Bhakti and Embodiment

by Barbara A Holdrege

  78. As mentioned in the Introduction, the eight ślokas of the Śikṣāṣṭaka are recorded by Rūpa Gosvāmin in his Padyāvalī and are presented together for the first time as an eight-śloka unit by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja in Caitanya Caritāmṛta 3.20.ślokas 3–10.

  79. Śikṣāṣṭaka 1.

  80. Śikṣāṣṭaka 2.

  81. Śikṣāṣṭaka 3.

  82. Śikṣāṣṭaka 6.

  83. Jīva develops these arguments in Tattva Sandarbha 10–26, as discussed in Chapter 3.

  84. Bhagavat Sandarbha 46.

  85. Bhagavat Sandarbha 46. Regarding the supreme status of the Kṛṣṇa-nāman as the most powerful and efficacious of all the divine names, see also Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha 82, together with Jīva Gosvāmin’s commentary on this section in the Sarva-Saṃvādinī.

  86. Tattva Sandarbha 24, citing Bhāgavata Purāṇa 1.1.3.

  87. Bhagavat Sandarbha 46; Tattva Sandarbha 15; Bhakti Sandarbha 265. All three passages cite an unidentified verse from the Skanda Purāṇa, which is also cited by Rūpa Gosvāmin in Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.5.355.

  88. Bhagavat Sandarbha 46.

  89. Kṛṣṇa Nāmāṣṭaka 2, 7.

  90. Kṛṣṇa Nāmāṣṭaka 1.

  91. Kṛṣṇa Nāmāṣṭaka 5.

  92. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.7.70–72; 1.7.80.

  93. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.17.127; 2.17.130.

  94. Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.2.233, citing an unidentified verse from the Padma Purāṇa. This verse is also cited by Jīva Gosvāmin in Bhagavat Sandarbha 46 and by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja in Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.17.126–128, with śloka 5, which I will discuss subsequently.

  95. Jīva Gosvāmin’s commentary on Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.2.233. Jīva also comments on this verse from the Padma Purāṇa in Bhagavat Sandarbha 46.

  96. Bhagavat Sandarbha 46.

  97. Bhagavat Sandarbha 46.

  98. Kṛṣṇa Nāmāṣṭaka 7.

  99. Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.2.233, citing an unidentified verse from the Padma Purāṇa.

  100. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.17.126–128. Immediately following this passage, in 2.17.śloka 5, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja invokes as a prooftext the Padma Purāṇa verse, quoted earlier, that is cited by Rūpa Gosvāmin in Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.2.233.

  101. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.17.128.

  102. Bhagavat Sandarbha 46.

  103. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.17.19.

  104. Bhagavat Sandarbha 46.

  105. Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.2.234.

  106. Kṛṣṇa Nāmāṣṭaka 8.

  107. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.17.129–130, with śloka 6; 2.16.70–73; 2.15.106–111, with śloka 2.

  108. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.9.21–25; 2.9.30; 1.17.189–195.

  109. See Śikṣāṣṭaka 2, quoted earlier.

  110. See Śikṣāṣṭaka 1, quoted earlier.

  111. See the unidentified Padma Purāṇa verse, quoted earlier, that is cited by Rūpa Gosvāmin in Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.2.233. As mentioned earlier, this verse is also cited by Jīva Gosvāmin in Bhagavat Sandarbha 46 and by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja in Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.17.126–128, with śloka 5.

  112. Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 2.1.102–103.

  113. Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 2.1.103, citing an unidentified verse from the Padma Purāṇa. This verse is also cited by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja in Caitanya Caritāmṛta 3.3. śloka 4.

  114. See Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.1.21, with Jīva Gosvāmin’s commentary; 1.2.177.

  115. Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.2.150; 1.2.171.

  116. Bhakti Sandarbha 262–265, 128.

  117. Bhakti Sandarbha 265, 272–274, 128, 248; Bhagavat Sandarbha 46. Regarding dog-eaters and other outcastes, Jīva Gosvāmin comments on Bhāgavata Purāṇa 3.33.6–7, quoted earlier, in Bhakti Sandarbha 128, and Bhāgavata Purāṇa 6.16.44 in Bhakti Sandarbha 248.

  118. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 3.20.9–10, with śloka 3, which cites Śikṣāṣṭaka 1.

  119. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.25.152; cf. 1.8.22; 2.15.108.

  120. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 3.3.58–60. Regarding the liberating power of the name, see 2.15.108–110, with śloka 2; 1.7.71; 1.8.24; 3.5.146.

  121. The four varṇas are the brahmins, priests; kṣatriyas, kings and warriors; vaiśyas, merchants, agriculturalists, and artisans; and śūdras, servants.

  122. The four āśramas, as defined in the brahmanical discourse of dharma, pertain to the brahmacārin, student; gṛhastha, householder; vānaprastha, forest-dweller; and saṃnyāsin, renunciant.

  123. For an analysis of the brahmanical discourse of dharma, see Holdrege 2004.

  124. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.18.112–113.

  125. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.15.108–110, with śloka 2; 2.18.115, with śloka 10; 3.3.48–57, with ślokas 2–3.

  126. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 3.3.62–71; 3.20.98.

  127. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 3.3.52–57, with śloka 2, which cites an unidentified passage from the Nṛsiṃha Purāṇa. As Dimock (1999: 812 n. 52) notes, hārāma is the Persian term for boar or for unclean things generally and is here understood as a semblance of the divine name “Rāma.”

  128. Kṛṣṇa Nāmāṣṭaka 3; cf. Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.2.225.

  129. Bhakti Sandarbha 276, 248, 262–265, 272. In Bhakti Sandarbha 262–265 Jīva Gosvāmin cites passages from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 6.2.10–11 and 11.2.39–40; 11.2.42, that were cited earlier. In Bhakti Sandarbha 272 he cites Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.5.37.

  130. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 3.3.168–171; 3.3.173–176.

  131. In the brahmanical formulation of the four puruṣārthas, kāma is sensual pleasure, particularly as manifested in sexual and aesthetic experience; artha is economic and political well-being, encompassing notions of wealth and power; dharma is the cosmic ordering principle that regulates every aspect of individual, social, and cosmic life, finding expression on the human plane in a comprehensive system of sociocultural norms and duties; and mokṣa is liberation from saṃsāra, the cycle of birth and death, which is considered the supreme goal of human existence.

  132. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.17.82–83; cf. 3.7.92.

  133. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 3.3.244–245.

  134. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.8.22–23.

  135. For a discussion of the role of the eight sāttvika-bhāvas in Rūpa Gosvāmin’s theory of bhakti-rasa, see Chapter 2.

  136. See Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.2.39–40; 11.2.42 and 7.7.34–36, quoted earlier.

  137. Śikṣāṣṭaka 6.

  138. For a discussion of the role of the two forms of sādhana-bhakti, vaidhī-bhakti and rāgānugā-bhakti, in fashioning a devotional body, see Chapter 2.

  139. Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.2.92; 1.2.230–234; 1.2.145–146; 1.1.21; 1.2.170–171; 1.2.242; 1.2.177; 1.2.85; 1.2.149–150; 1.2.185; 1.2.84; 1.2.123–124; Bhakti Sandarbha 262–265, 271–274, 248, 128, 276.

  140. As discussed in Chapter 2, the other four practices are hearing the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and savoring its meanings; residing in Mathurā-maṇḍala, the region of Vraja; worship of ritual images (mūrtis) of Kṛṣṇa; and association with holy persons (sādhus). Rūpa Gosvāmin enumerates the five practices in Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.2.90–93 and discusses each of the practices more fully in Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.2.225–244. See especially Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.2.244, in which Rūpa ascribes to the nāman, Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Vraja-dhāman, mūrti, and Kṛṣṇa bhaktas, which are the focal points of these five practices, the status of “transmundane (alaukika) forms” that are capable of manifesting Kṛṣṇa himself on the gross material plane. Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja enumerates the five practices in Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.22.74–75.

  141. Regarding the nine forms of bhakti enumerated in Bhāgavata Purāṇa 7.5.23–24, see n. 57. Jīva Gosvāmin comments on this passage from the Bhāgavata in Bhakti Sandarbha 169 and then provides an extended analysis of these nine forms of bhakti in Bhakti Sandarbha 248–309.

  142
. Bhakti Sandarbha 265, 263, 128, 270–274.

  143. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.6.218; 3.4.65–66. Regarding the nine forms of bhakti celebrated in Bhāgavata Purāṇa 7.5.23–24, see n. 57.

  144. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.15.104–111; 2.16.68–73; 3.6.221; 3.6.224; 1.17.27; 2.9.333–334.

  145. With respect to the name as an avatāra in Kali Yuga, see Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.17.19, cited earlier. Regarding nāma-saṃkīrtana as the yuga-dharma of Kali Yuga established by Caitanya as the avatāra of Kali Yuga, see Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.3.17; 1.3.31; 1.3.40, with ślokas 9–10; 1.4.4; 1.4.35–36; 1.4.179; 1.7.72; 2.11.87–88, with śloka 10; 2.20.284–287, with ślokas 53–57; 3.3.70–71; 3.4.95; 3.7.9–11; 3.20.7–8, with śloka 2.

  146. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.11.87–88.

  147. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.284–287, with ślokas 53–57, cites Bhāgavata Purāṇa 12.3.51–52 and a variant of this tradition in Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.2.17, along with two other verses from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 11.5.32 and 11.5.36, that allot a special role to saṃkīrtana in Kali Yuga. Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja’s interpretation of Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.5.32 will be discussed subsequently.

  148. For a discussion of the other prooftexts from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa that Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja invokes in order to legitimate his interpretation of Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.5.32 as referring to Caitanya, see Chapter 1, p. 66, with n. 117.

  149. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.3.62–64; cf. 2.11.88, with śloka 10; 3.20.8, with śloka 2. The aśvamedha, or horse sacrifice, is one of the most important of the royal rituals in the hierarchy of Vedic yajñas.

  150. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.18.112–115, with śloka 10; 1.4.36; 2.16.176–183, with śloka 3; 2.7.79.

  151. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.4.36.

  152. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 3.4.62–66, with śloka 5, which cites Bhāgavata Purāṇa 7.9.10.

  153. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.7.94–104. In 2.17.106–109 Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja discusses the distinguishing features of a mahā-bhāgavata, all of which he asserts found consummate expression in Caitanya himself, the paradigmatic bhakta.

  154. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.9.6–11.

  155. See Caitanya Caritāmṛta 3.3.63–71.

  156. This śloka, Bṛhannāradīya Purāṇa 38.127, is presented as the seed expression that encapsulates Caitanya’s central message regarding the unrivaled status of nāma-saṃkīrtana as the defining practice of Kali Yuga. The śloka is explained by Caitanya in Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.17.18–22, with śloka 3, and is also cited by him in 1.7.72–73, with śloka 3; 2.6.218–219, with śloka 19. As Stewart notes, this śloka appears in the first biography of Caitanya, the Kṛṣṇacaitanya Caritāmṛta of Murāri Gupta, as well as in nearly every subsequent biography (Dimock 1999: 240–241 n. on śloka 3).

  157. As mentioned in Chapter 2, my notion of “devotionally informed bodies” draws on Bourdieu’s (1977, 1990) notion of “socially informed bodies” that are inscribed with the sociocultural taxonomies of a particular social field through the “logic of practice.”

  158. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.11.197–225.

  159. In addition to the practice of līlā-smaraṇa discussed in Chapter 2, I will examine a range of Gauḍīya meditative practices in Chapter 6.

  160. A yoga-pīṭha is the “seat of union” where the deity is stationed in the center of a maṇḍala and is used as a focal point in meditation.

  161. In Chapter 5 I will provide an extended analysis of the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya, which is an independent unit consisting of fifteen chapters (69–83) that forms part of the Pātāla Khaṇḍa in the Southern recension of the Padma Purāṇa.

  162. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.5.195–197. Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja describes the yoga-pīṭha in the context of discussing his experience of darśana of the mūrti (ritual image) of Govindadeva in Vṛndāvana.

  163. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.13.4–11.

  164. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.33.2–6; 10.33.20.

  165. See also the account of the nāma-saṃkīrtana performance at the Jagannātha Ratha-Yātrā, the annual temple cart festival in Purī, in Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.13.51–53, which similarly recalls the rāsa-līlā episode by relating how through his inconceivable power (acintya-śakti) Caitanya manifested himself so that he sported with the seven groups of kīrtanīyās at the same time and each group thought he was sporting with them alone.

  166. See, for example, Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.13.28, where the term bhakta-gaṇa is used to refer to the group of devotees who participate with Caitanya in the nāma-saṃkīrtana performance at the Jagannātha Ratha-Yātrā.

  167. See Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.15.18–22.

  168. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 3.3.63–71; 3.3.79.

  169. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 3.20.10–11.

  170. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.17.106–109.

  171. Rūpa Gosvāmin discusses the sāttvika-bhāvas in the third chapter of the Southern Quarter of the Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu (2.3). As mentioned in Chapter 2, the eight sāttvika-bhāvas enumerated in Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 2.3.16 correspond to the list of eight sāttvika-bhāvas given in Nāṭya-Śāstra 6.22.

  172. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.13.96–104.

  5 Vraja-Dhāman as Place-Avatāra

  1. A krośa is approximately two miles.

  2. For extended studies of Vraja (Hindi Braj) as a literary construction and a major pilgrimage center, see Entwistle 1987; Haberman 1994; Corcoran 1995. For a geospatial, multimedia digital volume exploring the religiocultural spaces of Vraja-maṇḍala, see Holdrege forthcoming(b).

  3. Among other Vaiṣṇava schools that contributed to the development of Vraja, mention should be made of two local schools that were founded in the sixteenth century and are based in Vṛndāvana: the Rādhāvallabha Sampradāya founded by the poet Hit Harivaṃśa and the Haridāsī Sampradāya inspired by the poet-musician Swami Haridāsa. Members of the Nimbārka Sampradāya were present in the Mathurā area for over a century prior to the cultural transformations of the sixteenth century.

  4. Haberman 1994: 54. For a critical assessment of Vaiṣṇava representations of the cultural transformation of Vraja in the sixteenth century as a process of “rediscovering” the “lost” sites of Kṛṣṇa’s līlā, see Vaudeville 1976.

  5. Corcoran 1995.

  6. As I will discuss in a later section, the Gauḍīyas ascribe particular importance to three of the twelve forests: Madhuvana, the forest in the immediate vicinity of Mathurā, the city where Kṛṣṇa was born; Mahāvana, the forest associated with the early childhood adventures of Kṛṣṇa; and Vṛndāvana, the forest associated with Kṛṣṇa’s later youthful exploits, in particular his heroic adventures with his cowherd friends and his erotic love-play with his cowmaiden lovers. Whereas the Gauḍīya authorities use the terms Vraja and Gokula interchangeably to refer to the pastoral region that surrounds the city of Mathurā, the leaders of the Puṣṭi Mārga began using the term Gokula from about 1570 on to designate a specific place near Mahāvana where Viṭṭhalanātha, the son of Vallabha, took up residence and established a series of temples. See Entwistle 1987: 161, 1988a: 15.

  7. Entwistle 1987: 28–30, 1988a; Corcoran 1995: 88–92.

  8. While the term nanda-vraja is used repeatedly throughout the tenth book of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, nanda-gokula is used less frequently. Regarding the use of nanda-vraja and nanda-gokula as synonymous designations for the cowherd encampment of Nanda, see, for example, 10.46.7–8. The term nanda-goṣṭha is used only once, in 10.25.7–8, where it is used along with nanda-gokula as a synonym for Vraja.

  9. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.8.17; 10.8.42; 10.11.17; 10.21.7; 10.26.14; 10.26.20.

  10. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.82.37–38.

  11. See, for example, Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.31.18; 10.19.7–8.

  12. See, for example, Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.24.24; 10.11.35. See also 10.3.2; 10.4.31; 10.6.2, in which Vraja is distinguished from puras, cities, and grāmas, villages, in the compound pura-grāma-vraja
. Whereas 10.24.24 asserts that the residents of Vraja do not dwell in houses (gṛhas), 10.5.6 speaks of the houses (gṛhas) of Vraja, which have interiors, courtyards, and doors that were cleaned, sprinkled with water, and decorated in celebration of the birth of Kṛṣṇa.

  13. See, for example, Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.11.21; 10.20.2; 10.65.4.

  14. See, for example, Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.8.27; 10.13.8.

  15. The various terms for the women of Vraja are invoked repeatedly throughout the tenth book of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. For the distinction between the women of Vraja and the women of the cities, see Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.44.13–16; 10.39.23; 10.90.48.

  16. See, for example, Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.2.7; 10.18.1; 10.35.5; 10.35.22; 10.35.25; 10.21.16; 10.26.11.

  17. Entwistle 1988a: 15.

  18. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.44.13; 10.11.38; 10.35.16.

  19. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.44.13–14.

  20. See, for example, Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.31.1; 10.31.18; 10.5.18; 10.8.52; 10.38.13.

  21. See, for example, Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.44.13–14; 10.18.2–3; 10.12.12; 10.14.32.

  22. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.18.2–3.

  23. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.8.21–22.

  24. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.38.30; cf. 10.38.25.

  25. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.35.16.

  26. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.38.25; 10.12.12; 10.14.34.

  27. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.14.31–32; 10.14.34.

  28. Regarding the kaumāra and paugaṇḍa phases of Kṛṣṇa’s līlā, see Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.8.24; 10.8.28; 10.11.59; 10.12.37; 10.12.41; 10.14.59; 10.14.61; 10.15.1.

  29. See, for example, Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.8.21–28; 10.8.52; 10.11.9; 10.11.37–40; 10.11.59; 10.14.61. The specific episodes of Kṛṣṇa’s līlā in his kaumāra phase in Vraja are recounted in chapters 3 to 14 of the tenth book of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa.

  30. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.11.37–40; 10.11.59. The last verse, 10.11.59, is repeated verbatim in 10.14.61.

  31. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.15.1.

  32. For general references to this phase of Kṛṣṇa’s līlā in Vraja, see, for example, the two passages quoted earlier, Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.18.2–3; 10.44.13–14. The specific episodes of Kṛṣṇa’s līlā in his paugaṇḍa phase in Vraja are recounted in chapters 15 to 39 of the tenth book of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa.