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Gaudiya Discussions Archive » PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY
Discussions on the doctrines of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Please place practical questions under the Miscellaneous forum and set this aside for the more theoretical side of it.

Polytheism - Is Gaudiya Vaishnavism Monotheism or Polytheism?



Jagat - Fri, 25 Jun 2004 20:46:11 +0530
I am just going to post a couple of notes here. Of course my question is a little facetious, because we accept the unicity of the Supreme and simultaneously, we accept that it is fundamentally personal.

However, as soon as the One becomes many, with Shaktis, various kinds of plenary and partial manifestations, shaktyavesha avataras, etc., etc., with the divine manifest in the guru, etc., etc., we are a long way from the rigorous monotheism of the "Semitic" religions.

The reason I post is because of the following notes that I came across in the course of another project, taken from a book that has influenced me, The Changing of the Gods by Naomi Goldenberg, a Wiccan (at least when she wrote it). I am sorry, but for some reason I did not keep the page numbers:

A person may be polytheistic in her or his political, social and aesthetic attitudes simply by recognizing that several dynamics and sets of standards determine people’s organization of their world. Monotheists are those among us who always want to “get it all together” to decide on one overriding principle which will explain all of life, all thought and all feeling.

Jung taught that the most important feature of any religion is its myth. When a person is aware of living mythically, he is experiencing life intensely and reflectively. Such persons experience life as meaningful. Meaning is a feeling that results from the sense of reality or tangibility about the life one is leading. Jung, “It is only meaning that liberates.”

True religion has to be alive. This life consists in how well that religion nurtures a mythic understanding in its followers.

About prophets like Mohammed, “the process of discovery of the myth that gave them their power.”

In monotheisms "a heretic is someone who experiences religious consciousness in myths other than those prescribed by the tradition."

About creativity: "the more aware one is of one’s individuality, the less likely the standardized religious package is likely to suffice."

It is not necessary to share symbols, but to share the process of symbol creation

It is only when an image is asserted to hold a monotheistic and universal posture that it is vulnerable to attack by relativism, by facing the power that other images can hold for other individuals with other psychic patterns.

This hardly gives a good idea of what this book states. I'll try to do a more thorough job later on in the book review section.
braja - Fri, 25 Jun 2004 21:57:23 +0530
QUOTE(Jagat @ Jun 25 2004, 11:16 AM)
A person may be polytheistic in her or his political, social and aesthetic attitudes simply by recognizing that several dynamics and sets of standards determine people’s organization of their world. Monotheists are those among us who always want to “get it all together” to decide on one overriding principle which will explain all of life, all thought and all feeling.


The problem I have with this is its profound anthropomorphic implication: we worship what we are (or want to be). The huge diversity on this board alone does not support this. A conservative with the most rigid moral views can worship the supreme debauchee whereas being a debauchee is a hindrance to worship.

Interestingly, Shrivatsa Goswami, in the introduction to Haberman's BRS, writes:

QUOTE
The Indian mind had understood the human nature through the categories of cognitive, conative and emotive--and predominance of one of these traits characterizes the person. The predominantly cognitive seekers travel on the path of jNAna. The more active conative beings follow karma and the emotive seekers take the route of bhakti. Despite the destination is common--the undifferentiated experience of ultimate; the same non-dual reality appears as absolute sat, absolute cit and absolute ananda, respectively.


This is a common Hindu notion but it is one that I don't think is supported in the bhakti sastras. If the svarupa of the jiva is krsnera nitya-dasa, bhakti cannot be seen as arising from the predominance of emotion in a person. Ones nature undoubtedly affects how one takes to bhakti but it does not define bhakti.
braja - Fri, 25 Jun 2004 22:21:07 +0530
(Coincidentally, I took notes from Margaret Case's Seeing Krishna recently and will put them into another thread later. The book documents her stay with the Radharamana Goswamis and there is a lot of interesting material in there with regard to their lineage, temple, etc.)
ramakesava - Fri, 25 Jun 2004 23:51:50 +0530
Isn't Gaudiya Vaisnavism a kind of qualified monism: acintya bhedabheda?

Sure, Bhagavan is one without a second, but also many.
Jagat - Fri, 25 Jun 2004 23:57:06 +0530
I find achintya-bhedabheda is a useful kind of all-purpose hermeneutical tool. It's a reminder that whatever you believe, the opposite also has "inconceivable" validity. It's a recipe for liberalism if you ask me. rolleyes.gif

ye yathA mAM prapadyante and all that.