Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c11.s4.7

c11.s4.7

In spite of its romantic charm and lyric affluence, the general theme of the devotional poetry of Caitanyaism lacks variety and strikingness of inventive thought. The general poetic spirit of a newborn religious enthusiasm may be admitted, but the exaggerated consciousness of art and the monotonous sameness of characteristics inevitably suggest a sense of artificiality. There are indeed some variations in the detailed working out of the Vṛndāvana-līlā of Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā, but the form and expression are not sufficiently varied. We meet over and over again with the same set of situations and descriptions, the same subtleties and refinements, the same tricks of expression, the same strings of nouns and adjectives, the same group of conceits and the same system of emotional analysis. Two aspects of the Vṛndāvana-līlā, however, are generally distinguished, namely the perpetual or Nitya and the occasional or Naimittika sports; and the two aspects of the erotic sentiment, namely, the Sambhoga or love in union and the Vipralambha or love in separation, find expression in the Nitya sports, the Sambhoga alone being prominent in the Naimittika. The theme of the Nitya sports is generally concerned with what is called the Aṣṭa-kālikā-Līlā, or sports and pastimes during the different parts of the day, beginning from the morning to the end of the night. The eight parts of the day, according to the Vaiṣṇava theology, are: Prātar (morning), Pūrvāhṇa (forepart of the day), Madhyāhna (midday), Aparāhṇa (afternoon), Sāyāhna (evening), Pradoṣa (first part of the night), Madhya-rātra (midnight) and Niśānta (end of the night). The Naimittaka sports, on the other hand, comprises such occasional or detached erotic episodes as Dāna-līlā or Puṣpa-haraṇa.