Jagat

For the course in Rishikesh, we reviewed Freud and Jung's models of the psyche. Looking first at these two, we then looked at three others, that of the Tantra-yoga and two others represented by the  Rāsa-līlās in the  Bhāgavata  and Gīta-govinda . Freud's model Freud's psychic model sees the instinctual urges as id or libido , an unconscious energetic force that in its attempt for gratification strikes the external world, the reality principle. This shock then creates the intelligence, which becomes internalized as the superego, conscience, etc., and is projected outward as God. Freud sees the economy of the psyche as essentially one of sublimation: libidinal energy is syphoned off for the strengthening of superego, which through self-discipline then produces all the gains of civilization. For Freud, God was perhaps necessary for the beginnings of civilization to strengthen such self-discipline, but has now outlived his usefulness. Human beings should through self-a...

In the viṣkambhaka (or introductory interlude) of Dāna-keli-kaumudī , Vrinda Devi speaks a couple of verses in glorification of Radha. She starts out with an expression of humility, anālocya vrīḍāṁ yam iha bahu mene bahu-tṛṇaṁ tyajann īrṣāpannāṁ madhuripur abhīṣṭām api ramām | janaḥ so’yaṁ yasyāḥ śrayati na hi dāsye’py avasaraṁ samarthas tāṁ rādhāṁ bhavati bhuvi kaḥ ślāghitum api || , Even though to give me honor, the enemy of Madhu shamelessly abandoned the Lakshmi Devi he cherishes, like nothing more than so much grass, despite her jealousy, I have never had the opportunity to serve Radha. Who then on this earth can possibly praise her adequately? (DKK 11) Vrinda Devi appears to be refering to her marriage to Shalagram in the form of Tulasi Devi, with whom she is identified. Here, though, she shows that like Radha's other sakhis, despite their own personal glorious attainments, she has put aside any such claims in order to give recognition to Radha’s vast superiority...

This article was first posted on Audarya Forums, 07-02-2001, and I have reposted it once or twice with minor alterations. Since there is currently some interest in the themes that have been touched on in it, I thought I would make it available again, since I do not believe that it is available on-line anywhere at the moment. I have made some small changes in the concluding section. Part I I was recently censured by someone on the Dharma Mela list in the following words: "This is so very Western to have this fear of anger, and emotions in general, Jagat. ... Maybe it's time you did shed some of that hard skull and get a bit thinner skinned. What do you think? I would love to see a softening in your heart, and see that shining devotee emerge. Enough dryness. Sorry if this offends anyone but why pussyfoot around it?" Even though I have some sympathy for this assessment of my character, it got me thinking, as I have long thought about the dialectic nature of opposites li...

In the Padma Purāṇa there is a verse, which is unremarkable but nevertheless states something fundamental that I am trying to get at here. aviditvā tu mantrārthaṁ siddhiṁ naivādhigacchati na tu bhuktiṁ ca bhaktiṁ ca na ca muktiṁ varānane Without knowing the meaning of the mantra, you cannot attain success. O Varanane, you cannot attain sense gratification, nor devotion, nor liberation. (6.226.93) What we are doing here, in general, is inquiring into the meaning of the mantra . If encountering the symbol directly is the same as direct perception ( sākṣātkāra ) of the Deity, then mining the symbol for its meaning is a part of that process of encounter: śravaṇam, mananam, nididhyāsanam , then darśanam . Hear, reflect, meditate deeply and you will see. Saying the mantra as a prayer to God is not sufficiently meaningful. Yesterday someone came up to me after my Gita class and asked if Jehovah was the same as Krishna. I said no and he practically burst. I did not find myself particula...

The point of much of what was said before is this: The I-Thou mode of relation is more natural to woman, the I-It mode to men. Even this very discourse is contaminated by the masculine approach as I try to dissect these matters and analyse them without apparently directly engaging in an I-Thou act. In fact, Buber himself says that the I-Thou mode assimilates the I-It mode in the way that relation assimilates experience . "There is nothing I must not see in order to see, and there is no knowledge that I must forget. Rather, it is everything, picture and movement, species and instance, law and number, included and inseparably fused." Therefore, my dear reader, when I speak these things, they are all assimilated into You. The acharyas confirm this insight in relation to the bhakti path as well. Jiva Goswami writes that knowledge need not be inimical to devotion (see Durgama-saṅgamanī to BRS 1.1.10). The early scientists thought of natural reason as a way of understanding t...