Transcendent Features of Mathurā-Maṇḍala
In addition to his hierarchical taxonomy of the fruits of pilgrimage and his hierarchical ordering of the principal pilgrimage networks that constitute Mathurā-maṇḍala, Rūpa’s recasting of the traditional Māhātmya material to conform with the Gauḍīya project is also evident in the way in which he highlights certain themes that emphasize the unique status of Mathurā-maṇḍala as a geographic place that is invested with the qualities of a transcendent space. Throughout the Māhātmya Rūpa invokes verses that extol Mathurā-maṇḍala as an eternal (nitya, śāśvata, or sanātana) domain that is located on earth and yet at the same time is recondite (sugopita), hidden (guhya), and transcendent (para), beyond the phenomenal realm of prakṛti (prapañcātīta).222 The Māhātmya includes a number of different sections, introduced by headings, that highlight the transcendent features of this geographic place. As I will discuss later in this chapter, these themes are also briefly articulated by Rūpa in the Laghubhāgavatāmṛta and are extensively elaborated by Jīva in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha as part of his arguments regarding the ontology of Kṛṣṇa’s dhāmans.
Rūpa’s Māhātmya includes a section that emphasizes Mathurā-maṇḍala’s special status as the place where Kṛṣṇa is eternally present (nitya-hari-saṃnidhānatva).223 “Mathurā is renowned as the place where Lord Hari himself (svayam) is present eternally (sarvadā) before one’s eyes (sākṣāt).”224 Rūpa’s Māhātmya invokes this verse from the Vāyu Purāṇa along with eight other verses from Purāṇic sources in order to provide canonical authority to ground his claim that Kṛṣṇa’s instantiation in the land is not limited to the traces left by his footsteps during his sojourn on earth in Dvāpara Yuga, but rather he continues to abide there eternally (nitya, sarvadā, or sadā). Six of these Purāṇic verses are also invoked by Jīva in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha as scriptural prooftexts to support his argument that Mathurā-maṇḍala is the eternal abode (nityāspada or nitya-dhāman) of Kṛṣṇa.225
Rūpa’s Māhātmya includes another section that emphasizes Mathurā-maṇḍala’s status as a transcendent domain that is not part of the phenomenal realm of prakṛti (prapañcātīta).226 He invokes a series of Purāṇic verses to establish that, although Mathurā-maṇḍala may exist on the earth as a geographic place, at the same time its nature is different from the material creation (sṛṣṭi).227 The lotus-shaped maṇḍala is celebrated not only as a pilgrimage circuit to be circumambulated on earth but as a transcendent space that exists eternally beyond the material realm: “This Mathurā-maṇḍala in the shape of a lotus is established forever (sadā) above the domain of Viṣṇu and exists eternally (śāśvata) there.”228 Mathurā-maṇḍala is not only extolled as the place where Kṛṣṇa resides eternally, but the very substance of the place itself is held to be eternal (nitya, śāśvata, or sanātana), its eternality extending even to its cowherd inhabitants and to its geographic features such as forests and rivers: “Know my Mathurā to be eternal (nitya) as well as the forest of Vṛndāvana, the Yamunā, the cowherd maidens, and the cowherd boys.”229 Three of the five Purāṇic verses cited as prooftexts in this section of Rūpa’s Māhātmya are also invoked by Jīva in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha to support his arguments regarding the nonphenomenal (prapañcātīta) and eternal (nitya) nature of Mathurā-maṇḍala.230
To further establish the transmundane status of Mathurā-maṇḍala, Rūpa’s Māhātmya includes a concluding section in its general praise of the area in which the place itself is extolled as the ultimate goal (svataḥ parama-phalatva).231 The Māhātmya invokes a series of Purāṇic verses, which are also cited by Jīva in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha, to establish that Mathurā-maṇḍala is the ultimate goal in the sense that it is the highest of all worlds. As a nonphenomenal, transcendent domain, it is celebrated as beyond the hierarchy of fourteen worlds that constitute the material realm of prakṛti, including not only the three worlds—earth, midregions, and heavens—but also the four higher worlds (ūrdhva-lokas) above the three worlds and the seven lower worlds (pātāla-talas) beneath the earth.232 Moreover, it is extolled as even beyond Vaikuṇṭha and thus as the highest (uttama) realm within the transcendent.233 Although Rūpa’s Māhātmya does not comment on the significance of this claim, in the cosmography delineated by Rūpa in the Laghubhāgavatāmṛta and elaborated by Jīva in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha, the abode (dhāman) of Kṛṣṇa as svayaṃ Bhagavān is represented as beyond the transcendent realm of Vaikuṇṭha, or Paravyoman, where his avatāras and other partial manifestations reside.
With respect to the means through which the transcendent domain of Mathurā-maṇḍala can be accessed, Rūpa’s Māhātmya includes a section that ascribes a central role to meditation (dhyāna) as the means of attaining Bhagavān’s transcendent abode (bhagavad-dhyānādi-labhyatva). This section invokes a single prooftext from the Ādivarāha Purāṇa, which emphasizes that through regular practice of meditation advanced sādhakas can attain a direct visionary experience in which they “see” (root dṛś) Kṛṣṇa’s supreme abode:
When human beings have been completely purified by tapas and so on and by regularly engaging in the efficacious practice of meditation (dhyāna), only then can they see (root dṛś) my highest (uttama) abode. Otherwise it cannot be seen in hundreds of kalpas.234
Rūpa’s Māhātmya, in extolling the glories of Vṛndāvana, invokes a number of verses that suggest that those advanced sādhakas whose vision has been purified through meditation have the capacity to directly cognize Kṛṣṇa’s transcendent abode interpenetrating its terrestrial counterpart. In this context the Māhātmya cites the following passage from the Bṛhadgautamīya Tantra that along with a second passage from the Gautamīya Tantra are the only passages from non-Purāṇic texts cited in the Māhātmya.235 The passage, which is a variant of a passage from the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya of the Padma Purāṇa quoted earlier, presents Kṛṣṇa’s response to the celestial ṛṣi Nārada’s request to hear about Vṛndāvana.
This delightful Vṛndāvana is my only dhāman. Those who reside here in my abode (adhiṣṭha)—whether cows, birds, trees, insects, humans, or gods—at death attain my abode (ālaya). Those cowmaidens who reside here in my abode (ālaya) are eternally (nityam) connected with me and are devoted to serving me. This forest [Vṛndāvana], measuring five yojanas, is my body (deha-rūpaka). This Kālindī [Yamunā], which flows with transcendent nectar (paramāmṛta), is called the suṣumṇā, the central channel [of my body]. The gods and other beings exist here in subtle forms (sūkṣma-rūpatā). And I, who embody all the gods (sarva-deva-maya), never leave this forest, although my appearance (āvirbhāva) in and disappearance (tirobhāva) from this place occur yuga after yuga. This delightful abode consisting of blazing splendor (tejo-maya) cannot be seen (adṛśya) with the material eye (carma-cakṣus).236
The inclusion of this passage in Rūpa’s Māhātmya is critical to the Gauḍīya project that Rūpa wishes to advance, for more than any of the other verses invoked in the Māhātmya it points to the bimodal nature of Vṛndāvana as Kṛṣṇa’s “only dhāman” that functions simultaneously as a geographic place and as a transcendent space. As I will discuss in a later section, Jīva cites this passage in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha to support his arguments regarding the nonphenomenal nature (prapañcātītatva) of the earthly Vṛndāvana, which he maintains is nondifferent (abheda) from the transcendent Vṛndāvana.237 The Māhātmya format that Rūpa adopts, in which he invokes verses in clusters under headings, does not allow him to comment on this passage from the Bṛhadgautamīya Tantra and to expound in his own words on the relationship between the earthly and transcendent dimensions of Kṛṣṇa’s abode. He undertakes this task in the Laghubhāgavatāmṛta, as we shall see, in which he represents the terrestrial Vṛndāvana as the site of the manifest līlā where Kṛṣṇa played with the gopīs and gopas during his sojourn on earth in Dvāpara Yuga. This geographic place is represented as the immanent count
erpart of the transcendent Vṛndāvana, Goloka, which is inaccessible to the material senses and is the domain of the unmanifest līlā where Kṛṣṇa revels perpetually with the gopīs and gopas, who are deemed his “eternal associates” (parikaras or pārṣadas) because, as the Bṛhadgautamīya Tantra suggests, they are “eternally connected” with the supreme Godhead.
Rūpa’s Māhātmya, in the section that glorifies particular tīrthas in the pilgrimage network of Vṛndāvana, suggests that although ordinary human beings who are immersed in ignorance cannot perceive the transcendent aspect of Vṛndāvana, it can be perceived by realized bhaktas with purified vision who have attained perfection. In this context the Māhātmya invokes two unidentified passages from the Varāha Purāṇa that are also cited by Jīva in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha and are not found in any other versions of the Mathurā Māhātmya. The first passage describes a “wonder” (āścarya) on the northern shore of Brahma-kuṇḍa in Vṛndāvana that only pure bhāgavatas have the capacity to perceive (root jñā + abhi): a radiant aśoka tree that suddenly bursts into bloom at the exact same time on the exact same day each spring.
O Vasuṃdharā [Pṛthivī], listen and I will tell you about a wonder (āścarya) in that place where people who are devoted to serving me attain perfection (siddhi). On the northern side of that place there is an aśoka tree made of white light that bursts into bloom at noon on the twelfth day of the bright fortnight of the month of Vaiśākha, bringing joy to my bhaktas. No one other than a pure bhāgavata can perceive (root jñā + abhi) this.238
The second passage represents Kāliya-hrada as a “sacred (puṇya), hidden (guhya), transcendent (para) pool” where Kṛṣṇa plays eternally and that is adorned by a “great wonder” (mahad āścarya) on its eastern shore that only the wise can “see” (root dṛś): a luminous kadamba tree that blooms perpetually throughout the twelve months of the year and sends forth light in ten directions.
The hrada of Kāliya is a sacred (puṇya), hidden (guhya), transcendent (para) pool in the pure waters of the Yamunā where I engage eternally (nityam) in play.… The wise see (root dṛś) a great wonder (mahad āścarya) there: a huge kadamba tree on the eastern side of Kāliya-hrada. This tree, which is beautiful, luminous, and cooling, has one hundred branches, blooms with fragrant flowers twelve months a year, and shines forth in ten directions.239
As I will discuss in a later section, both of these passages form a critical part of Jīva’s arguments in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha regarding the transmundane (alaukika), eternal (nitya) nature of Vṛndāvana, which is simultaneously transcendent and immanent, containing luminous divine (divya) aśoka and kadamba trees that can be directly cognized on the shores of Brahma-kuṇḍa and Kāliya-hrada even today by those who have attained the status of mahā-bhāgavatas.
Rūpa’s Māhātmya, in the section glorifying Mount Govardhana, invokes another unidentified passage from the Varāha Purāṇa that makes use of language and imagery that recalls the passage regarding Kāliya-hrada quoted above. Mount Govardhana is represented as a “hidden (guhya), transcendent (para) place” and as the site of a “great wonder” (mahad āścarya) that only those with sublime consciousness can see (root dṛś): huge beams of light that shine forth from the top of the mountain twice a month and illumine the ten directions.
This hidden (guhya), transcendent (para) place of mine called Govardhana is only a short distance west of Mathurā, about eight krośas. Those with sublime consciousness see (root dṛś) a great wonder (mahad āścarya) there. A phenomenon occurs in that place that is cherished by all bhāgavatas. Twenty-four times a year, on the twelfth day of each fortnight, they see (root dṛś) huge lights on the top of the mountain illumining the ten directions. If a person who is devoted to serving me sees those lights, he or she attains a supreme state of perfection (siddhi), of this there is no doubt.240
Vraja as the Body of Kṛṣṇa
In the Gauḍīya discourse of embodiment the sacred geography of Vraja is revered as participating in the reality of Kṛṣṇa not only as his abiding abode but as his actual body. The land’s status as a mesocosmic embodiment of Kṛṣṇa is ascribed to different areas, from Mount Govardhana to the forest of Vṛndāvana to the entire region of Vraja comprising the twelve forests.
Mount Govardhana as the Body of Kṛṣṇa
The earliest formulations of Gauḍīya perspectives on Kṛṣṇa’s embodiment in Vraja are attributed to Caitanya, who, as discussed earlier, is held to have considered Mount Govardhana to be the body of Kṛṣṇa and would therefore not set foot on the mountain. Caitanya’s understanding apparently stems from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa’s account of Kṛṣṇa assuming the form (rūpa) of Mount Govardhana.241 Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja’s account in the Caitanya Caritāmṛta also emphasizes how Rūpa and Sanātana Gosvāmin, in accordance with their teacher Caitanya’s example, also refused to set foot on Mount Govardhana—a tradition that is still honored today by many Gauḍīya pilgrims.242
Caitanya’s reverence for Mount Govardhana as the embodiment of Kṛṣṇa is represented in the Caitanya Caritāmṛta as extending beyond the mountain as a whole to each of its stones, or śilās, which he extolled as the body (vigraha or kalevara) of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇadāsa recounts how Caitanya gave to Raghunāthadāsa Gosvāmin a Govardhana śilā that he himself had cherished for three years and told him to worship it regularly through pūjā as the vigraha of Kṛṣṇa. “This śilā is the vigraha of Kṛṣṇa. Take it and serve it eagerly. Do sāttvika-pūjā to this śilā, and quickly you will gain the wealth of the prema of Kṛṣṇa.”243 Caitanya is thus credited with establishing the worship of Govardhana śilās as aniconic mūrtis that are svarūpas, natural forms, of Kṛṣṇa and that function as what Owen Lynch terms a “metonymic divinity” in that the sacrality of the part—the śilā—derives from its special status as the concentrated essence of the whole—Mount Govardhana, which itself is revered as a part that embodies the wholeness of the supreme Godhead.244
Forest of Vṛndāvana as the Body of Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa’s embodiment in the sacred geography of Vraja is also represented as encompassing the forest of Vṛndāvana. As previously discussed, the Mathurā Māhātmya of Rūpa Gosvāmin cites a passage from the Bṛhadgautamīya Tantra, which is a variant of a passage from the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya of the Padma Purāṇa quoted earlier, that represents the forest of Vṛndāvana as the body of Kṛṣṇa: “This forest, measuring five yojanas, is my body (deha-rūpaka). This Kālindī [Yamunā], which flows with transcendent nectar (paramāmṛta), is called the suṣumṇā, the central channel [of my body].”245 The imagery of embodiment functions on two levels in this passage. On the one hand, the passage points to Kṛṣṇa’s concrete instantiation in a terrestrial forest that is delimited to an area of five yojanas (approximately forty miles) and through which the waters of the Yamunā River flow. On the other hand, the passage suggests that Kṛṣṇa’s localized embodiment in the earthly Vṛndāvana serves as a means of accessing his absolute body in the transcendent Vṛndāvana where the transcendent Yamunā flows with transcendent nectar (paramāmṛta).
As I will discuss in a later section, this passage is also cited by Jīva Gosvāmin in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha to support his argument that the earthly Vṛndāvana is ultimately nondifferent (abheda) from the transcendent Vṛndāvana.246 As we shall see, in developing his arguments regarding the ontology of Vraja, Jīva deploys the trope of embodiment to encompass both aspects of Vṛndāvana: the transcendent Goloka-Vṛndāvana, which is represented as an extension of Kṛṣṇa’s vigraha, absolute body, and as the very form of Bhagavān (bhagavad-rūpa); and its immanent counterpart in the earthly Vṛndāvana, which is represented as a glorious manifestation (vibhūti) of Kṛṣṇa’s svarūpa, essential form, in the guise of a geographic place.247
Vraja-Maṇḍala as the Body of Kṛṣṇa
The most elaborate representations of Vraja as the body of Kṛṣṇa are found in the works
of Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa. In the Vrajabhaktivilāsa Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa represents the entire region of Vraja-maṇḍala, with a circumference of eighty-four krośas (approximately 168 miles), as the svarūpa, essential form, of Kṛṣṇa. Following is an excerpt from an extended passage in which he maps the imagery of the body onto the sacred geography of Vraja, correlating the twelve forests and other important pilgrimage sites with specific parts of Kṛṣṇa’s body:
Vraja-maṇḍala, which with its forests has a circumference of eighty-four krośas, is the essential form (svarūpa) of Bhagavān comprising the various parts of his body (aṅgas).… Mathurā is declared to be his heart. The auspicious Madhuvana is his navel. Kumudavana and Tālavana are his two breasts, and Vṛndāvana is his brow. Bahulāvana and Mahāvana are his two arms. Bhāṇḍīravana and Kokilāvana are celebrated as his two legs. Khadiravana and Bhadrikavana are celebrated as his two shoulders. Chatravana and Lohajaṅghavana [Lohavana] are celebrated as his two eyes. Bilvavana and Bhadravana are his two ears, and Kāmyavana is his chin.…248
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