Jagat

I have a young friend who is teaching me the harmonium. He is also my main audience for evening classes in Dana-keli-kaumudi , thirsty for bhakti-rasa , AND he uses my internet, so he is here quite a bit. My friend, Rupa, is going home to Mumbai in three weeks and is in some anxiety about it. His father is actually a well-known classical singer, at least according to him. Rupa also says that his father and grandfather's musical tradition ( gharana ) is very special and has features that are unique to it. But because he spent a lot of time over the past few years wandering around Braj, he stopped practicing for three years. He only took it up again fairly recently and has been teaching, but he feels he needs to get a little bit more from his musical guru. Only trouble is that his father is also his music guru, on whom he depends for his perfecting his art. And his father does not care much for his Vaishnava trip. He is all in favor of him continuing the tradition, but he wa...

Sitting here working on Bhagavat-sandarbha and listening to Gaurava Krishna Goswami singing the "Radha Nama sange Braja 84 kos yatra" which I mentioned before. The track lasts 45 minutes, so you have to be kind of addicted to Radha's name to listen to it, but I don't find it all monotonous. In fact, I want to play it over and over. It's a real pick-me-up, a real upper. This really awakens nostalgia for Vrindavan. Sri Yamunaji ki laharen bole Sri Radha Radha! Vrindavan karkata bole Sri Radha Radha ! Brahma kund men (Radhe Radhe), Gopishwar men (Radhe Radhe), ... He goes through all the places on the 84 kos parikrama. Several refrains... hamaro dhana radha sri radha sri radha, parama dhana radha radha radha radha radha! jivana dhana radha radha radha radha radha! Bhaja mana sri radhe gopal ! There are some hokey special effects, like echo and reverb, but they manage to work, somehow. I was just reading in Osho's commentary to Gita 4 where ...