The inherent bhakti-vādis claim that the guṇāṣṭaka or group of eight qualities cannot exist in the ātmā without a form, and given that these qualities are in the ātmā’s svarūpa, the form or siddha-deha is proven to be inherent in the ātmā. The mistaken idea of the siddha […]
In a previous article, I refuted the claim that the dāsa bhūto harer eva implies inherent bhakti in the ātmā. Here I examine citations that are claimed to support inherent bhakti. The first one is from Śrī Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja. I provide the verse and the cited translation below. […]
The inherent bhaktivadis claim that intrinsic śaktis of the ātmā like its jñāna-śakti or its ability to know, its ability to act, and so on, become unmanifest when it is conditioned by māyā. To support this, they cite the Prīti Sandarbha. Here I continue to examine the evidence […]
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 […]
In a previous article, I showed how Śrīdhar Swami’s commentary contains the words, “na tu jīveṣu” – not in the living beings, which explicitly denies the presence of Bhagavān’s svarūpa śakti in the jīva. There I cited his original commentary from Viṣṇu Purāṇa. In Śrī Jīva Goswami’s quotation […]
In a previous article, we examined how Goloka is beyond Vaikuṇṭha. Here we will see how the present Śrī Vṛndāvana on earth is beyond all Vaikuṇṭhas. Vṛndāvana is beyond Vaikuṇṭha It is well known that Śrī Kṛṣṇa appeared in Śrī Vṛndāvana in modern day Uttar Pradesh in India. […]
Śrī Jīva Goswami’s central thesis is that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is Svayaṁ Bhagavān, and that all forms of Bhagavān including Śrī Nārāyaṇa are expansions of Him. It follows that His dhāma or abode is the highest among all dhāmas or abodes. That is, Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s abode is Mahā-Vaikuṇṭha, the […]
Reader Sridhar asked the following questions to which my responses are provided. The response to question 2 lists the passage where Śrī Jīva Goswami coins the term “acintya bheda-abheda”. Question 1. Could you make a post on how the acharyas see the exact relationship between shaktis and shaktimān? Is […]
We frequently hear these days that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the supreme enjoyer. Presumably these ideas come from the following type of statements that He has made in the Gītā (9.24): ahaṁ hi sarva-yajñānāṁ bhoktā ca prabhur eva ca | na tu mām abhijānanti tattvenātaś cyavanti te || Indeed, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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