The paradigm shift that the European
Renaissance produced left an indelible mark on both our collective historical
consciousness and on the history of the world. The dominant religious worldview
of the medieval period, characterized as it was by an inordinate concern with
the hereafter, frowned upon both excessive interest in this world and attempts
to comprehend its complexity. Ultimately, the primal human urge to know can
only be regulated and constrained for so long; the European ‘rebirth’,
essentially then, was a historical and philosophical manifestation of the human
spirit in its attempt to break free from the shackles imposed upon it by, what
was then perceived to be, a life-negating, world-denying, intellectually
sterile medieval worldview. As Europe commenced its celebration of the unique
and extraordinary ability of the human mind, India was experiencing a somewhat
different ‘rebirth’. Scholars have termed this period the ‘Bhakti Renaissance’
and characteristic of this age was the spontaneous outpouring of devotional
expression and the reemergence of bhakti, or devotion, as a formidable social
and religious force.
 |
| Mahaprabhu in Puri |
In many ways, both the European
Renaissance and the Bhakti Renaissance, share much in common. Both, for
instance, resulted in social and intellectual regeneration and part of this
regenerative project involved engaging critically with the past to question the
cultural, religious and intellectual assumptions that had, up until then, been
accepted uncritically. There were, however, important differences between the
two movements that make their juxtaposition extraordinarily interesting. The
European Renaissance, with its renewed emphasis on the empirical world, sought
to establish the primacy of human reason over faith. Indeed, this dialectic
between reason and faith constituted a salient feature of Renaissance thought.
The Bhakti Movements, by contrast, expended little effort in trying to resolve
this perennial tension between reason and faith; they were engaged, instead, in
a rather different project- the theoreticians and theologians of this era were
concerned with the establishment of a new method of engagement with the Divine.
For them, bhakti, or passionate and spontaneous devotional love for God,
constituted the most profound, potent and efficacious religious process
available, so much so, that mundane rationality and conventional piety paled in
significance before it. These latter issues featured little in their
deliberations and much of their effort and time was spent, instead, in the
intellectual exposition of bhakti. This intellectual engagement, of course,
existed side-by-side, with personal engagement in the devotional expression of
love to God. Foremost among the thinkers and devotional exponents of this age
was the medieval saint, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Chaitanya, widely considered by
his followers to be a unique manifestation of Lord Krishna, is especially
remembered today for his role in immersing India in an unprecedented ocean of
devotional and religious fervor, a spiritual legacy that continues to touch the
hearts of many around the globe, even today. In order to better understand the
spiritual and religious significance of Chaitanya’s contribution to religious
thought, an understanding of the reasons for his descent is vital.
For many, the very notion of a divine
descent seems perplexing. Why, after all, would God, as the sovereign Lord of
this material cosmos, decide to descend to this world, possessed as it is, of
imperfection, misery and strife? To understand the significance of Chaitanya’s
specific descent requires, at the very least, a response to this enduring
question.
God’s omnipotence, or the power of God
to do anything he so wishes, in one sense, simplifies the entire debate about
the notion of a divine descent. In other words, does it really stretch
credulity to suggest that God can, periodically, personally intervene in the
material and religious affairs of this world, by descending, in his own
spiritual form, into our material environment? As the source of this entire
cosmos and the origin of all life, a moment’s reflection reveals that God’s
descent into this world is not nearly as miraculous and mystical a feat as we
initially consider it to be. Unfortunately, however, pointing to God’s
omnipotence doesn’t really advance the debate in any meaningful way. To say
that God can do something is not the same as saying that he does do something.
We need to point, then, to a more concrete explanation for God’s descent into
this world.
 |
| Sad-Bhuja Chaitanya |
Fortunately for us, Krishna, the
central deity of the Chaitanya Vaishnava tradition, does provide such an
explanation in his divine conversation with Arjuna (his disciple) in the famous
text of the Bhagavad Gita: ‘Whenever and wherever there is a decline in
religious practice and a predominant rise of irreligion- at that time I descend
myself. In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well
as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent myself millennium after
millennium’. So, as this passage of the Bhagavad Gita makes clear, there is a
three-fold purpose to Krishna’s descent into this world: first, it enables him
to ‘deliver the pious’, or in other words, to mitigate the spiritual anguish
experienced by his intimate devotees in separation from him; second, his
descent facilitates the destruction of evil that is a necessary precondition
for a righteous, religiously stable and spiritually productive society; third,
and finally, Krishna’s descent into this world provides him with the
opportunity to re-establish the eternal principles of religion that, owing to
the influence of time and material decay, become compromised and debased in his
absence.
For Vaishnava theologians, the reestablishment
of dharma and the destruction of evil are better understood as secondary
reasons or external causes for Krishna’s descent. On this view, the primary
motivation underlying Krishna’s descent is his desire to deliver his intimate
devotees by giving them the opportunity to associate directly with him.
Krishna’s relationship with his devotees, as the Gita so poetically describes,
is a reciprocal one wherein Krishna takes a personal interest in the well-being
and welfare of his closest and nearest devotees; the element of reciprocity
inherent in this relationship requires that Krishna attend to the needs and
desires of his devotees and so in this way, Krishna’s descent enables him to
fulfill that important relational requirement. Establishing dharma and
destroying evil, are, at least on this view then, better understood as being by-products
of this principal reason for Krishna’s descent. In other words, the ancillary
nature of these activities means that they occupy a subordinate position in the
hierarchy of reasons for Krishna’s descent.
Notwithstanding the simplicity of the
foregoing analysis, we now have a better grasp of the theology underlying the
notion of a divine descent. As a result, we are now in a better position to
examine both the particular significance of Chaitanya’s descent and his
contribution to religious thought and understanding. The intention in the
following few paragraphs is to provide a distilled interpretation of
Chaitanya’s descent, revealing where possible, the rationale underlying his
appearance. More specifically, I will endeavor to show how, despite the
commonalities connecting Chaitanya’s appearance with other manifestations or
incarnations of Vishnu, Chaitanya’s idiosyncratic appearance provides us with
an unprecedented image of the dynamic nature of God and in many ways forces us
to depart from the conventional understanding of divine descent in Vaishnavism.
Just as we were able to identify a
hierarchy of reasons for Krishna’s appearance, we can similarly categorize the
reasons for Chaitanya’s appearance in a comparable way. The biographies of
Chaitanya, along with other theological treatises composed by his followers
after his disappearance, tend to identify two foundational categories
underpinning the various reasons for Chaitanya’s descent. There are, as the
literature stipulates, exoteric reasons for Chaitanya’s descent and esoteric
ones. Unsurprisingly, the former category occupies the lowest place on the
hierarchy of reasons for Chaitanya’s descent and the latter category the
highest. By adopting this hierarchical approach to Chaitanya’s descent,
Chaitanya Vaishnava theologians (who were ultimately responsible for this
ingenious theological approach) appear to be saying something significant about
the life and significance of Chaitanya. Explicit in the notion of a hierarchy
is a system of ranking in which certain principles are organized according to
status or authority. This ‘system of ranking’ from a purely theological
perspective, then, translates practically into a hierarchy of understanding;
what we have here is a highly developed theological account of Chaitanya’s
descent that seeks to draw a distinction between two separate yet closely
related group of reasons for Chaitanya’s descent. Understanding Chaitanya,
holistically then, entails an understanding of both the exoteric and esoteric
reasons for his descent.
By drawing a distinction between
different reasons for Chaitanya’s descent and then utilizing the form of a
hierarchy to accentuate this distinction further, Chaitanya Vaishnava
theologians appear to be making an important point about the nature of
religious understanding. For them, religious understanding is not an
all-or-nothing phenomenon; instead, they point to a hierarchy of religious
understanding wherein the depth and level of spiritual realization correspond
neatly to the level and capacity of religious understanding. So, applied in
this context, this means that only those devotees of Chaitanya who have
realized, as humanely as is possible, the significance of both the exoteric and
esoteric reasons for his descent, can have access to the deepest levels of his
revelation and thereby progress in their own spiritual realization and
understanding. With different levels of religious understanding come different
grades of devotees; the sacred literature exhorts us to develop our
understanding of Chaitanya’s descent and in so doing, progress in our own
spiritual development and experience.
We begin our analysis here, then, with
a study of the exoteric reasons for Chaitanya’s descent. In other words, we
begin here by looking at the external factors underlying Krishna’s appearance
as Chaitanya. Where possible, a comparison will be made between Chaitanya’s
descent and Krishna’s descent to see whether, and if so to what extent, the
reasons for their descent correspond comfortably and neatly to each other.
 |
| Sri Sri Gaura Nitai (ISKCON Vrindavan) |
Earlier in this essay we looked at a passage
of the Bhagavad Gita wherein Krishna provides an explanation for his descent into
this material world. Of particular salience here is the last sentence of that
text wherein Krishna declares that his advent into this world occurs in every
era or yuga. Vedic literature
describes history as cyclical, progressing through repeated revolutions of four
great yugas. In each of these ages,
God descends himself in a particular form to establish a method of religion
that is suitable to the circumstances and material conditions of that age. This
particular point is significant and we will revisit it very shortly.
According to this line of reasoning,
just as Krishna descended in Dwarapa Yuga and Rama appeared in Treta Yuga, so
in the same way Chaitanya, as the yuga-avatara, descends in his own unique form
in this current Age of Kali or Kali Yuga. This rationale, however, did not prove
to be entirely unproblematic, even for Chaitanya’s own contemporaries. A great
example is Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, the expert logician and committed
Advaitin, who, as Krishnadas in the Chaitanya Charitramrita tells us, refused,
at least initially, to accept the divinity of Chaitanya. As a good vedantistst,
the Bhattacharya attempted to substantiate his position by referring to the
scriptural understanding that Vishnu (as triyuga) only descends in the first
three great ages, i.e. in Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga and Dwarapa Yuga. To cut this
narrative short, Gopinatha Acarya, the Bhattacharya’s interlocutor in this
conversation, responded to the aforementioned argument by providing a refined
and more nuanced understanding of Vishnu’s name as Triyuga or he who appears in
the three Yugas: Lord Vishnu, Gopinath argued, is called Triyuga not because he
doesn’t appear in every Yuga but rather because he only manifests himself as a
lila-avatara in the first three Yugas. In the Age of Kali, he appears in this
world furtively and actively seeks to conceal his divinity from the wider
public. By quoting profusely from scripture to support his argument, Gopinath
Acarya, argued convincingly that Chaitanya was the yuga-avatara for this age.
As we saw earlier, one of the external
or secondary reasons for Krishna’s appearance in this world is his desire to
re-establish the principles of religion. In reestablishing religious
principles, Krishna takes into consideration the nature and idiosyncrasies of
the age and environment and in this way provides a method of religion that is
conducive and appropriate to the laity at large. This bespoke method of
religion is known in Vedic circles as the Yuga-Dharma (the relevant method of
religion for the age) and one reason for Chaitanya’s appearance in this world
was his desire to institute the congregational chanting of God’s sacred and
divine names as the preeminent spiritual and religious activity of this age.
Indeed, the Bhagavata Purana, the central text of the Chaitanya movement,
foretells Chaitanya’s role in the following words:
“In this Age of Kali, those who are intelligent
perform congregational chanting of Krishna’s sacred names, worshipping God, who
appears in this age always describing the glories of Krishna.” (S.B. 11.5.32)
Chaitanya Vaishnavas consider
Sankirtana, or the congregational chanting of God’s sacred names, to be the
most efficacious and exalted method of religious expression in this age (the
yuga dharma) and identify Chaitanya as the chief inaugurator of this process. For
Chaitanya Vaishnavas, the effectiveness of a particular religious process is
measured in accordance with its ability to bestow the highest goal of life.
Unconventionally, Chaitanya theologians argue that Krishna prema or intense
love for God constitutes the highest achievable objective of human life; this,
of course, places the tradition in opposition to the vast majority of
traditional Hindu denominations who consider liberation or moksha to be the
ultimate purusa artha or goal of life. In exalting Sankirtana as the foremost
religious and spiritual method of this age, Chaitanya argued that the process
of Sankirtana possesses the potency to bestow Krishna prema or intense love for
God on all who sincerely and correctly engage in the activity.
Despite the fact that the sacred
literature of Hinduism and the commentarial writings of Hindu theologians
abound with countless passages eulogizing the sacred names of God, Chaitanya
was, in many ways, the first saint to systematically develop a philosophy of
the Names of God. The precise details of this philosophy are, of course, beyond
the scope of this essay but it is worthwhile and useful to identify its
fundamental or most salient features. According to Chaitanya, the sacred name
of God enjoys an independent absolute status and in this respect is completely
one with its object of reference, i.e. God. It is, as Dr. O.B.L Kapoor writes,
the Lord himself, who graciously appears on the tongue of the devotee in the
form of the Name. Chaitanya’s Siksastakam
instructs that every name of God is endowed with his energy and therefore
possesses the inestimable power to deliver the soul from material bondage.
Chaitanya goes on, however, to argue that the name ‘Krishna’ occupies a unique
position among the myriad names of God since it alone can bestow the divine
love of Sri Krishna. He extends this argument further but claiming that the
name ‘Krishna’ is the Lord directly in the form of the name whereas all other
names of God are but partial manifestations of him.
So far then we have focused solely on
the exoteric or external reasons for Chaitanya’s earthly appearance. We are now
in a position to advance this analysis further by examining the esoteric or
internal reasons for Chaitanya’s appearance in this world. The theological
complexity of these reasons warrants a brief summary and Steven J Rosen
provides a particularly succinct one: The internal reasons are, as Rosen
writes, theologically elaborate but put simply, they involve the following few
claims: in the descent of Chaitanya, God desired to taste the love of his
topmost devotees (particularly Srimati Radharani, the personified form of the
Lord’s pleasure potency or Hladini Shakti).
This love was so intense that he wished to directly experience it from their
unique perspective. For this reason, he appeared in this world as his own
perfect devotee- as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu- in order to fully taste this divine
love, the most cherished goal of the Vaishnavas. By personally taking on the
mood and complexion of Srimati Radharani, Krishna desired to taste the love
that Radharani has for Him. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the highest expression of
this experience. (Rosen).
For the sake of precision it’s worth
pointing out that this internal reason for Mahaprabhu’s descent is actually
broken down into three related subdivisions: 1) Krishna wanted to experience
the greatness or depth of Radharani’s love for him; 2) He wanted to experience
the sweetness of this love from Radharani’s perspective; and 3) He wanted to
experience the distinct bliss that Radharani achieves by virtue of engaging in
his service. (Rosen).
According to the logic underlying the
first subdivision, Radharani’s love for Krishna is so powerful that even the
omnipotence and majesty of Krishna fades into insignificance before her. In
order to understand the depth and greatness of Radharani’s love for him, a love
that eternally disturbs his poise and renders him restive, Krishna descends
himself as Chaitanya, to internally experience these esoteric truths. According
to the second subdivision, Chaitanya’s descent enables Krishna to experience
the untold sweetness of Radha’s love for him. Again, this required amalgamating
himself into Radharani’s essential personhood. If he were able to see things
from her inconceivable perspective, he would perhaps be able to understand her
unmotivated and unending love for him. Krishna appreciated that her love was
essentially embodied in her service to him, and so according to the underlying
rationale of the third and final subdivision, Krishna’s final desire was to
fully engage in such spontaneous service.
 |
| Krishnadas Kaviraj |
According to Krishnadas Kaviraj, author
of the Chaitanya Charitramrita, there is yet another dimension to Chaitanya’s
descent that requires explaining. Following in the footsteps of the Vrindavan
Goswami’s, Krishnadas goes to great lengths to inform us that the preeminent
reason for Chaitanya’s descent was his desire to propagate devotional service
in the world on the platform of spontaneous attraction (raganuga). Indeed, it
was Chaitanya’s engagement in this activity that compelled Rupa Goswami to
describe him as the most magnanimous of all incarnations of God for he was
bestowing what no other incarnation had bestowed before- the crest jewel of all
of his possessions- intense passionate love for himself.
The path of raganuga-bhakti is
characterized by an intense and spontaneous outpouring of love for Krishna that
arises as the participant or sadhaka
engages in the emulation of a ragatmika-bhakta
or an eternally perfected resident of God’s personal abode. The deficit of my
own spiritual and personal realization prevents me from elaborating on this
topic further but suffice it to say, as Rosen does, that few in this day and
age have the honesty and spiritual acumen to execute this path properly.
Therefore, great contemporary acharyas, such
as Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur and Srila Prabhupada, have recommended a
slow, methodical progression, following the rules and regulations of scripture
(viddhi-bhakti), as the path most
suitable for the mass of people. (Rosen). Regulation and spontaneity, it should
be noted, are not opposed to one another. In the school of Sri Chaitanya, as
Swami Tripurari points out, regulation ultimately promotes spontaneous devotion
to Krishna. (Tripurari). Bodily identification and material conditioning
prevents our devotion from flowing freely and unrestrictedly to its ideal
destination, Krishna. Instead, in opposition to our best interests, material
conditioning forces us to misdirect our devotion and attraction to sensual
indulgence. Thus regulating our contaminated spontaneity is necessary that its
polluted stream become pure and flow unchecked into the ocean of pure devotion.
(Tripurari). Once our raga, or spontaneity, is healthy, the need for regulation
recedes into the background. (Tripurari).
Ravindra Swarupa Dasa describes
Krishna’s appearance as Chaitanya as Krishna’s own tribute and testament to the
overwhelming attractiveness of bhakti
or pure devotional service. (Dasa). Through Chaitanya, Krishna shows us that
pure devotional service has the capacity to make even him, the uncontrolled
controller of our cosmos, subservient to the love of his own devotee. In this
way, Chaitanya’s appearance is testament to the reciprocal and dynamic nature
of devotion to God. Conventional concepts of God portray him as a distant
figure and one whose majesty and lordliness precludes any intimate relationship
with him. Chaitanya’s descent, refreshingly, reveals an altogether more dynamic
image of God. The God we have here is one who yearns for an intimate and
spontaneous relationship with his devotees. Here is a God whose playfulness and
childlike enthusiasm compels him to descend to this world to experience,
firsthand, the love and devotion of his supreme devotee, Srimati Radharani.
Chaitanya’s descent, in many ways, forces us to depart from the conventional
understanding of divine descent in Vaishnava theology. Sure, Chaitanya does
come, like every other incarnation of God, to establish religion, destroy evil
and protect his devotees. And yet, Chaitanya comes to do so much more and to
give so much more. He reveals profound truths about himself and about the
nature of religious expression, in general. More importantly however, unlike
every other incarnation of God, Chaitanya came to give himself, nay- to give
more than himself. By distributing, without discrimination, intense and
passionate love for his own being, Chaitanya shared with us the most precious
jewel in his possession- Krishna prema.
 |
| Radha Krishna |
The following paragraph by Ravindra
Swarupa Dasa serves as an excellent conclusion to this brief article on
Chaitanya: to the people of the Renaissance, the world and man seemed imbued
with limitless possibility and promise. Western civilization to the present day
has been following up on that vision, and it has become more and more apparent
that the world and man have not lived up to their promise. The Renaissance
shift of vision from God to man and matter has cut people off from any
transcendent source of meaning and value, and the resultant relativism and
nihilism- the ripened fruit of the Renaissance- have released demonic energies
that have devastated the earth in our time. And there is more to come.
Therefore, Chaitanya’s appearance was most timely. The civilization born in
Europe during the Renaissance has grown to straddle the earth. But here has
been a most fortunate counterflux, as the Sankirtana movement of Lord Chaitanya
has also spread over the globe, in fulfillment of Chaitanya’s own prophecy. By
showing how Krishna is supremely loving and all attractive, and by making
Krishna easily accessible through the chanting of his names, Chaitanya has made
it possible for us to shift our vision back to God once more. This is necessary.
Man and the world cannot answer to the demand we have placed upon them. Only
Krishna and his transcendental kingdom, where he eternally revels in pastimes
of love, can do that. This alone is the realm that is rich with infinite
promise, beckoning to us with limitless possibilities. (Dasa)
Bibliography
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Sri Caitanya Caritamrta
Ravindra Swarupa Dasa, Lord Chaitanya and the Renaissance of Devotion
Steven J Rosen, The Six Goswamis of Vrindavan
Swami B.V. Tripurari, Rasa, Love Relationships in Transcendence
Dr. O.B.L. Kapoor, Sri Caitanya and Raganuga Bhakti
Dr. O. B. L. Kapoor, The Philosophy and Religion of Sri Caitanya
No comments:
Post a Comment