Jagat

Originally posted on  Vrindavan Today , Oct. 2014. mukti-śrībhi ḥ sa kalita-pado nāraka ṁ yāti dhāvan labdhvā cintāma ṇ im atha mahā-vāridhau nik ṣ ipet sa ḥ | k ṛ tvā vaśya ṁ sakala-bhagavac-chekhara ṁ śvādhama ḥ syād yo durbuddhis tyajati sahasā prāpya v ṛ ndāvana ṁ tat || Having attained a place that is decorated by all the opulence of liberation, he goes running off to hell. Having found a chintamani gemstone, he simply throws it into the ocean, Having brought under his control the ultimate form of the Supreme Lord, he behaves like the lowliest cur -- Such is the fool who having attained Vrindavan suddenly abandons it   (1.60) Commentary Prabodhananda Saraswati uses strong language in speaking of one who attains and then loses his place in the Dham. The word śvādhama here means the same as vāntāśī , vomit-eater, which in the colorful Sanskrit language means a dog, a creature that can be seen to indulge in this rather repulsive habit. A sannyasi who has ren...

  II. Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Our second “great man,” Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, was a charismatic figure who acted as a reformer of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition and, according to some, broke with it. Though the extent of his influence on Bengali society as a whole was nowhere near that of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he must nevertheless be included among the many Bengali reformers in the 19th and early 20th centuries who contributed to the revitalization of Hindu pride in its own traditions. His role in inspiring others to carry the Chaitanya Vaishnava message beyond Bengali society alone makes him worthy of examination. Unlike Chaitanya, Saraswati was not an ecstatic, but an ascetic and intellectual, who was driven by a vision of the potential glory of Chaitanya Vaishnavism and by the desire to overcome the restraints placed on it by contemporary conditions. He saw himself as continuing his father Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s attempts to rationalize Gaudiya Vaishnavism and bri...