My only hope lies in the nectar of Your name

It is somewhat interesting how these memories accidentally come together thematically. There are several references to classes here, none of which went to term. I still want to give classes but I don't seem to have much luck except on the internet these days, teaching Sanskrit. And that is not a big earner, as it were. Anyway, I still hope my day will come.

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2018 [Please note that this announcement is not current.]

For those in the Vrindavan area who are interested. Since I am currently working on Bhakti Sandarbha, I have decided to give a daily class in English, based on Satyanarayana Dasaji's original work as I am going through it to get it to publication. Three or four people here have signed up, so there will be a group of devotees discussing this important work together. The time will be 5 p.m. in the Jiva Institute library. Jai Radhe.

 

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2016

cinmaya bhāskara tumi kiraṇera kaṇa āmi
tumi prabhu āmi nitya dāsa |
caraṇa pīyūṣa tava mama sukha suvaibhava
tava nāmāmṛte mora āśa ||

 
You are the divine spiritual sun and I but a particle of Your effulgence
You are the master and I Your eternal servant.
The ambrosia of Your lotus feet is my joy, my greatest treasure;
my only hope lies in the nectar of Your name.

 

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2015

And now my friends, it is time to retreat into a bit of Holy Name and Hari katha.

I am still giving a daily class on Bhakti-rasāyanam. It is fascinating to see how Madhusudana's approach is totally independent to that of Rupa Goswami, and yet for me I see a lot that is supplementary or complementary.

So I am doing a bit of manana and nididhyāsana on the thing. But I still haven't fully been able to capture Madhusudan's global concept.

 
Already many of his ideas do resonate with me, quite strongly. It integrates a kind of psychology with spiritual experience. How he understands that experience is what we are learning. This is where all that sthāyi-bhāva jumble the other day came from. The Holy Name and Hari Katha...

 

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2014

Rishikesh was blessed with rain and cloud cover yesterday. Since there is a tradition at SRSG of taking Sundays off (as if I can distinguish between workdays and holidays) I walked through Rajaji park to Ram Jhula Swargashram to take a dip in the Ganga. Twelve kilometers at a fairly rapid and determined British wayfarer's pace. Then to Madhuvan where Bhaktiyoga Swami gave prasad, which reinvigorated me. But when I got back to the ashram at 6 I flopped on my bed and slept until 12.30.

Then being wide awake, I sat down and meditated through the rest of the night. Finally arrived back in Rishikesh.

 

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2009

मया इदानीमेव साधनस्य पञ्चस्तम्भानां विषये संस्कृतेन वक्तृता अदीयत। संस्कृतभारत्या आगता अतिथयः श्रोतारः आसन्।

Well that's the end of that. A couple more days of Sanskrit, final exam, and then back to Canada

Swami Veda has a concept called "five pillars of sadhana": stillness, silence, fasting, celibacy and conquest of sleep. Today I had to lecture on the subject in Sanskrit to the Sanskrit Bharati people (I will hopefully post something about this tomorrow on Jagat Jindagi as one of those last items) and it crystallized something that has been developing in me over the past several days.

The above five are the kinds of heroic practices that I haven't touched with a ten-foot pole for centuries. But now that I am leaving, I feel that some kind of intense preparation for my reentry into the "West" is, if not really needed, at least a way of honoring my residence here.

(The full article was published on the blog.)