I am interested in Chaitanya Vaishnavism. This site is inspired by the teachings of Sri Satyanarayana dasa Babaji, scholar and practitioner.
Reader Sridhar ji requested a translation of Śrī Baladeva’s commentary on Gītā 2.29. For reference, the verse is below: āścaryavat paśyati kaścid enam āścaryavad vadati tathaiva cānyaḥ | āścaryavac cainam anyaḥ śṛṇoti śrutvāpy enaṁ veda na caiva kaścit || Someone considers the self as amazing, another speaks of […]
Claim: The quality of the jīva of svayam-prakāśatva, discussed in the Paramātmā Sandarbha, means ‘self-manifestation’. This refers to the phenomenon, in which the jīva, upon liberation, ‘self-manifests’ its intrinsic qualities of jñāna-śakti or knowership, its agency or doership, and other qualities, on its own. Further, these śaktis are […]
Claim: In Prīti Sandarbha Anuchheda 5.2, Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī again supports that the ātmā uses māyā’s jñāna śakti or the material jñāna śakti to know when in the material body, and that the ātmā’s innate jñāna śakti, which is its svarūpa śakti, is the same as Bhagavān’s svarūpa […]
I continue to examine the evidence that some offer to support the claim that the ātmā uses māyā’s jñāna śakti or the material jñāna śakti to know when in the material body. Claim: In Paramātma Sandarbha 19, Śrī Jīva Goswami states that the jīva’s knowership, doership, and enjoyership […]
Some claim that instead of using the ātmā’s intrinsic jñāna śakti, the ātmā uses māyā’s jñāna śakti or the material jñāna śakti to know. Likewise, instead of using the ātmā’s intrinsic kriyā śakti, the ātmā uses māyā’s kriyā śakti or the material kriyā śakti to act. To understand […]
Some offer an analogy between swans and jīvas. The analogy goes like this: “Consider a caged swan. Looking at the swan, one would not know that the swan has the ability to swim. But unlock the cage and put the swan onto the water, and it starts to […]
Śrī Jīva Goswami has explained in the Paramātmā Sandarbha that knowership and agency are intrinsic to the pure jīva or ātmā. Some glean a novel, alternative meaning from his writings. These proponents state something like this: “Knowership and agency are in the ātmā, but they are unmanifest, i.e. […]
One of the joys of studying the writings of Śrī Viśvanātha is the clarity with which he presents any topic. Here, we examine his beautiful exposition of the taṭasthā-śakti, in SB 10.87.32. We pick up the thread somewhere in the middle of his commentary: teṣāṁ bahutvaṁ nityatvaṁ ca— […]
In the Bhagavat Sandarbha Anuccheda 16.4, Śrī Jīva Goswami discusses how Bhagavān has three distinct śaktis. He writes: śaktiś ca tridhā—antaraṅgā, taṭasthā, bahiraṅgā ca | Parabrahman’s śakti is of three types — antaraṅgā, taṭasthā, and bahiraṅgā. Over and over, we see that Śrī Jīva Goswami states that there […]
Some argue that upon becoming siddha, i.e. getting entry into Goloka, the term taṭasthā is no longer a primary description of the jīva, since the very definition of taṭasthā implies being conditioned. These proponents argue that Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja prefers the term vibhinna-aṁśa instead of taṭasthā-śakti for the jīvas, […]
Some people claim that it is not possible for the jīva to experience its own svarūpa or essential nature without experiencing itself as a servant of Bhagavān. In their view, the only ‘fourth’ state of consciousness (turiya), separate from the three states of deep sleep, wakefulness, and dreams, […]
Q: You wrote in a previous article that the jīva is not Bhagavan’s cit-śakti. But doesn’t Śrī Jīva Goswami state the opposite in Anuccheda 56 of the Paramātmā Sandarbha? A: No. The purpose of this part of the anuchheda is to note that there are three distinct śaktis, […]