Jagat

It was on this day in 2015 that Swami Veda Bharati left his body in Rishikesh. I was in Vrindavan at the time but left the same day to be there for the jala-samādhi and I stayed for several weeks until the mourning period was over. Someone also sent me a photo of the Nitai Pada Kamala, which evoked memories from 1976 or thereabouts. This date was also Guru Purnima in 2011, and my remarks inspired a long thread with plenty of comments. Facebook memories.  July 14 2020 Chapter 28 of Another Side of Bhaktivinoda Thakur by Gadadhar Pran Das is now available. There is only one more chapter, which will be appearing soon. Then what happens? Probably a final edit and then publication. How that will be organized I do not know, but it seems that GP Prabhu has finally got a few disciples who are faithful and will help get it done. Which I think is at least in part due to the publication on line on my blog. I was checking yesterday. Some chapters have had only a couple of hundred ...

I recently came across the following headline on Alternet, Don't Look on the Bright Side: Pessimism, Not Magical Thinking, Is What Will Save Us . My immediate reaction was, “Optimism is NOT magical thinking.” I have written about this before, that religion, reduced to its essence, is simply an optimistic world view . Religion means optimism. Faith means accepting that Something is behind everything after all, that there is a meaning to existence, a purpose that has more depth than mere survival and the trivial enjoyments and pursuits that preoccupy the majority of people. Even an atheist has to find, accept or devise -- if for nothing more than practical reasons -- that there is some structure, some purpose to his own presence in the world. Science, for instance, cannot stand without a faith in the existence of structures and laws that are fathomable. In a world where suffering is omnipresent, on//e needs a reason for living. Otherwise, the only logical option, in the face o...