Jagat

Karpatriji , one of the great jnanis of the 20th century. A new prakarana begins. This section is about the  jñāna-m ā rga . Anuccheda 214 The Three Types of Sāmmukhya: (1) Jñāna तदेवं रुच्यादिः श्रीगुर्वाश्रयान्त उपासनापूर्वाङ्गरूपः साम्मुख्यभेदो बहुविधो दर्शितः। We have, thus, shown numerous divisions of sāmmukhya , or directing one's awareness towards the Absolute, beginning from initial liking up to the point of taking shelter of a guru. All these steps are preliminary to the actual stage of worship. अथ साक्षादुपासना-लक्षणस्तद्भेदोऽपि बहुविधो दर्श्यते। तत्र साम्मुख्यं द्विविधं—निर्विशेषमयं सविशेषमयं च। तत्र पूर्वं ज्ञानम्। उत्तरं तु द्विविधम्—अहङ्ग्रहोपासनारूपं, भक्तिरूपं च। Now we will discuss the various types of centering awareness on the Absolute, which are in the form of direct worship. This centering of awareness is of two types: that related to the unqualified Absolute and that related to the Absolute with attributes. The first type refers to jñā...

Anyone who has studied the Bhagavad- gītā  will know the following verse: ārurukṣor muner yogaṁ karma kāraṇam ucyate | yogārūḍhasya tasyaiva śamaḥ kāraṇam ucyate || For one seeking to rise to the platform of yoga, work is said to be the cause. For the same person when arisen to the platform of yoga, mental pacification is said to be the cause. (6.3) This somewhat innocuous verse says a great deal about the structure of the Gītā and the sixth chapter, and indeed about the entire Gītā philosophy of yoga. As many will already know, Madhusudan Saraswati has divided the Gītā into three six-chapter sections, on karma, bhakti and jnana, respectively. This scheme has been accepted by the two Gaudiya commentators, Vishwanath and Baladeva, also. The sixth chapter also serves as a bridge from the karma section to the bhakti section as the number of references that Krishna makes to himself, to thought of him, to the vision of him, etc., is substantially greater th...

I spoke at the meeting of SHEN to a group of about 40-50 people at the University of Waterloo on June 17. I used Powerpoint to help organize my ideas, many of which have previously been jotted down in these blog. It was nice to condense and clarify them in a public setting and the presentation was well received. I have tried to put it down here, but of course, it is still a condensation as many of the ideas are in need of elaboration. 1. Prema Prayojana The inspiration for this talk comes from Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the incarnation of divine love, who appeared in Bengal in the 15th century and inspired this movement of bhakti devotion. I have posted a statement attributed to him: সন্ন্যাস মোর কিবা কাজ, আমার প্রেম প্রয়োজন sannyāsa mora kibā kāja ? āmāra prema prayojana ! "What need have I of the renounced order of life? What I need is prema !" The expression prema prayojana really has a double meaning: On the one hand, perhaps Mahaprabhu was channeling ...