Jagat

I have been in Birnagar for a couple of months now, acclimatizing myself to the environment, which has been quite edifying. This is the first time since 1982 or something that I have stayed in my guru's ashram, and this is the longest time that I have ever lived here. In general, I find that my spiritual life is always progressing, but being in the presence of my Guru's spirit has been especially beneficial. I am not only getting the opportunity to give classes on Bhakti Sandarbha every day, but have also been getting calls from people in the area to come to speak. On Janmashtami I will be giving talks to devotees in Badkulla, which lies about halfway between Birnagar and Krishnanagar, and in Aramghata, a small village east of here where there is a private ashram associated with one of the Gaudiya Math's many branches. Harigopal Dasji, as I have mentioned, is putting a lot of energy into fixing up Dwadash Mandir. Although I have some nostalgia for the old world, p...

Someone was chastising me the other day that in order to attain the siddhi of the gopis one had to give up the puruṣābhimāna and think of oneself as a beautiful gopi maiden expert in the arts and dressed in the remnants of Radharani’s own wardrobe, with flowers in her hair, and so on. He is pleased by our prema for Him in one of the five rasas. But it requires a change in identity, from thinking you are this material body, to knowing that you are His lover, young friend, servant or parent. If you want to be His lover, you have to identify as a young and very attractive woman, expert in all the arts, witty, expert in word jugglery and thus equipped in all ways to bring Him pleasure. You cannot approach him, thinking you are an old man, and that the material illusory form of your partner is Radha. You cannot enter madhurya at all with a male form or identity. A beautiful picture indeed. And it seems so easy. Just like that, puruṣābhimāna disappears. Now what makes anyone  think ...