Reader Raj requested an explanation of SB 12.13.12. The verse is as follows: sarva-vedānta-sāraṁ yad brahmātmaikatva-lakṣaṇam vastv advitīyaṁ tan-niṣṭhaṁ kaivalyaika-prayojanam Śrī Jīva Goswami brings this verse up first in the Tattva Sandarbha Anuccheda 52.1, where he mentions that the verse will be discussed in depth later in the […]
Q: I have a thought. Please correct me if I am wrong. I have often heard devotees saying that devotees are not able to practise bhakti properly because they are not following varṇāṣrama. I have heard that the problems with bhakti arise because varṇāṣrama is not established properly. […]
Q: Do the Goswamis say that women are less intelligent than men? A: I am not aware of any statement, anywhere, in any of the Goswamis’ copious writings, that women are less intelligent than men. Q: I ask because a Gaudiya ācārya has made many such statements about […]
Śrī Babaji is famous for translating the Sandarbhas of Śrī Jīva Goswami into English. As we know, there are six Sandarbhas; Śrī Jīva Goswami collectively referred to them as the Bhāgavata Sandarbha in a verse he composed at the beginning of the Tattva Sandarbha in Anuccheda 7. It […]
Dormant prema-vāda posits that the ātman has prema or love inside of it for Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa, but has forgotten this fact due to māyā. Bhakti, then, is a means to revive this prema by reminding the ātman of it. If the ātman has dormant prema for Śrī […]
We saw in a different post, how Śrī Jīva Gosvāmi explains the essence of the Bhagavad Gītā. Here we examine how he derives the essence of the Bhāgavatam. As a reminder, I reproduce the sixfold criteria from Pūrva-mīmāṁsā for assessing the essence of a work below. The sixfold […]