Jagat

It is my great pleasure to post this revised and updated edition of Gadadhar Pran's translation and commentary on Lochan Das Thakur's Dhāmāli.  More than twenty years ago our first edition of Locana das Thakura’s Dhāmāli came out. But since then our understanding of the topic has grown considerably. We have also strived in many ways to improve our first presentation in this second edition. Thus we sincerely hope that the Vaishnavas will get pleasure in reading this. Lochan dasa Thakur’s Dhāmāli Second Revised Edition Translation and commentary by Gadadhar Pran Das, whatsapp/email +91-7501237557 than twenty years ago we published the first edition of Lochan das Thakur’s Dhāmāli . Since then, however, our understanding of the topic has grown considerably. We have also strived in many ways to improve over our first presentation in this second edition. Thus we sincerely hope that the Vaishnavas will get pleasure in reading this. What is Dhāmāli ? After completing...

Jai Sri Radhe! So, today another year of the Jiva Ratna courses by Satyanarayana Dasa Babaji at the Jiva Institute came to an end. The Jiva Institute is slowly growing each year through the online courses which allow Babaji Maharaj to remain in Vrindavan with a core group of students while still shepherding a small international group from around the world. These students have developed a taste for his teaching method -- basically studying the Sandarbhas line by line from beginning to end, accompanied by a second field of study based on the six philosophical systems and other aspects of the Sanskrit literary tradition such as Alankara. This appeals to those who seek a more profound analysis of the philosophical basis of the Gaudiya Vaishnava doctrine. Babaji rightly believes that for Gaudiya Vaishnavism to prosper, this kind of thorough scholarship is absolutely necessary. That is arguably following in the footsteps of Jiva Goswami himself, the last of the six Goswamis and the one who ...

  Sri Pranananda Mishra’s Korcā Gadadhar Pran Das, whatsapp+91-7501237557 This korcā continues from where Another Side of Thakura Bhaktivinoda left off. In ancient Bengal when Sri Gauranga’s bhauma lila was manifest in our world, a diary was called a korcā , and Svarupa Damodar, Murari Gupta and Raghunath das Goswami are amongst the foremost authors who wrote korcās to record what they witnessed in Mahaprabhu’s daily life. But similarly, as we make notes of our Gaura lila and Krishna lila meditations (to preserve and share these adventures) Pranananda Mishra’s Korcā will become like a diary as well. As this venture begins though we wonder: Can this personal diary be presented to a general audience? Because since most people are uninformed about how the raganuga bhakti process works (to bring about our eternal destiny with Sri Bhagavan in the spiritual world) won’t they lack appreciation for what we earnestly wish to share? But on the other hand, those who are resol...

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...

A couple of days ago I wrote on Facebook: It is good to be 73. I feel as though everything I have done in my life is coming to a ripening. Eventually the fruits that have been growing for a lifetime start to ripen. Just as long as you water. Fortunately, I have had plenty of water, and still have, and hope to have more. I wasn't even thinking about my birthday when I wrote the above, though I suppose there must have been some subliminal processes going on. But it is more like a coming to terms with being in Canada and staying here for so long, something that was both unexpected and has been challenging. It is often hard to find a synthesis between the various worlds that one inhabits. The Vedic system always seeks to minimize disruption through simplification. The theory is that the sattva guna is the highest promoter of happiness and one should increase the sattva guṇa throughout life. It is not that growing old inevitably means only tamas. The varnashram concept sees a ni...