Full moon over Rishikesh

2016

Verses in glorification of the Holy Name. I have revisited these translations several times. They were done in connection with my work on Hari-nāma-cintāmaṇi. It appears that on this day in 2016 I was relishing a few of them which I posted on Facebook. The complete collection was put on the blog for the first time in January this year:

2014

Vote counting has started in India. The exit polls show a BJP led majority. Indeed, it looks like they are crushing the opposition. Namo NaMo.


The full moon over Rishikesh. Last day tomorrow. As usual, I am completely behind in everything. It has been pretty silent. Swamiji was looking a little better today, but yesterday he said that each day brings new physical problems. I said, "We just pray that you finish your Yoga Sutra work and your five year silence."
His face is puffy since the last major crisis and the toll it has taken on him. It is inevitable, of course, but I miss the old Rishikesh night club days. He is slowly picking up a bit of strength and since I got here started working on YS again, and today he was upbeat about moving forward. He had pretty much stopped work altogether for the past five months.
The Yoga Tarangini is getting closer to publication. I can see that Swamiji considered this project very important in terms of fulfilling an obligation to his guru. I wonder if I will ever complete my obligations to mine.
2012

When I see pictures of Freud and Jung with their pipes and cigars, tweed jackets, vests and ties, I get the impression that brilliant as they were, they were so immersed in themselves that their entire exercise of psychology was just a reflection of their own personalities, which was in fact would have been impossible for them to break out of.

[I have been reading a book called "Belief" by James Alcock. He is a very strong rationalist and discredits both Freud and Jung and practically equates them with pseudoscience. There is of course some pseudoscience in both of them -- after all, there are psychic places that science cannot reach -- for all the attempts to do so by means of ECG scans, etc. Biochemical reductionism is not particularly helpful and indeed a pseudosolution to the problems of philosophy and psychology. Ultimately., what I am trying to get at is based on Rupa Goswami's aesthetic psychology of religious experience, which therefore links in with both of these psychologists' approach. I intuitively believe that there is some merit in both their approaches. Nevertheless, as the above comment shows, my affinity for the Indian way of being leaves me indifferent to their lifestyles and personal psychologies. I could say the same of someone like Jordan Peterson.]







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