Jagat

Sun rising over canal between Rishikesh and Haridwar Yesterday was an unusually quiet day for FB memories. That is made up for today. There are a couple of political comments about Modi's win in 2018. Of course  political opinions are pretty unstable as new infor mation co mes up so I  may  or  may not be ready to defend any of the m . More on Vrindavan Today difficulties in 2018. A Vrindavan walkabout and a discussion of the Vrindavan being for "shallow thinkers", a quote apparently attributed to Bhaktivinoda Thakur, coming via Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati. I find it very hard to believe. Prema Madhuri broke her hip and we are in the hospital awaiting attention. She may need an operation. It is Ekadasi, so there is something of an enforced vrata. We are getting a close up on socialized medicine in Canada. Patience required. FB Memories May 28. 2018 Actually where Vrindavan Today is concerned, I am getting a lot of love from the devotees. It somehow did not seem li...

I thank God that entering Vrindavan is so arduous. Arduously pleasurable at every step. I thank God that Radha and Krishna's sweetness is infinite, and that it will take an infinity of lifetimes to relish it, but that even then I will still not be filled. And I thank God for Srila Rupa Goswami's insight into the Divine Couple. Jai Sri Radhe! May everyone see the sweet presence  of Radha and Krishna in all phenomena, in separation and union, relishing the rasa. (9 years ago)

The bell rings and I go outside to see the sun pouring over the mountains onto dew-filled fields. The colored winter flowers are fading and the white summer ones scattering like snowflakes on the vines. The shukas squawk like beggars in the ancient arjun trees behind the dining hall. (12 years ago, Rishikesh)

Prem Mahavidyalaya at Keshi Ghat, with exhortations to keep the Dham clean. Originally posted at Vrindavan Today . rājyaṁ niṣkaṇṭakam api parityajya divyāś ca rāmāḥ kāmān sarvān api ca vihitāṁs tikta-tiktān vidantaḥ | hitvā vidyā-kula-dhana-janādy-abhimānaṁ praviṣṭā ye śrī-vṛndā-vipinam apunar-nirgamāṁs tān namāmaḥ || To those who have entered Vrindavan never to leave,      after abandoning a kingdom free of foes,       along with beautiful women and all desires and duties,             thinking them to be most bitter, and who have renounced learning, noble birth, wealth, and fame to do so,             we offer our respectful obeisances. Commentary After placing the accent on life outside of Vrindavan, Prabodhananda returns with admiration to the person who has managed to achieve the goal of going to Vrindavan, and then remaining so committed to it that he never leaves. ...

Srila Prabhupada visited Hanuman Prasad Poddar with his disciples the day before he left his body in 1971. I just came across this article by Gaurav Mittal , in which coincidentally, he cites the same verses I discuss in a related post here on this blog . While all of this was going on, I stumbled on this article in a book that I found in the uncatalogued books of the Jiva Institute library. I translated the story for Vrindavan Today because it seemed so very appropriate in terms of my situation. I referred to it several times in personal correspondence and in other articles. I am cross-posting here in the context of the Confessions series. [VT links are down, sorry.] The time Hanuman Prasad Poddar was honored in Vrindavan  (May 20) Hanuman Prasad Poddar (1892-1971) was an author and freedom fighter of India. Lovingly called 'Bhaijee', he was a multifaceted personality. As an editor of the religious magazine Kalyaan , he is known for his untiring efforts to propag...

 Yogiraj Prem Prakashji responded to a recent article addressing environmental concerns and I started to answer, but it spun out of control and became too long for a comment. And it was also becoming incoherent. So I decided to give it a little more thought and write it as a separate article. The environmental issue in Vrindavan is really a big deal. It is so everywhere in the world, but here we can feel it much more acutely. People in the "first world" can only imagine the kind of environmental degradation that is ongoing in India. Just think: India has four times as many people and only one-third the terrain of the US, what to speak of Canada. Many people are enthused by India's material progress and the rapid urbanization, but it is a bit harder for me to join the chorus. Every so-called step forward simply means more of the same haphazard construction of ugly buildings surrounded by heaps of refuse and open, garbage-filled drains emptying into what were once c...

We often hear about how modern Vrindavan has been transformed from a bucolic forest village into a "concrete jungle." In 1829 the French traveler Victor Jacques Mant described Vrindavan in his diary, Next to Benares, Vrindavan is the largest purely Hindu city that I have seen. I could not discover in it a single mosque. Its suburbs are thickly planted with fine trees, which appear from a distance like an island of verdure in the sandy plain. In the current situation of rapid urbanization and extreme environmental degradation, we are frequently reminded that Krishna stands for living in harmony with his environment and that he exulted in the beauty of this forested land. A closer look at the original texts makes this version a little more complex. Everyone knows the canonical version of how Krishna was taken by Vasudeva across the Yamuna from Mathura to Gokul and exchanged there for Ekanamsha, the incarnation of Durga Devi. There he was to be kept safe from the vicious Kam...

Facebook regurgitated a memory, a status I had posted three years ago. kvāsau rādhā nigama-padavī-dūragā kutra cāsau kṛṣṇas tasyāḥ kuca-mukulayor antaraikānta-vāsaḥ | kvāhaṁ tucchaḥ paramam adhamaḥ prāṇy aho garha-karmā yat tan-nāma sphurati mahimā hy eṣa vṛndāvanasya ||261|| How glorious is Radha, so far beyond the Vedic scriptures! And how wonderful Krishna, whose single abode is in the space between her breasts! And how low am I, such a fallen creature addicted to sinful life! If her name should manifest on my lips, it is only due to the glory of this land of Vrindavan. (RRSN 261) My friends, this is the truth! The power of the Dham is to make you remember Radha. Even if you wonder, "Why can't I remember Radha! Why isn't Bihariji merciful to me? Isn't the Dham supposed to make bhajan easier?" You are still doing bhajan by even asking the question. Slowly but surely you will see your bhajan bear fruit in the Dham. It will begin when your tongue...

So, by the magic of modern transportation, I have been teleported from Gauda Dham to Braja Dham. And according to the acharyas of our parampara, we can have either or both. But how to be ekāgra in sādhanā, and yet ekāgra in more than one thing? More than one identity? I can see that there is much seva to be done at my guru's bhajana sthali, the birthplace of Bhaktivinoda Thakur. When the Thakur was considering living in Radha Kund after his visit there in 1884, he happened to be in Tarakeshwar and Shivaji visited him in a dream to convey the message: "What's all this about going to Braj? Is there nothing for you to do in Gaura Dham?" There is no doubt that the conception of Nabadwip as a Dham and a Tirth Sthan along the lines of Vrindavan was very much _the_ contribution of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur. There are some who debate the authenticity of the Chaitanya birthplace in Mayapur, but there is little likelihood that ANY of the consciousness of Mahaprabhu's D...

I was reflecting on my Gopala Champu class for which I had not prepared myself properly and wrote: The sin of a translator, of which I am often guilty, is to start translating before becoming the original.   How do you become the original? Samadhi. By which I mean you should at least completely forget the language of arrival for as long as it takes to get to the end of the passage you are translating. In other words, not to translate. To get to the point of not translating. I don't particularly like the "mysterious" style. I am more of a verbose and boring explainer. So I began to examine what provoked those thoughts. In my class, I explain the passage word by word, so I am translating right from the very beginning. If I haven't understood the passage properly before I start that process, then in the public situation I will only produce an unclear sense, or one that deviates from the purpose of the passage. We were doing GC 1.1.17 and tomorrow we will have to...