The Bhakti-Rasa-Sastra of Bengal Vaisnavism
By Sushil Kumar De
Summary
This article examines the elaboration of the Bhakti‑rasa doctrine by Rupa Gosvamin and his followers in the Gaudiya Vaiṣṇava tradition. It opens with a discussion of the six Gosvamis of Vṛndāvana, noting that Rupa Gosvamin was the first to systematically interpret Kṛṣṇa devotion as a kind of aesthetic rasa. His treatises Bhakti‑rasāmṛta‑sindhu and Ujjvala‑nīlamaṇi approximate the emotion of devotion (bhakti) to the relish of literary sentiment (rasa) familiar from Sanskrit poetics. The author explains that in Rupa’s framework the permanent emotion (sthayi‑bhāva) of love for Kṛṣṇa is intensified by excitants (vibhāvas), ensuants (anubhāvas) and transitory feelings (vyabhicāri‑bhāvas) until it becomes a rasa. This innovation gave rise to an analytic psychology of bhakti that uses the technical vocabulary of classical poetics to map religious experience. The article then outlines the major classifications in Bhakti‑rasāmṛta‑sindhu. Bhakti in general is differentiated from uttamā bhakti, and sādhanā‑bhakti – the practice of devotion – is divided into Vaidhi and Rāgānuga types. Vaidhi sādhanā‑bhakti is regulated by scriptural injunctions and includes practices such as worshipping the deity, chanting the divine name, hearing scriptures, serving saints and visiting holy places. Rāgānuga sādhanā‑bhakti follows the spontaneous moods of the inhabitants of Vraja and is cultivated by meditating on a chosen relationship with Kṛṣṇa. The article highlights the role of offences against the name or worship that impede progress, and notes that Rāgānuga practice emphasises internal meditation rather than external ritual. The treatment then turns to bhāva‑bhakti, the stage where devotion matures into an emotional disposition, and prema‑bhakti, the culmination where love of Kṛṣṇa becomes intense and all‑consuming. The author comments on Jīva Gosvamin’s and other commentators’ interpretations and notes the influence of this aesthetic‑devotional psychology on later Bengali literature. The concluding pages discuss the erotic dimension of Gaudiya bhakti, observing that the appropriation of Sanskrit rasa‑theory for religious purposes introduced new psychological refinements and inspired a rich body of lyric poetry and drama.
Conclusion
The article argues that Rupa Gosvamin’s synthesis of Sanskrit poetics with Gaudiya Vaiṣṇava theology created a sophisticated psychology of devotion. By treating bhakti as a rasa, he and his followers fashioned an aesthetic vocabulary for mapping religious experiences and codified methods for cultivating devotion. Vaidhi and Rāgānuga practices channel the aspirant from external ritual to internal meditation, while bhāva‑ and prema‑bhakti represent ever‑deeper emotional realisations. The resulting doctrine not only shaped the metaphysics of Bengali Vaiṣṇavism but also stimulated new literary genres and left a lasting imprint on Indian devotional literature.