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Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c13: Chapter VI: A Non-Sectarian Approach to the Doctrines of the Sahajiyās

Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c13

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Contents

Chapter VI: A Non-Sectarian Approach to the Doctrines of the Sahajiyās

(i) The Purely Psychological Approach Apart From The Theological

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Apart from the theological speculations advanced by the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās in connection with their Sādhanā of love, there can be another approach to their Sādhanā from a purely psychological point of view. The Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās have always mixed up this psychological principle with the theological speculations of Bengal Vaiṣṇavism, and the ideal of Parakīyā love in the human sphere has generally been sought to be associated with an ontological significance. But apart from the ontological significance attached to the ideal of Parakīyā love let us see if some religious significance can pertain to such a kind of love even from the purely psychological point of view. From this psychological point of view it may be said that human love, when dissociated completely from selfish carnal desires, not by a process of violent suppression, but by a slow and gradual process of strict physical and psychological discipline, has the capacity, in its boundless extent and deep intensity, of producing a transcendental state of mind, which is of the same kind as the state of mind produced through the highest state of divine love, or communion with God. We have said before that the arrest of the states and processes of the mind plays the most important part in almost all the religious systems of India. Intense human love, or even sex-emotion, has the capacity of producing a supreme state of arrest. In a unique flow of emotion,

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Most intense love produces a state of arrest.

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uninterrupted by subjective or objective notions there dawns an infinite oneness in the mind, which is recognised to be the highest spiritual experience. This is the state of Samarasa after which all the esoteric schools of yoga aspired. The Tāntrics of Hindu as well as of Buddhist schools would often recommend the attainment of such a state of mind through the attainment of intense bliss by a strictly yogic regulation of the sex-act, while the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās added the psychological element of love to it. The final aim, however, in all such cases was the attainment of an infinitely blissful state of arrest either purely through a psyco-physiological process of yoga or through the intense emotion of love.

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The fundamental principle of the esoteric schools, mentioned above, is that man can never get rid of his sex-propensities even by a life-long struggle of rigorous suppression,—nay, as we have seen, it is in the form of Samarasa or Mahāsukha or Mahābhāva the ultimate nature of our whole being—the ultimate reality from which the world evolves. In the grossest sexual pleasure we have the lowest kind of realisation of the same kind of bliss which follows the realisation of the ultimate reality. It is, therefore, foolish to try to do absolutely away with this fundamental nature of man; the best thing, on the other hand, will be to eliminate the element of grossness from it through physical and psychological discipline.

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Repression of sex replaced by the Sahajiyās by sublimation.

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This theory of the esoteric schools involving the element of sex in religion, may be made subject to severe criticism from the Freudian point of view of modern psycho-analysis,—and there is much scope for such criticism particularly in the field of Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā cult with all its theory of love, human and divine. But though a Freudian explanation of the whole thing may not be absolutely inadmissible in such religious practices, one fundamental point, which we should

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Freudian explanation untenable.

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never loss sight of even from the empirical point of view, is that though the lotus above the surface of water may have its origin in the mud deep below, mud and the lotus cannot surely be placed in the same scale in our general scheme of valuation.

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The main truth of these cults, as we have pointed out, is the possibility of the attainment of an intensely blissful state of arrest, which has been spoken of in these cults as the state of liberation or the state of Brahma-realisation or the state of divine love. This idea that it may be possible to attain liberation through the most intense emotion, or that the state of mind under the most intense emotion of any kind is of the nature of bliss produced by self-realisation, or Brahma-realisation, is not new in the history of Indian religious thought. In the Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad, realisation of self has been compared to the transcendental realisation of bliss arising through the deep embrace of a loving woman. Thus it is said,—"As, when deeply embraced by the dear woman, one knows neither anything external nor anything internal,—so also a man deeply embraced by the self (ātman) through perfect knowledge knows neither anything external nor anything internal."¹ In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa we find that the cowherd girls of Vṛndāvana did attain salvation through their passion towards their beloved Srikṛṣṇa, with whom they combined even knowing that it was jāra (promiscuity).² It is also cited in this connection that Śiśupāla, king of Cedi, attained liberation through his intense emotion of hatred to Kṛṣṇa.¹ In the *Padma-purāṇa* we find that in ancient times all the great sages of the Daṇḍakāraṇya saw the Lord in the form of Rāma and desired to enjoy Him; all of them afterwards were born in female forms in the land of Gokula and there they enjoyed the Lord with their passions and were thereby liberated from the ocean of existence. Their liberation was just like the liberation of the demons who approached the Lord with anger, were killed in battle and afterwards attained liberation. Sex-passion and anger are generally the cause of man's downfall in the world, but being united with the Lord with strong emotion the cowherd ladies were all liberated. Those, who worship the Lord through passion, fear or even animosity, will attain Vaikuṇṭha (the land of the Lord),—not to speak of those who worship the Lord through pure devotion.²

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¹ tadyathā priyayā striyā sampariṣvakto na bāhyaṃ kiñcana veda nā'ntaram evaṃ evā'yaṃ puruṣaḥ prājñena ātmanā sampariṣvakto na bāhyaṃ kiñcana veda nā'ntaram. Bṛhadāraṇyako-paniṣat, 4-3-21.

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² Bhāgavata-purāṇa, (10. 29. 11) Vaṅgavāsī edition. This fact described in the Bhāgavata has been fully utilised by the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās in the following song ascribed to Narahari— nander nandan karaye bhajan upapati bhāv layā |

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¹ Thus it is said,—"I have already described to you how the king of Cedi (i.e., Śiśupāla) attained salvation even through his hatred of Kṛṣṇa; what wonder then about the (salvation of) girls who were so dear to the Lord? (i.e., what wonder if the cowherd girls have attained salvation through their intense love towards the Lord?)..........By continually applying the emotions of passion (*kāma*), anger, fear, affection, unity and friendship to the Lord, people are attaining perfect oneness with the Lord."

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² *Padma-purāṇa*, Uttara-khaṇḍa, verses 64-68.

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*gopī-anugata braja-jana-rīta*
*mane āropita hayā ||*
*ati biparit braja-jana-rīt*
*sahaj mānuṣ seha |*
*puruṣ prakṛti haiyā kemane*
*kāhāre karive leha ||*
*sākṣāte bhajan kaila gopī-gaṇ*
*e deśe se deśe dur |*
*kothā bṛndāvan kothā braja-jan*
*kothā prema-rasa-pur ||* etc. Sj. S. Song, No. 69.

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*uktaṃ purastād etat te caidyaḥ siddhiṃ yathā gataḥ |*
*dviṣann api hṛṣīkeśaṃ kimetā'dhokṣaja-priyāḥ ||*
*kāmam krodham bhayam sneham aikyam sauhṛdam eva ca |*
*nityam harau vidadhato yānti tanmayatām hi te ||*
*Bhāgavata-purāṇa*, 10-29-13, 15.

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In their discussion on the nature of aesthetic pleasure some Indian rhetoricians have described it as equal to the bliss of Brahma-realisation. Through the intensity and purity of aesthetic emotion the limitations of mundane life are transcended and in the profound tranquillity of mind the artist enjoys a transcendental bliss equal to the bliss of Brahma-realisation. Viśvanātha Kavirāja says in describing the nature of Rasa that through the intensity of the transcendent emotional appeal of literature our mind becomes out of touch with the objective world, and due to the separation of mind from the objective world there is the subsidence of the elements of Rajas (energy-stuff) and Tamas (mass-stuff) and there is the emergence of Sattva (intelligence-stuff); as a result of this emergence of the Sattva element there is the spontaneous rise in mind of a unique bliss of the nature of pure consciousness untouched by the notion of any other knowable,—and as such it is of the nature of Brahma-realisation.¹ The quintessence of this Rasa is an emotion of supramundane sublimity and nicety, which removes all the limitations of our mind and expands it to a limitless extent. It is only by the meritorious few that such Rasa is realised in its entirety and in its changeless unique character.

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¹ Sāhitya-darpaṇa, Ch. III.

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This view that it may be possible to attain a state of arrest through the intensity of any kind of emotion or sensation has been emphasised by the Śaiva mystics of Kāśmīra also. It has been said by Abhinava Gupta in his *Tantra-loka* that when our mind ceases to form all kinds of false thought-constructions (*vikalpa*), we realise our motionless true self as Śiva; even if a beast attains such a state of mental equilibrium it attains the

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sattvo-drekād akhaṇḍa-sva-prakāśā-nanda-cinmayaḥ |
vedyā-ntara-sparśa-śūnyo brahmā-svāda-sahodaraḥ ||

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state of Śiva.¹ The state of homogeneity that is produced in the mind through the absorbing interest of pleasureable sensation of sight, sound and touch leads one to the realisation of the ultimate motionless nature of the self,—and the bliss that is derived from such experience is but a playful manifestation of the blissful nature of the ultimate Being.² We find a very clear exposition of this view in the *Spanda-Kārikā* and the *Vijñāna-bhairava*. The *Spanda-pradīpikā* (*Spanda-Kārikā*) says that for the realisation of the self as the Śiva one has to make his mind absolutely motionless,—the absolutely motionless state of mind is liberation.³ When the self passes on from its active state of the doer and the knower to its absolutely motionless inactive state, it is no more disturbed by the pernicious memory (*ku-smṛti*) of its past active states; but by passing into the inactive motionless state the self does not lose its nature as the ultimate subject. It is said that two states of the self can be distinguished, *viz.*, the state of pure agency (*kartṛtva*) and the state of being the effect (*kāryatva*). Of the two states the state of being the effect is capable of being destroyed, but the agent is indestructible. This is to say that all outward efforts or activities, which are but the manifestation of the disturbed agent may vanish; but with the vanishing of the active efforts the self as the supreme agent does not die out.⁴ The implication is that the outward efforts or activities may die out, but the deep internal emotional states produced thereby do not die out with them. The intense emotional state of our mind which is not limited by any notion of space, time and dimension approximates the nature of the indestructible true self which is the omniscient pure intelligence.¹ When even the ordinary emotions of our daily life attain a high degree of intensity, our mind attains a state of equilibrium which leads to the realisation of our self as ‘the motionless one.’ It is said that when a man is very angry or highly pleased, or is in a state of extreme bewilderment, even when he runs fast away (through some emotion of fear or joy), he attains a state which may be said to be the *spanda*, or the ultimate potential nature of the self.² When in such a state the sun and the moon

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¹ Tantra-loka, (1.211, 216).

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² *tata eva samasto'yaṃ ānanda-rasa-vibhramaḥ* | *tathā hi madhure gite sparśe vā candanādike* || *mādhyastha vigame yāsau hṛdaye spandamānatā*— *ānanda-śaktiḥ saivoyktā yataḥ saḥrdayo janaḥ* || *Ibid* (3.209-10).

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³ *yadā kṣobhaḥ pralīyeta tadā syāt paramam padam* | *Spanda-kārikā*, Ch. I, Verse No. 9, Vizianagram Sanskrit Series.

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⁴ *avasthāyugalaṃ cātra kārya-kartṛtva-śabditam* | *kāryatā kṣayiṇī tatra kartṛtvaṃ punar akṣayam* || *kāryo-nmukhaḥ prayatno yaḥ kevalaṃ so'tra lupyate* | *tasmim lupte vilupto'smī'ty abudhaḥ pratipadyate* || *Ibid*., Verses 14, 15,

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¹ Cf. *na tu yo'ntarmukho bhāvaḥ sarvajñatva-guṇa-spadam |* *tasya lopaḥ kadācit syād anyasyā'nupalambhanāt ||* Ibid. Verse 16.

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² *ati-kruddhaḥ prahṛṣṭo vā kiṃ karomi'ti vā mṛśan |* *dhāvan vā yat padam gacchet tatra spandaḥ pratiṣṭhitaḥ ||* Ibid., Ch. II., Verse 6.

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It is said that even when a man very eagerly waits for the command of any other person with the firm resolution that whatever will be ordered by the latter must be carried out, he will, through the intensity of his eagerness and the firmness of his resolution, attain a state of equilibrium; through such a condition of mind his inhaling and exhaling breath (the sun and the moon, *i.e.*, *prāṇa* and *apāna*) will enter the middle nerve *Suṣumnā*, which is the passage for the transcendental region, and all the motion of the sun and the moon (*i.e.* inhaling and exhaling) will stop there.

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*yām avasthām samālambya yad ayaṃ mama vakṣyati |*
*tad avaśyam kariṣye'ham iti saṃkalpya tiṣṭhati ||*
*tām āśrityordhva-mārgeṇa candra-sūryāvubhāvapi |*
*sauṣumne'dhvany astamito hitvā brahmāṇḍa-gocaram ||*
Ibid., Ch. II, Verses 7, 8.

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It is explained in the commentary that whenever, due to whatever reason it may be, one is under the compulsion of carrying out the order of any other man, due to the intensity of concentration of the former just to receive the order of the latter, all the mental states of the former will die out, and because of the dying out of all the mental states his consciousness must attain the ultimate state of perfect tranquillity, and through the practice of such acts of endurance he realises the ultimate truth.

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*idaṃ tu tātparyam, kenacit kāraṇena avaśya-karaṇīya-vacasā prabhaviṣṇunā kārayitavya-vastu-vivakṣayā ākṣiptasya pumsaḥ tad-vacana-śuśrūṣāmātra-niviḍa-vadhā-* go down in the great void, the man in the walking state will feel himself as if fallen into profound, dreamless sleep,—he shall have no other cognition or emotion regarding his body or the world outside,—that is the unveiled state of the self.¹ When the spatio-temporal character of the knower and the knowable is gone the self remains as a pure flow of consciousness, a stream of colourless emotion. This flow of pure emotion, which is not determined by any quality whatsoever, is the pure nature of the self.

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¹ tadā tasmin mahāvyomni pralina-śaśi-bhāskare | sauṣupta-padavan mūḍhaḥ prabuddhaḥ syād anāvṛtaḥ || Ch. II, Verse No. 9.

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In the *Vijñāna-bhairava* we find corroboration of what is stated in the *Spanda-pradīpikā*. There it is said that to attain the state of Bhairava, or rather to realise the ultimate nature of the self, one has to realise the ultimate nature of the self and of objects as pure consciousness bereft of all waves of mentation. But how to attain such a state of Bhairava? The *Vijñāna-bhairava* enjoins that such a state may be attained through a state of arrest produced by any intense emotion or even sensation. Just as after the ringing of a bell the main sound dies out leaving behind a continuous unqualified lingering vibration, so also after the mind is deeply disturbed by a strong emotion (like the sex-emotion), there follows a flow of unqualified lingering emotion, and that oneness of emotion becomes to the Sādhaka as of the same nature as the unqualified bliss resulting from the realisation of the self.² Through kissing and embracing of woman there follows an over-flood of joy which proceeds from within and amounts to the bliss of self-realisation. If we are very

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² śakti-saṅgama-saṃkṣubdha-śaktyā-veśa-vasānikam | yat-sukhaṃ brahma-tattvasya tat-sukhaṃ svākyam ucyate || *Vijñāna-bhairava*, Sl. 69. See also the commentary on the verse by Kṣemarāja.

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natvāt samasta-vṛtti-pratyastamaye sati, saṃvit turīyāṃ daśām avaśyamevāviśati, tat-pratyamarśā-bhyāsāt paratattvo-palabdhiḥ Ibid., Comm. by Rāma-kaṇṭha, pp. 77-78.

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glad at any time on any account,—or if we meet any of our nearest and dearest ones after a long separation, there is an excess of emotion, through the meditation on which it is possible to merge oneself in the ‘thatness.’¹ If we take meal to our heart’s content after we are very hungry and if we take some palatable drink after we are very thirsty, there follows a contented joy of relish through which also we may attain Mahāsukha (great bliss). Through the qualityless intense joy that may follow from attending to music or to any such other object the yogin may merge himself in it and realise ‘thatness’ thereby. The mind should be kept fast wherever there is the satisfaction of mind,—for, thereby will the ultimate nature of the self as supreme bliss be revealed to us.² Through the sudden arrest or careful control of any of the senses the particular sense enters into the non-dual vacuity and the soul shines there in its ultimate nature.³ Whenever the mind is disturbed either through knowledge or through ignorance, mind attains the ultimate state as an after-effect of this disturbance. If a man stands by the side of a great hole like a well, etc., and then looks upwards, his mind will be bereft of all thought-constructions and the states of mind will be suspended. In our deep emotions of anger, fear, sorrow,—or in the emotion produced in a lonely cave,

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¹ *ānande mahati prāpte dṛṣṭe vā bāndhave cirāt |* *ānandam udgataṃ dhyātvā tallayas tan-manā bhavet ||* *Ibid*, Verse 71.

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² *yatra yatra manas-tuṣṭir manas tatraiva dhārayet |* *tatra tatra parā-nanda-svarūpaṃ sampravartate ||* *Ibid*, Verse 74.

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³ *yasya kasye 'ndriyasyā'pi vyāghātāc ca nirodhataḥ |* *praviṣṭasya'dvaye śūnye tatrai 'vā'tmā prakāśate || Ibid.*, Verse 89.

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The author goes so far as to say that if any one first pinches a particular limb with a pointed needle and then concentrates his mind on the place of painful sensation he will attain a stainless state of Bhairava. (*Ibid.*, Verse 93.) When our mind is deeply absorbed in any object of sex-passion, anger, greed, infatuation, pride and jealousy, through the deep absorption in the emotion the distinctive features of the objects vanish away and what remains is the ultimate reality. (*Ibid.*, Verse 101.)

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or in the emotion resulting from flying away from the battle field, or in the emotion of strong curiosity or of hunger there is a state which may be said to be identical with the state of the Brahman.¹

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¹ Ibid., Verse 118. The reading of the verse in the edition we are using is as follows :- Vide., p. 51.

(ii) Criticism from The Yoga Point of View

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From the above it will be clear that the view that it may be possible to attain some religious experience through an intense emotion or even through some strong sensation is not very uncommon in the field of Indian religious thought. But as this view is closely associated with the question of a state of arrest, which is so much emphasised in the Pātañjala system of yoga, it will not be unfair to make some comment on it from the yoga point of view.

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The exponents of yoga have admitted the fact that it may be possible to attain a state of arrest even through some strong sensation or emotion; but that kind of arrest of mind is very transitory and as such falls far short of the final state of Samādhi. Samādhi of yoga proper does not mean a temporary arrest of mind,—it means a permanent state of arrest which removes all our afflictions and which eradicates all mental complexes and root-instincts that serve as the seed of the future recurrence of life and suffering.

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In the yoga scheme of psychology there have been recognised five planes of mind, which are technically known as the five *citta-bhūmis*. These are, (1) *kṣipta*, (2) *mūḍha*, (3) *vikṣipta*, (4) *ekāgra* and (5) *niruddha*. The *kṣipta*

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kṣutādyante bhaye śoke gahvare vā ranāddrute |
kutūhale kṣudhādyante brahma-sattvāmayī daśā ||

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But the reading of the verse as quoted in the commentary on the *Spanda-sūtras* by Utpalācāryya is as follows :-

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krodhādyante bhaye śoke gahvare vāraṇe raṇe |
kutūhale kṣudhādyante brahma-sattā samīpagā ||

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state is the ordinary unsteady state of mind which is always changing from one object to another. The second state is the state in which mind under the sway of some strong sensation or emotion, lies infatuated, as it were. In this state there is the excess of the *tamas* (i.e., the gross material stuff) and under the sway of the *tamas* mind falls asleep, or, swooning, as it were. The third state is the state of *vikṣipta*, which is distinguished from the *kṣipta* state by the possibility therein of temporary arrest of the mental states. It is the momentary steadiness that the mind may have amidst its unsteady changes. The other two states are *ekāgra* (one-pointed) and *niruddha* (perfectly arrested). Of these two the *ekāgra* state has been explained by Vācaspati in his commentary as *eka-tāna*, which literally means ‘one-tuned,’ i.e., the state where all the mental states attain an oneness in deep concentration on some particular object of meditation. This *ekāgra* state leads to the next state which is the state of final arrest (*niruddha*).

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Now of the five planes (*bhūmi*) of the mind only the last two are recognised as the planes of yoga proper. Temporary arrest may be possible in the *mūḍha* and *vikṣipta* planes also,—but they cannot be recognised as states of yoga as there is the possibility of their relapse to ordinary active states at any moment. The important thing in yoga proper is not therefore somehow to attain a state of arrest, but to well-prepare the planes of mind for Samādhi. If the plane be well-prepared even active states cannot disturb the mind.

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If we examine the states of Samādhi described particularly by the Kāśmīra-school of Śaivism, we shall be tempted to say that many of these states can be classed as the *mūḍha* state of mind and only a few of them fall within the state of *ekāgra*. There is no denial of the fact that when we are deeply absorbed in any intense emotion, we transcend our ordinary physical, biological and psychological existence,—and even it may be admitted that such states of transcendental emotion approximate in nature deep religious experience, but the question remains, how far it will be correct to accept all such states to be identical with our supreme religious experience. In states of great hunger, anger, jealousy, fear, curiosity, sex-passions, etc., there may be a temporary sleep of the ordinary mental states and processes,—but they being outside the plane of yoga may at any time relapse into activity, and for this reason such states should never be confused with the final state of Samādhi.

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To judge the state of Samarasa of the Tāntriks or of Mahā-sukha of the Buddhist Sahajiyās, or the state of supreme love of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās, we should first of all examine the citta-bhūmi in which such a realisation is possible. If the realisation be in any of the first three planes of the citta, i.e., if it be a mere state of sleep of the senses, or just like a state of swoon of a temporary nature then it cannot be recognised as a state of yoga proper. Everything, therefore, depends on the plane of citta. The Tāntriks and the Sahajiyās were conscious of this truth and they laid sufficient stress on it. All the stringent conditions laid by the Tāntriks and the Sahajiyās for the esoteric practice may be viewed from the yoga point of view as conditions for a proper plane of citta where the absorption of the psychical processes may amount to a state of Samādhi. Whenever the esoteric practice is resorted to in a lower plane the result produced must be dangerous; it is for this reason that the Sahajiyās repeatedly declared that a real Sahajiyā Sādhaka is rarely found even among crores (koṭike goṭik hay).

Cites (7)