ralship'
over all beings _(s[=a]in[=a]patyam_, ix. 44. 43-49). There is even a
'celebration of Brahm[=a],' a sort of harvest festival, shared, as the
text tells, by all the castes; and it must have been something like
the religious games of the Greeks, for it was celebrated by athletic
contests.[33] Brahm[=a], as the old independent creator, sometimes
keeps his place, transmitting posterity through his 'seven mind-born
sons,' the great seers (iii. 133; xii. 166. 11 ff.). But Brahm[=a]
himself is born either in the golden egg, as a secondary growth (as in
xii. 312. 1-7), or, as is usually the case, he is born in the lotus
which springs from the navel of musing[34] Vishnu (iii. 203. 14). In
this passage Brahm[=a] has four faces (Vedas) and four forms,
_caturm[=u]rtis_ (15), and this epithet in other sections is transferred
to Vishnu. Thus in vii. 29. 26, Vishnu(Vishu in the original) says
_caturm[=u]rtir aham_, "I have four forms," but he never says
_trim[=u]rtir aham_ ('I have three forms'). There is one passage,
however, that makes for a belief in a trinity. It stands in contrast
to the various Vishnuite hymns, one of which may well be reviewed as
an example of the regular Vishnuite laudation affected by the Krishna
sect (iii. 12. 21 ff.): "Krishna is Vishnu, Brahm[=a], Soma, the Sun,
Right, the Creator ('founder'), Yama, Fire, Wind, Civa, Time, Space,
Earth, and the cardinal points. Thou, Krishna, art the Creator
('emitter'); thou, chief of gods, didst worship the highest; thou,
Vishnu called, becamest Indra's younger brother, entering into sonship
with Aditi; as a child with three steps thou didst fill the sky,
space, and earth, and pass in glory.... At the end of the age thou
returnest all things into thyself. At the beginning of the age
Brahm[=a] was born from thy lotus-navel as the venerable preceptor of
all things (the same epithet is in vs. 22 applied to Vishnu himself);
and Civa sprang from thy angry forehead when the demons would kill him
(Brahm[=a]); both are born of thee, in whom is the universe." The
following verses (45 ff.) are like those of the Divine Song: "Thou,
Knight Arjuna, art the soul of Krishna; thou art mine alone and thine
alone am I; they that are mine are thine; he that hates thee hates Me,
and he that is for thee, is for Me; thou art Nara ('man') and I am
N[=a]r[=a]yana ('whose home is on the waters,' god);[35] we are the
same, there is no difference between us." Again, like the Divine Song
i