Bhakti and Embodiment
Bhakti and Embodiment
The historical shift from Vedic traditions to post-Vedic bhakti (devotional) traditions is accompanied by a shift from abstract, translocal notions of divinity to particularized, localized notions of divinity and a corresponding shift from aniconic to iconic traditions and from temporary sacrificial arenas to established temple sites. In Bhakti and Embodiment Barbara Holdrege argues that the various transformations that characterize this historical shift are a direct consequence of newly emerging discourses of the body in bhakti traditions in which constructions of divine embodiment proliferate, celebrating the notion that a deity, while remaining translocal, can appear in manifold corporeal forms in different times and different localities on different planes of existence. Holdrege suggests that an exploration of the connections between bhakti and embodiment is critical not only to illuminating the distinctive transformations that characterize the emergence of bhakti traditions but also to understanding the myriad forms that bhakti has historically assumed up to the present time.
This study is concerned more specifically with the multileveled models of embodiment and systems of bodily practices through which divine bodies and devotional bodies are fashioned in Kṛṣṇa bhakti traditions and focuses in particular on two case studies: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the consummate textual monument to Vaiṣṇava bhakti, which expresses a distinctive form of passionate and ecstatic bhakti that is distinguished by its embodied nature; and the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition, an important bhakti tradition inspired by the Bengali leader Caitanya in the sixteenth century, which articulates a robust discourse of embodiment pertaining to the divine bodies of Kṛṣṇa and the devotional bodies of Kṛṣṇa bhaktasthat is grounded in the canonical authority of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa.
Barbara A. Holdrege is Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the South Asian Studies Committee at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Bhakti and Embodiment
Fashioning Divine Bodies and Devotional Bodies in Kṛṣṇa Bhakti
Barbara A. Holdrege
First published 2015
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Holdrege, Barbara A., author.
Bhakti and embodiment: fashioning divine bodies and devotional bodies in Krsna bhakti/Barbara A. Holdrege.
pages cm. – (Routledge Hindu studies series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Bhakti. 2. Krishna (Hindu deity).
3. Puranas. Bhagavatapurana–Criticism, interpretation, etc.
4. Vaishnavism. 5. Chaitanya (Sect). 6. Human body–Religious aspects.
I. Title.
BL1214.32.B53H65 2014
294.5’512–dc23
2013049400
ISBN: 978-0-415-67070-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-76932-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Sunrise Setting Ltd, Paignton, UK
For Eric
Contents
Figures
Preface
Introduction
Theorizing the Body in the Human Sciences
The Body in Philosophy
The Body in Social Theory
The Body in Feminist and Gender Studies
The Body in Religion
Hindu Discourses of the Body
The Body as a Psychophysical Continuum
Transmigratory History of the Body
The Person, the Self, and the Body
Integral Bodies
Processual Bodies
Bhakti and Embodiment
Embodying the Divine
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa
The Gauḍīya Sampradāya
1 The Limitless Forms of Kṛṣṇa: Fashioning Divine Bodies
The Absolute Body and Its Endless Manifestations:
The Gauḍīya Discourse of Divine Embodiment
Bhagavān’s Absolute Body and Self-Referral Play
The Gauḍīya Challenge to Advaita Vedānta and Pātañjala Yoga
Ananta-Rūpa: The Limitless Forms of the Absolute Body
The Gauḍīyas and the Śrīvaiṣṇavas: Contending Theologies
Kṛṣṇa’s Mesocosmic Forms
2 The Embodied Aesthetics of Bhakti: Fashioning Devotional Bodies
Erotic-Ecstatic Devotion:
The Embodied Bhakti of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa
Bodies of Devotion, Bodies of Bliss:
The Embodied Aesthetics of Bhakti in the Gauḍīya Tradition
Aesthetics Reimagined as Bhakti-Rasa
Sādhana-Bhakti: Re-figuring Bodily Identities
The Gauḍīya Challenge to Advaita Vedānta and Pātañjala Yoga Revisited
3 Bhāgavata Purāṇa as Text-Avatāra: From Purāṇa-Veda to Embodiment of Bhagavān
Śruti and Smṛti:
The Brahmanical Canon of Śāstras
Veda, Śruti, and Smṛti
Vedacizing Strategies
From Purāṇa-Veda to Kārṣṇa-Veda:
Purāṇic Constructions of Canonical Authority
Transcendent Authority of the Veda
Vedic Status of the Purāṇas
Bhāgavata Purāṇa as the Culmination of Śruti and Smṛti
Bhāgavata Puāṇa as the Embodiment of Bhagavān
Sovereign of All Śāstras and Embodiment of Bhagavān:
Gauḍīya Perspectives on the Bhāgavata Purāṇa
Transcendent Authority of the Veda
Vedic Status of the Purāṇas
Transcendent Authority of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa
Fashioning Devotional Bodies through Engaging the Bhāgavata
4 Nāman as Sound-Avatāra:
From Transcendent Vibration to Reverberating Name
Transcendent Vibrations, Primordial Utterances, and Meditation Devices: Vedic Perspectives on Mantras
Cognition of the Vedic Mantras
Vedic Mantras in the Discourse of Sacrifice
Root Mantras in the Discourse of Knowledge
Embodying the Divine Presence in Sound:
Mantra and Nāman in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa
Re-visioning Mantras
Engaging the Name
From Nāma-Avatāra to Nāma-Saṃkīrtana:
Gauḍīya Perspectives on the Name
Ontology of the Name
Transformative Power of the Name
Fashioning Devotional Bodies and Social Bodies with the Name
5 Vraja-Dhāman as Place-Avatāra:
From Geographic Place to Transcendent Space
Mythic Space, Pilgrimage Place, and Meditation Maṇḍala:
Purāṇic Constructions of Vraja
Vraja as a Mythic Space
Vraja as a Pilgrimage Place
Vraja as a Meditation Maṇḍala
Geographic Place as Transcendent Space:
Vraja-Dhāman in the Gauḍīya Tradition
The Gauḍīya Reclamation of Vraja
Vraja as Pilgrimage Place and Beyond
Vraja as the Body of Kṛṣṇa
Ontology of the Dhaāmans: Geographic Place as Transcendent Space
Goloka-Vṛndāvana: Vraja-Dhāman as the Supreme Dhāman
Fashioning Devotional Bodies through Engaging Vraja-Dhāman
6 Meditation as Devotional Practice:
Experiencing Kṛṣṇa in His Transcendent Dhāman
Mantra Meditation and Maṇḍala Visualization:
Purāṇic Perspectives on Meditation
Mantra Meditation
Maṇḍala Visualization
Beyond Yoga and Tantra:
The Gauḍīya Approach to Meditation
Meditation in Rāgānugā-Bhakti
Realizing Vraja-Dhāman: The Gauḍīya Re-visioning of Pāñcarātra
Conclusion:
Bhakti and Embodiment
Fashioning Divine Bodies
The Absolute Body and Its Partial Manifestations
Divine Bodies and Cosmos Bodies
Divine Bodies and Jīva Bodies
Mesocosmic Forms
Fashioning Devotional Bodies
Re-figuring the Sādhaka-Rūpa
Realizing the Siddha-Rūpa
Fashioning Social Bodies
Challenging the Discourses of Jñāna and Yoga
Re-visioning Bhakti
Reimagining Theories of the Body
Divine Bodies beyond Matter
Human Bodies beyond Matter
Gender beyond Sex
Note on Translations and Editions
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Figures
1 Integral Bodies and Processual Bodies
2 Taxonomy of Kṛṣṇa’s Divine Forms
Preface
This study seeks to illuminate the logic of embodiment that is integral to many Hindu bhakti traditions and is concerned more specifically with the multileveled models of embodiment and systems of bodily practices through which divine bodies and devotional bodies are fashioned in bhakti traditions celebrating the deity Kṛṣṇa. My explorations of the connections between bhakti and embodiment are grounded in an analysis of two case studies: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the consummate textual monument to Vaiṣṇava bhakti, which expresses a distinctive form of passionate and ecstatic bhakti that is distinguished by its embodied nature; and the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition, an important bhakti tradition inspired by the Bengali leader Caitanya in the sixteenth century CE, which articulates a robust discourse of embodiment pertaining to the divine bodies of Kṛṣṇa and the devotional bodies of Kṛṣṇa bhaktas that is grounded in the canonical authority of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa.
This study stands at the intersection of three categories that have been the principal focus of my research in recent years: the body as an analytical category in the social sciences and humanities; sacred space as a category of perception and practice in South Asia; and bhakti as a canonical category in Hindu traditions.
My first research trajectory centering on the body developed out of my earlier comparative historical work on Hindu and Jewish traditions in which I emphasized the distinctive nature of the brahmanical and rabbinic traditions as “embodied communities” for whom the body constitutes a site of central significance. This inspired me to undertake a sustained interrogation of the analytical category of the body in two domains: first, an analysis of the contending categories of the body that have been theorized by scholars in philosophy, history, anthropology, sociology, and feminist and gender studies; and, second, a mapping of a broad terrain of Hindu discourses of the body across various registers, including different historical periods, geographic regions, and sociocultural locations. This in turn led to a series of studies, culminating in my forthcoming book The Body and the Self: Hindu Contributions to Theories of Embodiment, in which I interrogate five distinct Hindu discourses of the body: ritual bodies in the discourse of yajña in the Vedic Saṃhitās and Brāhmaṇas; ascetic bodies in the discourse of jñāna in the Upaniṣads and later post-Vedic ascetic traditions; purity bodies in the discourse of dharma in the Dharma-Śāstras; tantric bodies in the discourse of tantra in the Pāñcarātra and Kashmir Śaiva traditions; and devotional bodies in the discourse of bhakti in the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition.
In the meantime I developed a second research trajectory alongside the first that has entailed a different kind of mapping: the mapping of sacred spaces in South Asia. This has involved an investigation of the categories and practices deployed by South Asian communities to represent, experience, and shape their natural, social, and cultural landscapes and mark spaces as “sacred”: through architectural structures such as temples and shrines; through pilgrimage maps and other cartographic representations; through ritual performances such as festivals, pilgrimages, and temple rituals; through literary forms such as mythological narratives, eulogistic literature, and pilgrimage guidebooks; and through ritual images, paintings, sculptures, and other forms of visual art. During my tenure as the Director of the Center for the Analysis of Sacred Space (CASS) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, from 2000 to 2008, I fostered research and instructional initiatives concerned with the analysis of sacred space, with a principal focus on the religions and cultures of South Asia. One of my objectives was to expand the research and instructional applications of geographic information systems (GIS) and technologies beyond the earth sciences and the social sciences into the humanities by developing geospatial digital models for mapping cultural and historical data pertaining to sacred sites in South Asia. My own research has focused in particular on one of the most important pilgrimage centers in India, the region of Vraja—known today by the Hindi designation “Braj”—which is celebrated as the sacred terrain in North India where the deity Kṛṣṇa unfolded his līlā, divine play, during his sojourn on earth. My investigations, which are grounded in field research conducted in the area between 2000 and 2003, have involved sustained analyses of the religiocultural landscapes of Vraja-maṇḍala, as expressed in mythological narratives, theological formulations, pilgrimage networks, ritual traditions, and visual art representations, and have found fruition in a geospatial, multimedia digital volume, From Geographic Place to Transcendent Space: Tracking Kṛṣṇa’s Footprints in Vraja-Maṇḍala.
My third research trajectory has focused on the nature and functions of bhakti as a “canonical category” that provides “explanatory power, traditional legitimacy, and canonical authority.”1 The category of bhakti has operated in many Hindu traditions as an authoritative network of signifiers that, once divested of its delimited significations tied to a particular religiocultural complex, has been mapped onto a variety of discursive domains, becoming invested with distinctive new significations in each domain. My abiding research interests in the category of bhakti have found expression in three principal forms: polythetic mappings of the category of bhakti grounded in a range of exempla from distinct religiocultural, historical, geographic, and linguistic environments; interrogation of the multivalent significations of bhakti in Purāṇic traditions, with particular focus on the Bhāgavata Purāṇa; and, most recently, sustained investigations of the bhakti-śāstra, formal discourse of bhakti, developed by the early authorities of the Gauḍīya Sampradāya in the sixteenth century.
These three research trajectories—the body, sacred space, and bhakti—converge in the present study. In contrast to my broader study of Hindu discourses of the body, in which I interrogate five distinct discourses pertaining to ritual bodies, ascetic bodies, purity bodies, tantric bodies, and devotional bodies, in this book I narrow my focus to an analy
sis of devotional bodies in dynamic engagement with divine bodies in the discourses of Kṛṣṇa bhakti that are expressed in seminal form in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, are richly elaborated by the sixteenth-century Gauḍīya authorities, and are instantiated in the bodily practices of Kṛṣṇa bhaktas in the religiocultural spaces of Vraja-maṇḍala to the present day.
The following essays contain some of my earlier reflections on themes that are addressed in this book: “From Purāṇa-Veda to Kārṣṇa-Veda: The Bhāgavata Purāṇa as Consummate Smṛti and Śruti Incarnate,” Journal of Vaishnava Studies 15, no. 1 (2006): 31–70; “The Embodied Aesthetics of Mystical Realization: Enraptured Devotion and Bodies of Bliss in Kṛṣṇa Bhakti,” in Essays on Mysticism and Phenomenology, eds. Jeffrey Keiser and Michelle Rebidoux, special issue, ARC: The Journal of the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University 35 (2007): 55–92; “From Nāma-Avatāra to Nāma-Saṃkīrtana: Gauḍīya Perspectives on the Name,” Journal of Vaishnava Studies 17, no. 2 (2009): 3–36; and “Vraja-Dhāman: Krishna Embodied in Geographic Place and Transcendent Space,” in The Bhāgavata Purāṇa: Sacred Text and Living Tradition, eds. Ravi M. Gupta and Kenneth R. Valpey, 91–116 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013).
It is not possible to acknowledge everyone in the international network of scholars in North America, Europe, India, and elsewhere who have contributed to my reflections on the body, sacred space, and bhakti that are brought together in this book, many of whom I have referenced in the text or Notes. Rather, I will limit my acknowledgments to those colleagues with whom I have actively engaged in reflecting on one or both of the categories that define the principal focus of my study: the body and bhakti.
My studies of the body have been particularly enriched by scholars of South Asian religions who are committed to bringing contemporary theories of the body in the Western academy—in particular, those that derive from seminal theorists such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, Hélène Cixous, and Judith Butler—into conversation with discourses of the body that derive from South Asian religious traditions. This conversation is not limited to a one-way monologue in which Western theoretical models provide the default epistemological framework for interpreting or explaining South Asian datasets but is rather envisioned as a two-way mutual engagement between worthy interlocutors who both have something significant to contribute to theorizing the body and reimagining our categories and models of embodiment. In this context I am particularly indebted to Sushil Mittal, who invited me to contribute to a special issue of the International Journal of Hindu Studies on The Study of Hinduism and the Study of Religion, which led to my first article reflecting on the contributions of Hindu discourses of the body to scholarship on the body in the history of religions and in the human sciences generally, “Body Connections: Hindu Discourses of the Body and the Study of Religion.” Sushil later invited me to contribute an essay on “Body” to a collection of essays that he co-edited with Gene Thursby, Studying Hinduism: Key Concepts and Methods. Among my colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara, I have benefited in particular from ongoing conversations with José Cabezón and Vesna Wallace, whose insights on issues of embodiment, sexuality, and gender in Indian and Tibetan Buddhist traditions have contributed to my own reflections on these issues in Hindu traditions. I have also benefited from the many graduate students who have participated in my Seminar on Hindu Discourses of the Body in its various incarnations, whose fresh perspectives on the material have challenged me to re-vision my arguments in significant ways.