Vaishnava-Sahajiya is a form of tantricVaishnavism that centred in Bengal, India. It had precursors from the 14th century, but originated in its definitive form in the 16th century. Vaishnava-Sahajiya is generally considered as a 'left-hand path' and apostate from the "orthodox" or vedic standpoint, though followers claim that this view stems from a superficial understanding. There are both right-handed and left-handed Vaishnava-Sahajiyas Dakshinachara may be rendered into English as "right attainment ", while Vamachara may be rendered into English as "left attainment ". The Dakshinacharyas are the ones that practice the Panchamakara symbolically or through substitutions, whilst the Vamacharyas are the ones that practice it literally.
Manuscripts
holds that there are two hundred and fifty "manuscripts of small texts" in the Calcutta University which are associated with the Sahajiya, and that there is a comparable number of manuscripts held in common with Calcutta University in the library of the Bangīya-sāhitya-pariṣad. Wendy Doniger in the Forward to Dimock affirms that The Asiatic Society in Calcutta holds a large collection of manuscripts and also states that "...the number of manuscripts in private libraries is indefinite but almost certainly huge."
Poets of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā school
Shashibhusan Dasgupta to his third edition reprint of his seminal text on five sahaja traditions entitled Obscure Religious Cults first published in 1946, holds that:
"The lyrics belonging to the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā school are generally ascribed to the well-known poet Caṇḍidāsa and to some other poets like Vidyāpati, Caitanya-dāsa and others, and the innumerable Sahajiyā texts are also ascribed to their authorship."
Caṇḍidāsa refers to medieval poet of Bengal. Over 1250 poems related to the love of Radha and Krishna in Bengali with the bhanita of Chandidas are found with three different sobriquets along with his name, , Dvija and Dina as well as without any sobriquet also. It is not clear whether these bhanitas actually refer to the same person or not. It is assumed by some modern scholars that the poems which are current in the name of Chandidas are actually the works of at least four different Chandidas, who are distinguished from each other by their sobriquets found in the bhanitas. It is also assumed that the earliest of them was Ananta Chandidas, who has been more or less identified as a historical figure born in the 14th century in Birbhum district of the present-day West Bengal state and wrote the lyrical Srikrishna Kirtan.
Vidyapati
A sahajiya poem of Vidyāpati is rendered into English by David R. Kinsley thus:
Detail
The Vaishnava-Sahajiya sought religious experience through the five senses which included human coupling and sexual love. Sahaja as a system of worship was prevalent in the Tantric traditions common to both Hinduism and Buddhism in Bengal as early as the 8th–9th centuries. "Sahaja" was evident in the teachings and poetry of MahasiddhaSaraha. The tradition used the romance between Krishna and Radha as a metaphor for union with God, and sought to experience that union through its physical reenactment. It teaches that the ideal way to understand the union of humanity is to transcend the profane aspects of sexual intercourse and experience it as a divine act. The Vaisnava-Sahajiya creed is a synthesis of these various traditions. The Vaisnava-Sahajiyas operated in secrecy because their sexual tantric practices were viewed with marked disdain by other religious communities. In their literature they adopted an enigmatic style employing substitutions and correspondences that has come to be known as twilight language. Little is known about their prevalence or practices. The cult was centered in Bengal. It began in the 16th century, although predecessors existed as early as the 8th century in the same city. The founder is generally thought to be Baru Chandidas, who lived in the 14th century. In order to avoid unwanted attention, the group spoke of its activities in cryptic language. Members of this lineage enacted the 'group in a round' Ganachakra or circle dance now known as the Rasa-lila of Krishna. It is a mystery religionrite, wherein the followers participated in a rite of, trancepossession, and nondifference or nonduality with 'deity'.
Criticism and opposition
has opposed the Sahajiya practice in Vaishnavism on the grounds that a soul cannot be promoted to the status of Radha or her expansions.
