Page:Bengal Vaishnavism - Bipin Chandra Pal.djvu/62

 THE BENGAL BHAKTI CULT 47 The service of the Lord of the senses through the senses is called JBhakti. But to warn against reducing this Bhakti to gross sensuousness or sensuality this definition of Bhakti qualifies the senses by the adjectives in the first part of this couplet, which mean that these senses must be absolutely freed from all self-regard- ing desires and be purified through the pur- suit of the Lord alone as the Supreme Object of all sense-activities. Bhakti or Love of God, according to the Bengal sehool, must not, therefore, be identified with the pursuit of sensuality. The senses must be purified first, and they must be freed from all desire for self-enjoyment. For this object Bengal Yaishnavism has very clearly indicated the difference between lust and love. Lust in Bengalee is kama, and love is prema. The terms, however, came to be mixed up in popular imagination, wherein there was a distinct degeneration of both the words. This degeneration must have been present at the time of the birth of the Chaitanya Move- ment in Bengal. The two words had, there- fore, to be differentiated by the Chaitanya Movement, which initiated a new Bhakti cult. In the Chaitanya-Charitamrita, there- fore, we find kama or lust defined as desire for