Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c9.s5.14

c9.s5.14

Although these poetical and passionate Stotras do not form a part of the regular theology of the school, they are yet composed by professed theologians; and in spite of their undoubtedly devotional character, they are coloured a great deal by their sectarian beliefs. It is, therefore, interesting to note that, apart from inevitable embellishment and exaggeration, they acknowledge, even if they do not theologically propound, the divinity of Caitanya and even this identity with Kṛṣṇa. It is, however, not clear from these devout poetical utterances whether Caitanya was regarded as Kṛṣṇa himself or merely as an Avatāra of Kṛṣṇa. Some passages, as noted above, incline to the former view, but the term Avatāra and its derivatives distinctly occur in other passages. It is, however, evident that here we have the definite suggestion, if not the elaboration, of the doctrine of double incarnation, which later writers developed with great delight. If Caitanya is to be regarded as Kṛṣṇa himself, it was found necessary to explain how Kṛṣṇa's dark colour became transformed in Caitanya into a golden hue. Again, Caitanya's ecstatic feeling of divine love for Kṛṣṇa in an almost feminine rôle of mystically erotic passion also required explanation. It was, therefore, imagined, in accordance with the Mādhurya theory of the school, that Kṛṣṇa, in order to relish the supreme taste of his own Mādhurya as it was relished by his most beloved Rādhā, assumed the feelings as well as the beauty of Rādhā, so that the two became one in Caitanya. It has been noted above that one of the most approved modes of devotional realization of this sect consisted of the practice of the Rāgānugā form of Bhakti, an emotional state in which the devotee imagined himself as one of the dear ones of Kṛṣṇa and played that rôle in his longings for the deity. The orthodox records show that Caitanya himself probably began this practice, often imagined himself as Rādhā longing for her beloved Kṛṣṇa and tried to realize the same intense yearnings. We shall see presently that in this emotional practice of the Rādhā-bhāva, he received support from Rāmānanda-Rāya. If it was a fact that Caitanya, for his emotional devotional purposes, imagined himself as Rādhā, it was only a step that he came to be regarded by his disciples as Rādhā herself incarnated. Rāmānanda's attitude, as reported by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, probably indicates the final shape which the tendency took; and this conceit was undoubtedly strengthened both by Caitanya's fair complexion and his passionate ecstasies. The idea of the Rādhā-incarnation of Caitanya, voiced already by the contemporary composers of Bengali Padas on Caitanya, was thus probably suggested by the Rādhā-bhāva, which his 'divine madness' for Kṛṣṇa typified, as well as by the theological necessity of furnishing an explanation of the appearance of a fair, instead of a dark, Kṛṣṇa. But the idea is only poetically suggested; its theological implications never appear to have been fully worked out until Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja sets it forth much later as the view of Rāmānanda-Rāya in his Bengali *Caitanya-caritāmṛta*.