Jagat
-
Posts
875 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Downloads
Gallery
Events
Store
Posts posted by Jagat
-
-
Maitreyaji,
Jiva's argument is that samriddhimat sambhoga only takes place in the prakata lila.
Satyarajji,
Perhaps we can return to this question when the article is finished. As I said before, this article is not really meant to defend Jiva's position, it is merely to establish what his position is.
Kailasji,
If Mahaprabhu is milita-tanu, then how can he always be in separation? He is always in union!
-
Dear Dasanudasji,
I was thinking much the same thing. In effect, who cares what the conclusion is? We get to look at all these beautiful verses. If the readers here have a copy of Prabodhananda's Chaitanya Chandramrita, please take it out and relish each verse as it is being refered to. It will increase your pleasure immeasurably. You will have sukham aparyAptam.
-
<center>LESSON FIVE
VERSE 10
aparyAptaM tad asmAkaM
balaM bhISmAbhirakSitam |
paryAptaM tv idam eteSAM
balaM bhImAbhirakSitam ||10||</center>
ANVAYA: tat asmAkam balam bhISmAbhirakSitam aparyAptam | eteSAm balam idam tu bhImAbhirakSitam paryAptam |
GRAMMATICAL COMMENTS:
<font color=#5F9F9F> (1) asmAkam “our” and eteSAm “their.” These are both genitive plural, but different from the familiar AnAM. eteSAm is the customary form found in all pronouns yeSAm, teSAm, keSAm, sarveSAm, but asmAkam, you’re just going to have to get used to. Of course, “your” in the plural is yuSmAkam. One thing to notice I, we, you (both singular and plural) have no gender. Thank Krishna for that.
(2) tat and idam. There are two words for this etat and idam, two words for that tat and adaH (as in pUrNam adaH pUrNam idaM. What’s the difference. Not much, really. But if you are really being demonstrative, “this thing here” or “that thing there”, you would really go with idam and adaH. If you are using a relative clause in a sentence, you must go with tat or, very much less frequently, etat. The same thing with the other pronouns – “he” can be saH or eSaH (if it’s this guy right here) ayam and asau (this and that fellow) and iyam and asau in the feminine.
tat has an adverbial usage also. Here, in this verse, it seems to mean something more like tataH or “so.”
(3) tu (which here, by vowel sandhi has become tv). I have deliberately not discussed this particle, which is usually translated “but.” It often cannot be translated so easily. It basically presents some kind of contrast, but it is not necessarily so straighforward as “but” or “nevertheless”. You would never start a sentence with tu, and it nearly always applies to the word preceding it. So in this sentence, the contrast is clearly between the words aparyAptam and aparyAptam.
Sanskrit uses word order a lot to indicate emphasis of meaning. Since word order is not as rigid as in English.
The sandhi rule here is that u or U followed by any vowel other than u or U becomes v.
What happens if u or U are followed by u or U? They become U. The same thing happens with a and i.
(4) bhISmAbhirakSitam and bhImAbhirakSitam are compound words. These are tRtIya-tat-puruSa compounds. The second element is governed by the first, which is understood to be in the instrumental (tRtIya) case (the “by” case). So a commentator would gloss bhISmeNa abhirakSitam, “protected (all around -- abhi) by Bhishma.”
Another sandhi rule, an easy vowel sandhi rule: When a or A is followed by a or A, they join to become A. But I’ll bet you already knew that one. (See #3 above_
(5) paryAptam and abhirakSitam are both past participles. Ap is a pretty common verb, Apnoti, Apta, etc., pop up frequently. It means “obtain, attain, get.” paryApta means “reached its limits” or “limited.” This is why there is quite a difference of opinion about their meaning. Is Duryodhana saying that his forces are unlimitedly great, or that they have not reached a sufficient amount to whip the Pandavas? Duryodhana is confused and his words have double meaning.
6. Do I need to tell you that balam is a neuter noun in the nominative case, and that everything else -- idaM, bhISmAbhirakSitaM, paryAptam, etc., are all "in apposition" or "in agreement" with balam, describing or modifying it? Good, I am glad to see we're starting to get some of the basics down.</font>
So, what do we have? “So (tat) our (asmAkaM) forces (balaM) protected by Bhishma (bhISmAbhirakSitam) are unlimited [or insufficient] (aparyAptaM). Their (eteSAM) forces (balaM) here before us (idam) on the other hand (tu) protected by Bhima (bhImAbhirakSitam) are limited [or sufficient] (paryAptaM).<small><font color=#f7f7f7>
[This message has been edited by Jagat (edited 07-11-2001).]
-
<h3>2.5 Samrddhimat sambhoga</h3>
Samrddhimat sambhoga is defined by Rupa as follows:
<blockquote>When due to separation forced upon them by external forces over which they have no control, a couple are long unable to see one another, the extreme experience of pleasure [they experience upon union] is called "completely fulfilled happiness".(48)</blockquote>
Jiva draws attention to the word paratantrya, and draws out the implication that the enjoyment of this highest state of union (upabhogatireka) commences with such a sense of helplessness, which is not a prerequisite in the other types of separation. The union that follows implies the resultant dissipation of this helplessness. He points to Rupa's own description of the svakiya heroines (UN 3.5), the wives in Dvaraka, who are stated expressly to serve Krishna daily, a-para-tantrah, in complete independence. But since the queens never know this state of helplessness, neither can they experience the great joy that comes after being separated due to “external forces over which they have no control.” For again, “not without separation can union reach its fulfillment.”
The objection may be raised that the gopis cannot experience samrddhimat because, due to being parakiya, they could never be free from subjection to external forces. The meeting at Kurukshetra could not have instanced the samrddhimat sambhoga because the gopis' lack of freedom was not removed at that time. But if deprived of this ultimate joyful experience, which exceeds that of all the types of separation or union, how could they be considered supreme amongst all those loved by Krishna? Jiva says that it is to avert such incorrect conclusions that Rupa wrote his play Lalita-madhava and cited it here in UN to give instances of samrddhimat sambhoga (7.8 for Radha, 8.10 for Krishna).(49)
In other words, the experience of union is defined in terms of separation. Without separation, union becomes devoid of meaning. Thus, though Rupa pays lip-service to the state of eternal union, he shows his preference for Krishna's comings and goings in the material world. The reason for this is that there is a surfeit of esthetic pleasure to be had in the variety of experiences undergone there. This includes not only the experience of birth, growing up, falling in love with the gopis, meeting them for the first time, etc., but even the pains of separation itself, which are pleasurable because of the periodic experiences of sphurti, avirbhava and finally, the various kinds of actual union including ultimately the samrddhimat.(50)
Jiva therefore says in KrishnaS that subsequent to their ascension into the supreme heaven of Goloka, the Vrajavasins continue not only to remain absorbed in identities that are formed by the constructs of the prakata-lila, but take pleasure in remembering activities engaged in during its course.(51) There is a potency in the variety of the separation and union experienced at that time that is not found in the aprakata-lila, and that continues to be a source of charm to the residents of the divine realm,(52) though they never wish for it to happen again.(53)
No doubt, the picture of the residents of Goloka, absorbed in hearing about the activities of the incarnation inspired Jiva to conceive the form taken by GC. This image would of course have no meaning if the Vrajavasins got no esthetic pleasure from hearing about the activities of Krishna's (and their own) incarnation. It is no accident then, that the prayer of Brahma quoted above is found amongst Jiva's first quotations at the beginning of Purva-campu, as well as being the last at the end of Uttara-campu.
<hr><font color=#9F5f9F>
NOTES
48. UN 15.207;
durlabha-lokayor yUnoH pAratantryAd viyuktayoH/
upabhogAtireko yaH kIrtyate sa samRddhimAn//
49. The latter of these verses is also quoted in GC i.33.319.
50. Krishna Das Kaviraj appears to be saying the same thing in CC i.4.28: vaikuNThAdye nAhi je je lIlAra pracAra/ se se lIlA kariba jAte mora camatkAra//
51. Cf. GC i.1v38.
52. KrsnaS 182, p.105: tatra prakaTa-lIlA-gata-bhAvasya viraha-saMyogAdi-lIlA-vaicitrI-bhAravAhitvena balavattaratvAd ubhaya-lIlaikIbhavanAntaram api tanmayAs teSAm abhimAno 'nuvartata eva.
53. ibid., p.106; tena vayam aho samayagamanagamanam api sambhalayitum na parayama iti.
-
<font color<#0000ff>I really hope no one is getting lost and that the argument so far is not getting lost to anyone.
This last section is particularly important. Jiva is arguing that separation adds to the pleasures of lila, but only because it is followed by union. He is also saying that longterm separation is a condition only found in the prakata lila.
The purpose of these arguments is to show that the lila has to end with union, not with separation, as is apparent in the BhP, etc.
-
<h3>2.4 Vipralambha and sambhoga</h3>
Jiva covers many of the same points in more detail while commenting on the 15th and last chapter of Ujjvala-nilamani, which deals with the different manifestations of separation and union.
Generally four types of separation are listed in the works of the poeticians beginning with Rudra Bhatta.(38) The terms for the four corresponding types of union that follow them appear to have been coined by Bhoja.(39) The correlation between the two is kept strict and we thus have the following scheme:
<center><table border=5><tr><td></td><td> vipralambha </td><td> sambhoga </td></tr><tr><td>[1]</td><td>pUrva-rAga (first love)</td><td>saMkSipta-sambhoga</td></tr><tr><td>[2]</td><td>mAna (lover's quarrels)</td><td>saMkIrNa-sambhoga</td></tr><tr><td>[3]</td><td>pravAsa (exile)</td><td>sampUrNa-sambhoga</td></tr><tr><td>[4]</td><td>karuNa (death)</td><td>samrddhimat-sambhoga</td></tr></table></center>
Karuna or death is not considered an irresoluble state of separation in the Sanskrit dramatic context because the lovers can meet if one of them is brought back to life. Bhoja gives the example of Rati being reunited with Kama after he has been reborn as Pradyumna and Singabhupala adds that of Shiva being united with Sati after she comes back as Parvati.(40)
Rupa makes several changes in this taxonomy to fit the particular conditions imposed by the Krishna legend. As in the works of his predecessors, Rupa divides both separation (vipralambha) and union (sambhoga) into four categories. The correlation is not as neat as in the table given above, however. Rupa eliminates karuna, presumably since Krishna's separation from Radha by death would be impossible. A new category, prema-vaicittya, refers to the phenomenon of separation in union, a peculiar mental state described by Rupa alone amongst poeticians.(41) This type of separation is not followed by a union unique to it. Rupa divides pravasa into two types, one the daily absences of Krishna from the gopis when he goes into the forest with the cows, which is followed by sampanna- ("consummated") sambhoga, and the other dirgha-pravasa, the long separation that comes when Krishna unwillingly leaves to perform his worldly duties of demon-killing. These are also characterized as buddhi-purva and abuddhi-purva, intended and unintended separation.
Rupa's schema thus appears as follows:
<center><table border=5><tr><td></td><td> vipralambha </td><td> sambhoga </td></tr><tr><td>[1]</td><td>pUrva-rAga (first love)</td><td>saMkSipta-sambhoga</td></tr><tr><td>[2]</td><td>mAna (lover's quarrels)</td><td>saMkIrNa-sambhoga</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>(prema-vaicittya)</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>
[3]</td><td>pravAsa (buddhi-purva)</td><td>sampanna-sambhoga</td></tr><tr> <td>[4]</td><td> pravAsa (abuddhi-purva)</td><td>samrddhimat-sambhoga</td></tr></table></center>
It is after he has described vipralambha and before he commences to describe sambhoga that Rupa gives, as he has on so many other occasions, the reminder that there is in fact, never any real separation of Krishna and the gopis other than the appearance of such in the prakata-lila. In his introduction to the discussion on sambhoga, Jiva takes this context into account as he stresses the necessity of describing the union of Krishna with the gopis in the prakata-lila, even in knowledge of such an undisturbed state of union.
First of all, Jiva argues that as a rule, wherever one kind of separation, purva-raga, etc. is described, it is always followed by the corresponding form of union. If no such union were to follow, then the æsthetic experience would be incomplete. The proposed transcendental solution is also rejected on this basis, for even if it were accepted that the gopis were enjoying union with Krishna in one manifestation, the experience of separation they felt in the world of the incarnation was sufficiently real that even Krishna himself acknowledged their suffering (x.46.6). No description of any suffering at all would be possible if the happiness of union were a reality, consciously experienced by the gopis while apparently suffering separation.
Thus, the existence of a description of separation demands a parallel description of union. As even the mundane poeticians say, "Not without separation can union be fully experienced,"(42) the corollary of which is that without union, separation alone does not bear æsthetic fruit.
In view of the desire of the gopis and Krishna to be united with one another in the prakata-lila, Jiva advises the devotee against a misguided preference for the lila of separation, for this would not be a sign of love, but rather a sign of selfishness, since one would be neglecting the wishes of Krishna's beloved gopis themselves. In saying this Jiva appears to have been anticipating a line of argument which states that separation is an exalted state, pleasurable in itself. Though Chaitanya by his example may well be the ultimate source of such a doctrine, it is Rupa who appears to first take such a position in the written word. In BRS, he states that though the various vyabhicari-bhavas and anubhavas may appear to be symptomatic of happiness and distress like the equivalent emotional manifestations resulting from the transformations of the material qualities, since they are experienced in relation to Krishna (kRSNAnvayAt), they are all transcendentally joyful experiences and to be called "hot" or "cool" rather than "distressful" or "pleasurable".(43)
Sanatan too, in his BrBhag stresses the inherently blissful quality of separation, stating that it is even greater than that of union. There, Krishna actually thanks Narada for inflaming the pain he feels at being distanced from the gopis. Though Sanatan hints at the even greater joy of ultimate reunion which is eventually to take place,(44) he never actually describes such a reunion in BrBhag, leaving such a conclusion to the imagination of the reader (as does BhP itself).
Jiva, in his commentary on the above-mentioned BRS verses, however, takes the position that it is precisely the ending of the apparent distresses in union which makes them "pleasurable"; he does not seem to find them pleasurable in their own right as does the later commentator Vishwanath.(45)
Jiva reminds us that Rupa Goswami wrote UN on the basis of the manifest lila, as he did his plays and other books. He was similarly seen to worship Krishna according to that manifestation. Furthermore, Suka's own absorption in the prakatalila is self-evident. The revelation of the exalted position of the prakata-liia is also the purpose of Brahma's words:
<center>prapañcaM niSrapañco 'si
viDambayasi bhU-tale/
prapanna-janatAnanda-
sandohaM prathituM prabho//(x.14.37)</center>
<blockquote>Though you are untouched by the world, you imitate the activities of the world in order to give great amounts of pleasure to the people who are surrendered to you."</blockquote>
Even acknowledging the existence of the nitya-lila, Krishna's activities of being born, etc., alone bring great amounts of pleasure to the devotees. If Rupa did not prefer the prakata-lila but rather the aprakata, says Jiva, then what would have been gained by extensively describing Radha and Krishna's separation, which is of a painful nature? The activities of the incarnation would be seen as a source of distress rather than joy! To avoid any such misunderstanding, Rupa ends his study of the madhura-rasa with a description of the various different kinds of union, culminating with the samRddhimat or "enriched" union, just as though he did not know the felicitous situation in the eternal lila.(47)
<hr><font color=#9F5f9F>
NOTES
38. Srngara-tilaka (SrT) 2.1;
vipralambhAbhidhAno 'yam zRngAraH syAc catur-vidhaH/
pUrvAnurAgo mAnAkhyaH pravAsaH karuNAtmakaH//
39. Sarasvati-kanthabharana (Ska) 5.84. See also 5.59-63.
40. e.g. Sarasvatikanthabharana
lokAntara-gate yUni vallabhe vallabho yadA/
bhRzaM duHkhAyate dInaH karuNaH sa tadocyate// (5.50)
pratyAgate 'pi yatraiSa rati-puSTiH priye jane/
sa kim AvarNyate yUnAM tatraiva mRta-jIvite// (5.88)
punar ujjIvitam bhoga-samRddhiH kiyatI bhavet/
zivAbhyAm eva vijñeya ity ayam hi samRddhimAn// (Ras 2.225)
Singabhupala also gives the example of Kama and Rati who were reunited when he was reborn as Pradyumna.
41. priyasya sannikarSe 'pi premotkarSa-svabhAvataH/
yA vizleSa-dhiyArtis tat prema-vaicittyam ucyate// UN 15.147-9.
42. UN 15.3. Rupa attributes this verse only to the ancients (prAñcaH). The verse appears to be Bhojadeva's (Ska 5.53):
na vinA vipralambhena sambhogaH puSTim aznute/
kaSAyite hi vastrAdau bhUyo rAgo 'bhivardhate//
43. Cf. BRS ii.5.74,77-8:
kRSNAnvayAd guNAtIta-prauDhAnanda-mayA api/
bhAnty amI triguNotpanna-sukha-duHkhamayA iva//...
prAyaH sukhamayAH zItA uSNA duHkhamayA iha/
citreyaM paramAnanda-sAndrApy uSNA ratir matA//
zItair bhAvair baliSThais tu puSTA zitAyate hy asau/
uSNais tu ratir atyuSNA tApayantIva bhAsate//
44. BrBhag i.7.126-7:
tathApi sambhoga-sukhAd api stutaH sa ko 'py anirvacyatamo manoramaH/
pramoda-rAziH pariNAmato dhruvaM tatra sphuret tad-rasikaika-vedyaH//
tac-choka-duHkhoparamasya pazcAc cittaM yataH pUrNatayA prasannam/
samprApta-sambhoga-mahA-sukhena sampannavat tiSThati sarvadaiva//
In BrBhag, Sanatana does not describe a return to Vraja in the prakata-lila, rather he speaks of regular departures for two month periods from the nitya-lila, thus introducing dUra-pravAsa even there.
45. BRSc ii.5.74: kRSNa-sphuranamayatvAd dharSAdayas tAvad aprAkRta-sukha-mayA eva, kintu tad-anvayAd viSadAdayaz ca tAdRza-sukhamayA eva vaktavyaH. duHkhamayatvena teSAM sphuranaM tu tad-aprApty-Adi-bhAvanA-rUpanopAdhinopAdanenaiva jAyate, kRSNa-sphUraNaM tu tatra nimitta-mAtram. bhaktAnAm AyatyAM tat-prApty-AdayAt tv avazyaka eva, prApty-AdiSu ca jAteSu tad-bhAvanA-rUpasyopAdher upAdAnasyApagamAd dharSasya poSaNAc ca bubhukSAdivad viSadAdayo 'pi sukhamayatvenaiva sphurantIti duHkhamayA iva, na tu duHkhamayAH.
BRS ii.5.78: AbhAsatvam Ady-antayor asthAyitvAd viyoga-lakSaNam upAdhim anv eva madhye 'py anyathA pratIyamAnatvAt.
Compare GC i.1.26-7. Vishwanath Chakravarti stresses the inherently pleasurable aspects of separation in his commentary under the same verses.
46. BhP x.14.37.
47. UNc 15.187; tathApi hanta hanta yatra prakAze pUrvarAgAdivipralambho varNitas tatraiva tat-tad-anantarah sambhogo varnaniyah. prakAzAntareNa nitya-sambhoge tu prakaTa-prakAza-gatAnAM tAsAM varNita-virahANAM kA gatiH, yaM vinA tad varNanaM virasam eva syAt? yadi cAprakaTa-lIlA-gataM yat sukham tat tatra sankramed ity ucyate tarhi viraha eva na syAd iti tad varNanaM kathambhUtam? kathaM vA svayaM zrI-kRSNena,
dhArayanty atikRcchreNa prAyaH prANAn kathañcana/
pratyAgamana-sandezair vallabyo me madAtmikAH// ity uktam?
tasmAn mahAvipralambhAd anantaraM sambhogo 'vazyaM varNanIyaH. na ca yasminn aMze sukhaM syAt tatraiva sartavyam, seyaM prema-rItir na bhavati kintu sva-sukha-tat-parataiveti tat-priya-jananam upekSaNIyatvAt. astu tAvat tat-priya-jananam vArtA, laukika-rasa-vidAm api, na vinA vipralambhena ity adina sarvAyatyAM sambhoga-paryavasAnatayaiva sammatir dRzyate. tad-anusAreNApi nirvighna-sambhoga eva vipralambha-gaNanaM phalatayA paryavasAyanIyaH. tam etam prakaTAprakAzam evAlambanIkRtya grantha-kRtAm eSa grantho, nATakAdayo 'nye ca granthA, upAsanA ca pravRttya dRzyante. zrI-zukAdInAm apy atraivAvezaH spaSTaH zrI-brAhmaNaz ca
prapañcam niSprapañco 'pi viDambayasi bhUtale/
prapanna-janatAnanda-sandoham prathituM prabho// ity atra tathaivAbhiprAyaH.
prapañcAnukAraNaM hy atra janmAdi-lIlA-rUpam eva. tataz ca satyam api tasyAM nitya-lIlAyAM janmAdi-lIlaiva prapanna-jana-vRndAnAm Ananda-sandoha-hetur iti.
yadi ca grantha-kRtAm atrAgraho na syAt, kintv aprakaTa-lIlAyAm eva, tarhi prakaTa-lIlayA vipralambha-duHkha-vizeSa-mayyA varNanAyAM ko lAbhah syAt? tad etad Azankya prakaTa-lIlAyAH pariNAmataH klezamayatvaM prAptam iti svayam api paritapya tat-tan-nitya-lIlA-sukha-nirUpita-lIlA-krama-rasa-paripAtIm adRSTvA svayaM sarva-rasa-paripAtI-surakAn phala-rUpAn samRddhimat-paryantAn sambhogAn vaktum Aha atha sambhoga iti.
-
<font color=#0000FF>Unfortunately, my system of putting note references in brackets has become confusing as I refer to verse numbers in the same way. So I have started underlining references to footnotes.</font><hr>
<h3>Prabodhananda, the brahmavadi sannyasi</h3>
Prabodhananda mentions Kashi, the classical name for the town of Benares, on two separate occasions in Chaitanya-chandramrita. Not a place of great religious significance for Chaitanya's followers, Kashi is spoken of by Prabodhananda only in relation to the life he has left behind. When this clue is added to indications that he was a sannyasi on the path of monism before his sudden conversion by Chaitanya, Prabodhananda begins to bear an uncanny resemblance to the Prakashananda encountered in CC.
Prabodhananda tells us clearly that he is a sannyasi, though he does not give this status much value. He curses both his learning and his ashram, which to him are nothing more than misfortunes preventing him from developing even a hint of a relationship with Chaitanya (hA dhig api me vidyAM dhig apy Azramam, verse 117). The same sentiment is also found in verse 106: dvijatvam api dhik paraM vimalam AzramAdyaM ca dhik. In 23, he speaks of sannyasis giving up their regulated cultivation of knowledge upon discovering the devotional path set forth by Chaitanya (jnAnAbhyAsa-vidhiM jahuz ca yatayaH).
In verse 8, Prabodhananda condemns those who in ignorance prattle the words brahmAham: "I am brahman", (dhig astu brahmAhaM-vadana-pariphullAn jaDa-matIn), but he does not hesitate to call Chaitanya brahman or paraM brahman while underscoring his personal nature: (paraM brahma svayaM nRtyati, 17). In another place, he calls Chaitanya paraM jyotir gauraH (15). Chaitanya is also called koTy-advaita-ziromaNi -- “the jewel at the crown of a hundred-million monistic truths” (140).
Prabodhananda says that until one sees Chaitanya, talk of brahman, the goal of liberation, will not taste bitter, nor will the chains of fruitive works according to the Vedic path be loosed, and the learned will chatter amongst themselves about the relative merits of different superficial paths of spiritual practice (v. 35).
He further warns his mind not to follow the path of monistic spirituality: na karNAbhyarNe 'pi kvacana nayatAdhyAtma-saraNeH (v. 63), and in a well-loved verse, states that monistic liberation is like hell to one who has received Chaitanya's mercy (v. 95):
<blockquote>Identification with brahman appears like hell,
the heavenly kingdoms like so many figments of the imagination,
the indomitable black snakes of the senses
appear to have had their fangs extracted,
the universe appears to be full of joy
and the gods Brahma and Mahendra
seem as insignificant as worms
to those who have become wealthy
with the grace of Gaura's merciful glance:
I offer my praises to him.(<u>34</u>)</blockquote>
According to Prabodhananda, Chaitanya came to show the insignificance of the other goals of human life including mukti (57). This attitude is further expressed in Prabodhananda's description of even Chaitanya's uneducated disciples chastising pandits learned in all the scriptures (80);(<u>35</U>) “the disciples of Chaitanya condemn the scholars of the paths of knowledge and ritual” (dhik kurvanti ca jñAna-karma-viduSaH, 99). He berates the uselessness of all other practices of renunciation, knowledge, yoga, even devotion to other forms of Narayan. All gains can be found more easily simply through the worship of Chaitanya.(<u>36</u>)
Prabodhananda uses the term pum-arthAnAM mauliH (6) “crown of the goals of life”, a phrase that is clearly echoed in the Krishna Das Kaviraj’s account of the conversion of Prakashananda, for there Chaitanya explained to Prakashananda that love of Krishna was the fifth or parama puruSArtha.(<u>37</u>)
In other words reminiscent of the conversion of Prakashananda described in CC, Prabodhananda indicates that the embarrassment he had felt about publicly dancing and singing disappeared as a result of Chaitanya’s blessings.
<blockquote>Some powerful thief of golden complexion
has stolen everything from me,
whether it be the performances of worldly and ritual duties,
all of which had attained faithful regularity,
or the embarrassment that held me back
from festivals of laughter, loud song and dance,
and even, wonder of wonders,
[his grace leads me to neglect]
the natural activities of maintaining my life and body! (<u>38</u>)</blockquote>
Other verses in Chaitanya-chandramrita show further resemblances to descriptions used in the CC which arise in the context of the conversion of Prakashananda. Compare, for example, the following two passages from CCA and CC:
<blockquote>He does not judge who is worthy and who is not,
he does not see some people as friends and others as enemies;
he does not ruminate over whether this gift is to be given or not,
nor does he consider the correctness of the occasion;
that Gaura who gave the rare taste of devotion
by simply being heard, seen, bowed to or meditated upon,
is my destiny.(<u>39</u>)
He does not judge who is worthy and who is not; there is no place that is suitable or unsuitable; Mahaprabhu gives the gift of love to whomever he finds, wherever he finds him.(<u>40</u>) </blockquote>
Though many verses in Chaitanya-chandramrita imply the sudden conversion of Prabodhananda, the use of the word akasmAt, 'without a why or a wherefore, suddenly', in verses 33 and 88, etc., are further resonances of the Chandramrita in Krishna Das’ account of Prakashananda’s conversion. Perhaps no one of these resonances in itself would attract our attention, but the juxtaposition of so many significant similarities of language seem too much to be a mere coincidence.
<hr><font color=#9f6f9f>
NOTES
34. kaivalyaM narakAyate tridazapUr AkAza-puSpAyate
durdAntendriya-kAlasarpa-paTalI protkhAta-daMSTrAyate/
vizvaM pUrNa-sukhAyate vidhi-mahendrAdiz ca kITAyate
yat kAruNya-kaTAkSa-vaibhavavatAM taM gauram eva stumaH//
35. tiraskurvanty ajñA api sakala-zAstrajña-samitim
36. Cf. na yogo na dhyAnaM... (6); yan nAptaM karma-niSThair (7); kva tAvad vairAgyam (50); alaM zAstrAbhyAsaiH (64); vairAgya-koTir (127); jñAna-vairAgya-bhakty-Adi sAdhayantu yathA tathA (129); vyarthIbhavanti mama sAdhana-koTayo 'pi (130); sarva-sAdhana-hIno 'pi (131); etc.
37. Similar expressions are found in CCA 6, 12 (prema nAmAdbhutArthaH), 14 (premAbhidhAnaH paramaH pumarthaH), 20 (parama-pumartham), 117 (sarva-pumartha-mauli-). Also note CCA 25: “Those who seek the four goals of life may worship the Supreme Lord; others can become Hari's servants by worshiping him. As far as I am concerned, I am hungry to experience something more esoteric and so have taken shelter of Caitanya Candra's lotus feet."
Compare this with CC, Adi 7.84-5;
KRSNa-viSayaka premA paramapuruSArtha/
jAnra Age tRNa-tulya cAri puruSArtha//
pañcama-puruSArtha premAnandAmRta-sindhu/
mokSAdi Ananda jAnra nahe eka bindu//
and CC Adi 7.91: BhAla haila, pAile parama-puruSArtha
The use of the word lobha in CC Adi 7.87 also resonates with the above quoted CCA 25.
38. niSThAM prAptA vyavahRti-tatir laukikI vaidikI yA
yA vA lajjA prahasana-samudgAna-nATyotsaveSu /
ye vAbhUvann ahaha sahaja-prANa-dehArtha-dharmA
gauraz cauraH sakalam aharat ko 'pi me tIvra-vIryaH// CCA, 21.
Compare CC Madhya 25, p.317:
nikaTe dhvani zuni parakAzAnanda/
dekhite kautuke Aila lañA ziSya-vRnda//
dekhiyA prabhur nRtya deher mAdhurI/
ziSya-gaN sange sei bole hari hari//
Prakashananda is nowhere described by Krishna Das as an ecstatic, but the verse itself resonates with Mahaprabhu's descriptions to Prakashananda of the effects the name had upon him. Cf. CC Adi 7.89-90.
39. pAtrApAtra-vicAraNaM na kurute na svaM paraM vIkSate
deyAdeya-vimarzako nahi na vA kAla-pratIkSaH prabhuH/
sadyo yaH zravaNekSaNa-praNamana-dhyAnAdinA durlabhaM
datte bhakti-rasaM sa eva bhagavAn gauraH paraM me gatiH// CCA, 112.
40. pAtrApAtra-vicAra nAhi nAhi sthAnAsthAn /
jei jAnhA pAy tA+nhA kare prema-dAn // CC Adi 7.23.</font><hr>
<font color=#5c3317>COMMENT
In view of the extensive awareness of Prabodhananda as someone who glorified Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, it is impossible to believe that a widely-read scholar like Krishna Das Kaviraj had never read Chaitanya Chandramrita. Yet, he has nowhere quoted this book or refered to it in his great work, Chaitanya Charitamrita. Nor has he mentioned the name of Prabodhananda, even though the two clearly lived in Vraja at the same time. Whatever the reason for such silence, we must ask why, in this specific place, do we get these resonances?
<small><font color=#f7f7f7>
[This message has been edited by Jagat (edited 07-11-2001).]
-
May I suggest a good book? The Teachings of the Magi by R. C. Zaehner. Zaehner was a British Roman Catholic scholar who specialized in Zoraostrianism and Hinduism. He was very favorable to the Bhagavad Gita and his translation of the Gita is still one of most interesting out there. I find him very insightful, especially in a book called Matter and Spirit.
Another book that has a very interesting view of Zoroastrianism is Walter Kaufmann's Religions in Four Dimensions. Kaufmann is a philosopher, mostly known for his translations of Nietzsche and Buber. His insights on religion are nevertheless very interesting. He argues convincingly that the Jews in Babylon were very influenced by Zoroastrianism and that this in turn influenced Western thought through Christianity.
Jagat
-
<h3>2.3 Dissatisfaction with the sphurti solution</h3>
Though the truth of Krishna's claims to personally be with the gopis in sphurti form is nowhere denied, not even by the gopis who are on one level aware of Krishna's divinity, they cannot be said to be entirely satisfied with this attempt to assuage them. Upon hearing Uddhava recite Krishna’s message (in GC), they say,
<blockquote>It seems that [Krishna] is instructing us of his own brahman-ness, for he is calling himself "the soul of all".(27) There is no point in listening to these unpleasant things....
He appears to be explaining to us that which he has told us before about hallucinations: that our separation does not exist in every manifestation, but only in this one, in which he is absent in Mathura. Thus, even though situated there, he is united with us in our hallucinations of him. What is the use of listening to this irritating sound, which is like a grinding stone, going round and round and grinding that which has already been ground?(28)</blockquote>
Krishna due to his omnipotence can be personally present by the sphurti, but on a further level of intensity of the suffering devotee, he manifests himself in another degree of "solidity" which is called avirbhava. Rupa says that the Vrajavasins feel separation in all its intensity for only a short time before they are relieved by sphurtis.(29) These are direct meetings which, because fleeting, are nevertheless experienced as hallucination.(30)
That which is true for the gopis is similarly applicable to all the residents of Vraja. Krishna’s parents experience the same symptoms of separation and manifestations of their beloved child in sphurti, etc., in the way described for the gopis. Thus, in GC, Krishna tells his mother in a letter that he had truly come and eaten the food that she prepared for him even in his absence.(31)
Yashoda answers, as might be expected, that though she remembered the incident well, it did not give her satisfaction, for the onset of astonished bewilderment interfered with her making the most of the situation before Krishna was again gone.(32) In short, then, sphurti and avirbhava are only temporary measures providing fleeting relief from separation, which requires Krishna's return for a full cure.
Krishna is aware of the dissatisfaction with these solutions from majesty. When inviting the Vrajavasins to Kurukshetra, he says that only those who do not believe that he comes secretly to visit them in Vraja need come, that the rest should stay behind. (33) To the gopis he says that he too is subject to a similar perception of these real/illusory meetings:
<blockquote>Though I come to meet with you constantly
in such a way that you are only aware individually,
you believe [my presence] to be hallucination and false;
this is true not only for you, but alas for me as well;
therefore let us meet, even if only once, at Kurukshetra,
on the pretext of spying on our enemies,
and may that meeting resuscitate us.(34)</blockquote>
Nowhere is this dissatisfaction with anything but physical contact in the here and now better expressed by Jiva than in the context of the gopis' meeting with Krishna at Kurukshetra, where (in the Bhagavata) Krishna again repeats the instructions couched in the language of his all-pervasiveness, the essence of which is that they should content themselves with his memory. The gopis' response to this is a verse that might be interpreted as humble acquiescence to these lessons;(35) Jiva takes it rather as a statement saturated with sarcasm about Krishna's lofty idealism:
<blockquote>[The gopis] said: Oh lotus-navelled Krishna,
your lotus-feet are the object of meditation in the hearts
of the masters of yoga,
whose understanding is unfathomable.
They are like a helping hand that descends
to raise those fallen into the well of samsara.
May they always appear in our minds,
for we are so deeply attached to our homes.(36)</blockquote>
According to Jiva's paraphrasing, the underlying implication or suggestion of the gopis speech is as follows:
<blockquote>“It is all very well for you to tell us to remember your feet when we want to see you and be with you. The yogins may well be able to meditate on them because they are so unfathomably deep that they are emotionally unaffected. We on the other hand fall into a faint the minute that we begin to remember you. If we could just touch your feet that are soft like the lotus, the pains of separation would be relieved, but this will not happen if we merely remember them.
You may think that we could be relieved from our separation in the way the yogins are raised up from the well of material life; but a well is one thing -- we have fallen into an ocean of separation, which is another. If you say to us, well come to Dvaraka, our answer is that we are attached to our homes in Vrindavan. That is where you also belong, with us in Vraja. Only your return there will save us."(37)</blockquote>
<hr><font color=#9F5f9F>
NOTES
27. The reference here is to BhP x.47.29, sarvAtmanA.
28. GC ii.12.13; Nanv idam svasya brahma-jnAnam ivoddiSTam, sarvAtmanA me mayeti samAnAdhikaraNyAt. tad alam anabhiSTa-zravaNena... Ibid, para. 15; nanv anena punar-uktena pUrva-pUrvam upadiSTaM sphUrti-lakSaNam ivAdiSTam. sarveNa prakAzena viyogo nAsti, kintu mathurAsthena prakaTena viyogaH. bhavatISu sphuratA tatrasthena saMyoga iti. tad alaM piSTa-peSaNa-sarga-kara-cakra-vargasya gharghara-zabda-zravaNena.
29. LBhag i.4.467;
vraje prakaTa-lIlAyAM trIn mAsAn viraho 'munA/
tatrApy ajani visphUrtiH prAdurbhAvopamA hareH//
Rupa and Jiva appear to have a different idea of when Krishna physically returns to Vrindavan, though both agree that he does so. Rupa says he comes after six months, while Jiva and Sanatana calculate the great event as coming some 34 years after Krishna's departure.
30. KrsnaS 158, p.83; ataeva sa ca sphUrti-rUpo 'yam anubhAvaH kadAcit sAkSAtkAra-dvArApi kalpyate iti cIra-kAla-virahe 'pi tAsAM sandhUkSaNa-kAraNaM jneyam.
31. GC ii.6v3;
Adye 'hni kSIra-bhaktam ghanam adhivalita roTikA tasya pazcAt
tat-pazcAd dugdha-pUpaM tad anu bahuvidhAnnAdyam anyeSu canyat/
mAtar mahyaM nikAyye mahati rasayate paryavezi tvayA yan
na svapnas tan na vA tat-sphuranamayam iti smaryate kintu satyam//
Compare this to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's message to his mother, CC iii.12.89-93.
32. GC ii.7v2;
satyam tad divasam anu te bhojanam tat tad AsId
itthaM citte sphurati mama ha tatra cAsIn na tRptiH/
yasmAn mohAd ahaha mayakA putra tat-pUraNAya
prApto nAsId avasara iti svAntam antar dunoti//
33. GC ii.23v3:
yadyapy aham gokula-lokam Azu
pratisvam abhyasya raho bhajAmi/
tathApi ye na pratiyAnti te 'mI
milantu mAM tatra pare vasantu//
34. GC ii.23v6:
yadyapy atmaika-vedyA mama lasati muhuH sangatir yuSmakAbhiH
sphUrti-bhrAntyA pratItis tad api kila na vas tatra hA dhig mamApi/
yad dviSTa-dveSTR-tarka-grahana-miSatayAnyonyasangaH
sambhAvyas tat priyAlyaH kuru-bhuvi sakRd apy astu sA prANanayA//
35. Hardy, op. cit. 510, "...and in their reply, praising him, they show that they have understood the lesson."
36. BhP x.82.48,
Ahuz ca te nalina-nAbha padAravindaM
yogezvarair hRdi vicintyam agAdha-bodhaiH/
saMsAra-kUpa-patitottaraNAvalambaM
geham-juSAm api manasy udiyAt sadA naH//
37. KrsnaS 170, p.86f. yogezvarair hRdi vicintyaM na tv asmAbhis tat-smaraNArambha eva murcchAgaminIbhiH... agAdha-bodhaiH sAkSAd-darzane 'py akSubhita-buddhibhir na tv asmAbhir iva tad-darzanecchayA kSubhita-buddhibhiH. caraNasyAravinda-rUpakam ca tat-sparzenaiva daha-zAntir bhavati, na tu tathA tat-smaraNeneti jnApanayA.
nanu, tathA nididhyAsanam eva yogezvarANAM saMsAra-duHkham iva bhavatInAM viraha-duHkhaM dUrIkRtya tad-udayaM kariSyatIti AzankyAha, saMsAra-kUpa-patitAnAm evottaraNAvalambaM na tv asmAkaM viraha-sindhu-nimagnAnAm...
nanv evAdhunAgatya muhur mAM sAkSAd evAnubhavatA, tatrAhuH... gehAM juSAm iti tava sangatiz ca tvat-pUrva-sangama-vilAsa-dhAmni tat-tad-asmat-kAma-dughe svAbhAvikAsmat-prIti-nilaye nija-gehe gokula eva bhavatu, na tu dvArakAdAv iti... vRndAvana eva yady Agacchasi, tadaiva nistAra iti bhAvaH.
Jiva's reworking of this verse in GC (ii.23v39) also partially catches the spirit of this interpretation, adapting a famous cliché‚ which contrasts yogin with viyogin:
vRNImahi padAmbujaM tava saroja-nAbhA prabho
manasy api kathancana sphuratu naH samantAd iti/
idaM hi bata yoginAM smRtatayA tamaz cyavanaM
viyogi-sudRzAM tayA tamasi majjanaM pratyuta//.
-
<h3>2.2 Dissatisfaction with the adhyatmika solution</h3>
Though Krishna explained to the gopis that he was in fact never separated from them, they could not be entirely satisfied with any instruction that did not lead to union in that specific manifestation. After all, the gopis, whether or not they were united with Krishna in some other manifestation, only had consciousness of the one in which they happened to be present.
As a consequence of the madhurya imperative, it is also said of Krishna that none of his unlimited manifestations in a particular lila is aware of any other.(22) For the gopis, mere intellectual knowledge of a higher state could not bring about satisfaction. The desire for union in the prakata manifestation requires a solution in the same manifest situation.
Thus, in the KrishnaS, Jiva explains that a second attempt at satisfying the gopis is found in a subsequent verse of the same letter brought by Uddhava from Krishna. That verse reads: “I (the atman) am experienced (by you) in the activities of the mind, in deep sleep, dreams and in wakefulness.”(23)
This verse is explained as an indication of the sphurti phenomenon. The word sphurti would most properly be understood to mean “hallucination.” Union with the beloved in dreams and hallucinations is included by Rupa in UN as gauna-sambhoga(24) and has been described to great effect by him in his Hamsaduta.(25)
Jiva's Krishna makes a point of openly mentioning sphurti several times in his letters to the gopis from Dvaraka. For example, in one verse he says:
<blockquote>It is true, my friends, that in abandoning you,
whose lives are dedicated to me,
I have not shown any principles whatsoever.
But listen to this submission of mine:
the unequalled love you have for me,
transcends all limits; it shames me
and makes me take a hidden form of like sentiment.
I am thus never far away from you.
Here I am in the city.
How can I openly do anything for your benefit?
Even so, I function here as a mere shadow of myself,
whereas I reveal my true form there in Vraja.
It happens in this way:
wherever someone is absorbed in thought of another,
that person personally appears there in sphurti form,
according to that absorption, and not in any other way.(26)</blockquote>
<hr><font color=#9F5f9F>
NOTES
21. BhP x.69.2 is cited to show how Krishna lived simultaneously in the houses of each of his 16,000+ wives. Uddhava is also present in more than one of these homes engaging in different activities with Krishna. tatra nana-kriyAdy-adhiSThAnatvAd eva lila-rasa-poSAya teSu prakAzeSv abhimAna-bhedaM parasparam ananusandhAnaM ca prAyaH svecchayorIkarotIty api gamyate. KrsnaS 155, p.81.
22. BhP x.47.31; AtmA jnAnamayah zuddho vyatirikto guNAnvayah/ suSupti-svapna-jAgradbhir manovrttibhir iyate// Jiva takes AtmA to mean "I": Atma-zabdo 'sminn asmac-chabdArtha-paraH, KrsnaS 158, p.83.
23. UN 15.210-20. This type of union is not less real in the theological sense where a vision of Krishna, even in dreams, is not different from the real Krishna any more than his name or deity form is ontologically different from him.
25. Hamsaduta, 105-13.
26. GC ii.6v9-10;
satyam saMtyajya yuSmAn niyata-mad-anuga-prANana-niSpramANa-dharmyaM me nAsti kincit tad api savayasaH zrUyatAM man-nivedyam/
yuSmAkaM yatisetur mayi ratir atulA sA tu mAM hrepayantI
tat-tulyAsakti-riktaM hnuta-tanum akaron nAsmi dUraH kadApi//
puryAm asyAM yad asmi prakaTam api hitaM hanta kuryAM kathaM tat
kintu cchAyA-sadRkSaH sphuTam iha vihare tatra tu svena nityam/
Avezo yatra yasya sphurati sa niyataM tatra bhAti svayaM yat
sphUrtim svaM so 'yam asmIty anubhajati yathA tena nAnyena tadvat//
<small><font color=#dedfdf>
[This message has been edited by Jagat (edited 07-10-2001).]
-
Prabodhananda and the Caitanya-candrAmRta
Before turning to Radha-vallabhi sources in search of more biographical information about Prabodhananda, it may do well to examine CCA for any clues it might supply about his identity. The work is not written as a historical account or autobiographical record and thus we must glean whatever information we can by inductive reasoning. The conclusions of which we can never provide us with absolute certainty, and yet there are many surprising hints in its 143 verses that excite the imagination.
The work is a panegyric mixed with prayers, a stotra-kAvya. It is written in a style that has apparently been much influenced by Bilvamangala's Krishna-karnamrita and other South Indian works of the genre, especially Mukunda-mala-stotram. This poetic/stylistic pattern ultimately derives from the writings of the Alvars, as has been shown by Friedhelm Hardy.(28) This may or may not indicate the southern provenance of the author; Mukunda Mala is quoted five times in Saduktikarnamritam, a Bengali compilation from about 1200 A.D. Prabodhananda could have become familiar with Krishna-karnamrita in Puri where we know Chaitanya had great affection for it.(29) At any rate, the link between Chaitanya Vaishnavism and South Indian devotion can be shown in other ways.(30)
Prabodhananda in Puri
It would appear from certain clues in CCA that Prabodhananda had personally met Chaitanya, and if so, certainly at Puri, though not necessarily for the first time there. This is surmised from the importance that is placed on the vision of Chaitanya (CCA, 27, 29, 59, 77, 82) as well as the vivid descriptions given of the saint at Puri.
<blockquote>May the golden-bodied Hari deliver you
as he brings joy to your eyes
with his pacing back and forth,
his face bathed in tears from his desire to see Jagannath.
To count the world-saving Hare Krishna names he is chanting,
he ties knots in a rope tied around his waist
with a shaking, love-filled hand.(31)</blockquote>
Other lines such as "How amazing, the Supreme Truth dances on the shores of the salt-water sea!" (verse 17) and "On the beaches of the salt ocean, a certain form made of molten gold pleases my mind as he remembers the sweet pastimes of his previous incarnation..." (verse 45) support this view.
It also seems likely that Prabodhananda visited Mahaprabhu's birthplace in Nabadwip, (100-2), but not while Chaitanya was there, for he glorifies the dhaman of Nabadwip as the place where Chaitanya had appeared and one which had been transformed by his influence, but gives no descriptions of any of his pastimes there. Prabodhananda knew Chaitanya as a sannyasin. The poem itself may well have been written in Puri not long after the death of Chaitanya, for several verses indicate that Chaitanya is no longer alive, especially verse 83:
<blockquote>This is the same city of Gauda, blessed on earth,
and this too the same ocean beach,
this, the town of Purushottam
and these, the identical names of Krishna;
but nowhere, alas! can I see the same festival of love.
Ah, Chaitanya, source of all compassion,
will I ever again see your glories?(32)</blockquote>
It would also appear that Prabodhananda knew many of Chaitanya's associates, whom he praises in several verses, specifically naming Advaita Acharya (verse 134) and Vakreshwar Pandit (verse 116), whose dancing had impressed him. He also accepted the doctrine that these were various deities or associates from Krishna's lila who had joined him in this incarnation, specifically mentioning the five who come to be known as the Pancha Tattva (verse 52) (33)
Other of Prabodhananda's verses reflect some wellknown Sanskrit and Bengali statements made by Chaitanya’s associates, most startling is one attributed to Chaitanya himself: Verse 85 (tRNAd api sunIcatA, etc.) quotes in part Padyavali 47, (tRNAd api sunécena, etc.). Some of the others will be noted below.
<hr><font color=#9f6f9f>
NOTES
28. “Madhavendra Puri: A link between Bengal Vaishnavism and South Indian bhakti,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1, 1974, 37-40.
29. CC, Madhya 2, p.105;
caNDIdAs, vidyApati, rAyer nATaka-gIti, karNAmRta, zrI-gIta-govinda/
svarUpa rAmAnanda sane, mahAprabhu rAtri-dine, gAy zune parama Ananda//.
Mahaprabhu is said to have brought the KKA with him from his pilgrimage to the south (the shores of the Krishnavenva) in 1511. Cf. CC Madhya 9, p.168.
30. See note 28.
31. badhnan prema-bhara-prakampita-karo granthIn kaTI-DorakaiH
sankhyAtuM nija-loka-mangala-hare-kRSNeti-nAmnAM japan/
azru-snAta-mukhaH svam eva hi jagannAthaM didRkSur gatA-
yAtair gaura-tanur vilocana-mudaM tanvan hariH pAtu vaH// CCA, 9.
32. saiveyaM bhuvi dhanya gauDanagarI velApi saivAmbudheH
so 'yaM zrI-puruSottamo madhu-pates tAny eva nAmAni ca/
no kutrApi nirIkSyate hari hari premotsavas tAdRzo
hA caitanya kRpAnidhAna tava kiM vIkSe punar vaibhavam?//
33. sarve nArada-zankarAdaya ihAyAtAù svayaM zrIr api
prAptA deva-halAyudho'pi milito jAtAz ca vRSNAdayaH /
bhUyaH kiM vraja-vAsino'pi prakaTA gopAla-gopy-AdayaH
pUrNa-prema-rasezvare=vatarati zrI-gauracandre bhuvi //
The equivalents given in Gaura-gaNoddeza-dIpikA are as follows: Narada = Srivasa Pandit, Shankara = Advaita, Sri = Gadadhar, Halayudha = Nityananda, and of course Hari = Chaitanya. This doctrine is attributed to Svarupa Damodar Goswami, both in Karëapur's work and in CC.
-
Clearly, Vaishnavas do not accept Shruti in the same way that Satyaraj thinks they do or should do.
Certainly, there is clear evidence that meat of all kinds was eaten in the Vedic period, even by Brahmins. Does this mean that there was no historical change that took place afterwards, with the result that this aspect of Vedic civilization was rejected, at least where Brahmins and others interested in Sattvik qualities are concerned?
Religion, like everything else, evolves. It is unfortunate that this scripture-quoting mentality is used to restrict our ability to think for ourselves. The insights of previous acharyas have to be studied in the light of our own realization, which is a gift from God.
Jagat
-
Clearly, Vaishnavas do not accept Shruti in the same way that Satyaraj thinks they do or should do.
Certainly, there is clear evidence that meat of all kinds was eaten in the Vedic period, even by Brahmins. Does this mean that there was no historical change that took place afterwards, with the result that this aspect of Vedic civilization was rejected, at least where Brahmins and others interested in Sattvik qualities are concerned?
Religion, like everything else, evolves. It is unfortunate that this scripture-quoting mentality is used to restrict our ability to think for ourselves. The insights of previous acharyas have to be studied in the light of our own realization, which is a gift from God.
Jagat
-
<h3>Prakashananda Saraswati</h3>
In Gaudiya Vaishnava literature, the identification of Prakashananda with Prabodhananda is relatively late. It is explicitly stated for the first time in the Rasikasvadini commentary on CCA by Anandin. Nothing is known about Anandin, but at least he had the grace to date his work, given as AD 1718.(22) Roughly contemporary to Anandin is Priya Das's commentary on the Bhakta-mala, which makes it clear that the Prabodhananda who wrote CCA also lived in Vrindavan and wrote about the glories of residence there, an obvious reference to Vrindavana-mahimamrita.(23)
Nowhere in any of the above-mentioned Gaudiya works of the Vaishnava-vandana genre is the name of Prakashananda Saraswati to be found. This is rather unusual in view of the importance given to Prakashananda in the two most authoritative biographies of Chaitanya. Though Prakashananda is only mentioned twice in Chaitanya Bhagavata (ca. AD 1560), where he is identified as an exponent of the advaita doctrine in Kashi with whom Chaitanya was displeased, (24) he becomes a rather significant character in Krishna Das's CC (AD 1612). There the greater part of two chapters (Adi 7, Madhya 25) is consecrated to the story of his conversion by Chaitanya. Indeed, it is quite possible that Vrindavan Das intended to complete the story of Prakashananda’s conversion, as his naming of Prakashananda has no narrative purpose without some dénouement that was to follow. Vrindavan Das’ work ends rather abruptly, leaving the latter part of Chaitanya’s life little discussed, making Krishna Das’ work a necessity.
According to Krishna Das, Prakashananda was the most important of the Shankarite sannyasi in Kashi at the time of Chaitanya's visit there in AD 1514. Chaitanya, though himself garbed as a sannyasin of a Shankarite order, did not keep the company of the other ascetics, preferring to stay with some devotees, including Sanatan, whom he instructed there for two months. Prakashananda found Chaitanya's emotional bhakti unorthodox for a Shankarite sannyasin and criticized him within his own circle. He particularly denounced Chaitanya's deviation from the practices of Vedanta study and meditation in order to engage in loud singing of kirtan and dancing.
When a meeting between the two was finally arranged, Chaitanya's humility, effulgence, charm, and ultimately his knowledge, all led Prakashananda to admit his superiority and accept not only his theological doctrines and practices, but also his divinity.(25)
Despite the obvious importance that Krishna Das gives to this conversion, he gives no information about what Prakashananda did thereafter. This curious silence, maintained in all subsequent histories of the sampradaya, is particularly striking when contrasted with Krishna Das's account of another famous convert, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya -- no prayers are attributed to Prakashananda, as there are to Sarvabhauma, even though Sarvabhauma's Chaitanya-sataka(26) seems to have descended into obscurity.
Prakashananda's destination after conversion is also unknown from the CC. Even more significantly, in the three chapters (Adi, 10-12) that Krishna Das devotes to comprehensively listing and eulogizing Chaitanya's associates, neither the name of Prakashananda nor that of Prabodhananda is anywhere to be found. Needless to say, this silence on the subsequent activities of such an important convert is a mystery that requires explanation. As it is difficult to confirm Prakashananda's existence from any other source, suspicions could be raised about the historical veracity of the story.
As we have noted, Anandin is the first to have made the identification of Prabodhananda with Prakashananda. It is clear from other sources that by the beginning of the 19th century at least, many Gaudiya Vaishnavas were convinced of this identification. The Bhaktamal of Krishna Das(27) (or Lala Babu as he was otherwise known) written sometime in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, embellishes the accounts of the Chaitanya Bhagavata and Chaitanya Charitamrita with details that support this view. According to Lala Babu, Prakashananda and Chaitanya exchanged letters even before their meeting in Benares. After Prakashananda’s conversion, Chaitanya renamed him Prabodhananda because he had been “awakened” by his conversion.
To summarize the discussion so far, the earliest sources know Prabodhananda only as a sannyasin who wrote a work glorifying Chaitanya, explicitly named Chandramrita in one work ascribed to Jiva. He is known from HBV to be the spiritual master of Gopala Bhatta. Chaitanya's biographers have not mentioned him, though they have talked about a significant mayavadi sannyasin from Kashi named Prakashananda Saraswati who was converted by Chaitanya. Sectarian historians interested in Prabodhananda's second generation spiritual descendant Srinivasa identify him as Gopala Bhatta's uncle, a householder who had no known life outside of Srirangam. In works roughly contemporaneous to these histories, Prabodhananda Saraswati and Prakasananda Saraswati are equated for the first time, indicating that conflicting accounts of Prabodhananda's identity arose in the Gaudiya sampradaya around the late 17th to early 18th centuries.
<hr><font color=#9f6f9f>
NOTES
22 ed. Manindranath Guha (Panihati, 1971). There are two different numbering systems for CCA, one apparently instituted by Anandin. The edition we are using is the one found in Stava-kalpa-druma, (ed.) Bhakti Saranga Goswami (Vrindavan, 1959).
23. p.892. Nabhaji only gives Prabodhananda's name with a number of other devotee sannyasins in chappaya 181.
24. Ref. to Madhya, ch. 20, sannyAsI prakAzAnanda basaye kAzIte/ paRAye vedAnta mora vigraha nA mAne//. Madhya, ch. 3: kAzIte paRAye beTA parakAzAnanda/ bAkhAnaye veda, more vigraha nA mAne//.
25. A rather unreliable source, Advaita-prakash, also mention that Chaitanya met a Prabodhananda Saraswati in Kashi. Its author paraphrases the CC account with some anachronistic additions. This work is ascribed to Advaita's servant, Ishana Nagar. (ed.) Mrinala Kanti Ghosh, (Calcutta, Ananda Bazar Patrika Office, 2nd edition, 1929), 77. This is another book whose credibility has been placed in doubt by Majumdar, op.cit., 424-35.
26. A work of this name has been published several times in Bengali editions, including (ed.) Kali Das Nath (Calcutta, 1911), etc. None of them contain either of Bhattacharya’s two famous Sanskrit verses cited by Kavi Karnapur (Caitanya-candrodaya-näöaka, 6.32-33) and quoted in Chaitanya Charitamrita (2.6.254-5) and there is some doubt about its authenticity. In tone, etc., however, the work warrants comparison with CCA.
27. ed. Upendranäth Mukhopadhyäya (Calcutta, Basumati Sähitya Mandir, 1949).
-
<h3>2. The return of Krishna to Vraja</h3>
2.1. Krishna is never in reality separated from his devotees
After having established the basics of Krishnaite theology in KrishnaS, Jiva turns next to the questions that affect the very structure of BhP's Krishna narrative. He starts with a question: "If Krishna eternally resides in Dvaraka, etc., then why is he seen to go from one place to another in the course of his manifest activities before finally ascending to Vaikuntha?"(13) The immediate answer is that this is what is visible (prakata) to those of this world; in the aprakata lila, he does remain permanently in each place in an appropriate form.(14)
This answer, however, leaves unresolved the separation (viraha) of Krishna's devotees from him in the prakata lila; such separation having been made to stand out with all the poetic force that BhP's author could muster.(15) The only attempts at resolution of this separation in BhP take the form of a letter of instructions from Krishna, transmitted by Uddhava, which was intended to placate the gopis in their desperate sadness. This letter is couched in the language of aisvarya if not monism, and Jiva has exercised considerable license in extracting desired meanings from its verses in KrishnaS (para. 155ff) and GC (ii.12). He justifies the exercise by citing BhP xi.20.13: "Generally, instructions in knowledge and renunciation are not beneficial to a yogi who is devoted to me, whose soul is imbued with me." If such instructions are not beneficial to the ordinary devotee, then how much more true it must be of the gopis, who are the most exalted of all devotees.
The words of Uddhava's message must be understood by Krishna's intimates as a code, in the way that Yudhisthira had to interpret Vidura's message when he and the Pandavas were warned of the dangers about to befall them while living in the house of lacquer.(16) From a verse that seems to grant general license for sophistry, Jiva cites Krishna's words in BhP, "The seers speak obscurely, for obscurity of expression is dear to me."(17)
Krishna's letter to the gopis starts with the words, "You are never entirely separated from me due to [my presence as the] all-pervading soul."(18) Beyond the prima facie interpretation which explains the gopis' separation away through Krishna's or Brahman's divine omnipresence, this verse is taken by Jiva in conjunction with later statements to mean that just as Krishna by virtue of his unlimited powers is able to be present in unlimited manifestations simultaneously,(19) so too are the gopis and indeed all of Krishna's eternal associates through the Yogamaya potency. Thus, though apparently separated from each other in the prakata or visible manifestation in this world, in the eternal abode they go on in uninterrupted union.
Rupa Goswami, whose descriptions of separation form a large part of his work, also made a point of including a caveat in at least his theoretical writings to the effect that the viraha he himself described was done so according to the prakata manifestation, but that in reality Krishna was always united with his eternal associates.(20) Krishna Das Kaviraja writes that Rupa was told by Chaitanya himself "never to take Krishna out of Vrindavan."(21)
<hr><font color=#9F5f9F>
12. KrsnaS 152, p.78; yadi nityam eva tathavidhaH zrI-kRSNAkhyaH svayaM bhagavAn tatra tatra etaiH parikaraiH sArdham viharati, tarhi...kathaM vA janmAdilIlayA krameNa mathurAM gokulaM punar mathurAM dvArakAM ca tyaktvA vaikuNTham arUDhavAn iti.
13. ibid. tatha mathurAdi-parityAgAd yuktir avatAre prApancika-jana-prakaTa-lIlApekSayaiva. tad-aprakaTA tu lIlA nityam eva vidyate.
14. Since Krishna must by nature always be situated in his dhaman, what is happening when he is at Kurukshetra or some other place? The answer is that at those times, these places are temporarily imbued with the characteristics of the dhaman: sa bhagavaH kasmin pratiSThita iti sve mahimnIti (ChaU 7.24.1)... tatas tatraivAvyavadhAnena tasya lIlA. anyeSAM prakRTatvAt na sAkSAt tat-sparzo 'pi sambhavati dhAraNAsaktis tu natarAm. yatra kvacid vA prakaTa-lIlAyAM tad-gamanAdikaM zrUyate, tad api teSAm AdhAra-zakti-rUpANAM sthAnAnAm AvezAd eva mantavyam. etc. (KrsnaS 174, p.90).
15. For an elaborate discussion of the importance of the South Indian traditions that made separation such an integral part of the conception of devotion and the dramatic and theological essence of the Bhagavata-purana, see Friedhelm Hardy's Viraha-bhakti (London, etc.: Oxford University Press, 1983).
16. KrsnaS 164, p.85. na hy atra tAsAm AdhyAtma-vidyA zreyaskarI bhavati... sAdhAraNa-bhaktanam apy anupAdeyatvenoktavtvAt. na ca tac-chravaNena viraha-jvAlA zAmyati... tasmAd vidurasyeva kUToktir iyam ity ukta evArtho bhavaty antarangaH, sa ca yudhiSThirasyeva tAsAm eva gamya iti.
17. BhP xi.21.35; parokSavAdA RSayaH parokSaM ca mama priyam/ Cited at BRSc iii.4.76, etc.
18. BhP x.47.29, discussed in KrsnaS 155 (p.80), GC ii.12.12ff; bhavatInAM viyogo me na hi sarvAtmanA kvacit.
19. KrsnaS 116, p.62; tataz ca lila-dvaye kRSNavat teSAm eva prakAza-bhedaH. yada ca prakAza-bhedo bhavati, tada tat-tal-lIlA-rasa-poSAya teSu tat-tal-lIlA-zaktir evAbhimAna-bhedam parasparam ananusandhAnaM ca prAyah sampAdayatIti gamyate.
20. This is stated in Pv 312ff, UN 15.185-7, LBhag i.4.471, BRS iii.3.129, NatC. E.g. harer lila-vizeSasya prakaTasyAnusArataH/ varNitA virahAvasthA goSTha-vAma-bhruvAm asau// vRndAraNye viharatA sadA rAsAdi-vibhramaih/ hariNA vraja-devInAM viraho 'sti na karhicit// UN 15.185-6.
21. CC iii.1.65; kRSNake bAhira nAhi kariha vraja haite/ vraja chARi kRSNa kabhu nA jAya kAMhAte//
<small><font color=f7f7f7>
[This message has been edited by Jagat (edited 07-10-2001).]
-
<h3>Knowledge of Prabodhananda in Gaudiya Vaishnava works</h3>
In the earliest stratum of Gaudiya Vaishnava literature, the name of Prabodhananda crops up first in those peculiar works, the Vaishnava-vandanas, Bengali precursors to the bhakta-malas of North India, in which Chaitanya's associates' names are listed with only the sparsest of biographical detail. In all of these, we find oblique reference to a work by Prabodhananda glorifying Chaitanya.
One of Chaitanya's more important associates, Narahari (d. 1568), in his Saparshad-gauranga-vandana writes "Oh Prabodhananda, I implore you. Intoxicate me just once with the glories of Gauranga!" (9)
Devakinandan Das, in his works Vaishnava-vandana and Vaishnavabhidhan, also states simply that Prabodhananda (to whom he gives the respectful title “gosAi”, i.e. gosvAmI) is particularly known for his pure devotion to Mahaprabhu, “whose glories he described.”(10)
A bit more information is added by the important author Kavi Karnapur in his Gaura-ganoddeza-dIpikA (AD 1576), where Prabodhananda is identified as a yati -- an ascetic or monk, most likely of the Shankara orders. This is confirmed by the addition of the adjective gaurodgAna-sarasvatI, "he whose words are used in enthusiastically singing out the glories of Gaura (Chaitanya)", (11) where Saraswati is also one of the titles or classes of daza-nAmI renunciates of the Shankara school. In Prabodhananda's own works, the title Saraswati is used in the signature verses of SangM.(12)
Prabodhananda is further described in Gaura-ganoddeza-dIpikA as having the identity in Vraja of Tungavidya, the most scholarly of all of Radha and Krishna's chief girl friends. This identity ranks him with Svarupa Damodar, Ramananda Raya, Narahari, etc., who are some of the other Chaitanya associates identified as sakhis.
Another work of this type ascribed to Jiva Goswami specifies that Prabodhananda wrote Chandramrita and adds to this information that this Prabodhananda was the spiritual master of Gopala Bhatta.(13)
In his important Sanskrit compilation of ritual, the Hari-bhakti-vilAsa, sometimes known as the Vaishnava-smriti, Gopala Bhatta, one of the renowned "six goswamis" of Vrindavan, does indeed make obeisance to Prabodhananda as his guru, describing him as “dear to bhagavat”, which according to Sanatana, the commentator, means Chaitanya.(14)
Thus the earliest literature of the the Gaudiya Vaishnava school indicates that Prabodhananda was well known as someone who had glorified Chaitanya in a work named Chandramrita, that he was a yati who had the devotional mood of a sakhi. He was also the spiritual master of a significant member of Mahaprabhu’s entourage, Gopala Bhatta.
Further confirmation of this relation is found in three later and somewhat less reliable Bengali histories. These works are the much maligned Prema-vilAsa(15) of Nityananda Das (<1650?), Manohar Das's AnurAga-vallI (AD 1696) and Narahari's Bhakti-ratnAkara (mid- to late-eighteenth century). The main subject matter of all three of these works is the life of Srinivasa Acharya and his associates, the important second-generation exponents of Chaitanya's religion, responsible for the transmission of the Vrindavan doctrines of the Goswamis to Bengal. The absence of information in Chaitanya Charitamrita about Gopala Bhatta, the initiating spiritual master of Srinivasa, was compensated for in these accounts.(16)
The skeleton of the story, found in Prema-vilAsa and expanded in the two other works, runs as follows:
<blockquote>When Chaitanya traveled through South India in 1509-10, he stayed at the house of Venkata Bhatta, the father of Gopala, near Srirangam. Venkata and his two brothers, Gopala's uncles Trimalla Bhatta and Prabodhananda were converted from their Sri-Vaishnava faith in Lakshmi-Narayan to one in Radha Krishna. Venkata Bhatta's young son, Gopala, served Chaitanya and the saint took a liking to the boy, told Prabodhananda, his academic teacher, to give him a good education and then later send him to Vrindavan. Prabodhananda became a great devotee (bhAgavatottama) by Chaitanya's mercy, of which he made a description. [This is presumably a reference to CCA.] (17)
On his deathbed, Prabodhananda remembered Chaitanya's instruction and reminded Gopala of his duty to go to Vrindavan. This then Gopala did.(18)</blockquote>
The account of Bhakti-ratnakara is substantially the same, only adding that Prabodhananda was famed far and wide because of his knowledge and this was the cause of his receiving the title "Saraswati."(19) Narahari describes Prabodhananda as a great renunciate, affectionate, a poet and an expert singer, a player of musical instruments and dancer. Though not recounting Prabodhananda's death like Nityananda Das, Narahari nowhere indicates that he went to Vrindavan, nor that he wrote any literature describing the land of Radha and Krishna.
Manohara Das also seems to follow the Prema-vilAsa, only adding that the entire Bhatta family made a pilgrimage to Puri on one occasion to see Chaitanya, and that Gopal only left for Vrindavan after the deaths of all three brothers and their wives, thus confirming not only that Prabodhananda died a family man but that he never saw Vrindavan.(20)
These stories appear to have their roots in the account of Chaitanya's travels in South India given in CC, Madhya 9, to which details about Prabodhananda and Gopal Bhatta have been added. In fact, with the exception of the identification of Prabodhananda as a householder and Gopal Bhatta's uncle, there is little to indicate that these authors knew anything concrete about Prabodhananda other than that he was Gopala Bhatta's spiritual master and that he wrote a work glorifying Chaitanya.
Manohar Das betrays this in his Anuraga-valli when he supplements his account by translating the few words of Sanatana's commentary on the abovementioned verse of Hari-bhakti-vilAsa in which Gopala mentions Prabodhananda as his guru. This verse is also cited by Narahari in BRK (1.151).
Manohar mentions that Prabodhananda visited Jagannath Puri, but this could easily be deduced from reading Chandramrita, as we shall see in the next section.
The authenticity of these accounts is furthermore suspect for several reasons: It seems quite clear even from the little information that we get from the earliest sources that Prabodhananda was a yati. Moreover, Prabodhananda is not a name that resonates with those of his brothers Venkata and Tirumalla, both customary South Indian given names. It is rather a typical brahmacharin or sannyasin's name. Saraswati, too, is a title generally given to sannyasins and only very infrequently a scholar's upadhi. Though the possibility that Prabodhananda changed ashrams at some point is not excluded, none of these writers has suggested it, rather the opposite.
It is also quite clear from Prabodhananda's own writings that at some time he lived in Vrindavan, likely for a considerable period. So any biographical information that contradicts what seems certain knowledge immediately puts us on our guard.
A further rather significant doubt is cast on the entire account by Gopala Bhatta's own statements about his parentage given in the colophons to both his commentary on the Krishna-karnamrita and Kala-kaumudi in which he identifies himself as the son of Harivams Bhatta, grandson of Nrisimha Bhatta.(21) This may of course mean that another Gopala Bhatta is the author of these works.
<hr><font color=#9f6f9f>
9. Haridas Das, Introduction to Ascarya-rasa-prabandha, 3; ohe zri-prabodhAnanda nivedi tomAre/ gaura guNete bArek mAtAho AmAre//
10. In Bhakti-tattva-sAra, Rasiklal Chandra (ed.) (Calcutta, 1850), p. 10.
zuddha sarasvatI vanda baRa zuddha-mati/
mahAprabhur caraNe jAr vizeS bhakati//
zrI prabodhAnanda gosAni kavir vandan/
jei kaila mahAprabhur guNer varNan//
11. tungavidyA vraje yAsIt sarva-zAstra-vizAradA |
sA prabodhAnanda-yatir gaurodgAna-sarasvatI || Verse 163.
12. ed. Haridas Das (Nabadwip, 1953).e.g. rasika-sarasvatI-gIta-mahAdbhuta-rAdhA-svarUpa-rahasyam, or madhura-sarasvatI-gItam udAram gaNaya rasika-jana-hari-rasa-sAram; rasada-sarasvati-varNita-mAdhava-rUpa-sudhA-
rasa-sAre.
13. prabodhAnanda-sarasvatIM vande vimalAM yayA mudA/
candrAmRtaM racitaM yat ziSyo gopAla-bhaTTaH//
This work is given in full in Caitanya cariter UpAdAn, appendix +na, 101-12; this verse found on p.106. The preponderance of metrical and grammatical flaws indicate that this could never have been composed by an accomplished author of Jiva's talents, even considering the possibility of scribal and editorial incompetence.
14. bhakter vilAsAMz cinute prabodhAnandasya ziSyo bhagavat-priyasya. HBV 1.2, Shyama Charan Kaviratna (ed.), Calcutta, 1318 Beng. (AD. 1911)
15. See bibliography for publishing information. These works and the difficulties with accepting the evidence contained in them is discussed in B. B. Majumdar's Chaitanya chariter upadan, University of Calcutta, 1931. See pp. 424ff. The difficulties of the Prema-vilasa are summarized there, pp. 506-15. Nityananda Das claims to be a disciple of Jahnava, which would place him in the latter part of the 16th century, but his grasp of historical detail is tenuous. Though the work cannot be entirely discounted, there are numerous versions containing widely disparate texts. As yet no critical edition has been made.
16. Gopal Bhatta's name is found in four different places in CC (Adi 1.36-7, 9.4, 10.105, Madhya 18.49), but no biographical information is given. Later authors including Narahari ascribe this lacuna to the humble Gopal's request (cf. BRK 1.222, p.10: zrI-gopAla bhaTTa hRSTa haiyA AjnA dila/ grantha nija-prasanga varNite niSedhila//)
Tarapada Mukherjee suggests ("Caitanya-caritAmRter racana-kAla evaM brajer gauDIya-sampradAy", SAhityapariSat PatrikA, 1987 (1), 39) that it was in fact due to Gopal's non-participation in Chaitanya's activities and that he was not alive at the time that Krishna Das Kaviraj took up the task of writing this work. However, Mukherjee's contention is only acceptable if Gopala Bhatta had never met Chaitanya as was the case with Jiva Goswami.
17. sei prabodhAnanda prabhura prANa sama/
prabhu kRpA kari kaila bhAgavatottama//
prabhura erUpa kRpA karila varNan/
prasange likhila ei sab vivaraN//,
ed. RAma NArAyaNa VidyAratna (Murshidabad, 1892), 274 (18th vilAsa)
18. zeSa-kAle prabodhAnander haila smaraN/
bhaTTa DAki kahe prabhur je Ache vacan//
smaraN haila tAhA je AjnA balila/
vRndAvana jAbe ei mane vicArila// (ibid.)
19. BRK, 1.148-56;
pitRvya-kRpAy sarva-zAstra haila jnAn/
gopAler sama ethA nAi vidyamAn//
keha kohe prabodhAnander guN ati/
sarvatra haila jAr khyAti sarasvatI//
20. AnurAga-vallI, Mrinala Kanti Ghosh (ed.) (Calcutta: Ananda Bazar Patrika Office, 1931), 4-7.
21. zrImad-drAviDa-nIvRd-ambudhi-vidhuH zrImAn NRsiMho 'bhavad
bhaTTa zrI-harivaMza uttama-guNa-grAmaika-bhUs tat-sutaH/
tat-putrasya kRtis tv iyaM vitanutAM gopAla-nAmno mudA
gopInAtha-padAravinda-makarandAnandi-ceto 'linaH//
ed. S. K. De, Dacca University, 1938, 342). See discussion in the introduction to that volume, pp. xxxli.
<small><font color=#dedfdf>
[This message has been edited by Jagat (edited 07-09-2001).]
-
<h3>On my way to India</h3>
As the exhibition finished up, I was looking for more service to do. I wanted to leave and go to be with Srila Prabhupada in Vrindaban somehow. I learned the way one was given permission by a devotee Abhinanda Prabhu, which I have already written about before I was able to get the permission granted and after about five weeks was off to India.
It was arranged that I was to return to Radha Damodar party for collection of my fare to India and I was to go to Lousiville Kentucky and stay with Kavi Chandra Swami who managed a small preaching center in that place.
Kavi Chandra Maharaja was a wonderful person to be around He sent me out to the main street lights with sticks of incense and I approached cars asking them to take a stick of air fresher and please give a donation.
I would also give them a Back to Godhead or if they gave me a bill, a small book like "Krishna the Resevoir of Pleasure"or "Raja Vidya, the King of Knowledge," or "Easy Journey to Other Planets." These small books were distributed profusely by the devotees for years and years.
I remember when I was in Art School, one of our roommates home one night with "Easy Journey to Other Planets." He was all excited and showed me the book as he went into to his room. “Look at this book I just got!!” he told me. “Isn’t that fantastic !!! Leave me alone because I’m going to take an easy journey to other planets!” and he shut the door to his room.
After about an hour he returned to my room and threw Srila Prabhupada’s book at me and said, “It didn’t take me anywhere. You can have it. Maybe it will work for you.”
Well since then, and that was in the year 1971, we have been proceeding to all kinds of interesting places either directly or indirectly assisting Srila Prabhupada's mission, but yes, we are still here on this planet, at least for today.
Kavi Chandra Maharaja helped me in keeping track of the money I collected and one day he told me you now have enough money to buy a ticket to India. He gave me all the money and sent me off to NYC.
Just before that though, we were sent to assist Shravanananda Das, as he was preaching to the Indian community in a nearby place and we went for the kirtans. On hearing I was about to travel to India, one very nice Indian lady, a Miss Usha Gupta, gave me 100$ to help me out. I was very happy of course.
We proceeded to NYC and took shelter of Radha Govinda at Their Manhattan address. I spent about a week at the New York temple getting my passport and visas and then took a very cheap flight to London. We stayed at the Bury Place temple under the protection of Shree Shree Radha London Isvara.
This temple was donated to Srila Prabhupada by George Harrison. It was a 4 or 5 story row house down the street from the London Museum. As I told the devotees I was only there to purchase ticket to India, they told me the price was about 250 quid. “What? Quid?”
“Yes, about 260 dollars one way. But you will be cheated, so I will take you.” This very nice devotee took me to at least 20 travel agents in the Piccadilly area and got me the cheapest ticket we could find.
The atmosphere in the temple was always one of a large family I was told of a story by the London devotees.
Once there was this Indian gentleman who would come and sit very quietly in the back of the temple everyday for the morning greeting of the Deities.
No one gave him much attention. When it came time for prasad he would insist on serving all the devotees and taking prasad only after all the devotees had taken their fill. He would also insist on washing up the prasad area the pots and pans in Shree Shree Radha London Isvara’s kitchen. Then he would leave and come back the next day.
Each day he would do the same thing and this went on for about a week at the end of that time he introduced himself to the devotees. He was Dr Kapoor, the godbrother of Srila Prabhupada. He was in London on a visit was very happy to be able to see the temple, serve the devotees and Their Lordships.
I was quite taken aback. One should be very careful, I thought, how one treats the worshipers in the temple. They are the guests of the deities and we are their humble servants. We are distributing Their Lordships’ prasad on behalf of Srila Prabhupada’s Srila Guru Maharaj.
Soon I was on my way to India in shaved head and bramachari dress. I arrived in England in western clothes, but left in devotee dress. The plane set down in Kuwait and we spend a few hours among the Arab Kuwaitis, with each one addressing me with “Salam aleikum. How come you are dressed like a Hindu?” They were mild, but very surprised that a Westerner had become a Hindu. How strange. How odd. Why, why, why?
The waiting room was just that, a large square room with maybe five hundred men in white robes with loops around their heads on one side and about the same amount of women all dressed in black woollen robes. And in the middle, a bald-headed saffron-dressed Pita Das.
It was comforting to get back onto that plane. There must have been other Westerners, but I certainly can’t remember any now.
As the sun rose, we arrived in India. And as the morning light started to make the object of Bombay visible, I could see that a huge number of people were already up and about. It seemed the whole city was early risers, but I couldn’t understand then that this was just a small minority of a giant population that infested this living space then known as Bombay.
When the sun had completely risen, I arrived at our ISKCON Temple, Hare Krishna Land, and the taxi took me to the back of the property. I gave the driver a 20 rupee note for a ten rupee fare and he laughed and thanked me for my tip. I was told later that it was a very good tip, but it didn’t matter. I was finally there.
The sound of sellers and crows cawing is what I first remember. My first thought was that I had come all this way to stay at a construction site within a huge slum.
This material image very quickly faded as I met the first devotees and was warmly welcomed. I was told to come quickly to see greet Srila Prabhupada as His Divine Grace was preparing to leave for Vrindaban.
I don’t want to describe this part of my story again, as seeing Srila Prabhupada then was quite painful. It was a very sad experience; it was as if we were saying goodbye to His Divine Grace. We felt that Srila Prabhupada was to leave us. We didn’t understand then that Srila Prabhupada was such a great yogi, such a great devotee, that he would enter our hearts and never leave us. We had so little faith.
We chased Srila Prabhupada’s car down the road until we could run no longer. I became very depressed. It seemed that my newly found spiritual life was falling apart, but very soon the reassurances of the devotees and the nice service I was given, raised my spirits and enlivened me again. The service I was given was a fine one: I joined the Bhaktivendanta Book Trust library party.
I had come to be with Srila Prabhupada, but to do this I was first given a service to do in an Indian temple.
On my first day I meet Garga Muni Swami who was in charge of the party. He was very kind to all of us and all of the devotees on the party liked and respected him as they all told me Garga Muni always takes care of us. I was happy to be with him.
On my first meeting with Garga Muni Maharaja, he told me: “These temples are maya for you brahmacharis. So I want you to fill the vans full of books and go out at once to the libraries and sell them. You never need to return except to get more books.”
He then told me that just a few days before, he had prepared a large map of India with different colored pins representing the numbers of full sets of Srila Prabhupada’s books that had been distributed. He had taken it to show Srila Prabhupada. When Srila Prabhupada understood how many books the chart represented, he starting to cry, thanking Garga Muni.
With a heavy heart, Garga Muni also confided that Srila Prabhupada had gone to Vrindaban to leave his body. “I cannot stay in ISKCON without Srila Prabhupada,” he said.
The sum total of his greeting was thus: “Happy that you made it here. I’m leaving the temple. I’ll let you in on a secret: the essence is to stay away from the temples and just travel preach and distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books far and wide.”
Many things happened that first day. The devotees almost went on strike, wanting to leave Bombay en masse to go to Vrindaban. “We should all go. Why are we staying here?”
And Gopal Krishna tried to convince us to just carry on, that to serve Srila Prabhupada’s mission was higher than associating with Srila Prabhupada personally. So we mostly went back to our service.
In few days, Garga Muni left and didn’t return. Palika Dasi took over the management of the party as she had been Garga Muni’s secretary. She sent us what we needed on the road. I was placed with a group of devotees and we drove north in to Gujarat and started the library work.
-
<h3>On my way to India</h3>
As the exhibition finished up, I was looking for more service to do. I wanted to leave and go to be with Srila Prabhupada in Vrindaban somehow. I learned the way one was given permission by a devotee Abhinanda Prabhu, which I have already written about before I was able to get the permission granted and after about five weeks was off to India.
It was arranged that I was to return to Radha Damodar party for collection of my fare to India and I was to go to Lousiville Kentucky and stay with Kavi Chandra Swami who managed a small preaching center in that place.
Kavi Chandra Maharaja was a wonderful person to be around He sent me out to the main street lights with sticks of incense and I approached cars asking them to take a stick of air fresher and please give a donation.
I would also give them a Back to Godhead or if they gave me a bill, a small book like "Krishna the Resevoir of Pleasure"or "Raja Vidya, the King of Knowledge," or "Easy Journey to Other Planets." These small books were distributed profusely by the devotees for years and years.
I remember when I was in Art School, one of our roommates home one night with "Easy Journey to Other Planets." He was all excited and showed me the book as he went into to his room. “Look at this book I just got!!” he told me. “Isn’t that fantastic !!! Leave me alone because I’m going to take an easy journey to other planets!” and he shut the door to his room.
After about an hour he returned to my room and threw Srila Prabhupada’s book at me and said, “It didn’t take me anywhere. You can have it. Maybe it will work for you.”
Well since then, and that was in the year 1971, we have been proceeding to all kinds of interesting places either directly or indirectly assisting Srila Prabhupada's mission, but yes, we are still here on this planet, at least for today.
Kavi Chandra Maharaja helped me in keeping track of the money I collected and one day he told me you now have enough money to buy a ticket to India. He gave me all the money and sent me off to NYC.
Just before that though, we were sent to assist Shravanananda Das, as he was preaching to the Indian community in a nearby place and we went for the kirtans. On hearing I was about to travel to India, one very nice Indian lady, a Miss Usha Gupta, gave me 100$ to help me out. I was very happy of course.
We proceeded to NYC and took shelter of Radha Govinda at Their Manhattan address. I spent about a week at the New York temple getting my passport and visas and then took a very cheap flight to London. We stayed at the Bury Place temple under the protection of Shree Shree Radha London Isvara.
This temple was donated to Srila Prabhupada by George Harrison. It was a 4 or 5 story row house down the street from the London Museum. As I told the devotees I was only there to purchase ticket to India, they told me the price was about 250 quid. “What? Quid?”
“Yes, about 260 dollars one way. But you will be cheated, so I will take you.” This very nice devotee took me to at least 20 travel agents in the Piccadilly area and got me the cheapest ticket we could find.
The atmosphere in the temple was always one of a large family I was told of a story by the London devotees.
Once there was this Indian gentleman who would come and sit very quietly in the back of the temple everyday for the morning greeting of the Deities.
No one gave him much attention. When it came time for prasad he would insist on serving all the devotees and taking prasad only after all the devotees had taken their fill. He would also insist on washing up the prasad area the pots and pans in Shree Shree Radha London Isvara’s kitchen. Then he would leave and come back the next day.
Each day he would do the same thing and this went on for about a week at the end of that time he introduced himself to the devotees. He was Dr Kapoor, the godbrother of Srila Prabhupada. He was in London on a visit was very happy to be able to see the temple, serve the devotees and Their Lordships.
I was quite taken aback. One should be very careful, I thought, how one treats the worshipers in the temple. They are the guests of the deities and we are their humble servants. We are distributing Their Lordships’ prasad on behalf of Srila Prabhupada’s Srila Guru Maharaj.
Soon I was on my way to India in shaved head and bramachari dress. I arrived in England in western clothes, but left in devotee dress. The plane set down in Kuwait and we spend a few hours among the Arab Kuwaitis, with each one addressing me with “Salam aleikum. How come you are dressed like a Hindu?” They were mild, but very surprised that a Westerner had become a Hindu. How strange. How odd. Why, why, why?
The waiting room was just that, a large square room with maybe five hundred men in white robes with loops around their heads on one side and about the same amount of women all dressed in black woollen robes. And in the middle, a bald-headed saffron-dressed Pita Das.
It was comforting to get back onto that plane. There must have been other Westerners, but I certainly can’t remember any now.
As the sun rose, we arrived in India. And as the morning light started to make the object of Bombay visible, I could see that a huge number of people were already up and about. It seemed the whole city was early risers, but I couldn’t understand then that this was just a small minority of a giant population that infested this living space then known as Bombay.
When the sun had completely risen, I arrived at our ISKCON Temple, Hare Krishna Land, and the taxi took me to the back of the property. I gave the driver a 20 rupee note for a ten rupee fare and he laughed and thanked me for my tip. I was told later that it was a very good tip, but it didn’t matter. I was finally there.
The sound of sellers and crows cawing is what I first remember. My first thought was that I had come all this way to stay at a construction site within a huge slum.
This material image very quickly faded as I met the first devotees and was warmly welcomed. I was told to come quickly to see greet Srila Prabhupada as His Divine Grace was preparing to leave for Vrindaban.
I don’t want to describe this part of my story again, as seeing Srila Prabhupada then was quite painful. It was a very sad experience; it was as if we were saying goodbye to His Divine Grace. We felt that Srila Prabhupada was to leave us. We didn’t understand then that Srila Prabhupada was such a great yogi, such a great devotee, that he would enter our hearts and never leave us. We had so little faith.
We chased Srila Prabhupada’s car down the road until we could run no longer. I became very depressed. It seemed that my newly found spiritual life was falling apart, but very soon the reassurances of the devotees and the nice service I was given, raised my spirits and enlivened me again. The service I was given was a fine one: I joined the Bhaktivendanta Book Trust library party.
I had come to be with Srila Prabhupada, but to do this I was first given a service to do in an Indian temple.
On my first day I meet Garga Muni Swami who was in charge of the party. He was very kind to all of us and all of the devotees on the party liked and respected him as they all told me Garga Muni always takes care of us. I was happy to be with him.
On my first meeting with Garga Muni Maharaja, he told me: “These temples are maya for you brahmacharis. So I want you to fill the vans full of books and go out at once to the libraries and sell them. You never need to return except to get more books.”
He then told me that just a few days before, he had prepared a large map of India with different colored pins representing the numbers of full sets of Srila Prabhupada’s books that had been distributed. He had taken it to show Srila Prabhupada. When Srila Prabhupada understood how many books the chart represented, he starting to cry, thanking Garga Muni.
With a heavy heart, Garga Muni also confided that Srila Prabhupada had gone to Vrindaban to leave his body. “I cannot stay in ISKCON without Srila Prabhupada,” he said.
The sum total of his greeting was thus: “Happy that you made it here. I’m leaving the temple. I’ll let you in on a secret: the essence is to stay away from the temples and just travel preach and distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books far and wide.”
Many things happened that first day. The devotees almost went on strike, wanting to leave Bombay en masse to go to Vrindaban. “We should all go. Why are we staying here?”
And Gopal Krishna tried to convince us to just carry on, that to serve Srila Prabhupada’s mission was higher than associating with Srila Prabhupada personally. So we mostly went back to our service.
In few days, Garga Muni left and didn’t return. Palika Dasi took over the management of the party as she had been Garga Muni’s secretary. She sent us what we needed on the road. I was placed with a group of devotees and we drove north in to Gujarat and started the library work.
-
<h3>Prabhupada visits the diorama studio</h3>
Bharadraj Prabhu told us about Srila Prabhupada’s idea of what the exhibition should be and the real situation: that many of the movement's leaders were not willing to surrender to Srila Prabhupada’s desires to make it a reality.
Srila Prabhupada wanted the Doll Exhibition in Los Angeles city. His idea was to create something like what Universal City became years later, with a permanent exhibition on the introduction to Bhagavad Gita. His Divine Grace said people would throng to such an exhibit.
Jayatirtha was the main person who supported the project and I suspect that we were able to at least finish it because of him. Today it is hidden away in distant portion of the New Dwaraka Community.
If the leaders who were controlling the money flow to the project had done what Srila Prabhupada instructed, the exhibition might have become as popular as Universal City and a great preaching asset.
As time in ISKCON passed, we would see these young men taking over Srila Prabhupada’s temples and applying karmi learned understanding of market economy into effect instead of the instructions given to us by Srila Prabhupada. Everything was based on money and getting it. Love and trust and pleasing Srila Prabhupada seemed not to be an important goal in ISKCON almost the moment Srila Prabhupada left His lotus form. It was preached that His Divine Grace would never leave but the actions of the society were, “He is gone and it’s ours now. This is your area and that is mine.”
It took me some time to firmly understand that this really was the mentality of the leadership. ISKCON was presenting the most sublime information that has ever entered into the western world, but the dissemination has been so poor.
As we finished up the exhibition our group of artists had less and less to do. We were asked by Srila Prabhupada to make deities for worship in the new temple in the Fiji Islands, Shree Krishna Kaliya temple. I was put to work making Their Lordships’ lotus bases.
After this we also made the Shree Pancha Tattva deities for the Laguna Beach Temple and Pandu Prabhu did a wonderful mural behind them of Shree Dham Mayapur landscape.
We then started to produce the murtis of Srila Prabhupada done by Lochan Prabhu, which are in almost every ISKCON temple today.
When Srila Prabhupada visited our studio, all the small scale-sized mark-ups of the exhibition were placed in the studio to show him. As he saw each small exhibition His Divine Grace would make his comments. When seeing the changing bodies diorama, Srila Prabhupada quoted the verse and said from boyhood to youth to old age the body changes but the soul does not.
“This is a universal problem, not a Christian one or a Muslim one. We all have this problem. So this is a science not a religion. We are showing how to stop this cycle of birth and death.”
Srila Prabhupada’s murti was placed in the far back of the studio and the murti was made to move its head up and look out a window. The exhibition was of Srila Prabhupada in his small room at Radha Damodara temple in Vrindavan, and from his room you could see the samadhi of Srila Rupa Goswami. It is within these rooms Srila Prabhupada wrote his Bhagavad Gita translations "As It is" and so the murti was made to move its head as if to look at Srila Rupa Goswami’s Samadhi.
Lochan Prabhu had placed it behind some partitions and when His Divine Grace first saw it, his expression was of total satisfaction and happiness. When the murti began to move his happiness seemed to increase by 100%. There is a photo of this in the archives.
Lochan then told Srila Prabhupada that we could make murtis of himself and place them on his Vyasasans and Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes, this is good. Then I will never leave. I will always be with you.”
These few moments were one of the nicest memories I have of my time in His Divine Grace’s ISKCON.
We then showed Srila Prabhupada the work areas where the dresses were made and Srila Prabhupada saw some small angels on the wall in different sizes as they were to be placed into the universal form exhibition. “Who are they?” Srila Prabhupada asked. “They are Gandharvas, Srila Prabhupada.” His Divine Grace said, “No, Gandharvas do not have wings. They do not need wings to fly. Only Garuda has wings. He is unique in this.”
Wow! We got the information - angels have no wings! And those were the highlights of Srila Prabhupada’s tour of our studio.
-
<h3>Prabhupada visits the diorama studio</h3>
Bharadraj Prabhu told us about Srila Prabhupada’s idea of what the exhibition should be and the real situation: that many of the movement's leaders were not willing to surrender to Srila Prabhupada’s desires to make it a reality.
Srila Prabhupada wanted the Doll Exhibition in Los Angeles city. His idea was to create something like what Universal City became years later, with a permanent exhibition on the introduction to Bhagavad Gita. His Divine Grace said people would throng to such an exhibit.
Jayatirtha was the main person who supported the project and I suspect that we were able to at least finish it because of him. Today it is hidden away in distant portion of the New Dwaraka Community.
If the leaders who were controlling the money flow to the project had done what Srila Prabhupada instructed, the exhibition might have become as popular as Universal City and a great preaching asset.
As time in ISKCON passed, we would see these young men taking over Srila Prabhupada’s temples and applying karmi learned understanding of market economy into effect instead of the instructions given to us by Srila Prabhupada. Everything was based on money and getting it. Love and trust and pleasing Srila Prabhupada seemed not to be an important goal in ISKCON almost the moment Srila Prabhupada left His lotus form. It was preached that His Divine Grace would never leave but the actions of the society were, “He is gone and it’s ours now. This is your area and that is mine.”
It took me some time to firmly understand that this really was the mentality of the leadership. ISKCON was presenting the most sublime information that has ever entered into the western world, but the dissemination has been so poor.
As we finished up the exhibition our group of artists had less and less to do. We were asked by Srila Prabhupada to make deities for worship in the new temple in the Fiji Islands, Shree Krishna Kaliya temple. I was put to work making Their Lordships’ lotus bases.
After this we also made the Shree Pancha Tattva deities for the Laguna Beach Temple and Pandu Prabhu did a wonderful mural behind them of Shree Dham Mayapur landscape.
We then started to produce the murtis of Srila Prabhupada done by Lochan Prabhu, which are in almost every ISKCON temple today.
When Srila Prabhupada visited our studio, all the small scale-sized mark-ups of the exhibition were placed in the studio to show him. As he saw each small exhibition His Divine Grace would make his comments. When seeing the changing bodies diorama, Srila Prabhupada quoted the verse and said from boyhood to youth to old age the body changes but the soul does not.
“This is a universal problem, not a Christian one or a Muslim one. We all have this problem. So this is a science not a religion. We are showing how to stop this cycle of birth and death.”
Srila Prabhupada’s murti was placed in the far back of the studio and the murti was made to move its head up and look out a window. The exhibition was of Srila Prabhupada in his small room at Radha Damodara temple in Vrindavan, and from his room you could see the samadhi of Srila Rupa Goswami. It is within these rooms Srila Prabhupada wrote his Bhagavad Gita translations "As It is" and so the murti was made to move its head as if to look at Srila Rupa Goswami’s Samadhi.
Lochan Prabhu had placed it behind some partitions and when His Divine Grace first saw it, his expression was of total satisfaction and happiness. When the murti began to move his happiness seemed to increase by 100%. There is a photo of this in the archives.
Lochan then told Srila Prabhupada that we could make murtis of himself and place them on his Vyasasans and Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes, this is good. Then I will never leave. I will always be with you.”
These few moments were one of the nicest memories I have of my time in His Divine Grace’s ISKCON.
We then showed Srila Prabhupada the work areas where the dresses were made and Srila Prabhupada saw some small angels on the wall in different sizes as they were to be placed into the universal form exhibition. “Who are they?” Srila Prabhupada asked. “They are Gandharvas, Srila Prabhupada.” His Divine Grace said, “No, Gandharvas do not have wings. They do not need wings to fly. Only Garuda has wings. He is unique in this.”
Wow! We got the information - angels have no wings! And those were the highlights of Srila Prabhupada’s tour of our studio.
-
<center>LESSON FOUR</center>
<font color=#2F4f2F>For July 9, 2001. Forgive me, friends, for spreading myself a little thin. I have started three different threads in the last week and each one of them is quite demanding. So you’ll forgive me if I start to take it a little easy.
I’ll try to get five Gita verses in a week, and a bit of the other articles, which though already completed, need to be formatted and corrected, sometimes edited – and all of that takes time. So please be patient and we’ll try to get everything in.
<hr>
<font color=#5F9f5F>Verses 4-6 are usually read together. That is the way the commentaries are usually organized.
b>feminine nouns, the second is the genitive case, the third is the instrumental case.. A number of different declensions also appear.
<hr></font>
<center> atra zUrA mahezvAsA bhImArjuna-samA yudhi |
yuyudhAno virATaz ca drupadaz ca mahArathaH ||4||
dhRSTaketuz cekitAnaH kAzirAjaz ca vIryavAn |
purujit kuntibhojaz ca zaibyaz ca nara-pungavaH ||5||
yudhAmanyuz ca vikrAnta uttamaujAz ca vIryavAn |
saubhadro draupadeyAz ca sarva eva mahArathAH ||3||</center>
ANVAYA: I won’t bother with an anvaya today, as it is pretty straightforward. Mostly we have a list of names, with a few little things thrown in.
GRAMMATICAL COMMENTS:
<font color=#5F9F9F>1. So let’s do a little bit of sandhi. In this verse, we have nearly all masculine nouns in the nominative singular, with one or two plurals. Since most of these end in –aH or -AH, we can see a few of the most common sandhi rules in action.
The idea of sandhi fascinated the classical Sanskritists. In a way, the entire Hindu philosophy of life can be summarized by sandhi – everything is contextual. Everything is affected by its context. So when one letter comes into contact with another, it is altered. This means the budding Sanskritist has to be able to recognize these changes.
“H” is called “visarga.” It is one of the most volatile sounds and can change or be dropped depending on what goes before it and what follows, so you have to bear both in mind. In the first line, a single rule is illustrated. The three words are all masculine plurals, and in their original form ended with H, but because these visargas were followed by soft consonants, they were all dropped!
<center>atra zUrAH mahezvAsAH bhIma-arjuna-samAH yudhi..</center>
What, I hear you ask, is a soft consonant? Please look into a BBT book with the Sanskrit alphabet in it. The last three consonants in each line – ga, gha, Ga, ja, jha, Ja, Da, Dha, Na, da, dha, na, ba, bha, ma – the four semivowels – ya, ra, la, va – and ha. These 20 are called “soft consonants.” Linguists give them another name, but let’s not get troubled by a name.
So the rule here is: Whenever H is preceded by A and followed by a soft consonant <u> or a vowel</u>, it is dropped.
NOTA BENE #1: We didn't have an example in these particular verses of AH followed by a vowel, but I figured I'd mention it anyway.
NOTA BENE #2: We have to read backwards – we have to be able to deduce whether there was a visarga there once that is now missing. This requires a little bit of knowledge, because maybe there never was a visarga there in the first place!!!
2. yudhi is a locative case for a consonant-stem noun. Actually –i is the official universal locative ending, but because of various sandhi rules and exceptions, you really see it only in consonant-stem nouns. Examples: Atmani, bhagavati, mahati, gAvi,, etc.
yudhi-Sthira means “steady in battle.” That’s another story. It’s an archaic type of compound word in which the first member retains a case ending. This doesn’t usually happen, but there are a few cases.
The more common form for “in battle” would be yuddhe from yuddha.
A couple of the other names in these verses also show derivatives of the /yudh verb root. yuyudhAna and yudhAmanyu, but I won’t burden you with explanations of those right now. Let’s stick to sandhi today.
3. saubhadro and yuyudhAno were originally saubhadraH and yuyudhAnaH. The rule here was: Whenever visarga (H) is preceded by “a” and followed by a soft consonant, the aH is transformed into o.
In this case, it is fairly easy to recognize, because there are very few words in Sanskrit that naturally end in -o.
4. Notice how often in these verses you get “z” before a “ca”. Very simple. The rule is: No matter WHAT vowel precedes the visarga, if it is followed by “c”, it becomes z.
5. The last visarga sandhi rule for today: Whenever a visarga is preceded by a or A, and followed by any vowel, it is dropped. This is what happened to vikrAntaH.
6. We’ll finish today’s lesson by introducing you to the word sarva. This common word, which you are all no doubt already familiar with, is in fact declined like a pronoun. Pronouns are sometimes declined like ordinary –a stem nouns, and sometimes they have endings that are unique to themselves. In this particular case, sarva is really sarve, but due to a vowel sandhi rule, it became sarva.
So sarvaH in the masculine singular (“the entire”) becomes sarve in the masculine plural (“all”). Similarly,
kaH becomes ke (“who?”)
yaH becomes ye (“who”)
saH becomes te (“he, they”)
And we have a number of other adjectives that fit into this category. We shall meet them all in due course.
So let’s stop there today. And now to go to my REAL work!
-
Prabodhananda Saraswati the author
Prabodhananda Saraswati is primarily known as the author of a number of works in the Sanskrit language, all of which deal with the subject of Krishna or Krishna devotion. None of the works ascribed to him contain any explicitly biographical data, nor are any of them dated.
The list of his works differs in each of the two schools who contest his allegiance. Amongst the Gaudiyas, his most significant works, beside the contested stotra-kAvya, Radha-rasa-sudha-nidhi (RRSN), include four works of Sanskrit verse: Chaitanya-chandramrita (CCA), Vrindavana-mahimamrita (VMA), Sangita-madhava (SangM) and Ascarya-rasa-prabandha (ARP), as well as a number of commentaries.
The first two of the four verse works are also stotra-kavyas in the vein of Mukunda-mala, Stotra-ratna, and Krishna-karnamrita, the stylistic influence of this last work being particularly noticeable. The two other compositions are descriptions of Radha and Krishna's amorous dalliances, the first (SangM) a giti-kavya in the style of the Gita-govinda in sixteen sargas, the second (ARP), an original reworking of the rasa-lila in 284 verses, primarily in the pajjhatika metre.
Prabodhananda’s prose commentaries include the Sruti-stuti-vyakhya on the 87th chapter of the Bhagavata-purana's tenth book, another on the Gita-govinda, one on Gopala-tapani Upanishad(2) and the last on Gayatri-mantra. These last two are somewhat doubtful, as they bear a great similarity to works also attributed to Jiva Goswami. All of these works have been published in recent years,(3) for which the efforts of Haridas Das are particularly noteworthy. The CCA in particular is a continuing favorite of the Gaudiyas that has seen repeated publication.
Amongst the Radha-vallabhis, the CCA never attained currency for obvious reasons, but apparently neither did many of Prabodhananda's other writings. In this school, Prabodhananda is known principally as the author of the Vrindavana-sataka, and then primarily through its Brajabhasha translation by Bhagavat Mudita rather than in its original form. This translation contains only the last of the seventeen centuries of the VMA recension known to the Gaudiyas.
The Radha-vallabhis also recognize Sangita-madhava. They also consider Prabodhananda to be the author of Nikunja-vilasa-stava,(4) known to the Gaudiyas as Nikunja-rahasya-stava and held to be the work of Rupa Goswami. There are good reasons for accepting the Radhavallabhi version in this case.(5)
Another work attributed to Prabodhananda by the Radhavallabhis is a short poem called Sri-Hitaharivamsa-candrastaka, eight verses glorifying Harivams. That RRSN is Hita Harivams' own composition is held by the school as an article of religious faith.
An examination of MS collections in Vrindavan and elsewhere leads one to conclude that other than VMA and CCA, Prabodhananda's works did not gain great currency. The RRSN was widely read amongst the Radhavallabhis, and it would appear, according to the manuscript evidence available in the Vrindavan Research Institute, that it was only later adopted by the Gaudiyas. who apparently added invocatory and signatory verses to Caitanya.(6) We shall return to a fuller discussion of these matters later.
Another title attributed to Prabodhananda is Viveka-sataka. This work does not seem ever to have been published. The description of the MS given by Rajendralal Mitra in his Notices, "a century of verses on dispassion or indifference to worldly attractions, for the sake of devotion to Krishna," does not in itself help to establish whether or not it is an authentic work by the same Prabodhananda with whom we are concerned.(7)
A further work, Navadvipa-sataka, appears to be a pastiche of CCA in Prabodhananda's style, written to vaunt the glories of Chaitanya's birthplace.(8) This work has only gained currency in certain limited circles of the Gaudiya sampradaya.
<hr><font color=#9f6f9f>
2. I have done a translation of both Jiva’s commentary and that attributed to Prabodhananda. A thorough study led me to conclude that the commentary attributed to him was likely not his, but based on an early commentary by him. I may give a detailed explanation of this at a further time.
3. See bibliography for publishing details of these works.
4. Published in Stava-kalpa-druma, 700-706.
5. Lalita Charan Goswami, Sri Hita Harivams: Sampraday aur Sahitya, (Vrindavan, 1957) 573-4. This volume is the source of information on Radha-vallabhi knowledge of Prabodhananda's writings. This work is nowhere included in any list of Rupa’s works. It contains a number of stylistic similarities to Prabodhananda’s other writings, as well as those of Harivams, as will be pointed out later on in this article.
6. The MS. 6626 where the introductory Radha-vallabha has been erased and replaced by Radha-ramana. The verses to Chaitanya and a colophon appear to have been added in a later hand. MS. 3263 is incomplete and the inconsistency of the numbering, altered by the addition of the invocatory verse points to tampering. For a complete discussion see Rupert Snell, The Eighty-four Hymns of Hita Harivams: An edition of the Caurasi Pada, London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1991. pp. 42ff.
7. MS. 2510. Unfortunately, this manuscript has never been recovered. The introductory and concluding verses found in Mitra’s descriptions are very close in style to Prabodhananda’s writings and indicate a devotional mood.
Introductory verse:
dehaH prApto virasa-jarasaM kSINam Ayur mamAbhUt
svalpA zaktir viSama-viSaya-grAhiNI yendriyANAm/
dUre vRndAvana-taTa-bhuvaH sveda-bheda-pradAyAH
kiM kurve 'haM vrata-kula-ziro-ratna-** na vedmi//
Final verse:
zrI-kuNDala-maNDitAnana-vidhau danta-prabhA-kaumudI
vidhvasta-vraja-vallabhASitam asi protphulla-vaktrAmbuje/
vaMzI-nAda-vimohitAkhila-jagaj-jantau kizorAvRtau
zrI-kRSNa-ratir astu me prati**premAbdhi-sambandhinI//
Colophon: zrI-prabodhAnanda-sarasvatI-viracitaM viveka-zatakam. The influence of Bhartrihari, author of the Vairagya-sataka, etc., on Prabodhananda is felt elsewhere. It is hoped that this manuscript may one day be found again.
8. ed. N. K. Vidyalankara (Krishnanagar, Nadia Gaudiya Mission, 1941)
-
<hr><font color=#2F4F2F>1. "In the end" = "at the end of the prakaTa-lIla." Read today's segment, that should make it clear.
2. I am not arguing for or against svakiya or parakiya. I am merely presenting Jiva Goswami's position. Those who say Jiva was a parakiya-vadi need to look at his whole argument. Unless you know Gopala Campu in its entirety, you will have difficulty explaining his position. It is a very big book, but perhaps I should just present the translation. It seems that someone, perhaps Dasarath Suta, has already done a translation. But anyway...
3. Why is it a controversy? Well I said I wasn't going to get into that. As with most such debates, it may very well stand for something else. So maybe all those people who say that it is a way of countering Sahajiyaism are right. On the other hand, there is not one scrap of evidence to support this contention.
I will get back to this a little bit at the end of the article. But be patient, it's pretty long, and I don't intend to go fast. See my remarks on the Bhagavad Gita thread.
</font><hr>
1.3 Presuppositions from KrishnaS: aisvarya and madhurya
In the first 105 paragraphs of KrishnaS, Jiva argues (on the basis of BhP i.3.28; KrishnaS 28) that the "historical" Krishna, generally considered to be an avatar of Narayan, is in fact svayaM bhagavAn, ergo, the fountainhead of the numerous different types of avatar: the lilavatar, purusavatar (which includes the vyuhas Sankarshan, Pradyumna and Aniruddha), gunavatar (i.e. Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu), manvantaravatar and yugavatars. This preliminary portion of KrishnaS has little or no relevance for the GC other than as a general theological a priori for the narration of the events of Krishna's life.
Krishna's divinity (his aisvarya), though undoubtedly basic to any understanding of him, is secondary to other aspects of his character as the supreme truth (i.e. his madhurya). The relation of Krishna's "god-ness" to his "sweetness" or "human-ness", to use Jiva's own example, is that of the Saraswati to the Ganges at Triveni: it cannot be seen but its currents are known to flow there outside the range of vision.(6) Put another way, Krishna's madhurya makes loving intimacy with him possible, but this great prize would have no meaning without his aisvarya, for he would then be reduced to mere humanity. Nevertheless, it is matters related to Krishna's madhurya, because of their greater potential for the emotional response or rasa, that are rather more important to the Gaudiya Vaishnavas in general, and this concern is reflected in GC.
Krishna's madhurya is expressed primarily in his human-like relationship to his devotees, his parents, his friends and his lovers. The various ambiguities in these relations that appear in BhP are brought into the open and clarified in the latter portion of KrishnaS. Jiva's main preoccupation there is to reconcile Krishna's supreme godhead, expressed not by a surfeit of aisvarya, but of madhurya, with his de facto treatment of his devotees as described in the authoritative scriptures, in particular BhP. To do this, he must also reconcile Krishna's activities as avatar with his eternal activities or nitya-lila in Goloka, his heaven.
To this end, then, once Jiva has identified Krishna as bhagavAn, the supreme form of the personal godhead, full of six glories, he goes on to establish the scriptural basis for the existence of a suitable abode for him (paras. 105-116).
This abode, alluded to in a BhP passage (x.28.13-8) where Krishna gives Nanda and the cowherds a vision of their "ultimate destination",(7) is further described according to verses from BrS, HV, and other puranic and tantric sources. This eternal abode has manifestations in the earthly dimension, appearing there at the time of Krishna's avatar in the same way that he does. Though Jiva accepts that Dvaraka and Mathura are eternal places of Krishna's residence, his main preoccupation is with Vrindavan where Krishna in his most human (two-armed, never four-armed) form abides. The original presentation of much of the material found in GC i.1, i.e. the nature of the realm of Goloka, including even a description of its topography,(8) is given in this portion of KrishnaS.
Jiva next asserts (117-45) that the residents of Vrndavana, Mathura and Dvaraka are all Krishna's companions, similarly eternally associated with him in his realm. He compares Nanda and Yasoda to Krishna's "natural" parents in Mathura, Vasudeva and Devaki, on the basis of remarks made about each of them in BhP (146-52). Nanda and Yasoda are deemed to have a greater claim to be Krishna's parents than Vasudeva and Devaki, traditionally his "real parents", even though parenthood in a real physical sense is denied in BhP (x.2.18). After all, Krishna appeared to the latter in a four-armed form at his birth, showing the extent to which they were conscious of his aisvarya, while the former only knew him in his madhurya.(9)
In keeping with this siddhanta, Jiva narrates a complex tale in GC that places Krishna first in the womb of Yasoda before he is magically transferred to Mathura to merge with the Vasudeva form born to Devaki. This continued separation of the Krishna of the cowherds from that of the Yadavas is the essential theological guideline Jiva follows in his conceptualization of the Krishna story, and the GC is in effect a rewriting of BhP from this point of view.
Throughout the book, Jiva minimizes the relations with the residents of Dvaraka, except to point out their negative side.(10) Krishna says to Uddhava that the Vrajavasis are to the Yadavas as an object to its reflections: when Krishna was with the former, he was never reminded of their counterparts in Dvaraka; whereas when with the latter, he was constantly is reminded of the loving relations he enjoyed with the Vrajavasins.(11)
Madhurya, though existing in certain aspects of Krishna's life in Dvaraka such as his private relations with his queens (e.g., the banter Krishna enjoys with Rukmini -- BhP x.60) are completely dropped from GC as irrelevant to the concerns of the residents of Vraja.
Jiva's interest in Krishna and his life ends as soon as he returns to Vraja, two months after which he once again divides himself into two forms. In his cowherd form he ascends to Goloka, while in another form he returns to Dvaraka(12) to participate in the battle of Kurukshetra and speak the Bhagavad Gita, etc. These latter activities thus have no place in GC.
Interestingly enough, Jiva does note that Krishna lays down his arms after killing Dantavakra and Viduratha just prior to entering Vraja, an untold event of relevance to the events of MBh.(13)
<hr><font color=#9F5f9F>6. PritiS 112.
7. This vision is described in GC i.20.36-46. The dhama is described in detail in GC i.1 and ii.37.
8. See Jan Brzezinski, “Goloka Vrndavana: A translation of Jiva Gosvamin's Gopala-campu (Chapter One),” Journal of Vaisnava Studies, 1,1. Fall, 1992. p.98.
9. These matters are discussed in GC i.3.82ff.
10. Cf. Krishna's criticism of Yadava marriage customs (i.33.138), the behavior of the Yadavas in the Syamantaka affair (i.33v55-6, ii.17.17 etc.) and at the time of the Krishna's going to abduct Rukmini (ii.13.26).
11. GC ii.10v13;
manye gokula-sambhavam pitR-mukham premAvalambaM janam
bimbam tat-pratibimbam eva pura-janam yatrAnubhUtiH pramA/
purvasminn anubhUtatAm anu gate nAntyaH kva ca smaryate
pazcad-bhAvini yatavaty anubhavam pUrvam sarIsmaryate//
12. PadP vi.279.15-6 states that Krishna spent two months in Vraja before sending the Nanda and the other men with their sons and wives (nandAdayaH putra-dara-sahitAH) to Vaikuntha and returning to Dvaraka. Jiva interprets the word "sons" to refer to Krishna, since Nanda is not known to have had any other children. He further says that Krishna went to Dvaraka in another form appropriate to that place (ekena prakAzena ca dvAravatIM ca jagAmeti. KrsnaS 175, p.93. Also GC ii.29.103: putra-dAra-sahitAh iti pUrva-sUcita-tat-putratocita-rUpeNAtra sthitir eva, yadupura-samucita-rupeNa tu dvAravatI-praveza iti sarvaM sa-deza-rUpam.
13. GC ii.30.12; itaH paraM svIyam astraM na prayunjIya kvacid apIti samcakLpe.
<small><font color=#f7f7f7>
<hr></font>
[This message has been edited by Jagat (edited 07-09-2001).]
-
Yes, it would be nice if you could order through XXI, as this is a devotee-run organization. Madan Mohan Das, I believe, is Michel Laverdière's devotee name. He built up Atma Records and XXI into one of the strongest independent classical record companies in Canada.
Email xxi-21@dsuper.net and see if he can ship that one across the border.
Actually, I see that he is using another distributor info@sri-Canada.com
XXI PRODUCTIONS INC ACD 22130 SRICD-CHANT AND BE HAPPY INDIA / INDIAN DEVOTIONAL SONGS (CHANTS) HARRISON,GEORGE(PRODUCER) THE LONDON RADHA-KRISHNA TEMPLE 722056213028
[This message has been edited by Jagat (edited 07-08-2001).]
Prabodhananda Saraswati
in Spiritual Discussions
Posted
<h3>Prabodhananda's view of Chaitanya</h3>
Prabodhananda's panegyric shows a sophisticated theological conception of Chaitanya as the godhead Krishna himself, fully incarnate (pUrNa evAvatIrNaH, 142) both to taste love for Krishna (vrajapati-kumAraM rasayituM, 1) and to distribute that taste of love to all and sundry (vizuddha-sva-premonmada-madhura-pIyUSa-laharIM pradAtuM cAnyebhyaH, 1), irregardless of their caste, sinful character or previously held beliefs (3, 4, etc.). This shows that he understood both the internal (antaranga) and external (bahiranga) causes for Chaitanya's incarnation, as outlined by Krishna Das Kaviraj.(<u>41</u>)
Prabodhananda appears to have come under the influence of several of Chaitanya's associates: Svarupa Damodar and Narahari Sarkar in particular, for some of their ideas are reflected in his verses. He thus seems to have alternately described Chaitanya according to each of several theological points of view that were extant without making any particular effort at differentiation. Thus, in one place he follows the position attributed to Svarupa Damodar (<u>42</u>) in postulating that Chaitanya is both Radha and Krishna in a combined form: “May the body of Madhava, united with Radha, give you salvation” (ekIbhUtaM vapur avatu vo rAdhayA mAdhavasya, 16) or “Gaurachandra is directly manifest as the [combined] form of Radha and the enemy of Madhu” (sAkSAd rAdhA-madhuripu-tanur bhAti gaurAnga-candraH, 103)
On the other hand, Prabodhananda more often describes Chaitanya as Krishna himself with a golden color. (<u>43</u>) In particular, one verse (90) describes Chaitanya as nAgara, a concept that is usually attributed to Narahari and his followers. The idea of Chaitanya as sannyAsi-kapaTam or “fraudulent sannyasi” (64, 96) also appears to be derived from Narahari's SachinandanASTaka.(<u>44</u>) The idea of Chaitanya “abandoning” Vrindavan (126) also appears to be an idea of Narahari's. (<u>45</u>)
B. B. Majumdar, S. K. De, and more recently R. K. Chakravarty, refer to Prabodhananda as a founder of gaura-pAramya-vAda, or the doctrine of Gaura’s supremacy. (<u>46</u>) It would seem rather that he kept the company of Narahari, who is traditionally accepted as the author of this viewpoint. As in the case of Kavi Karnapur, not too much should be made of Prabodhananda's apparent support for this concept, for his later writings, as well as his descriptions in this poem of the various conceptions of devotion and contributions made by Chaitanya, indicate that he (like Karnapur) ultimately considered the Vrindavan lila, i.e. Radha and Krishna, to be the ultimate goal of his spiritual life. Both he and Karnapur did, however, believe in the identity of the two lilas.
Prabodhananda describes the oscillating moods of Chaitanya in the following way:
<blockquote> Sometimes he danced in the mood of Krishna himself,
imitating many different postures;
sometimes he would take the mood of Radha
and would cry the name of Hari in pain [of separation];
sometimes he would crawl like a baby or behave like a cowherd.
In the sweetness of all these different moods
Gaura astonished the universe. (<u>47</u>)</blockquote>
A description of Chaitanya absorbed in the identity of a gopi suffering in separation from Krishna is also found elsewhere in the work (78).
would not be an exaggeration to say that during the life or in the period immediately following the death of Chaitanya, no other author wrote a description of Mahaprabhu in the same sophisticated terms that were later popularized by Krishna Das’ Chaitanya Charitamrita. The same may be said about the summary that Prabodhananda gave of the type of devotion that Chaitanya disseminated.
<hr><font color=#9f6f9f>NOTES
41. As described in CC, Adi 4.5-6.
42. CC, Adi 1.5.
43. Cf. CCA 126, etc. The same ambiguity can be found in Svarupa Damodar's famous verse quoted in Gaura-ganoddesa-dipika and Chaitanya Charitamrita, and this has resulted in some controversy amongst Gaudiyas up to the present day: is Mahaprabhu Krishna, enjoying the mood of Radharani, or is he a combined form of the two personalities? In that verse Svarupa writes both tad dvayaM caikyam Aptam and rAdhA-bhAva-dyuti-suvalitaM kRSNa-svarUpam (GGD).
44. Verse 1: AzcaryaM sakhi pazya lampaTa-guroH sannyasi-vezaM kSitau.
45. ed. H. K. Mukhopadhyaya, VaiSNava-padAvalI, 151. vraja-bhUmi kari zUnya nadIyAy avatIrNa, etc.
46. Majumdar, op.cit., 1719, S. K. De, Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal (Calcutta, 1942), 137-8; Chakravarty, Vaishnavism in Bengal, 1486-1900 (Calcutta, 1985), 114.
47. kvacit kRSNAvezAn naTati bahu-bhangIm abhinayan
kvacid rAdhAviSTo hari hari harIty Arta-ruditaH/
kvacid ringan bAlaH kvacid api ca gopAla-carito
jagad gauro vismApayati bahu-bhangI-madhurimA// <font color=#f7f7f7><small>
[This message has been edited by Jagat (edited 07-12-2001).]