Jagat

śrīmad-vṛndā-kānane ratna-vallī- vṛkṣaiś citra-jyotir-ānanda-puṣpaiḥ | kīrṇe svarṇa-sthaly-udañcat-kadamba- cchāyāyāṁ naś cakṣuṣī gaura-nīle || In Vrinda's beautiful forest, sprinkled thickly with jewel vines and trees, their flowers shedding colorful joyful light, under the shade of a kadamba tree risen from golden ground, that fair and dark couple now fills our eyes. This verse strikes me as a bit of an interlude, a reversion to te kind of meditation that we saw in verses 2.30-32 , so it fits a general movement here to a meditation on the eternal abode. This is especially so since the next few verses continue a theme to which it seems Prabodhananda has been building. I have always found it difficult not to play a role in my own explanation of these verses, though it is, for all intents and purposes, freeing oneself of one's worldly identity, even that of the sādhaka-deha itself, to become immersed in that mood of the divine madhura-rasa . But I have to...

Dr. Jayalakshmi Alankar shared this video, wherein the good doctor Lustig explains scientifically the difference between pleasure and happiness, dopamine and serotonin.. Her summary: "Pleasure is SATISFACTION derived from things and persons OUTSIDE US. Happiness is SATISFACTION derived from the CORE OF DEEPEST BEING INSIDE US." - so simple to understand :) I think prema-sukha is happiness AND pleasure. It is pleasure experienced as waves in the ocean of happiness. This thought was provoked by the sheer impossibility of tasting ALL of the rasa that is present in so many writings of so many rasika mahatmas of so many sampradayas, and knowing that I have to stick to ONE to get it. That I have to concentrate on ONE toenail or whatever, one sentence of one book. That is when the rasa hits. Not otherwise. The key to the door goes through one keyhole. And yet, the thirst -- the thirst of one with cholera -- to drink it all, even in the frustration of kn...