The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust’s long-anticipated release of Gopiparanadhana Prabhu’s posthumas translation of and commentary on Sri Laghu-bhagavatamrta has finally arrived. This work is particularly important to the devotees of ISKCON because its author is Srila Rupa Gosvami, whose Upadesamtra and Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu are foundational texts of ISKCON’s canon. Indeed, ISKCON’s Founder-acarya, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, in The Nectar of Devotion (his summary study of Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu) states, “Srila Rupa Gosvami Prabhupada elaborated the teachings of the Lord with profound knowledge of revealed scriptures and authoritative references from various Vedic literatures…We are therefore generally known as rupanugas, or followers in the footsteps of Srila Rupa Gosvami Prabhupada.”
Sri Rupa received the complete mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and is celebrated in hispranama-mantra as the personality “who has established within this material world the mission to fulfill the desire of Lord Caitanya.” The Laghu-bhagavatamrta therefore occupies an important place in the canon of Gaudiya Vaisnava literature.
Laghu-bhagavatamrta serves as a supplementary text to Brhad-bhagavatamrta, written by Rupa’s elder brother and guru Sanatana Gosvami as a summary of the essential conclusions of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Gopiparanadhana Prabhu is noted for his rare combination of Sanskrit expertise and complete loyalty to Srila Prabhupada. In the preface to Sri Brhad-bhagavatamrta,Gopiparanadhana comments, “Srila Sanatana takes it for granted that Krsna-Gopala is supreme, that Krsna is the creator and controller of everything, and leaves the task of proving it to his brother Rupa Gosvami, who later takes it up in his Laghu- (“smaller”) bhagavatamrta.” Laghu-bhagavatamrta, then, is the condensed essence of the essence of Srimad-Bhagavatam in the sense that it bolsters that conclusion of the Bhagavatam, that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Presented in two parts, the nectar of Krsna and the nectar of His devotees, Laghu-bhagavatamrta concisely expresses the fundamental points of Gaudiya philosophy, points that would be accepted and repeated by all successor acaryas in the line of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
Sri Rupa first asserts that Krsna is the original, supreme form of God, a claim that he validates through both direct and indirect evidence. Second, he convincingly establishes Mahaprabhu’s acintya-bheda-abheda philosophy via a concise yet exhaustive presentation of Visnu-tattva. Third, Rupa Goswami lays a foundation of sastric evidence, arming his followers with ready, reliable evidence for many of the sampradaya’s claims.
Anyone who is familiar with Srila Prabhupada’s books knows how he often states the cardinality and supremacy of Sri Krsna, repeatedly directing the reader to the conclusion that Krsna is both the original and the greatest form of the Godhead. This is in line with the rupanuga-acaryas,all of whom are unified in the mission to establish the unique position of Krsna, the son of Nanda Maharaja, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Sri Laghu-bhagavatamrta shows the reader how Srila Rupa Goswami directly establishes this conclusion and also indirectly supports it by defeating opposing claims. He forms a strong case for Krsna as the original form of God by weaving together multiple references to reveal that of all divine personalities, the form which does not depend on any other (‘svayam-rupa’) is indeed Krsna, the son of Yasoda. Similarly, Sri Rupa establishes Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead by providing evidence that Krsna displays finer and more complete personal qualities than any other manifestation of the Lord. Rupa Goswami does this by showing the superiority of Krsna’s form, names, abode, and so on.
To establish the supreme greatness of Krsna (krsnas tu bhagavan svayam), Rupa Goswami draws the reader’s attention to a conversation given in the Visnu Purana between Parasara Muni and Maitreya. Therein, Maitreya states that after the Supreme Lord had killed the demons Hiranyakasipu and Ravana, both of whom were same jiva, the Lord had blessed them with mere material pious credits in their next birth. Maitreya then asks why the Lord as Sri Krsna granted sayujya liberation to the same jiva after the Lord had killed him in his third birth as the demon Sisupala? Parasara answers that when Nrsimhadeva and Ramacandra killed Hiranyakasipu and Ravana respectively, the demons were unable to identify their killer as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore they were unable to absorb their minds in the Lord. As Sisupala however, the same jiva took shelter of Krsna’s names, albeit with hatred, chanting them throughout his life. The power of Krsna’s names and His personal beauty together were sufficient to attract his mind, completely purify him of all sins and thus grant him liberation. Parasara Muni concludes that of all forms of the Lord, only Krsna fully manifests His all-attractive qualities by which even demons are drawn to Him. Such attraction results in liberation for anyone He kills. As the Vedic literature describes no other form of God with that quality, Krsna must be the original form of the Supreme Lord.
Laghu-bhagavatamrta also establishes Krsna’s supremacy indirectly by defeating other conceptions of God. Sri Rupa repeatedly uses the traditional method of purvapaksha, which first presents counterarguments to Krsna’s supremacy and then systematically defeats them. He begins by presenting the misconception that Krsna is a part-and-parcel expansion of the three purusa-avataras, headed by Karanodakasayi-Visnu (Maha-Visnu). These forms of the Lord are involved in creating the material cosmic manifestation. Sri Rupa then defeats this idea using Puranic evidence. He raises another objection that comes from the impersonalist philosophy: since Brahman and Bhagavan are non-different, one cannot be greater than the other; therefore, how can Krsna be the Supreme? Rupa Goswami defeats this misunderstanding with both scriptural evidence and expert logic. He gives the example that material objects are realized differently by each different sense but only completely by the mind (the repository of all the senses). Similarly, the means of approaching the Absolute Truth determines to what extent one can experience it in truth. In this way, Sri Rupa establishes bhakti as the supreme sadhana by which the complete form of Brahman can be realized as Bhagavan Sri Krsna. Finally, Rupa presents the perspective of the Sri-sampradaya, namely that Krsna is the greatest of the avataras of Maha-Narayana. Once again he defeats the argument, this time with special reference to the Srimad-Bhagavatam, which states that Narayana’s eternal consort, Lakshmi Herself, performed austerities with a desire to associate with Krsna. He also cites as evidence the special potency of Krsna’s names relative to the names of Visnu.
We should note that Srila Prabhupada repeatedly refers to the Laghu-bhagavatamrta’sstrong presentation of Vaisnava Vedanta philosophy to correct impersonal misconceptions. For example, in Caitanya-caritamrta (Adi-lila 5.40, purport), Srila Prabhupada states, “The impersonalists, headed by Sripada Sankaracarya, have interpreted the aphorisms of the Vedānta-sūtra in a way suitable for the impersonalist school. To provide the intrinsic import of such aphorisms, however, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, the leader of the Six Gosvamis of Vrndavana, has properly replied to the impersonalists in his Laghu-bhagavatamrta, which is a natural commentary on the aphorisms of the Vedānta-sūtra.” In the following purport (Adi-lila 5.41), Srila Prabhupada writes, “Devotees completely believe, with strong faith, that Narayana is transcendental and has inconceivable proprietorship of various transcendental potencies. We therefore recommend that scholars consult the Laghu-bhagavatamrta of Srila Rupa Gosvami, where these ideas are explicitly stated.”
Due to its format, Sri Laghu-bhagavatamrta also serves to express Sri Caintanya’s philosophy of inconceivable, simultaneous oneness and difference (acintya-bheda-abheda-tattva). Sri Rupa uses the first four chapters of the text to give a concise and precise presentation of the categories of Krsna’s expansions. Providing examples supported by scripture, he explains the common and unique features of Krsna’s svayam-bhagavan, tad-ekatma-rupa, avesa, and prakasaforms. Rupa then describes the sub-categories of purusa-avataras, guna-avataras, lila-avataras, manvantara-avataras, and yuga-avataras. This fast-paced account of the variety of incarnations gives the reader a deep appreciation of Krsna’s high degree of involvement with the material world via His avataras. The Gosvami then concludes with a lengthy description of the glories of Krsna’s original form in Gokula, and his Vasudeva expansions in Mathura and Dvaraka, as well the glories of His eternal associates who reside in those realms. This section aims at establishing Krsna as unique among all His expansions and incarnations and His Vrndavana devotees as unique among all His other devotees, thus highlighting His exclusive and complete dedication to His devotees, especially to those who live in Vrndavana. In this way Krsna is shown to be simultaneously all-inclusive and completely exclusive. The overall sense, then, is of the Lord’s simultaneous proximity and remoteness as exemplified in the sruti Sri Isopanisad (verse 5): “…He is far away, but He is very near as well.” Of course, this simultaneous oneness and difference is the complete Vedic philosophy and Rupa Gosvami, simply by the thoroughness of his presentation on Krsna and His avataras, evokes the reader’s own realizations on the subject.
Srila Rupa Gosvami’s empowered scrutiny of Vedic literature established the authenticity of important philosophical points from Sri Caitanya’s teaching. Indeed, the Laghu-bhagavatamrta provides the reader with numerous key verses to corroborate Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s philosophy. Srila Srinivasa Acarya recounts that the Six Gosvamis of Vrndavana were “very expert in scrutinizingly studying all the revealed scriptures with the aim of establishing eternal religious principles for the benefit of all human beings”. To substantiate his Laghu-bhagavatamrta, Rupa Goswami draws on sastric evidence from Vaisnava-tantras, multiple Puranas and Upapuranas,Vedic srutis, including but not limited to several Upanisads and Samhitas, and Sanskrit dictionaries. Preachers in particular may therefore pay particular attention to the verses quoted by Rupa Goswami to learn how to effectively present and defend our siddhanta. Devotees familiar with Srila Prabhupada’s books will find evidence in Laghu-bhagavatamrta for key concepts Prabhupada uses in his purports. Text 1.5.342, for example, cited from the Kurma Purana, says, “There is no distinction between the body and the soul of the Supreme Personality of Godhead at any time.” One can also find evidence to explain Krsna’s manifest and unmanifest pastimes in Vrndavana, the eternality and inconceivable qualities of His pastimes, abode and devotees, and the supreme quality of Srimati Radharani’s devotional service. ISKCON devotees can also explore Rupa Gosvami’s Laghu-bhagavatamrta to fortify their knowledge of sambandha, particularly in regards to Visnu-tattva. Devotees can also learn more about our sampradaya’s methods of proving that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and defeating spiritual misconceptions. Devotees may also strengthen their fund of evidence as they present Krsna consciousness; they can increase their appreciation for Srila Rupa Gosvami’s tremendous empowerment and for the fidelity of Srila Prabhupada’s books to Srila Rupa Goswami’s original message. In conclusion, by studying Laghu-bhagavatamrta devotees will develop a deeper appreciation for the glories of Sri Krsna and of His devotees, headed by Srimati Radharani, thus bringing them closer to achieving their eternal abode.
Sri Laghu Bhagavatamrta is available in India at https://touchstonemedia.in
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