The Govinda-bhashya is what Baladeva Vidyabhusana is remembered for, but it is only a small part of what he wrote. Different biographies say he wrote anywhere from about twenty to more than thirty titles. The exact count depends on how his commentaries and sub-commentaries are grouped. But every list covers the same range of subjects: Vedanta philosophy, poetics, grammar, ritual prayers, and commentary on the Goswamis' own writings.
Restating and Defending the Govinda-bhashya #
Several works were written specifically to support the Govinda-bhashya's conclusions. Baladeva wrote the Siddhanta-ratna on purpose to strengthen points made in the Govinda-bhashya. The Vedanta-syamantaka explains Vedanta-sutra topics again, separately, in six chapters. It deals with the standard subjects of pramana (evidence) and the five prameyas (God, souls, matter, time and karma). It quotes Madhvacharya extensively, even while it argues for Gaudiya conclusions. At the close of the Vedanta-syamantaka, Baladeva credits his diksha-guru directly: "I have been sent here to Vrindavan by one brahmana guru, Sri Radha-Damodara Deva, to present a composition... for the pleasure of Srimati Radharani," and this is one of the few places in his surviving writing where he names his own guru. The Siddhanta-darpana sums up Gaudiya Vaishnava principles more broadly. It includes Baladeva's teaching on transcendental sound and on the Lord's three potencies of knowing, feeling and willing.
A Summary of Shared Philosophy #
The Prameya-ratnavali is somewhat different from the rest. It does not argue for a Gaudiya position against rivals. Instead, it sets out nine principles that Baladeva presents as shared by the Madhva and Gaudiya schools. They include these teachings: that Krishna (Hari) is the Supreme Lord, knowable through the Vedas; that the material world is real; that souls are eternally distinct from God and by nature His servants; that liberation means attaining loving service to Krishna; and that truth is known through direct perception, inference and Vedic authority. Baladeva clearly presents these as Madhvacharya's own teachings, later confirmed by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. This is a fitting summary from a writer who felt that he belonged to both lines at once.
Commentary on Other Acharyas' Works #
Beyond his own original works, Baladeva wrote commentaries on a wide range of earlier Gaudiya and Vedic literature. The Gitabhushana is his full commentary on the Bhagavad-gita. He wrote commentaries on the Isha Upanishad and the other principal Upanishads, and on the Gopala-tapani Upanishad specifically. He wrote a commentary on the Vishnu-sahasra-nama, and a Vaishnava-nandini-tika on Srimad-Bhagavatam. He also commented on Jiva Gosvami's Tattva-sandarbha, on Rupa Gosvami's Stava-mala, and on works of poetics, including Jayadeva Gosvami's Chandraloka. He also wrote original works of his own on poetics and grammar, including the Sahitya-kaumudi, the Kavya-kaustubha, and the Vyakarana-kaumudi. He is also credited with a commentary on Rupa Gosvami's Laghu-bhagavatamrita, with the Nataka-chandrika, and with the Shyamananda-shataka. This is a hundred-verse tribute to Shyamananda Pandita, from whose spiritual line Baladeva's own diksha-guru came. Among his own independent compositions on poetics are the Aishvarya-kadambini and the Chandah-kaustubha, a work on Sanskrit metre. One devotional account notes how Baladeva opened each of these works. First he bowed to Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami, describing them as clouds that dispel the duststorms of mayavada. Only then did he turn to his own argument. He did this in nearly everything he wrote.
Recurring Themes Across the Corpus #
A few teachings appear again and again in these otherwise very different works. On the nature of evidence, Baladeva accepted seven recognized ways of establishing truth: direct perception, inference, verbal testimony, interpretation, negative inference, probability and historical report. Of these, he held that verbal testimony in the specific form of shruti, the Vedic revelation, stands highest. This is because the Vedas alone are free of the four defects that limit ordinary human knowledge: the tendency to err, to cheat, to be deluded, and to perceive imperfectly. On the Lord's energies, he taught a threefold division into para-shakti (the Lord's internal, spiritual potency), kshetrajna-shakti (the potency by which living beings exist) and maya-shakti (the external potency that keeps conditioned souls in illusion). He based this division on the Vishnu Purana. And several of his works describe Srimati Radharani as Paradevata, the Supreme Goddess. Her transcendental nature is so completely filled with Krishna that She is called Krishnamayi, full of Krishna. Every other form of Lakshmi ranks below Her.
Taken together, these works show that decades after his conversion, Baladeva was still doing exactly what he had trained to do as a young Tattvavada debater. He read everything, argued precisely, and left as little ground as possible for a future challenger to attack. Two disciples from his later years in Vrindavana are remembered by name, Uddhava Dasa and Nandana Mishra. But Baladeva wrote very little about himself, and in the same way almost nothing else is recorded about either of them.
Most of these works were written in Sanskrit and have mainly been read in Sanskrit. This likely explains why Baladeva is known today mostly for the Govinda-bhashya, and much less for the rest of his writings. It is the one work of his that Srila Prabhupada named directly and repeatedly in English-language lectures and in the dedication of a widely read book. This made it well known, in a way the other two dozen titles have never been outside small circles of specialists.
