..■ gS:-- ,•/ ;: RELIGIOUS SECTS 



'Krishna, the Brahna Vaivertta Pur ana is most decided, and this work 

 places Krishna in a heaven, and society exclusively his own, and derives 

 I from him all the objects of existence. 



According to this authority, the residence of Krishna Is denominated 

 Goloka ; it is far above the three worlds, and has, at five hundred millions of 



^ Yoj anas below it, the separate XoA-^5 of Vishnu and Siva, Vaikunika, and 

 Kailds. This region is indestructible, whilst all else is subject to anni- 

 hilation, and in the centre of it abides Krishna, of the colour of a dark cloud, 



■ in the bloom of youth, clad in yellow raiment, splendidly adorned with celes- 

 tial gems, and holding a flute. He is exempt from Mdyd, or delusion, and all 

 qualities, eternal, alone, and the Paramdtmd, or supreme soul of the world. 



Krishna being alone in the Goloka, and meditating on the waste of crea- 

 tion, gave origin, to a being of a female form endowed with the three Giinas, 

 and thence the primary agent in creation. This was Prakriii, or Mdi/d, and 

 the system so far corresponds with that of the other Vaishnavas, and of the 

 Puranas generally speaking. They having adopted, in fact, the Sdnkhi/a 

 system, interweaving with it their peculiar sectarial notions. 



branch of which was a bed ornamented with divine coverings, on which lay a child with a 

 countenance like the moon." The saint, though acquainted with the past, present, and future, cannot 

 recognise the child, who therefore appears of the hue, and with the symbols of Krishna, and 

 desires the sage to rest within his substance from his weary wanderings over the submerged world. 



In the Bhdgavat it is stated, that when first born, Vasudeva beheld the child of the hue of a 

 cloud, with four arms, dressed in a yellow garb, and bearing the weapons, the jewels and the diadem 



of ViSIINU. 



and the same work describes Yasoda, his adoptive mother, as seeing the universe in the mouth of 

 the child, . _ 



