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Sandilya, they argue, is said to have promulgated the Pankaratra doctrine because he did not find a sure basis for the highest welfare of man in the Veda and its auxiliary disciplines, and this implies that the Pankaratra is opposed to the Veda. his objection, we reply, springs from nothing else but the mere unreasoning faith of men who do not possess the faintest knowledge of the teachings of the Veda, and have never considered the hosts of arguments which confirm that teaching.
Why, therefore, should not the same hold good in the case of the Bhagavata doctrine? Not so, we reply. In the Mahabharata also Badarayana applies to the Sankhya and other doctrines the same style of reasoning as in the Sutras. The question, asked in the passage quoted, means 'Do the Sankhya, the Yoga, the Pasupata, and the Pankaratra set forth one and the same reality, or different ones?
Next the clause 'Aparantatamas is said to be the teacher of the Vedas' intimates the non- human character of the Vedas; and finally the clause 'Of the whole Pankaratra, Narayana himself is the promulgator' declares that Narayana himself revealed the Pankaratra doctrine. The connected purport of these different clauses is as follows.
This great Upanishad, consistent with the four Vedas, in harmony with Sankhya and Yoga, was called by him by the name of Pankaratra. This is excellent, this is Brahman, this is supremely beneficial.
But other passages in the Mahabharata, such as 'There is the Sankhya, the Yoga, the Pankaratra, the Vedas, and the Pasupata doctrine; do all these rest on one and the same basis, or on different ones? and so on, declare that the Sankhya and other doctrines also are worthy of regard, while yet in the Sariraka Sutras those very same doctrines are formally refuted.
For this reason the Mahabharata says, 'Thus the Sankhya-yoga and the Veda and the Aranyaka, being members of one another, are called the Pankaratra, i.e. the Sankhya, the Yoga, the Vedas, and the Aranyakas, which are members of one another because they are one in so far as aiming at setting forth one Truth, together are called the Pankaratra.
Now all these elements, in their inward connexion, are clearly set forth in the Pankaratra by the highest Brahman, i.e. Narayana, himself.
Hence Smriti says, The Sankhya, the Yoga, the Pankaratra, the Vedas, and the Psupata doctrine all these having their proof in the Self may not be destroyed by arguments. The essential points in all these doctrines are to be adopted, not to be rejected absolutely as the teaching of Jina. or Sugata is to be rejected.
As thus it is settled that the highest Brahman, as known from the Vedanta- texts, or Narayana, himself is the promulgator of the entire Pankaratra, and that this system teaches the nature of Narayana and the proper way of worshipping him, none can disestablish the view that in the Pankaratra all the other doctrines are comprised.
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