This quiz is designed to motivate you to study the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava scriptures in specific, and the Sad Darshanas in general, which are necessary to understand Gauḍīya philosophy properly.
Jnana or knowledge related to bhakti is also part of bhakti. In fact, hearing, which includes studying shastra, is the first limb of bhakti. Learning, followed by consolidating and then testing our knowledge in the form of a quiz is a fun and effective way to help us retain information.
This quiz is in multiple-choice questions format. (MCQs). If you see the response that you anticipated simply click on it. The quiz will immediately show which answers are correct or incorrect so we can learn as we go.
1 / 10
Śraddhā is
Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī says that śraddhā is not part of bhakti but a qualification of bhakti. Thus, sometimes even ignorant people who are devoid of śraddhā can execute acts of devotion incidentally. Otherwise, people would not be able to execute bhakti prior to the appearance of śraddhā, but such is not the case.
Moreover, if śraddhā were a limb of bhakti, then śraddhā alone would yield perfection, without the necessity to engage in any other act of devotion. However, this is not supported by any scriptural statement or by anyone’s experience.
Therefore, śraddhā is understood to be only an attribute (viśeṣaṇa) of the eligible practitioner, and it is śraddhā that impels one to take to bhakti in an exclusive manner.
2 / 10
According to Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī, what are the symptoms of śraddhā?
Learn more: Symptoms of Śraddhā
3 / 10
Is it nāma-aparādha to impart instructions about the name to a person who has no faith in it?
Learn more: Nāma-aparādha: The Ninth and Tenth Offenses
4 / 10
If Śrī Kṛṣṇa gives the instruction to not disturb the minds of people engaged in karma, such as in Gītā (3.26), then why does the Bhāgavata Purāṇa (11.20.9) recommend the abandonment of karma?
5 / 10
Can someone fall after attaining sayujya mukti or from brahma-jyoti?
No one falls from sayujya mukti; otherwise, it cannot be called mukti. There are five types of mukti and one of them is sayujya.
All muktis are eternal destinations.
Learn more: Presence of Paramatma, Spiritual Destinations
6 / 10
At which stage of bhakti does one become free from misery?
Śrīmad Bhāgavata Purāṇa states, “Bhakti-yoga directly mitigates the miseries of the conditioned beings” (anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād bhaktiyogam, SB 1.7.6).
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī offers two explanations of the word sākṣāt (direct) in this context. He says that sādhana-bhakti unaided by any other process directly removes all worldly miseries such as mental and physical disturbances caused by the dualities of heat and cold. In the second sense, he says that sādhana-bhakti directly removes material miseries, because it naturally matures into prema-bhakti without external aid.
Thus, it is not wrong to say that sādhana-bhakti directly mitigates all miseries.
7 / 10
Which of the following statements about sādhana-bhakti are true?
Unlike prema-bhakti, sādhana-bhakti must be imbibed systematically from scriptural revelation and by aligning the self in full correspondence with realized devotional transcendentalists. Sādhana-bhakti, being the stage in which empirical selfhood is not yet fully transcended, is prompted primarily by the authority of scriptural injunctions.
As the devotee enacts the regulated practice of bhakti, the heart is gradually purified of egoic identification, and as the pure self emerges, it attains fitness to receive the self-revelation of devotion of the nature of love of God.
Only in this sense can it be said that sādhana-bhakti matures into prema-bhakti. But in fact, prema, the inherent potency of Bhagavān, self-manifests in the aspiring devotee’s heart only by the grace of Bhagavān and His pure devotee.
In Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī states that devotional service, which is enacted through the senses and which matures into bhāva-bhakti, is called sādhana-bhakti:
"Devotion which is enacted through the senses and which leads to the self-manifestation of bhāva-bhakti, is called sādhana-bhakti. The self-manifestation within the heart [of the practitioner] of the eternally existing transcendental affect of devotion (bhāva) is known as the completion stage of devotion." (BRS 1.2.2)
8 / 10
What is candra-śākhā-nyāya?
It is the principle by which one precedes the development of a more complex argument by first explaining an easier point, just as one might first point to the branch of a tree to show someone where the moon is.
9 / 10
When Śrī Kṛṣṇa says ahaṁ vai sarva-bhūtāni, “I am all living beings”, what does it mean?
When the Lord says ahaṁ vai sarva-bhūtāni, “I am all living beings,” it does not mean that the living beings and Bhagavān are absolutely one.
The meaning is that Bhagavān is immanent in all living beings. Though mangoes are wrapped in paper and packed in a wooden crate, they are still referred to as mangoes.
The Smṛti says: haris tu sarva-bhūtāni tad-antaryaṁ vyāpekṣayā
"Śrī Hari is all living beings because He is within every being"
10 / 10
What is bhāva-bhakti?
Bhāva-bhakti is the first sprout of prema, or pure love of Bhagavān. It is the seventh of the eight stages of development of the bhakti-latā, the creeper of devotion.
In this stage of bhakti, śuddha-sattva, or the essence of Bhagavān’s intrinsic potency consisting of consciousness and bliss, is transmitted into the heart of the practicing devotee from the heart of one of Bhagavān’s eternal associates. It softens the heart by different kinds of taste.
Bhāva-bhakti is also said to be the fruit of sādhana-bhakti, not as a causal effect, but rather as the blossoming of the very same potency into an existential state of being and awareness within the receptacle of the heart.
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