Jagat

Another Side of Thakura Bhaktivinoda Pariśiṣṭa (An Additional Topic):  "What Changed the River’s Course?" By Gadadhar Pran Das  Email: gadadhar_das000@yahoo.co.in  After completing thirty chapters and assuming that our writing task was done, one reader put forward a good question: “Although the guru parampara of Thakur Bhaktivinoda that is described in your book appears to be genuine, why don’t more of his followers know about this?” Yes, we considered, he is right. Here is a matter that merits explanation. But before we attempt to uncover the Thakur's legacy, we should say a few words about what was going on in the beginning. Because from Gauranga Mahaprabhu’s time there was a traditional system in our Gaudiya Sampradaya that was much more in practice in Bhaktivinoda’s period than it is today: Vaishnavas were accustomed to take diksha from a Goswami parivara, a family line of Vaishnava Acharyas that descend from one of Gauranga’s eternal associates. Not only does Thakur ...

Humanity is engaged in a conversation between faith and faithlessness and there are many shades of gray between the two. Opposition is not the answer, but synthesis. This is one of the reasons I like Jordan Peterson. He is arguing in favor of Western civilization, by which he means the theistic Christian tradition. He argues from biology and psychology to show that the basic tenets of Christian religion are integral to the evolutionary process and reflect biological elements in our makeup that stretch back millions of years, way before humanity awakened. And that we should thank our lucky stars that in the modern west especially we get to play an eminently playable game. In other words, all facility is there to make your life meaningful. It is a complex argument with many strands, but the conclusion derives from the Western countries' material, technical and social success, which can be attributed to the way that their culture evolved as a result of the specific ideas that its...

  I was greatly disturbed today to learn from my godbrother Hari Gopal Dasji Maharaj, the current president of the Bhaktivinode Gosthi, that the Birnagar birthplace of Bhaktivinoda Thakur is under attack. Some neighbors are claiming that they have ancestral rights over the land, even though the property was clearly given to our Gurudeva, Sril Sril Lalita Prasad Thakur, in the 1930’s and the ashram has the papers to prove it. It happens that the town of Birnagar has grown up around the Dwadash Mandir property, making it extremely valuable real estate. Dwadash Mandir for the most part is unchanged from 40 years ago before greed and development had become the de facto religion of this country. In the last few years, the population of the ashram has dwindled and made it vulnerable to this kind of attack. Land Mafias everywhere in India take advantage of such situations to their profit. When it became clear to the trustees of the Goshthi that the ashram was in danger, they...

I had some misgivings about posting this and even considered deleting it completely. Facebook pie fights are unseemly and who wants to admit to having been sucked into one. I regularly get posters from my ISKCON friends -- usually people who are on the fringes, for I suspect that for a temple devotee to be my FB friend is a capital offense -- who exhort me to read Prabhupada's books as the magic cure for my confusion. It is not fair of me to point out that often they are clearly symptomatic of some kind of spiritual blockage, but occasionally I do. However, the following made me take the whole question of this infantile approach to religion and to look at it in the light of history. A comment on Facebook I made elicited the following response from the aptly named Yuyutsu: Aha ha ha ho ho ho Jagadananda.. thinks he's Santa CAUSE.... ALSO THINKS HE'S SOME KIND OF HOLYMAN GURU SADHU... OF SORTS... 😂😂😅😆😃😂😂😂😂😂 THAT EARNS YOU A "PHCK OFF" LITTLE OLD MA...

My FB friend PamHo wrote a highly critical article of Bhakti Vikas Swami which he posted to Facebook: Martyr or Mother? I have been thinking a little about the issues raised by Bhakti Vikas Swami in his book about women and the role of women in ISKCON, though not having read the book I haven't gone into any great depth. I do know him by reputation and from some articles I have read. I see him as the conservative pole of current ISKCON and Hridayananda Maharaj being at the other extreme, with the GBC navigating the middle. I am not particularly supportive of either of those individuals nor their course, nor do I have any skin in the game of ISKCON's future direction. I find the issue of women's roles, etc., really something that cannot be subjected to a purely traditional scriptural rule of law. My position is that in the larger society, in the current context, women should be free to develop as individuals without being hampered by limitations imposed by male masters. ...

On Facebook the other day, I posted a link to an article by George Monbiot, one of the few journalists whose work I admire, from the Guardian. Monbiot laments about the corporate culture and compares it to cult-like indoctrination and brain washing. He seems to be on a bit of a run about this because he had another similar article a couple of days later. Of course, having experienced a religious cult, spending nine years in the Hare Krishnas, I thought of Prabhupada's statement that he was indeed engaged in a brainwashing exercise, precisely because our brains did need to be washed. And that is quite true. The idea of "cleansing the mirror of the mind" is central to all yoga systems. We willingly submitted to the brainwashing process because we wanted to change our way of consciousness, our way of being. To fill our minds and senses with Krishna. To become Krishna conscious. And on the whole, I am glad of it. The process was based on the Bhāgavata-dharmas of the sc...

So in my last post, I spoke a little of my own experience on the Sahajiya path and how I found that the experiment as I had been conducting it had been deemed a failure. I was contemplating whether one should be pessimistic about my philosophical understanding, in view of the seeming rarity of success. In actual fact, what is happening, my friends, is that we are giving the juices time to ferment. I really do not know what the outcome of this experiment will be, because whatever happens, the repercussions of it will remain. In other words, very strong samskaras were created in the last ten years, and I really don't think it will be possible for me in the long run to accept the orthodox position, as expressed to me by a friend: This world is a shadow of the spiritual world and so resemblances exist in form....but not in substance. Male and female forms exist both here and there, so there is a slight resemblance of form. However the substance is entirely different. Visvanath Cakr...

Harigopal Dasji and Vamshi Dasji. So I did not finish reflecting on the visit to Dwadash Mandir. Some came out today in a bit of a poetical form, which can be seen here . Let me quote the relevant parts, which is actually most of the poem: It was a visit to a distant past, my guru's ashram. Strangely unchanged, though changes are coming, like everywhere, like a cancer they spread through every artery in the shape of fallen trees and piles of bricks in various shapes and forms, usually square and shapeless, devoid of love or art. ...  But Dwadash Mandir sits in obliviousness to the norms of the modern world. It is dangling with cobwebs the spaces are just nooks, the women are just cooks. And the bell rings and the gong chimes and one or two voices sing the mangal arati waking up the rest, who slowly drag themselves into their daily routine of cooking and cleaning the men are dragging long tubes or piles of wood, or bringing in mangoes from the orchard...