Jagat

The other day I was attending Satyanarayana Dasaji’s Bhāgavata class and something came into my head when I heard it said that we are not these bodies. So I asked him the question, “If a devotee’s body is spiritualized when he takes initiation, then would he not identify with it as the sādhaka-deha ?” Babaji’s answer was no, the spiritual identity is internal, we do not identify with the material body. I told him I would prepare my argument and submit it to him when it was ready. My thinking goes like this: Vaishnavism is all about identity . “I am a servant of God.” That identity exists as a servant in the material body, which once we become sādhakas ceases to be, strictly speaking, material. This is the sampradāya-siddhānta : Since all the senses are engaged in devotional service, the body can no longer be called material. There is only one energy of God, which serves different functions, parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate . The appearance of difference is illusion. So, thi...

Oh mind! Absorb yourself in the glories of the Divine Couple in Vrindavan. If it wants to ride, let it ride the noble steed of Rupa, Raghunath and Prabodhananda's poetry through the fields of divya Vrindavan! Make a lifestyle choice! ābhīra-pallī-pati-putra-kāntā- dāsyābhilāṣātibalāśva-vāraḥ śrī-rūpa-cintāmala-sapti-saṁstho mat-svānta-durdānta-hayecchur āstām My uncontrollable mind seeks a powerful horse to ride, for it is a powerful cavalier possessing the desire for service to the beloved of the son of the cowherd king. So let it ride on the spotless steed of Rupa Goswami's thought! (Raghunath Das, Abhīṣṭa-sūcanā , 1) I have never quite happy with my translations of this verse. If it were mat-sv ā nto instead of mat-sv ā nta- it would be fine and the above translation would be without problem. I think that it was a metrical necessity, but the meaning still comes through that way. Raghunath Das is talking about a mind that is already imbued with rāgānugā sent...

If you don’t know your instrument, then how will you play any music? Knowing the body is knowing the instrument of spiritual perfection, the god-given gift, the human body. The gross body is the outermost layer. That is the one we identify with in the lowest stage of consciousness. That does not mean it is rejected. Indeed, our first encounter with the miraculous is to see this body with the mind. ṣaṭ-cakraṁ ṣoḍaśādhāraṁ tri-lakṣyaṁ vyoma-pañcakam | sva-dehe ye na jānanti kathaṁ siddhyanti yoginaḥ || eka-stambhaṁ nava-dvāraṁ gṛhaṁ pañcādhidaivatam | sva-dehe ye na jānanti kathaṁ siddhyanti yoginaḥ ||14|| 1.13 How can those yogis succeed who do not know the six wheels ( cakras ), the sixteen containers ( ādhāra ), the three targets ( lakṣya ) and the five skies ( vyoma ) in their own body? 1.14. How can those yogis who do not know the home, which has a single pillar, nine doors and five divinities ( adhidaivata ), which is present in their own body, ever attain success...

The starting point of critical elaboration is the consciousness of what one really is, and is "knowing thyself" as a product of the historical process to date, which has deposited in you an infinity of traces, without leaving an inventory.... Therefore it is imperative at the outset to compile such an inventory. (Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks , quoted in E.W. Said, Orientalism , p. 25.) We all need to be deeply conscious of our own prejudices. But we should recognize that this is also part of the spiritual path, at an even deeper level than Gramsci's appeal to historical processes. Gramsci is talking about critiquing political ideology, but we can recognize within it the imperative to the highest self-realization. In Upanishadic terms, this is knowing avidyā along with vidyā , i.e., knowing avidyā means to have taken Gramsci's inventory and said, neti. Vidyā is to know your true identity or svarūpa . The two processes are to be conducted simultaneously. ...

One of ISKCON's senior acharyas, Hridayananda Dasa Goswami, who has been teaching at the prestigious Berkeley Theological Union for many years, is  promoting a movement within the movement called " Krishna West ." His proposal has met with controversy, especially since the GBC at its annual Mayapur meetings effectively " quarantined " him. Rank and file members of the movement have been commenting copiously on the meaning of Hridayananda's proposals, which primarily center around issues of the distinctive Hare Krishna dress, showing that he has definitely struck a nerve. Hridayananda vehemently protests that he remains true to the teachings of Srila Prabhupada without compromise and that he is using the issue of dress to make Krishna consciousness more palatable to a wider range of people whose prejudices are awakened by strange appearances. In other words, he claims that he is using the dress issue as a kind of subterfuge to bypass people's bias in...

A lot of what I write on this blog comes out of concern from seeing young devotee couples who are conflicted about their spiritual endeavors and their material engagements, especially their family relationships. The family can become a huge and pretty meaningless burden if the basis of it, namely the loving attraction between husband and wife, is felt to be outside the realm of direct sāsaṅga, svarūpa-siddha bhakti , which is really the ideal kind of practice for the sādhaka . A busy working person has so many obligations, work, family, outside interests, that it becomes difficult to find a place for all the bhakti aṅgas . For married couples with children, what to speak of bhajana , even finding time for personal intimacy or making love often becomes difficult, and for many, it loses a lot of its charm because of that--it is hurried, obligatory, unsatisfying, even exhausting. It loses a lot of its meaning, even though we instinctively know that it is necessary in order to anch...