Talking to Plants: The Vraja Gopikås: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

The wondrous, sensuous beauty of nature in general, and in particular, flora such as plants, trees, fruits, flowers, and so on, are engaged in Hindu sacred poetic narratives, as well as Indian Kåvya and Nå†ya artistic expression. Here, in this study, I am interested in exploring the role of flora within the experience of bhakti as expressed in sacred narrative. Specifically, since the five chapters of the Råsa Lîlå constitute the ultimate literary and theological focal point for the whole of the Bhågavata text, as I have shown in previous work, I therefore expect to find in this special passage the Bhågavata’s relationship with flora especially highlighted in relation to bhakti precisely because of this passage’s elevated status.2 While drawing from and building upon my previous work on the subject, I will demonstrate here that there is a movement, a “dance” as it were, an interdependent dialectical relationship, between natural phenomena and the movements of the bhakta’s heart.