Alternative Krishnas: Regional and Vernacular Variations on a Hindu Deity

2. Contemporary Metaphor Theory and Alternative Views of Krishna and Radha in Vaishnava Sahajiya Tantric Traditions

Chapter 2
Contemporary Metaphor Theory and Alternative Views of Krishna and Radha in Vaishnava Sahajiya Tantric Traditions GLEN ALEXANDER HAYES In this chapter I would like to consider how recent advances in the study of metaphor can help us to appreciate alternative views of Krishna among the Vaishnava Sahajiyas of medieval Bengal, a Tantric Yogic movement that flourished from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries CE.1 Information gleaned from their wonderful if challenging esoteric texts can illustrate not only “alternative” views of Krishna in a major vernacular literature, but also show how the use of modern conceptual metaphor theories can help us to better understand the imaginative worlds expressed by vernacular texts and traditions. Of course, one may speculate just why Vaishnava Sahajiyas developed “alternative Krishna traditions.” What must they have found in the classical stories of the Dark Lord and his consort Radha to have moved them to create such alternative visions and ritual systems? Why did they appropriate so much of the Caitanya movement and GaudŒya Vaishnava raganuga bhakti sadhana—causing so much controversy with orthodox Vaishnavas?2 We’ll never know for sure, since most of the hundreds of surviving Sahajiya manuscripts are concerned more directly with matters of ritual, gurus and students, visualization, and subtle yogic physiology. But some, such as the AmrtaratnavalŒ of Mukunda-dasa (ca. 1600 CE) and the Vivarta-vilasa of Akiñcana-dasa (ca. 1650 CE) provide us with glimpses into this complex process of appropriation and development of “alternative” traditions. 19 20 Glen Alexander Hayes Since the late Edward C. Dimock Jr., in his now-classic The Place of the Hidden Moon,3 has presented many of the basic beliefs and practices of Vaishnava Sahajiya traditions and has discussed the problematics of determining their origins, these won’t be covered in this chapter. However, there are some basic points for us to consider. The Sahajiyas may be considered—in the very broad sense—an alternative Krishna tradition for two major reasons. First, they adapt classical devotional interpretations of Krishna, transforming him from a supreme being (as Bhagavan, quite distinct from ordinary human beings ) into the inner cosmic form (svarupa) of every human male. Radha is transformed from the consort, or hladinŒ-sakti, of Krishna into the svarupa of every woman. For Sahajiyas, in other words, the goal is not to worship Krishna or imitate Radha and the gopŒs in a dualistic bhakti sense, but rather to become Krishna or Radha themselves, in a monistic Tantric manner. Second, by expressing these alternative and antinomian notions of Krishna and Radha in vernacular Bengali verse, and embedding these narratives in specific Sahajiya teaching lineages, they move Krishna and Radha even further from the Sanskrit-based and classical formulations into the local realities of Bengali men and women. As Dimock has shown, Krishna and his erotic encounters with Radha would seem to be natural choices for adaptations by late medieval Sahajiya tantrics as they sought to express the need to reverse the phenomenal flow of creation—engendered as the cosmic “play” (lŒla) of male and female powers—“upwards against the current” (sroter ujana) back to the unitive state of Sahaja, the “Innate” or “Primordial ” condition. Of course, the popular notion of Caitanya as the dual incarnation of both Radha and Krishna, developed by Krishnadasa Kaviraja in his Caitanya-caritamrta, was also taken up by Sahajiya gurus like Akiñcana-dasa and Mukunda-dasa as a clear reflection of their own belief that all Sahajiyas must themselves realize the indwelling of both male and female powers within their own physical bodies. If we can set aside the controversy of possible Sahajiya influence on orthodox Vaishnavism,4 we can turn our attention to how alternative traditions of Krishna are expressed in some Sahajiya texts, and to do this we need to explore the metaphors that lie at the heart of the texts. This is because religious metaphors provide us with windows into the core beliefs and imageries of the sacred. To begin with, the basic Vaishnava notion of avatara is itself a wonderful metaphoric process, for it enables an abstract, cosmic, divine being to be expressed in more earthly, concrete terms—one of the basic functions of religious metaphor. Whether it is Vishnu taking form as a fish or a boar or a man-lion or Krishna taking form as a baby, a friend, or a lover, it is this shape-shifting...