[world-vedic] krishna the Divine Lover in Indian art

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======================================Krishna The Divine Lover in Indian

Art======================================

nkg63 (AT) (DOT) co.uk WROTE:

 

The India art tradition visualises the love adventures of gods and theirfemale

friends because it acknowledges that sex is the supreme fact in life,which

provides the urge to procreate and maintain the species. It isconcealed like

lightning in a cloud, and in its glow is the birth of art,literature and

science. Sex union among lovers is the most exaltedexperience in life, and in

mutual ecstasy the liberation of the soul fromthe narrow 'self' takes place.

This is the supreme experience of lovers aswell as mystics. That is why in

describing the union of God and soul, theextremely beautiful imagery of man and

woman is employed by mystic saintsand artists. Thus we see that the

classification of love into 'carnal' and'spiritual' is arbitrary and

unwarranted for the so called 'spiritual' lovehas its roots in the so called

'physical' love. This art thus sanctifieshuman love and places it on a par with

divine love. In it we findsacredness wedded to sensuous joy. Illustration

:http://www.exoticindiaart.com/hindu/hp09.jpg (93.3 kb) In fact, its

spirituality very much based on flesh andblood. It is an art which glorifies

female beauty and revels in theloveliness of the female form. Illustration

:http://www.exoticindiaart.com/hindu/hp42.jpg (58.0

kb)------

 

 

I am very sorry, this is all nonsense and has nothing to do with the pure

spiritual affection skillfully depicted by the ancient artists in the paintings

of Radha-Krsna and the gopis.

Spiritual love is NEVER CARNAL. Rather, it evolves in the spiritual world from

complete renounciation of lust or egocentric sense gratification - and being

initiated on the earth by a bona fide spiritual master.

The author of the above explanations about spiritual sex life makes use of

beautiful flowery language, like the very language of Vedic literatures

themselves. However, in these explanations duplicity and false conceptions are

concocted, which completely annihilate the elevated sense of unconditional

(read: non egoic) love and affection of the liberated souls and their Lord

Krsna.

 

Perhaps the readers are interested in the authoritative teachings about mundane

sex life and spiritual, or transcendental sex life, both of which are

absolutely incomparable, or even each others' opposites.

The following quotes have been taken from the Teachings of Lord Caitanya, A

Treatise on Factual Spiritual Life, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta

Swami Prabhupada 1985, one of the topmost Vaisnava acaryas of today and

authority of the Sanskrit language and Vedic literatures.

-----------

 

"The exchange of feelings between Krsna and Radharani is very difficult to

understand unless one is elevated to the platform of pure goodness. Such

transcendental reciprocation is not even possible to understand from the

platform of material goodness. One has to actually transcend material goodness

in order to understand. This is because the exchange of feelings between Radha

and Krsna is not a subject matter of this material world. Even the greatest

mental speculator cannot understand this, directly or indirectly. Material

activities are manifested either for the gross body or the subtle mind, but

this exchange of feelings between Radha and Krsna is beyond such manifestations

and beyond intellectual mental speculation. It can only be understood by

purified senses freed from all the designations of the material world. Those

who have purified senses can understand these transcendental features and

exchanges, but those who are impersonalists [atheists, i.d.] and who have no

knowledge of spiritual senses can only discriminate within the scope of the

material senses and thus cannot understand spiritual exchanges or

spiritual-sensual activities. Those who are elevated by virtue of experimental

knowledge can only satisfy their blunt material senses either by gross bodily

activities or by mental speculation. Everything generated from the body or the

mind is always imperfect and perishable, but transcendental spiritual activities

are always bright and wonderful. Pure love on the transcental platform is the

paragon of purity devoid of material affection and completely spiritual.

Affection for matter is perishable, as indicated by the enebriety of sex in the

material world, but there is no such inebriety in the spiritual world.

Hindrances on the path of sense satisfaction cause material distress, but one

cannot compare that with spiritual separation. In spiritual separation [or

union, i.d.] there is neither inebriety nor ineffectiveness, as one finds with

material separation [or union]." (p.229)

....

"The confidential and transcendental activities of Radha and Krsna... can be

understood only in the association of the damsels of Vraja [Vrndavana, i.d.],

for the confidential activities have arisen from the feelings and emotions of

those damsels. Without the association of the damsels of Vraja, one cannot

nourish or cherish such transcendental understanding. In other words, these

confidential pastimes of Radha and Krsna have expanded through the mercy of the

damsels. Without their mercy, they cannot be understood. One has to follow in

the footsteps of the damsels of Vraja in order to understand... Just as no one

can understand the expansion of the spiritual energy of the Supreme Lord

without His causeless mercy, no one can understand the transcendental sex life

between Radha and Krsna without following in the footsteps of the damsels of

Vraja... The personal associates of Radharani are called sakhis, and Her near

assistants are called manjaris. It is very difficult to express their dealings

with Krsna because they have no desire to mix with Krsna or to enjoy Him

personally. Rather, they are always ready to help Radharani associate with

Krsna. Their affection for Krsna and Radharani is so pure that they are simply

satisfied when Radha and Krsna are together. Indeed, their transcendental

pleasure is in seeing Radha and Krsna united....

Although the associates of Radharani do not expect any personal attention from

Krsna, Radharani is so pleased with them that She arranges individual meetings

between Krsna and the damsels of Vraja. Radharani tries to combine or unite Her

associates with Krsna by many transcendental maneuvers, and She takes more

pleasure in these meetings than in Her own meetings with Him.... Such

association and loving reciprocation have nothing to do with material lust,

although it resembles the material union between man and woman. It is only

because that similarity is there that such reciprocation is sometimes called,

in transcendental language, transcendental lust. As explained in

Gautamiya-tantra (B.r.s. 1.2.285): 'Lust means attachment to one's personal

sense gratification. But as far as Radharani and Her associates are concerned,

they did not desire personal sense gratification. They only wanted to satisfy

Krsna.' (p.329-39)

 

"It is a fact that we are constantly being kicked by maya [illusion of the

material senses] just as the male-ass is kicked in the face by the she-ass when

he comes for sex. Similarly, cats and dogs are always fighting and whining when

they have sex. These are the tricks of nature. Even an elephant in the jungle

is caught by the use of a trained she-elephant who leads him into a pit. Maya

has many activities, and in the material world her strongest shackle is the

female. Of course in actuality we are neither male nor female - for these

designations refer only to the outer dress, the body. We are all actually

Krsna's servants. In conditioned life, however, we are shackled by the iron

chains which take the form of beautiful women. Thus every male is bound by sex

life, and therefore when one attempts to gain liberation from the material

clutches, he must first learn to control the sex urge. Unrestricted sex puts

one fully in the clutches of illusion. (p.3)

 

"Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura [one of the Gaudiya Vaisnava acaryas]

specifically deals with original and pure sex psychology (adi-rasa) devoid of

all mundane inebriety. The entire material world turns due to the basic

principle of sex life. In modern human civilization, sex is the central point

of all activities; indeed, wherever we turn our face we see sex life prominent.

Consequently sex life is not unreal; its true reality is experienced in the

spiritual world. Material sex is but a perverted reflection of the original;

the original is found in the Absolute Truth. This validates the fact that the

Absolute Truth is personal, for the Absolute Truth cannot be impersonal and

have a sense of pure sex life. The impersonal monist philosophy ['God is

everything, so I am God - you can also become God', i.d.] gives an indirect

impetus to abominable mundane sex because it overly stresses the impersonality

of the ultimate truth. The result is that men who lack knowledge have accepted

the perverted material sex life as all in all because they have no information

of the actual spiritual form of sex. There is a distinction between sex in the

diseased condition of material life and sex in the spiritual existence.

Srimad-Bhagavatam [bhagavata Purana] gradually elevates the unbiased reader to

the highest perfectional stage of transcendence above the three modes of

material activities [goodness, passion and ignorance, i.d.], fruitive actions,

speculative philosophy and above worship of functional deities indicated in the

Vedas. Srimad Bhagavatam is the embodiment of devotional service to the Supreme

Personality of Godhead Krsna and is therefore situated in a position superior

to other Vedic literatures. (p.256)

 

"In this material world sex is required to produce children, but in the

spiritual world one can produce as many children as he likes without having to

take help from his wife. (p.18)

 

"What must be renounced is the propensity for material enjoyment. Although

Lord Caitanya [the last Incarnation of Krsna 1486-1534, i.d.] approved of a

householder having regulated sex in marriage, He was very strict with those in

the renounced order, and He even banished Junior Haridasa for glancing

lustfully at a young woman. (p.4)

 

"One who does not follow the principles of Pancaratra [five limbs of

authorized worship] , or one who is and impersonalist or addicted to sex life,

cannot be compared with those who have dedicated their lives to the sevice of

Krsna. (p.307)

 

"One should not take the material Cupid and Krsna to be on the same level.

The material Cupid represents the attraction of the external flesh and body,

but the spiritual Cupid is the attraction by which the Supersoul attracts the

individual soul. Actually lust and sex are there in spiritual life, but when

the spirit soul is embodied in material elements, that spiritual urge is

expressed through the material body and is therefore pervertedly reflected.

When one actually becomes conversant in the science of Krsna consciousness, he

can understand that his material desire for sex is abominable, whereas

spiritual sex is desirable... Spiritual sex is of two kinds: one in accordance

with the consititutional position of the self and the other in accordance with

the object. When one understands the truth about this life but is not

completely cleansed of material contamination, he is not factually situated in

the transcendental abode, Vrndavana, although he may understand spirutual life.

When, however, one becomes free from the sex urges of the material body, he can

actually attain the supreme abode of Vrndavana. (p.323)

-------------

 

Untill so far the quotations from Teachings of Lord Caitanya.

I hope I could serve you with this supreme, elevated and confidential

information about spiritual so-called sex life.

 

A servant of the servant of Srimati Radhika,

Indira dasi

[Guest guest]

There was in Hindu tradition,a philosophical and

pragmatic acceptance of the relevance of desire, with

eroticism as its natural attribute, even as there was

in equal measure, the emphasis on the need to overcome

desire, with asceticism as its deviational attribute.

At a philosophical level, the attempt was to integrate

desire and the sexual urge in a spiritual framework,

not by denying their existence, or even their

desirability, but by giving to them a symbolic

treatment. The Rig Veda says that desire was the first

movement that arose in the One after it had come into

being through the power of abstraction. " Desire first

arose in It, which was the primal germ of mind; (and

which) sages, searching with their intellect have

discovered in their heart to be the bond which

connects entity with non entity". The very strength of

the urge made it useful to use it as a metaphor to

convey or explicate a metaphysical point. The

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: ' Just as a man,

closely embraced by his loving wife, knows nothing

without, nothing within, so does this "person",

closely embraced by the self that consists of wisdom,

knows [sic] nothing without nothing within (quoted in

Lee Seigel: Sacred and Profane Dimensions of love in

the Indian tradition as exemplified in the 'Gita

Govinda of Jayadeva'). The same Upanishad has also

this passage where a woman's genitals are used as

symbols to describe a sacrificial fire; ' Woman is a

fire, Gautama: the phallus is her fuel; the hairs are

her smoke; the vulva is her flame; when man penetrates

her, that is her coal; the ecstasy is her sparks

(ibid.p.16)

 

(From 'Krishna The Playful Divine', New Delhi, 1993.)

 

Nitin Goel.

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/hindu

 

 

--- Indira dasi <indira wrote: >

> ----- Oorspronkelijk bericht -----

> Van: nkg63

> Aan: vediculture

> Verzonden: zondag 30 april 2000 12:10

> Onderwerp: [world-vedic] krishna the Divine Lover

> in Indian art

>

>

> ======================================

> Krishna The Divine Lover in Indian Art

> ======================================

>

> nkg63 WROTE:

>

>

> The India art tradition visualises the love

> adventures of gods and

> their

> female friends because it acknowledges that sex is

> the supreme fact

> in life,

> which provides the urge to procreate and maintain

> the species. It is

> concealed like lightning in a cloud, and in its

> glow is the birth of

> art,

> literature and science. Sex union among lovers is

> the most exalted

> experience in life, and in mutual ecstasy the

> liberation of the soul

> from

> the narrow 'self' takes place. This is the supreme

> experience of

> lovers as

> well as mystics. That is why in describing the

> union of God and soul,

> the

> extremely beautiful imagery of man and woman is

> employed by mystic

> saints

> and artists. Thus we see that the classification

> of love

> into 'carnal' and

> 'spiritual' is arbitrary and unwarranted for the

> so

> called 'spiritual' love

> has its roots in the so called 'physical' love.

> This art thus

> sanctifies

> human love and places it on a par with divine

> love. In it we find

> sacredness wedded to sensuous joy. Illustration :

> http://www.exoticindiaart.com/hindu/hp09.jpg (93.3

> kb)

>

> In fact, its spirituality very much based on

> flesh

> and

> blood. It is an art which glorifies female beauty

> and revels in the

> loveliness of the female form. Illustration :

> http://www.exoticindiaart.com/hindu/hp42.jpg (58.0

> kb)

>

>

>

------

>

>

> I am very sorry, this is all nonsense and has

> nothing to do with the pure spiritual affection

> skillfully depicted by the ancient artists in the

> paintings of Radha-Krsna and the gopis.

> Spiritual love is NEVER CARNAL. Rather, it evolves

> in the spiritual world from complete renounciation

> of lust or egocentric sense gratification - and

> being initiated on the earth by a bona fide

> spiritual master.

> The author of the above explanations about

> spiritual sex life makes use of beautiful flowery

> language, like the very language of Vedic

> literatures themselves. However, in these

> explanations duplicity and false conceptions are

> concocted, which completely annihilate the elevated

> sense of unconditional (read: non egoic) love and

> affection of the liberated souls and their Lord

> Krsna.

>

> Perhaps the readers are interested in the

> authoritative teachings about mundane sex life and

> spiritual, or transcendental sex life, both of which

> are absolutely incomparable, or even each others'

> opposites.

> The following quotes have been taken from the

> Teachings of Lord Caitanya, A Treatise on Factual

> Spiritual Life, by His Divine Grace A.C.

> Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada 1985, one of the

> topmost Vaisnava acaryas of today and authority of

> the Sanskrit language and Vedic literatures.

>

>

--\

---------

>

> "The exchange of feelings between Krsna and

> Radharani is very difficult to understand unless one

> is elevated to the platform of pure goodness. Such

> transcendental reciprocation is not even possible to

> understand from the platform of material goodness.

> One has to actually transcend material goodness in

> order to understand. This is because the exchange of

> feelings between Radha and Krsna is not a subject

> matter of this material world. Even the greatest

> mental speculator cannot understand this, directly

> or indirectly. Material activities are manifested

> either for the gross body or the subtle mind, but

> this exchange of feelings between Radha and Krsna is

> beyond such manifestations and beyond intellectual

> mental speculation. It can only be understood by

> purified senses freed from all the designations of

> the material world. Those who have purified senses

> can understand these transcendental features and

> exchanges, but those who are impersonalists

> [atheists, i.d.] and who have no knowledge of

> spiritual senses can only discriminate within the

> scope of the material senses and thus cannot

> understand spiritual exchanges or spiritual-sensual

> activities. Those who are elevated by virtue of

> experimental knowledge can only satisfy their blunt

> material senses either by gross bodily activities or

> by mental speculation. Everything generated from

> the body or the mind is always imperfect and

> perishable, but transcendental spiritual activities

> are always bright and wonderful. Pure love on the

> transcental platform is the paragon of purity devoid

> of material affection and completely spiritual.

> Affection for matter is perishable, as indicated by

> the enebriety of sex in the material world, but

> there is no such inebriety in the spiritual world.

> Hindrances on the path of sense satisfaction cause

> material distress, but one cannot compare that with

> spiritual separation. In spiritual separation [or

> union, i.d.] there is neither inebriety nor

> ineffectiveness, as one finds with material

> separation [or union]." (p.229)

> ...

> "The confidential and transcendental activities of

> Radha and Krsna... can be understood only in the

> association of the damsels of Vraja [Vrndavana,

> i.d.], for the confidential activities have arisen

> from the feelings and emotions of those damsels.

> Without the association of the damsels of Vraja, one

> cannot nourish or cherish such transcendental

> understanding. In other words, these confidential

> pastimes of Radha and Krsna have expanded through

> the mercy of the damsels. Without their mercy, they

> cannot be understood. One has to follow in the

> footsteps of the damsels of Vraja in order to

> understand... Just as no one can understand the

> expansion of the spiritual energy of the Supreme

> Lord without His causeless mercy, no one can

> understand the transcendental sex life between Radha

> and Krsna without following in the footsteps of the

> damsels of Vraja... The personal associates of

> Radharani are called sakhis, and Her near assistants

> are called manjaris. It is very difficult to express

> their dealings with Krsna because they have no

> desire to mix with Krsna or to enjoy Him personally.

> Rather, they are always ready to help Radharani

> associate with Krsna. Their affection for Krsna and

> Radharani is so pure that they are simply satisfied

> when Radha and Krsna are together. Indeed, their

> transcendental pleasure is in seeing Radha and Krsna

> united....

> Although the associates of Radharani do not expect

> any personal attention from Krsna, Radharani is so

> pleased with them that She arranges individual

> meetings between Krsna and the damsels of Vraja.

> Radharani tries to combine or unite Her associates

> with Krsna by many transcendental maneuvers, and She

> takes more pleasure in these meetings than in Her

> own meetings with Him.... Such association and

> loving reciprocation have nothing to do with

> material lust, although it resembles the material

> union between man and woman. It is only because that

> similarity is there that such reciprocation is

> sometimes called, in transcendental language,

> transcendental lust. As explained in

> Gautamiya-tantra (B.r.s. 1.2.285): 'Lust means

> attachment to one's personal sense gratification.

> But as far as Radharani and Her associates are

> concerned, they did not desire personal sense

> gratification. They only wanted to satisfy Krsna.'

> (p.329-39)

>

> "It is a fact that we are constantly being

> kicked by maya [illusion of the material senses]

> just as the male-ass is kicked in the face by the

> she-ass when he comes for sex. Similarly, cats and

> dogs are always fighting and whining when they have

> sex. These are the tricks of nature. Even an

> elephant in the jungle is caught by the use of a

> trained she-elephant who leads him into a pit. Maya

> has

=== message truncated ===

 

 

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