6 Meditation as Devotional Practice
Experiencing Kṛṣṇa in His Transcendent Dhāman
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa, as discussed in Chapter 3, claims for itself the status of the Kārṣṇa-Veda that is the culmination of the entire śruti and smṛti canon. The Bhāgavata invests itself with the transcendent authority of śruti as the record of that which was “heard” (root śru) and “seen” (root dṛś) by the sage Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa, the greatest of all ṛṣis, who is represented as endowed with the faculty of divine sight (divya cakṣus) and unerring vision (amogha-dṛś). It maintains that Vyāsa, while immersed in samādhi in the depths of meditation, “saw” (root dṛś) by means of his divine sight Kṛṣṇa, the supreme Bhagavān, and attained direct experiential realization of his divine līlā. He then recorded his cognitions in the form of the narratives of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa.1 The Bhāgavata thus emulates the Vedic paradigm by claiming that its transcendent authority is grounded in the direct experience (anubhava) of the ṛṣi Vyāsa attained by means of meditation, just as the transcendent authority of the Vedic mantras is grounded in the direct experiences of the ancient Vedic ṛṣis attained by means of meditative tapas. The Bhāgavata allots a central role to meditation (dhyāna or smaraṇa) in the complex of practices that constitute bhakti-yoga, for it claims that by means of meditation the bhakta, like Vyāsa, can attain direct experiential realization of Kṛṣṇa and his līlā.
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is not unique in singling out Vyāsa as the paradigmatic ṛṣi, for, as discussed in Chapter 3, all of the Purāṇas, in reflecting on their own canonical status, invoke the authority of Vyāsa, who is credited with compiling all of the eighteen principal Purāṇas. The Padma Purāṇa in particular is concerned in the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya with exploring the epistemological dimensions of Vyāsa’s cognitions of Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent dhāman. Moreover, it establishes a direct connection between the experiential realization attained by Vyāsa in meditation (dhyāna) and its own complex of devotional practices in which meditation is ascribed a pivotal role as the preeminent means of attaining realization of Kṛṣṇa.
The early Gauḍīya authorities, like the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya of the Padma Purāṇa, invoke the authority of Vyāsa and the other great sages who attained direct experiential realization of Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent dhāman while immersed in samādhi in the depths of meditation. The direct experience of the sages (vidvad-anubhava), as mentioned in Chapter 5, is declared to be the “crest-jewel of all pramāṇas,”2 and the practice of meditation is deemed to be a critical component of the Gauḍīya path of sādhana-bhakti, and more specifically rāgānugā-bhakti. By incorporating meditation into their regimen of sādhana-bhakti as an advanced form of devotional practice, sādhakas can emulate the sages and attain direct experiential realization of Kṛṣṇa’s vigraha, absolute body, and his aprakaṭa līlā, unmanifest līlā, in the transcendent Vraja-dhāman.
In this chapter I will begin with a brief analysis of several examples of meditative practices discussed in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya of the Padma Purāṇa. I will then provide an extended analysis of a range of meditative practices discussed by the early Gauḍīya authorities that are allotted a vital role in the Gauḍīya discourse of embodiment as the central method of rāgānugā-bhakti through which the sādhaka can realize a siddha-rūpa, a perfected nonmaterial devotional body, in eternal relationship with Bhagavān in his absolute body.
Mantra Meditation and Maṇḍala Visualization: Purāṇic Perspectives on Meditation
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa, as discussed in Chapter 4, gives primacy of place to śravaṇa, kīrtana, and smaraṇa in its enumeration of the nine forms of bhakti,3 and it repeatedly extols this triad, along with the virtually identical triad śravaṇa, kīrtana, and dhyāna, as the foremost modes of devotional practice.4 The internal meditative practices of smaraṇa, contemplative recollection, and dhyāna, meditation, are thus ascribed a central role, along with the external bodily practices of śravaṇa, hearing, and kīrtana, singing, as the most important modes of engaging Kṛṣṇa. The Bhāgavata discusses a number of types of meditative practices, including meditation utilizing mantras that incorporate Kṛṣṇa’s names (nāmans), visualization of Kṛṣṇa’s forms (rūpas), and contemplation of his qualities (guṇas) and playful activities (līlās, caritas, or karmans). The Vṛndāvana Māhātmya of the Padma Purāṇa, even more than the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, allots a pivotal role to dhyāna, meditation, which it singles out among the various modes of devotional practice as the most efficacious means to attain realization of Kṛṣṇa. It makes reference to several different types of meditative practices, including mantra meditation and visualization of Kṛṣṇa’s forms, that are also found in the Bhāgavata. However, as discussed in Chapter 5, it places special emphasis on a particular form of meditation that involves utilizing a cosmographic lotus-maṇḍala of Vṛndāvana as a meditation device designed to facilitate visualization and thereby catalyze experiential realization of Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent dhāman.
My analysis of Purāṇic perspectives on meditation will focus on two examples: (1) the Bhāgavata Purāṇa’s representations of mantra meditation; and (2) the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya’s representations of maṇḍala visualization.
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa maintains that there are three systems of worshiping Kṛṣṇa—Vedic, tantric, and a “mixed” system that incorporates elements of both—and ultimately declares that the most expeditious means of severing the knot of bondage is to worship Kṛṣṇa through a mixed system that combines Vedic rituals together with tantric rituals.5 This mixed approach is evidenced in the Bhāgavata’s formulations regarding the soteriological function of mantras as meditation devices, for while the Bhāgavata grounds its formulations in the canonical authority of Vedic constructions of mantra, at the same time it draws on certain tantric—and more specifically Pāñcarātra—perspectives on mantra.6
A number of passages in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa recommend mantra meditation utilizing mantras that incorporate the name(s) of Kṛṣṇa. One key passage recounts how the young boy Dhruva, who has left home with the aim of attaining the highest state of realization, is approached by the celestial ṛṣi Nārada, who suggests that he meditate (root dhyā + abhi) on Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa, the supreme Bhagavān, in order to achieve his goal. Nārada recommends a specific meditation that involves a lavish visualization of Kṛṣṇa’s four-armed form (rūpa) as Vāsudeva, bearer of the discus, conch, club, and lotus. Having established Vāsudeva’s resplendent four-armed form in the lotus of the heart, the bhakta then invokes his sonic form by mentally repeating in meditation the twelve-syllable mantra that is nondifferent from him: oṃ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya (“Om, obeisance to Bhagavān Vāsudeva”). This mantra is extolled as the mantra-mūrti, or sound-form, of Vāsudeva, and thus this mantra meditation serves as a means of enlivening the divine presence embodied in the mantra.7
O prince, hear from me the most secret formula by repeating which for seven days and nights a person can see (root dṛś) perfected beings moving through the sky. Oṃ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. While repeating this mantra a sage should perform worship of the Lord.… One should offer to him whose form is the mantra (mantra-mūrti), while repeating the mantra within the heart, those articles of worship prescribed by the ancients for Bhagavān.8
The Bhāgavata, in recounting Nārada’s instructions to Dhruva, represents this meditative practice—which involves visualization of Bhagavān’s four-armed form, mental repetition of his sonic form, and mental offerings to him enshrined within the heart—as the pivotal practice of bhakti-yoga that leads to liberation (vimukti).9 According to the Bhāgavata’s account, Dhruva then retires to Madhuvana, the forest surrounding Mathurā, the birthplace of Kṛṣṇa, which is eternally sanctified by his divine presence.10 He engages in meditation in accordance with Nārada’s instructions for an extended period and becomes established in samādhi, his mind completely absorbed in Bhagavān’s form (rūpa) enthroned in his heart.11 Longing to see his bhakta, Bhagavān then approaches Dhruva in Madhuvana. Dhruva, absorbed in meditation, notices that the form of the Lord that had manifested in the lotus of his heart has disappeared, and when he opens his eyes he sees (root dṛś) Bhagavān himself standing before him on the gross material plane.12
The Bhāgavata’s creation account, as discussed in Chapter 4, ascribes cosmogonic efficacy to the creator Brahmā’s recitation of the Vedic mantras, for by uttering the Vedic names of the various worlds and classes of beings he manifests the corresponding forms. In a similar way, the Bhāgavata’s account of Dhruva ascribes soteriological efficacy to Dhruva’s meditation on the twelve-syllable mantra, for by mentally repeating the name of Vāsudeva in the depths of meditation he enlivens the divine presence embodied in the mantra and the form of the supreme Godhead appears to him.
The Bhāgavata’s representations of mantra meditation in this account re-vision both Upaniṣadic and Pāñcarātra formulations. In the Upaniṣads, as discussed in Chapter 4, mantra meditation forms an integral part of the discourse of jñāna, and the root mantra Om is represented as the sound-form of Brahman that is to be used as a vehicle in meditation in order to realize a state of distinctionless union (sāyujya) with the supreme Brahman, which in its essential nature is impersonal, formless, and beyond sound. In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, in contrast, mantra meditation is reinscribed as an integral part of the discourse of bhakti, and the twelve-syllable mantra is represented as the sound-form of Vāsudeva that is to be used as a vehicle in meditation in order to realize the supreme personal Godhead in the resplendent glory of his divine body: as a luminous, reverberating form cognized within the heart in samādhi with eyes closed, and as an effulgent form cognized on the gross material plane with eyes wide open in the highest state of realization.
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa’s representations of mantra meditation in its account of Dhruva also suggest the influence of Pāñcarātra constructions of mantra. First, the Bhāgavata invokes the Pāñcarātra notion of mantra-mūrti, in which the mantra is considered the sonic form of the deity. Second, the twelve-syllable mantra that the Bhāgavata recommends as a meditation device—oṃ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya—is one of the most important of the Vaiṣṇava mantras discussed in the Pāñcarātra Saṃhitās, where it is classified as a pada mantra, comprising the name of the deity in the dative case (bhagavate vāsudevāya) together with a word expressive of reverence (namaḥ) and preceded by the syllable Om. Finally, the Bhāgavata represents mental repetition of the twelve-syllable mantra as part of a meditative practice that includes visualization of the deity’s form and mental offerings to the deity, recalling the Pāñcarātra conception of meditation as a form of mānasa-yāga or antar-yāga, internalized worship comprising mental offerings.13
In another passage, after extolling the efficacy of worshiping Kṛṣṇa with Vedic rituals together with tantric rituals, the Bhāgavata represents mantra meditation as part of a larger ritual complex that includes elements that are reminiscent of the four principal components of the daily ritual regimen delineated in Pāñcarātra texts: bhūta-śuddhi, purification of the bodily elements; nyāsa, ritual placement of mantras on various parts of the body; mānasa-yāga or antar-yāga, internalized worship involving mental offerings to the deity; and bāhya-yāga, worship of the deity involving external offerings such as sandalpaste, flowers, incense, and food.14 I will discuss this Pāñcarātra ritual regime in a later section of this chapter.
Dhyāna, meditation, is ascribed a pivotal role throughout the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya of the Padma Purāṇa as the most efficacious means to attain realization of Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent abode in Vṛndāvana. The soteriological efficacy of meditation is particularly emphasized in chapters 72 and 73 of the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya.
Chapter 72 of the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya presents a series of vignettes about various sages who seek to realize Kṛṣṇa and engage in meditation (dhyāna) in order to attain their goal. Each vignette portrays a particular sage meditating (root dhyā) on Kṛṣṇa, which involves mentally repeating (root jap) a specific mantra and visualizing a specific form of Kṛṣṇa engaged in some līlā activity with his cowmaiden lovers or cowherd friends in Vṛndāvana. Through his dedicated practice of meditation, the sage eventually realizes his goal: after casting off his material body (deha or tanu), he attains the form (rūpa) of a particular gopī in the transcendent Vṛndāvana where he revels eternally with Kṛṣṇa.15
Chapter 72 concludes with a vignette in which it recommends a particular method of meditative visualization (root dhyā, smṛ, or cint), which it refers to as the “meditation of the ṛṣis” (ṛṣi-dhyāna) utilizing a ten-syllable mantra. The meditation makes use of a simplified version of the cosmographic lotus-maṇḍala of Vṛndāvana described in chapters 69 and 70 of the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya, which I discussed at length in Chapter 5,16 and involves a progressive series of visualizations that serve as a means of mentally constructing the concentric rings of the maṇḍala that are within the domain of Vṛndāvana proper. The meditation begins with a bird’s-eye view of an island made of light (jyotir-maya) encircled by the Yamunā River and then zooms into a visualization of the forest of Vṛndāvana, with its captivating display of colors, sounds, fragrances, and other sensory delights. The meditation then zooms in even further to a great coral tree in the center of the forest that is one hundred yojanas (approximately eight hundred feet) tall. Although the yoga-pīṭha is not explicitly mentioned, the coral tree assumes a role comparable to that of the yoga-pīṭha, for it is the center from which the concentric rings of the meditation maṇḍala radiate outward. Having visualized the coral tree in the center of the maṇḍala, the practitioner’s vision expands outward to the outermost ring of the maṇḍala in which young gopas are playing surrounded by cows. The process of visualization then moves progressively inward: from the outer circle of gopas to the inner circle of gopīs to the gem-laden pavilion (vedi) where Kṛṣṇa reclines with Rādhā. The meditation culminates in a visualization exploring the various parts of Kṛṣṇa’s divine body.17
This “meditation of the ṛṣis,” which utilizes the cosmographic lotus-maṇḍala of Vṛndāvana as a meditation device, finds fruition when the process of visualization culminates in a state of living realization in which the advanced practitioner attains the status of a ṛṣi who “sees” (root dṛś)—not through a mentally constructed vision but through direct visionary experience—the divine form of Kṛṣṇa playing in his transcendent dhāman with the gopīs and gopas. In chapter 73, immediately following its instructions regarding this meditation in the concluding section of chapter 72, the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya continues with an extended exposition by Vyāsa, the paradigmatic ṛṣi of ṛṣis, in which he describes how, while immersed in the depths of meditation (dhyāna), he attained a direct cognition of the cowherd Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent abode in Vṛndāvana.
Then I saw (root dṛś) a cowherd boy (bāla gopa) the color of a dark rain-cloud, dressed in yellow garments, who was seated at the base of a kadamba tree surrounded by cowherd maidens and laughing with cowherd boys—a wonder (adbhuta) [to behold]. [I also saw] the forest called Vṛndāvana, which was adorned with fresh blossoms, was resounding with cuckoos and bees, and was entrancing due to the God of love’s presence. I saw the Kālindī [Yamunā] River, which had the color of the petals of a blue lotus. I also saw Govardhana, which was held aloft by the hands of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma in order to destroy the pride of the great Indra and bring joy to the cowherds and cows.18
In this account of Vyāsa’s cognition, the formal schemas found in chapters 69 and 70 of the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya—the guided visualization of the different parts of Kṛṣṇa’s divine body and the schematized visions of the terrestrial Vṛndāvana as a geographic maṇḍala and the transcendent Vṛndāvana as a cosmographic maṇḍala—are cast aside, and the processes of visualization and maṇḍalization give way to direct experiential realization. Vyāsa, the consummate ṛṣi who “sees” (root dṛś) and “hears” (root śru) with the nonmaterial senses, revels in his living encounter with Kṛṣṇa at play with the gopīs and gopas and in his living engagement with the transcendent landscape of Vṛndāvana, with its blossoming trees and melodious birds, Yamunā River, and Mount Govardhana.
Vyāsa continues by relating the reciprocal nature of his encounter, in which Kṛṣṇa, svayaṃ Bhagavān, speaks to him and reveals to him that the divine form (divya rūpa) that he sees is his eternal vigraha consisting of sat-cit-ānanda, being, consciousness, and bliss. Moreover, everything else that he sees—the gopīs and gopas, the forest of Vṛndāvana, the Yamunā River, the entire landscape—is eternal (nitya).
I was thrilled with intense rapture upon seeing (root dṛś) Gopāla, adorned with all his ornaments, rejoicing in the embrace of the [cowherd] women, playing on his flute. Then svayaṃ Bhagavān, as he roamed about Vṛndāvana, said to me: “That which is seen by you is my eternal (sanātana) divine form (divya rūpa), my vigraha consisting of sat-cit-ānanda, which is undivided (niṣkala), nonactive (niṣkriya), and tranquil (śānta). There is nothing greater than this perfect (pūrṇa) lotus-eyed form of mine. The Vedas declare this to be the cause of all causes, an eternal (nitya), everlasting (śāśvata), auspicious reality consisting of supreme bliss (parānanda) and a mass of consciousness (cid-ghana). Know my Mathurā to be eternal (nitya) as well as the forest of Vṛndāvana, the Yamunā, the cowherd maidens, and the cowherd boys.”19
The Vṛndāvana Māhātmya’s account of Vyāsa’s cognition concludes with a conversation in which Kṛṣṇa, at Vyāsa’s request, reveals to him the hidden identities of the gopīs and gopas and other inhabitants and features of the transcendent landscape, including the kadamba tree, cuckoos, Yamunā River, and Mount Govardhana.20
Both Rūpa Gosvāmin and Jīva Gosvāmin cite variants of many of the verses quoted above from chapter 73 of the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya regarding Vyāsa’s cognition of Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana. However, as I discussed in Chapter 5, the Gosvāmins appear to have had in their possession a Bengali version of the Padma Purāṇa that did not contain the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya chapters, and in the case of those verses that they do cite that correspond to verses found in the extant Vṛndāvana Māhātmya—such as those quoted above—they identify these verses as coming from an otherwise unknown Nirvāṇa Khaṇḍa (in the case of Rūpa) or Nirmāṇa Khaṇḍa (in the case of Jīva).21 In any case, the important point to be emphasized in the present context is that the Gosvāmins, like the Vṛndāvana Māhātmya, ascribe critical importance to the direct experiences (anubhava) of ṛṣis such as Vyāsa, and, as we shall see, they emphasize that sādhakas should seek to replicate these experiences by incorporating meditation into their regimen of sādhana-bhakti.
Beyond Yoga and Tantra:
The Gauḍīya Approach to Meditation
The Gauḍīya theology of superordination, as discussed in Chapter 2, domesticates and subordinates the yoga-mārga by positing a purely meditative form of bhakti, śānta-rasa, that is more efficacious than the yogin’s practice of aṣṭāṅga-yoga but is at the same time deficient because it does not lead to the highest aspect of the Godhead in which Kṛṣṇa is experienced as pūrṇa Bhagavān. While śānta-rasa is thus deemed to be inadequate and relegated to the bottom of the hierarchy of rasas, the early Gauḍīya authorities do not thereby jettison meditation as an ineffectual form of practice that has no place in sādhana-bhakti. On the contrary, building on the formulations of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and the Padma Purāṇa, they develop their own unique repertoire of meditative practices in which they re-vision meditation as a critical component of sādhana-bhakti and the central devotional method in the advanced regimen of rāgānugā-bhakti through which the sādhaka realizes his or her siddha-rūpa and attains a direct cognition of Kṛṣṇa’s vigraha, absolute body, and his aprakaṭa līlā, unmanifest līlā, in the transcendent Vraja-dhāman.
In his discussion of sādhana-bhakti in the Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu, Rūpa Gosvāmin ascribes central significance to dhyāna, meditation; smṛti, remembering; and smaraṇa, contemplative recollection, although he does not elaborate on the distinguishing features of these meditative practices. In the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha and Bhakti Sandarbha, Jīva Gosvāmin expands on the framework provided by Rūpa. Declaring that “one should engage in bhakti-yoga in the form of meditation (dhyāna),”22 he maps out a range of meditative practices, which he variously terms dhyāna, meditation; smaraṇa, contemplative recollection; bhāvanā or cintana, contemplation; and mantropāsanā, meditation by means of a mantra on a particular līlā. After a brief consideration of Rūpa’s reflections in the Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu, I will devote the major portion of my analysis of the Gauḍīya approach to meditation to Jīva’s formulations in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha and Bhakti Sandarbha in which he deploys a number of discursive strategies to distinguish the Gauḍīya meditative practices that are integral to bhakti-yoga, the yoga of devotion, from the meditation techniques advocated by yogic traditions such as Pātañjala Yoga and by tantric ritual traditions.
Smaraṇa
In the Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu Rūpa includes dhyāna, meditation on the Lord, and smṛti, remembering the Lord, among the sixty-four practices of vaidhī-bhakti and also allots a significant role to smaraṇa, contemplative recollection, in his discussion of the advanced practices of rāgānugā-bhakti.23 Rūpa defines dhyāna as “skillful contemplation (cintana) of the forms (rūpas), qualities (guṇas), playful activities (krīḍās), and service (sevā)” of the Lord and then invokes verses from the Purāṇas to illustrate each of these forms of meditation.24 He defines smṛti as “any form of mental connection (manasā sambandha)” with the Lord and includes among his illustrations remembering the Lord, his name (nāman), and his abode, Vraja-dhāman.25 Rūpa provides the basis for the meditative practice of smaraṇa, contemplative recollection, in the following two verses, which, as discussed in Chapter 2, are critical to his analysis of rāgānugā-bhakti:
One should dwell (vāsa) continually in Vraja, absorbed in various stories (kathā) about it, remembering (root smṛ) Kṛṣṇa and his beloved associates whose devotional mode accords with one’s own. One who wishes to realize a particular devotional mode (bhāva) should perform devotional service (sevā) emulating the residents of Vraja with both the sādhaka-rūpa and the siddha-rūpa.26
In his commentary Jīva maintains that these verses by Rūpa encapsulate the central method of rāgānugā-bhakti and suggests that this method ideally involves dwelling in Vraja with both the physical body (śarīra) and the mind (manas). Even if the rāgānugā sādhaka is not able to live physically in the earthly Vraja, then he or she should dwell mentally in the transcendent Vraja through the regular practice of smaraṇa, contemplative recollection. This practice involves emulating with both the sādhaka-rūpa and the siddha-rūpa an eternal associate of Vraja whose devotional mode accords with the sādhaka’s own inherent nature (svarūpa). As discussed in Chapter 2, Jīva glosses sādhaka-rūpa as the “body as it is” (yathāvastitha-deha) and siddha-rūpa as an “internal meditative body (antaś-cintita-deha) that is suitable for one’s intended devotional service (sevā) to Kṛṣṇa.”27 Jīva’s understanding of rāgānugā-bhakti centers on the meditative practice of smaraṇa, which entails constructing a meditative body through which the sādhaka can dwell mentally in Vraja even when residing outside of the earthly dhāman. I will return to Jīva’s notion of the meditative body later.
In the Bhakti Sandarbha Jīva provides an extended analysis of smaraṇa that evokes Rūpa’s characterizations of dhyāna, smṛti, and smaraṇa. As discussed in Chapter 2, Jīva defines smaraṇa as contemplative recollection of the nāmans, names; rūpas, forms; guṇas, qualities; parikaras, eternal associates; sevā, service; and līlās, playful activities, of Kṛṣṇa.28 His analysis of smaraṇa distinguishes five stages: (1) smaraṇa, thinking about Kṛṣṇa in any manner; (2) dhāraṇā, withdrawal of the attention from external sense objects and focusing the mind on Kṛṣṇa; (3) dhyāna, meditation on the forms (rūpas) of Kṛṣṇa and his other aspects; (4) dhruvānusmṛti, a more advanced stage of meditation in which consciousness flows towards Kṛṣṇa in an unbroken stream; and (5) samādhi, the most advanced stage of meditation in which the sādhaka attains a state of complete absorption in which the object of meditation—Kṛṣṇa, svayaṃ Bhagavān—shines forth (root sphur). In his analysis of this five-stage meditative practice of smaraṇa, as discussed earlier, Jīva thus appropriates three terms that are central to the practice of yogic meditation in aṣṭāṅga-yoga—dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi—and reinscribes them by embedding them in a devotional framework focused on realization of Kṛṣṇa. Moreover, he explicitly distinguishes his understanding of the highest form of samādhi from the yogic ideal of asamprajñāta samādhi: whereas the rāgānugā sādhaka attains a state of absorption in the highest aspect of the Godhead, Bhagavān, that involves a direct cognition of Kṛṣṇa’s self-luminous absolute body, the yogin attains an objectless state of absorption in the lowest aspect of the Godhead, the impersonal, formless Brahman, which is simply the light that radiates from Kṛṣṇa’s absolute body.29
In the case of those yogins who take up the path of bhakti as adherents of śānta-rasa and are focused on experiencing Kṛṣṇa as an object of meditation but do not seek an intimate emotional relationship with him, Jīva maintains that they do not attain the highest form of samādhi, but rather they experience the intermediary aspect of the Godhead, Paramātman, in which Kṛṣṇa appears in his four-armed aiśvarya form as Viṣṇu, the antar-yāmin (inner controller) within the heart. The highest state of samādhi is attained only by advanced practitioners of rāgānugā-bhakti who seek to realize a passionate (rāga) loving relationship with Gopāla Kṛṣṇa as pūrṇa Bhagavān—whether as a servant in dāsya-rasa, a friend in sakhya-rasa, an elder in vātsalya-rasa, or a lover in mādhurya-rasa. Jīva’s comments on the role of meditation in rāgānugā-bhakti suggest that the rāgānugā sādhaka’s experience of samādhi surpasses that of the adherent of śānta-rasa in three ways. First, the form that manifests in the rāgānugā sādhaka’s experience of samādhi is not Kṛṣṇa’s four-armed antar-yāmin form as Paramātman but rather his two-armed gopa-mūrti, cowherd form, that is the svayaṃ-rūpa of his absolute body (vigraha) as Bhagavān. Second, the rāgānugā sādhaka’s experience of samādhi differs from that of the adherent of śānta-rasa not only in terms of the specific form of Kṛṣṇa that manifests but also the locus of that form: the rāgānugā sādhaka penetrates beyond the experience of Kṛṣṇa’s four-armed form as Viṣṇu seated in the lotus of the heart and awakens to the luminous gopa-mūrti of his vigraha enthroned in the yoga-pīṭha of the lotus of Goloka-Vṛndāvana, the transcendent Vraja-dhāman. Third, the manifestation of Kṛṣṇa that unfolds in the samādhi of the rāgānugā sādhaka includes not only his vigraha, absolute body, and his dhāman, which is an extension of his absolute body, but also his līlā, divine play, and more specifically his aprakaṭa līlā, unmanifest līlā, in Goloka-Vṛndāvana.30
In his discussions of smaraṇa and dhyāna, Jīva ultimately establishes a hierarchy of religious experience in which, among the various rūpas, dhāmans, līlās, and parikaras of Kṛṣṇa that the rāgānugā sādhaka might seek to realize, he singles out a highly particularized experience of samādhi as the culmination of meditative practice: the experience of the gopa-mūrti of Kṛṣṇa’s vigraha in his supreme dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, engaged in the Goloka-līlā that is characterized by mādhurya and rāga, with the gopas and gopīs as his parikaras. Jīva asserts that pure rāgānugā-bhakti is found only in Goloka-Vṛndāvana and not in any other dhāman, and he celebrates the glories of meditation (dhyāna) on Kṛṣṇa, pūrṇa Bhagavān, as Vrajendranandana, the son of Nanda the lord of Vraja, in the Goloka-līlā. Among the various playful activities in the Goloka-līlā, he extols in particular meditation on Kṛṣṇa’s love-play with the gopīs in the rāsa-līlā, which is the rahasya-līlā, the most recondite of līlās, and which is surpassed in greatness only by his love-play with Rādhā, the most beloved of the gopīs.31
In his discussions of meditation in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha and Bhakti Sandarbha, Jīva mentions a number of different techniques that are distinguished primarily by the specific type of meditation device that is used as a vehicle for transcending—whether Kṛṣṇa’s nāmans, rūpas, parikaras, or līlās. The nāmans that are used as vehicles in meditation are mantras that incorporate the name(s) of Kṛṣṇa;32 the rūpas include iconic forms such as Kṛṣṇa’s gopa-mūrti as well as aniconic yantras that serve as meditation devices; the parikaras are the eternal associates of Vraja with whom sādhakas seek to identify in meditation; and the līlās are the particular playful activities that provide a focal point for different meditation sessions. The implication of Jīva’s analysis, as we shall see, is that irrespective of which of these meditation devices is adopted as a vehicle for transcending, meditation on Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent dhāman is the critical component that gives the rāgānugā sādhaka’s meditative practice a unique character that distinguishes it from other forms of meditation advocated by yogic or tantric traditions.
In the course of elaborating on these various meditation techniques, Jīva refers to devices and practices that are often associated with tantric ritual traditions—including mantras, maṇḍalas, yantras, bhūta-śuddhi, nyāsa, mānasa-pūjā, and mudrās—but, as I will discuss in a later section, he seeks to invest these devices and practices with distinctively Gauḍīya valences by reinscribing them as forms of sādhana-bhakti aimed at constituting a perfected devotional body, as distinct from tantric sādhana aimed at constructing a divinized tantric body.
Mantra Meditation and Maṇḍala Visualization
Jīva recommends mantra dhyāna, meditation utilizing mantras that are ascribed the status of sound-embodiments of Kṛṣṇa, as one of the most efficacious means of realizing the supreme Godhead in his transcendent dhāman. Mantra meditation, as represented by Jīva, is often accompanied by visualization techniques and bodily practices through which the sādhaka engages with the mind, speech, senses, and other faculties various aspects of Kṛṣṇa—his gopa-mūrti, aniconic yantra, dhāman, parikaras, and līlās—and thereby gradually transforms the sādhaka-rūpa, material psychophysical complex, culminating in the realization of a siddha-rūpa, a perfected nonmaterial devotional body that partakes of the qualities and substance of Kṛṣṇa’s absolute body.
Jīva suggests, for example, that while meditating with a mantra that is a sound-form of Kṛṣṇa, the sādhaka should also meditate on the transcendent dhāman and conjure a world that engages the entire sensorium through its captivating array of forms, sounds, textures, tastes, and fragances.33 While meditating with a mantra such as the eighteen-syllable mantra, the sādhaka should visualize Kṛṣṇa engaging with his parikaras in particular līlās in Vraja-dhāman.34 As I will discuss later, Jīva also recommends a specific form of mantra meditation termed mantropāsanā, which entails meditating by means of a mantra on a particular līlā at a particular place (sthāna) in the dhāman.35
Among the mantras that are recommended for use as vehicles in meditation, Jīva extols in particular the efficacy of the eighteen-syllable mantra—klīṃ kṛṣṇāya govindāya gopījana-vallabhāya svāhā—which he celebrates as the mahā-mantra that is the “king of mantras” and that embodies Kṛṣṇa’s svarūpa, essential form.36 As discussed in Chapter 5, in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha and the Digdarśanīṭīkā, in his commentaries on the Brahma Saṃhitā’s representation of Goloka-Vṛndāvana as a thousand-petaled lotus-maṇḍala, he locates the six parts (padas) of the eighteen-syllable mantra in the six corners of the hexagonal yantra that is the pericarp of the lotus and asserts that the varṇa-sounds of the mantra are nondifferent from Kṛṣṇa’s svarūpa.37 In order to provide canonical authority to ground his claim regarding the special status of the eighteen-syllable mantra, Jīva invokes the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad, which provides an extended exposition of the eighteen-syllable mantra as the quintessential sound-embodiment of Kṛṣṇa, in which it divides the mantra into five parts (pañca-pada) rather than six: (1) klīṃ kṛṣṇāya, (2) govindāya, (3) gopījana, (4) vallabhāya, (5) svāhā.38
Just as the wind enters into the world and assumes five forms in each body [as the five breaths], in the same way Kṛṣṇa, although one, manifests as sound (śabda) in five parts (pañca-pada) for the welfare of the world.39
According to another verse from the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad that is repeatedly invoked by Jīva, this fivefold (pañca-pada) mantra comprising eighteen syllables is the sonic counterpart of the fivefold (pañca-pada) vigraha of Kṛṣṇa that consists of sat-cit-ānanda:
I, along with the Maruts, constantly seek to please with a most excellent hymn of praise the one and only Govinda, whose fivefold (pañca-pada) vigraha consists of sat-cit-ānanda and who is seated beneath a devadāru tree in Vṛndāvana.40
Jīva also invokes another verse from the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad that describes how Brahmā the creator meditated (root dhyā) with the eighteen-syllable mantra, after which Kṛṣṇa appeared (root bhū + āvir) before his eyes (purastāt) in the garb of a gopa (gopa-veśa).41 In the same way, Jīva suggests, those who mentally repeat (root jap) this mantra that is the sound correlate of Kṛṣṇa’s vigraha will “see” (root dṛś) the absolute body of Gopāla Kṛṣṇa in the form and garb of a cowherd (gopa-veśa-dhara), attaining a direct visionary experience of Bhagavān comparable to the cognitions attained by Brahmā the creator and Vyāsa, the acclaimed ṛṣi of ṛṣis.42
Although he does not explicitly discuss its role in meditation, the implication of Jīva’s analysis of the lotus-maṇḍala with the hexagonal yantra in its center is that it is used together with the eighteen-syllable mantra inscribed on the yantra as a meditation device that involves activating both the auditory and visual modes of perception, culminating in a synesthetic experience in samādhi of the unmanifest structures of Kṛṣṇa’s dhāman that transcends the material senses (prākṛtendriyas) and engages the nonmaterial senses (aprākṛtendriyas). Although Jīva leaves out of his analysis the specific instructions for this particular meditation, I would suggest, based on his discussions elsewhere, that the meditation involves mentally vocalizing the divine names contained in the mantra in sequence while simultaneously visualizing the corresponding parts of the maṇḍala in sequence. As the mental vocalization of the mantra progresses—from “kṛṣṇāya” to “govindāya” to “gopījana-vallabhāya”—the visualization of the maṇḍala progresses concurrently—from the encompassing quadrangle of Śvetadvīpa, where Kṛṣṇa manifests as the ādi catur-vyūhas, to the lotus of Goloka, where he manifests as Govinda, the keeper of cows, to the pericarp at the heart of the lotus, where he manifests as Gopījanavallabha, the beloved of the gopīs, enthroned on the yoga-pīṭha. As the sādhaka’s attention moves inward through the auditory channel by mentally vocalizing the eighteen-syllable mantra that is the sonic form of Kṛṣṇa, the attention simultaneously moves inward through the visual channel and arrives at the center of the lotus-maṇḍala where the sādhaka visualizes Kṛṣṇa’s aniconic form as the hexagonal yantra on which the varṇas of the eighteen-syllable mantra are visibly inscribed in letters. Finally, the sādhaka transcends the material senses altogether and awakens in samādhi to the luminous, reverberating gopa form of the vigraha pulsating with nonmaterial light and sound in the yoga-pīṭha of the transcendent Vraja-dhāman. This synesthetic experience not only engages the nonmaterial senses of seeing and hearing, it also engages the nonmaterial senses of taste and touch as the sādhaka savors the sweet, exhilarating flow of rasa in the dhāman. Relishing this synesthetic experience in the depths of samādhi, the sādhaka surrenders at the feet of the supreme Godhead: “svāhā,” “I offer myself to you.”
Jīva explicitly connects mantra meditation with visualization of a cosmographic maṇḍala in another context in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha in which he invokes a passage from the Svāyambhuva Āgama that recommends meditation (dhyāna) utilizing a fourteen-syllable mantra while meditating (root dhyā or root smṛ) sequentially on the various realms of a hierarchical cosmography. The Svāyambhuva Āgama’s cosmography evokes aspects of the cosmography elaborated in the Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Purāṇa, which, as discussed in Chapter 1, is adapted by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja in his representations of Gauḍīya cosmography.43 While meditating on the mantra, the sādhaka is instructed to meditate in sequential order on a series of realms, which are arranged like the concentric rings of a maṇḍala centered around Kṛṣṇa, who is seated on his throne in Vṛndāvana. The process of visualization moves from the outermost ring of the cosmographic maṇḍala, the material realm of prakṛti, through a series of nonmaterial realms that are hierarchically arranged according to increasing degrees of transcendence. After meditating on the guṇas of prakṛti, the sādhaka meditates on the waters of Virajā, which separate the material realm from the nonmaterial realms. He or she then meditates sequentially on the various nonmaterial realms, from lowest to highest: from the realm of Brahman, the abode of liberated sages, to the domain of Paravyoman, the abode of the eternal gods (devas), to the realms of the four vyūhas, Aniruddha, Pradyumna, Saṃkarṣaṇa, and Vāsudeva. The final phase of the meditation involves a lavish visualization of the domain of Vṛndāvana in its transcendent splendor: resplendent with wish-fulfilling gems; nourished by the ambrosial waters of the Yamunā; abounding in trees, vines, perpetually blooming flowers, and nectarean fruits; and filled with the sounds of singing birds and intoxicated bees. The meditation culminates in a visualization of the youthful (kiśora) divine body of Kṛṣṇa seated on a throne in the midst of a gem-laden pavilion (maṇḍapa) in Vṛndāvana, immersed in the blissful ocean of rasa that flows from his līlā.44
Mantropāsanā
In the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha Jīva recommends a specific form of meditation termed mantropāsanā, which involves meditating on a particular līlā in a particular place (sthāna) in Vraja-dhāman by means of a mantra. He introduces this meditation technique as part of his discussion of the two aspects of the aprakaṭa līlā: mantropāsanā-mayī līlā, which is a specific līlā that is mentally constructed by means of meditation utilizing mantras; and svārasikī līlā, the continuous stream of līlā that is spontaneously relished as the natural flow of rasa.45 Jīva defines mantropāsanā-mayī līlā more specifically as a particular līlā that is constructed by meditation (dhyāna) utilizing a particular mantra and whose distinctive identity is delimited by the particular place (sthāna) associated with that līlā. He cites examples of mantras from a number of authoritative śāstras that can be used in the practice of mantropāsanā. Verses from the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad are considered particularly efficacious mantras because, as mentioned in Chapter 1, the Gauḍīyas invest this post-Vedic Vaiṣṇava Upaniṣad with the transcendent authority of śruti as the record of the ancient ṛṣis’ direct cognitions of Gopāla Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent dhāman. Jīva cites the following passage from the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad in which Brahmā the creator responds to a question by the primordial sages about the nature of Kṛṣṇa’s form (rūpa) and recommends meditation on a series of ślokas that describe the gopa form of Kṛṣṇa engaged in a specific līlā in which he rests with his gopa and gopī companions beneath a wish-fulfilling tree near the Yamunā River in Vraja-dhāman:
The golden one [Brahmā] said: [Kṛṣṇa’s form] is in the garb of a cowherd (gopa-veśa), is the color of a rain-cloud, is youthful, and is resting under a wish-fulfilling tree. Here are the ślokas [for meditation]: The Lord’s eyes are like lotuses, his color is that of a rain-cloud, and his garments are dazzling like lightning. He has two arms (dvi-bhuja), his hands are positioned in the jñāna-mudrā (knowledge gesture), and he wears a garland of forest flowers. He is surrounded by gopas, gopīs, and cows, is adorned with divine ornaments, and rests beneath a wish-fulfilling tree in the center of a jeweled lotus. He is fanned by breezes that mingle with the waves of the Kālindī [Yamunā]. Anyone who contemplates (root cint) Kṛṣṇa in his heart (cetas) in this way will be liberated (mukta) from the cycle of birth and death.46
Although Jīva does not explicitly describe the specific method through which ślokas such as these are utilized as mantras in meditation, he does indicate that during the practice of mantropāsanā the sādhaka engages the particular līlā that is the focus of the meditation through “hearing” (root śru), implying that the sādhaka mentally vocalizes the mantra that describes the līlā while visualizing the discursive content of the mantra. Thus, for example, as the sādhaka mentally vocalizes the ślokas from the Gopālatāpanī Upaniṣad quoted above, he or she visualizes the particularities of Kṛṣṇa’s gopa form engaging in this particular “resting” (śayana) līlā with the gopas, gopīs, and cows in a particular locale in Vraja-dhāman: under a wish-fulfilling tree on a jeweled lotus near the Yamunā River.
Through regular practice of mantropāsanā involving mental vocalization of ślokas and visualization of the corresponding līlā tableaux, the sādhaka penetrates more and more deeply into the unmanifest structures of the līlā in the transcendent dhāman and becomes increasingly immersed in the flow of rasa. In the advanced phases of rāgānugā-bhakti, the sādhaka awakens to the constantly flowing dynamism of the svārasikī līlā in which the constructed world of līlā tableaux gives way to a spontaneous stream of rasa-filled līlā. According to Jīva, the svārasikī aspect of the aprakaṭa līlā, in which the sādhaka relishes through direct experience a continuous stream of līlā flowing with rasa, is like the Gaṅgā River, whereas the mantropāsanā-mayī aspect of the līlā, in which the sādhaka mentally constructs one līlā after another, is like a series of pools (hradas) arising from that river. Moreover, Jīva suggests that when the practice of mantropāsanā finds fruition in the unbroken flow of the svārasikī līlā, then the process of “hearing” (root śru) gives way to true “seeing” (root dṛś) in which Kṛṣṇa himself directly appears before the sādhaka in the depths of samādhi.
“O Lord, who are greatly praised, you become seated in the lotus of the heart absorbed in bhāva-yoga. Your devotees’ path to you is by hearing and seeing. In whatever form they contemplate (root bhū + vi) you in meditation (dhī), in that form (vapus) you manifest out of your graciousness.” In accordance with this statement [from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa], when the mantropāsanā-mayītva finds fruition in svārasikī, then even today he [Kṛṣṇa] at times manifests (root sphur) as if immediately in the hearts of sādhakas.47
In the culminating stage of realization in rāgānugā-bhakti, as represented by Jīva, the sādhaka goes beyond the role of a passive witness enjoying the continual play and display of Kṛṣṇa’s unmanifest līlā and enters into the līlā as an active participant and established resident of Vraja-dhāman. This final stage of realization is accomplished through the attainment of a siddha-rūpa, a perfected devotional body. Jīva’s analysis suggests that just as the aprakaṭa līlā has two aspects—the discrete līlā tableaux that are mentally constructed through mantropāsanā, and the continuous stream of svārasikī līlā that is a spontaneous expression of Kṛṣṇa’s blissful nature—the siddha-rūpa also has two aspects: the meditative body that is mentally constructed through meditation;48 and the eternal, nonmaterial body that is an aṃśa of the self-luminous effulgence (jyotir) of Kṛṣṇa.49 With respect to the first aspect, as mentioned earlier, the rāgānugā sādhaka constructs in meditation the siddha-rūpa as an “internal meditative body (antaś-cintita-deha) that is suitable for one’s intended devotional service (sevā) to Kṛṣṇa.”50 Under the guidance of the guru, the sādhaka visualizes a meditative body that best expresses the rasa, or devotional mode, that accords with his or her svarūpa, unique essential nature, and siddha-rūpa, eternal body. The process of visualization involves identifying with those parikaras, eternal associates of Kṛṣṇa in the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, who embody this particular flavor of prema-rasa—whether the attendants of Kṛṣṇa, who embody dāsya-rasa; Kṛṣṇa’s cowherd friends, who embody sakhya-rasa; Nanda and Yaśodā and other elders, who embody vātsalya-rasa; or Kṛṣṇa’s cowmaiden lovers, who embody mādhurya-rasa.51 The sādhaka then visualizes his or her meditative body in a series of līlā tableaux and through the agency of this body envisions directly engaging with Kṛṣṇa and his eternal associates in Vraja-dhāman: “I am personally (sākṣāt) a particular resident of Vraja,…I am personally (sākṣāt) attending Vrajendranandana, the son of Nanda the lord of Vraja.”52 The implication of Jīva’s analysis is that regular meditation involving visualization of the mentally constructed siddha-rūpa serves to catalyze the final stage of realization in which the jīva re-members (smaraṇa) its eternal siddha-rūpa and reclaims its distinctive role as an eternal protagonist in Kṛṣṇa’s aprakaṭa līlā in the transcendent Vraja-dhāman.
The meditative practices of smaraṇa and dhyāna delineated by Jīva provided the basis for the complex techniques of līlā-smaraṇa visualization, discussed in Chapter 2, that were developed by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja and later Gauḍīya authorities as a means to realize the siddha-rūpa.53
Realizing Vraja-Dhāman: The Gauḍīya Re-visioning of Pāñcarātra
I would suggest that the critical component that distinguishes the Gauḍīya methods of meditation recommended by Jīva Gosvāmin from other types of meditation techniques advocated by yogic or tantric traditions is meditation on Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent dhāman. This distinctive emphasis is particularly evident in Jīva’s discussion of arcana, ritual worship, in the Bhakti Sandarbha, in which he connects meditation on Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, with a cluster of tantric ritual practices derived from Pāñcarātra traditions. He frames his discussion by invoking the Bhāgavata Purāṇa’s understanding of the relationship between Vedic and tantric traditions, mentioned earlier. He cites Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.27.7, which suggests that there are three systems of worshiping Kṛṣṇa—Vedic, tantric, and mixed—and Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.3.47, which asserts that the most expeditious means of severing the knot of bondage is to worship Kṛṣṇa through a mixed system that utilizes Vedic rituals along with tantric rituals. Following the lead of the Bhāgavata, Jīva suggests that the most effective system of worship is the mixed form that is based on the scriptural injunctions (vidhis) of the brahmanical canon of śruti and smṛti—in particular, the Vedas, Dharma-Śāstras, and Purāṇas—together with the tantric ritual procedures of the Āgamas, and more specifically the Pāñcarātra Saṃhitās.54 Jīva subsequently provides a significant re-visioning of Pāñcarātra ritual procedures for daily worship of the deity—including bhūta-śuddhi, nyāsa, and mānasa-pūjā, which are also alluded to in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa55—in which he strips away many of the tantric elements and reframes the procedures as part of a distinctively Gauḍīya sādhana-bhakti centered on Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana.56
Before examining Jīva’s reimagining of these procedures, I would like to consider, first, the specific practices that constitute this ritual regimen in Pāñcarātra traditions and, second, the ways in which this regimen is reconfigured in the Haribhaktivilāsa, the authoritative Gauḍīya ritual compendium that is ascribed to Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmin.
The Pāñcarātra Ritual Regimen
The Jayākhya Saṃhitā, one of the “three gems” of the Pāñcarātra canon, provides one of the earliest and most extensive accounts in Hindu tantric literature of the initiated sādhaka’s daily ritual regimen for transforming the bhautika-śarīra, the material body, into a divya-deha, a divinized tantric body that is qualified to offer worship to the supreme Godhead, who is referred to as Nārāyaṇa or Viṣṇu.57 The daily ritual regimen, as represented in the Jayākhya Saṃhitā, includes four principal components: bhūta-śuddhi, nyāsa, mānasa-yāga or antar-yāga, and bāhya-yāga.58
Bhūta-śuddhi, purification of the bodily elements, involves an intricate process of visualization in which the sādhaka envisions the dissolution of the material body and its reconstitution as a purified and divinized body. The sādhaka, while engaging in prāṇāyāma, visualizes drawing into the body with a series of inward breaths each of the five gross elements (bhūtas) in sequential order—earth, water, fire, air, and space—and dissolving each in turn into its corresponding subtle element (tanmātra)—smell, taste, form, touch, and sound—after which the subtle element is expelled with an outward breath. The sādhaka then envisions burning up the material body in fire, immersing the ashes in the ocean of milk, and reconstituting a pure luminous body that is identified with Nārāyaṇa.
The next stage in the process of divinizing the body is accomplished through nyāsa, imposition of mantras, in which the sādhaka ritually establishes deities in various parts of the body by mentally repeating the mantra associated with each deity and touching the designated body part. Having established the deities associated with Nārāyaṇa—for example, his four principal śaktis, his avatāras Nṛsiṃha and Varāha, and the four vyūhas—throughout the body, the sādhaka completes the process of divinization by ritually placing the seven-syllable mantra of Nārāyaṇa on all parts of the body, from head to toe, and visualizing himself as fully divinized and identified with Nārāyaṇa: “I am Lord Viṣṇu, I am Nārāyaṇa.”
The sādhaka then proceeds to perform mānasa-yāga or antar-yāga, internalized mental worship, which involves an elaborate process of visualization that culminates in establishing Nārāyaṇa on a lotus-borne throne in the heart and making offerings to him mentally. The final phase in the ritual regimen is bāhya-yāga, external worship of the deity, in which the sādhaka constructs a maṇḍala and, after installing Nārāyaṇa’s presence in the maṇḍala along with his retinue, makes offerings to him externally in the form of flowers, incense, food, and so on.
The Haribhaktivilāsa: Reconfiguring the Pāñcarātra Ritual Structure
This fourfold ritual regimen—bhūta-śuddhi, nyāsa, mānasa-yāga, and bāhya-yāga—is discussed in the fifth chapter (vilāsa) of the Haribhaktivilāsa, which delineates the Gauḍīya procedures for daily morning worship of Bhagavān that it claims are “for the most part in accordance with the injunctions (vidhis) of the Āgamas”59—although, as we shall see, the text re-orients the Viṣṇu-oriented worship of the Vaiṣṇava Āgamas by identifying Bhagavān, the supreme Godhead who is the object of worship, with Kṛṣṇa rather than Viṣṇu.60
The Haribhaktivilāsa includes a brief description of bhūta-śuddhi, the procedure through which the sādhaka attains a purified body and becomes worthy of offering worship to Kṛṣṇa.61 The text invokes the following passage from the Trailokyasammohana Tantra, which describes bhūta-śuddhi as a process of visualization involving the subtle physiology of the cakras in which the sādhaka visualizes drying up the body and consuming it in fire, after which he or she envisions purifying the ashes of the incinerated corpse with amṛta, the nectar of immortality, thereby transforming the material body into a divinized body.
The sage should purify his sinful body (deha) with the air in the navel, and he should burn up the body (kalevara) with the fire in the heart. He should contemplate (root cint) the full moon, pure and filled with the nectar of immortality (amṛta), resting on the great thousand-petaled lotus situated in the forehead. The sage should purify the remaining ashes with the flowing streams [of amṛta] from that [moon] and with these [mantras] made of varṇa-sounds. In this way he should cause the body (vapus) composed of the five gross elements (pañca-bhūtātmaka) to become divine.62
After a brief discussion of prāṇāyāma, the Haribhaktivilāsa provides an extended exposition of nyāsa.63 Among the various forms of nyāsa that are described in the text, of particular interest for our purpose is the Keśavādi-nyāsa, as it is this nyāsa that is explicitly mentioned by Jīva in the Bhakti Sandarbha, as we shall see. The Keśavādi-nyāsa involves ritually placing on the various parts of the body the varṇa-sounds of Sanskrit together with the names of the fifty-one mūrtis of Bhagavān, beginning with Keśava, and the names of his fifty-one śaktis, beginning with Kīrti. The fifty-one mūrtis include, in addition to Kṛṣṇa, the four vyūhas, the twelve mūrtis who are the presiding deities of the twelve months,64 avatāras such as Varāha and Nṛsiṃha, and a variety of other manifestations of Bhagavān. The fifty-one śaktis include Lakṣmī, Sarasvatī, Durgā, Kālī, Umā, and a variety of other female powers, although it is interesting to note that Rādhā is not explicitly mentioned in the list.65 The section on Keśavādi-nyāsa concludes with the assertion that the sādhaka who performs this nyāsa attains an imperishable body (dehinaḥ acyutatva) comparable to that of Acyuta, the supreme Godhead himself.66 The discussion of nyāsas culminates in two nyāsas that serve as a means of suffusing the sādhaka’s entire psychophysical complex with Kṛṣṇa’s presence embodied in the pulsating sounds of his mūla-mantra, the eighteen-syllable mantra: akṣara-nyāsa, which involves ritually placing each of the eighteen syllables of the mantra on all parts of the body; and pada-nyāsa, which involves placing the five parts (padas) of the eighteen-syllable mantra throughout the entire body.67
The Haribhaktivilāsa reconfigures the ritual structure of the Pāñcarātra regimen of daily worship by interjecting an extended account of meditation (dhyāna) on Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent dhāman immediately prior to its discussion of mānasa-yāga. The account consists primarily of a lengthy passage from the Kramadīpikā followed by a passage from the Gautamīya Tantra.68 In contrast to earlier verses in which the Haribhaktivilāsa recommends meditation (dhyāna) on Bhagavān in his four-armed form as Viṣṇu, bearer of the discus, conch, club, and lotus, seated in the lotus of the heart,69 the Kramadīpikā passage recommends meditating (root smṛ or root cint) on Bhagavān’s two-armed form as Gopāla Kṛṣṇa, bearer of the flute, seated on an eight-petaled lotus on his yoga-pīṭha in Vṛndāvana. The meditation involves a progressive series of visualizations that serve as a means of mentally constructing the domains of a maṇḍala: Kṛṣṇa’s transcendent abode in Vṛndāvana, his divine body stationed in the center of Vṛndāvana, his intimate associates who surround him in the inner circle, and his divine retinue in the outer circles of the maṇḍala. The meditation begins with an elaborate visualization of Vṛndāvana in which the sādhaka engages the transcendent forms, sounds, fragrances, textures, and tastes of this paradisiacal realm. The meditation then shifts to the center of the maṇḍala where Kṛṣṇa is enthroned on his yoga-pīṭha, and the sādhaka embarks on a second visualization that explores in lavish detail every part of Kṛṣṇa’s magnificent divine body (deha), from the crest of peacock feathers on the top of his head to the auspicious marks on the soles of his lotus-feet. In the next phase of the meditation, the sādhaka’s vision expands outward from the center of the maṇḍala and visualizes in turn the cows, gopas, and gopīs who encircle Kṛṣṇa. In the final phase of the meditation, the process of visualization moves beyond the inner circle of Kṛṣṇa’s intimate companions in Vṛndāvana to the various gods, sages, yogins, and celestial beings who form the divine retinue in the outer circles of the maṇḍala outside of Vṛndāvana.70
By reconfiguring the Pāñcarātra ritual structure to include an extended meditation on Kṛṣṇa in his dhāman, the Haribhaktivilāsa appears to suggest that this meditation is an essential prerequisite for the mānasa-yāga, or mānasa-pūjā,that immediately follows. The sādhaka constructs in meditation a maṇḍala with Kṛṣṇa enthroned on his yoga-pīṭha in the center of Vṛndāvana surrounded by his eternal associates and divine retinue, and this mentally constructed maṇḍala then provides the basis for the mental offerings of the mānasa-pūjā. “After meditating (root dhyā) on Bhagavān in this way and after invoking him, one should effortlessly perform pūjā to him mentally (mānasa) with all upacāras (offerings).”71 The text then delineates the procedure for establishing Kṛṣṇa’s seat (pīṭha) within the sādhaka’s own body (sva-deha), after which the sādhaka is instructed to perform an antaḥ-pūjā, internalized pūjā, in which he or she mentally offers to Bhagavān seated within the heart the sixteen upacāras that form part of the standard pūjā repertoire, including food, cloth, sandalwood paste, flowers, incense, and oil-lamps.72
The Haribhaktivilāsa concludes its discussion of the ritual regimen of daily morning worship of Bhagavān with extensive regulations concerning the performance of the bāhya-yāga, which it terms bahiḥ-pūjā and reframes as external worship that is focused not on Bhagavān’s aniconic form as a maṇḍala or yantra but rather on his embodiment in an iconic image, mūrti or arcā, or in the aniconic śālagrāma stone.73
Jīva Gosvāmin’s Re-visioning: From Tantric Sādhana to Sādhana-Bhakti
I would like to turn now to an analysis of Jīva’s re-visioning of the Pāñcarātra ritual regimen for daily worship of the deity in the Bhakti Sandarbha, which appears to be based on the Haribhaktivilāsa’s formulation of this regimen. Although he does not explicitly cite the Haribhaktivilāsa, Jīva was clearly familiar with the work,74 and in his discussion of the procedures for ritual worship (arcana) he cites passages from the Āgamas that are also cited in the Haribhaktivilāsa.75 In any case, his comments concerning the Pāñcarātra ritual regimen address a version of the regimen that is comparable to the one delineated in the Haribhaktivilāsa—although, as we shall see, he reimagines the ritual procedures for daily worship in ways that significantly alter their overall purpose. I would argue that Jīva’s reformulations of the three components of daily ritual worship that precede the bahiḥ-pūjā, external worship of the deity—bhūta-śuddhi, nyāsa, and mānasa-pūjā—are primarily aimed at re-orienting the entire worship regime from a Pāñcarātra form of tantric sādhana designed to construct a divinized tantric body that is identified with the deity to a Gauḍīya form of sādhana-bhakti designed to fashion a perfected devotional body that is like (tulya) the divine body of Kṛṣṇa but is at the same time ontologically distinct from it. Jīva reinscribes this ritual regimen as an integral part of sādhana-bhakti in which the ultimate goal is not to become identified with Kṛṣṇa in undifferentiated unity (sāyujya) but rather to realize a relationship of inconceivable difference-in-nondifference, acintya-bhedābheda, in which some distinction between the subject (āśraya) and the divine object (viṣaya) is maintained so that the jīva may relish for all eternity the intoxicating bliss of prema-rasa, enraptured devotion to the supreme Godhead.
At the outset Jīva provides a devotional framework for his discussion of the ritual regimen by stating that his concern will be to present the procedures that “pure bhaktas” are to follow in daily worship: “I will now explain, to the best of my ability, bhūta-śuddhi and other practices pertaining to pure bhaktas.”76 He recasts the entire purpose of bhūta-śuddhi, purification of the material body, by explicitly asserting that the true bhakta does not seek to divinize the body by identifying it with the body of Kṛṣṇa, for such a practice would be tantamount to ahaṅgrahopāsanā, worship of oneself as identical with the Lord. In contrast to the Haribhaktivilāsa, he eschews the language of divinization and any mention of the subtle physiology and reframes bhūta-śuddhi as a distinctively Gauḍīya practice in which the bhakta contemplates (bhāvanā) the body not in the form of Kṛṣṇa himself but rather in the form of an eternally perfect associate, parikara or pārṣada, who resides with Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent Vraja-dhāman and who embodies a particular rasa, devotional mode. In this way the practice of bhūta-śuddhi serves as a method through which an advanced practitioner of rāgānugā-bhakti can realize the particular rasa that accords with his or her svarūpa, unique inherent nature.
Those whose sole goal is devotional service (sevā) to him [the Lord] should perform bhūta-śuddhi up to the point of contemplation (bhāvanā) of one’s body (deha) as that of his eternal associate (pārṣada), which leads to the realization of the mode of devotional service to Bhagavān that accords with one’s inherent inclination.… Thus wherever it is enjoined that one should think of oneself in the form (rūpa) of one’s own beloved deity, one should instead contemplate oneself assuming the form of an eternal associate because pure bhaktas abhor worship of oneself as identical with the Lord (ahaṅgrahopāsanā). In the latter case one’s identity [with an eternal associate] is in an analogous sense only, since the bodies of the eternal associates are composed of viśuddha-sattva, pure luminous being, which is an aspect of the Lord’s cit-śakti.77
In his reformulation of the practice of bhūta-śuddhi, Jīva is thus careful to emphasize that the bhakta’s body does not in actuality become identified with the body of an eternal associate, for the eternal associates are nitya-siddhas, eternally perfect beings, whose bodies are composed of śuddha-sattva, pure luminous being, whereas ordinary bhaktas are sādhakas, practitioners of sādhana-bhakti, whose bodies are composed of prakṛti, matter, and who have not yet realized their siddha-rūpas, perfected nonmaterial bodies. For example, if the bhakta’s inherent nature is that of a gopī, then he or she will visualize the body in the form of a gopī and will seek to identify with the devotional mode—but not the actual bodies—of the nitya-siddha gopīs who reside perpetually with Kṛṣṇa in Vraja-dhāman and who are paradigmatic exemplars of mādhurya-rasa.78 Jīva suggests that this process of identifying with the devotional mode of an eternal associate in Vraja-dhāman serves as a means of purifying the bhakta’s material body through gradually imbibing the pure nature of the nitya-siddha.79
With respect to nyāsa, Jīva explicitly mentions the Keśavādi-nyāsa, which, as discussed earlier, is one of the key nyāsas described in the Haribhaktivilāsa and involves ritually establishing the fifty-one mūrtis of Bhagavān together with his fifty-one śaktis in various parts of the body. Jīva’s brief discussion reaffirms the basic procedure of mentally repeating the mantra associated with each deity (mūrti or śakti) and touching the designated body part. However, in contrast to the Haribhaktivilāsa, which considers the entire body to have been purified through bhūta-śuddhi and therefore does not object to establishing the deity in all parts of the bhakta’s body, including body parts such as the feet or anus that are deemed impure in the brahmanical hierarchy of purity,80 Jīva insists that it is inappropriate for the bhakta to visualize the deity becoming established in the “lowest parts of the body.”
With respect to the Keśavādi-nyāsa and other nyāsas, whenever the nyāsa is focused on the lowest parts of the body (adhamāṅga), one should meditate (root dhyā) on the specific mūrti, mentally repeat (root jap) the corresponding mantra, and then simply touch that particular part of the body. However, one should not meditate (root dhyā) on the deity of the mantra becoming established in that part of the body because that would not be appropriate for bhaktas.81
Like the Haribhaktivilāsa, Jīva connects mānasa-pūjā with meditation on Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent dhāman. As discussed earlier, the Haribhaktivilāsa suggests that meditation (dhyāna) on Kṛṣṇa in his dhāman is a prerequisite to mānasa-pūjā, in which the sādhaka makes mental offerings to Kṛṣṇa seated within the heart. However, Jīva goes further than the Haribhaktivilāsa in asserting, first, that the meditation (dhyāna) of true bhaktas should focus on Kṛṣṇa in the lotus of his transcendent dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, not in the lotus of the heart, and, second, that mānasa-pūjā should also involve contemplation of Kṛṣṇa exclusively in his dhāman, implying that the process of mentally offering upacāras to him should be envisioned as taking place in Vraja-dhāman rather than in the heart.
Whereas the meditation of the yogins is on [the Lord] stationed in the lotus of the heart, the principal meditation (mukhya dhyāna) [for bhaktas] is on Bhagavān stationed in his dhāman, in accordance with the declaration [in the Mṛtyuñjaya Tantra] that “One should meditate (root smṛ) on him in beautiful Vṛndāvana.” Thus mānasa-pūjā involves contemplation (root cint) of him exclusively (eva) in his dhāman. In the case of meditation (dhyāna) on the kāma-gāyatrī mantra, which makes reference to [the Lord] in the orb of the sun, this meditation also involves contemplation (root cint) of him exclusively (eva) in his dhāman. Thus it is declared [in the Brahma Saṃhitā]: “He who is the Self of all resides exclusively (eva) in Goloka”—with an emphasis on the particle eva, “exclusively.”82
Jīva further emphasizes that even when the bhakta is residing in other places outside of the earthly Vṛndāvana, he or she should manifest the dhāman in meditation (dhyāna) and contemplate (root cint) Bhagavān residing there. This mānasa-pūjā should also include meditation on Kṛṣṇa engaged with his eternal associates (parikaras) in various līlā activities in his dhāman. Moreover, Jīva maintains that the ultimate fruit of this meditation is not a mental fabrication (kalpanā-maya) of an imaginary world but an actual cognition in samādhi of “reality as it is” (yathārtha) in which the bhakta attains a direct visionary experience of the aprakaṭa līlā that unfolds eternally in the transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, beyond the material realm.83
Jīva suggests that during mānasa-pūjā or antaḥ-pūjā, internalized mental worship, the divine body and the bhakta’s body interpenetrate one another, with Kṛṣṇa entering into the limbs of the bhakta and the bhakta’s body becoming immersed in the pure effulgence (jyotir) of the absolute body of Bhagavān. However, he emphasizes that it is important for the bhakta to maintain awareness of the distinction between the divine body and the human body in order to avoid the abhorrent practice of ahaṅgrahopāsanā, worship of oneself as identical with the Lord. For example, when worshiping Kṛṣṇa’s flute as part of the mānasa-pūjā, the bhakta is instructed to contemplate the flute in Kṛṣṇa’s mouth, not in his or her own mouth. Even when displaying the bodily gesture called the veṇu-mudrā (flute gesture), which involves making the gesture of holding Kṛṣṇa’s flute to the mouth, the bhakta is cautioned to always maintain an awareness of the flute in relation to the body of Bhagavān in order to avoid lapsing into ahaṅgrahopāsanā.
With respect to the worship of ornaments such as the flute that form part of the antaḥ-pūjā involving external upacāras, [the bhakta], whose limbs are immersed (vilīna) in the effulgence (jyotir) of the Lord’s body and into whose limbs the Lord has entered (root viś + ni), should contemplate it [the flute] in the Lord’s mouth and not in his own mouth. The display of mudrās involving the Lord’s ornaments such as the flute—for example, holding the flute to one’s own mouth—should be done only for the purpose of showing him the various articles that are dear to him. However, one should not contemplate these articles as placed on one’s own limbs for the reason previously given [ahaṅgrahopāsanā].84
In his re-visioning of bhūta-śuddhi, nyāsa, and mānasa-pūjā as parts of sādhana-bhakti, Jīva presents these internalized practices as components of a process of psychophysical transformation that is based on a model of embodiment that diverges in significant ways from the Pāñcarātra model. The Pāñcarātra model of embodiment articulated in the Jayākhya Saṃhitā, like other tantric discourses, gives priority to the human body as the locus of divine embodiment and represents the process of transformation as a three-stage process: (1) in the first stage, bhūta-śuddhi, purification of the material body, the tantric sādhaka visualizes the dissolution of the material body and the reconstitution of a pure luminous body that is identified with the divine body of Nārāyaṇa; (2) in the second stage, nyāsa, imposition of mantras, the sādhaka further divinizes the body by installing divine powers throughout the psychophysiology and visualizing the body as fully identified with Nārāyaṇa; (3) in the third stage, mānasa-yāga, internalized mental worship, the sādhaka establishes the divine body of Nārāyaṇa in the heart of the divinized human body, which provides the locus for the series of mental offerings. The Gauḍīya discourse of embodiment articulated by Jīva, in contrast, gives priority to the transcendent dhāman as the locus of divine embodiment and recasts the three-stage process of transformation within a devotional framework: (1) in the first stage, bhūta-śuddhi, the bhakta purifies the material body by contemplating the body in the form of an eternal associate of Kṛṣṇa in his transcendent dhāman, Vraja-dhāman, thereby investing the body with the pure nature of the eternal associate; (2) in the second stage, nyāsa, the bhakta further purifies the body by establishing forms of Kṛṣṇa in various parts of the body and thereby investing the psychophysiology with the qualities of the divine body; (3) in the third stage, mānasa-pūjā, the bhakta meditates on Kṛṣṇa, making mental offerings to him in his transcendent dhāman rather than in the heart, and immerses the body in the pure effulgence (jyotir) of the absolute body of Bhagavān in Vraja-dhāman, thereby bringing the process of purification to fruition.
The ultimate goal of this ritual regimen, as formulated by Jīva, is not to attain a divya-deha, a divinized body that is identified with Kṛṣṇa, but rather to realize a siddha-deha or siddha-rūpa, a perfected nonmaterial body that is like Bhagavān (bhagavat-tulyatva), in that it is an aṃśa of the divine effulgence (jyotir) and partakes of the qualities and substance of the absolute body, but that always retains its distinct identity as a devotional body eternally engaged in a relationship of inconceivable difference-in-nondifference, acintya-bhedābheda, with Bhagavān in the transcendent Vraja-dhāman.85