[283:7] Matt. xvii. 1-6.
[283:8] "He was pure and chaste in reality," although represented as sporting amorously, when a youth, with cowherdesses. According to the pure Vaishnava faith, however, Crishna's love for the Gopis, and especially for his favorite Rādhā, is to be explained allegorically, as symbolizing the longing of the human soul for the Supreme. (Prof. Monier Williams: Hinduism, p. 144.) Just as the amorous "Song of Solomon" is said to be allegorical, and to mean "Christ's love for his church."
[283:9] See Indian Antiquities, iii. 46, and Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 273.
[283:10] John, xiii.
[283:11] Vishnu Purana, p. 492, note 3.
[283:12] I. Timothy, iii. 16.
[283:13] Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. Crishna is Vishnu in human form. "A more personal, and, so to speak, human god than Siva was needed for the mass of the people—a god who could satisfy the yearnings of the human heart for religion of faith (bhakti)—a god who could sympathize with, and condescend to human wants and necessities. Such a god was found in the second member of the Tri-mūrti. It was as Vishnu that the Supreme Being was supposed to exhibit his sympathy with human trials, and his love for the human race.
"If Siva is the great god of the Hindu Pantheon, to whom adoration is due from all indiscriminately, Vishnu is certainly its most popular deity. He is the god selected by far the greater number of individuals as their Saviour, protector and friend, who rescues them from the power of evil, interests himself in their welfare, and finally admits them to his heaven. But it is not so much Vishnu in his own person as Vishnu in his incarnations, that effects all this for his votaries." (Prof. Monier Williams: Hinduism, p. 100.)
[283:14] Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Jesus is the Son in human form.
[284:1] Williams' Hinduism, p. 211.