Jīva as Taṭasthā-śakti: A Reading of Paramātma-sandarbha 19

The marginal potency and the problem of ontological location

Dr. T. Madhusūdana

Published 22 January 2025 · DOI 10.00000/igs.2025.0003

A close reading of Paramātma-sandarbha 19 on the jīva's status as taṭasthā-śakti, with attention to the metaphorics of the 'shore' (taṭa) and its philosophical work.

The image is precise. A shore is neither water nor land but the determinate boundary between them. To call the jīva taṭasthā is to specify its ontological location without collapsing it into either svarūpa-śakti or māyā-śakti.¹

The metaphor's work

The metaphor is not decorative. It does logical work: it specifies that the jīva's nature is constituted by its position rather than by an intrinsic substance independent of relation.

Footnotes

1.Paramātma-sandarbha 19, on the shore-metaphor.

References

Gosvāmī, Jīva. Paramātma-sandarbha.