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 […]
Much of the confusion and disagreements in discussions over bhakti can be avoided if the involved parties stick to definitions of terms. Words can take on multiple meanings, and often people just talk past each other because their intended meanings are different. Rupa Goswami took pains to define […]
An example where the primary meaning of scripture can be misleading is Kṛṣṇa’s rāsa līlā described in the Bhāgavatam. Here, there are references to intimate interactions between Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs, which appear sexual in nature in their primary meaning, no different from an ordinary book of romance. And yet, at the end […]
In Sanskrit kāvya, words have three kinds of meaning. Kavi-karṇapūra’s Alaṅkāra-kaustubha describes these meanings in detail 1. They are abhidhā-vṛtti, lakṣaṇā-vṛtti and vyañjanā-vṛtti. The meanings of these words are best understood through an example. Consider the words: gaṅgāyāṁ ghoṣaḥ. The abhidhā or primary meaning of these words is […]
Rupa Goswami quotes the following verse from the sixth canto of the भागवतम् in भक्तिरसामृत सिंधु 1.2.52: मुक्तानाम् अपि सिद्धानां नारायणपरायणः| सुदुर्लभः प्रशान्तात्मा कोटीषु अपि महामुनेः|| muktānām api siddhānāṁ nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇaḥ su-durlabhaḥ praśāntātmā koṭiṣv api mahā-mune Jiva Goswami helps us translate this verse by defining the terms in it. […]
In kārikā 1.2.9, Rupa Goswami writes that vaidhī bhakti is the duty of everyone in varṇāśrama : इति असौ स्याद् विधिर् नित्यौ सर्व-वर्णाश्रमादिषु| नित्यत्वेSपि अस्य निर्णितम् एकादश्यादिवत् फलम्|| This vidhi (vaidhī bhakti) is a compulsory or regular activity (nitya) for all varṇas and āśramas. Even though it is nitya, […]
Having defined uttamā sādhanā bhakti, Rupa Goswami lists its two divisions: वैधी रागानुगा चेति सा द्विधा साधनाभिधा| vaidhī rāganugā ceti sā dvidhā sādhanābhidhā That sādhanā bhakti is known to be of two types: vaidhī and rāganugā. There is a common misconception in some modern sects of Caitanya Vaisnavism that vaidhī bhakti […]
Rupa Goswami in his भक्तिरसामृत सिंधु has presented three divisions of उत्तमा भक्ति (uttamā bhakti): sādhanā, bhāva and prema. sādhya and sādhana are only two. Jiva Goswami and Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur have given two different explanations for why Rupa Goswami makes three divisions. Their explanations offer deeper insight into bhāva and […]
The second line of the definition of साधना भक्ति given by Śrī Rūpa Goswami is as follows: नित्य सिद्धस्य भावस्य प्राकट्यम् हृदि साध्यता| nitya siddhasya bhāvasya prākaṭyam hṛdi sādhyatā sādhyatā means the manifestation of the nitya siddha bhāva in the heart. We will unpack each of the words here and […]
There is a method to Śrī Rūpa Goswami’s presentation in the भक्तिरसामृत सिंधु which is borrowed from न्याय. It has three elements to it: उद्देश्य, लक्षण and परीक्षा. उद्देश्य means listing items, लक्षण means defining the items, and परीक्षा is testing the definition- that is explaining it in detail1. In the भक्तिरसामृत सिंधु […]
In Indian philosophy1, साधन (sādhana) and साध्य (sādhya) refer to cause and effect, or ingredient and product. Say for example, we are preparing soup. Before the soup comes into existence, only its separate ingredients exist – vegetables, tomatoes, some masala, water, salt etc.. Mixing the ingredients together and […]
Continuing our discussion of the तटस्थ लक्षणम् (taṭastha lakṣaṇam) from a previous post, we now explore the words ज्ञान कर्माद्यनावृतम् (jñāna karmādy anāvṛtam) in this article. The word anāvṛtam means ‘not covered’, that is, uttamā bhakti is uncovered by jñāna and karma. Because the words jñāna and karma are in common usage these […]