Gau*$ya-matam

Theory of ‘Acintya-bheda-abheda-tatvam’:  Out of several schools of Ved§nta, for example, <uddh§dvaita, vi<i>+§dvaita etc.,  Gau*$ya-matam makes one more school in this line.  This school was propagated by Lord |r$ Caitanya Mah§prabhu of Nadiya (West Bengal).  Today it has got the international name as ISKCON.    

This school puts its thoughts as:  ‘Acintya-bheda-abheda-tatvam’— It means that ‘there is oneness and also difference between personal self and the Supreme Self and both (oneness and difference) of these are beyond human comprehension’.  These difference and oneness are not (fully) comprehensible to human intelligence.    

The Absolute Lord is one.   Yet His expansions are limitlessly multi-dimensional.  Thus, Lord is the Super Soul.  When a man sees anything, he must know that his seeing is secondary and the Lord’s seeing is primary.  One cannot see anything without the Lord seeing it at first. That is the instruction of the Vedas and the Upani>ads.  So, whatever we see or do, the Super Soul of all acts of seeing or doing is the Lord.  This theory of simultaneous oneness and difference between the individual soul and the Super Soul is propounded by Lord |r$ Caitanya Mah§prabhu as the philosophy of acintya-bhed§bheda-tattva.  Vir§+-r%pa, or the gigantic expanse of the Supreme Lord, includes everything materially manifested.  Therefore, vir§+ or gigantic feature of the Lord is the Super Soul of all living and non-living entities.  But vir§+-r%pa is also the manifestation of N§r§ya;a (lit. ‘nara’ - human beings, ‘§yana’ - permeating to) or Vi>;u.  

This school states that one should unhesitatingly become a worshiper of Lord K&>;a, or, for that matter, His plenary expansion N§r§ya;a.  In the Vedic hymns, it is clearly said that first of all N§r§ya;a cast a glance over matter and thus there was creation.  Before creation, there was neither Brahm§ nor |iva, and what to speak of others.  

{c§rya |a°kar§c§rya too accepted that N§r§ya;a is beyond the material creation and that all others are within the material creation.  Entire material creation, therefore, is one with and different from N§r§ya;a, simultaneously, and this supports the concept of  acintya-bhed§bheda-tattva of Lord |r$ Caitanya Mah§prabhu.

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