Achintyabhedabheda

(“inconceivable identity and difference”) Key philosophical concept of the
Gaudiya Vaishnava school, which was
founded by the Bengali saint Chaitanya
(d. 1533) and is devoted to the worship
of Krishna as the Supreme Being. The
concept was first enunciated by
Chaitanya’s disciple Jiva Goswami (late
16th c.) and explains the relationship
between God (Krishna) and the human
soul, and between God and his divine
powers. In both cases these relationships are described as simultaneously
involving sameness and difference. On
one hand, human souls are clearly different from God, as shown by their
imperfections and their susceptibility
to the action of karma, both of which
contrast with God’s utter transcendence and perfection. Yet since it is
possible for human souls to gain ultimate liberation (moksha) from the
action of karma, they must also share
some part of God’s nature, since liberation would be impossible if human
souls were completely different. Even
though human souls partake in the
divine nature, their distinctness is
upheld even after liberation, when the
human soul does not merge with
Krishna but remains separate.
This same concept is used to
describe the second relationship,
between God and his divine powers.
The divine powers are often conceived
not just as attributes (e.g., the ability
to create, preserve, and destroy the
universe) but as actual embodied
deities, particularly in the form of
goddesses. These powers are both the
same as God, since they come from
Him, but also different since each of
the embodied powers does not contain the glory of the whole. In both
cases the precise nature of this simultaneous identity and difference is
“inconceivable,” which here carries a
mystical sense. For further information see Sushil Kumar De, Early History
of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement
in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali
Sources, 1961.