Radha Kund, Jan. 7, 2011 (VT). On Friday, a group of devotees led by Baba Satyanarayana Dasji went to celebrate Sri Jiva Goswami’s disappearance day at the Sri Chaitanya Sanskrit School of the Jiva Institute at Radha Kund, first visiting Radha Kund Mahant Pandit Ananta Das Babaji. The function was organized by Pandit Sri Ananda Gopal Dasji and Pandit Ashoka Dasji, the two teachers at the school.
The program began with recitation of stutis in glorification of Srila Jiva Goswami and the other Goswamis. This was followed by arati and puspanjali. Afterwards all the students and visitors did parikrama of Radha Kund while chanting the Shruti-stuti from the chapter 87 of the tenth canto of the Bhagavata Purana. This was followed by a sumptuous feast including the famous local rabari and rasagulla.
Afterwards, everyone gathered again at the feet of Sri Jiva Goswami and spoke in glorification of him. Many of the students spoke in Sanskrit highlighting the works of Jiva Goswami. Sri Ananta Krishna Das said that our sampradaya is the only sampradaya that has its own grammar system. Everyone else has to study Panini or some other grammar. The greatness of Sri Jiva Goswami’sgrammar , called Harinamamrta ,is that every sutra contains the name or names of Krishna. Therefore while memorizing sutras one is naturally chanting the holy names which is very pleasing to Vaishnavas.
Baba Satyanarayana Dasji spoke about the greatness of Jiva Goswami’s Sat Sandarbhas. He said that he has just completed writing a commentary to Paramatma-sandarbha and Bhagavata-sandarbha will go to press soon. He explained how Sri Jiva Goswami proves that the Bhagavata Purana is the natural commentary to Vedanta Sutra.
Baba stressed the need to study the works of Jiva Goswami. “Sri Jiva Goswami wrote these books for us not for himself. The best way to glorify him is to study his works and apply his teachings in our life. People in our sampradaya think that doing bhajan (by which they mean chanting) is most important thing. But according to Sri Jiva Goswami,the word bhajan means to do service. Moreover to do bhajan one must know the theory of bhajan from the works of Sri Jiva Goswami. The quality of one’s bhajan will improve if one is clear about the siddhanta.”
Baba also said that we should not worry that if we engage our time in study we will not be able to maintain ourselves. This is one of the arguments posed by people. “If we take to study, follow the teachings and preach this philosophy to inquisitive people, then maintenance will be arranged by Krishna. We must have this faith.”
Satyanarayan Dasji also stated that the Bhakti Sandarbha published by him is being used as a textbook at Rutgers University (USA). In fact, one of the students who took the course on Bhakti Sandarbha, Mr. Robert Lindsey, has come to Jiva Institute for further study.
He concluded his talk by thanking Pandit Ananda Gopal Dasji , who is engaged in the translation and commentary of Sarva-samvadini of Sri Jiva Goswami.
Pandit Anand Gopalji thanked all the students for arranging such a nice festival. He said that it is by grace of Srimati Radharani that the festival has been arranged at Radha Kund after previously being held at Vrindavan every year. He highlighted the importance and greatness of Sarva-samvadini. He marveled at the genius of Jiva Goswami who shows the conclusion of Bhagavata Purana in Acintya-bheda-abheda while discussing the lacuna in all other existing philosophies. He also shows how every school of knowledge achieves its perfection and has a role to play in devotion to Krishna. Otherwise these systems remain imperfect.
The program ended with distribution of warm clothes to all the teachers and students by Jiva Institute management.
