BY: SUN STAFF
Nov 26, CANADA (SUN) —
Tattva Sandarbha
by Srila Jiva Goswami - Introduction and Preface
INTRODUCTION
Glorifications Of Sri Sat-Sandarbha
sandarbha yena nadhita
stasya bhagavate sramah
sandarbha yena cadhita
nasti bhagavate bhramah
Without studying the Shat Sandarbhas one must struggle to understand the message of the Srimad Bhagavatam and still he may not succeed. However, one who has studied the Shat Sandarbhas will have no misgivings about the essence of the Srimad Bhagavatam.
By nature living entities are inquisitive. This trait finds its greatest development in homosapiens. Every person wants to know about himself and the environment in which he lives. Those with a finely developed intelligence naturally go further in this inquiry. They deliberate on the meaning of life, the afterlife, the origin and purpose of creation and so on. Indeed we have information that at the dawn of time this question arose in the mind of Lord Brahma, the first person.
According to Vedic history, Lord Brahma was born from a lotus generated from the navel of Lord Vishnu. Just after his birth Brahma pondered his origin and the origin of his lotus seat. He deliberated on this for many thousands of years without success. Finally he heard a voice that ordered him to do penance by meditating on the Supreme Consciousness. Brahma then meditated for another long duration and in time the knowledge he sought was revealed to him from within his heart. Inspired by this experience he began his task of creating, for his role is to populate the universe.
The first created beings learned about the creation and its purpose directly from Lord Brahma. They were also given the Vedas, which Brahma had received from Krishna. Even then the sons of Brahma preferred to follow different sections of the Vedas. Broadly speaking the teachings of the Vedas can be divided into two paths, pravritti marga and nivritti marga, or the path of regulated sense enjoyment and the path of renunciation. In either case the goal is one: to become free from the miseries of birth, death, old age, and disease.
As time passed religion and philosophy developed under the heads of different schools, because according to people's psychophysical nature various means of salvation gained prominence at different times. Just as seeds in the ground sprout under suitable conditions, so different philosophies become popular when the atmosphere is conducive. Traditionally, six systems of philosophy have always existed. Although we have many philosophies in the world at present, when analyzed they are found to be variations of the original six systems. As the saying goes, "History repeats itself", and so we find nothing truly original in the realm of thought. In time old ones get revived and revitalized under different names by various saints and philosophers.
Five thousand years ago, after Lord Krishna's departure for the spiritual world, Srila Vyasadeva had a vision of the future of society. He saw a world sunk to the depths of ignorance and spiritual bankruptcy, as we are now experiencing. Feeling concern for the welfare of humanity Vyasadeva wrote the Vedas, which up to that time had been passed down from guru to disciple by an oral tradition. He especially compiled the Puranas and Mahabharata for the people of the current age.
Still, even after compiling the many voluminous works of Vedic knowledge, Vyasa felt something was lacking. While he was in this dejected spirit his spiritual master, Sri Narada Muni, came to him. Narada pointed out that although Vyasa had done a great labour of compiling the Vedas in written form, he had encouraged people to progress by fruitive activity, speculative knowledge, and mystic yoga. Nowhere had he explained in a direct manner the glories of pure devotional service unto the Lord. Narada told Vyasa that if he would give exclusive attention to the unlimited glory of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in an uncompromising manner that would relieve his distress.
Srila Vyasa, determined to fulfill the order of his spiritual master, sat in a trance of devotion and fully realized the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, along with his multifarious potencies and activities. Based on this direct experience he composed his final literary masterpiece, the Srimad Bhagavatam. As kavya, or poetic literature, it is a superb accomplishment. As a work of philosophy it is unsurpassed. One finds that all the philosophies and religions systems of the world are reconciled in the eighteen thousand verses of the Bhagavatam. The essence of all Vedic wisdom is in this final composition of Veda Vyasa, who is the literary incarnation of God. Hence Srimad Bhagavatam is glorified as the ripen fruit of the tree of Vedic knowledge. To say that knowing it nothing remains to be known is no overstatement. Srimad Bhagavatam takes the sincere reader beyond mere abstract philosophy to direct realization of the Absolute Truth. Even an illiterate person becomes learned by regularly hearing the Bhagavatam. Hearing the Bhagavatam frees one from all fear, illusion, and lamentation.
But a good text requires an expert teacher to mine its riches. Knowing this Vyasa entrusted the Srimad Bhagavatam to his son, Sukadeva Gosvami, who had no material attachments and thus no motive to adulterate the pure message of the Bhagavatam under any pretext, Sukadeva mastered the subject matter and became the expert reciter of the glories of Krishna, the Absolute Truth. So much so, Vyasadeva himself was eager to hear Bhagavatam from Sukadeva. Later, when Sukadeva spoke Bhagavatam to Pariksit Maharaja on the bank of the Ganges, Vyasa joined the audience.
Over a period of some four thousand years the clear message of Srimad Bhagavatam got distorted as people interpreted it to suit their personal motives. The lamp of Srimad Bhagavatam became covered with the soot of self-aggrandizement. Appreciation for the true message of the Bhagavatam diminished, although many saintly reformers were able to revive its message of devotional service from time to time. Then about five hundred years ago Lord Sri Krishna appeared as Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, in Navadvipa, West Bengal, India. His mission: to reestablish the glories of the Srimad Bhagavatam by teaching its very essence.
Sri Caitanya revealed the significance of Srimad Bhagavatam as the topmost Vedic literature to His followers. But, except for the eight verses He composed that embody the very essence of His teachings, Lord Caitanya did not fully explain His teachings in written form. That He left to His stalwart followers, the Six Gosvamis of Vrindavan. They wrote an untold number of books extolling of the virtues of the Bhagavata philosophy from different angles. (Could we give some rough estimate of how many books they wrote and maybe five or six major titles?)
Of all their literary works the Bhagavat-sandarbha of Srila Jiva Gosvami, popularly known as the Shat, or six, Sandarbhas, is the most systematic and exacting analysis of Srimad Bhagavatam and therefore a thorough exposition on the Krishna consciousness philosophy. Hence these Shat-sandarbhas are requisite study for any serious student of the Srimad Bhagavatam, especially for those coming in the line of Srila Jiva Gosvami. Here the acintyabheda-abheda doctrine of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has been served like a six course meal, having the six tastes--sweet, bitter, sour, salty, astringent, and pungent--for the complete intellectual satisfaction and nourishment of the reader. No logical query is left unanswered in the course of explaining the Supreme Lord and the workings of His principle energies, namely His external energy, marginal energy, and internal energy.
The Sandarbhas also destroy the six enemies of the human being--lust, anger, greed, illusion, envy, and madness. They impel one on the path of bhakti by inspiring him to overcome the six types of obstacles--overeating, over endeavoring for mundane things, unnecessary talking, too rigid or too lax following of rules and regulations, associating with non-devotees, and greed for mundane achievements. Thus one realizes Lord Krishna face to face. In this way one attains the fruit of all knowledge and of the six systems of the Vedic philosophy.
Srimad Bhagavatam has three basic divisions--sambandha tattva, abhidheya tattva, and prayojana tattva. Sambandha tattva concerns knowledge of the relationship between Krishna, the living entity, and Krishna's other energies. Abhidheya tattva explains the process of attaining the desired goal. Prayojana tattva explains the ultimate goal. Because the Sandarbhas explain how these three are revealed in Srimad Bhagavatam, they are called the Bhagavata sandarbha, or the essence of the Bhagavatam. The first four titles--Tattva, Bhagavata, Paramatma, and Krishna Sandarbhas--explain sambandha tattva. Bhakti-sandarbha explains abhidheya tattva and Priti Sandarbha, prayojana tattva.
Sri Tattva-sandarbha has sixty-three anucchedas, or sections. Out of these the first eight verses are invocatory, then sections nine to twenty-eight discuss the Bhagavata epistemology. Section twenty-nine to the end explain prameya, or what is the knowable object of knowledge. The Table of Contents doubles as a more detailed summary.
PREFACE
It is a matter of great pleasure that the first of the six Sandarbhas is available now to the English-speaking world. This is the first time the Sandarbhas are being translated into English by a follower in the disciplic succession of Srila Jiva Gosvami Prabhupada. The present work follows the format used by my grand spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in his works, with the original Devanagari text, transliteration into Roman text, word for word meaning, then commentary. Its completion is a matter of great personal satisfaction and will surely bring pleasure to the hearts of Srila Prabhupada's followers throughout the world.
My primary references for this translation and commentary, besides the comments of Jiva Gosvami himself, were the only two commentaries available on the Tattva-sandarbha. One is by Sripada Baladeva Vidyabhushana and the other by Sri Radha Mohan Gosvami Bhattacarya. This is the only Sandarbha on which they comment. Jiva Gosvami only comments on the first thirteen sections and then on sections 61 and 63. Baladeva's comments are brief, for he says in the beginning:
alasyadaprivrittih syat pumsham yad-grantha-vistare
ato'tra gudhe sandarbhe tippanyalpa prakshyate
"If the commentary is extensive then out of lethargy people will not study it; therefore I am composing a brief gloss on this esoteric Sandarbha".
Though his words are brief, Sripada Baladeva Vidyabhusana has commented on the entire Tattva-sandarbha and so has Sri Radha Mohan Gosvami. Their commentaries help us to understand the difficult and esoteric meanings of Srila Jiva Gosvami's statements.
All Gaudiya Vaisnavas should know the name of Baladeva Vidyabhushana. After the six Gosvamis, he was one of the great scholars in the line of succession from Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and a prolific writer. In his youth he studied the philosophy of Madhvacarya and was a devout follower of Tattvavada. Later on he had the chance to hear the Shat-sandarbhas from Radha Damodara Dasa. Baladeva was so impressed by the philosophy in the Sandarbhas he embraced Gaudiya Vaisnavism whole heartedly and settled in Vrindavan where he came under the care of Srila Visvanath Cakravarti Thakur, another major scholar and writer in the Gaudiya line.
In contrast to Baladeva, not much is known about Radha Mohan Gosvami except that he penned his commentary about fifty years after Baladeva Vidyabhushana's commentary. According to his concluding remarks he is a descendent in the family of Advaita Acarya. He was a renowned scholar and logician. Of all the available commentaries, his is the most extensive. His scholarship in Gaudiya philosophy and insight into the Sandarbhas is evident from his illuminating comments. It is a shame that nothing much is known about him or his other works.
I studied the Shat-sandarbhas under the tutelage of His Holiness Haridas Sastri Maharaja, one of the greatest contemporary Gaudiya Vaisnava scholars. Every evening for two years he spent at least two hours tutoring me on the Sandarbhas. Since he is a dedicated lover of the Sandarbhas I was most fortunate to learn under his guidance and have tried to faithfully convey what I have learned from him. Sastri Maharaja is the first person to present all six Sandarbhas in Devanagari script along with commentaries in Hindi. He was most pleased when I took up the work of translating the Sandarbhas into English. My explanations are based on his teachings as well as the three commentaries already mentioned and on the teachings of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in his Bhaktivedanta Purports to Srimad Bhagavatam, in which he makes extensive use of the Shat-sandarbhas.
A few words here on nature of translating may be helpful to the reader. I have tried to keep as close as possible to the original translation of the individual words, but this is not always possible. Sometimes the literal meaning in English does not convey the author's intention. At such times I always strive to keep the spirit and intent of the original. Consequently, when differences occur between the word for word meanings and the corresponding translation it is most likely intended. Also, according to its context, the same word may be translated differently at different places to bring out the varied shades of meaning.
The individual words of a compound word have sometimes been translated in the plural although they appear as singular in the original. This has to do with the rules governing compound words. Another consideration is that in Sanskrit some words, called vakyalankara, exist only for the beauty of the sentence. They convey no specific meaning when translated. A pronoun when repeated twice in a sentence may have a different meaning than in its usual sense. To make things even more complex, there is liberal usage in Sanskrit of indeclinables such as adi, iti, ca, and others. These words have their own idiosyncrasies. Out of these the translation of iti (lit. etc.) is the most baffling because it is commonly used in Sanskrit, but its literal rendering into English does not make for lucid prose; the work would be peppered with "etceteras" with no clear cut meaning for the reader. I have tried not to dwell over much on these details, but to present the Sandarbhas in a way that conveys the enlivening spirit of the original. The reader need not dwell on mismatches between various word for word meanings.
As for translations of already familiar verses from Srimad Bhagavatam and other sources, verses in Sanskrit invariably have more than one meaning. The Atmarama verse, for example, had at least sixty-one interpretations, depending on the emphasis the commentator is making. When a verse is quoted in a particular context the author has a particular meaning in mind. Hence to avoid ambiguity I have translated many such verses to suit the context, otherwise I have either quoted directly from the works of Srila Prabhupada, or used his as the basis for my translation.
Finally I must confess my own frailties in presenting this immense scholarly work in English. Although my attempt may be considered audacious, I do so with the blessings and encouragement of my preceptors and the community of Vaisnavas. This work of Srila Jiva Gosvami is immaculate and any discrepancies that have crept is only due to my imperfections. I alone am responsible for them. I pray that Srila Jiva Gosvami, the Vaisnava community, and gentle scholars will forgive my shortcomings. I welcome any response of critical value as that will give me a chance to improve any future editions.
Dated 10th Nov. 1992
Satya Narayana Dasa
Kartika Purnima
Sri Dhama Vrindavana
Day of Lord Caitanya's arrival in Sri Dhama Vrindavana
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