Jagat

Vrinda Devi in Kamyavan jānann apy amṛtaṁ vihāya garalaṁ bhuñje svayaṁ bandhanam apy ārti-vrāta-nibandhanaṁ dṛḍhataraṁ kurve sudṛk svandhavat | śrī-vṛndāṭavi mātar ekam iha maj-jīvātur asti svayaṁ yat tvaṁ sneha-mayī vikṛṣya janatāṁ svāṅkaṁ samāneṣyasi ||1.93|| In full knowledge, I reject nectar and drink poison. I bind myself more tightly though the bonds cause me nothing but distress; I am as one with sight who blinds himself. O Mother Vrindavan! I have only one hope for survival: that you, being affectionate to me, drag my kinsfolk away from me, and take me into your bosom. Commentary We have been talking about the adhikāra for Braja-vāsa sādhanā and in the last commentary I said that the qualifications for Braja-vāsa are very similar to those prescribed for the jnāna-mārga . One of those qualifications being the freedom from desires for happiness in this world or the next, another being "the desire for liberation" ( mumukṣutva ). I al...

I am at Swami Rama Sadhaka Gram in Rishikesh for a few days, lecturing and tending to some personal business. The other day a visiting sannyasi from the Shringeri Math tradition came to perform a Shri Chakra puja at the newly inaugurated "Mother Goddess" shrine on the campus. Swami Veda personally supervised the Jaipur sculptors in the forming of the white marble image, which he calls "White Tara" based on the Tibetan form of the Mother Goddess. In particular, he told me, he wanted the image to have soft contours and a divine motherly feel, without the hard edges that are sometimes seen in Tara deities. Though the puja was supposedly an abbreviated one, it lasted a full five hours. The pujari, who prefered not to have his name publicized,  conducted the entire ritual in complete silence, though he was mentally chanting the complex mantras as ordained in the paddhatis. His knowledge of all the mudras and gestures was clearly apparent, and he maintained a relax...