[This article has been written to justify the stance taken by certain Gauḍīya-vaiṣṇava ācāryas that Bhakti and prema are intrinsic in the heart of the jīva. This article does so while maintaining complete respect to the other opinion that Bhakti is bestowed by a nitya-siddha devotee. The purpose of this article is not to spite any particular individual, institution or philosophical position. This is a somewhat lengthy article mainly for those who are interested in this particular topic.]
A popular adage says that — "If two people have the exact same opinion on all topics in the world, then one of the two is irrelevant". Needless to say, differences of opinion may arise even between two ācāryas of the same disciplic succession.
Problems especially arise when those of us who are marred by limited sense perception try to gaze into the domain of the unlimited spiritual world. Thus, answers to simple questions such as — "Is bhakti an intrinsic part of the existence of the jīva?" are almost impossible to give without getting into a convoluted discussion about jīva-tattva.
The Pandora's box opens up with two popular verses — one from the Caitanya-caritāmṛtam and the other from the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhuḥ:
nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema ’sādhya’ kabhu naya
śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya
BBT Translation: Pure love for Krishna is eternally established in the hearts of the living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting, this love naturally awakens. (CC, Madhya, 22.107)
nitya-siddhasya bhāvasya
prākaṭyaṁ hṛdi sādhyatā
BBT Translation: Such devotion eternally exists within the heart of every living entity. The awakening of this eternal devotion is the potentiality of devotional service in practice. (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhuḥ, quoted in CC Madhya 22.105)
The issue here is that some previous authorities will not exactly translate the verse in this fashion. They do not agree that prema is an intrinsic part of the eternal existence of the conditioned jīva, or that it somehow "naturally awakens". According to them, the conditioned jīva has no eternally existing prema and can only get it when it is bestowed by an existing nitya-siddha devotee who is eternally in possession of such prema.
On the other hand, other authorities say that prema is intrinsic to the existence of the jīva. It merely has to be "discovered" and is not begotten from an external source. These two viewpoints are certainly contradictory, and a resolution is definitely needed.
If we study the entire matter carefully, we will realize that the ācāryas who wrote that prema is "intrinsic" to the jīva as well as the ācāryas who wrote that it is "bestowed" upon the jīva are both correct in their own ways. None of these ācāryas were making a siddhāntic adjustment when they made their respective statements. Let's explore how this is so.
The sandarbhas specify that there are many intrinsic qualities of the nitya-siddha jīva. These intrinsic qualities are merely covered up in the nitya-baddha jīva. This is specified in verses of Viṣṇu-dharma quoted in Prīti-sandarbha (5):
ādarśasya malābhāvād
vaimalyaṁ kāśate yathā
jñānāgni-dagdha-heyasya
sa hlādo hy ātmanas tathā
yathā heya-guṇa-dhvaṁsād
avabodhādayo guṇāḥ
prakāśante na janyante
nityā evātmano hi te
jñānaṁ vairāgyam aiśvaryaṁ
dharmaś ca manujeśvara
ātmano brahma-bhūtasya
nityam eva catuṣṭayam
Translation: O King! Just as pristine clarity is seen in a mirror in the absence of dirt, similarly when rejectable material influences are burnt to ashes by the fire of transcendental knowledge, the innate happiness of the soul becomes naturally manifest.
In a similar manner, by the destruction of rejectable material influences, qualities such as avabodha (complete awareness of the self) are merely *discovered*. Such qualities are never *produced* , for they are an intrinsic part of the living entity's eternal existence.
Thus — jñāna (eternal knowledge of the self etc.), vairāgya (detachment from matter), aiśvarya (transcendental opulences) and dharma (all sorts of religiosity) are four eternal qualities of the *liberated* soul. — (Viṣṇu-dharma, Quoted in Prīti-sandarbha, 5)
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī himself elaborates further as follows — tad-vaimukhyenānādinā labdhac-chidrayeśa-māyayā tad-anubhava-lopādeḥ sambhavāt kathañcit sāmmukhyena tad-anugrahān nivṛttiś cāsti
Translation: "Due to beginningless disinclination towards Bhagavān, Māyā detects the fault of the jīva and causes the lopa (disappearance) of the experience of the self and Bhagavān. Somehow by becoming inclined to Bhagavān and by attaining his mercy, that same Māyā is removed". (Prīti-sandarbha, 5)
It is very clear from this paragraph by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī that Māyā is able to cover up certain intrinsic qualities of the baddha-jīva, and these qualities are merely *uncovered* when such Māyā is removed by the mercy of Bhagavān.
However, previously in the Paramātma-sandarbha (47), Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī had said for the baddha-jīva that — tadīya-jñāna-abhāvāt — "Such a nitya-baddha soul has lack of knowledge of Bhagavān". Some interpret the term "jñāna-abhāva" (lack of knowledge) as prāg-abhāva (negation prior to appearance).
However, the Prīti-sandarbha quote above has clearly mentioned that it is "lopa" (disappearance) of that jñāna which is nitya-guṇa (intrinsic quality) of the jīva. Clearly, the terms abhāva (lack) and lopa (disappearance) do not tally with each other. Neither does anyone have the eyes to look into the window of anādi-kāla and determine if it was abhāva (lack) or lopa (disappearance) of intrinsic jñāna of the jīva which caused its bondage in this world.
In the same Prīti-sandarbha, it is specified that although the jīva is in a conditioned state right now, but there is a potential eternal spiritual body waiting since time immemorial to be assigned to the jīva in the spiritual world. This is specified in the Prīti-sandarbha as follows — anantā mūrtayas tatra vartante, tāsām ekayā saha muktasyaikasya mūrtiḥ bhagavatā kriyate — "Unlimited [eternal] bodily forms exist in Vaikuṇṭha. Out of those unlimited eternal forms, the liberated soul is assigned one form by Bhagavān". — (Prīti-sandarbha, 10)
These potential bodies in the spiritual world are all eternal, because the Bhagavat-sandarbha firmly establishes the siddhānta that in the spiritual world none of the spiritual bodies are ever "created" at a certain point of time. They are all eternally existing. Creation of new bodies does not take place in the spiritual world. This means that the potential eternal spiritual bodies of all the conditioned jīvas are already waiting in the spiritual world. These spiritual bodies are replete with all spiritual guṇas (qualities), and are merely waiting to be assigned to the jīva by the mercy of Bhagavān as and when these jīvas become fully accepted by Bhagavān.
Thus, when some ācāryas say that prema is eternally dormant in the heart of the jīva, the meaning is that it is dormant in the hearts of *THESE ETERNAL SPIRITUAL BODIES*. Each spiritual body in the spiritual world has all sense organs, including a heart. Prema is intrinsically and eternally present in that very heart that the jīva possesses in the spiritual world. The ācāryas never say that prema is dormant in the conditioned heart of the material body of the jīva. The eternally existing spiritual body is thus the upādāna-kāraṇa (substantial cause) and the mercy of Bhagavān or the nitya-siddha is the nimitta-kāraṇa (instrumental cause) of the manifestation of prema. In this way, the apparent contradictory opinions are harmonized, and such harmonization should be sought by all sāragrāhī vaiṣṇavas.
If prema were to be "introduced" to the jīva at a certain point of time by an external agency, then such prema will also have to be introduced in the heart of the eternal spiritual body that the jīva is going to get post liberation. That event itself will change the constitution of the eternal spiritual body, and a body which has undergone a fundamental constitutional change will cease to fall in the category of "eternal". Vipariṇāma (transformation) is a function of the material world, not the spiritual world.
Thus, when it is said that prema is "bestowed" by a nitya-siddha devotee, it only means that the nitya-siddha devotee bestows a realization of that specific flavor and those specific details of the prema that is already dormant in the eternal heart of the eternal spiritual body that is waiting to be assigned to the jīva post liberation. It doesn't mean that the nitya-siddha literally pours half a gallon of prema in the heart of the conditioned jīva.
The nitya-siddha cannot bestow prema in the conditioned heart of the material body, since the conditioned heart is a product of māyā and is thus an unfit container for receiving prema. Neither can the nitya-siddha generate such prema in the eternal heart of the eternal spiritual body, because such a body is already eternally perfect and is simply waiting in a dormant state in the spiritual world. Therefore, the "bestowing" of prema by a nitya-siddha devotee is nothing but revelation of the eternal perfected identity (siddha deha) that exists already in the spiritual world.
Some gurus bestow this perfected identity at the time of dīkṣā and this is known as siddha-praṇālī. Some other gurus do not bestow it at the time of dīkṣā and expect the sādhaka to achieve the direct mercy of Bhagavān in order to get the revelation of their siddha-deha. Both processes work equally well. The sages at Daṇḍakāraṇya who met Lord Rāma wanted to be situated in conjugal rasa with the Lord, but did not have any siddha-praṇālī bestowed upon them. They attained their svarūpa simply by the mercy of the Lord. Thus, siddha-praṇālī is not a compulsion upon every guru and sādhaka. There are also other practical issues with the siddha-praṇālī system, which are beyond the scope of the article.
In this way, the two differing opinions of previous ācāryas are harmonized. A devotee faithful to his guru-janas should not think that his gurus merely gave some temporary siddhānta in this regard according to time, place and circumstance. If it is possible to reconcile and justify the views of one's guru-janas from śāstra, then the disciple should definitely take that route.
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rucaṁ no dhehi brāhmaṇeṣu
rucaṁ rājasu nas kṛdhi |
rucaṁ viśyeṣu śūdreṣu
mayi dhehi rucā rucam || (Śukla-yajurveda 18.48)
|| oṁ tat sat ||
— Hari Pārṣada Dāsa. 04-June-2022.
