We continue our discussion of Śrī Jīva Goswami’s commentary on the catuḥśloki in Anuchheda 96 of the Bhagavat Sandarbha. As discussed in a previous article, the four topics of the catuḥśloki are jñāna, vijñāna, bhakti and prema. The first of the catuḥśloki gives jñāna: aham evāsam evāgre nānyad yat sad-asat […]
In Anuccheda 96 of the Bhagavat Sandarbha, Śrī Jīva Goswami analyzes seven verses spoken by Bhagavān to Brahmā. Four of these seven verses constitute the famous catuḥśloki or four seed-verses of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. The word ‘seed’ here means that these verses constitute the essence of the Śrīmad […]
A book should begin by explaining the following four topics: Sambandha: the relation (sambandha) of the book (vācaka) with its main subject (vācya). Abhidheya: the means of attainment propounded in the book. Prayojana: the completion state or end state brought about by the means stated in point 2. […]
The Advaitavādis reject the notion that the absolute truth has energies. As such, for them the material world does not exist, because the absolute truth, or Brahman is completely devoid of energies required for acting, for cognition and for experience. Śrī Jīva Goswami presents a logical argument derived […]
According to Nyāya philosophy, “The attributes of an eternal object are also eternal” (nityaṁ gataṁ nityaṁ, Tarka-saṁgraha, 3.6). Bhagavān is eternal, and therefore it follows that all aspects of Him, including His form, His name and His actions are eternal. But every action has a beginning and an end […]
Understanding Bhagavān is a difficult task because knowledge of Him is not easily comprehensible, and the scriptures do not always speak directly about Him. In the Bhagavat Sandarbha, Śrī Jīva took considerable effort to analyze the Bhāgavatam and distill key concepts about Him. One important concept is that Bhagavān’s […]
In Anuccheda 19, Sri Jiva Goswami establishes the important concept that the antaranga sakti is the source behind all action.
As we have examined elsewhere, the Purāṇas differentiate between material or prākṛt sattva and viśuddha sattva. The distinction between these two is important to understand, because it helps us understand why Bhagavān is not perceivable to us, and how He can be perceived. The definition of viśuddha sattva. […]
Śrī Jīva Goswami spends a large part of the Bhagavat Sandarbha establishing the concept that Śrī Bhagavān’s body is not a temporary product of māyā, but is real and a manifestation of viśuddha-sattva, beyond the material guṇas. In establishing this, he examines the experience of āpta-janas, or reliable […]
Śrī Jīva means something very specific when he uses the words Supreme Absolute Reality. He planned a major part of the Bhagavat Sandarbha in such a way that Kṛṣṇa’s form is ultimately proven as the Supreme Absolute Reality or paraṁ tattva. Five-point syllogism of Nyāya Śrī Jīva writes […]
A major portion of the Bhagavat Sandarbha is occupied with the nature of reality. Śrī Jīva Goswami takes pains to explain that reality is non-dual (advaya). An examination of his presentation leads to the following conclusions. The complete manifestation of tattva or Absolute Truth is Bhagavān. Tattva can […]
As we have seen elsewhere, the absolute truth has to be understood in terms of viśeṣya, viśeṣaṇa and viśiṣṭa. To remind the reader, these words refer to the object to be qualified, the qualifier(s) or attribute(s), and the qualified object respectively. The idea is that perception of any […]
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