RBSE VU Nimbarka Darshan key terms

Nimbarka's doctrine that the individual soul and world are both distinct from and non-distinct from Brahman by their very nature, without any change in Brahman's essence.

The general Vedantic position affirming both difference and identity between the effect and its cause, between the soul or world and Brahman, held in varying forms by several schools.

The supreme, eternal, conscious reality that is the material and efficient cause of the universe and the ground of all existence, identified by Nimbarka with Krishna.

Brahman considered as the personal Lord who rules, creates, sustains and dissolves the world, possesses auspicious qualities, and is the object of devotion and surrender.

The highest form of Brahman endowed with all powers and qualities, the supreme personal God Krishna, who is the source and inner self of all lesser divine forms.

The inherent power or energy of Brahman through which the world is projected, comprising the powers of consciousness, existence, and bliss, without being separate from their possessor.

The consciousness-power of Brahman, the aspect of divine energy that manifests as the individual souls and as the awareness sustaining all sentient beings.

The non-conscious power of Brahman that manifests as matter and the material world, lacking awareness yet dependent on and pervaded by the conscious Lord.

The individual conscious self, atomic in size, eternally distinct from yet inseparably related to Brahman, subject to bondage through beginningless karma and ignorance.

The condition of bondage in which the soul, obscured by ignorance and driven by accumulated karma, experiences repeated birth and suffering within the cycle of transmigration.

The beginningless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth through which bound souls wander among various bodies and worlds according to the fruits of their actions.

Action and the unseen residual potency it leaves in the soul, which ripens as pleasure and pain and binds the individual to continued embodied existence.

The specific application of Nimbarka's doctrine to the soul, holding that the individual self is neither wholly identical with nor wholly different from the supreme Brahman.

The universe of sentient and insentient beings, produced and pervaded by Brahman, real rather than illusory, and related to God as effect to cause.

The creative projection of the world by Brahman through divine power, understood as the manifestation of names and forms already latent in the Lord.

The periodic dissolution of the manifested world back into Brahman at the end of a cosmic cycle, followed in due course by a fresh projection of the universe.

The doctrine that Brahman transforms itself into the world through its powers, so that the effect is a real modification of the cause without exhausting or dividing it.

The primordial material nature from which the physical elements and bodies evolve, functioning in Nimbarka's system as a manifestation of the Lord's non-conscious power.

The three constituents of material nature, sattva, rajas, and tamas, whose interplay binds the embodied soul and shapes its dispositions, bodies, and experiences.

A reality or category of existence; Nimbarka's system recognizes three fundamental realities, namely Brahman, the individual souls, and the insentient world.

The triad of fundamental realities in Nimbarka's system: the supreme Lord, sentient souls, and non-sentient matter, all eternally related yet distinguishable.

Loving devotion to Radha and Krishna, cultivated through hearing, singing, and remembering the divine names and qualities, and regarded as the supreme means to liberation.

Complete self-surrender to the Lord, in which the devotee renounces independent effort and takes refuge in divine grace as the sole support for release.

Liberation from bondage and rebirth, attained through devotion and grace, in which the soul realizes its eternal service to and inseparable relation with the Lord.

The qualified spiritual teacher who transmits the tradition's doctrine and mantra, without whose guidance the path of devotion and surrender is held to be unattainable.

Formal initiation in which a teacher confers a sacred mantra and the devotee is admitted into the lineage and practice of the community.

The paired deity of the Nimbarka tradition, worshipped as the supreme Lord together with his eternal consort, representing the union of divine grace and bliss.

Sustained devotional meditation and worship directed to the Lord, involving constant remembrance of divine names, forms, and qualities as a discipline of the mind.

A transmitted religious lineage preserving a founder's teaching through an unbroken succession of teachers and communities; Nimbarka's is one of the principal Vaishnava lineages.

The traditional founder of the Bhedabheda school and of the Radha-Krishna devotional lineage, credited with the Vedanta Parijata Saurabha and the Dashashloki.

Nimbarka's commentary on the Brahma Sutras, presenting the Bhedabheda interpretation of the aphorisms and the school's principal doctrinal statement.

A short devotional work of ten verses attributed to Nimbarka, setting out surrender to Radha and Krishna and the essentials of the path.

The aphorisms of Badarayana that systematize Vedantic teaching and serve as the common textual foundation on which each school writes its own commentary.

A valid means of knowledge; the school accepts perception, inference, and authoritative testimony, and treats scripture as the decisive source for supersensible matters.

Perception, the direct cognition arising from contact between the senses and their objects, accepted as a valid but limited source of knowledge of the world.

Inference, the knowledge of an unperceived object through a recognized relation between a mark and what it invariably accompanies, such as smoke and fire.

Verbal testimony, especially the authoritative words of scripture and a trustworthy teacher, regarded as the primary valid means for knowing Brahman.

The revealed corpus of the Vedas and Upanishads, held to be eternal, authorless, and the highest authority on Brahman, the soul, and liberation.

The concluding portion of the Vedic corpus, comprising the Upanishads and the schools of interpretation built on them, the Brahma Sutras, and the Bhagavad Gita.

Shankara's nondual school, which holds Brahman alone to be ultimately real and regards the plurality of souls and world as superimposed through ignorance.

Ramanuja's qualified nondual school, which holds that souls and matter are real modes forming the body of Brahman, distinct yet inseparable from the Lord.

Madhva's dualist school, which affirms the eternal and complete distinction between God and souls, God and matter, and among souls themselves.

The inner controller, Brahman as the indwelling self present within all souls and things, guiding them from within without destroying their distinct identities.