Jagat

This is also a sandānatikā , or a group of three verses forming one syntactical sentence.. ekaṁ citra-śikhaṇḍa-cūḍam aparaṁ śrī-veṇī-śobhādbhutaṁ vakṣaś candana-citram ekam aparaṁ citraṁ sphurat-kañcukam| ekaṁ ratna-vicitra-pīta-vasanaṁ jaṅghānta-vastropari bhrājad-ratna-sucitra-śoṇa-vasanenānyac ca saṁśobhitam||2.44|| itthaṁ divya-vicitra-veśa-madhuraṁ tad gaura-nīlaṁ mithaḥ- premāveśa-hasat-kiśora-mithunaṁ dig-vyāpi-citra-cchaṭam | kāñcī-nūpura-nāda-ratna-muralī-gītena saṁmohayat śrī-vṛndāvana-cid-ghana-sthira-caraṁ raṅge mahā-śrīmati ||2.45|| anv-ālī-mukha-śabdake maṇimaye mīlan-mṛdaṅga-dhvanau protsāryaiva praviṣṭavaj javanikām utkīrya puṣpāñjalīm | atyāścarya-sa-nṛtya-hastaka-mahāścaryāṅga-dṛg-bhaṅgimot- tuṅgānaṅga-rasotsavaṁ bhajati me prāṇa-dvayaṁ kaḥ kṛtī ||2.46|| One wears a peacock feather crown, and the other has wonderfully braided hair. One's chest is decorated with sandalwood designs and the other wears a splendid bodice. One wears jewel-studded yellow garme...

Sunset on te banks of the Yamuna. PC Thinking Particle I have usually avoided talking about environmental issues on this blog. Vrindavan Today was really meant for that, and I am really happy that Jagannath Poddar is taking the environmental side of Vrindavan consciousness very seriously and is leading Vrindavan Today into a more activist direction.  Part of the Braj Vrindavan Heritage Alliance (BVHA) strategy that I participated in was to administer the Save Yamuna to Save Vrindavan FB page that was first started by Vaishnavacharya Chandan Goswami . It is now being jointly run by me and Katie Jo WalterShoemaker . Katie Jo, like many others, is driven to distraction by the state of the world environment, and like many people whose heart lies in Vrindavan, is trying to do something about it by focusing on the Yamuna and water issues.. The more I think about it, an active environmentalism should be an essential part of the Krishna conscious movement. It is someth...

So after my post on Rajendra Das , where I mentioned Pundrik Goswami's name in connection with his visit to Montreal earlier this year, Pundrik himself (or whoever is in control of his FB page ) sent me a link to a lecture he gave in 2018 when he was given a "Valmiki award" by the most renowned Ramayana speaker Morari Bapu . I have seen Pundrik Goswami speak on a couple of occasions.and I even wrote an article about him on Vrindavan Today in 2011 because even then I had been very impressed by him. At the time he was only 21 years old and newly risen to the gaddi of the Vaijayanti Ashram after his father Sribhuti Krishna Goswami had entered the dust of Vrindavan . Since then I have not had much contact with Pundrik Goswami Prabhu, so I listened to his lecture with some interest. There are a number of points that I would like to highlight about it. First of all, besides being well-educated in his metier as a Bhagavata speaker, Pundrik is extremely clever, whic...

Rajendra Dasji is a talented musician and singer, like many of the leading Bhagavata speakers of Vrindavan. Spent my Janmashtami at the Hindu temple in Dollard des Ormeaux. Was really made to feel at home by Dharampal Sharma, the priest. I really enjoyed the family atmosphere with the children dressed up as gopas and gopis and having a lot of fun with their dancing program. I am a bit sorry that I did not go there earlier as I feel much more in the spirit with the Indian bhaktas. Muraliika Devi and Pundrik Goswami have both given Bhagavata at this temple in the recent past, so the Braj Bhava is a stronger there than where Western neo-Vaishnavas dominate. I visited an old Iskcon friend the other day and gave him a hard copy of Vrindavan Today magazine. He appreciated it but felt in that he did not recognize or know anybody whose picture was in it, since there were no Iskcon devotees there. So he felt alienated, as though I had left Iskcon behind. I told him to read my editoria...

As Vishnupriya and Gauranga's svakīyā and parakīyā pastimes in Goloka Nabadwip form a limitless ocean of madhura prema rasa , we hope to relish a few drops of its nectar in this chapter. When speaking about the svakīyā and the parakīyā rasa -relish, however, our Nadia Yugala's pastimes that take on a parakīyā flavor are definitely the most thrilling. And because Vishnupriya is Radha's prakāśa-vigraha , She also has millions of sakhi and dasi followers – just as Radha does. So the exciting adventures that they share with Gaurasundara in their Gupta Vrindavan abode resemble the way in which Radha-Krishna's aṣṭa-kāla līlās unfold – as they include vana-vihāra , holi, jhulan, jala-keli, Mahā-rāsa and the nikuñja-vilāsa pastimes – to mention a few. In the last chapter, Bhakti-ratnākara told that Gauranga can often be seen performing a different activity in various places within His opulent Goloka mansion; in the same way Vishnupriya can be in different places at th...

The next three verses form a single unit ( sandānitaka ), with the subject and verb in the last line of the third verse. The rest of the verses contain the object of the verb, giving various descriptions of the gopis and their service. kāścic candana-gharṣiṇīḥ sa-ghusṛṇaṁ kāścit srajo granthatīḥ kāścit keli-nikuñja-maṇḍana-parāḥ kāścid vahantīr jalam| kāścid divya-dukūla-kuñcana-parāḥ saṁgṛhṇatīḥ kāścanā- laṅkāraṁ navam anna-pāna-vidhiṣu vyagrāś ciraṁ kāścana ||2.41|| tāmbūlottama-vīṭikādi-karaṇe kāścin niviṣṭā navāḥ kāścin nartana-gīta-vādya-sukalā-sāmagri-sampādikāḥ | snānābhyaṅga-vidhau ca kāścana ratāḥ saṁvījanādye sadā kāścit saṁnidhi-sevanātimuditāḥ kāścit samastekṣikāḥ ||2.42|| kāścit sva-priya-yugma-ceṣṭita-dṛśaḥ stabdhā sva-kṛtye sthitāḥ kṣiptvānyāli-pravartitā dayitayoḥ kāścit sukhelā-parāḥ | itthaṁ vihvala-vihvalāḥ praṇayataḥ śrī-rādhikā-kṛṣṇayor dāsīr adbhuta-rūpa-kānti-vayaso vṛndāvane'nvīyatām ||2.43|| Some gopi girls are grinding sandalwood p...

Painting by Gadadhar Pran Das. preṣṭha-dvandva-prasādābharaṇa-vara-paṭa-srag-navābhīra-bālā mālālaṅkāra-kastūry-aguru-ghusṛṇa-sad-gandha-tāmbūla-vastraiḥ | vādyaiḥ saṅgīta-nṛtyair anupama-kalayā lālayantīḥ sa-tṛṣṇā rādhā-kṛṣṇāv akhaṇḍa-sva-rasa-vilasitau kuñja-vīthyām upaimi || I bow down before the young cowherd girls, adorned with the dearmost divine couple's remnants of ornaments, garlands, and garments, who by singing, dancing and playing musical instruments, and by offering garlands, musk, aguru, kunkum, fragrant scents, betel nut and garments, earnestly serve Sri Sri Radha Krishna while they enjoy unbroken pastimes in their own rasa in the groves of Vrindavan. The next few verses continue as Prabodhananda Saraswatipada meditates on the service performed by the sakhis and manjaris (2.41-43), as well as describing their beautiful forms (2.44-46). Verses 2.38-40 are an homage to these girlfriends who are also servants of Radha and her pastimes with the Di...