Sri Tattva Sandarbha
  Introduction

Glorifications Of Çré Ñaö-Sandarbha

sandarbhä yena nädhétä

stasya bhägavate çramaù

sandarbhä yena cädhétä

nästi bhägavate bhramaù

Without studying the Ñaö Sandarbhas one must struggle to understand the message of the Çrémad Bhägavatam and still he may not succeed.  However, one who has studied the Ñaö Sandarbhas will have no misgivings about the essence of the  Çrémad Bhägavatam.

             By nature living entities are inquisitive. This trait finds its greatest development in homosapiens. Every person wants to know about himself and the environment in which he lives. Those with a finely developed intelligence naturally go further in this inquiry. They deliberate on the meaning of life, the afterlife, the origin and purpose of creation and so on. Indeed we have information that at the dawn of time this question arose in the mind of Lord Brahmä, the first person.

            According to Vedic history, Lord Brahmä was born from a lotus generated from the navel of Lord Viñëu. Just after his birth Brahmä pondered his origin and the origin of his lotus seat. He deliberated on this for many thousands of years without success. Finally he heard a voice that ordered him to do penance by meditating on the Supreme Consciousness. Brahmä then meditated for another long duration and in time the knowle­dge he sought was revealed to him from within his heart. Inspired by this experience he began his task of creating, for his role is to populate the universe.

            The first created beings learned about the creation and its purpose directly from Lord Brahmä. They were also given the Vedas, which Brahmä had received from Kåñëa. Even then the sons of Brahmä preferred to follow different sections of the Vedas. Broadly speaking the teachings of the Vedas can be divided into two paths, pravåtti märga and nivåtti märga, or the path of regulated sense enjoyment and the path of renunciation. In either case the goal is one: to become free from the miseries of birth, death, old age, and disease.

            As time passed religion and philosophy developed under the heads of different schools, because according to people's  psychophysical nature various means of salvation gained prominence at different times. Just as seeds in the ground sprout under suitable conditions, so differ­ent philoso­phies become popular when the atmosphere is conducive. Traditionally, six systems of philosophy have always existed. Although we have many philosophies in the world at present, when analyzed they are found to be variations of the original six systems. As the saying goes, "History repeats itself", and so we find nothing truly original in the realm of thought. In time old ones get revived and revital­ized under different names by various saints and philoso­phers.

     Five thousand years ago, after Lord Kåñëa's departure for the spiritual world, Çréla Vyäsadeva had a vision of the future of society. He saw a world sunk to the depths of ignorance and spiritual bankruptcy, as we are now experiencing. Feeling concern for the welfare of humanity Vyäsadeva wrote the Vedas, which up to that time had been passed down from guru to disciple by an oral tradition. He especially compiled the Puräëas and Mahäbhärata for the people of the current age.

            Still, even after compiling the many voluminous works of Vedic knowledge, Vyäsa felt something was lacking. While he was in this dejected spirit his spiritual master, Çré Närada Muni, came to him. Närada pointed out that although Vyäsa had done a great labour of compiling the Vedas in written form, he had encouraged people to progress by fruitive activity, speculative knowledge, and mystic yoga. Nowhere had he explained in a dierct manner the glories of pure devotional service unto the Lord. Närada told Vyäsa that if he would give exclusive attention to the unlimited glory of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in an uncompromising manner that would relieve his distress.

            Çréla Vyäsa,  determined to fulfill the order of his spiritual master, sat in a trance of devotion and fully realized the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, along with his multifarious potencies and activities. Based on this direct experience he composed his final literary masterpiece, the Çrémad Bhägavatam. As kävya, or poetic literature, it is a superb accomplishment. As a work of philosophy it is unsurpassed. One finds that all the philosophies and religions systems of the world are reconciled in the eighteen thousand verses of the Bhägavatam. The essence of all Vedic wisdom is in this final composition of Veda Vyäsa, who is the literary incarnation of God. Hence Çrémad Bhägavatam is glorified as the ripen fruit of the tree of Vedic knowledge. To say that knowing it nothing remains to be known is no overstatement. Çrémad Bhägavatam takes the sincere reader beyond mere abstract philosophy to direct realization of the Absolute Truth. Even an illiterate person becomes learned by regularly hearing the Bhägavatam. Hearing the Bhägavatam frees one from all fear, illusion, and lamentation.

            But a good text requires an expert teacher to mine its riches. Knowing this Vyäsa entrusted the Çrémad Bhägavatam to his son, Çukadeva Gosvämé, who had no material attachments and thus no motive to adulterate the pure message of the Bhägavatam under any pretext.Çukadeva mastered the subject matter and became the expert reciter of the glories of Kåñëa, the Absolute Truth. So much so, Vyäsadeva himself was eager to hear Bhägavatam from Çukadeva. Later, when Çukadeva spoke Bhägavatam to Parikñét Mähäräja on the bank of the Ganges, Vyäsa joined the audience. 

            Over a period of some four thousand years the clear message of Çrémad Bhägavatam got distorted as people interpreted it to suit their personal motives. The lamp of Çrémad Bhägavatam became covered with the soot of self-aggrandizement. Appreciation for the true message of the Bhägavatam diminished, although many saintly reformers were able to revive its message of devotional service from time to time. Then about five hundred years ago Lord Çré Kåñëa appeared as Lord Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu, in Navadvipa, West Bengal, India. His mission: to reestablish the glories of the Çrémad Bhägavatam by teaching its very essence.

            Çré Caitanya revealed the significance of Çrémad Bhägavatam as the topmost Vedic litera­ture to His followers. But, except for the eight verses He composed that embody the very essence of His teachings, Lord Caitanya did not fully explain His teachings in written form. That He left to His stalwart followers, the Six Gosvämés of Våndävan. They wrote an untold number of books extolling of the virtues of the Bhagavata philosophy from different angles. (Could we give some rough estimate of how many books they wrote and maybe five or six major titles?)

            Of all their literary works the Bhagavat-sandarbha of Çréla Jéva Gosvämé, popularly known as the Ñaö, or six,  Sandarbhas, is the most systemat­ic and exacting analysis of Çrémad Bhägavatam and therefore a thorough exposition on the Kåñëa consciousness philosophy. Hence these Ñaö-sandarbhas are requisite study for any serious student of the Çrémad Bhägavatam, expecially for those coming in the line of Çréla Jéva Gosvämé. Here the acintyabheda-abheda doctrine of Lord Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu has been served like a six course meal, having the six tastes--sweet, bitter, sour, salty, astringent, and pungent--for the complete intellectual satisfaction and nourishment of the reader. No logical query is left unanswered in the course of explaining the Supreme Lord and the workings of His principle energies, namely His external energy, marginal energy, and internal energy.

            The Sandarbhas also destroy the six enemies of the human being--lust, anger, greed, illusion, envy, and madness. They impell one on the path of bhakti by inspiring him to overcome the six types of obstacles--overeating, over endeavoring for mundane things, unnecessary talking, too rigid or too lax following of rules and regulations, associating with non-devotees, and greed for mundane achievements. Thus one realizes Lord Kåñëa face to face. In this way one attains the fruit of all knowledge and of the six systems of the Vedic philosophy.

            Çrémad Bhägavatam has three basic divisions--sambandha tattva, abhidheya tattva, and prayojana tattva. Sambandha tattva concerns knowledge of the relationship between Kåñëa, the living entity, and Kåñëa's other energies. Abhidheya tattva explains the process of attaining the desired goal. Prayojana tattva explains the ultimate goal. Because the Sandarbhas explain how these three are revealed in Çrémad Bhägavatam, they are called the Bhagavata sandarbha, or the essence of the Bhägavatam. The first four titles--Tattva, Bhagavata, Parämätma, and Kåñëa Sandarbhas--explain sambandha tattva. Bhakti-sandarbha explains abhidheya tattva and Préti Sandarbha, prayojana tattva.

            Çré Tattva-sandarbha has sixty-three anucchedas, or sections. Out of these the first eight verses are invocatory, then sections nine to twenty-eight discuss the Bhagavata epistemology. Section twenty-nine to the end explain prameya, or what is the knowable object of knowledge. The Table of Contents doubles as a more more detailed summary.