Jagat

Thoughts after morning meditation. I am trying to attain asana siddhi, which means sitting for 216 minutes without moving - no stretching, twitching, itching, scratching. What is interesting about asana siddhi is that you can't achieve it without pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi. But pranayama, etc., really only start after one has attained asana siddhi. Question: Doesn't Vipassana do it? Jagadananda Das : All meditation systems require sitting still. But Vaishnava meditation is meditation on Krishna mantra, Krishna rupa, Krishna lila, and on the world of prema. Prabhupada disciple : In this age Lord Caitanya gave the process of chanting Hare Krishna as the only and proper way quick spiritual advancement. Much better use of 216 minutes than trying to attain asana siddhi. Jagadananda Das : Thank you for your input. Now my question to those who talk like this is, what is the goal of chanting? Is one meant to concentrate on the Holy Name? Does chant...

It has come to my attention that some people are having a difficulty putting all the pieces of my philosophy and sadhana together. That is perfectly understandable, since various people are coming to the issue from different angles of vision and levels of experience and knowledge. Most people who read or hear about this Prema Sadhana or Sahaja Sadhana are coming to it from the point of view of the bhakti-marga, which is not at all surprising since that is my original orientation also. However, as readers of these pages will know, I am critical of the general approach to bhakti for several reason. Too many devotees of Krishna are literalist and ritualistic in their approach. Moreover, they are philosophical so dualistic that phrases like bhedābheda are functionally meaningless to them. They get the bheda part, so much that they are willing to die or kill for it, but the abheda part of it is a complete mystery. Because of these defects, they are basically stuck in the beginner s...

Christiaan sent a question on the Karpatriji thread , which rather than continuing there, I decided to answer in a separate post. Actually, I will divide my answer in two, as there are really two questions. Is modern psychology compatible with the RK-Lila concept? I recently heard that someone who suffered from a severe obsessive compulsive disorder got treated rather succesfully, but in his therapy chanting was considered a symptom of his disorder rather then a solution to it. He gave up on it (the chanting). Rituals seem to dovetail OCD's. In a way most rituals have much in common with OCD's. Then the phenomenon of chaotic/catatonic schizophrenia. Most of the symptoms correspond with what are called symptoms of ecstatic trance in India, or possession. In Italy they hallucinate about Mary, in Turkey about Fatima and in India about... With regard to your question about whether Radha and Krishna is compatible with modern psychology. The short answer is "which psychology?...

Hatha-yoga names several sitting postures for meditation purposes. There is a hierarchy in these posture, and there are definite advantages for the person chanting japa to make use of these techniques to improve concentration on Harinam and smarana. There are probably more, but the main sitting postures are: sukhāsana, siddhāsana, svastikāsana, ardha-padmāsana, vīrāsana, gomukhāsana and padmāsana . The main point of the sitting posture is that it should be comfortable enough to sit in for a long stretch of time. Changing postures can be helpful when the legs or back get tired, and occasionally getting up to walk around or to stretch the legs and back may be necessary. For most people, some kind of back support is beneficial in all the sitting postures. You should place a pillow or something else (a rock, a piece of wood, a book (!) ... anything) under the sacrum (the tailbone). This will help keep the back straight. The straighter the back, the deeper one can breathe, since the...