Vraja-Maṇḍala as the Body of Kṛṣṇa

The most elaborate representations of Vraja as the body of Kṛṣṇa are found in the works of Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa. In the Vrajabhaktivilāsa Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa represents the entire region of Vraja-maṇḍala, with a circumference of eighty-four krośas (approximately 168 miles), as the svarūpa, essential form, of Kṛṣṇa. Following is an excerpt from an extended passage in which he maps the imagery of the body onto the sacred geography of Vraja, correlating the twelve forests and other important pilgrimage sites with specific parts of Kṛṣṇa’s body:

Vraja-maṇḍala, which with its forests has a circumference of eighty-four krośas, is the essential form (svarūpa) of Bhagavān comprising the various parts of his body (aṅgas).… Mathurā is declared to be his heart. The auspicious Madhuvana is his navel. Kumudavana and Tālavana are his two breasts, and Vṛndāvana is his brow. Bahulāvana and Mahāvana are his two arms. Bhāṇḍīravana and Kokilāvana are celebrated as his two legs. Khadiravana and Bhadrikavana are celebrated as his two shoulders. Chatravana and Lohajaṅghavana [Lohavana] are celebrated as his two eyes. Bilvavana and Bhadravana are his two ears, and Kāmyavana is his chin.…²⁴⁸

Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa’s final words, as recorded in the seventeenth-century hagiography by Janaki Prasāda Bhaṭṭa, were “Vraja is the body (vigraha) of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, the son of Nanda, never leaves Vraja.”²⁴⁹ As Haberman has emphasized, this final pronouncement of Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa is frequently invoked to this day by contemporary pilgrims and residents of Braj as a kind of mahā-vākya that encapsulates their understanding of the way in which Kṛṣṇa’s living presence is embodied in the sacred landscape.

Narayan Bhatt’s pronouncement that “Braj is the body of Krishna” has become a mahavakya, or “great saying” in Braj. It was repeated to me again and again by the pilgrimage guides, participants, and many of the residents of Braj. Much of the advertisement of Braj as a sacred space has hinged on this notion. Dipak Bhatt, the head of Narayan Bhatt’s family living in Unchagaon today, put it this way to me: “There is no difference between Braj and Shri Krishna. Krishna is Braj. Braj is Krishna. The forests, groves, trees, ponds, hills, and even dirt are Krishna. Just by living in Braj one is in contact with Krishna. Just being present in Braj is itself a religious practice [sādhana].”²⁵⁰

Ontology of the Dhāmans: Geographic Place as Transcendent Space

In his Mathurā Māhātmya, as we have seen, Rūpa Gosvāmin adapts the literary form of a Māhātmya and extols the glories of Mathurā-maṇḍala as a pilgrimage place that is invested with the qualities of a transcendent space. His notion of Mathurā-maṇḍala includes three principal pilgrimage networks: the pilgrimage network of the city of Mathurā, the pilgrimage network of the twelve forests, and the pilgrimage network of Vṛndāvana, which encompasses Govardhana as a subsidiary network. While in the Mathurā Māhātmya Rūpa is confined by the constraints of the Māhātmya genre, in the Laghubhāgavatāmṛta he is free to develop his formulations concerning Mathurā-maṇḍala within the broader framework of Gauḍīya cosmography. In this context he divides Mathurā-maṇḍala into two principal domains: the city of Mathurā and the pastoral region that surrounds the city and includes the twelve forests, which he variously calls Vraja, Gokula, or Vṛndāvana.²⁵¹ He also expands his treatment of Kṛṣṇa’s dhāman, abode, to include not only the two domains of Mathurā-maṇḍala but also Dvārakā, declaring Kṛṣṇa to be the lord of three places (pada-tritaya), which are his three abodes (dhāma-trayi). Moreover, he significantly reimagines the three dhāmans by ascribing to them a bimodal nature as geographic places—Mathurā; Vraja, or Gokula-Vṛndāvana; and Dvārakā—that are the earthly counterparts of transcendent domains—Mathurā; Vraja, or Goloka-Vṛndāvana, and Dvārakā.²⁵²

Rūpa represents the transcendent dhāmans as the domains of Kṛṣṇa’s aprakaṭa līlā, or unmanifest līlā, where he plays eternally (nitya, sarvadā, or sadā) beyond the material space-time continuum with his eternal associates (parikaras or pārṣadas) and displays limitless manifestations (ananta prakāśas) that cannot be perceived by the material senses (agocara). The terrestrial counterparts of the transcendent dhāmans are the sites of Kṛṣṇa’s prakaṭa līlā, or manifest līlā, during his sojourn on earth in Dvāpara Yuga, in which he travels between the three geographic places—Mathurā, Gokula-Vṛndāvana, and Dvārakā—and unfolds his play in particular times and particular locales in a progressive sequence of events that are accessible to the material senses (prapañca-gocara).²⁵³ Moreover, Rūpa suggests that even after Kṛṣṇa has completed his earthly sojourn and concluded his manifest līlā, he remains eternally present in his earthly Vraja-dhāman, Gokula-Vṛndāvana, where he can be “seen” (root dṛś) even today by those realized bhaktas who are revered as mahā-bhāgavatas: “Even today Kṛṣṇa can be seen (root dṛś) playing (root krīḍ) in Vṛndāvana by the foremost of bhāgavatas who are immersed in the uncontrolled ecstasy of preman.”²⁵⁴

Although Rūpa himself does not use the designation “Kṛṣṇaloka,” his reflections in the Laghubhāgavatāmṛta provide the basic framework for later Gauḍīya formulations concerning Kṛṣṇaloka as the transcendent dhāman of Kṛṣṇa that is subdivided into three dhāmans: the transcendent Vraja, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, and the transcendent domains of Mathurā and Dvārakā. Building on the framework provided by Rūpa, Jīva Gosvāmin develops a sustained ontology of the dhāmans of Kṛṣṇaloka in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha in which he seeks to clarify the relationship between the transcendent dhāmans and their earthly counterparts and the mechanisms through which the dhāmans become instantiated on earth during the prakaṭa līlā. He represents Kṛṣṇaloka as the transcendent domain that exists independently (svatantratayā) above all other lokas (sarvopari-sthāyitva), where Kṛṣṇa engages eternally in his aprakaṭa līlā in his supreme status as pūrṇa Bhagavān, the full and complete Godhead. Jīva at times refers to Kṛṣṇaloka as “Mahāvaikuṇṭha” because it is not only beyond the phenomenal realm of prakṛti (prāpañcika-loka) and beyond nirviśeṣa Brahman, but it is also beyond Paravyoman, the transcendent realm comprising the countless Vaikuṇṭhas that are the abodes of Kṛṣṇa’s avatāras and other partial manifestations.²⁵⁵

Jīva emphasizes that the three dhāmans that constitute Kṛṣṇaloka—Goloka-Vṛndāvana, Mathurā, and Dvārakā—are distinguished by differences in Kṛṣṇa’s manifestation (prakāśa-bheda) and the distinctive nature of his līlā and of his parikaras, eternal associates (līlā-parikara-bheda).²⁵⁶ In Goloka-Vṛndāvana Kṛṣṇa displays his svayaṃ-rūpa, essential form, as Gopāla Kṛṣṇa and engages eternally with his parikaras, the gopas and gopīs, in līlā that is distinguished by mādhurya, divine sweetness. In Mathurā he appears in his kṣatriya-bhāva as Vāsudeva, the son of Vasudeva and Devakī, and engages eternally with his parikaras, his relatives from the Yādava clan, in līlā that is characterized by a mixture of mādhurya and aiśvarya, divine majesty. In Dvārakā he appears in his kṣatriya-bhāva as Vāsudeva, the prince of the Yādava clan, and engages eternally with his parikaras, the Yādavas and his mahiṣīs (queens), in līlā that is distinguished by aiśvarya.²⁵⁷

As Above, So Below

In his analysis of the three transcendent dhāmans, Jīva uses the term prakāśa-viśeṣa, “special manifestation,” to designate their earthly counterparts. The transcendent domain of Goloka-Vṛndāvana has as its prakāśa-viśeṣa the terrestrial region that Jīva variously designates as Vraja, Vṛndāvana, or Gokula. The transcendent domains of Mathurā and Dvārakā similarly have as their prakāśa-viśeṣas the earthly cities of Mathurā and Dvārakā.²⁵⁸

Jīva advances a number of arguments to establish that in all three cases the transcendent dhāmans and their earthly counterparts are nondifferent (abheda) even though there is a certain difference in their manifestation (prakāśa-bheda). First, he asserts that they are nondifferent because they are celebrated in the śāstras with identical names (nāmans), forms (rūpas), and qualities (guṇas). Second, he maintains that the transcendent dhāmans are extensions of Kṛṣṇa’s vigraha, absolute body, and therefore, like the vigraha, they have the capacity to manifest themselves in more than one place simultaneously.

Each of the dhāmans has two forms, above and below (uparyadhas), according to the manner of manifestation (prakāśa-mātratva). Due to their nature as eternal abodes (nityādhiṣṭhānas) of Bhagavān that partake of the nature of the vigraha, they are capable of manifesting in two places. Their identity [as two forms of a single dhāman] is easily established by the fact that in the śāstras they have the same names (nāmans), forms (rūpas), and qualities (guṇas). The manifestation of the one vigraha in many places is revealed in the Bhāgavata: “How marvelous it is that the one [Lord] with one body (vapus) has married sixteen thousand women in separate houses simultaneously.”… The identity of the two forms of Mathurā, Dvārakā, and Vṛndāvana is thus established in the śāstras, even though there is a difference in their manifestation (prakāśa-bheda).²⁵⁹

As extensions of Kṛṣṇa’s vigraha, the three transcendent dhāmans—Goloka-Vṛndāvana, Mathurā, and Dvārakā—are represented by Jīva as partaking of the nature of the absolute body: they are made of sat-cit-ānanda (sat-cit-ānanda-rūpatva), they are eternal (nitya), and they are not part of the phenomenal realm of prakṛti (prapañcātīta) and are therefore transmundane (alaukika). Moreover, Jīva argues that just as the vigraha maintains its imperishable absolute nature even when it appears on earth, the transcendent dhāmans maintain their eternal, nonphenomenal nature even when they manifest their prakāśa-viśeṣas on earth. Although the transcendent dhāmans may appear on earth and become immanent, they are not of the earth in that they are not composed of material elements (bhūta-maya).²⁶⁰

Jīva marshals prooftexts from a range of śāstras, including the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad, Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Padma Purāṇa, and Varāha Purāṇa, in order to substantiate his claim that the terrestrial region of Vṛndāvana and the earthly cities of Mathurā and Dvārakā, as prakāśa-viśeṣas of the transcendent dhāmans, are nonphenomenal (prapañcātīta), transmundane (alaukika), and eternal (nitya) domains where Kṛṣṇa eternally (nityam) resides and engages in eternal play (nitya-vihāra). In this context he argues that they are not temporary abodes where Kṛṣṇa dwells for a delimited period while he engages in his prakaṭa līlā during his sojourn on earth, but rather they are the eternal abodes (nityāspadas) of Bhagavān where he is forever present (saṃnihita) even after he concludes his manifest līlā on earth. Morever, Jīva maintains that Vṛndāvana, Mathurā, and Dvārakā are not mere pilgrimage places (upāsanā-sthānas) where bhaktas can track Kṛṣṇa’s footprints and worship in the temples and shrines that mark the sites where he once played in Dvāpara Yuga. Rather, they are living abodes of the deity where even today mahā-bhāgavatas—realized bhaktas who are the foremost of Bhagavān’s devotees²⁶¹—can attain a direct visionary experience (sākṣāt-kāra) of the luminous effulgence of the transcendent dhāmans and of Kṛṣṇa eternally engaged in his aprakaṭa līlā. Jīva ultimately claims that these eternal abodes themselves eternally abide in Kṛṣṇa as glorious manifestations of his essential form (svarūpa-vibhūtitva).²⁶²

Among the prooftexts that he cites, Jīva grounds his arguments concerning Mathurā in the canonical authority of śruti by invoking a series of verses from the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad that celebrate Mathurā as Gopālapurī, the city of Gopāla, where Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa dwells eternally along with the other three ādi catur-vyūhas—his brother Balarāma, or Saṃkarṣaṇa; his son Pradyumna; and his grandson Aniruddha—and his mahiṣī Rukmiṇī. This most auspicious city is represented in the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad as surrounded by the twelve forests of Vraja, in which the gods and various celestial beings perpetually sing and dance, and as protected by the discus (cakra), conch (śaṅkha), club (gadā), and other weapons that are emblematic of Kṛṣṇa in his aiśvarya mode.

…Gopālapurī, the city of Gopāla, is Brahman made visible (sākṣāt). It fulfills desires and bestows freedom from desires on all the gods and other beings. Just as a lotus rests on a pond, so Mathurā rests on the earth, protected by the discus (cakra). Therefore it is the city of Gopāla. The city [of Gopāla] is surrounded by these [twelve forests]: Bṛhadvana [Mahāvana], the great forest; Madhuvana, the forest named after the demon Madhu; Tālavana, the forest of palmyra trees; Kāmyavana, the wish-fulfilling forest; Bahulāvana, the forest of cardamom plants; Kumudavana, the forest of lotuses; Khadiravana, the forest of acacia trees; Bhadravana, the forest of kadamba trees; Bhāṇḍīravana, the forest of banyan trees; Śrīvana [Bilvavana], the forest of Lakṣmī; Lohavana; and Vṛndāvana, the forest of the goddess Vṛndā. In the midst of these deep [forests] gods, humans, gandharvas (celestial musicians), nāgas (semidivine serpents), and kiṃnaras (celestial musicians) sing and dance.… In these [forests] the gods live and siddhas attained perfection.… [T]he delightful Mathurā…is always frequented by Brahmā and other deities and protected by the conch (śaṅkha), discus (cakra), club (gadā), bow (śārṅga), and other weapons. There the all-pervading Kṛṣṇa resides, accompanied by his three [vyūhas], Balarāma, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha, and attended by his śakti Rukmiṇī.²⁶³

In this passage the hierarchical cosmography, with its distinctions between above and below and between gross and subtle material worlds and nonmaterial transcendent domains, collapses and becomes concentrated in a single geographic place. While Mathurā “rests on the earth,” bhūr-loka, the city itself and the twelve forests that surround it are represented as filled with the gods and other celestial beings who reside in the subtle lokas above bhūr-loka. Even the creator Brahmā, whose abode is in satya-loka, the highest of the fourteen worlds that constitute each material Brahmā-universe, is held to frequent this earthly city. Moreover, Jīva interprets this passage to mean that the transcendent domain of Mathurā interpenetrates its earthly counterpart. He understands the final verse as referring to the aprakaṭa līlā, in which the all-pervading Kṛṣṇa remains hidden as he secretly (nigūḍham) plays with the other three ādi catur-vyūhas and his mahiṣī Rukmiṇī in the transcendent dhāman of Mathurā. While Kṛṣṇa’s aprakaṭa līlā cannot be perceived by the material senses of ignorant human beings whose vision is obscured by the māyā-śakti, Jīva emphasizes that mahā-bhāgavatas can attain a direct cognition (root dṛś) of the līlā in the earthly city of Mathurā, the prakāśa-viśeṣa of the transcendent dhāman, where Kṛṣṇa’s eternal play (nitya-vihāra) is most easily accessed.²⁶⁴

Descent of the Dhāmans

As part of his exploration of the relationship between the transcendent dhāmans and their immanent counterparts, Jīva seeks to clarify the mechanisms through which the dhāmans, which in their essential nature are unmanifest transcendent domains, become instantiated on earth in particular geographic places that are their prakāśa-viśeṣas, special manifestations. The critical strategy that he uses to connect the transcendent and manifest aspects of the dhāmans is to deploy the trope of descent (root tṝ + ava): when Kṛṣṇa descends from the transcosmic plane to the material realm in Dvāpara Yuga in order to manifest his vigraha on earth and unfold his prakaṭa līlā, the three dhāmans of Kṛṣṇaloka—Goloka-Vṛndāvana, Mathurā, and Dvārakā—descend with him as extensions of his absolute body and the sites of the manifest līlā.

Jīva argues that, as the domains of the aprakaṭa līlā that goes on eternally as self-referral play within Bhagavān, the three transcendent dhāmans shine forth (root rāj + vi) above the earth, but through the power of invisibility (antardhāna-śakti) the dhāmans do not touch (root spṛś) the earth and cannot be perceived by ordinary material beings (pṛthivyādi-bhūtamaya). When the time arrives for Kṛṣṇa, svayaṃ Bhagavān, to descend and display his prakaṭa līlā on earth, then the dhāmans descend (root tṝ + ava) and touch (root spṛś) the earth and become visible within the phenomenal world where they can be perceived by the material senses (prāpañcika-loka-gocara). For example, Jīva suggests that when the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, descends and becomes instantiated in the geographic area in North India known as Vṛndāvana, the divine kadamba tree that shines forth in ten directions and blooms perpetually in the transcendent dhāman becomes visible to the material eye alongside the earthly kadamba trees that bloom in the forests of Vraja. When his dhāmans descend, Kṛṣṇa himself descends along with his parikaras, and through the mediation of the dhāmans he thereby touches the earth.²⁶⁵

Jīva maintains that when Kṛṣṇa withdraws his vigraha from the earth at the conclusion of his manifest līlā, he does not leave the earth completely, for his three transcendent dhāmans that constitute Kṛṣṇaloka—Goloka-Vṛndāvana, Mathurā, and Dvārakā—continue to shine forth above the earth, and he himself continues to engage secretly (nigūḍham) in his līlā, which although unmanifest can be directly cognized (root dṛś) by mahā-bhāgavatas. Moreover, the sites where this direct cognition can be most easily attained are the geographic places that are forever marked with the traces of Bhagavān’s footprints and are the immanent counterparts of the transcendent dhāmans: Vṛndāvana, the earthly Vraja, and the earthly cities of Mathurā and Dvārakā. As I will discuss in a later section, Jīva represents the earthly Vraja in particular as a kind of portal that opens onto the transcendent Vraja-dhāman.²⁶⁶

In Jīva’s analysis the principal factor that distinguishes the transcendent dhāmans and their prakāśa-viśeṣas is their relationship to the material space-time continuum. Jīva represents the transcendent dhāmans, along with the aprakaṭa līlā that goes on eternally (nityam) in each dhāman, as beyond the finite boundaries of space and time. The aprakaṭa līlā “is unmixed (amiśra) with the phenomenal world (prāpañcika-loka) and its objects, and its continuous flow is devoid of the divisions of time—beginning, middle, and end.”²⁶⁷ In the aprakaṭa līlā, as represented by Jīva, Kṛṣṇa remains simultaneously in the three transcendent dhāmans that constitute three aspects of his singular loka, Kṛṣṇaloka, simultaneously engaging in the distinctive kinds of playful activities (vinoda) that characterize the unmanifest līlā in each dhāman. For example, in Goloka-Vṛndāvana he tends cows along with his parikaras, the gopas, while simultaneously in the transcendent domain of Mathurā he meets in the great assembly (mahā-sabhā) with his parikaras, the Yādavas.²⁶⁸

When the transcendent dhāmans descend and become instantiated on earth in particular geographic places, these prakāśa-viśeṣas, along with the prakaṭa līlā that unfolds in each place, become embedded in the material space-time continuum. In contrast to the transcendent dhāmans, which in their essential nature are free from all contact with the phenomenal world, the prakāśa-viśeṣas rest on the earth in three distinct geographic locales, and the prakaṭa līlā is therefore connected in certain ways with the objects of the phenomenal world. Moreover, whereas the transcendent dhāmans exist beyond the limitations of time, the prakāśa-viśeṣas are located within the material realm that is subject to the cycles of time and therefore the prakaṭa līlā unfolds in a progressive sequence of events that has a beginning, middle, and end. For example, in the prakaṭa līlā Kṛṣṇa appears to travel through time between the three earthly dhāmans: he is born in Mathurā as Vāsudeva, the son of Vasudeva and Devakī; during his childhood and youth in Vraja as Gopāla, when he is under the care of his foster parents Nanda and Yaśodā, he plays with the gopas and gopīs in the groves of Vṛndāvana; he then assumes his kṣatriya-bhāva as Vāsudeva and returns to Mathurā to slay his evil uncle Kaṃsa; in the last phase of his manifest līlā he establishes his kingdom in Dvārakā and carries out his duties as the prince of the Yādava clan; and, finally, he concludes his līlā on earth and returns to Kṛṣṇaloka.

The prakaṭa līlā, like the vigraha, is free from the boundaries of time and so on, but through the inherent impulse of the svarūpa-śakti of Bhagavān it has a beginning and an end, consists of a mixture of phenomenal and nonphenomenal objects, and is characterized by [events such as] his birth.²⁶⁹

Goloka-Vṛndāvana: Vraja-Dhāman as the Supreme Dhāman

In the Laghubhāgavatāmṛta Rūpa Gosvāmin celebrates Vraja-dhāman, in both its transcendent and immanent forms, as the supreme dhāman, for its sweetness (mādhurya) surpasses that of the other two dhāmans, Mathurā and Dvārakā: “His [Kṛṣṇa’s] fourfold sweetness only manifests in Vraja: sweetness of his majesty (aiśvarya), sweetness of his play (krīḍā), sweetness of his flute (veṇu), and sweetness of his body (vigraha).”²⁷⁰ Among these four distinguishing features, two are of particular importance in Rūpa’s analysis: the unsurpassed sweetness of Kṛṣṇa’s youthful cowherd form (gopa-rūpin), which is the svayaṃ-rūpa of his vigraha, absolute body, that he displays only in Vraja; and the unsurpassed sweetness of Kṛṣṇa’s play (krīḍā) in his līlā with the gopas and gopīs of Vraja, culminating in his ecstatic rāsa-līlā with the gopīs.²⁷¹

Jīva Gosvāmin follows Rūpa’s lead in extolling the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, as Kṛṣṇa’s supreme dhāman, which is above all other lokas (sarvopari), including not only the countless Vaikuṇṭhas that constitute Paravyoman but also the other two dhāmans that form part of Kṛṣṇaloka, Mathurā and Dvārakā. In the course of his analysis, Jīva highlights three characteristics that distinguish Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, as the quintessential dhāman of Bhagavān, two of which resonate with Rūpa’s characterization of the distinguishing features of Vraja-dhāman. First, it is in Goloka-Vṛndāvana alone that Bhagavān displays the svayaṃ-rūpa of his vigraha, the two-armed cowherd form of Gopāla Kṛṣṇa. Second, it is in Goloka-Vṛndāvana alone that he engages in līlā that is characterized by pure sweetness (mādhurya) and passion (rāga) and unfolds his rahasya-līlā, the most recondite of līlās, in which he revels eternally in blissful self-referral play with the expressions of his hlādinī-śakti, Rādhā and the gopīs. Finally, it is in Goloka-Vṛndāvana alone that pure rāgānugā-bhakti is found, and hence the highest state of realization can be attained only in Vraja-dhāman, not in any other dhāman.²⁷²

Vraja-Dhāman as a Lotus-Maṇḍala

In his explorations of Vraja-dhāman, Jīva invokes the image of Goloka-Vṛndāvana as a lotus-maṇḍala with a yoga-pīṭha in the center. As discussed in Chapter 1, Kṛṣṇadāsa, in his representations of Gauḍīya cosmography in the Caitanya Caritāmṛta, uses the image of the lotus to represent the entirety of the transcendent dhāman of Kṛṣṇaloka together with Paravyoman, in which he identifies Kṛṣṇaloka with the pericarp (karṇikāra) and the Vaikuṇṭhas of Paravyoman with the countless petals that encircle the pericarp.²⁷³ Jīva, in contrast, uses lotus imagery in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha to represent only the innermost dhāman of Kṛṣṇaloka, in which he identifies Goloka-Vṛndāvana with the thousand-petaled lotus and Kṛṣṇa’s yoga-pīṭha that stands at the center of Goloka-Vṛndāvana with the pericarp of the lotus. As mentioned earlier, Jīva’s deployment of the trope of the lotus is grounded in the śāstric authority of the Brahma Saṃhitā, a work that is ascribed a pivotal role in Gauḍīya theology and whose authoritative status is held to have been established by Caitanya himself. In the Caitanya Caritāmṛta Kṛṣṇadāsa portrays Caitanya as obtaining a manuscript of a chapter (adhyāya) of the Brahma Saṃhitā during his pilgrimage to South India and immediately recognizing its critical importance as “the primary source for knowledge of the greatness of Govinda.”

He entered into conversation with great bhaktas, and there he got the section [adhyāya] of the Brahma Saṃhitā. When he got this manuscript, the joy of Prabhu [Caitanya] was unbounded; its manifestations were trembling and weeping and sweating and gooseflesh and paralysis. There is no scripture of theology [siddhānta-śāstra] equal to the Brahma Saṃhitā; it is the primary source for knowledge of the greatness of Govinda. In a few syllables it speaks profound doctrines; among all the śāstras of the Vaiṣṇavas it is the most essential. He had the manuscript copied with great care.…²⁷⁴

According to Rādhāgovinda Nātha, the chapter (adhyāya) of the Brahma Saṃhitā that Caitanya obtained in South India was the fifth chapter.²⁷⁵ He is represented in Kṛṣṇadāsa’s account as bringing the manuscript with him when he returned from South India to Bengal and instructing his followers to make copies of the manuscript and disseminate them.²⁷⁶ Jīva subsequently wrote a commentary, the Digdarśanīṭīkā, on the sixty-two verses of the fifth chapter of the Brahma Saṃhitā.

In the opening section of the Digdarśanīṭīkā, Jīva remarks that even though the Brahma Saṃhitā contains one hundred chapters, the fifth chapter encapsulates the condensed essence of the entire work in sūtra form. This fifth chapter does not correspond to any of the forty chapters that constitute the extant Bṛhadbrahma Saṃhitā, discussed earlier. Entwistle suggests that “this fifth chapter, rather than being an integral part of the Bṛhadbrahmasaṃhitā, is, as implied by Jiv Goswami himself, a later summary of its contents composed for the purposes of exegesis.”²⁷⁷

In his opening remarks in the Digdarśanīṭīkā, Jīva indicates that in his commentary on the fifth chapter of the Brahma Saṃhitā he will reflect on points that he has explained extensively in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha. There is indeed considerable overlap between Jīva’s reflections in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha and in the Digdarśanīṭīkā, with the verses quoted below from the Brahma Saṃhitā, 5.1–5.5 and 5.29, providing the basis for his extended exploration of the nature of Goloka-Vṛndāvana in both texts. These Brahma Saṃhitā verses present a variant of the lotus-maṇḍala imagery found in the Bṛhadbrahma Saṃhitā, with the thousand-petaled lotus of Gokula (Goloka) represented here as encompassed by a quadrangle identified as Śvetadvīpa and the pericarp (karṇikāra) of the lotus depicted as a hexagonal yantra rather than as an octagonal yoga-pīṭha.

Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, is the supreme Īśvara, whose vigraha consists of sat-cit-ānanda, who is without beginning yet is the beginning [of all], the cause of all causes. The great abode (mahat pada) known as Gokula is a thousand-petaled lotus, and the pericarp (karṇikāra) of that lotus is his dhāman.… The pericarp (karṇikāra) is a great yantra with six points, a hexagonal abode (sthāna) with six sections, which has a diamond pivot (vajra-kīlaka), is established by prakṛti and puruṣa, is invested with the luminous kāma-bīja mantra, and is filled with the great bliss of rasa arising from the bliss of preman. The filaments of that [lotus] belong to his aṃśas, and its petals belong to his śrīs. Encompassing that [lotus] is a marvelous quadrangle called Śvetadvīpa, which is fourfold, its four corners constituting the four dhāmans of the four mūrtis,…and which is surrounded by the ten guardians of the directions (dik-pālas) in the form of mantras.… I worship Govinda, the ādi-puruṣa, who tends wish-fulfilling cows in stables made of abundant wish-fulfilling gems and surrounded by hundreds of thousands of wish-fulfilling trees and who is eagerly served by a hundred thousand lakṣmīs.²⁷⁸

In his commentaries on these verses in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha and the Digdarśanīṭīkā, Jīva elaborates on each aspect of the lotus-maṇḍala imagery. He begins his hermeneutical venture by reflecting on the Brahma Saṃhitā’s representation of “the great abode (mahat pada) known as Gokula” as a thousand-petaled lotus (5.2). Commenting on the nature of the thousand-petaled lotus itself, he maintains that it is made of wish-fulfilling gems (cintāmaṇi-maya), invoking the imagery that the Brahma Saṃhitā employs in a later verse, which depicts Kṛṣṇa’s luminous vigraha seated on a throne in the pericarp of a thousand-petaled lotus, a place made of wish-fulfilling gems (bhūmi cintāmaṇi) (5.26). This lotus is celebrated as “the great abode (mahat pada)” (5.2). Jīva glosses mahat pada as that abode which is preeminent over all other abodes (sarvotkṛṣṭa), which he understands as a reference to the abode of Mahābhagavān or to Mahāvaikuṇṭha. Since Bhagavān’s abode in Mahāvaikuṇṭha, or Kṛṣṇaloka, consists of three dhāmans—Goloka-Vṛndāvana, Mathurā, and Dvārakā—Jīva notes that the Brahma Saṃhitā more precisely identifies the mahat pada by specifying that it is “known as Gokula,” which he understands as another designation for Goloka. Jīva glosses the word “Gokula” as “the abode of cows and gopas” (go-gopa-vāsa-rūpa). This dhāman of Kṛṣṇa is called a great abode (mahat pada) because he lives there in an expansive residence (mahāntaḥ-pura) suitable for accommodating Nanda, Yaśodā, and his other eternal associates.²⁷⁹

In commenting on the Brahma Saṃhitā’s representation of the pericarp (karṇikāra) of the lotus of Gokula (Goloka) as “a great yantra with six points” (5.3), Jīva identifies the pericarp with the pīṭha of Kṛṣṇa, whose presence is instantiated in the center of the thousand-petaled lotus in multiple modalities: in gopa form as a resplendent vigraha consisting of sat-cit-ānanda, in aniconic form as a hexagonal yantra comprising two interlocking triangles, and in sonic form as a reverberating mantra comprising eighteen syllables. Jīva is concerned in particular to establish that the pericarp is the principal pīṭha of Kṛṣṇa’s sound-embodiment as the eighteen-syllable mantra (aṣṭādaśākṣara-mantra), which he celebrates as the mahā-mantra that is the “king of mantras” and that is attended by all other mantras. Although Jīva does not explicitly cite the eighteen-syllable mantra, he notes that the varṇa-sounds that constitute this mantra are revealed in a later verse of the Brahma Saṃhitā (5.24): klīṃ kṛṣṇāya govindāya gopījana-vallabhāya svāhā. According to Jīva, the six sections of the hexagonal yantra are the abodes of the six parts (padas) of the eighteen-syllable mantra: (1) kṛṣṇāya, (2) govindāya, (3) gopījana, (4) vallabhāya, (5) svā, (6) hā. He identifies the diamond pivot (vajra-kīlaka) in the center of the yantra with the bīja, or seed-syllable, of the eighteen-syllable mantra known as the kāma-bīja: klīṃ. From this self-effulgent (svaprakāśa) bīja-mantra, which shines forth like a diamond from the center of the yantra, the rest of the mūla-mantra (root mantra) unfolds, its six parts graphically inscribed in letters in the six corners of the two interlocking triangles that form the yantra.²⁸⁰

In commenting on the Brahma Saṃhitā’s description of the hexagonal yantra as “established by prakṛti and puruṣa” (5.3), Jīva suggests that the terms prakṛti and puruṣa both refer to Kṛṣṇa. The term prakṛti refers to Kṛṣṇa’s role as the cause (kāraṇa) of the eighteen-syllable mantra, since his svarūpa, essential form, is embodied in the mantra. The term puruṣa refers to his role as the presiding deity (adhiṣṭhātṛ-devatā) of the mantra.²⁸¹ In the Digdarśanīṭīkā Jīva develops this notion further and claims that Kṛṣṇa manifests in the eighteen-syllable mantra in four ways: as its cause (kāraṇa), as its presiding deity (adhiṣṭhātṛ-devatā), as the aggregate of varṇa-sounds that constitute the mantra (varṇa-samudāya), and as the deity who is worshiped by means of the mantra (ārādhya). While the first two modes of manifestation are indicated by the terms prakṛti and puruṣa in the present verse of the Brahma Saṃhitā (5.3), the varṇa-sounds of the mantra in which Kṛṣṇa is embodied are mentioned in a later verse (5.24) and Kṛṣṇa’s role as the object of worship of the mantra is alluded to in an earlier verse (5.1).²⁸² In order to ground his claim that Kṛṣṇa’s svarūpa is nondifferent from the varṇa-sounds of the eighteen-syllable mantra, Jīva invokes the canonical authority of the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad, which provides an extended exposition of the eighteen-syllable mantra as the sound-embodiment of Kṛṣṇa, as I will discuss in Chapter 6.²⁸³

Jīva interprets the Brahma Saṃhitā’s description of the pericarp of the lotus as “filled with the great bliss of rasa arising from the bliss of preman” (5.3) to mean that the pericarp, Kṛṣṇa’s dhāman, flows with the bliss of preman in the form of various mature rasas filled with great bliss.²⁸⁴ As discussed in Chapter 2, the ambrosial nectar of prema-rasa is relished in various flavors, rasas, by sādhakas who attain direct experiential realization of the dhāman in the advanced phases of rāgānugā-bhakti, with each sādhaka savoring the particular rasa that accords with his or her unique inherent nature (svarūpa)—whether that of service (dāsya-rasa), friendship (sakhya-rasa), parental love (vātsalya-rasa), or erotic love (mādhurya-rasa).

Having reflected at some length on the Brahma Saṃhitā’s representation of Kṛṣṇa’s dhāman in the pericarp of the lotus, Jīva proceeds to a discussion of its characterization of the filaments and petals of the lotus: “The filaments of that [lotus] belong to his aṃśas, and its petals belong to his śrīs” (5.4). In Jīva’s interpretation the filaments that encircle the pericarp are the abodes of the gopas, who are aṃśas (portions) of Kṛṣṇa in that they are his kinsmen (sajātīyas). The petals of the lotus, according to Jīva, are the groves that are the abodes of Rādhā and the other gopīs who are Kṛṣṇa’s most beloved śrīs. Jīva also locates paths and cow pastures at the base of the pericarp where the petals of the lotus of Gokula (Goloka) join.²⁸⁵

In the Brahma Saṃhitā’s representation of the lotus-maṇḍala, the thousand-petaled lotus of Gokula (Goloka) is encompassed by “a marvelous quadrangle called Śvetadvīpa, which is fourfold, its four corners constituting the four dhāmans of the four mūrtis” (5.5). In commenting on this verse, Jīva suggests that the inner portion of the maṇḍala—the lotus—is called Vṛndāvana, while the outer portion of the maṇḍala—the quadrangle that surrounds the lotus—is called Śvetadvīpa. He identifies the four mūrtis in the four corners of the quadrangle with the ādi catur-vyūhas—Vāsudeva, Saṃkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha—who engage in divine līlā (deva-līlā) while stationed in their chariots. They in turn are surrounded by the dik-pālas, the guardians of the ten directions such as Indra, who assume the form of mantras.²⁸⁶

Jīva’s analysis of the cosmography embedded in the Brahma Saṃhitā’s use of the lotus-maṇḍala imagery thus serves as a means of legitimating his own claims about the hierarchy of dhāmans that constitute Kṛṣṇaloka. He explicitly identifies the thousand-petaled lotus with Goloka-Vṛndāvana, the abode of cows, gopas, and gopīs, which is the supreme dhāman where Gopāla Kṛṣṇa eternally displays his vigraha in the form of a cowherd boy, established in the yoga-pīṭha in the pericarp of the lotus. Although he does not make this identification explicit, Jīva also appears to correlate the quadrangular outer portion of the maṇḍala with the outer dhāmans of Kṛṣṇaloka—Mathurā and Dvārakā—since it is in these dhāmans that Kṛṣṇa appears in his aiśvarya mode as Vāsudeva and the other three ādi catur-vyūhas. In the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha, after citing the first five verses of the fifth chapter of the Brahma Saṃhitā, 5.1–5.5, Jīva invokes a later verse, 5.29, as the capstone verse that establishes the primacy of Goloka-Vṛndāvana as the loka of wish-fulfilling cows and of wish-fulfilling trees where Kṛṣṇa in his mādhurya mode as Govinda, the keeper of cows, eternally resides:

I worship Govinda, the ādi-puruṣa, who tends wish-fulfilling cows in stables made of abundant wish-fulfilling gems and surrounded by hundreds of thousands of wish-fulfilling trees and who is eagerly served by a hundred thousand lakṣmīs.²⁸⁷

From Loka of Cows to Dhāma-Avatāra

In reflecting on the nature of the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha, Jīva intermingles abstract metaphysical terminology and categories with concrete pastoral language and imagery. On the one hand, he represents Goloka-Vṛndāvana as a transcendent domain that is inherent in Kṛṣṇa’s essential nature as part of the svarūpa-śakti and is an extension of his vigraha, absolute body, and he asserts even further that Goloka-Vṛndāvana is the form of Bhagavān (bhagavad-rūpa) and is ultimately identical with his body (deha). He thus ascribes to Goloka-Vṛndāvana the attributes of the absolute body: it is nonmaterial (aprākṛta) and consists of being, consciousness, and bliss (sat-cit-ānanda-rūpa); it is a mass of knowledge (vijñāna-ghana) and blazing splendor (tejo-maya); and it is all-pervading (sarva-gata), nonchanging (avyaya), imperishable (akṣara), and eternal (nitya or sanātana). On the other hand, he represents Goloka-Vṛndāvana in concrete terms as a lush bucolic paradise abounding in verdant forests, groves, and meadows nourished by crystalline streams, ponds, and waterfalls and filled with fragrant flowers, nectar-filled fruits, grazing cows, multicolored birds, and buzzing bees. In a synthesis that overcomes the apparent antithesis between these two representational modes, Jīva invests this pastoral paradise with the status of a transcendent realm (parama pada) resplendent with nonmaterial forms made of śuddha-sattva, pure luminous being, that cannot be perceived with the material senses (prākṛtendriyas) but can be directly cognized by mahā-bhāgavatas whose nonmaterial senses (aprākṛtendriyas) are activated.²⁸⁸

Goloka-Vṛndāvana is considered the transcendent prototype that is replicated on the material plane in Vṛndāvana, the earthly Vraja-dhāman, and thus the transcendent prototype and its immanent counterpart are represented as structurally reduplicative of one another. Both the transcendent Goloka-Vṛndāvana and the earthly Vraja are replete with cows and forests, but the transcendent dhāman, as the “loka of cows” (go-loka) and the “loka of trees” (vana-loka), is full of wish-fulfilling cows whose flow of milk is never ending and wish-fulfilling trees whose flowers are perpetually in bloom. Both the transcendent Goloka-Vṛndāvana and the earthly Vraja are marked by distinguishing features such as the Yamunā River and Mount Govardhana, but the transcendent Yamunā flows with the nectar of immortality (amṛta) and its banks are paved with gems, and the transcendent Govardhana is likewise composed of precious minerals and gems and its waterfalls flow with ambrosial nectar (amṛta). Jīva invokes the following passage from the Bṛhadvāmana Purāṇa to encapsulate his vision of the transcendent Vraja-dhāman:

If a boon is to be bestowed upon us, show to us that form made of bliss (ānanda-rūpa) that was known by the sages of old (pūra-vids). Having heard this [request], he [Kṛṣṇa] showed them his own loka beyond (para) prakṛti, which is imperishable (akṣara), nonchanging (avyaya), and made entirely of bliss (ānanda-mātra) known only by direct experience (anubhava). In that [loka] there is a forest named Vṛndāvana, which abounds with wish-fulfilling trees and charming bowers and bestows happiness (sukha) in every season. In that [loka] there is a glorious [mountain] named Govardhana, which is composed of precious minerals and gems and is filled with splendid waterfalls and caves and with hosts of beautiful birds. In that [loka] is the Kālindī [Yamu32"/>whose waters are pure nectar and are filled with swans, lotuses, and so on and whose banks are inlaid with gems. In that [loka] Acyuta [Kṛṣṇa] eternally (śaśvat) remains in his youthful form (kiśorākṛti) in the midst of a multitude of gopīs intoxicated with the rasa of the rāsa[-līlā].²⁸⁹

Jīva emphasizes the ways in which the transcendent dhāman of Goloka-Vṛndāvana interpenetrates its terrestrial counterpart so that Vṛndāvana, the earthly Vraja-dhāman, partakes of the nature of its transcendent prototype. In this context Jīva invokes the following passage from the Bṛhadgautamīya Tantra, which, as discussed earlier, is also cited in the Mathurā Māhātmya of Rūpa Gosvāmin and is a variant of a passage from the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya of the Padma Purāṇa.

This delightful Vṛndāvana is my [Kṛṣṇa’s] only dhāman. Those who reside here in my abode (dhiṣṇya)—whether cows, birds, trees, insects, humans, or gods—attain my abode (ālaya) at death. Those cowmaidens who reside here in my abode (ālaya) are eternally (nityam) connected with me and are devoted to serving me. This forest [Vṛndāvana], measuring five yojanas, is my body (deha-rūpaka). This Kālindī [Yamunā], which flows with transcendent nectar (paramāmṛta), is called the suṣumṇā, the central channel [of my body]. The gods and other beings exist here in subtle forms (sūkṣma-rūpatā). And I, who embody all the gods (sarva-deva-maya), never leave this forest, although my appearance (āvirbhāva) in and disappearance (tirobhāva) from this place occur yuga after yuga. This delightful abode consisting of blazing splendor (tejo-maya) cannot be seen (adṛśya) with the material eye (carma-cakṣus).²⁹⁰

Jīva cites this passage as an illustration of the nonphenomenal nature (prapañcātītatva) of the earthly Vṛndāvana, which he argues is nondifferent (abheda) from the transcendent Goloka-Vṛndāvana even though there is a certain difference in the manner in which it manifests (prakāśa-bheda). While the earthly Vṛndāvana, as a prakāśa-viśeṣa, special manifestation of Goloka-Vṛndāvana, can be perceived with the material senses, the transcendent Goloka-Vṛndāvana is unmanifest and not visible (adṛśya) to the material eye (carma-cakṣus). As discussed earlier, Jīva maintains that in Dvāpara Yuga when Kṛṣṇa descends to earth and manifests his vigraha in the form of a cowherd boy, the transcendent dhāman descends with him and becomes visible in the phenomenal world (prāpañcika-loka) for the duration of his prakaṭa līlā. At the conclusion of the prakaṭa līlā, he withdraws his vigraha and his transcendent dhāman from visible manifestation. However, the blazing splendor (tejas) of the transcendent Goloka-Vṛndāvana continues to shine forth above the earthly Vṛndāvana, interpenetrating its visible counterpart with its invisible presence—and although not accessible to the material senses, it can be directly cognized by mahā-bhāgavatas.

Immediately after invoking the Bṛhadgautamīya Tantra’s portrayal of Vṛndāvana, Jīva comments that “even today mahā-bhāgavatas have had a direct visionary experience (root kṛ + sākṣāt) of the divine (divya) kadamba, aśoka, and other trees and objects in the transmundane (alaukika), eternal (nitya) dhāman of Bhagavān.”²⁹¹ He then invokes an unidentified passage from the Varāha Purāṇa that describes a “great wonder” (mahad āścarya) on the eastern shore of Kāliya-hrada: a luminous kadamba tree that sends forth its dazzling light in ten directions and blossoms perpetually throughout the twelve months of the year. He subsequently cites a second passage that describes another “wonder” (āścarya) in Vṛndāvana on the northern shore of Brahma-kuṇḍa: a radiant aśoka tree that is made of white light and suddenly bursts into bloom at the exact same time each spring. As discussed earlier, both of these passages are also cited in the Mathurā Māhātmya of Rūpa Gosvāmin.²⁹²

Jīva’s analysis suggests that “even today” mahā-bhāgavatas can directly cognize the luminous nonmaterial forms of Goloka-Vṛndāvana intermingling with the mundane forms of Vṛndāvana like a golden veil over the terrestrial landscape. In the forest of Vṛndāvana filled with kadamba trees, acacia trees, banyan trees, lotuses, and other forms of vegetation, mahā-bhāgavatas cognize the divine (divya) kadamba and aśoka trees made of pure luminous being (śuddha-sattva) that shine forth there. Intermingling with the waters of the earthly Yamunā that flow through the groves of Vṛndāvana, they cognize the luminous ambrosial nectar (amṛta) of the transcendent Yamunā that conveys immortality. Throughout the landscape of Vraja mahā-bhāgavatas discern the footprints of Kṛṣṇa that mark the sites of his appearance (āvirbhāva) and disappearance (tirobhāva), but beyond these traces they cognize the abiding presence of Kṛṣṇa embodied in the geographic place itself. Even though his vigraha in the form of a cowherd boy appears in Dvāpara Yuga and then disappears, his body (deha-rūpaka) in the form of a geographic place—Vṛndāvana, the earthly Vraja-dhāman—remains.²⁹³

I would argue that in Jīva’s analysis the earthly Vraja-dhāman functions as a mesocosmic mode of divine embodiment in which Kṛṣṇa becomes embodied in the form of a geographic place, dhāman. As we have seen, the Gauḍīya discourse of embodiment includes three other mesocosmic forms of Kṛṣṇa that are termed avatāras: grantha-avatāra, Kṛṣṇa’s avatāra in the form of a scriptural text, the Bhāgavata Purāṇa; nāma-avatāras, Kṛṣṇa’s avatāras in the form of names, nāmans; and arcā-avatāras, Kṛṣṇa’s avatāras in the form of ritual images, arcās or mūrtis. I would suggest that the earthly Vraja-dhāman similarly functions as what I term a dhāma-avatāra—even though, to my knowledge, the term itself is not used by Jīva or other Gauḍīya authorities—in that, like the other mesocosmic avatāras, it is represented as a form through which Kṛṣṇa descends to the material realm and that he “leaves behind” on earth as an enduring mode of divine embodiment—in this case, a geographic place—that human beings can access and engage over time.

The Immanent as the Portal to the Transcendent

When Goloka-Vṛndāvana, the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, descends to earth and becomes instantiated in Vṛndāvana in the geographic area of Vraja, it becomes immanent while at the same time maintaining its transcendent status as an unmanifest dhāman beyond the earth. Therefore, Jīva suggests, even during the period of the prakaṭa līlā when Kṛṣṇa manifests Vraja-dhāman in the material realm, the earthly Vṛndāvana, as the immanent counterpart, functions as a kind of portal that opens onto its transcendent prototype, Goloka-Vṛndāvana.

In order to establish Vṛndāvana’s function as a portal through which the transcendent Goloka-Vṛndāvana can be accessed, Jīva invokes the following passage, Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.28.11–17, mentioned earlier.²⁹⁴ Jīva’s commentaries on this passage in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha and the Digdarśanīṭīkā emphasize how during the prakaṭa līlā Kṛṣṇa bestowed upon the gopas a visionary experience, or darśana, of his transcendent dhāman in Goloka-Vṛndāvana, and he did so by taking them to a particular locale in the earthly Vṛndāvana called Brahma-hrada.

Thinking him [Kṛṣṇa] to be the Lord, Īśvara, the gopas thought with eager minds, “Perhaps the supreme Lord would take us to his own abode (sva-gati) that is imperceptible.” The all-seeing Bhagavān, having spontaneously discerned his own people’s [thoughts], graciously pondered with a view to fulfilling their desire, “Because of ignorance, desire, and karma, people (jana) are wandering in this world through higher and lower states and do not know their own destination (svāṃ gati).” Reflecting in this way, Hari, the most merciful Bhagavān, revealed to the gopas his own loka (sva loka) beyond tamas—that which is the effulgence of Brahman, which is limitless (ananta), eternal (sanātana) truth (satya) and knowledge (jñāna), and which sages see (root dṛś) when established in samādhi beyond the guṇas. Brought by Kṛṣṇa to Brahma-hrada (pool of Brahman), immersed in it, and then lifted out, they [the gopas] saw (root dṛś) the loka of Brahman where Akrūra had previously attained [a vision]. Having seen that [loka] as well as Kṛṣṇa being glorified there by the Vedas, Nanda and the other gopas were exhilarated with supreme bliss (paramānanda) and were greatly amazed.²⁹⁵

In his commentaries on this Bhāgavata passage in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha and the Digdarśanīṭīkā, Jīva provides an innovative interpretation that goes beyond the plain sense of the passage, utilizing it as a prooftext to establish three points that are critical to the Gauḍīya project: (1) The loka that Kṛṣṇa revealed to the gopas during the prakaṭa līlā in the earthly Vṛndāvana was Goloka-Vṛndāvana, the transcendent dhāman beyond the material realm of prakṛti where Kṛṣṇa resides eternally as Bhagavān, the supreme personal Godhead in the form of a cowherd boy. (2) This transcendent dhāman of Bhagavān can be accessed through becoming immersed in Brahma-hrada, which is understood in two different senses: immersion in the pool of Brahman by becoming established through meditation in the state of samādhi, and immersion in the waters of Akrūra-tīrtha, a particular locale in the earthly Vṛndāvana. (3) The gopas to whom Kṛṣṇa revealed his transcendent dhāman during the prakaṭa līlā in the terrestrial Vṛndāvana are part of Kṛṣṇa’s retinue of parikaras, eternal associates, with whom he revels perpetually in the aprakaṭa līlā in Goloka-Vṛndāvana. I will analyze briefly the hermeneutical strategies that Jīva uses to establish each of these points.

Jīva’s first concern is to establish that the loka that Kṛṣṇa revealed to the gopas was Goloka-Vṛndāvana, and in this context he interprets the Bhāgavata’s description of Kṛṣṇa’s loka in terms that accord with Gauḍīya representations of the transcendent dhāman of Bhagavān. He interprets the Bhāgavata’s statement that Kṛṣṇa “revealed to the gopas (gopānām) his own loka (svaṃ lokam) beyond tamas” (10.28.14) to mean that he revealed his own loka to be the loka of the gopas (gopānāṃ svaṃ lokam), Goloka.²⁹⁶ He glosses “they saw (root dṛś) the loka of Brahman” (10.28.16) as “they saw that loka called Goloka which is the abode of Kṛṣṇa, who is the supreme Brahman in the shape of a human being (narākṛti-parabrahman).”²⁹⁷ Jīva’s gloss accomplishes a critical Gauḍīya objective by establishing that the term Brahman in the phrase “loka of Brahman” does not refer to the impersonal, formless Brahman but rather to Bhagavān, the supreme personal Godhead “in the shape of a human being,” whose abode, Goloka, is beyond the impersonal Brahman. Jīva comments further that Goloka is described as “beyond tamas” (10.28.14) because it is beyond the three guṇas—sattva, rajas, and tamas—that constitute the material realm of prakṛti and is not manifested in the phenomenal world (prapañcānabhivyaktatva). In commenting on the Bhāgavata’s description of Kṛṣṇa’s loka as “limitless (ananta), eternal (sanātana) truth (satya) and knowledge (jñāna)” (10.28.15), Jīva understands satya and jñāna as alluding to sat and cit, respectively, which together with ānanda constitute Goloka’s essential nature as described in Gauḍīya theology: sat-cit-ānanda-rūpa.²⁹⁸

Jīva’s second concern is to establish the means through which Kṛṣṇa’s transcendent dhāman can be accessed. The Bhāgavata itself explicitly mentions the role of meditation in accessing Kṛṣṇa’s loka, which is represented as the transcendent reality that “sages see (root dṛś) when established in samādhi beyond the guṇas” (10.28.15). In his commentary on this verse, Jīva maintains that Kṛṣṇa revealed to the gopas this same transcendent reality by manifesting a special mode of his svarūpa-śakti (svarūpa-śakti-vṛtti-viśeṣa) during the prakaṭa līlā.²⁹⁹ In commenting on the Bhāgavata’s statement that the gopas were “brought by Kṛṣṇa to Brahma-hrada, immersed in it, and then lifted out” and thereby “saw (root dṛś) the loka of Brahman where Akrūra had previously attained [a vision]” (10.28.16), Jīva suggests that immersion in Brahma-hrada should not be interpreted as simply a state of meditative absorption in which the gopas were immersed internally in the pool of Brahman where, like the earlier sages, they cognized Kṛṣṇa’s transcendent abode beyond the guṇas. Rather, he claims that this transcendent state of consciousness was itself catalyzed by Kṛṣṇa taking the gopas to a particular place in the earthly Vṛndāvana where they were immersed externally in Brahma-hrada, which he interprets as a bathing place in the Yamunā River known as Akrūra-tīrtha. Akrūra-tīrtha marks the site where, according to Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.39.40–57, Akrūra bathed in a pool (hrada) in the Yamunā River and, while immersed in the water, attained a visionary experience in which he “saw” (root dṛś) Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent abode together with his brother Balarāma. Jīva maintains that Kṛṣṇa brought the gopas to this same tīrtha in Vṛndāvana, where they immersed themselves in the water and, like Akrūra, “saw (root dṛś) the loka of Brahman” (10.28.16). As mentioned earlier, Jīva interprets this to mean that they attained a direct visionary experience of Goloka, the loka of Kṛṣṇa, “the supreme Brahman in the shape of a human being (narākṛti-parabrahman).”³⁰⁰ In Jīva’s hermeneutical reframing, this Bhāgavata passage thus serves as a prooftext to substantiate the Gauḍīya principle that a direct cognition of the transcendent Goloka-Vṛndāvana can be most easily attained in its immanent counterpart, the earthly Vṛndāvana.

Jīva’s third concern, in commenting on Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.28.11–17, is to establish that the gopas who received darśana of Kṛṣṇa’s transcendent dhāman during the prakaṭa līlā are themselves Kṛṣṇa’s parikaras, eternal associates, in the aprakaṭa līlā. Jīva notes that the Bhāgavata’s description of the gopas’ cognition of Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent dhāman does not mention the parikaras who reside with him in Goloka-Vṛndāvana, and he argues that this indicates that the gopas themselves are the parikaras. Jīva maintains that just as Goloka-Vṛndāvana and its immanent counterpart, the earthly Vṛndāvana, are nondifferent (abheda) from one another although there is a difference in their manifestation (prakāśa-bheda), in the same way the parikaras who engage in the aprakaṭa līlā in Goloka-Vṛndāvana are nondifferent from the parikaras who engage in the prakaṭa līlā in Vṛndāvana although there is a difference in their manifestation (prakāśa-bheda) in the two līlās. In order to increase the distinctive rasa of each līlā in the parikaras, the līlā-śakti produces in each a different self-conception (abhimāna-bheda) so that the parikaras who are Kṛṣṇa’s companions in the manifest līlā in Vṛndāvana are not aware that they are also his eternal associates in the unmanifest līlā in the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana. Thus the gopas, as Kṛṣṇa’s “own people” (sva-jana), are described by the Bhāgavata as “wandering in this world” and not knowing “their own destination” (svāṃ gati) (10.28.13). Jīva maintains that this confusion on the part of the gopas was caused by the līlā-śakti, which during the prakaṭa līlā concealed from their awareness their true identity as eternal associates of Kṛṣṇa in the aprakaṭa līlā. However, in order to fulfill their desire, Kṛṣṇa took away their confusion momentarily and revealed to them their extraordinary gati, which is ultimately identical with Kṛṣṇa’s own gati (sva-gati), his transcendent abode.³⁰¹ Thus in the prakaṭa līlā in Vṛndāvana the gopas ask to receive darśana of Kṛṣṇa’s transcendent gati, while in the aprakaṭa līlā in Goloka-Vṛndāvana they reside eternally with Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent gati, which is their own gati. Similarly, in the prakaṭa līlā the gopīs experience viraha, the agony of separation, when their cowherd lover Kṛṣṇa departs Vṛndāvana, while in the aprakaṭa līlā they are eternally united with Kṛṣṇa in Goloka-Vṛndāvana as expressions of his hlādinī-śakti. In the final analysis, Jīva concludes, Kṛṣṇa’s vigraha, dhāmans, līlās, and parikaras all have the power to manifest themselves on more than one plane simultaneously.³⁰²

Fashioning Devotional Bodies through Engaging Vraja-Dhāman

Jīva Gosvāmin’s interpretation of Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.28.11–17 points to two principal ways in which a visionary experience of the transcendent dhāman of Goloka-Vṛndāvana can be attained even today by contemporary practitioners. Emulating the example of the gopas and of Akrūra, the bhakta can undertake a pilgrimage, or tīrtha-yātrā, to Vṛndāvana, the earthly Vraja-dhāman, where he or she can become immersed in the ponds at tīrthas such as Brahma-hrada, Akrūra-tīrtha, and glimpse the transcendent dhāman through the mediation of its immanent counterpart. Alternatively, emulating the example of the sages, the bhakta can become established through meditation in the state of samādhi beyond the guṇas and thereby become immersed in Brahma-hrada, the pool of Brahman, which is identical with the transcendent reality of Goloka-Vṛndāvana. The regimen of sādhana-bhakti delineated by Rūpa Gosvāmin in the Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu and elaborated by Jīva Gosvāmin in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha and Bhakti Sandarbha suggests that these two modes of accessing the dhāman should be combined, especially in rāgānugā-bhakti, the advanced form of sādhana-bhakti. In addition to engaging the earthly Vraja-dhāman with the sādhaka-rūpa through external bodily practices such as physically residing in Vraja, circumambulating its network of tīrthas in pilgrimage, and bathing in the ponds associated with the tīrthas, the bhakta should engage the transcendent Vraja-dhāman through the internal meditative practices of dhyāna and smaraṇa that involve immersion of his or her consciousness in the blissful streams of rasa that pervade the dhāman. By means of this twofold regimen of engaging Kṛṣṇa’s embodiment in the dhāman on both the transcosmic and earthly planes, the bhakta gradually transforms the sādhaka-rūpa, the material body, culminating in the realization of a siddha-rūpa, a perfected nonmaterial devotional body, which is suffused with the qualities and substance of Bhagavān’s absolute body.

Residing in Vraja-Dhāman

The representations of Vraja-dhāman in the works of Rūpa Gosvāmin and Jīva Gosvāmin point to three different ways in which the earthly Vraja functions as a mesocosmic mode of divine embodiment—as what I term a dhāma-avatāra—through which Kṛṣṇa descends to earth and becomes instantiated in a particular geographic place. First, as the place where Kṛṣṇa appeared in his imperishable absolute body in Dvāpara Yuga and displayed his manifest līlā, romping through the hills and forests, bathing in the rivers and ponds, and dancing in the groves of Vraja, the entire landscape is held to be imprinted with his footprints, marking the līlā-sthalas, the sites of his playful exploits. Second, as the immanent counterpart of the transcendent dhāman, the terrestrial Vraja is held to be infused with Kṛṣṇa’s abiding presence as the living abode where he continues to dwell eternally and from which he never departs, even after he concludes his manifest līlā. Third, the sacred geography of Vraja is revered not only as Kṛṣṇa’s abode but as his actual body—an image that is elaborated, as we have seen, by Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa, who correlates the twelve forests and other important pilgrimage sites with specific parts of Kṛṣṇa’s body.

Rūpa and Jīva recommend a number of practices through which bhaktas can engage Kṛṣṇa’s mesocosmic form in Vraja-dhāman. In the Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu Rūpa includes “residing (sthiti) in Mathurā-maṇḍala” among the five most important practices of vaidhī-bhakti. In this context, as in his Mathurā Māhātmya, he uses the term Mathurā-maṇḍala to designate the city of Mathurā and the surrounding pastoral region of Vraja, which he also calls Gokula or Vṛndāvana.³⁰³ In his broader enumeration of the sixty-four practices of vaidhī-bhakti, he also includes three additional practices pertaining to tīrthas: service (sevana) to Mathurā-maṇḍala; living (nivāsa) in other tīrthas associated with Kṛṣṇa such as Dvārakā and Jagannātha Purī; and visiting (gati) such tīrthas through pilgrimage.³⁰⁴ Jīva, following Rūpa’s lead, includes a brief section in the Bhakti Sandarbha on serving Kṛṣṇa’s feet (pāda-sevā) through residing (nivāsa) in or visiting (gamana) the tīrthas that have been consecrated by his feet, which culminates in a celebration of Mathurā-maṇḍala as the mahādhiṣṭhāna, foremost of sacred sites, where Kṛṣṇa abides in his complete fullness as pūrṇa Bhagavān.³⁰⁵ Although Jīva thus emphasizes the importance of engaging the earthly Vraja-dhāman through bodily practices such as pilgrimage, his primary concern is with realizing the transcendent Vraja-dhāman through meditative practices, as I will discuss in the following section and in Chapter 6.

Rūpa maintains that those who engage Vraja-dhāman through residing in or visiting Mathurā-maṇḍala can attain not only the four puruṣārthas—the three mundane goals of kāma, artha, and dharma, together with the transmundane goal of mokṣa, liberation³⁰⁶—but they can also attain the ultimate goal of human existence: bhakti, devotion, to Kṛṣṇa. He invokes two unidentified verses from the Padma Purāṇa, which are also cited in his Mathurā Māhātmya, to establish that among all the tīrthas throughout the Indian subcontinent, the networks of tīrthas that constitute Mathurā-maṇḍala are the most efficacious, for while other sacred sites may yield the fruit of liberation, Mathurā-maṇḍala alone yields the supreme fruit of bhakti, which is sought after even by those who have attained liberation.

The greatest fruit (phala) attained at other tīrthas is mukti, but bhakti to Hari, which is sought after even by those who are liberated, can be attained only in Mathurā. What wise person would not take refuge in Mathurā, which bestows the three mundane goals [kāma, artha, and dharma] on those who seek such goals, bestows mokṣa on those who seek mokṣa, and bestows bhakti on those who seek bhakti?³⁰⁷

Rūpa further substantiates his claims regarding the preeminent status of Mathurā-maṇḍala by invoking an unidentified verse from the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, which is also cited in his Mathurā Māhātmya, that maintains that the “state of perfection (siddhi) consisting of supreme bliss (parānanda-mayī),” which is difficult to attain even by serving all the tīrthas in the three worlds, can be attained by merely touching (sparśa) the sacred ground of Mathurā-maṇḍala. In his commentary Jīva glosses parānanda-mayī as “distinguished by preman (prema-lakṣaṇā),” suggesting that merely touching the land that embodies Kṛṣṇa yields the perfected state of prema-rasa, the fully mature expression of bhakti.³⁰⁸

Both Rūpa and Jīva maintain that Mathurā-maṇḍala, as the embodied form of Kṛṣṇa, who is pūrṇa Bhagavān, the perfect and complete Godhead, is not only foremost among all the tīrthas in the three worlds—including not only the earthly tīrthas that are visited by human pilgrims but also the supramundane tīrthas that are frequented by the gods and other celestial beings in the midregions and heavens—but it is even greater than Paravyoman, or Vaikuṇṭha, the transcendent domain where Kṛṣṇa’s avatāras and other partial manifestations reside. “Blessed is the area of Mathurā, which is greater even than Vaikuṇṭha. Simply by residing (nivāsa) there for one day bhakti to Hari arises.”³⁰⁹

Rūpa suggests a progression of perceptual, cognitive, and corporeal modalities through which bhaktas can engage Vraja-dhāman through the senses, mind, and organs of action. The progression begins with śravaṇa, smaraṇa, and kīrtana, in which the bhakta hears about, remembers, and sings of the glories of the land where Kṛṣṇa danced and played during his sojourn on earth in Dvāpara Yuga. A longing then arises in the heart of the bhakta to travel to Vraja, to receive darśana of Kṛṣṇa embodied in the landscape, to visit the sites of his playful exploits, and to embrace the sacred ground through sparśana, touching, the dust that has been consecrated by his lotus-feet. The progression culminates in the bhakta taking refuge in Vraja-dhāman by moving there in order to perform lifelong sevā to it.

Mathurā fulfills all the desires of those people who hear about it, remember it, sing of it, long for it, see it, visit it, touch it, take refuge in it, and serve it.³¹⁰

Rūpa encourages those who live in Vraja as permanent residents, as well as those who visit the dhāman from elsewhere, to undertake periodic pilgrimages, tīrtha-yātrās, in which they circumambulate (parikrama) the network of līlā-sthalas, the sites associated with particular episodes of Kṛṣṇa’s manifest līlā, and track the footprints where he left his mark—literally—on the landscape.

When will I be fortunate enough to walk around the area of Mathurā with tears of bliss while drinking the stream of nectar flowing from the mouths of the elders of Mathurā in the form of words such as these: “Right here was the house of Nanda. Here is where the cart (śakaṭa) was destroyed. Here is where Dāmodara [Kṛṣṇa], who severs all bondage, was himself bound by ropes.”³¹¹

While Rūpa thus celebrates Vraja-dhāman’s role as a pilgrimage place where bhaktas can track the footprints of Kṛṣṇa and visit the līlā-sthalas where he once played in Dvāpara Yuga, at the same time he insists that the true power of Vraja-dhāman derives from its preeminent status as the place where Kṛṣṇa continues to abide eternally and where mahā-bhāgavatas can “see” (root dṛś) him playing even today.³¹² Rūpa emphasizes this point when reflecting on why the splendor of Vṛndāvana, which enthralls the entire sensorium with its lush green groves, flowing waters, buzzing bees, fragrant blossoms, and unbounded sweetness, has such power to stimulate the sthāyi-bhāva of Kṛṣṇa-rati, love for Kṛṣṇa.

How is it that the splendor of this forest [Vṛndāvana]—whose beauty is enhanced by being situated on the bank of the dark blue [Yamunā] river, where buzzing bees alight on newly blossoming kadamba trees, and which is adorned by unlimited sweetness—produces such a state of bhāva in my heart?³¹³

Rūpa responds to his own question by declaring that Vraja-dhāman is one of five “transmundane (alaukika) forms” of Kṛṣṇa—along with the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, nāman, mūrti, and Kṛṣṇa bhaktas—that possess the inconceivable power (acintya śakti) not only to stimulate the sthayī-bhāva of Kṛṣṇa-rati but also to manifest the object of this love: Kṛṣṇa himself.³¹⁴ The distinctive power of Vraja-dhāman arises from its special status as a manifestation of Kṛṣṇa in the form of a geographic place, which makes it possible for bhaktas to directly experience his presence in the landscape.

Meditation on Vraja-Dhāman

In his discussion of Vraja-dhāman in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha, as we have seen, Jīva maintains that while the earthly Vraja can be engaged with the material senses through bodily practices such as pilgrimage, the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, is beyond the material senses (atīndriya) and can only be apprehended through direct experience (anubhava). Although Goloka-Vṛndāvana is not visible to the material eye (carma-cakṣus), it can be “seen” (root dṛś) through direct visionary experience (sākṣāt-kāra or sākṣāt-darśana). Jīva invokes the authority of Vyāsa and the other great ṛṣis and sages who, while immersed in samādhi beyond the guṇas of prakṛti in the depths of meditation, attained a direct cognition of Gopāla Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent Vraja-dhāman and then recorded their cognitions in the śāstras.³¹⁵ He declares the direct experiences of the sages (vidvad-anubhava) to be the “crest-jewel of all pramāṇas” in that the records of their experiences preserved in the śāstras are authoritative testimonies of valid knowledge for future generations.³¹⁶ He claims, moreover, that these experiences are not the exclusive prerogative of the sages of the past but can be attained even today by advanced practitioners of rāgānugā-bhakti who incorporate meditation into their regimen of sādhana-bhakti as a form of devotional practice.³¹⁷ In the following chapter I will examine Jīva’s representations of a range of meditative practices through which rāgānugā sādhakas can attain direct experiential realization of Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent Vraja-dhāman.