Excerpts from “Gauḍīya’s Twenty-seventh Year”
By Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja
Presented in English for the first time
Glorification of Śrī Madhva in the Ṛg Veda
pradhārā madhvo āgriyo mahīr apo vigāhate | havir-haviḥṣṇu vandyaḥ |
asmabhyaminda vindrayur-madhvaḥ pabasva dhārayā | parjjanyo vṛṣṭimān iva || Ṛg Veda
[“First of those who traveled to Badarikāśrama on the invitation of Śrī Veda-vyāsa, venerated by his disciples who offered their souls or, in other words, worshipped him as the topmost guru, Śrīman Madhvācārya bathes in the flowing grand currents of Gaṅgā and other jñāna-nadīs (“knowledge rivers”). O ambition-bestowing incarnation of Mukhya Vāyu (The Chief Airs)! You connect Viṣṇu, who is full of supreme majesty, to the sujana (saintly personalities). In other words, you rouse their sambandha-jñāna. Your name is Śrī Madhva. Like a showering raincloud, shower the current of knowledge upon us, distribute it everywhere and purify us.]
Śrī Madhva glorifies Śrī Kṛṣṇa
devaki-nandana nanda-kumāra vṛndāvanāñcana gokula-candra |
kanda-phalāśana sundara-rūpa nandita-gokula vandita-pāda ||
[Son of Devaki (Yaśodā), Nanda’s little boy, O You who plays in Vṛndāvana! O delighter of Gokula! O You whose feet are worshipful! You eat kandmul and fruits, You have such a beautiful form, O moon of Gokula, son of Nanda!]
dāmodara-dūratarāntara vande dārita-pāraga-pāra parasmāt ||
[O Dāmodara! You are very difficult to attain for those who are not purehearted. But You are the refuge for liberated personalities who have crossed over the ocean of material existence. I bow to You!]
Dvādaśa Stotram (6.5, 5.8)
Śrī Madhvā’s birth-place
In the southwestern region of India, there is a very long range of mountains stretching from Gokarṇa-kṣetra to Kanyākumārī known as the Sahyādri, Malayagiri, or “Kola Parvata (Boar Mountain)”. This sacred region of the earth is known to many as Paraśurāma-kṣetra. It is divided into these three sections: Ādi, Madhya, and Anta-kerala. Of these, Ādi-kerala is divided into two provinces: northern Karnataka and southern Karnataka. Within southern Karnataka is Rajata-pīṭha-pura, and the other name for this place, its ancient name, is Uḍupī-kṣetra. Śrī Madhvācārya incarnated in Pājakā-kṣetra, which is very cloes to Uḍupī.
Śrīman Madhvācārya’s siddhānta and nine prameyas (principles)
According to Śrīman Madhvācārya’s philosophy, (1) Śrī Bhagavān Viṣṇu is topmost; (2) the world is true; (3) Īśvara, jīva, and jaḍa (the material world) have five mutual differences; (4) all the jīvas are the servants of Śrī Hari; (5) the jīvas have mutual differences of qualification; (6) the expression of the svarūpānugata-dharma (natural propensity) of the jīvas is mukti; (7) pure, unconditional bhakti alone is the means to reveal the dharma of the soul; (8) śabda (transcendental sound), anumāna (inference), and pratyakṣa (eye-witness testimony) are the three acceptable forms of pramāṇa (evidence); and (9) Śrī Hari is the object of all Vedic knowledge received via bona fide disciplic succession. These have been accepted as the nava-prameyas. Gauḍīya-Vedānta Keśarī (the lion of Gauḍīya Vedānta) Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa has also conveyed that Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa-Caitanya-candra accepted the madhvāmnāya (the Vedic teachings imparted by Śrī Madhva) and taught these same nine prameyas.
Why Śrīman Mahāprabhu accepted the Brahma-Mādhva-sampradāya
and established acintya-bhedābheda-siddhānta
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, in his Bhāvārtha-dīpikā, has written (12.13.19):
“śrī-bhāgavat-sampradāya-pravartaka-rūpeṇa bhagavad-dhyāna-lakṣaṇaṁ maṅgalam-ācarati,—kasmai brahmaṇe |”
It is clearly understood from this that there is a sampradāya called the Brahma-sampradāya that has existed since the beginning of Creation. In that sampradāya, bhagavad-dharma (the Dharma taught by Bhagavān Himself), which is the pristine message of the Vedas and Saṁhitās, has been preserved and received in an unbroken succession of gurus and disciples. The Śrī Brahma-sampradāya represents the guru-praṇālī (succession of teachers) for the servants of Śrī Kṛṣṇa-Caitanya. The acceptance of the saccidānanda-vigraha (the Lord’s transcendental form) that exists in Śrī Madhva’s philosophy is the basis of acintya-bhedābheda and is why Śrīman Mahāprabhu accepted the Madhva-sampradāya. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who is the Absolute Truth (para-tattva) Himself, filled in the lackings of all those [Vaiṣṇava] philosophies by the power of His omniscience. He refined and completed Śrī Madhva’s tenet of saccidānanda nitya-vigraha (Bhagavān’s eternal transcendental form), Śrī Rāmānuja’s śakti-siddhānta (conclusions regarding Bhagavān’s energies), Śrī Viṣṇusvāmī’s śuddhādvaita-siddhānta (pure monism), and Śrī Nimbāditya’s cintya-dvaitādvaita-siddhānta (philosophy of conceivable oneness and difference). Thus He mercifully offered to the world the extremely refined and scientific philosophy of acintya-bhedābheda (inconceivable oneness and difference). It is because Śrīman Madhvācārya established bheda (ontological difference) as being eternal that the philosophy of acintya-bhedābheda has been properly consolidated.
Singing the glories of Bhakta-Bhagavān via the conjunction of
Śrī Kola Parvata, Vraja-pattana, and Koladvīpa
We have previously discussed that Śrīman Madhvācārya-pāda appeared in Uḍupī, which is not far from the sacred land of Paraśurāma-kṣetra, which is surrounded by Sahyādri, or Kola Parvata. It is mentioned in various śāstras that the world-sanctifying four Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas—Śrī, Brahma, Rudra, and Sanaka—will bestow endless welfare upon the world in this age of Kali. Svayaṁ Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa-Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepted the truths they preached, especially the conceptions of Śrī Madhva, and established “acintya-bhedābheda-siddhānta” as the whole and complete form [of Vaiṣṇavism]. That is why, in order to honor them, the lion-like ācārya of the Śrī Rūpānuga Gauḍīya-Vaiṣṇavas, jagad-guru oṁ viṣṇupāda Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda, established in Śrīdhāma Māyāpura, at Vraja-pattana (the house of Śrī Candraśekhara Ācārya), the four founding ācāryas of the sampradāyas along with Śrī Śrī Guru-Gaurāṅga-Gāndharvikā-Giridhārī-jīu in an immense temple that features twenty-nine spires. My own supremely venerable śrī guru-pādapadma, oṁ viṣṇupāda Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja, followed the example of his cherished master and established a sky-piercing temple with nine domes in this Koladvīpa (Girirāja Śrī Govardhana), a portion of Śrī Navadvīpa-dhāma, which is itself the sacred seat of navadhā-bhakti. He installed Śrī Śrī Guru-Gaurāṅga Rādhā-Vinoda-bihārī-jīu along with the sampradāya originators, namely Śrī Lakṣmī, Brahmā, Catuḥsana, and Rudra, as well as the four ācāryas—Śrī Madhvācārya, Śrī Rāmānujācārya, Śrī Nimbādityācārya, and Śrī Viṣṇusvāmī—in four designated corners [of the temple domes], thereby promoting their glory.
A matter to take special notice of is that the predecessor ācārya of the Gauḍīya-Vaiṣṇava-sampradāya, Śrīmad Ānanda-tīrtha Madhva-muni, came from ‘Kola Parvata to Vraja-pattana, and from there has again appeared and presides within Koladvīpa, Kūliyā-pahāḍa (the mountain of Kūliyā), which is non-different from Govardhanādri. Every year, the Gauḍīya-Vaiṣṇavas who are thoroughly bathed in the current of Śrī Rūpānuga-Gaura-Vāṇī-Vinoda observe Śrīman Madhvācārya’s auspicious Vijayotsava (appearance festival) and worship the day of his auspicous appearance. Finally, we sing the praises of the āśraya and viṣaya Śrī Bhagavān under the guidance of the Gauḍīya guru and thereby conclude our composition:
adhika-bandhaṁ randhaya bodhāc-chindhi pidhānaṁ bandhuram addhā |
keśava keśava śāsaka vande pāśadharārccita śura-vareśa ||
[O Keśava! Chastiser! Supreme Lord of the Śūris (the demigods or the Yādavas)! I bow to You. Kindly destroy our formidable bondage of material existence by bestowing prajñāna (realized knowledge) and rend asunder this spectacular obscurement that is avidyā (non-knowledge).]