2013 Edelmann, Jonathan - Hindu Theology As Churning The Latent

Hindu Theology as Churning
the Latent
Jonathan Edelmann*
The term Hindu philosophy is often preferred over Hindu theology,
but I argue theology better characterizes certain Hindu texts than
philosophy. I give a theoretical account of Hindu theology through an
examination of Vivantha Cakravartins (eighteenth-century Caitanya
Vais
.
n
.
ava-Hindu) analysis of the churning of the ocean of milk, an
important Purn
.
ic story, showing how it illuminates the role of the sys-
tematic intellectual engagement with, and meditation on, sacred text.
I further argue for a definition of a Hindu theologian as someone
trained in a disciplinary tradition, who seeks knowledge of ultimate
reality (Brahman), and who seeks to follow the ethical requirements of
a Hindu tradition. I examine the difference between what I have called
first- and second-order theology, and look at the role of tradition
(sam
.
pradya) in the formation of theology. This article aims to spark
further debate about the category Hindu theology in the contemporary
study of religion.
*Jonathan Edelmann, Department of Philosophy and Religion, Mississippi State University,
449 Hardy Rd, MS 39762, USA. E-mail: je374@msstate.edu. I am indebted to Satyanryan
.
a dsa
Bb for reading the works of Vivantha Chakravartin and many other Hindu theologians with
me. Versions of this article were given at the University of Heidelbergs Forschungszentrum
Internationale und Interdisziplinre Theologie (conference supported by the John Templeton
Foundation) in May 2011, and at the AAR-Luce Summer Fellowship for Comparative Theology
and Theologies of Religious Pluralism in June 2011. I wish to thank the participants in those
conferences, as well as David Buchta, Matthew Dasti, Joseph Trullinger, and the two anonymous
JAAR reviewers for their very helpful criticisms and comments. All mistakes are my own.
Journal of the American Academy of Religion, pp. 140
doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfs132
The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Academy of
Religion. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

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THIS ARTICLE IS about the term Hindu theology, from which I
hope to catalyze more pointed discussion about Hindu theology as a
category in the study of religion. This article is not about a particular
Hindu theological issue, but provides a theoretical account of what it
means to write and think theologically in a Hindu tradition, as well as a
discussion of how Hindu theology differs from other approaches to the
study of religion. My argument is that theology in a Gaud
.
ya Vais
.
n
.
ava
Hindu context is the intellectual and religious activity of churning out
meanings that are understood to be latent within sacred texts, just as
the gods churned ambrosia out of the ocean of milk in the ancient
narratives.
While much of this article draws from classical Sanskrit texts and
learned Sanskrit commentaries, I also reflect on what it might mean to
write Hindu theology in the contemporary Euro-American academic
context. I address scholars of religion concerned with the changing rela-
tionships of religious studies and theology, the globalization of theology,
comparative religion, and Hindu textual studies. Furthermore, I address
scholars of Hinduism in the Euro-American academic context for
whom the academic study of Hinduism is part of their personal and
religious development, and who believe their articulations of Hinduism
are answerable to the academic community, as well as the specific
Hindu communities and traditions of which they are part. Although
my examination draws primarily from Caitanya Vais
.
n
.
ava or Gaud
.
ya
Vais
.
n
.
ava Hindu texts and commentaries from the sixteenth to mid-
eighteenth centuries, I believe that it can have a wider application to
other Hindu traditions as well, for example, other Vednta schools,
Prva Mmm
.
s, Nyya, Yoga, aiva, kta, etc. and nontextual oral
teachings between student and teacher.
There is a growing interest in Hindu theology. The 2011 American
Academy of Religion annual meeting featured two panels on Hindu the-
ology, as did the 2012 annual meeting. It has played an important role in
the reemergence of comparative theology (Clooney 1993; Malkovsky and
De Smet 2000; Thatamanil 2006; Locklin and Nicholson 2010; Long
2010; Roberts 2010), and leading Christian theologians have invited
Hindus to think and write theologically about Hinduism (Clooney 2003:
471). Practitioners of Siddha-Yoga sought to articulate the theological
foundations of their tradition (Mahony et al. 1997) and amidst contro-
versy followers of Ramakrishna have made important contributions to a
theological articulation of their tradition (Tyagananda and Vrajaprana
2010). Meanwhile, there remains normative theological thinking within
Journal of the American Academy of Religion Page 2 of 40

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the academic study of religion,
1
and there are arguments that theology
and religious studies have much to gain from knowing one another, and
much to lose from not (Nicholson 2009: 610; Ford 2010: 109). Scholars
of religion, with whom I am sympathetic, are also fighting against the
crudely stereotypical and parochial view that theology is always an
uncritical defense of a predetermined faith (McDonald 2010: 995997).
Buddhist scholars began to articulate their role as theologians in the
latter part of the last century (Jackson and Makransky 2000), and now
Hindu scholars need to clarify their roles as constructive thinkers in the
academy. There is, thus, a precedent for normative arguments regarding
the criteria that define Hindu theology. I will not argue that Hindu
thinkers should adopt normative approaches within the academy. My
argument is hermeneutical, pertaining to how scholars think about and
characterize certain Hindu intellectuals and texts. My view is that Hindu
theology should be conducted outside secular (especially public) aca-
demic institutions and societies, but the results of that theologizing could
be made relevant to them in appropriate ways.
My goal here is to develop a theoretical characterization of Hindu
theology through a detailed examination of the churning the ocean of
milk story from the Purn
.
as, and a Caitanya or Gaud
.
ya Vais
.
n
.
ava
interpretation of it. In this context, which I describe below, one can
think of theology as the intellectual, meditative, and religious effort of
releasing meanings that are hidden in a latent form within canonical
text by the critical work of reasoning and by the cultivation of virtues
and devotion. It is not the purpose of this article to argue that
Hinduism is only properly and completely understandable as theology;
nor do I suggest a theological modality is superior to other approaches.
My goal is to give a theoretical characterization of how Hindu thinkers
in a particular tradition think about the process of reasoning.
I begin with a discussion on some objections to the term Hindu the-
ology, followed by suggestions as to how the category might enhance
the study of religion.
DEFINING HINDU THEOLOGY
To clarify terms briefly: Philosophy engages argument, reason, and
logical analysis, without assuming in the process of argumentation the
1
For example, in the JAAR, Irvine (2010: 947) noted a crisis in South American liberation
theology, arguing that one must think about gods preference for the poor in symbolic terms; and
Keller (2008: 909) draws from Christian theologians to reconstruct secular categories so as to vivify
feminist theology.
Edelmann: Hindu Theology Page 3 of 40

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authority of a particular religious or a revealed text, even though the
philosopher may believe in the authority of a sacred text, and may even
seek to establish its truth through rational argumentation. Theology,
however, presupposes the value in providing a rational interpretation
and explication of a sacred text as a self-sufficient means of understand-
ing the truth. For theology, it is a legitimate form of argumentation to
use scripture and tradition as a premise in an argument, but that is not
how philosophers argue today. Furthermore, theology is reasoning that
is aimed at knowledge of God or proper ritual practice known through
the interpretation of a sacred or revealed text, whereas philosophy may
or may not have these as its goal (it may focus on language, science,
ethics, etc.) and does not position itself as undertaking scriptural exege-
sis. Both, however, are critical disciplines, which require specialized
training and the application of reason to specific problems.
Many have recognized that theology characterizes particular aspects
of learned Hindu literature in ways that philosophy could not, and that
referring to some Hindu authors as theologians describes them better
than calling them philosophers, despite the knowledge that theology and
philosophy (and theologians and philosophers) have much in common.
2
It is not that Hindu thinkers such as Kumrilabhat
.
t
.
a, ankara,
Rmnuja, Madhva, Abhinava, or Vijnabhiks
.
u are not philosophical
or that their work is of no philosophical value and interest,
3
but it is mis-
leading to call them philosophers given the way that term is used in
Western languages today.
4
They are, rather, closer to theologians since
2
For a comprehensive analysis, see Clooney (2003). De Smet (1953) was one of the first scholars
that I am aware of to argue that ankarathe well-known nondualist (Advaita) commentator on
Vedntawas a theologian because he was mainly concerned with scriptural exegesis. Carman
(1974: 202) wrote about Rmnuja (twelfth century): My concern here . . . is not to deny that
Rmnuja is also in some significant sense a philosopher but to maintain that he is certainly a
theologian, as that term is used in Christian circles. I suggest that considering his thought as
theological may make its specific character clearer, at least to Western students of religion. As
noted, Rudolf Otto and J. A. V. van Buitenen argued similarly. Hirst (1996: 74) argues that
ankara (ninth century) is a theologian in that he uses philosophical reasoning for scriptural
exegesis.
3
Ganeri (2009: 126 ff.) examines the philosophical issues in Man
.
d
.
an
.
amiras Brahmasiddhi.
While this is an excellent enterprise, the Brahmasiddhi is theological because it is a rational
interpretation of Vednta.
4
The characterization of Hindu theologians as philosophers is far too common, for example, in
the undergraduate textbook by Rodrigues and Harding (2009: 2930), or the online introductory
article by Ranganathan (2005). Most curious is Nicholsons (2010) treatment of Vijnabhiks
.
u in
his book bearing the subtitle Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual History, since he argued
(2005: 45) that Vijnabhiks
.
us philosophical work in Sm
.
khya-Yoga is an elaboration, not
repudiation of his earlier theological work in Vijnmr
.
tabhs
.
ya. Gavin Flood (1996: chap. 10) is
a notable exception. He uses the terms theology and philosophy with a high degree of sensitivity
and awareness to their subtle difference in the Hindu and contemporary academic contexts.

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that term covers the full scope of their intellectual practice, of which the
essential feature is scriptural exegesis. Furthermore, naming them as
such establishes a realistic basis for creating a Hindu scholar-practitioner
discourse today, one that is more closely aligned with these aspects of
Hinduisms intellectual history. Using the term Hindu philosophy
imposes constraints that do not allow for the full exercise of Hindu intel-
lectual sensibilities. There are some thinkers that one might wish to clas-
sify as Hindu philosophers since they do engage reason alone and do not
focus on scriptural exegesis, but they are not the focus of my article.
5
Thus, rather than saying Hindu theology become a catch-all term, we
could use it to sharpen distinctions between Hindu theology and Hindu
philosophy that are presently unclear. I also recognize that the words phi-
losophy and theology have changed in meaning over the course of
Western history, and therefore Hindu exegetes share the sensibilities of
what was called philosophy in medieval Europe,
6
but I suggest we need to
use the words as they are used today, even if one may wish to note alter-
native meanings from different historical contexts.
One might object that since theology is a Greek and later Latin
wordused in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic contextsone will impose
forms of reasoning on the Hindu traditions that obscure their indige-
nous ways of reasoning.
7
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (18881975), an
important Hindu intellectuals of the previous century, argued that
Hinduism is a religion of science, facts, and mysticism, not one of faith,
theology, and dogma (1940: 20, 294). The religions of the West are
based on faith, Hinduism on personal experience. At times he seemed
to feel that theology was mere faith, divorced from experience: A man
may know much about theology but yet be lacking in the spirit of reli-
gion. The Hindu thinkers warn us against rationalistic self-sufficiency
5
For example, there is Udayana and Bhat
.
t
.
a Jayanta and texts like Sm
.
khya Krik and the Yoga
Stra; in these cases, Hindu scripture (ruti and smr
.
ti) is accepted as an authority, but the authors
proceed rationally (using anumna), without focusing on exegesis or emphasizing scriptural
authority (abda), despite their belief in scriptural authority. Furthermore, while some authors in
the Kashmiri aiva tradition did undertake scriptural exegesis as their primary focus (e.g.,
Abhinavaguptas exegesis of the Mlinvijayottara or Bhat
.
t
.
a Nryan
.
akan
.
t
.
has of the Mr
.
gendra),
later authors such as Somnanda ( fl. c. early tenth century) and his successor Utpaladeva
produced post-scriptural literature or philosophical theology (Nemec 2011: 12), perhaps due to
the changing social conditions (Sanderson 2007: 241).
6
Justin Martyr (second century) was originally called a philosopher but is now considered a
theologian. In the sixteenth century, British Classicists removed his title Justin Philosopher and
Martyr, in preference for seeing him as a Christian apologist and theologian. I thank Candida
Moss for pointing this out to me.
7
The word theology is first used by Plato (Republic, 379 ff.), in the context of a normative
discussion on how the gods should and should not be represented in an ideal city, so it could not
be argued that it is a distinctly Christian word.

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(1940: 23). Furthermore, we are not saved by creeds but by gnosis,
jna, or spiritual wisdom (1940: 24). He goes on to quote a number
of Upanis
.
ads to show the insufficiency of scriptural knowledge and the-
ology for the attainment of religions true ends. Using the term theology
corners Hinduism into an academic discourse in which theoretical rea-
soning takes precedence over religious experience and meditative prac-
tice. Therefore, theology is a hegemonic imposition of Western terms
onto Hindu discourse.
In reply to this objection, one might say that the words philosophy,
science, mysticism, etc., are of Latin and Greek origins as well, and also
carry potentially hegemonic assumptions. Any time we talk about
Hinduism in a nonnative language, we bring the assumptions of the
foreign tongue; thus, either everyone who talks about Hinduism must
do so in Sanskrit, Man
.
ipravla, Gujarati, Bengali, etc., or say nothing
about it for fear of linguistic hegemony. Since neither option is satisfac-
tory, I believe that one must find family resemblance terms in the
target-language or translation-language that will most adequately
convey the native meanings (Edelmann 2012a: 9); as the translation-lan-
guage changes, and as we come to know more about Hindu traditions,
one might change how one translates Sanskrit words.
To think the term theology will straight-jacket Hindu scholars into
a particular form of reasoningas Radhakrishnan believedis to pre-
suppose theology is monolithic. It has changed over time, and the influ-
ence of Hinduism might cause further change. What this objection
does highlight, however, is the need for comparative religion when
talking about Hindu theology, since the ability to successfully convey a
Hindu tradition in the English language entails knowing something of
the history and semantic range of the English words into which one is
translating. A Vais
.
n
.
ava-Hindu theologian might seek, for example,
comparisons with Thomas Aquinas or Maimonides, whereas a aiva-
Hindu theologian might find a greater resonance with Plotinus or
Boethius.
There is a sense, however, in which wariness about imposing the
term theology on Hinduism is warranted. Parimal Patil (2001: 188)
notes that the request for Hindu theologians to enter the fields of com-
parative theology and theology comes at a very high professional
price. For, Hindu intellectuals will be forced, at least for the present,
to conform to the vocabulary and genre conventions of contemporary
philosophical theology (Patil 2001: 188). Hindu theology will not be
done in Sankrit or Tamil, but English or a European language. The
invitation from Christian theologians for Hindus to write theologically
is really aimed at those Hindu intellectuals already capable of writing

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in the languages and style of the Euro-American academy (Patil 2001:
188). This excludes a large portion of the Hindu world who are capable
of doing theology, but not in our Euro-American languages and
modes of discourse. Furthermore, given that there are no professional
Hindu theologians (or at least one can say that there are no professor-
ships in the West for Hindu theology), it is Hindu intellectuals with
positions in religious studies, Indology, history, anthropology, etc. that
are the only ones capable of reframing their work as theology or com-
parative theology. However, the constructive work required of a theolo-
gian is often shunned and scorned in religious studies (and other)
departments. So the Hindu theologian is burdened with the dual task of
communicating his/her tradition theologically in a nonnative language
while risking his/her academic position in doing so. Perhaps a solution
here, one not considered by Patil, is a willingness of Hindu thinkers to
take the needed risks for the benefit of the discipline, to work that
much harder in researching and translating their traditions concepts,
and in doing so create pockets within the academy that more closely
reflect traditional Hindu modes of discourse.
Lastly, I recognize there are many arguments against theology itself,
for example, that it interferes with the scientific study of religion (Wiebe
1999), or that the sort of reverence for religious texts that theology
might entail is not a scholarly virtue (Lincoln 1996: 225). These views,
however, are not without their critics (Schilbrack 2000; McDonald
2010), but the purpose of this article is to clarify what the term theology
might mean in a Hindu context, not to justify the legitimacy of an
entire discipline, nor to assert its position in a secular academic context.
Nevertheless, one should not presuppose that the criticisms of theology
in one religious context necessarily apply to another.
HINDU THEOLOGY AND THE STUDY OF RELIGION
There are ways that the category Hindu theology might impact
the study of religion. There are numerous fora for Abrahamic theologies
in, for example, the American Academy of Religion,
8
but none for
Hinduism, and thus Hinduism is often studied under various disci-
plines in religious studies, Indology, or philosophy. The story of my
first encounter with Hinduism in the academy illuminates the concern
at hand. As an undergraduate, I remember the anticipation that I felt
along with my classmates as the time drew near for us to study ankara
8
There are at present thirteen Groups and Sections in total.

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crya in an introductory Sanskrit course. ankara had been intro-
duced as one of Hinduisms most brilliant and influential philosophers.
9
At the time I was also pursuing a degree in Western philosophy, which,
for me, threw ankara into sharp relief. Upon reading ankara, I was
disappointed to find that he made his arguments by quoting Upanis
.
ads
and other sacred texts, and that he seemed almost entirely preoccupied
with scriptural interpretation rather than rational argumentation. I rec-
ognized it as skilled reasoning, but not philosophy, at least not the sort
of philosophy I was reading in Plato, Descartes, Kant, or Quine, who
for the most part left the minutia of scriptural interpretation to others.
In retrospect, I see that the expectations created by the word philosopher
prevented me from appreciating what ankara was doing. Had ankara
been positioned as a theologian, such hermeneutical difficulties would
not have arisen. I think my experience is not unique, yet expectations
about how philosophers reason preclude an appreciation of the sort of
exegetical reasoning that characterizes so much of the learned Hindu
tradition. Hindu thinkers such as ankara, Rmnuja, Abhinava, etc.
are often said to be doing an odd or atypical form of philosophy, rather
than doing a normal form of theology. In my view, they are normal the-
ologians, not odd philosophers.
Second, since Hinduism is often placed in the category of religious
studies, there is no adequate classification for the growing number of
publications in the academy that are Hindu, exegetical, and constructive
there is no term such as Hindu theology for them, no nma (name)
for the rpa (form).
10
While various forms of Christian, Jewish,
Islamic, and Buddhist theology have found a home in the American
Academy of Religion and other similar organizations, such is not the
case for Hinduism. The category Hindu theology, then, is needed to
give a space for the existing constructive work in Hinduism, with an
awareness of the ways that this work would differ from religious studies,
Indology, Indian philosophy, Hindu ethnography, Hindu studies, even
though it may and often does profitably draw from these disciplines
and might have important contributions to make to them.
On a related point, theology is also the conduit for academic inter-
and intra-exchange between intellectuals who self-identify with different
traditions. So much of the emerging comparative theology discussion
involves Christian theologians talking about Hindu theologians that
have been dead for centuries rather than talking with living Hindu
9
This is still the case. See, for example, the undergraduate textbook by Rodrigues and Harding
(2009: 2930), or Ranganathan (2005).
10
See Long (2008: 181) for a discussion of why there is the lack of such a category.

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theologians; one reason is the lack of a category and platform for con-
temporary Hindu theologians to discuss with other theologians in an
academic context. A noteworthy exception to this is found in the work
of Anantanand Rambachan (1991, 1996; Rambachan et al. 2005).
Third, the term Hindu theology answers some of the problems
faced by contemporary scholars of religion. The Journal of the
American Academy of Religion (December 2000) questioned Who
speaks for Hinduism? because there seemed to be a crisis of authority
in the academic teaching of Hinduism. Theology identifies an impor-
tant (but not singularly important) voice of any religious traditionthe
voice of its intellectuals, who attempt to formulate reasoned accounts of
it with attention to authority, experience, and critical discourse.
Identifying Hinduisms theologianshistorical and livingallows for
the specificity needed to answer the above question since scholars have
long felt that it is a traditions theologians that speak for the tradi-
tion.
11
Furthermore, other religious traditions taking root on American
soil (e.g., Islam or Buddhism) have go-to sources, people that schol-
ars, journalists, and publishers of various sorts would consult for
insider-yet-objective-information about a traditions texts, history,
practices, and so forth. Hinduism frequently lacks this go-to source
although it is neededbecause there is no recognized and defined cate-
gory called the Hindu theologian. There are now controversies on the
relationship of yoga and Hinduism, but the debate is often polarized
between academic historians of religion and lay Hindus, without much
input from a middle group, people who could speak from a Hindu
point of view that is enriched by knowledge of Indian intellectual
history as well as contemporary academic discourse (Edelmann 2012a:
17 ff.). Much of the same could be said about the discussion in
Hinduism and science, wherein pious Hindu physicists, engineers, or
physicians are often asked to respond to the natural sciences in leading
publications when in fact they lack textual knowledge (Edelmann
2012b: 639).
Finally, for many scholars working in Hindu studies today, scholar-
ship is about finding a truth beyond the world and the text. The recog-
nition of theology within the study of Hinduism allows for academic
work that is rigorously academic, and yet also aimed at truthfully
11
Brian K. Smith (2000: 744) writes who speaks for Hinduism . . . is the same here as in other
religions: primarily the theologians, the religious and intellectual lite who have it in the job
description to find and communicate what is supposedly essential to the religion as a whole.
Likewise, Jonathan Z. Smith (1982: 43) argues, a prime object of the study for the history of
religion ought to be theological tradition . . . concerned with canon and its exegesis.

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answering important religious questions for the satisfaction of an indi-
vidual or a community. These questions might involve the nature of
god, the sources of knowledge about another world, or the proper
modes of conduct for one on a particular religious path. As it stands,
the theological study of Hinduism is hampered by the view that
Hinduism is merely of historical interest, not of interest to solving con-
temporary personal and intellectual problems. Rather than artificially
squeezing this sort of truth-oriented-Hindu-discourse into Indology,
religious studies, or other disciplines, it would be of benefit to give its
own space. The recognition of Hindu theology, then, is the recognition
that for many living scholars, their academic work has religious or spi-
ritual goals, and that these goals are sought through the use of reason
in ways that are academically rigorous.
INTRODUCTION TO GAUD
.
YA VAIS
.
N
.
AVA THEOLOGY
The majority of Hindus are followers of the path of loving devotion
(bhakti) and of all the scriptures describing the path of devotion, the
Bhgavata Purn
.
a is one of the most influential on Hindu religion,
culture, art, music, and theology (Klostermaier 1994: 181). While it is
well known that the path of devotion is extremely influential on
popular Hinduism, it is less well known that as devotion swept over
North India in the fifteenth century, it led to a radical reordering of
scriptural authority and hundreds of years of scriptural interpretation.
There arose a substantive body of literature that questioned fundamen-
tal presuppositions as to how core texts such as the Bhagavad Gt,
Upanis
.
ads, and Veda Sam
.
hits should be understood. Hindu theolo-
gians such as ankara had argued that the primary goal of life is to end
the cycle of birth and death by knowing the unity of the self and ulti-
mate reality. That near axiom of Hindu thought was also questioned in
favor of devotion to God as the primary goal of life.
Some leaders of this North Indian reordering of the scriptural uni-
verse were sixteenth-century thinkers such as rntha Cakravartin,
Vallabhcrya, Vit
.
t
.
halantha, Santana Gosvmin, Rpa Gosvmin,
and Jva Gosvmin, who sought to use the Bhgavata as the fundamen-
tal source of information for all things religious (Stewart 2010: 23 ff.).
There are two points most relevant here. The first is that this radical
restructuring was not left as a mere sentiment, as one might think of a
tradition oriented toward loving feelings for the divine. Rather, the sen-
timent motivated an intellectually rigorous attempt to show how devo-
tion for God can be justified and explained scripturally, even in those
scriptures that were previously not interpreted as such. Second, Hindu

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thinkers were willing to insert new texts (for example, the Bhgavata
Purn
.
a) into the body of canonical text, which facilitated the new inter-
pretation of old text (Redington 1992).
12
Here, I provide a focused reading of a commentarial passage by
Vivantha Cakravartin (eighteenth century),
13
a remarkable scholar
who came near to the end of the exclusively Sanskritic aspect of the
devotional movement discussed above. Vivantha was a follower of
Caitanya (14861534 CE), and he along with Baladeva Vidybhs
.
an
.
a
or Eknti Govinda Dsa (eighteenth century)
14
represents the last of the
exclusively Sanskrit authors in the theological line stemming from
Caitanya.
15
Caitanya, born in Bengals thriving intellectual district of
Navadvip, is an extremely influential figure in the history of devotional
forms of Hinduism. Caitanya, seen by Vivantha as the Supreme Lord
Kr
.
s
.
n
.
a here on earth, had a mystical experience in his youth, one which
led him to give up his career as a scholar in Navadvip and to travel the
entirety of India preaching about the ecstasy of reciting the names of
Kr
.
s
.
n
.
a, eventually settling in Puri, Orissa. Although he wrote only eight
verses of devotional poetry (the iks
.
s
.
t
.
aka), he inspired a generation of
well-educated young men to pursue theological training at various
centers of learning in Varanasi (Benaras) and Navadvip. His direct dis-
ciples such as Sanntana, Rpa, Gopalbhat
.
t
.
a, and their disciple Jva
Gosvmin wrote extensively, commenting on the Bhgavata Purn
.
a,
16
arguing for its supreme authority and systematizing its thought on cate-
gories such as aesthetics, poetics, metaphysics, and the nature of devo-
tion. As an inheritor of this tradition which began in the sixteenth
century (but had noteworthy predecessors in the centuries prior to
that), Vivantha had the critical distance of nearly two hundred years
that allowed him to assess arguments that worked and those that did
not. In his commentary on the first verse of the Bhgavata Purn
.
a,
Vivanthawith remarkable claritysummarizes the entire text in a
12
What constitutes as canonical is not the focus of the article, however, prima facie canonical
is often what theologians say is canonical; a subject for another article could be studies of what and
how the canon changes over time as traditions enter dialogue with theological and nontheological
sources.
13
See Burton (2000) for a detailed discussion of Vivanthas life, works, and dates.
14
Acharya (1965: 9) dates him at about 170595 CE.
15
There were others after them, such as Vivanthas disciple Kr
.
s
.
n
.
adeva Srvabhauma
Bhat
.
t
.
crya, who wrote the Karma-, Jna-, and Bhakti-vivr
.
tti (Horstmann 2009), but none nearly as
prolific and influential as them.
16
Hudson (2010) argues that of the Bhgavatas twelve books, books 710 were composed in 300
BCE, and that books 16 and 1112 were composed in the same linguistic style in 800900 CE.
Hindu theologians such as Vivantha would consider the entirety of the Bhgavata to have been
composed prior to that.

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systematic manner
17
and in doing so uses the ancient narrative of
churning the ocean of milk to describe the activity of theological rea-
soning, as discussed below. In terms of his process of reasoning, I take
Vivantha as a representative of the intellectual devotional movement
discussed above, as well as the larger world of Hindu scriptural
commentary.
THEOLOGY AS CHURNING SACRED TEXT
Before looking at churning the ocean of milk, I begin with a brief
examination of some Upanis
.
adic themes that are developed in the
Purn
.
as, the place where this story mainly occurs. The Upanis
.
ads are
one of Hinduisms most ancient layers of scriptural text. In general,
they seek to describe an ultimate reality called Brahman and to reflect
on the nature of ritual practices described in an even more ancient
body of text called the Veda Sam
.
hits. Theologians like Vivantha
have the difficult task of showing how the Purn
.
as (the Bhgavata
Purn
.
a in particular) cohere with the Upanis
.
ads. In the traditions esti-
mation, these three layers of textthe Veda Sam
.
hits, Upanis
.
ads
(including the Bhagavad Gt), and Purn
.
asare levels of revelation
(Kr
.
s
.
n
.
adsa Bb 1966: 79). One important aspect of their intellectual
project centers around showing the unity of meaning between and
within sacred text, something much closer to what we call theology
rather than philosophy.
In the Upanis
.
ads and Purn
.
as, truth is considered to be hidden in
the mind of a sage, in ones own heart or in the cryptic language of a
text or oral teaching (nihnuti, gd
.
ha, rahasya, guhya, etc.), and the true
meaning of a teaching is a secret disclosed only after sustained reflec-
tion and meditation. The Upanis
.
ads say that truth exists but it is not
readily available, like a buried treasure under ones feet.
18
Likewise, the
story of the churning of the ocean of milk is meant to show that truth
exists within the sacred text, but theology is needed to find it. This
notion is further developed with the motif of the reluctant sage who
only tells the truth to his interlocutor upon repeated and pointed ques-
tioning. For example, when Indra and Virocana approach Prajpati for
knowledge of the self with firewood in their hands, that is as disciples
ready to help their teacher, the first three answers that Prajpati
17
Vivantha is indebted to Jva Gosvmin in many ways, but the purpose of this article is not
to compare and contrast how Jva and Vivantha are similar and different in their Bhgavata 1.1.1
commentaries.
18
See Chndogya Upanis
.
ad 8.5.3. All Upanis
.
ad translations are from Olivelle (1998).

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provides are illusive andin the context of the Upanis
.
adic thought
false.
19
Virocana is satisfied with the first answer, but Indra returns to
the sage, stays longer with him as an ascetic student, and asks the same
question many times to receive better answers.
20
In doing so, Virocana
is framed as foolish and insincere, Indra as persistent and genuine,
because he made an effort to churn the truth out of the sage. In his
examination of this story, Jonardon Ganeri (2009: 19) writes:
Prajpatis reluctance might be seen as following from a further idea,
that for one doctrine about the self to be a preparatory condition of
another, it must not merely be understood that it is false, but this
understanding must be the result of ones own personal investigation
and discovery.
This is an essential feature of what I mean by churning and
thereby theology in this Hindu contexttexts and ideas must be
worked with for long periods of time if they are to produce a correct
understanding. Put differently, had Prajpati merely blurted out the
true doctrine of the self the first time he was asked, Indra may not have
grasped its full significance, for he would not have critically evaluated
the lower views of the self. Looked at in this way, the Upanis
.
ads
suggest through narrative that one must struggle with the presented
ideas, and conclude on ones own that there is nothing worthwhile
21
in the lower view before assenting to the higher view. As readers of the
Upanis
.
adic myths, we are led through Indras thought process as he
culls more subtle meanings that are latent within the sage; the message
is that we must also churn the ideas to assimilate them. This
Upanis
.
adic story and many others establish dichotomies that are sus-
tained in the Purn
.
as between the god (Indra, a deva) and the anti-
god (Virocana, an asura); Virocana is satisfied with a lower conception
of the self, whereas Indra keeps pressing the sage, churning the ideas.
Based on my reading of Vivantha, I suggest that these dichotomies
might be seen as narrative depictions of tendencies within our selves.
They are dispositions that either disclose or conceal the scriptural
meanings, not merely classes of otherwordly beings. If one focuses
exclusively on their ontology, the symbology might be missed.
Just as Indra had to revisit Prajpati to arrive at the truth in degrees,
so must the god Brahm revisit the Veda to know its true meaning:
19
Prajpati first says that the tman is the physical body (CU 8.8.1), second that it is the body
one experiences in dreams (CU 8.10.1), and lastly that it is the experience of dreamless sleep (CU
8.11.1); each of these answers is reflected upon, but rejected in CU 8.12.1.
20
Chndogya Upanis
.
ad 8.7.1 ff.
21
Chndogya Upanis
.
ad 8.10.2.

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Having investigated the entirety of the sacred tradition with a concen-
trated mind three times, the god Brahm ascertained with deep convic-
tion love for the Self [Lord Hari] (Bhgavata 2.2.34).
22
The sixteenth-
century commentator Jva Gosvmin further adds that the investigation
of three times indicates that he learned in sequence three things from
the text; first that it taught ritual action (karma), then that it taught
nondual knowledge ( jna), and finally that it taught devotion
(bhakti).
23
On his view, this verse suggests that one must read the
sacred texts carefully a number of times, and that you will most likely
misinterpret them on the first reading. This captures the humility
needed to think theologically about scripturesto churn themsince
one is always questioning the depth and accuracy of ones
understanding.
The Story of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk
With that background in mind, I move to the story itself.
24
The
gods had become weakened due to a curse upon them, which in turn
allowed them to be overpowered by the antigods.
25
Fearing that the
darkness of the antigods influence would afflict the cosmos, the gods
approach the Lord Vis
.
n
.
u, who according to the Bhgavata (8.5.22) is
impartial to all. The gods and antigods are in all Hindu literature eter-
nally pitted in battle, but in the Bhgavata, the terms god (deva) and
antigod (asura) are also symbolically the contradictory forces that moti-
vate people, and thus it is a richer concept than a genealogical category
or species of being. I say this because some of the most cherished devo-
tees of Vis
.
n
.
u and Kr
.
s
.
n
.
a in the Bhgavata turn out to be born in fami-
lies of antigods, for example, Vr
.
tra, Bali, and Prahlda. As with the
22
Unless otherwise stated, all translations are my own. I have used the Kr
.
s
.
n
.
aankara str
(1965) edition of Bhgavata Purn
.
a, and have used Tagare (1976) as an aid in my translation. My
translation of this verse (Kr
.
s
.
n
.
aankara 1965: 100) is based on rdhara Svmins (circa 1350 CE)
commentary.
23
Bhakti-Sandarbha, section 29, Dasa (2005: 7273). Cf. Bhgavata 8.6.12: Just as one finds fire
[latent] within firewood, milk within cows, grain and water within the earth, and ones livelihood
within effort, [likewise] the learned say that by yoga(s) men find or know you [who are latent]
within the [three] qualities of nature through the use of the intellect.
24
My rendition of the story is based mainly on Bhgavata Purn
.
a (8.58.12), but I have
consulted Vis
.
n
.
u Purn
.
a (2002: 1.9), Matsya Purn
.
a (249 ff ), Rmyan
.
a (1.441.46), Agni Purn
.
a
(3), Skanda Purn
.
a (1.1.8.1281.1.9.31), Padma Purn
.
a (5.4, 6.259), and Brahmn
.
da Purn
.
a (4.9).
For a summary study of all these versions of the story, see Bedekar (1967).
25
According to the Vis
.
n
.
u- and Bhgavata Purn
.
a, the sage Durvsa had been walking about in
a state of divine madness when he came upon a beautiful goddess with a flower garland, which he
asks for and then gives to Indra. Indra places it on the brow of Airvata, his elephant, which
angers Durvsa to the point of cursing Indra. According to the Brahmn
.
da Purn
.
a (4.9.31), iva
had sent Durvsa because Indra had offended him.

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celestials, so it is with humans.
26
Although the antigods are different
from the gods in the story, from Vivanthas theological point of view
(discussed below), they represent the internal struggle a human being
must undergo to achieve the state of mind and qualification necessary
for the reception of theological knowledge from canonical text.
Returning to the story, Vis
.
n
.
u instructs the gods to call a truce with
the antigodsall the while recognizing them as enemiesand to churn
the ocean of milk, from which they will receive amr
.
ta, an eternal life
giving ambrosia.
27
They should churn this ocean by placing Mt.
Mandara in it, wrapping a snake around it, getting the gods and anti-
gods on either side, and turning it to and fro like a giant turbine. While
in many contexts, this ambrosia might only indicate a very long life in
heaven, in the Bhgavata (e.g., 3.24.38) it clearly indicates freedom
from the cycle of birth and death. The Lord promises that by drinking
the ambrosia, the gods will become immortal, free from the grip of
death. Drinking is itself part of much larger theme, that of tasting the
ultimate reality in the form of an aesthetic experience (rasa); the ideal
hearer of the Bhgavata, for instance, is a connoisseur (rasika) who
drinks the text. The larger connections between Indian aesthetics and
the churn story are explored by Vasudha Narayanan, who notes that
the first tale enacted according to Bharatas aesthetics outlined in the
Nt
.
ya-stra was that of the churn (Narayanan 2003: 497).
Getting to the particulars, Vis
.
n
.
u says they should put vegetation
and herbs into the ocean, use Mt. Mandara as the churning rod and the
snake Vsuki (one who conceals or clothes all) as the churning cord.
As we shall see, Mt. Mandara represents the theological commen-
tary, the ocean the text upon which the theologian comments, the
churning the intellectual effort one makes to understand the text, and
the gods and antigods the good and bad qualities in us that open or
close the text to our understanding.
28
Vis
.
n
.
u promises the antigods will
26
Coomarasway, for example, writes: the Titan [asura] is potentially an Angel [deva], the Angel
still by nature a Titan; the Darkness in actu is Light, the Light in potentia Darkness; which the
designations [in the R
.
gveda] Asura and Deva may be applied to one and the same person
according to the mode of operation (1935: 374).
27
The text realizes that the Lord could have done the work himself, but that he wanted to do it
this way for his play (vihartu) (8.6.17), which culminates in his appearing as a turtle (ambucara).
The debated etymology of the word amr
.
ta suggests that it is a, not plus mr
.
ta, death. Long
(1976: 181, fn.22) argues that amr
.
ta and ambrosia may be related.
28
Nicholson (2010: 195) rightly speculates that the antigods may represent the Buddhist and
Jains (who do not accept the ruti and smr
.
ti as revelation) for Vijnabhiks
.
u, but as I show later,
they are also seen as conflicting forces within the human person. See Vijnabhiks
.
us (2007)
Yogavrttika (a commentary on the Yoga Stra) and his Vijnmr
.
tabhs
.
ya (a commentary on the
Vednta-Stra) for discussion in Nicholson (2010: 110).

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share in the labor, but not the result. Vivantha suggests, then, that a
personal effort is a necessary but not sufficient condition for achieving
the end result of intellectual work.
Then the arrangements begin: The gods and antigods get the moun-
tain into the ocean of milk (but only with the help of Garud
.
a, 8.6.33
ff.), they buy off the snakes help by promising some of the sacrificial
proceeds (8.7.1), and convince iva to drink the Klakt
.
a poison that
first emerges from the churning. Upon beginning to churn, Mandara
sinks to the bottom of the ocean; so the Lord appears as a mighty terra-
pin known as Krma (8.7.8) to serve as the foundation of the churning
rod, and according to Vivantha (8.7.11), he also enters the bodies of
the gods as the quality of goodness (sattva-gun
.
a) and the bodies of the
antigods as the quality of passionate activity (raja-gun
.
a). This suggests
that the foundation of theological reflection is supported by God. That
the Lord enters the bodies as particular qualities of nature is significant
because it is these qualities that disclose or close one from knowledge,
as I argue in the final sections of this article.
The churning immediately produces results such as cows, horses,
et cetera. Yet it is Dhanvantari, Vis
.
n
.
u in the form of a medic, who
appears holding a pot of ambrosia, which the antigods immediately try
to steal, but which Vis
.
n
.
u promises to retrieve surreptitiously (8.7.35
8.7.37). This is a foreshadowing of Vis
.
n
.
us appearance as Mohin in an
enchantingly beautiful female form (8.7.41), who is the Purn
.
ic
message bearer, the deliverer of Gods teaching like that of Hermes
(from which we get hermeneutics). Mohin plays a fundamental role in
Vivanthas conception of scriptural interpretation, as I discuss below.
Enchanted by her beauty and quarreling among themselves, the
antigods give over the ambrosia to Mohin upon her (false) promise to
divide the shares equally among them (8.9.9). Humorously, the antigods
are so enchanted by her beauty that they willingly give the ambrosia of
immortality to her. At this point in the story, the Bhgavatas way of
dichotomizing the gods and antigods is clarified: the gods receive the
ambrosia because they had taken refuge (rita) in the Lord (8.9.28),
whereas the antigods were unsuccessful because they had turned away
( parnmukha) from him (8.10.1). This again shows that the distinction
between a god and antigod is not genealogical here, but a personal
choice and character trait. In conclusion, they fight, but the gods win
and restore balance in the universe.
Vivantha Cakravartins Scriptural Hermeneutics
The rational interpretation of sacred words, abda-pramn
.
a (the
instrument of knowing through language), is considered the proper work

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of reason in the Gaud
.
ya Vais
.
n
.
ava tradition. To show this, I have struc-
tured my discussion of Vivantha Cakravartins process of reasoning, or
his churning of the ocean of scriptural language, around the following
terms: ordering, internal overcoding, exegesis,
29
and significa-
tion. These are the means by which he churns latent meanings from the
text. I draw from his commentary on the first verse of the Bhgavata
Purn
.
a called The Light on Essential Meanings (Srtha-darin).
30
Ordering
Theology in this context is systematic, and commentators often see
their role as that of organizers of large bodies of scripture into ordered
sets of interrelated propositions. The Bhgavata is 335 or 332 chapters
long (depending on the edition), divided into twelve different books,
and it covers a wide range of topics, often in a dialogical manner. It is,
in some sense, unwieldy. Thus, because of its vast size and scope com-
mentators like Vivantha must first order it, reducing the expansive
thematic information into its most fundamental elements. Vivantha
argues that there are five distinct topics in the Bhgavata, and for each
topic, he quotes a seed verse from the Bhgavata that he believes
embodies one of these five themes, and around those verses he develops
five distinct readings of the first verse of the Bhgavata. Thus, his argu-
ment is that despite the vast size and seemingly numerous topics, there
are really only five themes in the Bhgavata and that these five themes
can be read out of the first verse. The first verse of the Bhgavata,
therefore, is multivalent; on Vivanthas view, it does in fact speak five
different (but interrelated) meanings to the attentive reader, and the
commentators job, so to speak, is to churn them out. He is not both-
ered that his five themes are mutually exclusive.
To justify his readings of the first verse of the Bhgavata, he often
draws from a wide variety of texts such as the Vedas, Upanis
.
ads, and
Purn
.
as, the assumption being that the first verse of the Bhgavata is
not only summarizing the Bhgavata itself, but is commenting on other
29
See Torrella (1994: xiii) and Nemec (2011: 13) for a similar discussion of exegesis.
30
There are a great number of Sanskrit authors who used the motif of churning the ocean of
milk, especially in their introductory (mangalcaran
.
a) verses. For example, see Vijnabhiks
.
us
(sixteenth century) Yogavrttika and Vijnmr
.
ta Bhs
.
ya, Santana Gosvmins (fifteenth
century) Br
.
had-bhgavatmr
.
ta (1.18), rdhara Svmins (thirteenth century) Bhavrtha Dpik
(1.1.1), Rmnuja cryas (twelfth century) r Bhs
.
ya commentary on the Vednta-Stra (1985:
1.1.1), and Halyudhas (eleventh century) commentary on the Pingala-chandah
.
-stra. There are a
number of rich examinations of the churning myth by others as well. Long (1976: 174) looks at it
from Claude Lvi-Strauss structural perspective, and argues that his model is too simplistic to
deal adequately with this myth.

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layers of text outside it as well. While we can certainly appreciate the
philosophical genius needed to assimilate such a large body of text and
to examine it with great precision, this is an exegetical project that pre-
supposes the truth of the text and the benefit of properly knowing it,
something more closely aligned to what we call theology today rather
than philosophy. The topics are:
(i) The divinity of the Vednta-Stra, Upanis
.
ads, and Veda Sam
.
hits
is the same as that of the Bhgavata;
(ii) Among all the topics discussed in the Bhgavata, the supreme lord
of all is Kr
.
s
.
n
.
a and he is the most important and the true aim of
the text. Seed verse, Bhgavata 2.10.2.
(iii) The divinely romantic love between Kr
.
s
.
n
.
a and his female devotees
is the highest of relationships. Seed verse, Bhgavata 10.33.6.
(iv) Kr
.
s
.
n
.
a, as Lord of all, is fully independent but controlled by the
love of his most important female devotee named Rdh. Seed
verses, Bhgavata 10.30.2710.30.28 (Schweig 2005: 23 ff ).
(v) The yoga of devotion is the means by which one achieves union
with God. Seed verses, Bhgavata 12.12.4912.12.50.
Thus, this otherwise unwieldy text, with scores of dialogues on scores
of topics, is condensed to essential teachings, making it more manage-
able and amenable to systematic study.
Internal and External Overcoding
Overcoding refers to a traditions tendency to assimilate and subor-
dinate the symbols, rituals, or theologies of another tradition under
their own ideal, something that is a special feature of many Hindu tra-
ditions (Lawrence 2008: 7). A hierarchy is formed with ones own tradi-
tion at the top, others at various levels below; the lower elements are
not wrong, just not as right. Often Hindu thinkers will overcode tradi-
tions that are external to their own, but Vivantha overcodes themes
that are present within the Bhgavata itself, hence the term internal
overcoding. Whereas the five themes listed above are the systematized
content of the text, internal overcoding provides a second set of catego-
ries that generate a normative evaluation of the quality of the content,
describing how and why each theme is located at a particular level. He
argues the Bhgavata:
(a) is like a lamp, shining its light upon the self for those who desire
to cross the blind darkness of ignorance, see Bhgavata 1.2.3;
(b) is like the sun, illuminating the truer meanings of other canonical
texts like the Vedas, Upanis
.
ads, Purn
.
as, etc., see Bhgavata 1.2.43;

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(c) is like a ripe fruit of aesthetic experience (rasa), allowing the
devotee to taste the bliss of relationship with the Lord, see
Bhgavata 1.1.3;
***
(d) is like Mohin, for it gives meanings that are of immortal bliss to
the devotees and bewildering to the antigods, see Bhgavata
12.13.11.
The first three (ac) are hierarchically arranged from lowest to highest.
The first theme in the Bhgavata which deals with older texts like the
Vedas and Upanis
.
ads is like a lamp, shining knowledge on the soul,
toward the reader. The second theme (ii), about Kr
.
s
.
n
.
a as the essence of
the Bhgavata is (b), is like the sun, illuminating how Kr
.
s
.
n
.
a is present
in other canonical texts. Obviously, the greater amount of light provided
by the sun metaphorically expresses the greater amount of illumination
the second theme provides for the reader. Themes (iiiv), dealing with
what the tradition sees as the more esoteric topics, are (c), the ripe fruit
of bliss experienced in relationship with the Lord. This third level is
even higher than the metaphorical illumination of the sun, for now the
soul is experiencing or tasting the ambrosia of his or her relationship
with the Lord just as one experiences the juice of a fruit, something
that is, in a devotional tradition, the goal of religion. The ordering pro-
vides a systematic account of the content, and the internal overcoding
provides the normative standards by which the content of the scripture
is evaluated, allowing the theologian to shift through the passages in the
Bhgavata, saying which are of greater and lesser importance. Yet
Vivantha stresses that (c) depends upon solid grounding in the fun-
damental ontological and religious issues discussed in (i) and (ii).
The fourth, (d), is a hermeneutical principle and not in the hier-
archical structure, represented symbolically as Mohin. That is why I
have separated it out from (a) to (c). In the story of the churning of the
ocean of milk, Mohin is a beautiful form of Vis
.
n
.
u who appears after
the ambrosia has been produced by churning. Once the ambrosia is
produced, the antigods steal it from the gods, but the supreme lord in
the form of Mohin appears before the antigods and convinces them to
hand it over to her, and to allow her to dole it out among the antigods
who were at that point quarreling among themselves for it. In the
matter of interpretation of the text, Mohin symbolizes a mediating
power between the text and the readers understanding of the text. The
reader receives the text on one of the three levels (ac) because of her
bewildering or illuminating nature, such that the same text grants

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various levels of knowledge. But there is also a zero-grade level of
meaning that is not on the hierarchical scale above, since Mohin can
also completely conceal the truth from the reader.
The gods and antigods perform the same work and are presented
with the same ambrosia, yet due to their differential qualities and quali-
fications they gain different results, and it is Mohin who doles out the
different layers of meaning and understanding. Although Mohins very
namesake is to bewilder or conceal the truth,
31
according to Vivantha
that same power of hers also bewilders the devotees with bliss so
intense they lose consciousness (str 1965: 53). She bewilders some
people with ignorance, bewilders others with the bliss of knowledge,
and leaves some in between. Thus, God in the form of Mohn is ulti-
mately the offerer of the correct or incorrect meaning of the text: the
signifying power of this canonical text has the property of Monih, since
she is offerer of that [ambrosia] (str 1965: 54). And further: one
should know that the property of Mohin is a meaning that is bewilder-
ing to the community of anti-gods on account of giving meanings
destructive to that [devotion, bhakti], [and it is also] a meaning that is
pleasing to the community of devotees on account of providing mean-
ings that are supportive of devotion (str 1965: 54). So the overcod-
ing takes place on two levels. First, one can derive three true meanings
in a hierarchical order within the text (like a lamp, sun, and ripe fruit),
and secondly one might derive false meanings out of the text as well.
The false meanings are zero-grade, below even the lamp like meanings.
What is unusual about Vivanthas discussion here is that he does
not see the text as unreservedly knowledge-giving. He seems aware of
the unusualness of his claim, thus he says it is not inappropriate to
praise the Bhgavata as occasionally unhelpful in the cultivation of
devotion, since the Bhgavata (10.43.17) itself says that people saw
Kr
.
s
.
n
.
a differently when he entered the wrestling arena to fight with
Kam
.
sa in Mathur. The story to which he refers is as follows: Kr
.
s
.
n
.
a
grew-up in the rural farming community called Vr
.
ndvana, which is
outside of present-day Delhi. In his youth, however, he moved to
Mathur, an urban setting, to hunt down the king Kam
.
sa, who had
been trying to kill him since before his birth. When Kr
.
s
.
n
.
a arrives in
Mathur, he finds Kam
.
sa in a wrestling arena and swiftly kills him off.
When Kr
.
s
.
n
.
a entered the arena, it is said that all sorts of people saw
him in different ways; for example, as God, as death, as eros, or as
friend. On account of the likeness between the Bhgavata and the Lord,
31
Mohin comes from the Sanskrit verbal root muh, to bewilder.

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the one supreme Lord can be understood differently, just as the one
supreme scripture is understood differently.
Vivantha provides justification for saying that Bhgavata Purn
.
a
a text considered by scholars in his tradition to be the emperor of all
means of knowing
32
can illuminate or obscure the truth. The justifi-
cation involves the qualification (adhikrin) of the reader. We read out
of the text what we have the capacity to understand from the text,
nothing more. As such, the Bhgavata can deceive (like Mohin
deceives) as well as deliver the ambrosia churned from theological
effort.
Rules of Exegesis
Ordering and overcoding are both forms of exegesis, and exegesis is
a rule-bound activity. Although creative, novel, and even playful,
Vivantha and the larger commentarial tradition are always attentive
to and governed by the grammatical structure of the scriptural senten-
ces, using Indian linguistics and grammar (e.g., Pn
.
inis As
.
t
.
dhyy)
and poetics (e.g., Mammat
.
a Bhat
.
t
.
as Kvya Praka) to construct
varied sentence meanings. Vivantha never steps outside of what the
larger Indian Sanskrit linguistic tradition allows. Although giving a new
interpretation, he is not violating the rules of discourse within the
larger Sanskritic world. Commentators also redefine individual words.
Vivantha, for example, defines many of the words in the first verse of
the Bhgavata in five different ways. But each definition is justified by
quoting from an authoritative text such as a dictionary like the
Amarakoa or other canonical texts such as the Upanis
.
ads or Purn
.
as.
As long as grammar and semantics are respected, there is a lot of scope
to creatively interpret a text, and this is the sort of creative exegetical
activity that characterizes theology more than philosophy.
Signification
The first three features of reasoning discussed above involve techni-
cal knowledge of texts and traditions, and to gain that knowledge one
must receive specialized training. We might call the technical aspects
first order theology. It is first in the sense that the second depends on
it. Second order theology involves tasting, grasping, and internaliza-
tion of the objects about which the texts speak,
33
and it is here that
commentators discuss the overall significance of theological study.
32
Jva Gosvmin, Tattvasandarbha, section 18 (Jva Gosvmin 1983 and 1995).
33
Vivantha and others use words like anubhava, or a direct, unmediated experience.

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Whereas the first order is a scholastic and academic knowledge open to
all who have the time to study the relevant languages and texts (the
how of reasoning), the second provides the motive, goal, and aspiration
the reader ought to have in a Vais
.
n
.
ava context (the why).
To describe the second-order knowledge, we must again return to
the Upanis
.
ads, wherein it is argued that one should desire to know ulti-
mate reality (Brahman) through a reflection on Vedic sentences. There
is the tripartite Upanis
.
adic process of hearing the texts (ravan
.
a), think-
ing about them (manana), and contemplating them (nididhysana).
34
This process gets summarized into a single intent or injunction in the
opening passage of the Vednta-Stra: Now, then, one should desire to
know Brahman. The term used here, jijs, desire to know or
inquire, is a desiderative (sannanta) form of j, to know, and a
cognate to the Greek gnosis and English knowledge.
35
It is the specific
force of the word know that is relevant here, for it demands the first-
order theological knowledge of the revealed texts and their commenta-
ries discussed above, but it also involves knowing in the sense of a
direct apprehension (second-order theology). In both cases, theology
represents a particular sort of activity, infused with a particular sort of
desire, effort, and intention. Therefore, the practice of theology in this
Hindu context could be distinguished from other sorts of intellectual
disciplines (such as religious studies or Indology) in that it requires the
desire to knowin the sense of a direct apprehensionBrahman in
and through the process of study, but always through the technical
knowledge of scriptural words.
To add a further distinction, Vivantha says that the result of
inquiry into the nature of God as revealed in canonical text results in a
meditation on and direct apprehension of God (str 1965: 51).
Likewise he notes that the Bhgavata in its opening passage prescribes
meditation (dhmahi) on the supreme lord. For Vivantha, the
Vednta-Stra (as discussed above) and Bhgavata Purn
.
a share the
same goals, since they share the same result.
36
Theology here is distin-
guished from other sorts of intellectual activity in that it is motivated
by a desire to know the Lord such that it produces meditation on the
34
For further discussion on these terms and their implications for Hindu theology, see Clooney
(2003: 457460). See Br
.
hadran
.
yaka Upanis
.
ad (2.4.5) for their first usage.
35
As a verbal formulation, one should desire to know, one is reminded of the medieval
Christian definition of theology as faith seeking understanding.
36
Vivanthas predecessor, Jva Gosvmin, says that meditation upon the Lord used in the
Bhgavata was the authorial intent of one should desire to know ( jijs) used in the Vednta-
Stra (str 1965: 47; see also Gupta 2007: 138).

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Lord.
37
Here the commentators express the significance of theological
reasoning as leading to a meditation on the Lord.
In addition to meditation, the significance of doing theology is in
the tasting. Edwin Gerow (1977: 285) noted that were it only hyperbole
we would have no qualms in asserting that to be an Indian is to know
rasa. Rasa is the central category in Indian aesthetics; a rasa is the
aesthetic emotion one experiences while hearing a drama, the taste, as
it were, of a literary composition. In a Vais
.
n
.
ava context, however, rasa
is the devotees aesthetic experience of devotion to the Lord, something
that the Bhgavata (1.1.3) says one drinks in.
38
Returning to the churn-
ing of the ocean of milk, Vivantha says that Mohin is the offerer of
the ambrosia to the gods, which they then drink (likewise she withholds
the ambrosia from the antigods). The metaphor of drinking is the way
this Vais
.
n
.
ava Hindu tradition (and a number of others) characterizes
the direct apprehension of God, what I define as second-order knowl-
edge. While the first-order knowledge is open to anyone willing and
able to scrutinize the canonical texts, the second-order knowledge is, in
Vivanthas view, concealed from those who do not receive the favor
of God. He says the tasting or drinking of the referents of the words in
scripture is extremely delicious, difficult to obtain, passed down in
tradition, and only available to the devout (Kr
.
s
.
n
.
aankara str 1965:
54). As I have noted above, the Hindu traditions would be willing to
say that any amount of technical knowledge can be obtained by those
not in the tradition, but I think most would like to say that knowing
the actual objects about which they speak (such as Brahman, Vis
.
n
.
u,
Kr
.
s
.
n
.
a, iva, etc.) is not obtainable only by technical knowledge of text.
I have argued that the effort of churning the ocean of milk is
likened to the effort of thinking theologically about canonical text. This
is characterized in Vivanthas commentary on a lesser known text
called the Goplatpan Upanis
.
ad (2.68), which followers of Caitanya
frequently quote since it more explicitly supports a personal conception
of God. Here Vivantha makes the connection between the yoga of
devotion and theology (as churning text) more clear: By the means of
37
Philosophy as I defined it above is sometimes seen as a meditation. Udayana (tenth century)
aims to prove the existence of God through rational analysis in Nyyakusumamajar. In the
opening passages, he says that although the existence of God is indubitable, he will undertake this
rational analysis in accordance with the scriptural passage which exhorts us to think and meditate
on, as well as hear, the truth, this inquiry is being undertaken as a kind of worship itself, as a kind
of yoga (Potter 1977: 558). He then launches into a philosophical attack on the arguments against
the existence of God. For Udayana, learning and creating the arguments for God (which are not
scriptural, but support it) are a meditative philosophy, resulting in a connection (yoga) with God.
38
Vivantha defines rasa in his Bhakti-rasmr
.
ta-sindhu-bindu (1977: 138; Klostermaier 1974).

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Brahman-knowledge or by another means this entire universe is
churned (mathyate). The essence which is in the [ambrosia], this is des-
ignated as Mathur (Haridsa str 1986: 6566).
In his commentary, Vivantha writes: Through an etymological
analysis of the word Mathur,
39
he demonstrates its greatness. This
entire universewhich is [like] the ocean of milkis churned by Mt.
Mandara, i.e. the knowledge of Brahman. The word or [in the verse
above] means the yoga of devotion is also the means by which one
should churn. One obtains the essence of that, i.e. the ambrosia of
closeness to Brahman, which is in Mathur (Haridsa str 1986: 65
66). Later in this commentary, Vivantha argues that Mathur is
derived from the verbal root manth, to churn, that there is the elision
of the n is due to a grammatical rule for un
.
di affixs with the addition
of the verbal root r, to give. The morphology of manth, to churn,
is discussed in the Siddhnta Kaumud, an important Sanskrit grammar
(Vasu [1906] 2003: Vol 2, Part 2 156157). The signification, then, is
that the practice of devotion (bhakti-yoga), which was taken by the
devotional movement of the sixteenth century to be the central teaching
of all the Hindu scriptures and the most important form of religious
practice, is the instrument of churning text. Theology, then, is not
something other than religion or religious practice in his thought, but it
is just as fundamental to the production of ambrosia of intimacy with
the Lord as Mt. Mandara was for producing drinkable ambrosia.
In the next section, I address what specifically in the Hindu tradi-
tions causes one to move from the first- to the second-order knowledge
of scriptural words.
WHAT IS A HINDU THEOLOGIAN?
While there is some discussion today about what Hindu theology is
and how it operates, there is very little about how a Hindu theologian
might be distinguished from, say, a preacher, an Indologist, or a lay
Hindu. My goal here is to garner from Hindu texts the normative char-
acteristics that define a Hindu theologian. The definition I develop is
that of a scholar-practitioner whose knowledge and training is infused
with commitments to belief and religious practice, and who is informed
by scholastic training and ongoing intellectual research. A Hindu theo-
logian believes along with specific communities (however small or
39
According to the Purn
.
ic tradition, Mathur is the holy city in North India in which Kr
.
s
.
n
.
a
appeared. Today, it is one of Hinduisms most important pilgrimage sites.

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large) that choices, beliefs, and desires have a practical bearing on salva-
tion (moks
.
a), and that the development of knowledge and relationship
with divinity is central to human life.
40
While looking at the role of the teacher and enculturation into tra-
dition, I compare the features of a Hindu theologian with that of a well
and properly educated scholar of religion in the modern academy,
arguing that Hindu traditions have their own ways of distinguishing
between theologians and nontheologians, and that part of this distinc-
tion rests on the sort of education one has received. I suggest this dis-
tinction is not unlike the way scholars of religion today might
distinguish themselves from nonscholars of religion, albeit there are
some important differences too.
Hindu Theology as Arising out of Tradition
Hindu intellectual traditions have taken seriously injunctions such
as: To understand it he must go, firewood in hand, to a teacher well
versed in the Vedas, and focused on brahman (Mun
.
d
.
aka Upanis
.
ad
1.2.12). For a Hindu intellectual, going to a teacher has meant being
educated into a specific intellectual tradition. I suggest, then, that to
write theologically in this context an author must be trained within a
Hindu intellectual tradition (smpradyika), for example, aiva-
Siddhnta, kta, Vais
.
n
.
ava, Mmm
.
sika, Nyya, or Sm
.
khya-Yoga. The
distinction I wish to draw, however, is not between a theologian who
studies with a guru living in an ashram (a place of holy study and prac-
tice), and a religious studies scholar or philosopher who studies with a
professor working in a university, but between the educated and the
noneducated. And by education I mean the first-order theological
knowledge discussed in the section above. This is because an essential
feature of Hinduisms intellectual history is that texts and oral knowl-
edge systems are received in and through disciplinary succession; this is
not entirely different from the view that a scholar of religion ought to
be one trained and given a PhD from scholars who were themselves
trained as such. Indologists have noted the role that succession plays an
essential role in Indian thought. John Taber (2005: xiii), for instance,
writes: When learning a Sanskrit philosophical text it is customary in
India, even today, not just to pick it up and read it but to study it with
a teacher who will provide an oral commentary. The teachers oral
commentary is, of course, based on his teachers commentary, and so
on down the line. Christopher Minkowski (2008: 1) notes: in general
40
See Clooneys (1993: 45) definition of a theologian.

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strs [scholars of canonical texts] and their readers operated
41
in a
universe of commentary on texts received through disciplinary tradi-
tion. While not often characterized as such, part of what qualifies one
as a scholar in the academy is the assimilation into a universe of com-
mentary on text through the oral instruction of a mentor, or the first-
order technical knowledge of text that I discussed above.
The necessity of a Hindu teacher to understand Hindu scripture
was argued for by Douglas Brooks in Meditation Revolution: A History
and Theology of the Siddha Yoga Lineage (1997). William Mahony et al.
(1997: 223) writes: The teachers own understanding must necessarily
have involved the process of ravan
.
a [hearing], as well. A true teacher
listened to his or her own teacher, who was in turn taught by a previous
teacher. Since the earliest years of Indian religious history, the teacher
has therefore been regarded as the heir of a long lineage (vam
.
sa,
parampar), a line of teachers that is believed to stretch back to the
eternal moment before the beginning of time itself. Even the defini-
tion of scripture cannot be separated from the conception of the
teacher or guru. Mahony et al. (1997: 277), in describing Siddha Yoga,
defines scriptural canon as an authoritative body of lineage teachings
and practices presented by the gurus for the purpose of instructing dis-
ciples. And furthermore, A canons authoritative voice can be a living
master, whose choices and interpretations guide tradition. Thus, a
guru is a living canon, and ones assimilation of canon and authority to
teach canon is derived from study with a guru. I suggest that these are
the ways one should think about the construction of theological author-
ity in Hindu communities.
Someone in the Siddha Yoga linage might wish to say there is a spi-
ritual power that is transmitted in a supraintellectual way from guru to
student, but that is not what I mean when I state that training with a
teacher (or guru) is needed to write theologically. I am, rather, referring
to a more minimal requirement that the student receive first-order
theological knowledge through systematic instruction from a teacher.
The other features of a guru discussed in the Mun
.
d
.
aka Upanis
.
ad and
many other places (for example, that he or she must be focused on
Brahman) do not erase the need for the first-order theological training.
The introduction to this article distinguished between popular
Hinduism and theological Hinduism, and here I suggest how that dis-
tinction might help scholars of religion reconceptualize the study of
41
It is unfortunate that Minkowski used the past tense here, since there are strs today who
continue to teach the universe of commentary.

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Hinduism. Theological Hinduism refers to the scriptures and commen-
taries written in the learned languages such as Sanskrit, Tamil, and
Man
.
ipravla; it is often the domain of Indology, religious studies,
Indian philosophy, and other textual scholarship, whereas popular
Hinduism is often the domain of anthropology, ethnography, and other
social sciences. I do not wish to imply that the theological form of
Hinduism is better, or that the two should be understood as divorced
from one another, since they are often intertwined. Thus, I agree with
Christopher Fuller (1992: 6), who writes: that popular Hinduism [in
India] is degenerate textual Hinduismas some scholars have supposed
until remarkably recentlyis completely indefensible in light of the eth-
nographic evidence about the subtle complexities of demotic belief and
practice. Lay Hindus in the diaspora, even those who wish to represent
Hinduism publically, often do not recognize that the conduits of knowl-
edge and practice are in and through tradition (sampradya),
42
which is
itself often mediated through a linage of teachers into which one takes
initiation for the purpose of formal instruction. Developing and recog-
nizing the category Hindu theologian introduces a go-to source for
objective but insider information about Hinduism, one which would be
just as valuable to academics as to Hindus in the diaspora.
Good Thinking and Good Behavior
Many Hindu traditions hold as a basic presupposition that there is
a specific mode of behavior necessary for the development of knowl-
edge (Black 2011: 140), and it is often presupposed that to formally
enter a disciplinary succession through initiation, one must cultivate
that mode of behavior; I focus on the former. Although in Hindu texts
there is an undeniable and pervasive view that ethics and the acquisi-
tion of knowledge are inextricably connected, nevertheless it would be
unwise to evaluate the quality of a theology based upon an authors
ethical worth. It is difficult to determine the ethical character of any
historical figure, and many Hindu thinkers deprecate themselves
because of humility (despite their high moral standards), and many do
not explicitly declare the specifics of their practice, or anything autobio-
graphical for that matter. Therefore, the purpose of this section is to
show how Hindu texts argue that the development of knowledge is
dependent upon the cultivation of purity. Just as having the aim of
knowing Brahman distinguishes a Hindu theologian from other types
42
Sampradya is based on the verbal root d, to give, which is etymologically related to the
Latin do.

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of persons who might read Hindu texts, the desire to cultivate moral
virtues might distinguish a Hindu theologian from other types of
persons who study Hindu texts. However, I do not think that Hindu
traditions would say that those who do not cultivate a Hindu mode of
behavior are unable to understand Hinduism in a first-order sense, yet
they may argue that second-order knowledge is unavailable to those
who are not virtuous.
In the story of the churning of the ocean of milk, God in the form of
Mohin gives the ambrosia of scriptural knowledge to the gods and with-
holds it from the antigods. The Bhgavata (8.7.11) claims that the Lord
entered or diffused (according to Vivantha) himself into the bodies
of the churners as the powers of passionate activity and ignorance for the
antigods, and as the power of goodness for the gods. This is the means by
which the text is indicating that those who fail to infuse themselves with
ennobling and virtuous characteristics are going to be denied the ambro-
sia, or the liberative result of their theological churning. The cosmologi-
cal background here is the gun
.
a, or quality of nature. It is a
fundamentalyet often ignoredfeature of any theory of knowledge in
a Hindu context, since it says that one must have specific moral, hygienic,
and intellectual virtues to develop knowledge. All aspects of the material
reality are composed of three qualities of nature, and thus the human
body and mind are as well. All orthodox Hindu traditions agree that the
true nature of the self is different from the qualities of nature, but to
understand that one must purify the qualities of the mind. The Bhagavad
Gt (14.17), for example, articulates the widely held view that ones per-
sonal qualities and habits determine the sort of philosophical views one
holds, the type of food one desires, and ultimately the sort of knowledge
one is able to obtain: From goodness (sattva) is produced knowledge,
and from passionate activity (rajas) greed alone. From darkness (tamas)
is born madness, illusion and ignorance. What is being discussed here is
the belief that ones personal qualities (gun
.
a) influence the sort of knowl-
edge one has the capacity to secure. In the Bhgavata Purn
.
a (11.25),
the many types of emotional dispositions, desires, physical locations,
foods, rituals, and actions are examined in terms of the three gun
.
as, yet
these are views held throughout many textual traditions in Tantra,
Pcartra, Vednta, Sm
.
khya, and Yoga. It is, thus, necessary in this
context to cultivate the habits, conceptions, behaviors, and mores that
are influenced by goodness (sattva) to achieve higher forms of knowl-
edge. These are the epistemological views that govern how Hindus in this
context would think about theology.
For Vivantha, the three qualities of nature (goodness, passionate
activity, and ignorance) are functions of my, which he says is a real

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power of the Lord that causes illusion in the self. Goodness can be
helpful in the attainment of knowledge: In regard to the souls wisdom
and knowledge of the Supreme Self, my [in the form of goodness] is
indeed partly helpful and detrimental (Kr
.
s
.
n
.
aankara str 1965: 422).
The helpful portion of my is a power that illuminates (like a lamp)
the selfs true nature, but that is not the ultimate goal in his thought
and it only partially illuminates Gods nature (Kr
.
s
.
n
.
aankara str
1965: 422).
43
If even the very best form of my is unable to illuminate
all aspects of Gods nature, then it follows that all three qualities of
nature must ultimately be surpassed, especially for one to obtain devo-
tion (bhakti) for God (Kr
.
s
.
n
.
adsa 1966: 388). Thus, for Vivantha, the
moral restraints that a good lifestyle demand are necessary to under-
stand the true nature of God and self, and are necessary for the theolo-
gian to understand the meaning of scriptural passages, yet they are only
a skillful means toward devotion for God, which is the means by
which all three qualities of nature are transcended. It is for these
reasons that Vivantha says the gods (who were infused with the
quality of goodness) received the ambrosia after churning, whereas the
antigods (who were infused with passion and ignorance) did not.
There are other ways that ethics and knowledge are connected.
Rmnuja, for example, intertwines discipline and self-knowledge while
commenting on Bhagavad Gt (2.552.58), a section that describes
four ways that one might relinquish desire. Rmnuja states that there
is interdependence between self-knowledge and sense-restraint:
Without perception of the self, there is no cessation of attachment to
sense objects. . . . Thus, conquest of the senses depends upon percep-
tion of the self [and] perception of the self depends upon conquest of
the senses (Bhagavad Gt 2.60; Sadhale 2000: 224). In other words,
self-knowledge and self-discipline are interdependent. On Bhagavad
Gt (3.17), Vivantha also states that it is from a perception of the
bliss of the self that one becomes a renouncer of action, something
which involves a variety of moral disciplines. If one takes perception of
the self to be a standard of self-knowledge and if self-knowledge is an
aim of second-order theology, then relinquishing desire for the sense
objects becomes a necessary prerequisite.
Patajali, as a grammarian, also linked knowledge and discipline.
He talks of persons known as is
.
t
.
a, or an lite of model speakers char-
acterized as much by their moral qualities as by their language
43
Sherbow (2005: 216) notes that Vivantha also equates the sort of liberation discussed in the
Yoga Stra with kaivalya, or complete separation of matter and spirit, and he also considers it a
type of sttvika-jna, or discriminative knowledge that is endowed with goodness.

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(Cardona 1997: 551). In addition to grammatical study helping one pre-
serve and understand the Vedas properly, there is an explicit cultural
and moral imperative expected of the lite as well (Cardona 1997: 545).
Patajali as a practitioner of yoga also sought to establish the connec-
tion between moral constraints and the development of advanced forms
of meditation. In the Yoga Stra (Bryant 2009), he characterizes the
highest meditational state as complete absorption in the object of
meditation. Yet to achieve this state, which is the goal of yoga in the
Yoga Stra, one must curtail the transformations of the mind (citta-
vr
.
tti), slowing them to the point of stopping; but they are increased by
activities such as stealing, lying, or longing. The five moral restraints
discussed in Yoga Stra (2.302.31) consisting of nonviolence, truthful-
ness, not stealing, celibacy, and simplicity are considered necessary to
restrain the mental transformations, and the restrained mental transfor-
mations are essential for the development of meditative knowledge.
44
One might object that making knowledge dependent upon ethics
renders the academic study of Hinduism meaningless since it would
make Hinduism inaccessible to non-Hindus, but that is not the case.
Returning to the first- and second-order knowledge discussed above,
one could say that anyone with the time and ability to study Hindu
texts, one can deeply understand the technical aspects of the texts.
Hinduism only claims that the second orderthe immediate, esoteric,
knowledge, or the nonphysical referents of the texts wordsis closed
off from those that do not cultivate a specific mode of behavior. How
might knowledge of second-order theologyif there could even be such
a thingimpact or shape the way someone interprets first-order theol-
ogy? Put differently, how might the scholar-practitioners articulation of
Hinduism differ from that of a scholar-nonpractitioner, and what is the
relevance of the practice in whatever differences there might be? Those
are important questions, but for another article.
CONCLUSION
We need the category Hindu theology because so much of learned
Hindu thought revolves around textual interpretation and exegesis. In
this article, I have given the example of Vivantha Cakravartin, an
important scholar in the devotional tradition of North India, showing
44
The contemporary Hat
.
ha Yoga teacher B. K. S. Iyangar writes: Without firm foundations a
house cannot stand. Without the practice of the principles of yama and niyama, which lay down
firm foundations for building character, there cannot be an integrated personality. Practice of
sanas without the backing of yama and niyama is mere acrobatics (Iyengar 1995: 57).

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how he goes about the process of reasoning with texts, using the story
of the churning of the ocean of milk to illustrate it. Based on this, we
might say that just as the gods churned the ambrosia of immortality
out of the ocean of milk and drank it, so the theologian churns the
ambrosia of knowledge out of sacred texts and experiences the objects
about which the texts speak. Classifying the sort of exegetical work that
so many Hindu thinkers are preoccupied with as philosophy gives the
false impression they are primarily concerned with the use of reason
and logic to resolve religious questions when in fact many Hindu
thinkers wish to resolve religious questions by examining sacred texts,
albeit reasonably and logically. Furthermore, with the growing number
of scholars in the study of religion who identify as being both scholar
and Hindu, there is a need for the category Hindu theology to recognize
sort of constructive, exegetical, and yet rigorously academic work being
produced today. That is not to say that all literature in the area of
Hinduism is theological, but the distinction between philosophy and
theology (as defined above) will help add greater nuance in the matter
of classifying various sorts of Hindu texts.
In clarifying what Hindu theology means, how it is conducted, what
its aims are, and what characterizes the Hindu theologian I have drawn
primarily from Vais
.
n
.
ava-Hindu Sanskrit texts, so my conclusions are
most relevant to this trunk of the Banyan tree of Hinduism. In conclu-
sion, I offer a definition of Hindu theology based on the discussion
above. It first involves the academic practice of learning texts, their lan-
guages, the relevant grammatical and philosophical background of
them, ordering them into a systematic body, classifying them in a hier-
archal order, and in general learning how to provide learned exegesis.
As a form of practice, it is reading and working in a critical way with
words so as to disclose or churn out their latent but hidden meanings,
which is symbolically represented in the story of the churning of the
ocean of milk as the effort of churning. Second-order theology is a lib-
erative and devotional religious practice, or a cognitive churning of lin-
guistic formulations in the mind that is infused with the desire for
knowledge of Brahman or devotion for God. The aim and intention is
the realization of the ultimate reality (Brahman), meditation on
Brahman, liberation into Brahman, or devotion for Brahman, which is
symbolically represented as drinking the ambrosia produced after the
churn. This second order of theology involves the cultivation of reli-
gious modes of behavior (broadly construed) deemed necessary for the
development of purity, which is seen to lead to a direct and unmediated
knowledge of the nonphysical objects about which the texts speak.

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