First week of Bhakti Tirtha courses completed Classes at Jiva Institute

I have not talked much about current events in my life on this blog of late.

Mahamuni Dasji and Advaitadasji have been giving excellent introductory lectures to Nyaya-sutras and Yoga-sutras respectively. And of course Babaji gave his introduction to Sanskrit. We have a good group of students. Unfortunately Advaita and Mahamuni will only be here teaching for three weeks.

Any English speaker in the area who is tempted by a crash course in these two subjects is well advised to attend. Jai Radhe.




So we have completed one week of classes at Jiva and are part way through the second week. I am pretty happy with my own classes. We completed the four essential verses of the Sandarbhas, which gave me the opportunity to give an overview of Jiva Goswami's philosophy seen from the end-point rather than working through from the beginning.

For me, giving daily classes is challenging. And with people of great learning and enthusiasm in the audience increases the challenge. But it also seems to be bringing all the classes by all the teachers to a very high standard. But the students are delighted with the other teachers as well.

I encourage anyone in the area to come to the morning session from 10-1 (Mon-Fri) where Sanskrit, Yoga-sutra and Nyaya are being taught. After Nov. 7, the schedule will change, but Gopala Champu will continue at 5 p.m. Classes are free and open to all, though the courses might present difficulties to those who are not regularly participating or learning Sanskrit.
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

O Mind! Meditate on Radha's Breasts

Image
Flickr As I go through the dāna-līlā episode of Chandi Das's Śrī Kṛṣṇa Kīrtana , there are many songs in which Krishna describes Radha's beauty, and a regular feature of that includes descriptions of her breasts. In fact, breasts are a subject that is prominent in all Sanskrit poetry, and is even standard in prayers to goddesses. There does not seem to have been any inhibition in talking about breasts in the ancient Indian culture, even though I dare say, there is more of one in the modern society, in spite of Bollywood. There is, however, an apparent restriction in talking about genitals, male or female, in the so-called erotic poetry of India--Sanskrit or vernacular--even when lovemaking etc., is described. Such descriptions would automatically fall into some other genre. In Radha and Krishna descriptions, I cannot recall ever seeing or hearing a passage that mentioned genitals or overt sexual activity. It is nearly always spoken of somewhat euphemistically. I remember ...
Read more

Swami Vishwananda's Bhakti Marga and Parampara

Image
It has been a little strange here at Jiva these past few days. Swami Vishwananda is here with his troupe of disciples, of whom there are a goodly number, perhaps 80 or so. When I arrived in Vrindavan already a couple of weeks back, almost the first thing I noticed at the corner of Mathura Road and the Parikrama Marg was a big billboard with Swami Vishwananda’s charming smile and glowing tilak staring charismatically out at the world and announcing that he would be giving darshan on March 8 at the Jiva Institute. Below him, in a smaller frame was Satyanarayana Dasa Babaji, who besides being his host will be speaking on the Bhāgavatam at the darshan event. This is not the first time that Vishwananda and his group have been at Jiva. Satyanarayana Dasaji calls Vishwananda a friend, and indeed the relations between the two are very cordial. Vishwananda's group is mostly young and enthusiastic, predominantly European (German and points east), who are very enthusiastic about...
Read more

Erotic sculptures on Jagannath temple

Image
This was written on the basis of Sundarananda Vidyavinode's Sri Kshetra and intended for a devotee audience, as it was done on a commission by disciples of Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaj. It has never been published. I decided to put this on line since there was a discussion on Facebook on the subject and I thought I would revisit what I wrote here nearly twenty years ago. This is from chapter ten on temple renovations. Please note that I have removed the images that I had found of some of the sculptures. I have been blocked from posting links to this blog on Facebook for some infringement of its "community standards". The only thing I can think of on this blog that might have offended some prudish person in cyberspace is this. I do not have much hope for redemption as it has been over six months since my ban is "under review" and there has been no sign of action. Needless to say, I find this heavy-handed action on the part of Facebook dangerously authoritar...
Read more