Jagat

The guru-prakaraṇa continues in this anuccheda with the discussion of the dīkṣā-guru or mantra-guru , , emphasizing his singularity. This has become something of a difficult issue. It should be noted that everyone involved in the writing and editing this translation and commentary originally took initiation from one Vaishnava guru and then made a change to another, which appears to be inappropriate in keeping with Sri Jiva Goswami's verdict in this anuccheda . Whether our reasons for doing so are valid or not may be a matter of debate, but I will attempt a brief explanation of my own (Jagat's) position here. In this anuccheda , Sri Jiva Prabhu quotes the verse as the only valid reason for giving up the mantra-guru , avaiṣṇavopadiṣṭena mantreṇa nirayaṁ vrajet punaś ca vidhinā samyag grāhyed vaiṣṇavād guroḥ One goes to hell by receiving a mantra from a guru who is not a Vaiṣṇava. Such a person should again accept a mantra from a Vaiṣṇava guru, in con...

There is a great deal of difference of flavors even within the madhura-rasa worship of Radha and Krishna. The idea that Radha is a symbol of the jiva and Krishna God, and that a direct erotic relationship with the Deity is being intended, is not a new one. That is in fact the symbolic situation that Mahaprabhu incarnates, but the one that Rupa Goswami stepped beyond. By seeing Mahaprabhu as the combination of Radha and Krishna, by placing Radha and Krishna on an equal footing and conceiving of God as a Dual, and then jiva as a servant of that Dual Supreme, Rupa Goswami was coming up with something original. When trying to understand a text according to the Vedantic hermeneutics, there are six things we take into account, one being apūrvatā , or the original something new. All the other relationships are there and are no doubt very nice and legitimate, but when we talk about Rupa Goswami and want to know what it is he is getting at, the anarpita-carī , then this certainly qualifie...