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Indian Philosophy v2.c27.s10: XVII The Caitanya Movement

Indian Philosophy v2.c27.s10

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English

XVII The Caitanya Movement

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The Vaiṣṇavism of South India did not pay much attention to the glorification of the Bṛndāvana līlā, though some of the Āḻvārs refer to Kṛṣṇa’s sports with the gopis. In the north, however, the case was different. In Nimbārka, Rādhā, the beloved mistress, is not simply the chief of the gopis but is the eternal consort of Kṛṣṇa. The writings of Jayadeva, the author of Gītagovinda, Vidyāpati, Umāpati and Caṇḍi Dās (fourteenth century), show the growing influence of the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa cult in Bengal and Bihar, thanks to the influence of the Śākta system of thought and practice. Trained in such an atmosphere, Caitanya, the great Vaiṣṇava teacher (fifteenth century), was attracted by the account of Kṛṣṇa in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Harivaṃśa, the Bhāgavata and the Brahmavaivarta Purāṇas, and by his personality and character gave a new form to the Vaiṣṇava faith. His breadth of view and democratic sympathies gave him a large following, though the orthodox were much disturbed by his startling ways. He accepted converts from Islam freely, and one of the earliest of his disciples was a Moslem fakir, who attained to great fame and sanctity in the sect under the name of Haridās. His disciples, Rūpa and Sanātana, were renegade converts to Islam and outcasts from the Hindu society, whom Caitanya welcomed back into the fold. Jīva Gosvāmī (sixteenth century) and much later Baladeva, furnished the philosophical basis for the sect. The philosophical classics of the school are Jīva's Satsandarbha and his own commentary on it, Sarvasaṃvādinī, and Baladeva's Govindabhāṣya on the Brahma Sūtra. The latter's Prameyaratnāvali is also a popular work. These writers are influenced considerably by the views of Rāmānuja and Madhva.¹ They admit the five principles of God, souls, māyā or prakṛti, and svarūpaśakti, with its two elements of jñāna or knowledge, śuddhatattva or pure matter, and kāla, or time.

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¹ Prameyaratnāvali, p. 8.

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On the question of the theory of knowledge, there is not much that is peculiar to the school. The traditional account of the sources of knowledge, including Vedic testimony, is accepted. Jīva argues that there is such a state of consciousness as simple apprehension, which is later developed into determinate knowledge. Non-relational immediate experience precedes determinate cognition. The former is indeterminate (nirvikalpa) cognition. The determinate is contained potentially in it. It is the fact given in indeterminate perception that is analysed and understood in the determinate. It follows that indeterminate cognition is a fact of consciousness; and the intuition, where relations seem to be absent, is of this kind. Jīva does not believe in a universal which includes all differences.² We have first the knowledge of the universal as such and then the universal as qualified. The intuition of Brahman, pure and simple, is, for Jīva, an undoubted fact of consciousness, though it requires to be transcended.

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² Bhāgavatsandarbha, p. 55.

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The ultimate reality is Viṣṇu, the personal God of love and grace, possessing the usual attributes of sat, cit and ānanda. He is nirguṇa, in the sense that he is free from the qualities of prakṛti and saguṇa, since he has the qualities of omniscience, omnipotence, etc. These qualities are bound to him by the relation of svarūpasaṃbandha. They express the nature of Brahman and inhere in him.¹ He is the source, support and end of the world, the material and the efficient cause of the universe.² He is the efficient cause through his higher energy (parā śakti),³ and material cause through his other energies, called aparā śakti and avidyāśakti. His former nature is unchangeable, while his latter is subject to modifications. The chief character of God is love⁴ and the power of joy. The incarnations are one with the Supreme and not parts, as the individuals are.⁵ God assumes infinite forms, of which the chief is that of Kṛṣṇa, whose supreme delight is in love. Kṛṣṇa, when identified with the Supreme, has three chief powers, cit, māyā and jīva. By the first he maintains his nature as intelligence and will, by the second the whole creation is produced, and by the third the souls. The highest manifestation of the cit power of Kṛṣṇa is the power of delight (hlādinī). Rādhā is the essence of this delight-giving power.⁶ According to Jīva, God is one without a second. He is Brahman when viewed in himself and Bhagavān when viewed as the creator of the world. The former is abstract and the latter concrete. Jīva holds that the latter is the more real. According to Baladeva, the Supreme is called Hari, his Majesty and magnificence are personified as Nārāyaṇa, and his beauty and ecstasy as Kṛṣṇa.

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¹ Baladeva, after Madhva, admits the doctrine of viśeṣa, though he confines it to the svarūpaśakti and its modification; since the distinctions of the world are established facts and do not require any viśeṣa to distinguish them.

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² Ibid., i. 4. 24.

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³ Identified with Śrī. See Baladeva, iii. 3. 40 and 42.

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⁴ Prītyātmā, iv. 1. 1.

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⁵ A distinction is made between svāṃśa, or a manifestation identical with the original, and vibhinnāṃśa, or a part separate from the original. See Baladeva, ii. 3. 47.

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⁶ Cp. "Kṛṣnasvarūpiṇī paramānandarūpiṇī" (Brahmavaivarta Purāṇa, v. 4. 17).

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The universe and its creatures have come into being through the powers of God. They are dependent on him, though separate and distinct from him. They are neither one with God nor different from him. An incomprehensible differencenon-difference¹ is the truth of things. The world is real and not illusory; it is called māyā on account of its nature, since it attracts men to itself and away from God. The servant of God becomes, through the power of māyā, the slave of the world.

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¹ Acintyabhedābheda.

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The soul is different from the Lord, who is its ruler. God is omnipresent while the soul is of atomic size.² God’s svarūpaśakti, according to Jīva, supports his jīva śakti (also called taṭasthaśakti) by which the souls are created. This latter in its turn supports māyāśakti (or bahiraṅgaśakti). None of these can exist apart from God At the time of creation, the Supreme remembers the constitution of the world immediately preceding the pralaya and desires to “become manifold,” i.e. give separate existence to the enjoying souls and the objects of enjoyment merged in him. He creates the entire world from the great principle of mahat down to the cosmic egg and Brahmā. He then manifests the Vedas in the same order and arrangement as they had had before, and communicates them mentally to Brahmā, to whom other stages of creation are assigned. Through the help of the Vedas, Brahmā remembers the archetypal forms, and creates objects as in the previous existence. It follows that the Vedas, when they refer to Indra, etc., refer to types which do not perish, though the individuals do.³ While Rāmānuja regards the souls and matter as the adjectives (viśeṣaṇas) of God, Jīva and Baladeva regard them as the manifestations of God’s energy. The latter are averse to making unconscious prakṛti a predicate of God, which may introduce an element of discord into his nature. So Jīva makes prakṛti the outer energy (śakti) of God, which is not directly related to him, though under his control. Baladeva identifies māyā with prakṛti, which is set in motion by the mere sight (īkṣaṇa) of God.

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² Baladeva, ii. 2. 41.

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³ Baladeva, i. 3. 30.

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The souls become fettered by the bonds of the world through the power of māyā, which makes them forget their real nature. The force of karma can be overcome if we have bhakti.⁴ By the development of love (ruci) for Kṛṣṇa, we can have intuition of the divine. God's affection for his creatures is said to be brought out in his love for Rādhā. It is the desire of the creator that his creatures should cleave to him only in the hope of salvation. Kāma or sexual love is distinguished from prema or spiritual love. Bhakti is the way to salvation. Study of the Vedas, the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and the like, is inculcated. Reverence for the guru is a cardinal feature. In matters of religion it is said that reason is not to be depended upon. The distinctions of caste are ignored. No man or woman is too low for the grace of God. Ethical virtues of mercy towards all creatures, humility, tranquillity, freedom from worldly desires and purity of heart, are emphasised.

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⁴ Caitanya accepted the usual stages of bhakti: (1) śānta, or tranquil meditation on God; (2) dāsya, or active service of God; (3) sakhya, or friendship; (4) vātsalya, or parental tenderness; (5) mādhurnya, or sweetness

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Salvation consists in the eternal experience of love (prīti).¹ Souls in heaven realise their status as the servants of God, and are utterly devoted to him. Love is release. Bhakti is the true mukti. Through it bondage to rebirth is broken, and the soul attains to a status of equality with God, though it is never absorbed in God.² The intuition of Brahman, as the abstract universal of all existence, is, according to Jīva, the prelude to the intuition of Bhagavān, who is the concrete reality of all existence and life. The former, due to knowledge, is not ultimate. The latter, due to bhakti, can be had only when the body is cast off. Though jīvanmukti is possible regarding the intuition of Brahman, it is of no avail for the love of the Bhagavān.

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¹ Saccidānandaikarase bhaktiyoge tiṣṭhati (Gopālatāpanī). See Baladeva, iii. 3. 12.

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² Baladeva on i. 1. 17.

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Jīva attempts to displace the theory of attributes (viśeṣaṇa) advocated by Rāmānuja, by his own theory of energy (śakti). But if God cannot possess an attribute opposed in nature to his being, how can he possess a power or energy which equally contradicts his being? Though some of the writers belonging to this school call themselves the followers of Madhva, in their thought they are really nearer Rāmānuja, since they emphasise identity, even while they admit differences. The latter are traced to the śaktis, which belong to God in an inconceivable symptomatic of conjugal love. Each stage includes the preceding, so that the last is the most complete. Bhakti literature of Bengal is full of acute analysis of feelings. See Rūpa's Ujjvalanīlamaṇi.

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(acintya) manner. Jīva admits in his *Sarvasamvādini* that we cannot regard God and his powers as either identical or as different.

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AVALON : Mahānirvāṇa Tantra. AVALON : Śakti and Śākta. BARNETT : The Heart of India. CARPENTER : Mediæval Theism in India. CHATTERJI : Kashmir Saivism. MĀDHAVA : S.D.S., V, IX. MĀDHAVA : Commentaries on the Bhagavadgītā, Brahma Sūtra. Subba Rao's E.T. NALLASVĀMI PIḶḶAI : Studies in Śaiva Siddhānta. PADMANĀBHĀCĀRYA : Life and Teachings of Śrī Madhva. POPE : Tiruvāśagam. SRINIVASA IYENGAR : Outlines of Indian Philosophy, Chs. II and III. Śivasūtravimarśinī.

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