which the later theologian philosophers like Vallabhācārya utilized to the maximum.
See the following passage :
नायमात्मा प्रवचनेन लभ्यो न मेधया न बहुना श्रुतेन । und guat TR IT T qua FH II (Katha Up. 2-23)
Not through instruction is the atman attained, not through reason and much scriptural learning, He will be comprehended by him only who He selects, the ātman reveals his essential nature to him.
So here, the flutterings of the dualistic reality can be heard.
Thus we find that in the Upanisads theistic tendency is basically rooted in the monistic view of the world. However, it occasionally, does escape from the clutches of the monism and breathes free in the dualistic view of the reality. It may be pertinent here to observe that the Bhakti does not invariably imply either a dualistic world-view or a monistic view of the world. As we have seen so far, devotionalism bursts forth in any soil, either of monism or that of dualism and certainly of polytheism.
So this theistic Bhakti flower ultimately fully blooms open in the Svetāśvatara Upanisad wherein, incidentally, the word Bhakti, itself gets mentioned in 6-23.
यस्य देवे पराभक्तिर्यथा देवे तथा गुरौ ।
तस्यैते कथिता ह्याः प्रकाशन्ते महात्मनः ॥ . He who has the highest faith in God, just as in God, so also, in the teacher, to him who is high-minded, these teachings will be illuminating.
In fact, the Svetāśvatara Upanisad is one of the foremost Upanisads having the theistic teachings and this should leave no one in doubt regarding the manifestation of theistic tendencies in the Classical Upanisads.
In the Svetāśvatara Upanisad, longing of a yearning soul finds an expression in 4-67.
The two birds of pretty wings, closely-knit friends, hug one and the same tree, one of them eats the sweet berries