Jagat

saṁkrāntaṁ nija-kānti-maṇḍalam udīkṣyora-sthale tarkayan nīlāṁ kañculikāṁ varām apanayāsaktyā priye vismite | yātāyā nava-keli-kuñja-śayanaṁ śrī-rādhikāyāḥ parī- hāsāḥ santu mude mamātihasitālībhir bahis tad-rasāḥ ||1.95|| Noticing his own blue effulgence reflected on Radha's breasts, the Beloved thought it to be a blue bodice; he tried to remove it, but could not, causing him great wonder.   As Sri Radhika lies on a couch in the freshly decorated kunja, she makes fun of him, while her friends stand outside, bursting with laughter, everyone enjoying the joke. May those joking words bring me joy also. Commentary And with that sudden recollection of Vrindavan's merciful protection, Prabodhananda has a vision of the līlā . The Dham chooses to reveal her inner self to the one who has taken shelter of her. The Dham is the treasure-box in which the jewel of the līlā is hidden by the curtain of Yogamaya. This is the nature of most of Prabodhananda's writing...

So, seeing that the time was ripe for Hari Katha, I have decided to try a daily serial. So we are going to do the last song of Jayadeva's Gita Govinda, which is the image of the svādhīna-bhartṛkā. So, just to prepare, as a prerequisite, you go and enjoy the following about Jayadeva's Krishna . What is a nāgara ? And why is God a nāgara ? But that will have to await another today, for today, Radha is on the stage and it is the final dramatic scene of the Gita Govinda , the lovers have just made love and it is a HAPPY ending! And now to culminate the scene, Radha, like an empress on her flower bed, looks toward Krishna and says, "Peel me a grape." And Krishna, well I don't have to tell you what Krishna has been through!! If I were to tell that story, I would have to start the Gīta-govinda at the very beginning and that would take us a bit out of the way. Let us just say, he is very, very thankful to all the gods and saints that Radha has finally accepted h...

For the course in Rishikesh, we reviewed Freud and Jung's models of the psyche. Looking first at these two, we then looked at three others, that of the Tantra-yoga and two others represented by the  Rāsa-līlās in the  Bhāgavata  and Gīta-govinda . Freud's model Freud's psychic model sees the instinctual urges as id or libido , an unconscious energetic force that in its attempt for gratification strikes the external world, the reality principle. This shock then creates the intelligence, which becomes internalized as the superego, conscience, etc., and is projected outward as God. Freud sees the economy of the psyche as essentially one of sublimation: libidinal energy is syphoned off for the strengthening of superego, which through self-discipline then produces all the gains of civilization. For Freud, God was perhaps necessary for the beginnings of civilization to strengthen such self-discipline, but has now outlived his usefulness. Human beings should through self-a...

Madhavananda's second objection to Sahajiyaism is based in those numerous verses that I call misogynistic in character. Such verses tell us that there is nothing worse for a person's devotional life than the association of women. This is a question that needs to be explored in much depth and I will try to make a preliminary assessment of the subject. My daughter visited recently. Among the little bits of bitterness that she served up in relation to her Iskcon experience was a reference to the Gita's verse: māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrās te'pi yānti parāṁ gatim Those who take shelter of me fully, even those of sinful birth, women, merchants or common laborers, they too can attain the supreme destination. (9.32) My daughter uttered the words "even women" with portentous disdain--women are considered inferior beings in the bhakti world view. They have, according to different sources, two, four, six or eigh...