Sacred Rapture

The subject of week 8 was Bhakti-rasa. The articles we used in the readings were the following:
Delmonico, Neal. “Sacred Rapture: The Bhakti Rasa Theory of Rüpa Gosvamin.” in Gifts of Sacred Wonder. 141-168.

Delmonico, Neal. “For that Sacred Taste: The Rasa Problem in the Works of Rüpa Gosvämin.” in (ed.) N. N. Bhattacharya. Medieval Bhakti Movements in India. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1989. 325-336.

Delmonico, Neal. "The Blazing Sapphire: A Translation in Progress of Rüpa Gosvämin's Ujjvala-nilamani." JVS 5.1. Winter 1996-1997. 21-52.

Brzezinski, Jan K. “Does Krishna marry the gopis in the end?” JVS 5.4, Fall 1997. 49-110.

As you can see, it was pretty heavily skewed towards Nitaiji's articles on bhakti-rasa, and with good reason. I believe he is in all probability one of the masters of the subject in the world today. The only caveat I would have is that the explanations were perhaps not quite ideal introductory matter. But the students were game and we had a pretty nice two hours of discussion. One of my students is doing her PhD in Vallabhacharya's commentary on the Bhagavatam, so she had some good contributions to make with respect to Abhinava Gupta and other aspects of the material. She also showed a great deal of natural enthusiasm for Krishna and Krishna-related literature.

Some quotes from Nitai's articles that relate to things posted today:

na hi rasād ṛte kaścid arthaḥ pravartate

This is a quote from Bharata's Natya-shastra: "Without rasa, no meaning prevails." We had a good discussion about this in class: Narrative and meaning.

Boy that's a pretty weak quotation from such a selection of densely rich articles. Forgive me, Neal, I have reached the end of creativity for today. I gotta go home.

Jai Radhe!

Popular posts from this blog

O Mind! Meditate on Radha's Breasts

Image
Flickr As I go through the dāna-līlā episode of Chandi Das's Śrī Kṛṣṇa Kīrtana , there are many songs in which Krishna describes Radha's beauty, and a regular feature of that includes descriptions of her breasts. In fact, breasts are a subject that is prominent in all Sanskrit poetry, and is even standard in prayers to goddesses. There does not seem to have been any inhibition in talking about breasts in the ancient Indian culture, even though I dare say, there is more of one in the modern society, in spite of Bollywood. There is, however, an apparent restriction in talking about genitals, male or female, in the so-called erotic poetry of India--Sanskrit or vernacular--even when lovemaking etc., is described. Such descriptions would automatically fall into some other genre. In Radha and Krishna descriptions, I cannot recall ever seeing or hearing a passage that mentioned genitals or overt sexual activity. It is nearly always spoken of somewhat euphemistically. I remember
Read more

Swami Vishwananda's Bhakti Marga and Parampara

Image
It has been a little strange here at Jiva these past few days. Swami Vishwananda is here with his troupe of disciples, of whom there are a goodly number, perhaps 80 or so. When I arrived in Vrindavan already a couple of weeks back, almost the first thing I noticed at the corner of Mathura Road and the Parikrama Marg was a big billboard with Swami Vishwananda’s charming smile and glowing tilak staring charismatically out at the world and announcing that he would be giving darshan on March 8 at the Jiva Institute. Below him, in a smaller frame was Satyanarayana Dasa Babaji, who besides being his host will be speaking on the Bhāgavatam at the darshan event. This is not the first time that Vishwananda and his group have been at Jiva. Satyanarayana Dasaji calls Vishwananda a friend, and indeed the relations between the two are very cordial. Vishwananda's group is mostly young and enthusiastic, predominantly European (German and points east), who are very enthusiastic about
Read more

Erotic sculptures on Jagannath temple

Image
This was written on the basis of Sundarananda Vidyavinode's Sri Kshetra and intended for a devotee audience, as it was done on a commission by disciples of Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaj. It has never been published. I decided to put this on line since there was a discussion on Facebook on the subject and I thought I would revisit what I wrote here nearly twenty years ago. This is from chapter ten on temple renovations. Please note that I have removed the images that I had found of some of the sculptures. I have been blocked from posting links to this blog on Facebook for some infringement of its "community standards". The only thing I can think of on this blog that might have offended some prudish person in cyberspace is this. I do not have much hope for redemption as it has been over six months since my ban is "under review" and there has been no sign of action. Needless to say, I find this heavy-handed action on the part of Facebook dangerously authoritar
Read more