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WORLD December 20, 1998 VNN2716 Disappearance Of Srila Jiva Goswami BY SWAMI B.V. TRIPURARI (FROM SANGA) USA, Dec 20 (VNN) — December 21st is the Disappearance of Srila Jiva Goswami (December 22 in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore). Sri Jiva Jivanamrtam (The Nectar of the Life of Sri Jiva) An excerpt from 'Jiva Goswami's Tattva-sandarbha: Sacred India's Philosophy of Ecstasy' by Swami B.V. Tripurari From the point of view of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, Jiva Goswami's life history is the unfolding of his spirituality from an unmanifest state to a manifest state within human society. Sri Jiva only appears to "become" enlightened, and through a mystic arrangement, he actually feels as though at one time he was not. He is considered to be internally possessed of the transcendental emotions (bhava) of a female lover (gopi) of the divine Krsna. Internally, he experienced Krsna's celestial realm. Externally, he appeared as a practitioner of extreme renunciation and devotion. His life thus instructs us that the highest love of Krsna, often portrayed as an unmarried girl's love for a young man, has little if anything in common with the affairs of unmarried young couples of this world. Whereas love of Krsna is free from selfish desire, mundane love is based upon it. We know that Jiva Goswami was the son of Vallabha. His ancestry was South Indian. Hailing from Karnataka, thay were Sarasvata brahmanas. He was born in Ramakeli, West Bengal in 1513 c.e. Muslims ruled West Bengal at the time of Sri Jiva's appearance, and it came to pass that his father and two uncles were employed by the governor, Nawab Hussain Shah. They held positions with influence similar to that of cabinet members of a president. Well-educated, cultured, pious, and wealthy, they led comfortable lives. Although at that time there was relatively peaceful coexistence in Bengal between the Hindus and Muslims, when the three brothers accepted employment in the Muslim governmant, they became social outcasts of the Hindu religious society. They were accepted, however, and in no small measure, by Sri Caitanya, an avatara and God-intoxicated devotee at once, as well as a religious and social reformer. By that time, Sri Caitanya had created quite a stir in West Bengal and Jagannatha Puri. Taking to the streets with cymbals and drums, he alienated both orthodox Muslims and Hindus, but collected a mass of followers from the ranks of each sect. His religion: passionate love of God. His method: chanting the names of God. While disturbing those entrenched in the formalities of a particular religious conceptual framework, he afforded those who followed him spiritual experience beyond religious formalities. Among the latter were Sri Jiva's father and uncles, whom he would eventually follow. Sri Jiva's father and uncles had heard of Sri Caitanya and corresponded with him. When Sri Caitanya returned to Bengal from Puri, the news of his conversions there were rippling throughout India. He visited the home of these three Sarasvata brahmanas, the home in which Sri Jiva was a tender youth. What were the names of Sri Jiva's uncles? We know only what names they received from Sri Caitanya during this visit, and Jiva, having received this name subsequently from one of his uncles, is known only as such. Sri Caitanya named Sri Jiva's two uncles Sanatana and Rupa and changed his father's name to Anupama. From this we can conclude that the three became Sri Caitanya's disciples. Shortly after being accepted by Sri Caitanya, the brothers left family life and entered the life of devotion and renunciation, leaving Sri Jiva behind. Yet they left with Sri Jiva the spirit of their vision. The boy took note of how his elders left a life of material opulence for one ostensibly of begging. They left aristocratic status and wandered the breadth of India barefoot, clad only in loincloths, with water pots and rosaries as their only possessions. Sometimes they ate, more often they went without. Their renunciation, however, was merely a by-product of their love-intoxicated state. They fasted not so much as a conscious austerity, but as a result of their absorption in divine loveÑthey forgot to eat and to sleep as well. Mendicants they appeared to be, but ordinary mendicants they were not. Government employment may have ostracized them from the religious Hindu community, but it did not make them poor. They enjoyed considerable wealth in government service. Yet it was apparent to the young Jiva that they had not left religion, nor in joining Sri Caitanya, money for mere religion. Theirs was a spiritual vision that transcended not only dharma (religion) and artha (wealth), but kama (material enjoyment) and even moksa (liberation). This was the ideal of Sri Caitanya: Krsna prema, passionate love of God that belittles even salvation from the cycle of birth and death (samsara). Sri Jiva glimpsed the effects of this love in Sri Caitanya and its influence that overflowed onto his elders. They embraced the life of devotion after meeting merely once with Sri Caitanya, his love-intoxicated state was so contagious. With a penetrationg eye of introspection, Sri Jiva analyzed the significance of his father and uncles' departure from home and chose to follow in their footsteps. Later, with the same penetrating vision, his eyes anointed with the salve of love (prema), he would write extensively on the philosophy of the love and ecstasy that Sri Caitanya embodied. Sri Jiva was more than a handsome youth. His bodily features were those of a maha-purusa, or great personality (by spiritual standards). According to the Samudrika, "There are thirty-two bodily symptoms of a great personality: five of his bodily parts are large, five fine, seven reddish, six raised, three small, three broad, and three grave." He was young when he left home. While still an adolescent, he questioned his mother about the life of renunciation and devotion. His mother dismissed his inquiry as no more than childhool infatuation with a life of material hardship and spiritual pursuit. Sri Jiva surprised her by appearing before her in mendicant dress, having learned from her that such attire was requisite. More so she must have been astonished when his apparent youthful infatuation for the dress of devotion, a mere monk's robe and shaven head, proved to be mature participation in spiritual emotion. After leaving home, Sri Jiva went to Navadwip of West Bengal. It was here that Sri Caitanya had appeared. In Navadwip, then a seat of learning, Sri Caitanya began his movement. Shortly after he had begun to manifest his ecstasy, he was joined by Prabhu Nityananda, who is considered to be his "other self." Sri Jiva met Nityananda and was personally instructed by him in the esoteric doctrines of what would become known (chiefly through the writing of Jiva Goswami and his uncles) as Gaudiya Vaisnavism. On the advice of Nityananda, Sri Jiva traveled from Navadwip to Benares enroute to Vrndavana. There he studied under the tutelage of the famous Madhusudhana Vacaspati (not to be confused with Madhusudhana Saraswati, an Advaitin). Madhusudhana Vacaspati was related to the renowned Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya. He must have learned Vedanta from Sarvabhauma after the Bhattacarya himself learned Vedanta from Sri Caitanya in the midst of the Bhattacarya's dramatic conversion. Benares was immersed in an atmosphere of learning. There Sri Jiva learned Vedanta and numerous other branches of knowledge in a very short time. It is apparent from his books that he was a good student, well versed in the philosophies of Vaisesika, Nyaya, Sankya, Yoga, Purva-mimamsa, and Uttara-mimamsa. This comprehensive knowledge is characteristic of a maha-bhagavata, or superlative devotee. From Benares, he continued on to Vrndavana. By the time he arrived there his father had died prematurely. In Vrndavana, he took shelter of his uncles, Rupa and Sanatana Goswamis, accepting spiritual initiation from Sri Rupa. Presumably it was from Sri Rupa that Jiva Goswami received the name Jiva, upon being initiated into the Krsna mantra. The title Goswami is not hereditary, rather it is conferred upon one who has conquered over his mind and senses. See also Part II About Sanga Subscriptions are free. E-mail: wfd@efn.org Subscribe: wfd@efn.org ('subscribe' in heading) Unsubscribe: wfd@efn.org ('unsubscribe' in heading) Circulation: 255 subscribers, 17 countries Supported by: http://www.swami.org 'sadhu sanga,' 'sadhu sanga.'- sarva sastre kaya lava-matra sadhu sange sarva siddhi haya Comment on this Story This story URL: http://vaishnava-news-network.org/world/WD9812/WD20-2716.html
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