Bhakti and Embodiment

by Barbara A Holdrege

  Divine Bodies and Cosmos Bodies

  Kṛṣṇadāsa, in his articulation of Gauḍīya cosmography, allots each of the three aspects of Kṛṣṇa—Bhagavān, Brahman, and Paramātman—a distinctive place in Gauḍīya constructions of sacred space. The absolute body of Bhagavān is represented as shining forth in the pericarp of the lotus-maṇḍala, Kṛṣṇaloka, which is encircled by the petals of Paravyoman, while Brahman is represented as the effulgent ring of light that radiates forth from the absolute body of Bhagavān and encircles Paravyoman. The effulgence of Brahman is encircled in turn by the ocean of causality, which functions as a moat separating the transcendent domain of Paravyoman from the material realm of prakṛti that is governed by the māyā-śakti. Paramātman, the third aspect of Kṛṣṇa, is represented as that aspect of the Godhead which functions in relation to the māyā-śakti as the indwelling Self of the macrocosmos who is the source and ground of the innumerable Brahmā-universes, or cosmos bodies, that populate the material realm.

  Kṛṣṇa, in his role as Paramātman, assumes the forms of the three puruṣa-avatāras, who are identified as manifestations of Viṣṇu—Kāraṇābdhiśāyin Viṣṇu, Garbhodakaśāyin Viṣṇu, and Kṣīrodakaśāyin Viṣṇu—and in this threefold manifestation the divine body both encompasses and is encompassed by the cosmos bodies. As Kāraṇābdhiśāyin Viṣṇu, the first puruṣa-avatāra, who is his aṃśa, Kṛṣṇa reclines in the form of Nārāyaṇa on the ocean of causality and initiates the sarga, primary creation, by activating māyā with his glance and breaking the equilibrium of prakṛti, whereby the twenty-three evolutes (tattvas) of primordial matter emerge and combine to form countless Brahmā-universes (brahmāṇḍas) in the form of cosmic eggs. Kāraṇābdhiśāyin Viṣṇu is represented as the antar-yāmin, inner controller, of the entire material realm of prakṛti who encompasses within his divine body the countless cosmos bodies, Brahmā-eggs, which issue forth through the pores of his skin. In the next phase of creation Kāraṇābdhiśāyin Viṣṇu multiplies himself and manifests countless divine bodies with which he enters into the countless cosmos bodies, appearing in a separate form in each cosmic egg as Garbhodakaśāyin Viṣṇu, the second puruṣa-avatāra, who is an aṃśa of an aṃśa and who reclines in the water of each egg as the antar-yāmin. Garbhodakaśāyin Viṣṇu oversees the pratisarga, secondary creation, sending forth from his navel a lotus that contains the fourteen worlds and assuming the forms of the three guṇa-avatāras—Brahmā the creator, Viṣṇu the maintainer, and Śiva the destroyer—in order to create, maintain, and destroy the worlds in each kalpa. Viṣṇu the maintainer, as one of the guṇa-avatāras, is also ascribed a special role as the third puruṣa-avatāra, Kṣīrodakaśāyin Viṣṇu, who is an aṃśa of an aṃśa of an aṃśa and who enters into the lotus of the fourteen worlds contained in each cosmos body, manifesting a separate form for each lotus and reclining there on the ocean of milk as the antar-yāmin.

  While it is through the agency of the puruṣa-avatāras and guṇa-avatāras that Kṛṣṇa engages in the līlā of creation, bringing forth and maintaining the Brahmā-universes, it is through the agency of the other three classes of svāṃśa avatāras—līlā-avatāras, manvantara-avatāras, and yuga-avatāras—that he upholds the līlā of dharma in different cosmic cycles—in kalpas, manvantaras, and yugas, respectively—by descending in particular forms to particular material worlds in the lotus of the fourteen worlds contained in each Brahmā-universe in order to fulfill specific functions.

  Divine Bodies and Jīva Bodies

  Paramātman is represented as that aspect of Kṛṣṇa which not only functions in relationship to the māyā-śakti as the indwelling Self of the macrocosmos but also functions in relationship to the jīva-śakti as the indwelling Self of the microcosmos. As Paramātman, in his threefold manifestation as the puruṣa-avatāras, Kṛṣṇa is celebrated as not only “greater than the greatest,” encompassing all cosmos bodies and jīvas within his divine body, but also as “smaller than the smallest,” abiding in the heart of every jīva body. As Kāraṇābdhiśāyin Viṣṇu, the first puruṣa-avatāra, Kṛṣṇa contains within his divine body all jīvas in latent form, and he provides the impetus for the sarga to begin by implanting his seed in the form of jīvas in the womb of prakṛti. As Garbhodakaśāyin Viṣṇu, the second puruṣa-avatāra, he initiates the pratisarga, sending forth from his navel the lotus of the fourteen worlds and assuming the form of the guṇa-avatāra Brahmā the creator in order to fashion bodies for the various classes of jīvas from the material of the lotus. As Kṣīrodakaśāyin Viṣṇu, the third puruṣa-avatāra, Kṛṣṇa, multiplies himself and manifests innumerable divine bodies with which he enters into the innumerable jīva bodies, residing there in his four-armed (catur-bhuja) form as the antar-yāmin in the heart.

  Mesocosmic Forms

  The Gauḍīya discourse of divine embodiment thus represents Kṛṣṇa, the inexhaustible Godhead, as maintaining the integrity of his singular vigraha, absolute body, while at the same time overflowing in a limitless stream of divine bodies on the transcosmic, macrocosmic, and microcosmic planes of existence. In addition, Kṛṣṇa becomes embodied in a special category of forms that I term “mesocosmic” forms, which I have sought to demonstrate are critical to our understanding of the Gauḍīya discourse of divine embodiment. These mesocosmic forms mediate between the transcosmic absolute body and the microcosmic human body, serving as concrete means through which human beings can access and engage the concentrated presence of Kṛṣṇa in localized forms on the gross material plane.

  These mesocosmic forms are represented in the Gauḍīya hermeneutics of embodiment as special forms of avatāras—which I term mesocosmic avatāras—through which Kṛṣṇa descends to the material realm: (1) grantha-avatāra, Kṛṣṇa’s avatāra in the form of a scriptural text, grantha or śāstra, the Bhāgavata Purāṇa; (2) nāma-avatāras, Kṛṣṇa’s avatāras in the form of divine names, nāmans; (3) Vraja-dhāman, Kṛṣṇa’s embodiment in the form of a geographic place, dhāman, which functions as a “dhāma-avatāra”;1 and (4) arcā-avatāras, Kṛṣṇa’s avatāras in the form of ritual images, arcās or mūrtis. In contrast to the svāṃśa avatāras, in which Kṛṣṇa assumes the forms of various kinds of living beings—whether divine, semidivine, human, animal, or half-human/half-animal—and descends to the material realm for a designated period of time to fulfill a specific function, after which the svāṃśa avatāras return to their transcendent abodes, as the mesocosmic avatāras he descends to the material realm and becomes embodied in localized forms—whether a text, a name, a geographic place, or a ritual image—that he “leaves behind” on earth as enduring modes of divine embodiment through which he remains accessible to bhaktas and can be engaged over time.

  Among the sixty-four practices of vaidhī-bhakti, as we have seen, Rūpa Gosvāmin and Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja single out five practices in particular as most important for cultivating prema-rasa, and four of these five practices involve engaging the mesocosmic forms of Kṛṣṇa: (1) hearing (śravaṇa) the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and savoring (āsvāda) its meanings; (2) singing (kīrtana or saṃkīrtana) the nāmans of Kṛṣṇa; (3) residing (sthiti or vāsa) in Mathurā-maṇḍala, the earthly Vraja-dhāman; and (4) worship (sevana) of the mūrtis of Kṛṣṇa. Rūpa suggests that the efficacy of these devotional practices derives from the “inconceivable power (acintya śakti) of these transmundane (alaukika) forms” that are engaged through the practices: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, nāman, Vraja-dhāman, and mūrti. Each of these mesocosmic avatāras, as transmundane (alaukika) forms that are nondifferent from Kṛṣṇa and participate in his essential nature on the transcosmic plane, is ascribed the inconceivable power (acintya śakti) to arouse the sthāyi-bhāva of Kṛṣṇa-rati, love for Kṛṣṇa, in the hearts of bhaktas and at the same time to manifest the object of love—Kṛṣṇa himself—on the gross material plane.2 It is in this sense that I have argued, invoking the semiotic terminolo
gy of Peirce, that in the Gauḍīya hermeneutics of embodiment these mesocosmic forms do not function as “symbols” that point beyond themselves to a transcendent referent, but rather they function as “iconic signs” that manifest the deity, disclosing Kṛṣṇa’s living presence on the gross material plane in the form of a text, a name, a geographic place, or a ritual image.3

  Fashioning Devotional Bodies

  The Gauḍīya discourse of divine embodiment has its counterpart in a discourse of human embodiment in which the mesocosmic forms of Kṛṣṇa are ascribed a pivotal role in the fashioning of devotional bodies. The path to realization advocated by the early Gauḍīya authorities, which I have characterized as an embodied aesthetics of bhakti, involves fashioning a devotional body in two phases corresponding to the two forms of sādhana-bhakti. In the first phase, vaidhī-bhakti, the bhakta engages the sādhaka-rūpa in a regimen of external bodily practices that is designed to re-figure the karmically constructed material (prākṛta) body and transform it from a body of bondage into a devotionally informed body that is entirely dedicated to Bhagavān. In the second phase, rāgānugā-bhakti, the bhakta engages in an advanced regimen of internal meditative practices that is designed to catalyze the realization of a siddha-rūpa, a perfected devotional body that is nonmaterial (aprākṛta), eternal (nitya), and consists of consciousness (cit) and bliss (ānanda).

  Re-figuring the Sādhaka-Rūpa

  According to the early Gauḍīya authorities’ analysis of the human condition, human jīvas, along with other classes of jīvas, are bibhinnāṃśas, “separated aṃśas,” consigned to a betwixt-and-between status in which, on the one hand, they are aṃśas, portions, of Bhagavān in the transcendent domain of the svarūpa-śakti, and, on the other hand, they are separated from Bhagavān because they are subject to the bondage of the māyā-śakti. Enslaved by the binding influence of the māyā-śakti that governs the material realm of prakṛti, the jīva becomes deluded by ignorance and, forgetting its true identity as an aṃśa of Bhagavān, assumes a false notion of atomistic personal identity in which it mistakenly identifies with the material psychophysical complex. The goal of the first phase of sādhana-bhakti, vaidhī-bhakti, is to extinguish the false sense of self attached to the material psychophysical complex by re-orienting all aspects of the sādhaka-rūpa—mental faculties, sense organs, and organs of action—towards Bhagavān, thereby transforming the body from an instrument of bondage into an instrument of devotion. The mesocosmic forms of Kṛṣṇa—Bhāgavata Purāṇa, nāman, Vraja-dhāman, and mūrti—are ascribed a critical role in this process of transformation, for by engaging these transmundane (alaukika) forms through a variety of perceptual, cognitive, and corporeal modalities—including śravaṇa, hearing; kīrtana, singing; darśana, seeing; sparśana, touching; āsvāda, tasting; āghrāṇa, smelling; and other modes of bodily engagement—the bhakta partakes of the living presence of Kṛṣṇa and his or her psychophysiology is gradually suffused with the qualities and substance of Kṛṣṇa’s absolute body, which consists of sat-cit-ānanda.

  Realizing the Siddha-Rūpa

  While the early Gauḍīya authorities maintain that all jīvas share in the essential nature of Bhagavān, at the same time they insist that each jīva is unique, possessing a unique inherent nature, svarūpa, and a correspondingly unique nonmaterial body, siddha-rūpa, by means of which the jīva assumes a distinctive role as an eternal protagonist in the aprakaṭa līlā, unmanifest līlā, that goes on perpetually in the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana. While they insist that in the state of realization each jīva maintains its distinctive personal and bodily identity in the form of its unique svarūpa and siddha-rūpa, they delimit the roles that the jīva can assume in the unmanifest līlā to the four principal rasas that are embodied by the parikaras, eternally perfect associates of Kṛṣṇa who are celebrated as the paradigmatic rāgātmikā bhaktas of the transcendent Vraja-dhāman: dāsya-rasa, embodied by the attendants of Kṛṣṇa; sakhya-rasa, embodied by Kṛṣṇa’s cowherd friends; vātsalya-rasa, embodied by Nanda and Yaśodā and other elders; and mādhurya-rasa, embodied by Kṛṣṇa’s cowmaiden lovers. In rāgānugā-bhakti the advanced sādhaka seeks to realize the rasa that accords with his or her svarūpa—whether that of a servant, friend, elder, or lover—by becoming identified with the corresponding rāgātmikā bhakta on two levels: first, by continuing to perform external bodily practices with the sādhaka-rūpa that engage Kṛṣṇa’s living presence and his līlā through the mediation of his mesocosmic forms; and, second, by engaging in internal meditative practices such as smaraṇa, contemplative recollection, and dhyāna, meditation, in order to cultivate a state of inner absorption in the aprakaṭa līlā of the transcendent Vraja-dhāman and catalyze remembrance (smaraṇa) of the siddha-rūpa.

  The mesocosmic forms of Kṛṣṇa—Bhāgavata Purāṇa, nāman, Vraja-dhāman, and mūrti—are ascribed a pivotal role not only in the bodily practices of the sādhaka-rūpa but also in the meditative practices advocated by Jīva Gosvāmin as means to realize the siddha-rūpa. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is a rich resource for such meditative practices, providing not only a host of ślokas that can be mentally repeated as mantras in meditation but also authoritative discursive content concerning various aspects of Kṛṣṇa—his names (nāmans), forms (rūpas), qualities (guṇas), playful activities (līlās), and abodes (dhāmans)—that can serve as focal points for different meditation sessions. The nāmans of Kṛṣṇa are utilized in the meditative practices of rāgānugā-bhakti in the form of mantras such as the eighteen-syllable mantra, which is ascribed the status of the quintessential sound-embodiment of Kṛṣṇa that when mentally repeated in meditation engenders a visionary experience of the luminous, reverberating gopa form of the vigraha. The dhāmans of Kṛṣṇa, and more specifically Vraja-dhāman, are also used as focal points for meditation, with the two iterations of the lotus-maṇḍala discussed earlier serving as alternative meditation devices. For example, in the case of Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja’s version of the thousand-petaled lotus, which forms part of a more encompassing cosmographic maṇḍala, the rāgānugā sādhaka progressively visualizes moving from the outermost ring of the maṇḍala, the material realm of prakṛti, through a hierarchically arranged series of nonmaterial realms—from the realm of Brahman to the domain of Paravyoman to the realms of the ādi catur-vyūhas in Mathurā and Dvārakā—culminating in a lavish visualization of the refulgent splendor of Goloka-Vṛndāvana, the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, in the center of the maṇḍala. This type of meditation on Vraja-dhāman generally culminates in an elaborate visualization of the mūrti of Kṛṣṇa—and more specifically the gopa-mūrti of the vigraha—enthroned in the yoga-pīṭha in the midst of Goloka-Vṛndāvana.

  The practice of mantropāsanā, as represented by Jīva, incorporates a number of these meditation devices in a single technique, which involves mentally repeating a mantra while visualizing the gopa-mūrti of Kṛṣṇa engaged in a particular līlā in a particular place (sthāna) in the transcendent Vraja-dhāman. In the advanced phase of practice, the mentally constructed world of līlā tableaux finds fruition in a continuous stream of līlā flowing with rasa (svārasikī) that is relished in the depths of samādhi by the rāgānugā sādhaka, culminating in a direct visionary experience in which Kṛṣṇa spontaneously appears in his gopa-mūrti. Jīva’s analysis of meditative practices suggests that the critical moment in the process of visualization entails the sādhaka mentally constructing a meditative body (antaś-cintita-deha)—whether that of a servant, friend, elder, or lover—that accords with the devotional mode, or rasa, of his or her inherent nature, svarūpa, and eternal body, siddha-rūpa, and interjecting this body into the conjured world of līlā tableaux as a means of directly engaging with Kṛṣṇa and his eternal associates. The meditative practices advocated by Jīva formed the basis of the complex visualization techniques of līlā-smaraṇa developed by Kṛṣṇadāsa and later Gauḍīya authorities. />
  Through regular and sustained practice of such meditative techniques, according to the Gauḍīya authorities, the sādhaka’s awareness becomes increasingly absorbed in Kṛṣṇa’s aprakaṭa līlā in Goloka-Vṛndāvana, the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, culminating in the final stage of realization in which the sādhaka awakens from the sleep of ignorance and re-members (smaraṇa) his or her svarūpa and siddha-rūpa and reclaims his or her distinctive role as an eternal participant in the unmanifest līlā. The sādhaka becomes a samprāpta-siddha, a perfected mahā-bhāgavata who has attained a perfected devotional body, siddha-rūpa, an eternal, nonmaterial body of bliss, by means of which he or she relishes the intoxicating streams of prema-rasa for all eternity in a relationship of inconceivable difference-in-nondifference, acintya-bhedābheda, with Bhagavān.