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A thorough analysis of the process of bhakti
Bhakti Sandarbha is the fifth book of the Six Sandarbhas. It offers a thorough analysis of bhakti, or devotion, on the basis of Srimad Bhagavata. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī states that the Bhagavata prescribes bhakti as the most efficacious and universal process, abhidheya, for realizing the Absolute. Bhakti has never been established as abhidheya so systematically and emphatically as in this book. Earlier bhakti was generally considered as one among various spiritual processes, including karma yoga, jnana yoga and astanga yoga. Moreover, it was usually regarded as a precursor to jnana yoga, which ultimately leads to liberation. Rarely was bhakti viewed as an independent process. In contrast to this, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī asserts that bhakti is the complete abhidheya, and as such all other processes become futile when bereft of devotion. Other practices have enduring significance only through contact with devotion. Even realization of Brahman is possible only by the grace of bhakti. Bhakti is the most blissful process both in practice and in perfection. This publication contains three volumes.
Author: Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī
Translator / Commentator: Satyanarayana Dasa Satyanarayana Dasa, born in 1954, was drawn to the spiritual traditions of his home country India since his childhood. After receiving a postgraduate degree in 1978 from IIT Delhi and working in the United States for four years, he returned to India. There he studied the formal systems of Indian philosophy known as Ṣaḍ-darśana under the direct guidance of his guru Śrī Haridāsa Śāstrī Mahārāja and Swami Syama Saraṇa Maharaja.
This education was taken up in the traditional manner for more than 25 years, while he dedicated himself as a practitioner of bhakti yoga. In 1991 he accepted the traditional Vaiṣṇava order of renounced life, bābājī-veṣa. His main focus has been with the works of Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, particularly on translating the Ṣaṭ Sandarbhas, into English and commenting on them. He also earned four śāstric degrees, and received both a law degree and a PhD in Sanskrit from Agra University.
Satyanarayana Dasa is the director of the Jiva Institute of Vaishnava Studies in Vrindavan, India. He is a visiting professor at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. In 2013 he was honored by the president of India, Pranab Mukherjee, for his extraordinary contribution in presenting Vedic culture and philosophy, both nationally and internationally.
