Question: As you know, the Smārtas, Śrī Vaiṣṇavas, and Madhvas differ philosophically. While people at times engage in polemical attacks on Smārtas, the attack on them has become a street fight. What is the attitude of traditional Gauḍīyas toward Smārtas? Do you think it is proper for Vaiṣṇavas to attack Smārta brāhmaṇas? Answer: Let us
Question: I heard you say that sāmānya-bhakti can be attained without dīkṣā and that it would grant one sālokya. How does sāmānya-bhakti manifest in this world and where does it bring the sādhaka who practices it? Is there any diversity in it? Answer: The word sāmānya means general. The word meaning itself implies that it is
Question: Apart from the known allegorical stories in the Bhāgavata, can we take the rest of the pastimes as literal? I ask because the cosmology in the Fifth Canto is different from modern astronomy. Even cosmology according to Sūrya Siddhānta is quite different from the Bhāgavata. Are the cosmology and other pastimes in the Bhāgavata then
This long awaited book conclusively deals with the nature of the living being as per the Gauḍīya School of thought and related aspects. It also deals with various misconceptions about the jīva that are prevalent in Vaiṣṇava circles. Knowledge about the jīva is gained from śāstra. However, if one does not know how to interpret it properly, śāstra can
At the end of this semester, Babaji completed two classes that began in the latter half of the second year. One of them was the study of Alaṅkāra Kaustubha, Kavi Karnapūra’s massive work on poetry, its embellishments, how it creates rasa, and the flaws to be avoided, expertly revealing these features and flaws by using
Question: Having, recently, read Rajiv Malhotra’s Being Different and your excellent, soon be published, commentary to Bhagavat Sandharba I have come to realize that there are some pitfalls for western people approaching Indian thought, including Gaudiya siddhanta, which can lead to gross and subtle misunderstanding of key concepts in Indian schools of philosophy. In your
