As I mentioned at the outset of this page, the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita continues to draw and overpower me. In the following essay I look at Sri Chaitanya's powerful presence in the Kathamrita through songs, anecdotes, Sri Ramakrishna's application of Vaishnava Madhura as an important spiritual, epistemological and aesthetic tool for God exploration, understanding and enjoyment. I see in Sri Ramakrishna the embodiment of the Radha bhava, something he himself acknowledged. The following article was published in the Prabuddha Bharata in 2016. 

Sri Chaitanya as affect and epistemology in the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita

In the richly layered and plural text that the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita is, Sri Chaitanya is one of the most referred to figures, at once an historical example through whom Sri Ramakrishna grounds the states of bhava and mahabhava, yet,  also mythical, in participating and extending the divine Eros of Radha or Sreemati, herself. Even if it is possible to establish Radha as a historical personality, it is for her quality of affect, her absolute and complete self-- forgetfulness in her love for Krishna, that she functions as myth and archetype to the Indian mind, setting absolute standards for love, both quotidian and spiritual. She becomes the pivot or the fulcrum through whom generations of poets and singers have explored the limits of self-- transcendence offered by Love, as an integral response to life.Sri Chaitanya becomes  a participant in Radha’s affective continuum  by  embodying in himself, her consummate love for Krishna,  and of  being able to lose the world in a state of perfect divine eros, that  Thakur describes in the following manner: ‘Bon dekhe brindavan bhave/samudra dekhe Sri Yamuna bhave’ which translates into ‘ He sees the forest and thinks it is Vrindavan, and when he sees the sea, he thinks that it is the Yamuna’ (599).1 

However, to the reader of the Kathamrita, Sri Ramakrishna, who often remained immersed in a state of  Samadhi,  who was transported to intense bhava during Kirtan singing, and  who pined for his devotees with such longing that he felt that his heart was being wrung like a wet towel, inhabits the same affective continuum as Radha and Sri Chaitanya. As Master Mahasay describes Sri Ramakrishna ‘nishidin  Haripreme—Ma-r preme—matowara’ which translates into ‘ constantly intoxicated with the love of Hari and Kali’ (130). In this  context, one is also reminded of how during his pilgrimage to Benares with Mathur Babu in his early life,  Ganga Mata, the famous woman saint of Benares, identified Sri Ramakrishna as ‘dulali’ or Radha. 2

Thus, if in the Kathamrita,  Sri Ramakrishna, Sri  Chaitanya and Sri Radhika, seem simultaneous, where  Radhika is mythical, and the other two historical personages, the text  demonstrates how myth and history may  mutually inhere in each other, and set up a rich universe of correspondences, parallels and affective mutuality.  Through Sri Ramakrishna’s constant recall  and remembrance of  Sri Radhika and Sri Chaitanya,  his ecstatic responses to songs from the Gaurchandrika and Chaitanya Lila, Madhura resounds through the text, is constantly recalled and reinforced, creating an incredible sound universe,where Radha and Chaitanya become powerful leitmotifs, both epistemologically and artistically.  If Radha is Ananta premamayee, who worshipped in the madhura rasa,   then Sri Chaitanya who worshipped in the Radha mode, is similarly premamay, and a yogi in the madhura rasa. Sri Ramakrishna, who in Swamiji’s words was “Love personified” was similarly both premamay and rasamay, so compelling was the joy that emanated from him,  through conversation, song, and his ecstatic response to both Kali and Krishna, Radha and Chaitanya.

Before one goes further, one needs to talk of the madhura bhava, of which Radha is the prime exemplar, and Sri Chaitanya, an equally important one. And their inclusion in this text, throws a different light on Sri Ramakrishna, where they function as extensions of each other, complementary to eavh other and variations of each other, which unquestionably leads to great richness. The most important bhavas through which the Vaishnav worships Krishna are madhura(love) shanta(quietness), dasya (servanthood) and vatsalya (childlike worship of God) and sakhya (friendship).These bhavas are all mentioned in the RamkrishnaKathamrita too. Sri Ramakrishna cites the case of Sreemati or Radha and says, “Sreemati had madhurbhava” (65). He further adds that within the “madhurbhava” there is “shanta, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya” (64), and adds, “I have the attitude of a child.”(65). Vatsalya which is to relate to God as a parent,  is how  Sri Ramakrishna related to Kali whom he called the ‘Divine Mother’. Shivaprasad Bhattacharya claims that “happiness over love,” or “Premananda”, “happiness in the world,” “Bhumananda”, and “experience of the ultimate happiness of Brahman,” or  “Brahmananda,”  come together in the madhurabhava, the bhava with which Radha worships Krishna (55).

This tattwa also merges with Shaktatattwa where the Divine Unity is seen in the conjunct figures of Shiva and Shakti or Brahman (Krishna) and Shakti (Radha).   Refracted through this Shakta epistemology, Radha also becomes Adhyashakti On October 5, 1884, Sri Ramakrishna refers to an incident where Jashoda not being able to bear the absence of Krishna, seeks solace from Radha. Whereupon, Radha tells Jashoda that the latter should take a boon from her, because she is Adyashakti (630).   Radha is also Brahman’s Hladini form that allows the lila of form, color, beauty, emotion to take place, in infinite combinations and variations. 4

Some of the most memorable moments of the Kathamrita, or one of the most charged descriptions in the Kathamrita, are of Thakur’s ecstatic references to Radha and Chaitanya, and his singing and dancing on such occasions. That Sri Ramakrishna was a great artist, in fact, a consummate artist, is well demonstrated in his frequent use of song to elucidate subtle philosophical issues, and his use of stories, to constantly draw in the world of everyday lived and observed experience, with spiritual states, inabilities, progress and elevation. He was a born musician and a born storyteller. His parables, like Jesus’s contain great immediacy, and simplicity of appeal, have a wide range of accessibility, because the language is direct and unpretentious. They are of the style of folk artists or baul songs, or Ramprosad’s lyrics, where the spiritual aspirant speaks in simple language and homely metaphors, and draw him/her, depending on the reader’s level of artistic and spiritual discrimination, to read wider and wider circles of meaning, in these stories. This also locates Sri Ramakrishna, within a very grounded folk tradition of Bengal, which once again, strikes a resonating chord, with the great mass involvement of the Sri  Chaitanya movement. 

I will now refer to the events of 18th June, 1883. The occasion is the Panihati festival where Thakur is described as dancing in front of the Radha Krishna temple. M refers to his state as  ‘gargar matowara’ or ‘drunk with ecstasy’ (224). Sometimes he is described as passing into a state of  Samadhi (224). The Sri Chaitanya and Sri Ramakrishna tie that the text highlights, which leads to the mutuality of Radha/Chaitanya/Ramakrishna, to deepening and intensifying of the madhura bhava, is brought out by narratorial comments like the following, where M says

the many people assembled at the Panihati (Peneti) festival were thinking that ‘Sri Gauranga must have manifested himself inside this Mahapurusha.’ Indeed ‘some were thinking  that he was Sri Gauranga  incarnate’(225).

After the dancing and the kirtan, Thakur sits down to talk to Nabdwip Goswami. He tells him that when Bhakti matures it becomes bhava, which leads to mahabhava, which in turn leads to prema and after that  ‘bastu labh’ (the thing itself) or Ishwar.

He further tells Nabadwip Goswami that ‘Gauranga had mahabhava. Also love Prem (love). That is why he jumped into the blue ocean thinking that it was the Yamuna’  (225).

He then adds,  ‘Jiva does not have mahabhava or prema. They stay with bhava only. Gauranga had three states—right?’ (225)

Nababweep answers: antardasha( entirely immersed within the SELF), ‘ardhabajhyadasha’ (when the consciousness is divided between the world and the SELF ) and ‘bajhyadasha’ or ( state when one is fully engaged or aware of the world)

Sri Ramakrishna responds to Nabadweep’s answer by adding: ‘in the state of antardasha he used to stay in Samadhi, in ardhyabajhyadasha he used to only dance, and in bajhyadasha he used to do naamsamkirtan.

An epistemological and intellectual dimension comes in with Thakur explicating Sri Chaitanya. Not only does he  respond to Chaitanya with joy, inhabiting his affective space like a sahardaya, but he also has keen intellectual perception of the many spiritual ontologies of this celebrated medieval Bengali saint. Therefore, a dialogue between Thakur’s affect and intellect also takes place through Sri Ramakrishna’ exegesis, adding to the splendour if both spiritual figures and of the Kathamrita as intertextual and myriad faced text.

On 14th December, 1883, Thakur tells Ramlal to sing the following Kirtan. A kirtan often has akhar or refrain, and it comes out in the following song, through the words in the parenthesis

Ramlal sings:

Ki dekhilam re , Keshav Bharatir kutire

Oh, what did I see in Keshav Bharati’s house

Aparupa jyoti , Sri Gauranga murati, du nayane prem bohe satadhare

The glorious and  resplendent Gauranga, from whose eyes Love flows out in mighty streams (327)

The  greatness of Radha’s personality, and  the rareness of the Radha like state, is brought out through the haunting questions that the next song asks:

                Radha-r dekha ki pai sakale

How many people get to see Radha?

          Radhar prem ki pai sakale  

How many people can love like Radha?(327)

Thakur then asks  Ramlal to sing the following song: “Gaur and Nitai, you are two brothers”, and then Thakur himself starts singing with Ramlal:

Gaur Nitai, tomra du bhai, param dayal he Prabhu

Gaur and Nitai you are two brothers, very compassionate Lords

I have always heard that, Oh Lords

Ami giyecchilam Kashipur e, amai koye dilen Kashi Bisheshwar

I had gone to Kashi and the Lord of Kashi, Kashi Bisheshwar, said to me,

               

Se je parambrahma Sachi r ghar e[Sachi is Sri Chaitanya’s mother]

The Parabramhan resides in Sachi’s house (I have recognized you, O Lord),

Ami giyechhilam anek thain, kintu emon dayal dekhi nai (tomader moto)

I have gone to many places, but nowhere have I seen anybody like the two of you

Tomara braje chhile kanai balai, Node hole Gaur Nitai (se roop lukaye)

               

In Brajadham you were Krishna and Balaram, in Nadia, you are Gaur and Nitai

(You have hidden that original beauty, Oh Lords).

I will now refer to another incident of  July 3,1884, which enacts a magical coalescence of song, dance, and of Kali and Krishna songs together. As Thakur dances at Rathayatra in front of Balaram Bose’s house, M describes Thakur as being full of the bhava of Sri Chaitanya (502). M further states that it was like Gaur was dancing full of ‘Hariprema’ (love of Krishna) at Sribas’s courtyard. . M further says that Balaram’s house was Nabdweep from outside and Brindavan inside (503).  The song in this context is:

Amar gour nache sribas angane bhakta sange (503)

My Gaur dances with his devotees in Sribas’s courtyard

In The Chaitanya Movement, Melville T Kennedy posits that:

Chaitanya gave himself whole heartedly to his musical worship, called kirtan. The courtyard of a certain Srivasa was the centre for the evening devotions. Here, night after night, Chaitanya found an atmosphere so highly emotionalized and a fellowship so congenial and enthusiastic as to arouse him to a high pitch of excitement. This courtyard figures very prominently in the history and hymnology of the sect in Bengal. Chaitanya himself in later days, when a sannyasi residing at Puri, used to speak of it with affection and a trace of  homesickness (20).

In another instance too, when Thakur starts dancing ecstatically in response to Neelkantha’s singing of kirtan, M concludes that Thakur’s room at Dakshineshwar, was like Srivas’s courtyard. The educated and erudite references of the narrator and documenter of the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, help to set up mythical as well as historical parallels and correspondences to Sri Ramakrishna’s lila at Dakshineshwar.

These references widen and broaden the historical and mythical implications of this invaluable text. It creates a historical continuum, in which Sri Chaitanya and Sri Ramakrishna figure, it also creates a continuum sahardya, or affect, whereby Bengal, itself, becomes implicated, whereby kirtan, khol and dancing becomes a Bengali cultural and spiritual response.  The added strain of Radha as an affective pivot, a centripetal source from which Sri Chaitanya and Sri Ramakrishna, are both taking their spiritual charge, brings bhakti and kirtan, into a wider field of Indian spiritual modes. Past and present, inhere  through myth and history, setting up intricate and rich interrelationships and correspondences. Dakshineshwar, Vrindavan and Nadia become coterminous and co extended. Each inheres in the other and sets up an intricate and layered symbolic liturgy, which resounds with the madhura bhava. Panihati, Balaram Bose’s house, and all such places are drawn into this magnificent universe of call, response and echo. This interpenetration also makes the Kathamrita one of the most musically resonant of texts, as various melodies cross and interfuse.

This incident in the Kathamrita, is a very interesting one. It is October 5, 1884. Neelkantha, the kirtan singer has come and Thakur tells him that his song, ‘shyamapada asho nadi teere bash’ is a very nice one (631).Whereupon Neelkantha starts singing. After this song, Neelkantha sings, ‘Mahishamardini’. As he listens, Thakur becomes ‘samadhisthha’ or goes into Samadhi (631). After this Neelkantha sings’ ‘jar jatai Ganga, tini Rajrajeshwari ke hridaye dharan koriya acchen’(631), which translates into ‘He who carries the Ganga on head, carries Rajrajeshwari in his heart’. The reference is obviously to Shiva.

Intoxicated with divine love (premunmattwa), Thakur starts dancing. Neelkantha and the devotees encircle him and also sing and dance (631). What a scene of divine beauty and the transporting delight to music! How music, dance and a common spiritual goal, creates these contingent and also permanent communities where love of the divine is established and resonates. M says, the room was full of people who all seemed drunk on divine bliss. The place was reminiscent of Sribas’s courtyard. Thakur’s devotee, Manmohan Mitra seemed to go into a trance. Women from his household had also come, and one of them, was also similarly affected (631).

Soon Thakur himself starts singing,

Jader Hari bolte du nayan jhure, tara dui bhai eshecche re (631).

Oh, those two brothers whose eyes overflow with tears on hearing the name of Hari (631)  

After this ecstatic singing and dancing, Neelkantha boldly declares, ‘Apniy sakkhat Gauranga’ or ‘You are Gauranga, himself’! (632). Sri Ramakrishna is of course,incredulous and in his humble way says, ‘ What on Earth! I am everyone’s servant’s servant. The wave is of the Ganga, not the Ganga of the wave (632).

I will now refer to the Kirtan singing on 24th April, 1885. The various states of Radha or Sreemati’s vyakulata (yearning for Krishna) are described—Her state of complete abandonment on hearing Krishna’s flute-- how she becomes ‘vyakul’ (lost with yearning) to see Krishna (816). On hearing the words ‘aha sakal madhuryamaya Krishna naam’ (Oh all sound is full of the sweet resonance of Krishna’s name) in the kirtan, Thakur cannot remain seated anymore, and stands up in a state of Samadhi. On partially regaining consciousness, he sweetly keeps uttering the name ‘Krishna, Krishna’. He seems close to the state of Radha, who says in the kirtan, ‘je dekhechi Yamuna tate/sei dekhi ei chitrapate’ (816), which translates into ‘He who I saw on the banks of the Yamuna, is He who I see now in the painting’. This would imply a state of complete oneness with one’s chosen ideal.

Therefore, we find the two distinct strands of the madhura bhava,  one focused on Radha and the other on Sri Chaitanya, closely interlocked or intertwined in the Kathamrita, where mention of Radha, often leads to the mention of Sri Chaitanya, and vice versa. The interlocking,  interpenetration and merging of the two heightens the quality of madhura based affect in the text, and sets up as I have mentioned a system of recall, whereby each distinctive strand of madhura is refracted through the other, causing ever expanding levels of melodic and thought resonance.

Another interesting musical seam that enters the Kathamrita, comes in through the Kali or Shyama songs, which many of the Kirtan singers mentioned here, also had as part of their repertoire. In fact, it is a frequent occurrence that right after the bhava of the kirtan singing, focusing on Radha and Chaitanya, many of the Kirtan singers, like Vaishnavcharan and Neelkantha, break out into Kali songs. Amateur singers like Ramlal, and also Swami Vivekananda, during Ratha Yatra day at Balram Bose’s house, also do the same.

A significant instance is when Thakur comes to Adhar Lal’s Sen’s house on October 1, 1884. Among the people who are present are Kedarnath Chatterjee,  himself a kirtan singer, Vijaykrishna Goswami ( a leader of the Brhamo Samaj, yet, initially born into a family of Krishna worshippers), Baburam Ghosh (later Swami Premananda), and Master Mahasay.  Vaishnavcharan, a renowned Kirtan singer, who is also present, requested by Thakur, to sing.  M describes him to have an extremely sweet voice.

Vaishnavcharan starts with the Abhisar (journey of Radha amdist difficult circumstances ,to meet Krishna) and also sings the Raaskirtan (the union of Radha and Krishna). Dance is another performance oriented response to Life and music, that the text sometimes highlights, as Thakur responds in delight to Kirtan and starts dancing. The above instance is a case in point. M describes the situation:

As soon as the kirtan based on the union of Radha and Krishna started, Thakur started dancing and the devotees too, encircled him and danced  (598).

After the dancing was over, Thakur says to Vijaykrishna, he (Vaishnavcharan) sings well (589). Vaishnavcharan sings an oft repeated song in the Kathamrita:

Sri Gaurangashundor naba natabar, tapata kanchan kai

Sri Gauranga who has skin like molten gold is the new actor of this stage (589)

Yet oddly Vaishnav Charan, the kirtan singer, soon turns to the singing of Kali or Shyama songs. This signals a change of mode, mood and aesthetics. However, this must have been culturally a la mode, where Kirtan singers not only sang Radha/Krishna and Chaitanya lila based songs, but also songs based on love for the divine mother Kali. 

All the bhavas flow into each other Vaishnavcharan sings:

Sri Durga nam japa sada rasana amar

Oh, my tongue chant the name of Durga

Durgame Sri Durga bine ke kore nist

Oh, who except Durga, will protect us during times of trouble?

The fact that Neelkantha, Vaishnavcharan, Ramlal, Narendranath, and Sri Ramakrishna  all sing both Shakta and Vaishnav songs, attests to the rich plurality and synthesizing characteristics of Bengali culture. This is a culture  marked by deep community appreciation of music, where the appreciation was so keen, that during moments of whole hearted musical response, the philosophical disputes between Shaktas and Vaishnavas would be forgotten.  This great catholicity is to be seen in the figure of Sri Ramakrishna who often ordered for both modes of music, who constantly spoke of ‘joto mat, tato path’. Attesting to the simultaneity of Kali and Krishna worship, are the Radha Govinda temples at two very significant Kali temples of Bengal, Dakshineshwar and Kalighat. 

In the Kathamrita all the bhavas flow into each other,  reinforce and recall each other,  set up rich parallels, contrasts and interfaces, startling juxtapositions, and interpenetrating symbolic layers that render the text inexhaustible and incomparable. Perhaps no other religious text in the world is this polyphonic or multitudinous, with a melodic resonance that is almost unsurpassable.  . Affect, performance, melody, philosophy, and orality, merge dramatically and unforgettably in this great text, which is also one of the most performance oriented texts as well.

The impact of the rhythmical and melodic ethos Sri Chaitanya’s sankirtan, lives in Bengal, even today. Rabindranath Tagore modeled his ‘O amar desher mati’ from ‘sonar Gaur kene kende elo O Narahari’. The song is sung within and without nationalist contexts. ISKCON adopted Chaitanya’s ‘Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Hare Hare/Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hare’, and made it a world mantra, which had and continues to have global impact.  The latest and most entrancing pop melody, arousing the magical power of the sankirtan is a song sung by the  pop band Bolepur Bluz, which expresses deep yearning for the figure of Sri Chaitanya. The song carries the power to enfold hundreds within its rhythmical and melodic world:  “boli chhede dile sonar Gaur, aar to pabo na/boli chhede dile sonar Gaur, ar to pabo na, na, na, chhede dibo na / amar hrid majhare rakhibo chhede debo na/…../ bhuvanamohana Gora, koto muni janer mono hora. Jaya Radhar name pagol hoye thakbo mono na/na, na chhede debo na.

Notes

1.            All references to the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita  are from the Udbodhan edition. Kolkata: Bagbazar. 23rd impression. 2007. Translations are mine.

2.            Swami Saradananda. The Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga. Udbodhan: Kolkata. 11th Impression. 1963.68.

3.            Shivaprasad Bhattacharya.  PadavalirTattwasoundarya O KaviRabindranath. Kolkata: RabindraBharatiVishwavidyalaya. 1967. 1.

4.            Melville T. Kennedy translates from Chapter II of the Chaitanya Charitamrita, which  explains Hladini Shakti : “ Hladini is so named because of giving delight to Krishna, who tastes delight through that power. Krishna himself is delight and tastes delight. Hladini is the cause of the bhakta’s delight; the essence of Hladini is called prema (love). 94.

Works Cited

Bhattacharya,  Shivaprasad PadavalirTattwasoundarya O KaviRabindranath. Kolkata: RabindraBharatiVishwavidyalaya. 1967.

Bolepur Bluz. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TkwtPWTUks

Gupta, Mahendralal. Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita. Vols. I&II.  Kolkata: Udbodhan Karyalaya. 23rd Impression. 2007.

Kennedy, Melville T. The Chaitanya Movement: A Study of Vaishnavism in Bengal. Delhi: Munshiram Manohar Lal Publishers. 1993. First published in  1925.

Swami Saradananda. Sri Sri Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga. Vol 2. Kolkata: Udbodhan Karyalaya. 11th Impression.  1963.

Acknowledgements: I thank Srimat Swami Prabhanandaji Maharaj, for introducing me to Melville Kennedy’s book.

Sreemati Mukherjee

Associate Professor

Department of English

Basanti Devi College