Bhakti and Embodiment
Page 30
The implication of this passage is that the purifying potency of the nāmans of Bhagavān derives from his living presence in his names, which as his sound-embodiments contain his essence and his attributes (guṇas). When the bhakta utters the divine names, Bhagavān manifests his presence before the utterer, who gains the ability to directly experience the Lord’s attributes contained in his names. Utterance of the divine names thus serves as a means of activating the divine presence and more specifically the divine attributes contained in the names, and thus by implication the expiatory potency of nāma-kīrtana—which alone is held to be completely efficacious in purifying the mind—derives from Bhagavān himself. This implication is made explicit in another passage in the Bhāgavata:
Established in the hearts of human beings, Bhagavān, the supreme Puruṣa, drives away all evils (doṣas) occasioned by Kali Yuga and arising from objects, places, and persons. When heard about (śruta), sung about (saṃkīrtita), meditated on (dhyāta), and worshiped or even honored, Bhagavān abides in the hearts of human beings and destroys their sins (aśubhas) from thousands of lifetimes.… By Vedic learning, austerities, breath-control, compassion, bathing in sacred places, vows, gift-giving, and muttering prayers, the mind cannot attain the same state of absolute purity (atyanta-śuddhi) as it does when the limitless Bhagavān is established in the heart.67
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa establishes a direct connection between the purifying power of nāma-kīrtana and its liberating power, for when the bhakta’s accumulated sins from thousands of lifetimes are destroyed along with their residual karmic impressions, the root cause of bondage is eliminated and he or she attains liberation (mukti) from saṃsāra.68 Moreover, the Bhāgavata emphasizes that even dog-eaters and other outcastes—who are condemned by the Dharma-Śāstras to an irredeemable state of congenital impurity—are purified by śravaṇa and kīrtana and are liberated from the negative effects of their past actions that led to their current birth in an outcaste family.69
Brahmanical exponents of the theurgic efficacy of the Vedic mantras have developed an intricate system of mnemonic techniques to ensure absolute accuracy in recitation of the Vedic mantras, for they insist that only by proper pronunciation of the primordial sounds of the mantras will the recitation be efficacious in maintaining the cosmic order. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa, in expounding the soteriological efficacy of the nāmans of Kṛṣṇa, insists, in contrast, that even if the divine name is pronounced incorrectly or uttered inadvertently it is efficacious in purifying the heart and mind of the utterer. The Bhāgavata emphasizes this point when relating the story of Ajāmila, a sinful brahmin who has become infatuated with a low-caste prostitute and fallen from the path of varṇāśrama-dharma. At the time of his death, when the messengers of Yama, the god of death, come to take him away, Ajāmila calls out to his son, who is named Nārāyaṇa, and as soon as he utters “Nārāyaṇa” the messengers of Viṣṇu appear and save him from the noose of Yama. The messengers of Viṣṇu then expound Bhāgavata dharma to the messengers of Yama, in which they explain that Ajāmila, by his unintentional utterance of the divine name when he pronounced the four syllables “Nā-rā-ya-ṇa,” was spontaneously purified and released from the negative effects of the sinful actions committed by him not only in the current lifetime but also in innumerable previous births. The divine name is declared to be inviolable and to maintain its purifying potency as an efficacious mantra irrespective of the inner state or intention of the utterer or the circumstances under which it is uttered.
They declare that the utterance of a name (nāma-grahaṇa) of the Lord of Vaikuṇṭha destroys all sins (aghas), even if it is intended to designate someone else or is uttered in jest or disrespectfully or as a musical interjection. If a person unintentionally utters (root ah) “Hari” when he has fallen down, stumbled, broken [a bone], or been bitten, afflicted with pain, or beaten, he does not deserve the torments of hell.… The name (nāman) of the glorious Lord, when pronounced (saṃkīrtita) knowingly or unknowingly, burns up a person’s sins (aghas), as a fire burns up fuel. Just as the most potent medicine produces an effect even when taken by accident unknowingly, this mantra manifests its efficacy even when uttered (udāhṛta) by accident unknowingly.70
According to the Bhāgavata’s account, Ajāmila, having been released from the noose of Yama by his inadvertent utterance of the Lord’s name, retires to Gaṅgādvāra (Haridvāra) on the bank of the Gaṅgā River. There he casts off his material body (kalevara) and attains that supreme state of liberation (mukti) in which he realizes his eternal form (svarūpa) and ascends to the transcendent abode (dhāman) of Bhagavān.71
Enthralled with the Name
The ultimate fruit of nāma-kīrtana, according to the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, is bhakti, devotion, and realization of the supreme Bhagavān, who is the object of devotion. The Bhāgavata celebrates nāma-kīrtana as both the means to and expression of Kṛṣṇa bhakti.
Devotion to the divine names engenders the madness (unmāda) of devotion, melting the heart and leading to experiential realization of Bhagavān, whose presence is embodied in his names.
Hearing (root śru) about the most auspicious births and activities of the wielder of the discus and singing (root gā) his names (nāmans) designating his births and activities, which are celebrated throughout the world, he [the bhakta] should wander about free from attachment and shame. Dedicated to this way of life and having engendered passionate love (anurāga) by singing the names (nāma-kīrti) of his beloved Lord, his heart melting, he laughs loudly, weeps, roars, sings, and dances like a madman (unmādavat), beyond the ways of the world.… Just as when one is engaged in eating, satisfaction, nourishment, and relief from hunger arise simultaneously with each morsel of food, for a person who has taken refuge in the Lord, devotion (bhakti), experiential realization (anubhava) of the supreme Lord, and detachment (virakti) from everything else arise simultaneously.72
While nāma-kīrtana thus serves as a means of cultivating bhakti, the Bhāgavata emphasizes that as bhakti deepens and matures in the highest stages of realization, it in turn finds expression in spontaneous bodily manifestations that include ecstatic utterances of the divine names.
Having heard (root śam + ni) about his [the Lord’s] activities, incomparable qualities, and heroic exploits carried out by the forms he assumes for the purpose of līlā (līlā-tanus), he [the bhakta] sings loudly (root gā + ud) with an open throat, roars, and dances, his body hair bristling with exceeding delight and his voice stammering with tears. Like a person possessed by a spirit, he sometimes laughs and at other times weeps, meditates (root dhyā), or pays homage to people. Breathing deeply suddenly, he unabashedly exclaims (root vac), “O Hari! O Lord of the universe! O Nārāyaṇa!” his mind absorbed in the Self (Ātman). Liberated (mukta) from all bondage, his mind and body transformed to be like the Lord’s through contemplation of the divine nature, and his latent karmic seeds and impressions burnt up by means of the preeminent method of devotion (bhakti-prayoga), a person attains Adhokṣaja [Kṛṣṇa].73
In the final analysis the Bhāgavata Purāṇa celebrates nāma-kīrtana as both the preeminent method of realization and an ecstatic expression of the realized state. Nāma-kīrtana is cherished not only by those who seek liberation from the bondage of material existence but also by those who are established in the state of realization.74 Even the residents of Bhagavān’s transcendent abode in Vaikuṇṭha engage unceasingly in kīrtana, eternally enthralled with the divine names.75
From Nāma-Avatāra to Nāma-Saṃkīrtana: Gauḍīya Perspectives on the Name
The early Gauḍīya authorities, while building on the formulations of mantra and nāman found in Vedic texts and the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, go beyond these earlier formulations by developing a multileveled ontology that provides a theological foundation for their constructions of nāman. In his landmark essay on the theology of the name in the Gauḍīya tradition, Norvin Hein remarks:
In the line of those Vaiṣṇavas wh
o use the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, there is a special understanding that the instrument through which the Divine Presence is mediated is the sung Name itself. The chanting of the names of God is a human activity, admittedly; but it is an occasion for a superhuman activity—the descent of God into the presence of His devotees. The voicing of a divine name brings realization of God’s presence because a name of God is not just a sound, referring to a reality that is something other than itself. In the common fund of Hindu thought, a metaphysical status and function pertains to a thing’s name. A name, in comparison with a thing’s phenomenal aspect, is…a subtler level of its reality and an approach to the essence of the thing named.… [F]or bhaktas like the Caitanyites…a true name of God is a genuine modality of God’s being or is God himself. That is why, in the reciting of sacred names, the mysterious Presence is often felt: God is there.76
Heins’s comment highlights two aspects of the name that are critical to the Gauḍīya theology of the name: the name as a “genuine modality of God’s being” that is ultimately identified with God himself, and the name as a “descent of God.” In the distinctive multileveled ontology that is articulated by the early Gauḍīya authorities as part of their discourse of embodiment, these two aspects of the name are correlated with different levels of reality and different levels of divine embodiment. On the transcosmic level beyond the material realm of prakṛti and beyond Brahman, in the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, where Kṛṣṇa revels eternally in his essential nature as svayaṃ Bhagavān, the name, nāman, is represented as nondifferent from his essence, svarūpa, and his absolute body, vigraha. On the material plane, Kṛṣṇa is represented as descending from his transcendent abode to the gross material realm in an array of different nāma-avatāras or varṇa-avatāras, avatāras in the form of names, which manifest as mesocosmic sound-embodiments through which human beings can engage the divine presence by means of such practices as nāma-kīrtana, singing the name, and nāma-śravaṇa, hearing the name.
The key components of the Gauḍīya theology of the name are encapsulated by Rūpa Gosvāmin in his Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu and in his Kṛṣṇa Nāmāṣṭaka, a hymn that celebrates the name of Kṛṣṇa in eight verses. Jīva Gosvāmin elaborates on the ontology of the name and the central practices through which the name is engaged in his Bhagavat Sandarbha and Bhakti Sandarbha, respectively. Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, in his hagiography of Caitanya’s life and teachings in the Caitanya Caritāmṛta, builds on Rūpa’s and Jīva’s reflections on the ontology of the name, while at the same time, as we shall see, he goes beyond the formulations of both Gosvāmins in providing an extended treatment of Caitanya’s role in promulgating the practice of nāma-kīrtana—and more specifically nāma-saṃkīrtana, communal singing of the divine names—as the highest form of sādhana-bhakti in Kali Yuga.77
The central role ascribed to the name in Gauḍīya theology and practice is thus held to derive from Caitanya himself, who celebrates the name in four verses of the Śikṣāṣṭaka, the eight verses traditionally ascribed to him:78
Saṃkīrtana of the name of Śrī Kṛṣṇa is completely victorious, purifying the mirror of the mind, extinguishing the great conflagration of material existence, spreading moonlight to the night-blossoming lotus of good fortune, enlivening the bride of knowledge (vidyā), expanding the ocean of bliss (ānanda), arousing the taste of complete ambrosial nectar (amṛta) at every step, and bathing the souls of all.79
You have manifested manifold names (nāmans) in which you have invested all of your inherent power (śakti), and no fixed time has been prescribed for remembering (smaraṇa) them. Such is your grace, O Bhagavān.…80
He who is more humble than even the grass, who is more forbearing than a tree, and who is free from pride while giving honor to others should continually practice kīrtana of the name of Hari.81
When, in taking up your name (nāman), will my eyes fill with streams of flowing tears, my voice choke with stammering speech, and my body (vapus) thrill with bristling body hair?82
These four verses attributed to Caitanya present in seminal form a number of the central themes that are emphasized in Gauḍīya discursive representations and practices pertaining to the name as formulated by Rūpa, Jīva, and Kṛṣṇadāsa: (1) the ontological status of the names of Kṛṣṇa as his sound-embodiments that contain his inherent essence and śakti; (2) the power of the name to purify and to bring liberation from the devouring fires of saṃsāric existence; (3) the capacity of the name to enliven the taste of ambrosial nectar, amṛta or rasa, and more specifically the nectar of prema-rasa; and (4) the pivotal role ascribed to the practice of nāma-saṃkīrtana as a means of activating the transformative power of the name and fashioning devotional bodies that thrill with the intoxicating madness of devotion.
Ontology of the Name
The ontology of the name forms a critical component of the Gauḍīya discourse of divine embodiment. In this discourse, as discussed in Chapter 1, Kṛṣṇa is represented as maintaining the integrity of his vigraha, absolute body, while at the same time he multiplies himself and assumes limitless divine forms on the transcosmic, macrocosmic, and microcosmic planes. While he maintains the singularity of his vigraha in its svayaṃ-rūpa, essential form, as a cowherd boy in the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, Kṛṣṇa manifests multiple forms on the transcosmic plane as the four prābhava-vilāsas who reside in the transcendent realms of Mathurā and Dvārakā and as the twenty-four vaibhava-vilāsas and five classes of svāṃśa avatāras—puruṣa-avatāras, guṇa-avatāras, līlā-avatāras, manvantara-avatāras, and yuga-avatāras—who reside in their respective abodes in the transcendent domain of Paravyoman. Through the various classes of svāṃśa avatāras, he descends from the transcosmic plane in an array of corporeal forms—including divine bodies, human bodies, animal bodies, and various hybrid forms—to accomplish specific tasks appropriate to particular cycles of time in particular locales in the material realm of prakṛti. In the multileveled ontology of the name, the multiple manifestations of Kṛṣṇa’s name are represented as the sound correlates of his forms on the various planes of existence. Kṛṣṇa is represented as maintaining in the transcendent Vraja-dhāman the integrity of his pūrṇa nāman, his singular transcendent name in its complete fullness, which is identical on that level with his vigraha, absolute body, and his svarūpa, essential nature. This pūrṇa nāman, while remaining one, assumes manifold forms on the transcosmic plane, first, as the numerous names that designate different aspects of Gopāla Kṛṣṇa in the transcendent Vraja-dhāman; second, as the names of the four prābhava-vilāsas in the transcendent realms of Mathurā and Dvārakā; and, third, as the names of the twenty-four vaibhava-vilāsas and the various svāṃśa avatāras in the transcendent domain of Paravyoman. In this multileveled ontology of the name, the nāma-avatāras are ascribed a special function as the mesocosmic sound-embodiments through which Kṛṣṇa descends from the transcosmic plane and manifests through the vehicle of human speech as audible names on the gross material plane.
In developing this multileveled ontology, Rūpa Gosvāmin, Jīva Gosvāmin, and Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja engage in a range of reflections concerning the relationship of the ontology of the names of Kṛṣṇa to the ontology of Vedic language, the nature of the transcendent pūrṇa nāman, and the mechanisms through which the name manifests on earth as many nāma-avatāras.
Kṛṣṇa-Nāman as the Essence of the Vedas and the Essence of All Mantras
One of the starting-points for Gauḍīya reflections on the ontology of the name concerns the criteria by which one determines, first, which names, among the many names of Kṛṣṇa, are true nāma-avatāras that are self-manifesting expressions of his essential nature, as distinct from fabricated names that are products of conventional human language; and, second, which name, among the many nāma-avatāras, is the pūrṇa nāman, the most perfect and complete name that is identical with Kṛṣṇa’s essential n
ature and the essence (sāra) of all divine names and of all mantras.
Jīva provides the basis for determining which names of Kṛṣṇa are true nāma-avatāras by grounding the ontology of the divine names in the ontology of Vedic language. His arguments regarding the ontological status of the names of Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavat Sandarbha build upon his arguments in the Tattva Sandarbha regarding the transcendent authority of the Vedas, the ontology of Vedic language, and the preeminent status of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa as the sovereign of all śāstras. As discussed in Chapter 3, in order to establish the uncreated status (apauruṣeyatva), eternality (nityatva), and intrinsic authority (svataḥ-prāmāṇya) of the Vedas, Jīva makes use of the technical terminology and doctrines of the Mīmāṃsā philosophy of language, including the Mīmāṃsaka doctrine that there is an inherent (autpattika) and eternal (nitya) connection between the Vedic word (śabda) and its meaning (artha). In addition, he invokes prooftexts from Vedic texts as well as the Mahābhārata in order to establish that the eternal Vedic words (śabdas) serve as the archetypal plan through which the creator principle, Prajāpati or Brahmā, projects all beings into concrete manifestation according to the same fixed pattern in every cycle. According to this perspective, as discussed earlier, the language of the Vedas is a natural language—not a conventional language fabricated by human beings—in which each name in the Vedas contains within it the subtle essence and structure of the corresponding form. Having established the transcendent authority of the Vedas and the ontological status of the Vedic language, Jīva extends the Vedic canon beyond the circumscribed corpus of śruti texts by ascribing Vedic status to the two main categories of smṛti texts, Itihāsas and Purāṇas, and invoking the philosophical terminology of the Mīmāṃsakas as well as scriptural prooftexts to establish that the Itihāsas and Purāṇas are uncreated (apauruṣeya) and eternal (nitya) and therefore nondifferent from the Vedas. Finally, Jīva utilizes a series of arguments to establish the preeminent status of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa as the embodiment of Kṛṣṇa in the form of an uncreated (apauruṣeya) and eternal (nitya) text (grantha) that is the essence (sāra) of the Vedas, Itihāsas, and Purāṇas and the sovereign of all śāstras.83