Mapping the unlimited, and nitya nikunja-vādīs

Vaisnava - "Radhe Shyam dadaji dandavat pranam. Can you please tell me the below with some references if possible. It is not related only to Gaudiya Siddhanta. 

 -1' difference between sakhi bhava and Gopi bhava as accepted across all sampradayas."

Advaitadās – “There's no consensus about this, otherwise why there are different sampradāyas? There's not even consensus about manjari bhāva. Some say the manjarīs enjoy vilāsa with Kṛṣṇa, others say they don't. It's according to the dṛṣṭikoṇa (angle of vision) of one's own guru varga.

Vaiṣṇava – 2. Many Sampradayas accept the concept of no swakiya (wedding) no parakiya. Just two lovers always in love play with sakhis.

Advaitadās – “Yes, the Nimbārkis and Hita Harivaṁsa devotees have that conception. nitya bihār (Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa non-stop making love). It then makes no difference any more, whether Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa are married or not. They never even dress Themselves. The services required then are just fanning, singing, and water sevā.  Their point is - one should concentrate like a yogi on one single līlā. To some extent Sādhu Bābā agreed with that, be it not to such an extreme extent. He said eto porbār poriśrom - “All this studying!’ (‘Don’t study too many books, it will scatter the mind. Concentrate - keep it simple!”). Nevertheless, he did give me a shortlist of līlā-granthas to concentrate on, not just one single līlā. Manjarī sevā is focused on a single service (siddha praṇāli). They (the Nimbārkis and Hita Harivaṁśa-devotees) say separation is not needed to create excitement of union because the ānanda of their līlā is independent and does not depend on stimuli like separation. It is acceptable logic but it is not Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī’s siddhānta. He said: Na vinā vipralambhena sambhoga puṣṭim aśnute. [Ujjvala Nīlamaṇi 15.3, quoting Bharata Muni] “Without separation the taste of union cannot be nourished.”

Parakīya bhāva ati rasera ullāsa [Caitanya-Caritāmṛta Adi 4.47] “There is greater joy of rasa in parakīya bhāva, extramarital love of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.” parakīya bhāva is not only nourishing our relish but also Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa’s relish.

Vaiṣṇava – “3. They say the sakhīs have no mothers or fathers, no friends or buddies, nor husbands, nor children.”

Advaitadās – “We Gauḍīyas agree that gopīs have no children - our ācāryas commented like that on the Rāsa-līlā chapters of the Śrīmad Bhāgavat. Mothers, fathers and husbands are given in some siddha-praṇālī systems but not in ours (Advaita vaṁśa) – there is no time for them, and also in Gauḍīya līlā granthas they rarely show up (except in places like Rūpa Gosvāmī’s ‘Vidagdha Mādhava’ drama, or verses 87-88 of Vilāpa Kusumānjali), but they do exist. No Vṛṣabhānu bābā, no Kīrtidā māiyā, no Barsānā, no Śrīdām dādā, no Ananga manjari at all? Awful!”

Vaiṣṇava – “Then there is swakiya (wedded love). Not sure if any paramparā follows that. As far I have understood no paramparā follows swakiya bhav. Then there is parakiya bhava followed only by Gaudiyas. In Goloka Vrindavan I heard parakiya bhav are in petals and swakiya or no parakiya swakiya bhav is in the center. Is it true?"

Advaitadās – “These Goloka-diagrams are not the way it looks when you are there, in Goloka. Look at the map of England. Does it really look like that when you walk around there? The rolling hills, the sweet houses, the cows? Similarly, these maps and diagrams are useless for smaranam. A bird’s eye view is not an on-the-ground experience. And there is also not a single Goloka where we all live together, in separate sectors or so. There are as many Golokas as there are jīvas.”

Vaisnava – “But what about the statement of Goloka of a shape of thousand petalled lotus? I understood what you said. I thought on each petal a different bhav is going on. Though 1000 seems to limit the endless Goloka.”

Advaitadās - "Stop seeing Goloka as an object. It is a world that pervades all. loka means 'world'. These maps facilitate the simple minded. We call it dik darśan – a hint. There is not one Goloka, but innumerable Golokas -

yathā hi bhagavān ekaḥ śrī-kṛṣṇo bahu-mūrtibhiḥ |

bahu-sthāneṣu varteta tathā tat-sevakā vayam ||52||

Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta 2.5.52

“Just as Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is one but appears in many forms in many places, so do we, His servants.”

Vaiṣṇava - Say by Gurumaharaj’s mercy we follow guru Manjari in Goloka. Who will we see? Only our guruvarga where we are doing most seva?

Advaitadās – “You attain what you contemplate only. See Bhagavad-gītā 8.6 –

yam yam vāpi smaran bhāvan tyajantyante kalevaram

tam tam evaiti kaunteya sadā tad bhāva bhāvitaḥ

“Whatever you remember when you leave the body is what you attain in the afterlife, by constantly thinking of it.”

Vaiṣṇava - "Yes but as per gaur Govinda lilamrita gutika there will all 8 sakhis, Ananga manjari, manjaris, cowherds etc. So we will see everyone."

Advaitadās – “Yes of course but if you are at home you're surrounded by what? First your family, then your street, then your neighborhood, then your town etc. There's a focus within the whole picture, in the center. In this we (Advaita-vaṁsa-Gauḍīyas) agree with the nitya-nikunja-vādīs – there must be focus.”

Vaiṣṇava -  “In a specific planet there might be common jivas like in guruvarga?” 

Advaitadās - "Naturally you will all serve together. You should share the same consciousness-space. The Harivaṁśa says -

tasyopari gavāṁ lokaḥ sādhyās taṁ pālayanti hi

sa hi sarva-gataḥ kṛṣṇa mahākāśa-gato mahān

“Kṛṣṇa! Above this lies the cow-world, protected by the sādhyas [siddhas]. It is all-pervading (sarva-gataḥ) and boundless (mahān), and it exists in the great sky (mahākāśa).”

(Quoted in Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī’s ‘Kṛṣṇa-sandarbha’, anuccheda 106)

Note here the words sarva-gataḥ and mahān - it is a boundless, all-pervading world. Not subject to material limitations."

(another) Vaiṣṇava – “I heard, as per Hit Harivansh philosophy, Radha is vishaya tattva and Krishna is ashraya tattva.  This seems to be a bit unusual, what do you think in the light of gaudiya siddhanta? Kindly answer.”

Advaitadās – “In our līlā-, bhava- and sevā-conception we also think like that, and there are heaps of verses to that extent in Rādhā-rasa-sudhānidhi and Gīta-govinda too, that Kṛṣṇa serves Rādhā, being subdued by Her śuddha prema, and we manjarī bhāva sādhakas also worship Rādhā above Kṛṣṇa, but purely ontologically speaking, jīvera svarūpa hoy kṛṣṇer nitya-dās (C.C.) – The jīva’s svarūpa is Kṛṣṇa’s eternal servant.”

(Same, other) Vaiṣṇava – “Also, I heard Hit Harivansh followers won't do Ekadashi, is it true? Kindly  answer. Hit Harivansh followers justify his eating pan on Ekadashi as he was  completely immersed in Radha so he wasn't worried about external things?  But as per our gaudiya siddhanta Ekadashi is not just external right?  Kindly explain.”

Advaitadās – “Their idea is that one can eat grains on Ekādaśī to avoid offending the Lord’s mahā-prasāda grains offered that day. Obviously these ideas floated around in the 16^th century already, for Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmīpāda refuted it then in his Bhakti Sandarbha (299) - atra vaiṣṇavānāṁ nirāhāratvaṁ nāma mahā-prasādānna-parityāga eva – “The statements in this section regarding the Vaiṣṇavas’ fasting on the day of  Ekādaśī specifically refer to abstinence from food grains offered to Lord Viṣṇu. There is no need to mention abstinence from food not offered to Viṣṇu because the Vaiṣṇavas are ever-forbidden to partake of such food, as stated in the Nārada-pancarātra:

prasādānnaṁ sadā grāhyam ekādaśyāṁ na nārada;

ramādi-sarva-bhaktānām itareṣāṁ ca kā kathā

“O Nārada, food grains offered to Lord Viṣṇu are always forbidden on Ekādaśī for all devotees, headed by the Goddess Laksmī, so what to speak of others."

anarpita tika reconsidered

In my blog of August 24, 2017 I quoted Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī's ṭīkā to Śrī Rupa Gosvāmī's anarpita cari verse to prove that manjarī-bhāva is Śrī Caitanya Mahaprabhu's ultimate gift to the fallen souls of Kali-yuga. Since then I learned from 2 scholars that this text is most probably not written by Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī. I will quote them here and add my own reasoning to it here too -

Bhrigumuni Das -

(In Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī's ṭīkā to Śrī Rupa Gosvāmī's anarpita cari verse) “There is all the emphasis on Śaci-mātā, etc. (Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī otherwise never wrote about Gaur-līlā - Advaitadas). The decisive proof against this text being authored by Jīva is quoting the advaita-prakaṭīkṛta-verse of Viśvanātha Cakravartī (who lived a century later of course - Advaitadas) which appears in the maṅgalācaraṇa to his commentary to Prema-bhakti-candrikā.”

For the readers' comfort I quote and translate that text of Viśvanātha Cakravartī here —

advaita prakaṭīkṛto narahari preṣṭhaḥ svarūpa priyo

nityānanda sakhaḥ sanātana gatiḥ śrī rūpa hṛt ketanaḥ

lakṣmī prāṇa patir gadādhara rasollāsī jagannātha-bhūḥ

sāṅgopāṅga sapārṣadaḥ sa dayatāṁ devaḥ śacīnandanaḥ

“My that Lord Śacīnandana, who was manifest by Advaita-ācārya, who is dear to Narahari Sarakāra and Svarūpa Dāmodara, who is Nityānanda's friend, the shelter of Sanātana Gosvāmī, who dwells in the heart of Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī, who is the Lord of Lakṣmīpriyā's life, who delights in the rasa served by Gadādhara, and who was born from Jagannātha Miśrā, along with His associates, be merciful to me.”

Satya-Nārāyaṇa Dāsji had the following to add - 

“I checked the Advaiti-prakaṭī-kṛta verse in the commentary of Prema-bhakti-candrika. It looks to me that this verse is written by VCT himself. It is the mangalācarana verse in his ṭīkā. He would certainly not cite someone else's verse for his mangalācarana. Moreover, if Jīva Gosvāmī has cited it then it could have been composed by Śrī Rupa or Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī. But that possibility is not there because the verse contains the name of both of them. It is highly improbable that Śrī Rupa or Śrī Sanātana will write a verse containing their own names and describing themselves as associates of Caitanya. At best they could call themselves as humble servants. So it may be that this explanation of Anarpita-cari is not by Jīva Gosvāmī.”

I will add my own reasoning too -

1. If this ṭīkā to the anarpita-cari-verse was written by Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī it would surely be quoted by Ananta Dās Bābāji, who was the staunchest preacher of manjari bhāva, since it would suit his mission perfectly. But he never quoted it.

2. The list of Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmīpāda’s works in Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya 1.43-44, is too summary to rely on, but Narahari Cakravarti’s Bhakti Ratnākara has a very elaborate list of Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī's works, mentioning 25 of them, not including this text at all.

3. It seems strange that the ṭīkā to a single verse would appear as a separate book.

4. All the 6 Gosvāmīs as well as all the major Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava ācāryas that succeeded them were mañjarīs.

5. Śrīla Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī’s ‘Vilāpa Kusumānjali’, Śrīla Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī’s ‘Rādhā-rasa-sudhānidhi’, Śrīla Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura’s ‘Prema Bhakti Candrikā’  and ‘Prārthanā’, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī’s ‘Utkalikā Vallari’ and Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartīpāda’s ‘Sankalpa Kalpadruma’ are clearly showing that manjari bhāva is the prayojana of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Sampradāya, even without needing support of such a supposed comment by Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī.

The 2017 blog is hereby deleted. 

For the record, the alleged text of Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī ran as follows –

śrī-śrī-rādhā-dāsya-mātra-labhyānanya-labhya-vraja-sumadhura-prema-prakāśanāya tasyāḥ sarva-varīyastva-prakāśanāya ca

"Caitanya Mahāprabhu came to reveal the very sweet prema of Vraja which is only attainable through rādhā-dāsya and through no other means [ananya labhya]. He also came to reveal that this is the greatest thing there is."