The Advaitic Theism of The Bhagavata Purana

About the Book The Advaitic Theism of the Bhagavata Purana 'can be considered as the most significant study of the Purana in its deeper principles....None of the other studies have such interpretative insight into this scripture or into its place in the larger context of India's thought traditions.

Within a compass of eight chapters of this volume the author makes a close examination of the fundamental tenets of Bhagavata Purana. By penetrating analysis he shows how as a unified scripture Bhagavata Purana combines Vedantic non-dualism and Vaisnava devotionalism; and how the Bhagavata non-dualism accommodates the reality of the universe and of the individual selves in it within the all-encompassing reality of Brahman. According to the author, this wonderful blending of devotionalism and non-dualism in the Bhagavata Purana finds its expression in the worship of Krsna as transcendent and supreme deity by all Vaisnavas.

Discussion and delineation throughout the chapters single out 'each of the major forces' determining 'the religious structure of the Bhagavata which has a significance and meaning for the study of religion beyond that of situating a scriptural text within a religious history'.

The present scholarly work will be of special appeal to the students of Indian religion and philosophy. It will also find place in the bookselves of the general reader interested in Indian history and culture.

About the Author Daniel P. Sheridan studied at St. John's and Fordham universities in New York, and graduated in Theology and History of Religions. He has written a number of scholarly research papers. Some of them were published in Purana (Varanasi), Horizons (Villanova), Studies in Formative Spirituality (Pittsburgh), Anima (Pennsylvania), The Journal of Religion (Chicago), and The Thomist (Washington D.C.)

Dr. Sheridan is Associate Professor of the History of Religions at Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Foreword The Bhagavata Pura-na is a scripture superbly written, with aesthetic sensitivity, devotional intensity and metaphysical subtlety; a tapestry resplendent in its color, its intertwining motifs and its dancing figures, therein expressing a universe in which the divine and created worlds differentiate and identify in an endless sequence of mutual transformations. If much of this scripture is presented in long discursive passages and in over-drawn narratives, it culminates in the luxuriant world of Krsna, the warrior-charioteer of the Bhagavad Gita become the divine lover of the cowherd maidens.

The Krsna legends are presented in a village folk setting with trickster episodes and erotic love-play that communicate some of the most distinctive aspects of the devotional traditions of India. Such a saviour personality! A divine child who steals butter and plays pranks with his family, a youth who steals the garments of the maidens while they are swimming, who hides and then reveals himself, who dances with erotic delight with the village women, and in all this makes the divine present in its supreme transforming power. While such legends of an incarnate deity offend our western sense of divine dignity, they establish in India an archetypal figure that has inspired the religious life there in an all-pervasive manner over these many years. Indeed these are not merely fanciful tales; they are supported by the elaborate sequence of narrative recitations, descriptive passages and intellectual discourse. This is what gives to the Bhagavata Pura va not only its amazing power over the emotions and sensitivities of India but also over its high intellectual perceptions.

Introduction The problem of the transcendence and immanence of the Divine has challenged the religious imagination of humankind from the moment men first began to consider their place in the universe. The variety of the solutions to this problem in the higher thought traditions is itself a dimension of the problem fascinating for the historian because it suggests that diversity is not in conflict with unity. Each tradition has an irreducible contri-bution to make toward a satisfactory solution of the relation of God and human. Whether to be distinguished from God or to be identified with God, whether God is near or far, are dilemmas which face the human in the intimate moments of interior anguish and in the public moments of community worship. The origins of the solutions are lost in the unrecorded attempts at self-understanding of early history. One form of solution has endured in India for the most of three millennia. Non-dualism surfaced in the speculations of the Upanisadic sages and ever since has been the context in which religious thinkers in India have formulated their visions. Such an enduring tradition has an important claim upon anyone who considers whether God is transcendent to or immanent in his universe.

Yet non-dualism can cut across a rigid dichotomy between transcendence and immanence. A God who is not ultimately different from the individual self transcends the limitations of specificity, individuality and temporality. A God who is not different from creatures is immanent in the forms evolving out of the divine self. A God who is not subject to time need not be distinguished from creatures on account of priority.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages