Jagat

This is the last portion of the Service to Guru series, which is taken from a collection of articles by Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaj, originally published in Chaitanya Vani, the magazine of the Chaitanya Gaudiya Math. 4. Sudama Vipra at the ashram of Sandipani Muni The glories of service to the spiritual master have been sung in all the scriptures—in both the Upanishads and the Puranas. The disciple who is indifferent to service to the spiritual master will never get the mercy of Krishna. The Bhagavatam recounts that even Krishna himself set the example of how to serve the spiritual master. We see in the Bhagavatam that the Supreme Lord Krishna himself set the example of service to the spiritual master. After Krishna had returned to Mathura and killed Kamsa, he was reunited with his parents, Vasudeva and Devaki. Since he and Balaram had spent their childhood in the cowherd community, they had not received an education befitting the princely life they were now to lead. Not o...

Three more inspirational stories from the Mahabharata about service to the Guru. From unpublihsed book by Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaj, "The Heart of the Guru." 1. Aruni Uddalaka yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ prakāśante mahātmanaḥ Only unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master, who is his manifestation and not different from him, are all the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed. (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.23) In ancient times their was a great sage of the name Ayoda Dhaumya. He hd three students, named Upamanyu, Aruni and Veda. The story of this guru and his disciples is told near the beginning of the Mahabharata. It tells how he tested them and how through his mercy they were able to understand the scriptural teachings. On hearing it, one cannot help but be amazed. One day, Dhaumya bade one of his disciples, Aruni, who came from the kingdom of Panch...

This is the continuation of Part I . The author is Bhakti Promode Puri. I translated it 15 years ago. There is a sequel of stories about guruseva from Mahabharata, which I will post tomorrow. Satyakama takes care of Gautama's cows Gautama had a herd of cattle, many of which were weak and sickly. He selected four hundred of those that were in the poorest health and gave them to Satyakama, saying, “My child, please take care of these cows.” Satyakama took the herd Gautama had given him and said, “Master, I shall not return home until these four hundred head have increased and become a thousand.” After saying these words with his hands folded, Satyakama paid his obeisance to his guru and left with the cows. He then began to feed them with the best grains, grasses and water that he could. He took them through woods that were safe from wild beasts, absenting himself from his guru’s ashram for several years. Gradually, the cattle regained their health and started to reprod...

A number of years ago I was translating for Mandala Publishing, translating the Bengali articles of Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaj. One of the last projects was for a book on Guru-tattva, which has never been published for various reasons. At any rate, the following is a chapter from that unpublished book. Since Guru-tattva seems to be a theme here. There are a couple of other chapters that I might publish here. This article is a bit long (4500 words), so I have divided into two parts. Part II will be posted tomorrow. Service to the Guru: Jabala Satyakama gets knowledge of Brahman The Chāndogya Upanishad tells the story of how a young boy named Satyakama attained knowledge of Brahman. According to Shripad Shankaracharya, who has written the principal commentary to the Chāndogya Upanishad, “The purpose of this story is to teach that faith ( śraddhā ) and penance ( tapas ) are the two principal elements in the worship of Brahman.” Indeed, it is about faith in the guru ...

Jai Sri Radhe. Well I am finally going to be speaking at a few programs here in Montreal. I will still try to do more. Swami Bhakti Bibudh Bodhayan Maharaj is here in Montreal at the moment. He has been preaching in the Montreal area for more than ten years now, since one of his disciples, Anuradha Dasi , an innovative Odisi dancer from La Belle Province, is also something of a good promoter. Another friend of his is  Patrick Bernard, Prahlad Das , an ex-ISKCON person who took mantra initiation from Bhakti Rakshak Shridhar Maharaj. He has become fairly successful as a New Age musician with plenty of fans. So through the two of them, Bodhayan Maharaj has made plenty of contacts in local yoga schools, etc. Bodhayan Maharaj and Paramadwaiti Maharaj at Vrinda Kunj in Vrindavan, 2009. I went to a couple of Bodhayan Maharaj's programs, and have met many of his disciples, who are mostly new and real beginners. The mood in his programs is very good and quite different from t...

Part I : Tirtha, Kshetra, Dhama Part II : Pilgrimage to Puri in the 19th Century Part III : Gaudiya Vaishnava Pilgrimage How a Gaudiya Vaishnava performs pilgrimage In a 1967 article about the Chaitanya Gaudiya Math pilgrimage to Jagannath Puri, Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaj summarized the speech given by His Divine Grace Bhakti Dayita Madhava Maharaja to the assembled devotees on the first evening of their arrival at Dudhwala Dharma Shala: According to our most worshipable Srila Prabhupada’s teachings, performing the Dham parikrama is a way in which a devotee can easily practice the five most powerful acts of devotional service: associating with devotees, chanting the Holy Name, hearing the Bhagavatam, residing in Mathura (or the Holy Dham) and serving the deity form of the Lord. sādhu saṅga nāma kīrtana bhāgavata śravaṇa mathurā vāsa śrīmūrtira śraddhāya sevana sakala sādhana śreṣṭha ei pañca aṅga kṛṣṇa prema janmāya ei pāṅcera alpa saṅga eka aṅga sādhe keha...