A break from the relentless heat: Facebook Memories from May 3

India is in the throes of a heat wave. This is about a break in the heat eight years ago:

A bit of wind and a bit of rain,
Vrindavan has cooled down again.
A break from the relentless heat,
I feel smarter too, it's really neat.

Ironically on this side of the world, the last few days were really the first real days of spring. On Sunday I went for a walk in the park and there were lots of people about, everyone has come out of hibernation. In these days of tension, a moment of relief. 

Rainy season at Nidhivan (https://brajrasik.org/)

 सत्यं शतेन विघ्नानां सहस्रेण तथा तपः।

विघ्नायुतेन गोविन्दे नॄणां भक्तिर्निवार्यते॥इति।

The attainment of Truth is thwarted by a hundred obstacles,
penance by a thousand.
But devotion to Bhagavān Govinda is frustrated
by ten thousand obstacles.

यतीनां विष्णुभक्तानां परिचर्यापरायणैः।
ईक्षिता अपि गच्छन्ति पापिनोऽपि परां गतिम्॥

Even sinners attain the supreme goal
merely by being glanced upon
by those who are dedicated to the service
of the renounced devotees of Bhagavān Viṣṇu.

---

6 years ago

As I finally close in on the final paragraphs of the Krishna Sandarbha, the only question is, "Will my Puridas critical edition of the work survive the remaining days?" The pages are falling to pieces in my hands.

---

7 years ago

[This series of posts from seven years ago does not seem to have made it into the blog before. They reall do form a sequence. Since they appear to me to come from that possessed state that puzzles so many materialist observers of such phenomena.]

The body of a devotee is spiritualized by sadhana. Since it mirrors Radha and Krishna's human form, however imperfectly, it serves the purpose of Prema.

The consciousness of a devotee is fixed on the Divine Yugala. By seeing the Divine Couple in the Prema, one becomes totally absorbed in the Divine Couple, because nothing is so powerful as Attraction. Krishna is in the Attraction. He is the Navina Madana.

The speech of a devotee is awash in the Holy Name. He bathes all his actions in the Holy Name. He is absorbed in the Holy Name. The Holy Name is the sound track to his or her life. The Holy Name transforms and guides everything for the devotee.

The devotee sees the presence of God in the Beloved and the Beloved in God. Material conditions and the obstacles and opportunities they present to learn the art of love are all Radharani's gift. They are the sancharis, the waves that rise and fall in the ocean of Love.

---

8 years ago

[For those who are suffering in a heat wave in the Dham, here is a happy wish.]

A bit of wind and a bit of rain,
Vrindavan has cooled down again.
A break from the relentless heat,
I feel smarter too, it's really neat.

---

8 years ago (2014)

[This article Nostalgia for the magic moments of genuine community, and how to find them again is a bit of reflection on Gaudiya Discussions and the experience that we had as an online community. Facebook is far more amorphous and I suppose there are places where people feel genuine community. I took a quick glance the other day at Nitai's Caitanya Symposium, which is flying along. Nitai is tremendously productive and learned, also another person who is not afraid to speak his mind. The site goes on because there are a number of individuals who keep putting articles up there and finding things to share and learn from one another. It might have been nice to let Gaudiya Discussions grow old and mature and mellow in human mutual trust and friendship... ah what miracles do we seek?]

---

9 years ago

We are Vaishnavas. We are theists. Unabashedly so. God is real. The world is a product of his energy and it is real. We are God's eternal servants and achieving the state of pure service is liberation beyond liberation. It is in that state only that one can really know love.

---

13 years ago

The brain and the heart had a fight /
that lasted a day and a night. /
The heart said, "It's dawn," /
the brain looked forlorn /
and said, "I still can't see any light." //

---

13 years ago

I am an ocean : on the surface names and forms
ruffle and ripple like waves, tides and storms.
But sat, chit and ananda are my depths,
waters untroubled by viraha or death.

So listen : When I say that Krishna saves,
I do not mean he stops or stays the waves.
It means we meet him in the inner deep,
a holy realm beyond profoundest sleep.

I do not fear or shy from karma’s phal;
I do not seek freedom from my sins or hell.
The Name pulls me with infinite grace
To my deeps where They are e'er enlaced.

I am an ocean : on the surface names and forms
ruffle and ripple like waves, tides and storms.
But being, knowledge and love fill my depths:
Where no curse shall e'er trouble me, nor regrets.

Waves too are the verses you have just read.
Why make these waves? What needed being said?
It's this: You too are an unfathomable sea,
So sink the horned hare, and be with me.

First posted on Gaudiya Discussions (May, 2005)