Bhagavad-gita 2.1 and Jiva-daya

Purusottama-masa - the Vedic "leap-month" that appears once every three lunar calendar years to realign the lunar and solar calendars. A time of increased spiritual focus.

Bhagavad-gita 2.1

Sanjaya said: Seeing Arjuna full of compassion, his mind depressed, his eyes full of tears, Madhusudana, Krishna, spoke the following words.

- Bhagavad-gita 2.1

The Vedic culture is not only the source of the Swastika and the actual "Aryan Race", they are also the original grammar Nazis.

In this verse we find what may superficially appear as a fault. If you cast your mind back to the encounter between Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Kesava Kasmiri, you may recall that the Lord identified the Sanskrit grammatical fault of punar-atta in Kasmiri's poetry. Punar-atta, meaning something like "having again", is the fault of redundancy - of unnecessary repetition.

In the case of the first verse of the second chapter of Bhagavad-gita, the redundancy is there in both the original Sanskrit and Srila Prabhupada's English translation: idam vakyam uvaca madhusudhana - "Krishna spoke the following words".

Well, what else would have done with the words? Eaten them? It would have been sufficient to say: "He said:", even "He said the following"; but "He spoke the following words"?

Each of the verses in the Gita conforms to a particular meter, and a particular rhyming structure. It's poetry, more it's a song (gita). Maybe the author had to stretch the line out to make the verse fit? However, at the same time that it is song, it is sutra - a word that means thread. The words of the text are like beads strung on a thread. From looking at the beads, you can determine the underlying thread. You don't need beads stacked back to back, just enough to be able to connect the dots. It's Vedic file compression. Punar-atta, redundant repetition, is a major style failure.

So what to make of it? "He spoke the following words".

The significance of this repetition is that His words have multiple layers of meaning. That is the meaning that is encoded within this construct.

I'm not sure who it was who came to this conclusion after pondering this verse, but this was my meditation this morning at the temple as I woke the Deities.

While doing the arati, Tirtharaj prabhu, the Temple President was singing the kirtan, and he sung the song "Hari Haraye Namah Krishna". When he got to the line "Sri Jiva Gopala Bhatta Dasa Raghunatha" I was just at the Six Goswamis on the altar, and the following, related story came to mind.

Once a scholarly devotee came to visit Rupa Goswami in Vrndavan. At that time Rupa Goswami was working on his book Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu ("the ocean of nectar of devotional mellows"). Rupa showed him what he was writing, and asked him what he thought. The visitor replied: "Your writing is very good, but I am unsettled by what you are saying. Here you have written that karma and jñana are like demons that must be exorcised from the heart. However, Vedic scriptures teach about karma (action) and jñana (knowledge), so it seems that your writing contains the fault of sruti-sastra-nindanam 'blasphemy of Vedic literature'."

Rupa Goswami replied, "very well, your judgement is sound and I will take out this part". His visitor then took his leave to take noon bath in the nearby river. When he did so, he was approached by Rupa's young nephew Jiva, who had been listening earlier. "Excuse me," said Jiva, "but I could not help overhearing your conversation. You did not correctl interpret what was being expressed in my uncle's statement. What he wrote was that the desire for karma and jñana is unwanted, and must be exorcised from the heart. The Vedic literature does not encourage people to get into these things, but rather shows them how to do them in a way that helps them disentangle themselves and purify their hearts of the desires that impel them into them in the first place. My uncle's statement is not a blasphemy of Vedic literature, but rather points to the heart of it, and encourages his reader to give up attraction to the distracting superficialities of this world and to dive deep into the heart of reality."

"Oh, you are quite right," responded the visitor. "Your explanation has made it very clear." He returned to the house and told Rupa: "please do not remove that statement from your book - your nephew explained it to me and now I understand the subtle distinction and deep point that you are making."

Later, when the visitor had left, Rupa Goswami chastised Jiva, telling him: "You are simply proud of your learning and sharp intellect and are puffed up. If I had acquiesced to the brahmana's wish, where does it put you to then reverse that? There is no room here for this proud intellectualism! There is no place for it at all!"

Crestfallen, Jiva left Vrndavan for parts unknown. Rupa was upset at Jiva, and upset at himself, but he was steadfast in his determination that the boy should not be spoilt, and that chastising was a necessary duty.

Some time later, while continuing work on his book, Rupa inquired from his elder brother Sanatana: "What would you say is the highest religious duty?"

Sanatana replied: "Jiva-daya"

This means both "to be merciful to the living entities", and "to be merciful to Jiva". Rupa Goswami took the point, and gladly went with his brother Sanatana to retrieve their nephew Jiva from where he had ended up. They found him after some time in a cave where he had been crying for the days since Rupa had chastised him and sent him away from Vrndavana. Nearby villagers took them to the place where the mysterious renunciant had been seen and heard to be.

Is there a point to this? There are a lot, no doubt; but simply to remember these things is purifying in so many ways. Three stories of grammatical errors, or apparent errors: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Kesava Kashmiri, Bhagavad-gita, and Rupa and Jiva Goswamis.

Purusottama-masa ki jay!