(Matilal Das outlines attainment through the Way of Love, Bhakti, and favours it as easier of access than the Way of Knowledge or that of Works. The psychic dangers of false or lower types of devotion are overlooked. High is the power of devotion but it must be fortified by knowledge and expressed in works of service; self-realization is the fruit born of the beautiful flower of Bhakti, which grows on the Tree whose roots are Gnyanaand whose branches and leaves, nishkama Karma. Therefore Light on the Path explains:-
“Seek it [the Way] not by any one road. To each temperament, there is one road which seems the most desirable. But the way is not found by devotion alone, by religious contemplation alone, by ardent progress, by self-sacrificing labour, by studious observation of life. None alone can take the disciple more than one step onwards. All steps are necessary to make up the ladder.” — Editors, The Aryan Path]
Mysticism is an approach to Truth through intuition. Intellect cannot take us fa; its progress has limits. The higher truths of life, the finer meaning and significance of the world, can be had only by immediate awareness. The mystic’s revelations have value and no man with a broad outlook can ignore them.
Vaishnavism delights in mystic experiences of the soul. It stresses emotional ardour through which the receptive soul can have direct communion with ultimate Truth. It believes that spiritual realization is a matter not of logical thinking but of intuitive experience received as inspiration. The highest fulfillment of life is enjoyment of the divine delight that comes from the spiritual marriage of the soul with the centre of life.
Vaishnavism is essentially theistic. It is at war with the subtle intellectuality of Sankara, who holds that there is not the least difference between man and God, that there is complete and essential identity between the human and the Divine. In his heart of hearts man is at one with God. There is an eternal urge in man to break down the apparent divergence from infinitude. The soul hungers because it has lost touch with its inherent infinitude. Peace and plenitude can come only when this isolation is broken in mystic illumination. The direct awareness of reality is to be had, according to the Vedantists, by knowledge, and knowledge alone, of our oneness with the Supreme. This highest wisdom that gives identity is the quest of life ; it does not come through grace but by inner discipline.
To the Vaishnava the Eternal is a personality, a reverent attitude of worship of and the of love for whom is the essence of his religion. The Cosmic Being is not a bare identity, but a personal being with whom there can be real fellowship in faith and love. The Nirguna Brahman of Sankara is a blank transcendence which cannot attract the selfless feeling of the devotee. God is a perfect personality called Krishna, the charmer of the soul. Chaitanya, the founder of Gauriya Vaishnavism, explained to Sanatana in a beautiful dialogue the nature of Krishna. He is the darling of Braja’s lord – the one without a second, the one whose only form is consciousness, the source of infinite Bliss. He is the material and the efficient cause of the universe, the source and the support of the world. He is the embodiment of chit and ananda – life and bliss. This supreme Godhead in its aspect of delight and bliss is the highest reality and the Vaishnavas long for an eternal experience of love with this God of Love.
Mysticism is an approach to Truth through intuition. Intellect cannot take us fa; its progress has limits. The higher truths of life, the finer meaning and significance of the world, can be had only by immediate awareness. The mystic’s revelations have value and no man with a broad outlook can ignore them.
The individual soul is both different and non-different from the central soul. The Lord is infinite while the human soul is finite. There is unity in the sense that the individual is an effect which has no reality apart from God, just as sparks have no reality apart from the fire. There is duality in the sense that the soul possesses attributes different from those of God. The burden of sorrow and suffering overcomes man but God is ever free. Man is controlled by the Maya of God while God rules through Maya. Man is the eternal servant of God and a life of joy and glory is his birthright, but forgetting this noble heritage man becomes the slave of the world through the power of Maya. This Maya is a different conception from that of Sankara. Infinite is the nature of Krishna, infinite are His powers but His chief qualities are three : chit, Maya and jiva. The chit power has again three aspects :- it becomes haldini in the aspect of bliss ; sandhini in the aspect of existence, and samhit in the aspect of consciousness. These three fold powers are also called Swarupasaktis, because they constitute the very self of God. By the chit-power God maintains His nature as intelligence and will ; by the power of His Maya the world is evolved and by jivasaktithe souls are produced. Maya and prakriti are the same, the energy of God, through which comes this manifold universe and the fetters that bind souls to the misery and pain of the world.
But the highest power of God is the power of delight. Radha is the embodiment of this delight-giving power. Through bhakti (love) we may be in touch with this universal joy. This ascent through love is a mystic process. The greatest attraction of Vaishnavism lies in its promise of spiritual love to all its followers. Its essence lies in the luminous experiences of the divine love. The initiate tastes it more and more as his realisation becomes deeper and there is no satiety, for the source is eternal and has infinite shades and phases.
Vaishnavism adopts the language of high imagery to express the longing of the soul for God. Vaishnavism stresses bhakti. It is the supreme sublime attachment to the Lord due to intense love, a love that seeks no other reward as its goal. This exclusive love and devotion is its own fruition. It must be spontaneous and free, not dictated by fear nor by expectation of rewards. It must proceed from the hidden nature of the soul which feels deeply the genial attraction of the infinite Life. It must be so intense as to absorb the entire soul, which must resist all other attractions and tendencies.
But even this deep attachment is regarded as a very low step in the path of realization of the deep ecstasies of spiritual love. The aim of Vaishnavism is to bind the soul to its lost source, the God of love and of joy. A devotion that has its origin in the injunctions of the sastras is lower than the passionate attachment which flows spontaneously and which is called Raganuga Bhakti.
A life of law is necessary when a man devotes himself to religion by a rigid spiritual discipline, but the life of love requires nothing but loving service and worship of God. The life of love is a life of personal relationship between man and God. Such a devotee does not meditate on the glory and power of God but on His charm and grace.
Vaishnavism does not advocate asceticism. It asks us to find the blessed joy of our hearts’ desire by sublimation of our natural feelings and emotions. There are four stages in the life of love :- love of a servant for the master ; love of a friend for his comrade ; love of a mother for her child ; the burning passion of the lover for his beloved.
God is infinite love and infinite are the ways of approach to Him. We are to look upon Him either as master or friend, as mother or lover, and by constant contemplation and deep meditation we shall transform the natural feelings of our heart into divine feelings.
The last method is deemed the best. God is sublime love and is won by the deep love of a passionate soul. Words fail to describe this spiritual relationship, so the yearning of the woman for her beloved is taken as its symbol. But we are to bear in mind that things of the spirit are different from things of the world. This mystic experience of the super–sensual world is subtle and fine ; it is not polluted by being described in terms of sensuous joy and delight. This spiritual love is surrender, body and soul to God in the manner of the Gopis, the milkmaids of Brindaban, whose selfless passionate devotion to Krishna exemplifies the ideal of this love. And the greatest of all the Gopiswas Radha whose essential nature was love. Who lived not for herself but for Krishna.
Chaitanya, it is said, incarnated in order to taste the passions and emotions of Radha. His life exemplifies the mystic union of God and man. His sadhanais the embodiment of this relation. It is a spiritual tie of sweetness inexpressible in human words. Chaitanya shows how the bride, the soul, can be united with her divine consort in His all-absorbing embrace. The love between bride and bridegroom on earth is but a limited reflection of the divine love, which awakens our souls to all their powers and activities.
Vaishnava mysticism is an appeal for such a God-imbued life. The object of consciousness is the Lord of bliss and of Joy, whom the soul wants to enjoy, whom the soul wants to enjoy through love and faith. There is eternal duality and to the Vaishnava mystic this is necessary, for to him the goal is not the attainment of unity but the eternal enjoyment of love.
Vaishnava mysticism has an universal appeal, for love is ingrained in us and flows directly to the object of love. But our attachment to and fondness for material things of beauty or finite being cannot satisfy our cravings. The Vaishnava mystic asks us to go to the source of beauty and of loveliness, for the earthly attraction is an indication the call or our heavenly bridegroom. Love allures us, beauty attracts us and sweetness charms us, for Krishna, the divine tempter, wants to draw us to Himself, with His enchanting flute.
The paths of work and of knowledge are difficult to tread ; they demand rigid discipline and require the follower to go against the normal bent of his mind. But Vaishnavism is a gradual journey to the finest expression of life, and as the sadhaka is able to free himself from earthly ties and tendencies by the unceasing inflow of the spiritual synthesis, there is progressive unfoldment of harmony.
Vaishnavism therefore has for its ideal the complete saturation of our being with the Divine, and the complete spiritualization of human values. With this transfiguration, the contraries of life and death, joy and sorrow, vanish and the soul can take part in the transcendent play of God.
Life to the Vaishnava is the Lila of the Lord—we are outside it because we are hedged round by our shortcomings and limitations.
But when life is completely spiritualized, the gate to the palace of love and beauty and harmony is thrown wide for us. Illumined by the ray of divine light and inspired by the force of divine life we take part in the Rasa dance of Krishna which is movement from abiding ananda to ananda at the centre of the divine play of love. For God moves in ananda (bliss).
Vaishnavism has an indefinable charm and attraction for the lovers of mysticism. Its appeal is to the culture of the soul, which provides gradual extinction of egoism and gradual elevation to God=-consciousness. This appeal is irresistible. It calls also for absolute surrender of self to God and for perfect identification with the divine will through love. There can never be a full realization for life is infinite progress and religion a ceaseless growth. But the growth through love is preferable to any other form of development and love alone has the power to give us the surest and sweetest experience of Deity. It may be after all an approximation to the goal but still is the most perfect realization possible within the limits of human life. And it is not a mere dream. It has been realized by a long line of devotees and their life and sadhana are the strongest assurance to our oscillating faith.
The seers of the Upanishads felt that Ananda or Bliss is the Absolute, for from Ananda these beings are born, by Ananda, when born, they live and into Ananda they enter at their death. Vaishnavism invites us to participate in this bliss to have a direct and immediate experience of this ananda.
If we follow the path shown by a host of teachers and seers, the ultimate peace that transcends all is promised to us. We shall have direct communion with the heart of things and the consequent spiritual splendour will enable us to grasp the unity of the whole that lies beyond the conflict and unrest of life.
This intuitional experience is the crowning glory of human life. When we are lighted up by the fire of love, we are fused with the spirit of God’s nature which is bliss. Herein lies the highest consecration of life and the greatest fulfillment of life’s struggle.
(Source : Aryan Path, December 1938)
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