Bhagavan Srî Krishna: Deep Religious Pluralist? Religious Pluralism in the Bhagavad Gîtå: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

The thesis of this essay is that the position on religious diversity expressed by Bhagavån Ûrî Krishna in the Bhagavad Gîtå can best be
characterized, in the terms of contemporary academic philosophical and theological discourse, as having elements of both religious pluralism and inclusivism. Like religious pluralists, Krishna affirms the efficacy of many types of religious practice. Indeed, he could be said to affirm the efficacy of all religious practice, though not the idea that all religious practice necessarily leads to the same end. Krishna’s position1 is thus in many respects close to that of a subset of religious pluralists (which includes the author of this essay) who characterize their view as deep religious pluralism—the idea that many religions have ends that are different from one another, as
understood by their practitioners, but that this is not incompatible with all of these ends being attainable through the religions specifically practiced for that purpose.