Reading for Krishna’s Pleasure: Gaudiya Vaishnava Meditation, Literary Interiority, and the Phenomenology of Repetition: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

For a Gau∂îya Vaishnava—a follower of the Bengali religious figure Krishna Caitanya (1486–1533 CE)—the primary aim of yoga is to meditate, but to meditate does not mean to search for some formless ultimate reality with which to merge the self. Rather, it means to enter the cosmic drama, as David Haberman has put it, via a complex set of ritual practices that culminate in a yogic visualization. The content and form of these practices are, at least initially, heavily structured. The texts that allude to or directly dictate this meditation graphically describe the explicit content of this meditation, what the devotee does and in what order he does it (and the overwhelming majority of practitioners is male). The specific techniques of this meditation rely on the time-tested procedures established by Patañjali and others centuries before, while the adaptations preferred by the Gau∂îya Vaishnavas favor an acute visualization practice, the content of which revolves around the endlessly variable activities of Krishna and his descent to earth in the form of Krishna Caitanya.