7. The Making of Kabīr’s Rasa: A Case Study of North Indian Bhakti Intellectual History
Early Kabīrian literature is invaluable for the study of medieval North Indian intellectual history, especially that of the bhakti movement.1 The corpus of poems bearing the poet’s bhaṇitā, even in its earliest written forms, consists of both pre-bhakti tantric and Vaishnava bhakti elements, marking a significant transition in North Indian intellectual history. Traditional hagiographies such as Kabīr Paracai describe the transition as an abrupt yet thorough turn due to Kabīr’s personal will and accomplished by Rāmānanda’s initiation. Textual studies of the Kabīrian poems, however, show that a gradual evolution of the literary and intellectual tradition took place, either formally or conceptually. The use of Kṛṣṇa’s names, an indicator of saguṇa Krishnaite bhakti’s influence upon Kabīrian tradition, mainly occurs in the refrain and bhaṇitā line of Kabīrian pada and often appears to be inserted later.2 Another sign of bhaktification is the replacement of enigmatic tantric or yogic terms with more straightforward ones.3
This paper focuses on one single word—rasa—which appears in early Kabīrian poems. The corpus under scrutiny is restricted to the Rajasthani and Punjabi padas in The Millennium Kabīr Vānī and the sākhīs in Śyāmasundaradās’s Kabīr Granthāvalī (hereafter KG). Rasa is among the most popular words in the early Kabīrian literature under scrutiny. A chapter (aṅga) of sākhīs is entitled under ‘rasa.’ The word also occurs 187 times in forty-three out of 590 sets of early padas. Though Charlotte Vaudeville and Mātā Prasād Gupta mentioned pre-Kabīrian thoughts in their notes respectively, they interpreted Kabīr’s rasa as the taste of Brahmānanda or Vaishnava devotional sentiments and stress its difference from its predecessors.4 They are joined by contemporary and later Hindi commentators like Puṣpapāl Siṃh, Jayadev Siṃh, and Rāmakiśor Śarmā.5 As the following study shows, the word bears different meanings in different contexts and the sole bhaktified explanation does not fit every context. Studying this word not only adds to our understanding of Kabīrian thoughts but demonstrates how the pre-bhakti intellectual heritage was incorporated into the bhakti discourse or, in other words, the bhaktification of pre-bhakti rasa.
The material prototype of rasa
The meaning of rasa ranges from material liquid—be it fruit juice, milk, or mystical nectar—to abstract aesthetic sentiment including śṛṅgāra, vīra, bībhatsa, and so forth. In the corpus under study, cases of the former interpretation are more frequently found as the rasa is often said to ‘drip’ and can be ‘drunk’ or ‘tasted’ with one’s tongue. Then, what could this liquid be?
The first possible option is rasāyana, a word that appears both in rasa kau aṅga (chapters of couplets about rasa) and padas discussing rasa. For instance:
सबै रसांइण मैं किया, हरि सा और न कोइ । तिल इक घट मैं संचरै, तौ सब तन कंचन होइ ।। (KG sākhī 6:8)6 |
Among all the rasāyana I made, nothing is like Hari. Even one drop in a pot makes the whole body into gold.7 |
दास कवीरा जुगि जुगि जीवै । रसनां रांम रसांइंन पीवै ।। (W283/A251.4)8 |
Drinking the Rāma rasāyana, the servant Kabīr lives one yuga after another. |
The word rasāyana derives from rasa and means specifically the elixir produced by alchemists, in whose jargon rasa means mercury. Like their peers in other parts of the world, ancient Indian alchemists sought to produce pure mercury through physical or chemical means. This was first mentioned in the Arthaśāstra composed around 300 CE. In the Arthaśāstra, it is clearly stated that the superintendent of mines must know how to produce mercury, that is, rasa, through distillation and condensation. The metallurgical knowledge in using mercury to produce gold is also mentioned.9 Such technological knowledge laid the foundations for alchemy. The alchemists viewed metals as living beings; therefore, the chemical stability of gold was viewed as metallic longevity. Since mercury helps in producing gold, why shouldn’t it also be helpful in making a ‘gold body’—an immortal one? By the eleventh century, systematic and sophisticated alchemical monographs like Rasārṇava were already composed by Indian alchemists. By Kabīr’s time, such compositions included Rasaprakāśa Sudhākara (c. thirteenth century), Rasa Ratna Samucceya (c. thirteenth–fourteenth century), Rasendra Cintāmaṇi (c. fifteenth century), among others. The rasāyana in the Kabīrian poems above have the same rejuvenating, gold-making properties as that explained in alchemical works.
A second image of Kabīr’s rasa is as a hard, alcoholic drink sold by liquor dealers. For instance:
छाकि पर्यौ आतम मतिवाला । पीवत रांम रस करत बिचारा ।। टेक ।। बहुतैं मोलि महग गुर पावा । दै कसाव रस रांम चुवावा ।।1।। तन पाटण मै कीन्ह पसारा । मांगि मागि रस पीवै बिचारा ।।2।। कहै कबीर फाबी मतिवारी । पीवत रांम रस लागी षुमारी ।।3।। (W22/S17) |
The intoxicated self got totally drunk while drinking the rasa of Rāma [and] meditating. (Refrain) [I] obtained highly valuable, expensive jaggery. Having added astringent admixture, [I] let the rasa of Rāma trickle down. (1) I made it spread all over the city of [my] body. The wretched one drinks and asks for more and more. (2) Kabīr says: ‘I became fond of the intoxication. Drinking the rasa of Rāma, inebriation came over [me].’ (3) |
राम रसाइन प्रेम रस, पीवत अधिक रसाल । कबीर पीवण दुलभ है, मांगै सीस कलाल ।। (KG sākhī 6:2) |
The rasa of love, [the product] of the alchemy of Rāma is so sweet to drink! [But] Kabīr [warns]: ‘[This] drinking comes at a very high price: the liquor seller asks for one’s head [in exchange].’ |
The liquor is made out of mahua flowers (Madhuca Indica), an ideal raw material whose sugar content can reach 70 per cent.10 The pada below displays the whole process of spirit production, mixed with yogic terms:
काया कलाली लांहनि करिहूं, गुरु सबद गुड़ कीन्हां । कांम क्रोध मोह मद मंछर, काटि काटि कस दीन्हां ।।1।। भवन चतुरदस भाटी पुरई, ब्रह्म अगनि परजारी । मूंदे मदन सहज धुनि उपजी, सुखमन पोतनहारी ।।2।। नीझर झरै अंमी रस निकसै, तिहि मदिरावल छाका । कहै कबीर यहु बास बिकट अति, ग्यांन गुरू ले बांका ।।3।। (W178/S133)11 |
I shall make my body a liquor seller’s yeast, guru’s word I have used as jaggery. Having chopped thoroughly lust, anger, infatuation, conceit and jealousy, [I have] added [them as] seasoning admixture. (1) [I have] filled the oven of fourteen worlds [of the body], [and] lit the fire of Brahma. With [the oven] sealed up with wax of passion, the sound [signalling the state] of sahaja arose in the cooling [tube of] suṣumna. (2) The stream of the liquid comes in trickles, amṛta oozes out; with this liquor the king has become intoxicated. Kabīr says: ‘[Even] the smell [of it] is very strong; [only] a guru of true knowledge [may] take such a strong thing.’ (3) |
Seen from the pada above, Kabīr’s mahua flower wine is made through distillation rather than fermentation. In hypoxic conditions, yeast converts the carbohydrates contained in the raw material into alcohol. The production process for fermented liquor is relatively easier than that of distilled liquor, but the alcohol content can hardly exceed 20 per cent. The distillation of alcohol makes use of the difference between the boiling point of alcohol (78.5°C) and that of water (100°C). By controlling the temperature inside the distillation devices, the alcohol evaporates and then condenses in the receptor. Distilling and condensing repeatedly, the alcoholic content of the distilled liquor can reach 60 per cent.12
Two distilling apparatuses resemble what the poem describes. Using the first still apparatus, the material prepared for distillation is put into container D. As it is heated the spirit evaporates and transfers into container A via conduit E. As it cools the liquid drips into B. The same principle applies to the apparatus in Figure 7.2. Container A is filled with material prepared for distillation while C is filled with cold water to cool down the vapour that rises through B. The condensed liquid then flows along the bottom of container C and drips down into container D. The two still apparatuses illustrate the distillation process described in the padas above. The materials include: 1) ‘dregs,’ the slightly fermented mahua prepared for distillation, 2) jaggery, 3) ‘sexual desire, anger, confusion, infatuation, and jealousy,’ all kinds of seasoning ingredients, especially spices. The mixture is to be put into the ‘oven,’ which is heated with the ‘fire of Brahma.’ As the spirit evaporates, it generates the sound of boiling, or ‘the sound of sahaja.’ The vapour is condensed in the cooling device and drips down as a ‘waterfall.’ Thus, the intoxicating drink is produced. This pada is not an isolated case in describing the distillation of mahua flower wine. The still apparatus and the production procedure described by the poet fits well with what it is known has been used by North Indian distillers. Therefore, it is fair to say that the distilled mahua flower wine is also a material prototype of rasa. The intoxicating property of Kabīr’s rasa originates in this spirit.
The two prototypes of Kabīr’s rasa, mercury and mahua flower wine, though distinguishable from each other, share the same outer form as purified liquid and the same technological knowledge of distillation. Both alchemists and alcohol producers were early distillers. For the alchemists, mercury is distilled out of the various compounds available in nature. One of the most popular techniques is to heat cinnabar, the main ingredient of which is mercury sulphide (HgS). Condensing the mercury vapour, alchemists procured the purified liquid mercury. The formula is:
HgS+O2 →∆
The production of alcohol and mercury bear many similarities. In the alchemy manual Rasa Ratna Samucceya, various still apparatuses (yantra), including those resembling Figures 7.1 and 7.2, are named tiryak pātana yantra (oblique lowering apparatus) and vidhyādhara yantra (expert’s apparatus). Rasa Ratna Samucceya describes the two apparatuses as below:
A taller vessel is taken and a tube is connected to its neck. The other end of the tube is projected into the body of another vessel on a lower plane. After depositing the necessary substances into the first vessel and water into the second, the mouths of both are closed and sealed (the connecting portions of the tube are also sealed). Then, the first vessel is placed on a fire and heated. The scholars of Rasaśāstra named it tiryak pātana yantra (Rasa Ratna Samucceya 9/10–12). A saṁpuṭa, which is prepared by joining two vessels, is called vidyādhara yantra. To use this vidyādhara yantra a suitable stove is constructed in accordance with the size and shape of the vessels. A vessel is kept on the stove and another vessel is placed upon that, the joints being sealed (Rasa Ratna Samucceya 9/27–28).13
The similarities between the outer form and production procedures enabled the poet to accommodate both into the single word, rasa—a magical gold-making, rejuvenating, and intoxicating liquid, so dear to the master practitioner. Moreover, there are also clues of a practical connection between the two prototypes and the Kabīrian tradition. In an alchemist work called Siddha Vandanām, Kabīr was accepted as the fiftieth master alchemist,14 something which differs from all major Kabīrian biographies. Though today’s Kabīrpanthīs strictly prohibit alcohol consumption, mahua spirit is particularly popular among the hill residents in northern Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, a region where Kabīrpanth has a remarkable presence. We can also read infer from Anantadās’s Kabīr Paracai that alcohol was popular among the social group to which Kabīr belongs.15 Besides, the seeds of mahua contains 55 per cent stable oil and are used to make soap.16 The oil extractor, despised by orthodox high castes, also follows Kabīrpanth in many parts of India, including Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The historical Kabīr need not himself have been an alchemist or alcohol producer to include these images in his poems. Knowledge of alchemy, distillation, and alcohol production was commonplace among the Kabīrian followers, which the author of these poems may have been familiar with. Such adoption of indigenous knowledge also reflects the grass-rootedness of the Kabīrian composition.
Rasa and yogic practice
Though we cannot rule out the possibility that some alleged followers of Kabīr consumed mahua flower wine or practised alchemy, the theory that Kabīr’s rasa is more of an internal yogic rasa than external elixir or alcohol is better supported by such lines as ‘keeping the mind motionless, the āsana motionless; rasa is generated upon the tongue’ (W290/S229.1). According to Strnad, ‘rasa’ is among the yogic terminologies Kabīrian compositions inherited from the Nāthyogic tradition, padas related to which form a distinct yogic-centric thematic block in the early manuscript.17 In many Kabīrian poems, the description of rasa is closely connected with other characteristic yogic terminologies, such as suṣumṇā, iḍā, and piṅgalā, suggesting a strong linkage between the two disciplines of knowledge. For instance:
बोलौ भाई राम की दुहाई । इह रसि सिव सनकादिक माते । पीवत न अजहूं अघाई ।। टेक ।। इला पिंगुला भाठी कीन्ही । व्रह्म अगनि परजारी । ससिहर सूर द्वार दस मूंदे । लागी जोग जुग ताली ।।1।। मन मतिवाला पीवै रांम रस । दूंजा कुछ न सुहाई । उलटी गंग नीर बहि आया । अंम्रित धार चवाई ।।2।। पंच जने सो संगि करि लीन्हा । चलत षुमारी लागी । प्रेम पियाला पीवन लागा । सोवत नागिनी जागी ।।3।। सहज सुनि मैं जिनि रस चाष्या । सतगुर तैं सुधि पाई । दास कबीर इहि रसि माता । कबहूं उछकि न जाई ।।4।। (W20/S16)18 |
O brother, call for Rāma! Śiva, Sanakādi are intoxicated with this rasa; they keep drinking till now but are still unsatisfied. (Refrain) Iḍā, piṅgalā were made into the furnace, the fire of Brahma lit up. The ten doors of the sun and moon were closed. Thus began the yogic trance. (1) Drinking the Rāma rasa, the mind is intoxicated, enjoying nothing else. The Ganges flew in the opposite direction (i. e., upwards), with the immortal flow dripping. (2) Five men who accompanied me got drunk. I began to drink from the cup of love. Thus the sleeping snake lady wakes up. (3) Having drunk the rasa from the sahaja śūnya, [I] obtained consciousness from the sadguru. Kabīr the servant is intoxicated with the rasa, never to sober up. (4) |
If we compare this pada with yogic descriptions of the body and practice, we cannot miss the resemblance. The subtle yogic body consists of various channels and chakra. Among the channels, suṣumṇā, iḍā, and piṅgalā are the most important. The number of chakras varies from one work to another. One of the prevalent descriptions includes seven chakras (from top to bottom): sahasrāra cakra, ājñā cakra, viśuddha cakra, anāhata cakra, maṇipūra cakra, svādhiṣṭhāna cakra, mūlādhāra cakra.
Kundalini yoga is one such practice that involves the chakras and the channels, the ultimate goal of which is to generate a yogic elixir. To practise it, the yogi needs to control the flow of the vital breath (prāṇa) in iḍā, piṅgalā so as to awaken the sleeping kundalini. Then, the kundalini moves upwards along the suṣumṇā, crossing the different chakras, and finally reaches the sahasrāra cakra, which looks like an upside-down lotus hung from the head. Upon the union of kundalini and the sahasrāra cakra, the immortal elixir drips down, to be drunk by the yogi who can roll the tongue backward.
This yogic practice is not unfamiliar to Kabīrian writers. Besides the use of terminology like suṣumṇā, iḍā, and piṅgalā, some other typical yogic images are also found in the early padas under study. The channels and chakras are mentioned on various occasions, amid instructions on how to obtain the immortal rasa. In the pada W231/S180, the poet used the metaphor of an upside-down hanging well to indicate the sahasrāra cakra from where the rasa drips down; in pada W4/S4, lotuses with different numbers of petals were used to indicate the numerous chakras. The Kabīrian poems describing distillation convey similar secret instructions on yogic practice. The subtle yogic body is considered to contain all the messages of the universe, therefore ‘the fourteen worlds were to be built into the furnace’ (W178/S133.2) means to use the body in practising the yogic distillation. On other occasions, emphasis was laid more on the iḍā and piṅgalā. Thus we have sayings like ‘iḍā, piṅgalā were made into the furnace, the fire of Brahma lit up’ (W20/S16.1). The actual fire is needed to heat the raw materials required for distillation, while the ‘fire of Brahma’ is, according to the poet, the force that awakes the kundalini, either referred to as ‘the sleeping snake lady’ (W20/S16.3) or ‘yoginī’ (W16/S12.1). After her reaching the sahasrāra cakra, either termed as ‘sahaja śūnya’ (W20/S16.4) or ‘gagana’ (W16/S12.1), the intoxicating rasa pours down.
Kabīr is not the first to adopt such distillation-yogic expressions. Tantric Buddhists and Nāthyogī had mingled liquor distillation with yogic practice even before Kabīr. The Kabīrian distillation-yogic poems apparently share same inspiration with their Buddhist and Nāthyogic counterparts:
एक से शुण्डिनी दुइ दुइ घरे सान्धअ । चीअण ण बाकलअ बारुणी बान्धअ ।।1।। सहजे थिर करी बारुणी बान्ध । जे अजरामर होइ दिढ कान्ध ।।2।। दशमि दुआरत चिह्न देखिआ । आइल गराहक अपणे बहिआ ।।3।। चउशठी घडिये देत पसारा । पइठेल गराहक नाहि निसारा ।।4।। एक घडुली सरुइ नाल । भणन्ति बिरुआ थिर करि चाल ।।5।। (Caryāpada 3)19 |
There is one female wine-seller. She enters into two houses. She ferments wine with fine barks (of trees). (1) Fixing by the sahaja, ferment wine; so that the body may be free from old age and death and be strong. (2) Seeing the sign at the tenth door, the customer came himself walking. (3) Let her display the shop during sixty-four hours. The customer entered. There is no departure. (4) There is one small pot. The pipe is narrow. Biruā says: ‘Move it quietly’ (5) |
ईकीस ब्रह्मांड भाठी चिगावै पीवत सदा मतिवालं । मनसा कलालिनि भरि भरि देवै आछा आछा मद नां प्यालं ।।0।। अमृत दाषी भाठी भरिया ता मधैं गुड झकोल्या । मन महुवा तन धाहुवा बनासपती अठारै मोल्यां ।।1।। भ्रमर गुफा मैं मन थरि ध्यानैं बैस्या आसण बाली । चेतनि रावल यह भरि छाक्या जुग जुग लागो ताली ।।2।। तृकुटी संगम कृपा भरिया मद नीपज्या अपारं । कुसमल होता ते झडि पडिया रहि गया तहाँ तत सारं ।।3।। एवहां मद श्री गोरष केवट्या बदंत मछींद्र ना पूता । जिनि कैवट्या तिनि भरि पीया अमर भया अवधूता ।।4।। (Gorakh Bāṇī, pada 28)20 |
Drinking from the furnace of twenty-one brahmāṇḍa, [I] remain intoxicated; will the liquor dealer offer a whole cup of marvelous liquor. (Refrain) The furnace is filled up with the nectar of grapes, within which the sugar is stirred. [Take] mind as mahua, body as yeast, together with which are eighteen plants. (1) In the cave of the bee, the mind is fixed in meditation, and [I] sit as the āsana. The king’s consciousness is fully intoxicated with this and remains in trance from yuga to yuga. (2) Boundless liquor being generated, the small pot at the trikūṭī saṅgam got filled. Having thrown away any possible grass or dirt, what remains is the true essence. (3) Śrī Gorakh drank such liquor, which Macchendra does not know. Those who drank have been taken across, becoming immortal Avadhūta. |
Despite the indebtedness to the real mercurial rasāyana and mahua flower wine for intoxicating and rejuvenating properties, distillation-yogic writing and yogic knowledge illustrated in other means in Kabīrian literature supports the argument that Kabīr’s rasa is a yogic elixir prepared inside the human body, to be attained via the kundalini yogic practice. However, Kabīrian literature exposes the relationship between external and internal practice. It is not difficult to notice the similarities between the descriptions of the kundalini yoga and the distillation apparatus, especially that of Figure 7.2. Both require the elevation of a certain substance passing through certain conduits. Reaching the upper part of the apparatus, this substance meets another substance and generates liquid, which eventually drips down. Moreover, the design of the alchemical furnace also corresponds to the idea of chakras and channels. According to Mañjusrīmūlakalpa, a furnace has three vajra that support the structure from inside, and clay-made lotus petals were also attached to the outskirts of the furnace.21 The three vajras resemble the channels of the subtle body, and the lotus is also a common image used to indicate the chakra. The incorporation of the actual distillation process into internal yogic practice reflects the trend of ‘internalization’ of alchemy or a shift from ‘lohavāda’ to ‘dehavāda.’ This started to reshape the spiritual life of Indians no later than the eleventh century. The Kālacakra Tantra claimed the ‘inner alchemy’ to be better than the ‘exterior alchemy.’ It is difficult for an outsider to judge which path is better, but the ‘inner alchemy’ would have advantages in the following aspects: firstly, it avoids the risks of consuming lethal mercury elixir; secondly, for ordinary practitioners and householders not funded by generous patrons, practising ‘inner alchemy’ is more economically feasible than conducting sophisticated alchemical experiments.
Thus, Kabīr’s rasa can be traced to three interconnected fields of pre-bhakti knowledge: 1) alchemy, 2) mahua flower wine distillation, 3) Haṭhayoga. By studying Kabīr’s description, we can see that the first two external practices share some similar technologies, and were both absorbed into the body-centric yogic narrative.
The bhaktification of rasa
Strictly speaking, alchemy, alcohol distillation, and yoga were not initiated by Kabīr, but rather by his non-Vaishnava predecessors and contemporaries. Alchemy was dominated by the Shaiva. According to the prevalent myth, mercury itself is a product of sexual copulation between Śiva and Pārvatī when they were requested by the deities to create a son, later called Skanda, to defeat Tārakāsura. Vidyādhara, the name given to possessors of secret knowledge, including alchemists, were mentioned in the epic Mahābhārata as demigods following Śiva, which demonstrates the unfamiliarity of the epic writers with them. Following the incorporation of once unorthodox beliefs and practices, vidyādhara became known as powerful magic practitioners by Buddhists and Hindus alike. According to a tantric ritual text dedicated towards Vajrabhairava, Foshuo Miaojixiang Yujia Dajiao Jingang Peiluofulun Guanxiang Chengjiu Yiguijing (The Rituals of the Practices and Achievements of Vajrabhairava Maṇḍala), vidyādhara are followers of Vajrabhairava, who conducts rituals in front of his image and knows how to make images of the deity.22 In alchemical works, building a mandala dedicated to Śiva is also taught as a part of necessary preparation work, and the mercury is personified as rasa bhairava.23 Consuming alcoholic drink had been prohibited by orthodox Brahmins and Buddhists alike, but it entered the religious life as the strict vinaya loosened. The Chinese traveller Yijing noted the existence of alcohol in Nalanda,24 also a centre for alchemy. Later Tibetan folklores recorded that siddhācārya deliberately drank alcohol to break the bondage of the rules.25 The Bhairava worshipping vidyādhara are also known to have consumed alcohol. Gorakhnāth was a spiritual successor of the early siddhācārya. His followers, that is, the Shaiva Nāthyogī, played a vital role in promoting Haṭhayoga in medieval times and were mainly Shaiva.
The political turbulence of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries destroyed the whole system of royal patronage and the education system in North India. The once flourishing tantric religion, either Shaiva or Buddhist, had successfully incorporated religious belief, political life, intellectual work, and yogic practice. Sophisticated academic work that relied on well-established temples and intellectual communities suffered much more than the wandering yogis and their easy-to-practice yoga. The decline of North Indian tantric religion gave more room to the spread of other religions and beliefs including Islam and Vaishnavism. Kabīr’s rasa is itself a typical confluence of the three intellectual streams: a Muslim saint praising Rāma rasa in a way that is similar to the yogis. The later reinterpretation of the word, however, expanded its meaning, thus merging the Kabīrian tradition with the bhakti movement.
Firstly, the Vaishnava imprints formally distinguished Kabīr’s rasa from the predecessors.26 Either Rāma or Hari were often added to rasa and praised in place of earlier Shaiva notions like rasa bhairava or simply neutral technological terms. According to the poet, the Rāma rasa is the best rasa, and upon obtaining it, one forgets all the other rasas (W92/S69.0). Other poems emphasize Rāma’s superiority over Śiva, for example:
बोलौ भाई राम की दुहाई । इह रसि सिव सनकादिक माते । पीवत न अजहूं अघाई ।। (W20/S16.0) |
O brother, call for Rāma! Śiva, Sanakādi are intoxicated with this rasa; they keep drinking till now but are still unsatisfied. |
और सबै रस फीका भइया । व्रह्म अगनि परजारी रे । ईसर गौरी पीवन लागे । रांम तणी मतिवाली रे ।। (W18/S14.1) |
All the other rasas are tasteless. The fire of Brahma was lit up. Even Īśvara and Gaurī started to drink, intoxicated in Rāma. |
This Vaishnava imprint is a result of the revival of Vaishnavism in North India. Saguṇa Krishnaite bhakti was historically connected with similar traditions that originated in South India, whereas the origin of nirguṇa Rāma is still open to debate. According to the Kabīr Paracai composed by Ānantadās, it is Hari himself who advised Kabīr to seek initiation from Rāmānanda, before which Kabīr was already a firm Hari bhakta.27 Though there has been debate around the relationship between Kabīr and Rāmānanda, Ānantadās’s narrative does reflect how non-Vaishnava had been converted to Vaishnava. If we look back in history, it is in the early sixteenth century when Kriṣṇadās, a Rāmānandi saint, defeated the tantric practitioner Tārānāth and established the Rāmānandi gaddi in Galta, Rajasthan, to which tradition Ānantadās belonged.28
Adding Rāma or Hari to rasa while retaining the whole system of yogic practice and its intellectual connection with the tantric tradition is more like a superficial Vaishnava ‘conversion’ of the concept. More fundamental changes took place when rasa was accommodated into the typical bhakti dichotomy between reality and illusion, good and evil, devotion and lostness. Instead of one particular rasa that practitioners so keenly pursued, there are in fact two distinct types of rasa, namely the Rāma/Hari rasa and the māyā/viṣaya rasa (rasa of illusion or sensual desires).
The bhaktified Rāma/Hari rasa was no more a technical terminology, to understand which one needs specific knowledge, but rather a religious expression, a belief and practice in which any follower may participate. The second sākhī of rasa kau aṅga dematerializes ‘Rāma rasāyana’ and equates it with ‘prema rasa.’ Kabīr’s rasa is further connected to other bhakti concepts like sorrowful virahiṇī (W349/A289), sumirana (W583/AG971;9), and so forth. At a more practicable level, bhaktified Rāma rasa/rasāyana is equated with Rāma nāma, for instance:
रांम कौ नांउ अधिक रस मीठौ । बारंबारं पीवै ।। (W362/S282.4) |
The Rāma nāma is the very sweet rasa. Drink it again and again. |
कोई पीवै रे रस रांम नांम का । जो पीवै सो जोगी रे । संतौ सेवा करौ रांम की । और न दूजा भोगी रे ।। टेक ।। (W18/S14.0) |
O! Anybody drinks the rasa of Rāma nāma! Those who drink are the real yogi! O Sant, serve Rāma! Nothing else to enjoy! (Refrain) |
अब मैं राम सकल सिधि पाई । आंन कहौं तौ रांम दुहाई ।। टेक ।। इहि चिति चाषि सबै रस दीठा । राम नाम सा ओर न मीठा ।।1।। औरें रसि कैहै कफ बाता । हरि रस अधि अधि सुषदाता ।।2।। दूजा बणिज नही कछू बाषर । राम नाम तत दोउ आषर ।।3।। कहै कबीर जे हरि रस भोगी । ताकूं मिल्या निरंजन जोगी ।।4।। (W155/S125) |
Now I have obtained all the siddhis [by] Rāma. I call for Rāma, taking oath. (Refrain) Having experienced this heart, having seen all the rasa, nothing is as sweet as the Rāma nāma. (1) The others are called phlegm, wind; Hari rasa is the big bliss giver. (2) There is no other business or trade [than] just two syllables [which express] the essence of the name of Rāma. (3) Kabīr says: ‘Those who enjoyed the Hari rasa met the nirañjana yogi.’ (4) |
Besides the illustration of a religious ‘Rāma/Hari rasa,’ other efforts had been made to construct the image of ‘the other rasa.’ In the above quotation, the other rasa was merely mentioned as ‘tasteless’ or less useful than the Rāma rasa, without it being clearly stated exactly what it is. In the pada below, one specific non- Vaishnava rasa, the rasa of sensual pleasure, viṣai rasa 29 appeared as an adverse to the love rasa:
सुमिरंण रांम कौ नित कीजै । न्रिमल हरि जस साध संगति मिलि । प्रेम सहित रस पीजै ।। टेक ।। झूठी माया मोहि बिषै रस । सो मन थैं त्यागी जै । ह्रिदा कंवल मैं निसदिन हरि हरि । एह अलंबन जीजै ।।1।। तन मन धन सब मनसा बाचा । राम समरपन कीजै । कहै कवीर कछू और न जाचौं । चरण सरण दत दीजै ।।2।। (W478/S358) |
Rāma is to be remembered every day. Having obtained the pure fame of Hari from satsaṅga, drink the rasa with love. (Refrain) The deceptive illusion cheat with rasa of sensual pleasure, which the mind should abandon. Hari–Hari should be remembered in the lotus of the heart day and night, this is what supports life. (1) With one’s body, mind, wealth, heart, words, one should dedicate to Rāma. Kabīr says, I shall try nothing else. One should cling to the shelter of [Rāma’s] feet. (2) |
Thus, the discussion is no longer about one specific rasa but a clear contrast between good and evil, reality and deception, the rasa of devotional love and that of sensual pleasure. This dichotomy gave rise to a typical bhakti teaching, asking people to surrender oneself to the god and not to indulge oneself in worldly pleasures, which is also a major topic of the vinaya poems of saguṇa poets like Sūrdās and Tulsīdās. This writing blurs the division between nirguṇa/saguṇa bhakti.30
Conclusion
In this paper, I have argued that the Kabīrian rasa has three layers of meaning: the real liquid made from distillation and condensation; the yogic liquid; the emotional sentiment and either sacred or sensual practices related to it. Among the three, the first two were indebted to pre-bhakti intellectual heritage, and were superficially converted to Vaishnava concepts. It is noteworthy that these two imageries are scarce, if not totally absent, in the eastern Kabīrpanthī recension, that is, the Bījak. The third layer marked a profound transformation that can be termed as the bhaktification of pre-bhakti intellectual heritage in early modern North India. The earliest Kabīrian literature accommodated all three layers of interpretation, permitting followers to interpret the world from various perspectives: specialized yogis can still understand it as a haṭhayogic concept and endeavour to generate the inner alchemical elixir via yogic practice; ordinary followers can choose to approach the concept either as the devotional sentiment towards the god or the ritual repetition of the god’s name. This multifaceted nature of Kabīrian literature may also explain its popularity among a wide range of audiences and readers. Such features of the early Kabīrian literature differs from the tradition of scholarly treatises on a specific topic composed in Sanskrit, the study of which has dominated the writing of intellectual histories of North India before the decline of the ‘classic culture.’ The Kabīrian literature is more like a sedimentary rock, different layers of which reflect various historical development, rather than a pure crystal with interior consistency.
7. The Making of Kabīr’s Rasa: A Case Study of North Indian Bhakti Intellectual History
The material prototype of rasa
Rasa and yogic practice
The bhaktification of rasa
Conclusion