Jagat

2022 क्षमी दाता गुणग्राही स्वामी पुण्येन लभ्यते । अनुकूलः शुचिर्दक्षः कविर्विद्वान् सुदुर्लभः ॥ Only after much pious action does one attain a master or husband who is forgiving, generous, and a taker of one's virtues. Even more rare is one who is favorable, pure, expert. wise and learned. Bhoja-prabandha 93 व्याघ्रीव तिष्ठति जरा परितर्जयन्ती रोगाश्च शत्रव इव प्रहरन्ति देहम् । आयुः परिस्रवति भिन्नघटादिवाम्भो लोकस्तथाप्यहितमाचरतीति चित्रम् ॥ Old age awaits like a tigress, threatening, menacing; diseases, like enemies, attack the body, Life is slipping away like water from a burst jug, and even so people engage in evil acts... is it not astonishing? Vairāgya-śataka 38 यावत्स्वस्थमिदं शरीरमरुजं यावज् जरा दूरतो यावच्चेन्द्रियशक्तिरप्रतिहता यावत् क्षयो नायुषः । आत्मश्रेयसि तावद् एव विदुषा कार्यः प्रयत्नो महान् सन्दीप्ते भवने तु कूपखननं प्रत्युद्यमः कीदृशः ॥ When the body is still healthy, when old age is far away, when all the senses are working with peak efficiency, when there are stil...

One of the verses that struck me when reading the Haṭha-yoga-pradīpikā was the following tatra vastu-dvayaṁ vakṣye durlabhaṁ yasya kasyacit | kṣīraṁ caikaṁ dvitīyaṁ tu nārī ca vaśavartinī || I will now tell you of two things that are very rare for anyone in this world. One is milk. The other is an cooperative woman. (HYP 3.84) I found the verse a little troublesome, first of all because milk does not seem all that hard to find, not like a spiritual partner for bhajan, and also because this word vaśa-vartinī seems to indicate a kind of patriarchal model of male-female relations, which I as a worshiper of the female deity, Radharani, i.e., as a worshiper of the Divine Feminine, Shakti, felt was philosophically incompatible. After all, Radharani is known as the one who controls Krishna through bhakti, indicating a primacy of the feminine. My position has always been that of the spiritual complementarity of the sexes, a position that is closer to the Shakta philosophy than to t...

The guru-disciple relation is one of vātsalya . Vātsalya has a range of moods. Anyone situated in an advantageous position who wants to help another in a less advantageous position is experiencing vātsalya . This is a kind of love and of course has its levels, but its basis is compassion. The definition of vātsalya comes from Rupa Goswami. Vātsalya means the love of a superior for an inferior, in whatever specific form. It takes the form of nourishment and protection. In this world, the highest vātsalya is that of the guru who gives his grace. The number of rasas is limited to eight, or twelve, depending on the system you are following. Now where in this scheme does the sentiment of a guru to his disciple fit? And can one be a guru without vātsalya ? It's like asking can you be a parent without vātsalya ? Of course you can, but that parenthood without love would be rasābhāsa . Vātsalya means that one in a position of superiority, out of love, helps one in a position of n...

My dear friends, God was alone and he said, "This is no fun." And so he split himself into two and became "as a man locked in embrace with a woman." Thus it is said, Radha and Krishna are one soul in two bodies. All romantic love is an attempt to recreate this original simultaneous oneness and difference. In one dimension we recreate, in another we serve, that ideal. The transformation of the world through love passes through this gate. We worship Radha and Krishna and no other. We pray for the Love that inundates them to guide our intelligence. Proper loving relations have to be based on liberty and equality. This means that the patriarchal attitude is automatically excluded. Where power relations are dominated by the male and the woman is seen as subservient, i.e., where the guru-chela spiritual dynamic is essentially a one-way street, the relationship may reach a certain level of love, but never the fullness of madhurya. Parakiya bhava means that a woman t...