O prince, hear from me the most secret formula by repeating which for seven days and nights a person can see (root dṛś) perfected beings moving through the sky. Oṃ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. While repeating this mantra a sage should perform worship of the Lord.… One should offer to him whose form is the mantra (mantra-mūrti), while repeating the mantra within the heart, those articles of worship prescribed by the ancients for Bhagavān.8
The Bhāgavata, in recounting Nārada’s instructions to Dhruva, represents this meditative practice—which involves visualization of Bhagavān’s four-armed form, mental repetition of his sonic form, and mental offerings to him enshrined within the heart—as the pivotal practice of bhakti-yoga that leads to liberation (vimukti).9 According to the Bhāgavata’s account, Dhruva then retires to Madhuvana, the forest surrounding Mathurā, the birthplace of Kṛṣṇa, which is eternally sanctified by his divine presence.10 He engages in meditation in accordance with Nārada’s instructions for an extended period and becomes established in samādhi, his mind completely absorbed in Bhagavān’s form (rūpa) enthroned in his heart.11 Longing to see his bhakta, Bhagavān then approaches Dhruva in Madhuvana. Dhruva, absorbed in meditation, notices that the form of the Lord that had manifested in the lotus of his heart has disappeared, and when he opens his eyes he sees (root dṛś) Bhagavān himself standing before him on the gross material plane.12
The Bhāgavata’s creation account, as discussed in Chapter 4, ascribes cosmogonic efficacy to the creator Brahmā’s recitation of the Vedic mantras, for by uttering the Vedic names of the various worlds and classes of beings he manifests the corresponding forms. In a similar way, the Bhāgavata’s account of Dhruva ascribes soteriological efficacy to Dhruva’s meditation on the twelve-syllable mantra, for by mentally repeating the name of Vāsudeva in the depths of meditation he enlivens the divine presence embodied in the mantra and the form of the supreme Godhead appears to him.
The Bhāgavata’s representations of mantra meditation in this account re-vision both Upaniṣadic and Pāñcarātra formulations. In the Upaniṣads, as discussed in Chapter 4, mantra meditation forms an integral part of the discourse of jñāna, and the root mantra Om is represented as the sound-form of Brahman that is to be used as a vehicle in meditation in order to realize a state of distinctionless union (sāyujya) with the supreme Brahman, which in its essential nature is impersonal, formless, and beyond sound. In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, in contrast, mantra meditation is reinscribed as an integral part of the discourse of bhakti, and the twelve-syllable mantra is represented as the sound-form of Vāsudeva that is to be used as a vehicle in meditation in order to realize the supreme personal Godhead in the resplendent glory of his divine body: as a luminous, reverberating form cognized within the heart in samādhi with eyes closed, and as an effulgent form cognized on the gross material plane with eyes wide open in the highest state of realization.
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa’s representations of mantra meditation in its account of Dhruva also suggest the influence of Pāñcarātra constructions of mantra. First, the Bhāgavata invokes the Pāñcarātra notion of mantra-mūrti, in which the mantra is considered the sonic form of the deity. Second, the twelve-syllable mantra that the Bhāgavata recommends as a meditation device—oṃ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya—is one of the most important of the Vaiṣṇava mantras discussed in the Pāñcarātra Saṃhitās, where it is classified as a pada mantra, comprising the name of the deity in the dative case (bhagavate vāsudevāya) together with a word expressive of reverence (namaḥ) and preceded by the syllable Om. Finally, the Bhāgavata represents mental repetition of the twelve-syllable mantra as part of a meditative practice that includes visualization of the deity’s form and mental offerings to the deity, recalling the Pāñcarātra conception of meditation as a form of mānasa-yāga or antar-yāga, internalized worship comprising mental offerings.13
In another passage, after extolling the efficacy of worshiping Kṛṣṇa with Vedic rituals together with tantric rituals, the Bhāgavata represents mantra meditation as part of a larger ritual complex that includes elements that are reminiscent of the four principal components of the daily ritual regimen delineated in Pāñcarātra texts: bhūta-śuddhi, purification of the bodily elements; nyāsa, ritual placement of mantras on various parts of the body; mānasa-yāga or antar-yāga, internalized worship involving mental offerings to the deity; and bāhya-yāga, worship of the deity involving external offerings such as sandalpaste, flowers, incense, and food.14 I will discuss this Pāñcarātra ritual regime in a later section of this chapter.
Maṇḍala Visualization
Dhyāna, meditation, is ascribed a pivotal role throughout the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya of the Padma Purāṇa as the most efficacious means to attain realization of Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent abode in Vṛndāvana. The soteriological efficacy of meditation is particularly emphasized in chapters 72 and 73 of the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya.
Chapter 72 of the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya presents a series of vignettes about various sages who seek to realize Kṛṣṇa and engage in meditation (dhyāna) in order to attain their goal. Each vignette portrays a particular sage meditating (root dhyā) on Kṛṣṇa, which involves mentally repeating (root jap) a specific mantra and visualizing a specific form of Kṛṣṇa engaged in some līlā activity with his cowmaiden lovers or cowherd friends in Vṛndāvana. Through his dedicated practice of meditation, the sage eventually realizes his goal: after casting off his material body (deha or tanu), he attains the form (rūpa) of a particular gopī in the transcendent Vṛndāvana where he revels eternally with Kṛṣṇa.15
Chapter 72 concludes with a vignette in which it recommends a particular method of meditative visualization (root dhyā, smṛ, or cint), which it refers to as the “meditation of the ṛṣis” (ṛṣi-dhyāna) utilizing a ten-syllable mantra. The meditation makes use of a simplified version of the cosmographic lotus-maṇḍala of Vṛndāvana described in chapters 69 and 70 of the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya, which I discussed at length in Chapter 5,16 and involves a progressive series of visualizations that serve as a means of mentally constructing the concentric rings of the maṇḍala that are within the domain of Vṛndāvana proper. The meditation begins with a bird’s-eye view of an island made of light (jyotir-maya) encircled by the Yamunā River and then zooms into a visualization of the forest of Vṛndāvana, with its captivating display of colors, sounds, fragrances, and other sensory delights. The meditation then zooms in even further to a great coral tree in the center of the forest that is one hundred yojanas (approximately eight hundred feet) tall. Although the yoga-pīṭha is not explicitly mentioned, the coral tree assumes a role comparable to that of the yoga-pīṭha, for it is the center from which the concentric rings of the meditation maṇḍala radiate outward. Having visualized the coral tree in the center of the maṇḍala, the practitioner’s vision expands outward to the outermost ring of the maṇḍala in which young gopas are playing surrounded by cows. The process of visualization then moves progressively inward: from the outer circle of gopas to the inner circle of gopīs to the gem-laden pavilion (vedi) where Kṛṣṇa reclines with Rādhā. The meditation culminates in a visualization exploring the various parts of Kṛṣṇa’s divine body.17
This “meditation of the ṛṣis,” which utilizes the cosmographic lotus-maṇḍala of Vṛndāvana as a meditation device, finds fruition when the process of visualization culminates in a state of living realization in which the advanced practitioner attains the status of a ṛṣi who “sees” (root dṛś)—not through a mentally constructed vision but through direct visionary experience—the divine form of Kṛṣṇa playing in his transcendent dhāman with the gopīs and gopas. In chapter 73, immediately following its instructions regarding this meditation in the concluding section of chapter 72, the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya continues with an extended exposition by Vyāsa, the paradigmatic ṛṣi of ṛṣis, in which he describes how, while immersed in the depths of meditation (dhyāna), he attained a direct
cognition of the cowherd Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent abode in Vṛndāvana.
Then I saw (root dṛś) a cowherd boy (bāla gopa) the color of a dark rain-cloud, dressed in yellow garments, who was seated at the base of a kadamba tree surrounded by cowherd maidens and laughing with cowherd boys—a wonder (adbhuta) [to behold]. [I also saw] the forest called Vṛndāvana, which was adorned with fresh blossoms, was resounding with cuckoos and bees, and was entrancing due to the God of love’s presence. I saw the Kālindī [Yamunā] River, which had the color of the petals of a blue lotus. I also saw Govardhana, which was held aloft by the hands of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma in order to destroy the pride of the great Indra and bring joy to the cowherds and cows.18
In this account of Vyāsa’s cognition, the formal schemas found in chapters 69 and 70 of the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya—the guided visualization of the different parts of Kṛṣṇa’s divine body and the schematized visions of the terrestrial Vṛndāvana as a geographic maṇḍala and the transcendent Vṛndāvana as a cosmographic maṇḍala—are cast aside, and the processes of visualization and maṇḍalization give way to direct experiential realization. Vyāsa, the consummate ṛṣi who “sees” (root dṛś) and “hears” (root śru) with the nonmaterial senses, revels in his living encounter with Kṛṣṇa at play with the gopīs and gopas and in his living engagement with the transcendent landscape of Vṛndāvana, with its blossoming trees and melodious birds, Yamunā River, and Mount Govardhana.
Vyāsa continues by relating the reciprocal nature of his encounter, in which Kṛṣṇa, svayaṃ Bhagavān, speaks to him and reveals to him that the divine form (divya rūpa) that he sees is his eternal vigraha consisting of sat-cit-ānanda, being, consciousness, and bliss. Moreover, everything else that he sees—the gopīs and gopas, the forest of Vṛndāvana, the Yamunā River, the entire landscape—is eternal (nitya).
I was thrilled with intense rapture upon seeing (root dṛś) Gopāla, adorned with all his ornaments, rejoicing in the embrace of the [cowherd] women, playing on his flute. Then svayaṃ Bhagavān, as he roamed about Vṛndāvana, said to me: “That which is seen by you is my eternal (sanātana) divine form (divya rūpa), my vigraha consisting of sat-cit-ānanda, which is undivided (niṣkala), nonactive (niṣkriya), and tranquil (śānta). There is nothing greater than this perfect (pūrṇa) lotus-eyed form of mine. The Vedas declare this to be the cause of all causes, an eternal (nitya), everlasting (śāśvata), auspicious reality consisting of supreme bliss (parānanda) and a mass of consciousness (cid-ghana). Know my Mathurā to be eternal (nitya) as well as the forest of Vṛndāvana, the Yamunā, the cowherd maidens, and the cowherd boys.”19
The Vṛndāvana Māhātmya’s account of Vyāsa’s cognition concludes with a conversation in which Kṛṣṇa, at Vyāsa’s request, reveals to him the hidden identities of the gopīs and gopas and other inhabitants and features of the transcendent landscape, including the kadamba tree, cuckoos, Yamunā River, and Mount Govardhana.20
Both Rūpa Gosvāmin and Jīva Gosvāmin cite variants of many of the verses quoted above from chapter 73 of the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya regarding Vyāsa’s cognition of Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana. However, as I discussed in Chapter 5, the Gosvāmins appear to have had in their possession a Bengali version of the Padma Purāṇa that did not contain the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya chapters, and in the case of those verses that they do cite that correspond to verses found in the extant Vṛndāvana Māhātmya—such as those quoted above—they identify these verses as coming from an otherwise unknown Nirvāṇa Khaṇḍa (in the case of Rūpa) or Nirmāṇa Khaṇḍa (in the case of Jīva).21 In any case, the important point to be emphasized in the present context is that the Gosvāmins, like the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya, ascribe critical importance to the direct experiences (anubhava) of ṛṣis such as Vyāsa, and, as we shall see, they emphasize that sādhakas should seek to replicate these experiences by incorporating meditation into their regimen of sādhana-bhakti.
Beyond Yoga and Tantra:
The Gauḍīya Approach to Meditation
The Gauḍīya theology of superordination, as discussed in Chapter 2, domesticates and subordinates the yoga-mārga by positing a purely meditative form of bhakti, śānta-rasa, that is more efficacious than the yogin’s practice of aṣṭāṅga-yoga but is at the same time deficient because it does not lead to the highest aspect of the Godhead in which Kṛṣṇa is experienced as pūrṇa Bhagavān. While śānta-rasa is thus deemed to be inadequate and relegated to the bottom of the hierarchy of rasas, the early Gauḍīya authorities do not thereby jettison meditation as an ineffectual form of practice that has no place in sādhana-bhakti. On the contrary, building on the formulations of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and the Padma Purāṇa, they develop their own unique repertoire of meditative practices in which they re-vision meditation as a critical component of sādhana-bhakti and the central devotional method in the advanced regimen of rāgānugā-bhakti through which the sādhaka realizes his or her siddha-rūpa and attains a direct cognition of Kṛṣṇa’s vigraha, absolute body, and his aprakaṭa līlā, unmanifest līlā, in the transcendent Vraja-dhāman.
In his discussion of sādhana-bhakti in the Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu, Rūpa Gosvāmin ascribes central significance to dhyāna, meditation; smṛti, remembering; and smaraṇa, contemplative recollection, although he does not elaborate on the distinguishing features of these meditative practices. In the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha and Bhakti Sandarbha, Jīva Gosvāmin expands on the framework provided by Rūpa. Declaring that “one should engage in bhakti-yoga in the form of meditation (dhyāna),”22 he maps out a range of meditative practices, which he variously terms dhyāna, meditation; smaraṇa, contemplative recollection; bhāvanā or cintana, contemplation; and mantropāsanā, meditation by means of a mantra on a particular līlā. After a brief consideration of Rūpa’s reflections in the Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu, I will devote the major portion of my analysis of the Gauḍīya approach to meditation to Jīva’s formulations in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha and Bhakti Sandarbha in which he deploys a number of discursive strategies to distinguish the Gauḍīya meditative practices that are integral to bhakti-yoga, the yoga of devotion, from the meditation techniques advocated by yogic traditions such as Pātañjala Yoga and by tantric ritual traditions.
Meditation in Rāgānugā-Bhakti
Smaraṇa
In the Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu Rūpa includes dhyāna, meditation on the Lord, and smṛti, remembering the Lord, among the sixty-four practices of vaidhī-bhakti and also allots a significant role to smaraṇa, contemplative recollection, in his discussion of the advanced practices of rāgānugā-bhakti.23 Rūpa defines dhyāna as “skillful contemplation (cintana) of the forms (rūpas), qualities (guṇas), playful activities (krīḍās), and service (sevā)” of the Lord and then invokes verses from the Purāṇas to illustrate each of these forms of meditation.24 He defines smṛti as “any form of mental connection (manasā sambandha)” with the Lord and includes among his illustrations remembering the Lord, his name (nāman), and his abode, Vraja-dhāman.25 Rūpa provides the basis for the meditative practice of smaraṇa, contemplative recollection, in the following two verses, which, as discussed in Chapter 2, are critical to his analysis of rāgānugā-bhakti:
One should dwell (vāsa) continually in Vraja, absorbed in various stories (kathā) about it, remembering (root smṛ) Kṛṣṇa and his beloved associates whose devotional mode accords with one’s own. One who wishes to realize a particular devotional mode (bhāva) should perform devotional service (sevā) emulating the residents of Vraja with both the sādhaka-rūpa and the siddha-rūpa.26
In his commentary Jīva maintains that these verses by Rūpa encapsulate the central method of rāgānugā-bhakti and suggests that this method ideally involves dwelling in Vraja with both the physical body (śarīra) and the mind (manas). Even if the rāgānugā sādhaka is not able to live physically in the earthly Vraja, then he or she should dwell mentally in the transcendent Vraja through the regular practice
of smaraṇa, contemplative recollection. This practice involves emulating with both the sādhaka-rūpa and the siddha-rūpa an eternal associate of Vraja whose devotional mode accords with the sādhaka’s own inherent nature (svarūpa). As discussed in Chapter 2, Jīva glosses sādhaka-rūpa as the “body as it is” (yathāvastitha-deha) and siddha-rūpa as an “internal meditative body (antaś-cintita-deha) that is suitable for one’s intended devotional service (sevā) to Kṛṣṇa.”27 Jīva’s understanding of rāgānugā-bhakti centers on the meditative practice of smaraṇa, which entails constructing a meditative body through which the sādhaka can dwell mentally in Vraja even when residing outside of the earthly dhāman. I will return to Jīva’s notion of the meditative body later.
In the Bhakti Sandarbha Jīva provides an extended analysis of smaraṇa that evokes Rūpa’s characterizations of dhyāna, smṛti, and smaraṇa. As discussed in Chapter 2, Jīva defines smaraṇa as contemplative recollection of the nāmans, names; rūpas, forms; guṇas, qualities; parikaras, eternal associates; sevā, service; and līlās, playful activities, of Kṛṣṇa.28 His analysis of smaraṇa distinguishes five stages: (1) smaraṇa, thinking about Kṛṣṇa in any manner; (2) dhāraṇā, withdrawal of the attention from external sense objects and focusing the mind on Kṛṣṇa; (3) dhyāna, meditation on the forms (rūpas) of Kṛṣṇa and his other aspects; (4) dhruvānusmṛti, a more advanced stage of meditation in which consciousness flows towards Kṛṣṇa in an unbroken stream; and (5) samādhi, the most advanced stage of meditation in which the sādhaka attains a state of complete absorption in which the object of meditation—Kṛṣṇa, svayaṃ Bhagavān—shines forth (root sphur). In his analysis of this five-stage meditative practice of smaraṇa, as discussed earlier, Jīva thus appropriates three terms that are central to the practice of yogic meditation in aṣṭāṅga-yoga—dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi—and reinscribes them by embedding them in a devotional framework focused on realization of Kṛṣṇa. Moreover, he explicitly distinguishes his understanding of the highest form of samādhi from the yogic ideal of asamprajñāta samādhi: whereas the rāgānugā sādhaka attains a state of absorption in the highest aspect of the Godhead, Bhagavān, that involves a direct cognition of Kṛṣṇa’s self-luminous absolute body, the yogin attains an objectless state of absorption in the lowest aspect of the Godhead, the impersonal, formless Brahman, which is simply the light that radiates from Kṛṣṇa’s absolute body.29
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