Jagat

Bishwambhar Dasji's Gaur Nitai are about 1 1/2 meters, perhaps a bit more. They are unique in Braj.  Just came back from a weekend in Barsana. Made a new friend, Bishwambhar Das , who has a nice Gaur-Nitai temple on the Govardhan Road. I was with a couple of Bangladeshi devotees that I met after arati in the Ladlii temple. They had recognized me from Birnagar where they had come a few months before for Bhaktivinoda Thakur's utsav. They are from Khulna, one is a disciple of Sachinandan Bhaktiprabha, who made a large number of devotees in that area. After they left me, I noticed that an effulgent-looking sadhu in his early 40s with nice Radha Kund Nityananda tilak in yellow-orange cloth was still sitting alone in the same place where he had been talking with a group of babas a few minutes earlier. Being attracted to him, I went and sat down with him and struck up a conversation. He told me a bit about his life, how he came to Braj when only eight years old an...

I am currently working on getting my 1992 Gopāla-campū doctoral dissertation ready for publication. I knew this wouldn't be easy and I have been procrastinating because there are just so many other projects that beg for attention. But the opportunity has arisen for the Gopāla-campū work to finally be published so it is do or die now. When I finished the thesis work at SOAS, my advisor, J.C. Wright, wanted to get it published by the university publisher. Career-wise it would have been a good move. But I have never been very career-oriented, no doubt a huge character flaw where worldly life is concerned. Something Friedhelm Hardy said during my oral examination also affected me disproportionately. Hardy was a professor at King's College and a scholar for whom I had great admiration. He was jovial and gregarious as well as a brilliant man. He lived not very far from where we were staying in London, though I was hardly a part of his social circle. I only went there o...

The procession around Radha Kund and Shyam Kund At 7.30 yesterday morning, when most of us at the Jiva Institute were still engaged in our morning bhajan, Manjari came to my neighbor Pradeep Das’s door and in a trembling voice announced that their Guru, Ananta Das Babaji, the Mahant of Radha Kund, had left his body a few minutes before. There are three initiated disciples of Mahanta Maharaj living at Jiva. They immediately made arrangements to go to Radha Kund. I joined them. We traveled in silence, each preoccupied by our own memories of Pandit Baba By some turn of events, Babaji had left his body in Vrindavan and was being transported by ambulance to the Gopinath temple in Radha Kund, where he lay in state for a few hours near the samadhi temple of Srila Raghunath Das Goswami, whose throne he had adorned for the past three decades. There I sat with the kirtaniyas, thinking that I am only a distant admirer of Babaji Maharaj and I should not get in the way of his disciples and ...

tais taiḥ kiṁ naḥ parama-paramā-nanda-sāmrājya-bhogaiḥ kiṁ vā yogaiḥ para-pada-kṛtaiḥ kiṁ parair vābhiyogaiḥ | vāsenaiva prasannam akhilā-nanda-sārātisāraṁ vṛndāraṇye madhura-muralī-nādam ākarṇayiṣye || What need have we for all those pleasures of the empire of supreme, supreme bliss? And what need have we of the yoga paths that lead to the supreme destination, or any other philosophical argument?   Here in Vrindavan, I will raise my ears to hear the sweet flute sounds, the essence of the essences of all the varieties of bliss, which will play, pleased with me simply for residing here. (1.28) Commentary Another "what need have we" verse, indicating the continuity of mood between this one and VMA 1.25 . Prabodhananda continues to meditate on Krishna's flute. Krishna's flute sound in Vrindavan's background noise. Just like ether pervades all the other elements and sound is its tan-m ā tra . One hears Vrindavan before one can see it. In the morning darkn...

veṇuṁ yatra kvaṇayati mudā nīpa-mūlāvalambī saṁvīta-śrī-kanaka-vasanaḥ śīta-kālindī-tīre | paśyan rādhā-vadana-kamalaṁ ko’pi divyaḥ kiśoraḥ śyāmaḥ kāma-prakṛtir iha me prema vṛndāvane’stu || May I always have love for Vrindavan, where a swarthy youth with a lusty nature leans on a kadamba tree by the cool Yamuna, wrapped in a beautiful golden garment and, joyfully playing his flute, gazes longingly upon Radha’s lotus face. (1.27) Commentary Krishna's flute is one of the symbols most closely associated with his iconography and has a great deal of significance, which helps to account for its power and resilience. For Rupa Goswami, it is one of the four special characteristics of Krishna that separate him from all other forms of the Vishnu-complex of deities. sarvādbhuta-camatkāra- līlā-kallola-vāridhiḥ | atulya-madhura-prema-maṇḍita-priya-maṇḍalaḥ ||41|| trijagan-mānasākarṣi-muralī-kala-kūjitaḥ | asamānordhva-rūpa-śrī-vismāpita-carācaraḥ ||42|| līlā-...

śaṁ sarveṣām aprayāsena dātrī dvitraikānti-prema-mātraika-pātrī | ānandātmāśeṣa-sattvā nidhātrī śrī-vṛndāṭavy astu me’ndhasya dhātrī | The Vrindavan forest easily gives joy to everyone she is the sole object of love for just a few exclusive devotees; she is the soul of joy and the resting place for all living beings. May she be like a nourishing mother to me, a blind child. (1.26) Commentary One of the themes that is recurring in the VMA is Prabodhananda’s insistence that the joys of devotion to the Divine Couple are easily obtained in Vrindavan, even effortlessly. Rupa Goswami in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.2.60-64) clearly states that every human being is eligible ( adhikārin ) for bhakti. This is doubly true in Vrindavan, for there is spiritual benefit for every living being there, even without making any supplementary effort. Bhakti enters by osmosis, as it were. And yet, at the same the Dham, like bhakti itself, is very demanding, for only by exclusive devotio...

kiṁ no bhūpaiḥ kiṁ nu devādibhir vā svāpnaiśvaryotphullitaiḥ kiṁ ca muktaiḥ | śūnyālambair vaiṣṇavair vāpi kiṁ naḥ śrīmad-vṛndā-kānanaikānta-bhājām|| What business do we have with kings or gods who are puffed up with riches that are like dreams, we who are the exclusive devotees of Vrindavan? And what do we care for liberated souls who take shelter of emptiness, or even for the worshipers of Vishnu? (1.25) Commentary Prabodhananda continues to demonstrate his niṣṭhā for the sadhana of Brajavasa. He seeks a vision of the eternal Vrindavan that lies outside the purview of those who only have empirical vision. The real vision of Vrindavan is internal. The single-minded devotee of the Lord has no time for those whose hearts have not been opened to this vision. The prizes of this world are ephemeral. Recognizing this is the beginning of spiritual life. tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukhaṁ kālena sarvatra gabhī...

adya śvo vā yāsyatīdaṁ kudehaṁ sarve bhogā yānti tatra sthite’pi | tasmād saukhyābhāsa uccair vibhāti nityānande nanda vṛndāvanāntaḥ || This material body will die, either today or tomorrow. All its pleasures will go with it, even if one is situated in the Dham. Happiness in this world is a mere reflection, so take pleasure in the eternal joys found in Vrindavan. (1.24) Commentary Once again, Prabodhananda is telling us to be careful of the difference between the Vrindavan that appears to our mundane vision and the transcendental Vrindavan of our spiritual vision. One who lives even in the Holy Dham but seeks material pleasures, as though this were just another place within the material world loses most of the benefits that come from being there. So he tells us to go beyond the mere reflections of happiness that are associated with everything other than pure prema and dive into that eternal happiness that comes from bhakti to Radha and Krishna, which is the real fruit o...

soḍhvā pāda-prahārān api ca śata-śataṁ dhik-kṛtīnāṁ ca koṭīḥ kṣut-tṛṭ-śītādi-bādhā-śatam api satataṁ dhairyam ālāmbya soḍhvā muñcan śokāśru-dhārām atikaruṇa-girā rādhikā-kṛṣṇa-nāmāny udgāyan karhi vṛndāvanam ativikalo’kiñcanaḥ sañcarāmi || When will I roam through Vrindavan bereft of all possessions, taking shelter of the virtue of patience bearing hundreds and hundreds of kicks, millions of reproaches, and the countless obstacles that arise from hunger, thirst, heat and cold? When will I roam through Vrindavan, releasing torrents of tears of grief, as I loudly sing the names of Radha and Krishna in a voice that excites their compassion? (1.23) Commentary Perhaps more than any other image coming from those presented by Prabodhananda and his followers is this one, of near madness in absorption in the nitya Vrindavan while living in this world, in the bhauma Vrindavan. This verse illustrates the characteristics of the devotee resident of Vrindavan. There are so many q...

Radha & Krishna dancing in the moonlight. (A painting on the wall in New Vraja Dhama ISKCON Hungary.) cirād upaniṣad-girām ativicārya tātparyakaṁ na labdhum iha śakyate yad anu mādhurīm apy aho | tam apy anubhaven mahā-rasa-nidhiṁ yad-āvāsatas tad eva paramaṁ mama sphuratu dhāma vṛndāvanam|| May this supreme abode of Vrindavan always manifest in my mind. Though its sweet perfection cannot be conceived even after studying the teachings of the Upanishads for a long, long time, one can intuit it as a great ocean of rasa just by living here. (1.22) Commentary The relation of madhura-rasa-bhakti to the Upanishadic and Vedantic tradition is one that is discussed often among the followers of the Bhāgavata. The Taittiriya Upanishad says raso vai saḥ, yaṁ hy evāyaṁ labdhvānandī bhavati : “Rasa is verily That Supreme Truth. One who attains it becomes joyful.” Though there are many important philosophical statements in the Upanishads, some of which are taken to be mahā-vākyas ,...