Yoga Tarangini completed on Guru Purnima

I am pleased to say that on Guru Purnima, I finally completed the Yoga Tarangini project and handed camera ready copy to Swami Veda Bharati to be sent for publication. Jai Guru.

I have been told that the book will be printed as a combined AHYMSIN and Motilal Banarsidass production.

All this commuting back and forth from Vrindavan to RIshikesh has been very revealing. And I can tell you, of the two I am definitely a Vrindavan person. There is just a little bit of yogi lurking in there that still cries out for attention, but my impression is that the clock is running out on that. What is yoga has pretty much been assimilated and we move on in the direction of primarily bhakti, as always. On returning to Vrindavan, I have been rushing around trying to get the Vrindavan Today project working again, and I have been singing, a lot. kathā gānaṁ nṛtyaṁ gamanam api.

Yoga Tarangini was a great project. Swami Veda asked me to do it, he hired me. I took it seriously and tried hard to do a good job, at least a conscientious one. And the final result looks good to me for someone who is, even though you could say that it is "not my field."

This was a hatha yoga text, an early work from the Nath sampradaya.

So I really had to put some work into first of all editing the Sanskrit, which was fun, comparing manuscripts and stuff. Then translating and doing research where there were difficulties about the meaning and conflicts of opinion in the field of yoga research. I consider this to really be a kind of Ph.D. in hatha-yoga.

Swamiji insisted on getting a CD, a concrete object that I could actually put in his hand. No there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that this Yoga Tarangini work was the grace of Guru.

Swami Veda himself says that Guru is One but he comes in many forms. Coming in many forms is that he comes in forms that are necessary for our spiritual growth. At my age I should no longer have need of a father, but Swami Veda has, I am almost ashamed to say, been a father to me.

One learns in every servant/master relationship. We all find ourselves in circumstances of dependency wherever we go in life. If we pretend that we are not, then we are usually fairly rudderless.

So pick and choose your masters, my friends. On a gross level we learn gross stuff. Lucky is the disciple who sees the Guru up close. Or rather "hears" the guru up close. I should qualify that by saying that a little bit Guru goes a long way, but it is true nevertheless.

You see, You gotta serve somebody. And the person you serve will ALWAYS be your guru. The person you are dependent on is your guru. Like mother, father, etc.

So your employer is also going to be a guru -- especially if you are up close. And that is the problem. You need to have a good guru, otherwise it is a challenge. In this case, I have two very good "employers" you could say, and I have guru-buddhi for both of them. And this has been tremendously enriching, because once you actually DO have guru-buddhi for the person you are dependent upon, the channels of grace are opened. At the level of necessity.

And if that person is wicked (for want of a better term) you will take on those qualities through the service. It will form your character in a way that is pleasing to the wicked person.

If your character is very strong, like a Vibhishana or a Vidura, you might be able to survive, but mostly we mere mortals capitulate. By which I mean we compromise with our true selves in order to serve mortal masters and mammon.