Extracted From Jaiva-dharma, By Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur
Extracted From Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s Jaiva-dharma (1896); without his Novel and Stories, which was meant to introduce the Gaudiya Vaisnava Philosophy to the general population of India that existed in the late 1880’s.
Translation by Nabadwip Dasa in the mid-1990’s.
Extraction, Editing, and Formatting by Upendranath Dasa in 2012 – 2022
“First Division”
The Fundamentals of Nitya- and Naimittika-dharma
Chapter 1: The Eternal & Temporary Natures of the Jiva/Soul
Chapter 2: The Eternal Natural Position & Function of the Jiva/Soul
Chapter 3: The Circumstantial Function, Duty, & Religion of a Conscious Being is to be Relinquished
Chapter 4: Vaisnava-dharma is Eternal-dharma
Chapter 5: Vaidhi-bhakti is Nitya (Eternal), Not Naimittika (Causal, Circumstantial & Temporary)
Chapter 6: Eternal Dharma, Race & Caste
Chapter 7: Nitya-dharma & Material Existence
Chapter 8: Nitya-dharma & Vaisnava Behavior
Chapters Nine to Twenty-Five are Currently Work in Progress
Nitya-dharma, Material Science & Civilization
Nitya-dharma & History
Nitya-dharma & Idolatry
Nitya-dharma & Sadhana
“Second Division”
The Fundamentals of Sambandha, Abhideya, and Prayojana
Prameya & The Commencement of Prameya
Prameya: Sakti-tattva
Prameya: Jiva-tattva
Prameya: Jivas Free from Maya
Prameya: Jivas Free from Maya
Prameya: Bhedabheda-tattva
Prameya: Abhidheya-tattva
Prameya: Abhidheya–Vaidhi-sadhana-bhakti
Prameya: Abhidheya–Raganuga-sadhana-bhakti
Prameya: The Commencement of Prayojana-tattva
Prameya: Nama-tattva
Prameya: Namaparadha
Prameya: Namabhasa
At that time, in 2010, I was, more or less, expecting the end of my life, and I was making a sincere effort to prepare for that experience. After reading his letter, I had an overwhelming yearning to live for as long as required; in order to provide answers to his inquisitiveness. The reply to this letter would be very important to both of us.
Therefore, I sent him a brief email where I said I am pleased with his request, and requested that he allow me some time to properly respond. It took me 2 years, to finally give him an almost 1,000-page manuscript, which contained this work as one of its components. Now I am in the process of editing this presentation, for this website, and hope to have it completed sometime in the summer of 2022.
In a special manner, providence has blessed me.
At my disposal, various sets of knowledge, truths, and experiences are suitable to facilitate my endeavor. Understanding more of less the state of spiritual evolution of each of my children and grandchildren, I knew that I could present a gestalt of knowledge, truths, and experiences in a way that is unbiased. I have just used a word, gestalt, which you may not be familiar with. When I first heard this word, I had no clue as to what it meant. So, I looked it up and then understood why this word was used. The definition of this word is;
“Configuration, or pattern, of elements, so unified as a whole, that its properties cannot be derived from a simple summation of its parts”.
I plan to weave the fibers, of my gestalt of experiences and knowledge, into a quilt; which will give you warmth and comfort. It does not require you to have any form of spiritual life inclination; the effects of this quilt will surely give its purpose to anyone.
Moreover, this quilt will be even more effective to anyone who has any form of spiritual life inclination. The only requirement is a desire to be a decent, and thoughtful human being; to live one’s life as a human being instead of like an animal.
This book will prepare anyone, so that they would have a better chance of upstanding one’s existence, one’s life, being and reality. Please go slowly, and study its contents. That is the general case. The exception is that it is possible for some to go right into this book at a fast pace. That depends on what is called, “adika”; one’s previous qualifications, which are based on previous life times. Activities in one’s life are of two types; those that are of a temporary nature, and result in temporary outcomes.
The other kind of activity some persons like Christians, Muslim’s, Jewish, and Hindus, or any honest and decent human being, are familiar with. These are called “Pious Activity”, which are of two natures.
One is that they are also temporary because they are causal, and they give temporary rewards so to speak.
The other kind of pious activity is called “nitya-sukrti”, or pious acts that are eternal, and thus they give eternal results.
This is a complex subject matter, that will be explained in this book. If you just happen to have an asset of this “nitya-sukrti”, then you will be able to understand the contents of this book very easily. I have logical, and reasonable notions, which are based on scripture to make me believe that you actually do have some asset of “nitya-sukrti”. You would not be reading this book if you did not. Still, you will require some help from a teacher, so to speak, to fully realize the contents of this book. Just to give you a hint, it is all about the process of establishing the soul’s eternal and natural constitutional relationship with God; not a relationship of awe and reverence, but of a personal nature, either conjugal, parental, or fraternal. A relationship with the Lord that is truly personal, and unique, where one does not have a sense of the Lord being the Lord or God; but the sense of this Supreme Person is the object of your love, in a personal relationship; kind of like humans experienced in this mortal world with other living human beings.
Love requires two objects, the lover, and the beloved. Love can only be exchanged between two livening and separate individuals. There are two other relationships one can have with the Lord, servitor and awe and reverence. It all depends your association with your teacher, your spiritual-master, your guru[1]. All these relationships are accommodated in the eternal and youthful spiritual world, which is unlimited and infinite. In the spiritual world, all five relationships are absolute, and individual, simultaneously. However, the first three personal relationships, as mentioned, above are just more ‘sweeter”. In other words, it is a matter of “taste”.
However, this book gets down to the business of getting the direct, and precise answers you are seeking. I have a feeling that if you start reading this book now, you will not want to stop. I expect that a lot of this knowledge will be absorbed without much difficulty. Then later on, you may need some additional explanations, and that is where I come in to the flow so to speak. Then you may have questions, doubts, or objections. These issues, and their dialogs, will give me the ability to refine this book, and the pleasure of having a dialog with you as well.
I will try to replace as many Sanskrit terms with the English equivalent when possible. However, sometime this is very difficult. One of the first terms, which I will explain, now is “anadi”.
Anadi literally means “eternally into the past” and sometimes is described as “from a time that has no beginning”. An anadi object, is an object that has always existed, it was never created, still exists, and will always exist.
This book will touch upon the first concern of David,
“I find it challenging to formulate into words the wonders of our universe”.
On the other hand, the second inquire, will be addressed completely,
“I would love to hear any advice you have on finding one’s true self and discovering true meaning”
He was actually inquiring about the three division of knowledge that comprise everything there is to know. As physics tells us, as well as the Vedic Scriptures; everything is energy. In order to establish this very important principle, I will first say that this energy is eternal and it is infinite. In other words, any kind of emery in creation, any; it was never created, it has always existed, and will exist now and in the future. Modern science tells us that energy cannot be destroyed; it can only be transformed. These It is not just one kind or nature of energy; when I say energy, I mean infinite kinds of energies, all of which have intent and purpose. The complete infinite whole, is infinite itself, and finite, simultaneously. This complete whole energy is also simultaneous one, and different; meaning that it has both a personal feature, and an impersonal feature, simultaneously.
An example of this is the study of physics regarding the atom. What are the components (energies) of an atom of material substance? They have discovered a little over 100 such elements so far. The truth is that there is infinite individual, and unique elements in the cosmos; not only is there about 100, like on this Earth, there is infinite elements in this Universe. Then they discovered that the structure of an atom was made of three other particles, and for the last 100 years, they have come to the point that there are many more sub atomic particles of energies within atoms. When, will this end? NEVER.
Are we to remain ignorant of any knowledge in this regard? NO!
Human beings all have the potential to learn a particular level of this knowledge. The above process, the scientific way, which is known as the “ascending process”, will not give my grandson the answers he seeks. However, the answers he seeks are attainable through what can be called the “descending” process of revelation.
In the Holy Bible, in the New Testament Paul writes,
“All scripture is inspired by God”.
If you understood, the history of this fella named Paul, you would get a good understanding how he got this little bit of information. You can read about this particular human being in an essay by the title of “Analysis of the Gospels”. There you will get an idea on how he came up with this profound bit of wisdom.
All I will say here, is that he said “ALL”, he did not say “Biblical”, “Jewish” or any other known Scripture of his time. In his time there was no “Islamic Scripture” yet. Actually, there was no established “Biblical” Scripture also. The only scripture that was known of in that part of the world, in the lifetime of Paul, was the “Jewish” Scripture. So why did Paul say “All”?
Vedic Scriptures have facilitated this quest for knowledge by presenting that the totality of all material, and spiritual energies, are infinite and are possessed, by the Lord God, Lord Sri Krishna. These infinite energies have three general divisions. Likewise, each general division is also infinite. Modern mathematics confirms this aspect. Any portion of anything that is infinite is also infinite itself.
Call this complete whole, of infinite energy, God, Allah, Yahweh, or Krishna; as you like. What is amazing to me personally is that David’s statement was actually an inquiry regarding these three categories of energy. A very specific way to interpret David’s statement is that it could be summed up into one simple question or request.
“I want to know what the Absolute Truth is”.
Alternatively,
“What is God”?
The following are the names of these three energies that are used in this discourse, and the corresponding inquiry made by David.
1. The External Energy: “I find it challenging to formulate into words the wonders of our universe”.
2. The Marginal Energy: “I would love to hear any advice you have on finding one’s true self…”
3. The Internal Energy: “and discovering true meaning”
In this book, you will get some information about these three energies that comprise all that exists; and especially, you will get a lot of information about the “Marginal Energy”, number 2 in the above list.
FOOT NOTE:
[1] Guru—spiritual master; one of the three authorities for a Vaisnava. Literally, this term means heavy. The spiritual master is called guru because he is heavy with knowledge.
Extracted From Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s Jaiva-dharma (1896); without his Novel and Stories, which was meant to introduce the Gaudiya Vaisnava Philosophy to the general population of India that existed in the late 1880’s.
Translation by Nabadwip Dasa in the mid-1990’s.
Extraction, Editing, and Formatting by Upendranath Dasa in 2012 – 2022
“First Division”
The Fundamentals of Nitya- and Naimittika-dharma
Chapter 1: The Eternal & Temporary Natures of the Jiva/Soul
Chapter 2: The Eternal Natural Position & Function of the Jiva/Soul
Chapter 3: The Circumstantial Function, Duty, & Religion of a Conscious Being is to be Relinquished
Chapter 4: Vaisnava-dharma is Eternal-dharma
Chapter 5: Vaidhi-bhakti is Nitya (Eternal), Not Naimittika (Causal, Circumstantial & Temporary)
Chapter 6: Eternal Dharma, Race & Caste
Chapter 7: Nitya-dharma & Material Existence
Chapter 8: Nitya-dharma & Vaisnava Behavior
Chapters Nine to Twenty-Five are Currently Work in Progress
Nitya-dharma, Material Science & Civilization
Nitya-dharma & History
Nitya-dharma & Idolatry
Nitya-dharma & Sadhana
“Second Division”
The Fundamentals of Sambandha, Abhideya, and Prayojana
Prameya & The Commencement of Prameya
Prameya: Sakti-tattva
Prameya: Jiva-tattva
Prameya: Jivas Free from Maya
Prameya: Jivas Free from Maya
Prameya: Bhedabheda-tattva
Prameya: Abhidheya-tattva
Prameya: Abhidheya–Vaidhi-sadhana-bhakti
Prameya: Abhidheya–Raganuga-sadhana-bhakti
Prameya: The Commencement of Prayojana-tattva
Prameya: Nama-tattva
Prameya: Namaparadha
Prameya: Namabhasa