Source scan 30

Chapter One: Rāgamayī Bhakti and Its Vaishnava Tradition

"Accept me."¹ In Ramanuja's Sri Sampradaya, complete self-offering is fully expounded, and śaraṇāgati, or prapatti, has developed there in a uniquely concentrated form. Rāgamayī-bhakti subsequently received special development in the traditions of Madhva, Nimbarka, Vallabha, Chaitanya, the Radhavallabhis, and Hit Harivamsa. We shall survey this very briefly.

One point deserves notice here. Rāgamayī-bhakti was especially developed among the Alvar devotees who preceded Ramanujacharya. Later, within Ramanuja's own lineage, it received further special development and adornment among Swami Ramananda and the saintly devotees who followed him. Although the lineage of Ayodhya's rasika devotees is exceedingly ancient, it becomes historically distinct with Swami Ramananda. From the Alvar devotees to Swami Ramananda, it appears that the rasika current flowed secretly—like the hidden Godavari— through the intervening disciplines of yoga, sahaja, and other esoteric practices. Then, among the devotees following Ramananda, a flood of rasikatā arose. Most of our Rama literature after the seventeenth century is thoroughly permeated by it.

Such a sweet unfolding of śṛṅgāra within the strict enclosure of maryādā is rare in world literature. Goswami Tulsidas must certainly have seen this literature flourishing around him. Yet, because he himself upheld maryādā and strongly advocated harmony between the welfare of society and individual spiritual practice, he could not emphasise the śṛṅgāra dimension of devotion. Even so, the current of feeling within him occasionally burst forth here and there, as we shall show later by quoting several verses from the Gītāvalī.

Our purpose is to describe the unbroken stream of the śṛṅgāra disposition in Rama worship, from Swami Ramananda down to Sri Rupakala, which continues even now as the principal and most esoteric discipline of Awadh. We must not forget, however, that this disposition has also been worshipped in an especially explicit and unrestricted form in other devotional traditions. It will therefore be necessary to indicate those traditions when the context calls for it.

We shall first offer a brief, general introduction to the devotional traditions in which rāgamayī-sādhanā is the dominant note. Only then can we examine comparatively how, and to what extent, they differ from the śṛṅgāra discipline of Rama worship—and, if they differ, why. In studying and evaluating the sweet worship of the Ramavat tradition, one fact must always be kept in view: from beginning to end, the sense of maryādā remains intact. Within is the worship of śṛṅgāra; outwardly is the attitude of maryādā. This is why the Ramavat tradition's sweet worship has until now been almost entirely neglected and has not received the importance accorded to the sweet worship of the Krishnavat tradition. Nevertheless, this supreme—