Jagat

The inner path is the way of the singular. The external is that of the plural. Their meeting place is in the dual. Like the lamp on the doorstep that sheds light both inside and out, it reveals both the one and the many. Know this and you know the path of Sahaja.  (See  Lessons from Sanskrit: Singular, dual and plural . (April 06, 2011)  

atyāścaryā sarvato’smād vicitrā śrīmad-rādhā-kuñja-vāṭī cakāsti | ādyo bhāvo yo viśuddho’tipūrṇas tad-rūpā sā tādṛśonmādi sarvāḥ || There, in the kunja, glows Radha’s amazing beautiful flower grove cottage, more marvelous than all these others, for it embodies the original mood of love in its purest and most perfect form, by which all the Vraja gopis are inebriated. (1.9) Commentary In this and the next verse, Prabodhananda may be said to complete the vastu-nirde śa  portion of his introduction the the Mahim ām ṛta . Actual our beloved author and acharya of Braja-vasa-sadhana wants us to focus more and more clearly on the actual secret-most treasure of Braja Dham, which is the union of the Divine Couple in Radha's kunj. In the previous verse , Prabodhananda listed the hierarchy of dhams of the Lord and stated that they could all be found in Vrindavan. But now he makes it clear that Radha’s kunja is at the top of all these. “All the others” in the vers...

Crossposted from Vrindavan Today For Braj Rasikas, Mukti is a bitter pill tiktībhūtā vimuktir viṣama-nirayavad bhāti sarvendriyārthaiḥ sarve bhogā bhavanti prabala-garala-vahny-udbhaṭa-jvāla-kalpāḥ | kīṭa-prāyāḥ samasta-pravara-sura-gaṇāḥ siddhayaś cendra-jāla prāyāḥ saṁsvādya vṛndāvana-rasika-rasaṁ mādyate me’dya hṛdyam || Now that I have tasted the delights of association with the rasikas of Vrindavan, my heart is intoxicated with delight, so much so that liberation seems bitter to me, as much as the sufferings of hell, and the pleasures experienced through sense objects seem like the fiery suffering that comes of swallowing a powerful poison; the greatest of the gods seem like nothing more than worms or insects, and the mystic perfections of the yogis seem like nothing better than magic tricks. (1.66) Commentary The glories of the Vrindavan mood and the rasikas who taste it are perhaps the most important theme of VMA. The idea of the horror of liberation ...

I recently wrote an article in which I began to inquire into samādhi and bhakti-yoga . So, ever since I have been involved with hatha yoga, seeing what it offers to a bhakti-yogi, I have been fascinated by the insistence that many people make that the ultimate goal of all paths is one. Now in one sense, one has to agree, since nothing exists outside of God, and whatever the varieties of enjoyments on offer to us by the three gunas , it is all indirectly and directly interaction with God and nothing else, so how can anyone say that they are not all one? And it is certain that with a little awareness one will see the God present, though hidden, in the material manifestations, the mirages that we go running after in the desert. But the connoisseurs, those who are rasikas of the eka-rasa , want to know the mechanics of rasa and samādhi , because that is the promised land in the direction of which we have been pointed, somewhere beyond the desert. So, generally speaking, the yoga...

I was recently added to a group on Facebook called Devotional Poetry , where a few devotees have been sharing their compositions and their love of language (English only, of course). I am not a compulsive poet, nor a regular practitioner of the craft. If I am a poet at all, it is more of an impulsive one, who occasionally is driven by some inspiration or emotional turbulence to express myself. So I haven't written a great deal, and when I do, it admittedly tends to the maudlin because of the excessive charge of immediate, unprocessed feelings. But without the charge of personal feeling, if a poem is only repetition of another's thoughts, or didactic/intellectual alone, then it loses its edge or capacity to produce rasa . In these cases, what we get is bhāva , not rasa . The thing about writing, poetry or any kind of literature or artistic production, according to rasa theory, is that it takes emotions ( bhāva ) out of the realm of the purely personal. Personal experie...

Harilal Vyasa (HLV) has given a lengthy 157 verse introduction to his commentary in which he points out his principal intentions in his work. In it, he cites verse 146 (147 in the Gaudiya edition) as a case of rasa-bhāva-vivecanam , and the point he makes there is the following: rasopasarjanī-bhūto bhāvo mukhyo rasaḥ smṛtaḥ | bhāvaḥ śyāme raso gaure yasya sādhāraṇo na saḥ | [Since] bhāva is that which produces the rasa, rasa is therefore the more prominent [of the two]. One whose bhāva is in Shyam and rasa in Radha is not common. (103-104) This is meant to be a quick summary of HLV's understanding of the verse and a highlighting of its importance. Now let's look at the verse itself in a little more detail: na jānīte lokaṁ na ca nigama-jātaṁ kula-paraṁ- parāṁ vā no jānāty ahaha na satāṁ cāpi caritam | rasaṁ rādhāyām ābhajati kila bhāvaṁ vraja-maṇau rahasy etad yasya sthitir api na sādhāraṇa-gatiḥ || One who does not know the ways of the world, nor the scrip...

These are some notes on the word bhāva as it appears in the BRS and UN, compiled while I was working on Mādhurya-kādambinī . They were originally posted a few years ago on Gaudiya Discussions and the now defunct Wise Wisdoms site. Somewhat modified and updated here. prāyo dvividha evāyaṁ bhāvo dvividhānāṁ bhaktānāṁ dvividha-cid-vāsanā-sanātheṣu hṛdayeṣu sphuran dvividhāsvādyatvaṁ bhajate, ghana-rasa iva rasāla-panasekṣu-drākṣādiṣu praviṣṭaḥ pṛthak-pṛthaṅ-mādhuryavattvaṁ bhajate . When this bhāva , which is usually of these two types, enters into the hearts of the two kinds of devotees ( vaidha and rāgānugā ), which are ruled by two different kinds of transcendental desire, it is relished in two different ways. It can be compared to the water ( ghana-rasa ) that enters various kinds of fruit—mangoes, jackfruit, sugarcane or grapes—but takes on a different flavor in each of them. ( Mādhurya-kādambinī 7.4) The point being: Vishwanath seems to be saying, nay emphasizing...