Careful study of Sri Jiva Goswami’s Sat-sandarbha reveals that he was fully aware of the arguments of both Sankara and Ramanuja but not entirely satisfied with their explanations as to why consciousness is the ultimate undeniable reality (in the case of Sankara), and why the objective world and jiva souls are also real (in the case of Ramanuja), even while accepting both of their insights. Sri Jiva Goswami sensed that there was something essential in consciousness that had not been addressed by these acaryas that offered more compelling insight and further confirmed their realizations. After all, the reasoning cited by Sankara and Ramanuja in support of their positions on these points does not tell us much about the nature of consciousness in terms of its positive content.

Sankara tells us that reality is consciousness because it is that which cannot be denied, for denial itself requires consciousness. Sankara posits a purely subjective reality that denies the objective world, for all material manifestations can be denied in the sense that they do not endure.

Thus he denies the objective world. Ramanuja, however, insists that consciousness requires an object that it is conscious of for it to have any real meaning. It also requires a conscious entity. Whatever is revealed by consciousness or within consciousness is real. Thus Ramanuja acknowledges that reality is a unity of consciousness that includes the world and the jiva souls, which he considers attributes of Brahman (the substance).

While Sri Jiva Goswami does not deny these explanations, he takes what he considered the best from both in his quest for something more compelling about the essence of consciousness. In the course of pursuing his own investigation into the nature of being, Sri Jiva found himself inspired to find out exactly what the fundamental nature of consciousness is. For an answer that corroborated and clarified his insight he turned to Svetasvatara Upanisad 6.8: parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate. In a word it is “sakti,” and it is upon this one word that his entire worldview hangs.

Jiva Goswami’s doctrine of acintya-bhedabheda is based on the idea that in order for something to exist it must have power. “Being exists,” is a tautology that we all nonetheless voice and accept. The power by which being exists and expresses itself is one with it and different from it at the same time.

Reality is both static and dynamic at once (one and different). It is static in the sense that it is still. It has no purpose to fulfill, no necessity, and thus no need to move. However, it is at the same time dynamic and thus moving. It is dynamic in the sense that in its fullness it expresses itself. It expresses itself not in search of fulfillment, but rather in celebration of its fullness. It has a necessity not because it is incomplete, but rather one born of its fullness. Thus its dynamism is a necessary fact of its static nature.

In Sri Jiva Goswami’s vision, the Absolute is a unity of love, which is stillness and motion at once. One in search of love never rests until love is found, yet once finding love, that very love sets one in a motion of its own. The Absolute moves and it does not move, it is near and far at the same time, tad dure tad vantike (Isopanisad 5). It is nondual consciousness, and in Sri Jiva’s realization the consciousness of this consciousness is love. It exists for no purpose inasmuch as love knows no reason. There is no reason to the rhyme of the world. Reality exists for the joy of itself, and it is out of joy–out of love–that the One becomes many and the world issues forth–lokavat tu lila kaivalyam. Because it is about joy (ananda), it not only exists (sat) but is also cognitive (cit)–sat cit ananda. From this, the reality of the jivas and the world follows. They constitute the intermediate and secondary powers of the absolute, respectively.

Thus in the vision of Jiva Goswami, understanding the positive content of Brahman/consciousness lies in knowing Brahman to be a unity of love between itself and its power. This he feels tells us more about consciousness than merely stating that it exists because it cannot be denied, or that it must include an object that it is conscious of for it to have any meaning. In the opinion of Sri Jiva, the idea that Brahman is a unity of love between itself and its power that causes it to express itself in lila or divine play offers us more compelling insight as to why it exists in the first place as well as why it includes within itself the world and the jivas.

Whatever exists must do or cause something. Brahman exists because it is a unity of love, in love with itself. It includes the world and the jivas because they constitute expressions of this love, and the two, Brahman and its power by which it expresses itself, are one and different simultaneously, just as a person and his power are both one with and different from him at the same time.

If the Absolute’s power is only different from it, this would compromise the nonduality of the Absolute. If its power is only nondifferent from it, what need is there to call it anything such as “power,” and in this way distinguish it? Sri Jiva Goswami answers that because it is impossible to conceive (acintya) of the power of the absolute as different from it, we call the Absolute one (abheda), and because it is equally impossible to conceive of the power of the Absolute as identical with it we call it different (bheda). Brahman is its power and is not its power. The two are thus interpenetrable and not entirely distinct, as are attributes from their substance despite their inseparability.

Brahman is neither absolutely one with nor absolutely different from its saktis. Were Brahman absolutely one with the world and the jivas, their faults would be those of Brahman. Were Brahman absolutely different from the jivas and the world, this would constitute dualism contradicting the scriptural account of Brahman’s nonduality. As Sri Jiva explains with logic and scriptural support the simultaneous identity and difference of Brahman and its saktis, he stresses that knowing that both identity and difference coexist in the same object does not tell us how they do so. Logical thinking precludes their simultaneous presence in the same object. The inconceivability of the relation between the bheda and abheda of Brahman is evident from the contradiction it involves.

Thus the acintya of the Gaudiyas is not an illogical notion seeking to do away with logical discourse on the nature of being. It is central to an angle of vision—Gaudiya Vedanta—in which, arguably, something interesting if not more about the Absolute is revealed than that which we learn from other forms of Vedanta, such as those of Sankara and Ramanuja.

We are in the final push to finish the temple construction here at Audarya, and all of the major obstacles have been overcome. We are in the home stretch. The exterior is finished except for the deck that will surround the structure. Work on the interior is in progress.

I find it heartening to walk to the temple from my quarters, especially after the sun sets. The starlit sky above with its moon in one phase or another reminds me of the hopeless romantic, Krsnacandra, moving from nakshatra (constellation) to nakshatra with Radha alone on his mind. Resting with her as he does when he is full during the spring Vishakha naksahtra, he shines that much brighter and is thus that much more approachable by all of us. Jaya Radhe!

Sri Rupa envisions the nakshatras as different gopis extending the Vedic metaphor that depicts them all as wives of moon. Vishaka is another name for Radha, and it is under this constellation’s influence that she appears. The love story of Rupa Goswami’s akhila rasamrta murti is thus told night after night in the heavens above, and as specific and esoteric as it appears at times, Sri Rupa’s theology speaks loudly to us of universal love. It has the power to unite humanity, and its so called secret doctrine is written brightly in the starlit sky.

Perhaps among all of the Goswmis, Sri JIva Goswami brings out the universality of Sri Rupa’s theology and how it speaks to humanity more than his contemporaries do. On Radhastami I read an English edition of his Madhava-mahotsava. Sri Jiva’s comments on the six seasons of Vrndavana is relevant.

“Although each of the seasons is best and different from the others, in Vrndavana there is no loss in manifesting their glories simultaneously Contrary elements live together in harmony. Can all living entities not learn from this lesson from the seasons of Vrndavana?”

The devotees here have undergone considerable sacrifice to manifest the temple from the ground up and they have grown considerably in doing so. Tolerating one another and, I believe, genuinely appreciating one another. All of us here are of course still a work in progress, but given the journey undertaken that will never change. I in particular have learned so much from them, bodhayantah parasparam. Thus I look forward to finishing the temple and the rest of Audarya with all of the obstacles that may come. One thing I have learned: Obstacles offer us an opportunity to grow. It’s unfortunate that we spend a good part of our lives trying to avoid them.

In one sense the first necessity of the human species, like any other species, is self preservation. Thus we need to eat in order to live. But under scrutiny we find that human life is unique and that it has another primary necessity. It needs to love. While we eat to live, we live to love.

Mahaprabhu taught that human society is the highest because Krsna in his most original and charming nara lila appears in a humanlike form, krsnera yateka khela sarvottama nara-lila nara-vapu tahara svarupa. He appears as a cowherd with flute, ever youthful, and as an excellent dancer all of which is just suitable for humanlike pastimes, gopa-vesa, venu-kara, nava-kisora, nata-vara nara-lilara haya anurupa. Herding unlimited cows with friends equal to himself is his natural carefree pastime in Vrindavana, nija-sama sakha-sange, go-gana-carana range vrndavane svacchanda vihara.

Krsna’s nara lila is sarvottoma, the highest. Materialistic people agree that human life is the highest evolutionary form, but they think that it has arrived at this position by dominating others. Humans, they think, are the fittest to survive. Their idea is just the opposite of Mahaprabhu’s. While they think humanity is supreme because of its power to dominate, Mahaprabhu considers humanity supreme because of its weakness, its susceptibility to love. Evidence for this is Krnsa’s nara lila. Krsna comes to human society to experience the fullness of love. It is humanity’s susceptibility, its weakness for love that makes it a cut above all other species, and in this weakness lies its greatest strength. Love, with sacrifice at its heart, is unbreakable.

Bhaktivinoda Thakura surmised that if we take that which we have in common with other species, our primal animalistic necessity of self-preservation, and spiritualize it, humanity can easily realize its potential for love. Prasada, he taught, is the solution to all of our perceived problems, prasada-seva korite hoya, sakala prapanca jaya. Without prasada, we are left to create havoc in the environment, exploiting others in the name of self preservation. Prasada means “kindness, grace.” If we learn to plant, cultivate, prepare, and offer food to Krsna before taking any ourselves, we will convert out primal animal necessity into spiritual experience and realize the zenith of human potential. The act of offering our food to Krsna brings our primal material necessity of self preservation in conjunction with our spiritual capacity for love, and this then has the power to transform our entire life—to uproot our domination over others and replace it with dependence upon God. All of the reactions for our life of domination, our habitual consumption, can be overcome by this practice.

We must grow, collect, prepare, and offer ingredients for the satisfaction of Krsna. This is the first consideration, the substance of the transaction. Secondarily, because our entire life is engaged in his service, he energizes our efforts through his remnants, his kindness and grace—prasada. Not only will no adverse reaction come to us if we conduct our lives in this manner, but we will become agents of good will for others—Vaisnavas.

In this connection Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Deva Goswami has said, “Through the godliness in one’s heart, one must be a purifying agent. God is on the throne of the heart, and from there he will emanate such a fine ray which will purify not only that person’s heart, but also the environment. ‘Vaisnava’ means a purifying agent who emanates goodness, absolute goodness, every where—through one’s movements, one’s words, one’s actions, everything: deed, thought, and word, kaya, mana, vakya. A Vaisnava is an agent of auspiciousness; te vaisnavah bhuvanamasu pavitrayanti. There are so many Vaisnavas, and by their chanting the Holy Name, by all their practices and by their whole lives, they are like so many purifying agents.

By proper knowledge, proper dealings and proper conduct, they set everything in it’s proper position and create adjustment in the domain of maladjustment. This world is maladjusted, and the balancing agents, the unifying factors, are the Vaisnavas. Just as there is a germ, a virus which spreads a particular contagious disease, so there must be the opposite of that, something which emanates only a pure and healthy atmosphere, and that is the Vaisnava.”

Nama sankirtana is one thing, but prema sankirtana is another. It is the creation of Sri Gaurasundara—caitanyera sristi ei prema sankirtana. Mahaprabhu wove together a wreath of prema and nama sankirtana and thus created prema sankirtana. He came to give prema–krsna prema pradaya te–through sankirtana. Prema means Vrindavana, the wealth of Goloka, golokera prema dana. And by Gaura’s grace one can become wealthy through hari nama sankirtana. Hari nama speaks to us of he who steals the hearts of his devotees. Of all the forms of the Lord only Krsna is known to be a thief, and with all of his mischief this is what he steals: the hearts of his devotees. The Lord of the heart of the Vrajavasis needs no other throne than the hearts of his devotees. Neither do they offfer him any other throne or royal paraphernalia.

In Vrindavana God appears imperfect. He is a gopa, accessible to the common folk whose love for him turns his faults into ornaments. Through prema that which appears imperfect becomes perfect. There is an old Japanese term–wabi sabi. It implies that perfection is found in imperfection, in leaving things alone rather than needing to fix them and trying to make them perfect. You cannot fix everything, but if you fix one thing everything will be perfect. Doctor cure thyself. The perceived necessity to fix everything, to be in control, is rooted the material illusion that we are in control. Maya means to measure, to calculate and try to bring that which is infinite within our finite grip. And in one sense prema means to find perfection in what others perceive as imperfection, to trace out and identify with the will of God that not a blade of grass moves independently of. Love cannot be controlled. It answers to no law. And ultimately it controls all, for there is nothing more powerful that the force of affection. Krsna–the product of prema–is very wabi sabi. When we are asked “If Krsna is the source of everything, what is the source of Krsna?” we answer, “Prema, prema-mayi Radhe.” Here we transcend the wisdom of the Buddha with Sri Jiva’s acintya bhedabheda tattva. We should chop wood and carry water for Krsna.

Youth lacks wisdom, but with age one looses innocence. How to be wise and innocent at the same time? Such is Krsna consciousness. The Vrajavasis are certainly innocent, but the wise Uddhava was humbled in their presence. Although he was etremely learned, he could not answer the gopis’s simple question: “Our love is selfless, so why does Krsna stay away?” He did not know what to say to them when they cried. How could he ask them to stop crying to stop lamenting, which is the conventional wisdom of Vedanta, when they were crying for Krsna, who is Param Brahma? Even in material existence we find an innocence in rural life that often transcends urban industrial life, wherein one tries to improve upon nature’s way. In rural life the farmer depends upon the rain and knows that he is not in control. His wisdom is practical, like that of the boatman in his conversation with the scholar, who did not know how to swim and thus drowned in the river’s swell more form his ignorance than the water itself. In Vrindavana’s rural life there is innocence as well as wisdom. There heart and head have reconciled with one another.

One may ask how such a simple practice as harinama sankirtana can bring all perfection. We are pressed to think that there must be something more to it. But such thinking only dilutes one’s effort rather than enhancing it, adulterating it with the inordinate influences of desire in relation to jnana and karma. We are attracted to Harinam when those chanting are surrounded by material acquisition, big temples, properties and many people, or when the chanting is surrounded by extreme renunciation and learned, well-spoken devotees. However, pure chanting requires no money and no knowledge, but money and knowledge–owning and knowing–have been our attempts at controlling since beginningless time. Old habits are difficult to overcome.

Mahaprabhu raised his hands high in prema sankirtana, These were his weapons, His angas were his astras. Raising his arms in surrender, he dragged Jagannatha Swami down from his thrown and gave him to the common people. He took him to Vindavana with his heart of prema. This is Ratha-yatra. Radha’s prema is bringing Krsna back to Vrindavana. Dragging him through the streets with ropes made out of prema. And at that time anyone can touch him, anyone if they are bold enough can embrace him. In Ratha-yatra the Lord of the universe has become a gopa. He is only a Swami in the sense that he is Radha’s husband, controlled by her prema. He may control the world but she controls him. Jagannatha is but a wooden log floating in the ocean of Radha prema.

Gaura is both Krsna in separation from Radha and Radha in separation from Krsna. Both sides are found in him. Krsnadasa Kaviraja writes that when he is feeling separation from Radha in the mood of Krsna, Ramananda assits him, just like Subala assisted Krsna in Vrindavana when he felt the pain of separation from Radha. How did he do so? He chanted Radha nama (Hare), in his ear. When Gaura was in the mood of Radha feeling separation from Krsna, Svarupa Damodara assited him, just like Lalita sakhi assisted Radha in Vrindavana. How did he assist him? He chanted Krsna nama (Krsna) in his ear. Hare Krsna! Mahaprabhu has stressed this Hare Krsna nama mantra. He chanted it in the mood of separation, primarily in the mood of Radha in separation from Krsna. Thus his chanting of Hari nama is infused with the prema of love in separation. Those who follow him chant this maha mantra with a view to unify Radha and Krsna and bring an end to their mutual love in separation.

During my recent visit to Finland Krsnagi devi (Kaisa Lekha) spoke with me about an idea she had for a new comic book—a small brochure she wanted to publish for an upcoming event in the world of comics where she is a highly respected artist. She told me that she had always been fascinated with the lila of Matsya Avatara depicted in the Bhagavata. Therein Visnu appears to the rishi and devotee Satyavrata in the form of a fish (matsya) and reveals himself to his devotee by outgrowing every container Satyavrata puts him in. Eventually Matsya in a huge form saves the Vedas and the devoted from rains and rising waters of devastation. It is the Bhagavata’s version of Noah’s Arc or its version of Al Gore’s oracle on global warming written long before either of these stories were told.

However, Matsya saves the world in a more significant sense than the arc of Noah is said to have done or Al Gore’s wake up call hopes to do. Matsya saves the world by saving the Veda. In other words Visnu preserves revelation and the world continues to have the opportunity to arrive at comprehensive knowledge, or the love that tells all—prema being the prayojana and farthest reaching purport of revelation. When Krsangi asked me for suggestions on what points she might bring out in he comic, I stressed the importance of revelation, reminding her that this was essentially the message of the lila.

In order to know perfectly and thus be perfectly happy, we must fold our hands and pray. We must, that is, approach the end of perfect knowledge through a perfect means. If you love someone, they will tell you all of their secrets. In the language of Swami B.R. Sridhara Deva, the finite can never know the infinite unless the infinite reveals itself to the finite. Krsangi’s husband, Kamalaksa, cited Kurt Godel, arguably the past century’s most brilliant mathematician, who proved that human thought is less (weaker) than that which is possible. He proved that there are truths that can be known that connot be mathematically proven, and thus that there are truths that lie beyond the limits of reason. The math is simple enough, but we suffer from divided interest. To the extent that we try to know for our own purpose, we will never know perfectly. It is only when we desire to know how we may be best utilized for the purpose of the Absolute that we can approach perfect knowing and be perfectly happy.