We now examine the remaining qualifiers of bhāva. As we saw before, bhāva is qualified by rucibhiś citta-māsṛṇya-kṛd and prema-sūryāṁśu-sāmya-bhāk. Sri Jiva Goswami explains the meaning of these words, which is reproduced below. The word ruci = prāpti-abhilāṣa, sva-kartṛka ānukulya-abhilāṣa and sauhārda-abhilāṣa. That is, ruci implies three things: […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Rupa Goswami goes on to point out in his master piece भक्ति रसामृत सिंधु (Bhakti rasāmṛta sindhu) that उत्तमा भक्ति (uttamā bhakti) is also defined equivalently in other places in the scriptures. For example, there is the famous verse from नारद पंचरात्र: सर्वोपाधि विनिर्मुक्तम् तत्परत्वेन निर्मलम् हृषीकेन हृषिकेश […]
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 […]
In a previous post, we examined the definition of uttamā bhakti and saw that स्वरूप लक्षणम् (svarūpa lakṣaṇam) = अानुकूल्येन कृष्णानुशीलनम् (ānukulyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanam) or the essence of uttamā bhakti = continuous favorable service to Kṛṣṇa or persons related to him. Here we examine the rest of the two qualifiers, […]
The genius of Śrī Rūpa Goswami (1489–1564) was to compose the book भक्ति रसामृत सिंधु (Bhakti rasāmṛta sindhu) which examines the psychology of Kṛṣṇa’s devotees. He starts the book with a definition of उत्तमा भक्ति (uttamā bhakti), which came to embody the essence of all the scriptures for the […]
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