Jagat

By Gadadhar Pran Das Email: gadadhar_das000@yahoo.co.in   As the last chapter begins, we begin to wonder: Has this reading venture increased our readers’ desire for sādhana and bhajan? If it has, this is a good sign, as it shows that our writing is bearing the desired fruit. But next we should ask: What do sādhana and bhajana actually mean? This is because Vaishnavas have lots of different opinions about this. To answer in the context of Thakur Bhaktivinoda’s āmnāya-siddha guru-paramparā , however, it must be said that our sādhana and bhajana don’t really begin until we receive our sthāyi bhāva , or eternal relationship with Krishna. And our dīksā guru mercifully gives this at the stage called varaṇa-daśā , when we receive our siddha-mañjarī svarūpa . In the last chapter of his Harināma-cintāmaṇi , Thakur Bhaktivinoda clearly explains this process: “The guru will test the disciple to see if he or she is eligible for śṛṅgāra rasa sādhana . If they are, he will assign the ...

Śrī Rādhe! It has now been three weeks since I posted anything from Prīti Sandarbha , so I thought I would write something to my audience to explain myself. After all, it is for you that I post.  gopa-rāmā-jana-prāṇa-preyase'tiprabhūṣṇave |  tadīya-priya-dāsyāya māṁ madīyam ahaṁ dade ||  To the love of the cowherd women's lives, to the most powerful Lord, and to the service of those who are dear to him, I give myself and all that is mine.  I have been reflecting on what I am doing and how to do it more effectively. If it is worth doing at all, it should be done intelligently. So I would like, in the interest of organizing my thoughts, to review a little bit of what has been dancing through the dust of my disorganized brain.  My first priority right now is the Prīti Sandarbha editing work that I am doing on behalf of Satyanarayana Dasa Baba. That is my work and I am proud to be playing a role in the production of this work, however defective or inadequate it h...

A few days ago, a group of devotees connected to Jiva got the following letter: Radhe Radhe to all devotees. Yesterday I finally got around to printing out the translation by Jagatji that Vilasaji had sent (below). However, I noticed that the translation of a key verse does not agree with me at all, even though the translation appears literally correct. The translation asserts that the gopis are 'sullied by the sin of adultery'. The gopis are not adulterous at all; their behavior only *seems so*. I reproduce Babaji's translation below Jagatji's for comparison. Jagatji's translation: kvemāḥ striyo vana-carīr vyabhicāra-duṣṭāḥ kṛṣṇe kva caiṣa paramātmani rūḍha-bhāvaḥ nanv īśvaro ’nubhajato’viduṣo’pi sākṣāc chreyas tanoty agada-rāja ivopayuktaḥ Contrast these forest-dwelling women, who have been sullied by the sin of adultery, with this ascended stage of love for the Supreme Soul, Krishna. Surely God brings the most direct auspicious benefit to those who worship him c...

What can I say about the magnificence of Gadadhar Pran Das? It has been 40 years since he embarked on this journey of discovering rāgānugā bhakti and kāntā bhāva . His explorations have taken him into regions of Gaura bhakti tradition that very few have managed to find. Who has been able to understand the meaning of Rupa Goswami's verses and how to transform them into an active devotional life? Who has understood the meaning of madhura-rasa in the way that he has? Who has shown the kind of unbroken and constant commitment to the goal of prema-bhakti that he has? In this chapter of this work, in which he connects Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur to the origins of the guru-paramparā and finds a connection to Gora nagara bhāva is a great achievement of svārasikī bhajana . In this chapter and the previous, he has justified sharing some of the intimate details of his bhajan so that ordinary practitioners on the vidhi-mārga , who think they have learned everything there is to know...

Gadadhar Pran Das has sent me a couple more chapters of Another Side of Bhaktivinoda Thakur  to share with you all. Jai Radhe! Jai Gaura!  We have found that some devotees don’t believe in this  sādhana , and take it to be mental concoction. So before beginning this chapter’s story, let us examine Rupa Goswami’s guidelines for those who hanker to take up  rāga-mārga bhajana . Another Side of Bhaktivinoda Thakur 28 :  Sri Gopinath’s Sevā Pālā As we were reading in Chapters 26 and 27 about Gaura and Gadadhar’s madhura lilas that unfold in Their bhāvāḍhya and rasātmikā moods, now in the next two chapters (28 and 29) it will be similarly rewarding to investigate how the bhaktas’ sevā unfolds in two ways also: in the ānugatyamayī and in the pratyakṣa moods. The first step is the ānugatyamayī sevā , when one serves the Lord following after their guru, guru-varga and Mahaprabhu’s nitya-siddha bhaktas . In the next stage, however, which...