Jagat

Jai Sri Radhe! So, today another year of the Jiva Ratna courses by Satyanarayana Dasa Babaji at the Jiva Institute came to an end. The Jiva Institute is slowly growing each year through the online courses which allow Babaji Maharaj to remain in Vrindavan with a core group of students while still shepherding a small international group from around the world. These students have developed a taste for his teaching method -- basically studying the Sandarbhas line by line from beginning to end, accompanied by a second field of study based on the six philosophical systems and other aspects of the Sanskrit literary tradition such as Alankara. This appeals to those who seek a more profound analysis of the philosophical basis of the Gaudiya Vaishnava doctrine. Babaji rightly believes that for Gaudiya Vaishnavism to prosper, this kind of thorough scholarship is absolutely necessary. That is arguably following in the footsteps of Jiva Goswami himself, the last of the six Goswamis and the one who ...

It is hard to find a title that covers the spread of topics in these posts, which usually cover a variety of topics very briefly. What struck me here is the pretty defensive post about Satyanarayana Dasaji that comes out of one of the events  from 2018 that was preoccupying me. All this was hashed out on the blog over a fairly extended period of time. At some point I took the risk of being a little public and that particular philosophy of life has obviously had the expected results. Anyway, four years ago I decided I had to state the nature of my relationship with Satyanarayana Dasa Babaji, and you may find other such statements on this blog. I am bound to Babaji until at least the end of the Sandarbhas project, which is currently in its final phase, but I am feeling the pressure to get it done. There is still quite a bit to do, but naturally Babaji is anxious to get it completed. So really it is topmost in my mind at the present time. I don't want to get too sentimental about it; ...

जीव तीर्थ संस्कृतम् I don't want to leave Vrindavan or my cave in the Jiva Institute, but I have been obliged to change my plans somewhat and resume a responsibility towards my family because of these very painful circumstances. These are the crazy years of Covid. I will continue giving classes in Sanskrit and even if I cannot be back in Vrindavan by Karttik (because of visa and flight restrictions) I will continue to give them on Zoom, as currently. It is best when we have live students present physically on the premises, but in the current circumstances, easy movement between countries has been disrupted, and India is considered to be a particularly tough place for Covid, even though in terms of cases per population [342 per million, compared to USA nearly 2000 or Brazil 2700.], it is quite far down the list. But there are still a huge number of cases. So the new normal appears to be Zoom. Let me state unequivocally, however, that I am committed to my students and I am looking f...

Photo taken on Feb. 26, which was my 70th birthday. Sorry to post a picture of myself here. Sorry I have no photos, camera not working. Hopefully I will be able to add later. One may well ask, at least a devotee might ask, what greater good fortune could befall one than to be stuck in Vrindavan and unable to leave? The Covid-19 phenomenon has struck here like everywhere else in the world, and although India does not seem to have been hit as hard as the US, we should logically expect it to spread in this still mostly undeveloped country. Nevertheless, the official lockdown, which has been in place for more than ten days now, appears to be administered quite effectively, sometimes quite aggressively. I don't know much about what is going on outside as I am very happily sitting inside and taking full advantage of the peace and quiet. Reduced vehicle traffic and industrial activity due to the pandemic have resulted in a sparkling blue sky, with practically no khaki haze on the...

Today we had the closing ceremony for the fourth year of Srila Satyanarayana Dasaji's ambitious Jiva Tirtha program. Because of the Covid-19 lockdown, many of our students have already left, but about 20 persons were present for the session. Many of these have been coming for all the four years, which frankly is a great achievement, both for those individuals who have been able to commit to spending six months in Vrindavan to study with Babaji and for Babaji himself, who has inspired them. Babaji's course is extremely far-reaching. This year the main course for study was Paramātma Sandarbha and Sāṅkhya Kārikā . His plan is to cover basic texts of the six philosophical schools -- Nyāya, Vaiśeśika, Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Pūrva and Uttara Mīmāmsā. So far fundamental texts of the Nyāya, Sāṅkhya and Yoga schools have been studied. Next year his plan is to cover Artha-saṅgraha , a basic manual for the Pūrva-mīmāṁsā school. Babaji joked that some scriptures are go-mukha-vyāghra ...

Ooof! I wanted to write something about Karttik and how it is starting. Since I got to Vrindavan I have been kind of holed up in Bhakti Sandarbha land. But I must say that I have been doing a little bhakti as well (he insisted). Well, that is actually one thing I really like about Braja Bhajan. It is that you can lie around and do pretty much nothing and still not feel you have to feel guilty because after all you are in Braj, where just lying around doing nothing is bhakti. Can't really do that anywhere else, you know. Well, there is always residue guilt for someone like me. I was talking with Madhavendra Puri on Ekadasi and discussing what we were doing for Karttik. Neither of us had ambitious plans, just kind of "I am going to get more into what I am already into." But I do feel that the old guilts need to be tended to. So I am truly getting serious about completing some 99%-complete projects that have been awaiting finishing touches for eternities. I am fee...

The roof at Parananda Sukhada Kunj. There is some painting work to be don. I am thinking to have some shlokas painted on the walls, either from VMA or RRSN or maybe Dhruvadas . yad rādhā-pada-kiṅkarī-kṛta-hṛdā samyag bhaved gocaraṁ dhyeyaṁ naiva kadāpi yad dhṛdi vinā tasyāḥ kṛpā-sparśataḥ | yat premāmṛta-sindhu-sāra-rasadaṁ pāpaika-bhājām api tad vṛndāvana-duṣpraveśa-mahimāścaryaṁ hṛdi sphūrjatu || May the wondrous glories of Vrindavan, the understanding of which is so difficult to reach, which are only completely accessible to the heart that has become absorbed in service to Radha's lotus feet, which can never be meditated upon without the touch of Radha's mercy, and which bestows the flavors of the essence of the ocean of nectar of Prema, be manifest even to those who are devoted to a sinful life, like me. (RRSN 266) Madness is best reserved for the silence of the night when one's alone, without reservations, and out of sight. I probably have n...

Well, it's about time I wrote something on the blog. I started a "what am I doing right now #2" more than a month ago, thinking that the particular side trip I was on would not last much longer. It did, and I really need to complete that thought... sometime. Trouble is that by now I have moved on to several other things and haven't been directly inspired to write on the blog. And that in itself is a subject worth blogging about... sometime. We have been having our "Christmas break" at Jiva, which is the time when we usually have a group of students from Rutgers University come and spend a couple of weeks taking introduction to Hinduism courses with Babaji. Something possessed me to write a Sanskrit play for my students. We have been working on it during the break and presented it on Jiva Goswami's disappearance day on Jan. 9. It was a lot of fun and I was overjoyed and honored that the students made such an enthusiastic effort. So for the record, ...

This is Part 5 of a series called "Confession and the Authentic Self." 1. Prologue . 2. Setting the scene. The saga of the Paundraka Vrindavan Today . 3. Staking out the high ground. The frequentations of swans and crows . 4. Confession, a religious act. A concealed provocation. I won't give too much of a preamble here. As stated below, this article appeared after negative material about Babaji started appearing on the other website. I felt that the only way to counteract the negativity was by speaking what I saw as positives. I know that when I read this, it is not full of glorification of Babaji's external achievements or of dramatic hagiography. His disciples can do that. I thought it was more important to say why I decided to serve here in the Jiva Institute and the nature of my relationship with Babaji. How I see him as a human being. Babaji is younger than me, and he took to bhakti at a later time than me. But these are externals that are less important...

This is the team of teachers at the Karttik session of the Bhakti Tirtha course at Jiva Institute. From left to right, Dr. Edwin Bryant, Dr. Måns Broo, Dr. Satyanarayana Dasa Babaji Maharaj, my alter ego, and Dr. Matthew Dasti. The first three weeks will conclude tomorrow after which Dr. Bryant and Dr. Dasti will be be going back to their real lives. The three weeks went by far too quickly. It is, of course, madness to think that they would be able to find the time away from their other obligations to do this entirely voluntary service in Vrindavan. Babaji has gotten the students working on Sanskrit quite intensively. Our two guest lecturers have gone into the nitty gritty of Yoga Sutra and Nyaya, thereby generating a lot of philosophical questioning about God and the nature of God, etc., the reality of the world, and so on, as well as making these texts relevant to Gaudiya Vaishnavas in other ways. The collegial spirit of the teachers and the students, which has people from ...

I have not talked much about current events in my life on this blog of late. Mahamuni Dasji and Advaitadasji have been giving excellent introductory lectures to Nyaya-sutras and Yoga-sutras respectively. And of course Babaji gave his introduction to Sanskrit. We have a good group of students. Unfortunately Advaita and Mahamuni will only be here teaching for three weeks. Any English speaker in the area who is tempted by a crash course in these two subjects is well advised to attend. Jai Radhe. So we have completed one week of classes at Jiva and are part way through the second week. I am pretty happy with my own classes. We completed the four essential verses of the Sandarbhas, which gave me the opportunity to give an overview of Jiva Goswami's philosophy seen from the end-point rather than working through from the beginning. For me, giving daily classes is challenging. And with people of great learning and enthusiasm in the audience increases the challenge. But it als...