"Woman Guru In The Vaishnava-Sahajivya Cult"

    

 At this stage, let us take a more detailed look at this interesting cult, because it represents the interaction between Shakta Tantric and non-Tantric ideas and practices in Bengal. 

    The term sahaja means “easy” or “natural” and refers to the fact that the cult uses, and does not suppress, the power of the senses. The eighth or ninth-century Charyapadas are clearly Sahajiya in doctrine, and so the Sahajiya cult is clearly rooted in the ancient Tantric tradition.

    This centuries-old Sahajiya tradition blended with the Vaishnavite, producing that interesting hybrid the Vaishnava-Sahajiya cult. The Sahajiya tradition was humanistic and monistic, while the Vaishnavite was theistic and dualistic. Again, the former viewpoint corresponded with the erotic religious sculptures at Konarak and Khajuraho; the latter world-view was much less obviously amorous, and represented the contrary view of love in religion as exhibited in Indian culture.

    The Sahajiya tradition took up many features of the Vaishnava in blending with the latter, e.g. the whole Radha Krishna complex. The Sahajiyas, however, took literally what the Vaishnavas meant figuratively. For the former, the union of Radha and Krishna was also to be experienced physically by the adept, in conjunction with his female partner.

    On the other hand, the Vaishnavite tradition in turn was also influenced by the long-existing Sahajiya/Tantric tradition, both before and during the time of Chaitanya.

    For example, at least two of Chaitanya’s early companions had some links with the Sahajiya tradition. The first, Nityananda, was probably a member of a lefthanded Tantric order of Avadhutas or practitioners; further, one of his wives, Jahnavi, was a Sahajiya leader herself! The other, Ramananda Raya, practiced a technique of chastity with two beautiful girls, which involved treating them rather intimately (like bathing and dressing them), but without sexual intercourse. This was in fact a part of the Sahajiya discipline of serving the woman as the divine Radha.

    In addition, Chaitanya is recorded as having loved the erotic lyrics of Jayadeva, and of the Bengali Chandidasa and the Maithil Vidyapati. Though Jayadeva may not have been a Sahajiya, similar traditions about the other two poets have more basis. In short, there is thus every possibility that Chaitanya himself was quite influenced by the Sahajiya movement.

    Let us turn finally to the respective position of women among the Vaishnava-Sahajiyas and among the Vaishnavas. We have seen above that Jahnavi-Devi was a “Tantric and Sahajiya leader”; she succeeded her husband as the “leader of a considerable Sahajiya group”. It bears emphasis here that it is only in the Tantric tradition that a woman may become a guru.

    Women were respected among the orthodox Vaisnavas as well, because of the importance of Radha in Bengal, and probably also because of the Tantric tradition. In this, the Vaishnavas had come a long way from Chaitanya’s own feeling that even conversation with a woman was inimical to true bhakti.

    The Tantric tradition had quite a favoured position in the cultural history of Bengal, and it was able to maintain its own even against the powerful Vaishnavite revival inaugurated by Chaitanya. The Tantric and nonTantric streams blended in the Vaishnava-Sahajiya cult. 

    Due to the high position of Radha in Bengali Vaishnavism, as the embodiment of prema or true love for Krishna, and also probably due to Tantric influences, there was a change even in the ascetic Vaishnawa attitudes towards women.19 As Padoux puts it, “Though the spirit of Tantrism is in many ways opposed to that of bhakti, both can be reconciled and are even promiscuously associated by the Vaishnava Sahajiya”.