“Gauḍīya’s Twenty-seventh Year”

Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja

Presented in English for the first time

Venerating āśraya and viṣaya-vigraha by auspicious invocation

Śrī Gauḍīya Patrikā, the mouthpiece of Śrī Gauḍīya Vedānta Samiti, sets foot in its auspicious twenty-seventh year grasping to its chest the Śrī Bāla-gopāla Jīu who is perfectly served by Gauḍa Purṇānanda Śrī Madhvācārya. Vaiṣṇavas under the guidance of Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī are part of the Brahma Madhva Gauḍīya sampradāya. That is why Gauḍīya Vedāntācārya Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa Prabhu has praised Śrīmad Ānanda-tīrtha Madhva Muni, the ācārya of the Brahma sampradāya, one of the four Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas, as follows: “Ānanda-tīrtha-nāmā sukhamaya dhāmā yatir jīyāt—All glories to the abode of bliss named Ānanda-tīrtha (the holy abode of bliss).”

It is a matter of special delight that Śrī Patrikā’s new year has been auspiciously invoked and commenced by the collection of hymns titled “Śrīmad Dvādaśa Stotram” (saṅkṣipta-sāram—a concise essence) which Śrī Madhvācārya-pāda has written for the sake of Śrī Nartaka-gopāla (“Dancing Gopāla”), who clutches the yoghurt churning rod and rope. We too, at the beginning of the year, under the guidance of the guru-varga who adhere to the Vedas and Vedic scriptures, are introducing our editorial by prayers and praises of Śrī Pūrṇa-prajñā Yatirāja [Madhvācārya], the incarnation of Hanumān and Bhīma, and his most worshipful Śrī Bāla-gopāla-deva:

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.]

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)

Śrīman Madhvācārya’s birth-place

Here it would surely not be out of context to discuss something of Śrīmad Ānanda-tīrtha-pāda’s appearance place—Uḍupī-kṣetra. 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.

The meaning of the name Uḍupī and teachings from the Uḍupa moon

Śrī Patrikā’s entrance into its twenty-seventh year brings to mind, along with Uḍupī-kṣetra (the place of the moon), the tales of the twenty-seven different constellations, like Aśvinī, Rohiṇī, and Kṛttikā. These are all Candra’s (the Moon’s) wives. The word uḍu means constellation while ‘pa’ refers to pati (husband) or, in other words, Nakṣatra-pati (husband of the constellations) Candra. This place, Uḍupī, has become renowned as the abode of the god Rudra who is pleased with the austerities of Candra. In the Purāṇas, it is described that Candra’s twenty-seven wives were all daughters of Dakṣa. Because Candra was more attached to Rohiṇī alone, Dakṣa cursed Candra to lose his splendor. Then, to ward off the impending annihilation of his splendor, Candra satisfied Rudra-deva, who is known as Candra-maulīśvara (Lord with the moon for a crown), by performing austerities in Abjāraṇya. Rudra blessed him that he would lose his splendor for one fortnight, then regain it during the next fortnight. That is when the kṛṣṇa (dark) and śuklā (bright) fortnights began. By the unseen forces of Time, Candra’s splendorous phases wax and wane, but the root Candra does not wax and wane, just as the material body experiences a full round of transformations from birth to death, though the pure soul does not undergo any transformation. The moon, lit up by the rays of the sun, experiences waxing and waning. Likewise, the capacity to either face towards Bhagavān or to become averse to Him is present in the living being. We can glean this teaching from Uḍupa Candra.

Candra and Sūrya are described as Śrī Bhagavān’s opulences in Gītā, Bhāgavata, and the Upaniṣads

“Ekaścandraḥ tamo hanti na ca tārāgaṇair api – It is the singular moon, and not the many stars, that dissipates the darkness.” This statement has established the moon as being more predominant than the stars.

However, Śrī Gītā says: “raso ’ham apsu kaunteya prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ” (7.8), “ādityānām ahaṁ viṣṇur jyotiṣām ravir-aṁśumān…nakṣatrāṇām ahaṁ śaśī ||” (10.21), “na tad-bhāsyate sūryo na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ (15.6)”

“O son of Kunti, I am the taste of water, the radiance of the moon and sun.” “Of the twelve Ādityas, I am Viṣṇu; of stars, I am the radiant sun…and amid celestial bodies, I am the moon.” “That abode is not lit by the sun or moon or even fire.”

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam states: “somaṁ nakṣatrauṣadhīnāṁ dhaneśaṁ yakṣa-rakṣasām” (11.16.16), “tapatāṁ dyumatāṁ sūryaṁ manūṣyānāñca bhūpatim” (11.16.17), “apāṁ rasaś ca paramas tejiṣṭhānāṁ vibhāvasūḥ | prabhā sūryendu-tārāṇāṁ śabdo ’haṁ nabhasaḥ paraḥ ||” (11.16.34)

“O Uddhava! As Soma [the moon and the fabled elixir of immortality], I am the master of constellations and medicine. Of Yakṣas (fierce nature spirits) and Rakṣasas (man-eating ogres), I am their ruler, Kuvera.” “Of all things that heat and illuminate, I am the sun. Among men, I am the king.” “Of waters, I am the sweetest taste; of luminaries, I am the radiance of the sun, moon, and stars; and I am the sound of the sky.”

The Upaniṣads state: “na tatra sūryo bhāti na candra-tārakaṁ, ne mā vidyuto bhānti kuto ’yam agniḥ | tameva bhāntam-anubhāti sarvaṁ, tasya bhāsā sarvam idaṁ vibhāti ||” (Kaṭha, Muṇḍaka, Śvetāśvatara)

“The sun, moon, stars, and electricity cannot illuminate the self-manifest Parabrahma. What to speak of Agni? Rather, it is by following Him that the sun, moon and other luminaries are illuminated. The whole of Creation reaps lights from the brilliance of His limbs.”

Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇacandra alone is the God of Gods and the most worshipful principle

And so, it follows that the spiritual Sun, Śrī Kṛṣṇacandra, is the one and only dispeller of the darkness of ignorance for the unlimited millions of living entities and universes He has created. The bhaktas gain the darśana of that all-attractive Śrī Kṛṣṇacandra, whose form is saccidānanda, by means of bhakti-yoga alone. Amṛtatva (immortality), or the soul’s eternal nature, which is prema and vraja-rasa (the loving mellow of Vraja), exists in the shelter of that personification of all nectareous rasa (akhila-rasāmṛta-mūrti), Śrī Kṛṣṇa. He alone is the root personality of all avatāras and the cause of all causes. That Supreme Lord is the superlative principle (parātpara-tattva) and is equipped with utterly inconceivable potency. Saints who are firmly devoted to Bhagavān behold and serve the supreme abode and position of that transcendental yet personal principle, Śrī Bhagavān. He is that Bhagavān who is the object of all Vedic knowledge; He is also the author of Vedānta and the knower of the Vedas. From the water that washed His feet has sprung the greatest of rivers, Gaṅgā, which Brahmā had offered as arghya, which Śiva wears upon his head, thereby attaining his śivatva (auspiciousness), and which purifies the three worlds. Who in all of Creation can be worthy of the title Bhagavān besides Śrī Hari? And who can destroy the heart-knot of the living entities’ desires and make them worthy of the ecstacy of prema? Hence, those who worship the presiding demigods and demigoddesses as independent Īśvaras (Gods) and Īśvarīs (Goddesses) are pratīkopāsakas (worshippers of superficial form), ahaṅgropāsaka (those who wish to become the object of their worship), and viśvarūpopāsakas (worshippers of Bhagavān’s universal form of material elements); they are all more or less atheists.

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.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa-Caitanya Mahāprabhu was never a follower of the Śaṅkara-sampradāya; there is ample proof of this. Śrī Gaurasundara orchestrated the pastime of choosing Śrīla Īśvara Purīpāda as His dīkṣā-guru to show that, of the four Sātvata (Vaiṣṇava) sampradāyas that exist in this age of Kali, it was the Śrī Brahma-Mādhva-Gauḍīya-sampradāya He accepted, even though He Himself was the jagad-guru (world teacher). The way Śrīman Mahāprabhu revealed His inner self after the pastime of accepting the daśākṣara-mantra (ten syllable mantra) also conveys that it was to preach prema that He accepted the Madhva-sampradāya. Śrīman Mahāprabhu adopted Madhva’s philosophy of śuddha-dvaita (pure dualism) because it was Madhva’s philosophy that refuted kevalādvaita-vāda (extreme monism) most clearly. He established and proved the eternality and authenticity of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava dharma. It is precisely because Śrīman Mahāprabhu accepted the philosophy of Madhva that Śrīla Kavirāja Gosvāmī has described Śrī Mādhavendra Purīpāda as the first sprout of the tree of prema. In his Sandarbhas, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmipāda demonstrated his honor for Śrīman Madhvācārya by addressing him as “vṛddha-vaiṣṇava (a most senior Vaiṣṇava)”.

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. It is a matter of great delight that his intimate sevakas have manifested the Daśāvatāra upon the body of the temple and made various refinements to it, thereby fulfilling the innermost desires of Śrī Guru-pādapadma, achieving a glowing radiance of service in every respect, and binding me with the ropes of gratitude.

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).]