rintendent, the home, the asylum, the
friend. I am the inexhaustible seed. I am immortality and death. I am
being and not-being. I am the sacrifice and he that offers it. Even
they that, with faith, sacrifice to other gods, even they (really)
sacrifice to Me. To them that ever are devout and worship Me with love
(faith), I give the attainment of the knowledge by which they come to
Me" (again the doctrine of special grace). "I am the beginning, the
middle, and the end of all created things. I am Vishnu among sun-gods;
the moon among the stars; Indra among the (Vedic) gods; the S[=a]man
among the Vedas; among the senses, mind; among created beings,
consciousness; among the Rudras I am Civa (Cankara); among
army-leaders I am Skanda; among the great sages I am Bhrigu (who
reveals Manu's code); among the Siddhas[12] I am Kapila the Muni.... I
am the love that begets; I am the chief (V[=a]suki and Ananta) among
the serpents; and among them that live in water I am Varuna; among the
Manes I am Aryaman; and I am Yama among controllers;[13] among demons
I am Prahl[=a]da ...; I am R[=a]ma; I am the Ganges. I am among all
sciences the highest science (that in regard to the Supreme Spirit); I
am the word of the speakers; I am the letter A among the letters, and
the compound of union among the compounds.[14] I am indestructible
time and I am the Creator. I am the death that seizes all and I am the
origin of things to be. I am glory, fortune, speech, memory, wisdom,
constancy, and mercy.... I am the punishment of the punisher and the
polity of them that would win victory. I am silence. I am knowledge.
There is no end of my divine manifestations."

The knight now asks to see the real form of the deity, which was
revealed to him. "If in heaven the glory of a thousand suns should
appear at once, such would be his glory."

After this comes the real animus of the Divine Song in its present
shape. The believer that has faith in this Vishnu is even better than
the devotee who finds _brahma_ by knowledge.

The philosophy of knowledge (which here is anything but Vedantic) is
now communicated to the knight, in the course of which the distinction
between nature and spirit is explained: "Nature, Prakriti, and spirit,
Purusha (person), are both without beginning. All changes and
qualities spring from nature. Nature is said to be the cause of the
body's and the senses' activity. Spirit is the cause of enjoyment
(appreciation) of pleasure and pai