Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c8.s2.15

c8.s2.15

¹ The Rāgānugā Bhakti is explained in greater detail by Viśvanātha Cakravartin in his Rāga-vartma-candrikā (ed. as above), where (p. 69) as an example of Sādhaka, Rūpa Gosvāmin himself is mentioned, and as Siddha Rūpa-mañjarī of Vraja, of whom Rūpa Gosvāmin is supposed in Vaiṣṇava hagiology to have been an incarnation, and whose bhāva he is supposed to have realised. In Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā (śl. 180-186) we are told that, of the beloved Gopīs of Kṛṣṇa, Rūpa-mañjarī became incarnated as Rūpa Gosvāmin, Lāvaṇya-mañjarī as Sanātana Gosvāmin, Rati-mañjarī as Raghunātha-dāsa, Guṇa-mañjarī as Gopāla Bhaṭṭa, Vilāsa-mañjarī as Jīva Gosvāmin, and Rasa-mañjarī as Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa. In this way a complete scheme of reincarnation of the Gaṇas of Kṛṣṇa is elaborated, in the work quoted, as Gaṇas of Caitanya. This conception of the prominent Vaiṣṇavas as the incarnations chiefly of the Gopīs of Vṛndāvana, is based probably on the doctrine which regards Kṛṣṇa as the sole male and maintains that worshippers can fully realise passionate devotion only when they conceive themselves as females,—a curious development of the theory of Rāgānugā Bhakti! But of this elaborate scheme there is no trace in the works of the Vṛndāvana Gosvāmins themselves. For Jīva Gosvāmin's exposition of the Rāgānugā Bhakti, see below ch. v, under Bhakti-sandarbha.