Jagat

2012 We now have two srotas for Dana-keli-kaumudi class every evening at 7.30. This is the third time I have started, but that first verse just keeps on giving. [Did not last.] 2011 This Vrindavan water is so corroding. Things rust so quickly it is like you can see it rusting in front of your eyes. Even stainless steel is speckled brown in a matter of days. Even with wiping. Incredible. 2011 Optimism is NOT magical thinking. [Optimism is equated with faith: the faith that life does have meaning. Magical thinking is the belief that specific results will be forthcoming from some unrelated activity.] 2011 One of those days where little is getting accomplished. 2011 Chandravali, the compliant   ṣoḍaśyās tvam uḍor vimuñca sahasā nāmāpi vāmāśaye tasyā durvinayair muner api manaḥ śāntātmanaḥ kupyati | dhig goṣṭhendra-sute samasta-guṇināṁ maulau vrajābhyarcite pādānte patite’pi naiva kurute bhrū-kṣepam apy atra yā || This is Chandravali: Stop trying to persuade me to be meane...

FB Memories June28

Ruci-pradhāna and vicāra-pradhāna  discussion from Bhakti Sandarbha. This is mostly excerpted from Bhakti Sandarbha 202 and 204-205 , which were posted before, but there are some extra observations here from the comments section. The all-important six criteria for evaluating the purport of a text are also discussed. A few other verses are quoted also. Facebook memories for June 26.

  After concluding the section on śānta-rasa , Śrī Rūpa observes that the “middle” three relations actually form a kind of trio, which he names hṛdyā (See " A tentative overview of rasa psychology .") It doesn’t seem to be being used terminologically, but it is worth grouping them, just like dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi are grouped in YS 3.6 as saṁyama , since they are in fact different aspects of a single procedure of mind-directdness. Rupa doesn’t go into too much detail here or elsewhere to specify the common characteristic of the three, except by the word  hṛdyā .

Facebook memories from June 25:  A fairly heavy day with lots of comments: Many of the items are on the  blog.  The headline  article  is from Longfellow's poem that inspired Bhaktivinoda.  Another post from 2011 about a revised and educated faith that comes after a life of engaging with doubt.

From my daily japa walk in Laval Quebec. Part I The third and last subcategory of the āśrita is the sevā-niṣṭha, or one dedicated fully to his service, taking shelter, I would assume, of his service. c) sevā-niṣṭhāḥ mūlato bhajanāsaktāḥ sevā-niṣṭhā itīritāḥ | candradhvajo harihayo bahulāśvas tathā nṛpāḥ | ikṣvākuḥ śrutadevāś ca puṇḍarīkādayaś ca te || Those who are attached to bhajana from the beginning are called "fixed in service" ( sevā-niṣṭha ) (3.2.29) The examples are of some lesser known figures kings like Candradhvaja, Harihaya, Bahulāśva, Ikṣvāku, Śrutadeva and Puṇḍarīka. The commentaries make no effort to explain these kings' particular character. Bahulāśva and Śrutadeva figure in 10.86 but I haven't analysed them in order to get an idea of this separate category. Here is the exemplary verse: ātmārāmān api gamayati tvad-guṇo gāna-goṣṭhīṁ śūnyodyāne nayati vihagān apy alaṁ bhikṣu-caryām | ity utkarṣaṁ kam api sa-camatkāram ākarṇya citraṁ sevāyāṁ t...

Ramesh Baba inaugurating the improvements at Seva Kunj. See below.

From 2018, this article seems to never have made it to the blog before. I rather like this picture of Barsana, so I posted in full. I was also rather pleased with some observations from 11 years ago. Confident words about love are not always forthcoming. Facebook memories from June 22

From my daily japa walk in Laval QC It is my contention that we should understand the five relational rasas on the basis of human relationships. I was reminded today by a friend of the debate I had a few years ago with Babaji about "love in this world." My contention is that even though we may deny the perfection of the love in this world, if we say that Krishna needs to come into the world not only to teach but to experience love, then love or at least the conditions of love are only possible in the world of death and imperfection. This is indeed a philosophical position that is essential to understanding the avatar doctrine as found in Chaitanya Vaishnavism. It is my further contention that the different relations represent different sādhanas on the way to the completion of the sādhana of prema . Krishna appears to us in our different relationships. A madhyama devotee restricts his relationships to other devotees because the culture of loving relationships must begin with...

This strange new old life is providing a great deal of mental stimulation. Being a part of human society in this part of the world means having established networks, and a car, and the energy to keep them up. For me, I had no problem going to the temple which was a place where I felt at home, even nostalgic for a good period in my life, even if now I am more or less shunned. Where do the shunned go? But it is a goodly distance and so requires a certain effort that is not always easy to muster when more than one person is involved. At any rate it is all moot now that Madhuri is invalid for probably up to three months before there is a return to normal. She is the entirety of my real-life community, as even, by coincidence, I was shut out of Facebook, so even my virtual community seems to have dwindled down the handful of somewhat nebulous creatures who pay any attention to it. Perhaps that is why I am writing a little more candidly, maybe even a little less pretentiously. Madhuri is try...

Yesterday, after talking to Madhuri, I mentioned the primal scene . I had in fact written something on the subject way back in 2012 and it was still in my drafts. This comes from some thinking about Freud and the thought: "Radha and Krishna are our parents before we were born." In other words, we were born of love, and that this love can be identified with the summum bonum. It is an archetypal way of looking at reality meaningfully. The thoughts in the article were mostly disorganized and in need of more explanation, but I posted it anyway without too much decoration.  Reality is always about broken ideals. Imperfection is the rule, not perfection, no matter what your idea of perfection happens to be. Religion is about adhering to those ideals even imperfectly rather than abandoning them. Love is the highest ideal, but who knows or experiences it? And who believes in it to the exclusion of the other accomplishments in life? And is love possible outside of vidhi , the rules im...

As you may well imagine, coming back into a marriage from the place one left off 14 or 15 years ago is an interesting experience. A lot of things have happened in the intervening time and we all undergo changes, for better or worse. Hopefully in my case it was for the better.  Nevertheless, I am a person who seeks meaning in the accidents of life, and what is going on now is certainly one of those.