365bet娱乐

203
Especially in the Bengal school, the highest
experience of bhakti came through participation in the mode
of devotion experienced by one of the Lord's companions
(parikaras), a participation brought about by identification
with the character as he, or more likely she, appeared and
acted in the mythic narrative. The key practice of advanced
aspirants was r膩g膩nug膩bhakti--"devotion following passionate
attachment, i.e., bhakti that imitated the love for K峁涐梗峁嘺
"I
that was evidenced by his associates.鈦�
admirably summarized by Kinsley:
Its essence has been
The devotee seeks to involve himself completely in the
ongoing drama of K峁涐梗峁嘺 by identifying himself with one
or another of its participants. In effect, the devotee
seeks to replace the ordinary world with the imaginative
world of K峁涐梗峁嘺 and his companions. While remaining
physically'in the ordinary world, he seeks to remove
himself from it by constantly remembering the
transcendental world of K峁涐梗峁嘺 and imagining himself to
be a part of that world. With the help of scriptural
descriptions, he tries to conjure up a world that is as
real and immediate to him as the ordinary world in which
he normally lives.10
Comparing the aesthetic approach of the Gau岣嵞珁as with the
ascetic orientation of Yoga, Kinsley writes:
The Bengal Vai峁ａ箛ava devotee does not seek to still his
mind but stir it by imagination. In yoga the sadhaka
attains sam膩dhi by immobilizing his mind and intellect--
by stopping the imaginative process. In Bengal
Vai峁ａ箛avism the devotee attains sam膩dhi by ceaselessly
imagining himself to be a female companion of K峁涐梗峁嘺.
11 This spirituality of imaginative participation was
taken very seriously, and worked out in careful detail, by
the Vai峁ａ梗峁嘺va theologians. In order to provide a conceptual