Lives of the Saints
I was asked recently by an old friend to provide some background on Jīva Goswāmī for the celebration of his divine appearance day. One often writes about a subject in order to discover more about it and learn what one doesn’t know. This article is an attempt to shine some light on Gaudiya Vaishnava history. To that end, I have gathered information in this article from different sources and compiled it in the hope that it may be useful.
Jiva Goswāmī
Narottama Dās Ṭhākura has written:
শ্রী-রূপ সনাতন ভট্ট-রঘুনাথ শ্রী-জীৱ গোপাল-ভট্ট দাস-রঘুনাথ
এই ছয্ গোসাইর্ কোরি চরণ ৱন্দন্ জাহা হোইতে বিঘ্ন-নাশ্ অভীষ্ট-পূরণ
এই ছয্ গোসাই জার্—মুই তার্ দাস্ তা-সবার পদ-রেণু মোর পঞ্চ-গ্রাস্
তাদের চরণ-সেবি-ভক্ত-সনে বাস্ জনমে জনমে হোয্ এই অভিলাষ
śrī-rūpa sanātana bhaṭṭa-raghunātha
śrī-jīva gopāla-bhaṭṭa dāsa-raghunātha
ei chay gosāir kori caraṇa vandan jāhā hoite bighna-nāś abhīṣṭa-pūraṇa ei chay gosāi jār—mui tār dās tā-sabāra pada-reṇu mora pañca-grās
tādera caraṇa-sebi-bhakta-sane bās janame janame hoy ei abhilāṣa
“All glories to Srila Rupa Goswami, Sanatana Goswami and Raghunatha Bhatta Goswami, to Srila Jiva Goswami, Gopala Bhatta Goswami, and Raghunatha Dasa Goswami! I bow to the feet of these six Goswamis. By their grace, our obstacles can be destroyed and all desires are fulfilled. I am the servant of these six Goswamis. The dust of their lotus feet is my fivefold subsistence. To be a servant of their lotus feet and to reside in the company of devotees--this is my aspiration birth after birth.”
500 years ago the avatar of this age made himself known in Bengal. It is said that in the age of darkness known as Kali-yuga the holy name is our only salvation. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared like a golden volcano of divine love. Śrīdhara Mahārāja once mused that there must be a relationship between the words “love and lava.”
“Is lava love?” he asked, since love gives life but also burns the heart. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu burned with the lava of divine love. He was so illuminated by divine love that those who knew him saw him surrounded a golden halo or effulgence. Mahāprabhu appeared to distribute the sweetness of the highest divine love, embodied in the holy name of Krishna. See
http://www.scsmath.com/books/Golden_Volcano.pdf
While he was famous as a scholar during his lifetime, Mahāprabhu accepted humility as a primordial religious principle and so avoided the fame of a poet. Unfortunately, he left behind few written works. Of these the only surviving is his Śikṣāṣtakam, a poetic text of only 8 Ślokas or Sanskrit verses.
Where then can we go to learn more about his teachings? While Śrī Caitanya may not have written volumes of philosophical works, he did instruct a small group of confidential disciples among whome were the Six Goswāmīs of Vrindavan, celebrated above by Narottama, the greatest proponents of His school.
Each of these Goswāmīs wrote prolifically. Among their works we may find exquisite poetry, esoteric dramatic works, and songs of worship. Each of the Goswāmīs made a special contribution to the sacred literature of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas. Sanātana Goswāmī not only summarizes the essence of the Bhāgavatam in his Bṛhād-Bhāgavatamṛtam; he also shows how the soul ascends through the different levels of consciousness and finds shelter in the supreme abode of the Lord. Sanātana Goswāmī’s Hari-bhakti-vilāsa is the authority for Vaishnava temple worship and forms the basis for all the rituals of Krishna devotees: from the “mass” called “aroti” to initiation ceremonies and other sacred rites and sacraments. He is considered to have purified the pancharatrik-viddhi or rituals, rules, and regulations practiced by devotees.
Among other great works, Sanātana’s brother Rūpa Goswāmī gives us the ontology of divine love in his Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. His unique contribution makes him the spiritual head of the school after Śrī Caitanya.
Sanātana and Rūpa wrote prolifically to establish and defend the school of Śrī Caitanya with their texts on practice and liturgy and inspirational works on divine love from viddhi-marga and sādhana-bhakti to rāga-marga and bhāva-bhakti.
Faith, of course, needs no reason. And yet, in this age of doubt, theologians of all schools have taken care to try to establish the core understandings of faith through a certain amount of logic--to “justify the ways of God to man” as Milton put it.
This more philosophical task--to explain logically the unique point of view of the sampradāya--fell to Jiva Goswāmī to work out.
For example: Gaudiya Vaishnavism is theistic: it accepts a personal deity. Personalism seems to contradict the Vedantic version. All the established schools of thought and spiritualism in India have traditionally explained their position with a commentary on the Vedanta-sutras. Vedanta is a deep reflection on spiritual reality. How does the school of Śrī Caitanya handle the ideas expressed in Vedanta? Does Śrī Caitanya reject Vedanta? To do so would be to live outside the traditional wisdom of India. Or does he have a particular way of adjusting the sutras; a philosophical justification of the Personal God?
The dominant school of Vedanta at the time was that of Shankar. But his view, while influential, is not unrivaled. Shankar tries to establish “one-ness” or “nondualism.” For Shankar, the world of temporary being is only an illusion. Only the soul really exists. In the eternal sense the element of matter falls away leaving us only soul energy which merges into Brahman--the divine ocean of spiritual light.
Many other schools have attempted to refute Shankar. For example there was Madhva of South India. Madhvācārya’s view is closer to the Cartesian mind-body problem where duality is absolute. For Madhva, God is God, soul is soul. Never the twain shall mix. He explains that there are three factors: God, the soul, and the world. He establishes “dualism” by holding that there are distinctions: God is not the world, God is not the soul. The soul is not the world, the soul is not God. Madhva is determined to demonstrate an eternal and absolute distinction between these ideas.
Another South Indian school is that of Rāmanuja. His “Vishishtadwaita-vada” allows for a certain overlap between potent and potency, between energetic and energy. His most famous analogy is that of the sun and its rays. The sun’s rays are not the sun--and they they are the sun’s energy. There is a one-ness of quality--and yet an important distinction. A ray of sunlight is never equal to the sun. In the same way, the soul--while an energetic emanation from the Divine--can never equal God Himself.
Ramānuja’s view has had much influence throughout India and even in the modern world. Rudolph Otto, the great German theologian, adopted much of Ramānuja’s theism in his defense of Christianity against the inroads made by Kant.
These two, Madhva and Ramanuja were really the most potent alternatives to the Vedantic philosophy of Shankara. And yet, while taking sannyāsa in the line of Madhva and showing sympathy for Ramanuja, Śrī Caitanya’s views are more subtle.
Caitanya Mahāprabhu developed a more flexible dualism, called “acintya-bhedābheda-vāda,” borrowing some elements from the mystical bheda-ābheda-vāda or dwaita-adwaita of Nimbarka, an ancient Vaishnava preceptor. Nimbarka argued for dualistic nondualism. The idea is that while a certain “one-ness” may be directly observable, this nondualism is not existential but phenomenal.
Śrī Caitanya adds the concept of acintya meaning “beyond comprehension.” Oddly enough this squares with much of twentieth century philosophical thought surrounding relativity and quantum physics. On one level we live in a world of Newtonian physics and Euclidean geometry. On a different level conscious observation seems to have an effect on reality. Is the world in the mind or is the mind in the world?
Berkeleyan idealism, the idea that only mind exists is extreme; so too is the materialist view that only matter exists. There must be some common ground, some room for flexibility between the reality that matter possesses certain qualities of consciousness and the notion that consciousness appears to be no more than an epiphenomenon of material causation.
Since Śrī Caitanya instructed his followers through the oral tradition of the guru-disciple relationship he left no written teachings on the subject. Sanātana and Rūpa Goswāmi’s writings deal more with the ontology of divine love. Who then would write a significant philosophical treatise defending the Vedantic views of the Gaudiya Vaishnava school?
Again, this duty fell to Jīva Goswāmī.
In his Laghu-toṣanī commentary Jīva Goswāmī gives some biographical information. One of his ancestors was a respectable brahmaṇa of Karṇāṭaka in South India named Sarvajña. Sarvajña was king of the region in 1381 AD. His learning was renowned and he was known as jagad-guru, or “universal teacher. Sarvajña’s son and successor was Aniruddha who became King in 1416. His sons were Rūpeśvara and Harihara. Harihara eventually succeeded Aniruddha through some political machinations, exiling his brother Rūpeśvara who was forced to leave Karṇāṭaka.
Rūpeśvara was well-learned in the scriptures and taught them to his son, Padmanābha who finally settled at Navahaṭṭa or Naihati in Bengal.
Padmanābha’s son was Mukunda who moved to Yesohar or Jessore in Bāklā Chandradwip Paragana.
His son was Kumaradeva. Among the many sons of Kumaradeva were Sanātana, Rūpa, and Vallabha, who is also known as Anupama. These three brother grew up and were educated in a village called Sakurma near the capital of Gauḍa, Bengal, and lived at the house of their maternal uncle after the passing of their father, Kumaradeva.
Of the three brothers, Sanātana was the oldest son of Kumaradeva. Rūpa was his second son and Vallabha was the youngest. According to Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswati’s commentary on Śrī Caitanya Caritamṛta, Śrī Sanātana Goswāmī was born in 1488, while Rūpa Goswami was born 5 years later in 1493.
While “Sanātana” and “Rūpa” were their spiritual names given by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to the two brothers when they later became his disciples, their former names are not conclusively known. Some say that their original names were Amara and Santosha respectively.
The brothers served as ministers to Hussain Shah, who was the ruler of Gauda or King of Bengal. At that time, Sanātana was appointed Revenue Officer or “Sākar Mallik” and was known by this name, where Rūpa was made “Dabir Khās” or private secretary to the king. Both Rūpa and Sanātana Goswāmī met with Śrī Caitanya and became his disciples. Unfortunately, Vallabha or Anupama never met Śrī Caitanya, but died tragically on the way to Jagannātha Pruī.
So it was that Jīva lost his father when very young. He had a tendency towards self-abnegation from early childhood. Jīva had personally met Nityānanda Prabhu at Nabadwip and by his mercy was instructed to go to Vrindaban. Jīva studied Sanskrit grammar, Smṛti and the six philosophical systems of India at Vārānāsī under the guidance of Madhusudana Vachaspati. He became erudite in all the scriptures and when he finished his studies went to Vrindaban, following the order of Nityānanda Prabhu.
In Vrindaban he studied the Bhāgavata and other scriptural works with his uncles, Rūpa and Sanātana, who trained him in the teachings of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
In this way, Jīva Goswāmī soon became the deepest scholar of both the divine precepts of Śrī Caitanya and the devotional literature of the Goswāmis. He is considered the topmost authority on all doctrinal matters especially those concerning the theology of Caitanya Vaishnavism.
Later in life, when Jīva Goswāmī was an old man, he taught Śyāmananda Paṇḍita, Śrīnivāsa Ācārya, and Narottama Dās Ṭhakura who propagated the written works of Rūpa, Sanātana, and Jīva Goswāmī throught India.
Jīva Goswāmī was initiated by Rūpa Goswāmī. His work includes commentaries on Rūpa Goswāmi’s Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu and Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi. At the request of Sanātana Goswāmī, Jīva Goswāmī revised his Bhagavat commentary called the Bṛhad-Vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇi. Both Rūpa and Sanātana Goswāmī had great regard for his enthusiasm, scholarship and realization.
Jīva Goswāmi’s defining master work is his “Six Sandarbhas.” According to Jiva Goswami, Gopala Bhatta Goswami had already done the preliminary work on the Six Sandarbhas but did not complete it. Jiva took the work of Gopala Bhatta and expanded it into six parts, systematically presenting the philosophy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and providing scriptural evidences in support of his views.
It was Sri Jiva Goswami's genius to clearly define the Six Topics of the Sandarbhas which are:
1. Bhagavat Sandarbha.
Here Jīva Goswāmi elaborates on the epistemology of Vaishavism as revealed in the Bhagavat Purana.
2. Krishna Sandarbha. https://theharekrishnamovement.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/sri-krishna-sandarbha-kusakratha.pdf
3. Paramātmā Sandarbha:
Here Jīva Goswāmī expounds an elaborate essay on the nature of Paramātmā. The distinction between Absolute Reality’s manifestations as Paramātmā and Bhagavān is relatively unknown, even to specialists in the field of Vedānta. These two specific designations are often used synonymously to refer to a single aspect of the tattva. It was Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī’s genius to clearly define them and enumerate their characteristics and functions in detail. There is no other work in the entire gamut of Indian theological and philosophical literature that throws light on this subject so lucidly. A link to an English language translation follows for those interested in further understanding.
http://www.krishnapath.org/Library/Goswami-books/Jiva/Jiva_Goswami_Sri_Paramatma_Sandarbha.pdf
4. Tattva-Sandarbha: Of the Six Sandarbhas, Tattva Sandarbha is the smallest in size, but not in importance. As its name suggests, it discusses the Reality (tattva) that is the ultimate subject to be understood and realized. Tattva also means “essence,” and thus Tattva Sandarbha provides the essence of what is to be elaborated upon in the rest of the Sandarbhas. Thus, it serves as an introduction to them. Here's a link to a translation.
http://www.krishnapath.org/Library/Goswami-books/Jiva/Jiva_Goswami_Sri_Tattva_Sandarbha.pdf
It may be said that Tattva Sandarbha lays the foundation for entry into the subject matter of Bhāgavata Purāṇa, a detailed analysis of which follows in the rest of the Sandarbhas. It does so particularly by providing the epistemological viewing frame through which Bhagavān is directly intuited, devotionally served, and established ultimately as the supreme object of divine love.
5. Bhakti-Sandarbha:
6. Priti-Sandarbha:
Jīva Goswāmī’s final treatise, the Priti Sandarbha describes the highest kind of divine love.
I will try to add more to this article as time permits. It must be noted that while the literature of Jīva Goswāmī is highly valuable as source material, many of the terms used involve special language which is best interpreted with the help of a living spiritual guide or guru. The guru’s guidance is indispensable for understanding the true nature of
bhakti. Since much has been lost through the ravages of time and language is often misunderstood especially in translation book-reading is no substitute for the help of a realized spiritual guide or guru. The online references above are merely that: references and cannot be definitive unless read with the help of a teacher who will help us separate the evolution of theological doctrine from the time of Jīva Goswāmī from proper daily practice in our own personal devotional life. A link:
http://www.krishnapath.org/Library/Goswami-books/Jiva/Jiva_Goswami_Sri_Priti_Sandarbha.pdf
I hope readers find this information edifying.
