Page:Bengal Vaishnavism - Bipin Chandra Pal.djvu/19

 The Bengal Vaishnava school accepts certain texts of these ancient scriptures as Mahavakyas or supreme revelations. All others must be interpreted by these fundamental texts. In the Upanishads the Brahmananda Balli of the Taittereeya Upanishad, which presents the Brahman as Anandam, is one of these Mahavakyas. In the Bhagavata Purana or Shreemad-Bhagavata the text describing the Parama-Tattva or the Ultimate Reality is another of these Mahavakyas. It is practically on these that the entire thought and realisations of the Bengal school of Yaishnavism have been built up by evidently a process of reasoning which is impossible to refute consistently with the actualities of our experience.

The Bhagavata text runs thus: बदन्ति तत् तक्ष्तबिद स्तक्षन यजज्ञानसहय ब्रह्म ति परमसात्म ति भगवानिति शब्दयते ।

It means that those who know the Tattva or the Ultimate Reality, which answers all questions and removes all doubts, call that as Tattva which is of the nature of Undivided Consciousness, called Brahman in the Upani- shads, Paramatman or the Indweller by the followers of the way of Yoga, and Bhagavan by the adherents of the way of Love and