A heavenly anticlimax

 

There are many peculiar Hindu sects, and this week I discovered another one (OK, not really – they have been around since 1535). The group in question is known as the Radhavallabha Sampradaya (further RVS) and was founded in Vrindavana by Sri Hita Harivamsha (1502-1552). That is, the earthly Vrindavana in Uttar Pradesh, India! Back in the days, Vrindavana must have been a really busy place, with constant kirtans thrown by a wide variety of Krishnaite groups, including the Gaudiya Vaishnavas. RVS seems to have been one of the more “radical” groups, and I actually found an ISKCON-related website warning visitors to Vrindavana about the RVS temple, Radha Vallabha Mandira! The ISKCON condemns RVS as “sahajiyas”, a generic slur against everyone who interprets the famous love play of Krishna and Radha a bit too literally…

First, a brief background (most info in this post is mined from "Krishna as Loving Husband of God" by Guy L Beck, included in the collection "Alternative Krishnas"). Hindus who worship Vishnu (or one of his avatars) as the supreme god are known as Vaishnavas. Vaishnavism is usually associated with Brahminical orthopraxy, Vedanta philosophy and the most boring parts of Right Hand Tantrism (temple icons and such) but now and then antinomian Vaishnava currents arise, taking the path of devotion (bhakti yoga) perhaps a little bit too far. The most obvious point of departure for such groups is the illicit amorous relationship between Krishna (seen as an avatar of Vishnu) and Radha, his favorite gopi (cow-herd girl). 

This erotic mysticism is present in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, which worships Krishna as the supreme god and sees Radha as his “shakti” or creative energy. Indeed, the founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Caitanya, is seen by many in the tradition as a double incarnation of Krishna and Radha. Today, the ISKCON (“Hare Krishna movement”) is the most well known representative of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, at least in the Western world. Gaudiya Vaishnavism consider the erotic mysticism as a higher stage of spiritual accomplishment (“raganuga bhakti”), and hence calls on its supporters to begin at a lower rung characterized by strict rules and regulations (including of sex). Indeed, ISKCON founder Prabhupada more or less prohibited his followers from reading the sections of Shrimad Bhagavatam (an early medieval work used as the ISKCON´s main normative scripture) dealing with Krishna´s erotic dance with Radha and the gopis (the “rasa lila”)!

Others are not so coy, and one of these accursed sahajiyas was the above mentioned Harivamsha. According to RVS´s hagiography, Harivamsha received revelations from Radha already as a kid, and seems to have lived a somewhat unconventional family life. At one point, he abandoned his wife and three children to become a wandering ascetic, but then married two women simultaneously! Supposedly on the orders of Radha, no less. Eventually, he reached Vrindavana where he founded the Radhavallabha Sampradaya. Outwardly, the group looks orthoprax enough, with temples, pujas, a hereditary male priesthood, and so on. However, its actual theology and practice is peculiar even for Vaishnava bhaktas. Rather than seeing Krishna as God and Radha as his subordinate (Radha can be seen as both a human female, a goddess or as God´s shakti), the RVS see *Radha* as the supreme deity, and Krishna as her subordinate! (This notion is foreshadowed already in the Gitagovinda, a famous 12^th century work of poetry, in which Krishna worships Radha´s feet and even lets her place them on his head.)

Interestingly, the “real” Radha is the RVS theology is seen as invisible, ineffable and formless, but for the benefit of her devotees, she takes the form of a supremely beautiful goddess, forever love-playing with the god Krishna (not sure where he comes from in this system). The RVS puts so much emphasis on Radha-Krishna devotionalism, that everything else in Vaishnavism or Hinduism-at-large is strongly downplayed:  caste duties, life cycle rituals, fasting, fire sacrifice, the Sanskrit language, the elaborate mythology around Vishnu, and so on. Everything is subordinated to a mystical (?) vision of seeing Krishna and Radha having sex in the forests of Vrindavana. The devotees are supposed to identify with the “sakhi”, the handmaiden of the divine couple, who follows them around the forest and sneak-peaks at their sexual union (!).

While this is all frankly nuts, it seems that not even the Radhavallabhis could go all the way to outright feminism. Since the relationship between Krishna and Radha as depicted in the classical sources is adulterous and hence scandalous, many Hindus apparently try to downplay this, by claiming that the couple were married. The Gaudiya Vaishnavas have chosen a different route, instead trying to spiritualize the erotic pastimes of Krishna and Radha, even to the point of seeing them as a kind of double deity. You would expect an oversexed sect like the RVS to claim that the relationship was both illicit *and* real, but instead they have chosen the first strategy. Yes, the RVS actually claim that Krishna and Radha are married! Nor is it clear to me whether any female devotees participate in visualizing the sexual congress of the divine couple, or if these pastimes are male only…

In the end, the Radhavallabha Sampradaya is one gigantic anticlimax.