Jagat

Originally posted on  Vrindavan Today , Oct. 2014. mukti-śrībhi ḥ sa kalita-pado nāraka ṁ yāti dhāvan labdhvā cintāma ṇ im atha mahā-vāridhau nik ṣ ipet sa ḥ | k ṛ tvā vaśya ṁ sakala-bhagavac-chekhara ṁ śvādhama ḥ syād yo durbuddhis tyajati sahasā prāpya v ṛ ndāvana ṁ tat || Having attained a place that is decorated by all the opulence of liberation, he goes running off to hell. Having found a chintamani gemstone, he simply throws it into the ocean, Having brought under his control the ultimate form of the Supreme Lord, he behaves like the lowliest cur -- Such is the fool who having attained Vrindavan suddenly abandons it   (1.60) Commentary Prabodhananda Saraswati uses strong language in speaking of one who attains and then loses his place in the Dham. The word śvādhama here means the same as vāntāśī , vomit-eater, which in the colorful Sanskrit language means a dog, a creature that can be seen to indulge in this rather repulsive habit. A sannyasi who has ren...

So  I have decided to return to my confessions. One of the things I have been thinking about of late is the Sva-likhita-j ī van ī  of Bhaktivinoda Thakur. I have been reading a lot of his other writings, especially the earlier ones, along with the SLJ and trying to form a proper understanding of his life and work. I have also been reading some of the scholarship about BVT mostly from devotees in academia and trying to imagine this man, who has played such a big part in my life. I have just been talking with a critic here who like so many others objects to my writings about Sahajiyaism . This critic has also very calmly told me that I am self-absorbed and a poseur, and that I am dishonest when I claim to have received the grace of various gurus because I don't follow any of them, as none of them would approve of my Sahajiya doctrine.. Do I feel entirely comfortable with my self-claimed title of Sahajiya? I occasionally get letters from people who sympathize with some of the...

Bhajana Rahasya 7.21: The gopis only wish for Krishna to return home to Vrindavan On meeting Krishna in Kurukshetra, Radha’s only prayer is that He return to Vraja— āhuś ca te nalina-nābha padāravindaṁ yogeśvarair hṛdi vicintyam agādha-bodhaiḥ saṁsāra-kūpa-patitottaraṇāvalambaṁ gehaṁ juṣām api manasy udiyāt sadā naḥ O lotus-naveled Krishna! Brahma and other great yogis like him, who have unfathomable wisdom, meditate constantly on Your lotus feet in their hearts, for such meditation is said to be the best means for conditioned souls to climb out of the dark well of material existence. May those feet always manifest in our minds, for we are attached to our householder lives and families. (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam10.82.48) Expanded translation: O lord of My life! Kindly hear My submission. Vrindavan is My home, and if I cannot have Your company there, I will not be able to survive. O Krishna! For the materialistic person, the mind that accepts and rejects sense objects is cons...

"Some very experienced people seem to still confuse serving the dhama with serving the drama." Drama and rasa are one. Love is simple, but it is always dramatic. Mostly because we resist it, but primarily because love must include pain to serve its full purpose. That is the meaning of the Rasa Lila. Serving the Dham is an act of love. Embrace Love. Drama and rasa are one. This is why the gopis lie down on the path when Krishna leaves for Mathura, wailing and lamenting. What a bunch of drama queens! That IS what the Dham is all about. And that is also why Vrindavan should not be merged with Mathura. Fortunate are those who serve the Dham in the mood of the gopis. The gopis fell in love. "Falling in love" is something that cannot be legislated or commanded. And the call of the flute is the primary symbol of the force of attraction that breaks down all barriers and creates the flow of love. Until we realize that it is Krishna, the Navina Madan, who is beh...

Viktor Frankl meaning article . Human beings make the mistake, you could call it the “romantic fallacy,” that there is something called love, which when one falls into, everything will be complete and one is spiritually fulfilled. That is precisely why it is called a puruṣārtha of kāma , because it carries with it this illusion of completion. In a film, one sees the lovers kiss in the train station, all obstacles have been removed, and they live happily ever after. That is clearly a fallacy. A similar fallacy exists in spiritual life: it is the liberation fallacy, it is the idea of any kind of perfection in stasis, whether called nirvana or mukti or prema. It doesn't matter what we call it, if we identify it as the absolute cessation of suffering, a stasis, then it is fundamentally a fallacy. It is not bhakti, it is not reality. That is why bhakti theologians object to it. Both kāma or mukti are dreams of a state of being that is complete plenitude. Similarly, the other pu...

In the debate between those who support a purely literal interpretation of scripture and those who prefer a symbolic or esoteric interpretation, I would say that the literal is literally not understood without the esoteric. Truth lies where symbol and life merge. There are always multiple levels of interpretation, none of which are incorrect and which are probably hierarchical, but all are nevertheless anchored in real experience in the world, usually taken in an idealistic form, or as some would have it as a projected wish-fulfillment fantasy. Though that may indeed be true, it is possible to understand the literal as something that is self created, as per the verse in the Bhāgavata : tvaṁ bhakti-yoga-paribhāvita-hṛt-saroja āsse śrutekṣita-patho nanu nātha puṁsām| yad-yad-dhiyā ta urugāya vibhāvayanti tat-tad-vapuḥ praṇayase sad-anugrahāya || O Master! You take your seat in the lotus heart that has been made worthy of you through love. Even so, the way to reach you can ...

Today is Radhashtami.  The verse 10.82.49, quoted in the previous file, after his ambiguous instructions in the soul. Just thinking again, I was remembering that the Mahābhārata has an Anugīta , which is much more advaita in its philosophical orientation. Maybe this was a response. The verses Krishna spoke are as follows: gopyaś ca kṛṣṇam upalabhya cirād abhīṣṭaṁ yat-prekṣaṇe dṛśiṣu pakṣma-kṛtaṁ śapanti dṛgbhir hṛdīkṛtam alaṁ parirabhya sarvās tad-bhāvam āpur api nitya-yujāṁ durāpam The gopis saw their beloved Krishna [at Kurukshetra] after their long separation. They cursed the creator for creating eyelids that interfered with their vision, [and so] they secured him in their hearts through their eyes and embraced, and thus attained a depth of emotion so intense that not even those who are with him in eternal union can attain it. (10.82.40) So right away you can see this theme of separation being more powerful than union, and the mental more powerful than the phy...

Since I came to Canada, I have been keeping myself busy with the Vrindavan Today project. I have been posting a daily verse from Vṛndāvana-mahimāmṛta there, with commentaries of varying lengths. I am also working on Śrī-kṛṣṇa-sandarbha to the extent that I can. Some friends have told me they miss having anything new to read here, so I though I would share something from that work. Although the theme is familiar and I have gone through it many times, correcting the translation of Jiva Goswami's explanations has been having quite an effect on me. The subject under discussion is the mantropāsanā-mayī and svārasikī līlā , separation and union, and the prakaṭa and aprakaṭa prakāśas . It has been going on since Section 153, so it is rather a long and somewhat complex matter. Suffice it to say that the bulk of the discussion is around the instructions that Krishna gave his parents and then the gopis through Uddhava, instruction which to an uneducated eye look suspiciously like tea...