Bhagavata school

Expressions researched:
"bhagavat school" |"bhagavata school" |"bhagavata schools"

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 5.6, Purport:

The Māyāvādī sannyāsīs also study the Vedānta-sūtras, but use their own commentary, called Śārīraka-bhāṣya, written by Śaṅkarācārya. The students of the Bhāgavata school are engaged in the devotional service of the Lord, according to pāñcarātrikī regulations, and therefore the Vaiṣṇava sannyāsīs have multiple engagements in the transcendental service of the Lord. The Vaiṣṇava sannyāsīs have nothing to do with material activities, and yet they perform various activities in their devotional service to the Lord. But the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, engaged in the studies of Sāṅkhya and Vedānta and speculation, cannot relish the transcendental service of the Lord. Because their studies become very tedious, they sometimes become tired of Brahman speculation, and thus they take shelter of the Bhāgavatam without proper understanding.

SB Preface and Introduction

SB Introduction:

In India there is always a kind of spiritual rivalry between the Māyāvāda and Bhāgavata schools, and thus when the news of the Lord reached Prakāśānanda he knew that the Lord was a Vaiṣṇava sannyāsī, and therefore he minimized the value of the Lord before those who brought him the news. He deprecated the activities of the Lord because of His preaching the saṅkīrtana movement, which was in his opinion nothing but religious sentiment. Prakāśānanda was a profound student of the Vedānta, and he advised his followers to give attention to the Vedānta and not to indulge in saṅkīrtana.

SB Canto 1

SB 1.1.3, Purport:

One should be intelligent enough to know the position of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by considering personalities like Śukadeva Gosvāmī, who deals with the subject so carefully. This process of disciplic succession of the Bhāgavata school suggests that in the future also, for all time, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has to be understood from a person who is factually a representative of Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī. A professional man who makes a business out of reciting the Bhāgavatam illegally is certainly not a representative of Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Such a man's business is only to earn his livelihood. Therefore one should refrain from hearing the lectures of such professional men. Such men usually go to the most confidential part of the literature without undergoing the gradual process of understanding this grave subject.

SB Canto 2

SB 2.1.3, Purport:

The present human civilization is primarily based on the principles of sleeping and sex indulgence at night and earning money in the day and spending the same for family maintenance. Such a form of human civilization is condemned by the Bhāgavata school.

Because human life is a combination of matter and spirit soul, the whole process of Vedic knowledge is directed at liberating the spirit soul from the contamination of matter. The knowledge concerning this is called ātma-tattva. Those men who are too materialistic are unaware of this knowledge and are more inclined to economic development for material enjoyment. Such materialistic men are called karmīs, or fruitive laborers, and they are allowed regulated economic development or association of woman for sex indulgence. Those who are above the karmīs, that is, the jñānīs, yogīs and devotees, are strictly prohibited from sex indulgence.

SB 2.2.13, Purport:

There are authorized descriptions of Viṣṇu forms, and there are authorized representations of Deities in the temples. Thus one can practice meditating upon the Deity, concentrating his mind on the lotus feet of the Lord and gradually rising higher and higher, up to His smiling face.

According to the Bhāgavata school, the Lord's rāsa dancing is the smiling face of the Lord. Since it is recommended in this verse that one should gradually progress from the lotus feet up to the smiling face, we shall not jump at once to understand the Lord's pastimes in the rāsa dance. It is better to practice concentrating our attention by offering flowers and tulasi to the lotus feet of the Lord. In this way, we gradually become purified by the arcanā process. We dress the Lord, bathe Him, etc., and all these transcendental activities help us purify our existence.

SB Canto 3

SB 3.28.41, Purport:

Similarly, the individual living entity is one with and different from the Supreme Lord. This "simultaneously one and different" philosophy is the perfect conclusion of the Bhāgavata school, as confirmed here by Kapiladeva.

Living entities are compared to the sparks of a fire. As stated in the previous verse, fire, flame, smoke and firewood are combined together. Here the living entity, the material elements and the Supreme Personality of Godhead are combined together. The exact position of the living entities is just like that of the sparks of a fire; they are part and parcel. The material energy is compared to the smoke. The fire is also part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. In the Viṣṇu Purāṇa it is said that whatever we can see or experience, either in the material or spiritual world, is an expansion of the different energies of the Supreme Lord.

SB Canto 4

SB 4.8.47, Purport:

The Lord appears in female form if necessary, but His perpetual form is puruṣa because He is originally male. The feminine feature of the Lord is displayed by goddesses of fortune—Lakṣmī, Rādhārāṇī, Sītā, etc. All these goddesses of fortune are servitors of the Lord; they are not the Supreme, as falsely imagined by the impersonalist. Lord Kṛṣṇa in His Nārāyaṇa feature is always four handed. On the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, when Arjuna wanted to see His universal form, He showed this feature of four-handed Nārāyaṇa. Some devotees are of the opinion that Kṛṣṇa is an incarnation of Nārāyaṇa, but the Bhāgavata school says that Nārāyaṇa is a manifestation of Kṛṣṇa.

SB Canto 5

SB 5.9.17, Purport:

He was a God-realized soul and a well-wisher to all living entities. The Vedas did not at all sanction the killing of Jaḍa Bharata by rogues and thieves. Consequently the goddess Bhadra Kālī emerged from the deity to give protection to the Lord's devotee. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that due to the Brahman effulgence of such a devotee as Jaḍa Bharata, the deity was fractured. Only thieves and rogues in the modes of passion and ignorance and maddened by material opulence offer a man in sacrifice before the goddess Kālī. This is not sanctioned by the Vedic instructions. Presently there are many hundreds and thousands of slaughterhouses throughout the world that are maintained by a puffed-up population mad for material opulence. Such activities are never supported by the Bhāgavata school.

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 1.91, Purport:

Mystic powers can make a yogī materially powerful and thus give temporary relief from the miseries of birth, death, old age and disease, as other material sciences can also do, but such mystic powers can never be a permanent source of relief from these miseries. Therefore, according to the Bhāgavata school, this path of religiosity is also a method of cheating its followers. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly defined that the most elevated and powerful mystic yogī is one who can constantly think of the Supreme Lord within his heart and engage in the loving service of the Lord.

CC Adi 5.41, Purport:

Śaṅkarācārya also says (sūtra 45) that the devotees who follow the Pañcarātra state that God's qualities and God Himself, as the owner of the qualities, are the same. But how can the Bhāgavata school state that the six opulences—wisdom, wealth, strength, fame, beauty and renunciation—are identical with Lord Vāsudeva? This is impossible.

In his Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta (Pūrva 5.165–193), Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has refuted the charges directed against the devotees by Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya regarding their explanation of the quadruple forms Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. Rūpa Gosvāmī says that these four expansions of Nārāyaṇa are present in the spiritual sky, where They are famous as Mahāvastha.

CC Adi 5.41, Purport:

Therefore his commentary on the forty-second aphorism and his commentary on the forty-fourth aphorism are contradictory. It is a defect of Māyāvāda commentaries that they make one statement in one place and a contradictory statement in another place as a tactic to refute the Bhāgavata school. Thus Māyāvādī commentators do not even follow regulative principles. It should be noted that the Bhāgavata school accepts the quadruple forms of Nārāyaṇa, but that does not mean that it accepts many Gods. Devotees know perfectly well that the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is one without a second. They are never pantheists, worshipers of many Gods, for this is against the injunction of the Vedas. Devotees completely believe, with strong faith, that Nārāyaṇa is transcendental and has inconceivable proprietorship of various transcendental potencies.

CC Adi 5.83, Purport:

The plenary portion of the Lord through whom Lord Kṛṣṇa executes such actions is called Mahā-Viṣṇu, who is the primal beginning of all incarnations. Inexperienced observers presume that the material energy provides both the cause and the elements of the cosmic manifestation and that the living entities are the enjoyers of material nature. But the devotees of the Bhāgavata school, which has scrutinizingly examined the entire situation, can understand that material nature can independently be neither the supplier of the material elements nor the cause of the material manifestation. Material nature gets the power to supply the material elements from the glance of the supreme puruṣa, Mahā-Viṣṇu, and when empowered by Him she is called the cause of the material manifestation. Both features of material nature, as the cause of the material creation and as the source of its elements, exist due to the glance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Teachings of Lord Caitanya

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 19:

Lord Caitanya admitted that Śaṅkarācārya was an incarnation of Lord Śiva, and it is known that Lord Śiva is one of the greatest devotees, a mahājana of the Bhāgavata school. There are twelve mahājanas, great authorities on devotional service, and Lord Śiva is one of them. Why, then, did he adopt the process of Māyāvāda philosophy? The answer is given in the Śiva Purāṇa, where the Supreme Lord tells Śiva:

dvāparādau yuge bhūtvā kalayā mānuṣādiṣu

svāgamaiḥ kalpitais tvaṁ ca janān mad-vimukhān kuru

"In the beginning of Kali-yuga, by My order, bewilder the people in general with Māyāvāda philosophy." In the Padma Purāṇa, Lord Śiva tells his wife Bhagavatī Devī:

Message of Godhead

Message of Godhead 2:

They came to the conclusion that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and that all other incarnations are either His plenary portions or else portions of plenary portions. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is Śrī Kṛṣṇa; that is the verdict of the Bhāgavata school, or the transcendentalists. Also, the Brahma-saṁhitā—which is described to be compiled by Brahmā, the creator of this universe—confirms, "Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, with an eternal, all-blissful, transcendental form. He is the original person, known as Govinda. He is without any cause, and He is the cause of all other causes." Therefore, if and only if we can establish our relationships with one another upon the central attraction of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the prime cause of all causes, will we really turn the concepts of fraternity and equality into workable means of lasting peace.

Sri Isopanisad

Sri Isopanisad 5, Purport:

For example, the impersonalist philosophers of the Māyāvāda school accept only the Lord's impersonal activities and reject His personal feature. But the members of the Bhāgavata school, adopting the perfect conception of the Lord, accept His inconceivable potencies and thus understand that He is both personal and impersonal. The bhāgavatas know that without inconceivable potencies there can be no meaning to the words "Supreme Lord."

We should not take it for granted that because we cannot see God with our eyes the Lord has no personal existence. Śrī Īśopaniṣad refutes this argument by declaring that the Lord is far away but very near also. The abode of the Lord is beyond the material sky, and we have no means to measure even this material sky.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.1.3 -- London, August 20, 1971:

One should be intelligent to know the position of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by considering personalities like Śukadeva Gosvāmī, who deals with the subject so carefully. This process of disciplic succession of the Bhāgavata school suggests that in the future also Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has to be understood from a person who is factually a representative of Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī. A professional man who makes a business out of reciting the Bhāgavatam illegally is certainly not a representative of Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Such a man's business is only to earn his livelihood. Therefore one should refrain from hearing the lectures of such professional men. Such men usually go to the most confidential part of the literature without undergoing the gradual process of understanding this grave subject."

Lecture on SB 6.3.12-15 -- Gorakhpur, February 9, 1971:

"We are also qualified." Therefore, instead of cooperation there was misunderstanding, and the whole structure of Vedic society became dismantled. The whole Vedic society. They are simply now proud: "I am brāhmaṇa. I am kṣatriya."

But according to our Bhāgavata school or the Vedānta school... Bhāgavata is the Vedānta, you should always remember. Bhāṣyaṁ brahma-sūtrāṇām **. It is the right commentary on the Brahma-sūtra, Vedānta. So the falldown takes place not only of the brāhmaṇas, but also of the kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, and the śūdras. How the falldown takes place?

General Lectures

Arrival -- Dallas, May 19, 1973:

What are the religious principles? Religious principle means to understand what is God. That is religious principle. It doesn't matter whether you are Christian or Hindu or Muslim or any... There are many hundreds and thousands patterns of religious system, but according to our Bhāgavata school, we accept that religion as first class which teaches how to love God. That is religion. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). That system of religion is first class wherein the followers are given lessons how to love God. Unfortunately, at the present moment there is no question of how to teach them for loving God. They deny the existence of God. This is the present situation. People have become so rascal that they do not believe in the existence of God. Or somebody believes... Not believes. That is affirmed. Some of them say, "God is dead. Now we have to take to social work, political work.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Mr. C. Hennis of the International Labor Organization of the U.N. -- May 31, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: (laughter) But he could not defend that he has got brain, yes. So however these men may declare very, very big, we know that "You have no brain. You are as good as animal." Therefore Bhāgavata says, śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ: (SB 2.3.19) "These classes of men are no better than the dogs, hogs, camels and asses." Bhāgavata school will not approve of these rascals as human being. They are so strict. If one is not on the platform of God consciousness, he is not human being. He is animal. That's a fact. But we should not hate the animals because our mission is to bring them to the human consciousness. You cannot expect that your audience should be all highly brain. No. Preaching is required because they have no brain. Therefore your duty is to tolerate all difficulties and bring them to the sense of brain. Not that "These people are animals; we shall not mix with them." Then you have no missionary activities. Then you sit down in a place and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then don't open centers. That is also dangerous.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Pradyumna -- Los Angeles 21 June, 1970:

There are authorized descriptions of Visnu forms and there are authorized presentations of Deities in the temples. So one can practice meditating upon the Deity, concentrating his mind on the lotus feet of the Lord gradually rising up and up to the smiling face.

According to Bhagavat school the Lord's Rasa Dancing is the smiling face of the Lord. As it is recommended here in this verse that one should gradually rise beginning from the lotus feet up to the smiling face, so we shall not at once jump to understand the Lord's pastime in Rasa Dance. Better we should practice to concentrate our attention by offering flowers and tulasi on the lotus feet of the Lord. In this way as we become purified by arcana process gradually we dress Him, bathe Him, and all these transcendental activities help us in purifying our existence.

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Sri Pannalalji -- Bombay 16 May, 1974:

Regarding religious sentiment, according to Srimad-Bhagavatam there is no question of religious sentiment but religion. Religion is described as codes given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.* Dharmah saksad bhagavata. Anything not given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead is not accepted by the Bhagavat school as religion. In the beginning of Srimad-Bhagavatam it is said, Dharmah projita kaitavo. This kaitavo religion means cheating religion. Sriman Sridhara Swami the original commentator of Srimad-Bhagavatam says religious systems up to the idea of liberation are cheating. So to preach Bhagavat religion sometimes we have to quote from the sastras what is not palatable to unscrupulous so called religious persons. But in preaching we cannot do without quoting the proper verses. Sometime they take it adversely and we become subject to unwanted criticism.