BY: SUN STAFF
Jan 13, CANADA (SUN) —
Tattva Sandarbha
by Srila Jiva Goswami
SECTION FORTY-SEVEN
Thereafter, to clarify the nature of the prayojana tattva and to affirm that the purna purusha mentioned earlier (SB.1.7.4) is Lord Krishna, Suta Gosvami speaks the next Bhagavatam verse (1.7.7), beginning with "yasyam". In this verse, by describing the result of hearing the Srimad Bhagavatam he explains another realization of Srila Vyasadeva. The word bhakti here means love of Godhead, because that is the aim of sadhana bhakti performed by hearing the Bhagavatam.
"Utapadyate" (lit. is generated) means appears. The inevitable effect of bhakti-yoga is that with the appearance of love, all grief, illusion, and fearfulness are completely destroyed. The sense is that even their subtle impressions are destroyed. This is confirmed by the words of Sri Rishabhadeva (SB. 5.5.6):
Therefore, until one has love for Lord Vasudeva, who is none other than Myself, he is certainly not delivered from the bondage of a material body.
Parampurusha in this verse, (SB. 1.7.7) has the same meaning as purnapurusha used earlier (1.7.4). What is His form? To this Sri Suta Gosvami replies Krishna. The meaning is that, the people whose hearts are imbued with the thousands of scriptural statements such as "Krishna is the Selfsame Personality of Godhead" (SB. 1.3.23) along with the thousands of people who are attracted to His glories and fame by hearing through an unbroken tradition, as soon as they hear His name, their minds are filled with His form. And when His name is used in the mantra, as soon as the first syllable is uttered, it attracts His attention towards the chanter. That form of Krishna is implied by the word "Krishna" used here in this verse. This is confirmed by the writer of Nama Kaumudi:
The popular or traditional meaning of the word 'Krishna' is 'one who is black like the tamala tree'; 'He who was breast fed by Sri Yasoda'; 'the Supreme Brahman'.
Sri Jiva Toshani Commentary
The realization of Srila Vyasadeva about the prayojana tattva is the same as Srila Jiva Gosvami already concluded in anuccheda 45. Suta Gosvami further confirms this in verse 1.7.7. that just by listening to the Srimad Bhagavatam one will attain love of Godhead. Bhakti here refers to love of Godhead and not to sadhana-bhakti, because the hearing of the Srimad Bhagavatam itself is the sadhana, or practice. The verb utapadyate (generated) means that love of God becomes manifest in the heart, because love is an eternally existing phenomenon and thus is never created or generated.
The concomitant effect of this love is that the devotee becomes free from lamentation, fear, and delusion. Love of Krishna is so powerful that it destroys even the seeds of these symptoms. The root cause of the jiva's misery is his forgetfulness of the Lord, but when he attains love of God there is no question of him forgetting the Lord. Suta Gosvami declares in an earlier verse (SB. 1.2.21):
"Thus the knot in the heart is pierced and all doubts arecut to pieces. The chain of fruitive actions (karma) is terminated when one sees the Lord within the heart."
When one attains love of Krishna he loses interest in all kinds of material pleasures, including the bliss of impersonal realization. All his doubts are vanquished. All his desires are completely satisfied. Nothing can agitate him or deviate his mind from devotional service. In this regard Srila Rupa Gosvami writes (B.R.S.1.2. 58):
"Even among the various types of unalloyed devotees of the Lord, the best are those whose heart has been captured by Lord Govinda, Krishna. Indeed they have no attraction or desire to get the mercy even of Lord Narayana, the husband of the Goddess of Fortune".
Thus it is said that even the seeds of lamentation, delusion, and fear are destroyed by devotional service. By quoting Lord Rishabhadeva, Srila Jiva Gosvami stresses that there is no other means to uproot bodily attachment but to be attached to Krishna. And this prayojana of attachment to Krishna is easily attained by giving hearing Srimad Bhagavatam. Vyasadeva saw this in His trance.
Krishna, also referred to as the parama purusha, or the Supreme Person, is identical with the purna purusha whom Vyasa saw along with His potencies. Parama purusha is used as an adjective for Krishna in verse 1.7.7. In anuchedda 30, Srila Jiva Gosvami has already explained that this purna purusha is the original Personality of Godhead. Now that Person is being identified as Lord Sri Krishna.
Srila Jiva Gosvami next identifies the person represented by the word "Krishna" in the Bhagavatam verse 1.7.7. There have been various Krishna's in history. Arjuna and Srila Vyasadeva were also called Krishna. In the Srimad Bhagavatam (1.8.43) Kuntidevi addresses Lord Krishna as the "friend of Krishna" (krishna-sakha), referring to Arjuna, her son, as Krishna. Still, to the Vaishnavas coming in the line of disciplic succession, as soon as they hear the word "Krishna" the form that immediately comes to their mind is that of Lord Krishna and not that of Arjuna or Vyasa or any other contemporary person by the same name. According to Srila Baladeva Vidyabhushana this is experienced by people like Suta Gosvami, Saunaka Rishi, Jayadeva Gosvami, and others. This means that the traditional meaning of the word Krishna is the two handed form of Lord Krishna and no other person.
As was mentioned earlier, words have a primary meaning and may have many secondary meanings. The primary meaning is the image that first comes to the mind upon hearing the word, before any thought or analysis can modify its meaning. In the case of the word "Krishna", the primary meaning is Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is a transcendental cowherd boy.
The author of Nama kaumudi, Sri Lakshmidhara Pandita, in commenting on the meanings of the various names of the Lord, fixes the meaning of the word Krishna as "one who is black like the tamala tree". The tamala tree is commonly found in the Vrindavana area and in literature Krishna's bodily hue is often compared to the color of this tree, but this may also refer to Krishna as the son of Devaki in Mathura and Dvaraka. Hence Lakshmidhara further clarifies the meaning as "the one who was suckled by Srimati Yasoda". This fixes the meaning of Krishna specifically to the young cowherd boy of Vrindavana, because the youthful Krishna of Mathura had no chance of taking the breast milk of mother Yasoda. If someone still doubts about this Krishna being the Supreme Lord--because there is always the possibility of someone else from Vrindavan having a blackish complexion and the name Krishna, and a mother named Yasoda--Lakshmidhara further defines the meaning of "Krishna" as the Supreme Brahman, or the Personality of Godhead.
In Sanskrit words have a derived meaning (yaugika) and a meaning due to popular usage (rudhi). The rudhi, or popular meaning is always the primary meaning. In cases where the primary meaning is different from the derived meaning, the rudhi always subdues the derived meaning, yogad rudhi baliyasi. In this instance, the derived meaning of the name Krishna is also indicative of the Supreme Person as explained in the Mahabharata (Udyoga Parva 70.5):
"The syllable "kri" denotes existence and the syllable "na" denotes bliss. Vishnu is both these and thus He is always Krishna.
The Sanskrit dictionary, Amarkosa (1.18), states, vishnur narayana krishno vaikuntha vishtarasravah, that these names are all synonyms. One may say that these are names of Vishnu, but just after giving 39 names of Krishna, the Amarkosa states, vasudevo'sya janakah, "His father is Vasudeva". And to confirm this, immediately following, the author lists the names of Lord Balarama, the elder brother of Krishna.
In his commentary on Sri Vishnusahasranama 20, Srila Baladeva Vidyabhushana quotes the following verse while defining the word Krishna:
"The syllable "kri" means existence and the syllable "na" means bliss. The combination of these two together is called Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead". In this way the derived meaning as well as the popular meaning of the word "Krishna" rests only in the two-handed cowherd form of Lord Krishna, the son of Mother Yasoda. And, as Vyasadeva saw this Krishna in his trance, the ultimate goal must be to attain love of Krishna.
The next point Srila Jiva Gosvami makes is that when the word Krishna is uttered in a mantra, as in the Hare Krishna mahamantra, the sound attracts the attention of Lord Krishna the moment the first syllable is vibrated. This is because the name Krishna is identical with the person Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is verified by the experience of many realized souls who have attained perfection through chanting the Hare Krishna mantra.
In the next section, Srila Jiva Gosvami explains that the bliss derived from love of Godhead is far superior to that derived from impersonal realization.
Go to Section Forty-eight
Return to Section Forty-six
