Abstract
This paper studies complex narratives connecting the Hindu deity Krishna, his melodious flute, and the porous, sonic human body in the popular devotional sect, Bengal Vaishnavism. From the devotee–lover responding to Krishna’s flute call outside, envying the flute’s privileged position on Krishna’s lips, to becoming the deity’s flute through yogic breath–sound fusions—texts abound with nuanced relations of equivalence and differentiation among the devotee–flute–god. Based primarily on readings of Hindu religious texts, and fieldwork in Bengal among makers/players of the bamboo flute, the paper analyses theological constructions correlating body–flute–divinity. Lying at the confluence of yogic, tantric, and devotional thought, the striking conceptual problem about the flute in Bengal Vaishnavism is: are the body, flute and divinity distinct or the same? I argue that the flute’s descriptions in both classical Sanskrit texts and popular oral lore and performances draw together ostensibly opposed religious paradigms of Yoga (oneness with divinity) and passionate devotion/bhakti (difference): its fine, airy feeling fusing with the body’s inner breathing self, and sweet melody producing a subservient temperament towards the lover–god outside. Flute sounds embody the peculiar dialectic of difference-and-identity among devotee–flute–god, much like the flute–lip-lock itself, bringing to affective life the Bengal Vaishnava philosophical foundation of achintya-bhed-abhed (inconceivability between principles of separation and indistinction).
Highlights
This paper studies theological, aesthetic, and devotional Hindu texts dedicated to the flute, and analyses complicated relationships posited among the devotee, flute, and Krishna
Religions 2021, 12, 743 imagined as Krishna himself, or does the body–flute receive Krishna’s breath from outside? If the body becomes the flute, and the flute adheres to Krishna, does the body embody the divine? Or does the body–flute draw towards the deity Krishna outside? does the devotee become Krishna, or remain separate? Classical and popular devotional songs are replete with references to Krishna’s flute as the ideal romantic icon pulling his discrete lover–devotees close, while Yoga texts deem hearing inner flute sounds as signs of achieving higher spiritual states
In Bengal Vaishnavism this translates as Krishna playing his flute
Summary
A large majority of Hindu Bengalis are worshippers of the deity Krishna, whose indispensable accompaniment is the sweetest-sounding bamboo flute, said to draw his lover–devotees’ hearts irresistibly towards him. This paper studies theological, aesthetic, and devotional Hindu texts (and practices) dedicated to the flute, and analyses complicated relationships posited among the devotee, flute, and Krishna. Classical and popular devotional songs are replete with references to Krishna’s flute as the ideal romantic icon pulling his discrete lover–devotees close, while Yoga texts deem hearing inner flute sounds as signs of achieving higher spiritual states While both sameness and distinction between the devotee, flute, and god are reflected amply in these textual representations, I argue that the flute’s material constitution and timbre itself draws together the ostensibly opposed religious paradigms of Yoga (oneness with divinity) and devotion/bhakti (difference from divinity): its lightweight experience fusing with the body’s inner breathing self, and its sweet melody producing a soft, subservient temperament in the listener, directed towards the lover–god outside. All these phenomenological dimensions bring together the seemingly contrasting categories of mind and body, Yoga and bhakti, thought and feeling, within the flute paradigm
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