How the self became a problem in the Caitanya Vaiṣṇava tradition: a genealogy of selfhood in perfection from Bādarāyaṇa to Bhaktivinod

Thesis

The formative Caitanya Vaiṣṇava theologians of the sixteenth century, particularly Sanātana, Rūpa, and Jīva, developed a nuanced theology anchored in their exegesis and systematization of the Bhāgavata-purāṇa, which they privileged as the highest scriptural authority. In a highly eclectic project I refer to as ‘bricolage theology’, they selectively appropriated, reshaped, and combined materials from diverse systems and sources—some historically antagonistic towards each other.

In this dissertation, I map the ‘fault lines’ between the elements these theologians creatively combine by focusing on a highly contested topic in Indian intellectual history: the relationship between the self and perfection. Is Caitanya Vaiṣṇava perfection the manifesting of the self’s essential nature and form? Is perfection the result of possession, much as one is overpowered by a spirit? Alternatively, is perfection a type of becoming, in which the practitioner comes to participate in God’s divine play (līlā) through the ritual process of dramatic role play, much as an actor identifies with a particular role to the point of becoming it?

The contemporary Caitanya Vaiṣṇava tradition, I argue, has inherited several ontologies of the self. This is partly because the different systems Sanātana, Rūpa, and Jīva eclectically combine each have their own explicit or implicit models of selfhood. Moreover, the tradition’s Vedāntic model of the self, drawn primarily from Viśiṣṭādvaita, undergoes some reconfigurations, with later theologians like Kṛṣṇadāsa and Baladeva diverging from Jīva in their emphasis and articulation. Through a process of elision, addition, and emendation, they domesticate Jīva’s ontology of the self, aligning it more closely with traditional Viśiṣṭādvaita and with Jīva’s ostensive sources, Rāmānuja and Jāmātṛmuni. Consequently, by the nineteenth century the Caitanya Vaiṣṇava tradition had inherited not one but several ontologies of the self, a result of both its wide eclecticism and a shift in the tradition’s relationship and identification with Vedānta, especially in the eighteenth century.

Authors: Haas, SM

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-o8krz02jp
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Bhāgavata-purāṇa; ontology of the self; Vedānta; eclecticism; Rāmānuja; models of the self; Kṛṣṇadāsa; Rūpa; Viśiṣṭādvaita; Sanātana; prema; Caitanya Vaiṣṇava tradition; Jāmātṛmuni; Jīva; Baladeva; bricolage theology; Bhaktivinod
• Subjects: Chaitanya (Sect)--Doctrines; Knowledge, Theory of (Hinduism); Vaishnava literature, Bengali; Hinduism; Vedanta; Mokṣa; Self; Viśiṣṭādvaita; Intellectual history; Perfection--Religious aspects--Hinduism; Syncretism (Religion); Eclecticism; Religion; Bhakti