Yatra - on the path and the pilgrims

EPIGRAPH

for "Peter Valaya"

Some bemoan their solitary circumstances as aggravating the loneliness and despair of the unchosen, unrelenting path they must tread. (This is the path that draws our soul as avidly as thirst sucks water.) They envisage a less painful, less deserted existence amongst family and friends where they imagine that the unchosen, unrelenting path may be expressed as a socially affirming conviviality.

Sometimes wishfulness blocks their sensiblility from the truth. The path may be a most pleasing guest to the host of convivial company but it will never lose its direction. It will never lose its mark. In fact, mostly, the social conviviality of friends and family only spotlights the mark of separation more intensely.

Changing circumstances will not change the path. We can only change our attitude to the path. As we mature in our appreciation of the inevitability of the path, that we had no choice about it, that it is orienteered by an unaccountable grace, we may begin to appreciate that the path we tread is literally not "our" path.

Then we may begin to tread lightly upon it .....

On the highway to Braj
It is not forgetfulness
that leaves the past .....

(spinning off on the topic of paths...)

"...we hear of a path, even of many paths, yet no one who has blazed a trail
through the jungle of his mind has thereby left a trail in ours. We cannot
tread in his footsteps. No one but ourselves has ever trodden or can ever
tread our private jungles. /.../ It is perhaps here that the seeker
appreciates that all the talk about there being many paths expresses only a
half truth, for all paths end when the individual turns away from teaching,
discussion and obedient performance of set practices to face the trackless
unknown of his own being. To say that he follows in the footsteps of his
predecessors is but a metaphor; all he has is their assurance that they have
found their way through." (Sri Madhava Ashish)

For those who do not know the name of Madhava Ashish, he is an Englishman who took initiation from Krishna Prema Baba, one of the first Westerners to ever take initiation in the Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradaya, in the Radharaman line. Something from his biography was recently posted.

I was rather good friends with a disciple of Krishna Prem, Keshava Dasji, who was the mahanta of Mahesh Pandit's Sripat in Chakdaha, Nadia. He wore the Radharaman tilak and had his guru's picture on the altar. I got the impression that he did not get along with Madhava Ashish, who took over their guru's ashram in Mirtola after his death, and started taking it in a direction away from Vaishnavism.

Dilip Ray's account of Krishna Prem's life seems to indicate that he was less of a Vaishnava than a kind of mixed sadhaka, at least in his development. His books, like the Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita are full of interesting references to Plotinus, etc., but are of little direct relevance to a Gaudiya sadhaka.

Madhava Ashish.

The wise leave few directions
Mostly moist footsteps
On the thirsty path

This path has no signs
Only invisible arrows
Piercing deeply .....

When raag is the gravitational pull
Firm steps are not necessary . . . . .

When raag is the gravitational pull
Firm steps one treads
Orienteered by grace...

Raag itself is the grace
And its gravity
Orienteers direction ......

Raag is the orienteer
And gravity the
kiss of grace...