Jagat

April 11 of last year was a significant date for me on Facebook. I posted some comments related to B.A. Paramadvaiti Swami (BAP) that excited a lot of comment and had real-life repercussions for me when some advocates for the victims of BAP's abuses decided that I was their enemy and needed to be cancelled. There were complaints made about me to Satyanarayana Dasaji and my life at Jiva was made quite uncomfortable. It was one of three events that made 2021 particularly notable, the others being the death of my son and my return to Canada. I never discussed the Paramadvaiti issue on this blog but I think it is time that I at least publish the salient portions of what I wrote on this matter for the record.   I am not really an activist by nature, but a few years ago I participated in activities related to the environmental and heritage issues in Vrindavan. This is the ground on which I encountered Paramadvaiti Maharaj on many occasions as he was very active in the Braj Vrindavan Her...

nirvidya kṛtyādy-akhilāt kadāhaṁ cchittvā samastāś ca jagaty apekṣāḥ | praviśya vṛndāvanam atyasaṅgas tad-īśa-vārtābhir ahāni neṣye ||1.97|| When, losing all hope in the efficacy of all works, cutting off all expectations and responsibilities in the world, and entering Vrindavan with absolutely no attachments, will I pass my days in talk of Vrindavan's king and queen? Commentary As Prabodhananda comes closer to concluding his first century, he bounces back from his sphūrtis of Radha and Krishna's eternal erotic love games into the real-life situation of external consciousness. And so he makes this samutkaṇṭhā prayer of longing. samutkaṇṭhā nijābhīṣṭa-lābhāya guru-lubdhatā || "Longing" means a deep greed to attain that which one desires. (BRS 1.3.36) . One of the 64 bhakti-aṅgas described in BRS is called vijñapti , which basically means speaking or revealing one's mind to Krishna. This vijñapti then takes three forms: praying for som...

Of late I have been doing most of my writing over on Vrindavan Today , where I have been attempting to post a daily verse with commentary on the Vṛndāvana-mahimāmṛta . The day before yesterday I commented on the following verse : rājyaṁ niṣkaṇṭakam api parityajya divyāś ca rāmāḥ kāmān sarvān api ca vihitāṁs tikta-tiktān vidantaḥ | hitvā vidyā-kula-dhana-janādyābhimānaṁ praviṣṭā ye śrī-vṛndā-vipinam apunar-nirgamāṁs tān namāmaḥ || To those who have entered Vrindavan never to leave, rejecting a kingdom without enemies, along with beautiful women and all desires and duties, thinking them to be most bitter, and who have renounced their learning, noble birth, wealth, and fame to do so, we offer our respectful obeisances. ( VMA 1.76 ) Anyone familiar with my blog is aware that I have spoken extensively about gender issues, in the firm belief that Radha and Krishna is a Truth that represents the supreme ideal of human love. In response to what I wrote on VT, a woman of a feminist pe...

The short answer, of course, is that he cannot. In my last post I talked about parampara and consideration of what it means to follow in this particular line of devotees from Jahnava Mata, and how it took a bit of a turn with Bhaktivinoda Thakur when the first waves of Westernization hit Bengal. I admit that I chose to primarily consider this one aspect of Bhaktivinoda Thakur. I could have chosen others. But that is the nature of following; nobody can be anything but what he is and follow the path that he sees. Lalita Prasad Thakur followed one way, Bimala Prasad another. Now, how am I to follow? This first point already puts me at risk with many devotees and kanisthas can be pretty rough with those they consider heretical. But this next question is even stickier. Any role I play in the future development of Dwadash Mandir is going to be affected when people inquire into the defense of Sahajiyaism I have been engaged in over the last ten years. Even today on the comments to thi...

We were discussing the third verse in which it is being said that the dust of Radha's feet is a magic powder that immediately brings Krishna under control. yo brahma-rudra-śuka-nārada-bhīṣma-mukhyair ālakṣito na sahasā puruṣasya tasya | sadyo-vaśīkaraṇa-cūrṇam ananta-śaktiṁ  taṁ rādhikā-caraṇa-reṇum anusmarāmi || I constantly meditate on the dust of Shri Radha's feet, which has limitless power, being the magic potion that immediately brings under her control that Purusha who is imperceptible to even such great souls as Brahma, Shiva, Shukadeva, Narada, and Bhishma. (RRSN 4) So the general discussion was centered on why should it be considered a good thing that the Purusha Krishna should come under the control of Radha. What is the meaning of a statement such as "controlling another person through love"? Needless to say this is a vast topic. The specific context from the commentary by Harilal Vyas was that Krishna is warned by the sakhis who side with h...

Probing the pramans with Prem Prayojan Prabhu, one of the brightest lights on the Gaudiya Vaishnava horizon.   A short time ago, I met Prema Prayojan Prabhuji in the MVT restaurant. We have met several times before, and he even honored me with an invitation to address his congregation at Ananda Dham in Vrindavan last year. The ostensible purpose for the meeting was to discuss certain aspects of shastra. Prema Prayojan has been following a train of thought about manjari-bhava and was asking some questions about the Mañjarī-svarūpa-nirūpaṇa of Kunja Bihari Dasji, which I translated way back in 1983 and copies of which are still floating about despite the fact that it has never been officially published. Prema Prayojan thinks that Kunja Bihari Dasji, probably based on Haridas Das's translation of the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu , promoted the widespread and (he believes) erroneous interpretation of bhāvollāsā rati as being equivalent to mañjarī-bhāva as well as an independent ...

A look back on the Rishikesh classes As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been in Rishikesh the past two weeks, teaching a dwindling number of students an impromptu course that I spontaneously entitled, "Bhakti, rasa and psychology." There are three subjects in one which, when taken together, form the basis of my philosophy, but it was a pretty big chunk to get across in ten classes, especially to an audience that for the most part was not conversant with any of them. It is said that a good teacher is one who can explain a complex subject matter simply, and I am working towards that goal. As always, my primary objective was to try to integrate the three subjects as best I could, in short, to come to a better understanding of the subject matter and put it into words; and, if it could be communicated to others, so much the better. Some parts of the course naturally worked better than others. Many of these subjects are well represented on this blog, though not in a ...

Prabhavishnu Swami , a leading ISKCON sannyasi and guru, 60 years old, was recently caught in flagrante delicto with a woman, apparently a non-devotee, in Bangkok. Another tiresome episode that has ISKCON's critics jumping up and down with indignation, and many disciples crying in pain and disbelief. Where are the pure devotees? they cry. All the gurus are false, they scream. ISKCON is full of fakers and misleaders, they say. Prabhavishnu himself has given a litany of excuses -- overwork, too much travel, etc. But they refuse to put their finger on the obvious. Neither the ISKCON leadership nor their critics in the Prabhupadanuga camp have identified the real flaw, which is the sannyasa institution itself. Sannyasa, like brahmacharya, is something of a cult trick. It is a leftover from the Mayavada influence on India that rejects the world, and therefore sees woman and sexuality as false. An organization like ISKCON demands uncompromising and absolute fidelity to ...