The Hindu myth, the Bhagavadgita,
is typically regarded as placing the god Krishna above not only the other Hindu
gods—here rendered merely as Krishna’s various functionalities—but also
Brahman, which is being and consciousness writ large. Because Krishna is
incarnated in human form, placing him at the peak of the Hindu pantheon—in fact,
even reducing the latter to the point that Hinduism is regarded by some scholars as monotheist—compromises
the wholly-other quality of the divine that is based on it extending beyond the
limits of human cognition, perception, and emotion, and thus beyond things we encounter in our world. In other word, the highlighting of Krishna’s role in the Gita comes at a cost. Depicting Krishna as the “Supreme
Person” connotes less transcendence than does depicting Brahman as being and
consciousness (of the whole). In going against the grain by making Brahman the unmanifested basis or foundation even of Krishna as well as Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, Shankara, a Hindu theologian, philosopher, and ascetic of
the eighth century, CE, can be interpreted as highlighting transcendence in Hinduism, an element that establishes religion itself as a distinctive domain.
The full essay is at "Lord Krishna in the Bhagavadgita."
