The teaching of Srimad Bhagavat falls into three distinct parts according to the treatment of: (1) sambandha or relationship, (2) abhidheya or the function or activity that pertains to the relationship, and (3) prayojan or object or fruit of such activity.

The aphorisms of the Upanisads, which contain the highest teaching of the Vedic literature, are presented in the form of a systematic body of knowledge resolvable under the head of sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojan in the compilation of the Brahma-sutra or Vedanta. In his Sat-sandarbha, Sri Jiva Goswami has applied the same method of treatment to the contents of Srimad Bhagavat, which is admitted to be the only authentic bhasya or exposition of the Brahma-sutra.

अर्थोऽयं व्रह्यसूत्राणां भारतार्थविनिर्णयः ।
गायत्रीभाष्यरूपोऽसौ वेदार्थपरिबृंहितः ॥
artho ’yam brahma-sutranam bharatartha-vinirnayah
gayatri-bhasya-rupo ’sau vedartha-paribrmhitah
(Garuda-purana)

But the first of the six Sandarbhas, viz., the Tattva-sandarbha, applies itself to the elucidation of the epistemology of transcendental knowledge and discusses incidentally the purpose, definition, and scope of the principles of classification of the Brahma-sutra. It supplies, as it were, the key to the knowledge that is detailed in his next five Sandarbhas. It has made possible the comparative study of religion on the only admissible and scientific basis. Its main conclusions are therefore summarised in the following portions as the preliminary to the study and appreciation of the teachings of the Bhagavat. 16

Sri Krishna, the ultimate reality, is one without a second.17 Sri Krishna, the absolute integer, is distinct from His sakti18 or counter-whole moiety, including her integrated and dissociable fractional parts in their synthetic and analytic manifestation. Sri Krishna is the predominating Absolute. His sakti is the predominated Absolute in the positions of antaranga, tatastha, and bahiranga, respectively.19

Antaranga is that which pertains to the proper entity of the Absolute Person. It is also called svarup-sakti for this reason. The literal meaning of the word antaranga is «that which belongs to the inner body». Sakti is rendered as «power» or «energy».

Tatastha means literally «that which is on the indefinable border-line as between land and water». This intermediate power does not belong to any definable region of the person of Sri Krishna. It manifests itself on the border-line between the inner and the outer body of the Absolute.

The power that manifests itself on the outer body is the bahiranga-sakti. As there is no duality between the body and entity of the absolute Person, the distinctions as between the inner, outer, and marginal positions of His body are in terms of the realisation of the individual soul.

Although Sri Krishna is one without a second, He has His own multiple forms corresponding to the degree and variety of His subjective manifestations. The subjective entity of Sri Krishna is not liable to any transformation. His different forms are, therefore, distinct aspects of the one form manifesting themselves to the different aptitudes of His servitors.

But the power of Sri Krishna is, however, transformable by the supreme will of Sri Krishna Himself. These transformations of power in the cases of the antaranga- and tatastha-saktis are eternal processes. But in the case of the bahiranga-sakti, the transformations of power are temporary manifestations. The phenomenal world or rather universe is the product of the external power of Sri Krishna. The absolute realm is the transformation of the inner power. Individual souls are the transformations of the marginal power.

The conception of the parinati or substantive change is not applied to the transformations of the inner and marginal powers. It has application only to the transformations of the outer power. The eternal transformations of the inner power are called tad-rupa-vaibhava or the display of the connotation of the visible figure of divinity. Individual souls or jivas are the eternal infinitesimal emanations of the marginal power, capable of subservience to the inner power but also susceptible to dissociation from the working of the inner power.

The conception of sakti or the predominated Absolute and the transformations and products of the same is developed by Sri Ramanuja for the negative purpose of refuting the claims of the impersonalist school of kevala-advaitavad to Vedic (or more properly Upanisadic) sanction to their catchword of undifferentiated monism of Sri Ramanuja. The system of Sri Ramanuja is called visista-advaita. He shows that the unity of the Absolute is not tampered or affected by the initiative existence of His attributive connotation and its subservient activities thereof. The teaching of Sri Krishna Chaitanya, which is identical with that of Srimad Bhagavat, supplements and develops the conception of sakti of Sri Ramanuja in most important respects.

Sri Krishna is termed Advaya-jnan in Srimad Bhagavat.20 It may be rendered as absolute knowledge. Absolute knowledge, as such, cannot be challenged. He can, therefore, only be approached by the method of complete self-surrender by the reciprocal cognition of individual souls who being otherwise ineligible even for such approach.

Transcendental epistemology is differentiated from empiric epistemology in respect of relationship, function, and object on account of the reason that the former refers to entities that are located totally beyond the whole range of assertive cognitive endeavour normally exercisable by the common deluded people of the world for their temporary purposes here.

On account of the peculiarities of their infinitesimality, essentially spiritual nature, and marginal position, all individual souls have the constitutional liberty of exercising option of choice between complete subservience and active or passive hostility to Sri Krishna.

These opposed aptitudes lead them to the adoption of correspondingly different methods for the realisation of the respective ends.

Those methods that are adopted for the practice of active hostility to the Absolute are termed pratyaksa (direct individual perception) and paroksa (associated collective perception by many persons past and present) respectively.

The aparoksa method (the method of cessation from individual and collective perception) leads, however, to the position of neutrality.

The pratyaksa and paroksa methods are diametrically opposed to the methods approved by the Bhagavat for the search of the Truth.

The aproksa method also tends to an unwholesome and negative result if it seeks to stand on the mere rejection of the pratyaksa and paroksa methods without trying to progress towards the positive transcendence. Such inactive policy would indeed ultimately resolve into the practice of passive hostility to the Absolute and as such is even more condemnable than open hostility.

No method can, however, be recognised as suitable for the purpose of the quest of the Truth that is actuated more or less by the intention or actual action of ignoring, defying, or opposing the absolute supremacy of Sri Krishna. In other words, individual souls cannot realise the subjective nature of the Absolute except by the sincere exercise of their fullest subservience to Sri Krishna and His inner power.

The failure of individual souls to find the Truth is brought about by their own innate perversity. They possess perfect freedom of choice as between complete subservience to Sri Krishna and the practice of active or passive hostility to Him. There is no other alternative open to them. If they chose to refuse to serve, they have to practice hostility or indifference towards the Absolute. The perverse individual soul is not obstructed in the active exercise of his freedom of choice. He is, however, enabled to exercise the functions of hostility and indifference, within consistent deterring limits, by dint of the wonderful contrivance of the deluding power of Sri Krishna. The continued, deliberate exercise of such hostility and indifference towards the Absolute by the perverse individual soul results necessarily in the suicidal abdication of all spiritual activity by the deliberate offender.

The methods that are adopted for practising active and complete subservience to the Absolute are termed respectively as adhoksaja (external or reverential method of serving the transcendental object of worship) and aprakrta (internal or confidential method of serving the transcendental object of worship). Srimad Bhagavat inculcates and divulges the search of the Absolute by the adhoksaja and aprakrta methods. It condemns the pratyaksa and paroksa methods but recognises the proper use of the aparoksa method.

The pratyaksa, paroksa, and the passive aparoksa methods are collectively called the aroha or ascending process. The proper aparoksa, adhoksaja, and aprakrta methods constitute the avaroha or descending process. By the adoption of the ascending process, the perverse individual soul strives to bring about his suicidal end by the positive and negative perverse manipulation of mundane experience gained through direct and indirect sense perception.

On the other hand, by following the descending process the soul is enabled to strive for the realisation of the unalloyed service of the Absolute through the honest exercise of his unreserved receptive aptitude to the initiative of the Absolute when He is pleased to descend or come down to the plane of the soul’s tiny, perverse cognition.

The fruits that are realisable by the different methods of individual endeavour correspond to the particular nature of aim that is kept in view. The pratyaksa and paroksa methods aim at dharma (virtue), artha (utility), and kama (sensuous gratification). The wrong aparoksa method aims at pseudo-moksa (annihilation). The right aparoksa method aims at positive transcendence. The adhoksaja method aims at bhakti or reverential transcendental service towards the Absolute. The aprakrita method has in view the realisation of prema or divine love.

Pure theism begins with the first appearance of the positive desire for the service of the Absolute, who is located beyond the range of our sensuous activity.21 It involves the clear perception of the fact that exercise of all empiric activity is nothing but the deliberate practice of perverse hostility against the absolute supremacy of Sri Krishna.

The world adhoksaja, which is applied in Srimad Bhagavat to the object of worship, refers to the fact that Sri Krishna has reserved the right of not being exposed to human senses. The theistic methods alone thus become ineligible to apply to the approach and realisation of proper entity of the Absolute.

Those who are in rebellion against the supremacy of Sri Krishna on account of their adoption of sensuous activity are prevented from all access to His presence through the operation of the deluding power of Krishna. The individual soul is always susceptible to being thus deluded by maya (the limiting or measuring potency). These effects and resulting conditions ensuing from the practice of sensuous activities in this mundane realm of finite existence are produced and provided by maya for purpose of correction of the suicidal perversity of rebellious souls.

It is in this manner that a person who is averse to the service of Sri Krishna is made to proceed along the tracks of karma and jnan by the ascending process for gaining the bitter experience of such practice of perverse hostility to Sri Krishna and his own self. This world is inhabited by persons who are deliberately addicted to this suicidal course. They are unconditionally committed to the ascending process for sojourn in this realm of nescience. The method is further characterised by the hypocritical assumption of the validity of experience derived through the senses for providing progressive guidance in the quest of a state of perfect felicity.

The method of quest in which the Truth Himself takes the initiative in revealing Himself is termed as the avaroha or descending process. The individual soul can have no access to the Absolute by reason of his infinitesimality, dissociable marginal position, and his own nature as tiny emanation of power. He can, however, have the view of the Truth only when the Absolute is pleased to manifest His descent to the very plane of his tiny cognition.

Real theism cannot begin till the individual soul is enabled by the manifestation of the descent of the Absolute to have the opportunity for His service. The Absolute manifests His descent in the form of the Name or the transcendental divine sound on the lips of His pure devotees. Diksa or the communication of the knowledge of the transcendental in the form of the sound to the submissive receptive cognition of the individual soul by authorised agents of the Absolute is the Vedic mode of initiation into transcendental knowledge.

The Name is the object of worship of all pure souls. The transcendental service of the Name, or bhakti, is the proper function of all souls and the only mode of quest of the Truth.

The pursuit of this right method of quest leads to a growing perfection of bhakti and progressive realisation of the subjective nature of the object of worship. Srimad Bhagavat uses the pregnant phrase «really real thing» (vastava-vastu)22 to denote the entity whose service is realisable by and in the right method of quest. Srimad Bhagavat accordingly distinguishes between apparent and real truth that is experienced respectively by the followers of the ascending and descending methods of quest.23 It admits the existence of apparent truth and the followers of apparent truth alongside real truth and the servitors of the real truth.24

The true conception of the Absolute is realised by following the right method of quest. The ultimate reality is termed in the Sattvata-sastras as Brahma, Paramatma, and Bhagavan.25

The Brahma conception stresses the necessity of excluding the deluded, concrete, limited experience of the followers of apparent truth.

The conception of Paramatma seeks to establish a tangible connection between this temporal world and the ultimate reality.

Both of these conceptions present not only an imperfect but also grossly misleading view of the Absolute. The conception of Bhagavan as transcendental personality, who is approachable by suddha-bhakti or unalloyed devotion of the soul, corresponds to the complete realisation of the Absolute which, necessarily, also accommodates and supplements the rival conceptions of Brahma and Paramatma.

The comparative view of the three conceptions is clearly stated in a passage of the kadachas of Svarup Damodar quoted in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrta (1.1.3). It is also stated by Sri Jiva Goswami in Tattva-sandarbha (8).

The Brahma conception is misunderstood by exclusive monists (kevala-advaita of the Sankar school) who quite disingenuously assume that such conception denied the transcendental personality and figure of the Absolute. The root of the error lies in the apprehension of the impersonalist school that this sort of admission of concreteness in the Absolute will result in the importation of the undesirable features of apparent truth, experienced in the methods of sensuous perception, into the transcendental conception of the absolute reality favoured by the scriptures.

The method of suddha-bhakti, while recognising fully the necessity of admitting the transcendental nature of the ultimate reality, does not at all deny the immanent and transcendent connection of the Absolute with manifest mundane existence. This sort of connection is also sought to be recognised in a wrong and offensive way in the conception of Paramatma by the yogis. However, the conception of Bhagavan realised by the process of suddha-bhakti harmonises these respective requirements as mere secondary features of the proper transcendental personality of the Absolute. The adhoksaja and aprakrta methods of quest alone can tend to such realisation.

Sambandha or relationship implies a numerical reference. The ultimate reality is one without a second, although the aspects of the Absolute may prove different in different eyes. The unity of the ultimate reality carries a similarity to the integer of mathematical conception; denoting Himself as the object of worship (Sri Krishna) and connoting His sakti in her three aspects and her transformations and products.

Under relationship, therefore, come all those parts of the teaching of the Bhagavat that reveal the knowledge of the subjective nature of Sri Krishna, the subjective nature of His sakti or power in all her three aspects, and also the subjective nature of the activities of the different aspects of power.

Under abhidheya or function are included all those parts of the teaching of Srimad Bhagavat which reveal the nature of transcendental worship and, negatively, that of the activity of aversion to Sri Krishna.

Under proyojan or fruit are included those portions of the teaching of Srimad Bhagavat that deal with prema or spiritual love and negatively with dharma (virtue), artha (material utility), kama (lust), and moksa (merging into the Absolute).

These definitions of relationship, function, and fruit are supplied by Sri Jiva Goswami in his Tattva-sandarbha as a preliminary to his comparative treatment of the theme of the Srimad Bhagavat under those respective heads. The conception of relationship, function, and fruit differs in the case of the followers of the different methods of search of the truth.

The epistemological considerations detailed above on the lines of the study of Sri Jiva Goswami can alone enable us to understand, in any rational form, the genesis of the misconceptions that have been engendered by empiric thinking about the nature of the divine personality (Purusottam) that is revealed in the Upanisads and, in an unambiguous form, in Srimad Bhagavat.

Srimad Bhagavat targets the acme of personality (Purusottam) in Sri Krishna.26 The worship of Sri Krishna is the only full-fledged, unadulterated function of all souls; the only complete theistic worship. All other forms of worship represent the infinity of gradations of approach towards this complete worship.

Pure theism, involving active reciprocal relationship of the soul with divinity, does not begin till there is actual realisation of the transcendental personality of Bhagavan Sri Krishna. The degree of this realisation corresponds to that of the loving aptitude of His worship. The proper figure of Sri Krishna (Svayam-rupa) is identical with the entity of Krishna and is one without a second. There is an infinity of aspects of the divine figure that emanate from the figure-in-Himself (Svayam-rupa). These plural aspects of the divine figure are of the nature of identities, manifestations, expansions, plenary parts, plenary parts of parts, and descending divinities (Avatars). These divine aspects, who are part and parcel of Divinity in His fullness, are worshipped by the corresponding aptitudes of love of Their respective worshippers.

Sri Krishna is possessed of infinite power (sakti). Three aspects of His sakti are distinguishable by the individual soul.27 These three aspects are svarup-sakti, jiva-sakti, and maya-sakti.

The Power of Sri Krishna stands to Him in the attributive reference. The personality of Sakti is, therefore, that of the counter-whole of the Absolute in Her three aspects and their transformations. The relationship of service subsists between Sri Krishna and His Power in all of Her aspects and transformations. The infinite aspects of the divine personality Himself, emanating from the figure-in-Himself (Svayam-rupa), are related to Sri Krishna as servitor Divinities who are possessors of Power.

These divine persons show an order of classification into the categories of Svayam-prakas (manifestation-in-Himself), Tad-ekatma-rupa (essentially identical figure) and Avesa-rupa (the figure of divine superimposition). Of these, Svayam-prakas is, as it were, the other self of Svayam-rupa and is also One without a second. Tad-ekatma-rupa and Avesa-rupa are multifarious. The account of the divine personality in all His aspects is detailed in Brhad-bhagavatamrta of Sri Sanatan Goswami summarised in Chaitanya-charitamrta (Madhya-lila, 20.165–374). Each of these divine persons possesses His own absolute realm (Vaikuntha) where He is served by the infinity of His servitors. These Vaikunthas transcend the countless worlds of finite existence constituting the realm of the deluding power (maya).

Sri Krishna is possessed of sixty-four divine excellences (aprakrta gunas). Sri Narayan, the supreme object of reverential worship, possesses sixty of the full perfections of divine excellence. Brahma and Rudra, who wield the delegated powers of mundane creation and destruction, possess fifty-five excellences but not in their full divine measure. Individual souls (jivas) possess fifty of the excellences of Krishna in an infinitesimal measure.28 These concrete details are revealed by the Puranas and elaborated in the works of the Goswamis.

The clue to the supreme excellence of the Personality of Sri Krishna is supplied by the principle of rasa which is defined by Sri Rupa as «that ecstatic principle of concentrated deliciousness that is tasted by Sri Krishna and in sequel reciprocated by the serving individual soul on the plane that transcends mundane thought».29 Sri Krishna is the figure-in-Himself of the whole compass of the nectarean principle of rasa (Akhila-rasamrta-murti).30 The figure of Krishna excels all other aspects of the divine personality by being the supreme repository of all the rasas.31

The supreme possessor of power, Sri Krishna, is inseparably coupled with His antaranga-sakti or power inhering in His own proper Figure. Srimad Bhagavat refers to the service of a particular gopi (lit., one who is fully eligible for the service of Sri Krishna) being preferred by Sri Krishna to those of all the other gopis.32 In other words, the svarup- or antaranga-sakti is one and all-perfect. She is the «predominated Absolute.» She has her own specific figure, viz., that of Sri Radhika. The two aspects of svarup-sakti, namely, tatastha-sakti and maya- or bahiranga-sakti, reveal themselves in the intermediate and outer regions of the divine figure. Jivas or individual souls are detachable infinitesimal emanations of the tatastha-sakti, sharing the essence of the plenary spiritual power. Individual souls appear on the border-line between the inner and outer zones of divine power. They have no locus standi in their nascent or tatastha state. They are eternally exposed to the opposite attractions of svarup-sakti and maya-sakti at the two poles. Their proper affinity is with svarup-sakti, but they are susceptible to be overpowered by maya-sakti, at their option. If they choose to be the subservient to maya-sakti, they are subjected to ignorance of their proper nature which results in confirmed aversion to the service of Sri Krishna. In this manner is brought about the deluded condition of individual souls who sojourn in the realm of maya. The constitutions of individual souls in their nascent state and the realm of maya are comparable to the outer penumbral and shadowy zones respectively of the sun, while the position of antaranga-sakti is like the inner ball of light which is the proper abode of the sun-god who corresponds to Sri Krishna.

Individual souls are detachable infinitesimal emanations of the marginal power located on the borderline and exposed to the opposite pulls of svarup- and maya-saktis. They are distinct from the plenary emanations, manifestations, and multiples of svarup-sakti on the one hand and from the products of maya-sakti on the other.

The individual soul in his nascent marginal position is confronted with the alternative of choice between subservience to the plenary power on the one hand and apparent domination over the deluding power on the other. When he chooses the latter alternative, he forgets his relationship of subservience to the inner power and his subservience to Sri Krishna through such subservience. It is never possible for the conditioned soul to understand the nature of the service of Sri Krishna that is rendered by His inner power. There is, therefore, categorical distinction between the function of individual souls and of the inner power even on the plane of service. Superficial readers of the commentary of Sridhar Swami on the Bhagavat are liable to miss the importance of this distinction which has not been explicitly stated by the commentator. If any person is led to suppose the function of individual souls to be identical with that of the inner power on the strength of the brevity of Sridhar, he is liable to fall into the error of philanthropism.

Neither should Sridhar Swami be regarded as belonging to the school of exclusive monism, which is the contention of certain scholars of the impersonalistic school. Sridhar Swami has described, with true esoteric insight, the functions of Rama and other extensions of the figure Sri Radhika, the plenary inner power, in his commentary on the Bhagavat. He is the authoritative commentator of the eternal lila of the divine personality in His different aspects and Avatars.33 Sridhar Swami belongs historically to the school of Visnu Swami, the propounder of the school of suddha-advaita, and professes unalloyed devotion to Nrsimha Visnu.

The reticence of Sridhar Swami has been supplied by the achintya-bhedabheda system propounded by Mahaprabhu Sri Krishna Chaitanya. In the works of Sri Rupa, Sanatan, Jiva, and Krishnadas Kaviraj and the commentaries of Sri Visvanath Chakravarti, the subject of the working of the inner power and individual souls has been treated in all its details in pursuance of the achintya-bhedabheda doctrine. This constitutes the most distinctive contribution of Gaudiya–Vaisnavism to the cause of pure theism. The clue to the comparative study of the working of power on the transcendental plane is supplied by the account of the Rasa dance in Srimad Bhagavat. The system of suddha-advaita is not incompatible with Gaudiya–Vaisnavism in spite of its reticence on this particular aspect. Neither Ramanuja nor Madhva has treated the subject of the functioning of power in such elaborate manner.

When the individual soul chooses the alternative of unreserved subservience to the inner power, he has access to the service of the untampered personality of the Absolute. The kaivalya state,34 mentioned in Srimad Bhagavat, is the state of unalloyed devotion to the untampered personality of the Absolute. This is also explained in that sense in Sridhar Swami’s commentary. This unalloyed service, which was promulgated by the school of Visnu Swami to which Sridhar Swami belongs, forms the basis of the teaching of Srimad Bhagavat.

Execlusive monists imagine that the figure of the object of worship exists only in the mundane world, and that in the final position, there is also no activity of worship. In other words, they deny the possibility of the lila or the eternal transcendental activities of Sri Krishna. Srimad Bhagavat flatly denies this groundless contention in the most explicit terms.35 There is total absence of all mundane reference in the transcendental activity of suddha-bhakti. Exclusive monists deny the possibility of the total absence of all mundane reference in transcendental manifestation. It is absurd to class Sridhar Swami, who is the standard commentator of transcendental lila described in Srimad Bhagavat, with the exclusive monists who deny the very possibility of transcendental activity.

The word activity is not expressive of lila. It corresponds to kriya or mundane activity. Transcendental activity has neither beginning nor end. There is, of course, relativity in lila, but it is not the unwholesome relativity of mundane activity or kriya. The notion that lila can have an end or termination is due to ignorant confusion between the conceptions of lila and kriya. Suddha-bhakti belongs to the category of lila. In Vrndavan, the gopis serve Sri Krishna by unconventional amorous love. The super-excellence of this service cannot be admitted if the absolutely wholesome nature of all unalloyed activity on the plane of Vraja is disbelieved on principle by one’s ignorant perverse judgment.

The function of conditioned souls is of two kinds. The function that is provided by the varnasram system for conditioned souls is not opposed to suddha-bhakti. Srimad Bhagavat has treated the varnasram system from the point of view of unalloyed devotion. Thereby it has provided an intelligent way of viewing the situation of conditioned souls during their sojourn to the mundane world. The spiritual value of the varnasram system is due to the fact that it admits the possibility of the activity of conditioned souls being endowed with reflected spiritual quality by being directed towards the unalloyed service of the Absolute on the transcendental plane. It is the purpose of the varnasram regulation to impart this direction to the activity of conditioned souls. The crucial nature of this theistic purpose of the varnasram arrangement is fully treated in Srimad Bhagavat.36 It is not explicitly treated in any other sastric work.

Mahaprabhu Sri Krishna Chaitanya is the great exponent of the unalloyed spiritual function of all souls in its highest developed state. His teaching is identical with that of Srimad Bhagavat. It is in agreement with the principle of kaivalya of suddha-advaita school to which Sridhar Swami belongs. But the kaivalya (exclusivism) of the Bhagavat is wholly different from the conception of merging into the Brahma of impersonalistic kevala-advaitavad.

The nature of the eternal function of all unalloyed individual souls has been indicated above. The Bhagavat (1.2.6) declares bhakti or service of the adhoksaja (transcendental) Bhagavan (absolute person possessed of all attributes) as the function of all individual souls in their pure spiritual state. The Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu states that function of suddha-bhakti is uncontaminated with mundane intellectual, utilitarian, ethical, or unethical activity.37 Suddha-bhakti is the only proper function of all unalloyed individual souls and is located on the plane of transcendence. But all animation is potentially eligible for the transcendental service of the Absolute.38 The Visnu-purana states that conduct, enjoined by varnasram system, derives all of its value from the fact that its only object is the spiritual service of Visnu.39

Bhagavat (11.17–18) distinguishes between the function the paramahamsa and the activities of conditioned souls enjoined by the varnasram system. Varnasram life is not the unalloyed spiritual life that is led by fully liberated souls. It is the stage preparatory to such life. Neither is it on a par with the life of unmixed sensuousness that is led by people outside the varnasram society. Every form of activity of conditioned souls outside the varnasram system is inspired by meaningless malicious hostility towards the Absolute. All such activity is necessarily atheistic. This mundane world is the congenial sphere for the practice of the deluded dominating activity that is coveted by conditioned souls for practising active aversion towards the Absolute. The conditions for such activity are supplied by the deluding power. They constitute the realm of nescience, spiritual ignorance or achit. But as soon as the activity of chit, or uneclipsed cognition, is aroused in the spiritual essence of the misguided soul, it dissipates by its appearance such wrong addiction to the ignorant activities of this world and also the susceptibility of being tempted by the deluding power.

There is no common ground between unalloyed spiritual function and the activity of conditioned souls in the grip of nescience. The one does not dovetail into the other. It is for this reason that the unalloyed spiritual function can never be understood by the resources of the archaeologists, historians, allegorists, philosophers, etc., of this world. Such empiric speculations tamper the transcendental personality of the Absolute. They belong to the realm of nescience and constitute the active denial of the entity of the Absolute. By indulging in such speculations, our spiritual nature is deprived of its proper function.

Conduct enjoined by the varnasram system is calculated to counteract the inherent atheistical trend of all worldly activities which are unavoidable in the conditioned state. The distinction between the deliberate atheistical activity of misguided souls, the guided activity of persons belonging to varnasram society, and the unalloyed spiritual function of fully liberated souls or paramahamsas is hinted in such texts as Mundaka (3.1–2), Svetasvatara-upanisad (4.6.7), Bhagavat (11.11.6).

Activities that are prompted by the urge for sensuous enjoyment create the discordant diversity of this world. One who is addicted to worldly enjoyment has a deluded way of looking at everything. When such a person is established in the proper activity of his unalloyed spiritual nature towards his transcendental Master, the only recipient of all willing service in the eternal world, the true view of everything is revealed to his serving vision. There can be no ignorance and misery if the world is viewed aright.

The urge for sensuous enjoyment expresses itself in the institutions of family and society of worldly-minded persons. They are the traps of the deluding energy. But these very traps are used as instruments of service of the Absolute by the awakened soul. The hymns of the Bhagavat always reveal the eternal service of the Absolute on the highest plane, identical with the personality of Sri Gaursundar, to the enlightened soul. I may refer in this connection to the interpretation of the Bhagavat that has been supplied by the commentaries of the Gaudiya–Vaisnava school. We read in those commentaries that the hymns of Bhagavat (11.5.33–34) which seem to be in praise of Sri Ramachandra as the ideal monogamous husband are in praise of Sri Krishna Chaitanya. This is not an instance of twisting the meaning of a text to suit the whim of the commentator. The language of Srimad Bhagavat reveals its true meaning only to the enlightened soul. That meaning is very different from what even the most renowned linguists may suppose it to be in their blind empiric vanity.

The Bhagavat gives the highest position to the service of Sri Krishna by the gopis (spiritual milkmaids of Vrndavan). In its account of the Rasa dance (circular amorous dance), it gives the clue to the distinctive nature of the services of Sri Radhika and other milkmaids.40

Sri Krishna is served by Sri Radhika by Herself and simultaneously by Her multiple bodily forms in the shapes of the residents of Vraja. The services of the other milkmaids, of Nanda and Yasoda, of Sridama and Sudama, of all the associates and servitors of Krishna in Vraja are part and parcel of the service of Sri Radhika. Sri Gurudev belongs to this inner group of the servitors. He is the divine manifested entity for disclosing the forms and activities of all eternal servitors of Sri Krishna. The function of Sri Gurudev is a fundamental fact in the lila of Vraja where Sri Krishna is served as the emporium of all the rasas. The servitors of Vraja minister to the gratification of the senses of Krishna in every way. Sri Gurudev is the divine exciting agent of the serving activity of Vraja.

The nature of transcendental Vraja-lila is liable to be misunderstood by the empiric study of the Bhagavat. The limit of empiric inference is reached by the speculations of the paroksa method. By the abandonment of empiricism, represented by the aparoksa method, the Brahma and Paramatma conceptions are realised. But these also are not objects of worship. We have already seen that the activity of service is possible only on the plane of the adhoksaja, which yields the realisation of the majestic personality of the Absolute as Sri Narayan. Aprakrta Vraja-lila, the central topic of the Bhagavat, is the highest form of adhoksaja realisation.

The dalliances of Sri Krishna in Vraja have a close resemblance to unconventional mundane amour. Sexuality, in all its forms, is an essentially repulsive affair on the mundane plane. It is, therefore, impossible to understand how the corresponding transcendental activity can be the most exquisitely wholesome service of the Absolute. It is, however, possible to be reconciled, to some extent, to the truth of the narrative of the Bhagavat if we are prepared to admit the reasonableness of the doctrine that the mundane world is the unwholesome reflection of the realm of the Absolute and that this world appears in a scale of values that is the reverse of that which it obtains in reality, of which it happens to be the shadow.

In the form of the narrative of the Bhagavat, the transcendental Vraja-lila manifests its descent to the plane of our mundane vision in the symbolic shapes resembling those of the corresponding mundane events. If we are disposed, for any reason, to underestimate the transcendental symbolism of the narrative of the Bhagavat, we are unable to avoid unfavourable and hasty conclusions regarding the nature of the highest, the most perfect, and the most charming form of the loving service of Divinity to which all other forms of his service are as the avenues of approach.

Sexuality symbolises the highest attraction and the acme of deliciousness of transcendental service. In the amorous performances of Vraja, the secrets of the eternal life are exhibited in their uncovered perfection in the activity of the love of unalloyed souls.

We may notice, in passing, certain significant differences that should prevent any hasty conclusions between Sri Krishna’s armorous dalliances and mundane sex activity. In Vraja-lila, Sri Krishna is under the age of eleven years. The spiritual milkmaids never conceive and bear children to Sri Krishna.41 The children born of Sri Krishna belong to the less perfect lila of Dvaraka. To suppose it to be the product of anthropomorphic speculation is the greatest offence against the divine lila. The Bhagavat declares the realisation of the true nature of the Vraja-lila, in pursuance of the srauta method, as the only remedy of all conditioned souls afflicted with the disease of mundane sexuality.

The conventions of civilised society for the regulation of sexual relationship attain their ethical perfection in the varnasram arrangement. A person belonging to the varnasram society can readily appreciate the transparent moral purity of life on the plane of Vaikuntha and Ayodhya, although he cannot understand their esoteric nature. In those realms, Godhead poses as the ideal monogamous husband. Ethical restrictions of sex relationship that are imposed at Ayodhya by the form of the monogamous marriage are relaxed at Dvaraka where the Absolute manifests His fuller personality and appears in the guise of the polygamous husband. The conventions of marriage are abrogated in Vrndavan where the sanctity of wedlock becomes secondary and a foil to the amorous exploits of Sri Krishna in His fullest manifestation.

The spiritual function in its unalloyed form has a real correspondence to mundane activity with the distinction that its objective mode of activity and instrumental are unalloyed spirit. This makes the inconceivable difference between spiritual function and mundane activity. It also supplies a kind of explanation of the fact that the activities in Vraja corresponding to the most wholesome performances on the mundane plane are, comparatively speaking, the least pleasing in the sight of Sri Krishna.

The sole object of all spiritual activity is gratification of the senses of Sri Krishna. When Sri Krishna is pleased, His servitors experience unmixed joy. This is the reverse of what happens in this world. Activity that yields enjoyment to the person indulging in the same alone possesses attraction on the mundane plane. But such selfish pleasure is never coveted on the plane of spiritual service. The plane of mundane sensuous enjoyment is thereby sharply differentiated from that of spiritual service in respect of the quality and orientation of their respective activities. Desire for mundane enjoyment is potentially, but uncongenially, inherent in the soul, and it can be cultivated at his option. The practice of it, however, leads to the abeyance of his truly natural serving function. Modern civilisation does not suspect its own degradation in seeking exclusively for mundane enjoyment. The mind and body of man have a natural aptitude for sensuous gratification, and all his ordinary mundane activities are practised for its realisation.

For this reason very few people in this world can grasp the significance of the statement of the Bhagavat and other spiritual scriptures that the unalloyed essence of the soul has a natural aptitude for the exclusive service of the Absolute which is utterly incompatible with mundane sensuous living.

In the transcendental service of the Absolute, the aptitude, form, as well as ingredients are uncovered, absolutely wholesome living reality. In this complete uncovering of the proper nature of a person by the perfection of his serving function, he is enabled to realise fully the abiding interests of his real entity. Such unconditional submissive activity towards the Absolute is also necessarily identical with the realisation of the perfect freedom of the soul expressing itself in the highest forms of his serving activity.

In the position of complete realisation of the activity of the uncovered soul, a person becomes eligible for participation in the transcendental Pastimes or lila of Sri Krishna (SB: 1.7.10, and Sridhar’s commentary on the same). The realisation of this all-absorbing love for Sri Krishna is the fruit or prayojan of the eternal spiritual activities of all pure souls.

Sri Krishna is directly served by His plenary inner power as His only consort. The residents of Vraja, the plane of this inner service, are extensions of the figure of the plenary divine Power. They are the divine participants in the divine Pastimes, as all those entities display the nature of the full servitorship of Divinity. Not so the souls of men, all of whom are susceptible to the temptations offered by the deluding face of the plenary Power for preventing the access of the non-residents of Vraja to the arena of the divine Pastimes. We, the sojourners of this mundane plane, have been thus kept out of the plane of Vraja by the deluding face of the divine Power.

Individual souls who are not part and parcel of the inner plenary power have no automatic access to the plane of Vraja. They are also lacking in spontaneous love for Sri Krishna. It is possible for them to attain to the love of Sri Krishna only as accepted subservients of the inhabitants of Vraja.

The first appearance of the spontaneous loving aptitude for Sri Krishna in an individual soul elevates him to the condition of the madhyam-bhagavat (mediocre servant of Sri Krishna) as distinct from the condition of the mahabhagavat who possesses love for Sri Krishna in the plenary measure which makes him eligible for participating as a subservient of the servitors of Vraja in the loving activities of the highest sphere of service.

In proportion, as the hesitant, reverential, serving disposition of the madhyam-bhagavat is gradually developed by the practice of pure service unto one of subservience to the inhabitants of Vraja in their unconventional performances of the highest loving services of Sri Krishna, such hesitation and distance are superseded by growing confidence and proximity to the object of one’s highest love. Thereby the spiritual vision is perfected in conformity with the natural capacity of an individual, and he is enabled to realise the full function of his specific spiritual self.

Goloka Vrndavan is realisable in the symbolic Vrndavan that is open to our view in this world by all persons whose love has been perfected by the mercy of the inhabitants of transcendental Vraja and not otherwise. The grossest misunderstanding of the subject of the Vraja-lila of Sri Krishna is inevitable if these considerations are not kept in view. All persons under the sinister influence of the deluding power of nescience are subject to such misunderstanding in one form or another. They are fated to see nothing but a mundane tract of country in the terrestrial (bhauma) Vrndavan and the practice of the grossest forms of debauchery in the Vraja Pastimes of Sri Krishna.

But the true esoteric vision of the mahabhagavat is very different from realisation of deluded humanity. It is described in Bhagavat (10.35.9) and sequel, and also in Chaitanya-charitamrta (Madhya-lila, 17–55).

«When He (Sri Krishna Chaitanya) catches sight of a wood, it appears to Him in the likeness of Vrndavan; when He looks at a hill, He mistakes it for Govardhan.»

 


16 SB: 10.14.3, 10.14.29, 10.2.32, 10.14.4, 11.20.31, 1.2.6. Brs: 1.1.9–10.

17 SB: 1.3.28. Cc: Adi, 5.142.

18 SB: 1.18.19.

19 Su: 1.3, 1.16, 4.5. Bg: 4.6, 7.4–5, 9.8–10. SB: 2.9.33, 2.15.13. Vp: 1.12.69, 6.7.61. Cc: Madhya, 20.252–257.

20 SB: 1.2.11.

21 SB: 1.2.6.

22 SB: 1.1.2.

23 SB: 2.9.33.

24 SB: 10.30.24.

25 SB: 1.2.11.

26 SB: 1.3.28.

27 Su: 1.3, 1.16, 4.5. Vp: 6.7.61.

28 Cc: Madhya, 23.65–80. Brs: 2.11.25.

29 Brs: 2.5.79.

30 SB: 10.43.17.

31 Brs: 1. 2.32.

32 SB: 10.30.24.

33 SB: 1.7.10, and Sridhar’s commentary on the same.

34 SB: 1.7.23.

35 SB: 1.7.10.

36 SB: 12.13.18.

37 Brs: 1.1.9.

38 SB: 1.2.6., Brs: 1.2.33.

39 Vp: 3.8.9.

40 10.30.24.

41 SB: 10.29.


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