Metaphors of Transcendence: A Study of Spiritual Progress in the Mādhurya Kādambinī: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

Rev. James Wiseman has explored Bonaventure’s description of spiritual progress and has also introduced descriptions by the Gauḍīya Vaishnava theologian Viśvanātha Cakravartin of the ultimate goal of spiritual growth, prema (love for Krishna). I will further explore a Gauḍīya Vaishnava understanding of spiritual progress, in particular through looking at the metaphors that undergird Viśvanātha’s descriptions of progressive spiritual states in his seventeenth century work, Mādhurya Kādambinī (“Cloudbank of Sweetness”).