The prakaṭa līlā, like the vigraha, is free from the boundaries of time and so on, but through the inherent impulse of the svarūpa-śakti of Bhagavān it has a beginning and an end, consists of a mixture of phenomenal and nonphenomenal objects, and is characterized by [events such as] his birth.269
Goloka-Vṛndāvana: Vraja-Dhāman as the Supreme Dhāman
In the Laghubhāgavatāmṛta Rūpa Gosvāmin celebrates Vraja-dhāman, in both its transcendent and immanent forms, as the supreme dhāman, for its sweetness (mādhurya) surpasses that of the other two dhāmans, Mathurā and Dvārakā: “His [Kṛṣṇa’s] fourfold sweetness only manifests in Vraja: sweetness of his majesty (aiśvarya), sweetness of his play (krīḍā), sweetness of his flute (veṇu), and sweetness of his body (vigraha).”270 Among these four distinguishing features, two are of particular importance in Rūpa’s analysis: the unsurpassed sweetness of Kṛṣṇa’s youthful cowherd form (gopa-rūpin), which is the svayaṃ-rūpa of his vigraha, absolute body, that he displays only in Vraja; and the unsurpassed sweetness of Kṛṣṇa’s play (krīḍā) in his līlā with the gopas and gopīs of Vraja, culminating in his ecstatic rāsa-līlā with the gopīs.271
Jīva Gosvāmin follows Rūpa’s lead in extolling the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, as Kṛṣṇa’s supreme dhāman, which is above all other lokas (sarvopari), including not only the countless Vaikuṇṭhas that constitute Paravyoman but also the other two dhāmans that form part of Kṛṣṇaloka, Mathurā and Dvārakā. In the course of his analysis, Jīva highlights three characteristics that distinguish Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, as the quintessential dhāman of Bhagavān, two of which resonate with Rūpa’s characterization of the distinguishing features of Vraja-dhāman. First, it is in Goloka-Vṛndāvana alone that Bhagavān displays the svayaṃ-rūpa of his vigraha, the two-armed cowherd form of Gopāla Kṛṣṇa. Second, it is in Goloka-Vṛndāvana alone that he engages in līlā that is characterized by pure sweetness (mādhurya) and passion (rāga) and unfolds his rahasya-līlā, the most recondite of līlās, in which he revels eternally in blissful self-referral play with the expressions of his hlādinī-śakti, Rādhā and the gopīs. Finally, it is in Goloka-Vṛndāvana alone that pure rāgānugā-bhakti is found, and hence the highest state of realization can be attained only in Vraja-dhāman, not in any other dhāman.272
Vraja-Dhāman as a Lotus-Maṇḍala
In his explorations of Vraja-dhāman, Jīva invokes the image of Goloka-Vṛndāvana as a lotus-maṇḍala with a yoga-pīṭha in the center. As discussed in Chapter 1, Kṛṣṇadāsa, in his representations of Gauḍīya cosmography in the Caitanya Caritāmṛta, uses the image of the lotus to represent the entirety of the transcendent dhāman of Kṛṣṇaloka together with Paravyoman, in which he identifies Kṛṣṇaloka with the pericarp (karṇikāra) and the Vaikuṇṭhas of Paravyoman with the countless petals that encircle the pericarp.273 Jīva, in contrast, uses lotus imagery in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha to represent only the innermost dhāman of Kṛṣṇaloka, in which he identifies Goloka-Vṛndāvana with the thousand-petaled lotus and Kṛṣṇa’s yoga-pīṭha that stands at the center of Goloka-Vṛndāvana with the pericarp of the lotus. As mentioned earlier, Jīva’s deployment of the trope of the lotus is grounded in the śāstric authority of the Brahma Saṃhitā, a work that is ascribed a pivotal role in Gauḍīya theology and whose authoritative status is held to have been established by Caitanya himself. In the Caitanya Caritāmṛta Kṛṣṇadāsa portrays Caitanya as obtaining a manuscript of a chapter (adhyāya) of the Brahma Saṃhitā during his pilgrimage to South India and immediately recognizing its critical importance as “the primary source for knowledge of the greatness of Govinda.”
He entered into conversation with great bhaktas, and there he got the section [adhyāya] of the Brahma Saṃhitā. When he got this manuscript, the joy of Prabhu [Caitanya] was unbounded; its manifestations were trembling and weeping and sweating and gooseflesh and paralysis. There is no scripture of theology [siddhānta-śāstra] equal to the Brahma Saṃhitā; it is the primary source for knowledge of the greatness of Govinda. In a few syllables it speaks profound doctrines; among all the śāstras of the Vaiṣṇavas it is the most essential. He had the manuscript copied with great care.…274
According to Rādhāgovinda Nātha, the chapter (adhyāya) of the Brahma Saṃhitā that Caitanya obtained in South India was the fifth chapter.275 He is represented in Kṛṣṇadāsa’s account as bringing the manuscript with him when he returned from South India to Bengal and instructing his followers to make copies of the manuscript and disseminate them.276 Jīva subsequently wrote a commentary, the Digdarśanīṭīkā, on the sixty-two verses of the fifth chapter of the Brahma Saṃhitā.
In the opening section of the Digdarśanīṭīkā, Jīva remarks that even though the Brahma Saṃhitā contains one hundred chapters, the fifth chapter encapsulates the condensed essence of the entire work in sūtra form. This fifth chapter does not correspond to any of the forty chapters that constitute the extant Bṛhadbrahma Saṃhitā, discussed earlier. Entwistle suggests that “this fifth chapter, rather than being an integral part of the Bṛhadbrahmasaṃhitā, is, as implied by Jiv Goswami himself, a later summary of its contents composed for the purposes of exegesis.”277
In his opening remarks in the Digdarśanīṭīkā, Jīva indicates that in his commentary on the fifth chapter of the Brahma Saṃhitā he will reflect on points that he has explained extensively in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha. There is indeed considerable overlap between Jīva’s reflections in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha and in the Digdarśanīṭīkā, with the verses quoted below from the Brahma Saṃhitā, 5.1–5.5 and 5.29, providing the basis for his extended exploration of the nature of Goloka-Vṛndāvana in both texts. These Brahma Saṃhitā verses present a variant of the lotus-maṇḍala imagery found in the Bṛhadbrahma Saṃhitā, with the thousand-petaled lotus of Gokula (Goloka) represented here as encompassed by a quadrangle identified as Śvetadvīpa and the pericarp (karṇikāra) of the lotus depicted as a hexagonal yantra rather than as an octagonal yoga-pīṭha.
Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, is the supreme Īśvara, whose vigraha consists of sat-cit-ānanda, who is without beginning yet is the beginning [of all], the cause of all causes. The great abode (mahat pada) known as Gokula is a thousand-petaled lotus, and the pericarp (karṇikāra) of that lotus is his dhāman.… The pericarp (karṇikāra) is a great yantra with six points, a hexagonal abode (sthāna) with six sections, which has a diamond pivot (vajra-kīlaka), is established by prakṛti and puruṣa, is invested with the luminous kāma-bīja mantra, and is filled with the great bliss of rasa arising from the bliss of preman. The filaments of that [lotus] belong to his aṃśas, and its petals belong to his śrīs. Encompassing that [lotus] is a marvelous quadrangle called Śvetadvīpa, which is fourfold, its four corners constituting the four dhāmans of the four mūrtis,…and which is surrounded by the ten guardians of the directions (dik-pālas) in the form of mantras.… I worship Govinda, the ādi-puruṣa, who tends wish-fulfilling cows in stables made of abundant wish-fulfilling gems and surrounded by hundreds of thousands of wish-fulfilling trees and who is eagerly served by a hundred thousand lakṣmīs.278
In his commentaries on these verses in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha and the Digdarśanīṭīkā, Jīva elaborates on each aspect of the lotus-maṇḍala imagery. He begins his hermeneutical venture by reflecting on the Brahma Saṃhitā’s representation of “the great abode (mahat pada) known as Gokula” as a thousand-petaled lotus (5.2). Commenting on the nature of the thousand-petaled lotus itself, he maintains that it is made of wish-fulfilling gems (cintāmaṇi-maya), invoking the imagery that the Brahma Saṃhitā employs in a later verse, which depicts Kṛṣṇa’s luminous vigraha seated on a throne in the pericarp of a thousand-petaled lotus, a place made of wish-fulfilling gems (bhūmi cintāmaṇi) (5.26). This lotus is celebrated as “the great abode (mahat pada)” (5.2). Jīva glosses mahat pada as that abode which is preeminent over all
other abodes (sarvotkṛṣṭa), which he understands as a reference to the abode of Mahābhagavān or to Mahāvaikuṇṭha. Since Bhagavān’s abode in Mahāvaikuṇṭha, or Kṛṣṇaloka, consists of three dhāmans—Goloka-Vṛndāvana, Mathurā, and Dvārakā—Jīva notes that the Brahma Saṃhitā more precisely identifies the mahat pada by specifying that it is “known as Gokula,” which he understands as another designation for Goloka. Jīva glosses the word “Gokula” as “the abode of cows and gopas” (go-gopa-vāsa-rūpa). This dhāman of Kṛṣṇa is called a great abode (mahat pada) because he lives there in an expansive residence (mahāntaḥ-pura) suitable for accommodating Nanda, Yaśodā, and his other eternal associates.279
In commenting on the Brahma Saṃhitā’s representation of the pericarp (karṇikāra) of the lotus of Gokula (Goloka) as “a great yantra with six points” (5.3), Jīva identifies the pericarp with the pīṭha of Kṛṣṇa, whose presence is instantiated in the center of the thousand-petaled lotus in multiple modalities: in gopa form as a resplendent vigraha consisting of sat-cit-ānanda, in aniconic form as a hexagonal yantra comprising two interlocking triangles, and in sonic form as a reverberating mantra comprising eighteen syllables. Jīva is concerned in particular to establish that the pericarp is the principal pīṭha of Kṛṣṇa’s sound-embodiment as the eighteen-syllable mantra (aṣṭādaśākṣara-mantra), which he celebrates as the mahā-mantra that is the “king of mantras” and that is attended by all other mantras. Although Jīva does not explicitly cite the eighteen-syllable mantra, he notes that the varṇa-sounds that constitute this mantra are revealed in a later verse of the Brahma Saṃhitā (5.24): klīṃ kṛṣṇāya govindāya gopījana-vallabhāya svāhā. According to Jīva, the six sections of the hexagonal yantra are the abodes of the six parts (padas) of the eighteen-syllable mantra: (1) kṛṣṇāya, (2) govindāya, (3) gopījana, (4) vallabhāya, (5) svā, (6) hā. He identifies the diamond pivot (vajra-kīlaka) in the center of the yantra with the bīja, or seed-syllable, of the eighteen-syllable mantra known as the kāma-bīja: klīṃ. From this self-effulgent (svaprakāśa) bīja-mantra, which shines forth like a diamond from the center of the yantra, the rest of the mūla-mantra (root mantra) unfolds, its six parts graphically inscribed in letters in the six corners of the two interlocking triangles that form the yantra.280
In commenting on the Brahma Saṃhitā’s description of the hexagonal yantra as “established by prakṛti and puruṣa” (5.3), Jīva suggests that the terms prakṛti and puruṣa both refer to Kṛṣṇa. The term prakṛti refers to Kṛṣṇa’s role as the cause (kāraṇa) of the eighteen-syllable mantra, since his svarūpa, essential form, is embodied in the mantra. The term puruṣa refers to his role as the presiding deity (adhiṣṭhātṛ-devatā) of the mantra.281 In the Digdarśanīṭīkā Jīva develops this notion further and claims that Kṛṣṇa manifests in the eighteen-syllable mantra in four ways: as its cause (kāraṇa), as its presiding deity (adhiṣṭhātṛ-devatā), as the aggregate of varṇa-sounds that constitute the mantra (varṇa-samudāya), and as the deity who is worshiped by means of the mantra (ārādhya). While the first two modes of manifestation are indicated by the terms prakṛti and puruṣa in the present verse of the Brahma Saṃhitā (5.3), the varṇa-sounds of the mantra in which Kṛṣṇa is embodied are mentioned in a later verse (5.24) and Kṛṣṇa’s role as the object of worship of the mantra is alluded to in an earlier verse (5.1).282 In order to ground his claim that Kṛṣṇa’s svarūpa is nondifferent from the varṇa-sounds of the eighteen-syllable mantra, Jīva invokes the canonical authority of the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad, which provides an extended exposition of the eighteen-syllable mantra as the sound-embodiment of Kṛṣṇa, as I will discuss in Chapter 6.283
Jīva interprets the Brahma Saṃhitā’s description of the pericarp of the lotus as “filled with the great bliss of rasa arising from the bliss of preman” (5.3) to mean that the pericarp, Kṛṣṇa’s dhāman, flows with the bliss of preman in the form of various mature rasas filled with great bliss.284 As discussed in Chapter 2, the ambrosial nectar of prema-rasa is relished in various flavors, rasas, by sādhakas who attain direct experiential realization of the dhāman in the advanced phases of rāgānugā-bhakti, with each sādhaka savoring the particular rasa that accords with his or her unique inherent nature (svarūpa)—whether that of service (dāsya-rasa), friendship (sakhya-rasa), parental love (vātsalya-rasa), or erotic love (mādhurya-rasa).
Having reflected at some length on the Brahma Saṃhitā’s representation of Kṛṣṇa’s dhāman in the pericarp of the lotus, Jīva proceeds to a discussion of its characterization of the filaments and petals of the lotus: “The filaments of that [lotus] belong to his aṃśas, and its petals belong to his śrīs” (5.4). In Jīva’s interpretation the filaments that encircle the pericarp are the abodes of the gopas, who are aṃśas (portions) of Kṛṣṇa in that they are his kinsmen (sajātīyas). The petals of the lotus, according to Jīva, are the groves that are the abodes of Rādhā and the other gopīs who are Kṛṣṇa’s most beloved śrīs. Jīva also locates paths and cow pastures at the base of the pericarp where the petals of the lotus of Gokula (Goloka) join.285
In the Brahma Saṃhitā’s representation of the lotus-maṇḍala, the thousand-petaled lotus of Gokula (Goloka) is encompassed by “a marvelous quadrangle called Śvetadvīpa, which is fourfold, its four corners constituting the four dhāmans of the four mūrtis” (5.5). In commenting on this verse, Jīva suggests that the inner portion of the maṇḍala—the lotus—is called Vṛndāvana, while the outer portion of the maṇḍala—the quadrangle that surrounds the lotus—is called Śvetadvīpa. He identifies the four mūrtis in the four corners of the quadrangle with the ādi catur-vyūhas—Vāsudeva, Saṃkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha—who engage in divine līlā (deva-līlā) while stationed in their chariots. They in turn are surrounded by the dik-pālas, the guardians of the ten directions such as Indra, who assume the form of mantras.286
Jīva’s analysis of the cosmography embedded in the Brahma Saṃhitā’s use of the lotus-maṇḍala imagery thus serves as a means of legitimating his own claims about the hierarchy of dhāmans that constitute Kṛṣṇaloka. He explicitly identifies the thousand-petaled lotus with Goloka-Vṛndāvana, the abode of cows, gopas, and gopīs, which is the supreme dhāman where Gopāla Kṛṣṇa eternally displays his vigraha in the form of a cowherd boy, established in the yoga-pīṭha in the pericarp of the lotus. Although he does not make this identification explicit, Jīva also appears to correlate the quadrangular outer portion of the maṇḍala with the outer dhāmans of Kṛṣṇaloka—Mathurā and Dvārakā—since it is in these dhāmans that Kṛṣṇa appears in his aiśvarya mode as Vāsudeva and the other three ādi catur-vyūhas. In the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha, after citing the first five verses of the fifth chapter of the Brahma Saṃhitā, 5.1–5.5, Jīva invokes a later verse, 5.29, as the capstone verse that establishes the primacy of Goloka-Vṛndāvana as the loka of wish-fulfilling cows and of wish-fulfilling trees where Kṛṣṇa in his mādhurya mode as Govinda, the keeper of cows, eternally resides:
I worship Govinda, the ādi-puruṣa, who tends wish-fulfilling cows in stables made of abundant wish-fulfilling gems and surrounded by hundreds of thousands of wish-fulfilling trees and who is eagerly served by a hundred thousand lakṣmīs.287
From Loka of Cows to Dhāma-Avatāra
In reflecting on the nature of the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha, Jīva intermingles abstract metaphysical terminology and categories with concrete pastoral language and imagery. On the one hand, he represents Goloka-Vṛndāvana as a transcendent domain that is inherent in Kṛṣṇa’s essential nature as part of the svarūpa-śakti and is an extension of his vigraha, absolute body, and he asserts even further that Goloka-Vṛndāvana is the form of Bhagavān (bhagavad-rūpa) and is ultimately identical with his body (deha). He thus ascribes to Goloka-Vṛndāvana the attributes of the absolute body: it is nonmaterial (
aprākṛta) and consists of being, consciousness, and bliss (sat-cit-ānanda-rūpa); it is a mass of knowledge (vijñāna-ghana) and blazing splendor (tejo-maya); and it is all-pervading (sarva-gata), nonchanging (avyaya), imperishable (akṣara), and eternal (nitya or sanātana). On the other hand, he represents Goloka-Vṛndāvana in concrete terms as a lush bucolic paradise abounding in verdant forests, groves, and meadows nourished by crystalline streams, ponds, and waterfalls and filled with fragrant flowers, nectar-filled fruits, grazing cows, multicolored birds, and buzzing bees. In a synthesis that overcomes the apparent antithesis between these two representational modes, Jīva invests this pastoral paradise with the status of a transcendent realm (parama pada) resplendent with nonmaterial forms made of śuddha-sattva, pure luminous being, that cannot be perceived with the material senses (prākṛtendriyas) but can be directly cognized by mahā-bhāgavatas whose nonmaterial senses (aprākṛtendriyas) are activated.288
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