lec 10-- Bhakti – Four Models of Attachment & Their Theological Implications

Concluding the material explicitly devoted to bhakti; the theme will still appear throughout the next three weeks when Hindu myths are discussed.
Next unit: Hindu deities beginning with Vishnu (and his avatar Krishna).
Required texts/readings:
- “The Session with Markandeya” (PDF on Blackboard).
- Wendy Doniger’s edited volume Hindu Myths – only ~40 pp. assigned even though the Vishnu section is ~100 pp.
- Main bhakti source for today’s lecture: Lipner reading (Lipner translates bhakti as “attachment”).
Students who have not yet purchased Hindu Myths should do so immediately and start the assigned pages.

Previous unit stressed niṣkāma karma (desire-less action).
Bhakti turns that on its head: rather than eliminating desire, one cultivates a single, overwhelming desire—absolute attachment to God.
Highlights the internal diversity of “Hindu traditions” (always plural): both ideals coexist, sometimes in the same lineage or even in the same practitioner.

Attachment of Divine Companionship
- Human analogy: deep friendship.
- Scriptural paradigm: Krishna ↔ Arjuna.
Attachment of Parental Affection
- Analogy: parent–child (esp. mother–child).
- Paradigm: Krishna ↔ Yaśodā (his foster-mother).

Instructor describes revisiting childhood home after 20 yrs → flood of memories, smell of humid air, enlarged trees, etc.
These visceral feelings illustrate how family & friendship bonds produce peak affective states; bhakti uses these as metaphors for relating to God.
Similar intensity with re-uniting with old high-school friends after long gaps—initial awkwardness → seamless camaraderie.

Bhagavad Gītā and other texts: “Whatever you hold in mind at death determines your next birth.”
Practical counsel:
- Cultivate longing for God/liberation rather than for mundane memories, possessions, or last nights at the bar.
- Hypothetical scenario: struck by a car, hear medics say “She won’t make it” → what/who would you yearn for?
- Even a “near-death hang-over” crying “Mommy!” models parental-affection bhakti.

Prototype stories again center on Krishna (multiple partners, not just one relationship).
Human analogy: sexual/romantic partners—could be
- Monogamous spouses (lifelong commitment, fidelity) or
- Secret/intense paramours (forbidden love, crush phase, exhilaration).
Goal: harness the erotic, ecstatic altered state of human romance to redirect it toward God.
Lipner p. 318 (15th-c. poem excerpt) illustrates vivid erotic imagery:
- Radha’s hair vs. Krishna’s body; sweat-pearls; breast-garlands like “streams of milk from golden jars”; bells on hips = “triumphal music of the god of love.”
Krishna-Radha relationship is the dominant mythic prism:
- Radha = not Krishna’s wife in standard traditions; functions as principal mistress/paramour.
- Debate in medieval circles over whether she was wed; non-wife view predominates.

Complements “beloved” model: estranged lovers experiencing painful yearning.
Core emotions: heartbreak, obsessive counting of days/minutes, physical symptoms – “sweating, swooning, choking, gasping.”
Lipner p. 321 poem: Radha, having just made love, suddenly weeps as though abandoned:
- “Where has he gone? … She writhed on the ground in despair. Only her pain kept her from fainting.”
- Krishna is literally still next to her → dramatic illustration of anticipatory loss.
Theologically: Human separation from God replicates this ache; reunion (mokṣa) magnified by prior distance: $\text{Intensity(Union)} \propto \text{Intensity(Separation)}$ .

Over time Radha’s status evolves: from nameless mistress → quasi-divine → sometimes co-equal or even superior to Krishna as embodiment of his power (śakti).
Instructor will revisit these tales in the “Devi (Goddess)” unit (week 3 of myth cycle).

Student concern: Does bhakti negate the law of karma?
Two broad reconciliations discussed:
1. Grace Override – God’s sheer power allows Him/Her to “pluck” the devotee out of saṃsāra regardless of karmic balance.
2. Special Merit Theory – Actions motivated solely by desire for God still generate merit, but this merit is qualitatively different: it does not bind; instead it propels one toward mokṣa.
- Possible synthesis with Gītā: only one legitimate desire remains → desire for the Divine.
Bhakti thus framed as an alternate path (mārga) to liberation alongside jñāna (knowledge) & karma-yoga (duty without desire).

Bhakti = not generic “devotion” but specific forms of relational attachment, each modeled on intense human ties.
Four detailed today (out of Lipner’s 11):
1. Divine Friendship
2. Parental Affection
3. Romantic Beloved
4. Pain of Separation
Emotional peaks in ordinary life provide analogies for cultivating single-minded longing for God, ultimately surpassing all human prototypes.
Lipner’s translations emphasize sensory & erotic imagery to capture felt experience.
Bhakti need not contradict karma doctrine; multiple interpretive bridges exist (grace or non-binding merit).

Re-read Lipner pp. 318-321 for poetic passages & terminology.
Acquire Hindu Myths and read assigned 40 pp. on Vishnu/Krishna before next class.
Blackboard PDF “Session with Markandeya” required for upcoming discussion.