I am interested in Chaitanya Vaishnavism. This site is inspired by the teachings of Sri Satyanarayana dasa Babaji, scholar and practitioner.
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: 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 an ācārya has made many such statements about women. […]
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 […]
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 […]
In several previous posts, we have seen Śrī Jīva Goswami’s conclusion that the Bhāgavata teaches the concept that Śrī Kṛṣṇa alone is Svayaṁ Bhagavān. Śrī Jīva Gosvāmi bases his analysis on what he identifies as the emperor statement: kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayaṁ. Śrī Jīva derives the same conclusion also from […]
You are in a religious cult if one of more of these apply to you: You look down upon anyone not in your religious group You consider only members of your religious group as worthy of making friendships or maintaining relations You have broken off your old relations […]
The Bhagavad-gītā has been variously explained by different commentators as teaching karma, jnāña or bhakti yoga. Some non-Hindus interpret it in their own way to justify their own acts. In their view, the Bhagavad-gītā was spoken to justify ‘holy war’. Others criticize it for advocating violence. How can […]
We saw in a previous article how Śrī Jīva Gosvāmi motivates the study of the Purāṇas. Now there are eighteen major Purāṇas. Some of them extol Śiva as the supreme, others Viṣṇu, and still others praise Brahmā, Devi, Agni or other devatās. What should an unbiased seeker study? […]
The Vedas are four- Ṛg , Yajur , Sāma , and Atharva. The Vedas alone are accepted as apauruṣeya – without human origin and hence a valid means to acquire knowledge of that which is beyond the material world. What is the status of the Purāṇas and Itihāsas […]
In the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha, Śrī Jīva Goswami shows how the Bhāgavata teaches the concept that Kṛṣṇa alone is Svayaṁ Bhagavān. To fortify his interpretation, Śrī Jīva Goswami identifies a four-fold army (caturaṅginī senā) which supports the emperor statement, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayaṁ. His analysis is too vast to […]
As we discussed in a previous article, in Anuccheda 28 of the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha, Śrī Jīva Goswami presents the emperor statement, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayaṁ – Kṛṣṇa, however, is Bhagavān Himself – in the famous verse below: ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam indrāri-vyākulaṁ lokaṁ mṛḍayanti yuge yuge […]
Śrī Babaji answers a question in the book Pearls of Wisdom: Question: We read in the Bhāgavata about the austerities of King Pṛthu: “In the summer, he placed fires around himself in the four directions, with the sun burning overhead. During the monsoon season he tolerated the torrents […]
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