Jagat

I just came back from a Smriti Sabha on the Parikrama Marg for Shyama Sharan Nyayacharya, who was Satya Narayan Dasji's pandit for more than 20 years. Babaji regularly studied from him--Yoga Sutra, nyaya, Vallabhacharya, Nimbarkacharya, Mimamsa, and more. The list is quite long. Shyama Sharan left his body in Vrindavan a little over a week ago, and this was the official memorial. Ramanandacharya Shri Ram Nareshacharya Ji Maharaj   A great number of Vrindavan's cream, pandits and babajis, dominated by representatives of the renounced wing of the Nimbarka sampradaya, were there. But really, Satya Narayanji knew him best because he had studied with him for so long. The most impressive speaker, whom I had never heard before, was the Ramanandacharya, Ram Nareshacharya, who gave a relaxed speech, full of humor and anecdotes about Shyama Sharanji, but filled at the same time with delicious tidbits of his scholarship -- a bit of Patanjali's Mahābhāṣya  here, an extract fr...

This article was first sent on the short-lived Garuda  list serve run by Rocana Dasa, most probably in 1997. It was available on line on the Wise Wisdoms site for a while, but was taken down. On rereading, I find it still relevant. Reason and scriptural interpretation We are human beings endowed with reason, with which we try to make sense of our experiences in life and learn from them. In Krishna consciousness we have been indoctrinated to mistrust reason and even our direct experience to the benefit of authority-based learning. The argument is, of course, cogent: You cannot invent your own language, and there is no point in reinventing the wheel, and if we wish to see far, it is advisable to stand on the shoulders of giants. But even when standing on the shoulder of a giant, it is with our own eyes that we see and with our own brains that we process the sensory or extrasensory information our eyes give us. Thus, where scripture is concerned, we state the following: C...

Reflecting on the Sampradaya Sun comments. There were a few letters back and forth between myself and Rocana. Finally, I apologized for my unpleasant telegrams. So Krishna says, "kama esa", it is "lust" that drives us impulsively to act, even against our will, in sinful activities. At the same time, we hope to be able to act naturally, in harmony with our best nature, the will of God, etc. Spontaneous action in some circles is often called the highest state--the "zone," zen, or whatever. In other words, it seems that there is a place where we are free from the need to use our intelligence, or at least to agonize over difficult decisions. Where we can believe that our actions are at one with the purpose of the universe. Is that liberation? Buddhi has an internal and an external aspect. Externally it is called reason, internally, it is called intuition. Impulsive action is often followed by reflection--sometimes lengthy. Because we frequently act impulsively...