Jagat

Today's memories are dominated by 2016 when I was more engaged in Vrindavan Today research and writing. It is too bad that the VT archives were lost and a ton of good stuff is no longer available, except perhaps on the internet archive. So in 2016 Satyanarayana Dasji took everyone from Jiva to Umrao, which is the village associated with the original Lokanath Goswami and his discovery of the Radha Kanta deities. It is just near Chhata on the way to Barsana. Ranbari, the site of Siddha Krishnadas, whose story is very famous, is just nearby. Most of these photos are available in my Facebook albums. At the same time, Hargovinda Sharma, one of the leading rasacharyas of the 20th century, who along with Hari Baba and Purushottam Goswami and others promoted Gaura Lila musical plays along with Radha Krishna lila, which I think was a very important development, but is a tradition that appears to be getting lost also. (FB Memories July 27)

  Although Krishna is generally thought of as an adolescent, sometimes This picture follows the idea that Krishna was only 11 years old when he left Vrindavan, as stated in the Bhāgavatam: tato nanda-vrajam itaḥ pitrā kaṁsād vibibhyatā | ekādaśa samās tatra gūḍhārciḥ sa-balo’vasat || Thereafter, His father, out fear of Kaṁsa, carried Him from prison to Nanda’s Vraja. He lived there with Balarāma for eleven years, like a hidden fire. (3.2.26)

A few different subjects came up on this date. (1) Devotees and learning Indian languages like Bengali and Sanskrit. I have written about this several times, like Love and Language . (2) I engaged in a response to Meena OM, a self-styled guru from Mumbai who is fairly popular " master " on Speakng Tree , where current Hinduism daily shows its blandness and abandonment of its tradition. I was posting there for a while but abandoned it quite some time ago. Anyway, about "becoming an avatar", apparently that is possible. (3) Comments on Bhaktivinoda's statement that party spirit and sectarianism are the two great enemies of progress. (4) Some verses from Govinda-līlāmr̥ta . FB Memories July 19.

This is a photo of my friend Vishnu Panigrahi taken at the final rituals on the day of Swami Veda's jala samādhi. They were offering flowers to his body, which was about to be taken to Haridwar to be placed in the fast flowing Ganges in a place where the water was deep. Swamiji's akhara oversaw the rituals. Many people will be posting photos and videos, so I decided just to take pictures of some of the people who came. Not everybody, just the ones I recognized.  Here is my album from that day in 2015. There are other Rishikesh-related memories. FB memories July 17.   2017   One of my favorite songs. I heard this in the film Nīlācale Mahāprabhu , but the link has been lost. I did not post a translation the first time, so here it is.   ki rūpa herinu madhura mūrati pirīti rasera sāra| hena laẏa mane e tina bhūbane tulanā nāhi go tāra|| What beauty have I beheld, a form of sweetness, the essence of the taste of love It seems to me that this form has no equal anywher...

It was on this day in 2015 that Swami Veda Bharati left his body in Rishikesh. I was in Vrindavan at the time but left the same day to be there for the jala-samādhi and I stayed for several weeks until the mourning period was over. Someone also sent me a photo of the Nitai Pada Kamala, which evoked memories from 1976 or thereabouts. This date was also Guru Purnima in 2011, and my remarks inspired a long thread with plenty of comments. Facebook memories.  July 14 2020 Chapter 28 of Another Side of Bhaktivinoda Thakur by Gadadhar Pran Das is now available. There is only one more chapter, which will be appearing soon. Then what happens? Probably a final edit and then publication. How that will be organized I do not know, but it seems that GP Prabhu has finally got a few disciples who are faithful and will help get it done. Which I think is at least in part due to the publication on line on my blog. I was checking yesterday. Some chapters have had only a couple of hundred ...

It is getting difficult for me to post every day as I am being distracted by numerous distractions in my new life here. I am dealing with the strange new circumstance in which I find myself, presuming that there is some meaning in all fortuitous circumstances. I have started making videos in French. The devotional community here in Quebec is very small and very fragmented. Furthermore, I am treated by everyone with great suspicion. Madhuri has a generally poor opinion of most of them, in no small part because their suspicion of me spills over to them. But I am of the opinion that my first responsibility is serving the devotees, which is why I chose today's title. I have been experimenting as my French is not all that great. But still, it seems that it would be better to try this first.  Anyway. I am feeling a bit isolated and in need of bhakta-sanga , otherwise my spiritual life is going to deteriorate. This is of course the test. Many people said to me that Vrindavan is everywhere...

2017 বাস্তব আমার সব সময় এ অনুভব হয় যে আমি যতটা বাংলা ভাষার মধ্যে অনুপ্রবিষ্ট হই, আমি ততটাই মহাপ্রভুর কাছে এসে গিয়েছি. জয় গৌর! 2015 The life of a Luddite living in India. I can live without internet, but if we have the internet, can we have it please? Waiting ten minutes to see an email... 2014 The rains are coming down monsoon fashion here in Rishikesh. I wish some of this would fall on the plains further south. 2014 Pleased to say that today on Guru Purnima, I have just completed the Yoga Tarangini project and handed it to Swami Veda Bharati to be sent for publication. Jai Guru. (115 comments) I just arrived in Vrindavan. They apparently had "suspicion" of rain last night so it is not the promised 36 degrees nightly low, but at least 5 below that. As yet, this commuting back and forth from Vrindavan to RIshikesh is very revealing. And I can tell you, of the two I am definitely a Vrindavan person. There is just a little yogi lurking in there that still cries out ...

Contents of an Indian street cow’s stomach (Gomata Gau Seva Trust, 2016) What is this light above the water in the shape of an umbrella? It is not submerged even when the whole earth is submerged in water. Is it the eternal Brahman, enumerated in hundreds of statements of the Upanishads, that has taken the form of an umbrella to give shelter to those suffering from the threefold miseries? We have become perfect merely by seeing it, O Teacher of the Universe. O Janardana, and you are also glancing at it repeatedly. Although you are the personification of wonder, you look at it as though you also find it wonderful. FB Memories July 11 (2015)    2012 It has taken a long time, but on occasion I am finally hearing -- or imagining that I am hearing -- the voices of the writers of the Sanskrit texts. 2011 For Love to be realized, it must be experienced internally as emotion (bhava) and externally as reciprocation (prema). Thereafter Lord Vishnu replied:   The light in ...

Today's Facebook memories are more copious than most other days. There are reflections on Weber's charisma, thoughts on Vrindavan and Vrindavan Today, Thomas Merton and " The Monastery ." I am a bit surprised that none of this was previously on the blog. I was in Rishikesh when I wrote this as the book was in Swami Veda's library. FB Memories July 9.

  Today's instalment is mostly a couple of quotes from Bhakti Sandarbha  along with Babajji's comments, though I include a quotation from Bhaktivinoda Thakur to begin. 

  I have been having difficulty continuing this posting of memories from Facebook. Some days there is little or nothing. On the other hand, I sometimes want to comment expansively on some point that was discussed long ago but don't find the time. So I do have a number of drafts and other potential articles.  Facebook memories July 6.