Of everything traditionally attributed to Brahma, nothing is quoted by Gaudiya Vaishnavas more often than a short Sanskrit text called the Brahma-samhita. Almost the only reason anyone can quote it today is that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu discovered a single manuscript of it on the southern coast of India.
A Hymn Spoken at the Dawn of Creation #
The Brahma-samhita is traditionally described as a hymn of prayer that Brahma himself spoke to glorify Krishna. Later tradition says it once had as many as one hundred chapters. Only the fifth chapter, with sixty-two verses, is known to survive. Its opening line is the verse most closely linked with the whole text. It is translated simply: "Krishna who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, and He is the prime cause of all causes." The verse comes from Brahma, the being entrusted with secondary creation. In a lesser theology, he might have claimed the highest position for himself. Instead, the verse is a deliberate act of humility. It names Krishna, not Brahma or even Vishnu's other forms, as the cause of all causes.
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Attributed author | Brahma, at the dawn of creation |
| Surviving portion | Chapter five, sixty-two verses (of a text tradition says once ran far longer) |
| Most quoted verse | Chapter 5, verse 1: ishvarah paramah krishnah |
| Rediscovered by | Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, during His South India tour, c. 1510 CE |
| First English translation | Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, 1932, with Jiva Goswami's commentary |
Found on the Far Southern Coast #
For centuries the text existed, at most, as scattered fragments and a title devotees had heard of but could not read. That changed during Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's South India tour, when He came to the temple of Adi-keshava on the banks of the Payasvini river. Later tradition and modern scholarship both identify this site with the Adi Keshava Perumal Temple at Thiruvattar, near Kanyakumari, at the very southern tip of India. There, among a gathering of advanced devotees discussing spiritual subjects, Mahaprabhu found a manuscript chapter of the Brahma-samhita. By then the text was practically lost. In Chaitanya-charitamrita, Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami recorded his own judgement of what was found, and he praises it without any reservation. He calls it essential among all Vaishnava literatures, with no scripture equal to it on the final philosophical conclusion. His judgement is examined further on Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's South India Tour. Mahaprabhu had the chapter copied by hand and carried it back with Him to Odisha. The tour's biographer calls two manuscripts the two jewels He brought home. This chapter was one of them, and the other was Bilvamangala Thakura's Krishna-karnamrita.
From Manuscript to Modern Kirtana #
For nearly four centuries after that, the text remained known mainly within Gaudiya circles who had access to hand-copied manuscripts. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura changed that in 1932. He published the first English translation of the surviving fifth chapter together with Srila Jiva Goswami's Sanskrit commentary. This work is still in print and is still the standard English edition today. Its verses are now sung as part of daily temple worship across the Gaudiya Vaishnava world. They reached an unexpected wider audience in 1970, when George Harrison produced a modern recording of the prayer titled "Govinda," sung by a disciple of Srila Prabhupada. Its title comes from the same chorus line, "govindam adi-purusham tam aham bhajami," that closes so many of the text's individual verses.
An Honest Note on Dating #
There is one real difficulty here, and it should be stated plainly and honestly, not talked away. Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition holds that Brahma spoke these verses at the very beginning of the universe. It also holds that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did not help to compose this text. He only rediscovered a text that was already many ages old. But some modern academic study of Pancharatra literature is in real conflict with that traditional dating. Mitsunori Matsubara's study of this kind of literature places the writing of the surviving text at around 1600 CE. That is closer to the century after Mahaprabhu's own discovery than to the dawn of creation. We report this gap here without trying to resolve it. A scholar works from the evidence of manuscripts and the history of literature. A devotional tradition works from an unbroken chain of received teaching. They are simply asking different questions and reaching different answers. This page does not try to judge between them.
