Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c9.s4.t2.2

c9.s4.t2.2

The concept of the Paramātman and its relation to Prakṛti and Jiva are dealt with in detail in the *Paramātmā-samdarbha*; the present Samdarbha, as its title implies, has for its principal theme the concept of the Bhagavat. There is no need for a Brahma-samdarbha, for if the concept of the Bhagavat is clearly realised, that of the Brahman will also be understood, and the latter concept has already been fairly fully explained by the school of Advaita philosophers. The Brahman (neuter) is in fact the *nirviśeṣa* state of the Bhagavat, and as the non-differentiated substance it corresponds to the Brahman of the school of Śaṃkara. But the Bhagavat represents the higest being in the hierarchy of spiritual manifestations, the most perfect person in whom all the *viśeṣas* are most perfectly developed. In orther words, the Brahman is unqualified, but the Bhagavat is infinitely qualified by an infinity of blessed and perfect attributes. In the Bhagavat all the divine Śaktis or Energies eternally come into full play, but in the Brahman they remain in a potential or indiscrete state.¹ The essence of the Bhagavatā or Lordship consists in this actualisation of the Śaktis, the nature of which will be explained later on; and the Bhagavat, as the religious concrete, can be realised in the full display of his distinctive features, potencies, attributes, dwelling places and associates. The Brahman, on the other hand, is the philosophical Absolute, in which these attributes and powers remain undifferentiated; it is devoid of all *viśeṣas*² and forms an absolutely homogenous and indivisible substance. Thus, thought cannot be predicated as an attribute of the Brahman. but thought forms its very essence; that is, the Brahman is not a thinking being but the thought-substance itself; in the same way, the Brahman cannot be said to exist but it is existence itself. The Bhagavat is regarded as the Lord in full manifestation (*pūrṇa āvirbhāva*), because the appearance in this case is accompanied by all the divine Energies (*sa-śaktika āvirbhāva*), while the Brahman, from this point of view, constitutes an imperfect or incomplete manifestation (*asamyag āvirbhāva*). The sacred texts, therefore, describe the Brahman as the bodily lustre (*tanubhā*) of the Bhagavat; and in the *Gītā* the Bhagavat describes himself as the *pratiṣṭhā* of the Brahman. In other words, the realisation of the Bhagavat, as taught by the theistic Vaiṣṇava school, indicates a stage superior to the realisation of the Brahman of the Advaitavādins; and we are told that the Brahman is the object of realisation of the Paramahamsas who are Jñāna-yogins, but the Bhagavat reveals himself only to the Bhāgavata-paramahamsas, who are Bhakti-yogins. Although the Bhagavat is one and indivisible reality, this distinction is possible because some Sādhakas do not possess the fullest capacity of realisation; to them the highest reality therefore appears in the general or incomplete form of the Brahman.¹ Such Sādhakas