Rupa Goswami: The Man Who Classified Love

What Vrindavan was in 1515

Forest, and villages, and almost nothing else.

The places associated with Krishna's life were known by name in the Puranas and were not known on the ground. There was no pilgrimage circuit, no major temples, and no established identification of which grove or pond was which.

The assignment Chaitanya gave

Three things, and the Goswamis did all three.

One. Find the places.

Identify the sites of the lila: the groves, the ponds, the hill, the river bank, the villages.

What they identified, among many: Radha Kunda and Shyama Kunda, Govardhan, Seva Kunj, Nidhivan, Vamsivat, Ter Kadamba, Barsana, Nandagaon, and the twelve principal forests, the dvadasha vana.

How to hold that: they were identifying sites from textual and local tradition, in a period when the region had been through centuries of disruption. It is an act of reconstruction rather than of discovery, and it created the pilgrimage geography of Braj that exists today.

Two. Build temples.

The Sapta Devalaya, the seven principal temples, are the Goswamis' foundations:

• Govind Dev, by Rupa
• Madan Mohan, by Sanatana
• Radha Raman, by Gopala Bhatta
• Radha Damodar, by Jiva
• Radha Gokulananda, by Lokanatha and Bhugarbha
• Radha Shyamsundar, by Shyamananda
• Gopinath, by Madhu Pandit

Three. Write the theology.

Which is the part that made the movement durable.

The Six Goswamis

• Rupa Goswami
• Sanatana Goswami, his elder brother
• Raghunatha Bhatta Goswami
• Gopala Bhatta Goswami
• Raghunatha Dasa Goswami
• Jiva Goswami, nephew of Rupa and Sanatana, the youngest and the most systematic

How they lived

Deliberately without anything.

The accounts describe them sleeping under different trees each night rather than establishing a fixed residence, eating whatever was given, wearing what was discarded, and writing.

Raghunatha Dasa Goswami, who had also left a very wealthy family, is described as reducing his food intake to almost nothing over years.

Whether the descriptions are exact is not recoverable. What is not in doubt is the output: between them the Six Goswamis produced a very large body of Sanskrit theology, ritual manuals, poetry, drama and commentary, in a forest, in perhaps forty years.

His central work, and the reason he matters beyond his own tradition.

What the book does

It applies the classical Sanskrit theory of aesthetics to devotion.

Rasa theory is old. Bharata's Natyashastra established it for drama, Abhinavagupta developed it philosophically, and by Rupa's time it was the standard analytical apparatus for how art produces emotion in an audience.

Its basic terms:

• Sthayi bhava: the stable underlying emotion
• Vibhava: the cause, which is subdivided into the object and the circumstances
• Anubhava: the outward physical signs
• Sattvika bhava: the involuntary bodily responses, of which eight are listed
• Vyabhichari bhava: the transient accompanying emotions, of which thirty three are listed
• Rasa: what results when these combine

Rupa's move: take the entire apparatus and apply it to the relationship between a devotee and Krishna.

What that gets you

A vocabulary for describing devotional states that is precise rather than approximate.

Before this, devotional literature could describe experiences. After this, it could classify them, compare them, identify which combination produced which, and say what was happening when a person felt a particular thing.

Whether that is a gain is a real question and worth asking. Something is lost when experience is put into a taxonomy. What is gained is that it becomes teachable, transmissible and checkable, which is what allowed the tradition to survive the death of its founder.

The structure of the book

Four divisions, called vibhagas, named for the directions:

Purva, the eastern: general definitions of bhakti; sadhana bhakti, practice, divided into vaidhi, which follows rules, and raganuga, which follows attachment; then bhava bhakti and prema bhakti, the developed stages.

Dakshina, the southern: the general theory of bhakti rasa, going through the vibhavas, anubhavas, sattvika bhavas and vyabhichari bhavas in detail.

Pashchima, the western: the five primary rasas.

Uttara, the northern: the seven secondary rasas and the rules of which combine with which.

The five rasas

This is the part worth knowing regardless of your tradition.

Shanta: the peaceful. Awareness of the divine as vast and impersonal. Reverence, stillness, no personal relationship.

Dasya: the servant. A relationship, with a clear hierarchy. Reverence plus service and a sense of belonging to somebody.

Sakhya: the friend. The hierarchy relaxes. Familiarity, joking, arguing, being on equal terms.

Vatsalya: the parental. The devotee is the one who protects, worries, feeds, and takes responsibility. Yashoda tying Krishna to the mortar.

Madhurya: the lover. Total exposure, total dependence, jealousy, longing, and no protection at all.

And the structure: each includes the previous and adds something. Dasya has the awe of shanta plus service. Sakhya has that plus intimacy. Vatsalya has that plus responsibility. Madhurya has all of it plus complete vulnerability.

Which is why the tradition ranks madhurya highest: not because it is more emotional, but because it contains the most.

And a note on how to use it: the classification is a description of what people actually report, not a ladder you are supposed to climb by effort. Most people have a natural register, and the tradition holds that it is given rather than chosen.

Eleven verses, and it is the practical manual of the tradition. If you read one thing of Rupa Goswami's, read this.

Verse one: the six urges

A person who can control six things is fit to instruct the world, or in the Sanskrit, may make disciples everywhere.

The six:

• The urge to speak
• The agitations of the mind
• The onset of anger
• The urges of the tongue, meaning what you want to eat
• The urges of the belly, meaning how much
• The urges of the genitals

Note what is on the list: speech first, and eating twice.

And note the claim: the qualification for teaching is not learning, experience, lineage or realisation. It is control of six ordinary appetites, listed in order of how often they cause trouble.

Verse two: six things that destroy practice

• Atyahara: eating too much, or accumulating too much. The word covers both
• Prayasa: over endeavour, meaning effort spent on things that do not matter
• Prajalpa: idle talk
• Niyamagraha: which has two readings, both intended. Either being too attached to rules or not accepting them at all
• Jana sanga: association with people who pull you the wrong way
• Laulya: greed, restlessness, the tendency to want the next thing

Verse three: six things that sustain it

• Utsaha: enthusiasm
• Nishchaya: confidence
• Dhairya: patience
• Acting according to the regulations
• Giving up bad association
• Following in the footsteps of those who came before

Verse four: the six exchanges

How relationship between devotees actually works, and it is entirely practical:

• Giving gifts and receiving them
• Telling somebody what is on your mind in confidence, and asking them what is on theirs
• Feeding somebody and eating what they give you

Three pairs, each with a giving and a receiving side, and the point is that both directions are required. A person who only gives is not in a relationship either.

Verses five to seven: how to assess people

The instruction is to look for the substance in a person rather than at their external condition, and specifically not to judge a devotee by faults arising from their background, habits, appearance or previous life.

Verse eight: the actual practice

Engage the tongue and the mind in the name, the form, the qualities and the acts, progressively, and live in Vraja.

That is the whole method in one verse: two faculties, four objects, one place.

Verses ten and eleven: Radha Kunda

The closing verses rank the places and the people, and place Radha Kunda at the top, which is why that pond in Braj is the most important site in the tradition and why Raghunatha Dasa Goswami spent his last years beside it.

His other works

• Ujjvala Nilamani, on madhurya rasa in detail, and effectively a second volume to the Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu
• Vidagdha Madhava and Lalita Madhava, two Sanskrit plays on Krishna, which are substantial works of drama in their own right
• Laghu Bhagavatamrita, on the forms of the divine
• Stava Mala, a collection of hymns
• Padyavali, an anthology of devotional verse by many poets, which is a valuable source for poems that would otherwise be lost
• Danakeli Kaumudi, Nataka Chandrika and others

One. He settled his accounts before he left.

Half to the tradition, a quarter to his family for their maintenance, a quarter kept back against emergencies.

That is not the renunciation story people expect and it is better than the one they expect. He did not abandon his dependents in order to be dramatic. He worked out what they needed, provided it, kept a reserve, and then went.

Two. The six urges.

Speech, mind, anger, tongue, belly, genitals. Control those and you are fit to teach.

Read as a test rather than a target, it is unusually useful, because it says nothing about knowledge, experience or realisation.

And applied to teachers you are assessing: does this person control their speech, their temper and their appetites. That is a question you can answer by watching, which claims about attainment are not.

Three. The six that destroy practice.

Over eating and over accumulating, wasted effort, idle talk, either rigidity or laxity about rules, bad company, and restless wanting.

Notice that none of them are dramatic failures. They are ordinary conditions, and the list is closer to a description of most people's week than to a catalogue of sins.

Four. The six exchanges.

Give gifts and accept them. Tell somebody what is on your mind and ask what is on theirs. Feed somebody and eat what they give you.

Three pairs, and both halves of each are required. Somebody who only gives, only listens, and only feeds is not actually in relationship with anybody, and the verse says so.

That is the most practically usable thing in this entry and it applies to friendship, family and any community you belong to.

Five. The five rasas.

Awe, service, friendship, protectiveness, love, each containing the previous.

Used descriptively, it is a good way of noticing what your own relationship to whatever you hold sacred actually is, as opposed to what you think it should be.

And the tradition's own note: the register is given rather than chosen, and trying to force a higher one is one of the errors the tradition warns against.

Six. He turned experience into a system, and something was lost.

Worth saying plainly. A taxonomy of devotional states is not the same as the states, and the tradition after Rupa sometimes mistook the map for the country.

What the system bought was survivability: the movement outlived its founder, spread across languages and continents, and can still be taught, because somebody wrote down how it worked.

A daily practice from this entry:

• Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
• The Upadeshamrita, eleven verses, read one at a time. Translations with commentary are freely available
• The six exchanges, applied once this week to somebody you have only been giving to
• And verse eight, which is the whole method: tongue and mind, in the name, the form, the qualities and the acts

A closing thought

A minister in the Sultan of Bengal's government, with a Persian title and a private secretary's access, resigned, worked out exactly what his family would need, set aside a reserve against emergencies, gave the rest away, and walked to a forest where nobody had lived for a long time.

There he and five others slept under a different tree each night, ate what they were given, and spent forty years identifying which pond was which and writing.

And what he wrote was a book that takes the theory of how tragedy produces emotion in a theatre audience and applies it, term by term, to what happens to a person who loves god.

Who: Rupa Goswami, roughly 1489 to 1564, of a Sarasvata brahmana family of Karnataka origin settled at Ramakeli in Malda district, Bengal. With his elder brother Sanatana he was a senior official in the government of Alauddin Husain Shah, Sultan of Bengal, holding the Persian title Dabir Khas, private secretary, while Sanatana was Sakara Mallik in charge of revenue.

How he left: after meeting Chaitanya at Ramakeli in 1514 he resigned and divided the money, half to brahmanas and Vaishnavas, a quarter to the family for their maintenance, and a quarter kept back against emergencies. He met Chaitanya at Prayag and received ten days of instruction at the Dashashwamedh Ghat, then was sent to Vrindavan.

What the Six Goswamis did: identified the sites of Krishna's lila in what was then largely forest, including Radha Kunda, Govardhan, Seva Kunj and the twelve forests, creating the pilgrimage geography of Braj that exists today; built the seven principal temples including Rupa's Govind Dev and Sanatana's Madan Mohan; and wrote the theology.

His central work: the Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu, which applies the classical Sanskrit rasa theory of Bharata and Abhinavagupta to devotion, giving it a precise rather than approximate vocabulary. Four divisions named for the directions, covering general bhakti and sadhana; the theory of bhakti rasa; the five primary rasas; and the secondary rasas.

The five rasas: shanta, awe without personal relationship; dasya, servant; sakhya, friend; vatsalya, parental; madhurya, lover. Each contains the previous and adds something, which is why madhurya ranks highest, not because it is more emotional but because it contains the most.

The Upadeshamrita: eleven verses and the practical manual. The six urges a teacher must control, the six things that destroy practice, the six that sustain it, the six exchanges of relationship, and verse eight, which is the whole method: engage tongue and mind in the name, form, qualities and acts, and live in Vraja.

His other works: Ujjvala Nilamani, the Sanskrit plays Vidagdha Madhava and Lalita Madhava, Laghu Bhagavatamrita, Stava Mala and Padyavali.

Where he is: his samadhi is at the Radha Damodar temple, Vrindavan.