PAUL J.C.L. VAN DER VELDE THAT MAGIC MOMENT THE ARROW STRIKES Meeting the ‘True’ Guru in Vaishnava Life Histories Brahma I sought in reciting the PurâNas, in the fourfold pleasures of the Vedic lore, but looking I have never ever heard, what kind of shape he has, or what his nature is. Calling and searching worn out I was, but that treasure of enjoyments was not told to me by men or women. But then he was seen! Hidden he sat in a cottage in a bower, massaging the feet of Râdhikâ… Raskhân, 16th century A.D (Sujâna rasakhâna 121) 1INTRODUCTION 1.1 Vaishnava conversion and initiation, simultaneousness and eternity The spiritual aim for most vaishnavas, followers of the god Vishnu or one of his incarnations, consists of finding the deity and merging with his world. In the meantime the discovery of this world implies a finding of one’s ‘truer self’. Entering the world of the god implies a finding of one’s true identity. Strictly speaking in vaishnava cosmology, however, this rather concerns a re-finding, a re-discovery, a reconstruction of a hidden innermost self, of an inner being that keeps a relationship of deep fascination with the darkskinned cowherd boy Krishna. In the eyes of his devotees Krishna embodies the all-attractive side of everything that exists. Someone who calls him or herself a vaishnava has been ‘touched’, has been marked by a certain attraction, by a certain maybe even intuitive sense of an awareness 1 My own translation based on the edition of D.S. BhâTî, Raskhân granthâvalî, Delhi 1966. Unless indicated otherwise all translations are my own. 256 PAUL J.C.L. VAN DER VELDE that there is an ideal world to be discovered beyond our limited world, a world that consists of Krishna’s eternal playground. There he plays his manifold games in the company of his beloved. It is the ultimate target set for a vaishnava to take on his or her original identity and to be part of this world that in many aspects of its appearance is quite the opposite of our temporary world. It is a perfected world that is at the same time ‘beyond our world’ but can yet at times be visible and even accessible in this our very own world. It is so at least for the advanced devotee. It only needs a certain transformation to recog- nize this world that lies hidden, dormant in far off temples, in broken images, in ancient verses, in dried up trees and withered bowers on the sandy shores of the polluted river Yamuna. Only qualified eyes may recognize these signs so to say. It needs training, a spiritual progress on the vaishnava path to see how this other world ‘oozes through’ our temporary world. The main characteristic of that divine world is that time does not run there as it does in our world. Of course it does not as it is a perfected world; Krishna and his companions are forever young and forever old, a vaishnava might say. Therefore as is often stated it is possible in that world to watch mythical events simultaneously and eternally. It is a proof even that one’s vision of Krishna’s world is correct, things run simultaneously there and are meanwhile eternal, a combination of two characteristics impossible in our daily world limited by time and space. It is possible in that world, so we find stated in many vaishnava songs that one sees Krishna as a young adult in one house and yet as a small child in the next house for instance. In this article I want to draw attention to one of the main events in the life of a vaishnava: the moment of conversion. For this I reflect on examples of con- version as they can be found in two collections of hagiologies from the seven- teenth century A.D. from Northern India. These two collections are the Do sau bâvana vaishnavana kî vârtâ and the Caurâsi vaishnavana kî vârtâ. Most of the life histories (vârtâ) presented here originate from the first source, the Do sau bâvana vaishnavana kî vârtâ, a collection of the 252 life histories of the disci- ples of one of the foremost of the vaishnava reformers of the sixteenth century, ViTThalnâth (1516-1576 A.D.). ViTThalnâth was the son and main successor of the great instigator of the vaishnava revival of medieval northern India, Val- labhâcârya (1479-1531 A.D.). The life histories of the 84 main disciples of Val- labha are collected in the other collection, the Caurâsî vaishnavana kî vârtâ, the ‘Account of the 84 Vaishnavas’, the second source of interest here. Both collec- tions of hagiologies are attributed to Harirây. It is stated, however, that in their present form the texts may go back to Harirây who is supposed to have lived extremely long, from 1590-1715 A.D.. His original inspiration may have been THAT MAGIC MOMENT THE ARROW STRIKES 257 given to him by Gokulnâth, one of the sons of ViTThalnâth so it is at times asserted.2 The moment one meets the vaishnava guru might be the most important event in one’s life, at least from a vaishnava viewpoint as the guru will see through everyday phenomena and he will stimulate the future devotee’s devel- opment. Further questions may be what actually happens once a future vaish- nava is ‘touched’ by this mystical understanding of the guru, once the future convert starts to realize that there is a world such as Krishna’s world and that this world even pervades through the events of everyday. In other words, what happens if the devotee finds out that it is possible to see this other world and it is even possible to see it through the phenomena of everyday earthy existence? This awareness may have been there in a limited form before the vaishnava met his or her guru, yet sometimes the meeting of the guru triggers the devotee. The encounter with the Guru may cause him or her to enter a kind of spir- itual whirlpool in which everything is mixed up until the guru starts to regulate the devotee’s spiritual development. Meeting the true guru is for many vaish- navas like a ‘true’ rediscovery of their own true nature. Thus they may discover who the guru is, who Krishna is, where and how the lîlâ i.e. Krishna’s world, is accessible and they discover through all of these visions their own true nature. They as well are eternal players forever young and forever old and thus they share qualifications with Krishna’s world. It only needs a change of mind, of mentality, of attitude to see this, to experience this all. The very moment of conversion of the devotee once he or she meets the guru is in the meantime a revelation of the ultimate lîlâ, as far as we may believe the accounts of the devotees. As such the meeting with the true guru has been com- pared to the experience of spiritual enlightenment itself, after all once you meet the true guru you will in time surely reach your ultimate target, you will enter Krishna’s lîlâ. This is at least what vaishnava tradition tries to convince us of. A very important discovery closely following initiation is that of the above men- tioned change of time. In the lîlâ time definitely plays another role than it does in our everyday world. Time and the timeless are part of the discovery of the inner truer self. The same is true for space. The essence and awareness of local- ity may change drastically. Meeting the guru is in a way equal, if not superior, to the experience of moksha, as meeting the guru opens a hole to a world, so attractive even that 2 See C. Vaudeville, ‘The Govardhan Myth in Northern India’, in: Indo Iranian Journal 22 (1980), 1-45, esp. 15-17. On Vârtâ literature see R. Barz, The Bhakti Sect of Vallabhâcârya, Faridabad 1976, 97-103; R.S. McGregor, Hindi Literature from its beginnings to the Nineteenth Century, Wiesbaden 1984, 209. 258 PAUL J.C.L. VAN DER VELDE this experience will gratify and fascinate all senses and passions of the devo- tee. Meeting the guru is almost, if not actually, equal to meeting Krishna. This inevitably will lead to an entrance into the lîlâ where the most fascinat- ing and sensual personality of the universe is to be met in the form of Krishna. In his presence all creatures change into the mythical beings they truly are, desperately in love with their divine lover Krishna. Even the most ardent macho men will change into passionate cowherd girls as the extreme maleness of Krishna brings out the feminine in every creature, so at least vaishnava tradition has it. At the end of this article the account of Chîtsvâmî is given. Chîtsvâmî was a criminal but he was converted to vaishnavism by ViTThalnâth espe- cially when he realized the characteristics of ViTThalnâth’s actions; ViT- Thalnâth moves beyond time and space and is therefore equal to Krishna. Chîtsvâmî is fascinated by ViTThalnâth’s actions and therefore he becomes a convert, he becomes part of the lîlâ. Chîtsvâmî’s account serves here as a case study of the vehement forces at play once one meets the ‘true’ vaishnava guru. 1.2 the Vârtâ, the life-history of a saint The Sanskrit word ‘vârtâ’ means ‘account’, the ‘story’, the ‘life-history’. In the Do sau bâvana vaishnavana kî vârtâ these accounts usually consist of various paragraphs, called prasangas.