I recently acquired a copy of a Sanskrit commentary on the Sarva-samvādinī, which is a commentary by Śrī Jīva Goswami on his Sandarbhas. It is written by Śrī Ānanda Gopāla Vedānta-tirtha, who is a Gauḍiya-Vedānta scholar currently based in Rādhā-kund. The book was published by the Jīva Institute […]
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 […]
The inherent bhakti-vādis hold that bhakti is in the svarūpa of the jīva. Because bhakti is Bhagavān’s svarūpa śakti, this forces them to take the position that Bhagavān’s svarūpa śakti is inside the jīva – in other words, Bhagavān’s svarūpa śakti (i.e. the śakti that constitutes His very […]
Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī uses the term ‘duḥkha-pratiyogi’ as a synonym of the word ‘ānanda’, which is an intrinsic quality of the ātmā. Śrī Babaji has explained that the term ‘pratiyogi’ is used to convey the meaning of an absence of duḥkha or misery in the ātmā. Opponents claim […]
We come across the term ‘mukti’ frequently in the scriptures. The term evokes a final, everlasting destination after death, and is generally translated as ‘liberation’. But what is the precise meaning of this term? A definition of mukti The term mukti is defined in the Bhāgavata purāṇa in […]
In a previous article, I discussed how the ātmā is immutable. This implies that no external information, whatever it may be, can enter into the pure ātmā. Otherwise, the ātmā becomes changed. How, then, does knowing occur at all? Who is the knower? Śrī Jīva Goswami examines this […]
The laws of nature are immutable and apply to everything in nature. As an example, the first law of thermodynamics states that the total energy of any isolated system is constant. (By definition, an isolated system cannot exchange matter and energy with the surroundings) There are laws that […]
The word “ānanda” can generally indicate any one of the following four different types of happiness.
Eight Verses Glorifying Śrī Rādhikā from Govinda Līlāmṛta by Śrī Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī with translation by Śrī Babaji
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 Babaji answers question in Pearls of Wisdom – Question: Having recently read Rajiv Malhotra’s “Being Different” and your commentary on Bhagavat Sandarbha, I think that there are pitfalls for Western people approaching Indian thought, including Gauḍīya siddhānta, which can lead to the gross and subtle misunderstanding of […]
Śrī Jīva Goswami did not compile the Sandarbhas in a haphazard fashion. He followed a method of analysis which he explains in Anuccheda 27 of the Tattva Sandarbha. This method ought to be kept in mind when studying the Sandarbhas, because Śrī Jīva follows it throughout the Sandarbhas. […]
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