Jagat

Śrī-kṛṣṇa-kīrtana by Chandi Das is quite a fascinating piece of literature. Despite what are obvious flaws to those who belong to later Vaishnava traditions, there is little doubt about its entertainment value. The Vṛndāvana-khaṇḍa has 30 songs, which appears to equal the approximate number intended for a single night's performance. I think they pretty much sang the whole way through without commentary. Maybe two or three people performing taking the different parts. Anyway, the  Vṛndāvana-khaṇḍa  is interesting because it has elements of Gīta-govinda and the Rāsa dance woven into something quite different. I have been operating under the presumption that SKK was written without much knowledge of the Bhāgavatam, but this may be called into question as at least one or two unique features of the Bhāgavatam account are found here, though most of them are found in the Viṣṇu-purāṇa also. Nevertheless, the use of these elements is contextually so different from the origin...

Original title: DKK: Daily classes at SRSG: Verse 5 I am trying to get my translation and commentary on the Dāna-keli-kaumudī along with an update of the article I presented at JNU last year for publication. As a part of that, I have been giving evening classes on DKK here to a small audience. The ashram is nearly empty and those who are left have to be extraordinarily motivated to come to listen to me speak, quite understandably. So I am happy to get an audience of one or two persons. We have been moving rather more slowly than originally expected, and for the last three days we have managed to do only one verse a day, from three to five, the last of which we really only just began. Verses three and four technically belong to the prastāvanā portion of the play. They describe and explain the ecstatic symptoms of the devotees. Today, I chanted my kirtan alone, as my small audience was late, and as I was reciting my own mangalacharana, I imagined my own audience -- Sri Rupa Gos...