Jagat

Just as I finished writing about my renewed sense of purpose about teaching about the role of sexuality on the bhakti path, I came across an article posted by Abhaya Mudra Dasi on the Sampradaya Sun. Abhaya Mudra is a Bulgarian disciple of Suhotra Swami who has a jyotish website with Prabhupada disciple Patita Pavan Das. At first view, her article, Sex and Spirituality , is a defense of standard ISKCON teaching on sexuality, though it adds a few interesting twists. I have personally come to the conclusion that even though mainstream Western devotees still following ISKCON and the Gaudiya Math start out deeply committed to a doctrine that marginalizes sexuality, as the years go by, a great number of them become frustrated by double standards and hypocrisy that seem endemic in the movement. The Western Krishna consciousness movement has no bigger " shadow " than sexuality. Though child abuse scandals have rocked ISKCON and repeated "falldowns" or sexual peccadill...

Advaitaji has duly noted my return to active blogging and has immediately taken up his active role as a defender of the pure Goswami siddhanta. I bow down to him and his service to Srimati Radharani. In their commentaries on that Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu verse (3.5.2), Jiva Goswami and Visvanatha Cakravarti clearly say that nivṛtta refers to those who have no taste for madhurya rasa , not to renunciates -  asmād rasād virakteṣv anupayogitvād ayogyatvāt. In the commentaries there is nothing said about renunciates at all. I have made this point earlier, in my blog of December 16, 2006 and perhaps even more often. Perhaps Jagat has overlooked that or perhaps he simply doesn't want to admit it. His interpretation of that verse is not just wrong, it is highly irresponsible because it could lead to the conclusion that the more illicit sex one has, the more one qualifies for madhura rasa . At any rate, if renunciation would disqualify someone from madhura rasa , then why the very autho...

This idea of a middle stage of love is probably not new; there is nothing new under the sun, but it arises out of a conviction that everything in the human condition is material for the purpose of spiritual culture. If love is the goal, then how powerful a device human love must be for the culture of Divine Love! We say Krishna is the attractive power. His reflection is mundane Lust who so easily conquers over the three worlds. We are told to see him in all the various opulent and wonderful manifestations of material creation, with this one exception. But that is completely ludicrous. If we cannot recognize the presence of Krishna in the most powerful forces that exist, then our whole endeavor is a mockery. I will admit that this is like playing with nuclear fuel in some ways. But there is a characteristic where material pleasure and spiritual pleasure have an unlikely feature in common. Feeding the flames results in their growing higher. The famous verse by Yayati, which is foun...

There are two models of religious and spiritual life, which appear to be in conflict: pravṛtti and nivṛtti , the path of engagement and the path of renunciation. Most of the commentaries like Shankara, including even Shridhar Swami on the Bhāgavatam, will emphasize the side of renunciation as the path to liberation over that of engagement and taking responsibility in the world. Indeed, since jñāna is the prerequisite for liberation, which have renunciation as the cause and as the effect, it is no surprise that this predominated in monastic-driven Indian intellectual circles for centuries. It is also the cluster of ideas that is at play in Buddhism. And there can be little doubt that it had an influence in Vaishnava circles also, including the Bhāgavata itself. It is not that anyone could possible discount the  pravṛtti-mārga  altogether, the karma-kāṇḍa and karma-yoga are important in the scheme of sanātana-dharma, but it is certainly placed on a lower level than the ide...

From 2018, this article seems to never have made it to the blog before. I rather like this picture of Barsana, so I posted in full. I was also rather pleased with some observations from 11 years ago. Confident words about love are not always forthcoming. Facebook memories from June 22

Sampadananda Mishra Prishni shared some questions and answers about Sahajiyaism which she asked of an on-line AI program that almost instantly searches all the data available to it on the internet and is able to construct a human-like response, based purely on superpowered capacity to process information. It gave quite a good answer, but I recognized in it a kind of mechanical character: it was a collection of data points, pointing to agreements and disagreements with clinical evenhandedness. Nevertheless, Ii have to admit that it was an impressive overview of much of what has happened over a 500 or 1000-year history, something you would expect to get in a university world religions study course. It did not however show the life of a lived tradition. I do not doubt however that one could get the program to adapt to your particular preferences by refining your inquiries. For instance, you could ask, "Where can I learn about this and implement its practice in my own life, from a li...