Nabadwip Bhava Taranga or time cinema of the Bengal Vaishnavism
Authors: Timoshchuk A. S. 
Published: July 2022

Introduction. The article analyzes the key value-semantic moments of the genesis of the Caitanya cult in West Bengal, as well as the philosophical forms of Gaudiya theology (Bengali Vishnuism).

Materials and Methods. The theoretical state of the problem lies in the lacuna of the idiographic description of the genesis of the new religious movement, which is Bengali Vishnuism. Structural, systemic, comparative, factorial and phenomenological types of analysis form the basis of the methodology. The construction of a new religion is understood as the production of a symbolic universe, the spiritual generation of a value-semantic system that allows subjects to function in an antagonistic world

Results. The aesthetic reflection of Chaitanya and the dynamics of his movement are conceptualized as a ribbon of kairos running before the eyes of the beholder. The title of the article reproduces the birthplace of Chaitanya in Bengal, the center for the spread of the new religion (Navadwip), the emotional pressure of the teachings of bhakti (bhava) and the undulating dynamics of the development of the Chaitanya movement (taranga). In the context of Western philosophy, the process of emergent formation of Bengali Vaishnuism is terminated as a movie theater of time or a visual attitude of the observer that allows one to make a broad overview of forms, contents, actors, and institutions.

Discussion and Conclusions. The visual culture of our time requires openness, manifestation of processes and states. The space-time perspective of the Caitanya cult appears as a series of transformations replacing incompleteness and poetry with institutionalization and form. The aesthetic vision offered by Chaitanya is transformed in time into a special intellectual-reflective genre of profane freak show.

Scientific novelty. In terms of the progress of technology, we sometimes ask ourselves, why do we need knowledge created by people of the past who lived in the Middle Ages, or in the Bronze Age? Or is there knowledge that does not become obsolete over time? Metaphysics of Plato? Aristotle's formal logic? The paraconsistent logic of the mystic Caitanya? Another historical question that inevitably arises when referring to the past - what new can be said about an event from which we are rapidly moving away? However, another logic is at work here – the big is seen from a distance. The further we are from Caitanya, the more we value the meager Bengali sources about him, the more other knowledge we have that allows us to assess the global context of the new ideational system.

Practical significance. Bengali Vaishnavism is constantly in the center of attention of specialists in history, linguistics, religious studies and sociology. Until now, interest in the charismatic selforganization of the Chaitanya Movement has not faded, how its personality, spirit and initiatives influenced the evolution of a whole ramified direction of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. It is obvious for religious scholars that Mahaprabhu was deified by his followers, but this does not deny the creative potential of the new religious movement, its power of generating meaning and creating new sociocultural forms.