A new book! The commentary on the Govinda-bhāṣya of Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa is finally being published
I had previously posted a few parts of the book, but now I’m updating the pages with the final version of the text. You can follow the updates on the home page. I’m posting a few new pages per day.
The first volume of the commentary on the Govinda-bhāṣya of Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, in which I have been working for the past two years, is finally complete.
I had previously posted a few parts of the book, but now I’m updating the pages with the final version of the text. You can follow the updates on the home page. I’m posting a few new pages per day, so that’s a good way to read the whole book.
The link for the book is:
The Vedānta-sūtra is called nyāya-prasthāna because it was written to allow one to understand the absolute truth through logic and argument, and this infallible logic becomes even more apparent in the commentary of Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa. Nowadays, more than ever, we often base our convictions on emotion rather than logic, and this can lead to many misconceptions that are very difficult to extirpate. The profound and delicate arguments presented in the Govinda-bhāṣya can help us rewire our brains in this direction, which can be invaluable in all spheres of life.
This process of logical understanding of the scriptures is also extremely valuable to better understand the books of Srila Prabhupada. There isn’t much in the Govinda-bhāṣya that is not already discussed by Prabhupada in his books, but in the Govinda-bhāṣya, we go through all the passages and arguments of the original Vedas that lead to the conclusions given by Prabhupada in his books. This allows us to not only understand his teachings on a much deeper level, but also to acquire a deeper faith in his books, understanding all the logic and arguments that sustain the conclusions that Prabhupada gives in his purports.
Nowadays, it is common for devotees to read all kinds of books with flawed or biased translations, which often pushes them away from the proper conclusions of the scriptures. One of the goals of this project is exactly to offer proper translations and commentaries, upholding the proper conclusions, upholding the correct conclusions, and this book is an important milestone.
Traditionally, each Vaiṣnava school has its own commentary on the Vedanta-sūtra, where the philosophical conclusions of the particular school are declared. Srila Prabhupada intended to write a commentary on the Vedanta-sūtra based on the Govinda-bhāṣya of Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, seeing it as an important step for the establishment of our movement. He even wrote a preface for this work, where he explained:
“The necessity of presenting the Bhaktivedānta-bhāṣya commentary on Vedānta-sūtra should also be explained herein. My spiritual master, Om Visnupada Paramhamsa Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja, ordered me to present the Gaudiya Vaiṣnava philosophy in English as far as possible, and in this attempt for the English-knowing persons, since 1965 I have been in the western countries with my three books of the First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Then I presented my commentary on the Srimad-Bhagavad-gītā known as The Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, and similarly, I have presented The Teachings of Lord Caitanya. Also, as requested by many of my Western disciples, especially my worthy disciples Sriman Hansadutta Das Adhikari and Janardana Das Adhikari, who are in charge of the Montreal Center, I am trying to present an English commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra as follows.
At the present moment all over the world, there are major portions of godless persons. Generally, people are very attached to the void philosophy presented by Lord Buddha or the impersonal philosophy presented by Sankaracarya. In other words, to be more plain and simple, people are becoming very atheistic.
To say that there is no God, as the atheists declare, is rather bold and simple, but to say that there is a supreme cause that is void, or there is God but He has no form, is more dangerous than the simple declaration that there is no God.
Our society, known as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, has now started the movement for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, and it is very gratifying that the younger generation of the western part of the world, in America, Canada, and Europe, are taking interest in this great movement. We already have branches in almost every important city in the United States and Canada, and we have started centers also in London and Hamburg. We hope that our Kṛṣṇa Consciousness movement will gradually increase, as predicted by Lord Caitanya, who said that His missionary activities, the same as the Kṛṣṇa Consciousness movement, will be preached all over the world, in every village in every country. Taking into consideration the present activities of this movement, it is hoped that the prediction of Lord Caitanya will soon be fulfilled and the people of the world will be very happy, having Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.”
Unfortunately, Śrīla Prabhupāda never went ahead with this work. Soon he started working on the Kṛṣṇa book, the many volumes of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and later the Caitanya Caritāmṛta. In the middle of this flow of publications, the commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra seems to have fallen into the background and never concluded.
This book is a humble attempt to offer a commentary based on the teachings of Prabhupada, as an offering to him. If you consider this work important, you can help by recommending it to interested devotees. The page of the book is: https://www.ccdas.net/p/govinda-bhasya-vol1
There you will find all the pages that are already available. I’m publishing a few new pages per day, and it will continue until the end of the book. At the end, you will also be able to download the PDF of the whole book, as well as get it on Amazon Kindle.
If you haven’t done so, you can subscribe to receive all the updates by e-mail, without even having to go online:
If you would like to contribute to the production of this and other books, you can donate using Buy Me a Coffee, PayPal, Wise, Revolut, or bank transfers. There is a separate page with all the links. This helps me enormously to have time to write instead of doing other things to make a living. Thanks!
These are the topics that are already available. By the time you finish reading these, there will already be a lot more available on the page:
+ Srila Prabhupada explains the Vedānta-sūtra
+ Introduction: The evolution of spiritual understanding
+ The conclusions of the Vedanta-sutra
+ Topic 1: Brahma-jijñāsādhikaraṇam - Inquiry into Brahman
JAY, ALL GLORIES!