C. The Vairāgīs
The vairāgīs constitute the ascetic order of the sect.
As we have seen in tracing the history of the sect, the origin of this order is by no means clear. Whatever may have been its beginnings, there is no system whatever about it now.
It can in nowise be compared, for instance, to the mendicant orders in the Christian Church in the Middle Ages, with their organisation, their discipline, their monastic life, ordered to the last detail by universally acknowledged authority.
We have spoken of the Vairāgīs of the sect as an order, but that is entirely a misnomer in the sense of these medieval orders, or the Buddhist monastic order:
There is no such organised body of ascetics in the Chaitanya sect; nothing even of the definiteness of the various orders of the sannyāsīs.
There are only individuals who have adopted the ascetic life, and have undergone a form of initiation at the hands of some other ascetic of the sect.
- In this sense only can they be called an order.
Beyond the one fact of initiation required of them all, there is discernible no standard, rule, discipline or authority by which the semblance of organisation can be detected.
There are certain general rules of conduct observed by these Chaitanya ascetics, but they are applicable to all sadhus of whatever sect, and can hardly be taken as constituting a discipline for an order of this sect.
Probably Vīrabhadra, the reputed founder of this ascetic phase of the sect, introduced the form of initiation called bhek, and left the movement to take what form it might:
There is no authoritative manual dealing with the life and duties of Vairāgīs, but a few popular booklets set forth in general the ideas and practices observed by them.
The Requirements of Bhek.
The term bhek is explained by Vaishnavas as coming from the Bengali word bes, meaning dress.
Originally signifying a kind of dress, the word came to stand for those who wore the dress, i.e. ascetics. But this seems fanciful.
Dr. Sen is probably much nearer to the truth in thinking that the word is derived from the Buddhist term, Bhikshu, beggar. If this is so, it sheds much light on the source of a great deal of the deterioration for which bhek stands.
The word means the initiation into the ascetic life, and stands also for that life itself:
A man takes bhek, and thereupon becomes a bhekdhārī, a bhek holder, or, more likely, a holder of the beggar's bowl. Bhek can only be given by a bhekdhārī, one who is already an ascetic.
I have found it stated in various places that Gosvāmīs can give bhek but this seems to be a mistake:
It should not be given to those who are unfit morally, mentally, or physically; to those who are lacking in bhakti; and to those who are followers of antagonistic systems of thought.
The chief requisite is the desire to surrender everything to Krishna, which is the highest of the nine points of bhakti.
There are no caste restrictions in taking bhek among the Chaitanya Vaishnavas. All alike are entitled to enter the ascetic life. This is essentially different from the various sannyāsī orders into which no Śūdra may enter.
The ritual of initiation is as follows:
No auspicious time is required for taking bhek, the emphasis being, rather, on the state of mind of the aspirant. Ten saṁskāras, or purifications, are necessary:
fasting, shaving the head, bathing in holy water, wearing the tulsi garland, putting on the Tilakas etc., taking a name, receiving the mantra, taking the kaupina, worshipping Krishna and making surrender to Krishna.
The day previous to the ceremony is spent in fasting, lying on the ground.
Rising early on the appointed day, the candidate shaves his head and bathes in Ganges or other holy water (tīrthajal), with which is mixed Pañchagavya (five products of the cow, namely, urine, excreta, curds, milk, and clarified butter).
After smearing the body with earth with appropriate mantras, and drinking water in which the image of Krishna has been bathed (Charaṇāmrita), he presents himself before the guru wearing a fresh dhoti and chādar.
The guru, taking a tulsi-bead garland, offers it first to the image of Krishna, and then, having put it around his own neck puts it on the candidate's neck with this mantra, which the latter repeats:
O garland of Tulsi, O dear to Krishna's people, I put these on.
Make me dear to Krishna as you are beloved of Vishnu and his people.
Make me thus dear to Krishna.
Then the guru takes gopīchandana, whitish clay, and marks on the candidate's body the 12 Tilakas, on forehead, stomach, breast, throat, both sides of the stomach, both arms and shoulders, and the back, at neck and waist.
The chakra (wheel) and conch (traditional marks of Vishnu) are stamped on either armpit, and names of Krishna are added anywhere on the body above the naval.
The 12 Tilakas each represent a name of Krishna and are put on with a special mantra for each.
The guru then places his hand on the candidate's head and gives him a name, beginning with the first letter of his original name, including a name of Krishna and the name Chaitanya, and ending with "das”.
The kaupina and dor are then put on him by the guru, who ties the knot himself, and adds the outer garment, called bahirbās.
The kaupina is a narrow strip of cloth worn between the thighs by Chaitanya Vairāgīs in common with most sādhus.
The dor is the string about the waist which holds the kaupina securely in place. It is the assumption of the kaupina that symbolizes the candidate's initiation into vairāgya.
The new vairāgī now receives a mantra if he has never received one before:
He is also given the Kāma Gāyatrī and the Mahāmantra, the latter a mantra popularly used for the practice of Harināma, the repetition of the divine name.
The worship of Krishna follows, in which the guru guides the new vairāgī in his worship, and directs his act of surrender to Krishna.
Certain rules pertaining to the ascetic life are enjoined upon him by the guru in private, and the ceremony is concluded by his taking the leavings of the guru as prasāda, and by his feeding the assembled Vaishnavas according to his ability.
The customary fee for this initiation is one rupee and four Annas, which goes to the bhekdhārī, or guru, who performs the ceremony.
It is an illuminating commentary upon the strength and persistence of caste feeling in India, that even this act of initiation into an order of life which supposedly transcends all caste, and in a sect founded in the enthusiasm of caste abrogation, must be performed by one from whom water can be taken.
It is interesting to note that women may take bhek, but in their case the ceremony of assuming the kaupina is omitted.
The rules mentioned above may be summarised as follows:
The new vairāgī must worship Śrī Chaitanya, reverencing all the avatāras from Nārāyaṇa to Chaitanya.
He must spend time at Vrindāvan, and consort only with Vaishnavas.
Daily he must recite mantras, the Kāma Gāyatrī, perform Harināma, and read or listen to the reading of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa.
He must not take water from a non-Vaishnava, or receive anything which has not been offered to Krishna.
He must not take food offered to any other god, and must not swear in Hari's name even if his life be at stake!
He is required to observe the ceremonies of Janmāṣṭamī and Ekādaśī, and in all things the practices of an Ekāntin Vaishnava, i.e. one who has forsaken all other gods except Krishna.
He must rid his mind of all ideas of possession, and adjust himself to the life of a vairāgī.
He is to meditate on the 8 ślokas of Chaitanya, and throughout the eight parts of the day and night he should contemplate the attitudes of Rādhā-Krishna.
He is to consider himself freed from the rules of purification; after death, his body may be burnt, buried, or cast in a river.
In another of these popular manuals we find a few rules on begging:
Whatever is received without begging is considered best of all;
that which is begged from door to door is next in value;
while that which is obtained by begging from the rich is of least value.
Begging should not take place on fast days, or on days of new and full moon; it is likewise prohibited on the banks of or on the Ganges, or any river, in the market, or in a desert place.
Land, silver, rice, cloth or gold should not be received.
Food offered at the śraddhā ceremony is taboo.
The village priest, a wine merchant, a Chāṇḍāla, or other low-caste person, and a Mleccha should not be approached.
In a third manual particular stress is laid upon the esoteric means of cultivating bhakti for the vairāgī:
While outwardly observing the rigid life of asceticism, inwardly he is to experience the delights of the gopīs with Krishna. Identifying himself with one of them, he is, in imagination to play her part in the amorous sports with Krishna.
The state of a siddha, a vairāgī who has attained complete liberation or perfection, is that where this imaginative play becomes the sole reality.
The service of this loving devotion as a female, to Krishna becomes so vivid as to be the only reality, and the devotee lies abstracted in the blissful emotion of love. This is the ideal of the true vairāgī; his heaven is above all others.
The Life of the Ākhrās
The life of the Vairāgīs of the sect today centres in the Ākhrā, or Maṭha, the monastery of the Chaitanyas.
The suggestions of the word monastery, however, are misleading, as the average Ākhrā among the Chaitanya Vairāgīs is of a very simple nature:
Sometimes it is an institution capable of sheltering a score or two, but more often it is the simple village hut, where one or two Vairāgīs make their abode, joined now and then by a few of their fellow mendicants.
Strictly speaking, an Ākhrā is to be looked for in connection with a temple or shrine; but as commonly used in Bengal the term includes any place where a few Vairāgīs congregate, whether connected with a temple or not.
A friend, whose boyhood was spent in Bhowanipore, Calcutta, tells me of such an unpretentious vairāgī centre near his childhood home:
A single vairāgī, with several female associates, lived there. From time to time other mendicants of his kind would appear there for a while, and then pass on. Now and then a sankirtan would be held. Begging seemed to be the principal feature of its life.
Many villages of Bengal have such places on their outskirts, ranging from a single abode to a more pretentious community, living in a group of huts under the rule of a head, known as a Mahant.
Doubtless the latter type has evolved out of the former.
Usually an Ākhrā considerable enough to have a Mahant is attached to, or in the vicinity of, a Vaishnava temple, and is in relationship to the Gosvāmī family which owns the temple.
Practically all the temples of any size have Ākhrās in connection as a part of the establishment.
As we have indicated, there is very little in the way of rule or discipline in these ākhrās. The requirement of daily worship, incumbent upon all good and pious Vaishnavas, is, of course, in force.
But even here considerable latitude is allowed; for the full ritual, as set forth in the manuals of the sect, would engage the worshipper's time for much of the day and night.
No system of study is obligatory; indeed, the illiterate character of most of the Vairāgīs would make such a thing impossible.
Beyond a more or less desultory repetition or singing of portions of the Bhagavatā Purāṇa or of the Chaitanya Caritamṛta daily, there is nothing in the life of these institutions that could remotely be included under the term intellectual pursuits.
Nor is there any definite teaching of the laity connected with the Ākhrā, beyond the reading just mentioned. This does, indeed, constitute something of a teaching and inspirational agency:
People are free to come and listen, and thus are led to imbibe some knowledge of the Vaishnava faith. Occasionally, also, a sankirtan is held, which the Vaishnava laity of the neighbourhood attend and share in. Broadly speaking, however, it is fair to say that the vairāgī has no teaching function in the sect.
The chief feature of the life of these ākhrās seems to be mendicancy:
This appears to be the main function of a vairāgī. The characteristic mark of a Chaitanya mendicant is that his begging is accompanied by song.
The stamp of joyous song impressed upon the movement by Chaitanya's lyric soul is still evident in the grotesque music of the humble vairāgī.
In the villages of Bengal, especially in those sections where Vaishnavism is prevalent, it is a common feature of early morning life
to see a group of these Vairāgīs begging from door to door, accompanied perhaps by their female companions, and wakening the echoes with their vociferous songs, to the accompaniment of long, slender drum and tiny cymbals.
In Calcutta as well, along the streets of the Indian section, this singing mendicancy can be observed, the singers usually working in pairs.
With the proceeds of this morning visitation of houses and shops the inmates of the Ākhrā maintain themselves.
In some cases, however, there are other means of support resorted to in addition to begging:
The inmates of certain ākhrās have been known to do some manual labour, such as basket-making. And occasionally a vairāgī may possess a bit of land, presented to him by some devout householder, or held over from the days before he ''took bhek."
In such cases the vairāgī usually lets out the property and receives rent. Such an ascetic, perhaps, would vary his mendicancy by cultivation of the soil at certain times of the year.
This, however, is in direct contravention of the ascetic vows assumed by the vairāgī; and it would seem to be rare.
In some cases the larger ākhrās possess a measure of landed endowment, which serves to insure an income for the community supplementary to the proceeds from mendicancy. In these institutions, as in temples, it is the custom to feed visiting Vaishnavas.
It must not be thought that the routine of the Ākhrā comprises the whole of the vairāgī life. While many do settle down more or less in one place, still for the majority there is another side:
There is the call of the road, the life of pilgrimage, the interesting and always varied quest of new scenes. From Navadvīpa to Purī and then to Vrindāvan, and back to Nadia, with other sacred places thrown in - this gives scope for a very considerable roving propensity.
Then there are the many melas and festivals throughout the year to be visited.
All this, doubtless, is the real life to many of the Vairāgīs, and constitutes much of the charm which draws them into the ascetic life.
The Mahant, found in all the larger ākhrās, is usually a vairāgī raised from the ranks of his fellow ascetics or a guru around whom an Ākhrā has grown up.
The mode of succession varies somewhat, but, as a rule, the ruling Mahant designates his successor:
This power to choose the successor is absolute in some cases, as, for instance when the Ākhrā is the personal property of the Mahant.
Sometimes there seems to be something like a popular choice by the vairāgī members of the Ākhrā. Any vairāgī may aspire to the honour and make a canvass for it, even to the point of bribing his fellow Vairāgīs in return for their votes. This, however, is not common.
The choice of a new Mahant in many places does not seem to be complete without the recognition and sanction of the Gosvāmī who stands in particular relation to the Ākhrā.
Whether or not there is a uniform procedure for the induction of a new Mahant I cannot say, nor how widely, if so, does it prevail.
But in certain districts, at least, the following steps are necessary:
The newly-chosen Mahant has to invite the chief members of the various branches of the ruling Gosvāmī family to a great feast (the Mahotsava) and make a gift of at least 1 rupee and 4 Annas to each of the Gosvāmīs:
In return he receives a written document confirming his Mahantship. To be acceptable to the Gosvāmī the new Mahant must be of a caste from which water can be taken by a Brahman.
The functions of a Mahant have to do with the direction of life in the Ākhrā:
The principal item in this is the daily worship of the images in the shrine, either in the Ākhrā or adjoining it. These images are usually those of Chaitanya, Rādhā and Krishna.
Then, daily homage with certain flower and food offerings must be paid to the memory of the departed Mahants whose remains, or certain relics of whom, are interred or enshrined in the Ākhrā and revered in a manner that borders on worship.
On certain occasions the Mahotsava ceremony has to be celebrated by the Mahant; and festive occasions in the homes of householder adherents have to be graced by his presence.
The giving of bhek falls to his charge, and in those cases where he may have disciples among lay Vaishnavas, he must visit them periodically, just as in the case of the Gosvāmīs whose visits we have described.
It is not unusual for a Mahant to have disciples, and thus to assume the guru relation which was originally the sole province of the Gosvāmīs.
Indeed, Vairāgīs themselves may have disciples:
Some years ago there was a famous vairāgī in Navadvīpa man of education-who had Brahman and even Gosvāmī disciples. He was buried in one of the temples there, and receives daily worship.
Female Ascetics.
Vairāgīs are, of course, vowed to a life of celibacy, but the life of the ākhrās shows a wide departure in practice from this ideal:
In most of them there are women inhabitants, who are usually themselves female ascetics, vairāgīnīs. They are called sevādāsīs, maid servants, but it must be confessed that, as a rule, they are also concubines.
Usually they live quite openly with Mahant or vairāgī as wives.
In one village, I am told, on the death of the Mahant of the Ākhrā, the woman who had lived as his wife took a fancy to a young fellow in the village, not a vairāgī at all,
and managed to get him sanctioned by the Gosvāmīs as the Mahant of the Ākhrā. He is now living with several women about him, supported in comfort by his disciples.
Just how and why these women come into the mendicant life and into this free relationship with vairāgīs is not easy to determine:
It is difficult to get all the facts about such a situation; for, while the condition is manifest and has long been accepted, naturally the adherents of the sect do not relish the unveiling of the unsavoury aspects of their movement.
In conversation with the Mahant of an Ākhrā in Navadvīpa, I could get no admission of the facts about Vaiṣṇavīs and their presence in the ākhrās:
He denied all knowledge of it; yet near us, in the Ākhrā where we sat, were two females, well past their prime, who evidently belonged there.
If we are to judge by the testimony of one writer, himself a resident of Navadvīpa, we must believe that
the Chaitanite nuns are recruited chiefly from the superannuated unfortunates of the towns. The order is joined also by some of the unchaste widows of the lower classes.
But, true as this must be in part, we cannot accept it as stating the whole truth:
No matter how degraded such a mendicant order may have become, it taxes credulity to be told that there come into it none of sincere purpose and decent life.
Doubtless, the ranks of Hindu widows furnish a great many recruits, drawn into the mendicant life for various reasons.
A vivid picture is found in Lal Behari Dey's Bengal Peasant Life, of the enticing of a young widow into this life by a vairāgī, and it is quite likely that illicit love affairs play no small part in this matter.
More often the recruits are widows left with no one to care for them, no family connections to hold them. Thus the way is easy. It is doubtless true also that prostitution produces candidates for the order.
Whether widows or unfortunates, their action is understandable:
To simple and uneducated women, consigned for life to the drudgery and constraint of a widow's lot, or ageing in the pitiless life of the prostitute, it is not strange that a Vaiṣṇavīs life should offer some appeal.
By its very social ostracism it becomes a life of freedom, rid of all irksome restraint, and yet tinged with the romance of possible pilgrimage and the nomadic life.
Practically all of the women who join the ranks of the Vairāgīs take bhek and become vairāgīnīs. Some shave their heads, but this is not true of all. Ordinarily they have no marks by which to distinguish them, wearing the usual dress of a Hindu widow.
From a social point of view, much of the vairāgī life of the Vaishnavas is really a system of widow remarriage without the recognition of society.
Not all of these vairāgīnīs, or Vaiṣṇavīs, as they are indiscriminately called, are living with vairāgīs:
Here and there through the villages they are to be found living alone, doing nothing in particular except the customary begging. One of my students tells me of such a Vaiṣṇavī in his own village.
In a village in the Dacca district, I saw the ruins of a clump of huts where a group of Vaiṣṇavīs had lived together.
They were, however, largely women whose Vairāgīs had died.
It is unfair, also, to take for granted that all women living in ākhrās are living in relationship with men. Often several women may be living in an Ākhrā with one vairāgī. One of them lives as his wife, while the others are quite free of any promiscuous relationship.
It is not uncommon for a respectable Vaishnava woman, left alone in widowhood and not desiring to be a burden on her children, to take bhek and go to the Ākhrā of her guru to serve her novitiate, as it were.
Here she can live her own life, without necessarily establishing any sort of connection with the male inmates.
Furthermore, it is to be remembered that, among devout and elderly Vaishnava widows, it is a common desire to spend the last days of life at Vrindāvan in a life of devotion. Many do this.
One of my students tells me that his own grandmother, at an extreme age, left behind her the comfort and the affectionate care of her daughter's home in Bengal, and went to Vrindāvan. There she took bhek and lived out her life as a vairāginī.
On her death the family were not permitted even to touch her body, the Vairāgīs performing the last rites. No śraddhā ceremony was allowed.
It is well to keep such facts of the vairāginī life in mind, in judging an order which has become so degraded as has that of the Chaitanya mendicants.
But, on the whole, the fact remains, that in Bengal generally the term, Vaiṣṇavī, has come to mean a woman of rather unsavoury character.
These women are commonly called Mātājī just as the vairāgī is known as Bābājī.
In an old temple in Dacca I found a curious situation, illustrating what must be rather an unusual role for a Vaiṣṇavī:
The temple was in sole possession of a woman and two youths, her adopted sons, one a defective.
The pujārī of the temple, a vairāgī, whom she called her guru and with whom she had been living, had recently died. He had been the guru of this woman's husband, and when she was left a widow he had persuaded her to join him.
After his death the woman and the young boy of 14 years of age “carried on”. The boy acted as pujārī of the temple, and together they maintained the guru relationship to the various disciples of the vairāgī. She visited them as he had done, and received the customary gifts.
When initiation was necessary, the 14-year-old boy gave initiation.
Up to within a few years ago, I am told, at an annual festival held at Pānihāti, not far from Calcutta and also at Rangpur in northern Bengal, there used to be maintained a sort of clearing house for Vaiṣṇavīs.
If a vairāgī did not like his partner, he could here choose another:
There were hundreds of women to pick from, but they were all placed in a row on the ground, veiled except for hands and feet, and the poor vairāgī had to risk his conjugal happiness for a year upon his skill in reading character in a lady's finger tips!
Once chosen, the arrangement had to stand for a year, and the vairāgī paid a small fee for the service.
Whether anything of the sort is still to be found in Bengal I cannot say, but it is quite possible.
The women often take their share of the begging along with the men:
In Bankim Chatterjee's novel, Bishabriksha, there is a vivid picture of the inner bg-sky apartments of a well-to-do Bengali household, with the women and children being entertained by a Vaiṣṇavī who sang of Rādhā and Krishna's amours.
More often, probably, they accompany the vairāgīs as they go their rounds, joining with them in song.
Formerly, they were of considerable use in spreading Vaiṣṇavism among the womenfolk of better-class homes; for they were literate enough to teach the faith. But now there is little, if anything, of this sort of thing going on.
The mendicant class of the sect, including both sexes, has become so illiterate and of such low repute, that it possesses neither the ability nor sanctity necessary to make it a force.
In general estimation the terms vairāgī and vairāginī have come to stand very largely for ignorance and dissoluteness.
The demonstration of the state in which Vairāgīs have for long habitually lived lies in the fact of the distinct class which makes up the fourth of the groups into which the sect is divided.
It is composed to a large extent of the offspring of Vairāgīs.
Principal Ākhrās.
The principal ākhrās of the sect are those of Navadvīpa and Purī:
At each spot in Bengal made famous by association with the life of Chaitanya or his leading disciples, there are usually temples and ākhrās.
At Dhakkā- dakṣin, in Sylhet, the home of Chaitanya's father, there are a well-known temple and several ākhrās; and Sylhet town possesses a dozen ākhrās at least, most of which possess some endowment.
Those at Kālnā, near Navadvīpa, and Rāyganj, in the Dinājpur district, are well known among Vaishnavas.
In Navadvīpa there are some 10 ākhrās capable of sheltering from 20 to 30 inmates, and many small ones:
The largest, known as "the Bara Ākhrā," has no direct connection in tradition with Chaitanya, but that which is associated with the famous courtyard of Śrīvāsa is, of course, of special sanctity. In the "Bara Ākhrā" Krishna is worshipped, but, in the latter, Gaurāṅga himself.
The larger ākhrās or Navadvīpa are fairly commodious, with a large covered pavement in the centre, or adjoining, for kīrtans.
In Purī there are two associated with the Chaitanya vairāgīs, the Radhākānta maṭha and the Yameśvarṭoṭa Ākhrā, where Chaitanya himself lived during his life at Purī.
The latter is connected with the Gopīnātha temple, and may be called the chief centre of the sect in Orissa. The cell occupied by Chaitanya is shown here, together with what remains of certain relics.
The Mahant of the Radhākānta maṭha is an intelligent man, educated in English. He is a descendant of Bakreśvar, one of the companions of Chaitanya.
Of the smaller ākhrās throughout Orissa, I am told the Mahants are sometimes of the householder class.
There are a good many ākhrās of some standing in and about Calcutta, belonging to the Chaitanya Vaishnavas. Some of these are of considerable age, but they have degenerated and lost much of their prestige.
Vairāgīs still frequent them, however, and in the month of Kārtik (October-November) they gather here in considerable numbers.
The Mahāprabhu’s Ākhrā, in Hāttalla, belongs to the Baghnapara line of Gosvāmīs. With the shrine attached, it is supported largely by their disciples.
The Tetultalla Ākhrā claims a record of more than 300 years. Its ordinary complement of vairāgīs is 7-8, but this number is swelled to 20-30 in Kārtik.
The Baladeva Ākhrā, named from its idol, is on Grey Street. It is 150 years old and harbours upwards of 50 vairāgīs in Kārtik. Formerly this Ākhrā was ruled over by a woman, whose property it was.
In Nimtolla Ghat Street is the Sarabhuj Mahāprabhu Ākhrā, possessing a six-armed image of Chaitanya, the arms representing the three avatars of Vishnu, viz. Rāma, Krishna and Chaitanya.
This institution is considered one of the oldest and best of the sect, claiming some 300 years antiquity. It accommodates from half a dozen inmates in ordinary times to 50 in Kārtik.
In the centre of the Marwari district there is a large maṭha, called the Bara Ākhrā, which is a dungeon-like place frequented chiefly by Brajbāsīs i.e. Vairāgīs from Vrindāvan. Its Mahant is a Bengali.
There are numerous other ākhrās in Calcutta, along the water front and in the neighbourhood of the principal bathing ghāṭs:
But these places lack the permanence of those named; they are inhabited by Vairāgīs, from Orissa chiefly, who settle down wherever they find a convenient shrine.
None of these ākhrās have any endowment, but are supported by the gifts of disciples.
As many of the wealthy Śurīs (wine merchants) and similar caste families of north Calcutta are Vaishnavas, the support of these unpretentious shrines and ākhrās should not be a problem.
They are quite humble in appearance, outwardly having little to distinguish them from the dwelling houses of ordinary type in the congested areas of Calcutta.
A series of small rooms around a limited courtyard, on one side of which is a small shrine containing the images of Gaur-Nitāi and Rādhā-Krishna - this is all that appears to the outward eye in the humbler of these ākhrās.
Death Customs.
On the death of a vairāgī there is no fixed rule for the disposal of the body, and any vairāgī may perform the final rites.
The body may be burnt, buried, or floated away on the waters of a river. As a rule the body is buried, although the exceptions are many.
No Śrāddha is performed for a vairāgī. The following ceremonial is observed at burial:
The 12 Tilakas are put on the body and the bīj mantra, a mystic word or syllable representing a mantra, is stamped on each tilak with Chandana paste, and over each is placed a leaf of tulsi.
A fresh kaupina is put on the body, and a Nāmāvalī - a cloth on which are stamped or printed the names of Krishna is wrapped about the head.
After burial, āratī, the waving of lights, is performed while circling the grave, and a tulsi plant is planted on the grave.
Then takes place the Mahotsava, the common meal of all Vaishnavas, which seems to take the place of the Śrāddha and must be held at the death of every vairāgī.
Dai and chira, curds and flattened rice, are eaten on this occasion. There must be at least five Vairāgīs present to constitute a Mahotsava, according to the rule told me in the Dacca district.
Akin to this is the dibasi, a feast eaten by the Vairāgīs who have taken part in the burial of a Mahant. It is held immediately after the ceremony, and must be observed each month thereafter, on the day of the death, for 12 months.
A brick tomb, called samādhi, is erected over the grave of a vairāgī if there is sufficient means. In case the vairāgī had disciples, they provide the samādhi; if he were an inmate of a considerable Ākhrā, it probably takes the necessary steps.
Daily offerings of flowers and Chandana are made at the samadhi, by disciples or others.
In the courtyard of a temple in Dacca I noted a row of samādhis, marking the graves of the various pujārīs and vairāgīs who had served there:
Those most recently deceased had much the least pretentious samādhis; due, probably, to a dwindling constituency of disciples. The Vaiṣṇavī who had lived with the last vairāgī pujārī cared for the samādhi scrupulously.
Every morning it was washed with lep (a wash made from cowdung), or some whitening material, and flowers and Chandana offered. In the evening she performed the dhūpārati, waving a pot of burning incense before it and around it.
The expense of this is borne by the disciples of the departed vairāgī.
Of the extent of this ascetic order in the sect it is impossible to say. There are no statistics available. But the number is still considerable, although there has been a decided falling off in recent years.
Its influence and importance is very little, and it exists chiefly as a melancholy symbol of moral degeneration and corruption more potent than the spiritual life which gave it birth.