Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c9.s5.61

c9.s5.61

¹ This verse is explained at some length by Jīva at the beginning of his Sarva-saṃvādinī Anuvyākhyā to his Tattva-sandarbha. The prose passage at the commencement of this explanation states as relevant context that the Śrīmad-bhāgavata verse eulogises Caitanya, to whom an eulogistic reference is also made. In this reference of his, Jīva Gosvāmin appears to believe that Caitanya in the Kali Age is an Avatāra worthy of worship by the Vaiṣṇava, that he is the presiding deity of his own Sampradāya, that by his descent he spread the current of loving devotion for the Bhagavat, and that his Bhagavad-bhāva has been well established by the insight of endless believers in the Bhagavat. This is high praise indeed, but it is not clear if Jīva attempts here at all to establish that Caitanya himself is the Bhagavat, as he has in his Kṛṣṇa-sandarbha taken pains to establish that Kṛṣṇa himself is the Bhagavat. On the other hand, Jīva appears inclined to accept Caitanya as an Avatāra of Kṛṣṇa, though he also uses the technical word Avirbhāva. The only other reference that Jīva makes to Caitanya occurs in the Namaskriyā to Gopāla-campū and Saṃkalpa-kalpadruma. In both these works he employs the same Namaskriyā, which comprehensively includes in one Anuṣṭubh verse homage to Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa-caitanya, Senātana, Rūpa, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa and his own father Vallabha, and which can also be interpreted so as to apply exclusively to Kṛṣṇa. The theme of both these works is of course Kṛṣṇa-līlā. In his Harināmāmṛta-vyākarana there is a Namaskriyā to Kṛṣṇa, but not to Caitanya.