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A Series of Lessons on the Inner Teachings of the Philosophies and Religions of India1320
the Supreme Being. The Hindu records hold that Krishna appeared about
1400 b.c., and he is claimed as the greatest of the avatars of Vishnu. He is
represented as having been born in a cave, during a time when a Hindu king
named Kamsa had ordered all young infants to be killed. He was named
Krishna, by reason of his blue-color. His father, Vasudeva, in order to save
him from the hands of the murderous king of Mathura, gave him into the
keeping of Nanda, a herdsman. Krishna spent his youth as a shepherd in
Vraja, and many myths and legends are related regarding this part of his
life, some of which concern his relations with the Gopis, or shepherdesses,
but which his followers claim to have a symbolic significance instead of the
literal one which the casual reader might be inclined to place upon them.
The spread of the Krishna-Vaishnava cult has been remarkable, and it has
hundreds of thousands of adherents in India today, numbering among its
ranks some of the most prominent people in the land. There are several
divisions of this cult, the principal of which are known as the Bhagavatas
and the Pancharatras, respectively. The Bhagavad-Gita is the principal
sacred writing esteemed by these schools, and its general doctrine is that
of the cult. It identifies Krishna with the Supreme Being, and accordingly
the term “Krishna” is heard a thousand times to one of Vishnu—Krishna
being regarded not only as the term for the avatar of Vishnu, but also as the
favorite term for the Supreme Being itself. Another favorite term applied to
Krishna is “Hari.”
There are many minor divisions among the Krishna-Vaishnavas, which
arose from the preference for the details of the teachings of several great
teachers which arose from time to time. Among these schools, founded by
the teachers, are the followers of the following great leaders, respectively:
Sankaracharya, the founder of the Advaitist school of Vedanta; Ramanuja,
the founder of the Vishishtadvaita school of Vedanta; Vallabhacharya,
a follower of Ramanuja, who established the Pushti-Marga teachings;
Ramananda; Nimbarka; Madhva, the founder of the dualistic or Dvaita
school of Vedanta; and Chaitanya, the great Krishna-Vaishnava teacher—