Theological
1. The Idea of God
In its philosophy the Bengal school lays claim to orthodoxy,
because it accepts the Upanishads, the Brahma Sūtras and the Gītā as authoritative scriptures, and the One-without-a-second as the Supreme Reality.
It agrees with the Vedanta in describing that Reality as possessing the three familiar attributes, sat, chit, ānanda. It is in the interpretation of these attributes that Vaishnavism departs from the Vedāntic position.
To the Vedāntist they signify aspects of pure being, undifferentiated and unmodified. To the Vaishnava the third term, ānanda, offers the key to the interpretation of the Supreme Being:
It is pure bliss, self-differentiated, the ground of all life and the source of all the sentiments (rasa) that give human life its meaning and value.
A text from the Taittirīya Upanishad gives the authoritative clue:
Having performed austerity, he understood that Brahma is bliss (ānanda). For truly, indeed, beings here are born from bliss, when born they live by bliss, on deceasing they enter into bliss.
From this interpretation of Reality the characteristic doctrine of a personal God of love and grace is derived, with loving devotion as the natural relation between this Being and the creatures which have sprung from his creative will.
Bhagavān, or Hari, is the name given to the Supreme.
He is infinite in nature, power and attributes.
The creative, destructive and sustaining aspects which appear in Hindu theology as Brahma, Śiva and Vishnu, are manifestations of his nature.
All the forms in which the Supreme has been conceived of and worshipped in Hindu thought are included in Bhagavān. He is the source of infinite forms.
Of all these forms, that of Krishna is the most perfect. He is deity in his most entrancing aspect; the Supreme at his best, if we may so put it! Nothing can be conceived of the beauty and blissfulness of the Eternal Reality that transcends Śrī Krishna.
Although inclusive of the Vedāntic idea of negative being, he is personal, a being full of grace and mercy, whose pleasure it is to seek the welfare of his devotees:
“He has no other work than to gratify his servants' wishes.” He seeks the loving devotion of his worshippers, and graciously gives himself to them.
He is himself the essence of love, the home of all blissfulness and delight. His supreme delight is in love! Only by love and adoration can he be attained.
Of the infinite powers of Krishna 3 are chief:
They are called the internal, the external and the marginal;
- the chit or intelligence power,
- the māyā or illusion power, and
- the preservation or Jīva power.
From the jīva power comes the individual soul,
from the Māyic power comes the whole creation,
while the chit power represents the Supreme intelligence and will.
The exact nature of the Supremes’ relation to the material creation and its inhabitants is something of a mystery in the sect's philosophy.
By His infinite powers the universe and its creatures have come into being, and they have a substantial reality, but a clear statement of that reality is admittedly impossible.
Human souls are of the Supreme and dependent upon him, atomic portions of his nature, but yet separate and distinct.
Neither monism nor dualism is acceptable to the Chaitanya thinker;
with the result that he takes refuge in an intermediate position, a compromise, called Acintya bhedābheda, i.e. "Incomprehensible dualistic monism."'
"This is not understood," a modern writer confesses, "but felt in the soul as an intuitive truth."
The chief of all Krishna’s powers is the chit power, and of this the crowning manifestation is the hlādinī, the power of delight. This is the ecstatic aspect of the divine, the supreme erotic principle by which all find delight in love, deity and creature alike:
Hlādinī is so named because of giving delight to Krishna, who tastes delight through that power. Krishna himself is delight and tastes delight. Hlādinī is the cause of the bhakta's delight; the essence of Hlādinī is called prema (love).
Rādhā is the modification of Krishna's love. Her name is the very essence of the delight- giving power.
Hlādinī makes Krishna taste delight. Through Hlādinī the bhaktas are nursed.
This conception of the Supreme nature is the ruling idea of the sect. He is the source of perfect bliss, producing delight, and revelling in delight.
"He is the attractor of all, the delighter of all, the great elixir of life."
He fascinates men, mind and body, intoxicating them, stealing their hearts. Sweetness predominates in his nature. In comparison with this supreme blissfulness spiritual delight ''is as grass. "
The manifestation of this ecstatic or erotic principle of the Supreme is eternal līlā, sport or play, and the ideal representation of this is the gopī-līlā, the play of Krishna with the milkmaids at Vrindāvan:
It is "a system of which love and sport form the distinguishing characteristics.''
Considerable theological confusion appears in the teaching about God, because of the potpourri method employed of including all schools of Indian thought indiscriminately in support of what is essentially a theistic faith. Hopelessly mixed up with contradictory philosophy is the vast mass of Purāṇic mythology.
Particularly confusing is it to have the various stages of the theological development undistinguished, with varying conceptions found side by side.
Thus there appears the absolute Brahma of the Vedanta, Vishnu as Brahma, Krishna as the incarnation of Vishnu, Krishna as Viṣṇu, Krishna as Brahma. The effect is that of inconsistency in the conception of the Supreme.
From the viewpoint of the religious experience of the sect, however, there is no dubiety:
The faith of Chaitanya and his followers was intensely theistic; for them Krishna is the Supreme being, whom to love and serve was the chief end and joy of man.
2. The Doctrine of Incarnation
The incarnation doctrine of the sect is really twofold; first as it treats of Krishna, and second of Chaitanya:
There is little or no discussion of the theory of incarnation. The familiar teaching of the Gītā is accepted. "In every age Krishna becomes incarnate.”
We are also told that "The dwelling place of all [forms of God] is in the highest heaven, beyond all māyā; when any of them descends to earth, it is called an incarnation."
Krishna as the Supreme Being is declared to have assumed endless incarnations. But among them all his appearance among the groves of Vrindāvan is the supreme manifestation:
This Krishna in Braja is the most perfect god.
All other forms may be called perfect and less perfect.
This is the determinative doctrine of the sect:
"The highest, best and most spiritual ideal of divinity is in Krishna.''
The second phase of the doctrine has to do with Chaitanya:
In all probability he himself did not lay any claim to divine honours. We find repeated instances recorded where he deprecated any tendencies to honour him as more than man.
The accounts in the Caritamṛta of his revealing himself to various disciples in the form of deity are a part of its legendary deposit.
But the belief that he was an incarnation of Krishna certainly took form during his lifetime, and it was therefore easy for his biographers to represent him as revealing his own deity.
The doctrine concerning Chaitanya as an incarnation of Krishna is clearly expressed in the Caritamṛta and repeatedly recognised:
The account of the Satya, Trētā, Dvāpara and Kālī yugas (ages).
White, red, dark, and yellow are serially the four colours. Krishna puts on these four colours and establishes the dharma of the Age...
The dharma of the Kālī yuga is the chanting of Krishna's name:
This he has inaugurated by assuming yellow colour, and has given love and devotion to people together with his disciples. Brajendranandan (the son of Braja's lord, i.e. Krishna) is establishing his religion, and people are dancing and singing in love, making sankirtan.
Sanātana speaks of what the marks of God are: yellow complexion, works such as the bestowing of love and sankirtan; (he who has these) he certainly is the incarnation of Krishna.
Chaitanya created this love sankirtan: his incarnation is for the preaching of religion.
In the Haribhaktivilāsa, the authoritative work on ritual for the sect, there is no direction given for the worship of Chaitanya, but at the beginning of each chapter there is an invocation to him which seems to indicate a state of mind verging on worship.
The peculiar ideas of the sect led to an elaboration of the incarnation doctrine in connection with Chaitanya which is characteristic.
He was held to be the incarnation not only of Krishna, but of Rādhā as well:
We rend that Krishna was charmed by his own beauty, and desired to experience the supreme feelings that Rādhā felt for him. Thus he took form in Chaitanya as himself and Rādhā combined.
The germ of this idea is clearly found in the Caritamṛta in these passages:
Having assumed the feelings and beauty of Rādhikā, you have become incarnate in order to relish your own delight.
Rādhā and Krishna are one soul in two bodies. They delight each other by tasting love.
The two of them are now one Chaitanya Gosāin. The two have become one in order to enjoy the supreme emotion (Mahābhāva).
Later writers developed this theme with delight:
This theory of double incarnation explains the golden hue of Chaitanya's body, which, were it not for the Rādhā element, would have been dark like Krishna's.
A still further elaboration of the ideas connected with the milkmaids of the story makes the principal followers of Chaitanya incarnations of these gopīs.
3. The Conception of Sin.
The teaching about sin is decidedly meagre:
The conception of avidyā (ignorance) and māyā (illusion), which, in spite of the sect's anti-Śaṅkara philosophy, affects all its thought of the soul's life in this world, tends to make the conception of sinfulness unreal.
For a soul enfolded in ignorance and fettered by illusion sin is hardly an ethical problem. Yet the language of ethical ideas is constantly used. In the absence of any clear doctrine inconsistency is apt to result.
Various sins are mentioned, such as abuse, blasphemy in calling a man God, lust and anger! Theological heresy is counted a grievous sin.
The general term, "sin against Vaishnavism," is likened to a wild elephant rooting up a precious plant. This sin is anything that stands in the way of the development of bhakti toward Krishna.
As the love of Krishna is the supreme object of life, so that is sin which prevents men from pursuing this object, whether it be worldliness, fleshly lusts or wrong philosophy.
There is a curious passage in the Caritamṛta which suggests a note of vicarious suffering for sin:
One of the disciples asks that all the sins of mankind be laid on his head in order that men may be freed from their sufferings. Chaitanya replies that this is unnecessary, as they will all be freed without suffering:
You have prayed for the salvation of all beings in the world.
Yes, they will find deliverance without undergoing punishment for their sins. Krishna is not powerless; he has all kinds of power.
Why should he make you suffer for their sins? They whose welfare you desire have all become Vaishnavas, and Krishna takes away the sin of Vaishnavas. The whole world will be saved since you have wished it, for to Krishna it is no labour to redeem all.
This suggestion of vicarious suffering for the sins of others must be taken as a hyperbolic expression without any meaning, for it bears no relation to the teaching of the sect.
The above passage effectually disposes of the idea of suffering of any kind in connection with deliverance from sin. This deliverance calls for no suffering or effort whatever. It is accomplished by a mere gesture of omnipotence.
The great solvent for sin is the repetition of Krishna's name. That alone washes away all sins; one utterance, even, suffices.
4. Salvation.
The idea of salvation, common to most Hindu thought as mukti, emancipation or liberation, is conceived of as having 5 aspects, or states. These are as follows:
1. Sālokya (being in the same plane with God).
2. Sāmīpya (nearness to God).
3. Sārūpya (liken to God).
4. Sārṣṭi (equalling the glory of God); and
5. Sāyujya (absolution in God).
Of these five modes or aspects, the last, Sāyujya is that, which is traditionally associated with the term mukti in Hindu thought, at least in Śankara’s Vedanta.
To salvation as thus conceived the Chaitanya theologians took vigorous exception. So much so, that the very term mukti became distasteful to them.
Although it included aspects identical with Vaishnava thought, the fact of its being associated with the Vedāntic conception of absorption made it suspect and undesirable.
As one of Chaitanya's disciples exclaimed:
At the sound of sāyujya the bhakta feels hatred and fear. He prefers hell to it.
At the utterance of the word mukti, hatred and fear arise in the mind; at the utterance of the word bhakti, the mind is filled with joy.
There emerges here a fundamental difference between Vaishnava and Vedāntic thought.
To the Vaishnava thinker the Vedāntic doctrine destroyed the possibility of that which gave meaning to salvation, namely, the enjoyment of God.
To him the very idea of salvation involves personal consciousness, and a real relationship between lover and beloved.
The illusory doctrine of Śankarāchārya, by which the reality of the son's existence is only seeming, cut way the basis of the Vaishnava conception of life, both here and in the heavenly Vrindāvan, and made of bhakti only a fleeting experience.
When this vital difference in conceptions is clearly grasped it is easy to understand the theological antipathy of the Vaishnavas at this point. Their dearest experiences and hopes were at stake.
The state from which men are saved is that of bondage to the world, and that to which they are saved is an eternal experience of love.
Souls are eternal servants of Krishna, but through forgetfulness they become fettered and entangled in things material, which is the power of illusion.
As long as the soul continues thus, it is subject to birth and re-birth, with all the sufferings that accompany the working of the law of karma.
But when, by whatever means, the soul, becoming conscious of its rightful relation to Krishna as its lord and saviour, turns to him in faith, it is rid of illusion and finds salvation through the experience of bhakti.
The soul is saved by faith; faith breeds bhakti, and bhakti is fulfilled in perfect love (prīti), which is the supreme end and good of the soul.
Therefore bhakti is the means of gaining Krishna, which is called abhidheya in all the Śāstras.
Just as the gaining of wealth yields pleasure as its fruit, by which sorrow flies away of itself; so, similarly, the fruit of bhakti is the springing up of love to Krishna, by the taste of which the cycle of birth and rebirth is destroyed.
But the removal of poverty, or the cessation of rebirth, is not the fruit of love; its highest aim is the enjoyment of love's felicity.
This recognition of love as the soul's highest state is repeatedly emphasized:
Delight in Him is the supreme human attainment... the highest beatitude comes only from serving his feet.
It is "the highest fruit, the supreme human bliss, in comparison with which the four human attainments are as straw."
The bhakti-mārga (path of devotion) is the only sufficient way to salvation.
Other ways there are, such as jñāna, karma, and yoga, and these are acknowledged as effective in the past, but they are superseded now and are worthless as compared to bhakti.
Without an admixture of bhakti none of them can lead to salvation, while bhakti alone is all-sufficient.
The difficulty with these earlier ways is their inability to produce love, which is the essence of salvation! Furthermore, they give to the mukti which is their goal a tinge of selfishness.
They are suggestive of effort and desire in the pursuit of salvation, whereas bhakti has no thought of self or gain, it seeks only to pour itself out in an abandon of devotion to its lord.
For this further reason, in addition to the important one noted above, the term mukti is rejected by the Vaishnavas, and bhakti takes its place as the all-inclusive term for salvation, both as to method and goal.
Liberation and devotion are treated as two definitely contrasted ends, and liberation is consistently condemned.
That salvation is not the goal of bhakti is repeated again and again. The devotion of the faithful is disinterested, seeking nothing beyond the service of love.
Salvation through faith and bhakti is not limited, as the other ways necessarily are:
One needs to be neither a pandit, nor an ascetic, nor well-born. The chanting of the divine name creates bhakti, and this is open to the lowest castes.
Here sounds the great note in Chaitanya’s teaching, revealing his deepest insight into the nature of man:
A Brahman of good family is not thereby worthy to worship Krishna; neither is a low-caste man necessarily unfit.
In the worship of Krishna there is no consideration of caste or family. “Even an ignorant man, by Krishna's grace, gets to the opposite shore of the ocean of the emotions.”
5. Heaven and Future Existence.
As we have seen, the sect's doctrine of salvation involves a very real conception of a heavenly life. This heavenly existence is not a mere intermediate affair, a temporary bliss between rebirths on earth.
Through bhakti, disinterested and entire, bondage to rebirth is broken, and the soul attains a celestial body and is raised by Krishna to equality with his own nature.
This felicitous state is conceived of as an eternity of the sports of Vrindāvan, in which the faithful share in serving Krishna as did the gopīs.
Existence in the spiritual universe apparently is divided into different realms:
We read of Vaikuṇṭha, the heaven of Vishnu, of Goloka, the heaven of Krishna, and also of the eternal Vrindāvan. The two latter are generally treated as the same, although there is occasional discrimination.
The followers of the esoteric, or higher form of bhakti, attain to Vrindāvan, while those of the lower form go to Vaikuṇṭha (in Śrī Vaiṣṇavism the supreme realm is Vaikuṇṭha).
There seems to be a distinct note of inferiority in this assignment:
However, by modern Vaishnavas, these seemingly different levels are interpreted as simply different aspects, or stages, of heavenly existence, since anything like a hierarchy of Vaishnavas would be contrary to the sect's teaching and fellowship.
As there is little clear or systematic teaching on this subject, the eschatological ideas of the sect cannot be formulated very satisfactorily.
6. Revelation.
The Supreme Being reveals himself directly in the soul, and through the guru and the scriptures.
Of the first there is very little: “If Krishna is gracious, then some fortunate man is taught by him, as his guru, within his heart."
In this direct inspiration of the soul of man, his intuition (ruchi) and not his reason (yukti) is the channel. Indeed, the reason is looked upon with distrust.
As for the śāstras, the Vedas are accepted as the only revelation, eternal in nature. But this is only the lip service of theologians, desiring to maintain the appearance of orthodoxy:
Various passages, indeed, are found, side by side with these orthodox statements, in which they are flatly denied.
The real feeling of the sect is more truly reflected in the frank statement reported in the third book of the Caritamṛta to the effect that Vedāntic study is to be eschewed as it cuts the nerve of devotion.
The Purāṇas are held to be the explanations of the Vedas, and we are told that the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and the Upanishads speak as with one voice:
This Purāṇa is held to be the only satisfactory commentary upon the Upanishads, the Vedas and the Brahma Sūtras. Thus the Bhāgavata Purāṇa is the supreme scripture of the sect.
Next to this the Caritamṛta, the biography of Chaitanya, is held in highest reverence.
There is no canon, although certain works have held pre-eminence, such as those used by Chaitanya and the standard authorities for ritual and theology.
The third channel of revelation, the Guru, was accepted by the sect as a part of the Vaishnava heritage. Chaitanya's own experience would have been sufficient, doubtless, to fix the guru in the sect as essential, had that been necessary.
Fortunately, his insistence on the spiritual qualifications of the guru made the relationship of real worth. The guru must know the mysteries of Krishna! This is the one essential.
Caste status or privilege of any kind has nothing to do with it. Guru is to be served with utmost honour, for this is one of the means of grace.
The extent to which the guru is believed to be the direct agency of Krishna is indicated in the following passages:
Bhakti is to be heard from and asked of the guru.
The guru who gives instructions I know as the very self of Krishna.
The guru is the self of Krishna according to the śāstras, and Krishna shows kindness to the devotee In the form of the guru.
It is difficult to believe that the actual identity of the Guru and the Supreme is taught here, but there is no doubt of the lengths to which this doctrine was carried in the exaltation of the Guru, "the most irrational of all Hindu irrationalities.”
It is not likely that Chaitanya or the early leaders of the sect emphasized the extreme phase of this doctrine:
The Vrindāvan fathers and the associates of Chaitanya were all gurus, because of their spiritual attainments and their association with him. So it was with the great leaders of the following century. Their piety and power made them gurus by right.
In time, however, the Guruship became hereditary and largely bereft of spiritual significance and the doctrine was so taught as practically to deify the guru and make him more feared than the wrath of God himself.
Such texts as the following are found in the later literature:
The guru is always to be worshipped: he is most excellent from being one with the mantra. Hari is pleased when the guru is pleased: millions of acts of homage else will fail of being accepted.
When Hari is in anger, the guru is our protector, when the guru is in anger, we have none.
In all manuals on ritual for guidance in worship used by the rank and file of Vaishnavas in Bengal, there are elaborate directions for the reverence of the guru preceding that of Chaitanya.
7. Man and the World.
The reality of the world and the creatures which inhabit it, as we have seen, is stoutly maintained as against the illusion theory of Śankarāchārya, although the nature of this reality is not entirely clear.
Human souls are only separated parts of the Supreme, sparks from the central flame; and yet they are distinct from him and independent, determining their own actions.
We have already noted the philosophical basis of this doctrine, called Achintya bhedābheda, illuminatingly defined by a pandit of the sect as "inconceivable simultaneous existence of distinction and non-distinction.”
The world is the māyic-jagat, the sphere where the power of illusion easily binds men in fetters of material enjoyment, in consequence of which they suffer the pangs of perpetual rebirth.
But it is also a place where the noblest operations are possible to the soul, where bhakti may be learned and spiritual character developed.
Man is meant to be the servant of the Supreme, but easily becomes the slave of māyā.
From the standpoint of the law of karma and its workings, life in this world is suffering and sorrow, but to the Vaishnava thinker the rigours of the karmic law are modified by the joys of bhakti, which are possible to all.
The dominant note, therefore, is that the world and its life is good. The eye of faith can see the Lord in one's fellowmen, and in every object of Nature.
In general it may be said that the sect teaches a noble doctrine of man:
No man is too low to be incapable of response to the divine. The capacities for devotion only need to be aroused and cultivated to make them blossom in bhakti.
Woman is included in this conception. There is no direct teaching to this effect, but the theory and practice of the sect confirm it.
Woman's devotion, indeed, is at the heart of the sect's theology; for it teaches that all worshippers in their attitude toward the divine should be feminine!
This teaching is an advance upon that which has marked much of Hinduism, with its exclusion of women and low castes from the higher privileges of religion.