41. The Indian painting collection at the Brooklyn Museum is a good example of this.
42. In point of fact, Vṛndāvana is the town that has developed since the sixteenth century in the place where a number of Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes took place, where Vraj includes but also extends beyond this to a much larger area touching the outskirts of Delhi.
43. See Haberman (1994b) and Entwhistle (1987).
44. See Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 20.
45. Jīva Gosvāmī credits the directive to write his six Sandarbhas to his uncle Rūpa but acknowledges that Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī compiled the original version of the Sandarbhas, based on the works of older Vaiṣṇava theologians, which he is systematizing and completing (anu 3–5).
46. A verse of unknown origin, quoted from Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa by Dāsa (Tattva 13).
47. We will also be representing arguments from the first Sandarbha, the Tattva, in appendix 1.
48. The Vedānta tradition stems from the ancient Upaniṣads, the oldest mystic-philosophical texts in Sanskrit. By locating itself as a Vedānta tradition, the Gauḍīya theologians are laying claim to representing the Ultimate Truths of the ancient Vedic heritage, the oldest Sanskrit and Indo-European texts (see the chapter “The Object of Bhakti: Īśvara, Bhagavān, Brahman, and Divine Hierarchies” and appendix 1).
49. Jīva adopts a fourfold schema in conceptualizing the contents of the Sandarbhas: the subject (viṣaya), who is Kṛṣṇa; the relationship (sambandha) between Him and His śaktis, “energies,” such as the jīvas, living beings; the process for attaining Him (abhidheya, that which is to be spoken of); and the ultimate purpose or goal to be acquired (prayojana), which is love of God, prema.
50. Satyanārāyaṇa’s Dāsa’s erudite Sanskrit edition and translation of the Bhakti Sandarbha is available, and at the time of this writing, he has completed the translation of and is preparing all six Sandarbhas for publication (see www.jiva.org for status). Rūpa Gosvāmī’s Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu is also worthy of more robust consideration for anyone with a serious interest in Kṛṣṇa bhakti, for which Haberman (2003) has produced an excellent annotated English translation. I made use of both of these translations to determine which passages to select for part 1 of this work, but all Sanskrit translations are my own. Similarly, owing to the extensive amount of Sanskrit materials involved, I availed myself of the translations of the Bhāgavata noted in the next note, in order to determine which tales and teachings to extract for part 2, and then used the Chowkambha Sanskrit edition of the text for my own translations of these sections.
51. Here, Bhaktivedānta Swāmī’s multivolume translation and commentary is the easiest available in numerous languages—as is his version of the Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu as well as his trademark rendition of the tenth book of the Bhāgavata under the title Kṛṣṇa (all of which can be downloaded for free at www.vedabase.com). Being written by a preeminent devotee of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the founder of ISKCON, the Hare Krishna Movement, these devotionally laden editions underscore the spiritual appeal of bhakti as what we will call in “Concluding Reflections” a “living tradition.” This author’s own lifelong dedication to studying the traditions of Kṛṣṇa bhakti stems from encountering these books in the late 1970s. There is a highly recommended accessible edition with the Gauḍīya commentary of Viśvanātha by Bhanu Swami (2008–11), where one receives both text and verse-by-verse exegesis. Other than this, for those with access to Indian publishing houses, the Motilal Banarsidass edition translated by Tagare (1976–78) is excellent, as is the translation by Gosvami C. L. (n.d.). Additionally, we ourselves have published a literal annotated translation of the tenth book under the title Krishna: The Beautiful Legend of God (2003), and the stories of Kṛṣṇa in part 3 consist of extracts from this.