Shastra Quiz 32

Learn more: The Essence of Dharma

Statements in the Vedic scriptures describing the oneness of Brahman and the jīvas serve one or more of the following purposes:

1. To distinguish both Brahman and the jīvas from inert matter by pointing to consciousness as their common quality.
2. To show that the jīvas are integrated parts of Paramātmā.
3. To teach that the jīvas are dependent on Paramātmā.
4. To indicate that by becoming an unalloyed devotee, a jīva actualizes his ultimate potential, becoming in a sense as powerful as the Supreme Lord.
5. To show that conditional life in the material world under the influence of a separatist view and ego is not the natural, healthy condition of the jīva.
6. To show that the jīva, whether in conditioned life or in liberation, has no independence from Paramātmā.
7. To establish that Brahman is the only self-existent Reality.

No statements in the Vedic scriptures about the oneness of Brahman and the jīvas assert absolute oneness between them.

Vedic tradition recognizes three ways of teaching — like a ruler, like a friend, and like a lover.

The Vedas speak in the imperative voice, like an overlord: “Speak the truth and uphold dharma” (satyaṁ vada dharmaṁ cara, TU 1.11). The Vedas do not need to offer logical reasons for following their instructions. One is expected to obey without question. The Purāṇas instruct like a friend, narrating stories with moral conclusions and providing reasoned explanations when required. Kāvya, or poetic literature, offers counsel in the way of a lover, speaking sweetly but indirectly. Instructions are expressed in an aesthetically pleasing way to attract the reader or hearer.

Śrīmad Bhāgavata uses all three of these methods to convey its teachings.

In Harināmāmṛta vyākaraṇam, Śrī Jīva Goswami, and the commentator Śrī Hare Kṛṣṇa ācārya in his commentary called Bāla toṣaṇi tīkā, define the word ‘sūtra’ follows:

svalpākṣaramanalpārthaṁ viśuddhaṁ sarvatomukhaṁ viśeṣakathanāpekṣaṁ sūtraṁ sūtravido viduḥ

"Knowers of sūtras know a sūtra to be that which has a small number of letters but not a small meaning, clear, applicable everywhere, and which is meant to be precise and spoken."

In the Vedic system, logic by itself cannot self-evidently disclose the Absolute Truth, Bhagavān. In transcendental matters, the final authority is always self-authoritative scripture. Scriptural evidence is so decisive that even if a certain claim defies conventional logic but is supported by śabda-pramāṇa, it should be accepted as conclusively true.

Any standard of truth lower than this would be inconsistent with Vedāntic epistemology, which is based on the axiom that the Vedas emanate from the Absolute and are thus infallible.

The material world and everything within it, including the mind and body, is temporary. To consider it to be permanent is the beginning of avidyā.

Everyone knows that the body becomes old and dies, sometimes even without becoming old. Yet people still make plans to enjoy this body as if it were immortal — or they foolishly even try to make the body eternal! According to Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, there is nothing more amazing than this:

Everyday people die, thus attaining the abode of Yamarāja (lord of death). Yet those who remain here wish to live forever. What could be more amazing than this? (MB 3.313.116)

Learn more: Indian Schools of Philosophy and Theology

Learn more: Vaikuṇṭha-Fall in Grammar?

Below, we list some unique contributions of Śrī Jīva Goswami that were enumerated in a lecture by Śrī Babaji.

1. Acintya bheda-abheda.
2. The Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is the supreme pramāṇa.
3. Kṛṣṇa is Svayaṁ Bhagavān. (Even Sridhar swami does not accept Kṛṣṇa as Svayaṁ Bhagavān)
4. Prema is the fifth prayojana.
5. Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is a commentary on the Vedānta sūtra.
6. Absolute truth manifests in three ways: Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān
7. Vaṛṇāṣrama is not needed for bhakti.
8. Rādhā and the gopīs are the topmost devotees.
9. Parakīya vāda.
10. Bhakti as rasa.
11. Gokula is beyond Vaikuṇṭha.
12. There are types of manifestations of Kṛṣṇa: Mathura, Dwaraka and Vrindavan Kṛṣṇa.
13. The difference between mādhurya bhāva and aiśvarya bhāva.
14. The difference between vaidhī bhakti and rāgānugā bhakti.
15. Drawing out of the key conclusions of the Bhāgavatam by analysis of the experience of individuals. For example, the thread that ties the entire theology of the Sandarbhas is Śrī Jīva’s analysis of the samādhi of Vyasa described in the Bhāgavatam.

Vedānta-sūtra is divided into four chapters (adhyāyas), each having four sections (pādas).

Sūtra eighteen of Chapter Three, second pāda, establishes that the intent of referring to the jīva as a reflection of Paramātmā is not to show that Paramātmā becomes the jīva by reflection, but to show that Paramātmā is distinct from the jīva, just as any real object is different from its reflection. If an object and its reflection were absolutely nondifferent, they could not be distinguished from each other.

Thus, the metaphor of the sun and its reflection in water is used to establish not the oneness of Paramātmā and jīvātmā, but just the opposite. Vedānta-sūtra states, “And for that very reason [i.e., because the jīva is distinct from Brahman], the analogy is upheld, just like the sun and its reflection” (ata eva copamā sūryakādi-vat, VS 3.2.18).