Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c10.s1.1

c10.s1.1

The entire body of the ritual and devotional practices of Caitanyaism has been codified by Gopāla Bhaṭṭa,¹ one of the six Vṛndāvana Gosvāmins, in his elaborate and erudite *Hari-bhakti-vilāsa*. We have already spoken briefly of its scope and extent; but since it is an almost exhaustive metrical compendium of the corpus of Vaiṣṇava Ācāra and Anuṣṭhāna, which aims at an authoritative exposition of most of the compulsory and occasional rites and ceremonies of the cult, a more detailed account of its content is necessary to indicate the ceremonial requirements connected with certain aspects of the faith. Although the highest form of Caitanyaism dispenses with mere Śāstric rule and outward ceremony, and lays stress upon an inner and more esoteric way of realisation, the faith does not at the same time ignore the impulse to devotional acts which comes from the injunction of the Vaiṣṇava Śāstra and outward forms of piety. The comparatively mechanical process of the Vaidhī Sādhana-bhakti, which depends upon Vidhi or injunction of the Śāstra, is an important step to the highest type of spontaneous Prema-bhakti;² and as such it demanded the attention and careful treatment of the professed theologians of the sect. An elaborate scheme of devotional acts, therefore, is to be prescribed for the less enlightened and larger mass of devoted followers; and the task was accomplished with such success by Gopāla Bhaṭṭa, in collaboration probably with Sanātana, that this stupendous compilation is now regarded to be the highest ritual authority of the Bengal school of Vaiṣṇavism.