Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s contributions 4 – The Eastern Savior offers the zenith of religious experience among all the world’s religions

“People from Europe and the Americas have not been satisfied with beauty of the rasa of parental affection (vātsalya) that Jesus propagated. By God’s grace, the hope is that they get addicted to the mature wine of the rasa of sweetness in the near future. It is observed that the rasas that appear in India first gradually spread to the West . . . just as the sun first rises in India and then gradually lights up the countries of the West. Similarly the incomparable rays of spiritual principles spread across in Western lands, after first manifesting in India.”

– Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Krishna Samhita

We discussed Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s contributions and we continue our discussion about the progression in various religions. Earlier, we discussed it in terms of first, the existential quest of the seeker.
Then we discussed in terms of modes of comprehending the divine. And now we discuss it in terms of relishing a personal relationship with the divine. So, here Bhaktivinoda Thakura takes the distinct, even unique feature of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, that is rasa, and applies it to not just the Indian context or the Vaishnav context, but to the broad world religions.
Now, the concept of rasa is talked about first by Bharatmuni in his Natya Shastra. And there he describes that when drama is performed, then by doing various activities in a drama, having the proper stimuli, proper expressions, proper actions, by that the proper emotions will be evolved in a cultured audience. So, that is rasa.
Rasa is emotion that is experienced in a theatre through the enactment of a drama. And this rasa theory has been developed elaborately by subsequent commentators like Abhinav Gupta and others. Now, the concept of rasa was revealed by Rupa Goswami as not just being something that is experienced in a theatre on watching a drama, but as something that can be experienced constantly by a devotee in relationship with the Lord.
And that has become the basis of Neelamani. So, now, rasa itself is, can be a constant experience in relationship with the Supreme. Now, Bhaktivinoda Thakur takes this concept of rasa.
In our sampradaya before Bhaktivinoda Thakur, there has been no direct interaction with the rest of the world, and especially with the West. So, Bhaktivinoda Thakur explains that all the religions which focus on the worship of the absolute truth with some personal conception, like Christianity and Islam, they are forms of Vaishnavism. So, he explains that the nomenclature is simply pragmatic.
So, it means Christianity can be called Vaishnavism and Vaishnavism can also be called as Christianity, because they are all focusing on worship of the supreme person. But he also explains that in the Vedic, in the Vedic wisdom tradition, the scriptures of India, the understanding of the absolute truth and especially the process by which a personal relationship and devotional emotions can be developed in relationship with the absolute truth, that is much more, much better revealed in India. So, now there are many rasas out of the seven secondary rasas and five primary rasas.
The five primary rasas are Shanta, Dasya, Sakya, Vatsalya and Madhurya. So, he explains that initially when people start worshipping God, their primary purpose is to deliver themselves from suffering. So, in Shanta rasa, the focus is on, oh, I am in trouble and God will free me from trouble.
That is the conception of Shanta rasa. The primary focus in Shanta rasa is meditation on God as a means of solving our problems. So, one is passive and one may be active at the material level, but in relationship with God, one is passive.
One is simply asking God to solve one’s problems. Any way one approaches that God is good, but it is the first level. Then he explains that the level of Dasya, one starts conceiving of the point that I am meant to serve the Lord.
So, Bhaktivinoda says that even at a preliminary level in all the world religions, the idea of going to God to relieve one’s suffering is there. The idea of Dasya is present in the Judaic religion, especially in Moses because he says that Moses carried out the instructions and the Lord told him that he should take the people to the promised land and he did that. So, there also in Dasya, there is not much conception of the absolute truth.
Now, we have to understand that Bhaktivinoda Thakur here is over-coding the word rasa. Over-coding means that he is expanding the semantic scope of the word. Primarily, the word rasa is used, if you look at it by the way Chaitanya Charitamruta defines the word rasa, it is defined as like Hanuman having a relationship with the Lord.
So, Hanuman knows the absolute truth is Ram and is having a personal relationship. So, that is understanding of Bhaktivinoda Thakur now takes it, over-codes it, that means he takes the word and expands its semantic scope and explains that anywhere a person has a relationship with God of servitorship and that is Dasya rasa. And this is present in various religions, but he is giving as an example, the relationship of Moses with God, Jehovah.
And then he says that, this is also present in Mohammed and Mohammed also received the instructions, the Quran and so. And there are some traces of Sakhi also present in Islam as Bhaktivinoda Thakur points to that. And then he says that the concept of Vatsalya is present in Christianity.
Now, here Bhaktivinoda Thakur inverts the normal meaning of Vatsalya as it is understood in the Vaishnav devotional circles, in Gaudiya Vaishnavism before him. That means that normally the concept of Vatsalya within Gaudiya Vaishnavism is that the devotee considers the Lord to be one’s child and the devotee is the parent. But Bhaktivinoda Thakur explains that where the devotee also conceives the Lord as the father, that is also a form of Vatsalya, because there is basically a parent-child relationship, whichever way the hierarchy.
Now, when one conceives the Lord as the child, that is a very exalted level of worship. Bhaktivinoda Thakur is not talking about that right now. He is talking about basically the parental relationship.
And now, as parental is considered higher because there is intimacy over there. And now, the child may have many friends, but the level of intimacy in terms of connectedness in the relationship with the parents is much more. So, now, in the Vatsalya, this sort of inversion within Vatsalya is seen in the Bhagavad Gita also when Krishna is asked for forgiveness by Arjuna.
Arjuna, after seeing the Vishwaroop and understanding how great Krishna is, he begs Krishna, please forgive me. So, he also talks about, just as the father forgives a child, just as a friend forgives a friend, or just as a lover forgives one’s beloved, like that, please forgive me, my dear Lord, for whatever I have done wrong. So, here also, the other two we could say as Akhya and Madhurya, but here Krishna is using Vatsalya, but with the inverted, God as father and we as son.
So, then he says, beyond all this, when there is the most intimate is Madhurya. So, as an illustration of intimacy, Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that one may reveal some things to one’s friends, one may reveal something more to one’s parents, but then once a relationship within marriage is formed, conjugal relationship, and when there is a good marriage, then one shares far more with one’s spouse than with anyone else. So, like that, there’s a heart-to-heart relationship between the devotee and the Lord in Madhurya.
It’s the most intimate bond that is possible. And this is revealed not just in the Vedic tradition, but in the Vaishnava tradition, not just in the Vaishnava tradition, within especially the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. And Bhaktivinoda Thakur said that this is the highest revelation, that where one can actually relish a personal relationship in an amorous flavor with the Supreme Lord.
So, that is Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s explanation of the trajectory of the aesthetic evolution of one’s relationship. So, this was revealed by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and that’s why Bhaktivinoda Thakur calls Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as the eastern savior. So, Bhaktivinoda Thakur lived at a time when Christians were aggressively preaching and they said that Jesus is the savior.
So, Bhaktivinoda Thakur said, yes, Jesus is the savior, but then in Nadia, there was another savior that was born and he’s the eastern savior and he has given a rasa far higher than what Jesus has given. And then Bhaktivinoda Thakur writes that just as the sun rises in the east and then moves to the west, so similarly, the rasas arise in India and from India move around to the west to the rest of the world. This is along for the time when the whole world will become inundated with love for God, with love for God in the mood of Madhurya.
And he says that one of the reasons for the disillusionment of people in Europe and America with religion is because they’re not satisfied with the rasa of Vatsalya. But if they just come to know about Madhurya and this is the supreme, he uses the word wine. Bhaktivinoda Thakur is very intelligently presenting the message in a way that people can understand.
This is the supremely delicious wine of Madhurya. When people taste that and become intoxicated, then they will forget all forms of materialism and they will attain life’s supreme perfection. It is this that led Bhaktivinoda Thakur to eventually talk about the prediction that how one day people from all over the world will come and chant the holy names and they will dance and sing in Navadviptham.
So, Bhaktivinoda Thakur explains in this way how the various religions in the world are all ultimately meant to give us the aesthetic experience of rasa, of personal relationship with the Supreme Lord and the most intimate personal relationship with the Supreme Lord is offered within the Vedic tradition through the teachings of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as manifested in Gaudiya Vaishnavism. So, thus Bhaktivinoda Thakur reveals a progressive hierarchy in one’s aesthetic relationships, evolution with the Supreme Lord. Thank you.
Hare Krishna.

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Hare Krishna. We discussed Bhaktivinoda Thakur's contributions and we continue our discussion about the progression in various religions. Earlier we discussed it in terms of first the existential quest of the seeker, then we discussed in terms of modes of comprehending the divine and now we discuss it in terms of relishing a personal relationship with the divine.

So here Bhaktivinoda Thakur takes the distinct even unique feature of Gaudiya Vaishnavism that is Rasa and applies it to not just the Indian context or the Vaishnav context but to the broad world religions. Now the concept of Rasa is talked about first by Bharat Muni in his Natya Shastra and there he describes that when drama is performed then by doing various activities in a drama having the proper stimuli, proper expressions, proper actions by that the proper emotions will be evolved in a cultured audience. So that is Rasa.

Rasa is emotion that is experienced in a theatre through the enactment of a drama and this Rasa theory has been developed elaborately by subsequent commentators like Abhinav Gupta and others. Now the concept of Rasa was revealed by Rupa Goswami as not just being something that is experienced in a theatre on watching a drama but as something that can be experienced constantly by a devotee in relationship with the lord and that has become the basis of Bhakti Rasa Amritsindhu and subsequently Ujjwala Neelamani. So now Rasa itself can be a constant experience in relationship with the supreme.

Now Bhaktivinoda Thakur takes this concept of Rasa. In our sampradaya before Bhaktivinoda Thakur there has been no direct interaction with the rest of the world and especially with the West. So Bhaktivinoda Thakur explains that all the religions which focus on the worship of the absolute truth with some personal conception like Christianity and Islam they are forms of Vaishnavism.

So he explains that the nomenclature is simply pragmatic. So that means Christianity can be called Vaishnavism and Vaishnavism can also be called as Christianity because they are all focusing on worship of the supreme person. But he also explains that in the Vedic wisdom tradition in the scriptures of India the understanding of the absolute truth and especially the process by which a personal relationship and devotional emotions can be developed in relationship with the absolute truth that is much more much better revealed in India.

So now there are many Rasa's out of the seven secondary Rasa's and five primary Rasa's. The five primary Rasa's are Shanta, Dasya, Sakya, Vatsalya and Madhurya. So he explains that initially when people start worshipping God their primary purpose is to deliver themselves from suffering.

So in Shanta Rasa the focus is on oh I am in trouble and God will free me from trouble. That is the conception of Shanta Rasa. The primary focus in Shanta Rasa is meditation on God as a means of solving our problems.

So one is passive and one may be active at the material level but in relationship with God one is passive. One is simply asking God to solve one's problems. Any way one approaches the God is good but it is the first level.

Then he explains that the level of Dasya one starts conceiving of the point that I am meant to serve the Lord. So Bhaktivedanta says that even at a preliminary level in all the world religions the idea of going to God to relieve one's suffering is there. The idea of Dasya is present in the Judaic religion especially in Moses because he says that Moses carried out the instructions and the Lord told him that he should take the people to the promised land and he did that.

So there also in Dasya there is not much conception of the absolute truth. Now we have to understand that Bhaktivinoda Thakur here is over coding the word Rasa. Over coding means that he is expanding the semantic scope of the word.

Primarily the word Rasa is used if you look at it with the way Chaitanya Charitamruta defines the word Rasa. It is defined as like Hanuman having a relationship with the Lord. So Hanuman knows the absolute truth is Ram and is having a personal relationship.

So that is understanding of Rasa at one level. Bhaktivinoda Thakur now takes it, over codes it. That means he takes the word and expands its semantic scope and explains that anywhere a person has a relationship with God of servitorship and that is Dasya Rasa and this is present in various religions but he is giving as an example the relationship of Moses with God Yehovah and then he says that this Dasya is also present in Mohammed and Mohammed also received the instructions, the Quran and so and there are some traces of Sakya also present in Islam as Bhaktivinoda Thakur points to that and then he says that the concept of Vatsalya is present in Christianity.

Now here Bhaktivinoda Thakur inverts the normal meaning of Vatsalya as it is understood in the Vaishnav devotion circles in Gaudiya Vaishnavism before him. That means that normally the concept of Vatsalya within Gaudiya Vaishnavism is that the devotee considers the Lord to be one's child and the devotee is the parent but Bhaktivinoda Thakur explains that where the devotee also conceives the Lord as the father that is also a form of Vatsalya because there is a basically a parent-child relationship whichever way the hierarchy. Now when one conceives the Lord as the child that's a very exalted level of worship.

Bhaktivinoda Thakur is not talking about that right now. He is talking about basically the parental relationship and now as parental is considered higher because there is intimacy over there. Now the child may have many friends but the level of intimacy in terms of connectedness in the relationship with the parents is much more.

So now in the Vatsalya, the sort of inversion within Vatsalya is seen in the Bhagavad Gita also when Krishna is asked for forgiveness by Arjuna. Arjuna after seeing the Vishwaroop and understanding how great Krishna is, he begs to Krishna, please forgive me. piteva putrasya sakheva sakhyu priya priyaya rasideva sodhum.

So he also talks about piteva putrasya, just as a father forgives a child, just as a friend forgives a friend, sakheva sakhyu priya priyaya rasideva sodhum or just as a lover forgives one's beloved. Like that, please forgive me my dear Lord for whatever I have done wrong. So here also the other two we could say as sakhya and madhurya, but here Krishna is using Vatsalya, but with the inverted, God as father and we as son.

So then he says beyond all this, when there is the most intimate is madhurya. So as an illustration of intimacy, Bhaktivedanta says that one may reveal some things to one's friends, one may reveal something more to one's parents, but then once a relationship within marriage is formed, conjugal relationship and when there is a good marriage, then one shares far more with one's spouse than with anyone else. So like that there's a heart to heart relationship between the devotee and the Lord in madhuryas.

It's the most intimate bond that is possible and this is revealed not just in the Vedic tradition, but in the Vaishnava tradition, not just in the Vaishnava tradition, within especially the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition and Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that this is the highest revelation that where one can actually relish a personal relationship in an amorous flavor with the Supreme Lord. So that is Bhaktivinoda Thakur's explanation of the trajectory of the aesthetic evolution of one's relationship. So this was revealed by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and that's why Bhaktivinoda Thakur calls Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as the eastern saviour.

So Bhaktivinoda Thakur lived at a time when Christians were aggressively preaching and they said that Jesus is the saviour. So Bhaktivinoda Thakur said yes, Jesus is the saviour, but then in Nadia there was another saviour that was born and he's the eastern saviour and he has given a rasa far higher than what Jesus has given and then Bhaktivinoda Thakur writes that just as the sun rises in the east and then moves to the west, so similarly the rasas arise in India and from India move around to the west to the rest of the world. So this is along for the time when the whole world will become inundated with love for God, with love for God in the mood of Madhurya and he says that one of the reasons for the disillusionment of people in Europe and America with religion is because they are not satisfied with the rasa of Vatsalya.

But if they just come to know about Madhurya and this is the supreme, he uses the word wine. Bhaktivinoda Thakur is very intelligently presenting the message in a way that people can understand. This is the supremely delicious wine of Madhurya.

When people taste that and become intoxicated, then they will forget all forms of materialism and they will attain life's supreme perfection. It is this that led Bhaktivinoda Thakur to eventually talk about the prediction that how one day people from all over the world will come and chant the holy names and they will dance and sing in Navadir Dham. So Bhaktivinoda Thakur explains in this way how the various religions in the world are all ultimately meant to give us the supreme aesthetic experience of rasa, of personal relationship with the Supreme Lord and most intimate personal relationship with the Supreme Lord is offered within the Vedic tradition through the teachings as manifested in Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

So thus Bhaktivinoda Thakur reveals a progressive hierarchy in one's aesthetic relationships, evolution with the Supreme Lord. Thank you.