Jagat

There was a book by the famous travel writer  Paul Theroux  left lying by a previous guest in the cottage at SRSG, The Old Patagonian Express . Theroux writes about pretty much nothing with such ease. He is a good writer and learned in literary matters, but his subject matter seems somewhat trivial to me. This book is about his travels on trains from Boston to Patagonia, the things that happen to him and the people he meets. Seems like a very easy formula: no reason for writer's block if that is all you have to do. It is basically a diary. But diaries can be a great literary form... I have often wanted to write a kind of spiritual journal, like Thoreau  or even like Satsvarupa Maharaj , but I am afraid I just don't have the discipline. Writing is time-consuming and exhausting, and I have a lot of it to do. Day-job type of thing. This kind of writing is an indulgence if it cannot be monetized... and even then it is not my genre, so I should rather avoid getting...

I have been listening to the various Iskcon internet radio stations of late. Yesterday I had Jayapataka Maharaj's lectures playing most of the day while I worked. Most of it was poorly recorded so they made background sound and I did not pay much attention, but others were much clearer and I listened a little more carefully. Some of the talks were 20 years old, and his voice sounds like that of a young man, but he does some of that trademark yelling, working the crowd, making them chant Hare Krishna or respond to questions. Every one of his lectures consists almost entirely of stories and anecdotes. These are either scripturally or real-life based. Nearly all are somehow related to the miraculous nature of the various lilas, or to "miraculous" events related to devotees' experiences in real life. I felt a feeling of kinship towards him. I know, I know, I have heard all the negative stuff, and there is plenty of it. But there is something in me that responds whenever ...