Jagat

Prīti Sandarbha 337.2 Nirveda :: Sthāyī or Vyabhicārī ?

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 17:29:00 +0000

In this rather mad run I am engaged in to complete the Prīti Sandarbha, I have kept somewhat away from human interaction. I have temporarily stopped all classes in the pious hope that I would get more done, but I honestly wonder now if that is at all true.

At any rate, as always, I am ever struggling with a stubbornly recalcitrant mind, which even at this stage of life still seeks the distractions that this brave new world has succeeded placing before us, sucking us all in. Even pretenders such as myself cannot resist falling into the ocean of non-Krishna. We may talk about bhāva, but without avyartha-kālatvam, all else is but pretense.

A couple of days ago I finished up the anubhāva section, of which I regret not having shared even short portions with anyone, here or elsewhere. I did share a portion with the members of a Sanskrit group I moderate on Facebook, but even there I am a little too lazy to do the extra work of reposting here on the blog. We could call it being judiciously avaricious about expending time and energy... no let's call it by its name, lazy. (Which, by the way, is itself a vyabhicāri-bhāva.)

So -- slowly getting to the point -- now I have been changing tracks to get on with the vyabhicārī section (Anucchedas 337-362). Once again, though the material is familiar, there are a lot of cracks in my understanding that need to be filled, refined and then shared with others. All of which will of course be found in the printed volume whenever it comes out.

But just to remind those who are frequenters of this space of cyberspace that I am still teeming with life of all kinds, I decided to share this discussion from Prīti Sandarbha, Anuccheda 337.

अथ व्यभिचारिणः । अत्र निर्वेदः स्वावमाने स्यात् (भा० १०।४७।१५) चरणरज उपास्ते यस्य भूतिर्वयं का इति ।

Now the vyabhicārīs will be explained. The first, "despondency" (nirveda) is here used for self-contempt (svāvamāne), as exemplified in the following verse spoken by a gopī:

divi bhuvi ca rasāyāṁ kāḥ striyas tad-durāpāḥ kapaṭa-rucira-hāsa-bhrū-vijṛmbhasya yāḥ syuḥ | caraṇa-raja upāste yasya bhūtir vayaṁ kā api ca kṛpaṇa-pakṣe hy uttamaḥ-śloka-śabdaḥ ||

What woman is there, either in the celestial regions, on earth, or in the lower planets, whom He cannot win over by His beguiling and enchanting smiles and the play of His eyebrows? Who are we to Him, the dust of whose feet is cherished even by Śrī. His name Uttama-śloka will prove meaningful only if He cares for the suffering of afflicted people like us. (SB 10.47.15)

The meaning is clear.

स्पष्टम् । ॥ १०।४७ ॥ ताः ॥ ३३७ ॥

Commentary

After describing the last of the anubhāvas, Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī begins to define and give examples of the vyabhicāri-bhāvas. These are 33 in number and have already been listed in Anuccheda 158.5.

[So as with the anubhāvas, we will be carefully examining the translations of each of the traditional terminology used for the 33 vyabhicārīs. The translations for the terms will not be finalized before we get to the end of this section.

This is a major issue. Babaji has written a book with Rajiv Malhotra called "Sanskrit Untranslatables," which I feel is justified to an extent, because it is quasi impossible to gather up all the different senses of a single word in one language into another, where the semantic Venn diagram will always overlap imperfectly. For this reason it is often necessary to create neologisms.

The translation "mellows" for rasa suggested by Siddhanta Saraswati is frequently sneered at in some academic circles, but actually it is quite clever. Sanskrit thinkers themselves created terms that may have little or no relation to the intended meaning, purely so that the thing will have a name. Think, for example, of the term śārdūla-vikrīḍitam, which has somewhat arbitrarily given to a particular Sanskrit meter that has nothing directly to do with "the play of a tiger", though it is provoking to think of that lyrical meter as having such a picturesque character. A verse written in that meter ended with the words śārdūla-vikrīḍitam and that became its name. This is not an uncommon occurrence in any language.

To assign an old word to a new meaning is like cutting another face on a diamond.

The point of creating new terminology is to try to pinpoint as best one can what is both in the "meaning of departure" (i.e., the customary meaning) and "the meaning of arrival," the new meaning one assigns to the word as a fixed term within a circumscribed domain. Normally, nowadays, neologisms are favored, primarily for marketing and public relations purposes. But here we are not trying to sell anything. We are engaged in an investigation into comparative psychology and semantic mapping, if you will.

Nāṭya-śāstra is actually where most of Sanskrit psychology comes from, since the linking of myth to psychological complexes is basically what drama is all about. Especially since the teaching of dharma through rasa is the purpose of all nāṭya.

So, again, to cut short on this introduction, this article will be an examination of the word nirveda with the view of finding a suitable correspondent in the English language. The following content includes numerous options culled from already existing translations.]

nirvedo’tha viṣādo dainyaṁ glāni-śramau ca mada-garvau | śaṅkā-trāsāvegā unmādāpasmṛtī tathā vyādhiḥ || moho mṛtir ālasyaṁ jāḍyaṁ vrīḍāvahitthā ca | smṛtir atha vitarka-cintā-mati-dhṛtayo harṣa utsukatvaṁ ca || augryāmarṣāsūyāś cāpalyaṁ caiva nidrā ca | suptir bodha itīme bhāvā vyabhicāriṇaḥ samākhyātāḥ ||

Despondency, dejection, humility, fatigue, tiredness, intoxication, pride, doubt, fear, agitation, madness, epilepsy, disease, confusion, death, lethargy, inertness, bashfulness, concealment, recollection, conjecture, anxiety, comprehension, contentment, happiness, eagerness, ferocity, intolerance, envy, impudence, sleepiness, dreaming and awaking. (BRS 2.4.4-6, first listed in Anuccheda 158.6) [These are all under examination.]

A general explanation of these can be found in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 2.4, and their aptness for each of the rasas, while chapter 13 of the Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi gives examples of those that are specifically applicable to the ujjvala-rasa. As previously Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī will look for examples of all such examples exclusively from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa.

Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī says that with the exception of lethargy (ālasya) and ferocity (augrya), all 33 of the customary vyabhicārīs can play a role in madhura-rasa (ālasyaugrye vinā sarve vijñeyā vyabhicāriṇaḥ).
Śrī Jīva's defines nirveda ("despondency") as the sense of self-contempt (svāvamāne). This indeed follows the older tradition and the definition given by Rūpa Gosvāmī:

mahārti-viprayogerṣyā-sad-vivekādi-kalpitam | svāvamānanam evātra nirveda iti kathyate | atra cintāśru-vaivarṇya-dainya-niḥśvasitādayaḥ ||
Nirveda or despondency as a vyabhicārī refers to the self-blaming that arises when one is subject to great suffering, separation, jealousy, or on having a sudden realization of one's own sinful nature. The external symptoms (anubhāvas) that customarily manifest along with nirveda are worry, tears, loss of color, humility, sighing, etc. (BRS 2.4.11)

The verse Jīva Gosvāmī cited here as an example in this anuccheda comes from the Bhramara-gīta, spoken by Rādhā to a honeybee in the presence of Uddhava. The verses of the Bhramara-gīta will be discussed in their entirety under the rubric of vipralāpa in Anucchedas 403-413.

The causes of gloom or feelings of inadequacy in this verse are the envy (īrṣyā) that Rādhā feels towards the women of Mathurā, such as Kubjā. Separation from Kr̥ṣṇa is another cause of nirveda at play here. The words specifically highlighted by Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī as illustrative of it are, "Who are we to Him, the dust of whose feet is cherished even by Śrī?" (vayaṁ kāḥ?). It is a dhvani, something that is implied rather than stated outright. Many of the verses that follow are similarly designated by the dhvani.

Nirveda, it should be noted, is also preferred by some authorities as the term for the sthāyi-bhāva that leads to śānta-rasa. Since the devotional understanding of śānta-rasa is different, Jīva Gosvāmī says that jñāna-bhakti is the sthāyi of śānta-rasa (PrītiS 203), while Śrī Rūpa simply calls it śānti-rati.

Nevertheless, Śrī Rūpa does take note of the use of the word nirveda as a sthāyi for śānta-rasa. He says: "Some people speculate that by placing nirveda at the head of the list of the vyabhicārīs, despite its being inauspicious, Bharata Muni was accepting that it is the sthāyi-bhāva for śānta-rasa. (BRS 2.4.13)

In fact, Bharata does not say that. In his short discourse on śānta-rasa (NŚ 6.83), he names śama as the sthāyi. In his commentary there, Abhinava Gupta also writes that śama is the sthāyi and nirveda a sañcāri. That he defines as "a particular state of mind characterized by flowing, expanding grief." (Abhinava-bhāratī 6.83)

Mammaṭa however says, "The peaceful is the ninth rasa, having despondency as its permanent mood." (nirveda-sthāyi-bhāvo'sti śānto'pi navamo rasaḥ, Kāvya-prakāśa 4.12). A commentary elaborates on the despondency of one desiring emancipation (a mumukṣu, who is the āśrayālambana), "Life in saṃsāra is like a prison. Relatives are like bonds, etc." So it is called "disgust with existence" (nirveda).

As a sthāyi-bhāva, nirveda can be looked at as a hopelessness or pessimism about life in the world, experienced by one who has become tired of existence. The classical example of nirveda in this sense comes from the Upaniṣads, where it is clearly described as the starting point of the spiritual adventure (i.e., the narrative that leads to śānta-rasa).

parīkṣya lokān karma-citān brāhmaṇo nirvedam āyānty akṛtaḥ kṛtena | tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham

After examining all the worlds that are possible of attainment through works, the wise man becomes indifferent (nirveda) to them, being unfulfilled through deeds. To know this fully, one should take fuel for the sacrifice in hand and approach a spiritual master who is learned and fixed in Brahman. (MU 1.2.11)

Nirveda is used in that sense in Bhagavad-gītā 2.52 (tadā gantāsi nirvedaṃ śrotavyasya śrutasya ca) Nirveda is also the keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss, sharp sorrow, painful regret. It is the sentiment of dejection in oneself caused by deep study of philosophy, jealousy, inescapable danger or misfortune, etc.

In this verse spoken by Mahārāja Parīkṣit, nirveda could be either a sthāyī or a vyabhicārī,

tasyaiva me'ghasya parāvareśo vyāsakta-cittas guheṣv abhīkṣṇam | nirveda-mūlo dvija-śāpa-rūpo yatra prasakto bhayam āśu dhatte ||

I am very sinful and always deeply attached to home and family life. Bhagavān, the ruler of matter and spirit, has Himself come in the form of the Brāhmaṇa’s curse which has aroused in me a feeling of aversion to worldly enjoyments (nirveda), for such a curse quickly makes a materially attached person afraid. (SB 1.19.14)

So "aversion to worldly enjoyments" or renunciation is also within the semantic range of nirveda that fits the idea of a permanent state of mind.

As a vyabhicārī it is often associated with the word dhik, which when directed to oneself is exactly the sense intended by svāvamānam ("self-deprecation, self-blaming", etc.).1 One commentator even paraphrases the definition svāvamānana as ātma-dhikkāra. A good example can be found in the brāhmaṇas' speech after their wives had been blessed by Krishna:

dhig janma nas trivṛd-vidyāṁ dhig vrataṁ dhig bahujñatām |
dhik kulaṁ dhik kriyā-dīkṣāṁ vimukhā ye tv adhokṣaje ||

Fie on our birth! Fie on our knowledge of the Veda! Fie on our vows! Fie on our vast learning! Fie on our family heritage! Fie on our initiation into ritual performances, as we have turned away from the Supreme Lord. (10.23.40)

aho asādhv anuṣṭhitaṁ yad abhiniveśito'ham indriyair avidyā-racita-viṣama-viṣayāndha-kūpe tad alam alam amuṣyā vanitāyā vinoda-mṛgaṁ māṁ dhig dhig iti garhayāṁ cakāra.

“Oh, what a mistake I have made! I have been captivated by the senses and thrown into this well of poisonous sense pleasures which are product of nescience. Enough of all this and fie upon me, a plaything in the hands of this woman.” In this way he condemned himself. (SB 5.1.37, PrītiS 76)

Rūpa Gosvāmī's example of nirveda in the ujjvala-rasa is taken from Padyāvalī:

mā muñca pañcaśara pañca-śarīṁ śarīre
mā siñca sāndra-makaranda-rasena vāyo |
aṅgāni tat-praṇaya-bhaṅga-vigarhitāni
nālambituṁ katham api kṣamate’dya jīvaḥ ||

O Cupid, don’t shoot your five arrows at this body; O Wind, don’t sprinkle my body with the condensed nectar of the mango buds; For if you do, the life will not be able to stay in these limbs, which are now condemned, as he has not reciprocated my love. (Pady. 221, BRS 3.5.17)

Rūpa Gosvāmī ultimately clarifies how to settle such questions about whether nirveda is vyabhicārī and sthāyī,

nirvedo viṣaye sthāyi tattva-jñānodbhavaḥ sa cet | iṣṭāniṣṭa-viyogāpti-kṛtas tu vyabhicāry asau ||

Indifference to the world is a sthāyi-bhāva [for śānta-rasa] when it arises out of knowledge. If it arises from the attainment of the undesirable or non-attainment of the desirable, then it is a vyabhicārī. (BRS 3.1.51)

Lochan Das's Dhāmāli: The Mugdhā Nāyikā

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 18:44:00 +0000

Locana dasa Thakura’s Dhāmāli (continued narrations) from Gadadhar Pran Das, whatsapp/email +91-7501237557

Gaura Naṭabara

(6)

The Inexperienced Heroine (Mugdhā Nāyikā)

śuno lo sajani, āmi je abalā, suradhunī tīre giye
lajjera māthāte, khāiye elām, kapiāche āmāra hiye
gaura baraṇa, rasera mūrati, dekhilām ghāṭera kule
bukera basana, khasiyā porilo, dhorite parāṇa ghure
pabana jhaṭake, naṭana nāṭake, phaṭki āilām dūre
ta dekhiyā hasiyā, ḍaliyā porilo, rasika gaurā+nga rāya
se ra+nga dekhiyā, marame morinu, se kathā kahibo kāya
daradi haile, darada bujhaye, tāhāre nāhika dhara
janama boriye, moribe dhoriye, viṣama āmāra ghara
locana kahaye, doradi pāile, parāṇa batiyā di
jāhāra jāhāte, marama pasilo, dhorite koribe ki ?

“O sakhi! Just hear what happened to me: When going to the Ganga this morning I became so embarrassed, and my heart is still trembling!

Everything happened when I saw that golden rasamaya mūrati Gora standing by the ghāṭa—for that’s when I peeked at his lovely face from the corner of my eye!

But Oh my! Suddenly a gust of wind blew away the cloth covering my breasts! And my heart panicked in fear as that wind gust sent me spinning for a while!

When looking back to my rasika Gauranga, however, I could see that he was smiling and rolling in amusement watching me—so I became more perplexed!

O sakhi, as I fear that my nasty relatives will find out about this, to whom can I reveal my secret?

Locana suggests: O sakhi, just find your sympathizer and reveal your heart. For what is there to fear from a girl who nurtures a desire similar to yours?”

Gaura-krpā-koṇikā

As we have been hearing about the pragalbhā ramaṇīs who act boldly in their loving affairs with Gauranga, here we find a mugdhā nāyikā who is just the opposite. In Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi’s Nāyikā-bheda chapter, Rupa Goswami describes this category of heroines as follows:

mugdhā nava-vayaḥ-kāmā ratau vāmā sakhī-vaśā |
rati-ceṣṭāsu sa-vrīḍa-cāru-gūḍha-prayatna-bhāk ||
kṛtāparādhe dayite bāṣpa-ruddhāvalokanā |
priyāpriyoktau cāśaktā māne ca vimukhī sadā ||

“The mugdhā nāyikās are generally younger, inexperienced, and uncooperative in loving affairs. They look to their older sakhīs for guidance, keep their feelings hidden, and cry if their beloved misbehaves. They never scold him and shy away from māna (pride).” (UN 5.13-14)

Since the nāgarī of Locana’s poem can fit this description, let’s try to see what she can be like as we read the following story:

Our name is Parama Sundari; as we are a yūtheśvarī nāgarī, our priya sakhī named Suruci is coming to meet us today. And we now happen to be bathing at a secluded Ganga ghāṭa that lies beside a beautiful kadamba forest.

“O Paramā!” Suruci addresses us as she enters the water while escorting a new friend. “This girl’s name is Basanti, and she is coming to seek your guidance. Can you give her some advice? But she fears her relatives, so can you please keep this matter confidential?”

“Don’t worry,” we answer, turning to the beautiful maiden. “For, Basanti, are we not your intimate friends?”

Feeling encouraged, Basanti starts to tell us about this morning’s incident at the Ganga ghāṭa: how the wind blew away the cloth covering her breasts, how Gaura became so excited, and how she was embarrassed like anything.

But then we tell Basanti: “Do you know what we would have done in that situation ? We would have just asked him directly: 'Do you want to enjoy with us?'”

Upon hearing about our boldness, however, Basanti blushes and meekly answers: “Oh, I could never be like that.”

“Then don’t you desire his intimate association?” we ask.

“Well, yes, I do.” Basanti replies. “But I don’t know how to approach him, and after we meet, what would I say? Moreover, I feel too shy to make love, so could we just exchange kisses?”

But then we hear someone speak out: “Hey sundaris! As I was walking by didn’t I hear one of you say that she wants to kiss me? O where is that pretty damsel? Can I meet her?”

As we suddenly turn around, we are really surprised—for there is Gauranga standing on the river bank! “O how did he happen to show up at this splendid moment?” we curiously wonder.

As if fathoming our thoughts, however, our Rasika Raja answers:

nāhaṁ tiṣṭhāmi vaikuṇṭhe yogināṁ hr̥daye na ca
mad-bhaktā yatra gāyanti tatra tiṣṭhāmi nārada

“I don’t reside in the yogis’ hearts nor in Vaikuntha. Though you will find me wherever my bhaktas sing my glories.”

“Oho!” Suruci then retorts with a smile. “But concerning the singing of your glories, O Prabhu! Should we not mention how you love to relish the madhu from kissing your rasikā nāgarīs’ sweet lips? For isn’t this your greatest penance and nitya-vrata?”

Then, adding to the fun, we say: “So hey Gaurasundar! As our sakhi Basanti is dying to kiss you, will you please come and relieve her tension?”

In hearing our jovial remark, however, Basanti becomes nervous and starts to flee! So Suruci has to run to catch her and bring her back!

Then we request: “O Suruci! Can you please seat Basanti beside our Gaura?”

Although Basanti hesitates, Suruci at last convinces her to cooperate and places her hand in Gaura’s. Nevertheless, Basanti won’t directly look at Gaurasundar. So to set an example, we step forward, place a soft kiss on his cheek, and ask: “Did you enjoy that?”

But before he can reply, Suruci comes and gives Gaura a bigger kiss right on his lips! Thus he leaps up to declare: “No one can give me such pleasure as you sakhis do!”

Winking at Basanti, we then suggest that it is her turn. So she at last follows our cue and comes over to place a soft kiss on Gauranga’s lips. But a wonder happens: The nectar-taste is so intoxicating she cannot retract her lips—and she goes on and on kissing him!

Then we hear someone calling from afar: “O Basanti! O Basanti! Where are you?”

“O no!” Basanti gasps in shock. “That’s my sashuri !” And she immediately takes to running!

In no time, however, two women arrive. One is an old hunchback holding a stick (Basanti’s sashuri), the other her daughter (Basanti's sister-in-law or nanadā). It is the daughter who inquires: “Have you seen our bau-mā Basanti come this way?”

“No. Is there some problem at home?” we ask.

“Yes, there certainly is,” the old woman replies. “Nowadays bau-mā’s attention has completely departed from the household.”

Then her daughter says: “Well, if you find her, please let us know,” and the two leave to go on searching.

The next day, however, when Basanti shows up at our bathing ghāṭa, she has a confession to make: “I feel so grateful for your help. Because when I kissed Gaurasundar’s lips yesterday, I was transformed. I have become a new person! Now my mind simply yearns to offer prema-keli to him. O will you kindly arrange this for us? O let me fully surrender, O let me become a beggar for his prema!”

Upon hearing Basanti’s new testimony, Suruci and I simply marvel at the amazing potency found in Gaurasundar’s nectar-sweet lips!

(7)

Srimati Vishnupriya’s Gauranga

soi go gorā rūpa amr̥ta pāthār
ḍhubilo taruṇīr mona nā jāne sā~tār
sakhīre kibā brata kailo biṣṇupriyā
agada akhala tār hiyā
sei rupa heri heri kā~de
kon bidhi goralo go heno gorā cānde
gorā rūpa pāsarā nā jāya
gorā binu āna nāhi bhāya
dibā-niśi āra nāhi sphure
locana daser mona nisi-disi jhure

“O sakhi-re! Gaura’s beautiful body is an ocean of nectar and every pretty young girl’s mind is simply diving in—without even knowing how to swim!

O what kind of austerity has our sakhi Vishnupriya performed? For isn’t her heart the most magnanimous and pure? Because as she views her Prabhu’s glamorous limbs, tears constantly stream from her eyes as she wonders: ‘How did the Creator make this marvelous golden moon? O how can we ever forget his spectacular beauty? And except for him, what else would matter to us?’

Locana dasa too knows only Gora, and his mind pines for him !”

Gaura-krpā-koṇikā

We can discover many reasons why Vishnupriya’s topic is exceptionally beautiful and exalted. Because very few Vaishnavas know about her, however, an inspiration has awakened in us to try and reveal something about her hidden glories.

In the Caitanya shastras Vishnupriya is hardly mentioned. And from what little information is there, one could easily get the impression that her role in Gauranga’s pastimes isn’t so significant.

Perhaps that is why we will benefit greatly to hear from her ekānta-bhakta, one who really loves her as their very life and soul.

In this regard, we particularly look toward Sishira Kumar Ghosh because of his magnificent six-volume biography of Gauranga entitled Amiyā Nimāi Carita.

What did he do there? After studying carefully what Gauranga’s earlier biographers have contributed, he wrote the entire lila again from the perspective of Vishnupriya’s madhura relationship with Gaurasundar. Here is a sample of Sishira Ghosh’s essential teachings:

“During his youth Gauranga secretly performed an amazing activity whenever his mood of Sri Krishna awakened. For just as Krishna is everyone’s object of prema in Vrindaban, Gauranga desired to be the bhakta’s object of prema in Nabadwip as well by assuming Krishna’s role. Hence Saci and Jagannatha Mishra are his Nanda and Yashoda, Nitai and his associates are Balarama and the sakhas, and Vishnupriya and the nāgarīs are Radha and her sakhis. Although Krishna and Gauranga can be worshiped in dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya and kānta-bhāva, Vrindaban’s kānta bhāva is the best. So by accepting this mood Gauranga secretly awarded the bhaktas a new form of bhajan that they can take up as their life and soul.” (Amiyā Nimāi Carita, 6.1)

We can appreciate Sishira’s wonderful outlook as he reveals what is actually going on in Gauranga’s internal Nabadwip lila. In fact, after reading through his entire Amiyā Nimāi Carita (twice) we must confess that we have never come across anyone who has such deep insight into Sri Gauranga’s madhura-līlās.

Sishira Kumar Ghosh influenced Thakura Bhaktivinoda too. Because, on his suggestion to not forget Nabadwipeshwari, Bhaktivinoda established deities of Lakshmipriya, Gauranga and Vishnupriya on the central altar of the yoga-pith mandir at Mayapur.

Let us here remember that Gauranga's yoga-pīṭha worship doesn’t take place in His bhauma-līlā; for this pastime goes on exclusively in Gaura and Krishna’s Goloka Nabadwip and Goloka Vrindaban dhamas as an integral part of their aṣṭakāla-līlā worship. Thus Bhaktivinoda calls the yoga-pīṭha worship mantramayī upāsanā, whereas he says that aṣṭakāla-līlā-smaraṇa is svārasikī upāsanā.

So who will be present in Lakshmipriya and Vishnupriya’s yoga-pīṭha worship with Gaurasundar? Well, just as Radha’s leading sakhis and manjaris surround Radha Krishna in Vrindabana’s yoga-pīṭha-maṇḍala—won’t Lakshmipriya and Vishnupriya’s leading sakhis surround them and Gaurasundar in this yoga-pīṭha līlā? And since these sakhīs are the nāgarīs, won’t we have to take up nāgarī bhāva to properly execute the puja—just as we will need to adopt gopī-bhāva to perform Radha Krishna’s yoga-pīṭha pūjā? Hence the worship won’t be possible in vaidhī bhakti.

As we were previously talking about the pragalbhā and the mugdhā nāyikās, there is another type left to discuss: the madhyā nāyikās, who are situated in the middle. Because Srimati Radharani belongs to this category of heroines, we can also know that Vishnupriya Devi is a madhyā nāyikā. In Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi’s Nāyikā-bheda chapter, Rupa Goswami describes the madhyā as follows:

samāna-lajjā-madanā prodyat-tāruṇya-śālinī
kincit pragalbha-vacanā mohānta-surata-ksamā
madhyā syāt komalā kvapi māne kutrapi karkaśā

“The madhyā nāyikā is both shy and erotically fascinating, her figure blossoms with new youth, her word play is slightly bold, she can last up to the point of fainting during rati-keli, and she is sometimes passive and sometimes fiery when defending her pride.” (UN 5.27)

Rupa then goes on to state:

sarva eva rasotkarṣo madhyāyām eva yujyate
yad asyām vartate vyakta-maugdhya-prāgalbhyayor yutiḥ

“The excellence of rasa is present in the madhyā nāyikā since she is mixed with the qualities of the mugdhā and the pragalbhā.” (UN 5.42)

Before we try and discuss Vishnupriya’s madhyā nāyikā mood, there are two types of srngara rasa that we should know about first: samprayoga, and līlā-vilāsa. Samprayoga means direct conjugal union, and līlā-vilāsa takes place when the nāyikā resists her beloved’s attempts to enjoy conjugal union with her.

In the pragalbhā there is a greater thirst to offer samprayoga pleasure , whereas the mugdhas are inexperienced in rati-keli.

But for the madhyā nāyikās such as Vishnupriya and Radharani, they expertly know how to employ the techniques of līlā-vilāsa to give their beloved an even greater pleasure than what samprayoga can offer. In other words, although they are well aware that their beloved eagerly wishes to enjoy rati-keli with them, they can captivate him in so many other fascinating ways for a long while before their samprayoga-līlā takes place.

Though literally speaking līlā-vilāsa has another meaning too: all of the pleasure-filled pastimes that unfold one after another such as holi, jhulan, madhu-pāna and jala-keli, etc.

So madhyā nāyikās such as Vishnupriya and Radha take full advantage of these līlā-vilāsa skills in the assembly of sakhis to resist their beloved’s advances.

In other words, every form of vilāsa (pleasure) that goes on in the līlā (pastimes), such as throwing colored powders, swinging in a swing, drinking intoxicating honey, or splashing each other in the water, etc., simply give Vishnupriya and Radha the chance to display their incomparable beauty, grace and charm in so many different līlā-vilāsa (methods of resisting) that all lead up to their offering samprayoga to him in an even more exciting and enjoyable way.

The Pravṛtti-mārga in Prema-sādhana

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Sat, 06 May 2023 16:29:00 +0000

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 ideal of renunciation.

And for good reason, too. Life ends with a final renunciation, for which we must all be prepared. This is why the results of one give the results of the other. It is our consciousness at the moment of death that summarizes the way we have lived, whether we believe in a hereafter or not.

However, the all-important Bhagavad Gita outlines how the idealized qualities, one's maturation as a human being in the world, are to be cultivated as a sādhanā. This is the pravṛtti-mārga understood as sādhana. The first thing is the rejection of kaitava-dharma, religion that has some illusory objective, which includes the idea of liberation from the world.

Now Gaudiya Vaishnava theism, or personalism, means that there is always going to be a personal relationship with the Supreme Truth as manifest in the Person of God Himself. It could be said that if you wish to know God as an Idol, as a Boss, as a Friend, as a Child, or as a Lover or Husband, you must learn the art of love in those areas. Theory and Practice are two different things.

Here, of course, I am talking about renunciation in Orthodox Vaishnavism as opposed to the pravṛtti-mārgīs, which includes just about all the apasampradāyas despised by the neo-Orthodox.

What the stories of Vraja cause to happen is primarily going to affect those who are in the pravṛtta life. And since pravr̥tta life means sexual activity in one way or another, Radha and Krishna are the remedy for the negative aspects of sexuality, which are indeed the source of all entanglement and ambition, but also , responsibility, religious sentiment, and social involvement.

For the sādhaka, the purpose is to transform your life as a devotee on deeper and deeper levels through cultivating love in this world. It is not just that one turns an obsession for sex into a religious cult. All the rasas need to be cultivated to be worthy of madhura-rasa. The purpose of bhakti is to experience God's reciprocation. That is when bhāva becomes prema. In small proportions the same is true. Prema or Krishna's reciprocation is what shapes and nourishes bhāva.

This is how you see Krishna everywhere. And if you are a lifelong sādhaka in madhura-rasa, you will indeed see Radha and Krishna everywhere. And there is no difference between that and the prema Gauranga came to give you.

Because we are always transcendental witnesses to the līlās of our bodily existence, we remain so even in bhajana. There are numerous psychological stances that one can take in bhakti. Of these, the highest is madhura-rasa.

Rasa comes when you lose yourself in total absorption in the līlā. There is no greater absorption in the līlā than through madhura-rasa. The culture of madhura-rasa for a devotee is that of meditation on Radha-Krishna līlā as a devotee couple. That is the real pravṛtti-mārga to prema-bhakti.

The yukta-vairāgya concept has to be understood. One has to renounce only that which cannot be used in Krishna's service. And if one can use prakṛti, nature, to further the cause of one's own Krishna consciousness, then that is bhakti.

The trouble comes down to the way one thinks about sex. Pravṛtti-mārga means entering "the world" and experiencing it in its multitudinous manifestations. Nivr̥tti-marga is to say no to everything. The world is temporary and unreal; the reality is death, so learn to die by practicing renunciation.

The middle way is the bhakti-yoga way. Learn to love God and then to love the devotees, and then to love all without limit. Learning to love the devotees is easiest if one can perfect madhura-rasa. Madhura-rasa is best perfected by someone who has undergone the discipline of the pravartaka stage and thus learned brahmacharya.

All the qualities of the saint are the perfection of married life. Because the stakes are so high in terms of one's expectations for enjoyment, there are many great frustrations. One is tested in the sequence shown in the Gītā verse:

dhyāyato viṣayān puṁsaḥ sangas teṣūpajāyate |

sangāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ kāmāt krodho'bhijāyate ||

Yoga means to "work smart." The Zen aspect of bhakti is in the attitude towards karma. Yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam. "Yoga means expertise in one's actions."

And on the devotional pravr̥tti-mārga, that means that you have to include everything related to your most important relationship, that with your life partner.

Thoughts on the passing of Tarek Fatah

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Tue, 02 May 2023 16:02:00 +0000

Tarek Fatah's recent death met with mourning in Indian nationalist circles. Those not aware of Indian (especially Hindu-Muslim relations) politics might not know Tarek Fatah's name, but even as a member of the Muslim community (a Pakistani immigrant to Canada) he was one of the most outspoken critics of Islamicism, especially as it exists in the subcontinent. He was a great friend to Bharata and I certainly hope that there will be others who will step in to fill the void he leaves behind.

I subsequently watched a number of videos like the following, all of which give a rather good idea of what I wrote above. In this one, Jaipur Dialogs 2016, is in mixed Urdu and English. The English bits are worth the wait. The jokes are in Urdu. His sense of urgency about the Islamicist threat and a criticism of Indian and Hindu weakness in the face of intransigent Muslim nihilism. It is a very good critique of Islam from the point of view of an enlightened Muslim. He calls himself an Indian born in Pakistan and says, among other things, that all Pakistanis are Hindus who just don't want to admit it. He is a fount of historical knowledge, he knows of Islam's baggage.

This relevant clip of Rajiv Malhotra about hard and soft power and the need for a revival of kshatriya culture in Hinduism. The necessity for it. In a way, he echoes many of the things that Fatah mentions in the previous clip and berates Canadians for their complacency.

This last one is from four years ago, a short lecture in Toronto at a rather prestigious venue, hosted by Moses Znaimer. In this one, Fatah speaks to a Canadian audience about the dangers of Islamicism or political Islam. He says what no one wants to say about Islam, what no white Canadian would dare say aloud.

I had the following thoughts on what little I know of recent Indian and Hindu history, brought into focus somewhat by Tarek Fatah's departure.

I am repelled at the thought that Westernization and globalization mean that there should be more Christianization and Islamization of India, what to speak of secular atheism, the consumerist mentality, and disintegration of the family structure, and all the rest of the fallout from our Western so-named "progressivism."

A just saw in an article in Le Monde that India is now the most populous country in the world, surging ahead of China. The report itself focuses on a village in Kashmir where there is a dependency on revenue from migrant workers. The village is photographed and looks very nice and the people also look peaceful, serene, not too bad even by the look of it compared to many similar villages around India.

The writer said that India is still rural in the majority. Although literacy is higher than it ever has been, it is still not high enough. Most people still are very much tied to the land. The husbands are wandering in the city landscapes while women manage the home front and do most of the farming.

The idea of course was to show a French audience the backward state of most of India, the challenges of bringing people out of the stone age into the 21st century. Basically an old story. By comparison a soft job to the kinds of things you might have seen in the 40's or 50's or read about in a Naipaul travelog. Though it might remind you that this may just reflect nervousness at India's rise.

Anyway I have seen good and bad villages in India. I was very impressed I remember with the two story mud houses in Bengal, some very old, like in Shrikhanda. I saw other villages where highly educated people still lived in mud houses. Where even the temples were just mud huts.
But mostly not. I am a city boy. Even in Vrindavan, you are a city boy. There is just too much action going on. And the Jiva operation and ISKCON and the rest are all global operations, linked by global systems.

In the midst of it all, India is undergoing unique growing pains. Or, rather, it may better be said that India has decided to have an identity, or better yet, India is starting to grow into its own identity. And that identity is directly related to the history of the Hindus.

Hindus do in fact have the philosophy that is most accepting of diversity, tolerance based on the One God theory. That your God and my God are the same God. And that as soon as you recognize that, you will be a lot further not only to knowing God, but to knowing Love.

Hinduism is not about establishing a theocracy. Hindu nationalism is about bhārata-svābhimāna, being proud of one's identity as an Indian. In China, Communism destroyed the cultural and religious aspects of the old, backward China. Just as they are attempting to do in Tibet and with the Ugyurs. That is NOT the road India wants to take with Islam. But India is caught in the tolerance trap: How far should you tolerate the intolerant?

India is surrounded by belligerent enemies. Pakistan is propagandized to the extreme against India. The two countries are separated because the Muslims wanted their own country and would happily produce mayhem to get it. So they got it, but the Hindus happen to be doing better than them economically.

The Pakistani raison d'etre is India. It came into existence precisely because it could not accept living in Dar al-Harb. It is defiantly anti-India. Its people fear India and think it is trying to take over and undermine their national integrity. They believe every bit of propaganda about Hindu mistreatment of Muslims when they have ethnically cleansed Pakistan of nearly every Hindu who was left after Partition.

Islamism still rules in Pakistan more than in any country in the world, except perhaps Afghanistan. The current internal political situation there appears to be quite dire, and when that happens, the old bugaboo India will be raised and Kashmir will be raised and nits will be picked.

Moreover, India is doing much better economically than Pakistan, thank you. And Pakistanis are jealous of it. And with that knowledge, India is becoming stronger in its Hindu identity. Whatever Nehru's India was in terms of secularism and Hindu identity, the general feeling grew steadily that the Congress was constantly appeasing the Muslims in order to get their votes. The basic idea was that a secular and scientific education makes people less superstitious and thus reduces communal tension. The Hindus were mostly on board, but the Muslims not so much.

So that kind of weakness grated on many self-respecting Hindus and so it was quite natural that they should try to strengthen India and its kshatriya heritage. And the Bhagavad Gita is the Bible of such people. Krishna says he taught it to the original king, the Sun God, who transmitted it to his sons and on to the rajarshis. It is the science of governing in the light of the purpose of human society and human life, in a nice concise form. It contains plenty of other fundamental descriptions of human reality that, with the development of many sampradāyas of varying religious flavors has turned into the "Indian way of thinking" about the world and social organization.

India's religious identity is indeed at play here. The Abrahamic religions insist on world domination of one kind or another. They consider their own truths to be absolute and those that are promoted elsewhere to be flawed basically because they are not true. They are convinced that their conviction that theirs is the truth is what makes them great, gives them strength and righteousness in this world and a reward in heaven in the next. And there is no other way, no other way, no other way.

This has always been the problem for the Hindu. It is not that satyam eva does not jayate. It does indeed, and it is through Truth and in defending the Hindu truth that Indian identity will be forged.

But this Indian identity must be based in an Indian way of thinking,

Learning from Mistakes

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Mon, 01 May 2023 16:33:00 +0000

I had an exchange with a devotee on Facebook. He called on me to confess in more vivid detail and with greater honesty, etc., about my activities in the Gurukula. He hinted that my sins were likely much worse than those meager details I had given in my confessions. He hinted that beneath my facade of gray beard and sophistry I was a seething cauldron of wickedness.

I got a bit scratchy with him, a bit annoyed that I cannot be done with these events, and having undergone some public humiliation on account of them, and so on, culpability that I have accepted and have spent my life trying to understand, things that happened over forty years ago. I have been watching a lot of right wing stuff of late, starting with Jordan Peterson, and the self-righteous social-justice warrior type virtue-signaling some kind of moral superiority because he can hold these things over your head and just ignore everything else, often the things that are more important.

However, after learning that he was also a product of the Gurukula system, I thought I would take a little more time for him. What follows is based on what I wrote to him:

You are correct, I acted defensively and that was not really necessary. But you did not introduce yourself. So I found your behavior impolite. I am a believer in traditional values, and consider respect for elders something that should be expected in social dealings. The sense of victimhood is probably the root of all evil. The accepting of your psychological Shadow (often revealed by your strongest negative emotions) and taking responsibility for it are the pathway to spiritual growth, from which all other growth is possible.

I agree with you entirely--those who have failed to uphold the value system they profess should feel ashamed and guilty. And no doubt, most do. Shame and guilt can lead to many ills, but they also lead to good, because one who is shamed and guilty normally feels the desire to change and improve.

Some people take it as a lesson to change for the good, the cheaters take it as an occasion to improve their cheating capabilities. I would like to be known as belonging to the former group, and as I think this is the correct and religious way to approach life, I would recommend the same to you.

And with it, you will attain the kindness that comes from humility, that of knowing that you, as a human being, a conditioned soul, have failings. These, which are better called sin, burrow down to the profoundest levels of our conditioned nature.

When someone who knows this sees someone else helplessly riding on the waves of the three gunas and suffering their consequences, it evokes compassion and mercy. That is really what Vaishnava humility is based on.

Earlier statements are here: Mayapur Gurukul Confessions and here: Confession A Religious Act.

The statements were made voluntarily, in great part because of my natural feelings of guilt at what transpired in the Gurukulas and my involvement in them. I tried to be as honest as possible, pace your suspicions of worse sins than I confess to. But I recognize the defensiveness that is present there, and also the wish to retaliate, which I now find distasteful.

Naturally, everyone is a public figure these days, so from the beginning I expected that the worst criticisms would be levied my way, and from time to time, indeed, my worst deeds are publicized. That is just the fruit of one's deeds and misdeeds. In my theology, that is God's way of teaching you how to be worthy of Him.

So, hopefully, I have learned from my mistakes and can speak first of all to my personal experience, of which I have at least some first-hand experience, however Shadow-blind it may be. Casting light on the Shadow is indeed the essence of self-knowledge. And is, indeed, the purpose of confession. And it is also only through individual change that societal change is possible.

I have difficulty understanding the psychology of those who make a career of being a child abuse, nor would I be able to ever countenance it. Some say that such people can never be cured, and it may well be so.

Grace is the key and grace comes to those who turn towards it, like a flower and the sun. But not everyone turns towards the grace... and that is due to the darkness of the Shadow.

In my case, I have committed this lifetime to discovering the process of Krishna bhakti and the attainment of prema. It is most natural that by one's mistakes one learns. Krishna allows us our choices, but to what end if not to learn the meaning of prema?

Once upon a time, Prabhupada told me personally that I was to teach the children lovingly, like a mother. But that was after he chastised me for punishing a student by depriving him of a meal. Prabhupada lovingly said of me, "He should not eat."

I was raised a Catholic. I was educated by Jesuits. I had experience of corporal punishment when I stepped out of line. I even had the experience one time of provoking one of the brothers to a sudden rage, that resulted in getting a punch to the solar plexus; another time a frustrated priest gave me a kick in the shin. These events are testimony to my teenage anomie, nevertheless that was the atmosphere where people live in the Catholic spirit of subduing the flesh. Rebel beware!

The Jesuits are St. Ignatius Loyola's army consecrated to the service of the Pope. My father was of Polish military stock and believed strongly in discipline, which nevertheless was never instilled in me, at least not to his satisfaction. After three years of hippie itinerance, however, I was ready for cold showers at 4 a.m.

The conservative spirit was strong in that early ISKCON, but we were building from scratch, from an idea, from the Prabhupada-driven inspiration that a new world of the spirit could be built, that we could bring to the world and save it from the effects of Kaliyuga. And then we suddenly found ourselves in the midst of the Kaliyuga.

I probably mentioned it in the confessions I posted earlier on my blog that I often wonder in amazement how Prabhupada inspired us to so completely abandon our pretensions to Western superiority. At the same time, however, he wanted that American energy, and he wanted that that this American rajas would get injected into Indian society as well. Which was the only way that Vaishnavism or Hinduism could survive in the coming world order: Institutional and personal discipline...

Just today I watched a short video of a well-meaning Western devotee promoting food distribution in poor Braj villages. She describes a scene that I have seen also a hundred times: the chaos of prasad food distribution in a poor Indian village. Indiscipline. Civilized people know how to stand in line.

I once (around 1984) went to Jessore in Bangla Desh to visit a godbrother for his annual devotional program and feast. While exploring the town, I watched the Muslims praying in their Jamma Masjid. I marveled at the unity of spirit that overcame the faithful even after this 5 or 10 minutes ritual namaaz in unison.

That same evening the program was to take place--kirtan, katha, the usual--but it was absolutely impossible in the midst of the ruckus. It was chaos. Feeling some frustration I chastised the mostly poverty-stricken and uneducated Hindus, the women unable to control their children, the complete absence of any sense of how to behave at a religious program. For the few educated I said, if you want to know why the Muslims dominated for 700 years, just look at yourselves.

Remember, this is the world that modern Bengali Hinduism, and our Vaishnavism, was born in. The is the world that Prabhupada was born in and knew.

What I am getting at is that when we Gurukula teachers pictured making ideal little Vaishnavas, what were we thinking? How do love and discipline go together? What are the limits of discipline? Did we know any of those things? Does anyone?

Bengali children and their parents considered strict disciple with corporal punishment to be the norm. I do not think that is the road to go down. Anyway, life is long and you go through a lot of changes. The young are often the most puffed up when they make their biggest mistakes. A Bengali zamindar's education in the 1840's

And what are the limits of indoctrination? What exactly was this ISKCON world into which we were training the next generation? We had no idea. We were creating it from scratch, with only the ideals of Vaishnava character as pictured in Prabhupada's books. But we also had our Western saṁskāras.

The Catholic Church is really the only model that ISKCON has to emulate. It is the model that impressed Vivekananda and Saraswati Thakur: a celibate priesthood dedicated to evangelization and social leadership. The evidence is clear enough: ISKCON's main temple at world headquarters in Mayapur is meant to be a kind of bigger and better St. Peter's Basilica. Scratch Jesus and replace with Gaura. It is a better imitation than Vivekananda or Saraswati Thakur could manage, for sure!

And it is Prabhupada's genius is that ISKCON has thus managed to build a pan-Indian appeal. The new India requires discipline, but it requires its Hindu identity. It needs to differentiate itself to preserve itself, but it must live in a tough world with competitors all around. The situation is not funny: people are pointing atom bombs at one another, the tectonic plates in Asia are moving in different directions: a Utopia of Gandhian villages would not survive for five minutes.

Prabhupada was not a Gandhian, remember.

The patterns of abuse in ISKCON were also very much like those in the Catholic church, though thankfully on a much smaller scale, just as ISKCON is on a much smaller scale, despite its "basilica." Nevertheless, through comparison we may be able to learn the kind of things we should expect in this kind of religious institution dominated by celibate priests. And we can think about what remedies, if any, are needed or indeed possible.

Is there anything positive to be had from the institutional model that prevailed in the early days of ISKCON and in the way it has evolved and is evolving? Should we go to the other extreme and reject the whole edifice of religion itself, of belief in the supernatural, or in any kind of tradition that takes lies and fairytales as historical truth and the basis of morality?

Anything built on a foundation of lies is inherently doomed, since only Truth is Victorious.

And truth is the end destination of all paths, though the "The truth of what?" might be different for each person. Though I marvel at the wonderful ways in which the neo-atheists construct their anti-religion and anti-theism arguments, I belong to the group that believes in God and believes that one should follow the path or tradition that one is called to, as far as it takes on in the knowledge and service of God, the Supreme Truth.

It takes place through transcending the superficial elements of belief and intelligently understanding the meaning of one's path or tradition. Faith is what keeps you following the path you have chosen. So I trying to make something positive of my experiences and take the major lessons as guideposts to what was wrong in myself and how it needs to be remedied. And, I look for the answers in my tradition?

What are the lessons that I, a completely ordinary jīva, was meant to extract from my life in Krishna bhakti, and would these lessons be useful to others?

So, my first response to the dilemma I found myself in in 1979 in the face of nascent chaos in the Gurukulas was to find a flaw at the very roots of ISKCON itself, in its very institutionality (See Simone Weil.). There has been a flaw in the continuity of the sampradāya. If we were to believe the idea that fidelity to the Guru is of such paramount importance as the doorway to salvation, and the Guru-paramparā is of such great necessity in the preservation of the primordial revelation, then what was this history of guru abandonment in the tradition that makes these very claims? Is that connected to the disintegration that I am seeing around me?

Then when I heard that the only living son of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur disagreed with the Gaudiya Math because he saw the inevitable worldliness that large, rich institutions in the hands of celibate monks sink into.

Prabhupada may have mocked Lalita Prasad Thakur for impotence as a preacher, but the Thakur still lived in the Jaiva Dharma world. What were the institutions that existed in Gaudiya Vaishnavism prior to the coming of Europe into Bengal? What was the method of social organization in Bengali society? How did the two fit together? What is the relevance of all that to the present-day situation?

These are all big-ticket questions that can only be answered beginning with exploration on the personal level. First change yourself, then change the world. But we cannot deny that collective human activity requires institutions. We all live and learn.

Service

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 22:35:00 +0000

Leaving aside questions of the eternity of the soul, the afterlife and everything else that people take "on faith," the question is, "Why must I serve?" and then, "What [or whom] must I serve?" This is an existential question about the here and now. (Facebook, April 13, 2010)

Jagannath Misra Das

Kalau sudra sambhavam... all are born sudras in the kali Yuga, and sudras have this "service mentality" they need a master and a physical task to occupy the vacancy of their distempered minds. Follow the example of Gauranga in Puri, listen to the Gita Govinda and the Bhagavat Puranam and enjoy nama, rupa, guna, lila, etc., of Hari.

This is really the field whereupon the whole spectrum of Sanatana Dharma understanding lies.

Everyone must serve the yajna at every level of existence, conditioned or liberated.

Service does not mean bondage. Service to the Truth, conceived at whatever level of adhikāra, will still remains service, which is the price for living. You only have value as a result of service.

And the most intimate forms of service, which enhance your human value tremendously, can only grow out of a conscience that is mature in dāsya, sakhya and vātsalya.

Madhura-rasa at its most advanced level is the perfection of all the rasas, because it includes the others. And when one is on the level of a sādhaka, then one has to cultivate the other rasas just by virtue of living in this world and entering into relations with it.

The secret about sthāyi-bhāva is that you cannot cultivate it on some purely fairy tale level. It has to be supported by experience. And the only place you are going to get that experience is in this world.

And in this world, one lives in the midst of all the rasas. The secret of bhakti is that they are all to be practiced as sevā to Kr̥ṣṇa, who is playing the role of everybody but you.

Locan Das's Dhāmāli Part 2: Nāgara songs by Narahari

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 22:40:00 +0000

Some may find the erotic nature of these posts distasteful. Be forewarned.

Sri Narahari’s Padavali at a Glance

Since Lochan Dasa is Thakur Narahari’s disciple, let us examine some of his poetry first. Then we will have a good idea about what inspired Lochan to write his Dhāmāli.

(1)

Looking into the Mirror

tore kahi marama kī bāta

nibhṛta niketane hama ekākinī

dosara jana nāhi sāthe

mukura kare dhari nija mukha herāite

paridhāne bigalita bāsa

kuṅkuma candana aṅge bilepana

pīṭhopari keśa udāse

henaite samaẏa gaura sunāgara

āola hama nāhi jāna

pīṭhe āre rahi catura nāgara bara

deẏala mukere baẏāna

gaurāṅga badana bidhu mukura para herāite

taikhane camakita aṅga

grība phirāite mukhe mukhe lāgala

sakali haila majhu baṅga

bāhu pasāri karahi agoralo

paitalo madana bilāse

nija kāja sādhi calalo nāgara bara

kahatahi narahari dāse

“O sakhi! I have a secret to tell: while standing alone in a solitary place I thought that no one was around. So letting my clothes fall to the ground I took up a mirror to look at my face. Then as I started rubbing kunkuma and chandan over my unadorned limbs, my loosened hair fell over my back.

I was unaware of it but that great nāgara Gaura suddenly arrived. He stood right behind me and cleverly let his moon-face reflect in my mirror. So I was startled!

Upon turning around I looked into his eyes and could fathom his yearning to enjoy me. So I bent over to offer resistance. But that didn’t stop him. For O my! Outstretching his arms and pulling me to his chest he started making love with me. And when his madana bilāsa was finished, that best of nāgaras just disappeared!”

Gaura-kṛpā-kaṇikā

Wow! What has happened? Let’s try and analyse this scene. First of all, we need to understand Narahari’s position. For although he is a male and one of Gauranga’s closest Navadvipa associates, during these moments he has changed over to his nāgarī svarūpa. Why? His nāgarī kānta bhāva is his most deeply felt mood, and with this beautiful female form, she can offer by far the most pleasure to Gauranga. We should remember that previously in Vrindaban, Narahari was offering conjugal loving sevā to Krishna as Madhumati Sakhī.

So, as she is now Gauramayī or constantly steeped in thoughts of Gaura, she has a plan to lure him: coming to a lonely, secluded place that would be ideal for prema keli she removes all of her clothes and unloosens her lovely hair. Then to make herself look busy she starts rubbing kunkuma and chandan all over her gorgeous body. Although it would be much easier to do this sitting down, she remains standing to allow Gaurasundar the chance to get a better look at her attractive figure.

It doesn’t take long for Gaura to arrive; for Narahari’s nāgarī form is molded from mahābhāva prema with intense anurāga—as he has an equally intense attraction for her. This brings to mind Ramananda Raya’s famous pahilehi verse wherein, in context with Radha’s deep thirst to unit with Krishna, she says:

na khojaluṅ dūtī na khojaluṅ āna
duhuka milane madhye pañca-bāṇa

“We didn’t need a messenger or anything else, for it was Cupid with his five flower arrows who forcefully united us!”

Thus we see that in Gaura’s overriding thirst to unite with Narahari’s nāgarī svarūpa he makes a hasty display of lovemaking with her. Yet Narahari’s testimony also reveals that this was a very exhilarating and memorable experience in his nāgarī svarūpa, too.

(2)

Fear and Ecstasy

ke āche emana manera bedana kāhāre kahiba saī

na kahile buka bidariẏā mari tei sei tomāre koī

beli abasāne nanadinī sāthe jala ānibāre genu

gaurāṅga cādera rūpa nirakhiẏe kalasī bāṅgiẏā enu

saṅge nanadinī kāla bhujaṅginī kuṭila kumati bhela

nayanera bāri sambarite nāri bayāna sukaẏe gela

kāpe kalebara gāẏe āise jbara calite na cale pā

gauraāṅa cādera rūpa pāthāre sātāre na pāinu tā

aṅga jhalamala śrīaṅga sakala śarada cāndera mālā

suradhuni tīre daṇḍāiẏe āche dukūla kariẏā ālā

buka parisara tāhāre upara sugandhi candana māla

nayana bhariẏā dekhite nā pāinu nanadinī hailā kāla

dīghala dīghala nayana yugala viṣama kusuma śare

ramaṇī kemane dhairaja dhare madana kapay dhare

kahe narahari gauraāṅa mādhurī yāhāra hṛdaẏa jāge

kula śīla tāra sakali majila gauracādera anurāge

“O sakhi, as I suffer great mental distress there hasn’t been anyone to whom I can disclose my plight. And this breaks my heart. So will you kindly hear my confession:

Yesterday afternoon I went with my nanadī (sister-in-law) to fetch water from the Ganga. But O my! Upon seeing Gorachanda’s beautiful effulgent limbs my water jug slipped from my hip and broke to pieces! This triggered nanadī’s jealous anger and she lashed at me like a poisonous snake. Thus I shook, turned pale, cried, and remained stunned as a fever enveloped me.

O sakhi! I didn’t know how to swim within the ocean of Gauranga’s bodily splendor. Because as his entire form was shimmering like the autumn moon, both sides of the Ganga became lit up by his effulgence. And over his broad, candan anointed chest rested a fragrant mala.

Alas! Because of nanadī’s presence I couldn’t gaze upon him to my heart’s content. Yet his big blooming eyes are like Cupid’s devastating flower arrows. So how can the pretty, young girls remain sober when even Cupid shakes in fear?

Narahari concludes: Family attachment and chastity will all be devoured for those who relish the madhuri of Gauranga’s beautiful limbs within their hearts.

Gaura-kṛpā-kaṇikā

Who can imagine the beauty of Gaura? Beause just as the Braj gopis are the only ones who fortune to see nava kiśora Krishna’s superlative beauty, it is the nāgarīs alone who can view Gaurasundar’s topmost beauty as he captivates their hearts. Thus, as Narahari testifies, they are able to renounce their family attachment and chastity for him.

In this poem we learn something more about Gauranga’s associates who serve him in nāgarī-bhāva: they view themselves as newly married young girls. In other words, just as the Braj gopis are married, so are the Nadiya nāgarīs. This is to facilitate their parakiyā relationship with Gauranga. In this poem the presence of the sister-in-law (nanadi) creates a hindrance. Because of her the nāgarī can only briefly glance at Gauranga; and because of her the great fear of becoming disgraced haunts the nāgarī from moment to moment. Such fear even brings about a fever. Indeed, everything is there simply to heighten the rasa’s intensity.

But isn’t it amazing that the males in Gaura līlā imagine themselves this way? In Caitanya-caritāmr̥ta it is said:

parakīyā bhābe rasera adhika ullāsa
braja binā ihāra anyatra nāhi bāsa

Love in the parakiya mood produces the most exciting of all rasas; it is found nowhere but in Braj. (Madhya 8)

Yet Vrindaban and Navadvipa are identical. Hence Navadvipa is called Gupta (hidden) Vrindaban. Since the Braj gopis have all assumed male forms in Gaura līlā, svayam bhagavan’s parakiya affairs are more hidden than before. But with this understanding now it is not so amazing that those males would be romantically attracted to Gauranga. After all, since they were all females in Braj, why can they not reassume their female bhāva and svarūpas? So nāgarī-bhāva is the natural outcome of what happens when Shyama becomes Gaura.

(3)

The Rasika Bumblebee

rasera bhramara mora gorā
b kibā jāne pirīti, naba naba yubatī, badana kamala madhu corā
śaẏane āsiẏā mora, nikaṭe basiẏā go, hāsiẏā hāsiẏā kaẏa kathā
kata nā yatane se, cibuka paraśe go, ghucaẏa śravaṇa mana byathā
kata nā ādare se, amiẏā rasa ḍhāle go, kata nā baṅgimā kare cale
adhare adhare kari, ki āra kahaba go, uraja jhāɱpaẏa karatāla
hiẏāte dhariẏā hiẏā, gaurāṅa rasiẏā go, saghane kāɱpaẏe mora deha
narahari parāṇa badhū, kata nā jānaẏe go, amiẏā pāthāre tāra leha

“O what kind of romantic is my Gora? He’s a rasika bumblebee mad after stealing the honey from every pretty young girl’s lotus face. (He is zealous to kiss their sweet lips.)

He came at bedtime and sat down beside me… and began smiling and speaking all sorts of sweet words. Aha! As he fondled my chin all of my distress departed.

Ah! How affectionate he was, and how sweet were his numerous gestures. Then he kissed my lips, and O! His hands plundered by breasts! Then as we embraced chest to chest Gauranga made love to me, and my whole body shivered! O what more can I say? The love of Narahari’s prāṇa-ballabha Gauranga is like a nectar ocean.”

Gaura-kṛpā-kaṇikā

In Narahari’s last three selections what can be discovered? Here we shall say udarata, or the overriding compassion to award something which is highly exalted to fallen, undeserving people.

If Thakur Narahari hadn’t mercifully revealed these secrets, how would we have known that such līlās take place in Nadiya? For most people do not have the slightest idea about them. And having placed the garland of Gauranga’s scandals around his own neck, he has borne the burden only to bless others. Could there be any other reason which prompts him to tell all this? Now by his mercy even fallen people like you and I can become attracted to nāgarī bhajan. Indeed, such karuṇā invokes deep sentiment and tears.

As we are now ready to begin the text, let us observe how Lochan follows in Narahari’s footsteps in Dhāmāli.

Locan Das's Dhāmāli (from Gadadhar Pran Das) Part I (Introduction)

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 18:11:00 +0000

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 Gauranga’s biography in Caitanya maṅgala, Lochan Das Thakur's desire remained unfulfilled, for he couldn’t focus there on the intimate, madhura pastimes that his gurudeva Sri Narahari Sarkar Thakur loved so much. Thus to delight his gurudeva and Gaura’s other rasika bhaktas, Lochan composed Dhāmāli.

Now, since the word dhāmali means raṅga-rasikatā, or "playful romanticism", it shouldn’t be surprising that here the playful romantic in question happens to be our Nadiya-vinoda Sri Gorachandra. And moreover, because his irresistibly captivating beauty is just like that of Vrindaban’s Madanmohan, all the pretty girls are simply mad after him!

Although many other Gaudiya Mahajanas have portrayed Gauranga in this way, Lochan’s colloquial style of Bengal poetry is especially pleasing to the heart. Thus, it is not unlikely that after sampling these poems one would become attracted to worshiping Gauranga-sundara in Narahari’s rasika mood.

Our commentary entitled Gaura-kṛpā-kaṇikā (a morsel of Gaura’s kṛpā) has been included here.

Introduction

Dhāmāli and Thakur Bhaktivinoda

Who can fathom the mādhurya or beautiful sweetness of Srimati Vishnupriya devi’s compassion, which is so seldom attained in our world? Nevertheless, because she happens to be the leader and foremost Acharya of Bhaktivinoda’s guru parivāra, a relevant question arises:

How can the members of this parivāra or anyone else for that matter become eligible to serve in Vishnupriya’s astakala Goloka pastimes with Sriman Gaurasundar?

Will we not need to have a divine and beautiful female form to enter this realm—just as we require a gopī-svarūpa to serve Radha Krishna in Goloka Vrindaban?

Furthermore, upon discovering that Vishnupriya’s limitless sakhi followers are all Nadiya nāgarīs, would we not be correct to conclude that Bhaktivinoda’s guru parivāra culminates in nāgarī-bhāva?

(2)
Like Thakur Narahari, Thakur Bhaktivinoda staunchly worshiped Gaura and Gadadhar. But what does such worship entail? Dhāmāli itself provides the ideal response, for Gaura Gadadhar bhajan essentially means GaurāGga-nāgarī-bhajana. Gadadhar’s cousin and intimate disciple Sri Nayanananda Mishra captures this mood in his padāvalī or Bengali song:

paṇḍita maṇḍita bhela gaura naṭarājadūra saiẏe dekhe saba nāgarī samājanadiyā nāgarī gaṇa bujhila marameyāra prasāde pāẏa prema ratanegadādhara prema baśe gaura rasiẏākahaẏe nayanānande ei rase bhāsiẏā

“Aho! When the great dancer Gaura naṭarāja embraces Gadadhar Pandit, the nāgarīs all watch from a distance! Because the Nadiya nāgarīs can fathom what is going on, only by their mercy can we understand these intimate pastimes, and only by their mercy can we attain such a jewel of prema. On seeing rasiẏā Gaurasundar completely subjugated by Gadadhar’s prema, Nayanananda is floating in the rasa.”

Gaura-kṛpā-kaṇikā
Nayanananda is the ideal person to accurately narrate Gaura and Gadadhara’s madhura pastimes since he direct witnessed them. Here he establishes an important siddhānta: Bhaktas desiring to understand and participate in these intimate līlās will certainly need to take shelter of the nāgarīs, as they alone can award us the jewel of nāgarī prema that will enable us to enter the beautiful world of Gauranga’s romantic pastimes. Though as Radha is Krishna’s supreme consort from whom every gopi expands, let us remember that in his nāgarī form Gadadhar’s is Gauranga’s topmost consort and the source from whom all the other nāgarīs expand.

(3)
The madhura topics described in Dhāmāli are also found in the writings of Vishnupriya’s disciple Vamsivadana, who is the second member of Thakur Bhaktivinoda’s guru parivāra. This can be discovered in Mahaprabhu’s rasarāja teachings to him that are recorded in the Baṁśī-śiksā of Premadasa Mishra, who also belongs to this parivāra. For herein Prabhu offers Vamsi this invaluable instruction:

sei sambandha braje catur bidha haẏa,
prabhu sakhā putra kānta mahājana kaẏa
kṛṣṇa proti ei cāri sambandha uttama,
vicāra karile kintu āche taratama
sambandha uttama kāntā sambandhi bakani,
yāra antarbhūta tri sambandha jāni
ei lāgi bhāgyabān jīva samudaya,
rasarāja kṛṣṇe kānta-bhābete bhajaẏa

The Mahajanas say that there are four ways to worship Krishna in Braj: as one's master, friend, child or lover (kānta). Although each method is great, kāntā-bhāva or consorthood is the best, as the three other moods are contained within it. Therefore those worshiping rasarāja Krishna in kāntā-bhāva are the most fortunate.

When Baṁśī-śiksā begins, however, it is stated that Sachinandan and Rasaraja Krishna are non-different (abhinna-rasarājāẏa śacīnandanāẏa ca). From this we can understand that Gauranga can also be worshiped as one's lover, or kānta. Baṁśībadan’s poetry lucidly depicts this mood:

olo soi nadiyā mājhāre onā rūpa,
sonāra gaurāṅga nāce ati aparūpa
alaka tilaka sohe mukha paripāṭī,
rase ḍhubu ḍhubu kare raṅga ākhi dūṭī
adhare īṣat hāsa madhura kathā kaẏa,
grībāra baṅgimā dekhi prāṇa kothā raẏa
hiẏāẏa ḍolane ḍole bakula phulera mālā,
kata rasa līlā jāne kata rasa kalā
baṁśībadana kaẏa śuna lo ajuli,
tumi nājāna gorā nāgara banamālī

O sakhi, look! Here in Nadiya our Sonar Gauranga’s dancing form is simply magnificent! Just look at his glowing face covered with artistic tilaka designs and bordered by locks of hair! See his moist restless, roaming eyes submerged in an ocean of prema. His lips smile slightly as he speaks sweet loving word, and when we see his neck bend slightly, we cannot say where our life airs have gone! But have you noticed the garland of bakula flowers swinging over his chest? Its rhythm matches his sweet dancing steps. Upon viewing his incomparable beauty I would guess that he is a true romantic who knows all about loving affairs.”

Baṁśībadan states: “O Ajuli! Can’t you recognize our Gora? Do you not know that he is that same forest-flower garlanded nāgara from Braj?

(4)
As the third Acharya in Thakur Bhaktivinoda’s guru parivāra (coming after Vishnupriya and Baṁśībadan), Jahnava Thakurani has another contribution to make: Just as Radha’s younger sister Ananga Manjari is a yūtheśvarī in Vrindaban having countless sakhis assisting in her madhura pastimes with Krishna, so do those same sakhi followers join her in her loving pastimes with Gaurasundar. Jahnava’s adopted son and disciple Sri Ramai Thakur confirms this:

caitanya ballabha tumi jagat- īśbarī
tomāra dāsānudāsa hate bāñchā kari

O gurudevi! You are Gauranga’s ballabhā (dearly beloved) and the goddess ruling the entire universe (jagadīśvarī). I therefore desire to always remain the servant of your servants. (Muralī-bilāsa, 4)

Gaura-kṛpā-kaṇikā
Although Jahnava is Nityananda’s wife and internal shakti, her beautiful body becomes the loving abode by means of which Nitai is able to offer madhura loving sevā to Gaura. In other words, just as Ananga Manjari is Balarama’s shakti and Krishna’s consort, Jahnava is Nityananda’s shakti and Gauranga’s consort.

In the fourth wave of his Anaṅga Mañjarī Sampuṭikā, Ramai describes Jahnava as follows:

ambujākṣi sumadhura, bidagdhā rasikā dhīra

mṛdu smita madhura mūrati
nityānanda guṇollāsī, pūrṇānandāmṛta rāśi
caitanya priyatamā ati

“Jahnava has beautiful lotus eyes. She is:
sumadhura (very attractive in conjugal loving pastimes),
vidagdhā (expert in the romantic arts),
rasikā (she has lots of desire for rati keli),
mṛdu-smitā (she has a lovely smile),
madhura mūrati (her body is ideally contoured for awarding conjugal pleasure),
nityānanda guṇollāsī (she loves to hear Nityananda’s glories) and
purnānandāmṛta rāśi (the very form of complete ānanda and amṛta)."

After mentioning these qualities, which are all ideally suited for madhura rasa, however, Ramai concludes by saying: caitanya priyatamā ati ("She is Gauranga’s most dearly beloved").

(5)

Jahnava’s husband, Sri Nitāicānda Prabhu, is also worshiped in this parivāra, as he is the samaṣṭi guru or supreme guru of all. Because his nāgara and nāgarī tattva, līlā and rasa are very extensive, however, we will wait until later in this book to discuss them more fully.

Nāgarī bhāva and Thakur Bhaktivinoda

We once read an article that appeared in Sri Haridasa Goswami’s Gambhīrāẏa Biṣṇupriẏā entitled Nadiyā nāgarī-bhāva and Thakur Bhaktivinoda. The article’s author, Sri Madhusudan Goswami, was an illustrious scholar and sevāyat of Gopal Bhatta Goswami's Radha-raman temple in Vrindaban. He was also a personal friend of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur and therefore had intimate knowledge of the Thakur's way of thinking.

In his article, the Goswami informs us that Bhaktivinoda was never averse to Nadiya nāgarī-bhāva as many of his followers mistakenly assume. As supporting evidence he shows that on a number of occasions Bhaktivinoda printed nāgarī-bhāva poetry in his personally edited journal Sajjana Toṣaṇī. Madhusudan Goswami quotes these examples and comments upon them.

One may protest that here in these introductory words to Dhāmāli we have taken this matter a step too far, for we have shown above from the evidence provided from the leading acharyas of Thakur Bhaktivinoda’s guru-parivāra that they accepted the authenticity of nāgarī-bhāva bhajan and indeed practiced it. Remember too that they were all nitya-siddha Gaura parikāras.

Hence we may comment that because Bhaktivinoda’s original guru parivāra and nāgarī-bhāva bhajan are very rarely known in our Vaishnava world today, both of these exalted topics truly deserve more exposure amongst the bhaktas.

The paramparā descends as follows:

1) Srimati Vishnupriya devi
2) Sri Baṁśībadan Thakur
3) Srimati Jahnava Thakurni
4) Sri Ramai Thakur
5) Sri Rajaballabha Goswami
6) Sri Keshava-candra Goswami
7) Sri Rudresvara Goswami
8) Sri Dayarama Goswami
9) Srimati Mahesvari Goswamini
10) Srimati Guna Manjari Goswamini
11) Srimati Ramamani Goswamini
12) Sri Yajnesvara Goswami
13) Sri Vipinavihari Goswami
14) Sri Bhaktivinoda Thakur
15) Sri Lalitaprasada Thakur

The Second Year of Jiva Ratna comes to an end.

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 22:24:00 +0000

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 sought to produce a coherent doctrine on the basis of the Bhagavatam, the amala-pramāṇa of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

That is why Babaji himself made a thorough study of not only the Gaudiya acharyas' writings, but of Nyāya and other schools of Indian thought, what I like to call Jiva Goswami's "knowledge universe."

From what I can see, Babaji gets stronger from year to year. His scholarship along with his engaging personality and consistent engagement, as well as his deep commitment to his practice have made him a solid rock in the Gaudiya Vaishnava world.

I expect to see this trend continue, especially as his more capable students become trained both in shastra and fixed in their other sādhanas. The testimonials I heard today show me that his plan is indeed developing in the way that he envisioned.

[You can get an idea of these testimonials from the Jiva Youtube page, such as this one from a retired Indian civil servant.

Even though I have been in Canada for nearly two years now, I am gratefully still a part of the Jiva Institute's teaching staff. I definitely play a secondary role to Babaji, but I do not consider this a problem. Rather it is my great good fortune.

My connection with Babaji and Jiva has definitely been a source of life-giving spiritual and intellectual stimulation to me. Teaching introductory Sanskrit and reading the Gita with commentaries of the acharyas in the original Sanskrit, even with only a handful of students, has been extremely beneficial and, if nothing else, has led to a deepening of my love for this language and its literature, and hopefully my understanding also.

It keeps me on track and in tune with my life's commitment to this tradition.

So I am personally extremely grateful to Babaji Maharaj and pray that I will be able to continue to support him and the Jiva Institute for as long as I am worthy to offer my services. Jai Sri Radhe.

Sri Pranananda Mishra’s Korcā

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 22:59:00 +0000

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 resolute in sadhana are likely to get newer inspiration as they read this korcā. So what should we do?

Since our mind was wavering, we asked our inner voice for counsel, and after some introspection a reply came: “Don’t worry about the outcome of your writing, for won’t a few rasika bhaktas turn up to make everything successful?”

Introduction

kr̥ṣṇa līlāmr̥ta sār, tār śata śata dhār

daśa dike bahe jāhā haite

se caitanya līlā hoy, sarobara akhoy

mano-hamsa corāha tāhāte

caitanya līlāmr̥ta-pūra, kr̥ṣṇa līlā sukarpūra

duhe mili hoy sumādhurjya

sādhu guru prasāde, tāhā je āsvāde

sei jāne mādhurjya prācurjya

“As the essence of Krishna’s nectar pastimes flow in hundreds of streams from every direction to enter the eternal lake of Gaura lila—just let the swan of your mind take shelter there.

"But such Gaura-lila nectar becomes far more relishable when the fine-camphor of Krishna lila is added. So by guru and Vaisnava kripa those who can relish both lilas together know where the greatest abundance of sweetness lies.”

— Caitanya caritamrita, Madhya 25

Here the Kaviraja advises: “Since so many kinds of Vraja lila rasa enter Gaura lila, why not become like a swan to relish as much of the nectar as you can? But your Gaura lila relish will increase many-fold if you can combine it with your Krishna lila worship.”

Now we could wonder: to relish such a variety of lila rasa won’t we need to have a number of siddha svarupas to do so?

Yet suffice it to say, Jiva Goswami tells us how this happens very easily in the spiritual world:

tatra nānā-kriyādy-adhiṣṭhānatvād eva līlā-rasa-poṣāya

teṣu prakāśeṣv abhimāna-bhedaṁ parasparam ananusandhānaṁ ca

prāyaḥ svecchayorīkarotīty api gamyate |

evaṁ tac-chaktimayatvāt tat-parikareṣv api jñeyam |

“To relish various rasa-flavors Krishna displays numerous prakāśa forms, and each form has a separate mentality. Moreover, as Krishna relishes various kinds of rasa in different lila realms none of his various prakāśa forms know about what all of the others are doing.

Yet similarly, because Krishna’s eternal associates are his cid sakti, they can also display a number of prakāśa forms (each with a separate identity) in different lila realms. So as a bhakta’s various prakāśa forms serve in Krishna’s various līlā-prakāśa, none of those prakāśa forms know about what all of the others are doing either.”

— Krishna sandarbha, Krishna lila rahasya, Anuccheda 153

Isn’t this truly amazing how we can have a number of siddha svarupas to serve in Gaura and Krishna’s various lilas? And from this perspective everything becomes multi-dimensional. Yet it is Yogamaya who arranges this so expertly that Krishna, Gauranga and the bhaktas don’t have to think twice about what is going on—as everything runs so smoothly.

Pranananda Mishra’s Korcā is based on this theme: of how we can serve Sri Bhagavan in different ways in a number of siddha svarupas.

Chapter One

The Characters

Our story has five characters. In Goloka Navadvipa, Pranananda Mishra, Padmapriya Sakhi and Parama Sundari Devi appear. Then in Goloka Vrindaban Parama Sukhi Manjari and Surangini Sakhi will advent.

Now we might guess that since the name of this diary is Sri Pranananda Mishra’s Korcā is he the main character?

No, not really, for all of the five characters are equally important. So let us begin to tell something about each one of them:

1) As a close relative of Gadadhar Pandit, Pranananda Mishra lives next to him in Goloka Navadvipa’s southwest section. And just as every dhama-vasi is a premika Vaisnava, his three sons, three daughters and devoted wife are endowed with prema. So when joining together (to serve as a team) we then become able to lovingly receive and appropriately serve Gauranga and his bhaktas when they visit our home. Here is an example:

Since the setting is Goloka Navadvipa, our palace’s opulence outmatches that of Vaikuntha. For here in our manimaya mandir the life-size vigraha worship of Radha-Kelicanda, Ananga Manjari and the ashta sakhis is always going on. Yet the murtis actually become jagrata, and come alive, upon receiving the prema seva of our three daughters who appear just like manjari gopis.

Thus when coming for darshan Mahaprabhu and the bhaktas often become overwhelmed in bhava as they dance and perform kirtan before the vigrahas. But at such times our three sons and some other great musicians join in to expertly sing and play various instruments which transport everyone to an incredible state of divine enrapture (as they are well-versed in ragas and raginis that enhance the Lord’s internal mood).

But when stepping outside (to relax after the kirtana), everyone cannot help but become lured by the beautiful gardens which remind them of madhura Vrindavan. Thus a host of enchanting pastimes begin—such as vasanta holi, jhulan, madhupan, and prema keli. But because the Alakananda Ganga flows beside these nikunjas (where many gemstone ghatas have their steps leading into the crystal clear stream), everyone’s desire next awakens to bathe and enjoy jala keli.

During this time, however, my wife has been assisting Vishnupriya and Jahnava in the kitchen, as they have come today to help prepare Radha-Kelicanda’s bhoga offering. For soon Gaura, Nitai and the bhaktas will be taking prasada. Thus, as the time for mid-day bhojan draws near, our family members go to serve Radha-Kelicanda’s maha prasada to the Lord and his associates. And as they dine in the various jeweled pavilions which line the Alakananda’s picturesque shore, the meal turns out to be a wonderful mahotsava.

In this way, during various times throughout the six-seasons of the year, our family remains busy in offering a variety of prema seva to Gauranga and his bhaktas.

2) When our gurudeva mercifully gave us a manjari svarupa with the name Paramasukhi, he indicated that she will reside in Goloka Vrindaban near Srimati Radharani’s raja mandir at Varshana—and her gopa father and mother’s name will be Mahabhata and Parul gopi. “But when you become a kishori,” he added, “you will marry Khipra gopa and reside in Yavat village. Nevertheless, after sneaking away from home, you will lovingly engage in your yuthesvari Radha’s ashta-kala-seva.”

In our parampara, though Ananga Manjari and Radha are both yuthesvari gopis. Thus the privilege to serve in both groups is there. In having a close tie with Visakha, however, we serve under her guidance as her palya-dasi (fostered maidservant). And because she and Radha were born the same day, Visakha’s mood and nature almost resembles Radha’s. But I would say that Visakha’s heart can be softer. Because when Krishna misbehaves and Radha chases him away, Visakha often arranges that notorious Shyam come and beg forgiveness at Rai’s lotus feet—and this sets their sambhoga lila back into motion.

Since Parama Sukhi is Visakha’s palya-dasi, she receives a kunja residence within her very expansive Madan Sukhada Kunja at Radha Kund. And with Visakha’s sangita training she can sing wonderfully composed solos during the rāsa-līlā. Moreover, Parama Sukhi has a special talent for dressing the Divine Couple, especially in flower outfits with flower ornaments. But her most cherished seva is in massaging Radha’s lovely body with scented oil, and sometimes she also gets to massage Krishna.

3) Returning to Goloka Navadvipa, we next assume a beautiful kishori svarupa to serve Vishnupriya Devi, as she is our guru parampara’s leading Acarya. In this special lila prakasa Priyaji is more dear to us than our very life, and here our sakhi name is Padma Priya. Since Amita (one of Vishnupriya’s ashta-sakhis) is Vishakha in Vraja, Padma Priya has the good fortune to serve closely beside her. Even so, Vishnupriya often becomes eager to arrange our milan with Gaurasundar, as this gives her more pleasure than when she unites with him herself.

It is important to mention though that as Radha Govinda perform ashta kala pastimes in Goloka-Vrindavan, Gaura and Vishnupriya perform those same lilas that we read about in Govinda lilamrita. So as we follow our guru parampara’s sakhi members to intimately serve Prabhu and Priyaji in their hidden “Gupta Vrindaban” abode, we feel very fortunate and grateful. Because this is a realm which is inaccessible to Gaura’s male parshadas.

4) Upon entering Goloka Vrindaban again, this time our yearning to serve Krishna in kanta bhava (consorthood) becomes fulfilled. Because Mahaprabhu imparted this form of worship to Vamsivadan (who is the second leading Acarya in our guru parampara) this bhava is available. In this līlā prakāśa we receive a sakhi svarupa named Surangini. We will have to admit though that she is a top-notch rasika ramani, as she doesn’t hesitate to go all out to give Shyamsundar some of the most amazing sambhoga-ananda that he could ever dream of.

Let us note, however, that Surangini’s conjugal loving pastimes with Krishna take place in a separate līlā prakāśa from the realm where she serves Radha-Krishna in manjari bhava.

5) Returning to Goloka Navadvipa, we come at last to our favorite role (and most deeply felt mood), which is in our yuthesvari nagari svarupa named Parama Sundari Devi. Now as the name Parama Sundari implies, “one who is supremely beautiful,” only she can testify to how Gaurasundar becomes completely fascinated upon seeing her lovely form (which is truly the Creator’s special masterpiece). For such a large stock of beauty makes him turn impatient to enjoy her! But upon noticing his eagerness, Parama Sundari’s zeal to unite with him becomes insurmountable! So as we both nurture a great yearning to relish prema keli, this wonderful activity become the very life of our life.

On the other hand, Parama Sundari loves to arrange her sakhis’ pleasure pastimes with Gaurasundar as well. For they are just as eager to display their talents in the srngara rasa arts as she is. Thus her ashta sakhis' names are: 1) Ruci-tamra, 2) Prema sindhu, 3) Caru-vilasini, 4) Rati pramodini, 5) Madan-mohini, 6) Rati-vinodini, 7) Tunga-keli and 8) Surata-sundari.

Then to expertly assist (and expand upon) all of the premamaya seva which keep these romantic adventures going our eight leading manjaris are supremely rasika, and their names are: 1) Prema-lata, 2) Priya-lata, 3) Caru-lata, 4) Citra-lata, 5) Manju-lata, 6) Madhu-lata, 7) Sneha-lata and 8) Snigdha-lata.

Rasa Analysis

Now isn’t more explanation needed? Because how on earth can one expect to nurture and maintain five different svarupas in the spiritual world?

We should confess though that this didn’t happen overnight. Because when we began practicing smaran sadhana in the early 80s, we didn’t know that the process would turn out to be so elaborate. For the conception that we now maintain gradually unfolded over the course of time.

From the transcendental standpoint, however, it is very natural for Gaura, Krishna and their nitya parshadas to have numerous svarupas. For this is how they relish numerous flavors of lila rasa, as Jiva Goswami clearly indicates in his previous Krishna sandarbha siddhanta. And this becomes possible because Yogamaya works imperceptibly (behind the scenes) to make sure that everything runs smoothly.

But what about us, the sadhak and sadhika bhaktas of our world who are diligently struggling to attain siddhi? How will we be able to accommodate such a wide range of lila smaran since we have only one mind and one body to work with?

Here we will have to admit (from experience) that it isn’t possible to keep tabs on so many variegated forms at once. So the process we have adopted is to meditate occasionally on our other four svarupas (to keep them simmering in the broth) as we focus more intently on the svarupa that attracts us the most. And thus we follow Thakura Bhaktivinoda’s advice in the last chapter of his Harinama cintamani:

smaraṇe bicāra eka āche to sundara

āpanāra yogya smr̥ti koro nirantara

“While performing lila smaran there is a beautiful consideration: you only need to perform the kind of smaran that you enjoy the most.”

So for us this means the smaran of Parama Sundari Devi’s prema-keli lila with her rasamaya nagar Gaurasundar. Then as far as our other four svarupas are concerned—as Pranananda Mishra, Padma Priya Sakhi, Surangini Sakhi and Parama Sukhi Manjari, we meditate on them occasionally. Now what will be the result of this?

To attain siddhi (the Lord’s suddha sattva sakti at the stage of bhava) won’t we need to fix our mind with deep attachment and anuraga on the lilas that we enjoy the most? But if our mind is splayed out and going in numerous directions, this stage can never be attained. So our first and foremost objective is to attain bhāva upon attaining which the Lord’s suddha sattva sakti can enter our heart. This is Sri Bhagavan’s sarva prakasini svarupa sakti that will award his direct darshan. With this divine sakti we will be able to see our own svarupa and have direct visions of the lila (which are called sphurtis). Then from this stage prema will naturally come in a short time as we relish a closeness and intimacy with our beloved Lord. And our other four svarupas will also become active by the suddha sattva sakti’s divine influence.

Thakura Bhaktivinoda’s Guru Parivara

In the beginning, when receiving initiation in 1980, we had only one siddha deha to meditate on—our manjari svarupa in Vraja which forms the basis of our other four svarupas.

Over the course of time, however, when learning about the other kinds of relationships with Sri Bhagavan that are found in our Guru parampara, our interest to have more than one svarupa came.

For example, because Bhaktivinoda’s guru parivara members all serve in Gauranga’s Goloka Navadvipa lila as well, our second desire awakened to become Pranananda Mishra for the privilege to serve along with them there.

Then after reading Vamsi-siksa our third desire came, to worship Krishna in kanta bhava since Mahaprabhu imparted this siksa to Vamsivadan, our sampradaya’s second Acarya. For in this worship our feelings of conjugal love for Krishna can be cultivated.

But because Srimati Vishnupriya devi is the leader and foremost Acarya of this parivara, our fourth desire awakened to serve in her madhura pastimes with her prana-ballabha Gaurasundar. Thus to become eligible we will need a sakhi svarupa—in the same way that one has to take on a gopi svarupa to serve Radha Krishna. And hence every parivara member has such a female form also.

In this way, for those receiving initiation in Thakura Bhaktivinoda’s guru parivar it won’t be surprising that they desire to cultivate a number of different svarupas.

But what about our fifth svarupa as Parama Sundari Devi (whom we feel the most attracted to)? How did our interest awaken to cultivate this form?

Perhaps we could say that the desire came after hearing about nagari bhava bhajan from our siksa guru back in 1990. But there is a deeper reason. Because have we ever stopped to seriously contemplate how we jivas can give Sri Bhagavan the greatest pleasure?

Although this question is not easy to answer, Narahari Sarkhar wonderfully pinpoints what we wish to convey in his Bhakti candrika’s very first line:

kantam santam asesa jiva hrdayananda svarupam param

“In his form as our supreme conjugal lover (parama kānta) Sri Gaurasundar awards eternal peace and supreme happiness in the hearts of limitless jivas.”

Rasa Analysis

As this important siddhanta forms a beautiful meditation, let us try to envision the internal realm that Thakura Narahari is alluding to. For this special līlā prakāśa in Goloka Navadvipaa is where Svayam Bhagavan Sri Gaurasundar reigns in his most amazing feature as the śr̥ngāra rasa rāja. In his Stavaraja Advaita Acarya also points to this realm:

koti kandarpa labanya keli lila manoramam

saksat lila-tanum keli-tanum srngar vigraham

“Hey Madanmohan Gauranga! Your very glamorous prema keli adventures with your beautiful consorts outmatch (by far) the romantic prowess of millions of Cupids! No wonder you personify srngara (conjugal love) since your transcendental body forms the beautiful abode for all of your wonderful prema keli pastimes.”

In Caitanya-bhāgavata, Vrindaban das Thakur also supports these siddhantas when he says:

kāmalīlā korite jokhon icchā hoy

lakhārbuda banitā se koren vijay

“When Sriman Gaurasundar desires to perform his madhura loving pastimes (kāma lila) he can defeat countless trillions of pretty damsels in prema keli.

— C.b. 1.12.237

Hey readers! Let us not be swayed by the modern Vaisnava trends or by what our present Vaisnava leaders preach—for we will be misled. Let us rather take shelter of Mahaprabhu’s nitya parshadas such as Narahari, Advaita and Vrindaban das—who directly take part in these wonderful pastimes.

So who can help others discover the wonderful madhurjya of Sriman Gaurasundar’s topmost lila prakasa? And who will be able to award them a suitable nagari svarupa for joining these pastimes? Hence we find another need for Parama sundari’s jhutesvari form to advent.

But this is all found within Thakura Bhaktivinoda’s guru parivara too—for aren’t his worshipable devatas Gaura and Gadadhar?

[Let us remind our readers that this korcā continues from where Another Side of Thakura Bhaktivinoda left off. So if you have previously read this book you will have a good idea about what Gaura-Gadadhar and Gaura-Vishnupriya’s worship includes.]

Avaruddha-saurata

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 living tradition?"

One of Prishni's questions was about sexual practices and this prompted the following reply:

Sahajiyaism includes a naturalistic yogic approach to sexuality, and why not, when the things of this world are meant to lead us to understand the grand secrets that underly its and our own existence. Yoga is expertise in action. Yoga is spiritual awareness in all actions.

Sex is not just something that leads you astray and into hell, though it can do that, but it is at the very basis of this human body and all its transformations. If we are meant to learn to experience God in this world, we are going to have to incorporate into our spiritual culture an evolved concept of human sexuality. Without it, we will never fully understand the human potential for love.

Sahajiyaism goes together with Radha-Krishna prema like butter with rice. There are few educated people in orthodox India who do not have some inkling of the concept of seminal retention. There is a saying that ejaculation in sexual union is kāma, retaining the ejaculate is prema.

I am just now going through the Priti Sandarbha and still on the manana stage, hoping to soon reach the nididhyāsana point from which I will be able to make my truest contributions to this project. I am currently thinking about this verse, where I feel I need to make some additions. The verse is this:

evaṁ śaśāṅkāṁśu-virājitā niśāḥ

sa satya-kāmo’nuratābalā-gaṇaḥ |

siṣeva ātmany avaruddha-saurataḥ

sarvāḥ śarat-kāvya-kathā-rasāśrayāḥ ||

Here is BBT:

Although the gopīs were firmly attached to Lord Kṛṣṇa, whose desires are always fulfilled, the Lord was not internally affected by any mundane sex desire. Still, to perform His pastimes the Lord took advantage of all those moonlit autumn nights, which inspire poetic descriptions of transcendental affairs.

This is Babaji (though not the final edit as published)

In this way Kṛṣṇa, who has unfailing desire and to whom all those women were fondly attached, enjoyed all those nights illumined with the full moon rays. He relished all the charms peculiar to the autumn season as depicted in poetry, while keeping the procreative potency contained within Himself. (SB 10.33.26)

The current version I am working with:

He who has unfailing desire, to whom were attached the hosts of damsels, who has captured the amorous energy within Himself, thus enjoyed all those nights illumined with the rays of the full moon and embodying all the charms peculiar to the autumn season and depicted in poetical works (SB 10.33.26)

The problematic word here is avaruddha-sauratāḥ--"not internally affected by any mundane sex desire" "while keeping the procreative potency contained within Himself" "who has captured the amorous energy within Himself."

Jiva Goswami comments on this word in Prīti Sandarbha (300):

ātmani citte’varuddhaṁ samantān nigṛhya sthāpitaṁ saurataṁ surata-sambandhi-bhāva-hāvādikaṁ yena, tathābhūtaḥ san | ata eva satya-kāmaḥ vyabhicāra-rahita-prema-viśeṣaḥ san

He has concealed (avaruddha) all the bhāvas and hāvas in relation to amorous affairs (saurataṁ) in His heart (ātmani) and therefore, He is satyakāma, or possessing a special prema devoid of any infidelity. ...

Babaji's comment here is as follows:

The word saurata is derived from surata, “sexual union,” i.e., that which is connected to sexual union, i.e., sexual enjoyment. Śrīdhara Svāmī has glossed the word as semen.

There are a group of people who interpret the meaning of śiṣeva ātmani avaruddha-saurata to mean that Kṛṣṇa enjoyed sex with gopīs (saurata) while not discharging semen (śiṣeva) but holding (avaruddha) it within Himself (ātmani). They practice coition with their partner while not discharging semen. This they aver will make a man god-realized. Not discharging the semen but raising it up to head will make one’s consciousness to be one with brahman or make the dormant love in the heart be awakened. According to them this is called rāgānugā-bhakti.

Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī refutes such an explanation and interprets the verse that is in harmony with the subject under discussion, the prema.

The problem here is that the "group of people" is headed by Sridhar Swami himself. And his reliance on this particular compound word is that it appears in his introduction to the rāsa-līlā itself (10.29.1). It is one of four "mahā-vākyas" of the Rāsa Līlā that show the victory of Krishna over kāma, as the very last verse of the 33rd chapter confirms.

Here is the greater part of Sridhara's commentary on that verse:

brahmādi-jaya-saṁrūḍha-darpa-kandarpa-darpahā |

jayati śrī-patir gopī-rāsa-maṇḍala-maṇḍanaḥ ||

"All glories to the husband of Sri, adorning the circle of gopis in the Rāsa,

who destroys the pride of Kāmadeva, which had become inflamed

by his victories over Brahmā (and the rest of his creation)."

nanu viparītam idam, para-dāra-vinodena kandarpa-vijetṛtva-pratīteḥ | maivam,

But isn't this all upside down? Thinking that one can conquer over Lust by enjoying with others' wives? No, don't think like that, because--

yoga-māyām upāśritaḥ [bhā.pu. 10.29.1], "He took shelter of his yoga power."
ātmārāmo’py arīramat [bhā.pu. 10.29.42], "Though enjoying in himself, he enjoyed with them."
sākṣān manmatha- manmathaḥ [bhā.pu. 10.32.2], "[In the form that] directly churned the mind of the Mind-churner."
ātmany avaruddha-saurataḥ [bhā.pu. 10.33.17] "He kept confined [avaruddha--hindered, checked, stopped, kept back] the semen within himself."

ity-ādiṣu svātantryābhidhānāt |

These verses show that he is fully independent, [he is his own law.]

tasmād rāsa-krīḍā-viḍambanaṁ kāma-vijaya-khyāpanāyety eva tattvam |

Therefore it is true that the staging of the Rāsa games took place to show His victory over desire.

kiṁ ca, śṛṅgāra-kathāpadeśena viśeṣato nivṛtti-parā iyaṁ pañcādhyāyīti vyaktīkariṣyāmaḥ |

Moreover, through the means of telling a story related to the erotic rasa, these five chapters are particularly intended for teaching the path of renunciation. (nivṛtti-parā).

The above translation above of saurata is given as semen because that is what Sridhara himself says:

ātmany evāvaruddhaḥ saurataś carama-dhātur na tu skhalito yasyeti kāma-jayoktiḥ |

"Held back within himself the saurata," namely the ultimate of the seven dhātus: [i.e., the components or products of the body--chyle, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow, and semen, according to Āyurveda]." In other words he did not spill it, thereby showing his victory over [the god of] Desire."

Vamsidhara:

carama-dhātur atra retaḥ | rasāsṛṅ-māṁsa-medo’sthi-majjā-śukrāṇi dhātavaḥ ity atra dhātu-gaṇanāyāṁ śārṅgadhareṇa śukrasya caramatvam uktam | kiṁ cotpatti-krameṇāpi śukrasya caramatvam eva | tad uktaṁ saṁhitāyām—

The "ultimate dhātu" here means the semen. This is because in Śarngadhara's listing of the dhātus, it comes at the end. Or it can also be considered ultimate because it is the ultimate product sequentially. [ That is stated in the [Śārngadhara] Saṁhitā--

rasād raktaṁ tato māṁsaṁ māṁsān medaḥ prajāyate |

medaso'sthi tato majjā tasmāc chukrasya sambhavaḥ || iti |

From chyle comes blood, then flesh; from flesh is produced fat, from fat bone, then marrow, and from that semen is made possible.

rasād annādi-rasād ity arthaḥ |

Chyle (rasa) here means digestive fluid.

vīryaṁ niruddhya surataṁ karotīti ayam eva kāma-jayaḥ |

To engage in sexual activities while restraining the semen is victory over sexual desire. And that is also stated in the Saṁhitā:

strī-saṅge'pi na patitaṁ reto yasya parecchayā |
sa dhanyaḥ puruṣo loke kāma-jetā sa kathyate || iti saṁhitokteḥ ||

When the semen does not fall by another's wish, even while being intimate with a woman, the such a fortunate man is called a victor over sexual desire in this world.

Vamsidhara is writing in the 19th century, but he is a brahmana and presumably somewhat orthodox. But I know from living in India that there is a general awareness of this, whether one agrees with it or not, or whether one is capable of following it or not.

Retaining the semen is the whole point of brahmacharya. The idea that the semen rises upwards through retention is as old as the Vedas, where the word ūrdhva-retaḥ first appears to describe the śramaṇas.

The idea that sexualilty should not be subject to the same kind of yogic / scientific exploration implied by the words yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam is ridiculous. That it cannot be a part of yukta-vairāgya, as the above

Here is the bedrock of sahajiyaism:

eṣā buddhimatāṁ buddhir manīṣā ca manīṣiṇām |

yat satyam anṛteneha martyenāpnoti māmṛtam ||

This then is the intelligence of the intelligent, the cleverness of the clever, that a mortal attains immortality in this world by finding the truth in that which is untrue.

Vishwanath concludes his commentary to that verse as follows:

sarvopadeśa-sāro’yaṁ śloka-cintāmaṇiḥ prabhoḥ |
hṛdaye yasya rājeta sa rājed bhakta-saṁsadi ||

"This verse is a philosopher's stone containing the essence of all the Lord's teachings [to Uddhava]. Should it reside in one's heart, one will preside in the assembly of devotees."

Now the claim is to be proven or not proven. What is the relation of seminal retention to them prema implied by victory over kāma? Is it only a physical act that needs no further psychological or spiritual development to support it? Is it possible that anyone's critique of Sahajiyaism could be that shallow?

It is good to be 73: Another life report

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 23:12:00 +0000

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 nice progressive line of maturing in the life of a human being. For me, however, it has never been a nice straight line, even though the quest for understanding and achieving the highest goal of human life was almost never far from consciousness.

I see that whatever errors I made were also done in good faith, in the spirit of experimentation and testing premises received from authority. But even when temptations arise and you follow them, you have to recognize it as the Great Author helping you to write your story. To shake things up for a greater good, that of attaining wisdom.

I know that is a bit cliché to talk about "writing one's story," automythologizing, autohagiographizing (!), but in fact you cannot avoid it. It is not a flaw, but a fundamental characteristic of human psychology to try to give a coherent form to the events of one’s life. This is ultimately how we can understand the point of intersection between our own lives, rasa, and bhakti.

Anyway, for the moment I am giving almost full attention to my Sanskrit and Gītā classes on Zoom, which has a small but nicely qualified students participating.

I wrote them: I don't know how many are listening to these Gītā classes outside of my two or three regulars live participants. Nevertheless, it is good to have two or three regulars.

I feel that the quality of the classes is improving and that is immediately the consequence of the students' capacity to follow. That in turn, lights the fires of inspiration and clarity. All of which is extremely gratifying. It will be hard for me to give this up even when the Jiva Tirtha session finishes. I seem to be getting energy rather than losing it.

It has also been good for me to "start at the beginning," as it were. It is a long trek from the Bhagavad Gītā to Prīti Sandarbha. They are like two poles of a continuum, even though the Upanishads are present there in the Gītā, and Rupa and Raghunath and Vishwanath are all just waiting to be relished by one who has assimilated the Bhagavatam in the Chaitanya spirit.

My Sanskrit classes have a slightly larger number of dedicated regulars, and a few more on the irregular side of things. Some people have been taking my course on and off for years now. I must say though that I have found it even more enjoyable this year than previously and that too is due to the high caliber of the students.

I really wonder why I never really was a successful teacher in all these years. PhD students don't get trained in either pedagogy or in being entertaining. I never really got to hone my skills through teaching, which is one of the best ways to mature one's understanding of one's subject. It seems to me that since starting these courses my insight into Sanskrit has taken off by leaps and bounds. When you teach, the gaps in your knowledge that need to be filled are constantly being revealed to you.

This is the eighth time I am giving it, so the materials I have accumulated in doing so appear to be coming to some kind of final form. That is also gratifying.

I am happy with the course in other ways too. There have been lots of nice unexpected and unplanned synchronicities in the material -- like unexpected repetitions of a theme or vocabulary. We do lots of quotes. We memorize one verse every week. We are distributing tat-sāhityajāmodam. It might not be prema directly, though some might argue it is, but at the worst, it is its twin brother.

Most of all, these days I am on the last leg of my journey through the Sandarbhas. Anyone who knows me is probably tired of hearing me profess that I am working on Babaji's Sandarbhas project. I have promised to complete whatever it is that I do by the end of our school year and that deadline is looming very dark over my head.

As a result, almost every other aspect of my life is being neglected to a degree that has been rare in my life. And it strangely coincides with the Bhagavad-Gītā, which as we are only in chapter 5 is all about karma, karma, more karma. कर्मसंन्यासात् कर्मयोगो विशिष्यते ॥

It just happens that my karma is studying the Tenth Canto and especially the madhura-rasa portions. Toss in a bit of Bhakti-rasāmr̥ta-sindhu and Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi for good measure.

So in a sense I have come full circle, as the next project as soon as this is done will be to finally revise and publish my work on Gopala Champu. Now at least I will be able to say that I read everything that Jiva had to say on the matter _before_ he wrote Gopāla-campū, which I could not say when I wrote my doctorate more than 30 years ago.

All of the above, which keeps me sane in the midst of all the insanity, is the grace of Satyanarayana Dasa Babaji. I have had the good fortune to have two patrons in the latter part of my life -- Swami Veda Bharati and Satyanarayana Dasaji. I have no idea why he has entrusted me to work with him on the Sandarbhas. I rather hope that it is because my contributions are valuable. But I selfishly only consider my own profit, which I do not measure in financial terms, but in the profit to my own edification as a worthy devotee of Radha and Krishna, Chaitanya-Nitai, the Aupaniṣada Puruṣa.

Physically I am in excellent shape. I walk a couple of miles every day in the cold Canadian winter air, which is quite invigorating. I have now been practicing yoga in such a way that my system has become quite personalized, but centered on the joints and glands exercises that I learned at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama. This exercise cycle can be done standing or sitting in padmasana, slowly or quickly, incorporating pranayama and mantra. It has developed into a powerful personal practice over the years.

This is what I mean about accumulated benefit that comes with aging.

At any rate, my public persona has been greatly reduced, my blog practically deserted. Any effort at making videos abandoned. for the time being. It is almost like being on a vrata, a mauna-vrata.

But I do hope to return more fully afterwards. Jai Radhe.

Bhagavad Gita classes: Where we are and what we are doing?

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 22:43:00 +0000

श्रीमधुसूदनसरस्वतीपादानां गूढार्थदीपिका टीका अत्युपकारिणीति मन्ये । सा अतितरां विस्तृता पाण्डित्यपूर्णा गूढार्थप्रकाशिनी च । मम चिरदिनं तत्पिपठिषा वरीवर्तते । तस्माद् इदानीं गम्भीरानन्दस्वामीपादानां आंग्लानुवादं अवलम्ब्य अग्रेसर्तुमिच्छा वर्तते । आशासे तत् सर्वेषां संमतं । हरिः ॐ तत् सत्॥

We recently finished the fourth chapter in our daily Gita class that I am giving on Zoom. Up until now, we have been reading the Gita with three Sanskrit commentaries, those of Sridhara, Vishwanatha and Baladeva. Occasionally we turned to Madhusudana Saraswati's Gūḍhārtha-dīpikā for insight, but with the above message, I announced that beginning with the fifth chapter, we would read Madhusudan in his entirety as well.

Though I have long recognized the justifiable reputation of Madhusudana's commentary, we are generally not encouraged to read him because he is a known opponent of Vyasa Tirtha, the accarya of the Madhva line and senior contemporary of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He is, ergo, a Mayavadi.

Nevertheless, because his impact on Vishwanath and Baladeva is so clear, I thought it would be foolish not to take what he has written into full account. And there is more to it than that--Madhusudana's commentary is also an excellent resource for learning Sanskrit philosophical prose, which can be quite well-written, even literary.

Where the Gita is concerned, I would say he is even more enjoyable to read than Vishwanath, who normally wins that prize for his often imaginative commentaries on the Bhagavatam. He and Baladeva are generally more circumspect. They go into much less detail than he, clearly ceding to Madhusudana nearly all the terrain that he has taken.

Madhusudana is so well versed in the Six Philosophies that he gives us an education in Yoga Sutra, Purva Mimamsa, Vedanta, etc., showing how the Gita encompasses the whole gamut of ancient Indian philosophy.

If we get the fuller picture of the Gita that Madhusudana paints, we also get a better perspective from which to read the Gaudiya commentators. Here and there Vishwanath and Baladeva may take exception to something he says, but for the most part they do not challenge him. Rather they revere him for several devotional verses he wrote to the Krishna of Vrindavan and quote them. Such as this from his commentary to Gītā 15.18.

Another place where Vishwanath quotes Madhusudana word for word is in this passage from Gūḍhārtha-dīpikā to 6.23:

So they revere him and indeed take light from him -- even though he is well known as an Advaita-vadi.

But we also read Madhusūdana in order to appreciate his language. Even though it may get quite sophisticated, but because it is conditioned by the subject matter being covered (i.e., the verses and the earlier tradition of commentary), his vocabulary is can be quickly assimilated. As a result, it is possible for even a medium advanced student to follow with the help of a teacher.

Most of the time, Sanskrit prose is (unlike kāvya) structurally very simple. Its art mostly lies in the clever juxtaposition of compound words, often quite lengthy and containing entire clauses of meaning, relating them to one another through the case endings. The syntax thus remains reasonably simple, but often difficult to render coherently into an English translation. Nevertheless, the capacity of Sanskrit to express ideas in this way is marvelous. It is the Sanskrit way of thinking.

In short, it is an excellent specimen of sophisticated but accessible Sanskrit prose.

I wrote to an old student who is currently not following the course:

Naturally those who have been following since the beginning have made a lot of progress, so one might find it a little intimidating to join at first if one is a bit behind. But now would not be a bad place to tune in, especially for you with your yoga background.

As I mentioned, Madhusudana uses the Yoga-sūtra a lot. We have seen quite a bit already of that in the fourth chapter in relation to prāṇāyāma, etc. But there will be even more later in the fifth and of course the sixth chapters.

For the time being, we are still struggling with the discussion about the relations of karma to jñāna, yoga to sankhyā, and pravritti to nivritti, etc. But the general intent of the Gita is to direct us inward, to take us from the gross to the subtle, to use the gross to enter the subtle. The principal is:

eṣā buddhimatāṁ buddhir manīṣā ca manīṣiṇām |
yat satyam anṛteneha martyenāpnoti māmṛtam ||

This is the intelligence of the intelligent and wisdom of the wise:
one attains Me who am the Truth and Immortal
here through this untrue and mortal body. (11.29.22)

So that is where we are now, turning inward. Studying the consciousness more directly. When we get to the seventh chapter we will get a different kind of subject matter.

On the whole I am really quite pleased with the way the course has been developing and feel as though I am personally benefiting a great deal myself.

What is night for one is day for the other

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Fri, 30 Dec 2022 19:57:00 +0000

When for every thing the night does break,

then the self-controlled are wide awake;

and when other creatures are roused to light,

for the introspective, it is the night. (Gita 2.69}

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī

yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni sā niśā paśyato muneḥ

Not so long ago a young friend wrote a little piece on the ten things he had learned from his Krishna bhakti experience after a few years of chanting.First on his list was the benefit of getting up early in the morning and doing sadhana at that auspicious time of day.

It is true that I got a taste in Iskcon for getting up at the Brahma Muhurta and doing bhajan before the sun comes up. I had fallen off a lot before I returned to India, but in Rishikesh I was an eager early riser and present in the meditation hall to enjoy the atmosphere alone at four in the morning or earlier. You get a taste for the darkness, which is truly a rarity in our Kaliyuga.

Early rising a habit that is well worth cultivating--even if one can only scrape together a few minutes of chanting or meditating before tumbling out onto life's daily treadmill.

For the past few weeks I have been getting into the habit of coming to the library and working without distraction from the internet in the way that inevitably happens when I am at home. Mental hygiene is harder to maintain in this current world of constant information bombardment.

And that seems to be have been made even worse by the easy sharing of video and sound. Back in the early days of the internet you could barely get an email and for a long time things were still very much dependent on reading the written word. Now you have TikTok, a new kind of cocaine or crystal meth, perhaps even more dangerous in its potency to bind one to material consciousness or sin.

Ekāgratā, freedom from kṣepa and vikṣepa are almost impossible when the enchantments of novelty await us mere seconds away. And unfortunately this downward trail leads to mūḍha, a kind of total capitulation to the material menu provided by Algorithms.

One needs order in life. And one needs to have purpose and direction. All that is the field of spiritual development governed by karma-yoga, because karma-yoga engages the external senses with the external world, so-called "reality."

And karma-yoga begins with self-discipline and control.

tasmāt tvam indriyāṇy ādau niyamya bharatarṣabha...

The first way to control your senses is through your work, but that self-control ultimately has to serve a higher purpose than the promises and rewards provided by material nature . When one sees the picture in its totality, the work of survival and of self-improvement has to be undergirded with an inwardness, that will be rewarded by the accumulated benefits of discipline and abhyāsa, repetition--the cultivation of beneficial habits, saṁskāras. The transformation of our instinctual being, our vāsanās.

yuktāhāra-vihārasya yukta-ceṣṭasya karmasu |

yukta-svapnāvabodhasya yogo bhavati duḥkhahā ||

"For one who has balanced diet and recreation, balanced effort in work, balanced sleep and wakefulness, yoga will destroy all one's miseries."

Our svadharma, our vocation, is the first path on which one can find the gift of single-mindedness. But one has to keep in mind the ultimate goal of yoga and combine work with an internal practice. In the dark at the end of night, when the world is most asleep.

parāñci khāni vyat ṛṇat svayambhūs

tasmāt parā ṅ paśyati nāntarātman
kaścid dhīra ḥ pratyag-ātmānam aik ṣad
āvṛtta-cak ṣur am ṛtatvam icchan

"The Self-born Creator pierced holes facing outward [i.e., doors of sense perception in the body]. Therefore all creatures look outward and do not see the Soul within. Desiring immortality, one who is wise turns his eyes inward and sees the indwelling Atman." (Kaṭha Upaniṣad, 2.1.1)

Jai Sri Radhe !

To students of my Sanskrit course

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 18:36:00 +0000

Just imagine if you were brought up speaking Sanskrit. Do you think that you would have a different sort of brain?

I have spent a lot of time thinking about the psychology of language and identity. Identity is central to raganuga bhakti, both on the level of the sadhaka deha and the siddha deha.

I was thinking about this earlier (since in class I had mentioned that you more or less have to be crazy to want to learn Sanskrit). We were discussing this verse as an illustration of different classes of athematic verbs being used in the same sentence, all in the third person singular.

The following verse has six verbs, each from a different class:

ददाति प्रतिगृह्णाति गुह्यमाख्याति पृच्छति ।

भुङ्क्ते भोजायते चैव षड्विधं प्रीतिलक्षणम् ॥

One gives and accepts [one another’s gifts], one tells and inquires about one another’s private matters, one eats what the other offers and one invites the other to eat. These are the six kinds of signs of love. (Upadeśāmṛta 4)

Here √दा, ददाति (3P), √ग्रह्, गृह्णाति (9P), √ख्या, ख्याति (2P), √प्रछ्, पृच्छति (6P), √भुज्, भुङ्क्ते (7A) are all from different verb classes, mostly athematic. भोजायते is a causative from √भुज्. .

The thing is that this verse illustrates nicely the poetic rhythms and sounds of the language, much of which is made possible by the multiplicity of conjugations and declensions and their varieties, which at the same time are sharing third person singular endings creating internal rhymes. Then there is a variation in the third line where you switch from parasmaipada to ātmanepada. भोजायते is not even a normal causative form, which would be भोजयति. So it is some kind of other formation, a nominal verb from a noun भोज or something as insane as that. But in terms of meaning it is just "makes enjoy [food] or experience."

There are hundreds of possible synonyms and ways of expressing the same thing. He could have gone the verbal noun route:

श्रवणं कीर्तनं विष्णोः स्मरणं पादसेवनम् । अर्चनं वन्दनं दास्यं सख्यमात्मनिवेदनम् ॥

Hearing and chanting of Vishnu, remembering Him, serving His feet, worshiping His deity form, offering prayers, serving, friendship and self-surrender... (SB 7.5.23)

In either case, poetry is the marriage of sound and meaning.

I was also thinking about the jigsaw puzzle analogy I used, from the point of view slowly building up a composite picture, piece by piece. I personally was never an afficionado of any puzzle pastimes, but perhaps one needs a puzzle-solving type of brain to love Sanskrit. Crossword puzzles, chess, jigsaw puzzles, sudoku -- each is somewhat comparable in terms of brain exercise -- the need to be able to dissect each word from various angles, form and context, order them properly, well aware also that there are deliberate traps being set by clever poets and esoteric philosophers. And you have to be able to do all this quickly!

It is not that there are not other effective methods for learning Sanskrit and my method is the definitely the product of my slightly demented brain. In the last homework exercise, I was only doing what my Latin teachers used to try do to us in high school: Stump you.

Trick you so that you eventually quickly recognize that you have pronouns ending in ए in the neuter and feminine dual as well as the third person masculine plural endings -- ते, एते, इमे.. They all look the same. What clues will you look for to know which is which and when?

So my approach is analytical, maybe not as much as Pāṇini or Harināmāmr̥ta, but nevertheless [unavoidably] analytical in order to speed up the process of learning, through structuring the accumulation of information in as thorough and effective way possible. And it has ever been thus since the days of the first European Sanskritists who were applying their knowledge of Latin and Greek, etc., to the study of Sanskrit. We may look for easier methods, but they will only take you so far.

Making effective use of one's analytical capacity is the adult learning process. It is not the child's absorptive way of learning. Nevertheless I am still trying to activate the "spongy" elements of my students' brains through chanting and learning verses and hearing quotations from the literature. The smart students are using the recordings because sound vibration is a great activator of the "spongy" brain, it creeps down below the intellect. It is the application of tried and true methods of sādhanā.

Combining that side of your brain with the other, analytical part, is yoga. It is the union of ida and pingala, chandra and surya, left and right brains:

इडापिङ्गलयोः चन्द्रसूर्ययोः चित्तस्य वामदक्षिणभागयोः समीकरणं योगः।

This is really one reason why I think it is necessary to follow the whole course from beginning to end in order to let it all sink in, so there a deep samskara is created, which is the most fundamental endeavor of all yoga practice. The most important things will be repeated again and again. The patterns will start to emerge and feel more and more natural and intuitive. Vocabulary and its subtleties are the longest to really master, but long before you get there you will start to feel the bliss of the language just from its sound.

This is what Jiva Goswamipāda says at the very beginning of the Hari-nāmāmrita.

कृष्णमुपासितुमस्य स्रजमिव नामावलिं तनवै ।

त्वरितं वितरेदेषा तत्साहित्यादिजामोदम् ॥१॥

"In order to worship Krishna, I must string
this garland of names, like a garland to adorn the deity.
May it quickly bestow upon you all
the joys of relishing Krishna literature."

"Must string" (तनवै) is the imperative. He must do it. [So must I.]

This is really the basic philosophy of this course. A bit narrowly sectarian maybe. But if you can get to the point of reading Vaishnava sāhitya, you should pretty much be able to do it all.

Anyway, take pleasure in the journey. Enjoy chanting the verses and even the declensions and conjugations. Just keep at it. 99% of success is just showing up. A Western sūtra.

Jai Sri Radhe!

Gaura Sangha interview with Sarva Shakti Das

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 19:56:00 +0000

Update

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Sun, 30 Oct 2022 13:12:00 +0000

I feel as though I am amiss if I don't give at least a brief report of what is going on here. It seems that I have gone through another long period of silence on the blog, which is not particularly good if you are "building" an audience. Or whatever it is that motivates us to engage in action of any kind. I have started teaching my two daily classes. It has changed my mood completely to be directly engaging with students and again trying to share my love of Sanskrit with them. The last couple of weeks I have been working on the manual again, mostly formatting, so that the students have a hard copy to scribble on. I am going to pick up the hard copy later this morning. Jiva Tirtha Sanskrit 7.5. After ten classes one student asked, Am I supposed to be memorizing this? Yes, my friends, I am afraid soPretty ambitious, I know. Foolish also. Anyway, I told my students that Panini was the first linguist and his analysis went quite far and influenced Indian thinkI have packed my more than 50 years of interaction with the Sanskrit language into a one year course. ing throughout millennia, and still does. That there are individuals like Babaji's students who are attracted to the traiditional Indian intellectual approach. In my other class we are doing Bhagavad Gītā and are going through several commentaries of the Gītā in Sanskrit. It is rather refreshing to revisit the karma-yoga section of the Gītā. I wrote some things about this chapter on this blog a few years ago. The Indian version of the work ethic. This worldly asceticism. A few days ago Namarasaji posted this video of a conversation I had with him a few weeks earlier. I wrote the following:

Radhe Radhe ! I was flattered when Namarasa invited me on his program. I think he is courageous to have done so, and I think that he is serving his function as an American devotee by showing some faith in free speech and the open exchange of ideas. The treasures of the Sanatan Dharma lie in the free expression of spiritual ideas and experimentation. Our path is enriched by the relentless search for those in whom Truth and Love reside. kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-bhāvita-matiḥ kriyatāṁ yadi kuto'pi labhyate tatra laulyam api mūlyam ekalaṁ janma-koṭi-sukṛtair na labhyate ||14|| The Chaitanya tree has many branches. Let them all flourish. Jai Sri Radhe! I got a fair number of positive reactions. But less than 2K views...

Bhakti Sandarbha 40: Offenses Make One’s Heart Hard

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 11:43:00 +0000

I started posting stuff from Bhakti Sandarbha starting from Anuccheda 178. This one was posted to Facebook on July 29, 2017, but not to the blog.

(भा. २.३.२४)—

तदश्मसारं हृदयं बतेदं
यद्गृह्यमाणैर्हरिनामधेयैः
न विक्रियेताथ यदा विकारो
नेत्रे जलं गात्ररुहेषु हर्षः॥

Alas, the heart which does not melt while reciting the names of Bhagavān Hari is as hard as stone. When the heart melts, tears flow from the eyes and the hairs of the body stand on end in ecstasy. (2.3.24)

अश्मवत् सारो बलं काठिन्यं यस्य। विक्रियालक्षणमथेति। यदा तद्विकारो न भवेत्, तदा नेत्रादौ जलादिकं न भवतीत्यर्थः। इदमेवान्वयेन श्रीमता राज्ञा दृढीकरिष्यते—"सा वाग् यया तस्य गुणान् गृणीते" (भा. १०.८०.३) इत्यादिभ्याम्। तदेवं श्रीशुकवाक्यारम्भाध्यायत्रयाभिधेयत्वेन श्रीभक्तिरेव लब्धा।

"Whose essence is like that of a stone" (aśma-sāram) indicates that the heart of such a person has the strength and rigidity of stone. The symptoms of melting are described in the part of the verse beginning with the word atha. The meaning is that when the heart does not melt, symptoms such as tears in the eyes do not manifest.

King Parīkṣit confirms the very same thing [that bhakti is the abhidheya] by anvaya, or positive concomitance. [The vyatireka, or negative concomitance, was spoken in the verses by Śaunaka starting with 2.3.17, Anuccheda 33 and ending here.]. He speaks two verses, beginning with: "That speech is fruitful which glorifies Bhagavān's qualities ..." (10.80.3) [See below]

Thus it is seen that in the first three chapters [of the Second Canto], which are the begining of Śukadeva's recital, bhakti is the only abhidheya.

टीका च—
तत्र तु प्रथमेऽध्याये कीर्तणश्रवणादिभिः।
स्थविष्ठे भगवद्रूपे मनसो धारणोच्यते॥ (भा.दी. २.१.१)

Śrīdhara Svāmī has also composed verses to this effect in the beginning of his commentary on each of these chapters:

The first chapter describes the process of fixing the mind on the virāṭ form of Bhagavān through glorification of Bhagavān, hearing about Him, and so on. (Bhāvārtha-dīpikā 2.1.1)

द्वितीये तु ततः स्थूलधारणातो जितं मनः।
सर्वसाक्षिणि सर्वेशे विष्णौ धार्यमितीर्यते॥ (भा.दी. २.२.१)

The second chapter explains the method of fixing the mind on Bhagavān Viṣṇu, the Supreme Controller, who is the witness of everything. This is achieved after the mind has been subdued by meditation on the virāt. (Bhāvārtha-dīpikā 2.2.1)

तृतीये विष्णुभक्तेस्तु वैशिष्ट्यं शृण्वतो मुनेः।
भक्त्युद्रेकेण तत्कर्मश्रवणादर ईर्यते॥ (भा.दी. २.३.१) इत्येषा॥
॥ २.३॥ श्रीशौनकः श्रीसूतम्॥ ३३-४०॥

The third chapter relates how Śaunaka Muni, after hearing the greatness of bhakti to Bhagavān Viṣṇu, speaks with overflowing devotion about the honor of hearing about the activities of Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa. (Bhāvārtha-dīpikā 2.3.1)

Commentary by Satyanarayana Dasa Babaji Maharaj

After criticizing life, body and external limbs of a non-devotee's body, Śrī Śaunaka reproaches their inner sense, the heart. Earlier he was criticizing only those who did not engage in devotional acts at all, but now he takes on even those who are reciting the names of Bhagavān with a heart devoid of bhakti. This implies a bigger criticism of those who do not even recite the names. Thus the real intention of Śaunaka is that one should take to devotion wholeheartedly and not just engage in devotional acts superficially.

The word "heart" here does not mean the physical organ but the inner-sense, citta. Citta melts in the fire of love and becomes soft. How does one know that heart has melted? It is known by external symptoms called sāttvika-bhāvas, which are eight in number, as listed in Bhakti-rasāmrta-sindhu:

Becoming stunned, sweating, hair standing on end, change in voice, trembling, change of bodily hue, tears and losing all external awareness, these eights are called sāttvika-bhavas. (BRS 2.3.16)

Śrī Śaunaka mentions only two of them in the verse under discussion. Here it should be noted that these symptoms do not have an undeviated (avyabhicārī) relation with the melting of the heart. It is possible to have these symptoms without such melting. On the other hand, a great devotee may not manifest these symptoms even when their heart has melted out of love.

Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartī comments that the heart fails to melt because of the influence of offenses. The name of Bhagavān is non-different from Bhagavān who is personification of love, but offenses make the heart hard and thus even if one chants the name it does not melt, even if one has tears in eyes and other such sāttvika-bhāvas. Such a heart is compared to a hard stone, i.e., a diamond, which is supposed to be the hardest of all.

Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī concludes this anuccheda by citing three verses composed by Śrīdhara Svāmī. The latter writes a verse at the beginning of his commentary to each chapter summarizing its contents. From these three verses it is clear that in his opinion, bhakti is the abhidheya established in the first three chapters of the Second Canto.

============

sā vāg yayā tasya guṇān gṛṇīte
karau ca tat-karma-karau manaś ca
smared vasantaṁ sthira-jaṅgameṣu
śṛṇoti tat-puṇya-kathāḥ sa karṇaḥ
śiras tu tasyobhaya-liṅgam ānamet
tad eva yat paśyati tad dhi cakṣuḥ
aṅgāni viṣṇor atha taj-janānāṁ
pādodakaṁ yāni bhajanti nityam

That can be called speech when it glorifies the Lord;
they can be called hands when they serve Him
and a mind that would remember Him
in all creatures still and turbulent.
That is an ear, which hears His holy topics.
That is a head which bows to all creatures,
and an eye that sees Him in them is an eye that sees.
And limbs are those that constantly worship
the water that has washed the feet
of Vishnu and his devotees. (10.80.3-4)

Compassion, Humility, Vrindavan Dham

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 12:37:00 +0000

Today's memories are dominated by 2016 when I was more engaged in Vrindavan Today research and writing. It is too bad that the VT archives were lost and a ton of good stuff is no longer available, except perhaps on the internet archive. So in 2016 Satyanarayana Dasji took everyone from Jiva to Umrao, which is the village associated with the original Lokanath Goswami and his discovery of the Radha Kanta deities. It is just near Chhata on the way to Barsana. Ranbari, the site of Siddha Krishnadas, whose story is very famous, is just nearby. Most of these photos are available in my Facebook albums. At the same time, Hargovinda Sharma, one of the leading rasacharyas of the 20th century, who along with Hari Baba and Purushottam Goswami and others promoted Gaura Lila musical plays along with Radha Krishna lila, which I think was a very important development, but is a tradition that appears to be getting lost also. (FB Memories July 27)

2020

kevala-jīva-kāruṇyaṁ khalu vighnāya syāt, bharatavat |

Indiscriminate compassion for all living beings will lead to ruin, like it did with King Bharata.

If one thinks one can do anything beneficial to others, even though on the material platform it is in the realm of piety, ultimately one gets little benefit and a lot of trouble. The point is that direct service to Radha and Krishna is the watering of the root by which benefit is done to all. At least, that is the starting point. If you don't understand this, then what good will you do for anyone, except in a temporary and sentimental way?

VMA 2.14

bhrātar bhogāḥ subhuktāḥ ka iha na bhavatā nāpi saṁsāra-madhye
vidyā-dānādhvarādyaiḥ kati kati jagati khyāti-pūjādy-alabdhāḥ |
adyāhāre'pi yādṛcchika uru-guṇavān apy aho saṁvṛtātmā
śrīmad-vṛndāvane'smin satatam aṭa sakhe sarvato mukta-saṅgaḥ ||

O brother! What enjoyments have you not
already fully experienced here in this world?
And what fame and adoration have you not had
in the midst of this repeated birth and death
through your learning, charity and sacrifice?
My friend! From today on,
in matters of eating, accept whatever comes unsought;
even if you have all good qualities, keep yourself hidden
and wander constantly, completely free from all attachments,
in this beautiful forest of Vrindavan.

2016 You can see I was doing a lot of research and writing for Vrindavan Today in 2016. Unfortunately a lot of these articles were not posted to the blog and the VT archives have been lost.

Raasacharya Swami Hargovinda left his body day before yesterday. Here is a picture of him as a Rasalila swaroop in the 1940's. He is Krishna here.

2016

This is Hari Baba, a famous saint from the first part of last century. I just came across his name unexpectedly while researching Hargovinda Swami's life.

There are several stories here. when I did a bit of reading on Prabhudatt Brahmachari, his name came up in connection with the latter's kirtans in Jhusi, Allahabad. You will have to read the story on Prabhudatta to find out about that.

Anyway, I had previously read about Hari Baba from Akhandananda Saraswati's book, Paawan Prasang. In that book, he tells the story of how Hari Baba motivated the villagers on the banks of the Ganga to build, by their own efforts alone, without government participation, an embankment wall 34 miles long. The whole task was done with the chanting of the Holy Name. Even today, one can go to his ashram in Anupshahr (60 km north of Aligarh, or 120 km north of Mathura) where the same villagers to this day have akhanda kirtan, representatives of each village that participated in the building of the dyke taking turns maintaining that tradition in his honor.

According to G Kamesh, the temple has the verse written over the altar:

harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam
kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha

Plenty of great stuff about Hari Baba on that blog. Check it out. This is all happening in the early 1920s. He became known as "Maharaj Bandh ke Hari Baba" (the "maharaj of the dyke"). And that is how he is named in this book that I was reading to find out more about Hargovinda.

Prabhudatt Brahmachari was writing his books on Chaitanya Mahaprabhu at around this same time. Hari Baba was also a great admirer of Mahaprabhu and regularly gave lectures from the Charitamrita and would celebrate the birthday of Mahaprabhu for the entire month of Phalgun. It was on his request that Swami Premananda first began to write the lilas of Mahaprabhu to be performed by his Raas group. This was in 1940.

Hari Baba then promoted these performances of Gaur Lila in towns and villages wherever he had a following. They were also done in Anandamayi Ma's ashram. Hargovind then continued and developed this tradition. By this method, Mahaprabhu's lila was introduced to people in North India, UP and Punjab, etc. They also performed in Mumbai, Orissa, Kolkata, Delhi, etc., etc.

It appears to have been an effective preaching mechanism.

2016 Another lost link. These might be found on the Wayback machine, internet archives.

The story of Ranbari Siddha Krishna Das, who left Braj to travel the length and breadth of India despite Radharani's dream warning, is very famous in the Gaudiya Vaishnava community in Braj. We stopped in after our visit to Umrao.

2014

The romantic illusion is to think that prema, the ultimate goal of life, is easy. Even when we say that Mahaprabhu gave it freely, it only means that he gave the awareness that this is the goal of life along with a "free sample" taste.

But love always means growth, and growth, by definition, means facing and overcoming obstacles. And, in fact, for love to exist, even in the spiritual world, means that there must be some obstacle or separation arising periodically, dialectically.

The religious attitude to life demands humility because without humility, the path of grace is blocked. The absence of humility is the essence of aparādha. Humility means self-examination. Accepting the truth of one's incapacity to love adequately, in whatever way that Love makes its demands of us, to make the sacrifices that Love requires of us.

The absence of humility is always manifest in blaming the other. Blaming the other is the same as blaming God. It is a spiritual non starter.

This is the relation between humility and prema. Without it, prema is impossible.

dainyaṁ tu paramaṁ premṇaḥ paripākena janyate |
tāsāṁ gokula-nārīṇām iva kṛṣṇa-viyogataḥ ||224||
paripākena dainyasya premājasraṁ vitanyate |
parasparaṁ tayor itthaṁ kārya-kāraṇatekṣyate ||225||
bhrātaḥ premṇaḥ svarūpaṁ yat tad dhi jānanti tad-vidaḥ |
yasya cittārdratā-jātaṁ bāhyaṁ kampādi-lakṣaṇam ||226||

Humility arises from the complete maturation of prema, as was demonstrated by the women of Gokula in separation from Krishna. When humility reaches its complete maturation, then prema flows copiously in all directions. It is seen that there is thus a mutual relationship of cause and effect between Love and Humility. My brother ! Those who know the truth of Prema know this to be its essential nature. Internally one's heart melts and externally that is expressed by trembling, etc. (Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛtam 2.5.224-225)

See Humility and Prema

2014

I consistently think of myself as better than I am. The truth is painful. The devotee is humble because he sees the truth of his own reality. The world consistently teaches you that you need a false sense of self in order to survive and succeed.

Someone: You are much better than you are

That is also true. Depends which way you look at it. I am talking about the outer layer, the false sense of self that we try to justify and display to the world in the interest of an ephemeral idea of survival and success. Without proper humility, that "better" self cannot manifest.

2014

"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it, because what the world needs is more people who have come alive." - Howard Thurman

May the Holy Name give you life!

2009

Learning to talk the talk of the Twitter age. Or in sūtras, the sound bites of the rishis.

The difference between religion and entertainment is that religion requires a sadhana.

What I mean here is that once upon a time religion and entertainment were indistinguishable. People would go to church, etc., just as much for entertainment as edification. And most art was religious and had a religious function.

Modern society has succeeded in separating them so that religion, qua entertainment, has become moot.
The myths and stories of religious traditions are distinct in that they require a ritual response related to the Divine.

On another level, of course, all activities are and can be related to God and are therefore, in some respect, sādhanas. Rupa Goswami's rasa theory is about sorting out the two.

Previous students of kāvya recognized that one needs to be in the sattva-guṇa. No question that they thought it was a sādhana and that there was a difference in the experience of rasa according to saṁskāra. And they recognized that it was akin to spiritual experience also- brahma-sahodara. These parallels are very important in our sampradāya. That is why I brought it up.

Divisions of Service to Krishna (Part VI)

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 13:29:00 +0000

So we have been discussing dāsya-rasa. Dāsya is really the basis of all devotion, which was discussed in Part IV from Prīti Sandarbha 84, where its main characteristics are affectionate respect and the sense that one is in need of God's grace. Jīva Gosvāmī used two terms anugrāhya and anukampya both of which have a very similar meaning, but Jīva applies the first of these more generally, including the śānta-bhaktas, whereas the latter carries over into dāsya.

The second discussion of rasa begins with Anuccheda 203 and goes on to the very end of the book. Jñāna-bhakti is covered in the first part of that anuccheda. Analysis of the three kinds of dāsya are

(1) āśraya-bhakti (203-207)

(2) dāsya-rasa (208-217)

(3) praśraya-bhakti-rasa (218-223)

The way that these subjects are discussed is to describe the different aspects of the rasa--all the ingredients like vibhāvas, etc. and concludes with verses that describe the rasas in full, dividing the experiences of rasa into four -- two kinds of separation (viyoga) and two kinds of union (yoga). This is obviously too much to

Now we are going to look at Prīti Sandarbha 203, which is about dāsya-rasa, but not specifically about the sthāyi-bhāva itself, but rather about the vibhāvas, in particular the form of the viṣaya and āśraya. Of course the subsequent anucchedas will go into the active interactions and manifestations of the rasa. In actual fact it is the sthāyi-bhāva that when acted upon by the other ingredients, in other words, when it comes to life through a dramatic situation, becomes rasa. This takes place through the mystery of identification (sādhāraṇī-karaṇa).

This is because the rasa of theory is that rasa is produced or manifested in the audience, which in the devotional context is you and me -- the audience of Krishna kathā. So even though rasa exists eternally in the nitya-līlā in the Lord and his devotees, the descriptions following the rasa theory point to its manifestation in the devotee audience, who identify with the āśraya. All devotees, in particular sādhaka devotees, identify with the dāsa. Devotees take the name "dāsa." Dāsya pervades all the rasas, so its characteristics should be known. However,

atha bhakti-mayeṣu raseṣu āśraya-bhakti-mayo rasa udāhrīyate | tatrālambanaḥ pālakatvena sphurann āśraya-bhakty-āśrayaḥ śrī-kṛṣṇas tad-ādhārās tal-līlā-gata-parama-pālyāś ca |

Now of the bhakti-rasas (i.e., devotion in the service mood), āśraya-bhakti-rasa is now to be described. In this rasa, the ālambana is Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the shelter of āśraya-bhakti, manifesting as the protector [of His devotees]. Its ādhāras are the devotees present in Kṛṣṇa-līlā who are under His supreme protection.

atra śrī-kṛṣṇo’nyatratyeṣu śrīman-narākāratā-pradhānaḥ parameśvarākāraś ca | śrīmad-vraja-vāsiṣu tu para-madhura-parama-prabhāva-śrīman-narākāra eva |

To devotees [in this mood] outside Vraja, Kṛṣṇa is mostly seen as the Supreme Lord (parameśvara) in a human form. But with Vraja residents He appears only in a human form that is supremely sweet and supremely powerful.

atha te pālyā dvividhāḥ | sādhāraṇāḥ prapañca-kāryādhikṛtā bahiraṅgāḥ tadīya-caraṇa-cchāyaika-jīvanāś cāntarāṅgāḥ | tatra pūrveṣāṁ brahma-śivādayas tu bhakti-viśeṣa-sad-bhāvāt tad-antaraṅgā eva |

The devotees under Kṛṣṇa’s protection (pālya) are of two types, namely the external (bahiraṅgas), i.e., the gods who are responsible for universal affairs, and the internal (antaraṅga), whose very life is given to the shade of Bhagavān’s feet. Some belonging to the first group, like Brahmā and Śiva, are also taken to be internal pālyas because they have special bhakti for Bhagavān.

athottare trividhāḥ--sādhāraṇāḥ śrī-yadu-pura-vāsinaḥ, śrīmad-vraja-pura-vāsinaś ca | tatra prathame jarāsandha-baddha-rājādayo muni-viśeṣādayaś ca | uttara-varga-dvayaṁ śreṇī-janādikam |

The second group has three divisions, namely the general, the residents of Yadupura [Mathurā and Dvarakā], and the residents of Vraja. The first category includes the kings captured by Jarāsandha and some sages. The last two categories include devotees belonging to various groups [in Mathurā-Dvārakā and Vraja].

athoddīpaneṣu guṇāḥ | tatra parameśvarākārāvalambanānāṁ bhagavattvam avatārāvalī-bījatvam ātmārāmākarṣitvaṁ pūtanādīnām api tad-veśānukaraṇena mahā-bhakta-bhāva-dātṛtvaṁ paramātmatvam ananta-brahmāṇḍāśrayaika-roma-vivarāṁśatvam ity-ādayo vakṣyamāṇa-miśrāḥ |

Now the qualities that act as uddīpana [in āśraya-bhakti rasa] are given: First for those who are devoted to the four-handed form of Kṛṣṇa, Parameśvara: Being God, being the source of all the avatāras, the ability to attract the ātmārāmas and to give the bhāva of great devotees even to people like Pūtanā who only imitated the dress of a devotee, the quality of being the Immanent Being, to be able to hold unlimited universes in a pores of the body of His partial expansion [Mahāviṣṇu].

śrīman-narākārāvalambanānāṁ kṛpāmbudhitvam āśrita-pālakatvam avicintya-mahā-śaktitvaṁ paramārādhyatvaṁ sarvajñatvaṁ sudṛḍha-vratatvaṁ samṛddhimattvaṁ kṣamā-śīlatvaṁ dākṣiṇyaṁ satyaṁ dākṣyaṁ sarva-śubhaṅkaratvaṁ pratāpitvaṁ dhārmikatvaṁ śāstra-cakṣuṣṭvaṁ bhakta-suhṛttvaṁ vadānyatvam ojaḥ kīrtiḥ tejaḥ saho balāni prema-vaśyatvādayaś ca |

Besides these, the following qualities also act as uddīpanas specifically for those who are devoted to the human-like form: Being an ocean of mercy, one who maintains those under His shelter, who possesses great transrational potency, who is supremely worshippable, omniscient, fixed in His word, opulent, forgiving, courteous, truthfulness, expertise, all auspiciousness, prowess, religiosity, following the scriptures, being a well-wisher of the devotees, generosity, influence, fame, energy, tolerance, physical power, and being controllable by love.

atha jātayaḥ pūrveṣāṁ tat-tad-anukāritayā pratītā gopatvādayaḥ tat-smārakāḥ śyāmatvādayaś ca | uttareṣāṁ tat-tac-chreṣṭhatvenaiva pratītās te ubhaye |

The jātis (class) as uddīpanas are as follows: For the devotees whose ālambana is Kṛṣṇa as Parameśvara, His class is such as that of apparently being a cowherd, etc., which they think He only imitates, and colors such as black that remind them of Him. For those who accept Kṛṣṇa in human-like form, these are both uddīpanas, appearing to them as the best of the cowherds, [and not just incidentally so].

atha kriyāḥ | pūrveṣāṁ sṛṣṭi-sthity-ādikṛto viśvarūpa-darśanādyāḥ vakṣyamāna-miśrāḥ | uttareṣāṁ para-pakṣa-nibarhaṇa-sva-pakṣa-pālana-sānugrahāvalokanādyāḥ |

Now the actions (kriyās) that function as uddīpanas are as follows: For the first category of devotees the acts of creation, maintenance, sustenance and seeing the universal form, along with those mentioned for the second group. For the second group, these acts are His exterminating His enemies, protecting His allies, looking at one mercifully and so on.

atha dravyāṇi | tadīyāstra-vāditra-bhūṣaṇa-sthāna-padāṅka-bhaktādīni | tāni ca pūrveṣām alaukikatayaiva spaṣṭāni | uttareṣāṁ caitānyevālaukikatve’pi laukikāyamānatayaiva darśita-prabhāvāni | atha kālāś cobhayatra taj-janma-tad-vijayādi-sambandhita iti |

The objects (dravyas) that function as uddīpanas are as follows: His weapons, musical instruments, ornaments, His places, footprints and devotees. These appear as supernormal (alaukika) to the first group. For the second group of devotees [in the Vraja mood] these same objects, even though appearing ordinary, show influence like supernormal ones. The times that are uddīpanas for both groups are those of Bhagavāns’ birth, victory, etc.

athānubhāvāḥ | tat-sambandhenaiva vasatis tat-prabhāvādi-maya-guṇa-nāma-kīrtanam ity-ādayaḥ | tathā pūrvoktā api |

The anubhāvas are as follows: To have residence in relation to Kṛṣṇa only, chanting about His attributes, names, etc., which are full of His potencies. This also includes those anubhāvas spoken of earlier.

atha sañcāriṇaḥ | tatra yoge harṣa-garva-dhṛtayaḥ | ayoge klama-vyādhī | ubhayatra nirveda-śaṅkā-viṣāda-dainya-cintā-smṛti-vrīḍā-maty-ādayo mṛtiś ca |

The sañcāris are as follows. In union with Kṛṣṇa these are happiness, pride and forbearance; in separation these are fatigue and disease. In both union and separation, besides the above, sañcāris are indifference, doubt, grief, humility, anxiety, recollection, shame, comprehension, and death.

sā yoge’pi yathā śrī-bhīṣmāntima-carite—viśuddhayā dhāraṇayā [bhā.pu. 1.9.31] iti |

Death (mṛti) even in union is seen in the last moment of Bhīṣma’s life:

viśuddhayā dhāraṇayā hatāśubhas
tad-īkṣayaivāśu gatā-yudha-śramaḥ |
nivṛtta-sarvendriya-vṛtti-vibhramas
tuṣṭāva janyaṁ visṛjan janārdanam ||

By pure concentration of mind on Kṛṣṇa, all of Bhīṣma's sins were destroyed. By Kṛṣṇa's mere glance, all the suffering caused by his battle injuries immediately disappeared. All the activities of his senses ceased, and he extolled Kṛṣṇa with the intention of giving up his body. (SB 1.9.31)

Similarly, in verse SB 1.9.34 his humility (dainya) is seen in his acknowledgment of his offence: “Your skin being pierced by my sharp arrows” and also in SB 1.9.38 “being hurt by the sharp shafts.”

yudhi turaga-rajo-vidhūmra-viṣvak-
kaca-lulita-śramavāry-alaṅkṛtāsye
mama niśita-śarair vibhidyamāna-
tvaci vilasat-kavace'stu kṛṣṇa ātmā

On the battlefield [where Śrī Kṛṣṇa attended Arjuna out of friendship], the flowing hair of Lord Kṛṣṇa turned ashen due to the dust raised by the hoofs of the horses. And because of His labor, beads of sweat wetted His face. All these decorations, intensified by the wounds dealt by my sharp arrows, were enjoyed by Him. Let my mind thus go unto Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

śita-viśikha-hato viśīrṇa-daṁśaḥ
kṣataja-paripluta ātatāyino me
prasabham abhisasāra mad-vadhārthaṁ
sa bhavatu me bhagavān gatir mukundaḥ

May He, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, who awards salvation, be my ultimate destination. On the battlefield He charged me, as if angry because of the wounds dealt by my sharp arrows. His shield was scattered, and His body was smeared with blood due to the wounds.(1.9.38) BBT

Commentary

In Anuccheda 84 we were introduced to the sthāyi-bhāvas that grow out of bhagavat-prīti. Those seeking Bhagavān’s grace were called anugrāhya and this was divided into those who are in śānta-rasa and devotees who are in the mood of service. The general term bhakti was given specific application to what we generally call dāsya. He also used the term anukampya to describe the mood of those who seek Bhagavān’s grace, their characteristic being primarily that they have a sense of relationship, identifying as His servants. But here when Śrī Jīva says bhakti-maya-rasa, he is refering to these. The anukampya were subdivided in Anu. 84, into pālya, bhṛtya and lālya, and these same three divisions are now going to be described in greater detail with examples from the Bhāgavata Purāna. Devotees with the mood of being dependent on Kṛṣṇa for their nourishment and protection experience āśraya-bhakti-rasa.

Rasa	āśraya anukampya	Anucchedas	Subtypes
āśraya-bhakti-rasa	pālya	203-207	bahiraṅga, antaraṅga
dāsya-bhakti-rasa	bhṛtya	208-217	aṅga-sevakāḥ, pārṣadāḥ, preṣyāḥ
praśraya-bhakti-rasa	lālya	218-224	putrādayaḥ (3 kinds)

Pālya-bhaktas have two divisions: external and internal. The first includes the devas like Indra who are in charge of managing universal affairs. However, Śiva and Brahmā are specifically not included in this category because their relationship with Bhagavān has some special characteristics that go beyond their mere functions as guṇāvatāras. In Anuccheda 218 Lord Brahmā will be named among the lālyas since he is Viṣṇu’s son born from His navel lotus. Śiva is also sometimes described a Bhagavān’s friend. Thus they are included in the second group as antaraṅgas.

The second group has three further categories of general devotees such as the kings who were kept captive by Jarāsandha, the general residents of Dvārakā and those of Vraja.

In this delineation of the primary rasas, the general rule is to describe the different ingredients that pertain to that rasa and then give a summary verse in which it is shown how they all come together to transform the sthāyi-bhāva into rasa.

The viṣaya of āśraya-bhakti is Bhagavān in both His divine and human form. In this particular kind of devotion, a strong awareness of Kṛṣṇa’s divinity pervades the devotee’s mood, and the qualities that act as inspirators of devotion are all seen as being divine powers, but His devotees in Vrindavan think of His extraordinary acts as pertaining to the human realm even though they are wondrous.

Examples of some sañcārīs are taken from Bhīṣma’s prayers while on his deathbed. Usually mṛti as a sañcārī for bhakti-rasa is stated to be the process of dying, since death is not possible in the nitya-līlā. Bhīṣma’s death is always held up as the exemplary ideal for a human being to die. He had been blessed with the ability to choose the very moment of his passing, and he chose to leave this world while gazing on the divine form of Kṛṣṇa standing before him on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra where he had been lying for weeks on a bed formed of the hundreds of arrows that had pierced his body.

Bhīṣma, here being the exemplar of āśraya-bhakti-rasa also offered prayers (1.9.32-42) from which Jīva cites two examples of the sañcārī of dainya, which is defined as follows:

When due to some suffering, terror, or having committed offenses one loses vigor, that is called lowliness or humility. The anubhāvas, sañcārīs and sāttvikas associated with it are flattering, slow movement, lack of attentiveness to one’s appearance, worry, immobility, etc. (BRS 2.4.21)

Śrī Jīva defines the loss of vigor as thinking of oneself as the lowliest and most insignificant (ātmany atinikṛṣṭa-mananam).

The full verses quoted only in part in the anuccheda are given here:

May my soul rest in that Kṛṣṇa whom I beheld on the battlefield, his locks grayed by the dust of the horses’ hooves and flinging the beads of perspiration on His face to decorate it, His armor shattered and His skin pierced by my sharp arrows. (SB 1.9.34)

May that Bhagavān Mukunda, who awards salvation, be my eternal destination: that Lord who advanced rapidly towards me on the battlefield, intending to kill me as I attacked Him with my sharp arrows, piercing His armor and covering His body with bleeding wounds. (1.9.38)

Bhīṣma was feeling guilty on account of his offense in attacking Kṛṣṇa. [Something more about that. The above expressions don’t seem very guilty or humble.]

Krishna's was not an eight year old at the rasa dance

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 12:06:00 +0000

Although Krishna is generally thought of as an adolescent, sometimes This picture follows the idea that Krishna was only 11 years old when he left Vrindavan, as stated in the Bhāgavatam:

tato nanda-vrajam itaḥ pitrā kaṁsād vibibhyatā |

ekādaśa samās tatra gūḍhārciḥ sa-balo’vasat ||

Thereafter, His father, out fear of Kaṁsa, carried Him from prison to Nanda’s Vraja. He lived there with Balarāma for eleven years, like a hidden fire. (3.2.26)

2020

This video is about Sachinandan Das Bhakti Prabha, who was my godbrother, a disciple of Lalita Prasad Thakur. Jayadebji is his disciple and a popular speaker of the Bhāgavatam in West Bengal. Sachinandan was quite a character, some of which comes through very nicely in this short talk. Radhe Radhe.

2015 Rishikesh

It is a bit like a state of shock. Short circuits in the brain.

2011

Spoken by Lalita in Dāna-keli-kaumudī (90) when Krishna swears that his tongue has never spoken a

lie, nor his hands ever engaged in any kind of aggressive act:

mithyā jalpatu te kathaṁ nu rasanā sādhvī-sahasrasya yā
bimboṣṭhāmṛta-sevanād agharipo puṇyā prayatnād abhūt |
kasmād eva balāt-karotu ca karaḥ soḍhuṁ kṣamaḥ subhruvāṁ
raktaḥ suṣṭhu na nīvi-bandham api yaḥ kā vānya-bandhe kathā ||

How could your tongue ever speak a lie, O enemy of sin,

when it has been purified by drinking the nectar
of a thousand chaste women's bright red lips?
And how could your hands possibly tolerate engaging in force?
Out of their love for the beautifully browed girls,
your hands cannot stand to even see their girdle knots bound,
what to speak of other kinds of bonds [like their braids, for instance].

This is an example of narma-lalita-māna.

Krishna is lying because a few sentences further, he will say:

Krishna: All this talk is simply procrastination. The tolls are supposed to be collected quickly. I must have payment right away, even if I have to take it by force. (steps toward Radharani)

Lalita: (laughing ironically) O gentle, innocent boy! I cannot believe that you have the arrogance to touch Radha's body directly in my presence, for I am well known to be responsible for keeping the gopis’ honor. I am very curious to see what you are going to do. Go ahead, I am waiting for you show me just how bold you are.

I like that one. Go, Lalita!

2011

One comedian said his Catholic upbringing taught him sex was “a horrible nasty business one should only do with a person they really, really love.” Equally contradictory is to think that sex is a nasty business that God himself as Krishna engages in with Radha. The omniscient and omnipotent God could surely find better ways of enjoying! Conclusion: the Divine Couple are meant to validate and sacralize human eros.

The other day I heard Thakurji Krishna Chandra Shastri, one of the top two or three Bhagavata speakers in Vrindavan, speaking on the vastra-haraṇa līlā. He also said Krishna was a five-year-old boy, so what is the problem?

According to Dhyana Chandra's Paddhati, Krishna's age is given as follows:

mahārāja-kumāratayā bhogātiśayena samṛddhyā varṣa-māsa-dinānāṁ sārdhatayā sārdha-sapta-dinottara-nava-māsādhika-pañca-daśa-varṣa-parimitaṁ śrī-kṛṣṇasya vayo jñeyam (i.e., 15 years, 9 months, 7 1/2 days) | Radharani's age is given as 14-2-15.

For those who are rasikas, the following verse will be sufficient to lay to rest the 5-year-old, 8-year-old, 10-year-old theory.

citraṁ cira-sparśa-sukhāya cūcuke
kurvantam akṣipram iyaṁ calekṣaṇā |
svinnāṅgulīkaṁ pulakāñcita-śriyā
savyena cikṣepa kucena keśavam ||106||

If anyone followed the outline of Sri Krishna Kirtan by Chandidas that I have been giving on my blog, you will see a fascinating development. It is a bit shocking for us that Chandidas represents Radha as a 10 year old in the beginning, being harassed by a Krishna who is not much older. Throughout SKK, Chandidas is at pains to show the maturing of Radha sexually and emotionally in that context. It is very interesting to say the least, and no doubt very specific to an outdated historical circumstance.

Rupa Goswami seems to start at the point where Chandidas leaves off in Radha-Krishna's maturation. In DKK or elsewhere, Radha and Krishna are in a kind of idealized state of love that is not the love of mature older married folks (which, believe me I think that mere mortals could do well to aspire to), but that of playful, innocent young lovers who have fully developed eroticism and emotional absoluteness of focus.

In my view, even older mature and successful couples would harbor this kind of love at the very core of their relationship.

The manjaris (9 is a little young, as far as I know) are the perfect audience. They are the sāmājikas [i.e., "the cultured audience"]. They are participant observers, but more observers than participants. They are not "players".

This is a very subtle aspect of Gaudiya philosophy that Rupa Goswami has developed at is quite difficult for most people to understand. Especially those who have been trained in the external forms of religiosity.

The great connection I made with these manjaris is when I thought of the girls who were following the Beatles. And then later the regular successors to the Beatles in the pop culture world. And yes indeed how in our Western society these "tweeny boppers" or preteen girls seemed to be the dominant group, so emotional and so absolutely identified with this novel experience of the erotic/sentimental. But not directly involved.

Here again, I think, the intensity of the identification is what is being intuited by Rupa Goswami. The goal of Gaudiya Vaishnavism is a particular kind of bhava, not some external technical mastery of līlā-smaraṇam or external service, but identification with the universal mood of love that is experienced by God in the union of Radha and Krishna.

his will not be achieved by technical smaraṇa. Nor will it be achieved by hundreds of religious performances. It can only be attained through sahaja sādhāraṇī-karaṇa, or a natural identification with Radha and Krishna's love. Though 12-year-old girls are far from matching our vision of human perfection in an external way, internally it is this passion, this sense of total emotional identification that is somehow being identified as a perfection to be strived for.

Now, I must make the point that there are two sādhanas in rāgānugā bhakti: one internal and the ot

her external. The simplicity and innocence that make the entry into Love possible are (paradoxically) impossible without the full attainment of external maturity.

So basically you do have to grow up even as you hold on to this effulgent inner world of intense innocence.

Someone reading the Bhāgavatam for "juicy bits" in the modern climate of freely available hard-core porn will be very sadly disappointed.

But here is the translation (a bit juicy, as it were):

Krishna was drawing designs on Radha’s breasts with musk paste, but because he was taking so much pleasure in touching her nipples for a long time, his work was going slowly. Radharani started to get anxious, “What if someone comes and sees?” and so she started to move her eyes angrily. “What is the use of someone as inexpert as you doing this work? I will get one of my kinkaris to do it instead of you.” And with that she hit his sweating finger with her goose-pimpled left breast. [Because, according to VCT, the woman’s left side is stronger.]

Just saying, this is not an 8-year-old.

2010

akṣa-saṁsadi jitāpi mṛgākṣī
mādhavena parirambha-paṇena |
bhugna-dṛṣṭir iha vipratipannā
taṁ kareṇa rurudhe pariripsum ||

In the gaming circle, though the doe-eyed beauty was defeated by Madhava after wagering a kiss, still she gave him a cross look, turned away and put up her hand to block him when he came to embrace her. (UN 14.102)

This is an example of vāmya-gandhodātta-māna, which translates roughly "loft loving anger, with a touch of refractoriness." Of the two kinds of māna, this is the kind that Chandravali, with her ghrita-sneha would be more likely to engage in.

2010

The first really, really monsoon rainfall has hit. Constant cats and dogs, muṣalādhāra, for the whole day. The dining hall turned into an island. The cries lamenting about heat and water shortages will now turn into laments over flooding.

2009

Yamas and niyamas are the preparation for spiritual life, not its essence. Samādhi is, whether that is prema-samādhi or some other kind.

The essence of mananam is doubt

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 11:17:00 +0000

A few different subjects came up on this date. (1) Devotees and learning Indian languages like Bengali and Sanskrit. I have written about this several times, like Love and Language. (2) I engaged in a response to Meena OM, a self-styled guru from Mumbai who is fairly popular "master" on Speakng Tree, where current Hinduism daily shows its blandness and abandonment of its tradition. I was posting there for a while but abandoned it quite some time ago. Anyway, about "becoming an avatar", apparently that is possible. (3) Comments on Bhaktivinoda's statement that party spirit and sectarianism are the two great enemies of progress. (4) Some verses from Govinda-līlāmr̥ta. FB Memories July 19.

2016

Here at Dwadash Mandir, the birthplace of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, I have been thinking....
I give class every day in Bengali to a handful of local devotees, but I must say that it gives me so much pleasure to be able to read a text like Caitanya-caritāmṛta, or quote from it and NOT have to translate. It is DIRECT. Even the Sanskrit verses are easier to translate into Bengali since many of the words are the same and have the same nuances in Bengali as in the Sanskrit.

So I have been mulling over an idea: I would like to give Western students the opportunity to study Bengali and also to read Bhaktivinoda Thakur's books in the original. Perhaps we could start with a month-long retreat of some kind and then gradually expand.

I am a little nervous about suggesting this because at present there is little facility here for housing students, so that is a consideration. But if serious people are ready to rough it, then I might try to make a go of it.

Jai Gaura!

I have found that this lack of interest is practically fatal to one's culture of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. I am teaching Sanskrit at Jiva, but even there the interest is limited. But we did have a good dozen serious students who stuck through to the end. I hope to have my book ready by the end of the next school year.

[This was another plan that never came to fruition. I had no extra time for teaching Bengali. I barely have time for Sanskrit.]

2012

This posting was written in response to the Speaking Tree's "master" Meena OM's post, linked to here: http://www.speakingtree.in/public/spiritual-blogs/masters/philosophy/difference-between-a-guru-and-avatar

--------------------------

It is interesting that these discourses take place with only a superficial reference to the shastras. What an avatar is, the difference between avatar and guru, these are things that are discussed extensively in the Hindu tradition over thousands of years. You make reference, for instance to the Gita, sambhavāmi yuge yuge, and so on. In fact, the Vaishnava tradition is the source of the concept, so to pretend to have any knowledge of the matter without reference to that tradition will prove to be shallow.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa, for instance, discusses the characteristics of the avatar extensively. And the later traditions of Vallabha, Ramanuja, Madhva, Chaitanya, etc., go into even greater detail.
I appreciate, of course, that you are making the distinction, because every Changu, Mangu and Pangu who has a little knowledge and can act the part, as soon as they become a little successful at the guru game, tries to "up the stakes" by claiming to be an avatar. At present in India, especially, there is a great deal of competition among people who claim to be avatars. Going to the next level and becoming an avatar, this is the sign that one has "arrived." So who does not want to be an avatar? But basically, anyone who does so, in my humble opinion, is a cheater of the first order.

Most of these newly made avatars, like weeds at the onset of the monsoon, are really little different from gurus in the way they play their role. The only difference is that they are totally unabashed in their demands for worship from their gullible followers. They are usually able to demand more money from them, most of whom are primarily impressed by the performance of some magic tricks. If the current crop of weeds is anything to go by, they consider Krishna's rasa-līlā as a part of their avatar duties, with some of them even introducing homosexual rasa dances.

They do this all shamelessly. And of course, if anyone draws attention to such misbehaviors, their gullible disciples immediately accuse you of offense committed directly to God himself. And the result is that Hinduism becomes a laughing stock of world religion. Anyone who can fool enough people can make the preposterous claim to be God himself and excuse himself by calling it some kind of "evolution."

Thus to claim to be an avatar is a greatly audacious act. I think you have made a big mistake by saying that it is something that we can aspire to evolve into. This is an error that many well-meaning and sincere aspirants make. How can one evolve into being God? God is God and you are the eternal servant of God. This is a constitutional fact. You are servant now, subservient to the laws of time and nature, and even if you become guru, you still remain servant and externally subject to those laws.

Krishna showed the virāṭ rūpa to Arjuna. But this was because he was indeed "Time". Can you do this? Can His Holiness Dattaswami do so? (He also is involved in this competition of establishing himself as God's avatar, the only ONE for this age.) This is the unfortunate game that all these competitors for avatarhood are playing. This is a very dangerous form of cheating. Perhaps it is the most dangerous form. To claim to be the all-pervading, all-powerful, all-knowing Godhood is no small claim, and there is little doubt that all who make such claims are in fact knowingly attempting to dupe others for little purpose other than their own self-aggrandizement.

To say ahaṁ brahmāsmi does not mean you are God. You all need to read a bit of Ramanuja, Madhva, Nimbarka, Vallabhacharya, Jiva Goswami and the other Vaishnava acharyas, all of whom recognized that to become one with God means to become his devoted servant.

This word jugglery, saying that the avatar is a manifestation of "Cosmic Intelligence"... what on earth is "Cosmic Intelligence"? Cosmic intelligence implies personhood. We are persons, and we value our personhood. This is why we struggle to improve our lives and attain some measure of spiritual maturity. So God is also the supreme person.

God's personhood is not a temporary construct of Maya, but an eternal fact. Why? Because personhood is our most valuable possession, our greatest value. Why? Because we cannot LOVE without being persons. And God, as the source of LOVE is the all-pervading ground of personhood and love. We are different from God because it is necessary to be different for the sake of love.

To claim to have become God is an abuse of love. If you love God, you become one with God, but not by losing your own individual personhood. What is the meaning of love if you cease to be a different person?

Now the question of avatar and avatari comes in. You seem to think that both are the same. Well, this already shows a surprising lack of knowledge. The avatar is the descent of the Supreme Being, who is a person. The avatari is that Supreme Being, the source of all the other avatars. How can we distinguish between them?

The shastras talk about various divisions of avatar--purushavatar, gunavatar, manvantaravatar, yugavatar, lilavatar, aveshavatar, etc. These different avatars perform different functions according to time and place. How do we understand what the avatari is? When Krishna says _krishnas tu bhagavan svayam_, this is another way of saying avatari.

Rupa Goswami, a follower of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, said the answer lies in rasa. Raso vai saḥ. So he says, Krishna is the akhila-rasāmṛta-mūrti. Rupa Goswami says that from one point of view, Narayan, etc., the various avatars, are the same (siddhāntatas tv abhede'pi) but from the point of view of rasa, only Krishna is superior, rūpam eṣa rasa-sthitiḥ.

In some ways you have spoken of this, but it is muddled up. You say the avatar appears like a human. You say the mother is guru. Why is she not an avatar? You must follow through with some rigorous knowledge of the bhakti shastra.

You have in some respect touched an important point though. The avatar is the intimate object of worship, whereas the guru is one who is worshiped as the representative of God in the form of a teacher. We say the guru, whether in the form of mother, father, school teacher or spiritual teacher, is to be honored as if they were God himself. But the original form of God is revealed in the avatar.

One can only be identified as an avatar if he or she becomes an entirely new symbol of the Divine. Simply coming along and saying aham brahmāsmi does not an avatar make. Saying, "I am Ram, I am Krishna, I am all the gods, etc." is complete hubris, or arrogance. Try to understand what is meant by raso vai saḥ and you will start to get an inkling. There is really no need for more avatars. Some decent truthful and honest gurus would be greatly helpful though.

Radhe Shyam.

--------------------------

Afterthought. One reason that the discussion is shallow is because individuals deliberately keep it that way in order to deceive others into thinking that they are themselves avatars.

2012 (From Pushkaraksha) Natural Brotherhood by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura:

"Gradually, when the offensive portions of the established religions are destroyed, there will be no more differences in the bhajana performed by the various Sampradayas nor any quarrel between them.
Then as brothers, the people of all castes and countries will spontaneously chant the Holy Names of the Supreme Lord together.

At that time, no one will hate anyone or consider others dog-eaters; nor will anyone be overwhelmed by the pride of high birth.

The living entities will not forget the principle of natural brotherhood."

"Mahaprabhu was naturally a soft-hearted person, though strong in His principles. He declared that party spirit and sectarianism were the two great enemies of progress."

Srila Thakur Bhaktivinode from "Sri Caitanya — His Life and Precepts."

--------------------------

True enough that party spirit and sectarianism are two enemies of progress. But that will not be solved by pipe dreams of universal brotherhood in some distant future. To think there will be no differences in the bhajan of the different sampradayas assumes there will be no difference in adhikara, samskara, ruci or language. This is neither possible nor desirable.

The point is that even then, bhajan is external. The internal fruit is prema. If you attain prema, then there is some possibility of at least peace. But the above statement, though well-meaning, is actually counterproductive because it implicitly assumes that everyone will follow the path of Chaitanya Vaishnavism. This in itself promotes sectarian thinking.

Most people quote this internally to ISKCON and GM, who are among the worst sectarians in Hinduism, so much so that they don't even want to be called Hindu!! In actual fact, prema is only attainable by the individual and then by couples. But where groups are concerned, the rule of the lowest common denominator applies.

This means that though in group dynamics leadership is important, as the objective becomes size and quantity rather than quality, the overall possibility for widespread conceptualization and cultivation of prema diminishes. Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati pointed this out in his Putana article.

Śravaṇam, mananam, nididhyāsanam. Hear. Reflect. Focus. Reflection is part of the task implied by hearing. Though this instruction is usually considered part of the jñāna-mārga, it is actually in one of the most important teachings of the upanishads. It applies to all transcendentalists.

Mananam means to relate received wisdom to one's own experience of reality. When we do so, the things we have heard take on multiple dimensions of meaning. When we only hear, without mananam, then they remain one-dimensional, which means basically, devoid of meaning.
The essence of mananam is doubt. The purva-pakṣa.

2011 Shukas and Saris Discuss Mana

vāmya-valkala-sanchannā dṛḍha-mānāsthi-saṁvṛtā
nārikela-phalānāṁ vā gopikānāṁ rasa-sthiti
bahir-antaś caika-rūpā doṣa-heyāṁśa-varjitā
drākṣā-phalotkarasyeva svāmino me rasa-sthitiḥ

The Shukas retort: “O Sharis! Although the gopis are sweet on the inside, they’re covered by an outer layer of orneriness, and then by tough shell of māna—just like the hard layers covering the sweet coconut meat. That is the the shape of rasa where they are concerned. But where Krishna is concerned, he is the same inside and out, without any flaw or wasted elements. He’s sweet inside and out, like a bunch of grapes.” (13.20-21)

antaḥ sadā rasa-mayo’pi bahiḥ samudyat-
kauṭilya-dhārṣṭya-vara-valkala-parva-rukṣaḥ
mānākhya-yantraṇam ṛte na rasa-prado’sāv
ikṣu-prakāṇḍa iva vaḥ prabhur acyutākhyaḥ

The Sharikas answer with a grin: “Oh Shukas! Your master may be rasamaya within, but his dishonest, pert behavior is coarse and knobbly like sugarcane bark. So, just as sugarcane juice isn’t available until the cane has been run through the juicing press, your rasika Krishna doesn’t supply any rasa until he's been run through the mill of the gopis’ māna! No wonder he is called acyuta!” (GLA 13.22)

Acyuta meaning, not a drop of juice falls.

Yes, the parrot is making a joke, punning on the word. Krishna is like a piece of sugar can, but not one drop of its juice will fall unless it goes through the juice squeezer. So that is why his name is Achyuta! In other words, no rasa without Radharani!

And, another thing about this meaning of acyuta. You have to put Krishna through the ringer to get the juice out, otherwise a drop won't fall. Your bhakti is what extracts the juice. But what is bhakti, it is anuśīlanam, "constant practice or study (of a science , &c ), repeated and devoted service"; in other words it is effort, work, assiduous attempts to extract the rasa as though you were a prospector trying to find ways of extracting oil from the bowels of the earth. Without the committed effort, raso vai saḥ... remains acyuta. Not a drop falls.

Now you can take the word even further. Krishnadas Kaviraj has discovered another meaning for acyuta. And we can discover another one: That without rasika bhaktas like Krishnadas not one drop of nectar will fall from Radha and Krishna's lotus feet into our hungry ears and mouths!

This is the essence of all instructions according to Sri Rupa Goswami:

tan-nāma-rūpa-caritādi-sukīrtanānu-
smṛtyoḥ krameṇa rasanā-manasī niyojya |
tiṣṭhan vraje tad-anurāgi-janānugāmī
kālaṁ nayed akhilam ity upadeśa-sāram ||

Pass all the rest of the days of your life staying in Vrindavan in the company of rasika bhaktas, devotees who are excited by bhakti and attached to topics of Radha and Krishna, and engage your tongue and mind... [and all the senses in between], in chanting their names and meditating on their pastimes. This is the essence of instruction.

Of the five main angas of bhakti, four are found in this one verse. Only vigraha-seva has been left out, but can be understood as "in between".

If you have a taste for Radha Krishna prema kathā, you are indeed fortunate. Bliss, bliss, bliss.

na hi saṅkuca paṅkajekṣaṇaḥ
pādayos te nidadhātu nūpurau |
anayor dhvanibhir vilajjatāṁ
kalahaṁsīva vipakṣa-kāminī ||

One of Chandravali’s sakhis says, “Don’t draw back. Let lotus-eyed Krishna place the ankle-bells upon your feet. Let their sound shame your rivals, as it will the cackling geese.” (14.113)

pātivratyaṁ kva nu para-vadhūtvāpavādaḥ kva cāsyāḥ
premodrekaḥ kva ca para-vaśatvādi-vighnaḥ kva cāyaṁ
kvaiṣotkaṇṭhā kva nu bakaripor nitya-saṅgādy-alabdhiḥ
mūlaṁ kṛṣṭvā kaṣati hṛdayaṁ kāpi śalya-trayī naḥ ||

Tungavidya declares, “She is so faithful to her beloved, and yet everyone says she is an unfaithful wife. She loves him so deeply, and yet she is dependent on others who impede that love. Her anguish to meet Krishna is so great, and yet she is rarely able to be with him. These three daggers pierce my heart and slice its very roots.” (Govinda-līlāmṛta 11.121)

Personalist Behavior

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 11:42:00 +0000

Impersonalism or personalism, what is the real difference?

It is not so much in the doctrine, but in the behavior that the real test comes. The problem is projection. We see the body or the religious affiliation and so on and we don't see the soul, the person. That happens, sadly, as often if not more with people who identify themselves as theists, because they see the religious affiliation as the identifier, i.e., they see the upādhi or covering as the truth, and not the spiritual being.

Now whether you call that spiritual truth Brahman or anything else, if you accept that the person with whom you are engaged is a sacred entity, and you treat them accordingly, that is personalism. Whether you do so on the level of full realization or as an aspect of sādhana.

If you believe God is a bearded old man or a flute-playing cowherd, but you treat other people as objects, in whatever guṇa of nature, you are an impersonalist.

Our personalist philosophy ultimately tells us to see Krishna in the proximate personality in our I-Thou or dual relationships or in our I-We communal relationships. What we do in the singular remains that, singular. And therefore represents only the baby step in spiritual life. Genuinely achieving the singular means being equipped with the spiritual character and knowledge to function in the dual and plural. It seems rather premature to think that one can really progress to Love without an adequate culture of individual character. And so the hopes of many a romantic materialist are dashed.

The impersonalist philosophies or spiritual paths emphasize the letting go, the negation of any belief or doctrine to describe reality, so that one can enter into an unmediated experience of it.

They may consider bhakti a helpful means, an ālambana that also can be an obstacle, which is in fact true. If I see God as something "out there" and am unable to recognize his direct presence in the immediate, then even God becomes an obstacle to higher realization.

Nevertheless, we say that personhood, relationship and love are the highest values, and that this should be reflected in our philosophy also. But at the same time, the practices of the impersonalist schools, i.e., the negation of upādhis, entering into a direct experience of the Other as an experience of the Sacred by recognizing the essential unity of all things, etc., are essential for a personalist as well. In this respect there is really no difference.

Most people nowadays who adhere to impersonalist doctrines, spiritual or material, will in fact agree with the idea that love is the highest value. But that does not mean that they have any more awareness than a kaniṣṭha Vaishnava -- and vice versa. In both cases, they there is a huge difference between pretending to know and real knowing, between the experience of the Divine limited to a trivial or accidental epiphany or two and the person who has become a beacon of true spiritual love.

(FB memories July 17, 2015)

Divisions of Service to Krishna (Part V)

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Sun, 17 Jul 2022 13:50:00 +0000

This section is a bit shorter than the previous day's offering. Here we get the specifics of dāsya according to Prīti Sandarbha 84.

Although the other sthāyi-bhāvas are described in the remaining portion of that anuccheda, in particular a long section about kānta-bhāva. The next instalment will cover Anuccheda 203ff. And then we will try to summarize.

The word rati is here being used to mean sthāyi-bhāva.

84.4 Other Kinds of Rati: Service

athānukampyāḥ sa-mamā bhaktāḥ | eṣāṁ hi asmākaṁ prabhur ayam iti bhāvena mamatodbhūtā | etad abhipretyaivānanya-mamatety ādi-vaktṛtvaṁ kevala-bhaktānāṁ śrī-bhīṣmoddhava-prahlāda-nāradādīnām evoktaṁ na tu sanakādīnām api | ato mamatodbhavād evānukampyās tad-abhimāninaś ca te |

Now the devotees who identify as objects of Bhagavān’s compassion (anukampya) and who have mamatā for Him are described. Their mamatā is manifest in the thought, "This is our Bhagavān." The purpose of saying that the speakers of the verse ananya-mamatā [from Pañcarātra, cited above in this Anuccheda, 84.1] were said to be exclusive devotees such as Bhīṣma, Uddhava, Prahlāda, Nārada and so on, but not Sanaka, etc. Therefore, it is only because of the manifestation of mamatā that they are objects of grace (anukampya) and have the relevant ego also.

The full verse is quoted in Bhakti-rasāmr̥ta-sindhu at the beginning of the chapter describing prema-bhakti (1.4):

ananya-mamatā viṣṇau mamatā prema-saṅgatā |
bhaktir ity ucyate bhīṣma-prahlādoddhava-nāradaiḥ ||
premocyate bhīṣma-mukhyair yatra tu saṅgatā |
mamatānya-mamatvena varjitety atra yojanā ||

Exclusive sense of relationship or ownership for Viṣṇu, a sense of relationship that is combined with love, is called bhakti by Bhishma, Prahlad, Uddhava and Narada.

[Sri Rupa continues with his own anvaya of this verse.] The way to construe this verse is as follows: Bhakti is called prema by Bhishma and others when it is accompanied by a sense of relationship that is devoid of such a sense of proprietorship towards anyone else. (BRS 1.4.2-3)

anukampyatvaṁ trividhaṁ—pālyatvaṁ bhṛtyatvaṁ lālyatvaṁ ca | tat-traividhyena kramāt te śrī-bhagavati pālaka iti bhāvā dvārakā-prajādayaḥ, sevya iti bhāvāḥ śrī-dārukādi-sevakāḥ, gurur iti bhāvāḥ śrī-pradyumna-gada-prabhṛti-putrānujādaya iti | eṣāṁ trividhānām api prītir bhaktir eva | pūrvāpekṣayā caiṣāṁ prīter ānukūlyātmatādhikyād āvṛta-jñānāṁśatvenāsyām eva śrī-rasāmṛta-sindhau prītir ity evākhyā kṛtā |

These devotees fit into three categories: those who are to be maintained (pālya), the servants (bhṛtya) and the cherished, those to be cared for (lālya). These three are exemplified by the residents of Dvārakā who consider Bhagavān as their protector, the servants such as Daruka who consider Bhagavān as the master, and finally Kṛṣṇa’s sons like Pradyumna and and younger brothers like Gada, who consider Bhagavān their revered elder, respectively. The prīti of all these three is called bhakti. Because the prīti of these devotees has a comparatively greater sense of acting favorably toward Bhagavān and because the element of awareness [of His divine power] has been covered, it has been given the name prīti in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu [rather than bhakti as here].

sā ca bhaktiḥ krameṇa pālyānām āśrayātmikā, bhṛtyānāṁ dāsyātmikā, lālyānāṁ praśrayātmikā jñeyā | yā tu mahad-buddhyā cittādara-lakṣaṇa-bhaktir namaskārādi-kārya-vyaṅgyā sā khalu prītir na bhavatīti nātra gaṇyate | tat-tad-bhāvaṁ vinaiva kevalādara-mayī prītiś ced bhakti-sāmānyatvena jñeyā |

That bhakti in the pālyas is defined by taking refuge (āśrayātmikā), in servants by service (dāsyātmikā), and in lālyas by humble respect (praśrayātmikā). The bhakti that is characterized by heartfelt respect for the greatness of Bhagavān, and is expressed in acts such as paying obeisance, is not prīti and thus not counted here. Prīti consisting of mere respect devoid of any of the abovementioned specific moods of love is to be understood as bhakti in general.

atha “putro’yam” ity-ādi-bhāvenānukampitvābhimāna-mayī prītir vātsalyam | vatsaṁ vakṣo lātīti niruktir hi tatraiva jhaṭiti pratītiṁ gamayati | prīti-mātre tu tad-upalakṣaṇatvenaiva prayogaḥ | laukika-rasajñāś ca kecid atraiva vatsalākhyaṁ rasaṁ manyante | tathodāhṛtaṁ śrī-devahūtyāḥ putra-viyoge vatse gaur iva vatsalā [bhā.pu. 3.33.21] iti | tasmād vātsalyaṁ śrī-vrajeśvarādīṇām |

Prīti in which one has the ego of showing compassion (anukampitva) accompanied by the feeling "This is my son," is called vātsalya. One can easily understand the intent of the term vātsalya from its etymology, "to breastfeed the baby." However, the word vātsalya takes on an extended, generalized meaning for prīti [i.e., applicable to others who are affectionate towards their wards]. Some knowers of mundane rasa theory here also accept vātsalya-rasa. So also the term is cited in Devahūti’s separation from her son: "She grieved even as an affectionate cow grieves at the loss of her calf" (SB 3.33.21). Therefore, vātsalya is found in Nanda and others.

Commentary by Satyanārāyaṇa Dāsa Babaji Maharaj

The second type of devotees who have the prīti called bhakti are those who have attachment to the person of Bhagavān. They are the devotees who have the anugraha called anukampā. They consider Bhagavān as their master and protector. Mamatā for Bhagavān is their main characteristic. Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī calls this prīti by the name prīti, while Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī calls it bhakti. In other words the rati that Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī calls bhakti with two divisions of nirmama and samama, Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī calls them śānta and prīti ratis respectively. Bhīṣma, Uddhava, Prahlāda, Nārada and such others are example of devotees possessing this type of rati called sa-mama-bhakti (and prīti by Rūpa Gosvāmī).

This has three further divisions. Those who consider Bhagavān as their protector are called pālya, Bhagavān is their pālaka, and their rati is āśrayātmikā. The examples of this are the residents of Dvārakā. Those who consider Bhagavān as their worshipable master are called bhṛtya, Bhagavān is their sevya, and their rati is called dāsyātmikā. Examples of this are Kṛṣṇa's servants like Dāruka. Those who consider Kṛṣṇa as their father or senior relative are called lālya; Bhagavān is their guru , and their rati is called praśrayātmikā. Examples of this are the sons and younger family members of Kṛṣṇa in Dvārakā. This mood is not applicable in Vṛndāvana.

Divisions of Service to Krishna (Part I)

Divisions of Service to Krishna (Part II)

Divisions of Service to Krishna (Part III)

Divisions of Service to Krishna (Part IV)

Divisions of Service to Krishna (Part V)

Swami Veda's antyeṣṭi and other Rishikesh memories

noreply@blogger.com (Jagadananda Das) — Sun, 17 Jul 2022 12:56:00 +0000

This is a photo of my friend Vishnu Panigrahi taken at the final rituals on the day of Swami Veda's jala samādhi. They were offering flowers to his body, which was about to be taken to Haridwar to be placed in the fast flowing Ganges in a place where the water was deep. Swamiji's akhara oversaw the rituals.

Many people will be posting photos and videos, so I decided just to take pictures of some of the people who came. Not everybody, just the ones I recognized. Here is my album from that day in 2015.

There are other Rishikesh-related memories. FB memories July 17.

2017

One of my favorite songs. I heard this in the film Nīlācale Mahāprabhu, but the link has been lost. I did not post a translation the first time, so here it is.

ki rūpa herinu madhura mūrati pirīti rasera sāra|
hena laẏa mane e tina bhūbane tulanā nāhi go tāra||

What beauty have I beheld, a form of sweetness, the essence of the taste of love
It seems to me that this form has no equal anywhere in the three worlds.

baḏa binodiẏā cūḏāra ṭālani kapāle candana cāɱda|
jini bidhubara badana sundara bhubana mohana phāɱda||

So charming the crown perched on his head, the sandal moon on his forehead,

His face is also a beautiful moon, a trap to enchant all the worlds.

naba jaladhara rase ḍhara ḍhara baraṇa cikana kālā|
aṅgera bhūṣaṇa rajata kāñcana mani muktāra mālā paridhāna||

His bodily hue is lustrous, a full new cloud ready to let loose a shower rasa;

Wearing a garland of pearls and precious stones, gold and silver ornaments.

joḏā bhūru yena kāmera kāmāna ke bā karila niramāna|
sarala naẏane terachā cāhani biṣama kusuma bāṇa||

His two eyebrows are like Cupid’s cannon, who could have created it?
And his clear eyes give a crooked glance, firing off dangerous flower arrows.

sundara adhare madhura muralī hāsiẏā kathāṭi kaẏa|
dbija bhīme kahe o rūpa nāgara dekhite parāṇa raẏa||

His beautiful lips hold the sweet flute, and laughing he speaks;
Dvija Bhima says, “Seeing the form of the beloved I remain alive.”

2016

Non stop rain for almost 24 hours, sometimes torrential, sometimes drizzle, mostly just a steady rainfall. I don't think I have ever seen it rain like this in Vrindavan. I am afraid to see what the situation is out in the streets, but I will bet there are plenty of neighborhoods where there is flooding. Along with that there has been no electricity for most of that time. My computer also was temperamental yesterday, I am rather surprised to find it working this morning. All in all, strange days here just before Guru Purnima. I have never seen Vrindavan looking so lush. They say global warming will bring extreme weather. After the hot season, which is pretty extreme here, it is rather nice to have a lot of rain. The greenery is so happy. I know from living in Bengal that three-four months of this can get pretty tedious, but so far so good.

2015

Another scene from SVB's antyeṣṭi. On the right is his son, Angiras Arya, who teaches at Princeton.

2013

As happens regularly on FB, I got added to a group, which is about removing Puranjan, Tim Lee, from Facebook, because of his great offenses. I went and looked and saw that the site is just a mirror image of good old offensive Puranjan. And there are conspiracy theorists and all manner of strange creatures purveying their wares. And so I extricated myself with a "God help us all!"

This is the level of discourse that such a large percentage of Hare Krishnas are mired in, it is really disheartening. As we say, a pox on all your houses.

Today I got a letter from Tamohara Dasa, who is a moderator (I think) of the site (there are many Tamoharas, I don't know which one this is) who wrote, "You are an offensive bewildered fool."

Sigh.

[In some ways I find Puranjan Das an interesting figure. He has made it his life's duty to tar everyone in ISKCON with all the worst sins ever committed in that organization. He is a convinced Ritvik and has his own program in the San Francisco area. I think he has been rather successful in undermining all ISKCON's efforts in North America at least. His mantras are familiar ("pedophile, homosexual, etc."). The damage that these issues have had on ISKCON are incalculable.

On the whole, though, it is not an attractive mission: it seems to miss the real point of bhakti, the focus on which is Caitanya and Radha Krishna. It is hard for me to think that this is what Prabhupada would have wanted. Nevertheless I still occasionally visit his website.

Bhakti Vikasa Maharaj said recently that he saw no alternative to ISKCON for the fulfillment of Mahaprabhu's prediction of "every town and village" but in some places in the world like North America and Europe it seems to me that the field is open for anyone who can find a way. Is an "institution" the only way? Look at the spread of yoga, through a thousand different channels.]

2013 Rishikesh

I am slowly coming out of silence. I don't really know if I still am or not. The actual vrata was to stay in silence until I finished a particular project, which is still not finished. So it feels a bit like an incomplete vrata and I will probably have to plunge again. It has been and is being a very interesting experience overall.

I tried so many times to do a perfect vrata in my life, especially when I was younger. In ISKCON and as a babaji I started to do very strict Chaturmasyas on at least three occasions. Even eating plain kitcherie for weeks in yoga mudra and so on. But it never lasted to the fullest extent.

Once, when I was a babaji in Nabadwip, I did a vrata in Agrahayan, the Katyayani vrata. This was in around 1984. I tried to keep it simple. I went at 2 a.m. every night to Porama Tala (Paurnamasi Tala) and meditated for two hours, chanting japa. It was only to be for a month.

It was a very interesting experience, because Pora Ma is a very powerful Shakta and Tantric center. People forget that Nabadwip is also an important Shakti peeth, with Krishnananda Vagisha, one of the major Bengali tantrics of the 15th century, a contemporary of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, living there. Going there in the middle of the night with no one at all around (though sometimes a Tantric would show up and do some midnight puja) was a new kind of experience for me.

But it was still not perfect. At the end, on Purnima, I went and begged in the market until my bag was full, and I went to see Jiva Goswami Prabhupada at Shrivas Angan and I gave him all that I had collected as guru dakshina, he being a respected member of the Nityananda vamsha.

I told him what I had done and asked for his blessing. He said, "Did you do it perfectly?" I had to admit that I hadn't. Then he said, "You won't get the results right away."

It is not that no results come. There is no loss or diminution. But we don't always get what we want, and we rarely get it directly. The most important thing that happens during a vrata is that your own desires are revealed to you. You begin with a purpose, a desire, and in your interiority, you focus on that desire in relation to your True Being. The result of the vrata is the interaction of those two things. The extent of the benefit is the result of the intensity of that interaction.

But it rarely takes an external form, though it can. Indeed, if it only takes an external form, it really shows that you did not get the mercy you were truly seeking. The gods see many levels deeper than you can even imagine. They know what you really want. Your vrata pushes your human adventure into unforeseen directions. Which is really what makes life interesting. And what makes the vrata worthwhile.

We have desires. As long as we do, we are captured in the drama of life. It can be fun, but it is totally unpredictable.

I have to finish this translation. I had a little partial sense of accomplishment by completing the Sanskrit critical text (i.e., where the different manuscripts are compared and the best reading for the text is established and the variant readings are catalogued). So I suppose that this milestone led to a softening of my resolve. But I still have to translate quite a bit.

The text is not all that difficult, but I always make things more difficult for myself. The Gorakṣa-śataka is a difficult text to pin down. But let us say that it is the "original" Hatha Yoga. Quite different from what we know as hatha yoga today. So you could say that the practices are the basic practices that led to the expansion of hatha yoga into the forms that we see today, but which have practically been pushed aside entirely for the sake of physical culture.

Goraksha precedes even the Haṭha-yoga-pradīpikā, which like many of the later Hatha Yoga texts tries to harmonize with Patanjali and Advaita-vāda. Nevertheless, the value of these practices has been more or less accepted on one level or another in the pan-Indian kaleidoscope of spirituality.

So my slow style of translating is based on realization. I cannot translate about Maha Mudra or Nadi Shodhana or any of these other practices without at least a fairly good idea of what they entail.

To some extent, because I have now been involved with this Himalayan Tradition through Swami Veda Bharati for nearly six years, staying altogether about four of them here in Rishikesh, I have gotten a little bit of an idea. It has taken a while, but I have assimilated most of the practices in Gorakṣa-śataka already... some even from before coming here. This ashram has given me the opportunity to be silent and to go deeply into meditational states.

Currently Swami Veda, who is now 80, is in complete silence. He has told me several times that he never wants to speak again. He carries a tablet with him and interacts through writing when it is necessary. So evening meditations at 5.45 are pretty intense. More so than they ever were before in all the previous years. Swamiji has stopped traveling, which also means that his intensity is accumulating in that way also.

So there has been great value in this experience, and it is still not finished. Just thought I would let my friends know.

Probably the hardest sacrifice was not writing my own ideas. But that has likely been the most deliberate and important part of this vrata. To take myself out of the "wisdom game" for a minute and reboot the computer a little, allow new, fresh ideas to enter and percolate in solitude... not perfect solitude, not perfect silence, but pretty intense overall.

We all have to do what we have to do. Everyone is on the path, whatever they do. I have given up thinking that I can be like anyone else nor that I can make anyone be like me. It is hard to be a "preacher" in those circumstances. The best we can do is share, in humility and honesty, our spiritual aspirations, the paths we have chosen, our successes and failures, our epiphanies as well as the dark nights of our souls, and find community with others through empathy and freedom from judgment.

2013 Rishikesh

Yoga and meditation are also positive and essential for the culture of a spiritually potent bhakti, which is what Sahajiyaism is all about. It is about para bhakti, the bhakti that comes after you are Brahman realized. The dual is only perfected in oneness. If you don't know what oneness is, then how can you experience twoness? Or twoness in oneness? Or oneness in twoness? And so on?

Srila Puri Maharaja said, "There is a wave of sahajiyaism coming to the Western world and you must preach against this misconception." What did he mean, "a wave of sahajiyaism is coming to the Western world?"

Because he was a Gaudiya Math acharya and GM acharyas are against Sahajiyaism. He was talking about Srila Narayan Maharaj principally because he felt, like many others in the GM, that BVN had crossed outside the normal permitted GM discourse by emphasizing madhura-rasa.

Since the GM dogma is that any such discussion when held in a public arena with unqualified persons (according to the GM standard of what constitutes qualification) that it would lead to Sahajiyaism, according to the rather broad strokes with which they paint it. All the way from people crying in kirtan and "gopi bhava clubs" to massive orgies of men and women dressed as Radha and Krishna (until they undress of course) boinking in harmony to some erotic Jayadeva song.

There are other people who misunderstand what I mean when I talk about Sahajiyaism. So maybe five people will read what I say if I say something to another person, even if that person is being deliberately difficult or offensive.

This is why I tolerated Kshamabuddhi and Mayesa for such a long time. But eventually they were harassing me so much I was obliged to block them. But so far, I haven't got that vibe from Sivananda.
My blog is there to help explain it. And of course it is connected to yoga. And to bhakti. If you want to call people names, I don't consider Sahajiya to be a bad name. Mahaprabhu called Ramananda Raya a "sahaja Vaishnava." Even Bhaktivinoda like that term. "A natural Vaishnava." Now isn't that what we would all like to be? Now what does it mean? Let us explore.

2011

ratna-cchāyā-cchurita-jaladhau mandire dvārakāyā
rukmiṇyāpi prabala-pulakodbhedam āliṅgitasya |
viśvaṁ pāyān masṛṇa-yamunā-tīra-vānīra-kuñje
rādhā-kelī-parimala-bhara-dhyāna-mūrcchā murāreḥ ||

In the Dvaraka palace standing
on the shores of the ocean, sprinkled with sparkling gems,
Krishna's body hairs stood on end
in Queen Rukmini's ecstatic embrace.
But suddenly recalling the fragrance
of dalliances joyfully exchanged with Radha
in the reeds by the banks of the black Yamuna waters,
he fainted. May that faint protect you always.
(SKM 1.61.1; UN 14.184; JIva and Vishwanath to BRS 2.4.178)

One of the great verses of Umapati Dhar, a contemporary of Jayadeva and one of Lakshman Sen's "Five Jewels". I wish we had more of his writings, as I think in many ways he was more insightful than even Jayadeva, and there are vestiges of his influence even from the few verses of his that we do have.

rādhā kāñcana-vallī
phullā kṛṣṇaḥ phulla-tāpiñchaḥ |
anayor saṅgama-lakṣmī
na sukhayati kaṁ sacetanaṁ lokam ||

Radha is a blossoming golden creeper, Krishna a blossoming tamal tree. What conscious being anywhere [in the universe] would not be pleased by seeing their glorious union? (GLA 11.18)

2011 Chitra's dream

Jagat

Prīti Sandarbha 337.2 Nirveda :: Sthāyī or Vyabhicārī ?

Lochan Das's Dhāmāli: The Mugdhā Nāyikā

The Inexperienced Heroine (Mugdhā Nāyikā)

Gaura-krpā-koṇikā

(7)Srimati Vishnupriya’s Gauranga

Gaura-krpā-koṇikā

The Pravṛtti-mārga in Prema-sādhana

Thoughts on the passing of Tarek Fatah

Learning from Mistakes

Service

Locan Das's Dhāmāli Part 2: Nāgara songs by Narahari

Sri Narahari’s Padavali at a Glance

Looking into the Mirror

Fear and Ecstasy

The Rasika Bumblebee

Locan Das's Dhāmāli (from Gadadhar Pran Das) Part I (Introduction)

Introduction

Dhāmāli and Thakur Bhaktivinoda

Nāgarī bhāva and Thakur Bhaktivinoda

The Second Year of Jiva Ratna comes to an end.

Sri Pranananda Mishra’s Korcā

Avaruddha-saurata

It is good to be 73: Another life report

Bhagavad Gita classes: Where we are and what we are doing?

What is night for one is day for the other

To students of my Sanskrit course

Gaura Sangha interview with Sarva Shakti Das

Update

Bhakti Sandarbha 40: Offenses Make One’s Heart Hard

Compassion, Humility, Vrindavan Dham

Divisions of Service to Krishna (Part VI)

Krishna's was not an eight year old at the rasa dance

The essence of mananam is doubt

Personalist Behavior

Divisions of Service to Krishna (Part V)

Swami Veda's antyeṣṭi and other Rishikesh memories

(7)

Srimati Vishnupriya’s Gauranga