The conception of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is called the achintya-bhedabheda-siddhanta: the conclusion of inconceivable difference and nondifference. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught that the achintya-bhedabheda-siddhanta applies to everything, and that everything can be adjusted and harmonised by it. His teaching of achintya-bhedabheda-siddhanta is not a vad, an ism. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did not preach an ism. He preached siddhanta: perfect conclusions that make perfect harmony with everything, perfect conclusions that harmonise all isms.
Before the appearance of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu there were great Acharyas who preached different conceptions. There was Sankar Acharya and his conception of advaitavad [non-dualism], which is also known as mayavad [illusionism]. There was Ramanuja Acharya and his conception of visistadvaitavad [qualified non-dualism]. There was Madhva Acharya and his conception of suddha-dvaitavad [pure dualism]. There was Visnu Swami and his conception of suddhadvaitavad [pure non-dualism]. And there was Nimbarka Acharya and his conception of dvaitadvaitavad [dualism–cum–non-dualism]. There were so many vads, isms.
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu met with followers of all these conceptions, and everywhere He successfully established His conception of achintya-bhedabheda-siddhanta. He met many famous scholars like Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya and Prakasananda Saraswati. He discussed religion with them and gave them Krishna consciousness through His achintya-bhedabheda-siddhanta.
Other than mayavad, all of these conceptions are Vaisnava conceptions, and following them should be considered Vaisnavism. The definition of Vaisnava is Visnur asya Devata iti Vaisnava: one who is a devotee of Visnu is a Vaisnava. All the scriptures say, «All creation comes from Visnu.» Visnu means everyone’s Lord. There may be many different conceptions of Visnu, and many different conceptions of how to worship Him, but everyone who worships Him is a Vaisnava.
The Supreme Lord has many different forms and all of them can be referred to generally as Visnu. You will see a perfect example of this in Srimad Bhagavatam. There it is described that Krishna is the Lord’s original and supreme form and that Visnu is His expansion. There it is also described that Visnu and Krishna are a nondifferent tattva [truth]. Everyone knows that Krishna performed the Rasa-lila. Everyone knows that it was not Visnu, and that only Krishna can perform the divine Pastime of dancing with the gopis all night in Vrndavan. But when Vedavyas described that Pastime, he wrote, «Vikriditam Vraja-vadhubhir idam cha Visnoh: Visnu is playing with the Vraja-gopis in the Rasa-lila.»41 Everyone knows it was really Krishna who performed this Pastime, but Vedavyas used the name Visnu to emphasise that Krishna is nondifferent from Visnu so that no one would conceive of Krishna’s Rasa-lila in a mundane way.
In this way we can understand that God is one, but, according to our capacity, we understand Him deeply, more deeply, and most deeply. Because of this, many different forms and conceptions of God consciousness are taught in this world for different persons. God consciousness is always one, but we see that within different conceptions there are different procedures for practising devotional life and that different forms of the Lord are worshipped. For example, Ramanuja Acharya worshipped Laksmi-Narayan and Madhva Acharya worshipped Bala Krishna.
Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanyadev knew everything, and He taught the procedure to worship Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who has the full range of relationships with the jiva-souls.
aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa-tanayas tad-dhama vrndavanam
ramya kachid upasana vraja-vadhu-vargena va kalpita
srimad-bhagavatam pramanam amalam prema pumartho mahan
sri-chaitanya-mahaprabhor matam idam tatradarah nah parah
Srila Visvanath Chakravarti Thakur, who was a very exalted devotee in the school of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, presented Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s conception in gist form in this verse. His expression is, «Nanda Nandan Krishna of Sri Vrndavan Dham is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the most worshippable form of the Lord, the Vraja-gopis’ worship of Krishna is the supreme form of worship, Srimad Bhagavatam is the supreme scripture, and divine love for Krishna is the supreme goal and wealth of life.»
We can understand Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanyadev’s conception, especially His achintya-bhedabheda-siddhanta, clearly through the writings of Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur.
tad bhinnamsams cha jivan prakrti-kavalitan tad-vimuktams cha bhavat
bhedabheda-prakasam sakalam api hareh sadhanam suddha-bhaktim
Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur explains Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s teaching: everything is a manifestation of the Lord and is inconceivably different and nondifferent from the Lord. The jiva-souls, for example, are different and nondifferent from the Lord. The jiva-souls’ existence is compared to sun-rays which come from the sun, the Lord. The jiva-souls’ existence has almost all the same qualities as the Lord, just as sun-rays have almost all the same qualities as the sun. But just as it is the qualities of the sun that exist within sun-rays, so it is the Lord’s qualities that exist within the jiva-souls.
The Lord is supreme and exists with full power and quality, while the jiva-souls are very tiny and insignificant. In this way we can understand the jiva-souls and the Lord to be achintya-bhedabheda, inconceivably different and nondifferent. This is Mahaprabhu’s conception.
The Lord is all-powerful. He exists with all quality and qualification, and He is never subject to illusion. He is infinite and therefore able to reveal Himself to the finite jiva-souls. When the jiva-souls pray for His mercy, the Lord can reveal Himself to them and give them His ecstatic service. If He could not do this, then He would not be infinite.
The jiva-souls, though they are finite and subject to illusion, can know the Infinite (Krishna), by His will. That is achintya, inconceivable, and that means that the relationship between Krishna and Gurudev is achintya, the relationship between Gurudev and the jiva-soul is achintya, and the jiva-souls’ service to Krishna is also achintya. Yet they all happily exist, by the will of Krishna, which is also achintya.
The jiva-soul is finite and Krishna is infinite. But everyone has heard so many times that Krishna exists within every soul’s heart. This is a firm truth. But how can the Infinite live within the finite’s heart? Only by the Infinite’s will. That is achintya. How exactly it is possible that Krishna exists within the heart of the jiva-soul is achintya. Where exactly He exists there is achintya. How the jiva-souls can do wrong and go off to the illusory environment when He is present in their heart is also achintya. If Krishna exists in everyone’s heart, and Krishna’s power can remove all inauspiciousness, then why are the jiva-souls conditioned in the mundane environment? Why are they attached to the mundane environment? This is also achintya. The jiva-souls are simultaneously very near the Lord and very far from the Lord. Their position is achintya. All of these examples of inconceivable relationships can be harmonised naturally through Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s achintya-bhedabheda-siddhanta.
The jiva-souls are by nature chit, spiritually conscious and knowing. This means that the jiva-souls can by nature experience transcendental reality, that they have the capacity to experience what is achintya. To do so they only need to be free from the influence of illusion and receive the Lord’s grace.
The scriptures describe the jiva-souls’ knowledge in five stages: pratyaksa, paroksa, aparoksa, adhoksaja, and aprakrta. Pratyaksa-jnan means direct knowledge, knowledge based on what is seen and felt by the senses and mind. Paroksa-jnan means indirect knowledge, knowledge that is learned from others based on their experiences with the senses (pratyaksa-jnan). Mundane science, Darwin’s theory of evolution, and so on, come from these two forms of knowledge. The scriptures explain that these are external forms of knowledge; they are like smokey coverings over the fire of the jiva-souls’ pure conscious nature.
Under the influence of illusion the jiva-souls perceive the material environment through their mind and senses, and they also make so many misperceptions of that environment with their mind and senses. They easily mistake smoke for fog, ropes for snakes, and so on. If jiva-souls try to make conclusions about the inconceivable based on their sensory knowledge and mental experience of the mundane world, they will be confused and misled. The pratyaksa and paroksa forms of knowledge are ignorable for jiva-souls who want to experience the inconceivable.
We can also see though that scientific knowledge has a relationship with transcendental knowledge. All jiva-souls are naturally theistic; they are made of chetana, consciousness, and their thinking, feeling, and willing all lead them towards the theistic world. Now, in the scientific age, there is so much research going on. The subject of the scientists’ research is mundane no doubt, but their research is also very successful. We now have radio, television, internet, space travel, and so on.
Significantly, we can see that the scientists have discovered how to communicate through the ether. This shows everyone that it is not unreasonable to try to connect to a transcendental source of knowledge and the transcendental world.
After making so many discoveries Albert Einstein said, «I am searching beyond this material world now.» And Krishna said, «Bahunam janmanam ante jnanavan Mam prapadyate (Bg: 7.19): after a very long time someone who has actual knowledge will surrender to Me.» Many scientists are now concluding that they have been studying so many things in the material world but that now they must expand their search. This means that the searching spirit and the nature of consciousness itself naturally leads scientists (souls) in a theistic direction. It is my hope and expectation that as scientific research progresses the scientists and everyone who follows them will proceed towards the transcendental world as they get clues about connecting with transcendental knowledge. I expect that gradually, by the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the atheistic age will come to an end, and most scientists will become theistic and get Krishna consciousness. I do not think everything will go into the line of atheism.
If someone can believe that transcendental knowledge can descend from the transcendental abode, then we cannot say he is an atheist. I have travelled all over the world, and I have not actually seen an atheist anywhere. In some way everyone respects higher knowledge and higher existence. It is just that their respect is not properly adjusted. This means that everyone has a theistic mentality and respect for theism. Whenever anyone has clean consciousness, faith, and real hankering in their heart, they can easily understand the divine form of existence that is present in the Lord’s transcendental abode, full with love and affection.
In this way we can understand the position of pratyaksa-jnan, direct sensory knowledge, and paroksa-jnan, knowledge from others’ discoveries. Above these types of knowledge is aparoksa-jnan: indistinct knowledge of consciousness. We cannot clearly describe that type of knowledge though, we can connect with it through scriptural advice. Then, from beyond that plane of hazy consciousness comes transcendental knowledge: adhoksaja-jnan. Srila Visvanath Chakravarti Thakur has given a definition of adhoksaja knowledge:
adhah-krtam atikrantam aksajam
indriyajam jnanam yena sah adhoksaja
«Knowledge that exists beyond the reach of our senses — our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, touch, and mind — that can forcibly knock down and cross over our worldly knowledge is adhoksaja knowledge.»
Within adhoksaja knowledge there are stages of revelation, and the highest level is the fifth level of the jiva-souls’ knowledge: aprakrta-jnan. Aprakrta means supramundane. Aprakrta-jnan means divine knowledge that reveals the transcendental form of reality but may appear ordinary. Inspiration to seek this highest, fifth dimension of knowledge is most valuable. Light from that aprakrta plane has been given to the world by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who has shown aprakrta-lila — the divine Pastimes of the Supreme Lord’s supramundane, human-like form — to be the subject and focus of all the scriptures, and the supreme goal of eternal life.
The Vedanta-darsana begins with the command to search for Brahma, «Athato Brahma jijnasa: search for Brahma, search for the Absolute.» This advice is actually for persons who are unqualified, who must be reminded to search within the transcendental plane. But anyone whose consciousness has entered religious ground and the religious platform can play there happily with the meanings of the next sutra, «Janmady asya Yatah: Brahma is the source of everything.» Brahma is adhoksaja. We cannot understand Brahma, the source of everything, with only our mind and senses, but Brahma can be revealed to us, and that revelation can easily overpower our mundane experience.
Srimad Bhagavatam begins with an explanation of this second sutram, an explanation of janmady asya Yatah — Brahma. This means Srimad Bhagavatam begins with an explanation of what descends from the adhoksaja plane of knowledge; it begins from the all-powerful divine platform.
Sankar Acharya’s theory of mayavad [illusionism] is summarily dismissed within the very beginning of Srimad Bhagavatam’s explanation of Brahma:
janmady asya yato ’nvayad itaratas charthesv 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 dhimahi42
Mayavad is dismissed here because Vyasadev concluded this introductory verse with the phrase Satyam Param dhimahi: «I meditate on Brahma, the Supreme Truth, the Supreme Reality.» There cannot be meditation upon something that has no form, so there cannot be meditation on the Supreme if the Supreme has no form.
Sankar Acharya taught that Brahma is nirakar [formless], nirvises [devoid of qualities], and nihsakti [powerless]. He wrongly claims that the Supreme is formless and all forms are illusory. His philosophy, mayavad, is a very bad thing. It is directly offensive to the Supreme Lord and His eternal spiritual form, and is contradictory to the teachings and intentions of Vedavyas. Inside Sankar Acharya’s teachings are many miraculous expressions, but his conclusions lastly lead nearly to nastikavad [atheism].
Sankar Acharya’s philosophy is no doubt very prominent in India. Still today forty per cent of the people in India follow Sankar Acharya. That is so, however, only because it is Krishna’s desire.
muktim dadati karhichit sma na bhakti-yogam43
Krishna is always eager to give liberation to the jiva-souls. If anyone approaches Him through the proper channel He will easily grant them liberation. It is no problem for Him. But for Krishna to give conditioned souls devotion is very heavy for Him. Through devotion Krishna’s heart can be captured, and He can be bound by love and affection to His devotee. Krishna is not foolish, and He does not always want to give everyone devotion. When Krishna wanted to hide the practice of bhakti-yoga from insincere souls, He ordered Lord Siva, «Go and preach mayavad.»
mayavadam asach-chhastram prachchhannam bauddham uchyate
mayaiva vihitam devi kalau brahmana-murtina
Then Lord Siva told Durga Devi, «In the Age of Kali I will take the form of a brahman, Sankar Acharya, and explain the Vedas in an atheistic way similar to Buddhism to cover and hide the Lord’s position.»
In this way Bhagavan Sri Krishna came to preach the theory of mayavad in the Kali-yuga in the form of Sankar Acharya. Sankar Acharya was the only son of his mother, and he decided he wanted to take sannyas when he was an eight-year-old boy. It is a Vedic rule that no one can take sannyas without the permission of his mother. Sankar Acharya tried in several ways to get permission from his mother, but she would not give it to him.
As an incarnation of Lord Siva, Sankar Acharya could perform miracles. One day he went with his mother to the river to bathe and performed a miracle so that he could receive her permission to take sannyas. While he was bathing in the river he arranged for a crocodile to suddenly grab him. Then he cried, «Save my life!» He called to his mother, «O Mother! Give me permission to take sannyas. This crocodile is eating me and before I die I want to take sannyas. Please give me permission now.»
His mother gave her permission at that time. What could she do? She said, «I give you my permission to take sannyas.» Then immediately the crocodile left Sankar Acharya alone. Sankar Acharya came out of the water, paid his dandavat pranam to his mother, and left to take sannyas. Sankar Acharya had this sort of miraculous character, and with this type of capacity he preached his philosophy of mayavad.
We can understand how Sankar Acharya preached his philosophy of mayavad and how it was defeated by the devotees of the Lord through a story about Ramanuja Acharya. I am very much attracted to the philosophy of Ramanuja Acharya because Mahaprabhu has shown the glory of his teachings. There are many very sweet stories from the Sri sampradaya. Anyhow, once when Ramanuja was a twelve-year-old boy he defeated his Sanskrit guru, Yadava Prakas. In the Chhandogya-upanisad there is a beautiful explanation of Brahma which describes how Brahma’s eyes are sweet, beautiful, and attractive:
yatha kapyasam pundarikam evam aksini
Sankar Acharya said that this verse means that Brahma has no eyes, that Brahma is nirakar and nirvises, devoid of form and qualities. That is Sankar Acharya’s description of Brahma. Ramanuja Acharya explained this verse of Chhandogya-upanisad to mean that Brahma’s eyes, meaning Bhagavan’s eyes, the personal Lord’s eyes, are like beautiful lotus petals. He explained that it means that Bhagavan’s big eyes have a little light blue and reddish colour around them, and they are very palatable looking.
In his commentary, Sankar Acharya said, «Kapi asam — kapyasam.» Kapi means monkey. Maybe you have seen at the Jagannath Temple in Puri Dham there are monkeys whose back part is a little reddish. This was Sankar Acharya’s explanation: «Bhagavan’s eyes are like the reddish back part of a monkey’s body.» I have read this explanation in Sankar Acharya’s commentary. Sankar Acharya is not foolish. It is only the divine will of Lord Krishna that Sankar Acharya gave this explanation.
When the twelve-year-old boy Ramanuja heard this explanation from Yadava Prakas he began to cry. His guru asked him, «Why are you crying?»
Ramanuja replied, «It is impossible! Bhagavan’s eyes are not like a monkey’s reddish back part! How could any gentleman make this sort of comparison? I cannot understand!»
Yadava Prakas asked him, «Can you explain something more than Sankar Acharya?»
We must not forget Ramanuja was only a twelve-year-old boy at this time. He replied, «Yes, I can. The word kapi means monkey, but kapi also means padma [lotus]. The definition of kapi is kam pibati kapi, that is, kapi means something that drinks. So kapi means the nala [stem] of a lotus flower. Thus kapyasam means that which lives on top (asam) of a drinking stem (kapi); it means a lotus flower. The whole verse yatha kapyasam pundarikam evam aksini means that Bhagavan’s eyes are lotus eyes. Everyone knows this! Everyone knows Bhagavan’s eyes are like lotuses. Why did Sankar Acharya miss this point?»
Hearing young Ramanuja’s explanation, Yadava Prakas was surprised, «I cannot tolerate this boy, I shall kill him!» He tried to also, but lastly Laksmi-Narayan saved Ramanuja, and Yadava Prakas became his disciple. This type of story is found in Ramanuja Acharya’s sampradaya. Of the four Vaisnava sampradayas — the Sri, Brahma, Rudra, and Sanaka sampradayas — we see that the Sri sampradaya has the most exemplary devotional activity.
In this way we can understand that Brahma really means Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But what is the actual definition of Brahma?
yasya prabha prabhavato jagad-anda-koti-
kotisv asesa-vasudhadi vibhuti-bhinnam
tad brahma niskalam anantam asesa-bhutam
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami44
Brahma, or Brahmaloka, is the plane of divine light beyond all the material universes which is described by the Upanisads. Many jnanis and yogis may study or meditate on this impersonal form of Brahma, considering it the highest destination, but that aspect of Brahma is actually an external form of Krishna which emanates from His divine personal form.
vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvam yaj jnanam advayam
brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavan iti sabdyate
In Srimad Bhagavatam Vyasadev explains that all the rsis and munis have taught that the highest conception and destination in spiritual life is beyond Brahma, the nondifferentiated Absolute, and beyond Paramatma, the Supreme Soul. They have taught that the highest conception is Bhagavan. Only in the Bhagavan conception — the Sweet Absolute, Sri Krishna — is there full-fledged theism. Krishna is really Brahma’s svarup, Brahma’s original form.
Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami gave us a very clean and clear example to understand this:
brahma — anga-kanti tara, nirvisesa prakase
surya yena charma-chakse jyotirmaya bhase
When we look at the sun in the sky, we see it as a gloriously illumined ball though we know that inside the sun there is an environment and life and many things playing in different ways. Our vision of Brahma is like that. We see it from very far away, and we do not see directly what it is. It is actually beyond our capacity to understand directly. It is adhoksaja [imperceptible]. We may be able to think of it at first by thinking of a light or energy not found in this world; but inside that, what we may think of as the light of Brahmaloka, is Vaikunthaloka, the variegated spiritual world.
jyotir-abhyantare rupam atulam syama-sundaram
If you enter into the glow of Brahmaloka, you will see it is actually the effulgence of Krishnaloka, and inside Krishna’s eternal abode you will find the beautiful, blackish form of Syamasundar, Reality the Beautiful, Krishna, eternally engaged in His sweet play. That is full-fledged theism.
In Sankar Acharya’s conception there is no Reality the Beautiful, no emporium of all rasa, no Supreme Personality of Godhead. In Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s conception Sankar’s nirakar nirvises Brahma is the divine effulgence of the playground of the Lord — Reality the Beautiful, Krishna.
To consider Brahma to be nothing more than nirvises and nirakar, impersonal and formless, is to be avoided because it is not possible. All of creation, both transcendental and mundane, has form, and all jiva-souls have form. But the Creator Himself cannot have a form? It is unthinkable. How can the Creator of everything, the Creator of all forms and qualities, have no form and qualities? The Creator cannot be less than His creation. He can never be zero. Whatever is present within us must be present in our source. We can never think that the divine source of all things is powerless and has no personality. After the Lord has created me I, will deny Him? He has given me a form, consciousness, realisation, and so on. He has given me so many things, and with them I will deny Him? It is nonsense thinking.
Within the material creation everything generally moves in a systematic way. The planets orbit around the sun and so on. How can the Creator be powerless or foolish? It sometimes may be difficult for some persons to see that everything is moving nicely under the Lord’s control. Sometimes it may seem to some that everything is happening in a wrong way. But whether everything seems to be moving rightly or wrongly, the Creator cannot be considered powerless.
Vedavyas said, «Raso vai Sah.» Sah means ‘He’. Brahma is ‘He’, who is the Creator of all, the cause of all causes, who has His own existence, who is fully complete, who is Reality in its fullest form, and who is for Himself and by Himself as Reality the Beautiful.45 This expression of Vedavyas also summarily dismisses Sankar Acharya’s nirvisesvad. If Brahma is ‘He’ then Brahma cannot be nirakar, nirvises, and nihsakti. He must have form, qualities, and power.
We read everywhere that the Lord has eternal form, qualities, and power. He does not have a material form. He does not have a form like the forms we see in this world. He has a transcendental form. In Islam they do not explain this entirely, but they always pray, «By your mercy Allah, by your mercy Allah.» If the Lord does not have form and power, how can He bestow mercy? The Muslims also say that after death everyone will be judged by the Lord. If the Lord has no potency and personality, how can He judge everyone? In Christianity there are many descriptions of heaven. The Lord Himself, His form, His qualities, and so on are not directly described, but if He is said to be eternally playing in heaven, then He must have a transcendental form and qualities.
The transcendental, eternal form of the Lord is aprakrta, supramundane, and is supremely worshippable. But it is no doubt difficult to believe that the Lord’s supreme form is that of a young boy named Krishna, whom we can play with and feel joyful by serving.
Srutim apare smrtim itare bharatam anye bhajantu bhava-bhitah
aham iha nandam vande yasyalinde param brahma
Who will actually believe that the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna plays in the courtyard of His father Nanda Maharaj? So many rsis have done so much research and finally given us this knowledge. They have no intention to cheat us. Vyasadev has given us this knowledge, this finest consciousness, and he has no intention to cheat us. Whether we believe it or not, it is true. It may be difficult for us to conceive, but still it is true, and when we become established in that truth we will feel complete joy and ecstasy.
Krishna’s eternal abode and His existence within that abode are no doubt inconceivable for the conditioned souls. How it is that the Lord has unlimited eternal forms — like Nrsimhadev, Vamandev, Ramachandra, and Krishna — is achintya [inconceivable]. How it is that They all exist in an eternal, fully conscious way, full with Their own spiritual property within Their own infinite abodes is also achintya. How They all exist at once within Paravyoma Dham, the spiritual world, is also achintya. How Krishna sometimes takes the form of Vasudev, sometimes takes the form of Sankarsan, and sometimes takes the forms of Pradyumna and Aniruddha is achintya. How Krishna sometimes shows His prabhava-vilas and vaibhava-vilas forms in His different abodes — Dvaraka, Mathura, and Vrndavan — is achintya. How Krishna can expand His power like a candle that lights thousands of other candles, and how all the candles can shine with His same supreme power, is achintya. Anor aniyan mahato mahiyan: how Krishna can be smaller than the smallest and greater than the greatest at the same time is achintya. How Krishna is always fully present within all of His infinite manifestations simultaneously — all of these things are achintya.
Achintya means that which is beyond our capacity to think or understand.
achintyah khalu ye bhava na tams tarkena yojayet
prakrtibhyah param yach cha tad achintyasya laksanam46
Srila Guru Maharaj used to say that our mundane brains are like puppy brains: they cannot conceive of the transcendental reality. Prakrtibhyah param, everything we can think, see, and do is all powerless in trying to realise what is achintya, inconceivable. But when the scriptures describe something as inconceivable (achintya) and imperceptible (adhoksaja) it does not mean that it does not exist; it means it is happily existing beyond this universe in the transcendental realm that can be revealed to us.
chintamani-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vrksa-
laksavrtesu surabhir abhipalayantam
laksmi-sahasra-sata-sambhrama-sevyamanam
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami47
How can we conceive of Krishna’s divine abode? How can we conceive that every woman there is like Laksmi Devi and that all wealth is existing within each of them? How can we conceive that Krishna is their only Enjoyer and everything there exists for Krishna’s enjoyment? How can we conceive that there we can ask a wish-fulfilling tree for a ripe mango that has no skin or seed? It is all achintya, but also, very happily existing.
Everything that exists in the transcendental world exists within consciousness. The divine play of Krishna’s aprakrta-lila can be felt in the hearts of the jiva-souls through revelation. Srila Guru Maharaj would say, «Everything exists within consciousness; everything exists within bhava.»
Bhava means mood and internal feeling. It is through bhava that Krishna’s Pastimes happily flow. Krishna’s asura-nidan-lilas [Pastimes of killing demons] exist within bhava, and the Pastimes of viraha [separation from Krishna] also exist within bhava. How can we conceive that time does not move in Krishna’s abode? That there is no past or future there, only the eternal present? How can we conceive that there every day is Krishna’s birthday, and every day is Krishna’s play day? It is all achintya.
There, whatever is present within a devotee’s bhava immediately happens in front of them. When Mother Yasomati thinks, «Oh! Krishna has gone to Mathura!», she faints and cries. But when she wakes up and sees Krishna playing His flute and asking her, «O Mother, give me some butter and sweets», she makes these for Him, Krishna eats them, and her mood changes. This is Krishna’s spiritual abode. That all jiva-souls have a service-place there, that all the conditioned souls can go to that plane and engage in service there, is achintya, and miraculous.
In the material world the jiva-souls suffer through death and birth, happiness and sadness, and so many things. They cannot cross the natural laws. But if they have a little sincere interest in the fifth dimension, in the aprakrta plane of transcendental service, they can easily be rescued from the material world. They can attain liberation and become a member of the holiest place within Vaikunthaloka: Goloka Vrndavan,where fully auspicious happiness exists eternally.
muktir hitvanyatha rupam sva-rupena vyavasthitih
Real liberation means not only becoming free from the illusory environment and the whole of mundanity, but living in the transcendental service plane as the Lord’s eternal servitor.
In the scriptures five kinds of liberation are described: sarupya, salokya, samipya, sarsti, and sayujya. When the jiva-souls practise bhakti-yoga, they can attain the first four forms of mukti for the Lord’s service. Sarupya-mukti means attaining a form like that of the Lord, salokya-mukti means attaining a place in the Lord’s abode, samipya-mukti means attaining direct association with the Lord, and sarsti-mukti means attaining opulence like that of the Lord. The last form of mukti, sayujya-mukti, is bad. Sayujya-mukti means merging into the fire of the Lord’s effulgence. This type of liberation is the goal of the mayavadis who follow Sankar Acharya’s theory.
Sankar Acharya’s theory of sayujya-mukti is nothing more than the idea of a black hole. If anything enters a black hole it disappears and will never return. In his theory of mukti, Sankar Acharya said that jnan, jneya, and jnata — knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the knower — are all demolished and disappear.
His theory is called jnana-mukti. Non-devotional scholars explain that jnana-mukti is like the meeting point of three lines. They say that jnan, jneya, and jnata — knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the knower — are like three different lines that merge at one point and that point is liberation. Real mukti, however, is the extension of those lines into the transcendental service world.
muktir hitvanyatha rupam sva-rupena vyavasthitih
Real mukti is the extension of the jiva-souls’ thinking, feeling, and willing — the extension of their knowledge, their environment, and themselves — into their transcendental forms for the service of the Lord. Anyatha rupam means that the jiva-souls’ thinking, feeling, and willing all merge in one point, mukti, and after that they are extended onto the spiritual platform.
All jiva-souls are naturally thinking, feeling, and willing, so love and affection automatically come to them for their Lord when they leave the darkness of maya and enter the light of the transcendental world. Leaving the darkness of illusion and entering into the light of Krishna consciousness is the actual meaning of mukti.
In this way we can understand the conception of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His teaching of the achintya-bhedabheda-siddhanta.
tad bhinnamsams cha jivan prakrti-kavalitan tad-vimuktams cha bhavat
bhedabheda-prakasam sakalam api hareh sadhanam suddha-bhaktim
When the jiva-souls are prakrti-kavalitan, covered by illusory matter, they live apart from the Lord. And when the jiva-souls are vimuktams cha bhavat, liberated through their devotional mood — the improvement of their consciousness (bhava) — they play within the Lord’s divine abode. By the Lord’s will the transcendental environment and the illusory environment exist side by side as His manifestations, and the jiva-souls live within these environments. Only a very few jiva-souls temporarily exist within the illusory environment, and gradually all jiva-souls come to exist within the transcendental environment of divine attraction to the Lord. In this way we can see everything in perfect harmony as an achintya-bhedabheda-prakas, an inconceivably different and nondifferent manifestation of the Supreme Lord.
vikriditam vraja-vadhubhir idam cha visnoh
sraddhanvito ’nusrnuyad atha varnayed yah
bhaktim param bhagavati pratilabhya kamam
hrd-rogam asv apahinoty achirena dhirah
«A sober soul who faithfully hears about and then describes Visnu’s play with the Vraja-gopis quickly attains supreme devotion to the Lord and soon leaves behind his heart disease of material desire.»
42 «We meditate on the Supreme Truth, who is eternally self-existent beyond illusion, autonomous, and directly and indirectly aware of everything. He creates, maintains, and destroys this world. He revealed the Absolute to Brahma through the heart and bewilders the demigods. In Him the three creations (the modes of goodness, passion, and ignorance) exist like transformations of light, water, and earth.»
rajan patir gurur alam bhavatam yadunam
daivam priyah kula-patih kva cha kinkaro vah
astv evam anga bhagavan bhajatam mukundo
muktim dadati karhichit sma na bhakti-yogam
[Sukadev Goswami says to Maharaj Pariksit:] «O King, Lord Mukunda is the maintainer, teacher, worshippable friend, and patriarch of you and the Yadus; sometimes He is even your servant. He gives liberation to those who serve Him, but He never gives them loving devotion (like He has given you, who do not desire liberation or enjoyment).»
44 «I serve Govinda, the original Lord, whose illustrious bodily effulgence is the origin of the indivisible, inconceivable, and unlimited Brahma, within which innumerable universes filled with unlimit-edly variegated creations and opulences exist.
asad va idam agra asit tato vai sad
ajayata tad atmanam svayam akuruta
tasmat tat sukrtam uchyate iti
yad vai tat sukrtam raso vai sah
rasam hy evayam
labdhvanandi bhavati
ko hy evanyat kah pranyat
yad esa akasa anando na
syat esa hy evanandayati
«At first, this world was unmanifest. It manifested from Brahma, He who created Himself and is thus known as perfection (‘self-made’). He who is perfect is rasa. Only by attaining rasa (Him) does the soul become joyful. If He, Joy, the Supreme, did not exist, who would live, who would breathe? He alone gives joy to everyone.»
46 «That which is beyond material nature is inconceivable. Do not try to understand it intellectually.»
47 «I serve Govinda, the original Lord, who is lovingly served by hundreds of thousands of goddesses and tends His bountiful cows in His abodes made of spiritual gemstone, which are covered by millions of wish-fulfilling trees.»