Jagat

2. "Radha: Mistress, Mother, Mediatrix" by Su.. Su. is the most advanced student in the class, as she is now working towards a PhD, and it shows in her thorough research, sophisticated writing style and scholarly presentation. Her doctoral dissertation is to be based on Vallabhacharya's Bhagavata commentaries. I don't know exactly what part of Vallabha she intends to cover, but she evidently realizes the importance of understanding Radha in the historical context. Her desire to make a thorough inquire into the subject is clear and the research for this paper covers most of the significant secondary literature that has come out of the past three decades of Western scholarship on the subject. The stated goal of her paper is to contrast the Gaudiya Vaishnava vision of Radha with the one found in the Brahma-vaivarta Purana and to show how she ultimately functions in both as Mother to the devotees and Mediatrix between them and God, despite the somewhat different theologi...

I have been marking my students' papers. There were only three who made it to the end. I guess I was given a pretty easy ride for a university course. I think that the three were pleased with the course and since, on the whole, their papers were very good, I thought I would share a few excerpts here. Each of them cited passages, made comments, or had insights that were worth reflecting on. For privacy reasons I will only refer to them by their initials. This posting was begun more than a week ago on May 2, showing just how my time deficit is affecting my ability to write. This also will account for the lack of a discernable train of thought. ====================================== 1. "Reason, Belief, Essence, Faith, or how Bhaktivinoda Thakur 'rationalized' the Spirit" by E.M. EM has written an excellent paper, inspired primarily by readings from Shukavak's articles and his book on Bhaktivinoda Thakur. She had previously read other material on the effect...

I spent all day at the university for the Sanskrit conference. Third annual. Sanjaya put me as the first speaker. तिक्तेन समारभ्यताम् ! In fact, I was very tired and my talk was not very well prepared. So I just talked off the cuff. Sanjay followed; he was well-prepared with a Power Point presentation about Bhishma's आश्रमधर्म . He is very eloquent and droll. Next speaker was Giribharatan, the Sanskrit Bharati missionary. Sanskrit Bharati has come out with a very nice book on scientific advances and found in the Sanskrit literature, which was the basis of his talk. Ajaya Rao, a young professor at the University of Toronto, spoke about making Sanskrit a living language. All of these speakers were followed by lively question periods and discussions, which was perhaps the best feature of this year's conference. Arvind Sharma said to me that it seems everyone is losing their inhibitions. An elderly engineering professor from India named Brij Kashyap read some Sanskrit poems he had ...

I have been a bit negligent in resuming the results of my teaching experience. I was rather hoping to start developing a text book that could be used in teaching such a course, using my interaction with the students as a source of inspiration. But I am a free molecule, being batted around in the atmosphere, and it seems that no one's will power is more at the mercy of events than mine. So Jiva Goswami and the Prema Vilasa bounced all these good intentions onto the back burner. A back burner that is so full of worthwhile endeavors that it seems the world will starve without them... At least Krishna on the altar will starve for lack of finished offerings. Today is the last course. My students will be taking a short vocabulary quiz. Then we will have to go over the post 16th century material in half the normal course time. Totally impossible. I will try to post the readings for the last three courses on line in a couple of days and add a few comments to illustrate the directions the d...

I talked about bloguilt, now I will talk about backblog. No I won't. This is just to say that I am in the sanctuary of McGill this morning. Last week was reading week, so I was hoping to use Tuesday to get caught up, but I ended up spending most of the day in bed, digesting. I left home earlier than I usually do on Tuesdays. It is a bit milder than it has been--we've been having a fairly protracted cold spell since the middle of January--and I stopped in a coffeeshop to read before coming to my office at McGill. I have been reading an article by James Hillman on the fiction of the case history. I don't read as quickly as I used to; somehow, everything I read has some significance, some value that is worthy of reflection. I no longer think that I need to swallow the whole universe, there seems to be plenty of nourishment to be had in smaller doses. That is, of course, if the doses come from the right source. "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some...

The third week’s readings were four in number, and shorter than the previous week. I have listed them at the end of this text. I have to admit that I was surprised and pleased by the direction my readings took me this week. In the seminar on the Holy Name, one of the questions that came up was about the difference between mantra and the Holy Name. My students have been somewhat influenced by Devesh Soneji, the bright young professor who currently teaches most of the courses on Hinduism in the department. He specializes in a number of fields, including Bharatanatyam and Tantra, especially Sri Vidya, so he has given them a good background in the Tantric theory of mantras, yantras and so on. The explanation I gave in class was based on the distinctions that I have admittedly acquired from Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati and Bhakti Rakshaka Sridhar Maharaj about the difference between the Bhagavata and Pancharatra approaches to spiritual practice. The former is far less ritualistic and more...

Funny. The university environment is like another home to me. I was describing my feelings to the lecturer with whom I share this transitional office in terms similar to the ones I used when talking about my visit to the Iskcon temple not so long ago. I feel like I am bathing in something intellectual, spiritual, when I am here. I can feel the power of thousands of minds, which have been concentrated on the search for understanding, and since it is here in the department of religious studies, searching for understanding of God, or some aspect of God. You can feel it like a dose of strong coffee. It makes thinking and writing easier, in the way that movement is facilitated in space.