Jagat

Gadadhar Pran painting Gorachand and Nitai Chand In Chapter Seventeen , Sri Gaurasundar's most personal bhakti treasure, unnata ujjvala madhura rasa , was discussed in context with how it can be attained in Vraja. In this chapter we will investigate where it is found in Goloka Nabadwip, with a brief study of the other rasas. Sri Nityananda’s Guru Puja After returning to Ramai's Manohara Kunj, the bhaktas disclose their eagerness to perform our last guru-pūjā within Nitai Chand's garden abode, which is our guru pūjā to him. But we will need to take Jahnava's shelter to do it. And to approach her, Ramai's help will be required. So in hearing about our desire, Ramai becomes thoughtful as he brings us to sit down with him under the shade of a flowering madhavi lata. “I could surely go to meet Ma Jahnava and tell her about your wish,” Ramai says. “And even if Nitai is enjoying pastimes with Gorachand and the bhaktas elsewhere, I know that she can bring him ba...

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...

A major insight of Bharata Muni in the Natya Shastra is the statement: “There is no communication of any meaning without rasa.” ( na rasād ṛte kaścid arthaḥ pravartate ) This has been more or less at the bottom of my thinking over the past few days, as I have been doing a prolonged manana on the concept of the vicāra-mārga and the ruci-mārgas that Jiva Goswami talks about throughout the Bhakti-sandarbha [See esp. Anu. 202]. In fact, if anything at all, the bhakti path itself is a consequence of understanding that the sentiments are far more powerful than the intellect. If you can communicate to the sentiments, then the intellect will follow. Barely anyone is so devoted to the truth that they currently possess they will not compromise it for a reward, if it is nice and sweet. But the point of bhakti is that it is a higher taste -- one that uplifts. It is one that has a message that makes one strive to be a better human being, according to the concept of what it is to be a Vaish...

III. The moods of Nityananda In this article it is not possible to give a thorough discussion of Nityananda’s personality, for that would lead us away from our subject—Gadadhar Pandit. Nevertheless, in order to understand the idea of “shakti” as it operates in personal form in Gauranga līlā, it is necessary to examine Nityananda and some of the developments that took place historically in the way his followers looked at him. Nityananda is a character of the greatest significance in Mahaprabhu’s līlā. He was chief among the preachers of the Lord’s message in Bengal and was responsible for the conversion of many businessmen and people from lower castes to Vaishnavism. Without exception he is identified as Balaram, Krishna’s older brother, the ancient deity known as his first expansion ( ādi-vyūha ), Sankarshan. Kavi Karnapur states that Nitai and his followers were  gopālā gopa-veśinaḥ , "cowherd boys in spirit, who dressed that way also." (GGD 14) In numerous songs...