Baladeva had promised the Jaipur assembly a Vedanta-sutra commentary that he had not yet written. So he went straight to the temple of Govindaji in Jaipur, the very Deity whose worship was under dispute, and laid out the whole situation. Several biographies describe this moment in much the same way, though the details differ slightly. Srila Prabhupada's own lecture describes Baladeva lying flat in obeisance before the Deity for three continuous days. He took no food or water, and asked permission before he would even begin. The Gaudiya History biographies instead describe a dream on a single night, in which Govindaji spoke to him directly. But every version agrees on the main point of the answer: "You write, and I will dictate to you what to write. No one will be able to refuse it."
Writing Under Pressure #
Baladeva began the next morning. Every account says that his mind was fixed on the feet of Govindaji, not on his own scholarship. He completed the work in a matter of days. This was an extraordinarily short time to produce a careful and exact Vedanta-sutra commentary that could stand up to strict questioning by trained Sri Sampradaya pandits, who opposed him. He titled it the Govinda-bhashya, after the Deity he credited with its content.
At the end of the finished work, Baladeva appended a verse in his own words describing what had happened:
"By his mercy Sri Govinda revealed this commentary to me in a dream, and for this the learned gave me the name Vidyabhushana, yet all credit belongs to Him, the dearest friend of Srimati Radhika. May that Govinda be forever glorified."
Vindication at Court #
Baladeva returned to the assembly with the finished commentary. The accounts say that the Ramanandi pandits, who had been so certain he would fail, were left speechless. None of them could find any reason to fault the work. The Gaudiya sampradaya's position was upheld, and with it the Bengali priests' right to continue worshiping Govindaji and Gopinatha at Jaipur. Several sources record that it was then that the pandits themselves gave Baladeva the title "Vidyabhushana," ornament of learning, to honour his scholarship. But other evidence suggests he may already have carried this title from his Tattvavada years. If so, the Jaipur naming confirmed the title again, and was not the first time it was given.
The defeated Ramanandi scholars are then said to have asked to become his disciples. Baladeva's answer says as much about his character as the debate itself. He declined. He explained that the Sri Sampradaya was itself a genuine and respected Vaishnava lineage, devoted to dasya-bhakti, service to the Lord. To accept their surrender would show disrespect toward that sampradaya, and he had no wish to show it. Returning to Vrindavana, he reported the victory to Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakura. By every account, Vishvanatha received the news with great joy and gave his blessing to the disciple he had sent to Jaipur in his place. Some biographies add that Baladeva installed a Deity called Vijaya Gopala at the Golta assembly site in memory of the victory. But no one knows where that Deity is today, if it ever existed as described.
A small temple bearing Baladeva Vidyabhushana's name still stands at Galta, just outside Jaipur. It has a collection of nearly a hundred Shaligrama-shilas associated with him, near the spot where a spring is said to come out of solid rock. Tradition also holds that when Baladeva returned to Vrindavana with news of the victory, he did not stop to rest. He took up his pen again almost immediately. He began what would become his commentary on Jiva Gosvami's Tattva-sandarbha. This was part of the same Sat-sandarbha literature that Radha-Damodara Gosvami had first set him to study at Puri.
What the Commentary Achieved #
The Govinda-bhashya did not replace Srimad-Bhagavatam as the Gaudiya sampradaya's main scriptural authority. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught that Srimad-Bhagavatam is itself Vyasadeva's own commentary on his Vedanta-sutra (recorded in Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila 25.142). This teaching remained the sampradaya's basic position. What Baladeva gave was something extra. He gave formal proof, in the accepted style and language of Vedanta debate, that the Gaudiya understanding of the Vedanta-sutra could be defended against any rival school, using that school's own methods. Srila Prabhupada later said of this achievement that Baladeva "gave us the Govinda-bhashya" specifically because the challenge demanded a direct commentary. It was not because the Bhagavatam's authority had ever been in doubt among Gaudiya Vaishnavas themselves.
Baladeva himself did not treat the Govinda-bhashya as a finished project that stood alone. He went on to write the Siddhanta-ratna specifically to support and explain points in the Govinda-bhashya. He also wrote the Vedanta-syamantaka, a further and separate explanation of the same Vedanta-sutra material. It was as if he was determined that no future challenger would ever again be able to say that the Gaudiya sampradaya had produced only one weak proof that it was genuine. Those later works, along with the rest of Baladeva's writings, are the subject of the other literary works page.
