Jagat

Towards an objective assessment   So far, the gist of my argument has been that the problem of poetry appreciation is mainly one of subjectivity—and that an unsurpassable distance separates the modern person, the uncultivated person, and the non-devotee, from the poetry of Rūpa Gosvāmī. But such arguments, though not without validity, do an injustice to both Professor De and his capacity to make legitimate criticism as well as to Rūpa Gosvāmī by failing to establish what I feel is his rightful claim to a place of honor in the history of Sanskrit literature. It is a real slap in the face to consider him a mere technician, without fully acknowledging the deep feeling and ultimate concern he had for his subject matter, what to speak of his ability to transmit these in his work. I may also have undermined my argument by intimating that the devotee's ability to criticize is impaired by a favorable bias toward any poetry, good or bad, dealing with Kṛṣṇa.   But we have also argu...

This is from my Introduction to Mystic Poetry , a translation of Rupa Goswami's dūta-kāvyas . Śrī-Caitanya-mano'bhiṣṭam   The contributions of Rūpa Gosvāmī (d. 1568 AD) to the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava sampradāya are manifold. Narottama dāsa's famous invocatory prayer to Rūpa in his Prema-bhakti-candrikā tells us that Rūpa understood Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission and was successful in establishing it on this earth ( śrī-caitanya-manobhiṣṭam sthāpitaṁ yena bhūtale ). In his Caitanya-caritāmṛta , Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja writes in several places that Rūpa Gosvāmī was granted access to Mahāprabhu‘s innermost emotional state.   The event that confirmed this special status took place when Rūpa was residing in Purī, probably in AD 1517. That year, during the Ratha-yātrā festival, Rūpa was amongst the many devotees of Mahāprabhu who watched him as he stood before Jagannātha's chariot, gazing in the mood of Rādhā upon the Lord of the Universe. At that time, Mahāprabhu began to ...