Jagat

This gives a partial view of the property that was occupied. The area was cleared of underbrush and two tin shacks put up, which were dismantled. Being next to the pukkur, it will perhaps make a nice spot for a bhajan kutir or two. Good news! Those who are interested in the situation at the Bhaktivinoda Thakur Janma Sthan in Birnagar will be happy to know that on Janmashtami, the boundary wall around the Dwadash Mandir property was completed and the encroachers evicted from the disputed section. Sri Hari Gopal Das Babaji Maharaj. Last week, Harigopal Dasji and a group of about twenty important members of the Birnagar community approached the new municipal vice-chairman, Govinda Poddar, about the situation. He gave a favorable response and a decision was taken to repossess the disputed portion of the land and to build the wall, despite the fact that the court has yet to make a decision. The next day, the Member of the Legislative Assembly and Superintendent of Police sat d...

  I was greatly disturbed today to learn from my godbrother Hari Gopal Dasji Maharaj, the current president of the Bhaktivinode Gosthi, that the Birnagar birthplace of Bhaktivinoda Thakur is under attack. Some neighbors are claiming that they have ancestral rights over the land, even though the property was clearly given to our Gurudeva, Sril Sril Lalita Prasad Thakur, in the 1930’s and the ashram has the papers to prove it. It happens that the town of Birnagar has grown up around the Dwadash Mandir property, making it extremely valuable real estate. Dwadash Mandir for the most part is unchanged from 40 years ago before greed and development had become the de facto religion of this country. In the last few years, the population of the ashram has dwindled and made it vulnerable to this kind of attack. Land Mafias everywhere in India take advantage of such situations to their profit. When it became clear to the trustees of the Goshthi that the ashram was in danger, they...

Harigopal Dasji and Vamshi Dasji. So I did not finish reflecting on the visit to Dwadash Mandir. Some came out today in a bit of a poetical form, which can be seen here . Let me quote the relevant parts, which is actually most of the poem: It was a visit to a distant past, my guru's ashram. Strangely unchanged, though changes are coming, like everywhere, like a cancer they spread through every artery in the shape of fallen trees and piles of bricks in various shapes and forms, usually square and shapeless, devoid of love or art. ...  But Dwadash Mandir sits in obliviousness to the norms of the modern world. It is dangling with cobwebs the spaces are just nooks, the women are just cooks. And the bell rings and the gong chimes and one or two voices sing the mangal arati waking up the rest, who slowly drag themselves into their daily routine of cooking and cleaning the men are dragging long tubes or piles of wood, or bringing in mangoes from the orchard...

The first draft of this article was written ten days ago when I first arrived with Hari Gopal Dasji in Birnagar. I have been experiencing a number of technological setbacks on this trip -- the loss of the camera being the first major hassle. It took a few days to get some photos taken and finally I am posting a revised version along with a few photos that were taken by other people. There were also numerous computer keyboard and internet connection problems. We will be leaving tomorrow to return to Vrindavan via Kolkata, and there is a lot more to say than what is here. In Kolkata we stayed two nights with a couple of bhaktas, disciples of a disciple of Bhakta Ma, Kanti Chakravarty Bhakti Hridaya, whom I don't know, but who apparently is engaged in preaching widely in Bangla Desh. He will, I think, be coming to the meeting in Birnagar today, or perhaps tomorrow. I look forward to seeing him, as it will be good to have many branches connected to the Bhaktivinoda tree all coming t...

Tonight I am back here in Vrindavan. It is very interesting for me to observe this differences in worlds as I constantly go back and forth between Rishikesh and Vrindavan, the two places where I have spent most of the last nearly seven years. Now, in a few days, I will go to my guru's home. I am barely able to imagine what it will be like. It really will be the first time in ages. I went once a few years ago, in a rented car with Gadadhar Pran. It was a very unsatisfactory visit in that there was little closeness between the two of us white foreigners and the people living at the mandir. This time I go in the company of my godbrother, Harigopal Dasji. Thirty years ago, I knew Harigopal as Bhakta Das when I first went to Birnagar. There were three young men staying in the ashram; Badol, Madhav and Bhakta Das. Though Madhusudan and I only stayed there a few times for an extended period of time, we developed friendships with all three of them. But Bhakta Das was always curious an...

My next door neighbor here in Vrindavan was a woman named Krishna Kumari Dasi, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada’s who had had a pretty rough life in ISKCON, to say the least. At any rate I wrote about this place on Vrindavan Today a couple of years ago. LINK . As it so happens, things change and right now, the garden stands empty... Akhiladhar has gone to St. Petersburg with his wife to settle visa issues and to collect money to develop the property. He wants to create a separate venue with guest house for Russian devotees. gave me the key and so the last couple of nights I have been going there to do a little kirtan. The dominant feature there is the rather full sized figures of Gaura Nitai standing in front of the Yamuna, with Madan Mohan temple in the background. But as I sing the Gaura arati of Bhaktivinoda Thakur, the river sure looks like the Ganga to me. The statues were made by Akhiladhar, though he told me he was not an artist... I had to laugh at the uncanny resemblance...