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 […]
A major problem many have with Bhagavān’s form, is that a form is limiting. The surface of any object with form is its limit or boundary, which separates the universe outside that form from what is inside the form. If Bhagavān has a form, then He is limited. […]
Śrī Jīva discusses absolute reality or tattva with an analysis of the famous verse from the Śrīmad Bhagavatām below (Tattva Sandarbha Anuccheda 51 and 52 and Bhagavat Sandarbha Anuccheda 1): vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate: All those who have realized Absolute reality refer […]
Free or not free- that is the question.
There are differing views on Brahman and Bhagavān. There is one camp, particularly among some Vaiṣṇava sects, which tends to interpret all verses involving Brahman in the Purāṇas as Bhagavān. The camp of the Advaita-vadis considers Bhagavān as material, and only Brahman as the absolute reality. Sri Jiva […]
In vaidhī bhakti, we have seen that the adhikāra is śāstriya śraddhā. Śrī Rūpa Goswami explains that in rāgānugā bhakti, the intense desire to get the bhāva like the rāgātmikā bhaktas is the adhikāra. This desire comes from hearing Kṛṣṇa kathā relating to the sweetness of Kṛṣṇa and […]
In the spiritual world, form follows function. This is true of everyone- including Kṛṣṇa’s associates
The process of learning necessarily involves emotion. The stronger the emotion, the deeper the memory, and the better the learning. If we have learned some concepts, and these concepts have been reinforced by emotions associated with them over a long period of time, then it becomes very hard […]
The ātman, stripped off the mind, body and senses is a formless conscious being consisting of potentialities of thought, desire and action. All ātmans are identical, with the only difference being their existence as individual ātmans. We have seen that the ātmans have been wedded to individual minds […]
There is the notion in some bhakti sects that the material world is a perverted reflection of the spiritual world.
Sri Jiva Goswami lists several properties of the ātman in the Paramātma Sandarbha. Pertinent to this article are its qualities of knowership and experiential capacity. The ātman has the capacity to know. The mind and intelligence, being inert, cannot know. At the same time, the ātman cannot understand […]
To understand human psychology, we have to first understand how the mind operates. The mind is classified into different categories based on function. Here we consider the functions of manas (mind), citta (the part of the mind that we are not conscious of) and buddhi (intelligence; the decision making […]
