Metaphysics of spiritual love in the vishnuite treatise «Ujjvala-Nilamani»

The article is devoted to the study of the 16th century Sanskrit treatise «Ujjvala-Nilamani» («Shining Sapphire»), authored by an outstanding Indian poet, playwright and theologian Rupa Goswami (1493–1564). Rupa was a major theorist of bhakti and one of the founders of the religious doctrine of Bengal Vishnuism. The text under study serves as a continuation of another important text of Rupa – the treatise «Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu» («Sweet ocean of bhakti-rasa»). The specif city of the content of both texts is that they give a consistent description of the stages of the knowledge of God and mystical experience in accordance with the way this is understood in the tradition of Bengal Vishnuism. The treatise «Ujjvala-nilamani» is devoted to the description of the highest stage of mystical experience, which is called «sweet» (madhura) and represents the inner contemplation of the traditional Krishna-lila by the adept, with its plot, images and characters. For the description of the sublime spiritual experiences of the adept accompanying this, Rupa uses the terminological apparatus of Indian traditional poetics in his treatise, which is a unique feature of its content. This synthesis of religious and aesthetic, created by Rupa, found a vivid expression in poetry, drama and other components of the rich cultural heritage of the religious tradition of Bengal Vushnuits, which in turn inf uenced the formation of a number of important content elements of Indian culture in general.