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! passages which show that an extreme form of idealism recurs now and then as one of the principal lines of thought in the Bhagavata. "43 I have already referred to Hacker's study of the religious background of Sankara and his early followers. In addition to showing that these early Advaitins grew up in a Vaiṣṇava environment, this writer suggests that other Vaiṣṇava groups were cultivating a "radical advaitism" at a fairly early date. He refers to certain texts which are overtly Vaiṣṇava yet simultaneously teach a non-dualist metaphysic, especially the Paramarthasara of Âdiśeṣa, which he places to the sixth century A.D. this text reads as follows: 44 The first verse of
I resort for refuge to you alone, Viṣṇu, who transcend
the highest form of praká¹›ti, who are without beginning;
though One, you abide in manifold caves of illusion, you
the abode of the All, present in all that moves and does
not move.
45 Given this evidence of non-dualistic thinking in early
Vaisnava circles, the Advaitic passages in the BP, which
Hacker notes "may date from a time not far distant from
Åšamkara's lifetime, #46
are less perplexing than they might
at first appear.
-
The purana does not confine its monistic language to
its philosophical portions. In fact, it goes so far as to
include the relation between the gopis and their beloved
Kṛṣṇa within the scope of its non-dualist vision. We read
108