The Worship of Gaura-Visnupriya
By Swāmī Śrī Bhaktivedānta Tripurāri
Gaudiya Vaishnavism teaches that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu (Gaura) is Krishna and that Nadiya is nondifferent from Vrindavana. They are nondifferent in that they are constituted of the same bhava, albeit expressed differently. This Radha-bhava cannot be found in any other abode of Bhagavan.
In Vrindavana, Krishna is the perfect object of love, and in the furthest reach of Nadiya he demonstrates how to worship perfectly in the mood of Sri Radha. Gaura is the same Krishna of Vrindavana, however, the highest understanding of Gaura tattva reveals him to be in the mood of Radha, having accepted her position as the abode of love. At the same time, in Nadiya Gaura is married to Visnupriya, who worships him and is attended to by her servant associates just as Satyabhama is attended to in Dvaraka. Gaura-ganoddesa-dipika informs us, sri-sanatana-misro’yam pura satrajito nrpah, visnupriya jagan-mata yat-kanya bhu-svarupini: “He who was King Satrajit in Krishna lila was Sanatana Mishra in Caitanya lila. The mother of the universe, the incarnation of the Lord’s bhu-sakti, is his daughter Vishnupriya.”
In this light, Gaura-Visnupriya are worshipped in dasya-bhava. When Gaura is worshipped along with Visnupriya, his search for his own self in the mood of Radhika is subdued, whereas in the worship of Gaura-Gadadhara it is out in the open. Nonetheless, when those who worship Gaura-Visnupriya are blessed through this worship, they may follow Gaura’s Vraja bhava as it manifests in Gaura lila and enter the inner life of Gaura-Gadadhara and the Vraja mandala along with them in forms suitable for seva in Krishna lila.
However, when Gaura enters Krishna lila, Visnupriya does not transform into Radha. The reason for this is that she is Radha’s expansion and not svayam-sakti Radha herself, while Radha herself is present in Gaura lila as Gadadhara. Visnupriya worships Gaura’s internal experience, his love for Radha, with respect and some distance. She does not, for example, enter the kirtana at the house of Srivasa Thakura where Gaura tastes Vraja bhava in the company of Gadadhara. In Caitanya lila, Gaura has stolen Radha’s bhava, and thus Gadadhara follows him like his shadow, tendering to Gaura’s necessity as he tries to make sense of his maddening experience.
Bhaktivinoda Thakura first installed the Deities of Gaura-Visnupriya at the birthplace (yoga-pitha) of Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Mayapura. In the vision of the Thakura, there are two sides to Gaura lila, vaidhi-bhakti offered to Gaura-Visnupriya and raganuga-bhakti, for which the corresponding Deity is Gaura-Gadadhara. It should also be noted that although Gaura is Krishna and Gadadhara is Radha, the two do not externally relate to one another as Radha and Krishna do in their Vraja lila. Gadadhara sees Gaura internally as Krishna—Krishna trying to experience the love of Radha that only Gadadhara knows. Thus Gadadhara is there to assist his object of love in an appropriate, corresponding form.
However, those interested in the raga-marga as taught by Sriman Mahaprabhu should not neglect the worship of Visnupriya. In his Sajjana-tosani, Thakura Bhaktivinoda writes, “If one gives up the worship of Visnupriya, one cannot claim to be a devotee of the Lord.” Vishnupriya Devi is the personification of transcendental knowledge, divya Saraswati. Devotees worship her on her appearance day on the sukla pancami of the month of Magh. On the same day, materialistic persons desiring material knowledge worship her partial manifestation, the goddess of learning Saraswati.
In his Jaiva Dharma Thakura Bhaktivinoda writes:
“Know for certain that Sri Nimai is directly the son of Maharaja Nanda. Do not consider him separate from Krishna. Do not think that because He incarnated in Navadvipa and exhibited separate pastimes to demonstrate the process of bhajana that he is therefore Navadvipa nagara, or the paramour of Navadvipa. If you think in that way you will ruin your bhajana…. Sri Visnupriya is the Lord’s combined energies of hladhini and samvit. In other words, she is the personification of devotional service (bhakti-devi). She appeared during the advent of Sri Gaura to assist him in preaching the holy names of the Lord. Just as Sri Navadvipa, which consists of nine islands, is the personification of the nine types of devotional service, similarly, Srimati Visnupriya is also the personification of the nine types of devotional service.”
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