Lord Caitanya
Mahāprabhu’s Acintya-bhedābheda-tattva philosophy aims at a reconciliation of
the different scriptural statements on the nature of the Absolute. According to
the Gauḍīya understanding, the previous ācāryas played a role in preparing the
ground for the philosophy of love of Godhead to fructify. When Śaṅkara
appeared, India was taken by Buddhist concepts, in which there was no room even
for accepting the existence of God. Through the propagation of Advaita-vāda,
once again the Vedic scriptures became the authority and the goal was Brahman.
Rāmānuja preached that Lord Nārāyaṇa is the Supreme Brahman, and thus revived
the concept that God is eternally a person. Madhva staunchly defended the
differences between God and the individual soul. In this way, there was a
progression towards the acceptance of personalism that made society ready to
adopt the philosophy proposed by Lord Caitanya. In spite of several divergences
regarding philosophical conclusions, Lord Caitanya showed respect to all the
four Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas, since they all agree that to please Lord Kṛṣṇa is
the perfection of life, and in this mood gladly accepted from each of them two
specific instructions:
madhva
haite sāradvaya kariba grahaṇa eka haya kevala-advaita nirasana
kṛṣṇa-mūrti
nitya jāni’tāṁhāra sevana sei ta’dvitīya sāra jāna mahājana
rāmānuja
haite anni lai dvi sara ananya-bhakati, bhaktajana-seva āra
viṣṇu
haite dui sāra kariba svikāra tadīya sarvasva-bhāva, rāgamārga āra
toma
haite laba āmi dui mahāsāra ekānta rādhikāśraya gopī-bhāva āra
(Navadvipa-Mahātmyam,
Parikrama-khaṇḍa)
“Later, when I
begin the sankīrtana movement, I myself will preach using the essence of the
philosophies of the four of you. From Madhva I will receive two items: his
complete defeat of the Māyāvādi philosophy and his service to the mūrti of
Kṛṣṇa, accepting it as an eternal spiritual being. From Rāmānuja I will accept
two teachings: the concept of bhakti unpolluted by karma or jṣāna and service
to the devotees. From Viṣṇusvāmī’s teaching I will accept two elements: the
sentiment of exclusive dependence on Kṛṣṇa and the path of rāga-bhakti. And
from Nimbārka I will receive two great principles: the necessity of taking
shelter of Rādhā and the high esteem for the gopīs love of Kṛṣṇa.”
Either if one accepts the theory of total
unity between Brahman and the jīvas, or their eternal separated existence,
there is a partial and imperfect conclusion, failing to fulfil even the very
definition of the word ‘absolute.’ Nor can both views be rejected if we desire
to reach an explanation that satisfies reason and is corroborated by śāstra. If
one says that they are one and the same, then the Supreme would also share all
the faults that the living entities display; and if one says they are totally different,
then there would be a violation of all the passages in which non-duality is
stated. The synthesis of the Gauḍīya Vedānta is to accept the energetic and His
energy as eternally related and simultaneously one and different. This kind of
relation is inconceivable from the material point of view, therefore the term
‘acintya,’ indicating that we cannot expect to fully comprehend this kind of
relation by means of our imperfect and limited senses, mind and reasoning
power. We can, however, use these as a means to verify how indeed the nature of
the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His energies is far beyond our grasp,
just like by observing the stars at night we can understand they are far from
our reach. From another perspective, this philosophy cannot be understood
except by those who are surrendered souls unto the lotus feet of the Lord, who
fully develop spiritual senses and intellect to apprehend spiritual knowledge,
as the Lord proclaims:
teṣāṁ
satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam
dadāmi
buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ yena mām upayānti te
(Bhagavad-gītā,
10.10)
“To those who
are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by
which they can come to Me.”
A simple example
to demonstrate the bhedābheda relation is the sun and its light. It is common
sense that the sun is intrinsically related to its rays, and these are
dependent upon it. Thus, in this sense they are one and the same. But at the
same time, we can also understand that the sun rays are not the sun itself.
When in the morning we see the sunlight coming through the window we might say
that the sun is inside the house, while factually we mean to say that the sun’s
rays are coming inside, for otherwise it would be a dumb affirmation.
Similarly, Lord Kṛṣṇa and His energies also interact intrinsically and still
are distinct. Jīva Gosvāmī explains this concept in the following words:
ekam eva tat
parama-tattvaṁ svābhāvikācintya-śaktyā sarvadaiva
svarūpa-tad-rūpa-vaibhava-jīva-pradhāna-rūpeṇa caturdhāvatiṣṭhate
sūryāntarmaṇḍalastha-teja iva
maṇḍala-tad-bahir-gata-raśmi-tat-prattichavi-rūpeṇa. (…) durghaṭa-ghaṭakatvaṁ
hy acintyatvam (Bhagavat-sandarbha, 16)
“The Supreme
Absolute Truth is only one, and by dint of its inherent inconceivable potency,
it is eternally manifest in four aspects, as: (1) His original form (svarūpa);
(2) the expansions of His form (tad-rūpa-vaibhava); (3) the living entities
(jīvas); and (4) material nature (pradhāna). These are compared to the potency
within the sun globe which is manifest as the globe, the rays in it, and their
reflection. Inconceivability is that which makes the impossible possible”
Baladeva
Vidyābhūṣana explains that this potency of the Lord is responsible for solving
all the scriptural statements that seem to give contradictory information about
God:
acintya-śaktir
astīśe yoga-śabdena cocyate
virodha-bhaṣjikā
sā syād iti tattva-vidāṁ matam
“The Supreme
Lord is endowed with an inconceivable potency that removes all contradiction,
and which is expressed by the word yoga. This is the opinion of those who know
the truth.”
Some of these contradictory qualities are that
even though He Himself is transcendental knowledge, He still has a body, and
even though He is one, He is also many. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is
simultaneously all-pervading and of a small size. These opposite features can
be reconciled when we accept the concept of acintyā. The Lord says:
apāṇi-pādo
‘ham acintya-śaktiḥ (Kaivalya Upaniṣad, 21)
“Although I have
no hands or feet, I still have inconceivable potencies.”
The smṛti also
confirms:
ātmeśvaro
‘tarkya-sahasra-śaktiḥ (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 3.33.3)
“My dear Lord,
You are self-determined and are the Supreme Personality of Godhead for all
living entities. For them You created this material manifestation, and although
You are one, Your diverse energies can act multifariously. This is
inconceivable to us.”
Some may validly
argue: if it is inconceivable, why do you write so many books about it? Here
are a few points to answer that:
1) As said
above, the acintyā concept is meant to indicate that the Lord’s powers are
beyond the human capacity of understanding, which does not mean that we cannot
appreciate them at all, but rather that we should never underestimate the
limitlessness of anything displayed by Him, His forms, His pastimes, His names,
etc.
2) The Lord can
be partially comprehended by spiritual senses and mind when He becomes pleased
with His devotee. Otherwise, by no amount of material skill can the mundane
mind and senses progress towards understanding Him.
3) Lord Caitanya
personally demonstrated by His instructions that particularly in Kali-yuga no
one will have the required capacity to properly understand the conclusions of
the Brahma-sūtras by dint of intellectual efforts. Once, the great scholar
Prakaśānanda Sarasvatī inquired from Lord Caitanya: “You are a sannyāsī, so how
is it that instead of spending your time studying Vedānta you simply chant and
dance?” In reply, the Lord said:
prabhu
kahe—śuna, śrīpāda, ihāra kāraṇa
guru
more mūrkha dekhi’ karila śāsana
“My dear sir,
kindly hear the reason. My spiritual master considered Me a fool, and therefore
he chastised Me.”
mūrkha
tumi, tomāra nāhika vedāntādhikāra
‘kṛṣṇa-mantra’
japa sadā,—ei mantra-sāra
(Caitanya
Caritāmṛta Ādi 7.72)
“‘You are a fool,’ he said. ‘You are not
qualified to study Vedānta philosophy, and therefore You must always chant the
holy name of Kṛṣṇa. This is the essence of all mantras, or Vedic hymns’.”
Lord Caitanya,
playing the role of a perfect devotee, showed by this pastime how unqualified
people erroneously take to the study of Vedānta on the basis of so-called
scholarship. He obviously was not any fool, but rather from His youthful days
He was known as the greatest scholar in Nadia, which was in those days one of
the main centers of learning in India. Lord Caitanya meant that the real
purpose behind Vedānta is to bring one to the point of loving Kṛṣṇa and
chanting His Holy Names, but if one just spends his life in dry speculations–
neti, neti, this is not Brahman, that is not Brahman- then he is simply missing
the point. On the other hand, if one directly takes to the process of bhakti,
without going through all these philosophical intricacies, that is a much
better course of action and much easier for people in general. Therefore, the
conclusion is that knowledge about Kṛṣṇa is inconceivable for those who don’t
take to the process of bhakti but want to understand Him on the strength of
grammatical knowledge and academic scriptural studies.
4) There will
always be a class of learned scholars, and to please them it is required to
present the acintyā-bhedābheda-tattva philosophy with all reason and argument
to prove that this system is not based on someone’s opinion but on the clear
statements of the śruti and smṛti. It is a tradition among the orthodox schools
to have a dialectical way to present each premise and refute any possible
objection. Without these philosophical resources, no system would be taken
seriously by any learned person. On this basis, the ācāryas extensively try to
explain this system in so many ways, because since we are speaking of Lord
Kṛṣṇa’s powers, it should be understood that although they are ultimately
acintyā, there is so much positive information about Him that can make one
appreciate His glories, and the amount of this information is also unlimited.
5) The devotees
of Kṛṣṇa know very well that His power is infinite and incomprehensible, and
that just increases their taste to hear more and more about them. Those who
write or speak about Him relish immensely, and those who read or hear about Him
also relish immensely, as the sages at Naimiṣāraṇya expressed:
vayaṁ
tu na vitṛpyāma uttama-ślok-vikrame
yac-chṛṇvatāṁ
rasa-jṣānāṁ svādu svādu pade pade
(Bhāgavatam,
1.1.19)
“We never tire
of hearing the transcendental pastimes of the Personality of Godhead, who is
glorified by hymns and prayers. Those who have developed a taste for
transcendental relationships with Him relish hearing of His pastimes at every
moment.”
