Jagat

From Vrindavan Today : Every Maghi Krishna Ekadasi is a special day at the Tatia Sthan, as the annual jāgaraṇa  is held in commemoration of Swami Lalit Mohini Das, the eighth acharya of the renounced order of the Haridasi sect. Though the scriptures enjoin that every Ekadasi one should follow very strict rules, which include keeping vigil, i.e., staying up all night, this is rarely practiced. As far as I know, the Haridasi sect does not follow Ekadasi particularly strictly, but at least on this one night, they do the jagran . And it has become an important event on the Tatia Sthan's yearly calendar, attended by all the ashram's sadhus and by many devotees from Vrindavan and beyond. The Tatia Sthan owes a lot to Swami Lalit Mohini Dev, and it is said that much of the strong tradition of the Haridasi sampradaya that exists there is the result of his work. Though like all the acharyas who followed Swami Haridas he wrote many songs, he was nowhere nearly as prolific as others lik...

I have been reading a book by Suryakant Goswami, a sevadhikari at the Bankey Bihari temple, called Nikunj ka rahi, or “Pilgrim to the Secret Grove.” The story is about Bhagavat Rasik Dev, an early 19th century saint of the Haridasi or Sakhi sampradaya. The story is itself of great interest, and the telling is done in good, literary Hindi. Goswami’s descriptions of Vrindavan as it was in the first half of the 19th century fills a reader like myself with nostalgia, though some of the things that he describes — large homes for absentee rich people, for instance — show that certain trends are eternal, only being exacerbated by India’s current economic boom. Bhagavat Rasik Dev was a grand disciple of Lalita Kishori Das, the founder of the Tattiya Sthan. On one of his first days in Vrindavan, after bathing in the Yamuna, he had a vision of Swami Haridas with the Divine Couple sitting in his lap, like in the picture above. But when he came to stay permanently in Vrindavan and took ...

The last couple of days there has been a little bit of intensity over on a thread that I started about yet another Western woman writing of her experiences of sexual harassment in India. See discussion here . I have been hanging out on the internet quite a bit since I got to Vrindavan. There are probably various reasons for it. The time I spent in Rishikesh was very structured and intense, not really what I am used to. Coming back here, I remained in my room, reclusively, but as soon as I got me some internet, I just dove right into. Mostly American leftist news and political sites, believe it or not. And interactions with, again mostly Americans, on Facebook. Something of a disconnect: physically in Vrindavan during Hariyali Teej and Jhulan, but mentally in a kind of no-man's-land. Part of the reason is that I am having a horrendous case of writer's block... again. It seems I can write and write, pontificate on unimportant matters left and right, show off my knowledge an...