Is There Bhakti Rasa in Mahabharata?

The Mahabharata sums up the Hindu Civilisation of the Post Aranyaka and Pro­Puranic Period. It covers the Shanti and other Parvams, which are doubtless interpolations, the Sankhya and Yoga Philosophies, and there are a number of references to Buddhism and Jainism showing that the Brahminical reaction had already commenced. There are chapters in the Mahabharata in which the authenticity of the Vedas is disputed. On the whole, the interpolated parts sum up Hindu civilisation of the period above defined.

It is the Puranas that deal with the Bhakti Religion’s, such as Saivaism, Vaishnavaism, Shakta, Ganapatya, etc. All these religions posit a personal God, who is Omnipotent and All-Merciful, and through whose Grace men obtain their desires as well as salvation. In his relation to God, man has no rights. He is a Dasa or Slave, dependent on God’s Grace. He can put forth no claims on the ground of merit. Everything is left to the Avyachakaruna, the spontaneous Mercy of God. How curiously analogous is Vaishnavaism to Christianity! There is much in common between the Theology of both these religions.

In the Vedic period, there was no Bhakti religion. There were gods no doubt as amongst the Greeks and the Romans, but these gods themselves were subordinate to Law or Destiny. And if they were properly invoked, they were bound to gratify the desire of the devotees. Thus Surya gratifies Kunti and gives her a son and other gods similarly bestow their favours on her. This Vedic Religion is really magic, what today would be derided as Kshudra or Tamasic Religion. Thus Kshudra or Tamasic Religion prevails and did prevail amongst all primitive people. In our villages, for instance, the people sacrifice goats, sheep and fowls and invoke the village deity, who, thereupon, possesses some one and through him tells her Oracles. The Vedic Religion was similar to this. Indra, Agni, Varuna, etc. were invoked by the Rishis and the Rishis claimed, through the power of the Mantras, to be superior to Gods. The Rishi Chyavana compels Indra to permit the Asvins also to partake of the Soma oblation, and every Rishi claimed to be more powerful than the Gods themselves. And the influence of Vasishtas and Viswamitras rested on their demonstrated power.

Naturally in this Religion ritual seems to be all important. Everything depended on the proper intonation of the Mantra and the accurate performance of the Yagna. So the priest became also important. In fact, he claimed to be superior to the Gods. Pushed to the logical extreme, the Vedic Religion is atheistical, and that is the very extreme to which Kumarila Bhatta in his theory of Mimamsa pushed it. According to Bhatta, the Vedas are eternal and self-existing. There is no God above the Vedas. They are the Sabda Brahmam or eternal Sabda. The Rishis acted as conductors of these sounds and transmitters, and the Vedic Mantras havean inherent power. This is what is called the Spotaka theory of the Vedas, which is apparently atheistical.

In the Mahabharata, deification of Krishna is not complete; and so the Harivamsa had to be written ostensibly as a continuation of the Mahabharatha.

The Dasavatara Stuthi of Bhishma is an obvious interpolation, and we may dismiss both the Saivite and Vaishnavite interpolations as out of account.

But there are prayers of the Vedic Typesuch as the one addressed by Asvathama to Siva in Shree Parva and the Yagna of self-sacrifice which he performs. These passages are of the vedic type and don’t connote the later Bhakthi Religion. In fact, there is no Bhakthi Religion till the Great Ramanuja came upon the scene.

Some of the Rishis do not appear to be men of character. They appeared to have various powers. They were not Sanyasins as developed by Buddhism. Often they lost their self-control. Their speciality was Tapas or penance, by which they acquired powers. Such priesthood generally degenerates into an immoral priesthood and the Upanishads and Buddhism and Jainism are a revolt against the degenerate Vedic Rishis.

Buddhism is Vedism minus the Rishi, and animal sacrifices. It is the moralised Vedic Religion. It got rid of all the cruel ritual and mummeries of the Brahmanas and posited moral Law as the Supreme Government of the World. It is atheistical but unlike the Vedic religion ethical.

One good thing about the Vedas and Buddhism and to some extent the Smartha Religion, which is more Vedic than the Bhakthi Religions, is the manner in which they uphold the dignity of man and the human soul. In the Bhagavatha and Bhakti Religions, man is helpless with no rights, no claims of any kind. His strength consists in dependence on God and God’s Grace. But in the vedic, Buddhist and the Smartha religions man can attain salvation by means of his own efforts and through ritual in the one case, through exalted moral discipline in the other and through knowledge in the third. Wherever man is given an independent status, there is bound to be the flavour of rationalism or atheism about it. God and Bhakti must go together. Wherever Bhakti has no place, God becomes a neuter Law. That was why Ramanuja attacked the Advaitins as Mayavadis, and Prachanna Bauddhas (disguised Boudhas). It is interesting to find striking resemblance between Sankara’s ideas and those of Nagarjuna, the Buddhist philosopher.