Page:Bengal Vaishnavism - Bipin Chandra Pal.djvu/99

84 BE?«GAL VAISHNAVISM physical, but spiritual. The expression is, no doubt, physical. But the substance or reality that produces these expressions is really spiritual. The nine natural raaa-s, laughter, wonder, etc. have their meaning not really in themselves but in their relation to human emotions. Nature, according to the Bengal Vaishnavic aesthetics, is, therefore, re- garded as help and accessory to the ram-s. It has no independent basis of rasa. The entire system of Vaishnavic rasa or aesthe- tics, therefore, centres around man and his emotions and enjoyment derived from his rela- tion with other humans. We have exquisite portrayal of what is called the beaut3’- of Nature in Vaishnavic U^rics. But they have all reference to the human actors on the stage of which Nature finds the setting. There is, therefore, no delineation of abstract beaut3" or grandeur of Nature in Vaishnavic Ij^rics. Our Vaishnavic thought realised goodness through good men and women onlj', and not as a generalisation or abstraction from the concrete goodness of real men and women. So also with regard to beauty. There is no such thing as the beautiful in the conception of our Vaishnavic thought ; it is alwaj^s the beautiful person who represents the reality^