SEEING KRISHNA By Margaret H. Case, Oxford, Rs 395 The author, with a doctorate in the history of India from the University of Chicago, is one of the few American scholars drawn to this country by its religious traditions and spiritual culture. The editor of numerous books on Indian subjects, Margaret H. Case was, for several years, the Asian Studies Editor at Princeton University Press. Seeing Krishna is spun around the lives and lilas of Krishna and Chaitanya, widely believed to be an incarnation of Krishna. It is an advancement on the pioneering studies of Vrindavan bhakti by David Haberman and John Stratton (Jack) Hawley, who encouraged Case in this enterprise. The facts of Chaitanya's life have been elaborated in song, story and drama. Perhaps the most striking feature of this hagiography is the parallel drawn between Chaitanya's life and that of the young Krishna in Vrindavan. An example of this, according to Case, is Chaitanya's decision to become a sanyasi and abandon his young wife and old mother. The emotional poignancy of this event parallels that of the relationship that Krishna shared with his friends, family, Radha and even the gopis in Vrindavan. The author's interest in Krishna and Chaitanyaite Vaisnavism, an important branch of Hinduism, was fostered by her long association with Goswami Maharaj, reputedly an avatar of Chaitanya, and his son Shrivatsa. The venue for this interaction was Jaisingh Ghera, the Goswami family's home and ashram in Vrindavan, and which the author calls her second home. She gives a compelling account of the rituals of service offered to the deity and recounts the cycle of plays (astayama lila), a theatrical enactment of a day in the eternal life of Krishna. The text is enriched by translations of relevant passages in the Bhagavata Purana and summaries of the script of the plays. The most fascinating experience of the author at the Maharaj's ashram dates back to November, 1992, when a large black bee appeared in front of a group of devotees three times in a row. The devotees believed that the bee was Krishna himself, who could not bear the separation from his beloved Radha and was manifesting himself thus. The author has often been asked if the bee was really Krishna. Her answer has been, 'It all depends. In the context, yes.' A critical comment on the book confirms: 'This is a vivid account of how a group of Hindu devotees in north India saw Krishna appear in 1992 and of the historical, social and ritual context that lends credence to the belief that this event was in fact an appearance of the god (Krishna).' Krishna manifested himself in Vrindavan, it is said, for two reasons: first, he wished to relieve the sufferings of the earth (this is the background to his appearance in the Bhagavata Purana) and second, to experience for himself the sweetness of Radha's love for him (this is the teaching of Chaitanyaite Vaisnavas). According to Case, this latter rationale, a conceited sentimentality, is in fact the tip of a theological and metaphysical iceberg. For Radha (together with the cowherd women, who embody an extension of her being), is Krishna's sakti, his divine energy. The two cannot exist apart from each other, and the play of the two is what creates the world. This relationship is one of prema (love), and through prema they experience ananda (bliss). Chaitanya's elevation of Radha to a preeminent position in the worship of Krishna was a crucial turning point in the revival of Vaisnavism. Case concludes that faith or the pervasive devotional life of Vrindavan brings to its people 'a kind of joy and acceptance of several unseemly features of life and living like filth, stench, illness, erratic public services, wretched poverty etc., typical of India, which, after all, often cannot be changed.'