SV: creation of human kind

[Mani Varadarajan]

Naga Ganesan writes:
>
> The Vaishnava bhakti tradition of the power of God
> to cancel karma is similar the Mahayana doctrine
> where bodhisattvas cancel the karma of those suffering
> in different types of hell (cf. Har dayal, Bodhisattva
> doctrine in Buddhist sanskrit lit.)
>

Are you implying that this is the origin of the Vaishnava
doctrine? I find this a highly suspect premise, and I
urge you to do further research before throwing presumptive
statements out in a scholarly forum.

The idea of a Creator God's ability to cancel karma is
contained in many of the Upanishads, and one need not
struggle to interpret them in this manner. For example:

        yadA paSya paSyati ...
          rukmavarNam kartAram ISam |
        tadA vidvAn puNyapApe vidhUya
          paramam sAmyam upaiti ||  (mundaka 3.1.3)

[Pardon any errors, I am quoting from memory.]

Here a vision of a Lord, described as the supreme Creator
in earlier verses, is said to cause the knower to shed
off all merit and demerit (karma) and attain extreme
similarity to the Creator Itself.

I don't mean this to be conclusive proof of the Vaishnava
theory having its origin in the Vedas.  At the same time,
I find these short, one paragraph theories annoying,
especially when they are apparently unresearched and
therefore unsubstantiated.

Mani