Jagat

The procession around Radha Kund and Shyam Kund At 7.30 yesterday morning, when most of us at the Jiva Institute were still engaged in our morning bhajan, Manjari came to my neighbor Pradeep Das’s door and in a trembling voice announced that their Guru, Ananta Das Babaji, the Mahant of Radha Kund, had left his body a few minutes before. There are three initiated disciples of Mahanta Maharaj living at Jiva. They immediately made arrangements to go to Radha Kund. I joined them. We traveled in silence, each preoccupied by our own memories of Pandit Baba By some turn of events, Babaji had left his body in Vrindavan and was being transported by ambulance to the Gopinath temple in Radha Kund, where he lay in state for a few hours near the samadhi temple of Srila Raghunath Das Goswami, whose throne he had adorned for the past three decades. There I sat with the kirtaniyas, thinking that I am only a distant admirer of Babaji Maharaj and I should not get in the way of his disciples and ...

There is an old children's book by Dr. Seuss, To think that I saw it on Mulberry Street , where a child imagines fabulous events on the quiet neighborhood street he has to follow to go to school. I wasn't making anything up, but it seemed that there were bands and parades, camel-drawn carts and tractors pulling trailers full of Brijbasis and all manner of things that would be strange if one was not from here. But ever since I got back from Bengal I have been in a kind of limbo in the Jiva Institute, living in Braj but almost not here at all, in a strange paradoxical way. So this was really the first time out of the confines of Jiva since I got here more than a month ago. I didn't take any pictures. I was trying to take brain pictures. On Dwadashi I went to Radha Kund I saw a crowded street of people flowing in both directions and a constant stream of vehicles the mood was joyous. The month is Karttik. There are Radhe Shyam songs in the air from morning to night...

আজকে রাধাকুণ্ডে গিয়েছিলাম। রাধাকুণ্ড মহান্ত শ্রী শ্রী অনন্তদাস পণ্ডিত বাবাজী মহারাজের কাছে গিয়েছিলাম দর্শনের জন্য । উনি আমার সঙ্গে কিছু ক্ষণ কথা বললেন । পুরানো স্মৃতির আবৃত্তি হলো কিছু ।   বাবাজী অসুস্থ হলেও, ৯২ বৎসর বয়সেও এ বৎসরে নিত্য নিয়মিত পাঠ করবেন নিয়ম সেবার সময়. আমাকে রাধাকুণ্ডে থাকতে বলেছেন. আমি যে গোপালচম্পূ পাঠ করব বললাম. উনি খুশী হলেন.   বার বার বলছিলেন, "এসো, থাকো রাধাকুণ্ডে." আমি বললাম গোপালচম্পূ পাঠের কথা. বাবাজী মহাশয, "ভালো ভালো" বললেন.   আমি বলেছিলাম, "এত দিন পরে আপনার দর্শনে এলাম্. আপনার সঙ্গ লাভ করতে হলে আমার পুনর্জন্মের অপেক্ষা."   শেষে আমার মাথায় হাথ বুলিয়ে আমাকে বললেন, "তুমি আমার প্রাণের বন্ধু !" কি সুন্দর কথা, আমি চোখের জল সংবরণ করতে পারলাম না । ভেসেই গেলাম ।   রাধাকুণ্ডের পরিক্রমা করার সময, তিনকুডির প্রভুর আশ্রমের সামনে দিয়ে আমার সেই পুরানো স্মৃতি এলো -- সে নিয়ম সেবা যখন সেখানে তাঁর কাছে থাকলাম এক মাস । ঐ ছোট সরু শিরির দিয়ে আমি নেমে ঠাণ্ডা জলে, শীতের হাওয়ায় শ্রীকুণ্ডে স্নান করতাম ভোর বেলায়।   ...

Just came back from Radha Kund. I had an absolutely ecstatic bath, I even swam across and back. The water is clear and cleaner than I have seen in a long time, despite the flowers floating everywhere. Sure miss those turtles though. This will give you an idea. This photo picked from Himalayan Tramp blog. It brought back old memories of pukurs in West Bengal. I used to get up at four or earlier when I lived in Nabadwip, and I would walk the empty and ill-lit streets to Rani Ghat, which in those days was still nothing more than a stretch of beach. I would sing prayers all the way there and back, and even though the current was strong and it was dark, I would usually swim a little. But when I went somewhere, to give path or to go on pilgrimage, if the village had a pukur, it was always a glorious opportunity. I made friends with a Gosai, a descendant of one of Nityananda's associates, Parameshwari Thakur. And his village of Antpur was really a magnificent old Bengal...

I get regular mailings from the Pure Bhakti website of Narayan Maharaj's sangha. The last few days have been full of messages citing Narayan Maharaj's warnings about Ananta Das Baba. Today was the bouquet, as we say in French, as the headlined audio file was "Satsvarupa Goswami confirms Srila Narayan Maharaja saved him and others from Ananta Das Babaji."

Someone sent me this picture. After reading Madhavanandaji's latest blogs, it sure looks peaceful... like the way we idealized it. What is being lost? And can it be brought back? That which brought us to Radha Kund is that which is destroying it. Somewhat ironic.