Vol. 4 · pages 106–110

95RIDDLE NO. 11 large-armed (Krishna) is able to recount fully the names of the god of gods, to describe the qualities of the divine (being) and the real might of Mahesvara in all its extent”. This dialogue between Yudhishthira and Bhishma took place in the presence of Krishna. For immediately after his reply Bhishma calls upon Krishna to celebrate the greatness of Mahadeva. And this supreme God Krishna proceeds to do so without feeling any offence and says : “The course of the deeds of Isa (Mahadeva) cannot be really known. He whose essence neither the gods headed by Hiranyagarbha, nor the great rishis with Indra, nor the Adityas, the perceivers of the minutest objects, understand,—how can he, the refuge of saints, be known by any mere man ? I shall declare to you exactly some of the attributes of that divine slayer of the Asuras. of the lord of religious ceremonies.” Here not only do we find that Krishna acknowledges his inferiority to Shiva but we also find Shiva conscious of the fact that Krishna has been beaten down and is no longer his superior, indeed is not even his equal. This is evident from Sauptika-parvan where Mahadeva says to Asvathaman1 : “I have been duly worshipped by Krishna, the energetic in action, with truth, purity, honesty, liberality, austerity, ceremonies, patience, wisdom, self-control, understanding and words : Wherefore no one is dearer to me than Krishna”. Krishna from being above Shiva, above every God, indeed a Parmeshwar is reduced to the position of being a mere follower of Shiva, begging for petty boons. This does not complete the story of the degradation of Krishna. He is made to undergo further humiliation. Krishna not only accepted a position of inferiority vis-a-vis Shiva but he is sunk so low that he became a disciple of Upamanyu who was a great devotee of Shiva and took Diksha from him in Shaivism. Krishna himself says : “On the 8th day I was initiated by that Brahamana (Upamanyu) according to the Shastras. Having shaved my entire head, anointing myself with ghee, and taking the staff and kusa grass in my arms I dressed myself in bark fastened with the mekhala (the waist string).” Krishna then performs penance and has a sight of Mahadeo. Can there be a more glaring instance of so great a rise and so much of a fall in the status of a God ? Krishna who was a Parmeshwar as compared to Shiva who was only an Ishwar does not even remain an Ishwar. He actually becomes a devotee of Shiva and seeks initiation in Shaiva Shastras from a common Brahmin like Upamanyu. 1 Quoted in Muir p.

96 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES The case of Rama as a God is much more artificial than that of Krishna. Rama himself was unware of the fact that he was a God. After recovering Sita on the defeat and death of Ravana, Sita was suspected of unchastity, Rama felt very dejected on hearing the words of those who thus spoke about Sita. The Ramayana says : “Then King Kuvera, and Yama with the Pitris and Indra, Lord of the gods, and Varuna, lord of the waters, and the glorious threeeyed Mahadeva, whose ensign is a bull, and Bramha, the creator of the whole world, the most eminent of the knowers of the Veda : (and that King Dasaratha, moving in the air on a celestial car, arrived in that region, equal in lustre to the king of the gods); these all having come on cars brilliant as the Sun, and arrived in the city of Lanka, came near to Raghava (Rama). Then these most eminent gods, holding the large arms of Rama, adorned with armlets, addressed him as he stood with joined hands : How dost thou, the maker of the whole universe, the most eminent of the wise, the pervading, disregard Sita’s throwing herself into the fire ? How dost thou not perceive thyself to be the chief of the host of the gods ? (Thou wast) formerly the Vasu Ritadhaman, and the Prajapati of the Vasus. Thou art the primal maker of the three worlds, the self dependent lord, the eighth Rudra of the Rudras, and the fifth of the Sadhyas. The Asvins are thine ears, the Moon and Sun thine eyes.” “Thou, vexer of thy foes, art seen in the end and at the beginning of created beings. And yet thou disregardest Sita like a common man”. On being thus addressed by these Gods, Rama became surprized and replied : “I regard myself as a man, Rama, son of Dasharath : do you, divine being tell me who and whence I am”. On this, Brahma replying to Rama said : “Hear my true word, O being of genuine power. Thou art the god, the glorious lord, Narayana, armed with the discus. Thou art the one-horned boar, the conqueror of thy foes, past and future, the true, imperishable Brahma, both in the middle and end. Thou art the supreme righteousness of the worlds, Vishvaksena, the four-armed ; the bearer of the bow, Saranga, Hrishikesa (lord of the senses). Purusha (the male), the highest of Purushas, the unconquered, sword-wielding, Vishnu, and Krishna of mighty force, the general, the leader the true. Thou art intelligence, thou art patience, and self-restraint. Thou art the source of being and cause of destruction, Upendra (the younger Indra), the Madhusudana. Thou art Mahendra (the elder Indra) fulfilling the function of Indra,

97RIDDLE NO. 11 he from whose navel springs a lotus, the ender of battles. The great divine rishis call thee the refuge, the resort of suppliants. Thou art the hundred-horned, composed of the Veda, the thousand-headed the mighty. Thou art the primal maker of the three worlds, the selfdependent lord, and the refuge of the Siddhas and Sahyas, O thou primevally born. Thou art sacrifice, thou art the vashatkara, and the omkara, higher than the highest. Men know not who thou art, the source of being, or the destroyer. Thou art seen in all creatures, in Brahmans and in cows, in all the regions, in the mountains and rivers, thousand-footed, glorious, hundred-headed, thousand-eyed. Thou sustainest creatures, and the earth with its mountains ; thou art seen Rama, at the extremity of the earth, in the waters, a mighty serpent supporting the three worlds, gods, Gandharvas, and Danavas. I am thy heart, Rama, the goddess Sarasvati is thy tongue. The gods have been made by Brahma the hairs on thy limbs. The night is called the closing, and the day the opening, of thine eyes. The Vedas are thy thoughts. This (universe) exists not without thee. The whole world is thy body ; the earth is thy stability. Agni is thine anger, Soma is thy pleasure, O thou whose mark is the Srivatsa. By thee the three worlds were traversed of yore with thy three paces, and Mahendra was made king after thou hadst bound the terrible Bali. That which is known as the chiefest light, that which is known as the chiefest darkness, that which is the higher than the highest— thou art called the highest Soul. It is thou who art hymned as that which is called the highest, and is the highest. Men call thee the highest source of continuance, production and destruction.” Obviously, there is the same degree of artificiality in the cult of Rama. Like Krishna he was a man who was made God. Unlike Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, he was not one who was born God. It is probably to make his Godhood perfect that the theory was invented that he was the incarnation of Vishnu and that Sita his wife was the incarnation of Lakshmi the wife of Vishnu. In another respect, Rama was fortunate. He did not have to suffer degradation to other Gods as did Brahma, Vishnu and Krishna. There was however an attempt to degrade him below Parasurama the hero of the Brahmins. The story is told in the Ramayana which says : “When King Dasaratha was returning to his capital, after taking leave of Janaka, the King of Mithila, whose daughter Sita had just been married to Rama he was alarmed by the ill-omened sounds by certain birds, which however were counteracted, as the sage Vasishta assured the king by the auspicious sign of his being perambulated by the wild animals of the forest. The alarming event indicated was the

98 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES arrival of Parasurama, preceded by hurricane which shook the earth and prostrated the trees, and by thick darkness which veiled the Sun. He was fearful to behold, “brilliant as fire, and bore his axe and a bow on his shoulder. Being received with honour, which he accepted, he proceeded to say to Rama, the son of Dasaratha that he has heard of his prowess in breaking the bow produced by Janak and had brought another which he asked Rama to bend, and to fit an arrow on the string ; and if he succeeded in doing so, he (Parasurama) would offer to engage with him in single combat.” “Rama replied that though his warlike qualities are condemned by his rival, he will give him a proof of his powers. He then snatches, in anger, the bow from the hand of Parasurama, bends it, fits an arrow on the string ; and tells his challenger that he w ill not shoot at him because he is a Brahman, and for the sake of his kinsman Visvamitra ; but will either destroy his superhuman capacity of movement, or deprive him of the blessed abodes he has acquired by austerity. The gods now arrive to be witnesses of the scene. Parasurama becomes disheartened and powerless and humbly entreats that he may not be deprived of his faculty of movement lest he should be incapacitated from fulfilling his promise to Kasyappa to leave the earth every night but consents that his blissful abodes may be destroyed.” With this exception Rama had no rivalry with any of the other Gods. He managed to be where he was. With regards to other Gods there is a different story to tell. Poor creatures they became nothing more than mere toys in the hands of the Brahmins. Why did the Brahmins treat the Gods with so scant a respect ? zz

RIDDLE NO. 12 WHY DID THE BRAHMINS DETHRONE THE GODS AND ENTHRONE THE GODDESSES ? The worship of Gods is a thing common to all. But the worship of Goddesses is quite uncommon. The reason is that Gods are generally unmarried and have no wives who can be elevated to the position of Goddesses. How repugnant is the idea of a God being married is well illustrated by the difficulties which early Christians had in persuading the Jews to accept Jesus as the son of God. The Jews retorted saying God is not married and how can Jesus be the son of God. With the Hindus the position is quite otherwise. They not only worship Gods they also worship Goddesses. This is so from the very beginning. In the Rig-Veda several Goddesses are mentioned such as Prithvi, Aditi, Diti, Nishtigri, Indrani, Prisni, Usha, Surya, Agnayi, Varunani, Rodasi, Raka, Sinivali, Sradha, Aramati, Apsaras and Sarasvati. Prithvi is a very ancient Aryan Goddess. She is represented either as wife of Dyaus heaven or of Parjanya. Prithvi is an important Goddess because she is said to be the mother of many Gods. Aditi is chronologically one of the older Vedic Goddesses. She is described as the mighty mother of the Gods. The Gods, Mitra, Aryaman and Varuna are her sons. To whom Aditi was married does not appear from the Rig-Veda. We do not know much about Diti except that she is mentioned as a goddess along with and in contrast to Aditi and that the Daityas who were regarded in later Indian mythology as the enemies of the Devas were her sons. The original title of the Chapter was ‘Vedic and non-Vedic Goddesses’. From the subject dealt with in this chapter and from the concluding para, we have placed this at Riddle No. 12 in accordance with the subject mentioned in the Table of Contents. This is a 21-page typed copy having some modifications and also concluding para in the handwriting of the author.—Ed.