Love is as love does
Some days definitely have more substance than others. Several unpublished and published stuff today. One on Corona from last year, where I more or less cemented my position on the great pandemic panic. Then there is a nice excerpt from Prīti Sandarbha on sthāyi-bhāvas, a subject that has many posts on this blog. Then there is another reflection on karma, again based on the Gurukula abuses. And finally a short reflection on love. I could have split this up, but I just threw it all into one post.
Memories from May 232021
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I have been more or less a passive observer of the corona pandemic, keeping myself out of trouble tucked away in Jiva. It is not altogether an unwelcome way of life for me.
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Nevertheless, my general orientation has been towards what this doctor says [the link was lost, probably due to FB censoring of non-approved pandemic content]. But I get the sense that it is becoming painfully clear to more and more people that (as she says) the cure is worse than the disease. And furthermore, that in the long run, it will have produced some fundamental changes to the way the world functions.
The virus has not affected physical bodies as much as it has ravaged the minds of humanity. It is perhaps one of these great crises that signals the birthing of a new age. These are supposed to happen once every generation or life cycle or so. But this new age looks fraught with a new kind of totalitarianism, a neo-feudalism, a further divorcing of humanity from its humanity by way of techno-reductionism.
All in the name of what? I don't see any logic in it, only a self-repeating loop of activity becoming more and more concentrated like a whirlwind or a hurricane. The rajoguna becoming stronger and stronger until the inevitable explosion of tamas arrives. And since it has been going on longer, the explosion might well be pretty big.
But as power and wealth become more and more concentrated and global interdependence becomes more and more real, the problems also become global. The conflicts also. And then we make more macro solutions, and on and on it goes, like a whirlwind gathering strength.
And you can feel it in your bones, like an old-timer predicting days in advance of some weather event, by smelling the air and feeling the stillness or the strangeness of the breezes, or the ways the leaves are turned up.
The Christians are kinda hoping for Armageddon, they think this time Jesus is areally comin'. Halleluia!
I feel like hunkering down and taking shelter of the Holy Name in the company of devotees is the only recourse.
But with regards the pandemic. I am with B M Hegde, whose philosophy is that love strengthens the immune system. The trillions of cells in the body are working together because they have evolved to
love each other. To work in cooperation.
In human society also, there is a natural requirement to love one another. Denigrate this love as material to your peril! It is only by that love that we can know That Love. This is basically what we call religion. (And here you can see the Latin etymological roots of "re-ligio.")
Love has been denatured into sense gratification, almost without any self-awareness. People live to eat. And then they want to be free of disease!
And they freely empty their pockets into the coffers of big pharma, which makes them addicts and eternally dependent. And then with an immune system riddled with pharmaceuticals, each one messing up the natural capacity for self-healing with a million patch jobs all conflicting with one another, you expect to be free by putting another dose of pharmaceuticals in your body?
I liked that Hegde spoke of Morarji Desai and the urine tonic, Shivambu, practice that he followed. Desai was briefly prime minister of India at a quite advanced age, well over 80 if I recall. They asked him the secret of his longevity, because he was quite a lively man for his age, having broken the Congress monopoly on India's government for the first time.
His answer was he drank his urine first thing in the morning when he got up. This news made headlines around the world and made many people look at India once again as a butt of jokes.
When I was in Nabadwip, I went to a place called Chintamani Kunj, where Haridas Chakraborty resided. He had written several books of a scholarly nature, especially taking on falsifying the historical Caitanya with Gaura-pāramya vāda and Nāgara-bhāva. But he had also written a small book on yoga where he talked about Shivambu. In our conversation he said, "The yogis were living far from any hospitals, by themselves in the forests or mountains. They had faith that the entire universe resided in the body, that it was an autonomous universe. Therefore they looked to the body for cures, believing that it produced its own medicine."
This is the great mantra of the tantra, যদস্তি ব্রহ্মাণ্ডে তদস্তি পিণ্ডে.
In fact, it works a bit like a vaccine also, in that whatever genetic residue is there from the daily battles the body has with invaders is taken back into the body in small doses and strengthens the DNA of the body's cellular and microbiotic multiverse so they can deal more effectively with the invaders as they also evolve and continue looking for places to colonize.
Combined with a healthy lifestyle (yoga and meditation) and diet (eat less), of course. Probably the war just stops and invaders are just washed away in the way God intended.
When I got shiksha mantra, one thing I was given was a Shivambu mantra, somewhat to my surprise. I hadn't realized that this was a part of the deha-sādhana. But that is also something that I will have to talk about some other time.
Jai Radhe.
2021
2021
Now he starts a new subject [84]. The previous anucchedas [78.3-83] were describing the relation of Krishna's different forms to the degrees and varieties of prīti and making a hierarchy. That classification is now over [ending of course with the gopis and their Krishna] and now a new classification begins. The strength of their Krishna love is the one that has the greatest positive effect on even the non-moving creatures.
This new section strikes me as something of a continuation of the previous description of Priti as a bride, but here it describes her actions or effects on the devotee's mind one by one in both increasing and cumulative effect.
Rather than giving us a list of sthāyi-bhāvas with examples as in Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi, indeed as is usual, he begins by saying these are the actions that prīti plays upon the mind of the devotee as he or she ascends the ladder of the realm of the sthāyi-bhāvas.
He now introduces the subject as follows:
तत्र गुणाः द्विविधाः। भक्तचित्तसंस्क्रियाविशेषस्य हेतव एके, तदभिमानविशेषस्य हेतवश्चान्ये।
"These qualities [of prīti] are of two kinds: The first are the causes of specific saṁskāras in the heart of a devotee, and the others give the devotee a particular identity (abhimāna)."
[These are both known to students of bhakti-rasa as sthāyi-bhāvas. Jīva Gosvāmī clarifies: the first are
the sthāyi-bhāvas that are mentioned in the third wave of BRS and in UN 14 (i.e., prema, sneha, māna, praṇaya, rāga, anurāga, bhāva, etc., the second (abhimāna) are the familiar five relations, (śānta, dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya and madhura]
तत्र पूर्वेषां गुणानां स्वरूपाणि तैस्तस्यास्तारतम्यं भेदाश्च यथा—तत्र पूर्वेषां गुणानां स्वरूपाणि तैस्तस्यास्तारतम्यं भेदाश्च यथा—
Of these two, [we first will discuss] the essential characteristics (svarūpa) of the first type, and use them to establish a gradation and to establish divisions of prīti.
प्रीतिः खलु भक्तचित्तम्
[Those essential characteristics are revealed] when prīti acts upon the devotee's heart by
1. उल्लासयति, delighting it (ullāsa), (i.e., prīti)
2. ममतया योजयति, granting it a sense of ownership toward the object (mamatā), (i.e., prema)
3. विस्रम्भयति, bestowing on it a feeling of intimate trust (viśrambha), (i.e., praṇaya)
4. प्रियत्वातिशयेनाभिमानयति, causing it to feel pride (abhimāna) through the effects of excessive love, (i.e., māna)
5. द्रावयति, causing it to melt (citta-drava), (i.e., sneha)
6. स्वविषयं प्रत्यभिलाषातिशयेन योजयति, connecting it to the object of love by an excess of hankering to attain Him (prāpty-abhilāṣa), (i.e., rāga)
7. प्रतिक्षणमेव स्वविषयं नवनवत्वेनानुभावयति, at every moment causing it to experience its object in ever newer and newer ways (nava-navāyamānatva), (i.e., anurāga)
8. असमोर्ध्वचमत्कारेणोन्मादयति च। maddening it with unexcelled and unparalleled feelings of wonder (camatkāra). (i.e., bhāva)
So now he is going to give each of these transformations (saṁskāras) on the devotee's citta a name and further definition, and later on he will give examples from the Bhāgavatam for each.
Jai Jai Sri Radhe!!
2015 Karma again, this time from 2015. At least I am consistent.
Actually I am very happy that we have started a discussion of karma. Let me say to all those who have suffered in various ways, I am sorry that you suffer. May you find the perfection of Love wherever it reveals itself to you. Jai Sri Radhe.
So I opened up a can of worms. Or at least I stuck my nose in the open can. Krishna's grace is such that I can love Prabhupada and by his grace love Vrindavan and be in Vrindavan despite everything.
This morning I woke up with Radha Raman's beautiful form dancing before my eyes. I take it as the grace of Vaisnavacharya Chandan Goswami.
The material world is a messed- up place. You guys can go on rehashing the past and figuring out who to blame, who to hate. Who to rate and condemn.
Those are your karmas. My karmas are burning in the heat of Radha Raman.
Only by the grace of Guru, the Holy Name, and the Divine Form and Vrindavan Dham will your heart overflow with the flooding of the prema Yamuna and be free from the sewage of material lust.
Prabhupada gave the Holy Name. He gave ME the Holy Name. He gave me the Holy Dham.
If because of offenses we have not made progress towards God, for whatever putative cause, Prabhupada is not to blame, just like God is not to blame. If the society formed in Prabhupada's name is imperfect, what the hell did you expect?
When your heart is flooded with prem, then it will simultaneously be filled with joy and compassion. And your mind will be free.
Some subsequent thoughts. Modern science has "discovered' laws of action and reaction. But it does not accept these laws as existing in the sphere of morality.
This is because pratyakṣa asks the natural question, "Why do the innocent suffer while the wicked rule the world?"
Accepting the moral law of action and reaction as an axiom leads to the inevitable accepting of previous and future births. Inference, anumāna.
The entire goal of Indian spirituality is to escape the inevitable cycle that is the consequence of the moral law. How to break free?
There are many answers, but one thing is sure, unless one is willing to accept that he or she is responsible for his own suffering, there can be no freedom.
That responsibility has to be accepted, non-contingent on any conditions. If you think someone must apologize or be punished before your pain of suffering will go away, it only means signing on for more of the same.
It was no joke when the rishis named meat "māṁsa" "He who eats me now is the one whom I ate before." Remember that.
"These qualities [of prīti] are of two kinds: The first are the causes of specific saṁskāras in the heart of a devotee, and the others give the devotee a particular identity (abhimāna)."
[These are both known to students of bhakti-rasa as sthāyi-bhāvas. Jīva Gosvāmī clarifies: the first are
the sthāyi-bhāvas that are mentioned in the third wave of BRS and in UN 14 (i.e., prema, sneha, māna, praṇaya, rāga, anurāga, bhāva, etc., the second (abhimāna) are the familiar five relations, (śānta, dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya and madhura]
तत्र पूर्वेषां गुणानां स्वरूपाणि तैस्तस्यास्तारतम्यं भेदाश्च यथा—तत्र पूर्वेषां गुणानां स्वरूपाणि तैस्तस्यास्तारतम्यं भेदाश्च यथा—
Of these two, [we first will discuss] the essential characteristics (svarūpa) of the first type, and use them to establish a gradation and to establish divisions of prīti.
प्रीतिः खलु भक्तचित्तम्
[Those essential characteristics are revealed] when prīti acts upon the devotee's heart by
1. उल्लासयति, delighting it (ullāsa), (i.e., prīti)
2. ममतया योजयति, granting it a sense of ownership toward the object (mamatā), (i.e., prema)
3. विस्रम्भयति, bestowing on it a feeling of intimate trust (viśrambha), (i.e., praṇaya)
4. प्रियत्वातिशयेनाभिमानयति, causing it to feel pride (abhimāna) through the effects of excessive love, (i.e., māna)
5. द्रावयति, causing it to melt (citta-drava), (i.e., sneha)
6. स्वविषयं प्रत्यभिलाषातिशयेन योजयति, connecting it to the object of love by an excess of hankering to attain Him (prāpty-abhilāṣa), (i.e., rāga)
7. प्रतिक्षणमेव स्वविषयं नवनवत्वेनानुभावयति, at every moment causing it to experience its object in ever newer and newer ways (nava-navāyamānatva), (i.e., anurāga)
8. असमोर्ध्वचमत्कारेणोन्मादयति च। maddening it with unexcelled and unparalleled feelings of wonder (camatkāra). (i.e., bhāva)
So now he is going to give each of these transformations (saṁskāras) on the devotee's citta a name and further definition, and later on he will give examples from the Bhāgavatam for each.
Jai Jai Sri Radhe!!
2015 Karma again, this time from 2015. At least I am consistent.
Actually I am very happy that we have started a discussion of karma. Let me say to all those who have suffered in various ways, I am sorry that you suffer. May you find the perfection of Love wherever it reveals itself to you. Jai Sri Radhe.
So I opened up a can of worms. Or at least I stuck my nose in the open can. Krishna's grace is such that I can love Prabhupada and by his grace love Vrindavan and be in Vrindavan despite everything.
This morning I woke up with Radha Raman's beautiful form dancing before my eyes. I take it as the grace of Vaisnavacharya Chandan Goswami.
The material world is a messed- up place. You guys can go on rehashing the past and figuring out who to blame, who to hate. Who to rate and condemn.
Those are your karmas. My karmas are burning in the heat of Radha Raman.
Only by the grace of Guru, the Holy Name, and the Divine Form and Vrindavan Dham will your heart overflow with the flooding of the prema Yamuna and be free from the sewage of material lust.
Prabhupada gave the Holy Name. He gave ME the Holy Name. He gave me the Holy Dham.
If because of offenses we have not made progress towards God, for whatever putative cause, Prabhupada is not to blame, just like God is not to blame. If the society formed in Prabhupada's name is imperfect, what the hell did you expect?
When your heart is flooded with prem, then it will simultaneously be filled with joy and compassion. And your mind will be free.
Some subsequent thoughts. Modern science has "discovered' laws of action and reaction. But it does not accept these laws as existing in the sphere of morality.
This is because pratyakṣa asks the natural question, "Why do the innocent suffer while the wicked rule the world?"
Accepting the moral law of action and reaction as an axiom leads to the inevitable accepting of previous and future births. Inference, anumāna.
The entire goal of Indian spirituality is to escape the inevitable cycle that is the consequence of the moral law. How to break free?
There are many answers, but one thing is sure, unless one is willing to accept that he or she is responsible for his own suffering, there can be no freedom.
That responsibility has to be accepted, non-contingent on any conditions. If you think someone must apologize or be punished before your pain of suffering will go away, it only means signing on for more of the same.
It was no joke when the rishis named meat "māṁsa" "He who eats me now is the one whom I ate before." Remember that.
"For someone who has devotion born of an exclusive faith that rejects karma, jnana, yoga or any other non-devotional process, the worship of the Holy Name is a treasure that is easily obtained. Worshiping the Holy Name through the stages described above, the devotee will find it much easier than any of the other limbs of devotional service and will successfully realize all his goals. The only expertise required is in avoiding non-devotees and chanting the Holy Name in the association of devotees. Ecstatic love of Krishna is like a special transcendental blade that can pierce a saintly devotee’s heart, whereas the impious heart repulses it. Prema cannot easily enter the heart of one who does not keep the company of pure devotees. Devotees and non-devotees are like good and bad conductors of electricity. Electricity is a particular material energy, while prema is a transcendental energetic force, but they are similar in that they can either be carried by a superconductor or have their transmission completely blocked by a non-conducting material." (Bhaktivinoda Thakur, Hari-nāma-cintāmaṇi, note to 15.102)
jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva
jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām |
sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir
ye prāyaśo’jita jito’py asi tais tri-lokyām ||
Though you are the unconquerable one, you are generally conquered here in these three worlds by those who give up all efforts for gnosis and honor talks of you recited by the holy persons in body, speech and mind, even while following their own dharmas. (10.14.3)
śreyaḥ-sṛtiṁ bhaktim udasya te vibho
kliśyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye
teṣām asau kleśala eva śiṣyate
nānyad yathā sthūla-tuṣāvaghātinām
kliśyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye
teṣām asau kleśala eva śiṣyate
nānyad yathā sthūla-tuṣāvaghātinām
O all-powerful Lord! Those who have abandoned devotion to you suffer in their attempt to attain only illumination of their spiritual identity. For them the trouble they get is all that remains of their effort, and nothing else, as it is for those who beat coarse husk devoid of grain. (10.14.4)
2012
Love should be looked at as a verb, not just a noun. Love is as love does. There is no place in love for abuse. Unless we uproot the untruth from our self knowledge, there is no possibility of love. There are no magical beliefs that we can dress our ignorance in: not even the most noble-sounding of lies, can make us eligible for love.
Everything hangs on the decision. Everything culminates in action. There is no meaningful thinking or feeling without action. And action comes of the will. And the will is manifest in the decision. So, Arjuna, when he says kariṣye vacanaṁ tava, he is not saying I will follow a scriptural injunction or a particular religion, he is responding to the inner imperative as understood and purified by knowledge and devotion.
2009
In Faridabad at Jiva Institute. Flight for Canada leaves tonight.
2012
Love should be looked at as a verb, not just a noun. Love is as love does. There is no place in love for abuse. Unless we uproot the untruth from our self knowledge, there is no possibility of love. There are no magical beliefs that we can dress our ignorance in: not even the most noble-sounding of lies, can make us eligible for love.
Everything hangs on the decision. Everything culminates in action. There is no meaningful thinking or feeling without action. And action comes of the will. And the will is manifest in the decision. So, Arjuna, when he says kariṣye vacanaṁ tava, he is not saying I will follow a scriptural injunction or a particular religion, he is responding to the inner imperative as understood and purified by knowledge and devotion.
2009
In Faridabad at Jiva Institute. Flight for Canada leaves tonight.
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