tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31351038.post2398660147414048602..comments2024-03-26T13:06:41.178-04:00Comments on Jagat: Another side of Bhaktivinoda Thakur 5: Learning Siddha Krishnadas Baba's GutikaJagadananda Dashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05887720845815026518noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31351038.post-75419223507340574972023-10-01T14:00:14.322-04:002023-10-01T14:00:14.322-04:00Hare Krishna Radhe Radhe ��... Pls koi ho sake to ...Hare Krishna Radhe Radhe ��... Pls koi ho sake to mujhe , inn Divya lilao ke bare me batane ki kripa kare, aur radha Krishna ji ka prem bhakti mil sake, usme margdarshan aur kripa kare<br /><br /><br />������������Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31351038.post-21207377490069053342018-09-09T22:17:14.493-04:002018-09-09T22:17:14.493-04:00what an incredible report; my heart melted when in...<br />what an incredible report; my heart melted when in reading, the vraja-rasika-sadhu touched his hand on his head and said 'TATASTU'; came to shake the hairs on my arm;<br /><br />what to say of so great vairagi that is the transcendental personality of tinkodi-babaji-maharaja; and what of this unique moment in which he gives the supreme blessing of radha-dasi to a Westerner;<br /><br />how I wanted to be in your place at that magical moment;<br /><br />I was moved by the merciful parama-karuna of tinkodi-das-babaji-maharaja;<br /><br />I never tire of being surprised by your experiences in braja, in this life;<br /><br />what kind of sukriti the lord [jagadananda-das-babaji] performed in this life or in past lives; Can you give me the formula?madanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16207316893662192420noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31351038.post-42892834511543690322018-03-07T16:35:00.781-05:002018-03-07T16:35:00.781-05:00Hello, Jagadananda dass, It truly is wonderful to ...Hello, Jagadananda dass, It truly is wonderful to hear from you and receive this detailed response. If you're ok with this public format, I think I will be, too, though you should have my personal email if you want to continue with more privacy.<br /><br />It is my pleasure to support your work. I feel you are one of the most important voices in the Western Vaishnava world. I don't know if this is translating into appreciation with your contemporaries, but I certainly hope your work will have a legacy and influence the transmission of bhakti to coming generations. I spend a considerable amount of time on this blog, reading your writings. I have a hunch I am not alone and you are touching more people than you might realize. <br /><br />I have written with GP a bit, and I find him remarkable. His personality is irrelevant to me as I'm not planning on asking him to the prom! The depth of his smaranam is unlike anyone I have ever met. There are a large number of subtleties to his writing that I find extraordinary. I also find him somewhat of a personal challenge, in that his commitment has forced me to examine my own, or lack of one on my part. His passion has placed a fine mirror in front of me whereby I can see I am not truly greedy for Radha-Krishna, for Gauaranga. Honestly, I can't determine if I am resistant due to the calling of my own svadharma, or if I'm just plain ego stubborn. Time will tell.<br /><br />I've been thinking lately how ironic it is that so many who preach about bhakti, prema, bhava, ras, etc., seem so devoid of it themselves. I had already read the piece you recommended that was a "down," but I admire your willingness to take a chance, to risk yourself in the name of love. Are we not encouraged to become pagala, to wager our minds on behalf of our love? "I am the nerve of the gambler."<br /><br />As we get older, I think more and more that the odds of actually succeeding on a spiritual path are a gazillion-to-1. Between the lack of availability of teachers and teachings, cultural and social decline, and our own personal failings, we're likely to fall short of our goal. I've decided, however, that if Hari ever looks me in the eye and asks why I was such a mess, I want to be able to answer, "Because I tried really darn hard." I'd rather apologize for my mistakes than not have tried my darndest. Whatever might have been "a down," I'll proclaim, with a line my 15 year-old son and I have been saying (stolen from from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"), "At least I tried, goddamit, at least I did that."<br />Prem Prakashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15332841826264949864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31351038.post-36604649598319567832018-03-06T22:35:04.583-05:002018-03-06T22:35:04.583-05:00I have a lot more to say, actually, Prem Prakashji...I have a lot more to say, actually, Prem Prakashji, and just hope that I don't get overwhelmed by all the commitments I have taken on. I would like to separate out GP's material from my own, for it deserves an independent life and place of its own. My fundamental hope is that by making him and his work known, people will be attracted and give him the support he needs, technically and financially.<br /><br />My blog is already all-over-the-place, and it is time my real voice came out again. And I do think it will come out. <br /><br />Life is proving a little more intricate than just the experience of ups and downs. Here was a down, for instance...<br /><br />http://jagadanandadas.blogspot.com/2014/06/how-can-sahajiya-represent-bhaktivinoda.html<br /><br />I will have more thoughts on this and some of them I will try to publish on the blog today. Hopefully I will have the energy to do it, with all the other stuff I need to do. But I know that if I don't review my trip very quickly, it is likely to get buried. This happens more often than it should, unfortunately.<br /><br />Thank you once again, Prem, for your support. It means a great deal to me and I appreciate it greatly. I am glad we met personally and I hope that one day you will make a trip to India to visit GP and myself, together or separately. I am sure you will find it an interesting experience, at the very least. Jai Radhe! Jai Gaur Gadadhar!Jagadananda Dashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05887720845815026518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31351038.post-16943206617242522502018-03-06T22:18:22.050-05:002018-03-06T22:18:22.050-05:00You could say that Gadadhar and I are both followi...You could say that Gadadhar and I are both following our own truth. And that is why I support him and why he inspires me to follow my own. I support him in every way I can. His eka-nishtha is unparalleled, and I take that as the principal sign of his worth, not the "correctness" or "incorrectness" of his theology. There are other things involved. <br /><br />You have to understand that GP is above and beyond all, an artist. And that is what makes him a great bhakta. He lives in a world of creativity, i.e., he knows that reality is internal and is, above all, beautiful. If he has no patience for those who don't understand, I agree with him. <br /><br />There is no point in trying to understand Gaudiya Vaishnavism, which is principally an aesthetic, a doctrine of aesthetics, an understanding that life is beautiful if your internal vision is beautiful. And the sadness of opposition is a pain that uplifts.<br /><br />नृपो न हरिसेविता व्ययकृती न हर्यर्पकः<br />कविर्न हरिवर्णकः श्रितगुरुर्न हर्याश्रितः ।<br />गुणी न हरितत्परः सरलधीर्न कृष्णाश्रयः<br />स न ब्रजरमानुगः स्वहृदि सप्त शल्यानि मे ॥<br /><br />nṛpo na hari-sevitā vyaya-kṛtī na hary-arpakaḥ<br />kavir na hari-varṇakaḥ śrita-gurur na hary-āśritaḥ |<br />guṇī na hari-tat-paraḥ sarala-dhīr na kṛṣṇāśraYaḥ<br />sa na braja-ramānugaḥ sva-hṛdi sapta śalyāni me<br /><br />The king who does not serve Hari,<br />the person who spends, but offers nothing to Hari;<br />the poet who does not glorify Krishna with his words;<br />the person who has taken a spiritual master,<br />but not taken refuge in Hari;<br />the person with good qualities who is not fixed on Hari;<br />the simple-hearted person who has not taken shelter of Hari;<br />and one who has taken shelter of Krishna,<br />but does not follow in the footsteps of the gopis --<br />These are the seven spears that pierce my heart.<br />(Gopāla-pūrva-campū 33.61)<br /><br />For Gadadhar, you just have to replace "Hari" with "Gaura" and "gopis" with "Nadia nagaris" and you will understand his personality.Jagadananda Dashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05887720845815026518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31351038.post-9092485439953736812018-03-06T22:18:09.635-05:002018-03-06T22:18:09.635-05:00Jai Radhe. I just got back into Vrindavan and I fe...Jai Radhe. I just got back into Vrindavan and I feel like I have a million things to do. It is good to be back, much as I love the East, this is home. When I hear Premananda Baba on the mike singing "Jai Vrindavan, Sri Vrindavan, Pran Vrindavan, Jivan Vrindavan!" <br /><br />So I do have a ton of things to do and I have to get my Sanskrit class and manual in order, so that will dominate over the next month. And besides that, I have a ton of things to write about and hopefully will do some of that today before I get totally engrossed in my life here again. I am feeling a bit febrile again. My trip east really was a kind of vacation and I have some notes about that which I will print up.<br /><br />Thank you very much Prema Prakash for your continued support and appreciation of Gadadhar's work. Indeed, I support him for many reasons, and not just because he is my godbrother and I have been a fellow traveller with him for so long, each of us going in a somewhat different direction, but nonetheless connected to the same umbilical chord.<br /><br />There is a lot to say about that. Somehow in my life I have made a few important connections with other human beings and those are each placing demands on me. My work here at Jiva is not motivated by anything other than appreciation for Satya Narayan Das Babaji. It is self-interested because I think that I spiritually benefit and grow by doing the work I do here. Money is thankfully not an issue. <br /><br />Gadadhar is something of a lightning rod. Most of my other friends do not like him personally or are opposed to his bhajan method. I have also had my difficulties with him in the past... stomping out angrily from Gadai Gauranga Kunj to get on the boat, swearing to never return... that kind of thing.<br /><br />It is true that GP is very self-centered and that is one of the interesting things about him. In some ways he is a narcissist or any other number of psychological conditions that basically mean he lives in his own reality and sees no real reason to enter anyone else's. <br /><br />He lives in a self-created world of total dependence on Gadai Gauranga. Call it magical belief or whatever, but he just talks about Gauranga, tries to convince and cajole others to worship Gaura-Gadadhar in nagari bhava. And when he finds someone who wants to listen, who finds it as lovely and enchanting as he does, he shivers in ecstasy.<br /><br />There must be a place where narcissism and self-realization meet. The artist and the mystic and indeed anyone on the path of self-discovery, much as he depends on others to attain his self-conception, ends up leaving aside the conventions that others have established and follows the tune that he alone hears.<br /><br />Our sampradaya is very strong in its orthodoxy, as is no doubt inevitable with any well-developed sect or church. Our Gurudeva was also very strong in his commitment to follow Bhaktivinoda Thakur, and indeed that is a very important reason that we both (and a few others, like Steve Bohlert) decided to follow him.<br /><br />But our gurudeva was 100 years old when we took initiation from him. I was a little less than a year before him. Madhusudan was a couple of months before me. Madhusudan is now a lecturer in an American university. He is the one GP refers to as having studied with Madan Mohan Das Babaji in this article.<br /><br />What links the four of us together, besides our guru, is that we are all unconventional in our following. I once wrote that the greatest good fortune in my life was to be graced by Srila Prabhupada (Bhaktivedanta Swami) and the second great blessing was to leave Iskcon and to get the blessings of Lalita Prasad Thakur.<br /><br />In many ways, GP is more orthodox that anyone. Indeed, I also look to our scriptures also for proofs of my interpretation of the tradition's texts and the central practices that personally follow. But one great struggle for me has been to integrate those things with a modern, empirical world view. Jung was a great help for me, and Peterson is really giving a big boost to confirming my Jungian interpretation of my own experience as a Vaishnava. (cont'd)<br /><br />Jagadananda Dashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05887720845815026518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31351038.post-10418436722285158572018-03-05T16:45:39.823-05:002018-03-05T16:45:39.823-05:00Gadadhar Pran's work is extraordinary. Is ther...Gadadhar Pran's work is extraordinary. Is there anything else like this available in English to guide and inspire divine lovers? Not that I am aware of. Prem Prakashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15332841826264949864noreply@blogger.com