Women Saints in Gaudiya Vaishnavism
- Jagadananda Das -
There are few traditional societies in which women have played a dominant historical
role. In this respect, Gaudiya Vaishnavism is no different. The egalitarianism
of bhakti movements, which stress the universality of devotion and deny any
disqualifications based on birth, sex, or caste, seems to have had limited real
effects on the actual social circumstances of any of these classes of people.
There are some, including the eminent Bengali historian, Ramakanta Chakravarti,
who feel that the status of women was improved in Chaitanya Vaishnavism, mainly
due to the singular example of Jahnava Devi. (1) Indeed, it
does appear that literacy rates among women (and men) in Vaishnava castes in
Bengal were somewhat higher than in other, comparable groups, but this evidence
is far from overwhelming.
Today,
some women may be found playing the role of guru, especially ministering to
other women, and there are some Chaitanya Vaishnava women who sing padavali
kirtan or give discourses on Vaishnava texts. On the whole, however, despite
their dominant numbers at most religious events, the role of women continues
to be a supporting one and subordinate to that of men.
One question that needs analysis is whether the importance of Radha in the Vaishnava
pantheon and the general weight given to the female principle and feminine virtues
in the Gaudiya Vaishnava culture has had any influence on the status of women.
Many feminist analysts have pointed out that the worship of goddesses has no
proven relation to any such amelioration in societies where such worship is
conducted. On the contrary, in a cross-cultural study of women in religion,
it has been observed that, "Quite frequently, the very aspects of women glorified
in a religious system are used as justification for the social and political
denigration of women. Different ideological definitions and perceptions of men
and women further the separation and isolation of women. Seldom does this work
to women's advantage. Even when women are seen as spiritual, as in the nineteenth-century
cult of true womanhood, the expression of such spirituality was believed best
confined to the privacy of the domestic world."(2)
In its origins, it might be said that the Chaitanyaite Gaudiya tradition is
no exception to this rule. In spite of the exalted place that it gives to a
female deity, Radha, and to the feminine virtues, the Chaitanyaite sect, at
least in the vision of it presented by the Vrindavan Goswamis and their followers,
with its strong emphasis on asceticism, appears to have followed the Puranic
traditions regarding women as found in the Bhagavatam, with its many clearly
mysogynistic statements.
Despite this, a closer examination of the Chaitanya Charitamrita shows
that though women are clearly cast in traditional feminine roles as wives and
mothers, there is little or no overt misogyny. The heavy emphasis on the renunciation
of sexuality and the dangers of involvement with women when engaged in the exercise
of spiritual practices do not necessarily enjoin the explicit or willful hatred
or denigration of women, though it cannot have been particularly helpful.
The case of Junior Haridas, described by Krishna Das Kaviraj in the Chaitanya
Charitamrita, is perhaps the most outstanding example of the strict standard
of sexual segregation Chaitanya expected of his renunciate disciples. The young
renunciate Haridas was ostracized by Chaitanya for having begged rice from an
old woman, Madhavi Devi, the sister of one of his most intimate associates,
Sikhi Mahiti. Chaitanya's adherence to a principle, to an ascetic standard irrespective
of all extenuating circumstance, is highlighted by Kaviraj when he glories Madhavi
Devi for her own devotional achievements; he states that she is a member of
Chaitanya's most exclusive inner circle: the half of the three and a half most
worthy recipients of his mercy in the universe.(3) Even so,
of the various Bhagavata verses that might have been chosen as authorities for
such a strict standard, Kaviraj envisions Chaitanya as quoting BhP 9.19.17,
which places emphasis on the strength of the senses and the weakness of man
rather than on the insidious sexuality of women:
One should not sit alone with one's mother, sister or daughter. The
senses are so strong that they can distract even a wise man.
On the other hand, that Madhavi Devi is known as only "half a worthy" indicates
rather clearly the sexual-political position taken by Kaviraj and the Vrindavan
school of Chaitanya Vaishnavism. It should be noted, however, that Madhavi Devi
is unique in the biographies of Chaitanya as a woman who is given credit for personal
spiritual achievement--even though neither her devotion nor her age could rid
her of the curse of being a danger to men who wished to free themselves of sexual
desire.(4)
Another comparable incident is found in the same biography: Chaitanya is described
as being overwhelmed emotionally upon hearing verses from the Gita Govinda being
sung by a woman. He runs to embrace the singer, oblivious to her sex. Only when
he is tackled by his servant Govinda Das does he come to his senses and realize
the magnitude of what he had been about to do. (5)
The exception that proves the rule is also given by Kaviraj. On one occasion in
his later life, while Chaitanya was taking darshan of Jagannath in the midst of
a crowd, an Orissan woman placed her feet on his back as she strained to get a
look at the deity, entirely unaware of the impropriety of her action. Rather than
condemning the woman, as his own disciples wished, Chaitanya told them to leave
her alone and let her drink in the vision of the Lord to her heart's content.
He furthermore expressed a wish for a similar intensity of desire, saying, "Oh
that fortunate woman! I worship her feet. By her grace may I also have such eagerness
[to see Jagannath]." It is significant, though, that Chaitanya does not speak
to her directly.(6)
In principle, however, it would be a mistake to judge the Chaitanyaite attitude
to women on the basis of the strict standards of behavior shown by the ascetics
who modeled themselves on his example. The medieval bhakti movements in general
showed a more democratic attitude to the practices of religion, giving equal rights
to low castes, untouchables and women. Thus Balaram Das could sing that women
of respectable lineage (to whom such a public display would have been anathema)
danced publicly in the sankirtan procession. (6) Quite in contrast
to the findings of Sinclair cited above, Donna Wulff, based on her experience
of modern feminist singers of kirtan like Radharani, has concluded that women
in Bengal have always enjoyed a comparatively higher status than elsewhere in
India and that this fact is both reflected in and supported by the existence of
cults of feminine deities.(8) Nevertheless, the women whose biographies
(or legends) are described briefly in this article are exceptional: women have
only rarely exercised leadership roles for large numbers of Gaudiya devotees of
both sexes.
It is no doubt true that women of Sahajiya sects have higher status within their
groupings (the above-mentioned Radharani be longs to such a sampradaya), while
the orthodoxy preserves a more conservative attitude to sexual relations. It would
be a worthwhile subject for research whether the Sahajiya belief in the inherent
divinity of both male and females as sexual beings translates into higher status
for women than in the orthodox. Whatever findings came out of such research, however,
I believe it would be a mistake to attribute the elevated position and reputation
achieved by some of the women in orthodox Gaudiya Vaishnavism to the widespread
influence of Sahajiya doctrines on the orthodoxy. Indeed, orthodox Gaudiya Vaishnava
women whose lives are covered in this article have excelled on their own, by remaining
true to the core beliefs of the sampradaya rather than through reform or revolt.
I have divided this brief overview into three periods that for convenience's sake
I shall call the early, middle and modern periods. The early period covers those
women who were contemporary with Chaitanya and whose stories are found in his
biographies; the middle, predominantly those whose lives were described in the
histories of the early post-Chaitanya period, such as Bhakti-ratnakara, Prema-vilasa,
Anuraga-valli, Murali-vilasa, etc. Finally, by the modern period I refer to
the 19th and 20th centuries. Despite the limited amount of information available,
it is tentatively concluded that the status of women reached a high point in the
middle period, when Jahnava Devi and a few other powerful individuals exercised
considerable leadership.
NOTES
1. Ramakanta Chakravarti, Vaishnavism in Bengal (Calcutta: Sanskrit
Pustak Bhandar, 1985), p. 174. "One of the positive results of the Chaitanya movement
was the elevation of the social and religious status of women in Bengal. This
remarkable development was first seen in the assumption of ecclesiastical leadership
by Jahnava Devi, second daughter of Suryadas Sarkhel and second wife of Nityananda."
RETURN
2. Cf. Sinclair, Karen, "Women and Religion" in The Cross-Cultural
Study of Women, (ed.) Margot I. Duley and Mary I. Edwards (New York: The Feminine
Press, 1986), 107-124. Particularly, pp. 110-12. RETURN
3. mahitIra bhaginI sei nAma mAdhavI devI | vRddha tapasvinI
Ara paramA vaiSNavI || prabhu lekhA kare jAre rAdhikAra gaNa | jagatera madhye
pAtra sADe tin jana || svarUpa gosAi Ara rAya rAmAnanda | zikhi mahiti tina tAra
bhaginI Ardha jana || CC 3.2.104-6. RETURN
4. According to Haridas Das, Madhavi Devi composed a Sanskrit
play about Lord Jagannath, PuruSottama-deva-nATakam. If this is true, she
is a signal exception as the only female author of a Sanskrit text in the Chaitanya
Vaishnava tradition. (Cf.Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhana (ed. Haridas Das (Nabadwip:
Haribol Kutir, 471 Chaitanyabda [1964]), 1311, 1624.) RETURN
5. Chaitanya Charitamrita 3.13.77~7. See also 3.3.75. RETURN
6. Chaitanya Charitamrita 3.14.24-31.RETURN
7. Cited in Sankar Sen Gupta, A Study of Women in Bengal.
Calcutta: Indian Publications, 1970, 179. saGkIrtana mAjhe nAce kulera bauhAri.
Chaitanya's early kirtans in the house of Srivas Pandit, however, were not open
to women. Vrindavan Das tells that Srivas's mother-in-law tried to hide in order
to witness Chaitanya's dancing, but that her presence, even though not visible,
interfered with his experiencing the usual ecstasy. Chaitanya Bhagavata,
2.16.1-18. RETURN
8. "Images and Roles of Women in Bengali Vaishnava Padavali Klrtan,"
in (ed.) Joseph O'Connell, Bengal Vaishnavism, Orientalism, Society and the
Arts (East Lansing, Michigan: Asian Studies Centre, 1985), 11-27. RETURN
I. Women in Chaitanya's life
Few of the women who figure in the Chaitanya biographies are there as Vaishnavas
in the sense of practitioners of the formal practices of devotion. They are devotees
of Chaitanya rather than Krishna and their high status in the hierarchy of Chaitanya's
associates is due primarily to the relation which they had to him. They are considered
to be nitya-siddha, eternal associates who descended with him to participate
in his lila. In the later recasting of Chaitanya's life as myth or literature,
these women have taken on archetypal female roles that in some respects overshadows
the historical facts of their lives. Thus, the analysis of the descriptions found
in the biographies must be informed by the categories of Indian poetics and literary
theory; especially in the way understood by Rupa Goswami, who was so influential
on the entire Gaudiya Vaishnava way of thinking.
In the hierarchy of love described in Rupa Goswami's divine aesthetic, the category
of love felt by the women in Chaitanya's life is that of sambandhAnugA;
they possess a love, which though not without glory, is of a somewhat inferior
quality because no mundane relationships have had to be sacrificed in order to
achieve it. Chaitanya's wives or mother are not renunciates of their social roles;
it is rather through their relationship to Chaitanya, their natural, human love
for him, and indeed, their adherence to the ideal role as mother or wife, that
they have come to be revered by Chaitanya's devotees. In orthodox Gaudiya Vaishnavism,
which is dominated by the Vrindavan spirit of erotic devotion for Krishna, there
is little or no devotion to Chaitanya modeled on the love of Sachi, Lakshmipriya
or Vishnupriya.(9)
In contrast to this relative lack of interest in the lives of Chaitanya's wives
and mother on the part of the Vrindavan-oriented Vaishnava community, the Bengali
people as a whole show an enduring attachment to them as the main ashrayas or
"vessels" of emotion in dramatizations of his life, which traditionally end with
his renunciation, "Nimai-sannyas." The telling of this story In the Chaitanya
Bhagavata of Vrindavan Das, and even more so in the influential Gaura-nagara
tradition of Vasu Ghosh, Lochan Das and others, in many ways self-consciously
parallels the tale of Krishna's abandonment of his family and the gopis in Vrindavan:
Chaitanya's departure is final; though he is alive, he is lost forever as a son
and lover. Thus, as with Mathura lila, the dominant sentiment is that of separation
and pity for those wounded by the departure of the object of love.
The primary difference, then, between these women and those who follow in the
later periods, is in their emphasis on the human person of Chaitanya himself rather
than the god Krishna and their human experience of love rather than the practice
of asceticism and ritual devotion.
1. Sachi Devi
The stage for Chaitanya's dramatic departure is set by describing Sachi Devi as
an ideal mother, the worthy bearer of the incarnation. She is everywhere recognized
to be identical to both Yashoda and Devaki, the foster-mother and mother of Krishna
respectively. Her glories are extensively described in the Chaitanya Bhagavata,
where she is said to be devotion incarnate, the mother of the universe, etc.(10)
Sachi was an educated woman, the daughter, wife and mother of scholars and she
demonstrated her learning in the metaphysical arguments she had with her precocious
son. According to the biographers, she was privileged on several occasions to
experience evidence of Chaitanya's divine status. Vrindavan Das describes her
hearing the sound of the flute coming from the child Nimai's mouth and then having
a vision of his divine power.(11) In true Bhagavata fashion,
Sachi is not swayed from her purely maternal affection by any display of divinity
on the part of her son. As he grew older, however, she was prepared to take instruction
from him in the matter of religious practice, particularly when he told her to
take up the Ekadasi fast(12) and to accept his metaphysical
explanations when he consoled her after his first wife Lakshmipriya's death by
snakebite. (13)
A rather significant incident is described in Chaitanya Bhagavata, when
Chaitanya, sitting on the seat of Vishnu as he was wont to do during his early
ecstatic moments of identification with the god, states bluntly that Sachi has
not achieved prema bhakti, the ultimate goal of devotional practice and that which
he had descended to earth for the express purpose of distributing freely. Sachi
had apparently committed an offense to Advaita Acharya and was admonished by her
son, who used the occasion to show the gravity of offenses to the Vaishnavas.
She again accepted her son's admonitions with good grace and, according to Vrindavan
Das, was given prema after having followed his instruction and having asked forgiveness
of Advaita. (14)
After Chaitanya's departure for Puri, Sachi is described in the Chaitanya Charitamrita
making offerings to her deity. Rather than meditating on her Gopal deity, she
thought of how she used to feed her own son, Nimai. She would then have most realistic
visions of him eating the offering. When she arose from her meditation, she would
observe that the plates on which the food had been offered were empty and would
become confused thinking that she had fallen asleep and simply dreamt of her son's
coming and that she had not made any offering at all. Her sense of reality completely
distorted by the overwhelming absorption in love in separation, she would return
to the kitchen to start her offering all over again. Chaitanya sent messages on
several occasions through associates of his travelling to Nabadwip to assure her
that she was not going mad, but that he had indeed been going to Nabadwip to accept
her offerings.(15) Kaviraj Goswami follows Jiva in his use of
the term AvirbhAva to refer to these objective manifestations of the Lord
in his physical absence. Sachi's home was one of four places where such manifestations
took place.(16)
2. Chaitanya's wives
Chaitanya's first wife Lakshmipriya died young, while he was travelling in East
Bengal Not much more is said about her other than that she was a devoted wife
who fulfilled her household duties on one occasion by herself cooking for a large
group of monks who had been invited to eat at their house.(17)
She is identified with Rukmini in the Gaura Ganoddesha Dipika (verse 45).
Chaitanya's second wife Vishnupriva is given a more important place in the biographies
as she was the wife who witnessed his transformation into an ecstatic. She is
described as a devastated woman who had been helplessly losing her husband to
a progressive obsession with his devotional commitment to Krishna. Prior to her
marriage, she led an exemplary life, bathing three times daily in the Ganges,
but overall her character is not particularly well-developed in any of the Chaitanya
biographies, understandable in that she was probably not much more than twelve
or thirteen years old at the time of her marriage and her separation from him
took place not long thereafter. The wedding itself is described in stereotypical
fashion, with the usual hyperbole surrounding the opulence, etc., of the ritual.
The pivotal event in her life was of course Chaitanya's departure for the life
of renunciation. Of Chaitanya's biographers, only Lochan Das in the Chaitanya
Mangala describes the couple as having spent the last night of their life
together in the same bed.(18)
Several descriptions have been given of Vishnupriya in the years that followed
Chaitanya's departure. The primary image is that of an ideal widow, carefully
leading the pious life that was and still is generally expected of Bengali widows.(19)
Though it does not seem as though she took an active leadership role in the devotional
movement inaugurated by her husband, she nevertheless remained an icon and living
place of pligrimage during that time. Continuing to live and serve her mother-in-law
Sachi, she adhered to a high standard of austerity which impressed the devotees
of the movement. In the Advaita-prakasha (Chapter 21), Chaitanya's disciple
Jagadananda describes to him the daily activities of Vishnupriya: She would rise
early each morning before daybreak with Sachi to bathe in the Ganges, but then
remained indoors the entire day, never letting either the sun nor the moon shine
upon her. The devotees would never see her face except when she came to eat, and
no one ever heard her speak. She would only eat Sachi's remnants and spent all
her time absorbed in the repetition of the Holy Names while meditating on a picture
of Chaitanya as he looked before taking the renounced order of life.
Vishnupriya Devi seems to have taken the bhajan path promulgated by Chaitanya
seriously. One of the most often repeated descriptions of her recounts that she
counted each completion of the sixteen names of Krishna by placing a grain of
rice in a clay pot. When she had completed her daily meditation sometime in the
early aftemoon, she would cook the rice, offer it, and then eat only those grains.(20)
In the later histories of the movement, these descriptions show that her prestige
among the followers of Chaitanya had expanded beyond merely that of being his
wife. She seems to have had a close friendship with Jahnava and was complicit
in the adoption of Ramachandra described below.
Moreover, Vishnupriya inaugurated the worship of a Chaitanya image around which
numerous legends arose. It is said in the 17th century Vamshi-siksha, a
history of the Baghnapada Goswamis, that after Chaitanya's renunciation, Vishnupriya
had abandoned food and drink until he appeared to her (and Vamsivadanananda Thakur)
in a dream, telling her to have an image of himself carved in the margosa tree
under which Sachi had sat to suckle him. When the murti had been finished, Vishnupriya
sang the verse of Chandi Das: "Here is the lord of my life. I am finally able
to see him for whom the arrows of desire have caused me to burn and come to the
point of dying."(21)
This same deity, known as Mahaprabhu, is still worshiped by the descendants of
Vishnupriya's cousin, Madhava Acharya, in Nabadwip where it remains the central
focus of pilgrimage. Whatever worship of Chaitanya in the mood of Vishnupriya
exists, such as that of Chaitanya Das Babaji in the early part of this century,
centers around the Mahaprabhu deity.
3. Sita Thakurani(22)
The wife of Advaita, Sita Thakurani, was a woman who, like her husband, lived
a long life. It appears that after marrying Sita, Advaita moved to Shantipur.
Nevertheless, most biographies of Chaitanya tell that she was present at his birth
ceremonies, and was even responsible for giving him the nickname, "Nimai." It
is said that she took some leadership responsibility after the death of her husband,
but not much detail can be given about how she conducted herself in such a role.
According to the Prema-viläsa, Sita had a woman disciple, Jangali, about
whom it recounts an interesting legend. It seems that she was fearless and engaged
in solitary devotional practice in a jungle that was filled with wild animals
like bears and tigers (hence her name). On one occasion the Shah of Bengal was
hunting in that area and saw her and was attracted by her beauty. When he attempted
to rape her,(23) he was surprised to find that she had transformed
into a man. The astonished king asked her whether she was a man or a woman. She
answered cryptically, "Women see a woman, men see a man. But at no time ever have
I been a man."
The king remained understandably confused. He sent a woman to examine Jangali
and was told that she was indeed a woman, but when he sent a man, he was told
she was a man. The astonished king realized that Jangali possessed some extraordinary
powers and he fell at her feet and asked for forgiveness. After she forgave and
blessed him, he built a large residence for her there in the woods which was known
as Jangali Tota.(24)
4. Other women contemporary to Chaitanya
Only a few other women contemporary to Chaitanya can be considered as having hagiological
status in their own right: Malati Devi was the wife of Chaitanya's associate Srivas
Pandit. She had an extraordinary relation ship with Nityananda, who treated her
like his mother. Though she was past child-bearing age, her dried up breasts brought
forth milk when the full-grown Nityananda sat on her lap.(25)
Another woman worthy of mention is Narayani, the mother of Vrindavan Das (author
of Chaitanya Bhagavata). She was Srivas Thakur's niece, only a little girl
at the time of Chaitanya's mahA-prakAza, or great epiphany (CBh 2.10.229-35),
at which she was present and given special attention by him. Another of Srivas'
servants, Duhkhi ("unhappy"), was privileged to observe Chaitanya's nightly kirtan;
she would bring Ganges water for the Vaishnavas to drink. She thus earned blessings
from Chaitanya and was given the name Sukhi ("happy") in place of her original
name (CBh 11.25.11-23).
NOTES
9. Haridas Goswami of Nabadwip is an exception to the rule. A
prolific and able writer, he produced a number of works in the early second half
of the 20th century glorifying Chaitanya through the eyes of Vishnupriya, and
established deities of Chaitanya with Vishnupriya throughout Bengal. This model
of Chaitanya devotion is, however, of relatively recent date and of relatively
limited following. The Gauranga-nagaras who followed Narahari did not follow in
the footsteps of Vishnupriya but rather an imaginary extramarital relation with
Chaitanya. They did not thus model their devotion on that of Vishnupriya, nor
did they conceive of themselves as handmaids of Vishnupriya on the pattern of
manjari bhava in the way that Haridas Goswami did. Even so, there is a deity of
Vishnupriya worshipped at Srikhanda, the home of Narahari and centre of the Gauranga-nagara
sect, which was installed by Kanai Khutiya, an Orissan contemporary of Chaitanya.
RETURN
10. viSNu-bhakti-svarUpiNI, Chaitanya Bhagavata,
2.22.40; mUrtimatI bhakti, ibid., 2.22.45. RETURN
11. Chaitanya Bhagavata 1.10.225-31. This, as many of
the other stories of Chaitanya's childhood, is a pastiche of the onginal Bhägavata
stories of Krishna's childhood. RETURN
12. Chaitanya Charitamrita, 1.15.10-11. RETURN
13. Chaitanya Charitamrita, 1.16.22-23; Chaitanya Bhagavata,
i.12.183-8. RETURN
14. Exactly what Vrindavan Das means by prema bhakti in this
context appears to be the ecstatic symptoms which Chaitanya himself and his associates
manifested in their singing of the holy names. Vrindavan Das makes no reference
to the devotional sentiments which later were made current in the thought of Rupa
Goswami. Nothing would indicate that Sachi was ever expected to "rise above" her
parental relationship with Chaitanya. RETURN
15. Jiva Goswami tells a similar story about Krishna's mother
Yashoda having such experience during her son's absence in Mathura. Krishna similarly
sends her assurances that it is he who is in fact coming in a divine form to receive
her offerings. The writing of the Gopala-champu precedes that of the Chaitanya
Charitamrita, so it is likely that Krishna Das Kaviraj took his inspiration
from Jiva. Cf. Gopala-champu 2.12.RETURN
16. zazIra mandire Ara nityAnanda-nartane | zrIvAsa-kIrtane
Ara rAghava-bhavane || ei cAri thAi prabhura satata AvirbhAva || premAkRSTa hoye
prabhur sahaja svabhAva || Chaitanya Charitamrita 3.2.3~6. The more
detailed account of Chaitanya's appearance in Sachi's house is found in CC 3.12.8f-94.
RETURN
17. Chaitanya Bhagavata, 1.14. RETURN
18. Chaitanya Mangala, 2.12.1-40. Vrindavan Das envisions
Chaitanya spending the last night with his friend Gadadhar Pandit. RETURN
19. A sannyasi's wife would be expected to act as though her
husband were legally dead. RETURN
20. This can be found in Prema-vilAsa, chapter 5, Bhakti-ratnAkara,
4.48-52, VaMzI-zikSA, p. 161.RETURN
21. Prem Das, VaMzI-zikSA (Nabadwip: Nimai Chand Goswami,
n.d.), 161-2. RETURN
22. There is a work named Sita-caritra, by Lokanath Das.
RETURN
23. The words used are dharma-nAz karA. RETURN
24. Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhana, 1243. Apparently, other
sources say that Jangalipriya was the name of a male disciple of Sita's who took
the feminine name after initiation. Transvestism in the Vaishnava tradition is
not unknown, though it is not considered to be orthodox. Those following this
aberrant tradition are given the name Sakhi bhekhi. Lalita Sakhi, a disciple of
Charan Das Babaji, is a fairly recent example of a male who considered it an essential
part of his devotional life to dress like a gopi. The unambiguous statement of
Jangali that "at no time have I ever been a man," could have been nothing more
than the firm conviction of the possession of an eternal feminine identity in
relation to the eternal male, Krishna. RETURN
25. Chaitanya Bhagavata, 2.11.8-10. RETURN
II. Second generation women
Though some of these women are junior contemporaries to the women associates of
Chaitanya, they are distinguishable from them by their personal charisma, their
knowledge and practice of the religion founded by Chaitanya and his inner circle,
and the leadership roles they took in the proselytization of that religion.
1. Sri Jahnava Ishwari (16th century)
Karen Sinclair has observed that though women have attained great prominence in
Hindu sects, it is generally as "Holy Mothers" or the consorts of male religous
adepts, and she gives Sarada Devi, the consort of Ramakrishna, and Aurobindo's
"The Mother" as modern examples. In her view, in such circumstances women are
normally venerated, but their role is circumscribed, as is the case with the Virgin
Mary in Christianity.(26)
In many places in Asia, widows, daughters and sisters of martyred political leaders
have risen to political prominence. Nowhere is this truer than in South Asia,
where such women have risen to the highest political posts in four countries.
Mary Katzenstein, in her analysis of the factors leading to the political prominence
of women in India, has concluded that in societies where kinship plays an important
role, in the absence of a regularized, stable system whereby succession of political
leaders is assured, daughters, widows, or sisters are often called upon to lead.(27)
Nevertheless, for any woman to succeed in a role of leadership in such circumstances,
it would be necessary that she show qualifications of a more practical sort; simple
relationship could only play a temporary role. Indira Gandhi in India and Sirimavo
Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka, are particularly salient examples.
Most of the early generations of Gaudiya Vaishnava women leaders were similarly
related to earlier charismatic male leaders of the movement. Of all these women,
who are yet few in number, Jahnava, the wife of Chaitanya's chief associate Nityananda,
stands out. A number of reasons might be conjectured for her rise to prominence.
She was widowed, it would seem, when still fairly young. She had no children herself,
but her nephew and stepson, Nityananda's son Virabhadra (born of Jahnava's younger
sister and co-wife Vasudha), was not yet of an age where he could exercise leadership
in the dynastic system that had apparently been envisioned as appropriate for
the continuation of the movement In the absence of another appropriate leader;
Jahnava stepped into fill the leadership void.
It is quite clear that Jahnava won respect throughout the Vaishnava community
as well as constituting a strong influence on her two principle disciples, Virabhadra
and Ramachandra. She was known as Ishwari (IzvarI), the feminine form of
the commonly used word for God, Izvara. At the very least, the term implies
a great mastery over others. Narahari recounts in his Bhakti-ratnakara
that Yadunandan Das and the other devotees gathered in Katwa as Jahnava made her
way to Kheturi out of respect ate only after she had finished her repast.
Jahnava and Vasudha were sisters, daughters of a Brahmin scholar, Suryadas Sarkhel,
and nieces of Gauridas Pandit, both of which brothers were significant devotees
of Nityananda and Chaitanya in their own right. The two girls were given in marriage
to Nityananda, but Jahnava remained without issue while Vasudha gave birth to
two children: a girl, Gahga, and a boy, Virabhadra. Though Jahnava was Virabhadra's
stepmother, she played a more significant role in his spiritual development than
did his natural mother. One legend is recounted in the Nityananda-vamsa-vistara
in which it is said that Virabhadra was seeking a spiritual master (having been
orphaned before receiving initiation from his own father). In the course of his
search, he approached Sita Thakurani, the wife of Advaita, the third member of
the Gaudiya Vaishnava divine triumvirate. She told him that he should seek closer
to home, but Virabhadra was not convinced that Jahnava was sufficiently qualified
to be his guru. On his return home, however, he saw his stepmother as she was
completing her bath. While drying her hair, her wet sari slipped and in order
to conceal her nakedness, she sprouted two extra arms to hold up the failing cloth.
Virabhadra was impressed by this show of divinity and asked Jahnava to initiate
him.(29)
Though some comparable epiphanies are related in legends about Nityananda, there
is a proliferation of such simplistic attempts at legitimizing the divine character
of personalities in the later hagiographical histories of Chaitanya Vaishnavism.
The Nityananda-vamsa-vistara also recounts that Virabhadra (who is also
identified as Izvara by Krishnadas [CC 1.11.8) and as Kshirodakashayi Vishnu
in the Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika manifested divine forms of this nature on
various occasions during his preaching career.
Jahnava is not the only woman to have manifested such a four-armed form. Stories
similar to the one recounted above are also told about two other women in Gaudiya
Vaishnava history. Nityananda's powerful disciple Abhiram Thakur married a Muslim
girl, Rami, an act that met with considerable criticism. Though some devotees
were prepared to accept her presence in the Vaishnava community, they were certainly
not ready to take food, not even prasad, from her hand. They were quieted when
Rami sprouted extra arms to hold up the cloth covering her head when it slipped
as she was serving. Again, a similar story is told by Haridas Das (Gaudiya-Vaishnava
Abhidhana, 1422) about Hemalata Thakurani, the daughter of the important third
generation Gaudiya Vaishnava leader Srinivasa Acharya. The legend about Hemalata
is particularly significant, not so much in its details, but rather in that, as
with Jahnava, it confirms her personal authority as guru.
Virabhadra was not Jahnava's only important disciple. Other disciples of distinction
begin with Ramachandra Goswami. Grandson of Vamsivadanananda Thakur (mentioned
above in connection with Vishnupriya Devi), Ramachandra was adopted by Jahnava
after she gave the benediction to his father that he would have two sons. When
the second son was born, when Ramachandra was 11 or 12 years old (ca. 1545), Jahnava
took him to live with her.
Ramachandra was given special treatment by his stepmother and guru, and to some
extent became a rival to Virabhadra for her favors, accompanying her on her last
trip to Braj. He later founded the Baghnapada branch of Goswamis through his nephew
Rajavallabh's family; he himself never married.
It would appear that Jahnava had imbibed some of the scholarship of her father
and uncle, and it stood her in good stead when she began to take on the role of
Nityananda's successor. In Murali-vilasa, Jahnava is described as giving
instructions to Ramachandra Goswami in the details of the path of worship (manjarI-bhAva-sAdhana)
outlined by Rupa Goswami. Nevertheless, despite her personal scholarship, she
does not seem to have given public discourses on scripture and was even self-effacing
when in the association of male devotees. For instance, in Kheturi, she did not
ascend to the podium with the associates of Chaitanya and Nityananda who were
present there.(31)
Nor did she do anything more than act as an audience for kirtan. On the other
hand, she appears to have liked to cook for large numbers of devotees, herself
serving them, and participated directly in deity worship, at least by offering
foodstuffs. At Kheturi, she orchestrated many of the activities, such as the greeting
(satkAra) of the guests (BRK 10.511), the playing of phAgu-khelA,
etc.(32)
Perhaps Jahnava's most significant contribution was to the organization and character
of Bengali Vaishnavism as it endeavored to deal with the theological sophistication
of the Vrindavan Goswamis. The event at which this took place was the famous Kheturi
festival already mentioned above, the date of which is still a matter of conjecture,
but likely took place in the 1570s. Her role there was to lend approval to the
innovations in the practice of kirtan as well as the theological formulations
on the nature of Chaitanya and his incarnation that Narottam and Srinivas Acharya
had brought with them from Vrindavan.(33)
Jahnava, doubtless impressed by the culture of the new leaders of the movement
and the learning they had received at the hands of Jiva Goswami, decided to go
herself to Braj and witness firsthand the developments that had taken place there.
Traveling with a large group of Vaishnavas and being carried in a palanquin that
protected her modesty, she led the undoubtedly rather impressive group that made
the lengthy pilgrimage, taking between five and six months to make the trip.
Narahari describes an incident that took place in a village en route. The residents
of the village were Chandi worshippers who mocked the group of Vaishnavas when
they saw them bowing to Jahnava and touching her feet. Considering that by offering
respect to Jahnava rather than to their local deity of Chandi, the Vaishnavas
had committed a great offense, they vowed to slaughter the whole group of travelers.
Chandi, however, found this proposal unacceptable and appeared in an angry form
to her worshippers in a dream and revealed to them the glories of Jahnava, saying,
You rascals! You do not know the truth about her whom you look down
upon and whom you have called a mere Brahmin woman. She is the wife of Nityananda-Balaram,
object of respect even to me and worshipable by all. Her name, Jahnava Ishwari,
is exceedingly sweet. Simply by uttering this name, one can be freed from life's
worries. She is the beloved of Nityananda, the incarnation of compassion; she
voluntarily distributes loving devotion to Krishna to the living beings. Whoever
worships her lotus feet and sings her glories will be delivered from the threefold
sufferings. (34)
Chandi concludes by telling the villagers to beg Jahnava for forgiveness, which
they did. Jahnava converted them all to Vaishnavism and stayed for several days
in the village before moving on. Another similar miraculous event took place at
another village where robbers thought to attack the group. They were unable to
find Jahnava and her party of travelers despite knowing clearly their location.
They too converted to Vaishnavism when they realized that Jahnava was divinely
protected.
On her way back home from Braj, Jahnava stopped with her entourage at the birthplace
of Nityananda in Birbhum. She made a second and perhaps even a third trip to Braj
before the end of her life, ultimately dying there. It is said that while still
alive, she had an image of Radha made and placed on the right-hand side of Gopinath
in Vrindavan, where an image of Radha already stood on the left. When she died,
she is said to have entered into that deity, thenceforth known as Ananga Manjari.
Jahnava's apotheosis as Ananga Manjart, the sister of Radha, is perhaps what sets
her apart from most other woman saints in Gaudiya Vaishnavism. The Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika
of Kavi Karnapur identifies her first with Revati (the wife of Balaram in Krishna
lila) by virtue of her being the wife of Nityananda (who is identified with Balaram),
but also recognizes the Ananga Manjari identification as well. By way of contrast,
though Vishnupriya is identified with Satyabhama, the wife of Krishna in Dvaraka,
(35) this identification is far less prestigious in the heavily
Vrindavan-influenced Gaudiya Vaishnavism of later days than that of Jahnava with
Ananga Manjari.
It was Jahnava's adopted son and disciple Ramachandra Goswami who developed the
theology of Ananga Manjari in his short work Ananga-manjari-samputka.(36)
Ananga Manjari has an ontologically special status in that she is both a manjari,
or maidservant to Radha, and sakhi, who enjoys dalliances with Krishna in her
own right. Furthermore, she is the consort of Balaram on the one hand, and identical
with him in that metaphysical slight of hand known to Vaishnava theologians, which
states that a power and its possessor are not distinguishable. Thus, Balarama
(= Nityananda), who enjoys his own rasa-lila with gopis attached erotically to
him, also enjoys access to the superior rasa-lila enjoyed by Krishna through his
presence there in the form of Ananga Manjari. This bit of theological contortionism
arises directly out of Jahnava's "conversion" to the higher standards of devotion
established by the Vrindavan goswamis. In order to give legitimacy to his line,
it was now necessary to show that Nityananda, who had always been understood to
possess the friendly mood (sakhya-bhava), was also privy to the erotic
mood as well (madhura-bhava). If Chaitanya had come to distribute this
type of love to all humans who had never before had access to it, then how could
his most intimate associate and primary distributory agent be deprived of it?
Virabhadra's wife, Subhadra Devi, wrote a Sanskrit hymn called Ananga-kadambavali,
which consisted of one hundred verses in glorification of Jahnava. This work has
been lost, but a single verse of it has been preserved in the Murali-vilasa
(and is cited in Haridas Das, Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhana 5). It is not
unlikely that Jahnava encouraged female learning, for literacy amongst Vaishnava
women was maintained at a higher level than amongst other women of Bengal society.
Donna Wulff points out that Vaishnava women ascetics in the 19th and 20th centuries
were leaders of female literacy, much more so than those who belonged to other
Hindu sects. (37)
Jahnava's exceptional status no doubt led to the common occurrence of maternal
initiation in many Nityananda-dynasty families. In some cases, such as the family
of Pran Gopal Gosvami of Nabadwip, the tradition is that the sons are always initiated
by their mother. Pran Gopal would say that when the power of the mercy of the
guru was coupled with maternal love, an extremely powerful spiritual force was
created.(38) The Gaudiya Math movement directed by Bhaktisiddhanta
Sarasvati fought strongly against the principle of inherited disciplic succession
and was even more vehement in such criticism where female members were involved.
Even so, they too accepted Jahnava's legitimacy as a spiritual master in the line.
(39)
Whatever the attitude of neo-orthodoxy to Jahnava, there is little to support
Edward Dimock's contention that she was a sahajiya, or in any way influenced by
sahajiyas, nor that her adopted son was one. Nor is it necessarily true that the
increased influence of women in Gaudiya Vaishnavism is a result of increased sahajiya
influence. It shows rather the potential power of women that was given the opportunity
to develop when Chaitanya instructed his chief lieutenant Nityananda to return
to Bengal and get married, thus giving increased legitimacy to the householder
life. The Gaudiya movement has always held that the renunciates and householders
operate in separate spheres with different rules.
2. Ganga Devi
Nityananda's daughter. It is said that when she was born, Abhiram Thakur came
to prostrate himself before her. This, rather than being a sign of respect, was
a test. Abhiram's prostrations were dangerous, and had nefarious results. Indeed,
several of Vasudha's other babies had died after Abhiram had made such shows of
devotion. Ganga, however, survived the test and was thus Abhiram predicted that
she would be a greatly powerful woman and even pronounced her to be the incarnation
of the Ganges, writing a twenty-verse poem in her honor. According to Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika,
her husband Madhava Chattopadhyaya was Santanu (who married the goddess Ganga)
in his previous incarnation. Their family took up residence in the village of
Jirat on the western bank of the Bhagirathi and their descendents continue to
function as initiating gurus of Vaishnavism. (40)
3. Hemalata Thakurani
There is unfortunately an insufficient amount of information about Hemalata Thakurani,
the daughter of Srinivas Acharya, one of the principal leaders of the second generation
of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and contemporary of Jahnava. Hemalata initiated many disciples,
most important of whom is Yadunandan, a prolific poet and author, and she is best
known for her role in ostracizing the leader of the early 18th century sahajiya
challenge to Gaudiya orthodoxy, Rupa Kaviraj. It is said that she tore his beads
from his neck to indicate that he was no longer eligible for commensality. Yadunandan
writes about this incident and other exercise of authority in Karnananda,
which is primarily a life of Srinivas Acarya that he wrote on her order.(41)
Srinivas Acharya's second wife Gaurangapriya also took a number of disciples.(42)
4. Krishnapriya and Vishnupriya
These two sisters represent a new type of woman in Gaudiya Vaishnava history:
they were renunciates who practiced a life of intense asceticism and devotion
comparable to those of the male monks in whose contact they themselves lived.
Daughters of Narottama Das's chief disciple Ganganarayan Chakravarti, they were
told by Narottam himself to take initiation from their father. They lived for
some time at Radha Kund in Braj. Their reputation was sufficient that Raghunath
Das's Govardhan shila, which had been given to him personally by Chaitanya, was
entrusted to their care by Mukunda, the disciple of Krishnadas Kaviraj (who had
received it from Raghunath). This in itself was a highly unorthodox act that resulted
in a certain amount of dissent in the conservative community.
According to the Narottama-vilasa of Narahari, Krishnapriya took a number
of disciples, but ultimately had to disown one of them, Rupa Kaviraj, who, for
whatever motive, took the side of those who felt that her sex restricted her role
in certain public religious acts. In particular, he objected to her presence in
the assembly of men at the reading of Bhagavata. The Vaishnavas present all offered
obeisance to her in the assembly with the exception of Rupa Kaviraj who asked
her how she, being a woman, could listen to the Bhagavata reading, to which she
answered, "It is the wagging of tongues that makes listening to the reading difficult,
not my presence." This made Rupa Kaviraj furious, but the result of his offensive
behavior was that he was forced to leave Vrindavan and return to Orissa,
where legend has it he ultimately died a leper. (43)
5. Ganga Mata Goswamini
Unfortunately little information can be found regarding this extraordinary 17th
century figure, who is not mentioned in any of the Gaudiya Vaishnava histories.
Ganga Mata Goswamini was probably the first woman in Chaitanya Vaishnavism who
built a reputation as a devotee purely on the basis of her own learning and spiritual
achievements and who founded her own spiritual "family."
Her original name was Sachi. She was the daughter of a rich landowner in Puntia
in Orissa, who left home to go to Vrindavan where she took initiation from Haridas
Goswami of Vrindavan. (44) On the orders of her spiritual master
she went to Radha Kund, where she lived for several years with her godsister Lakshmipriya.
Afterward, she was again instructed by her spiritual master to establish herself
in Jagannath Puri, taking the so-called kshetra sannyas. She took up residence
at the home of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, an important disciple of Chaitanya during
his years in Puri. When she came there, only a shalagrama shila named Radha Damodar
was being served at this house. She gradually expanded the service, installing
other deities.
Sachi gave discourses on the Bhagavata Purana that attracted large audiences.
The king of Orissa, Mukundadeva, had a dream of Jagannath who told him to make
a donation of land for the service of the deity. Prior to this, Sachi had begged
in order to maintain this service. Near the home of Sarvabhauma is a tank that
is known as the white Ganges (Svetaganga) into which the water from the Jagannath
temple, including the water wnich is used for bathing Jagannath, is drained. Once,
on the auspicious occasion for bathing of Mahavaruni, which takes place in the
middle of the night, she was washed by the currents of the Ganges inside the gates
of the Jagannath temple. The temple guards thought that she was a thief and had
her arrested, but King Mukundadeva once again had a dream of Jagannath who told
him that he should set her free. He and many of the other sevayats of Jagannath
eventually took initiation from her. Because she had been washed by the Ganges
water which springs from the feet of Lord Jagannath, Sachi became known by the
name of Ganga Mata Goswamini.
The house of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya is now more commonly known as Ganga Mata's
Math and is one of the major houses of Vaishnavism in Puri. Several siddha-babajis
were initiated in her line, which is traces back to Gadadhar Pandit and wears
the distinctive nupur-style tilak. (45)
NOTES
26. op. cit, 112. Of course, in the latter case, Aurobindo's
consort was a European woman who exercised a great deal of leadership and power
in Auroville, Pondicherry for many years.RETURN
27. "Towards equality? Cause and consequence of the political
prominence of women in India," in Asian Survey xviii, 5 (May, 1978) 480.
RETURN
28. The same story is told in a somewhat different fashion
in the 24th chapter of some editions of the Prema-vilasa.RETURN
29. Four-armed forms are the prerogative of the denizens of
the planets of Vishnu, though they have no particular theological relevance
for followers of Radha and Krishna, who disdain them as an irrelevant manifestation
of divine power. Even so, Chaitanya himself is said to have displayed a number
of unusual forms in the Chaitanya Bhagavata and Chaitanya Charitamrita,
particularly in the early part of his career when perhaps it was felt that some
concrete evidence of his divinity was needed. RETURN
30. Other important disciples of Jahnava were Jnana Das, one
of the greatest writers of Vaishnava padavali kirtan, and Nityananda Das, the
author of the Prema-vilasa.RETURN
31. Bhakti-ratnakara 10.477. manera ullAse sabe baise
divyAsane | zrI-jAhnavA IzvarI baisaye sangopane ||RETURN
32. Brk 10.633-5. phAgu-khelA is the Bengali term for
the throwing of colored and scented powders on one another during the Holi festival,
the full-moon day of Phalgun month. The Kheturi festival took place to commemorate
the birth of Chaitanya, which took place on Holi.RETURN
33. Brk 10.628.RETURN
34. Brk 11.45-51.RETURN
35. Ggd 48.RETURN
36. ed. Sundarananda Vidyavinoda. (Calcutta: Sripat Parag,
1964).RETURN
37. Op. cit, p. 21.RETURN
38. Personal communication from Madan Gopal Goswami, current
guru in the line. There is, of course, another reason for this practice: this
family is not directly descended from Nityananda by a line of males succession.RETURN
39. Viz. Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Maharaj's statement in connection
with the disciplic succession accepted by Bhaktivinoda Thakur “We have
to follow the spirit; otherwise after Jahnava Devi, the wife of Lord Nityananda,
up to Bipin Goswami, so many unknown lady gurus. Through them, the mantra came
to Bipin Goswami, and from him Bhaktivinoda Thakura received the mantra. We
accept Bhaktivinoda Thakur, but should we count all those ladies in our disciplic
succession? What was their realization?” Sri Guru and His Grace, (San
Jose, CA.: Guardian of Devotion Press, 1983), 23. Further, when A. C. Bhaktivedanta
Swami was asked if a woman can become a guru in disciplic succession, he responded,
“Yes. Jahnava Devi was Nityananda's wife. She became. If she's able to
go to the highest perfection of life, why it is not possible [for other women]
to become guru?" in Conversations with Srila Prabhupada (Los Angeles:
Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1990), Volume 22, Toronto, 6.18.76, pp.19-20. RETURN
40. Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhana, 1196.RETURN
41. Karnananda, (ed.) Ram Narayan Vidyaratna (Berhampore:
Radha Raman Press, 1929), 122.RETURN
42. According to Sukumar Sen in Bangla Sahityer Itihas
(Calcutta: Modern Book Agency, 1940), Gurucharan Das wrote his Premamrita
on the order of Gaurangapriya (p.409).RETURN
43. Narottam Vilas, 204. Cited in Edward C. Dimock,
Place of the Hidden Moon (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966),
100-1. See also Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhana, 1191. RETURN
44. This Haridas Goswami was the sevayat of the Govinda temple
and is mentioned in the Chaitanya Charitamrita as the leader of the Vrindavan
Vaishnava community after the death of Jiva Goswami (d.1610). RETURN
45. Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhana, 1197-8. RETURN
III. Women saints in the modern era
The primary source of information for women saints of the modern period is O.B.L.
Kapoor's Hindi Braj ke bhakta(46) Altogether, there are
only twelve woman saints described in Braj ke bhakta, of which only five
can be considered Gaudiyas. Though these women are respected for their saintliness,
only one (Sadhu Ma) is a leader in the sense of being an initiating guru. It is
no coincidence that she was born into one of the great Gaudiya initiating families,
that of Advaita Acharya. Otherwise, they were all also born in well-to-do families.
Of the three who were Bengali, all were Brahmins.
All twelve women whose biographies appear in Kapoor's book are renunciates, showing
perhaps more the bias of what that author expected a "saint” to be like,
and thus are not necessarily representative of true saintliness. Taken as a whole,
the women of Braj ke bhakta show, as might be expected, a decided tendency
to the vatsalya or parental type of devotion. One outstanding exception
to this is, of course, that of Srimati Devi, whose taste leaned to the sakhya
or "the friendly mood," as will be described below.
1. Pishima Goswamini
Chandrashashi Mukhopadhyay, later known as Pishima Goswamini, is the only woman
mentioned in Haridas Das's Gaudiya Vaishnava Jivani.(47)
Her story centers around the Gaur-Nitai deities who are found today in Vrindavan
in Banakhandi near Loy Bazaar. These deities at one time helonged to Chaitanya’s
childhood companion Murari Gupta, whose name is carved on the base of one of the
statues. They were apparently lost at one time and later rediscovered in Siuri
in Birbhum district in northwestern Bengal. A wandering Orissan monk, Balaram
Das Babaji, while passing through Siuri had a dream in which he was instructed
to take over the service of the deities. Not long thereafter, the daughter of
a wealthy landowner in Nadia district, Chandrashashi, at the time only twenty
years old, came to Siuri for business reasons. She became attracted to the deities
and attended services regularly in the temple while there. One night she had a
dream in which Gaur-Nitai came to her in the form of young boys and said that
they were very hungry and wanted her to feed them khir. Because she had not been
initiated, Balaram Das was not prepared to give food prepared by her to the deities,
so she took initiation from him so that she could comply with Gaur-Nitai's request
A few days later, when she was about to leave Siuri for home, she had another
dream in which Gaur-Nitai begged her not to leave, for otherwise who would give
them such good things to eat. Like children, they tugged on her skirts and even
tore off a piece of her cloth. Chandrashashi awoke with a start and saw that her
cloth was indeed torn. She went to Balaram Das who found the missing bit of cloth
in the hands of the deity of Gaur. From that day on, she abandoned any intention
of returning home to her village and decided to stay on in the service of Gaur-Nitai.
Not long thereafter, however, speculations about the nature of her relation with
the monk Balaram Das started in the town. Balaram Das and Chandrashashi decided,
again on the basis of instructions given to them in a dream, to take Gaur-Nitai
with them to live in Vrindavan. They placed the deities on a boat and made the
1600 km. trip along the Ganges and Jamuna to Braj. Chandrashashi, known in Braj
as Pishima ("aunt") managed to build a new temple in Barathandi for the deities
who became known locally as Pishima's Gaur-Nitai.
One of the interesting legends concerning Pishima Goswamini is the following.
One day, while preparing a meal for Gaur-Nitai, whom she treated as her own children,
her menses started, rendering her ritually impure for service to the deities.
This interruption gready distressed her. When she nodded off to sleep, Gaur-Nitai
came to her and told her that just as an ordinary mother does not interrupt her
service to her own children while menstruating, neither should she. Furthermore,
they assured her, she would be liberated from this discomfort from that day on.
She bathed and made the food offering to the deities and never again experienced
the female cycle.
Pishima Goswamini led a strict life according to the Vaishnava regulations, bathing
in the Jumna three times a day, chanting on her rosary daily, etc., but her real
focus was on archana deity worship. She was engaged in a quasi-constant conversation
with Gaur-Nitai, who also appeared occasionally to other people to demand various
types of service, etc. Later, when she was old and no longer personally bathed
the deities or rendered other types of service, she still was able to know whether
things were going in the desired manner by this personal communication. In a typical
account, when on one cold winter morning Pishima's successor, Gopishwar Goswami,
bathed Gaur-Nitai with cold water, she divined the blunder when she saw that the
deities had running noses. To Gopishwar Goswami's amazement, she ran a handkerchief
over their noses to show him the proof that they had caught colds due to his carelessness.
Haridas Das recounts that Gopishwar Goswami personally told him that when Pishima
Goswamini first asked him to take over the service of Gaur Nitai, he complained
that he felt no pleasure in serving such small deities as he did not have the
same type of parental affection as she, but was rather moved by the sentiment
of friendship. He said that Pishima then went to the deities, pulled on their
chins and they changed size to take on their present form.(48)
2. Ma Yashoda (d. 1944)(49)
Ma Yashoda is known more through her relationship with her disciple, Krishna Prem,
than for her own achievements. Sri Krishna Prem, or Ronald Nixon (b.1898), was
a British pilot in the First World War who felt that he had been miraculously
saved in the course of a mission in Germany. After the war, Nixon undertook a
spiritual search that led him to India. A degree holder from Cambridge, he taught
English at Lucknow University while staying in the home of the Vice-chancellor,
Jnanendranath Chakravarty, a leader of the Theosophist movement. Manika Devi,
the wife of the Vice-chancellor, was also a highly educated woman and had maternal
feelings for Nixon, calling him Gopal, as many Bengali mothers call their sons.
As Nixon recounted to the Bengali singer and bhakta Dilip Ray, Mrs. Chakravarty
was heavily involved in her husband's rather busy Western-style social life. As
he himself took an increasing interest in Buddhism and Hinduism, studying Sanskrit
and Pali, Nixon observed that even within her superficially mundane life, she
exuded a spiritual peace. He noticed that she disappeared from the scene during
parties and returned rejuvenated. Curious, he followed her on one such occasion
and saw her absorbed in a deep meditation. Upon being questioned, she explained
to him that she and her husband had developed an interest in Vaishnavism and had
been initiated by Balakrishna Goswami of the Radharaman family in Vrindavan. Impressed,
Nixon then asked to be initiated by her. Eventually he asked to take sannyas from
her, and in order to be able to do so, she herself went to Vrindavan and there
took sannyas so that she could give him this initiation too. The name Yasoda Ma
was given to her on this occasion, while Krishna Prem was the sannyas name given
to Nixon.
Abandoning academic life, the two of them went to Mirtola, near Almora in the
Himalayan foothills, where they founded an ashram which they called "Uttara Vrindavan."
They installed a Radha-Krishna murtis. She taught local children to read and write
and opened a dispensary, while Krishna Prem wrote several books and attracted
a number of Englishmen as well as Indians to become his disciples.
In her childhood, while living at Ghazipur, Yasoda Ma had had several formative
experiences with holy men. As a girl of twelve or thirteen, she was chosen as
a representative of the goddess at a Kumari-puja in which Swami Vivekananda himself
offered flowers to her feet On another occasion she had heard that a local yogi,
Pawhari Baba was giving a free cloth and kamandalu to all monks who came to his
cave. Curious about how he could fit the large amounts of cloth, etc., that would
be required to make this gift, she disguised herself as a boy and stood in line
as the goods were handed out. When it came her turn, she jumped into the small
space of his grotto and saw that it was empty. Through this act, she showed a
great deal of daring; her discovery produced in her a lifelong belief in miracles.
Yashoda Ma had a deep emotional attachment to her deities in the parental mood
and had a number of extraordinary experiences with her Gopal deity that she recounted
to Dilip Ray.
3. Siddheshvari Devi, Sadhu Ma (d. 1944)(50)
The daughter of Govinda Chandra Goswami in Pabna district of Bangla Desh, she
was a descendant of Chaitanya's associate Advaita Acharya. Born during the annual
Durga Puja festival, her father considered her to be an incarnation of Yogamaya.
From her childhood, she showed a devotional propensity and studied the scriptures
under her father who also initiated her. She took sannyas after the death of her
father (wearing saffron cloth like Prabodhananda Saraswati). Although still a
young girl, she wandered throughout India visiting all the major places of pilgrimage,
depending on God alone for her protection. She met the famous Shakta Bama Khepa
at Tarapith, who told her to spend some time at Belur and then to go to Vrindavan.
It is said that Bama Khepa also recognized her as an incarnation of Yogamaya.
When she finally came and settled in Vrindavan, she eventually built a large ashram
dedicated to Radha Kunjakishori near the Ranganathji temple gardens. She had hundreds
of Punjabi and Bengali disciples, including many who were prominent and wealthy
citizens, and eventually built other temples and ashrams in Belur, Govardhan,
Bhubaneswar, Chakratirtha (Puri), etc.
In the tradition of the Advaita family, she strictly followed the Hari-bhakti-vilAsa,
even instituting regular performances of fire sacrifices in all her temples except
in Braj where she supposedly had a vision of Radha who prohibited such rituals
as unnecessary. She loved rasa-lila performances, but is said to have fainted
once on hearing Mahaprabhu's sannyas being sung. Like many of the other powerful
women devotees of Braj, she placed a lot of emphasis on service to the devotees
who all called her mother. She had dealings with some of Braj’s stranger
characters like Gwariya Baba.
4. Srimati Devi(51)
Interesting in view of the accepted wisdom that women saints in Indian religions
are comfortable in their sexual identity in contrast with men who often, and particularly
in Radha-Krishna worship, seek a female identification,(52)
is the story of Srimati Devi. O.B.L. Kapoor recounts her legend in connection
with Krishnananda Swami, a Punjabi disciple of the Nityananda family descendant
Pran Gopal Goswami (d. 1955). Though initiated in the Gaudiya tradition by a staunch
promoter of the manjari mood of devotion, Krishnananda worshiped Krishna in the
friendly mood (sakhya). Though his guru wanted him to take disciples and
preach devotion to Krishna, Krishnananda Swami was reluctant to do so because
he wished to avoid the association of women. For years he had kept the vow that
he would never look upon the face of a woman and this continued to keep this vow
until he came in contact with the eleven-year old girl named Srimati Devi.
Srimati Devi lived in the village of Nagla Lakshmanpur within the Braj area. Widowed
at the age of eleven, she devoted herself fully to the worship of her Krishna
deity. She herself had a tendency to the friendly mood of devotion and had hear
of Krishnananda Swami and had become attached to the idea of becoming his disciple.
Eventually, at the insistence of some of her relatives, Krishnananda Swami wrote
the maha mantra on a piece of paper and some instructions in how to worship Krishna.
Srimati Devi still wished to see her guru and vowed that until she saw him, she
would not go outside in the light of day. She would rise at four in the morning
and bathe, then sit indoors, chanting the holy names until sunset She kept this
up for three years, but still she was not given the opportunity to see her guru.
Finally, she stopped all food and drink and had thus been fasting for nine days
when Krishnananda had a vision in which Balaram told him that he could break his
vow for her sake.
After making this breakthrough and receiving personal contact with her guru, Srimati
Devi quickly attained perfection in the friendly mood. She began to dress like
a boy; her behavior, her language, etc., all took on the characteristics of a
cowherd boyfriend of Krishna and people even began to call her bhaiya ("brother").
She became progressively absorbed in a total consciousness of Krishna's presence.
Her health was poor and she did not live much longer after this. One day, when
her guru came to visit her, he took her head in his lap and she said, "Buddy,
let's go. Look, Balaram and Krishna are calling their friends to come.”
Krishnananda Swami replied, overcome with emotion, "Go ahead, buddy. I’ll
be right along." Having received this permission from her guru, she entered the
eternal world of Braj.
5. Glrija Devi(53)
Girija Devi was the wife of a rich landowner in Jamira in the state of Bihar,
and was thus habituated to a life of great luxury. She started to lose her interest
in family life, however, when her oldest son died at the age of eighteen, followed
shortly thereafter by the death of her second son. In her grief she became indifferent
to food and drink. Her husband asked his family guru for advice, and the guru
began to read Bhagavata Purana to her with to calm her. The result of these readings
was that she began to develop an interest in devotion to Krishna and then a desire
to move to Braj. Despite the family tradition that kept strict purdah on its women,
her husband eventually gave her permission to go.
In Vrindavan Girija Devi rented a room in the Radharamana Ghera and quickly began
to experience visions of the deity, Radharaman. Radharani would appear to her
to complain about imperfections in the service that would have been impossible
for an outsider to know about. On occasion, Radharaman spoke to her by possessing
one of the temple priests and speaking through him.
Girija Devi smoked tobacco from a hookah and maintained other habits from her
days in Bihar, as a result of which she was not always looked upon with faith,
but eventually such inexplicable events caused the sevayats of Radharaman to revere
her. Even so, Nilamani Goswami, her landlord, once decided to evict her in order
to rent out the house at a higher rent. On that very day he made this decision,
but before he could carry out his plan, on returning to his own home, he found
that neither he nor any of his companions was able to open the locked door, even
though he had the key. Another neighbor, a woman devotee, suggested to him that
he had perhaps offended Girija Devi and that if she gave permission he would be
able to open the door. Nilamani went to her and asked her to open the door. Much
to her own astonishment, she was able to unlock the padlock and the door opened.
They attributed the mysterious event to the workings of Radharaman himself.
After the death of her husband, Girija Devi spent the remainder of her days in
Jamira, maintaining her devotional practices while running the family estate through
agents.
Conclusions
June McDaniel notes in a recent study of Bengali religion that during her fieldwork
it was virtually impossible for her to find a Vaishnava holy woman. (54)
This suggests that a certain disdain of women continues to exist in orthodox Vaishnava
circles today, despite the achievements of a few exceptional women at various
points in Gaudiya Vaishnava history. The fear of sahajiyaism may have something
to do with this. The ascetic community endeavors to maintain its purity by following
the principles of sexual segregation standardized by Chaitanya as far as possible.
Vaishnavas who allow women of any age or marital status to stay in their ashrams
at night are called kunja-vasis and have the lowest status. Those who speak
to women in daytime are called thora-vasis, while those who refuse to have
anything at all to do with women are known as vana-vasis. These latter
Vaishnavas are given the highest status in the renunciate community. Kunja-vasis
are routinely suspected of sahajiya practice. The problems faced by Pishima Goswamini
in the early part of her relationship with Balaram Das are typical of those that
face any women who wish to practice a life of asceticism. Outside the realm of
the ascetics, in the entirely different world of the goswamis and householder
Vaishnavas, the wives of the Prabhusantans have always been strong leaders amongst
the women of their communities, occasionally stepping in, like Jahnava, to exercise
greater influence.
It should be stated that here, as elsewhere, history is generally written by men
about men. How many thousands of women in every religious tradition have led quiet
lives of simple sanctity and asceticism, and been passed over by the few historians
who have written about these matters only by virtue of their sex? Nevertheless,
despite the limited numbers of examples that we have been able to find of women
whose accomplishments as gurus, saints and devotees have penetrated into the consciousness
of the males around them, their examples should be sufficient to continue to inspire
devotee women. Besides these, there is ample basis in the Gaudiya Vaishnava symbols,
theology and spiritual ideals to give room for women to assert themselves, if
the inner call should come.
NOTES
46. 5 volumes, Mathura: Sri Krishnajanmasthan Seva Samsthan,
1981-2. This book has now been translated and published in English. RETURN
47. pp. 163-171. Haridas Das credits Haridas Goswami's Nitai-Gaura-vigraha-lila-kahini
for most of the data used in his account. O.B.L. Kapoor (op. cit., Vol. 1, 193-212)
has based his story primarily on that of Haridas Das. RETURN
48. Gaudiya Vaishnava Jivani, 169. RETURN
49. The main source for the information given here is Yogi
Sri Knshna Prem, by Dilip Kumar Ray (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1968).
Also, O.B.L. Kapoor, (op. cit., Vol. 2, 124-169. RETURN
50. Braj ke bhakta, Vol. 4, 133-140. RETURN
51. Braj ke bhakta, Vol. 3, 132-3. RETURN
52. Cf. A. K. Ramanujan, "On Women Saints" in (ed.) J.S. Hawley
and Donna Marie Wulff, The Divine Consort (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass,
1984 [1982]), 316. RETURN
53. Braj ke bhakta, 210-221. RETURN
54. The Madness of the Saints (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1989), 192. In a footnote to this comment, she writes, “The
general response of Vaishnava practitioners was a look of amazement, followed
by, ‘A holy woman (sadhika)? Why would you want to speak to one of them?
Look at all the holy men who are here. They are much better to speak with.'
None could or would suggest specific women to interview.” RETURN