Martinez Dettinger: Rasa Lila: orality and sound

 Ong and Abram's focus on the sensual experience of the spoken word in oral cultures reminded me of a part of the Rasa Lila, The Dance of Divine Love. The Rasa Lila is a part of the sacred Hindu text central to the Hindu practice of Bhakti Yoga, or intense worship of the sacred love of the Divine, and the power that Love also has over the Divine. The Rasa Lila is in the form of a narrative. In the narrative the Gopis, Shepherdesses, are called to the forest by Krishna's flute playing. They are so eager to be in his presence that they run from their houses, husbands, babies. They are half-dressed and disheveled. Some who physically could not leave turned inward to meditation to meet Krishna. Krishna spends some time with them, and he leaves them twice. The first time he leaves with one of the Gopis, and the second time he leaves them all. The first time is to teach them that he is not gone, even when he is not in their presence, because their thoughts were consumed with him. The second time is to teach the humility because they had stated that they were the most fortunate women in the whole world, and this comparison between them and other related pride and a feeling of exclusivity. At the end of the Rasa Lila, after searching through nature following branches, heavy with fruit, that they assume are bowing down because Krishna passed and other natural phenomenon, they reunite with Krishna. The Gopis link arms in a mandala around Krishna, and he replicates himself to attend individually to each and every one of them in the Dance of Divine Love. I thought of this part of the Vedas, because this story began as an oral tradition. Within the story there is an emphasis on sound (Krishna's flute, the laughter of the Gopis, the words they speak in his presence, and the silence of his absence). There is also an emphasis placed on the communal structure. The Gopis never speak individually, their shared sensual experiences and their spoken parts are united. They act as one. These sensual aspects of the Dance of Divine Love culminate in the flute music Krishna plays for their dance. In this written remnant of an oral story it is clear to see the emphasis on the sensual experience of sound and the unification of human and the Divine with themselves and each other through the portrayal of sound. 

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