Jagat

Recently I was sent a link to a video of a lecture by Swami B.A. Paramadwaiti given in Vrindavan. In the video he speaks of many different things, obviously outlining the directions he wants his own devotional organization, Vrinda, to take in the future. One of the things he spoke of in particular was the issue of milk products: "You could say, milk from the market is coming from the cow concentration camp. [---] Then comes the next thing, that this milk industry, producing this concentration-camp milk, butter, cheese, yoghurt – that industry puts chemicals into the cows and produces a milk that is not healthy. In other words, all these milk products, they're the reason why you have this disease and that disease and that disease, and why the hospitals are filled. This is not healthy food. [---] We want the Vrinda family to go in a vegan lifestyle. [---] We didn't want to make it like an absolute, but at least we wanted to give that example." The subsequent discussi...

There is a great deal of difference of flavors even within the madhura-rasa worship of Radha and Krishna. The idea that Radha is a symbol of the jiva and Krishna God, and that a direct erotic relationship with the Deity is being intended, is not a new one. That is in fact the symbolic situation that Mahaprabhu incarnates, but the one that Rupa Goswami stepped beyond. By seeing Mahaprabhu as the combination of Radha and Krishna, by placing Radha and Krishna on an equal footing and conceiving of God as a Dual, and then jiva as a servant of that Dual Supreme, Rupa Goswami was coming up with something original. When trying to understand a text according to the Vedantic hermeneutics, there are six things we take into account, one being apūrvatā , or the original something new. All the other relationships are there and are no doubt very nice and legitimate, but when we talk about Rupa Goswami and want to know what it is he is getting at, the anarpita-carī , then this certainly qualifie...

Sadhaka's prayer: May God bless us with pure devotion and love for Him, friendship with the community of devotees with whom we can share that love without fear or inhibition, and the opportunity to serve the less fortunate. And may He keep us free from the evil -- within and without -- that makes us forget Him and creates obstacles in our service to Him, the devotees, and the world and humanity at large. Why is it important to pray? Why is it important to pray correctly ? Prayer is an expression of our innermost desire, either as description or as prescription. It is what we want, presented in purest self awareness to the Self.

I was astonished recently to find myself debating with many devotees over what seemed to me to be a resistance to mañjarī-bhāva . I felt obliged to ask why these devotees, most of whom were from Iskcon, felt it necessary to argue that it was not necessary to want to be Radha's dasi, but could be whatever they liked, why they did not try to figure out why that was the desired goal of all our acharyas with practically no exception? If you follow a guru, you partake of his mood. And if the guru has a different mood from the one you seek, then why are you with that guru? If you want to be a lawyer, you go to law school, not medical college, is it not? One expects the guru to be of the same mood ( svajātīyāśaya ), otherwise what is the point of a guru? And if you don't know what your guru's mood is, then what do you follow? The line of grace is in getting the special prize that is the heart of the guru. This is why I believe that paramparā is more than just śikṣā ....

In the debate between those who support a purely literal interpretation of scripture and those who prefer a symbolic or esoteric interpretation, I would say that the literal is literally not understood without the esoteric. Truth lies where symbol and life merge. There are always multiple levels of interpretation, none of which are incorrect and which are probably hierarchical, but all are nevertheless anchored in real experience in the world, usually taken in an idealistic form, or as some would have it as a projected wish-fulfillment fantasy. Though that may indeed be true, it is possible to understand the literal as something that is self created, as per the verse in the Bhāgavata : tvaṁ bhakti-yoga-paribhāvita-hṛt-saroja āsse śrutekṣita-patho nanu nātha puṁsām| yad-yad-dhiyā ta urugāya vibhāvayanti tat-tad-vapuḥ praṇayase sad-anugrahāya || O Master! You take your seat in the lotus heart that has been made worthy of you through love. Even so, the way to reach you can ...

pustaka-pratyayādhītaṁ nādhītaṁ guru-sannidhau | sabhā-madhye na śobhante jāra-garbhā iva striyaḥ || Learning taken from books according to one's own impressions, but not learned with a guru, is unfit for the public space, like a woman who is pregnant with an illegitimate child. (Chanakya) I think that actually having the association of rāgānugā sādhakas , my own diksha guru, Lalita Prasad Thakur, Ananta Das Babaji in Radha Kund and many others over the years, has made a bit of difference in the way that I approach the issue of rāgānugā-bhakti and mañjarī-bhāva . Like my guru wrote on the back of the siddha-praṇāli sheet he handed out to his disciples: "You can't just get it from books." This offends people who are convinced that everything can be found in books, because why were the books written if not to inform of them? Of course, that Bhaktivinoda Thakur's books talk about taking siddha-praṇāli from or through the medium of a guru somehow seems irr...

Oh mind! Absorb yourself in the glories of the Divine Couple in Vrindavan. If it wants to ride, let it ride the noble steed of Rupa, Raghunath and Prabodhananda's poetry through the fields of divya Vrindavan! Make a lifestyle choice! ābhīra-pallī-pati-putra-kāntā- dāsyābhilāṣātibalāśva-vāraḥ śrī-rūpa-cintāmala-sapti-saṁstho mat-svānta-durdānta-hayecchur āstām My uncontrollable mind seeks a powerful horse to ride, for it is a powerful cavalier possessing the desire for service to the beloved of the son of the cowherd king. So let it ride on the spotless steed of Rupa Goswami's thought! (Raghunath Das, Abhīṣṭa-sūcanā , 1) I have never quite happy with my translations of this verse. If it were mat-sv ā nto instead of mat-sv ā nta- it would be fine and the above translation would be without problem. I think that it was a metrical necessity, but the meaning still comes through that way. Raghunath Das is talking about a mind that is already imbued with rāgānugā sent...

tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ Know the ways of sacrifice [i.e., sādhanās ] should be learned by submission, exhaustive inquiry and by service [i.e., obedience to instruction]. Those who have seen the truth are knowledgeable about the means, and they will instruct you if you have the above qualifications. (Gita 4.34) This instruction is given in relation to the series of yajñas listed in Gita 4.25-33. Yajña is used in the Gita as a synonym for sādhanā . One should take one's sādhanā from the guru. Mañjarī-bhāva is a sādhanā . You don't get the siddhi , you get the sādhanā . A siddha-deha doesn't mean you are siddha . The sādhanā is performed internally with the siddha-deha . And that which you practice is the unripe form of what you achieve, which is the ripe form. All India sādhanā traditions are oral as well as written. We tend to value the written traditions over the oral, but that would be a mi...

Of late I have been doing most of my writing over on Vrindavan Today , where I have been attempting to post a daily verse with commentary on the Vṛndāvana-mahimāmṛta . The day before yesterday I commented on the following verse : rājyaṁ niṣkaṇṭakam api parityajya divyāś ca rāmāḥ kāmān sarvān api ca vihitāṁs tikta-tiktān vidantaḥ | hitvā vidyā-kula-dhana-janādyābhimānaṁ praviṣṭā ye śrī-vṛndā-vipinam apunar-nirgamāṁs tān namāmaḥ || To those who have entered Vrindavan never to leave, rejecting a kingdom without enemies, along with beautiful women and all desires and duties, thinking them to be most bitter, and who have renounced their learning, noble birth, wealth, and fame to do so, we offer our respectful obeisances. ( VMA 1.76 ) Anyone familiar with my blog is aware that I have spoken extensively about gender issues, in the firm belief that Radha and Krishna is a Truth that represents the supreme ideal of human love. In response to what I wrote on VT, a woman of a feminist pe...

These are the qualities one should look for in an instructor guru. (From Padma Purāṇa, Bhāgavata-māhātmya , 6.20) विरक्तो वैष्णवो विप्रो वेदशास्त्रविशुद्धिकृत् दृष्टान्तकुशलो धीरो वक्ता कार्योऽतिनिःस्पृहः virakto vaiṣṇavo vipro veda-śāstra-viśuddhi-kṛt dṛṣṭānta-kuśalo dhīro vaktā kāryo'tiniḥspṛhaḥ virakta. This means the speaker of Hari-kathā should not sufficiently be beholden to the audience in such a way that he speaks just to please them. If one wants unbiased truth, one should listen to someone who is detached. Vaiṣṇava - One should listen to the Bhāgavatam from a devotee since the goal of the Bhāgavatam is to attain perfection in devotion. If one's goal is different, then one may hear from anyone.  vipra - This word means he has undergone the samskāras , not necessarily that he is a born brahmin, though one who is born a brahmin may have a privileged upbringing. He must have undergone spiritual purification. The spiritual aspirant is usually ...