Jagat

Cross post from Vrindavan Today vṛndāraṇyam ananya-bhāva-madhurākārehito rādhikā- kṛṣṇa-krīḍita-rañjita-pravilasat-kuñjāvalī-mañjulam| yo’nyatrāpi kṛta-sthitir vidhi-vaśāc chocan sadā cintayen nityaṁ tan-milanaṁ vicinta yad ahaṁ tad-dhāma-yugmaṁ bhaje || He whose only desire takes the form of sweetness in exclusive love in Vrindavan, but by destiny is forced to live elsewhere, should lament his misfortune and always remember Vrindavan as a beautiful place with splendid groves where Radhika and Krishna enjoy their pastimes, and always meditating on their union, should think, "I am serving the Divine Couple." (1.75) Commentary The last three verses ( 1.72 , 1.73 , 1.74 ) have given instructions to those who cannot remain permanently in Vrindavan. Each of them emphasized service to the residents of Vrindavan, particularly those who are highly qualified association, fixed in bhajan of the Divine Couple of Vrindavan. Residence in the Dham is the ideal situation where...

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...

One of the most famous verses in the entire Chaitanya Vaishnava tradition is the following, found three times in Caitanya-caritāmṛta ( Madhya 1.58, 13.121, Antya 1.78). yaḥ kaumāra-haraḥ sa eva hi varas tā eva caitra-kṣapās te conmīlita-mālatī-surabhayaḥ prau ḍ hāḥ kadambānilāḥ sā caivāsmi tathāpi tatra surata-vyāpāra-līlā-vidhau revā-rodhasi vetasī-taru-tale cetaḥ samutkaṇṭhate || The very one who took my maidenhead is here now as my bridegroom. And these too are the same moonlit nights of the month of Chaitra. The same fragrance of malati flowers is there and the same sweet breezes blowing from the kadamba forest. I too am the very same person with whom he made playful, ecstatic love. Yet my unsatisfied mind yearns for that place under the bullrushes on the bank of the Reva River. Padyāvali 378 (Srk 815, Skm 2.12.3; Spd 3768; Smv 87.9; SD 1.2) Since the story has been told by Kaviraj Goswami in three different places, it is important to examine the contexts. In the f...

I have been reading from Jiva Goswami's Gopāla-campū (GC) at the Jiva Institute. Classes are held Monday to Friday from 5-6 in the evening. As I prepared my course, I began going over Saṅkalpa-kalpa-druma (SKD), which gives further clues into Sri Jiva's purpose in writing GC. Saṅkalpa-kalpa-druma (SKD) is the last book Jiva Goswami wrote, which came at the end of his life. In the beginning of the book, which has over 700 verses, Jiva tells his mind that since he is growing old, it should be fixed on Krishna's eternal pastimes. SKD was written after GC, and in some ways it is a recapitulation or summary explanation of the basis or theory of GC. What was Jiva trying to do in his magnum opus? One of the verses given by Vishwanath and his senior contemporary Radha Krishna Das Goswami to support their idea that Jiva Goswami was actually dissimulating when he wrote in various places his defense of svakīyā-vāda is the one which concludes the commentary to 1.21, after his...

Some of the following is repetition and there is still work needed on the footnotes, some of which appear to have gotten lost. 5.1 The controversy According to Karnānanda , at some time after the GC had arrived in Bengal, a controversy arose in Yajigrama between Vyasacharya, Narottamadasa, Ramachandra Kaviraja, Govindadasa Kaviraja, and other Vaishnavas. The subject of contention was that of sādhya and sādhanā . Narottama states in his Prema-bhakti-candrikā that "that which is desired for in the course of one's devotional practices is matched in the stage of perfection".(1) Jiva's GC appeared to contradict this by postulating a svakīyā rather than parakīyā state in the nitya-līlā . The dispute was referred to Jiva Goswami for his final verdict and letters were received from him which supposedly settled the matter.(2) Whatever the truth of the Karnānanda account, and it is undoubtedly true that the arrival of Gopāla-campū provoked controversy amongst t...

This is the second last of the series. I have some reflections that I will make in a subsequent article, but for the time being, just getting this file up on line has been time consuming. I will give a table of contents with links as soon as I can. I will try to put a bit of order into everything. The files have been fairly long for a blog and the Sanskrit puts the spell checker through a frenzy, poor beast, and I do not know what magic words to whisper in his ear to quieten his spirits. (4) Does Krishna Marry the Gopis in the End? Rasa Shastra . Rupa's UN commences with an outline of the romantic hero ( nāyaka ), who to the author can only be Krishna. He describes him as being of two kinds, either a husband ( pati ) or a paramour ( upapati ). His incarnation as husband takes place in Dvaraka, while that of paramour is found in Vraja. As an example of Krishna the paramour, Rupa quotes with relish an old verse by Acarya Gopika found in SKM (275) and also in Pv (205). He footn...