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Integrating socio-cultural diversity
DOI link for Integrating socio-cultural diversity
Integrating socio-cultural diversity book
Integrating socio-cultural diversity
DOI link for Integrating socio-cultural diversity
Integrating socio-cultural diversity book
ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how Caitanya Vaisnavas actually related to Muslims in pre-colonial Bengal. It deals with understanding how the doctrinal and psychological aspects of the Caitanya Vaisnavas’ devotion to Krsna affected their basic social orientation. The chapter focuses on the personal values and behaviours fostered by Krsna-bhakti tend to condone and in some respects encourage interaction among persons of divergent interests and religio-cultural orientations, and thereby facilitate integration in what would normally be socially and communally segmented contexts. It explores several facets of the relationship between the devotee’s religious commitment to bhakti and his or her basic social orientation. The chapter considers how the locus of sacrality is shifted from socio-ritual and even political activities, i.e., those that traditionally would fall under the jurisdiction of Brahmanic vanasrama-dharma and raja-dharma, to personally internalized experience of bhakti and the externalized celebration of bhakti among fellow devotees.