SRI BRAHMA-SAMHITA

It is no secret that prior to its discovery by Sri Gaurasundar, Sri Brahma-samhita was not propagated in India as was the Great Literature previously expounded in the forest of Naimisa—the Transcendental Treatise Srimad-Bhagavatam. The word Brahma (or Brahman) means the Vedas and the Substantial Reality established by the Vedas; and the Substantial Reality established by the Vedas is Purusottama, the Ultimate Predominant or Male Personality. Any philosophy that ignores the Ultimate Personality while adopting the term apauruseya, meaning 'divine,' 'supramundane' or 'superhuman' in order to disprove mundane conceptualization, must need fall within the category of peripheral doctrines or religions.

Beyond even any consideration of mundanity, the Teachings of Devotion for the Supreme Reality—the Supreme Personality of Godhead—that were revealed within the heart of four-headed Brahma from the Supramental Anthologies (Vedas), have been described in the one hundred chapters that form the Treatise Brahma-samhita. As this fifth chapter is supremely beneficial for the soul it has come to hold the Most Worshippable position for the Gaudiya Vaisnavas or faithful devotees in the line of Sri Chaitanyadev. In this respect it is noteworthy that in the Philosophy of the Divine Succession stemming from Lord Brahma, by the Grace of the Supreme Lord, the Substantial or Axiomatic Truth has been revealed within the fundamental four slokas (catuh-sloki) of Srimad-Bhagavatam.

There is no question of the Supreme Personality or Predominator, Purusottama, being of the same category of any other persons or predominators (males or purusas) of this mundane world. They are clearly distinct from one another in that the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna is in all respects the Absolute Lord or Predominator of the female or predominated factor (prakrti), while the living being or jiva is tightly shackled by the predominated factor in the shape of material nature, and only through his identification with the mundane plane must he refer to the revelation of the Supreme Lord as 'supramundane.' Sri Dhama, mentioned in the first sloka† of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, has no association with the affairs of the mundane world. The meaning of the word dhama is 'refuge' and 'light.' Nothing is visible without the help of light. The basis of the light which is to be worshipped and seen within revelation has been established to be of the nature of a person. Beyond the mutable, conditional relativity found within the mundane conception of 'personality,' the eternality of the Personal Mainstay of light itself is situated in the Divine Realm.

† janmady asya yato 'nvayad itaratas carthesv abhijnah svarat
tene brahma hrda ya adi-kavaye muhyanti yat surayah
tejo-vari-mrdam yatha vinimayo yatra tri-sargo 'mrsa
dhamna svena sada nirasta-kuhakam satyam param dhimahi

"This world's creation, sustenance and annihilation is effected by the positive and negative assertion of the Supreme Lord; in His Supremacy He is the Omniscient, Perfect Perception is axiomatic in Him, and He incites the inspiration in the intellect of the primeval poet Lord Brahma in order to reveal the Substantial Reality within his heart; all the gods headed by Indra are bewildered in trying to comprehend Him; as in a mirage, by interaction the mutual exchange of the qualities of fire, water and earth create the appearance of another truth, similarly, the existence of the mundane qualities of sattva, rajah and tamah or illumination, flux and inertia, appears as factual truth in Him although in actuality He is the One within whom mundanity is impossible; deception can never exist within Him. We meditate upon that Supreme Lord, whose very Nature is the Embodiment of Truth. [We worship that Supreme Truth's Own Self, the Lord of Gokula-Vraja-Dhama, Sri Krishna, by practising our heart's remembrance of His Divine Name, chanting His Glories and always absorbing our thoughts in His Form, Qualities and Pastimes.]"

The viewpoint of nondifferentiation, where the seer and seen are ultimately considered to be one, is ruled by the incomplete, unwholesome measure of the mundane kingdom. Maya-sakti, or the mundane charming-cum-deluding potency, has not the power to restrict the Infinity of her Lord of immeasurable Potency, Mahesvara (Visnu). In describing the Worshippable Object of the fifth chapter of this book, the fallacious and mundanely fabricated philosophy of non-differentiation has been disproved.

The purport traced in Brahma-samhita is most favourable in saving us from the mundane view's ascription of vulgarity to the creative conception when elucidated in terms of efficient or material and instrumental causes. This Book is utterly devoid of the lowly connotations that would titillate the poor minds of those obsessed with vulgarity. Rather, we must know that the aim of this Holy Text is to provide new strength and relief to those sapped of their vital energy through their perverse tendencies.

By the mercy of Perfect Philosophy (sudarsana), a study of the five concluding slokas of the Book will afford us our eternal wisdom, being intended to meticulously teach us the genuine revelation of the Supreme Element of Godhead while elucidating how that Element is observed distortedly through emphasis on the alternative fourfold doctrines (of dharmma, artha, kama and moksa—religiosity, material gain, material desire and liberation), bringing about the doctrine of fivefold worship (pancopasana). With the advent of such eternal wisdom in the heart, one may no longer harbour animosity toward the Holy Abode, Sri Dhama, and the need for asserting oneself by preaching the doctrine of nondifferentiation will no longer be felt.

It is through good fortune that one may experience, beyond the planes of Devi-dhama and Mahesa-dhama, the Transcendental variegatedness of the Divine Realm that is the Lord's Personal Abode—the Plane where deception cannot stand. Without depending on the deceit inherent to the conditional plane, in the consideration of Eternal Joy in God's Transcendence we shall find His Realm to be the Affairs of the Transcendental. So the Treatise that describes all these Transcendental subject matters is known as Apauruseya-samhita. It is possible for persons of impure heart to be relieved of mundane enjoyment by the power of practising devotional life (sadhana-bhakti). Persons absorbed in mundane enjoyment or exploitation are unable to take refuge in Devotion or Bhakti. They are ever afflicted, being tied to the stake of their mundane deeds (karmma). They cannot be relieved of the obsession for mundane lust by any other method than singing the Glories of Kamadeva, the Transcendental Lord of all Desires. But an adverse fruit will come to those who consider Kamadeva in the same category as their illicit lust. When we attain the Mercy of the Supreme Lord by faithfully following the four-headed Lord Brahma, and when we become fit recipients of the Supreme Lord's Grace as a result of singing with a pure heart the Divine Songs of His unending Glories, at that moment we shall know the genuine fruition of our reading, recitation or singing of Brahma-samhita.

Then we shall be able to know that in the highest Plane of Divine Service (Seva) to the Factual Supreme Godhead is found Reality the Beautiful Sri Radha-Govinda in the Selfsame Form of Sri Gaura. The lower hemisphere of the Divine Abode Goloka is the Plane of two and a half of the total five Divine Serving Dispositions (Rasas). Situated below that is the Abode called Mahesa-dhama and below Mahesa-dhama is the material world of fourteen planes called Devi-dhama. The worldly desires of the residents of Devi-dhama who wander throughout the universe are withdrawn in Mahesa-dhama. But Mahesa-dhama's conception of desirelessness is illuminated by the purifying agent of Service. That purifying agent in the Form of this Brahma-samhita has revealed the Acme of Nectarine Love for Sri Radha-Govinda by elucidating the fifth aim of human life; and the gatherer of that Nectar, Sri Gaurasundar, the Beautiful Golden Lord, has distributed it to the souls in this world, showing us His Nature of Supreme Magnanimity and His Pastimes of bestowing the most precious Gift of Divine Love for Krishna.

—Sri Siddhanta Saraswati

• For Reader's Appreciation
• Feelings of Appreciation
• Prologue
• Translator's Note
• Illumination
• Sri Sri Brahma-samhita
• Verse Contents