Bhakti and Embodiment Read online

  As part of his articulation of the embodied aesthetics of bhakti-rasa, Rūpa describes the uddīpana-vibhāvas, or enhancing stimulants, that serve to enliven the flow of Kṛṣṇa-rati and foster the bhakta’s ability to relish the ambrosial nectar of prema-rasa. His account of the uddīpana-vibhāvas centers on a lavish description of the distinguishing bodily characteristics of Kṛṣṇa’s svarūpa, essential form, including his age, beauty, complexion, mode of dress, hairstyles, body paintings and forehead mark, ornaments, bodily fragrance, and emblems such as the flute.32

  While Rūpa’s account of the uddīpana-vibhāvas focuses on the absolute body of Kṛṣṇa, his account of the anubhāvas and sāttvika-bhāvas focuses on the bodies of Kṛṣṇa bhaktas. The anubhāvas are the bodily gestures and movements through which the bhaktas give manifest expression to their internal state of Kṛṣṇa-rati, such as dancing, whirling, rolling on the ground, singing, roaring, sighing, and laughing loudly.33 The sāttvika-bhāvas are the eight forms of involuntary bodily manifestations through which the bhaktas’ internal devotional state is marked on their external bodies: stupefaction, perspiration, bristling of body hair, faltering voice, trembling, change of color, tears, and loss of external consciousness.34 Rūpa’s reformulation of the four aesthetic components concludes with a discussion of the vyabhicāri-bhāvas, the thirty-three transitory emotions, such as despondency, intoxication, madness, joy, and envy, which serve to enhance the sthāyi-bhāva of Kṛṣṇa-rati by adding variety to the ways in which the abiding emotion of love is experienced.35

  Rūpa suggests that the sthāyi-bhāva of Kṛṣṇa-rati is raised to the relishable state of the bhakti-rasa of preman in the hearts of bhaktas through specific forms of sādhana that serve as means of engaging the divine līlā in which Kṛṣṇa and his eternally perfect bhaktas in Vraja are the protagonists.

  Rati…becomes rasa in the bhaktas by means of their hearing about (śruta), apprehending (avagata), and remembering (smṛta) Kṛṣṇa and other aspects [of his līlā], which function as the vibhāvas and other aesthetic components.36

  This verse points to three specific forms of sādhana through which bhaktas can engage Kṛṣṇa’s līlā: hearing (śruta) recitations of līlā narratives; apprehending (avagata) the līlā by witnessing dramatic performances of līlā episodes; and remembering (smṛta) the līlā by means of dhyāna, meditation, or līlā-smaraṇa, contemplative recollection. Elsewhere in the Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu Rūpa includes līlā-śravaṇa, hearing about Kṛṣṇa’s līlā; līlā-kīrtana, singing about the līlā; and krīḍā-dhyāna, meditating on the divine play, as three important practices that are part of the regimen of sādhana-bhakti.37

  Sādhana-Bhakti: Re-figuring Bodily Identities

  The aesthetics of bhakti is a path of embodied aesthetics that engages both the external (aṅga) and internal (antar-aṅga) aspects of the psychophysiology.38 This path, as delineated in the discourse of human embodiment developed by Rūpa Gosvāmin and Jīva Gosvāmin and elaborated by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, involves fashioning a devotional body by means of the two forms of sādhana-bhakti: vaidhī-bhakti and rāgānugā-bhakti. In vaidhī-bhakti the bhakta performs external bodily practices such as śravaṇa and kīrtana with the sādhaka-rūpa, the sexually marked material body that the jīva enters at the time of birth and that is constructed by the residual karmic impressions (saṃskāras) accumulated from the jīva’s previous births. The regimen of vaidhī-bhakti is designed to reconstitute the karmically constructed biological body as a body of devotion. In rāgānugā-bhakti the bhakta engages in an advanced regimen of internal meditative practices such as dhyāna and līlā-smaraṇa in order to attain an embodied state of realization in which he or she ceases to identify with the karmically constructed biological body and realizes a siddha-rūpa, a perfected devotional body that is eternal and nonmaterial.39 I will provide an analysis of the Gauḍīya path of sādhana-bhakti in terms of the progressive transformation of the bhakta’s bodily identities: from (1) the ascribed identity associated with the karmically constructed biological body to (2) the inscribed identity in which the biological body is reconstituted as a devotional body to (3) the re-membered identity in which the jīva awakens from the sleep of ignorance and realizes its perfected nonmaterial body.

  Ascribed Identity: The Body of Bondage

  According to the Gauḍīyas’ analysis of the human condition, as discussed earlier, jīvas are consigned to a betwixt-and-between status in which, on the one hand, they are aṃśas of Bhagavān and participate in his essential nature, and, on the other hand, they are separated from Bhagavān because they are subject to the bondage of the māyā-śakti that governs the material realm of prakṛti. Enslaved by the binding influence of the māyā-śakti, the jīva becomes deluded by ignorance (avidyā) and, forgetting its true identity as an aṃśa of Bhagavān, assumes a false sense of atomistic personal identity in which it mistakenly identifies with the material psychophysical complex, which includes not only the physical body but also the mental faculties—mind, intellect, and ego—that are subtle forms of materiality.

  The early Gauḍīya authorities, in reflecting on the nature of bondage and the mechanisms of refashioning bodily identities, appropriate traditional formulations of karma in which the law of karma is held to determine the circumstances of an individual’s birth in each lifetime, including the species, sex, ethnocultural community, and family in which the jīva is born. In this perspective an individual jīva’s ascribed identity is determined at birth by the law of karma and is circumscribed by the biological body that is constructed by the residual karmic impressions (saṃskāras) accumulated from previous births. This karmically constructed biological body is sexually marked as either male or female and may be further classified as part of a social class (varṇa) and caste (jāti) in accordance with brahmanical norms of varṇāśrama-dharma elaborated in the Dharma-Śāstras, brahmanical legal codes.40

  Inscribed Identity: Fashioning a Body of Devotion

  The early Gauḍīya authorities emphasize the efficacy of the path of sādhana-bhakti in purifying the material psychophysical complex and attenuating the residual karmic impressions (saṃskāras) that are the root cause of bondage and serve to perpetuate the cycle of rebirth. In vaidhī-bhakti, the initial phase of sādhana-bhakti, the bhakta engages in a regimen of external bodily practices with the sādhaka-rūpa in order to re-figure the karmically bound biological body as a body of devotion. The defective material body born through biological reproduction and delimited by brahmanical markers of ascribed identity—sex, social class (varṇa), and caste (jāti)—is born anew out of the ritual womb of vaidhī-bhakti and reconstituted as a “devotionally informed body” that—evoking Bourdieu’s notion of a “socially informed body” (habitus)—is inscribed with the socioreligious taxonomies of the bhakta-saṅgha, the Gauḍīya community of bhaktas.41

  Rūpa, in his discussion of sādhana-bhakti in the Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu, repeatedly emphasizes the embodied nature of devotional practices. He defines bhakti as “service with the senses (hṛṣīka) to the Lord of the senses (Hṛṣīkeśa),”42 and he characterizes the sixty-four practices of vaidhī-bhakti as “forms of worship (upāsanas) for the physical body (kāya), senses (hṛṣīka), and mental faculties (antaḥ-karaṇa).”43 Through these practices the bhakta re-figures the psychophysiology by focusing all aspects of the sādhaka-rūpa, the material psychophysical complex, on Bhagavān, including the mind, the sense organs (ears, sense of touch, eyes, tongue, and nose), and the organs of action (mouth, hands, feet, limbs, and so on). Rūpa and Kṛṣṇadāsa both invoke the Bhāgavata Purāṇa’s description of the embodied practices of the paradigmatic bhakta:

  He engaged his mind on the lotus-feet of Kṛṣṇa, his words in recounting the virtues of Vaikuṇṭha, his hands in cleaning the temple of Hari, his ears in hearing glorious stories about Acyuta, his eyes in seeing the images and temples of Mukunda, his sense of touch in touching the bodies of his servants,
his nose in smelling the fragrance of the tulasī leaves placed at his lotus-feet, his tongue in tasting the food that had been offered to him, his feet in traveling by foot to the holy places of Hari, his head in bowing to the feet of Hṛṣīkeśa, and his desire in serving him.…44

  Among the sixty-four practices of vaidhī-bhakti, five are singled out by Rūpa and Kṛṣṇadāsa as most important for cultivating prema-rasa, the fully mature state of supreme love for Kṛṣṇa: (1) hearing (śravaṇa) the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and savoring (āsvāda) its meanings; (2) singing (kīrtana or saṃkīrtana) the names (nāmans) of Kṛṣṇa; (3) residing (sthiti or vāsa) in Mathurā-maṇḍala, the “circle of Mathurā,” that encompasses the entire region of Vraja; (4) worship (sevana) of ritual images (mūrtis) of Kṛṣṇa; and (5) association (saṅga) with holy persons (sādhus).45 Four of the five fundamental practices—as well as many of the other vaidhī-bhakti practices—thus involve engaging the four types of mesocosmic forms, discussed in Chapter 1, in which Kṛṣṇa becomes embodied on the gross material plane: (1) śāstra, Kṛṣṇa’s avatāra in the form of a scriptural text, grantha-avatāra, identified as the Bhāgavata Purāṇa; (2) nāman, Kṛṣṇa’s avatāras in the form of names, nāma-avatāras, that are revered as identical with Kṛṣṇa’s essential nature and absolute body; (3) dhāman, Kṛṣṇa’s embodiment in the form of a geographic place, the earthly Vraja-dhāman, that is extolled as the manifest counterpart of his transcendent Vraja-dhāman; and (4) mūrti, Kṛṣṇa’s avatāras in the form of ritual images, arcā-avatāras, that are worshiped as his localized instantiations in temples and shrines. As discussed in Chapter 1, Rūpa extols the “inconceivable power” (acintya śakti) of these four mesocosmic forms—Bhāgavata Purāṇa, nāman, Vraja-dhāman, and mūrti—as “transmundane (alaukika) forms” that are nondifferent from Kṛṣṇa and are therefore capable not only of enlivening the sthāyi-bhāva of Kṛṣṇa-rati, love for Kṛṣṇa, in the hearts of bhaktas but also of manifesting Kṛṣṇa himself on the gross material plane.46

  Each of these modes of divine embodiment is associated with a distinct sensorium, or perceptual world, in which a particular “ratio of the senses”47 dominates. In two of these mesocosmic forms Kṛṣṇa is embodied in language—as śāstra, the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, or as nāman, name—and therefore the principal modes of reception are śravaṇa, hearing; paṭhana, recitation; and kīrtana, singing. These practices are then extended through a variety of cognitive and corporeal modalities. On the one hand, they are internalized through meditative practices such as dhyāna, meditation; smaraṇa, contemplative recollection; or japa, silent repetition. On the other hand, they are externalized through bodily performances such as rāsa-līlās, dramatic performances, or nṛtya, dance. In the other two mesocosmic forms Kṛṣṇa is embodied in place in visible forms—as the sacred geography of Vraja-dhāman, or as the mūrti enshrined in the temple—and in these cases the principal perceptual modalities are darśana, seeing, and sparśana, touching. The associated bodily performances involve ritual negotiation of sacred space through tīrtha-yātrā, pilgrimage, or the carefully choreographed postures and gestures of mūrti-sevā, service to the mūrti.

  Bhāgavata Purāṇa. Bhaktas engage the Bhāgavata Purāṇa through hearing (Bhāgavata-śravaṇa) and recitation (Bhāgavata-paṭhana). More specifically, they engage the text through hearing about (śravaṇa), singing about (kīrtana), meditation on (dhyāna), and contemplative recollection of (smaraṇa) the world of Kṛṣṇa that is enshrined in his text-avatāra, including not only his līlā but also his names (nāmans), forms (rūpas), and qualities (guṇas). They savor (āsvāda) the meanings (artha) of the Bhāgavata and drink (pāna) from its inexhaustible supply of ambrosial nectar (amṛta or rasa), reveling in its bliss-bestowing stories of Kṛṣṇa’s līlā.48 They also relish the enactment of the Bhāgavata’s stories of Kṛṣṇa’s līlā in dramatic performances, rāsa-līlās, in which the actors who embody Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā are revered during the performance as svarūpas, living forms of the deity and his eternal consort.49 In addition, they venerate the concrete book as a ritual icon that is a text-incarnation of Kṛṣṇa.50

  Nāman. Bhaktas engage the nāman through singing (nāma-kīrtana), hearing (nāma-śravaṇa), contemplative recollection (nāma-smaraṇa), and silent repetition in meditation (mantra dhyāna or japa) of the divine names of Kṛṣṇa, invoking his nāma-avatāras to experience the divine presence. They also inscribe their bodies with the letters of the divine name (nāmākṣara) as a means of embodying Kṛṣṇa in their own flesh.51 During nāma-saṃkīrtana, communal singing of the divine names, the pulsating reverberations of the divine name at times overflow from the speech into the limbs, inspiring bhaktas to dance and whirl in ecstatic celebration of the nāman.52

  Dhāman. Bhaktas engage the dhāman through residing (sthiti or nivāsa) in the land of Vraja and through pilgrimage (tīrtha-yātrā), which serve as means of encountering Kṛṣṇa’s divine presence instantiated in the sacred geography of Vraja-dhāman, the most celebrated of all tīrthas. As pilgrims circumambulate the network of līlā-sthalas, the sites where Kṛṣṇa’s playful exploits are held to have occurred, they obtain darśana of Kṛṣṇa embodied in the landscape; touch (sparśana), roll in, and ingest the dust that has been consecrated by his feet; and embrace the sacred ground through full-body prostrations (daṇḍavat-praṇāmas).53 Advanced sādhakas incorporate meditative practices (dhyāna or smaraṇa) into their daily regimen as a means of attaining direct experiential realization of Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent Vraja-dhāman.54

  Mūrti. Bhaktas venerate the mūrti through seeing (darśana), touching (sparśana), and worshiping Kṛṣṇa’s image-avatāra with ritual offerings (upacāras) and mantras in arcana, pūjā, and other forms of mūrti-sevā. They also engage in various forms of bodily service through circumambulating (parikrama), prostrating (daṇḍavat-nati), singing (kīrtana or stavana), and dancing (tāṇḍava or nṛtya) before the mūrti. In addition, through partaking of the prasāda, the remnants of the ritual offerings that are suffused with the deity’s blessings, they enliven and cultivate the various sense faculties. More importantly, they invest their own bodies with the qualities of the deity’s form through relishing (svāda) the food offered to him, savoring (svāda) the water used to wash his feet, smelling (āghrāṇa) the sweet fragrance of the incense and flowers enjoyed by him, and adorning their own bodies with the clothing, ornaments, and flower garlands blessed by the touch of his form.55

  The bhakta thus fashions a devotional body through invoking, hearing, seeing, touching, tasting, smelling, and embracing the various mesocosmic forms in which Kṛṣṇa is embodied on the gross material plane. Through engaging and partaking of Kṛṣṇa’s mesocosmic forms, the bhakta’s own psychophysiology is gradually suffused with the qualities and substance of Kṛṣṇa’s absolute body (vigraha), which consists of sat-cit-ānanda, being, consciousness, and bliss.56

  Re-membered Identity: Realizing a Nonmaterial Body of Bliss

  In rāgānugā-bhakti the bhakta engages in an advanced regimen of practices in order to realize a siddha-rūpa, a perfected devotional body that is eternal (nitya), nonmaterial (aprākṛta), and consists of cit and ānanda, consciousness and bliss. The practices of rāgānugā-bhakti are represented as the means to catalyze the bhakta’s shift from the inscribed identity of a devotionally informed material body to the re-membered identity of a perfected nonmaterial body that is like—but at the same time eternally distinct from—the absolute body of Kṛṣṇa.

  In rāgānugā-bhakti the advanced sādhaka enters into an intimate relationship with Kṛṣṇa characterized by passionate love (rāga). This form of bhakti is achieved through emulating the nitya-siddhas, the eternally perfect associates who reside with Kṛṣṇa in the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, and who are called rāgātmikā bhaktas because their very essence (ātman) is spontaneously absorbed in passionate, all-consuming love (r
āga) for Kṛṣṇa.57 According to Rūpa’s definition, “That [bhakti] is called rāgānugā which emulates the rāgātmikā-bhakti that shines forth clearly in those who reside in Vraja.”58 The process of emulation involves cultivating one of the four principal rasas that are embodied by the paradigmatic rāgātmikā bhaktas: dāsya-rasa, the mode of service, exemplified by the attendants of Kṛṣṇa; sakhya-rasa, the mode of friendship, exemplified by Kṛṣṇa’s cowherd friends; vātsalya-rasa, the mode of parental love, exemplified by Nanda and Yaśodā and other elders; and mādhurya-rasa, the mode of erotic love, exemplified by Kṛṣṇa’s cowmaiden lovers.

  Rūpa suggests that the rāgānugā sādhaka should seek to realize the rasa that accords with his or her unique inherent nature (svarūpa)—whether that of a servant, friend, elder, or lover—by emulating a corresponding rāgātmikā bhakta of the transcendent Vraja “with both the sādhaka-rūpa and the siddha-rūpa.”

  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.59

  Although Rūpa himself does not elaborate on the nature of these two bodies, in his commentary Jīva Gosvāmin renders the term rūpa as deha, “body,” and 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.”60 Kṛṣṇadāsa suggests that the sādhaka’s emulation of the rāgātmikā bhaktas with both the sādhaka-rūpa and the siddha-rūpa—which he terms the sādhaka-deha and the siddha-deha—entails becoming identified with the chosen rāgātmikā bhakta on two levels: first, by emulating the chosen rāgātmikā bhakta through performing external bodily practices such as śravaṇa and kīrtana with the sādhaka-rūpa that engage Kṛṣṇa and his līlā; and, second, by cultivating a state of inner absorption in the aprakaṭa līlā of the transcendent Vraja through internal meditative practices such as līlā-smaraṇa and dhyāna, which culminates in the realization of a perfected devotional body, siddha-rūpa.