Kenneth Valpey
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
5th March 2016

Outline of a presentation given at Harvard University (Center for the Study of World Religions), in a 2-day workshop on “Comparative Sacramental Theology” involving 14 invited scholars plus two organizers (the main organizer being Prof. Francis Clooney).

Introduction: Hindu Practices of Image Worship as a Dialectic of Absence and Presence

• Having heard from Barbara Holdrege on “Engaging the Divine Presence in Hindu Devotional Traditions”, and from Jacob Kinnard on “The Dynamic Lives of Images”, my focus will turn toward the practice of image worship in Hindu traditions, especially in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition in Vrindavan…
• Following Barbara, I will also focus on Hindu devotional (bhakti) traditions,especially the Vaisnava tradition of which I am most familiar, and I also want to consider divine presence as embodied in various ways, but especially in the physical image (mūrti) and sacred sound.
• But I want to examine the notion of divine presence as inseparable from, interwoven with, the experience of divine absence. My thesis is that, from the perspective of the practice of Hindu worship, in its most developed form, at the core of such practice is an “inner conflict” (Jan Heesterman), or dialectic of presence and absence. By proper (“felicitous”: Neville et al) engagement with this dialectic through the practice of bhakti (devotional worship activities) the goal of such worship is achieved, namely prema—pure and unadulterated love of God. This goal is to be contrasted with the typical Hindu soteriology which conceives of final liberation (mokṣa, pronounced moksha) from the perpetual cycle of death and rebirth (saṁsāra) as the goal [fn: which Klaus Klostermeier identifies as the “hermeneutic center” of all Hindu thought].
• This understanding of practice requires that we qualify the term “worship” considerably, giving preference to the term sevā (pronounced sevaa)—attentive and constant service, whereby the conceit of the practitioner is that God (especially for Vaisnavas, identified as Krishna) willingly places himself in a position of “dependence” on the practitioner for his “needs”. [fn. We may notice the “as-if” character of this understanding, not unrelated to the notion of “play”…].
• In this understanding, considering practice as sevā, sacramentality is located in the (re)affirmation that all objects and elements of the world, properly seen in relation to God, are and always have been spiritual. [fn. an understanding that facilitates the “communion of subjects” of which Thomas Berry spoke…]
• … an understanding that may prompt us to compare (or contrast) with semitic religious traditions, with regard to notions of creation in relation to God, with their sacramental understandings, especially practices to enact transubstantiation of one substance to another substance. [fn. see R. Rappaport on ritual as creation]
• To highlight certain aspects of these themes, I will call attention to selected Hindu narratives involving worship practices.

1. A Story of Upturned Priestly Mediation: A Vaiṣṇava Ideal of Worship Practice

• To put into sharp focus the trajectory of Hindu practices of image worship, I first present a much-celebrated episode from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa (a sacred text of central importance for several Vaiṣṇava Hindu traditions), the “Uddhava Sandeśa” (Uddhava’s Message):
  • The context is that the divinity Sri Krishna, who has lived his childhood in the cowherding environs of Vraja (present-day northern central India) surrounded by loving friends and family, has been called away to the nearby city of Mathura, breaking the hearts of the Vraja residents by his extended absence.
  • While in Mathura, Krishna eventually sends his close friend Uddhava as a messenger to Vraja, to placate the Vraja residents by instructing them in basic theology—that Krishna (God) is in fact all-present, and hence he is always with the Vraja residents. (Uddhava as mediating priest, facilitating worship).
  • Although they welcome Uddhava warmly and listen to him respectfully, they remain unmoved by his message of divine presence. They long to see and speak with and embrace Krishna (directly, without mediation), to bathe and dress and feed him, or to meet and dance with him in the forest. Uddhava’s lofty theology (his sacramental language) does not mitigate the pain of their sense of Krishna’s absence from them. (Yet: Uddhava’s presence reminds them of Krishna, as he physically strikingly resembles Krishna).
  • o Uddhava realizes that it is they, the Vraja residents, who are teaching him what is true devotion; not that he is teaching them anything. (The Vraja residents’ love for God is so pure, they require no mediation; they are constantly connected [yoga] with him by their loving remembrance).
  • o In conclusion, Uddhava prays that he may be reborn as a clump of grass in Vrindavan, to receive the dust from the feet of these profoundly devoted souls as they walk about through the fields tending their cows.
• In this account, the Vrindavan residents—especially the young girls, the gopīs, are the perfect worshippers of God as Krishna. Their practice consists in offering their very lives to Krishna, whereby every act, every step, is intended to please their Lord, with no consideration of their own pleasure or comfort.

   

  • Krishna’s friend Uddhava is, in this episode, the well-meaning mediator, the priest commissioned to bring communion between humanity and divinity. By his words he does as required. But his words fall on (respectfully) deaf ears.
  • Rather, it is the Vraja residents who serve as mediators for the Vaisnava practitioners, by virtue of the guileless simplicity and pure selflessness of their love for Krishna. In Krishna’s presence, they serve him day and night with the best of everything they have, and in his absence they pine for him and become absorbed in remembrance of his every charming word, gesture, glance, and mischievous childhood exploits.
  • [A comparison (more of a contrast) and an historical dimension may be suggested: Ancient Vedic hymns (e.g. Rgveda 1.1.1) celebrate Agni—fire, a fire-god—as the primordial priest, delivering supplicants’ offerings to other gods and also bringing the gods into presence: here fire is a physical, strikingly visible “object”/process regarded as the visible manifestation of an invisible person-god. The later developed bhakti tradition minimizes importance of Vedic rites, in favor of simple acts of devotion, e.g. offering food, singing, and decorating an image: Instrumental (Vedic) vs. non-instrumental (bhakti) sacramental acts]

2. Hindu Image Worship as the Routinization of Presence

• The sacred image functions as mediator between divine presence and absence: With regard to “establishing an image” (can be elaborate rituals, collectively called prāṇa-pratiṣthā—lit. “establishing life”): Arguably, the more vividly the image is representative (as a human-like form), the greater the sense of non-presence, of absence; (G. Schweig: personal communication). [fn: Complexities abound about this matter, strikingly illustrated in the story of a “self-manifest” image of Krishna in Vrindavan, named Rādhāramaṇa.] [show image(s)?]
  • In this context of the sense of absence, sacred sound (mantra) becomes so crucial, taking us historically back, into the sphere of early Indian linguistics and sacrificial ritual.
  • For our purposes, the broad principle (Roy Rappaport) that matter-plus-sacred-word brings about sacrament applies here. However, importantly (in Hindu traditions generally), infusion of matter with mantra is really re-infusion, intended to infuse the practitioner’s heart with awareness of divine presence—in this sense it is a cyclical function: drawing out from the heart (by mantra) into an external image (mūrti) leading to a return to the heart and finally a dissolving of difference between the Lord in the heart, the Lord present in the mantra, and the Lord in the image. “Real presence” for a Hindu would mean experiencing this nondifference as the success of worship practice.
• The practice of image worship (sevā) is part of a broader practice [show diagram—hopefully provide handout with further details], which may be thought of as the “routinization of presence”. (the term arcana—pronounced ‘aarchana’—is also used, suggesting formal ritual). From this perspective, Hindu image worship has a deeply representational character, placing representation very much in the center, especially of worship communities (public temples or family shrines). [fn. Hindu temples, especially larger ones, as complex economies of exchange on various levels, not least of which is economic].
• The practice of image worship is a way of making-present through establishing an image, then keeping-present by making scheduled offerings understood to facilitate and embellish the eight-fold sequential daily ‘pastimes’ (līlā) of Krishna and his feminine counterpart, Sri Rādhā. [fn. plus ongoing offerings by visiting votives and patrons].

3. Stumbling Into God’s Presence, Entering His Eternal Sports

• Another story: The notion “real presence” takes an interesting and instructive twist in one legend told within the Radharaman temple priest community,…
• … having to do with worship practice leading (very suddenly) to and beyond a “threshold” of worship fulfillment:
  • an (unnamed?) priest of the Radharaman community (19th c.?) had performed the routine early-morning preparations for “awakening” the image of Krishna (Radharamana); however, just prior to opening the door to the sanctum-sanctorum (garbha-gṛha) wherein the image is situated during the night in its (his) bed, the priest failed to make a warning sound by knocking or ringing a bell. Rather, he simply entered the room…
  • … to find himself directly seeing Krishna who is surprised by the intrusion in the midst of his rasa-līlā (divine pastime of consorting and dancing with his female counterparts, the gopīs). In his own surprise, shock, and wonder at seeing (in the fullest sense—darśana), the priest immediately collapses in the doorway of the sanctum, lifeless. (The understanding is that he thereby entered permanently into—became an eternal participant in—Krishna’s līlā, as one of his eternal associates in his atemporal abode, Goloka Dhāma.
• The story is used by the Radharaman community as both a warning (remember to knock or ring a bell before entering the sanctum sanctorum each morning, and after the Lord’s afternoon nap, for Krishna will not countenance unexpected intrusions), and a reassurance (that the image is a real presence of the Lord who really receives and accepts the services offered by his priests and votaries.
• As a point of comparison/contrast, simply we may note the emphasis in Hindu traditions on the importance of images, quite in contrast to the semitic traditions (all of which place varying degrees of proscription on the worship of physical images). Indeed, there are countless stories in Hindu traditions telling of various ‘miracles’ involving images (here may be relevant comparisons with—especially two-dimensional images—in Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian traditions, of similar ‘miracles’). However, there is perhaps in Hindu traditions more a sense of “business as usual” in stories of extraordinary image behavior, rather than being the exception. Also, however, a possible point of commonality may be the social dimension, whereby many stories, in several traditions, highlight the access of one or another common person or person otherwise considered ‘untouchable’ or ‘outcaste’ to the divine presence.

Conclusion: Wandering in God’s Absence, Dancing in His Presence

• To conclude, another famous story from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, namely the Rasa-līlā episode: from suffering acute absence to celebrating presence.
  • As in the story of Uddhava visiting Vraja, so here, the focus is on the exalted devotional character of the Vraja residents;
  • And, in addition to the focus on absence (Krishna disappears for some time from the arena of the dance, having detected a slight sense of pride), when Krishna reappears among them (due to their intense searching and remembering him), there is celebration in the form of the rasa-dance.
  • The temple equivalent of this celebration is the festival (one of several throughout the year), in which the mood is one of joyous entertainment: the essential elements are threefold: (1) plentiful food (bhojana, which after having been offered to the image is regarded as sanctified, prasāda); (2) elaborate decoration of the image and its (his) temple (śṛngāra); and (3) music (including singing, and possibly dancing—samāj gāyana) and possibly also drama.
• Festival celebration recalls and leads to the eternal divine dance of love, wherein eternal presence, in the eternal, rhythmically stepping present, is enacted between the Lord and his devotees.
  • Thus, matter recovers its original spiritual nature, wherein the dialectic of absence and presence serves to ever deepen the heart’s capacity for love.
  • A Sanskrit verse describes the perception of a votive blessed by a sense of the Lord’s real presence: “The prospect of liberation appears as hell; the promises of heaven are regarded as so much empty talk; one’s senses can no longer harm one, like the broken fangs of a poisonous snake; the universe appears filled with joy—such is the experience of mercy to one who has received the blessed glance of the Lord.”
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