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 have been having difficulty continuing this posting of memories from Facebook. Some days there is little or nothing. On the other hand, I sometimes want to comment expansively on some point that was discussed long ago but don't find the time. So I do have a number of drafts and other potential articles.  Facebook memories July 6.

The entire prakarana of smarana is contained in this file, including the important section on types of smarana and samadhi (278-279) Anuccheda 275 Remembrance of Bhagavān तदेवं कीर्तनं व्याख्यातम्। तत्रास्मिन् कीर्तने निजदैन्यनिजाभीष्टविज्ञप्तिस्तवपाठावप्यन्तर्भाव्यौ। तथा तत्र श्रीभागवतस्थितनामादिकीर्तनं तु पूर्ववदन्यदीयनामादिकीर्तनादधिकं ज्ञेयम्। We have thus described the practice of kīrtana . Expressing one’s feelings of humility before Bhagavān, entreating Him with one’s personal aspiration for service, and reciting prayers, are all part of kīrtana . Furthermore, as indicated earlier, singing the names, forms, attributes and pastimes of Bhagavān as they are depicted in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa , is superior to singing the names, forms and so on described in other scriptures. कलौ तु प्रशस्तं तत् (भा. १.३.४३) — कृष्णे स्वधामोपगते धर्मज्ञानादिभिः सह। कलौ नष्टदृशामेष पुराणार्कोऽधुनोदितः॥ इति। In kali-yuga , Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is of paramount importance, as Sūta said...

I recently wrote an article in which I began to inquire into samādhi and bhakti-yoga . So, ever since I have been involved with hatha yoga, seeing what it offers to a bhakti-yogi, I have been fascinated by the insistence that many people make that the ultimate goal of all paths is one. Now in one sense, one has to agree, since nothing exists outside of God, and whatever the varieties of enjoyments on offer to us by the three gunas , it is all indirectly and directly interaction with God and nothing else, so how can anyone say that they are not all one? And it is certain that with a little awareness one will see the God present, though hidden, in the material manifestations, the mirages that we go running after in the desert. But the connoisseurs, those who are rasikas of the eka-rasa , want to know the mechanics of rasa and samādhi , because that is the promised land in the direction of which we have been pointed, somewhere beyond the desert. So, generally speaking, the yoga...

I wrote the following a couple of days ago and would not have made it a blog, except that I am posting the story of my experience here at SRSG and these thoughts seemed relevant. On Friday I was going to skip meditation, but the vortex of spiritual energy sucked me in like a black hole. It reminded me of times when I was a devotee living in Hare Krishna temples and mangal arati would call. I have been living or visiting and staying in this ashram in Rishikesh for more than seven years now. And I have been noticing a definite sharp increase in the overall level of meditation sessions, especially when Swami Veda is present. It has a level of sustained intensity that I can only attribute to Swamiji's own depth of samādhi as he prepares himself for final samādhi . His five year silence was broken, you could say, but the intensity of a vow of silence has not decreased. I would say to anyone who has affection for Swamiji and meditation practice to not miss the opportunity to be ...

[ I   am happy to have finally received a copy of the  Yoga-taraṅgiṇī , which has been published by Motilal Banarsidass with the Himalayan Yoga Publications Trust. When I was writing the introduction, I started also to describe the adventure that working on this text represented, and became quite bogged down as the self-examination and other external factors made it seem impossible to conclude. Finally, I just gave up on the idea and handed in the manuscript without this part of the introduction. This is the first part, which discusses the apparent conflict between the bhakti and yoga paths. ] In the SRSG library and research center. Bhakti and Yoga I often wonder about the relationship of a translation to the original text. The famous Italian saying that "to translate is to betray" indicates that any translation is inevitably an interpretation of some kind. A third person enters between the speaker and his audience, and neither the third person nor the audience wer...