Indian Philosophy v2.c27.s10.2

v2.c27.s10.2

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.