Page:Bengal Vaishnavism - Bipin Chandra Pal.djvu/85

70 BENGAL VAISFNAVI8M vicariously and not directly. In fact, our V aishnavic experiences are not without parallel in the realisations of Catholic Christianity. In Christian piety, as realised by the Catholic church, the relation which the devotee seeks to realise with the Father is a vicarious relation ; because he is a sou through Christ by adoption. And the objec- tive of Catholic Christian piety is to find a place by the side of the Throne of God, where sits the Son, engaged in eternal coloquy with the Father, and the highest aspiration of the Christian devotee is not to join in that coloquy himself but only to stand, in love and awe, by the Throne of the Almighty and listen to that coloquy between the Father and the Son. Similarly, the ideal-end and object of Bengal Vaishnavic piety is to mere- ly see “the sport of the Lord with His Trahriti" and thus to vicariously enjoy it. To seek direct participation in the Lord’s leela, like Shree Radha, is regarded as sin in the category of Bengal Yaishnavism. We can only enjoy His leela vicariously. And in this vicarious participation or enjoyment, there can possibly be no room for sense or self. Any suspicion of sense or self must inevi- tably destroy the essential purity and spiri-