Discussing Caitanya Caritāmṛta, pt. 5

Bhakta: "Prof. Dimock translates Caitanya Caritāmṛta Antya 1.164, quoting from Vidagdha Mādhava, that the universe is like a couldron; but that is like a cooking pot."

Advaitadas: "Cooking pots are often round in India, unlike in the west where the walls are usually straight."

Bhakta: "In the next verse Kṛṣṇa's complexion is described as marakat, emerald, which is green. I thought Kṛṣṇa was blue?"

Advaitadas: "madhye maṇinam haimānāṁ mahā marakato yathā (SB 10.33.7) - When Kṛṣṇa is with the gopīs His blue complexion encounters their golden complexion. If you mix blue with yellow you get green."

Bhakta: "Prof Dimock translates verse 175 as 'the breasts of the demons' wives are like cuckoos."

Advaitadas: "Haha, no that is wrong. The word koka means Cakravāka, which is a kind of flamingo. Their curved necks resemble the globular shapes of womens' breasts. I think Prof. Dimock mistook the word koka (Cakravāka) for kokila (cuckoo)." There is no similarity at all between a cuckoo and a woman's breast."

Bhakta: "In Caitanya Caritāmṛta Antya 3.114-5, Haridās Thākur promises the prostitute that he will accept her. Is he lying to her or does he speak ambiguously? Can he insinuate anything spiritual in his promise?"

Advaitadas: "Yes indeed. He says tomā korimu aṅgīkāra, 'I will accept you' - as what - a lover or a disciple? That is the question. In the next verse he says 'nāma samāpta hole korimu ye tomāra mana' - 'When I finished my rounds I will do whatever is on your mind'. But what will be on her mind after hearing the pure devotee chant so much? Surely devotional service rather than sex? So here is some transcendental ambiguity."

Bhakta: "All right, but then in verse 3.126 Haridās says: "Tomorrow my vow will be complete and I will freely have intercourse with you."

Advaitadas: "The Bengali text says: svacchande tomāra saṅge hoibek saṅga - 'I will have free saṅga with you then.' Here too there can be two meanings. saṅga can mean intercourse or sat-saṅga. Haridās meant the latter but the prostitute mistook it to be the former, in both cases. In the previous line Haridās speaks of vrata bhaṅga, which normally means violating the vow of sannyāsa or brāhmacarya but in this case he means to say 'completing my vow of chanting so many crores of nāma. It is a very clever wordplay."

Bhakta: "In Caitanya Caritāmṛta Antya 3.140, it is said the prostitute shaved her head."

Advaitadas: "In Bengal widows or female sannyāsīs often shave their heads and wear white - in the rest of India widows also put on white but they keep their hair long."

Bhakta: 'What means carvaṇa upavāsa in the next verse?"

Advaitadas: "It means that if she didn't fast she would chew, but that indicates something really austere like soaked grains or plain vegetables or so - not that she went from feast to feast, eating laḍḍu-purī-khīr every day, like hosts of sādhus do in Vraja."

Bhakta: "In Caitanya Caritāmṛta Antya 5.20, a scene is depicted wherein Rāmānanda Rāy accepts the mood of a maidservant when he massages and dresses beautiful young dancing girls. Prof Dimock suggests in his comment that this scene may have been a forerunner of mañjarī bhāva sādhanā, though this is generally a mental practise. He explains the words āropana in the verse as the imposition of a natural feeling (svābhāvika dāsī-bhāva), which is a technical sahajīya word...."

Advaitadas: "Prof. Dimock wrote a book or two about sahajīyas (I haven't read them), he might have been specialized in the subject, and it is well known that sahajīyas try to superimpose or ascribe their own attitudes on our great ācāryas in order to gain acceptance and respectability. Perhaps Prof. Dimock takes this suggestion over into his Caitanya Caritāmṛta commentary here. Nowhere in the entire text of Caitanya Caritāmṛta is there any reference to any of the great ācāryas having been sahajīyas and indeed even the bona fide practise of mañjarī bhāva, which is indeed usually practised only mentally, is not mentioned in Caitanya Caritāmṛta. The latter may be because Kṛṣṇa dās Kavirāja meant this Caitanya Caritamrita for a broad public - it is chanted to everyone in many Bengali villages - and he wanted mañjarī bhāva to be kept reserved for the small elite that qualifies for it. He did discuss it in an earlier work of his, the Govinda Līlāmṛta, which is obviously meant for that more elite audience. Anyway, svābhāvika dāsī bhāva koren āropan means that although his dāsī bhāva is nitya siddha, he projects (āropaṇa) it on himself to give the right example to sādhakas like us."

Bhakta: "Prof. Dimock suggests that Rāmānanda Rāya takes the girls to be Rādhā but there are two girls in the story."

Advaitadas: "That either of the girls would be Rādhā is a bit far-fetched but of course if Rāmānanda Rāya would really be superimposing mañjarī bhāva here, at least one of them would have to be Rādhā. The other one could be her group leader, which is usually Viśākhā or Lalitā. Prof. Dimock's theory comes into trouble, though, if you consider that Kavi Karṇapūra identifies Rāmānanda Rāya with Lalitā sakhī. He would not be into mañjarī bhāva then but into sakhī bhāva, although the sakhīs do have a service attitude towards Śrī Rādhikā too."

Bhakta: "So if I wanted to serve Vaiṣṇavas the way Rāmānanda Rāy served these deva dāsīs, should I see these Vaiṣṇavas as Rādhārāṇī also?"

Advaitadas: "Well I have already suggested that Dimock's mañjarī bhāva interpretation may be a bit far-fetched anyway, and the morale of this story is not related to mañjarī bhāva per se, but to the purifying effect of faithfully accepting gopi-bhava, as is explained at the end of the story, when the final verse of Rāsa-līlā is quoted, which offers the benediction of swift liberation from carnal lust to the faithful hearer or reciter of the Rāsa-līlā. Because Rāmānanda Rāy accepted gopī bhāva he was able to render such intimate services to beautiful young girls without getting agitated. If you are male and render service to male Vaiṣṇavas then this is called sevā sādhaka rūpeṇa, external service, by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī. As I said mañjarī bhāva is usually practised mentally, not physically."

Bhakta: "In Caitanya Caritāmṛta Antya 6.256, Prof. Dimock says that 'sometimes he (Raghunātha Dās Goswāmī) fasts, and sometimes he chews lime.' In the BBT edition it is said 'he chews fried grains'.

Advaitadas: "Both are wrong - neither are mentioned in the Bengali verse, it just says carvaṇa, chewing. Especially the idea of lime is absurd. One noteworthy point here is that both the prostitute (converted by Brahmā Haridās) and Raghunātha Dās Goswāmī were said to 'kabhu carvaṇa', sometimes chew, which means that if they didnt fast altogether, they would drink buttermilk or so, and occasionally solid food. It is not that they regularly ate solid food."

Bhakta: "In Caitanya Caritāmṛta Antya 6.304, the word khājā is translated by Prof. Dimock as a flaky kind of pastry, and in the BBT edition it is sweetmeats."

Advaitadas: "It is both, its a sweet pastry, a puffed sweet cookie."

Bhakta: "In Caitanya Caritāmṛta Antya 6.309, Prof. Dimock says that Raghunāth Dās Goswāmī's observances were a row of stones."

Advaitadas: "Hahaha that sounds ridiculous. The Bengali text says pāṣāṇera rekhā - like lines carved in a stone. In other words, his vows were not under any negotiation. rekhā means line."

Bhakta: "In the following verse Prof. Dimock says 'from that time on he put no sweet thing on his tongue.' The BBT edition says 'he did not allow his tongue any sense gratification'."

Advaitadas: "Again here both are wrong. The verse says rasera sparśana, he did not allow his tongue any taste, period. Though sweet is considered the highest taste, salty savories are always very popular with everyone's tongues too."