Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa’s final words, as recorded in the seventeenth-century hagiography by Janaki Prasāda Bhaṭṭa, were “Vraja is the body (vigraha) of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, the son of Nanda, never leaves Vraja.”249 As Haberman has emphasized, this final pronouncement of Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa is frequently invoked to this day by contemporary pilgrims and residents of Braj as a kind of mahā-vākya that encapsulates their understanding of the way in which Kṛṣṇa’s living presence is embodied in the sacred landscape.
Narayan Bhatt’s pronouncement that “Braj is the body of Krishna” has become a mahavakya, or “great saying” in Braj. It was repeated to me again and again by the pilgrimage guides, participants, and many of the residents of Braj. Much of the advertisement of Braj as a sacred space has hinged on this notion. Dipak Bhatt, the head of Narayan Bhatt’s family living in Unchagaon today, put it this way to me: “There is no difference between Braj and Shri Krishna. Krishna is Braj. Braj is Krishna. The forests, groves, trees, ponds, hills, and even dirt are Krishna. Just by living in Braj one is in contact with Krishna. Just being present in Braj is itself a religious practice [sādhana].”250
Ontology of the Dhāmans: Geographic Place as Transcendent Space
In his Mathurā Māhātmya, as we have seen, Rūpa Gosvāmin adapts the literary form of a Māhātmya and extols the glories of Mathurā-maṇḍala as a pilgrimage place that is invested with the qualities of a transcendent space. His notion of Mathurā-maṇḍala includes three principal pilgrimage networks: the pilgrimage network of the city of Mathurā, the pilgrimage network of the twelve forests, and the pilgrimage network of Vṛndāvana, which encompasses Govardhana as a subsidiary network. While in the Mathurā Māhātmya Rūpa is confined by the constraints of the Māhātmya genre, in the Laghubhāgavatāmṛta he is free to develop his formulations concerning Mathurā-maṇḍala within the broader framework of Gauḍīya cosmography. In this context he divides Mathurā-maṇḍala into two principal domains: the city of Mathurā and the pastoral region that surrounds the city and includes the twelve forests, which he variously calls Vraja, Gokula, or Vṛndāvana.251 He also expands his treatment of Kṛṣṇa’s dhāman, abode, to include not only the two domains of Mathurā-maṇḍala but also Dvārakā, declaring Kṛṣṇa to be the lord of three places (pada-tritaya), which are his three abodes (dhāma-trayi). Moreover, he significantly reimagines the three dhāmans by ascribing to them a bimodal nature as geographic places—Mathurā; Vraja, or Gokula-Vṛndāvana; and Dvārakā—that are the earthly counterparts of transcendent domains—Mathurā; Vraja, or Goloka-Vṛndāvana, and Dvārakā.252
Rūpa represents the transcendent dhāmans as the domains of Kṛṣṇa’s aprakaṭa līlā, or unmanifest līlā, where he plays eternally (nitya, sarvadā, or sadā) beyond the material space-time continuum with his eternal associates (parikaras or pārṣadas) and displays limitless manifestations (ananta prakāśas) that cannot be perceived by the material senses (agocara). The terrestrial counterparts of the transcendent dhāmans are the sites of Kṛṣṇa’s prakaṭa līlā, or manifest līlā, during his sojourn on earth in Dvāpara Yuga, in which he travels between the three geographic places—Mathurā, Gokula-Vṛndāvana, and Dvārakā—and unfolds his play in particular times and particular locales in a progressive sequence of events that are accessible to the material senses (prapañca-gocara).253 Moreover, Rūpa suggests that even after Kṛṣṇa has completed his earthly sojourn and concluded his manifest līlā, he remains eternally present in his earthly Vraja-dhāman, Gokula-Vṛndāvana, where he can be “seen” (root dṛś) even today by those realized bhaktas who are revered as mahā-bhāgavatas: “Even today Kṛṣṇa can be seen (root dṛś) playing (root krīḍ) in Vṛndāvana by the foremost of bhāgavatas who are immersed in the uncontrolled ecstasy of preman.”254
Although Rūpa himself does not use the designation “Kṛṣṇaloka,” his reflections in the Laghubhāgavatāmṛta provide the basic framework for later Gauḍīya formulations concerning Kṛṣṇaloka as the transcendent dhāman of Kṛṣṇa that is subdivided into three dhāmans: the transcendent Vraja, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, and the transcendent domains of Mathurā and Dvārakā. Building on the framework provided by Rūpa, Jīva Gosvāmin develops a sustained ontology of the dhāmans of Kṛṣṇaloka in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha in which he seeks to clarify the relationship between the transcendent dhāmans and their earthly counterparts and the mechanisms through which the dhāmans become instantiated on earth during the prakaṭa līlā. He represents Kṛṣṇaloka as the transcendent domain that exists independently (svatantratayā) above all other lokas (sarvopari-sthāyitva), where Kṛṣṇa engages eternally in his aprakaṭa līlā in his supreme status as pūrṇa Bhagavān, the full and complete Godhead. Jīva at times refers to Kṛṣṇaloka as “Mahāvaikuṇṭha” because it is not only beyond the phenomenal realm of prakṛti (prāpañcika-loka) and beyond nirviśeṣa Brahman, but it is also beyond Paravyoman, the transcendent realm comprising the countless Vaikuṇṭhas that are the abodes of Kṛṣṇa’s avatāras and other partial manifestations.255
Jīva emphasizes that the three dhāmans that constitute Kṛṣṇaloka—Goloka-Vṛndāvana, Mathurā, and Dvārakā—are distinguished by differences in Kṛṣṇa’s manifestation (prakāśa-bheda) and the distinctive nature of his līlā and of his parikaras, eternal associates (līlā-parikara-bheda).256 In Goloka-Vṛndāvana Kṛṣṇa displays his svayaṃ-rūpa, essential form, as Gopāla Kṛṣṇa and engages eternally with his parikaras, the gopas and gopīs, in līlā that is distinguished by mādhurya, divine sweetness. In Mathurā he appears in his kṣatriya-bhāva as Vāsudeva, the son of Vasudeva and Devakī, and engages eternally with his parikaras, his relatives from the Yādava clan, in līlā that is characterized by a mixture of mādhurya and aiśvarya, divine majesty. In Dvārakā he appears in his kṣatriya-bhāva as Vāsudeva, the prince of the Yādava clan, and engages eternally with his parikaras, the Yādavas and his mahiṣīs (queens), in līlā that is distinguished by aiśvarya.257
As Above, So Below
In his analysis of the three transcendent dhāmans, Jīva uses the term prakāśa-viśeṣa, “special manifestation,” to designate their earthly counterparts. The transcendent domain of Goloka-Vṛndāvana has as its prakāśa-viśeṣa the terrestrial region that Jīva variously designates as Vraja, Vṛndāvana, or Gokula. The transcendent domains of Mathurā and Dvārakā similarly have as their prakāśa-viśeṣas the earthly cities of Mathurā and Dvārakā.258
Jīva advances a number of arguments to establish that in all three cases the transcendent dhāmans and their earthly counterparts are nondifferent (abheda) even though there is a certain difference in their manifestation (prakāśa-bheda). First, he asserts that they are nondifferent because they are celebrated in the śāstras with identical names (nāmans), forms (rūpas), and qualities (guṇas). Second, he maintains that the transcendent dhāmans are extensions of Kṛṣṇa’s vigraha, absolute body, and therefore, like the vigraha, they have the capacity to manifest themselves in more than one place simultaneously.
Each of the dhāmans has two forms, above and below (uparyadhas), according to the manner of manifestation (prakāśa-mātratva). Due to their nature as eternal abodes (nityādhiṣṭhānas) of Bhagavān that partake of the nature of the vigraha, they are capable of manifesting in two places. Their identity [as two forms of a single dhāman] is easily established by the fact that in the śāstras they have the same names (nāmans), forms (rūpas), and qualities (guṇas). The manifestation of the one vigraha in many places is revealed in the Bhāgavata: “How marvelous it is that the one [Lord] with one body (vapus) has married sixteen thousand women in separate houses simultaneously.”… The identity of the two forms of Mathurā, Dvārakā, and Vṛndāvana is thus established in the śāstras, even though there is a difference in their manifestation (prakāśa-bheda).259
As extensions of Kṛṣṇa’s vigraha, the three transcendent dhāmans—Goloka-Vṛndāvana,
Mathurā, and Dvārakā—are represented by Jīva as partaking of the nature of the absolute body: they are made of sat-cit-ānanda (sat-cit-ānanda-rūpatva), they are eternal (nitya), and they are not part of the phenomenal realm of prakṛti (prapañcātīta) and are therefore transmundane (alaukika). Moreover, Jīva argues that just as the vigraha maintains its imperishable absolute nature even when it appears on earth, the transcendent dhāmans maintain their eternal, nonphenomenal nature even when they manifest their prakāśa-viśeṣas on earth. Although the transcendent dhāmans may appear on earth and become immanent, they are not of the earth in that they are not composed of material elements (bhūta-maya).260
Jīva marshals prooftexts from a range of śāstras, including the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad, Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Padma Purāṇa, and Varāha Purāṇa, in order to substantiate his claim that the terrestrial region of Vṛndāvana and the earthly cities of Mathurā and Dvārakā, as prakāśa-viśeṣas of the transcendent dhāmans, are nonphenomenal (prapañcātīta), transmundane (alaukika), and eternal (nitya) domains where Kṛṣṇa eternally (nityam) resides and engages in eternal play (nitya-vihāra). In this context he argues that they are not temporary abodes where Kṛṣṇa dwells for a delimited period while he engages in his prakaṭa līlā during his sojourn on earth, but rather they are the eternal abodes (nityāspadas) of Bhagavān where he is forever present (saṃnihita) even after he concludes his manifest līlā on earth. Morever, Jīva maintains that Vṛndāvana, Mathurā, and Dvārakā are not mere pilgrimage places (upāsanā-sthānas) where bhaktas can track Kṛṣṇa’s footprints and worship in the temples and shrines that mark the sites where he once played in Dvāpara Yuga. Rather, they are living abodes of the deity where even today mahā-bhāgavatas—realized bhaktas who are the foremost of Bhagavān’s devotees261—can attain a direct visionary experience (sākṣāt-kāra) of the luminous effulgence of the transcendent dhāmans and of Kṛṣṇa eternally engaged in his aprakaṭa līlā. Jīva ultimately claims that these eternal abodes themselves eternally abide in Kṛṣṇa as glorious manifestations of his essential form (svarūpa-vibhūtitva).262
Among the prooftexts that he cites, Jīva grounds his arguments concerning Mathurā in the canonical authority of śruti by invoking a series of verses from the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad that celebrate Mathurā as Gopālapurī, the city of Gopāla, where Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa dwells eternally along with the other three ādi catur-vyūhas—his brother Balarāma, or Saṃkarṣaṇa; his son Pradyumna; and his grandson Aniruddha—and his mahiṣī Rukmiṇī. This most auspicious city is represented in the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad as surrounded by the twelve forests of Vraja, in which the gods and various celestial beings perpetually sing and dance, and as protected by the discus (cakra), conch (śaṅkha), club (gadā), and other weapons that are emblematic of Kṛṣṇa in his aiśvarya mode.
…Gopālapurī, the city of Gopāla, is Brahman made visible (sākṣāt). It fulfills desires and bestows freedom from desires on all the gods and other beings. Just as a lotus rests on a pond, so Mathurā rests on the earth, protected by the discus (cakra). Therefore it is the city of Gopāla. The city [of Gopāla] is surrounded by these [twelve forests]: Bṛhadvana [Mahāvana], the great forest; Madhuvana, the forest named after the demon Madhu; Tālavana, the forest of palmyra trees; Kāmyavana, the wish-fulfilling forest; Bahulāvana, the forest of cardamom plants; Kumudavana, the forest of lotuses; Khadiravana, the forest of acacia trees; Bhadravana, the forest of kadamba trees; Bhāṇḍīravana, the forest of banyan trees; Śrīvana [Bilvavana], the forest of Lakṣmī; Lohavana; and Vṛndāvana, the forest of the goddess Vṛndā. In the midst of these deep [forests] gods, humans, gandharvas (celestial musicians), nāgas (semidivine serpents), and kiṃnaras (celestial musicians) sing and dance.… In these [forests] the gods live and siddhas attained perfection.… [T]he delightful Mathurā…is always frequented by Brahmā and other deities and protected by the conch (śaṅkha), discus (cakra), club (gadā), bow (śārṅga), and other weapons. There the all-pervading Kṛṣṇa resides, accompanied by his three [vyūhas], Balarāma, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha, and attended by his śakti Rukmiṇī.263
In this passage the hierarchical cosmography, with its distinctions between above and below and between gross and subtle material worlds and nonmaterial transcendent domains, collapses and becomes concentrated in a single geographic place. While Mathurā “rests on the earth,” bhūr-loka, the city itself and the twelve forests that surround it are represented as filled with the gods and other celestial beings who reside in the subtle lokas above bhūr-loka. Even the creator Brahmā, whose abode is in satya-loka, the highest of the fourteen worlds that constitute each material Brahmā-universe, is held to frequent this earthly city. Moreover, Jīva interprets this passage to mean that the transcendent domain of Mathurā interpenetrates its earthly counterpart. He understands the final verse as referring to the aprakaṭa līlā, in which the all-pervading Kṛṣṇa remains hidden as he secretly (nigūḍham) plays with the other three ādi catur-vyūhas and his mahiṣī Rukmiṇī in the transcendent dhāman of Mathurā. While Kṛṣṇa’s aprakaṭa līlā cannot be perceived by the material senses of ignorant human beings whose vision is obscured by the māyā-śakti, Jīva emphasizes that mahā-bhāgavatas can attain a direct cognition (root dṛś) of the līlā in the earthly city of Mathurā, the prakāśa-viśeṣa of the transcendent dhāman, where Kṛṣṇa’s eternal play (nitya-vihāra) is most easily accessed.264
Descent of the Dhāmans
As part of his exploration of the relationship between the transcendent dhāmans and their immanent counterparts, Jīva seeks to clarify the mechanisms through which the dhāmans, which in their essential nature are unmanifest transcendent domains, become instantiated on earth in particular geographic places that are their prakāśa-viśeṣas, special manifestations. The critical strategy that he uses to connect the transcendent and manifest aspects of the dhāmans is to deploy the trope of descent (root tṝ + ava): when Kṛṣṇa descends from the transcosmic plane to the material realm in Dvāpara Yuga in order to manifest his vigraha on earth and unfold his prakaṭa līlā, the three dhāmans of Kṛṣṇaloka—Goloka-Vṛndāvana, Mathurā, and Dvārakā—descend with him as extensions of his absolute body and the sites of the manifest līlā.
Jīva argues that, as the domains of the aprakaṭa līlā that goes on eternally as self-referral play within Bhagavān, the three transcendent dhāmans shine forth (root rāj + vi) above the earth, but through the power of invisibility (antardhāna-śakti) the dhāmans do not touch (root spṛś) the earth and cannot be perceived by ordinary material beings (pṛthivyādi-bhūtamaya). When the time arrives for Kṛṣṇa, svayaṃ Bhagavān, to descend and display his prakaṭa līlā on earth, then the dhāmans descend (root tṝ + ava) and touch (root spṛś) the earth and become visible within the phenomenal world where they can be perceived by the material senses (prāpañcika-loka-gocara). For example, Jīva suggests that when the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, descends and becomes instantiated in the geographic area in North India known as Vṛndāvana, the divine kadamba tree that shines forth in ten directions and blooms perpetually in the transcendent dhāman becomes visible to the material eye alongside the earthly kadamba trees that bloom in the forests of Vraja. When his dhāmans descend, Kṛṣṇa himself descends along with his parikaras, and through the mediation of the dhāmans he thereby touches the earth.265
Jīva maintains that when Kṛṣṇa withdraws his vigraha from the earth at the conclusion of his manifest līlā, he does not leave the earth completely, for his three transcendent dhāmans that constitute Kṛṣṇaloka—Goloka-Vṛndāvana, Mathurā, and Dvārakā—continue to shine forth above the earth, and he himself continues to engage secretly (nigūḍham) in his līlā, which although unmanifest can be directly cognized (root dṛś) by mahā-bhāgavatas. Moreover, the sites where this direct cognition can be most easily attained are the geographic places that are forever marked with the
traces of Bhagavān’s footprints and are the immanent counterparts of the transcendent dhāmans: Vṛndāvana, the earthly Vraja, and the earthly cities of Mathurā and Dvārakā. As I will discuss in a later section, Jīva represents the earthly Vraja in particular as a kind of portal that opens onto the transcendent Vraja-dhāman.266
In Jīva’s analysis the principal factor that distinguishes the transcendent dhāmans and their prakāśa-viśeṣas is their relationship to the material space-time continuum. Jīva represents the transcendent dhāmans, along with the aprakaṭa līlā that goes on eternally (nityam) in each dhāman, as beyond the finite boundaries of space and time. The aprakaṭa līlā “is unmixed (amiśra) with the phenomenal world (prāpañcika-loka) and its objects, and its continuous flow is devoid of the divisions of time—beginning, middle, and end.”267 In the aprakaṭa līlā, as represented by Jīva, Kṛṣṇa remains simultaneously in the three transcendent dhāmans that constitute three aspects of his singular loka, Kṛṣṇaloka, simultaneously engaging in the distinctive kinds of playful activities (vinoda) that characterize the unmanifest līlā in each dhāman. For example, in Goloka-Vṛndāvana he tends cows along with his parikaras, the gopas, while simultaneously in the transcendent domain of Mathurā he meets in the great assembly (mahā-sabhā) with his parikaras, the Yādavas.268
When the transcendent dhāmans descend and become instantiated on earth in particular geographic places, these prakāśa-viśeṣas, along with the prakaṭa līlā that unfolds in each place, become embedded in the material space-time continuum. In contrast to the transcendent dhāmans, which in their essential nature are free from all contact with the phenomenal world, the prakāśa-viśeṣas rest on the earth in three distinct geographic locales, and the prakaṭa līlā is therefore connected in certain ways with the objects of the phenomenal world. Moreover, whereas the transcendent dhāmans exist beyond the limitations of time, the prakāśa-viśeṣas are located within the material realm that is subject to the cycles of time and therefore the prakaṭa līlā unfolds in a progressive sequence of events that has a beginning, middle, and end. For example, in the prakaṭa līlā Kṛṣṇa appears to travel through time between the three earthly dhāmans: he is born in Mathurā as Vāsudeva, the son of Vasudeva and Devakī; during his childhood and youth in Vraja as Gopāla, when he is under the care of his foster parents Nanda and Yaśodā, he plays with the gopas and gopīs in the groves of Vṛndāvana; he then assumes his kṣatriya-bhāva as Vāsudeva and returns to Mathurā to slay his evil uncle Kaṃsa; in the last phase of his manifest līlā he establishes his kingdom in Dvārakā and carries out his duties as the prince of the Yādava clan; and, finally, he concludes his līlā on earth and returns to Kṛṣṇaloka.
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