Preface to Çré Bhagavat Sandarbha

India is a land of temples, which can be seen all over the country in different sizes and
shapes. Most Indians participate in some kind of worship, if not regularly, then at least on
special occasions such as marriage, birth or the death of a family member, or on festival
days. Çiva Rätri, Kåñëa Janmäñöamé, Navarätri, Daçahara and Dépävali are the major
festivals when temples are crowded with the devotees of their respective deities. However,
these temples do not all enshrine the same divine form as their central object of worship;
some are dedicated to Kåñëa, others to Räma, Çiva, Viñëu, Kärttikeya, Ganeça, Lakñmé or
Durgä, amongst many others. According to tradition, there are 33 million such deities, and
each of them is held as Supreme by their particular devotees.

This diversity in worship gives the impression to an outsider that Hinduism is polytheistic.
That is, however, far from the truth. Every educated Hindu knows that there is only one
Supreme God. The most common generic appellation for this Supreme God is Bhagavän.
The other common terms used are Brahman, Éçvara and Paramätmä. Who exactly is this
Bhagavän? What are the basic characteristics that identify Him as Bhagavän? Do the words
Bhagavän, Paramätmä, Éçvara and Brahman refer to one and the same entity? Can these
words be used interchangeably? These are questions that most Hindus, even those
educated in scriptures, cannot answer unambiguously.

Jéva Gosvämé, a sixteenth century saint and follower of Lord Caitanya, offers very clear,
elaborate, original and authentic answers to these questions in his philosophical magnum
opus, Ñaö Sandarbha1 ("six treatises"), particularly the volume humbly being presented
here, known as Bhagavat Sandarbha.

An overview of the Ñaö Sandarbha

Ñaö Sandarbha constitutes a far-reaching synthesis of and commentary on the Bhägavata

Puräëa’s revelation of divine love, prema. Realization of prema as the bliss aspect inherent
in the non-dual consciousness of Bhagavän is the crowning achievement brought about by
two fundamental principles: (1) knowledge of truth as distinguished from illusion, and (2)
a practical method that focuses and attunes our awareness to prema. These two together
with prema itself constitute the three major topics Jéva Gosvämé describes in the Ñaö
Sandarbha:

1. Sambandha-jïäna: the knowledge of Reality and the ontological categories of

existence;
2. Abhidheya: the method or praxis that facilitates a radical shift of awareness;
3. Prayojana: the goal and beatific vision of prema.

1
The Ñaö-sandarbha is really one book in six parts, namely Tattva-, Bhagavat-, Paramätma-, Kåñëa-, Bhakti- and Préti-
sandarbhas.
The first book of Ñaö Sandarbha, the Tattva Sandarbha, serves as an introduction to the
complete work. This book can be divided into two parts, pramäëa and prameya. The first
deals with epistemology (pramäëa), or the means of valid knowing. In it, Jéva Gosvämé
establishes the Bhägavata Puräëa as the foremost source of knowledge and vision of
Reality, for it evolved from, or is identical to, the vision of Reality disclosed to the author
Vyäsa while in a state of trance. This is significant, for it implies not only that the
Bhägavata Puräëa is a textual revelation providing valid knowledge about Reality, but that
it also bestows direct visioning capacity, gradually imparting to the receptive candidate the
reality-view disclosed to Vyäsa in samädhi. Furthermore, it is not only the means of valid
knowing, but is itself the supreme knowable (prameya), being non-different from the
primordial form of the Godhead, or Svayam Bhagavän. The second part of Tattva
Sandarbha explains that Bhagavän along with His energies is the only object of knowledge,
the prameya.

In the next three volumes of the Ñaö Sandarbhas, beginning with this one, Jéva Gosvämé
elaborates on the topic of ontology, sambandha-jïäna, knowledge of Reality as the non-
dual Absolute, which finds its highest completion exclusively in Bhagavän, the
transcendent personal Absolute. The third volume in the series, the Paramätma Sandarbha,
differentiates Bhagavän from His own feature of immanence, called Paramätmä, Éçvara or
Puruña. It also describes the ontology of the jévas who are His conscious integrated parts,
and of mäyä, which enthralls the jévas into material conditioning. Volume Four, the Kåñëa
Sandarbha, reveals Çré Kåñëa as Svayam Bhagavän, the original personhood of God in His
feature of ultimate manifestation.

Volume Five of the six Sandarbhas, Bhakti Sandarbha, elaborates upon abhidheya, the
methodology of bhakti. All of this, namely, proper conceptual understanding as well as full
participation of the being in transformative practice, prepares the ground for the goal,
prayojana, the ultimate realization of prema, which is to be discussed in the final volume,
Préti Sandarbha.

Bhagavat Sandarbha

The Bhagavat Sandarbha is the second book of Jéva Gosvämé’s Ñaö Sandarbhas and, quite
simply, it is a book about Bhagavän. Conventionally, Bhagavän means God, the Supreme
Being. While this understanding is not without value, the ideas commonly associated with
these notions are far too narrow and far too misleading to even begin a discussion of
Bhagavän. For this reason Çré Jéva Gosvämé first establishes an objective and far-reaching
context in which Bhagavän can be self-evidently understood, free from constrictive or
reductionist interpretations.

The definitive context for the discussion of Bhagavän is provided by one of the Bhägavata
Puräëa's key verses (1.2.11). What makes this verse so essential to an objective discussion
of Bhagavän is that it does not attempt to define Bhagavän directly, which might
immediately bring up certain objections. Rather, it offers an irreducible, undisputed and
universally acknowledged description of Truth. The verse says that all those who have
directly realized or witnessed the Truth, regardless of their path, declare it to be non-dual
consciousness (advaya-jïäna). By stating that this realization is the common experience of
all seers, the verse identifies the common denominator upon which all ancient wisdom
traditions can concur, however much they may subsequently diverge.

From this essential starting point, the verse goes on to say that the one undivided Truth is
realized in three distinct features, as Brahman, Paramätmä and Bhagavän. Having
established Truth as non-dual consciousness, the Bhāgavata cannot subsequently redefine
it as something dualistic. From this it must be concluded that Bhagavän, complete with
name, form, qualities, potencies and action, is the non-dual Absolute. For this to be so, His
name, form, qualities, potencies and action, indeed His personhood itself, must be of the
nature of non-dual being. Yet, in the realms of philosophy and metaphysical speculation,
all of these features are almost automatically associated with limitation and dualism. So the
unique revelation that the Bhägavata Puräëa and Jéva Gosvämé have brought forth is that
non-dual being in its highest manifestation is necessarily inclusive of transconventional
personhood, encapsulated in the term Bhagavän, of which Brahman, devoid of all
characteristics, is but a generic glow.

Furthermore, Jéva Gosvämé points out that the verse implies not only three degrees of
completion of the Truth, but three degrees of completion in surrender. The Truth is
revealed exactly in accordance with the core disposition of surrender of the supplicant.
This means that Bhagavän, as He is in His essential nature, replete with transcendental
name, form, qualities and action, is perceptible on the culmination of surrender, only to
those transcendentalists whose view is sufficiently enlarged and refined to accommodate
Him. Those, on the other hand, who arrive at the non-dual Truth by mere negation of all
phenomena can accommodate no more than the remainder, which is Brahman, devoid of
characteristics.

Thus although realization or direct witnessing (vijïäna) is of greater significance than

mere knowledge (jïäna), conceptual understanding nonetheless influences and shapes the
nature of the culminating realized experience, because the Absolute appears as such in
correspondence to the actual being of surrender. All of this is to say that without a
sufficiently elaborated conceptual map of reality (sambandha-jïäna), and without a praxis
that affords immediate reciprocation with that reality (abhidheya), the truth in its highest
manifestation can never be disclosed. It remains outside the reach of the seeker. As such,
Brahman can be understood as the final limit of Bhagavän’s non-disclosure. So, the whole
point of Bhagavat Sandarbha is to construct a map of non-dual being that will serve as the
basis of direct realization of the complete personal Absolute, Bhagavän, to bring self-
transcending devotion and love for Him within the range of possibility.

With this understanding, the Bhagavat Sandarbha can be viewed effectively as a

commentary on the Bhägavata Puräëa, elucidating and distinguishing the ontology of
Bhagavän in a systematic way. This in turn is set forth solely with the view to specify the
exact nature of the practice that makes possible the direct revelation of the Absolute as
Bhagavän. This method is known as causeless devotion, which is a function of the inherent
potency of God (svarüpa-çakti) and is in no way influenced by phenomenal existence or
the guëas of nature (prakrti). Once Bhagavän is sufficiently and accurately understood,
devotion that corresponds to such truth-visioning becomes a possibility. It is for this
reason that Jéva Gosvämé first wrote the Bhagavat Sandarbha (“The Treatise on Bhagavān”)
and Bhakti Sandarbha (“The Treatise on Devotion”) only appears later in the anthology.

Once Jéva Gosvämé provides sufficient context for the discussion of Bhagavän, the
entire investigation proceeds on the basis of that understanding. When Bhagavän is
recognized as a personal non-dual being, He cannot be reduced to the creator God, nor to
any idea of God as utterly separate from His creation. Additionally, no conventional or
dualistic idea of God can be promoted to the Supreme Reality. Thus, beginning with this
general understanding that Bhagavän is the non-dual Absolute, Jéva Gosvämé examines all
of His primary features, one-by-one, to show how they too, being inherent aspects of
Bhagavän’s complete being, are necessarily non-dual in nature.

Çré Jiva first points out that the characteristics of Bhagavän are inherent and self-
existing in Him, they are in no way distinct from Him. As such, He is the shelter of
mutually conflicting potencies. He includes and transcends both duality and non-duality,
and hence He is inconceivably both one and diverse simultaneously (acintya-bheda-
abheda). Once it is understood that Bhagavän is inherently self-endowed with potency and
that such potency is one with and yet distinct from Him, the vast interior of non-dual
consciousness is opened up, revealing the transcendental glory of God.

At this point, Jéva Gosvämé offers us a front row seat to witness the unfolding of
that glory, as he freezes the frame on select details so that the vision he is describing
gradually becomes clear. The documentation begins with a look at the attributes of
Bhagavän. They are intrinsic to Him and, as such, they constitute His essential nature; His
qualities are thus transcendental to Mäyä and her guëas. Moving forward to the next
frame, we examine the Lord’s body. A few of the points that Jéva Gosvämé brings out in
this context are that the Lord’s body is transcendental, all-pervading, unlimited, eternal,
that it contains everything and is in fact advaya-brahman, the non-dual Absolute. Similarly,
His senses and bodily limbs are also transcendental.

The Name of Bhagavän is identical with Him, which is to say that He is fully
present in His Name and that His Name exists prior to the act of creation, hence prior to
the act of mental conceptualization (akalpana). His Name does not designate Him, rather
it is Him. His actions too are inherent and spontaneous expressions of His internal
potency. For a still more microscopic view, Jéva Gosvämé shows us that even the Lord’s
attire and ornaments, and even His weapons, belong to His essential being.
 For all this to be possible, Bhagavän must also have an abode where this glory
eternally self-exists. This abode is known as Vaikuëöha, the realm and condition of
freedom from diffidence, contraction and fear. This freedom is the perpetual state of
Vaikuëöha, because there is no influence there that can obstruct or impede its
uninterrupted flow.

Jéva Gosvämé devotes much attention to the elaboration of Vaikuëöha. Briefly,

Vaikuëöha belongs to the Lord’s essential being, and as such, it is beyond the material
world. There is no fall from Vaikuëöha, and it is attained only by those who are completely
free from the guëas of nature. It is not attained by dualistic or result-oriented action of any
kind, including dualistic devotion. It is attained only by causeless unalloyed devotion, in
which the subject-object dualism is not annihilated but transcended through the pervasion
of divine love. As such, Vaikuëöha surpasses liberation, for it fully embodies
transcendental being, consciousness and bliss (sat-cit-änanda). Since Vaikuëöha is beyond
the material world, it naturally follows that its residents are also transcendental, exactly
like the Lord, for they too belong to His essential being. Hence, a devotee’s highest
aspiration is to be in their company.

After having described at length the transcendental and non-dual nature of

Bhagavän’s potencies—His names, forms, qualities, actions, abodes and associates—Jéva
Gosvämé concludes that Bhagavän is the most complete manifestation of Brahman. Even
ätmärämas, or those who delight in the Self alone, render service to Bhagavän, for such
service transcends Brahman awareness. For the same reason, devotional transcendentalists
do not desire liberation, in which there is an absence of such service. Brahman is the
attributeless magnificence of Bhagavän, His bodily effulgence. Bhagavän is the shelter of
everything, including Brahman, and so the primary meaning of the word Brahman is
Bhagavän.

At this point Jéva Gosvämé is drawing near the end of his exposition, but not
without one last emphatic tour-de-force. He had already established the Bhägavata Puräëa
as his chief pramäëa, the chief means of valid knowledge of Bhagavän. And it is amply
suited to do so because it both includes and transcends the truth contained in other
scriptures. The entire Bhägavata is summarized and encapsulated in four essential seed
verses, known as the catuù-çloké. Jéva Gosvämé now examines these four verses to show
how they disclose the Absolute Truth as Bhagavän.

Briefly, these four verses treat four topics: analytical knowledge of Bhagavän as He
is (jïäna), the direct witnessing of the truth of Bhagavän in each and every act of
perception (vijïäna), the revelation of the mystery of divine love (prema-rahasya), and the
practice of devotion, which is the component part of such mystery (tad-aìga). In
culmination, Jéva Gosvämé concludes that all scriptures are reconciled in Bhagavän, and
brilliantly shows how it is that words, whether the Vedic sound or even human speech,
can describe the Absolute at all.
 As a final distinction, Jéva Gosvämé points out that the one Absolute described
throughout the text exists both as energy (Lakñmé) and as energetic source (Bhagavän). He
devotes two sections here to the discussion of Lakñmé, the Lord’s eternal consort, and the
various çaktis of Bhagavän.

It must be emphasized once again, however, that all of this discussion provides but a
conceptual map of Reality, known as sambandha-jïäna, or fundamental knowledge of the
complex interrelations that constitute Reality, most integral to which is the transcendental
self’s direct relation to Bhagavän. For this reason, Jéva Gosvämé reminds us that Bhagavän,
as He is in His essential being, as He has been described throughout this work, can be
realized only through the practice of devotion. Thus, the investigation in this book serves
as the basis for bhakti, which will be outlined in the fifth book of the series, Bhakti
Sandarbha. Equipped with the vision that is disclosed in this book, spiritual aspirants of all
paths may come to discover in completion the one and only Reality that is the beginning,
middle and end of their search.

Satyanarayana Dasa