Sri Srimad
Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja
For the Disappearance Day of Srila Jiva Gosvami
[This year, 2014, Srila Jiva
Gosvami's disappearance day is December 24th. Below is a
lecture Srila Gurudeva gave in the 1990s:]
Srila Jiva Gosvami’s
father, Anupama, was the brother of Srila Rupa Gosvami and
Srila Sanatana Gosvami. His exalted father and uncles were
employed by the Muslim ruler, Srila Sanatana Gosvami as
prime minister, Srila Rupa Gosvami as the private
secretary, and Anupama as treasurer. All three of them
met Caitanya Mahaprabhu when He came to Ramakeli where they
lived.
As the only son of the three brothers, Jiva
received abundant affection. Srila Rupa Gosvami was always
especially affectionate towards him and treated him as if
he were his own son. When Jiva was still very young, Srila
Rupa Gosvami took him to Mahaprabhu, who blessed him by
placing His hand on his head.
During childhood, Jiva studied and soon learned all
logic, Sanskrit grammar, and theistic philosophy from the
books in his father’s home. Before Srila Rupa Gosvami
and Anupama left household life to retire in Vrndavana, they
divided all the family’s wealth and property,
allocating sufficient funds for Jiva to continue his
studies. All three brothers realized that he was the only
son in their dynasty, so they nurtured him with great
affection and ensured he had whatever material facility he
required.
Jiva had a very soft nature, and as he grew, he
gradually began worshipping Deities of Sri Sri Radha-Krsna.
Making garlands for Them and offering puja to Them, he
would become immersed in meditation, preferring these
activities to playing with other children. When he was
about fourteen years old, he went to Navadvipa. By then,
Mahaprabhu had returned to the spiritual world and all the
devotees of Navadvipa had left and gone elsewhere. Because
Navadvipa now brought them all great sadness, Srivasa
Pandita, Advaita Acarya, and everyone else had left, and
Navadvipa was deserted.
A few days before Jiva’s arrival, Nityananda
Prabhu had arrived at Srivasangana from Khardaha. When Jiva
Gosvami arrived, Nityananda Prabhu was very pleased to meet
him. Nityananda prabhu placed His feet on Jiva’s head
and said, “I came here just to meet with you;
otherwise I would have stayed in Khardaha.” He showed
Jiva all the places of Mahaprabhu’s pastimes in
Navadvipa, and then showed him great mercy by ordering him
to go stay with Srila Rupa Gosvami and Srila Sanatana
Gosvami in Vrndavana.
On the way to Vrndavana, Jiva stopped in Varanasi,
where he met a disciple of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya named
Madhusudana Vacaspati who was teaching Vedanta, but not the
commentary of Sankaracarya, which was famous at that time.
Mahaprabhu had refuted that commentary when Sarvabhauma
Bhattacarya tried to teach it to Him. Madhusudana Vacaspati
was a great scholar and, having studied and understood
everything which Mahaprabhu had taught to Sarvabhauma
Bhattacarya and Srila Rupa and Sanatana Gosvamis, was
teaching it there. Jiva Gosvami went to his home and
learned all bhakti-vedanta from him. He also learned
Sankaracarya’s commentary, because without learning
it, he would have been unable to refute it. After studying
all of this and fully understanding it, he proceeded to
Vrndavana. There in Vrndavana, Sanatana Gosvami placed him
in the care of Rupa Gosvami, and he stayed near Rupa
Gosvami’s hut at the Radha-Damodara
temple.
Rupa Gosvami would read everything he was writing
to Jiva Gosvami. One day while they were in the midst of
reading together, an effulgent, elderly brahmana arrived
there. This was most likely, judging from his age and his
scholarship, Sri Vallabhacarya, who knew Rupa Gosvami from
the time Mahaprabhu was in Prayaga. He was approximately
the same age as Advaita Acarya, so Rupa Gosvami would have
been the appropriate age to have been his son. He asked,
“Rupa, what are you writing these
days?”
Hesitating a little, Srila Rupa Gosvami replied,
“I am writing a book entitled
Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu.” Vallabhacarya then picked up
the book and, turning the pages, said, “Very good, I
will look through it and correct any
errors.”
At that time Jiva Gosvami was fanning Rupa Gosvami
with a leaf from the tala tree, but when he heard
Vallabhacarya say this, he felt disturbed; according to
him, his Gurudeva was being criticized. Later when he went
to the river to fetch water, he met Vallabhacarya, who was
just finishing his midday bath. Jiva Gosvami said,
“Gosai, you said before that you would proofread the
Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu which Rupa Gosvami is writing. If you
have found any errors, precisely where are
they?”
Vallabhacarya replied, “How can you
understand, child? Have you studied Sanskrit
grammar?”
“Yes, a little.”
“Then what could you possibly
understand?”
“Still, please just show me any errors you
have detected.” When Vallabhacarya showed him an
apparent error, a fierce debate commenced between them.
Eventually Jiva Gosvami established the point so
convincingly that Vallabhacarya could neither refute it nor
give any answer.
When Vallabhacarya returned to Rupa Gosvami’s
hut, he asked, “Who was that boy who was fanning you?
He is very intelligent and extremely learned in the
scriptures.”
Very humbly and with folded hands Rupa Gosvami
replied, “He is the son of my younger brother and is
also my disciple. He does not know how to
behave.”
“No, he is a genius, and in the future he
will be very famous.”
Soon afterwards, Vallabhacarya left. When Jiva
Gosvami arrived with the water, Srila Rupa Gosvami said to
him, “You are so intolerant that you quarrel with an
elderly, scholarly brahmana who kindly proofread something
for my own good? Your behavior is unacceptable; leave
now.”
Being obliged to obey his guru, Jiva Gosvami left
Vrndavana. He went to the village of Bhayagaon to live in a
cave infested with crocodiles. There, for some days, he
remained in the cave doing bhajana and crying, feeling
bereft of his guru’s affection. He stopped eating and
taking water, and within a short time he became emaciated.
After some time, Sanatana Gosvami happened to visit that
village as he was wandering around Vraja. The local people
said to him, “Baba, we always considered you to be a
great bhajananandi (one who is absorbed in bhajana), but a
young boy who is even more of a bhajananandi than you has
come to our village. Day and night he calls out the names
of Radha-Krsna and weeps. We take him food but he refuses
it, and he never sleeps either. Day and night he remains
immersed in bhajana; we have never seen anything like
it.”
Srila Sanatana Gosvami could understand that this
was Jiva, and immediately went to him. Reunited, they both
wept. Sanatana Gosvami then took him back to Vrndavana,
where he said to Rupa Gosvami, “The duty of Vaisnavas
is to be compassionate to others, yet you renounced this
young disciple of yours who is adorned with so many
extraordinary qualities. You should be merciful to Jiva,
but instead you banished him. This was a mistake and you
should correct it. I am ordering you to quickly call him
back.”
Hearing this, Rupa Gosvami began crying for Jiva,
whom he loved so much. When Sanatana Gosvami brought Jiva
there and placed him in the lap of Rupa Gosvami, both guru
and disciple wept. Rupa Gosvami arranged for Jiva to be
treated by the best doctors from Mathura, and gradually
Jiva became strong again. From then on, their former
practice resumed with Rupa Gosvami giving whatever he wrote
to Jiva to proofread.
Later, Srila Jiva Gosvami expanded upon and
enhanced the writing of other acaryas. One such acarya,
Srila Gopala Bhatta Gosvami, had heard hari-katha directly
from Srila Rupa and Sanatana Gosvamis, who he considered to
be his siksa-gurus. While studying the writings of ancient
Vaisnava acaryas such as Madhva and Ramanuja, Gopala Bhatta
Gosvami selected different points in relation to sambandha
(establishing one’s relationship with Krsna),
abhidheya (acting in the dealings of that relationship),
and prayojana (achieving life’s ultimate goal), and
compiled everything in a notebook.
Srila Jiva Gosvami learned all of this tattva from
Gopala Bhatta Gosvami. Then, he took the volume which
contained all the information on sambandha and enlarged it.
He also took from the conceptions given in
Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, Ujjvala-nilamani,
Brhad-bhagavatamrta, and the other books composed by Rupa
and Sanatana Gosvamis, and composed the first
sandarbha.
The word sandarbha means ‘a chest of valuable
jewels.’ Of the Six Sandarbhas, the first four
– Tattva-sandarbha, Bhagavat-sandarbha,
Paramatma-sandarbha, and Krsna-sandarbha – all
expound sambandha-jnana. They include knowledge of the
jiva, the illusory energy, and the objective of the jiva;
all of this was explained in the first four
sandarbhas.
In the Tattva-sandarbha, the conception of pramana
(the body of evidence) and prameya (evidence) is given.
What is the meaning of pramana? In any issue, whose words
will we accept as authoritative? Suppose a young boy reports
that a large fire has ravaged a holy place and everything
has been burned. An elderly gentleman, however, reports
that a small fire started in a tea shop there, but was
easily contained. From these conflicting stories, whose
words will we accept as authoritative? Certainly, the
man’s words are more authoritative because he is
older and more mature than the boy.
This conception of pramana relates to many things.
Different people may assert their beliefs that this world
is real, their status as human beings or brahmanas is real,
or that they are masters of their property. All this false
identification and proprietorship causes so much fighting
and quarreling. Another man will say, “These things
are all temporary, so do not bother fighting over them.
Instead, do something for your soul and for the Supreme
Personality of Godhead; they are permanent.” Which of
these two opinions will we accept? Analyzing the
relationships between the Supreme Lord, the jiva, and
material existence, Srila Jiva Gosvami explained where we
should place our faith. He wrote that the Vedas are the
sole authority, and that any other, so-called authority
lacks credibility. That which we perceive with our limited
senses and mind may be defective, but the words of the
Vedas cannot be so.
In his Bhagavat-sandarbha, Srila Jiva Gosvami
writes that everything we see has the same source. The
Absolute Truth is one, and He is naturally endowed with
inconceivable potency. By the power of this potency, He
exists within four forms: svarupa (His original form),
tad-rupa-vaibhava (all incarnations, beginning with
Baladeva Prabhu), jiva (the living entity), and pradhana
(the illusory energy). He is like the sun which also exists
in four forms: its original form, the sun disc, its rays,
and its reflected light which is compared to
maya.
Jiva Gosvami took parts from Brahma-sandarbha and
wrote his own Bhagavat-sandarbha, in which he analyzes
brahma-tattva (the established truth about the Supreme
Spirit Whole) and refutes the opinions of Sankaracarya. The
jiva is not brahma (an impersonal God). If brahma is the
Absolute Truth, which is full in knowledge as some say,
then how did it separate into billions of living entities
and become bound within material existence? Sankaracarya
states that it was covered over by maya, but then where did
this separate entity he calls maya come from? If there is
no separate entity known as maya and all is the one brahma,
where could this other object known as ignorance have come
from? Refuting all of Sankaracarya’s concepts, Srila
Jiva Gosvami proved that Krsna is Parabrahma, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, the source of brahma.
He also analyzed paramatma-tattva, and in the
Krsna-sandarbha he explained how Krsna alone is the
original Personality of Godhead. He explained how Krsna is
all-powerful (sarva-saktiman), how He is an ocean of rasa,
how from Him the jivas and all else emerge, and how the
jivas can achieve His eternal association. He refuted the
concept that Krsna is an incarnation of Narayana. Using
evidence from the Vedas, Upanisads, and Puranas, he
established that Krsna is the original Absolute Truth, the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, and that all other
incarnations are His plenary or partial expansions. On the
basis of scriptural evidence, he reinforced
Mahaprabhu’s conception, which had been established
in the literatures of Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami. In
doing so, he established our sampradaya upon a firm
philosophical foundation. He protected the flowing river of
rasa by placing large rocks of siddhanta on both its banks;
in that way no contaminated water of misconceptions could
ever enter it.
In his Bhakti-sandarbha, he explained many subtle
aspects of bhakti. He delineated the sixty-four types of
bhakti, and he expertly explained guru-tattva. He also
described guru-padasraya, the process of taking exclusive
shelter of the guru, how it should be done, what are its
rules and regulations, and so on. If the guru carefully
evaluates the prospective disciple and the disciple
carefully considers the guru, then a circumstance will never
arise where the disciple will have to abandon his guru. He
taught that one should not accept a guru whimsically; one
should accept a guru in whom he will never lose faith,
otherwise there will be a problem. One should make sure that
he only accepts a sad-guru, who is detached from sense
enjoyment, who is conversant with all tattva and siddhanta,
who is rasika, who is spiritually realized, and who is
affectionate towards him. One should examine the guru
carefully, even if this process takes as long as a
year,
Srila Jiva Gosvami also explained that all bhakti
is not the same, just as all varieties of water are not one
and the same – there is clean water, purified water,
contaminated water, sewage water, and so forth. Jiva Gosvami
examined all these issues in depth in his sandarbhas, which
one must read in order to understand the true nature of
bhakti. Thus, by regularly hearing the knowledge delineated
in these books and by associating with advanced Vaisnavas,
one’s bhakti will gradually become uttama-bhakti.
Srila Jiva Gosvami described at length the five types of
prema (santa (neutrality), dasya (servitorship), sakhya
(friendship), vatsalya (parental love), and madhurya
(amorous love), especially emphasizing gopi-prema and
explaining the sadhana for achieving it.
Much of this came in his Gopala-campu, which is a
very philosophical book. Srila Jiva Gosvami wrote that book
in Goloka Vrndavana and then gave it to this world. He
composed so many literatures that we could spend this entire
birth immersed in reading them. Moreover, in practicing the
sadhana prescribed by them, who knows how many lives we
could spend?
If we endeavor to enter into
these books, and if we examine both the personal conduct
and conceptions of Jiva Gosvami and try to personally
follow them, our spiritual lives will certainly be
successful. May Srila Jiva Gosvami be merciful upon us so
we can learn all the instructions he gave, in order to
perform bhajana purely. -From Harikatha Newsletter
