tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31351038.post115434545470683303..comments2024-03-26T13:06:41.178-04:00Comments on Jagat: Achintya-bhedabheda: Being and BecomingJagadananda Dashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05887720845815026518noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31351038.post-91671720167700060952013-10-16T04:46:25.015-04:002013-10-16T04:46:25.015-04:00ACHINTYA BHEDA ABHEDA TATTVA(SHAKTI PARINAMAVADA)
...ACHINTYA BHEDA ABHEDA TATTVA(SHAKTI PARINAMAVADA)<br /><br />"Whatever exists,either material or transedental,either <br />the mudane world(jada-jagat/achit jagat),the transedental Vaikuntha planets(chit-jagat)<br />or the innumerable jivas are but the transformation (parinama) of the <br />Supreme Brahman's(Sri Radharamana Krishna's) achintya(inconceivable)<br />shakti which is both eternally non-different and different from Brahman."<br /><br />THIS IS THE SUPREME TRUTH THAT WAS ESTABLISHED BY SRI CHAITAYA MAHAPRABHU.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31351038.post-25122684856590490792007-08-11T13:21:00.000-04:002007-08-11T13:21:00.000-04:00Jagat said... In fact, there is no mirror menti...<I>Jagat said...<BR/><BR/> In fact, there is no mirror mentioned in this verse at all. I don't know why I translated it like this.</I><BR/><BR/>This information about mirrors is interesting, Krishna was also described in literature being fascinated by His own mirror image.<BR/><BR/>http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=12252<BR/><BR/><BR/>Mirrors and other reflective surfaces have long been associated with the strange or the bizarre. For example, in Greek mythology, Narcissus fell in love with his own image reflected in the water of a fountain. He thought he was seeing the image of a beautiful nymph. Unable to embrace or call forth the image, he pined away and was eventually transformed into a flower. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, a novel by Oscar Wilde, a portrait of a handsome young man begins to deteriorate, reflecting the corruption of the man's inner being. The portrait becomes a mirror reflecting the state of the young man's soul. The man eventually commits murder and suicide.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31351038.post-82952384062077625842007-07-27T11:33:00.000-04:002007-07-27T11:33:00.000-04:00In fact, there is no mirror mentioned in this vers...<I>In fact, there is no mirror mentioned in this verse at all. I don't know why I translated it like this. Perhaps this is just ACBSP's version. At any rate, there is no mind, either. The two things competing here are just Krishna's sweetness and Radha's love. The mirror idea probably comes from the context provided in the previous verses.</I><BR/><BR/>I did search the verse for the word, 'mirror' in vain. So I have taken 'man' for the mind which is often compared to a 'mirror' - ceto darpaNamArjanam...<BR/><BR/>also in the mirrors the images could get multiplied endlessly...<BR/> ...sva-pratibimba-vibhramaH <BR/><BR/>Of course, there had to be a battle ground where the 'eternal competition' between <B>Krishna's Sweetness and Radha's Love</B> could be taken place like the 'divine mind' itself, <BR/>even though no defeat could be possible!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31351038.post-45641690708501002292007-07-25T12:39:00.000-04:002007-07-25T12:39:00.000-04:00One of the reasons devotees lose faith is their hi...One of the reasons devotees lose faith is their high expectations. Without wanting to minimize the high expectations that are found right in the Upanishads themselves, <I>bhumaiva sukham,</I> it is necessary to differentiate the Vaishnava conception from what is commonly called "enlightenment." To put it simply, enlightenment is <I>somme tout </I>the achievement of the jnanis. Though bhakti incorporates jnana, it supersedes it. Therefore verses like <I>brahma-bhutaH prasannatma, aruhya kricchrena</I>, etc., are so important in our sampradaya.<BR/><BR/>But there is a problem with what I would like to call the "enlightenment myth," which most significantly was Buddha's gift to the world. Now everybody thinks there is a magic moment after which everything is suddenly rosy and there is no more "human condition." Freud was more honest when he said the goal of psychotherapy was that it made us more capable of living with our basically miserable lives.<BR/><BR/>Now, I know that this does not sound like much of a goal, but if you think about it, that is what rasa theory is all about. Those addicted to the enlightenment conception seem to have absolutely no instinct for rasa theory. This is the part of my <A HREF="http://jagadanandadas.blogspot.com/2007/07/musings-on-truth-and-love.html" REL="nofollow">"satyam" article</A> that I forgot to add. I will have to remember to do so. We make the most of our human condition by turning it into art. But art only exists against the backdrop of the archetypes, and that means bhakti.<BR/><BR/>There is preaching from a position of arrogance ("Don't you see, you fools, that you are all bathing in ignorance. Everything is going on according to God's will. We are all puppets in his hands. Surrender, for your own good, surrender.") and there is preaching from the point of view of the gopis in the rasa dance. The guru or leader is not the one who is "most enlightened" in the sense of having reached a divine plateau of realization, but the one who is suffering most from separation, the one who needs someone to share with. That is hard to communicate philosophically, and so kirtan is really the only means.<BR/><BR/>Indeed, to get to the Vrindavan forest in the middle of the night, it seems like the road is long, and why, for God's sake, offer this poisoned gift, this <I>bishamrita ekatra milana</I> of madhura rasa bhakti? Basically, here we can agree with those who emphasize the absolute nature of the transcendent will and say that we do indeed have no choice. If we are approaching our sixtieth birthdays and everything still revolves around Radha's bhava, Radha's beauty, Radha's seva, then for God's sake let's stop fighting it and embrace it with all our hearts. Damn the consequences! <BR/><BR/>Do it for the beauty of love, for the beauty of love in all its myriad phases. Let's see love as the underlying truth of the creation. Let the scientists see love as a evolutionary phenomenon designed (how hard it is to escape that word!) to optimize genetic variety! We will see it as human beings always have, as a manifestation of the Divine, pointing us in the direction of the Divine Couple.<BR/><BR/>As for modern literature with its engouement for rasabhasa, jugupsa and bibhatsa rasas, there is no satisfaction for the soul there! Or the soap opera entertainments without any relation to our beloved Yugala, how feeble a subsitute they are!<BR/><BR/>One other thing. To return to the "enlightenment myth", you may recall <A HREF="http://www.gaudiyadiscussions.com/index.php?showtopic=1998" REL="nofollow">the argument about the sadhaka as ashrayalambana on Gaudiya Discussions</A>. This is, I am realizing, even more significant than I thought before. The whole meaning of the Gaura avatar can be understood as the sacralizing or anointing of the sadhaka as an eternal bhava. It is a transformation of the vira rasa or masculine rasa into <I>dharma-vira</I> rather than <I>yuddha-vira</I>. Krishna put down his weapons after killing Dantavakra; Mahaprabhu only momentarily considered taking up weapons in anger to defend his devotees, but Nitai Sundar stopped him.<BR/><BR/>The dual siddha dehas, <I>seva sadhaka-rupena, siddha-rupena ca</I> is explained practically by Krishnadas Kaviraj in the commentary to <I>Krishna Karnamrita</I>, but it is the tradition that is followed by all our gurus in the line, especially where texts that follow the Karnamrita spirit--like <I>Vilapa-kusumanjali</I> or <I>Radha-rasa-sudha-nidhi</I>--are concerned. There is a flowing back and forth between the two realms of identity.<BR/><BR/>This is why it is said that Gaura lila is gudha. And even most Gaudiyas (at least those who are merging into the pan-Indian culture) somehow forget Mahaprabhuu and just dive into Radha and Krishna without remembering this added extra rasa culture.<BR/><BR/>To say "the enlightened person does not pray" is a misunderstanding. Prayer is conversation, but conversation, if it is not just small talk, is always prayer. It is <I>dadati pratigrihnati guhyam akhyati pricchati</I>. Separation and union, both are eternal.Jagadananda Dashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05887720845815026518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31351038.post-55553445343159549832007-07-25T12:25:00.000-04:002007-07-25T12:25:00.000-04:00In fact, there is no mirror mentioned in this vers...In fact, there is no mirror mentioned in this verse at all. I don't know why I translated it like this. Perhaps this is just ACBSP's version. At any rate, there is no mind, either. The two things competing here are just Krishna's sweetness and Radha's love. The mirror idea probably comes from the context provided in the previous verses.Jagadananda Dashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05887720845815026518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31351038.post-73725909581238500012007-07-25T11:34:00.000-04:002007-07-25T11:34:00.000-04:00This is the path of bhakti, exemplified by Radha a...<I>This is the path of bhakti, exemplified by Radha and Krishna's love of eternal competition.<BR/><BR/>man-mAdhurya rAdhAra prema doGhe hora kari <BR/>kSaNe kSaNe bAre doGhe, keha nAhi hAri</I><BR/><BR/>I would like to translate this as:<BR/><BR/><B>There is constant competition in the mind (mirror) between Krishna's sweetness and Radha's love. They both go on increasing, but neither knows defeat.</B> (CC 1.4.142)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31351038.post-1159568793406033202006-09-29T18:26:00.000-04:002006-09-29T18:26:00.000-04:00"The job is never finished. So what? Siddhi is a m..."The job is never finished. So what? Siddhi is a moving goalpost that is experienced incrementally through many lifetimes."<BR/>As long as the goal can be reached.<BR/>That is the essence of Guru to me. That one would listen to one and not another means that one has something of value and not the other. Or at least one man is selling what you want and another isn't. The idea of a forever receding goal is for me, a source of great pain and sorrow and seems like a very post-modern way of rationalising slow or no progress.skippy longbeachhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05640462922707850162noreply@blogger.com