In the case of those yogins who take up the path of bhakti as adherents of śānta-rasa and are focused on experiencing Kṛṣṇa as an object of meditation but do not seek an intimate emotional relationship with him, Jīva maintains that they do not attain the highest form of samādhi, but rather they experience the intermediary aspect of the Godhead, Paramātman, in which Kṛṣṇa appears in his four-armed aiśvarya form as Viṣṇu, the antar-yāmin (inner controller) within the heart. The highest state of samādhi is attained only by advanced practitioners of rāgānugā-bhakti who seek to realize a passionate (rāga) loving relationship with Gopāla Kṛṣṇa as pūrṇa Bhagavān—whether as a servant in dāsya-rasa, a friend in sakhya-rasa, an elder in vātsalya-rasa, or a lover in mādhurya-rasa. Jīva’s comments on the role of meditation in rāgānugā-bhakti suggest that the rāgānugā sādhaka’s experience of samādhi surpasses that of the adherent of śānta-rasa in three ways. First, the form that manifests in the rāgānugā sādhaka’s experience of samādhi is not Kṛṣṇa’s four-armed antar-yāmin form as Paramātman but rather his two-armed gopa-mūrti, cowherd form, that is the svayaṃ-rūpa of his absolute body (vigraha) as Bhagavān. Second, the rāgānugā sādhaka’s experience of samādhi differs from that of the adherent of śānta-rasa not only in terms of the specific form of Kṛṣṇa that manifests but also the locus of that form: the rāgānugā sādhaka penetrates beyond the experience of Kṛṣṇa’s four-armed form as Viṣṇu seated in the lotus of the heart and awakens to the luminous gopa-mūrti of his vigraha enthroned in the yoga-pīṭha of the lotus of Goloka-Vṛndāvana, the transcendent Vraja-dhāman. Third, the manifestation of Kṛṣṇa that unfolds in the samādhi of the rāgānugā sādhaka includes not only his vigraha, absolute body, and his dhāman, which is an extension of his absolute body, but also his līlā, divine play, and more specifically his aprakaṭa līlā, unmanifest līlā, in Goloka-Vṛndāvana.30
In his discussions of smaraṇa and dhyāna, Jīva ultimately establishes a hierarchy of religious experience in which, among the various rūpas, dhāmans, līlās, and parikaras of Kṛṣṇa that the rāgānugā sādhaka might seek to realize, he singles out a highly particularized experience of samādhi as the culmination of meditative practice: the experience of the gopa-mūrti of Kṛṣṇa’s vigraha in his supreme dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, engaged in the Goloka-līlā that is characterized by mādhurya and rāga, with the gopas and gopīs as his parikaras. Jīva asserts that pure rāgānugā-bhakti is found only in Goloka-Vṛndāvana and not in any other dhāman, and he celebrates the glories of meditation (dhyāna) on Kṛṣṇa, pūrṇa Bhagavān, as Vrajendranandana, the son of Nanda the lord of Vraja, in the Goloka-līlā. Among the various playful activities in the Goloka-līlā, he extols in particular meditation on Kṛṣṇa’s love-play with the gopīs in the rāsa-līlā, which is the rahasya-līlā, the most recondite of līlās, and which is surpassed in greatness only by his love-play with Rādhā, the most beloved of the gopīs.31
In his discussions of meditation in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha and Bhakti Sandarbha, Jīva mentions a number of different techniques that are distinguished primarily by the specific type of meditation device that is used as a vehicle for transcending—whether Kṛṣṇa’s nāmans, rūpas, parikaras, or līlās. The nāmans that are used as vehicles in meditation are mantras that incorporate the name(s) of Kṛṣṇa;32 the rūpas include iconic forms such as Kṛṣṇa’s gopa-mūrti as well as aniconic yantras that serve as meditation devices; the parikaras are the eternal associates of Vraja with whom sādhakas seek to identify in meditation; and the līlās are the particular playful activities that provide a focal point for different meditation sessions. The implication of Jīva’s analysis, as we shall see, is that irrespective of which of these meditation devices is adopted as a vehicle for transcending, meditation on Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent dhāman is the critical component that gives the rāgānugā sādhaka’s meditative practice a unique character that distinguishes it from other forms of meditation advocated by yogic or tantric traditions.
In the course of elaborating on these various meditation techniques, Jīva refers to devices and practices that are often associated with tantric ritual traditions—including mantras, maṇḍalas, yantras, bhūta-śuddhi, nyāsa, mānasa-pūjā, and mudrās—but, as I will discuss in a later section, he seeks to invest these devices and practices with distinctively Gauḍīya valences by reinscribing them as forms of sādhana-bhakti aimed at constituting a perfected devotional body, as distinct from tantric sādhana aimed at constructing a divinized tantric body.
Mantra Meditation and Maṇḍala Visualization
Jīva recommends mantra dhyāna, meditation utilizing mantras that are ascribed the status of sound-embodiments of Kṛṣṇa, as one of the most efficacious means of realizing the supreme Godhead in his transcendent dhāman. Mantra meditation, as represented by Jīva, is often accompanied by visualization techniques and bodily practices through which the sādhaka engages with the mind, speech, senses, and other faculties various aspects of Kṛṣṇa—his gopa-mūrti, aniconic yantra, dhāman, parikaras, and līlās—and thereby gradually transforms the sādhaka-rūpa, material psychophysical complex, culminating in the realization of a siddha-rūpa, a perfected nonmaterial devotional body that partakes of the qualities and substance of Kṛṣṇa’s absolute body.
Jīva suggests, for example, that while meditating with a mantra that is a sound-form of Kṛṣṇa, the sādhaka should also meditate on the transcendent dhāman and conjure a world that engages the entire sensorium through its captivating array of forms, sounds, textures, tastes, and fragances.33 While meditating with a mantra such as the eighteen-syllable mantra, the sādhaka should visualize Kṛṣṇa engaging with his parikaras in particular līlās in Vraja-dhāman.34 As I will discuss later, Jīva also recommends a specific form of mantra meditation termed mantropāsanā, which entails meditating by means of a mantra on a particular līlā at a particular place (sthāna) in the dhāman.35
Among the mantras that are recommended for use as vehicles in meditation, Jīva extols in particular the efficacy of the eighteen-syllable mantra—klīṃ kṛṣṇāya govindāya gopījana-vallabhāya svāhā—which he celebrates as the mahā-mantra that is the “king of mantras” and that embodies Kṛṣṇa’s svarūpa, essential form.36 As discussed in Chapter 5, in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha and the Digdarśanīṭīkā, in his commentaries on the Brahma Saṃhitā’s representation of Goloka-Vṛndāvana as a thousand-petaled lotus-maṇḍala, he locates the six parts (padas) of the eighteen-syllable mantra in the six corners of the hexagonal yantra that is the pericarp of the lotus and asserts that the varṇa-sounds of the mantra are nondifferent from Kṛṣṇa’s svarūpa.37 In order to provide canonical authority to ground his claim regarding the special status of the eighteen-syllable mantra, Jīva invokes the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad, which provides an extended exposition of the eighteen-syllable mantra as the quintessential sound-embodiment of Kṛṣṇa, in which it divides the mantra into five parts (pañca-pada) rather than six: (1) klīṃ kṛṣṇāya, (2) govindāya, (3) gopījana, (4) vallabhāya, (5) svāhā.38
Just as the wind enters into the world and assumes five forms in each body [as the five breaths], in the same way Kṛṣṇa, although one, manifests as sound (śabda) in five parts (pañca-pada) for the welfare of the world.39
According to another verse from the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad that is repeatedly invoked by Jīva, this fivefold (pañca-pada) mantra comprising eighteen syllables is the sonic counterpart of the fivefold (pañca-pada) vigraha of Kṛṣṇa that consists of sat-cit-ānanda:
I, along with the Maruts, constantly seek to please with a most excellent hymn of praise the one and only Govinda, whose fivefold (pañca-pada) vigraha consists of sat-cit-ānanda and who is seated beneath a devadāru tree in Vṛndāvana.40
Jīva also invokes another verse from the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad that describes how Brahmā the creator meditated (root dhyā) with the eighte
en-syllable mantra, after which Kṛṣṇa appeared (root bhū + āvir) before his eyes (purastāt) in the garb of a gopa (gopa-veśa).41 In the same way, Jīva suggests, those who mentally repeat (root jap) this mantra that is the sound correlate of Kṛṣṇa’s vigraha will “see” (root dṛś) the absolute body of Gopāla Kṛṣṇa in the form and garb of a cowherd (gopa-veśa-dhara), attaining a direct visionary experience of Bhagavān comparable to the cognitions attained by Brahmā the creator and Vyāsa, the acclaimed ṛṣi of ṛṣis.42
Although he does not explicitly discuss its role in meditation, the implication of Jīva’s analysis of the lotus-maṇḍala with the hexagonal yantra in its center is that it is used together with the eighteen-syllable mantra inscribed on the yantra as a meditation device that involves activating both the auditory and visual modes of perception, culminating in a synesthetic experience in samādhi of the unmanifest structures of Kṛṣṇa’s dhāman that transcends the material senses (prākṛtendriyas) and engages the nonmaterial senses (aprākṛtendriyas). Although Jīva leaves out of his analysis the specific instructions for this particular meditation, I would suggest, based on his discussions elsewhere, that the meditation involves mentally vocalizing the divine names contained in the mantra in sequence while simultaneously visualizing the corresponding parts of the maṇḍala in sequence. As the mental vocalization of the mantra progresses—from “kṛṣṇāya” to “govindāya” to “gopījana-vallabhāya”—the visualization of the maṇḍala progresses concurrently—from the encompassing quadrangle of Śvetadvīpa, where Kṛṣṇa manifests as the ādi catur-vyūhas, to the lotus of Goloka, where he manifests as Govinda, the keeper of cows, to the pericarp at the heart of the lotus, where he manifests as Gopījanavallabha, the beloved of the gopīs, enthroned on the yoga-pīṭha. As the sādhaka’s attention moves inward through the auditory channel by mentally vocalizing the eighteen-syllable mantra that is the sonic form of Kṛṣṇa, the attention simultaneously moves inward through the visual channel and arrives at the center of the lotus-maṇḍala where the sādhaka visualizes Kṛṣṇa’s aniconic form as the hexagonal yantra on which the varṇas of the eighteen-syllable mantra are visibly inscribed in letters. Finally, the sādhaka transcends the material senses altogether and awakens in samādhi to the luminous, reverberating gopa form of the vigraha pulsating with nonmaterial light and sound in the yoga-pīṭha of the transcendent Vraja-dhāman. This synesthetic experience not only engages the nonmaterial senses of seeing and hearing, it also engages the nonmaterial senses of taste and touch as the sādhaka savors the sweet, exhilarating flow of rasa in the dhāman. Relishing this synesthetic experience in the depths of samādhi, the sādhaka surrenders at the feet of the supreme Godhead: “svāhā,” “I offer myself to you.”
Jīva explicitly connects mantra meditation with visualization of a cosmographic maṇḍala in another context in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha in which he invokes a passage from the Svāyambhuva Āgama that recommends meditation (dhyāna) utilizing a fourteen-syllable mantra while meditating (root dhyā or root smṛ) sequentially on the various realms of a hierarchical cosmography. The Svāyambhuva Āgama’s cosmography evokes aspects of the cosmography elaborated in the Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Purāṇa, which, as discussed in Chapter 1, is adapted by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja in his representations of Gauḍīya cosmography.43 While meditating on the mantra, the sādhaka is instructed to meditate in sequential order on a series of realms, which are arranged like the concentric rings of a maṇḍala centered around Kṛṣṇa, who is seated on his throne in Vṛndāvana. The process of visualization moves from the outermost ring of the cosmographic maṇḍala, the material realm of prakṛti, through a series of nonmaterial realms that are hierarchically arranged according to increasing degrees of transcendence. After meditating on the guṇas of prakṛti, the sādhaka meditates on the waters of Virajā, which separate the material realm from the nonmaterial realms. He or she then meditates sequentially on the various nonmaterial realms, from lowest to highest: from the realm of Brahman, the abode of liberated sages, to the domain of Paravyoman, the abode of the eternal gods (devas), to the realms of the four vyūhas, Aniruddha, Pradyumna, Saṃkarṣaṇa, and Vāsudeva. The final phase of the meditation involves a lavish visualization of the domain of Vṛndāvana in its transcendent splendor: resplendent with wish-fulfilling gems; nourished by the ambrosial waters of the Yamunā; abounding in trees, vines, perpetually blooming flowers, and nectarean fruits; and filled with the sounds of singing birds and intoxicated bees. The meditation culminates in a visualization of the youthful (kiśora) divine body of Kṛṣṇa seated on a throne in the midst of a gem-laden pavilion (maṇḍapa) in Vṛndāvana, immersed in the blissful ocean of rasa that flows from his līlā.44
Mantropāsanā
In the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha Jīva recommends a specific form of meditation termed mantropāsanā, which involves meditating on a particular līlā in a particular place (sthāna) in Vraja-dhāman by means of a mantra. He introduces this meditation technique as part of his discussion of the two aspects of the aprakaṭa līlā: mantropāsanā-mayī līlā, which is a specific līlā that is mentally constructed by means of meditation utilizing mantras; and svārasikī līlā, the continuous stream of līlā that is spontaneously relished as the natural flow of rasa.45 Jīva defines mantropāsanā-mayī līlā more specifically as a particular līlā that is constructed by meditation (dhyāna) utilizing a particular mantra and whose distinctive identity is delimited by the particular place (sthāna) associated with that līlā. He cites examples of mantras from a number of authoritative śāstras that can be used in the practice of mantropāsanā. Verses from the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad are considered particularly efficacious mantras because, as mentioned in Chapter 1, the Gauḍīyas invest this post-Vedic Vaiṣṇava Upaniṣad with the transcendent authority of śruti as the record of the ancient ṛṣis’ direct cognitions of Gopāla Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent dhāman. Jīva cites the following passage from the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad in which Brahmā the creator responds to a question by the primordial sages about the nature of Kṛṣṇa’s form (rūpa) and recommends meditation on a series of ślokas that describe the gopa form of Kṛṣṇa engaged in a specific līlā in which he rests with his gopa and gopī companions beneath a wish-fulfilling tree near the Yamunā River in Vraja-dhāman:
The golden one [Brahmā] said: [Kṛṣṇa’s form] is in the garb of a cowherd (gopa-veśa), is the color of a rain-cloud, is youthful, and is resting under a wish-fulfilling tree. Here are the ślokas [for meditation]: The Lord’s eyes are like lotuses, his color is that of a rain-cloud, and his garments are dazzling like lightning. He has two arms (dvi-bhuja), his hands are positioned in the jñāna-mudrā (knowledge gesture), and he wears a garland of forest flowers. He is surrounded by gopas, gopīs, and cows, is adorned with divine ornaments, and rests beneath a wish-fulfilling tree in the center of a jeweled lotus. He is fanned by breezes that mingle with the waves of the Kālindī [Yamunā]. Anyone who contemplates (root cint) Kṛṣṇa in his heart (cetas) in this way will be liberated (mukta) from the cycle of birth and death.46
Although Jīva does not explicitly describe the specific method through which ślokas such as these are utilized as mantras in meditation, he does indicate that during the practice of mantropāsanā the sādhaka engages the particular līlā that is the focus of the meditation through “hearing” (root śru), implying that the sādhaka mentally vocalizes the mantra that describes the līlā while visualizing the discursive content of the mantra. Thus, for example, as the sādhaka mentally vocalizes the ślokas from the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad quoted above, he or she visualizes the particularities of Kṛṣṇa’s gopa form engaging in this particular “resting” (śayana) līlā with the gopas, gopīs, and cows in a particular locale in Vraja-dhāman: under a wish-fulfilling tree on a jeweled lotus near the Yamunā River.
Through regular practice of mantropāsanā involving mental vocalization of ślokas and visu
alization of the corresponding līlā tableaux, the sādhaka penetrates more and more deeply into the unmanifest structures of the līlā in the transcendent dhāman and becomes increasingly immersed in the flow of rasa. In the advanced phases of rāgānugā-bhakti, the sādhaka awakens to the constantly flowing dynamism of the svārasikī līlā in which the constructed world of līlā tableaux gives way to a spontaneous stream of rasa-filled līlā. According to Jīva, the svārasikī aspect of the aprakaṭa līlā, in which the sādhaka relishes through direct experience a continuous stream of līlā flowing with rasa, is like the Gaṅgā River, whereas the mantropāsanā-mayī aspect of the līlā, in which the sādhaka mentally constructs one līlā after another, is like a series of pools (hradas) arising from that river. Moreover, Jīva suggests that when the practice of mantropāsanā finds fruition in the unbroken flow of the svārasikī līlā, then the process of “hearing” (root śru) gives way to true “seeing” (root dṛś) in which Kṛṣṇa himself directly appears before the sādhaka in the depths of samādhi.
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