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Shelter from Misconception

Śrīla Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj summarises the contribution of Śrīla Jīva Goswāmī.

Today is Śrīla Jīva Goswāmī’s appearance day. Māyāvād, saṅkhyāvād, buddhavād, he defeated every vād [ism] there was and established the achintya bhedābhed siddhānta [principle of inconceivable different and nondifference] through the Sat-sandarbhas.

All of the light, all of the strength, all of the beauty, and all of the beautiful conceptions of Kṛṣṇa consciousness have come through Śrīla Jīva Goswāmī Prabhu to us. That is our wealth. It is the wealth of our life and the wealth of the spiritual world. No one else has given what Jīva Goswāmī Prabhu gave.

When Baladev Vidyābhūṣaṇ went to defeat the āchārya of the Śrī sampradāya, under whom was the Rāmānandi section of Vaiṣṇavas, he was challenged, “You have no commentary of Vedānta.” In response to this, Baladev Vidyābhūṣaṇ wrote the Govinda-bhāṣya.

Neither Mahāprabhu nor Jīva Goswāmī composed a  Vedānta-bhāṣya as such. Bhāṣya means an explanation and interpretation. A bhāṣya was given by Jīva Goswāmī through Sat-sandarbhas, made up of the Tattva-sandarbha, Bhakti-sandarbha, Prīti-sandarbha, Paramātma-sandarbha, Bhāgavat-sandarbha, and Krama-sandarbha. After reading the Sat-sandarbhas, Baladev Vidyābhūṣaṇ wrote a praṇām mantra for Jīva Goswāmī to start the Govinda-bhāṣya:

yaḥ sāṅkhya-paṅkena kutarka-pāṁśunā
vivarta-gartena cha lupta-dīdhitim
śuddhaṁ vyadhād vāk-sudhayā maheśvaraṁ
kṛṣṇaṁ sa jīvaḥ prabhur astu me gatiḥ

Jīva is the super-protector of our sampradāya from all disturbances. I bow down to his lotus feet.”

He established Kṛṣṇa, who is the Parameśvara [the Supreme Lord], who is the sach-chid-ānanda vigraha [the embodiment of eternity, consciousness, and joy], who is anādi [beginningless], who is ādir [the beginning], whose name is Govinda, and who is the cause of all causes. Jīva Goswāmī Prabhu established in this world what was written in Brahma-saṁhitā.

 

Reference

yaḥ sāṅkhya-paṅkena kutarka-pāṁśunā
vivarta-gartena cha lupta-dīdhitim
śuddhaṁ vyadhād vāk-sudhayā maheśvaraṁ
kṛṣṇaṁ sa jīvaḥ prabhur astu me gatiḥ

jīvaḥ prabhuḥ–Śrīla Jīva Goswāmī Prabhu; yaḥ–who; sudhayā–through the nectar; vāk–of his words; vyadhād–made; śuddham–clear; maheśvaram–the Supreme Lord; kṛṣṇam–Kṛṣṇa; [whose] dīdhitim–effulgence; lupta–had been hidden; paṅkena–by the quicksand; sāṅkhya–of calculation [sāṅkhya]; pāṁśunā–the dust storm; kutarka–of fallacious logic [nyāya]; cha–and; gartena–the ditch; vivarta–of illusionism [māyāvād]; saḥ astu–may he be; me–my; gatiḥ–shelter.

With his nectarean teachings, Śrīla Jīva Goswāmī Prabhu revealed the the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, whose effulgence had been hidden by the quicksand of calculation, the dust storm of fallacious logic, and the ditch of illusionism. May he be my shelter. (Śrīla Baladev Vidyābhūṣaṇ)

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