All Glories to Śrī Guru and Gaurāṅga

Protected Journey

Excerpt from Dignity of the Divine Servitor by Śrīla Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj
including reference to Śrī Śaṅkarāchārya's teachings in relation to Vaiṣṇava understanding.


When Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa began writing the Govinda-bhāṣya, he first gave his obeisances to Kṛṣṇa, then to Jīva Goswāmī. He considered Jīva Goswāmī to be our Guru by giving protection from the paṇḍits. Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa wrote the following praṇām mantram:

yaḥ sāṁkya paṅkena kutarka pāṁśunā
vivarta-gartena cha lupta dīdhītiṁ
śuddhaṁ vyadhāt vāk sudhayā maheśvaraṁ
kṛṣṇaṁ sa jīvaḥ prabhu rastta me gatiḥ

This is a very difficult śloka and hard for me to explain in English. What I am explaining is not a literal translation but it gives the mood, the bhāva. He says, "I offer my full daṇḍavats unto the lotus feet of Śrīla Jīva Goswāmī who is the protector of our spiritual life. He rescues us from the whole illusory environment."

He protects us from saṅkhya philosophy* which he compares to quick-sand. When the jīvas want to cross over the ocean of material existence, they first come across muddy quick-sand. In the nyāya śāstra, the endless dry arguments are likened to ashes, soot, and smoke blowing in the wind and covering the eyes, sky, and everything around so we cannot see what is really in our front. Through the wind of bad arguments, everything is covered and we cannot see Krṣṇa.

Next he mentions vivarta-gartena. Vivarta-vāda is Śaṅkarācārya's philosophy of nirviśeṣa-vāda which is compared to a hole in the road.

You want to go to Kṛṣṇa but cannot. Why? Because in the road there are these kinds of disturbances. The first disturbance comes from saṅkhya philosophy; compared to mud. Not only can you not cross it, but it is the kind of mud, like quicksand, from which you cannot extract yourself. The next disturbance is kutarka, which means nyāya-śāstra, argument, which is compared to the blowing of soot and smoke. Still you try to progress on your journey, but suddenly many large blind holes appear in the road. These holes are like Śaṅkarācārya's vivarta-vāda. This is, māyāvāda: vivarta-gartena ca lupta dīdhītiṁ. The māyāvāda philosophy is waiting for you in the road like a hole; if you fall into that hole you may be lost forever. In that hole you lose your body, nobody gives you any food or nourishment, nothing is there and you die there. But, Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa says, "Śuddhaṁ vyadhāt vāk sudhayā maheśvaraṁ—Jīva Goswāmī is the rescuer from that environment, and he has shown Śrī Kṛṣṇa in His exalted position—jyotira bhyantare rūpaṁ atulaṁ Śyāmasundaram. I offer my everything to him." It is difficult for me to explain in English, but this is the line of thought.

-- Extracted from the book Dignity of the Divine Servitor available here in full in pdf format.

Footnotes:

Śaṅkarāchārya: an avatār of Lord Śiva whom Bhagavān sent to the earth to draw the regard of society back to authority of the Vedic scriptures by concealing the true purport of the Vedānta and, on the basis of the Veda, presenting teachings akin to those of Buddha, the Viṣṇu Avatār (whose teachings were of prevailing influence at that time). Śaṅkarāchārya is renowned as the greatest proponent of the form of monism known as māyāvād, or kevalādvaitavād, and advocated the pursuit of merging into Brahma (sāyujya-mukti).

māyāvāda - doctrine that all is imaginary including the Lord. Māyāvād is a particular form of advaita-vād (doctrine of non-dualism) and sometimes known as Vivarta-vād or Nirviśeṣa-vād.

nirviśeṣa - without variety, impersonal

nyāya śāstra - scriptures of reason, logic and argument

saṅkhya - analytical description of the body and the soul

vāda - doctrine