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had successfully completed the gigantic task of editing the
endless Veda into four collections suitable to the limited
intellects of men of the kali-yuga, though he had composed
the huge epic the Mah膩bh膩rata, including the precious G墨t膩,
and had distilled the essence of the entire wisdom of the
Upanisads in aphoristic form in the Brahmas奴tras, still this
great sage was dissatisfied. His spiritual malaise, we are
told, was not removed until he had sung the glory of fervent
27 devotion to the Lord in the verses of the BP.
The appearance of a novel conception of devotion in
this text was mentioned as early as 1920 by Farquhar, who
declared: "What distinguishes it [the BP] from all other
literature is its new theory of bhakti."28 This fact has
been recognized and studied by Gonda, Hacker, and most
recently Hardy. In the terminology which I proposed in
chapter one, the new approach involves a shift from a
29 "contemplative" style of devotion to one easily recognizable
as "ecstatic."
Gonda writes:
Particularly in the life of the young herdsman god K峁涐梗峁嘺
a theory and practice of bhakti is developed in a very
emotional and sensual poetry, which differs in its
passion and its emotionalism from the more speculative
descriptions of the earlier texts. Bhakti is here an
overpowering, even suffocating emotion, which causes
tears to flow and the voice to falter, and even, [sic]
stimulates hysterical laughter, loss of consciousness,
and trance.30
When set beside the bhakti of this pur膩峁嘺, that of the Gita
seems subdued indeed. There is nothing in the latter text