Jagat

This is Part 5 of a series called "Confession and the Authentic Self." 1. Prologue . 2. Setting the scene. The saga of the Paundraka Vrindavan Today . 3. Staking out the high ground. The frequentations of swans and crows . 4. Confession, a religious act. A concealed provocation. I won't give too much of a preamble here. As stated below, this article appeared after negative material about Babaji started appearing on the other website. I felt that the only way to counteract the negativity was by speaking what I saw as positives. I know that when I read this, it is not full of glorification of Babaji's external achievements or of dramatic hagiography. His disciples can do that. I thought it was more important to say why I decided to serve here in the Jiva Institute and the nature of my relationship with Babaji. How I see him as a human being. Babaji is younger than me, and he took to bhakti at a later time than me. But these are externals that are less important...

I had some misgivings about posting this and even considered deleting it completely. Facebook pie fights are unseemly and who wants to admit to having been sucked into one. I regularly get posters from my ISKCON friends -- usually people who are on the fringes, for I suspect that for a temple devotee to be my FB friend is a capital offense -- who exhort me to read Prabhupada's books as the magic cure for my confusion. It is not fair of me to point out that often they are clearly symptomatic of some kind of spiritual blockage, but occasionally I do. However, the following made me take the whole question of this infantile approach to religion and to look at it in the light of history. A comment on Facebook I made elicited the following response from the aptly named Yuyutsu: Aha ha ha ho ho ho Jagadananda.. thinks he's Santa CAUSE.... ALSO THINKS HE'S SOME KIND OF HOLYMAN GURU SADHU... OF SORTS... 😂😂😅😆😃😂😂😂😂😂 THAT EARNS YOU A "PHCK OFF" LITTLE OLD MA...

This is a post that has been somewhat long in coming, but I think that it needs to be done and said publicly. A few weeks ago I posted on this blog an article about Vishwananda Swami , the founder and acharya of Bhakti Marg . I had my doubts about posting it and knew almost immediately that I was headed for trouble. When I talked to Satyanarayana Dasaji, shortly after which I removed the article, he said to me in an exasperated tone, प्रयोजनमनुद्दिश्य मन्दोऽपि न प्रवर्तते prayojanam anuddiśya mando'pi na pravartate Even a fool does not undertake an action without having some purpose to fulfill. So what was my purpose in writing such an article? Well, I have to admit, that I had not really thought it out carefully. For one thing, I just wanted to write something. I was going through a somewhat dry period and I felt that I really should write anything at all.And since Swami Vishwananda had been around, I decided to write about what I had seen and thought and heard. But...

It has been a little strange here at Jiva these past few days. Swami Vishwananda is here with his troupe of disciples, of whom there are a goodly number, perhaps 80 or so. When I arrived in Vrindavan already a couple of weeks back, almost the first thing I noticed at the corner of Mathura Road and the Parikrama Marg was a big billboard with Swami Vishwananda’s charming smile and glowing tilak staring charismatically out at the world and announcing that he would be giving darshan on March 8 at the Jiva Institute. Below him, in a smaller frame was Satyanarayana Dasa Babaji, who besides being his host will be speaking on the Bhāgavatam at the darshan event. This is not the first time that Vishwananda and his group have been at Jiva. Satyanarayana Dasaji calls Vishwananda a friend, and indeed the relations between the two are very cordial. Vishwananda's group is mostly young and enthusiastic, predominantly European (German and points east), who are very enthusiastic about...