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Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c12: Chapter V: The Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā Cult

Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c12

Language
English

Contents

Chapter V: The Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā Cult

(i) Transition from Buddhist Sahajiyā to Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā

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The Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā movement of Bengal marks the evolution of the Buddhist Sahajiyā cult in a different channel as strongly influenced by the love-religion of Bengal Vaiṣṇavism. The Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā cult has a considerable literature to its credit. As many as two hundred and fifty manuscripts of small texts containing the various doctrines and practices of the cult are preserved in the Manuscript Library of the Calcutta University and about an equal number of texts (many of them being common with those preserved in the Manuscript Library of the Calcutta University) belong to the Manuscript Library of the Vaṅgiya Sāhitya-pariṣad. These texts, however, do not possess much intrinsic literary value and as such their contribution to Bengali literature would not have been of much importance but for the fact that they help us in the study of a large number of lyrical songs belonging both to the Sahajiyā Vaiṣṇava and the standard Vaiṣṇava cults, both of which accepted the ideal of Parakiyā love as contrasted with the ideal of Svakiyā love in their doctrines.¹

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¹ For the ideals of Svakiyā and Parakiyā see *infra*, p. 144.

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These love-lyrics, belonging to the province of Vaiṣṇavism, combine in them a genuine poetic vein of an absorbing human interest with an avowedly religious sentiment and as such they offer a good specimen of how far it may be possible for aesthetic sentiment and religious sentiment to combine in popular poetry. In the history of the Vaiṣṇava literature of Bengal the most important factor is the ideal of Parakīyā love; but whereas the ideal of Parakīyā love was merely recognised as a theological speculation in standard Vaiṣṇavism, it was accepted even in its practical bearing by the Sahajiyās. In the history of Bengal Vaiṣṇavism there seems to have been a process of interaction between the two sects—the practice of the Sahajiyās influencing to a great extent the ideal of the Vaiṣṇava poets, and the ideal of the Vaiṣṇavas in its turn influencing the practices of the Sahajiyās. Though the story of the love-episodes of Caṇḍīdāsa, the greatest love-poet of Bengal, with the washer-woman, Rāmī, is still now shrouded in mystery and as such cannot be credited historically as supplying proof of Caṇḍīdāsa himself being an exponent of the Sahajiyā practice, yet we should remember that tradition always indicates possibility. Judging from the heaps of tradition centering round the figure of poet Caṇḍīdāsa and also from the number of Sahajiyā poems ascribed to him, it will not be far out of the mark to hold that there might have been some truth in the tradition of Caṇḍīdāsa himself being a Sahajiyā Sādhaka and that his practical culture of the divinisation of human love had supplied him with the deep inspiration that made him the immortal poet of the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa songs. The indebtedness of Śrī-Caitanya to the love-lyrics of Jayadeva, Vidyāpati and Caṇḍīdāsa is well-known through the *Caitanya-caritāmṛta* (a standard biography of Caitanya) and the songs of some other poets; the inspiration derived from these songs was not negligible in moulding Caitanya's ideal of divine love. Apart from the controversy over the religious view-point of Caṇḍīdāsa and its influence on Caitanya's ideal of love, it may be held that the general history of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā movement with its stress on Parakīyā love was closely related to the general love-movement of Bengal; it is because of this close relation between the two that the rich field of Bengali lyrics cannot be fully and properly studied without a proper study of the Sahajiyā religion and literature.

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The lyrics belonging to the Vaisnava Sahajiyā school are generally ascribed to the well-known poet Caṇḍidāsa and to some other poets like Vidyāpati, Rūpa, Sanātana, Vṛndāvana-dāsa, Kṛṣṇa-dāsa Kavirāja, Narahari, Narottama, Locana, Caitanya-dāsa and others, and the innumerable Sahajiyā texts are also ascribed to their authorship.

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Such assignment, which was evidently made with a view to securing authoritative support from the great Vaisnava poets and thinkers for the unconventional practice of the Sahajiyās, need not be credited historically. In their zeal for propaganda these Sahajiyās have held all the great poets like Jayadeva, Vidyāpati, Caṇḍidāsa and others, and the great Vaisnava apostles like Rūpa, Sanātana, Svarūpa Damodara, Jiva Gosvāmī and others to be the exponents of Sahajiyā practice. Even Śrī-Caitanya himself has been held by some of the Sahajiyās as having practised Sahaja Sādhanā with female companions and attained perfection through it,¹ as lord Buddha was held by the Buddhist Sahajiyās as having practised Sahaja Sādhanā in company of his consort Gopā. It seems, however, that almost all

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¹ It is curiously held by a section of the Sahajiyās that Caitanya practised Sahaja Sādhanā in company of Sāṭhi, daughter of Sārvabhauma, and it was because of this fact that the mother of Sāṭhi once said that she would have her daughter a widow. (Cf. Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-lilā; Ch XV). The Sahajiyās hold that all the great Vaisnava apostles of standard Vaisnavism practised Sahaja Sādhanā with some female companion. Thus it is said in the Vivarta-vilāsa of Akiñcana-dāsa —

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śrī rūp karilā sādhanā mīrār sahite | bhaṭṭa raghu-nāth kailā karṇ-bāi sāthe || lakṣmī hīrā sane karilā gomsāi sanātan | mahāmantra preme sevā sadā ācaraṇ || gosāñi lokanāth caṇḍālini-kanyā saṅge | dohā jan anurāg premer taraṅge || goyālini piṅgalā se braja-devī sama | gosāñi kṛṣṇa-dās sadāi ācaraṇa || śyāmā nāp-tānir saṅge śrī-jiv gomsāi | parama se bhāv kailā yār simā nāi || raghu-nāth gosvami piriti ullāse | mīrā-bāi saṅge teha rādhā kuṇḍa-bāse || gaur-priyā saṅge gopāl-bhaṭṭa gomsāi | karaye sādhan anya kichu nāi || rāy rāmānanda yaje deva-kanyā saṅge | āropete sthiti teha kriyār taraṅge ||

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Vanga-sāhitya-paricaya, Vol. II, p. 1650.

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the songs (including the enigmatic songs ascribed to Caṇḍīdāsa well-known as the *Rāgātmika Padas*) and the texts were composed by the exponents of the Sahajiyā cult in the post-Caitanya period, and mostly in or after the seventeenth century A.D.

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The fundamental yogic practices, round which grew the paraphernalia of the different Sahajiyā cults, belong neither strictly to the Buddhist fold nor exclusively to the Hindu fold; they are essentially yogic practices, which by their association with different theological systems, either Buddhist or Hindu, have given rise to different religious cults. The most important of the secret practices is the yogic control of the sex-pleasure so as to transform it into transcendental bliss, which is at the same time conducive to the health both of the body and the mind. This yogic practice with its accessories, being associated with the philosophy of Śiva and Śakti, stands at the centre of the net-work of the Hindu Tāntric systems, and when associated with the speculations on Prajñā and Upāya of later Buddhism, has given rise to the Tāntric Buddhist cults including the Buddhist Sahajiyā system; and again, when associated with the speculations on Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā conceived as Rasa and Rati in Bengal Vaiṣṇavism, the same yogic practice and discipline has been responsible for the growth and development of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā movement of Bengal. It will, therefore, be incorrect to say, as has really been said by some scholars, that the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā movement of Bengal is a purely post-Caitanya movement having no relation whatsoever with the earlier Buddhist Sahajiyās and that the two cults are distinct fundamentally. A close study of the literature of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās will leave no room for doubting the clear fact that it records nothing but the spirit and practices of the earlier Buddhist and Hindu Tāntric cults, of course in a distinctly transformed form wrought through the evolution of centuries in different religious and cultural environments. The psycho-physiological yogic processes, frequently referred to in the lyrical songs of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās and also in the innumerable short and long texts, embodying the doctrines of the cult, are fundamentally the same as are found in the Hindu Tantras as well as in the Buddhist Tantras and the Buddhist songs and Dohās. There are sometimes discrepancies only in details and differences more often pertain to terminology and phraseology than to conception.¹

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¹ We may point out here that in the literature of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās we find reference not only to the sexo-yogic practices of the Tantrics, but also to the important yogic practice of drinking the nectar oozing from the moon situated beneath the lotus of Sahasrāra, which practice was emphasised by the Nātha-yogins (vide infra, Ch. IX.) Cf. :—

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candra uday haile sudhāmṛta kṣare |
pite nā pāiyā cakor pipāsāte mare ||
* * * *
sahasra-dal hay mastak bhitare |
akṣay nāmete tathā āche sarovare ||
udar bhitar āche māna sarovare |
tathā haite phul gela sahasra-dal upare ||
ūrdhva-mukhe adho-mukhe haiyā nāsār |
sarva-kāl mūl bastu āche tār bhitar || etc.

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Ānanda-bhairava, vide Sahajiyā-sāhitya (edited by M. M. Bose, M.A., pp. 132-133.)

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Again,

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haile saday jvālā-jvalan nay
biṣāmṛta āche tathā |
biṣ māre gāy amṛte jīyāy
eki adbhut kathā ||

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Amṛta-rasāvali, Ibid, p. 163.

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Cf. also:—

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cānder kāche avalā ye āche
sei ye raseri sār ||
biṣete amṛte milan ekatre
ke bujhe marama tār ||

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Rāgātmika Pada, ascribed to Caṇḍidāsa (No 16 of Bose's edition).

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These principles of biṣa (poison) and amṛta (nectar), which represent the principles of the Sun and the Moon of the yogins (vide infra, Ch. IX.) were transformed by the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās into the principles of kāma (carnal desire) and prema (pure love).

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Cf.

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biṣ kheye yevā jārite pāre | sei se sādhak rāgete tare ||
sādhane sādhak pakvita nay | biṣ khele seho nāi bācay ||
biṣete amṛte ekui hay | biṣ jāri kare amṛtamay ||

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Vide Sj. S., Song No. 82.

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It is very interesting to note in this connection that like some of the texts of the Sahajiyā Buddhists some of the Bengali texts on Sahajiyā Vaiṣṇavism, composed some time between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries, are introduced in the form of a dialogue between Śiva and Śakti, who are depicted as discussing the secrets of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā Sādhanā,¹ and in the *Ānanda-bhairava* it is hinted that Hara or Śiva himself practised this Sahaja Sādhanā in the company of the different Śaktis in the country of the Kucnīs (women belonging to the Koc tribe).²

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¹ See *Āgama-grantha* and *Ānanda-bhairava* edited by Mr. M. M. Bose in Sj. S.; see also the bibliography of seventy-nine Sahajiyā texts with short notes on them by Mr. M. M. Bose in a pamphlet reprinted from the J. D. L., Vol XVI.

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² *ek ek gune kaila ekek prakṛti | harake bhajaye save bhāv upapati ||* *śakti jāne rasa-tattva ār jāne śaṅkare | sahaj bastu āsvādila kucani nagare ||* The dalliances of Śiva with the Kucnis is very well known in the *Śivāyanas* of Bengali literature and there are also Purāṇic episodes with them.

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We have discussed before at length the salient features of the Buddhist Sahajiyā cult and literature. The Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās, like other mediaeval schools who were Sahajiyās in a broader sense, and of whom we shall speak in detail in the next chapter, harped on the same string. But we have seen that the angle of vision from which the different schools of Indian religious thought criticised one another was different. Consequently, whereas the criticism of the Buddhist Sahajiyās represents an admixture of the spirit of Buddhism, Vedānta, Tantra and Yoga, the criticism of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās is marked by a dominating spirit of love, which is the watchword of their Sādhanā, although, however, the lurking influence of Yoga and Tantra is not altogether missing. The Buddhist Sahajiyās, we have seen, inherited from the Yogic and Tāntric schools in general the spirit that all truth underlying the universe as a whole is contained in the microcosm of the human body; this belief, we shall presently see, was brought

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The general feature of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās and that of the Buddhist Sahajiyās

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by the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās to a deeper significance, which inspired them to declare to the world abroad, "Hearken men, my brothers,—man is the truth above all truths,—there is nothing above that."' Again, the same spirit of Guru-vāda that characterises the songs, Dohās and other Sānskritic texts of the Buddhist Sahajiyās as also the literature of the mediaeval saints, characterises also the songs and other texts of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās.² Again, as many of the Buddhist Siddhācāryas and mediaeval saints employed an extremely enigmatic and paradoxical style in their songs in describing the secrets of their Sādhanā, so also it was the custom with the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās to couch the secrets of their cult under a similar enigmatic style. Many of the songs ascribed to Caṇḍidāsa are good specimens of such an enigmatic style. Thus it is clear that in spirit as well as in literary representation the relation between the Buddhist Sahajiyās and the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās clearly shows an easy gliding from the one to the other.

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² Vide the songs on Guru collected in the anthology *Sahajiyā Sāhitya* by Mr. Bose.

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Historically it seems that the fall of the Pāla dynasty of Bengal marked also the fall of Buddhism in the province and that there was something like a Hindu revival during the reign of the Senas, who succeeded the Pālas. Vaiṣṇavism, based mainly on the love-dalliances of the cowherd Kṛṣṇa with the cowherd girl Rādhā, began to gain popularity during the reign of the Senas and the first Bengali Vaiṣṇava poet to sing the sweet immortal songs of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa was Jayadeva, who is said to have been the court-poet of the last Sena King Lakṣmaṇasena in the last half of the

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Probable historical cause of the transition twelfth century A.C. Caṇḍīdāsa of the fourteenth century popularised the legends and ideals of the love of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa through his exquisite lyrical poems. Similar lyrics were composed also by poet Vidyāpati of Mithilā, who was contemporaneous with Caṇḍīdāsa and enjoyed enormous popularity in Bengal; this wide-spread popularity of the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa songs began to influence the mind of the people belonging to all substrata of the society. It was through the influence of this love-ideal of the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa songs that the ideology of the Buddhist Sahajiyās gradually began to change, and the change of methodology was consequent on the change of ideology.

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¹ *śuna he mānuṣ bhai |* *savār upare mānuṣ satya* *tāhār upare nāi ||* Song ascribed to Caṇḍidāsa.

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With the popularity of the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa songs the ideal of Parakiyā Rati, or the unconventional love between man and woman not bound by the conjugal tie, became emphasised. In almost all the theological discussions of the Vaiṣṇavas of the post-Caitanya period the superiority of this ideal of Parakiyā love to that of Svakiyā was variously demonstrated. In his *Typical Selections from Old Bengali Literature* (Vol. II, pp. 1638-1643) Dr. D. C. Sen has quoted two old documents, belonging to the first half of the eighteenth century, where we find that regular debates were arranged between the Vaiṣṇava exponents of the Parakiyā and the Svakiyā ideals of love, and in the debates the upholders of the Svakiyā view were sadly defeated and had to sign documents admitting the supremacy of the Parakiyā ideal of love. This will help us in guessing how much influence this Parakiyā ideal did exert on the people of the time belonging to the Vaiṣṇava fold. This ideal of Parakiyā love has been the strongest factor in moulding the doctrines of the Sahajiya Vaiṣṇavism of Bengal.

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It is customary to sneer at the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā cult as an order of debauchery under the cloak of religion. Abuses and aberrations there are in every religion, and there is no denial of the fact that debauchery found its field of play in the Tāntric schools, both of Hinduism and Buddhism and in the school of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās, but that should not be the only point for consideration in judging the value of these religious orders. As students of literature, religion and culture, let us, like the wise swan, drink only milk out of a mixture of milk and water.

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We have pointed out before that the innumerable texts available on the doctrines and practices of the Sahajiyās few can be said to possess much intrinsic merit; but the lyrics of the Sahajiyās, whoever might have been their author, really reached a high pitch of poetry and philosophy, and these songs assigned a sublime value to human love; and with this deification of human love humanity as a whole has also been deified, and heaven above and earth below have met together in the songs of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiya poets.

(ii) The mode of Transformation

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Let us now follow the mode of transformation of the ideology of the Buddhist Sahajiyās into that of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās. The final aim of the Buddhist Sahajiyās, apart from the customary way of describing it as the Vacuity, or the Prajñā, or the Bodhi-citta, was supreme bliss,—and this conception of the final state of the Buddhist Sahajiyās differed from that of the early Buddhists in this that the Mahā-sukha state of Nirvāṇa is a definitely positive state, while the earlier Buddhistic tendency was towards negation; again, the conception of the Buddhist Sahajiyās differs from the general conception of the final state of the different schools of yoga in this that it is not a state of absolute dissolution; though it is a state of arrest and a negative state in so far as it involves the arrest of all states and processes of mind, it is a positive state of supreme bliss. Of course, sometimes this state of supreme bliss has been criticised as a state of mere thought-construction,— and Nirvāṇa has been defined as a pure state of negation bereft of all sorts of thought constructions;¹ but in general Mahā-sukha itself, bereft of subjectivity and objectivity, has been held to be the final state—the state of vacuity and perfect enlightenment. The final state of Mahā-sukha as the state of Sahaja of the Buddhists is also the final state of Sahaja with the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās; but the Vaiṣṇavas conceived this Sahaja state as the state of supreme love, and this supreme love has been conceived as the primordial substance which underlies the world-process as a whole. But how can this Sahaja be the ultimate reality? It is the ultimate reality inasmuch as it is the non-dual state of the unity of Śiva and Śakti, which are but the two aspects of the absolute reality as conceived in the Hindu Tantras.² Again in the Buddhist school it is the non-dual state of unity of Prajñā and Upāya which are also the two aspects of the absolute reality.³ The principles of Śiva and Śakti or Upāya and Prajñā are represented by man and woman, and it is, therefore, that when through the process of Sādhanā man and woman can realise their pure nature as Śiva and Śakti, or Upāya and Prajñā, the supreme bliss arising out of the union of the two becomes the highest state whereby one can realise the ultimate nature of the absolute reality. Now the conception of Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā of the Vaiṣṇavas was interpreted by the Sahajiyās in a sense akin to the conception of Śiva and Śakti, or Upāya and Prajñā,—and all males and females were thought of as physical manifestation of the principles of Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā. So, the highest state of union of the two, which is the state of supreme love, is the final state of Sahaja. Thus the theological speculations centering round the love-dalliances of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa in standard Vaiṣṇavism could very easily be assimilated by the Sahajiyās into their cult Moreover, the standard Vaiṣṇava schools of devotion were all deadly against the final aim of liberation either in any sense of negation, or in the merging of the individual self in the absolute. The supreme state of the Vaiṣṇavas is no state of absolute cessation, or annihilation,—it is a positive state, though of a supra-mental nature, of the eternal flow of divine love—like the smooth and incessant flow of oil. This ideal of the final positive state of love could very well be utilised by the Sahajiyās in a slightly modified way and thus the Sahajiyās could gradually associate their practices with the whole network of Bengal Vaiṣṇava theology. And once the practices of the Sahajiyās could be thus associated with the Vaiṣṇava theology, their whole ideology and methodology began to be influenced palpably by those of standard Vaiṣṇavism.

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¹ yāvān kaścit vikalpaḥ prabhavati manasi tyājya-rūpo hi tāvān yo' sāvānanda-rūpaḥ parama-sukha-karaḥ so'pi samkalpa-mātraḥ | yo vā vairāgya-bhāvas tadapi tad ubhayam tad bhavasyā'gra-hetu nirvāṇan nānyad asti kvacid api viṣaye nirvikalpātma-cittāt || Apratiṣṭhāna-prakāśa of Nāgārjuna-pāda, quoted in the Com. on the Caryā Nos. 8 and 13 (Śāstri's edition).

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² Vide infra, Ch. XIV.

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³ Infra, Ch. XIV, Supra, Ch. I.

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The final state of the Vaisnava Sahajiyās, Buddhist Sahajiyās and the Hindu Tāntrikas compared.

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The main deviation of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās under the sway of Vaiṣṇavism was towards a psychological development, and it will be more correct to speak of it as an innovation through a process of gradual transformation. The Tāntric schools, which emphasised the sexo-yogic practice (and all schools did not certainly emphasise or encourage it), were essentially schools of psycho-physiological yogic practices; but already in the Buddhist Sahajiyā we find a tendency towards the psychological development. There we sometimes find it explained that the most intense sex-emotion, produced under a perfect control of yoga, has the capacity of suspending the ordinary states and processes of the mind and producing a non-dual state of supreme bliss, where, absorbed in the unfathomable depth of emotion, our mind shakes off all its relation to objects and all its character as the subject; and this unique state of bliss is the absolute state of Sahaja-realisation. This psychological aspect of the Sādhanā was, however, most emphasised in the school of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās, with whom the Sahaja Sādhanā soon developed more into a religion of psychological discipline in the culture of love than a religion of mere psycho-physiological yogic process. In fact, the importance of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās consists in the high pitch which they reached in their enquiry and practical culture of love-psychology and in the new interpretation of our whole being offered in the light of love. It was a religious process of the divinisation of human love and the consequent discovery of the divine in man. As we have said before, the psycho-physiological yogic process was there, but its yogic aspect was dominated by the psychological aspect of the Sahajiyās with which we are mainly interested in our present study.

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(iii) *The Psychological Aspect of the Sādhanā of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās*

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(A) The Ideal of Love

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The psychological aspect of the Sahaja-sādhanā of the Vaiṣṇavas grew mainly with the philosophy of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and the eternal love between them in the land of eternity. It is, therefore, necessary, first of all, to elucidate the philosophy of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and their eternal love as conceived by the Vaiṣṇavas. According to the philosophical and theological works of Bengal Vaiṣṇavism (popularly known as Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism) Rādhā is nothing but the transfiguration of the infinite potency of love contained in the very nature of Kṛṣṇa. The ultimate Being, it is held, may be conceived in three of its states, either as the unqualified Brahman, or as the Paramātman, the indwelling principle of all beings, or as the Bhagavān, the active and qualified God. Kṛṣṇa as Bhagavān possesses three powers, viz., Svarūpa-śakti, i.e., the power which He possesses by virtue of His ultimate nature, Jīva-śakti or the power through which all the beings are produced (also known as the Taṭasthā śakti, the accidental power), and the Māyā-śakti, through which evolves the material world. This Svarūpa-śakti of the Lord has again three attributes, viz., the attribute of existence (sat), the attribute of pure consciousness (cit) and the attribute of bliss (ānanda). The potency of the three attributes acts like three powers, in the nature of God, which are known as Sandhinī (the power of existence), Saṃvit (the power of consciousness) and Hlādinī (the power of bliss which is of the nature of infinite love). The transfiguration of this power of bliss or love is Rādhā, and as such the very being of Rādhā is already involved in the very nature of Kṛṣṇa and the two are one and the same in the ultimate principle. Why then the apparent separation of Rādhā from Kṛṣṇa? It is for the self-realisation of Kṛṣṇa. God has within His nature two aspects, the enjoyer and the enjoyed, and without the reality of the enjoyed He cannot even realise His own nature as the enjoyer. Rādhā represents the eternal enjoyed while Kṛṣṇa is the eternal enjoyer,—and the enjoyed and the enjoyer being co-relative, the reality of the one involves the reality of the other; or, in other words Rādhā as the eternal enjoyed is as much real as Kṛṣṇa the eternal enjoyer. This inseparable relation between the two is the eternal love-dalliance of Kṛṣṇa with Rādhā,—and as Rādhā is eternally realising the value of her whole being with reference to her relation to the eternal enjoyer Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa too is eternally enjoying Rādhā to realise the infinite potency of love and bliss that is in him.

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This mutual relation of love is the secret of the whole drama enacted in the eternal land of Vṛndāvana. This eternal sport (*līlā*) or love-dalliance of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa does not presuppose any kind of shortcoming or imperfection in the nature of the ultimate reality, it follows from the very nature of the ultimate reality as such.

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This relation of eternal love between Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa has been conceived and expressed in the Vaiṣṇava theology and literature anthropomorphically through analogies of human love. So, to understand the nature of this divine love, human love has been analysed psychologically into all its varieties and niceties to the minutest details, and it has been found on analysis that divine love can be expressed only through the analogy of the most intense and the most romantic and unconventional love that exists between a man and a woman who become bound together by the ideal of love for love's sake. Post-nuptial love is not the highest ideal of love so far as the intensity of emotion is concerned,—for long association and acquaintance devour the strange mystery, which is the salt of love, and social convention and legal compulsion take away much from the passion in it and thus make it commonplace and attenuated. The highest ideal of human love, which is the most intense, is the love that exists most privately between couples, who are absolutely free in their love from any consideration of loss and gain, who defy the society and transgress the law and make love the be-all and end-all of life. This is the ideal of Parakīyā love,¹ which is the best human analogy for divine love. It is because of this theological ideal that in none of the legends of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa is Rādhā depicted as the wife of Kṛṣṇa, she is generally depicted as the wife of another cowherd, or as a maid just attaining the prime of youth.

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¹ Parakīyā love literally means the love of a man with a woman, who legally belongs to a man other than the lover.

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The ideal of Parakīyā love.

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Śrī-Caitanya, as he has been docetically conceived by his followers, combined in him the enjoyer and the enjoyed,—and it has been said that he was of the ultimate nature of Kṛṣṇa hallowed with the lustre of the supreme emotion of Rādhā (*rādhā-bhāva-dyuti-suvalita*). This speaks of the religious attitude of Caitanya. Though he himself became often conscious of his true self as none but Kṛṣṇa, his dominating religious attitude was *Rādhā-bhāva* or the love attitude of Rādhā towards Kṛṣṇa. This *Rādhā-bhāva*, or the religious attitude of the devotee towards God as the attitude of the most unconventional romantic love of a woman towards her beloved, may be recognised as the fundamental tone of the religion preached by Caitanya, not so much by sermons and teachings as by his tears and frequent love-trances.

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The religious attitude of the Vaiṣṇava poets of Bengal, as represented in the innumerable love-lyrics composed by them, was not, however, exactly the same as that of Caitanya. The attitude of the Vaiṣṇava poets was *Sakhi-bhāva* rather than *Rādhā-bhāva*. Śrī-Caitanya placed himself in the position of Rādhā and longed with all the tormenting pangs of heart for union with his beloved Kṛṣṇa; but the Vaiṣṇava poets, headed by Jayadeva, Caṇḍidās and Vidyāpati, placed themselves rather in the position of the Sakhis, or the female companions of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, who did never long for their union with Kṛṣṇa,—but ever longed for the opportunity of witnessing from a distance the eternal love-making of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa in the supra-natural land of Vṛndāvana (*aprākṛta-vṛndāvana*). This eternal *līlā* is the eternal truth, and, therefore, it is this eternal *līlā*—the playful love-making of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, which the Vaiṣṇava poets desired to enjoy. If we analyse the *Gita-govinda* of Jayadeva we shall find not even a single statement which shows the poet's desire to have union with Kṛṣṇa as Rādhā had,—he only sings praises of the *līlā* of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and hankers after the chance just to have a peep into the divine *līlā*, and this peep into the divine *līlā* is the highest spiritual gain which these poets could think of. The exclamation—“Glorious be the secret dalliances of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa on the bank of the Jumna”¹ sounds the key-note of the Vaiṣṇava attitude of Jayadeva. The same is the attitude of Caṇḍidās and Vidyāpati, who were absorbed in the *līlā* of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, who indulged themselves in making comments on the *līlā*,—and longed to have the chance to stand by when Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa were united in their love.²

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¹ *rādhā-mādhavayor jayanti yamunā-kūle rahaḥ-kelayaḥ* || *Gita-govinda*, (1. 1).

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² *Cf.* *āji malayānila mṛdu mṛdu bahata* *niramala cāmda prakāśa* | *bhāva bhare gadagada cāmara dhulāyata* *pāse rahi caṇḍidāsa* || *Songs of Caṇḍidās*, Pariṣat edition. Again, *duhum jana ākula duhum karu kora* | *duhum daraśane bidyāpati bhora* || *Pado-kalpa-taru*, Song No. 484.

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Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa combined in Caitanya, —Caitanya's religious attitude—Rādhā-bhāva.

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It is to be noted that in the religious discourse, which took place between Śrī-Caitanya and Rāya Rāmānanda³, the latter stressed *Sakhī-bhāva* as the best means for realising divine love. The theological explanation of this *Sakhī-bhāva* is not far to seek. The general Vaiṣṇava view is that Jiva being the *Taṭasthā Śakti* of Kṛṣṇa is, after all, a *Prakṛti* and its pride as being the *Puruṣa* (*puruṣābhimāna*) must be removed before it can be permitted to have its proper place in the eternal region of *Svarūpa-śakti*, and even then only as a Sakhī, rather than as Rādhā, and never as Kṛṣṇa.

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³ *Caitanya-caritāmṛta*, Madhya-līlā, Ch. viii.

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To put the poetical utterances of the Vaiṣṇava poets in a clear theological form we should say that, according to them the absolute reality has from the very beginning divided itself for the sake of self-realisation into two counterparts as the enjoyer and the enjoyed, or as Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā; these Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā are not mere abstract notions,—neither are they purely legendary figures invented through the imagination of the poets,—they are concrete in their divine form and represent the original concrete type of the two aspects of the nature of the absolute as the lover and the beloved having their eternal dalliances in the supra-natural land of Vṛndāvana.¹ The historical personages of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa as the cowherd boy and the cowherd girl in the geographical area of Vṛndāvana are but the temporal manifestation of the eternal type, a condescension of the supra-natural in the natural form so as to help man to understand the eternal in terms of the temporal.² The Vaiṣṇava poets sang of the historical love-episodes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa with the belief that corresponding to these love-episodes on earth there are the eternal love-episodes of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa in the *Aprākṛta* or supra-natural Vṛndāvana and the historical episodes will enable them to form an idea of and to have a peep into the eternal episodes, the realisation of which is the *summum bonum* of the spiritual life.

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¹ Cf. *sekhāne hay ki || nitya rās hay || nitya mahotsav hay ||* etc. Deha-kaḍacā by Narottam, B. S. P. P., Vol. IV, No. I. Again, *rādhā-kṛṣṇa rasa-prem ekui se hay |* *nitya nitya dhvaṃsa nāi nitya birājay ||* Sahaja-upāsanā-tattva by Taruṇi-ramaṇ, B. S. P. P., B. S. 1335, No. 4. Again, *nitya-lilā kṛṣṇer nāhika pārāpār |* *aviśrām bahe lilā yena gaṅgā dhār ||* Siddhānta-candrodaya of Mukunda-dās, (Published by Manindra-nandī, p. 58; See also, pp. 58-64). *nija-śakti śri-rādhikā lañā nanda-suta |* *bṛndāvane nitya-lilā karaye adbhuta ||* Ibid., p. 91. *se kṛṣṇa rādhikār hayen prāṇa-pati |* *rādhā saha nitya-lilā kare divā rāti ||* Ibid.

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² Vide, Rati-vilāsa-paddhati, MS. (C. U., 572).

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The eternal Līlā as conceived by the Vaiṣṇava poets.

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Lila is concrete.

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We have seen that the religious approach of Śrī-Caitanya, as depicted by Kṛṣṇadās Kavirāj in his work, the *Caitanya-caritāmṛta*, was somewhat different from that of the Vaiṣṇava poets. The post-Caitanya Vaiṣṇava poets stuck mainly to the tradition of the pre-Caitanya Vaiṣṇava poets in their poetic treatment of the love-episodes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās received their philosophy of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa from these Vaiṣṇava poets. The Sahajiyās believed in the eternal dalliances of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa in the highest spiritual land,—but they further held that the eternal concrete spiritual type manifested itself not only in the historical personages of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, but that it reveals itself in actual men and women themselves. Every man has within him the spiritual essence of Kṛṣṇa, which is his Svarūpa (real nature) associated with his lower existence, which is his physical form or Rūpa, and exactly in the same way every woman possesses within her a lower self associated with her physical existence, which is her Rūpa,—but within this Rūpa resides the Svarūpa of the woman, which is her ultimate nature as Rādhā. It is none but Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā who reside within men and women, and it is this Kṛṣṇa and this Rādhā that are making dalliances as men and women.¹ These *rūpa-lilā* and *svarūpa-lilā* of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa have also been explained as the *prākṛta-lilā* and *aprākṛta-lilā* (i.e., sports in the natural plane and the supra-natural plane).² This view of holding men and women to be nothing but physical manifestation of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa seems to have been inherited by the

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¹ *prakaṭa haite jadi kabhu mane hay |* *rūpāvesa hayiā tave lilā āsvāday ||* *sarva para-rasa-tattva kariyā āśray |* *rasamay deha dhari ras āsvāday ||* *Dvipako-jjvala*, MS. (C. U. No. 564), P. 13(A) *Again,—manuṣya svarūpe kare kautuka bihār ||* *Campaka-kalikā*, B.S.P.P., B.S. 1307, No. 1.

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² See *Rati-vilāsa-paddhati*, MS. (C. U. No. 572), pp. 3(A)-3(B).

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Adoption of the theory of Lilā in the Sahajiyā school—the Svarūpa-lilā and the Rūpa-lilā.

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Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās from the earlier Tāntric philosophy. In the Hindu Tantras, we have seen, all men and women have been held to be nothing but the incarnations of Śiva and Śakti manifested in the physical form,—and in the Buddhist philosophy they have been spoken of as the embodiment of Upāya and Prajñā respectively, and this philosophy has most probably influenced the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās in their belief of men and women being Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā in their Svarūpa. We have pointed out before that many of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā texts are introduced in the form of the earlier Āgamas and Nigamas, and in these texts Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā have always been explained as nothing but the different forms of Śiva and Śakti, and we have also pointed out that Śiva has sometimes been described as practising the Sahaja Sādhanā with Śakti as Kṛṣṇa with Rādhā.

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Even in a popular Vaiṣṇava text like the *Brahma-saṃhitā*, which was brought by Śrī-Caitanya himself from South India, the Tāntric influence on Vaiṣṇavism is palpable. In the fifth chapter (which only is available now-a-days) of the *Brahma-saṃhitā* we find that the lotus of thousand petals in the cerebrum-region is described as Gokula, the abode of Kṛṣṇa. Within the lotus we find description also of the Tāntric *yantra* (the physiological machinery through which truth is to be realised) as also of the *kīlaka* (the wedge, the support). Śiva of the nature of the *liṅga* (the symbol of the male productive energy) is described as the Lord Nārāyaṇa and Śakti of the nature of the *yoni* (the symbol of the female productive energy) is described as Ramā Devī (the consort of Nārāyaṇa).¹ Again it has been said in the *Śrī-haya-śīrṣa-pañcarātra*, "Hari (the saviour) as the Paramātman is the Lord, Śrī is called his power (*śakti*); goddess Śrī is the Prakṛti and Keśava is the Puruṣa; the goddess can never be without Viṣṇu and Hari (Viṣṇu) cannot be without the goddess, born in the lotus.¹ It has also been said in the *Viṣṇu-purāṇa*,—"The mother of the world is eternal and she remains inseparable with Viṣṇu; as Viṣṇu is all-permeating so also is she."²

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¹ See *Brahma-saṃhitā*, Ch. V, verses (2-10). (Baharampur edition)

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¹ *paramātmā harir devas tac chaktiḥ śrīr ihoditā |* *śrīr devī prakṛtiḥ proktā keśavaḥ puruṣaḥ smṛtaḥ ||* *na viṣṇunā vinā devī na hariḥ padmajām vinā ||* Quoted in the *Bhagavat-sandarbha* of the *Ṣaṭ-sandarbha* of Jiva Gosvāmī.

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² *nityaiva sā jagan-mātā viṣṇoḥ śrīr anapayinī |* *yathā sarva-gato viṣṇus tathaiveyam dvijottama ||* *Cf.* also :—*aparam tu akṣaram yā sā prakṛtir jaḍa-rūpikā |* *śrīḥ parā prakṛtiḥ proktā cetanā viṣṇu-samśrayā ||* Quoted in the *Bhagavat-sandarbha*.

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It is very interesting to note in this connection that there is a small poetical work, entitled *Sādhaka-rañjana*,³ by Kamalā-kānta (who flourished in the first half of the nineteenth century) where the yogic Kula-kuṇḍalinī Śakti has been conceived exactly in the image of Rādhā; she is described in exactly the same way with the same imageries and even in the same diction as Rādhā is described in the Vaiṣṇava literature. The rise of the Śakti to meet Śiva in the Sahasrāra has been sung as the coming out of Rādhā to meet her beloved in private.⁴ The philosophical concepts of the pairs Śiva-Śakti and Kṛṣṇa-Rādhā were generally confused; and as a matter of fact Puruṣa-Prakṛti, Śiva-Śakti and Kṛṣṇa-Rādhā mean all the same in popular theology. This fact has helped the development of the theological belief in the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā school that men and women are but the Rūpa of the Svarūpa as Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā. But the important point to be remembered in this connection is that while in the Sahajiyā Sādhanā the Kṛṣṇahood of man has been admitted, it has never been admitted in the Standard Vaiṣṇava school under any circumstances.

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³ Edited jointly by Messrs. Basanta Ranjan Ray and Atal Bihari Ghosh. *Sāhitya-pariṣad-granthāvalī*, No. 71.

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⁴ We are quoting here a few specimens :— *gaja-pati-nindita gati avilambe |* *kuñcita keśa niveśa nitambe ||* *cāru caraṇa gati ābharaṇa-vṛnde |* *nakhara-mukura-kara himakara ninde ||* *urasi sarasī-ruha bāmā |* *kari-kara śikhara nitambinī rāmā ||* *mṛga-pati dūra śikhara-mukha cāya |* *kaṭi-taṭa kṣīṇa sucañcala bāya ||* *nābhi gabhīra nīraja-bihāra |* *ṣaṭ bikaca kamala-kuca bhāra ||* *bāha-latā alase sakhī aṅge |* *dolita deha saneha taraṅge ||* *sumadhura hāsa prakāśai bāla |* *bālatapa-ruci nayana biśāla ||*

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According to the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās the region of Sahaja is an ideal transcendental region and it is generally styled as the ‘land of eternity’ (nityer deśa)—this is the Nitya-Vṛndāvana or the eternal Vṛndāvana as contrasted with the other two kinds of Vṛndāvana, viz., Mana-Vṛndāvana and Nava-Vṛndāvana or Vana-Vṛndāvana. By Nava-Vṛndāvana the Sahajiyās refer to the geographical Vṛndāvana, and by Mana-Vṛndāvana the Vṛndāvana of the mental plane of the Sādhaka, and the Nitya-Vṛndāvana transcends both. In this Nitya-Vṛndāvana (also called the gupta-candra-

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ratana-vedi para sura-taru-mūla |
maṇimaya mandira tahi ānukūla ||
sahacarī saṅga praveśai nārī |
kamalākānta heri balihāri ||
Sādhaka-rañjana, pp. 3-4.

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Again,—

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kadamva kusuma janu satata sihare tanu
yadavadhi nirakhilām tāre |
jadi pāsarite cāi āpanā pāsari jāi
enā dukha kahiva kāhāre ||
sei se jīvana mor rasikera mana-cor
ramaṇī raser siromaṇi |
parihari loka-lāje rākhiva hṛday mājhe
nā chāḍiva divasa-rajanī ||
hena anumāni tāre bāndhi hṛdi kārāgāre
nayāna pahari diye rākhi,
kāminī kariye curi hṛdaya pañjare pūri
animekhe hena rūpa dekhi etc., Ibid. p. 10.

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pura) resides Sahaja of the nature of pure love which flows between Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa in and through their eternal dalliances. This Sahaja as the Supreme Delight is the ultimate substance underlying the whole world¹ and it can never be realised as such in the gross material world of ours.² But how should then men and women of this world attain Sahaja? It is said in reply that there is a passage or transition from this world to the other, —or rather this gross world can itself be transformed into the Nitya-Vṛndāvana by the process of spiritual culture, and the principle of nescience, which is responsible for the grossness of the world can thus be removed. This removal of the fundamental principle of nescience and of the principle of grossness with it through a process of continual psychological discipline, is the primary requisite for Sahaja Sādhanā, —and when this is effected it is revealed to the Sādhaka that the difference between this world and that is more imaginary than real. At that moment there remains no distinction between our physical existence

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¹ *rasa bai bastu nāi e tina bhuvane* || Sj. S. Song, No. 59.

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² Cf. *sahaj kathāṭi ye janā jāne* | *dviguṇ bhay tāhāri mane* || *bhayer kathā kahiva kāre* | *ekalā bāṃcile jagat mare* || *jagat bāṃcile āmi se tari* || *jagat ḍubile āmi se tari* || Amṛta-rasāvalī, Sj. S. P. 161. Here jagat means the changing gross reality.

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Transition from the gross to the spiritual.

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Again,— cañcala capalā jiniye prabalā abalā mṛdu madhu hāse |
sumani unmani laiye saṅginī dhāila brahma-nivāse ||
unmata-beśā bigalita-keśā maṇimaya ābharaṇa sāje |
timira bināśi bege dhāy rūpasi jhunu jhunu nūpura bāje ||
jāti kula nāśiye upanita āsiye amṛta sarovara tīre |
prema-bhare ramaṇī sihare pulake tanu manda samīre ||
* * * * *
keli samāpana kāminīr āgamana harapura ādi saroje |
kula-patha bhediye mūlādhāre āsiye punarapi ramaṇī birāje ||
badana prakāśe śaśadhara barise bilasai purahara aṅge |
kamalākānta heri mukha-maṇḍala bhāsai prema-taraṅge ||
Ibid., p. 34.

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and our spiritual existence.¹ It has been said in a poem ascribed to Caṇḍidās, "Great is the difference between this world and that,—this is the truth known to all ordinary people; but there is a way of transition from the one to the other,—don't speak of it to any one else."²

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¹ *śri-rūp svarūp hay svarūp śri-rūp* || Ratna-sāra, MS. (C. U. 1111), p. 18(B).

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² *se deśe e deśe anek antar* *jānaye sakal loke* | *se deśe e deśe miśāmiśi āche* *e kathā koya nā kāke* || Sj. S. Song No. 84.

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We have seen that Sahaja as the absolute reality of the nature of pure love involves within it two factors, *i.e.*, the enjoyer and the enjoyed, represented in the Nitya-Vṛndāvana by Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā. These principles of the enjoyer and the enjoyed are known in the Sahajiyā school as the Puruṣa and the Prakṛti, manifested on earth as the male and the female.³ It has been said in a song (ascribed to Caṇḍidās)—"There are two currents in the lake of love, which can be realised only by the Rasikas (*i.e.*, people versed in Rasa). When the two currents remain united together in one, the *Rasika* realises the truth of union.¹ Through man and woman flow these two currents of love,—man and woman are, therefore, the gross manifestations of the same principles of which Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā are the pure spiritual representations. Man and woman, in other words, are manifestations on earth of the eternal types that are enjoying each other in their eternal Vṛndāvana, and the bliss of intense love that is enjoyed by man and woman through their mutual attachment even in the physical body is but a gross transformation of the eternal purest love that exists only in Vṛndāvana. Man and woman as the representatives of the two flows of love are known in the Sahajiyā literature as Rasa (the ultimate emotion as the enjoyer) and Rati (i.e., the object of Rasa), or as Kāma (the lover that attracts towards him the beloved) and Madana (the exciting cause

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³ *paramātmār dui nāma dhare dui rūp* | *eimate ek hayyā dharaye svarūp* || *tāhe dui bhed hay puruṣ prakṛti* | *sakaler mūl hay sei rasa-murati* || . . . . . *paramātmā puruṣ prakṛti dui rūp* | *sahasra-dale bās kare raser svarūp* || Ratna-sāra, MS. (C.U. No. 1111), p. 52(B). Again Cf. *rasa āsvādan lāgi hailā dui murtti* | *ei hetu kṛṣṇa hay puruṣ prakṛti* || *prakṛti nā haile kṛṣṇa sevā-janya nay* | *ei hetu prakṛti-bhāv karaye āśray* || Dvipakojjvala-grantha, MS. (C. U. No. 564), pp. 1(B)-2(A), Also,— *ek brahma jakhan dvitīya nāhi ār* | *sei kāle suni īsvar karen vicār* || *apurvva raser cheṣṭā apurvva karan* | *kemane haive ihā karen bhāvan* ||

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Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā as Rasa and Rati and the male and the female.

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bhāvite bhāvite ek uday haila |
manete ānanda haiyā bibhvol haila ||
ardha aṅga haite āmi prakṛti haiva |
aṁśinī rādhikā nām tāhār haiva ||
. . . . .
āpani raser murtti kariva dhāraṇ |
rasa āsvādiva āmi kariyā jatan ||
Ibid., pp. 11(B)-12(A). (Cf Bṛhad-āraṇyaka, 1, 4, 1-3.)

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Again,

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ei ye sahaj-bastu sahaj tār gati |
. . . . .
nārī puruṣ rūpe satata bihare ||
Prema-vilāsa of Yugal-Kiśor Dās.
Vide, Vaṅga-sāhitya-paricay, Vol. II, p. 1662.

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Again,

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sei rūpete kare kuñjete bihār |
sei kṛṣṇa ei rādhā ekui ākār ||
rādhā haite nirākār raser svarūp |
ataev dui rūp hay ek rūp ||
Rādhā-rasa-kārikā, Vide Vaṅga-sāhitya-paricay, Vol. III, p. 1671.
prema-sarovare duiṭi dhārā |
āsvādan kare rasik yārā ||
dui dhārā yakhan ekatre thāke |
takhan rasik yugal dekhe ||
Songs of Caṇḍidās.

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of love in the lover).¹ In standard Vaisnavism also Kṛṣṇa is known as Kāma or Kandarpa, as he attracts the mind of all creatures towards Him,—while Rādhā is Madana or the object that renders pleasure to the enjoyer. Sahaja is the emotion of the purest love flowing between Rasa and Rati or Kāma and Madana. For the realisation of this Sahaja-nature, therefore, a particular pair of man and woman should first of all realise their true self as Rasa and Rati or Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā,—and it is only when such a realisation is perfect that they become entitled to realise the Sahaja through their intense mutual love. This realisation of the true nature of man as Kṛṣṇa and that of woman as Rādhā is technically known as the principle of āropa or the attribution of divinity to man. Through continual psychological discipline man and woman must first of all completely forget their lower animal-selves and attribute Kṛṣṇahood to man and Rādhāhood to woman. Through this process of attribution there will gradually dawn the realisation of the true nature of the two as Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā. When man and woman can thus realise themselves as Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā in their true nature, the love that exists between them transcends the category of gross sensuality,—it becomes love divine, and the realisation of such an emotion of love is realisation of the Sahaja.

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1 *Cf.*

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paraspar nāyak nāyikā anaṅga rati |
satasiddha bhāve hay brajete basati ||
Rati-vilāsa-paddhati, MS. (C. U. No. 572), p. 12(A).

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Again,—

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ratir svarūp śrī-rādhikā sundarī |
kāmer citta ākarṣay rūper lahari ||
Rāgamayi-kaṇā, MS. (C. U. No. 581) p. 8(B).

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Again,—

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jay jay sarvvādi bastu rasa-rāj kām |
jay jay sarvva-śreṣṭha rasa nitya dhām ||
prākṛta aprākṛta ār mahā aprākṛte |
bihār karicha tumi nij svecchā mate ||
svayaṃ kām nitya vastu rasa ratimaya |
prākṛta aprākṛta ādi tumi mahāśray ||
eka vastu puruṣ prakṛti rūp haiyā |
vilāsaha bahu-rūp dhari dui kāyā ||, etc,
Sahaja-upāsanā-tattva of Taruṇī-ramaṇ, B. S. P. P., B. S. 1335, No. 4.

(B) The Theory of Āropa

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The above, in a nut-shell, is the fundamental basis of the religious creed of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās expressed in their lyrical poems and other prose and poetical works. The principle of Āropa is the most important in the process of Sahaja Sādhanā.¹ We have seen that the Sahajiyās have spoken of two aspects of man, *viz.*, the aspect of physical existence which is the Rūpa and the aspect of spiritual existence (as Kṛṣṇa or Rādhā as the case may be) which is the Svarūpa (*i.e.*, true spiritual self). This Svarūpa must be attributed to and realised in the Rūpa to attain any kind of spiritual gain.² But this Āropa of Svarūpa to Rūpa does not mean the negation of the Rūpa; it is rather the act of imbuing every atom of the Rūpa with the Svarūpa. The Sahajiyās are deadly against the principle of denying the value of life on earth and undervaluing our human love. The gross physical form with all its charm and beauty is as real as our spiritual existence, for it is this charm of physical beauty,—the maddening passion, which we call human love, that leads us gradually to a new region where we can find a glimpse

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¹ Cf. chāḍi jap tap sādhaha ārop ekatā kariyā mane | Rāgātmika songs, ascribed to Caṇḍidās, Mr. Bose's edition. Song No. 1.

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² Cf. svarūpe ārop yār rasik nāgar tār prāpti have madana-mohan |
* * * * se deśer rajakinī hay raser adhikārī rādhikā-svarūp tār prāṇ | tumi-ta ramaṇer guru seha raser kalpa-taru tār sane dās abhimān ||

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Aropa of Svarūpa to Rūpa, of divine love. The spiritual existence of man in divine love does not mean the negation of human love,—it is this human love, beginning in the form of carnal desires and progressing gradually through a process of continual physical and psychological discipline towards an emotion of supreme bliss, boundless and unfathomable in extent and depth, that itself becomes the love divine—the highest spiritual gain. There is no categorical distinction in kind between human love and divine love ;—it is human love, transformed by strict physical and psychological discipline, that becomes divine. Divine love is rather an emergence from the carnal desires of man as the full-blown lotus, with all its beauty and grandeur above the surface of water, is an emergence from the mud lying much below. Here there is a difference of outlook among the Sahajiyās and the standard Vaiṣṇavas of Bengal. Kṛṣṇadās Kavirāj has unambiguously declared in the Caitanya-Caritāmṛta that kāma (love in its grosser aspect) and prema (divine love) are characteristically distinct in their nature like iron and gold, and while the keynote of kāma is the fulfilment of selfish desires, the keynote of prema is self-elimination and the fulfilment of the divine desires in and through our whole being. But the Sahajiyās, while agreeing to the latter part of the statement, do not agree to the former part of it. The same flow of emotion, they hold, that becomes kāma in association with the selfish desires, transforms itself into prema when dissociated from such desires through physical and psychological discipline. Prema is but the purified form of kāma, and as such the former has its origin in the latter.¹ There cannot be prema without kāma, and hence, prema cannot be attained through the absolute negation of kāma; it is to be attained rather through the transformation of kāma. The prema of the Sahajiyās is not the emotion of the most intense devotion of man towards God,—it is the most intense emotion of love existing between Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā residing as the Svarūpa in the Rūpa of every man and woman. It is from this point of view that Caṇḍidās exclaimed,—"Harken men, my brothers, man is the truth above all truths,—there is nothing above that." In another song of the Sahajiyās we find,—Humanity is the essence of divinity,—and man becomes God in the strength of his love; man is the highest in the world, for it is only he who revels in supreme love.¹ The religion of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās was thus a religion of humanity. The Sahajiyās have no gods or God other than man. Even Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are never regarded as deities to be worshipped,—they represent principles to be realised in humanity. Humanity itself is thus viewed from a sublime perspective.

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