Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c8.s3.83

c8.s3.83

It will be clear from what is said that the mood of erotic mysticism, which seeks to express religious longings in the language and imagery of earthly passion and which is a characteristic feature of later Vaiṣṇavism in general, is seen in its full bloom in these treatises and indeed forms one of the basic inspirations of Caitanyaism. In the older works like the Bhagavad-gītā, the mood of Bhakti is presented as an ethical and mystical feeling of an intensely personal pūra and the Sāhitya-kaumudī commentary (on Mammaṭa) by Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa. It quotes the Gopāla-campū of Jīva and the Citra-padya of Rūpa from Stava-mālā (pp. 618-20). As it does not deal with Bhakti-rasa, we need not consider this work here.