Kṛṣṇadāsa’s hagiographic narrative presents nāma-saṃkīrtana as an instrument of social formation through which Caitanya attracts followers and fashions a social body comprising Kṛṣṇa bhaktas whose distinguishing mark is the name. For example, in his account of Caitanya’s pilgrimage to South India, Kṛṣṇadāsa portrays Caitanya as singing and dancing in a state of enraptured prema-rasa as he travels from village to village, attracting hundreds upon hundreds of people to follow his distinctive Vaiṣṇava path and become mahā-bhāgavatas, great devotees of Bhagavān, connected by the practice of nāma-saṃkīrtana.153 He is represented as attracting non-Vaiṣṇava advocates of contending paths, including followers of the jñāna-mārga, yoga-mārga, and karma-mārga, and Vaiṣṇava exponents of rival schools, including Rāma bhaktas as well as followers of the Śrīvaiṣṇava Sampradāya established by Rāmānuja and the Brahma Sampradāya founded by Madhva.
As before, while he was travelling on the path, anyone who saw him, and to whatever village he went, the people of that village all became Vaiṣṇavas, and said “Kṛṣṇa Hari!” And they, having made Vaiṣṇavas of people of other villages, saved them. There were many kinds of people in the southern country; some were jñānīs, and some were karmīs, and there were innumerable followers of false doctrine. All those people, affected by the sight of Prabhu [Caitanya], left their own persuasions and became Vaiṣṇavas. Among the Vaiṣṇavas [that were there], all were worshippers of Rāma; some were tattvavādīs [followers of Madhva], and some Śrī-Vaiṣṇavas. All those Vaiṣṇavas, at the sight of Mahāprabhu, worshiped Kṛṣṇa, and took his name.154
In summary, Kṛṣṇadāsa asserts that Kṛṣṇa descends to the material realm in Kali Yuga and becomes embodied in human form as Caitanya and in sound form as the name in order to create an ever-expanding community of bhaktas interwoven by the garland of Kṛṣṇa-nāman and thereby to liberate all jīvas, moving and nonmoving, through the singular power of nāma-saṃkīrtana.155
There is only the name of Hari, the name of Hari, the name of Hari; in Kali Yuga there is no other way, no other way, no other way.156
Devotional Bodies on Display
As we have seen, Kṛṣṇadāsa’s hagiographic narrative presents nāma-saṃkīrtana as an instrument of social formation through which Caitanya attracts followers and creates a bhakta-saṅgha, community of Kṛṣṇa bhaktas, that define themselves through their shared practice of nāma-saṃkīrtana. I would suggest, moreover, that the public performance of nāma-saṃkīrtana, as a public spectacle of bodies on display, is ascribed a critical role in shaping the social body of the bhakta-saṅgha through inscribing the socioreligious taxonomies of the community in the bodies of the individual performers while at the same time establishing the boundaries that differentiate the bhakta-saṅgha from the hierarchy of publics who witness the performance. As we shall see, the public performance of nāma-saṃkīrtana is represented not only as an instrument of social formation but also as an instrument of psychophysical transformation through which the material bodies of the performers are transformed into “devotionally informed bodies” that have internalized the socioreligious taxonomies of the bhakta-saṅgha.157
In order to illustrate the discursive strategies through which Kṛṣṇadāsa represents the mechanisms of social formation and psychophysical transformation involved in the public performance of nāma-saṃkīrtana, I will cite his account of a nāma-saṃkīrtana performance by Caitanya and his followers at the Jagannātha temple in Purī, Orissa, and then will provide an extended analysis of the account.
Then Prabhu [Caitanya] went, with all of them [the Vaiṣṇavas], to the temple of Jagannātha, and there began the kīrtana. Seeing the sandhyā-dhūpa [incense offering], they began the saṃkīrtana, and the temple servant brought and gave garlands and sandalwood to them all. Four groups sang saṃkīrtana on all four sides while Prabhu Śacīnandana [Caitanya, the son of Śacī] danced in the center. Eight mṛdaṅga drums played, and thirty-two karatāla cymbals; the sound of “Hari” arose, and the Vaiṣṇavas said, “Excellent!” That most auspicious sound of kīrtana which arose filled the fourteen worlds and pervaded the universe. The people who dwelt at Puruṣottama came to see, and when they saw the kīrtana the Oḍiyā people were dumbfounded.
Then Prabhu circumambulated the temple; and as he circumambulated it he danced. Before and behind him sang the four groups, and when he fell down, Nityānanda Rāya supported him. His tears and gooseflesh and trembling and sweat and shouting—seeing these manifestations of prema the people were struck with wonder. Tears flowed from his eyes like a stream from a fountain and the people all around him were wet. Prabhu danced about [the temple] for some time; stopping in back of the temple he performed kīrtana. In all four directions the four groups sang in loud voices, and amongst them Gaura Rāya [Caitanya] danced like Śiva. Having danced for a long time, Prabhu became quiet, and commanded the four mahāntas to dance. Advaita Ācārya danced in one group, and in another one Nityānanda Rāya. Paṇḍita Vakreśvara danced in another one, and Śrīvāsa within the next. Mahāprabhu remained watching in their midst, and there one of his divine powers [aiśvarya] became manifest. Many people danced and sang all around, and all saw that “Prabhu is looking at me.” Prabhu wanted to see the dance of all four, and because of that desire he manifested his divine power [aiśvarya]. Each one thought that he was looking only at him, absorbed in his gaze [darśana]; how he could look in all directions cannot be known. It was as when Kṛṣṇa was in the center, at the pulinabhojana [riverside meal], and all around his companions said—“He is looking towards me.” Whoever came nearby while dancing, Mahāprabhu gave him a deep embrace. Seeing this great dance, great prema, great saṃkīrtana, the people of Nīlācala [Purī] floated in the joy of prema. Gajapati Rājā [King Pratāparudra], having heard the kīrtana, climbed to the roof of his palace with his people and watched. Seeing the saṃkīrtana, the rājā was astonished, and his desire to meet Prabhu grew infinitely. When the kīrtana was finished, Prabhu watched the offering of flowers, and then with all the Vaiṣṇavas came to his dwelling place. The temple servant brought and gave them much prasāda; dividing it, Īśvara distributed it to all. He bade farewell to them all, telling them to go to bed; such was the līlā of Śacī’s son. As many days as they were all with Mahāprabhu, they performed the delight of kīrtana. So the kīrtana-vilāsa [divine play of kīrtana] has been related; and he who hears it becomes the servant of Caitanya.158
In his account of this public performance of nāma-saṃkīrtana, in which Caitanya and his followers circumambulate the Jagannātha temple, Kṛṣṇadāsa deploys a number of discursive strategies to recast this performance as a cosmic event with resounding power that reverberates throughout creation. The key strategy involves re-presenting the choreography of the performance as a moving maṇḍala that reflects more specifically the architectonics of the lotus-maṇḍala that is used as a meditation device in the advanced meditative practices of rāgānugā-bhakti.159 An extensive description of the lotus-maṇḍala is given in the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya of the Padma Purāṇa, which I will discuss more fully in Chapter 5. The Māhātmya represents Vṛndāvana, which is also called Gokula or Vraja, as a thousand-petaled lotus-maṇḍala arranged in seven concentric rings and portrays Kṛṣṇa seated together with Rādhā on a gem-laden throne on an octagonal yoga-pīṭha in the pericarp (karṇikā or varāṭaka), the seed-vessel at the center of the lotus.160 Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā are encircled by the eight most beloved gopīs, Kṛṣṇa’s cowmaiden lovers, who are seated in the eight corners of the octagonal yoga-pīṭha and are surrounded by two additional rings of gopīs. The gopīs are encircled by four gopas who are close friends of Kṛṣṇa and who are the guardians of the four directions, and they in turn are surrounded by myriads of gopas.161 Although Kṛṣṇadāsa does not explicitly make reference to the yoga-pīṭha in his account of the nāma-saṃkīrtana performance at Jagannātha temple, I would suggest
that he re-presents the choreography to evoke the structure of the yoga-pīṭha at the center of the lotus-maṇḍala. Kṛṣṇadāsa refers to the yoga-pīṭha elsewhere in the Caitanya Caritāmṛta, where he describes Kṛṣṇa seated along with Rādhā “on the yoga-pīṭha in Vṛndāvana … on a throne all made of jewels” and surrounded by Rādhā’s sakhīs, gopī companions.162
Kṛṣṇadāsa’s evocation of the image of the lotus-maṇḍala, with its concentric rings, serves as a means of marking the socioreligious hierarchies involved in the performance. The maṇḍala incorporates and circumscribes the bhakta-saṅgha as a distinct social body composed of the kīrtanīyās, nāma-saṃkīrtana performers, that is set apart from the hierarchy of publics who witness the performance. The concentric rings of the maṇḍala demarcate the internal divisions within the social body of the bhakta-saṅgha and establish the hierarchy of performers. Caitanya sings and dances in the center of the moving maṇḍala. As the Kali Yuga avatāra who is revered as Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā together in a single body, his presence marks the site of the yoga-pīṭha. The four mahāntas—Nityānanda, Advaita Ācārya, Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita, and Vakreśvara Paṇḍita—surround Caitanya in the four directions, singing and dancing as the heads of the four groups of kīrtanīyās. As the close companions of Caitanya who are the leaders of the bhakta-saṅgha, the four mahāntas take their place in the inner circle as the gopas who are the guardians of the four directions in the maṇḍala. The four groups of kīrtanīyās in turn surround the four mahāntas in the four directions. As “the Vaiṣṇavas” who are members of the bhakta-saṅgha, these anonymous kīrtanīyās form the outer circle as representatives of the myriads of gopas who encircle the four guardian gopas in the maṇḍala.
Kṛṣṇadāsa’s account of the nāma-saṃkīrtana performance explicitly invokes the līlā episode related in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa about the pulina-bhojana, riverside meal, in which Kṛṣṇa enjoys a picnic with the gopas on the bank of the Yamunā River. Kṛṣṇa is portrayed as sitting in the center while his cowherd friends surround him in concentric rings like the petals encircling the pericarp (karṇikā) of a lotus.163 Just as each of the gopas encircling Kṛṣṇa thinks that Kṛṣṇa is looking only at him, so each of the dancing kīrtanīyās encircling Caitanya thinks that Caitanya is looking only at him. The kīrtanīyās in the moving maṇḍala thus assume the role of gopas who are the exemplars of sakhya-rasa, the devotional mode of friendship.
The image of the dancing kīrtanīyās encircling Caitanya also recalls the image of the rāsa-līlā, circle dance, recounted in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa in which the gopīs array themselves in a circle around Kṛṣṇa. When the circle dance commences, Kṛṣṇa multiplies himself by means of his inconceivable power and assumes a separate form for each gopī so that each gopī thinks that Kṛṣṇa is dancing with her alone.164 The allusion to the rāsa-līlā suggests that the kīrtanīyās assume the role not only of gopas, Kṛṣṇa’s cowherd friends, but also of gopīs, Kṛṣṇa’s cowmaiden lovers, who are the paradigms of mādhurya-rasa, the devotional mode of erotic love, which is celebrated as the most intimate and sublime expression of preman.165
The configuration of the moving maṇḍala, with the inner and outer circles of kīrtanīyās surrounding Caitanya in the center, thus defines the boundaries of the social body of the bhakta-saṅgha as Caitanya’s own bhakta-gaṇa, troop of devotees, who join with him in ecstatic singing and dancing in the līlā of nāma-saṃkīrtana.166 By delimiting the social body, the moving maṇḍala distinguishes the bhakta-saṅgha from the hierarchy of publics who encircle the maṇḍala and witness from a distance the nāma-saṃkīrtana performance as passive observers.
First in the hierarchy of publics who witness the performance are the Vaiṣṇava priests and other temple servants at the Jagannātha temple who are alluded to in the account. The priests provide a ritual frame for the nāma-saṃkīrtana performance by offering incense to the mūrti (ritual image) of Lord Jagannātha prior to the performance and offering flowers to the mūrti after the saṃkīrtana is finished. The connection between the priests and the kīrtanīyās is mediated through the temple servant (paḍichā) who gives the performers flower garlands and sandalwood paste at the beginning of the performance and brings them prasāda at its conclusion. Although the temple priests are not included in the moving maṇḍala of nāma-saṃkīrtana performers, they are first in the hierarchy of publics who witness the performance, for as the servants of Lord Jagannātha, Kṛṣṇa’s embodied form as an arcā-avatāra, or image-avatāra, they exemplify dāsya-rasa, the devotional mode of service.
Second in the hierarchy of publics are King Pratāparudra, the last great Gajapati Mahārājā of Orissa (r. 1497–1540 CE), and his associates who watch the nāma-saṃkīrtana performance from the roof of the palace. Kṛṣṇadāsa’s account of this particular nāma-saṃkīrtana performance occurs at a point in his hagiography when King Pratāparudra has not yet met Caitanya—although he is eager to do so—and thus he remains outside of the moving maṇḍala as a passive witness to the performance. At this point the king, like the Jagannātha temple priests, is an exemplar of dāsya-rasa, for in his role as Mahārājā he is the protector of the Jagannātha temple. Later in the hagiography, when the king is accepted by Caitanya as a disciple, his incorporation into the bhakta-saṅgha is marked by his inclusion in the troop of gopa-garbed bhaktas who join with Caitanya in dance at the festival of Nanda.167
Third in the hierarchy of publics are the “people of Nīlācala [Purī],” the anonymous “people” (jana or loka) who reside in Purī and witness the nāma-saṃkīrtana performance from a distance. Finally, Kṛṣṇadāsa’s account suggests that the reverberating power of the nāma-saṃkīrtana performance extends beyond even the anonymous people of Purī to the most encompassing of publics: the denizens of the fourteen worlds that constitute the Brahmā-universe. Elsewhere in the Caitanya Caritāmṛta he elaborates on this notion, claiming that through the cumulative effect of Caitanya’s propagation of nāma-saṃkīrtana the entire cosmos reverberates with saṃkīrtana and all beings, moving and nonmoving, in all of the innumerable Brahmā-universes dance in the ecstasy of preman.168
Kṛṣṇadāsa’s evocation of the image of the moving maṇḍala thus serves as a means of delimiting the social body of the bhakta-saṅgha and distinguishing it from the hierarchy of publics who witness the nāma-saṃkīrtana performance. The socioreligious hierarchies delineated in Kṛṣṇadāsa’s account are further emphasized through a second discursive strategy in which he establishes a stark contrast between the multiple modes of reception through which the kīrtanīyās engage in the nāma-saṃkīrtana performance and the more limited modes of engagement on the part of the various publics.
The kīrtanīyās, through their performance of nāma-saṃkīrtana with Caitanya at the Jagannātha temple, transform their material bodies into devotional bodies through engaging three different modes of divine embodiment with the mind, senses, and organs of action: Kṛṣṇa’s sound-embodiment as a nāma-avatāra, his human embodiment as a yuga-avatāra, and his image-embodiment as an arcā-avatāra. The kīrtanīyās engage the nāma-avatāra through saṃkīrtana, singing, and śravaṇa, hearing, giving vocalized expression through the vehicle of their speech to the vibrating sound-embodiments of Kṛṣṇa. Their tongues and ears pulsate with the reverberations of the divine name, which overflow from the speech into the limbs, inspiring them to whirl and dance in ecstatic celebration of the Kṛṣṇa-nāman. As they savor the ambrosial rasa of the nāman, they revel in the intoxicating streams of preman. The kīrtanīyās engage the yuga-avatāra through darśana, seeing, and sparśana, touching. They behold the manifestation of divine power (aiśvarya) through which Caitanya casts his gaze in all directions simultaneously so that each dancer is absorbed in his darśana and both sees and is seen by him individually. The dancers are enveloped by Caitanya’s deep embraces as well as by his encompassing gaze. While the pr
imary focus of the kīrtanīyās during the nāma-saṃkīrtana performance is on engaging Kṛṣṇa’s embodied forms as nāma-avatāra and yuga-avatāra, they also engage his arcā-avatāra at the beginning and end of the performance. They receive darśana of the mūrti of Lord Jagannātha and partake of his blessings through smelling the sweet fragrance of the incense and flowers offered to him, adorning their own bodies with the flower garlands and sandalwood paste touched by his form, and relishing the food (prasāda) offered to him.
In contrast to the kīrtanīyās, who actively engage in the nāma-saṃkīrtana performance with all their mental and physical faculties, the various publics are represented in Kṛṣṇadāsa’s account as observers who passively witness the performance. Although they hear the auspicious sounds of nāma-saṃkīrtana that reverberate throughout the fourteen worlds, the principal emphasis in the account is on their gazing at the spectacle from a distance. King Pratāparudra, accompanied by his associates, watches the performance from his palace roof and is astonished by what he sees. The people of Purī float in the bliss of preman as a result of “seeing this great dance, great prema, great saṃkīrtana.” But the gaze of the king and of the people is one-sided. They do not participate in the reciprocal gaze of Caitanya’s darśana, which is a privilege reserved for the kīrtanīyās who are members of the bhakta-saṅgha.
Bodies Thrilling with the Name
Bhakti and Embodiment Page 33