Jagat

So after my post on Rajendra Das , where I mentioned Pundrik Goswami's name in connection with his visit to Montreal earlier this year, Pundrik himself (or whoever is in control of his FB page ) sent me a link to a lecture he gave in 2018 when he was given a "Valmiki award" by the most renowned Ramayana speaker Morari Bapu . I have seen Pundrik Goswami speak on a couple of occasions.and I even wrote an article about him on Vrindavan Today in 2011 because even then I had been very impressed by him. At the time he was only 21 years old and newly risen to the gaddi of the Vaijayanti Ashram after his father Sribhuti Krishna Goswami had entered the dust of Vrindavan . Since then I have not had much contact with Pundrik Goswami Prabhu, so I listened to his lecture with some interest. There are a number of points that I would like to highlight about it. First of all, besides being well-educated in his metier as a Bhagavata speaker, Pundrik is extremely clever, whic...

Rajendra Dasji is a talented musician and singer, like many of the leading Bhagavata speakers of Vrindavan. Spent my Janmashtami at the Hindu temple in Dollard des Ormeaux. Was really made to feel at home by Dharampal Sharma, the priest. I really enjoyed the family atmosphere with the children dressed up as gopas and gopis and having a lot of fun with their dancing program. I am a bit sorry that I did not go there earlier as I feel much more in the spirit with the Indian bhaktas. Muraliika Devi and Pundrik Goswami have both given Bhagavata at this temple in the recent past, so the Braj Bhava is a stronger there than where Western neo-Vaishnavas dominate. I visited an old Iskcon friend the other day and gave him a hard copy of Vrindavan Today magazine. He appreciated it but felt in that he did not recognize or know anybody whose picture was in it, since there were no Iskcon devotees there. So he felt alienated, as though I had left Iskcon behind. I told him to read my editoria...

I started writing this while sitting in the Moscow airport. Now in Montreal, Canada. I just want to talk about my last day in Vrindavan. I already confessed to a wide and long detour into English language entertainments. Now that I knew I was finally leaving, I regretted all that I am missing even though present in the Dham. Even after a serious attempt in my three days in Barsana , I still hadn't finished my introduction to the Jivani , though I did make progress. I had hoped to finish it before departure, but I could not manage, though it seems tantalizingly close. One thing that has always been difficult for me with Guru-tattva is this disagreeing with the Guru or finding flaws in the Guru. Naturally, any intelligent observer is bound by nature to apply his powers of rationality to assess the validity of information received from an authoritative source or of one's own sensory perceptions. Information from authoritative sources still has to be confirmed by experien...

From Vrindavan Today : Sometimes one gets the impression that there is a certain movement afoot. Suddenly, one figure bursts into prominence and influences the general mood of the community, sets the rhythm that others follow. When the flowers bloom and their fragrance is carried by the breezes in the spring, the bees and hummingbirds who feed on the nectar automatically swarm to the colorful garden where they are arrayed. For the past few months people have been asking me with regularity, "Have you heard Premananda Baba's Vrindavana-mahimamrita lectures? Then I started looking on the internet and saw that his enthusiasts were making his lectures available every day, so I began listening. And today, finally, I went to Shri Hit Dham on the Parikrama Marg, in the Varaha Ghat area a bit west of the Bhaktivedanta Goshala. Vishakha Dasi accompanied me and took some photos, which you can see here: Gallery . Madan Ter and Shri Hit Dham Shri Hit Dham is right next to Mad...

I wanted to write a blog about the classes and lectures I listened to in Vrindavan, but I never got around to it. I did mention Prema Das's very enjoyable Chaitanya Charitamrita lectures at Radha Raman Nivas, but did not give a summary of the morning Bhagavata classes that I attended at the Krishna Balaram temple. I thought I would check the general temperature of Hari Katha at that noble institution and probably went to about eight or ten classes altogether, nearly every day someone different. I heard Radha Raman Swami twice, as he spoke in English one day and Hindi the next. About those Iskcon lectures, I will only make one comment, and that is that I cannot recall having heard the name of Radha a single time, nor Vrindavan, nor the word prema. The only exception to this dearth of rasa was perhaps one young brahmachari who read a couple of songs by Jnana Das about Krishna's rupa. It must be said, though, that as someone who likes to speak Harikatha, I cannot help salivat...