Jagat

There was a book by the famous travel writer  Paul Theroux  left lying by a previous guest in the cottage at SRSG, The Old Patagonian Express . Theroux writes about pretty much nothing with such ease. He is a good writer and learned in literary matters, but his subject matter seems somewhat trivial to me. This book is about his travels on trains from Boston to Patagonia, the things that happen to him and the people he meets. Seems like a very easy formula: no reason for writer's block if that is all you have to do. It is basically a diary. But diaries can be a great literary form... I have often wanted to write a kind of spiritual journal, like Thoreau  or even like Satsvarupa Maharaj , but I am afraid I just don't have the discipline. Writing is time-consuming and exhausting, and I have a lot of it to do. Day-job type of thing. This kind of writing is an indulgence if it cannot be monetized... and even then it is not my genre, so I should rather avoid getting...

This was originally posted on Vrindavan Today as part of a commentary on  Vṛndāvana-mahimāmṛta 1.79, just as I was running out of steam on my daily postings. Looking back on it (I am backdating this cross-posting from 31-08-2018), the commentaries leading up to this one are some of the best that I wrote, in my opinion. But this reflection on "East is East and West is West and ne'er the twain shall meet" is something that I return to frequently in reflecting on my own presence in Vrindavan, as an "immigrant." See  I have been in the West for four months on a "fact-finding expedition" (!) out in the field, this time the field being the country of Canada, which for all intents and purposes has now become more of a foreign country to me than one that I can identify as my own. My fact-finding mission mostly took place in a basement TV room, where I steadfastly observed popular entertainments as administered by the One-eyed God who stares unblinking...