What does achintya in achintyabhedabheda refer to?
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Transcript
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So, when I said that in paradoxes there is a reconciliation of contradictory statements, but in the achintya bheda bhed, there is bhed and abhed. So, if we say it is achintya, then what does achintya refer to? It refers to the lord’s activities and his reasons.
Yes, that also, see basically the conditioned mind is uncomfortable with complexity. If we want things simple and especially contradiction is a very high level of complexity. And we just don’t want to, we want to get rid of contradiction.
Now, Jiva Goswami, the specific word achintya bhedabhed, this term was coined by Jiva Goswami. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself did not refer to his teachings by a particular name. Now, Jiva Goswami’s point is that there are scriptural statements which say God has a form.
There are scriptural statements which say that Brahma is formless. So, these both statements are there or for that matter that we are parts of God. In a sense, we are godly.
We are connected with God, we are separate from God. There are statements like that. So, basically there are tattvatraya.
There is jiva, jagat and jagdish. Jiva is soul, consciousness. Jagat is matter, the world around us.
Jagdish is the lord. So, now the relationship between them, there can be bhed and there can be abhed. That jagdish and jiva are different, jagdish and jiva are one.
Jagdish and jagat is different, jagdish and jiva is one. So, now is it bhed or is it abhed? Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says that at one level there is bhed. Because this world is here, God is there.
But then God pervades this world. This world is the energy of God. So, there is abhed also.
So, now the fundamental point is that all this oneness and difference, some of it can be understood, some of it can’t be understood. But His fundamental reasoning is that by definition, if God is supreme, then He must be superior to our intelligence. If by our intelligence we could understand God fully, then our intelligence will become greater than God.
So, we can never intellectually conquer God. We can intellectually serve God, we can intellectually understand God to some extent and we can understand Him God to love Him and to relish in love for Him. But we can’t intellectually conquer God.
So, achintya is a way in which right in the title of the philosophy itself, the supremacy of God is acknowledged by acknowledging that He is superior to our intelligence also. And then after acknowledging that He is superior to our intelligence, that does not mean that our intelligence is useless and we have to accept anything and everything no matter how irrational it seems. Then after that, we use our intelligence in a mood of service and we try to gain as much understanding as we can.
So, that’s why it is said that… I write these articles in the Gita every day. So, one of the articles, I titled it as, to understand Krishna, stand under Krishna. So, we understand Krishna by submitting in a mood of devotion to Him.
So, that is what is conveyed by achintya bhedabhed as a philosophy of bhakti. That by the process of bhakti, bhaktya mam abhijanati, by bhakti we can know Krishna. That Lord who is achintya, we can know Him enough to love Him through the process of bhakti.