A jīva can never become a gopī
Being taṭastha śakti, no jīva has the qualification to be a gopī. The gopīs are manifestations of Bhagavān’s svarūpa śakti.
T. Krsna dasa
I am interested in Chaitanya Vaishnavism. This site is inspired by the teachings of Sri Satyanarayana dasa Babaji, scholar and practitioner.
Two types of jīvas
We examine Śrī Jīva’s classification of the two types of jīvas.
The qualification for līlā-smaraṇam
Maharajji answers questions in Śrī Guru Darśanam, pp. 249-250 Question: What are the qualifications for someone to do this līlā-smaraṇam? Answer: The qualification for smaraṇam is that one should be free from the identification with the body and the senses. If one identifies with these things and does līlā-smaraṇam, […]
Why a cultural context is critical for understanding śāstra
There are many sentences in śāstra which at first sight seem impossible. For example, śāstra contains the common example of a swan that can separate milk from water. Is this literally true? There is no mechanism in the swan’s beak to separate milk from water; also milk itself […]
The false cause fallacy and the ātmā
The false cause fallacy is a fallacy in which a cause is incorrectly identified. As an example of this, consider the statement: “Money makes a man happy. “ Money may make some men happy, but it may make others miserable. This is an example of a false cause […]
Inherent prema-vāda is as difficult to uproot as advaita-vāda
In the Bhakti Sandarbha course that Śrī Babaji is teaching, there was a long discussion on whether the jiva has some kind of prīti in it – not the full blown love for Bhagavān, but some kind of prema, synonymous with the word ānanda or bliss. I summarize […]
Is bhakti selfish or selfless?
Śrī Babaji gave a wonderful answer to a question by one of his students in a class on the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha.
Four types of abheda between Kṛṣṇa and His śaktis
Now that Śrī Babaji has concluded his classes on the topic, I am resuming the series of articles on the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha. For this article, I am going out of sequence and starting at the end. Caitanya Vaiṣṇavas subscribe to the view of acintya bheda-abheda, which I have […]
Is the duration of the four yugas to be taken literally?
According to Hindu tradition, time is divided into four yugas named Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali. The span of these yugas is extremely long. For example, Kali is 432,000 years long, Dvāpara goes for 864,000 years. Tretā is 1,296,000 years while Satya is 1,728,000 years long. Many interpret […]
Babaji’s Bhakti Sandarbha published!
Separating story from sāra or the essence
Often we come across stories in the purāṇas, that, on the face of it, do not make any sense. How does one understand them?
HARI HARAYE NAMAḤ KṚṢṆA
Nāma-saṅkīrtana by Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura