Jagat

Here are a couple of photos from the January 30 kirtan at Keshi Ghat. The high point for me certainly came with Shyam Das's kirtan after the arti ceremony itself. A very sophisticated and moving performance, done under the lights, with floating deepas speckling the darkness in the background. It felt like a campfire, but very intimate and very transcendental, with a small but enthusiastic group in the audience. There were many participants, including a very enthusiastic kirtan led by Deenabandhuji. Another patented Ahindra kirtan. On the whole a very enjoyable day. Krishnadevata Dasi organized the global kirtan at more than 230 sites around the world. Things are quieting down a bit, as expected, but I hope that the concern for Vrindavan's future will not abate. Many people were walking through Keshi Ghat on parikrama, as this was one of the Kumbha Mela Shahi Snanas. Some of them stopped to listen and enjoy the kirtan. Paramadvaiti Maharaj is the steadiest and most consistent vo...

Sometimes time really does seem to fly, and one barely knows where it went. Certainly on the trip to Vrindavan, two entire days were lost in traveling. May I never take the Utkal Express again. Got into Vrindavan well after midnight. Was up late in the morning, but started off immediately for Keshi Ghat. As usual, it was a dreadful shock to see the garbage piled up in the old ghats, the running nalas overflowing onto the road, and general mess and neglect. You can see here and here that even in India, it does not have to be so. You can see pictures of the kind of situation that prevails on the Yamuna Vrindavan Heritage Alliance website . Just scroll down through this slideshow to get an idea. On the way, I noticed that there was activity at one of the sewage treatment plants along the Parikrama Marga, so I stopped in to see what the story was. The engineer there told me first of all that the plant was functioning. I asked him whether the pipes that had been laid throughout the wester...

We may or may not stop the bridge, but as Vaishnavas we are not attached to the results of our action. We neither lose enthusiasm for doing the right thing when we fail to achieve the results we sought, nor do we stop and rest on our laurels when we do reach our goals. Seva to the Divine Couple is infinite. The degradation of the Vrindavan environment has been going on for some time, but without cars or accumulations of garbage, it was somewhat tolerable. We could live with it and still appreciate the underlying transcendental atmosphere. The exponential increase of pilgrims over the past decade has meant that the environmental degradation is also increasing apace. It has also meant that a taste for materialism has crept into the spirit of the people, with all that this entails. The sum result is that it is getting harder and harder to see or feel the sacred power of Vrindavan. Service to the Dham means perceiving and making manifest that sacred power. That is prema. We are ac...

The Yamuna Vrindavan Heritage Foundation has been set up in Vrindavan with Padmanabha Goswami and K.P.S. Gill as its principal officers. The constitution is in the course of being written and a website is being set up. The first task of the Foundation is to mobilize efforts to stop the Keshi Ghat Flyover, but it is an attempt to rally all the various organizations in Vrindavan behind the concept that Vrindavan and the Yamuna are heritage sites that need special protection. There have been some very encouraging developments lately which we will hopefully be able to report soon. The website will contain a discussion board, plenty of background information, official petitions and links to related petitions and other organizations doing similar or related work. An important upcoming event is preoccupying the leaders of the YVHF and that is the Supreme Court hearing on January 10. More information about that will be posted soon, but Sri Chandan Goswamiji already made a report about th...

Dear Friends, Radhe Radhe ! This New Year is a time of mixed feelings for me and many other devotees. Along with the usual hopes that come with every new beginning, there is a sentiment that our beloved Vrindavan Dham is in serious trouble. Many people in this great land of India have bad memories of a colonial past and fears of a neo-colonial future. They also have tremendous hopes for a technological and economic awakening. They want India to take its rightful place as a global leader and political powerhouse on the world stage. All these things are natural, and indeed, since most devotees love India in a special way, loving her because she has contributed to their own spiritual awakening, they sympathize with all these ambitions. Indeed, our great hope is that India, empowered by her unique spiritual heritage, would be a leader in the very things that we cherish most dearly: peace, non-violence, the harmony of humanity and nature, and a human society that is centered on the values o...