Bhakti and Embodiment
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Ānandavardhana’s Dhvanyāloka, in developing the dhvani theory of poetry in which rasa assumes a central role, extended the category of rasa beyond the sphere of drama into the domain of poetics. According to the dhvani school as expounded by Abhinavagupta, everyone has latent impressions (vāsanās) of the sthāyi-bhāvas generated by previous emotional experiences. If the dramatist or poet is successful in suggesting the presence of a particular sthāyi-bhāva, such as love (rati), in the characters of the play or poem, then the latent impressions of the emotion will be aroused in the sahṛdayas, sensitive persons of refined taste, who view the play or hear the poem, enabling them to experience the distilled essence of the emotion. Savoring of the distilled essence of the emotion is termed rasa and leads to an apprehension of the universal essence of the emotion that transcends the ego-bound concerns of the individual sahṛdayas and is experienced as pure impersonal joy. Abhinavagupta compares the pure aesthetic enjoyment that results from the savoring of rasa to the bliss (ānanda) that arises from the realization of Brahman.
Śṛṅgāra-rasa, the erotic rasa, which is savored as the distilled essence of the sthāyi-bhāva of rati, love, is the most celebrated of all the rasas. The preeminence of the erotic rasa is emphasized in Bhoja’s Śṛṅgāra-Prakāśa, which provides a detailed analysis of every phase of śṛṅgāra-rasa. Bhoja’s theory of rasa is unique in that, in contrast to other exponents of Indian aesthetics, he insists that there is only one rasa: śṛṅgāra-rasa. Moreover, in contrast to Abhinavagupta’s aesthetic theory, in which the experience of rasa is an impersonal experience that is utterly distinct from the sthāyi-bhāva, in Bhoja’s theory the experience of rasa is a personal emotional experience that is an intensified form of the sthāyi-bhāva. It is likely that Bhoja’s reflections on śṛṅgāra-rasa had a significant influence on the rasa theory expounded by Rūpa Gosvāmin in the Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu and Ujjvalanīlamaṇi.12
From Aesthetic Taste to Flavors of Bhakti-Rasa
In Rūpa’s theory of bhakti-rasa, the aesthetic experience of rasa is reimagined as a transcendent (alaukika) religious experience that is the culmination of the path of bhakti. The various components of classical Indian aesthetics—sthāyi-bhāvas, vibhāvas, anubhāvas, sāttvika-bhāvas, and vyabhicāri-bhāvas—are reformulated as critical components of the divine drama, Kṛṣṇa’s līlā, that is recorded in literary form in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa.
The tenth book of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, as discussed in Chapter 1, recounts the divine drama through which Kṛṣṇa, the supreme Bhagavān, descends to earth at the end of Dvāpara Yuga in approximately 3000 BCE and appears in the form of a cowherd boy as Gopāla Kṛṣṇa. Gopāla Kṛṣṇa is celebrated as a playful youth who during his sojourn on earth frolics with his fellow cowherds (gopas) and cowmaidens (gopīs) in the area of Vraja in North India. In the Gauḍīya interpretation of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa’s account, this earthly līlā, which is represented in the Bhāgavata as occurring at a particular time and place in history, is the manifest līlā, prakaṭa līlā, that is the terrestrial counterpart of the unmanifest līlā, aprakaṭa līlā, that goes on eternally within Bhagavān in the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, beyond the material realm of prakṛti and beyond Brahman. The various companions of Kṛṣṇa in Vraja—his foster parents Nanda and Yaśodā, attendants, cowherd friends, and cowmaiden lovers—are ascribed the status of his eternal associates, parikaras or pārṣadas, who participate in his essential nature as expressions of the svarūpa-śakti and revel with him for all eternity in the unmanifest līlā.
In Rūpa’s appropriation of rasa theory, the Bhāgavata Purāṇa’s account of Kṛṣṇa’s līlā is recast as an aesthetic-religious drama in which Kṛṣṇa and his eternal associates in Vraja assume the roles of the central characters and the bhakta, the devotee of Kṛṣṇa, assumes the role of the religious aesthete (sahṛdaya) who relishes the divine play. This theory gives precedence to rati—and more specifically to Kṛṣṇa-rati, love for Kṛṣṇa—as the principal sthāyi-bhāva, which matures in the heart of the bhakta and is savored as the bhakti-rasa of preman, the pure transcendent enjoyment of supreme love. “The sthāyi-bhāva here is declared to be that love (rati) which has Śrī Kṛṣṇa as its object (viṣaya).”13 Rūpa describes the sthāyi-bhāva of Kṛṣṇa-rati as a special form of śuddha-sattva, pure luminous being, that participates in Kṛṣṇa’s essential nature (svarūpa) as a manifestation of the mahā-śakti. Jīva Gosvāmin’s commentary glosses the terms śuddha-sattva and mahā-śakti as the hlādinī-śakti, the blissful aspect of the svarūpa-śakti, and thus in this perspective rati, the love for Kṛṣṇa that arises in the heart of the bhakta, is the spontaneous expression of Kṛṣṇa’s own blissful nature.14 The sthāyi-bhāva of Kṛṣṇa-rati finds fruition in its fully mature expression in the bhakti-rasa of preman, which is represented as the intensified form of Kṛṣṇa-rati. The sthāyi-bhāva is compared to a ray of the sun of preman that softens the heart and that gradually expands into the full sunshine of preman, which melts the heart completely.15 “When the bhāva has softened the heart completely and is very intense in nature…it is called preman by the wise.”16
According to the theory of bhakti-rasa, the sthāyi-bhāva of Kṛṣṇa-rati manifests in five distinct modes of devotional relationship, or bhāvas, which are forms of primary Kṛṣṇa-rati: (1) śānti, tranquillity; (2) prīti, respectful affection; (3) sakhya, friendship; (4) vātsalya, parental love; and (5) priyatā or madhurā, erotic love.17 This theory recognizes that, among the diverse array of bhaktas, the particular form of rati towards which each bhakta is inclined is determined by his or her unique inherent nature (svarūpa) as a vessel (āśraya or pātra) of love for Kṛṣṇa.
Rati assumes a particular form due to the particular nature of the vessel (pātra), just as the sun’s reflection assumes a particular form in a crystal or other object.18
The five forms of primary Kṛṣṇa-rati find fruition in five corresponding flavors of the bhakti-rasa of preman, which are called primary rasas and are ranked hierarchically, from lowest to highest, according to increasing degrees of intimacy: (1) śānta, tranquil; (2) dāsya or prīta, serviceful affection; (3) sakhya or preyas, friendship; (4) vātsalya or vatsala, parental love; and (5) mādhurya or madhura, erotic love.19 The theory of bhakti-rasa thus incorporates two of the nine rasas of classical Indian aesthetics in its hierarchy of five primary rasas: śānta-rasa, the tranquil rasa, which is positioned at the bottom of the hierarchy, and śṛṅgāra-rasa or mādhurya-rasa, the erotic rasa, which is ranked at the top of the hierarchy. The other seven rasas of Indian aesthetics—hāsya (comic), adbhuta (wondrous), vīra (heroic), karuṇa (tragic), raudra (furious), bhayānaka (terrifying), and bībhatsa (disgusting)—are relegated to the status of secondary rasas, for they are based on seven corresponding emotions (bhāvas) that are nourished by contracted forms of Kṛṣṇa-rati but are not direct manifestations of śuddha-sattva, pure luminous being.20
The Gauḍīya theology of superordination domesticates and subordinates the yoga-mārga by including śānta-rasa in its hierarchy of rasas, which it frames as a meditative form of bhakti based on Kṛṣṇa-rati in which Kṛṣṇa is experienced in the state of samādhi as Paramātman and appears in his four-armed aiśvarya form as Viṣṇu. In contrast to the practitioner of the aṣṭāṅga-yoga system of Pātañjala Yoga, whose meditative practice leads to asamprajñāta samādhi or nirvikalpa samādhi, a distinctionless state of absorption in the formless Self (puruṣa), the adherent of śānta-rasa is represented as attaining a higher state of samādhi that is characterized by a direct visionary experience (sākṣāt-kāra) of Kṛṣṇa’s four-armed form as Vāsudeva, or Viṣṇu.21
That bliss (ānanda) which, due to the complete destruction of all ignorance, manifested in the meditative state of nirvikalpa samādhi became concentrated and increased ten-millionfold when the Lord of the Yādavas [Vāsudeva] appeared directly (sākṣāt) to me.22
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Although those yogins who take up this purely meditative form of bhakti may experience Paramātman, the intermediary aspect of the Godhead, and thereby attain a higher state of samādhi than the practitioners of aṣṭāṅga-yoga, the early Gauḍīya authorities ultimately relegate śānta-rasa to the lowest rung of the hierarchy of rasas because it does not entail an intimate emotional relationship with Kṛṣṇa in his fullness as svayaṃ Bhagavān. Moreover, as we shall see, they claim that the adherent of śānta-rasa does not attain the highest form of samādhi that involves a direct cognition of Kṛṣṇa’s two-armed gopa form—which is the svayaṃ-rūpa, essential form, of his absolute body as Bhagavān—and of his aprakaṭa līlā.
The paradigmatic exemplars of the other four forms of rasa are the eternal associates of Kṛṣṇa in Vraja, who are represented as the eternally perfect (nitya-siddha) vessels (āśrayas) of love for Gopāla Kṛṣṇa as pūrṇa Bhagavān. Dāsya-rasa, the rasa of serviceful affection, is exemplified by the various attendants of Kṛṣṇa in Vraja, who are respectful, serviceful, and submissive in attending to his every need. Sakhya-rasa, the rasa of friendship, is exemplified by the cowherd boys of Vraja, who romp and play with their companion Kṛṣṇa with carefree affection, adoring him as the first among equals. Vātsalya-rasa, the rasa of parental love, is exemplified by Kṛṣṇa’s elders and more specifically by his foster parents in Vraja, Nanda and Yaśodā, who care for and cherish Kṛṣṇa as an adorable, mischievous child.
Mādhurya-rasa, the rasa of erotic love expressed in the lover-beloved relationship, is exemplified by the gopīs, the cowmaidens of Vraja, who are completely consumed by the intoxicating power of preman for their cowherd lover Kṛṣṇa. As the highest in the hierarchy of rasas, mādhurya-rasa is celebrated as the most intimate, refined, and sublime expression of preman. The gopīs are represented as the paradigmatic exemplars of mādhurya-rasa and of erotic-ecstatic viraha-bhakti, alternating between the impassioned agony of separation (vipralambha) and the intoxicating bliss of union (sambhoga). Rādhā is singled out among the gopīs as the perfect embodiment of mādhurya-rasa who alone gives consummate expression to the enraptured devotion of preman. Moreover, as discussed in Chapter 1, on the level of the unmanifest līlā that goes on eternally within Bhagavān in the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, Rādhā is ascribed a special ontological status as the quintessential expression of the hlādinī-śakti who embodies Kṛṣṇa’s bliss and from whom the other gopīs emanate as manifestations of that bliss.23
Rūpa’s theory of bhakti-rasa thus provides a hierarchical assessment of the various flavors of the bhakti-rasa of preman that encompasses the two forms of bhakti discussed at the beginning of this chapter, with the meditative form of bhakti relegated to the lowest rung of the hierarchy and the erotic-ecstatic form of bhakti represented as the pinnacle of realization. Śānta-rasa, the meditative form of bhakti that culminates in an experience of Paramātman, is ranked at the bottom of the hierarchy of rasas because it is devoid of an intimate emotional relationship with Kṛṣṇa as svayaṃ Bhagavān. At the same time primacy of place is allotted to mādhurya-rasa, the intensely intimate, emotional, and ecstatic form of bhakti embodied by the gopīs. Haberman remarks regarding the typology of religious experience established by Rūpa’s theory of bhakti-rasa:
Rūpa has created a typology of religious experience that ranks the various types of possible ultimate relationships in terms of intimacy with the divine and intensity of emotion. Within this typology Rūpa is able to place both the Peaceful (śānta) experience of the ascetic yoga traditions, which often define the ultimate state as the absence of all emotions, and the Amorous (śṛṅgāra) experience of passionate devotion, which seeks to utilize the power of all emotions to establish a solid connection with the divine as beloved. These two impulses represent polar tensions that have defined and enlivened much creative debate within Hindu philosophy, and Rūpa’s presentation provides yet another way of viewing their relationship.24
The Embodied Aesthetics of the Divine Play
Rūpa’s theory of bhakti-rasa ascribes a central role to sādhana-bhakti, the Gauḍīya regimen of devotional practices, as the means through which the sthāyi-bhāva of Kṛṣṇa-rati, love for Kṛṣṇa, is generated.
Dedicated devotion to sādhana arouses a taste (ruci) for Hari, then generates attachment (āsakti) to him, and then engenders love (rati) for him.25
Once the sthāyi-bhāva of Kṛṣṇa-rati has manifested in the heart of the bhakta, the embodied practices of sādhana-bhakti also serve as the means through which rati is raised to the supreme state of the bhakti-rasa of preman.
In his discussion of the path of sādhana-bhakti, Rūpa introduces the technical terminology of Indian aesthetics in order to explain the specific mechanisms through which Kṛṣṇa-rati is raised to the relishable state of bhakti-rasa.
This sthāyi-bhāva, Kṛṣṇa-rati, is raised by means of the vibhāvas, anubhāvas, sāttvikas, and vyabhicāris to a relishable state in the hearts of bhaktas through hearing (śravaṇa) and other practices, and it thereby becomes bhakti-rasa.26
As discussed earlier, the vibhāvas, anubhāvas, sāttvika-bhāvas, and vyabhicāri-bhāvas are described in the Nāṭya-Śāstra and later aesthetic works as the four aesthetic components that the dramatist or poet utilizes in order to suggest the presence of a particular sthāyi-bhāva in the characters of the play or poem so that the sahṛdayas who view the play or hear the poem can savor the corresponding rasa as pure aesthetic enjoyment. In Rūpa’s reformulation these four aesthetic components are elements of Kṛṣṇa’s līlā, the divine play, which bhaktas enjoy through hearing recitations of the līlā (līlā-śravaṇa) as recounted in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa or other texts, witnessing dramatic performances of līlā episodes (rāsa-līlās), and other forms of sādhana. In this context the vibhāvas, anubhāvas, sāttvika-bhāvas, and vyabhicāri-bhāvas serve as the means through which the sthāyi-bhāva of Kṛṣṇa-rati matures in the hearts of bhaktas so that they can savor the ambrosial nectar of the bhakti-rasa of preman as pure transcendent enjoyment of supreme love.27
In accordance with the conventions of classical Indian aesthetics, Rūpa’s discussion of the vibhāvas distinguishes between the ālambana-vibhāvas, or substantial stimulants, and the uddīpana-vibhāvas, or enhancing stimulants. The ālambana-vibhāvas are Kṛṣṇa, who is the object (viṣaya) of love, and his bhaktas, who are the vessels (āśrayas or ādhāras) of love.28 Rūpa celebrates Kṛṣṇa, the central character in the divine play, as the “crown-jewel of heroic lovers (nāyakas)” and provides a detailed account of his forms and qualities.29 The account begins with a description of Kṛṣṇa’s svarūpa, essential form, as a beautiful two-armed young cowherd:
The sweet form (mūrti) of the enemy of Madhu [Kṛṣṇa] brings me intense joy. His neck has three lines like a conch, his clever eyes are charming like lotuses, his blue-black limbs are more resplendent than the tamāla tree,…his chest displays the Śrīvatsa mark, and his hands are marked with the discus, conch, and other emblems.… This lover has a beautiful body (aṅga) and is endowed with all auspicious marks, radiant, luminous, powerful, eternally young.30
While the major portion of Rūpa’s analysis of the ālambana-vibhāvas focuses on the nature of Kṛṣṇa, the divine object (viṣaya) of love, he also provides a brief account of the qualities of Kṛṣṇa bhaktas, who are the vessels (āśrayas) of love. His taxonomy classifies bhaktas into five principal categories corresponding to the five primary bhāvas, or modes of devotional relationship, and their respective rasas: tranquil, servant, friend, parent or other elder, and lover. Within each of these five categories of bhaktas Rūpa distinguishes three possible levels of spiritual attainment: sādhakas, practitioners who are following the path of sādhana-bhakti but are not yet perfected; samprāpta-siddhas, bhaktas who have obtained perfection through the practice of sādhana-bhakti; and nitya-siddhas, the eternally perfect associates of Kṛṣṇa in Vra
ja who have never been subjected to the bondage of saṃsāra.31 This schema thus includes both the paradigmatic bhaktas who are the central characters in the eternal līlā of Kṛṣṇa and the bhaktas who engage the līlā through hearing stories of the divine play and other forms of sādhana. This point is highly significant, for in the final analysis bhakti-rasa functions not simply as a theory of religious aesthetics but above all as a path to realization. In contrast to the secular aesthete, the goal of the bhakta is not simply to attain a temporary state of pure aesthetic enjoyment through hearing recitations of līlā narratives or witnessing dramatic performances of līlā episodes on the manifest plane of human existence. Rather, the ultimate goal of the bhakta is to attain an eternal state of pure transcendent enjoyment through direct experiential realization of Kṛṣṇa’s līlā on the unmanifest plane of the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana. Having become a samprāpta-siddha, the perfected bhakta attains a direct cognition (sākṣāt-kāra) of Kṛṣṇa and the aprakaṭa līlā, unmanifest līlā, that goes on eternally as self-referral play within the Godhead. In this state of realization the jīva not only awakens to its true identity as an aṃśa of Bhagavān but also, in accordance with its unique inherent nature (svarūpa), reclaims its distinctive role in the aprakaṭa līlā in relation to Bhagavān—whether that of a servant, friend, elder, or lover.