Tattva Sūtra

translated by Swami Bhaktivijñāna Giri

Tattva Sūtra (‘Aphorisms on the Supreme Truth’) was originally composed by Bharadvāja Muni and commented upon by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in 1894 and serialised in his Sajjana Toṣaṇī journal in 1895. The Tattva Sūtra is comprised of five chapters containing fifty Sanskrit sūtras. These five chapters are as follows:

1. The Subject of Reality.
2. The Subject of Consciousness.
3. The Subject of Non-consciousness.
4. The Subject Concerning the Relationship Between the Two.
5. The Subject Concerning the Conclusion.

The Ṭhākura writes of the origin of Tattva Sūtras in his Navadvīpa Bhāva Taraṅga:

bharadvāja-ṭīlā tathā dekhite sundara
gaura bhaji’ yathā bharadvāja muni-vara
labhiyā caitanya-prema sūtra prakāśila
kata-śata bahir-mukha jane bhakti dila

Here is Bharadvāja Ṭīlā, which is beautiful to see. Here, Bharadvāja, the best of munis, worshipped Gaura and achieved caitanya–prema. Bharadvāja wrote sūtras, and bestowed bhakti to thousands of persons who were averse to the Lord. (Navadvīpa Bhāva Taraṅga 21)

At the conclusion of this work, Bhaktivinoda states that a commentary to Bharadvāja’s Tattva Sūtras was commented upon in Sanskrit by the Vaiṣṇava scholar, Śrī Gopīnātha Paṇḍita. From the structure of the Tattva Sūtras, it seems that the Sanskrit commentary preceding Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s Bengali commentary is that of Gopīnātha Paṇḍita. We have taken the liberty of separating these commentaries for clarity.