Jagat

I don't go out all that much, but whenever I do, the transformations that are taking place in Vrindavan on a day-to-day basis are constantly at the forefront of my perceptions. The other evening I cycled the length of the Chattikara Road from NH2 to the house and found it quite amazing to see how rapidly everything is mutating. But that is quite the road at night now. New buildings -- hotels, ashrams, guesthouses, apartment buildings, residential developments, temples -- popping up everywhere, many of them looking quite posh in the night with their glass and polished granite facades and colored neon signage. With the dark night backdrop obscuring the old Vrindavan from view, one could be forgiven for thinking we were actually in at least the 20th century. I went into the huge Akshaya Patra complex and attended arati there. It is a separate ISKCON, just a couple of centimeters different enough to be a "not-ISKCON", with a personality quite different from Krishna Bal...

Since getting back to Vrindavan, I seem to have been going through some kind of adjustment  experience . Rishikesh and Vrindavan really are two different worlds.  Right now it is the Jhulan and Janmastami season warming up in Vrindavan. So there is a lot of  action , a lot of satsanga, Bhagavata, kirtan, etc. going on everywhere. Hundreds of  people  on the Parikrama Marg every day, it seems. I am mostly sleeping in my room... Like Harivams says, that is the bhakti path, just stretch out your legs and go to sleep... in Vrindavan. I have arrived! I picked up a book yesterday about Udiya Baba by his disciple  Akhandananda Saraswatiji Maharaj . These were two of the most significant Brahmavadis to move to Vrindavan in the last century. Akhandananda founded one of the largest ashrams in Vrindavan, in Moti Jheel, and Udiya Baba's ashram is right nearby.  Akhandananda tells the story that when Udiya Baba (Purnananda Tirtha) was still engaged in...