Jagat

Alanah and Jamie, a nice young couple from Nova Scotia, who are students staying here at Jiva, have been working the garden with organic methods and are breathing life into it. With our guests from Bhakti Marg contributing, the compost heaps are growing exponentially The time they have on their hands has given a positive result. Here it is April 23, 2020.  We have been in lockdown for more than a month. For some time now I have been reluctant to write and especially indifferent about revealing my personal situation. There were a couple of things that I did want  to say. I came back from Canada after a three month stay back in September last year. I think I was already on a bit of a downturn before leaving, with the residue of all that Vrindavan Today business that I went through back then. The whole episode still traumatizes me. Dr. Martins is here on the Jiva premises somewhere, but he is practicing social distancing with vigor and I have barely seen him once or twic...

I don't know much about Gaurahari Das. I met him personally once in Mayapur a few years ago. I was told at the time that he was making disciples and trying to build a following. He had a nice face, a good smile, was generally polite and curious in conversation. If I formed any opinion then, it was that it was a little early for him to be acting as guru, but then that is so typical that I did not make much of it. Later on, I followed his career a little since I had had some personal contact with him. I noticed him go through a phase of supporting the ritvik philosophy. He was constantly making videos and trying so hard to reach a state of emotional bhakti, or bhava. Then he started watching videos of Christian preachers, televangelists of the Southern Baptist variety, miracle workers and Pentecostals. His sudden conversion to Christianity took us all by surprise, however. After all, most devotees recoil before a religion that condones meat-eating, what to speak of the crass commerc...