Aesthetics meets religion through the experience of the Rasika

The cow of speech (vac) gives a special drink (rasa) out of affection
for her young;
That (rasa) laboriously milked by yogis cannot be compared to it.

In Wulff's article "The convergence of the aesthetic and the religious in Medieval India" the integration of aesthetic artistic experience and the transcendent religious experience are explained as integral to each other. In the comparison of the Saivi philosopher Abhinavagupta's (Kashmir 10th c) theoretical treatises with the Bengali Vaisnava, Rupa Gosvami's(16th c)text the Bhaktirasamrtasindhu two views of this integration are discovered. Through their explanations their cultural and religious environments are revealed.

For both the term "rasa" is central in terms of both aesthetic and religious experience. Rasa in it multiple meanings of "taste" "sentiment" "mood" in the aesthetic context is the arousing of this sentiment through the artistic medium of the drama or poem. In the religious sense it is the identification of the being with the ultimate reality of the universe, specifically that when one experiences "rasa" the experience is "blissful" (ananda). The link is made that the "rasavada" of aesthetic experience and the brahmasvada "the tasting of ultimate reality" fuse through each other. Wulff emphasises the to appreciate either it is necessary to leap over the conventional dichotomoy of these two worlds and find their fused center.

Looking at the similarities and differences of these two authors views illuminates the essence of this discussion. Abhinavagupta, drawing on statements of Anandavardhana expresses in his Dhvanyaloka formulates the analogy between rasavada and brahmasvada which sets the groundwork for this discussion. He discusses rasa in terms of its transcendent quality, the aesthetic experience becomes a religious experience. Abhinavagupta was steeped in the Kashmir Saiva system that posits the source of all human suffering is ignorance (ajana), limited consciousness that does not illuminate the whole of reality. Transcendence this limitation is discovered by the devotee through the profound recognition (pratyabhijna) of one's identity with Siva, through which one achieves liberation. With the absorbtion of one's full identity with the divine being and the experience of this egoless state there is the blissful union with the luminous intellegnce (prakasa) of Siva. This is owns pure nature and highest consciousness a mirror reflection of Siva. The process of the transformation of the consciousness from the mundane to the sublime and universal is achieved in stages where the ego-consciousness is reduced and the mmanent divine energy (sakti)is accessed. Abhinava equates the aesthtic experience as religious because they acheive a similar transcendence of the individual self.

For Abhinava the consciousness of the individual capable of this experience has subconscious residues or latent impressions of past experience (vasanas or samskaras-virtuous trace through previous religious effort) which include the emotions, experienced by beings through countless lifetimes. In the aesthetic production the fundamental emotions (sthyibhava) is aroused in the viewer/reader and a response is evoked through the production whereby the mundane emotion is transformed into a universal experience, transcendent of time and place. Through this the sahrdaya (sensitive spectator) experiences rasa a universal consciousness similar to that attained through yoga and that is fully realized in the state of moksa, subject and object are left behind, ego-limited perceptions are made sublime stuff of luminous consciousness and the experience is one of aesthetic joy "in which te object of knowledge is dissolved"

He views rasa as alaukika (supramundane) and of the quality of bliss (ananda). It is achieved by flowing past worldly desires by absorption in the work of art. The vasanas (latent experiences) are activated and ordinary emotion (bhava) is transformed into a transcendent condition (alaukikavastha) which for Abhinava is what is meant by "rasa". This experience is a pre-figuration of the ultimate moksa, the ultimate recognition that one is Siva. The experience is blissful because ones true nature is wholly blissful, and is full of wonder (camatkara). Abhinava admits that the aesthetic experience is temporary, like the initial religious experiences leading up to moksa. He sees a mixing of rasavada and brahmasvada in his very terminology, through the use of the term asvada (tasting), weaving the fabric that religious experience has aesthetic qualities and the aesthetic experience has religious qualities.

He posits that the aesthetic experience pre-figures and prepares one for the ultimate realization of the union of one's consciousness with Siva and thereby links the two points of poetry, moral instruction and pleasure. Both religious experience and aesthetic transcendence loosen the ego and lead to realization of one's true nature. His views are based on the analysis of consciousness and the unifying metaphysics of art and the ephemeral nature of both.

Rupa Gosvami in his theory of Bhaktirasa also views the rasa experience as religious. The differences in his view from Abhinava reflect the differences in thier religious and aesthetic backgrounds. For Rupa bhakti (devotion) takes prominence over jnana (metaphysical knowledge, the ground of Abhinava's view) and determined his interpretation of the rasa theory.

For Rupa the basic emotion (sthayibhava) is love (rati) for Krshna which is transformed into a rasa that can be perpetually savoured. The transformation is effected by the vibhavas that are evoked by Krshan and his entourage and attributes. His view differs from Abhinava's in some fundamental ways. He considers the experience of bhatirasa to be experienced as a constant, not limited to the duration of the production of a play or reading of a poem but like the constant presence of Krishna in the cosmic play (lila) to be everpresent. The devotee is to live in this state of constant absorption in this eternal drama, the ultimate reality for the Bengali Vaisnava. for Rupa the primarily aesthetic experience as described by Abhinava as a prefiguring of moksa is replaced by applying the aesthetic theory to the religious experience with a primary focus on the loving relationship between the devotee and the lord (he uses the term mudhura to replace srnagara, erotic love). He posits that all emotions are subsumed into the one primary rasa that of love (rati) graded in a series of five relationships, santa (peaceful), dsya (servant to master), sdhya (friendship), bhava vatsalya (parental affection), madhura bhaktirasa (the transfigured erotic love to a devotional object).

In Rupa's writings rasa is used in a religious sense, bhaktirasa as the highest ideal of life. for Rupa an experience of a aesthetic production is not a religious experience, or a pre-figuration as for Abhinava, however the refinement of ones sensibility towards the Lord involved the distillation of the emotions through repeated encounters with the universal drama of Krishna and his entourage. This involves an aesthetic refinement and richness of religious emotion.


Rupa gave systematic formulation to an aesthetic mode of piety, where Abhinava gave a religious aspect to the experience of the aesthetic. Both however show the meeting and fusion of the two.

This was a truly remarkable exploration of the religious aspect of rasa.