Blog, sort of. -

On Saturday I was invited (through Malika’s intervention) to speak in Hindi for the Janmastami celebrations at the Hindu Mandir on Rue Bellechasse in Montreal. The audience was pleased (as was I) that I managed to communicate more or less efficiently in Hindi, but as usually, I wandered all over the place and barely made it to the Krishna-lila. I basically explained Gita 4.1-9 and spent a little time on one of my favorite verses—


Where I wanted to go was into the lila of the transfer of bodies from one womb or one place to another and what their significance was. But that was way too far off and might have take a week to get to, and would have required a thorough explanation of brahma, paramatma and bhagavan. Speaking of which, here is a verse that everyone should know—


Of all the guideposts of Gaudiya Vaishnava theology, the distinciton between Brahma, Paramatma and Bhagavan is one of the most important. The above translation can be changed in various ways. "Under the influence of Maya, the materialists think of Krishna as an ordinary human child, but the cowherd were in a category all by themselves, for they played directly with him in the full intimacy of friendship.

Paramatma is the God of this world, Allah and Yahweh. He is what the Gnostics liked to call the Demiurge. They even carried this to an extreme and said that the God who created this world is the Devil. I don't think we should go that far, but there is an important insight to be had. Paramatma is the God of the karmis, all of them, including the Hatha Yogis, who are also karmis because they engage in works to attain God. This is why the chapter in the Gita on yoga practice is at the end of the six chapters on karma-yoga. So even those who have a spirit of service to Paramatma are within the bodily concept that is this-world centered. No matter how detached and selfless they become, their identity is always grounded in the body. That is why they hope for a bodily resurrection.

At any rate, I am not familiar enough with the Hindi speaking community here to know exactly what Krishna wants me to say to them. If they ask me again, in circumstances where I have a little more freedom to speak according to my own chosen subject.



Sunday Anne and I went to Val David. I was expecting to speak there as well, as Kutichak Prabhu had organized a Janmashtami celebration at the Auberge Prema Shanti, and he has told me numerous times that he wants to develop a non-sectarian Vaishnava community. But when I went over there in the mid-afternoon, I learned that the program had changed and I had been booted off it without so much as a how-de-do.

The reason was that Atma, the musical group led by Mahavirya Das formed the main attraction for the evening, and so he and Nandikesvara had more or less taken over the whole program. Not being involved with the any of the parties, I could understand that I was expendable. Though I toyed with the idea of not going at all, Anne and I went out of respect for the occasion and the Holy Name, and I am glad we did, as I quite enjoyed the kirtan.

Nandikesvara gave a decent lecture on the four verses of the Gita that describe Krishna’s avatar. It was refreshing to hear the basics and the audience, composed in main part by people with some devotional background, appreciated it. The group Atma played “mantra-jazz” under the leadership of Mahavirya, a very competent and enthusiastic musician, but unfortunately we had to return to Montreal, as Anne had to work today.

At Prema Shanti, I got into a bit of an argument with an Indian gentleman over the ritvik issue. I was a bit surprised that it got so heated, but I stuck my big head right in the gaping hole he offered me. This gentleman had spent 30 years in the association of Iskcon, and latterly the ritviks, and yet had not taken initiation, because, as he kept repeating “diksha is not a fashion.” What got me started was his statement that one has to find a guru who is "the equal of the Chaittya Guru."

I think I must have been influenced by the following passage from Ananta Dasji—

“We have already discussed that in the company of saints one comes to realize that one must take shelter of the feet of a guru. Thus we must understand that association with the bhaktas has not taken place if one has not realized the necessity of taking shelter of the feet of a guru. Wherever the association of devotees is attained or is going on and there is no realization of the obligation to take shelter of the lotus feet of Sri Guru, or such shelter has not been taken, we must understand that the real association of saints has not yet taken place, or that due to some mischief, the results of association with the saints are not yet tangible. As long as the shelter of Sri Guru’s feet has not been attained, the fruit of such association has not been attained.”

I was furthermore brought to reflecting on Nandikesvara as he spoke. This man has been a practising devotee for 35 years. He continues to inspire his loyal band of followers. If someone has been inspired by him to take up devotional service and continues to accept his particular understanding of bhakti, then I would say he was not only qualified to act as guru, but obliged by the Guru Principle itself to accept that responsibility. From this point of view, I see Nandi and others abdicating that responsibility—for all their commitment to preaching. In this case, in view of past history, the humility and prudence of the Ritviks is both understandable and praiseworthy, but the ultimate point is that the system is an eternal one. Even if one does not act as diksha guru, by acting as siksha guru, one is still incarnating the Guru Principle. And if, as the Ritviks feel, siksha is more important than diksha, then what is the harm in acting as diksha guru? Jiva Goswami tells us that we choose a “bhajana-siksha guru” from among our shravana gurus (teSv anyataro’bhirucitaH). This guru then becomes the diksha guru, who is only one in number.

tad etad ubhayasminn api tad-bhajana-vidhi-zikSA-guruH prAktanaH zravaNa-gurur eva bhavati, tathA-vidhasya prAptatvAt | prAktanAnAM bahutve’pi prAyas teSv evAnyataro’bhirucitaH | pUrvasmAd eva hetoH—zrI-mantra-gurus tv eka eva niSetsyamAnatvAd bahUnAm | (Bhakti-sandarbha 203)

So Ananta Dasji is clearly right. If you have been associating for thirty years with devotees and none of them inspires you sufficiently for you to ask one of them for initiation, then someone must be doing something wrong.

As Jiva says, in the absence of such a qualified guru you can go on serving the Mahabhagavatas, so I suppose this is what the Ritviks are doing—serving Srila Prabhupada in the absence of better options. But I opened my big mouth and said that if after 30 years one still hasn’t been able to find anyone who is good enough to take initiation from, you must be committing offenses to the Guru Principle. Taking initiation is not the end of spiritual life, but its beginning.



Vishwanath’s commentary to 11.29.7. Rddha-mudaH. “The wise, that is, those who have attained knowledge of Brahman, could worship you for the lifetime of Lord Brahma, without being able to repay you for even a drop of the infinite blessings you have given them. The more they think of these blessings, the greater their amazement and joy, which means that these blessings simply increase and the possibility of removing the debt incurred thus becomes less.”

The blessing that Krishna gives is the experience of rasa. This is why I really disagree with those who place rasa somewhere off in the distance. All religious experience of Krishna is rasa, to one degree or another. It is useless to make too strong a dividing line between the first conversion experience and siddhi itself. It is basically “more and more of the same.” The essence of rasa, according to Kavi Karnapur at least, is amazement. Krishna is a source of amazement in all his manifestations. Madhurya is never entirely free of aisvarya, where Krishna is concerned, which is the source of endless amazement. For the sadhaka, it is Krishna’s unreserved mercy, which slowly (or quickly, for the less conditioned and covered by rajas and tamas) becomes revealed, that is the source of endless amazement, gratitude and ecstasy. That mercy, Uddhava says, comes in the manifestation of the Guru, both as the Antaryami and the great devotee—one who is both an exemplar and a competent authority.

Interestingly, Vishwanath here states that acharya means both the mantra guru and the siksha guru. (Interesting, because in the Chaitanya Charitamrita, the verse is specifically quoted in relation to the siksha guru.) To make a distinction is a little foolish. One hears from devotees—the manifestation of the sravana-guru. From amongst them, one chooses someone for whom one feels a special connection. By establishing this relationship through initiation, one is in fact establishing a relationship with God in a particular form, as well as committing to a particular practice. But then, one continues to hear from other siksha gurus as long as one goes on practicing, for hearing is an indispensible part of devotional culture, as is the association of devotees. Furthermore, this culture includes, in part, the culture of hearing the inner voice of the Chaittya Guru.



The concept of vyavasAyAtmikA buddhi is an interesting one. The intelligence Krishna gives is that which gives resolute determination; in fact, this is the true symptom of intelligence—the ability to control the lower self and various other tendencies through one’s resolve. As the Antaryami, Krishna also gives the spiritual strength that is needed to follow through on our understanding by appropriate action. (nAyam AtmA bala-hInena labhyaH). This dovetails nicely with Freud's "Superego."

One cannot control the senses without an experience of the higher taste. Intelligence grows out of experience.

Went up to Val-David for the weekend, as we have been pretty much every since my father-in-law was hospitalized. On Sunday, I went for a japa walk in the afternoon at around four o’clock and headed towards the Auberge Prema Shanti, not really with any purpose in mind. The auberge has gone through a number of incarnations: it was once a half-hearted hotel on the banks of a small, artificial lake. That went bankrupt and it was transformed into a half-way house for alcoholics and drug-addicts. That was a rather low point in its history and the building was pretty run down, stinking of tobacco and full of industrial carpetting with cigarette burns and white drywall with graffiti and marks left by furniture moves and rubber soles.

Fairly recently it was taken over by Karim, a nice fellow from France who has become a follower of Sai Baba. He has cleaned it up pretty nicely, painted it, made a few additions. In particular, the basement area has been made into a small concert or conference hall that devotees have been making use of lately—the Janmashtami celebrations I spoke of in the earlier blog took place here, Bodhayan Maharaj also used this facility a week or so before that, and Patrick Bernard, otherwise known as Prahlad Das, gave a concert here on Saturday. Devotees have also rented rooms here in the past, so due to this association with bhaktas, I have started including it on my walks, even though it is a little out of my usual way.

So, I was quite pleasantly surprised when I walked into a workshop being given by Prahlad and his partner Anuradha. I was immediately struck by the image of Prahlad, dressed in white, sitting on an elevated asan, with Anuradha on a slightly lower one to his left, on a nicely illuminated stage with candles, crystals and other New Age paraphernalia, looking like the Shakti and the Shaktiman. Anuradha was surrounded by chimes, Tibetan bells and various other sorts of cool noisemakers, which she would occasionally play as a background to Prahlada’s talk.

His workshop is based on the chakras and the use of mantras and music to evoke benefits from them. When I came in, the program was coming to an end and he was talking about the Sahasrara Chakra, which he said would be awakened by chanting the Maha Mantra. His discourse was fairly orthodox philosophically—he stressed the personal nature of God and so on. However, the overall presentation is far from what we are accustomed to in orthodox Vaishnavism. And this is why I am motivated to write this little compte-rendu of my last month of Vaishnava sanga. I have been to four, five if you include my own, lectures on Vaishnava topics of one sort or another in the last month, and the flavor of each was quite different.

*****

First of all, I went to Bodhayan Maharaj’s lecture at the Hindu Mission, where he spoke in Bengali to a mostly Bengali audience. Maharaj greeted me very warmly and even asked me to sit beside him on the Vyasasan, which I was somewhat embarrassed about until it was decided that he would speak in Bengali and I would translate into English. Maharaj launched into a long story from the Mahabharata, which had the ultimate lesson that devotees of Krishna are so kind that they do not attempt to destroy even their enemies, but seek their well-being. I personally enjoyed the lecture, partly because I was involved, but also because Bodhayan Maharaj told the story well, in an entertaining manner, making use of the various twists in the story to benefit. The women, in particular, sitting near the front, seemed to enjoy the talk greatly. The one true bhakta in Montreal, Sachi Babu, got up and walked out saying, “I cannot stand hearing about Dwarka again. Is anybody ever going to talk about Radha and Krishna in Vraja?”

At the end, however, a few men of a more modern stripe asked questions. One old fellow, a familiar curmudgeon to many, complained that Bodhayan Maharaj had talked for an hour, telling a story that had only the thinnest of moral or philosophical content, and that he felt he had been shortchanged on substance. I thought the comment was a little unfair due to the circumstances--the audience was new to Maharaj and having time split by the translation had probably affected the flow of his speech. Maharaj did respond as much to the questioner as time allowed, but the majority of people certainly did not agree with the complainer. Nevertheless, there is a danger when making a story the principal material in a lecture, that one does fall short on substance. A path has to leave you with something that lasts.

*****

Recently Mangal Maharaj arrived in Montreal, which is one of his regular stops on his frequent visits to North America. I had a short phone conversation with him, but a few days later Malika phoned me to tell me that he would be lecturing in Hindi at a house in the West Island, about a ten minute drive from where I live. So I decided to go, as had I neglected to do so, I would have considered my own actions offensive to a Vaishnava.

Mangala Maharaj was very gracious to me, and he spoke a lot of Hari katha, mostly about gopi-anugatya from the Chaitanya Charitamrita. Mangal Maharaj is a classic Gaudiya Math preacher. Of course within the GM there are various styles, and perhaps MM is a bit extreme even by the standards I am refering to. His lecture consists almost entirely of quotes from the Bhagavatam and Chaitanya Charitamrita. He showers them down on the listener with gale force at relatively high volume. I personally find such a presentation fairly invigorating and I was attentive for the whole two and a half hours.

When the panditji and pujari from the local Hindu temple arrived, along with one or two others, Maharaj gave a more formal lecture, speaking on the Holy Name—


The bulk of his lecture was built around the tuNDe tANDavinI verse. Since the audience was mostly learned—the two brahmins from the temple are both fluent in Sanskrit, the owner of the house is a retired university professor, etc.—I think Maharaj was well appreciated.

Since I myself was trained up originally in this Gaudiya Math approach, I still have the tendency to speak in this way. But I am going to try to wean myself off it, as I don't find it altogether successful in what I want to achieve.

I love the verses, but I need to concentrate on the quality of the language of communication. I am getting the idea that I will be called upon to speak in Hindi again, so I am working on improving my skills in that language, so that I will be able to enhance the dramatic and poetic effects of the lecture. The mood is what is important. The siddhanta is only half the picture. There is an element of, dare I say it, rajo-guna in all this hurried flurry of Sanskrit and Bengali. We don't need a thousand siddhantas a minute, we need to build slowly to the pinnacle of truth and then dive from there into the ocean of rasa. And then back up and back in.

Ananta Das Babaji has long been my ideal , as he seems to have this classic balance worked out pretty perfectly.

*****

My one regret this week was that I did not get to talk about and glorify Radha. The tuNDe tANDavinI verse got me thinking about this followup verse from Vidagdha Madhava, and I even started telling it at Dr. Dube’s house, but I could not finish—




And yesterday, after talking for a while with Prahlad, I told him I wanted to speak about Radha, and I even chanted this verse—



Everyone was busy putting away the sound equipment and tidying the set, so the time was not right. But I still pray that my tongue be always engaged in relishing her nectarean holy name, that my feet may once again tread the lovely walkways of her dham, that my hands may be engaged in her service and my heart always absorbed in meditation on her feet. And my my love for her Prananath always be experienced through the festival of her mood.

Jai Radhe! Please bless me that this prayer will become true for me. When will Radharani consider me worthy?

********

So these different approaches are to a great extent dependent on the type of audience one gets. There is a chemistry between speaker and listeners. Prahlad has developed a unique approach that is still evolving. But he is constrained by the New Age sensibilities of his target audience, and perhaps limited by a certain attachment to them himself. But he is very sattvika, and so I give him good points. Can we talk about the meaning of Radha-bhava to this audience? Is there a way?

OK, alam ativistarena.

Oh, please! vadatu vadatu!

Let your tongue be engaged explaining the meaning of Radha-bhava while we let our ears to be engaged in listening and relishing the nectar you are about to offer.

Jay Radhe!

Advitiya-ji,

What happened to those pics about Jagat-ji and Bodhayan Maharaj that you were trying to upload?

I think this is it. I look kind of strange here, that's why I never posted it. That's Malika on the left playing the harmonium.

[attachmentid=1912]

Brushed up on the image a bit. Malika singing with harmonium? You do have a recording of that, don't you?

I envy your world Jagat, it sounds so conducive to bhajan. While not having much else to add, I would just like to say that I relish these spiritual blogs of yours and encourage you to post them as you like. Thank you very much.

Looks like you three are on a traveling party; Marketing the Holy Names!
Beautiful, evocative, if you will.
----------------------------------------------------------





REQUEST:

O great souls who are the travelling salesmen and store-keepers of our market of the Name, we humbly request you to send in the name, village, address and district in clear writing of any pure Vaisnava whom you may know. In this way we can request them to allow us to print their name as a travelling salesman in our Sri Nama Hatta newspaper.

Signed by the Sri Nama Hatta sweeper,
the fallen worthless servant,
Sri Kedarnath Bhaktivinod,
Surabhi Kunj, Godruma Dvipa,
Sri Navadvipa Dhama
===========================

Since I mentioned Anuradha and Prahlada in the previous post, here's a picture. Anuradha is Bodhayan Maharaj's disciple (though she received Harinam from Puri Maharaj) and Prahlada received, as far as I know, initiation from Sridhar Maharaj, Harinam from Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Prahlada's website is patrickbernard.com. Here are some other sites--Review of Supreme Moment, Atlantis Angelis.

This is what Mangal Maharaj -jI said to me before leaving for Vancouver, something praiseworthy and inspiring for our Jagat -jI. I like to put it in his own words:

"Montreal -e aneker saGgei paricay holo, harikathA bollAm kintu JagadAnander mato ar ekTi lok Ami pAi nAi | unAr saGga karben,-bujhlen? ar sab saGga parityAg karen | oi sab pA~cmezAlI kathA zunAr kono prayojan nAi | amuk-nArAyaN, tamuk-nArAyaN, satyanArAyaN sab bAd den | unar saGge kiJcit harikathAdi AlocanA karben - sukha habe| unAr ruci Ache | sedin Dube-jIr bAPIte (bArIte) uni AsAy Ami harikathA bolte anek utsAhita bodh karlAm "- ityAdi|

মন্ট্রিয়ল্ -এ অনেকের সঙ্গেই পরিচয় হল, হরিকথা বললাম, কিন্তু জগদানন্দের মতো আর একটি লোক আমি পাই নাই | উনার সঙ্গ করবেন,-বুঝলেন ? আর সব সঙ্গ পরিত্যাগ করেন | ওই সব পাঁচমেশালী কথা শুনার কোন প্রয়োজন নাই | অমুক্-নারায়ণ, তমুক্-নারায়ণ, সত্যনারায়ণ সব বাদ দেন | উনার সঙ্গে কিঞ্চিত্ হরিকথাদি আলোচনা করবেন - সুখ হবে | উনার রুচি আছে | সেদিন দুবে-জীর বাড়ীতে উনি আসায় আমি হরিকথা বলতে অনেক উত্সাহিত বোধ করলাম |"- ইত্যাদি |

Please translate the above praise to english for greater mass. It is always a pleasure to hear and talk about glory of such vaishnava.

My "sasradhdha" pranam to you Jagat Ji.

Jay Nitai

I did my part giving the original. Now I leave it to Madhava.

I suppose Madhava is busy in reviewing last minute delivery to his client, before leaving for Braja, so I decided to go ahead with the translation, for others.

"I have met with lots of people in Montreal, we discussed Hari Katha , but I have not seen a single person like Jagadananda. Mallika, try to associate with him. Are you getting my point? Try to abandon all other associations. There is no need to listen mixed opinion. Give up all these this Narayan and that Narayan, Satya Narayan. If you discuss Hari Katha with him a little, you will feel happy. He has elevated taste, ruchi. Because of his presence at Dubey Ji's house, I felt great enthusiasm to speak Hari Katha. ....."

- ---- Mangal Maharaj -jI


Jay Nitai

zreyAn sva-dharmo viguNaH

The gods of this earth
dragged me bound and chained
to the battlefield of choice.

Amidst the noise and rain,
they laughed and said,
“Behold the armies here aligned
and survey what will be lost,
and see what, if aught, you'll gain.”

My feet were motionless,
cemented to my dharma.e

They laughed and said, “Look:
There is no direction or aim,
no task but to do one’s duty,
day after day, without Sabbath.” (1)

“Stick to your wretched dharma,
there is hope for you,
only if you learn detachment
from your hopes.” (2)

I strained to see the Eleusian fields
that had once been held up as hope.
“Will I get this from my dharma?”
I cried, and they said, “Nope.”

“Surrender!” urged the worldly gods.
“Do your karma ! Take your karma !
Fear for sankara of the varna !
Worry for the kula dharma!

"Ho ho! Show your stuff to them who disdain
your gods. Love means you’re not a stain
on your guru's spotless raiment.
Love means you take the pain,
even when there’s nothing
in this world or the next to gain.”

And as an afterthought,
"Save yourself from shame."

“Make your choice, make your choice!” They egg'd.
“The choice has long been made,” I said.

“It has been made by my concrete boots,
and by this tree with both upward
and downward roots,
for I have eaten of its
shrivelled, lifeless fruits.”

[**This cannot be! This cannot be!
Did I have no real choice
that would have set me free?]

*Quotations (1) and (2) from Religions in Four Dimensions by Walter Kaufmann (NY: Reader's Digest Press, 1976). Pages 290 and 242 respectively. I added the words “from your hopes” in (2).
** To be whispered.

This section of the forums has been renamed "Thoughts and Journals", and officially now includes "sort of blogs", so I'm moving Jagat's blog over here. Please do keep posting, we love to read.

I am making an announcement for anyone in this neck of the woods. This Saturday, I will be kicking off my Niyama Seva with an adhivasa at Kutichak Das's place in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts. I will be speaking on the Yajnapatni chapter of Gopala Champu.

Starting the following day, I will begin a home program of evening classes through the month, in which I will continue with the same lila. It's a little out of the way for those who live in Montreal, but phone me for directions at 450-682-1948.

Giridhariji welcomes you all.

And a happy Ekadasi to everyone today.

Cool! Hare Krishna! Jaya Radhe!

My own "neck of the woods" is 3 hours south of Montreal. I hope to keep up with your Festivals, so to attend someday.

after posting i noticed that you are from Montreal (cool city with a Royal Mountain in middle) but in your invite it says......."It's a little out of the way for those who live in Montreal" what is that all about?

Giridhariji ki jay!

I'm going to bring my harmonium and some "batasa"-s.

I am in Laval, the suburb to the north of the city. If you have a car it's no problem. City bus is a little complex. Anyway, you're welcome. I am going to try to have a festival on the Purnima at the end of the month.

It might be a little difficult for me to do every single day of the week. So, right now, the idea is to have kirtan and path on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Since we go up to Val David every weekend, I told Kutichak that I will come each Saturday for the duration of Niyama Seva.

There was a small group of only five people this time. But I had fun. As usual, once the tap was open it was hard to close it. I had the intention of speaking on Gopala Champu, but I ended up talking about Jiva Goswami's life and explaining the first verse after the mangalacharan--



When it comes time to explain a verse like this, it is amazing how much stuff there is to discuss, especially when it requires starting from the ground up. What is a Sandarbha? What is the Krishna-sandarbha? What is siddhanta? Why is calling siddhanta nectar? What is relishing? What is rasa? And what does poetry have to do with it?

It may be a little too much.

OK, so until Wednesday, then. Bring your friends.

I have been doing pretty much nothing today. I started my Karttika vrata on Ekadasi, and so far, it is going fairly well. The trouble with Karttika is that there are so many things going on. It is sandwiched by two rasa lila purnimas, Govardhan Puja is in the middle along with Gopastami. The last ekadasi marks the end of Chaturmasya, which for Vishnu worshipers is an important occasion, as Vishnu wakes up from his four month slumber.

I'll be posting the Karttika-mahatmya on GGM shortly (I seem to have left my memory card at my in-laws). It was full of mostly uninteresting stuff, though I liked the story of the brahmin who took care of a starving chandala who turned out ot be Vishnu (those kinds of stories are a little too rare in the Puranas, and always it's nice to find one that confirms the idea of "Daridra Narayan"). I also did HBV 16, with the commentaries, which is exclusively about Karttika vrata. There is, unfortunately, a rather glaring difference between the KM in the Padmapurana and the one that is quoted in HBV, practically none of the verses cited are found in the PP I have to hand. There seems to be some fluidity between the Skanda and Padma Puranas, and often verses that are said to be in one are found in the other.

As you probably know, our ishta-devi, Srimati Radharani, is not mentioned much in the HBV. She gets a couple of mentions in this chapter, however.



These verses are followed by the Damodarastakam, which has already been on GGM with Sanatan's commentary for some time. And a very nice commentary it is. Sanatan is pretty amazing, actually. I have been going through HBV 5 of late also, and his knowledge of the kalpa (mantra)-shastra is pretty incredible. I'll come back to that in a minute.

In HBV 16.400 ff. there is another reference to the story of Chandrakanti, which is cited in connection with bhava and prema arising from Raganuga bhakti (e.g., BRS 1.3.14, 1.4.7-8). This story is one that is ostensibly found in the Padma Karttika-mahatmya, but is not in my edition. The connection is to the Prabodhani, i.e., the awakening of Vishnu at the end of Chaturmasya. The benefits of staying up all night on this ekadasi at the end of Karttika are vaunted, and Chandrakanti is given as the example, which sheds a little light on the references). HBV 16.400 states that this jagaran is always great, but especially so if done at Krishna's Janmasthan, so that is something to consider for all who will be in Braja at that time--do all night kirtan at the Janmasthan on Ekadasi.

Even more interesting is the fact that this section of Padma Purana seems to be called the Radhikopakhyana. I'd like to get a hold of that and see it from beginning to end. These verses apparently come at the conclusion of that section.



So this is interesting. Since we don't have the original text, but only these little bits quoted in BRS and here, we are curious. Thank goodness Sanatan has given a little more info in the commentary.

"An apsara named Chandrakanti asked of Lord Brahma, "Amongst all the gopis, I will become the most dear to Krishna." And Brahma said, "So be it." Krishna made good on this promise. These things are explained extensively in the Padma Purana's Karttika Mahatmya. [ ] Now here it must be said that Radha is Krishna's most beloved eternally and no one can take her place. Even so, Krishna did so to keep Brahma's word and it is said in this way in order to defuse any feelings of envy others may have. So therefore Krishna danced with Radha."

So it looks like Chandrakanti merged into Radha. Is that what is being said? Certainly we cannot have it that Chandrakanti became Radha. It must be something like the Drona and Dhara story, where they "became" Nanda and Yashoda.

As a further curious aside--though Chandrakanti is given as an example of raganuga bhakti, it appears that the story as originally told was just another of these puranic stories meant to incite people to follow a vidhi, in this case, the jagaran on Prabodhani eve.



More on the HBV from chapter five. In my continuing research on the Gopala mantra, I have been looking at HBV 5, which cites Krama-dipika extensively. This chapter is really the section of the HBV where all the tantrika elements jump right out at you--all the different kinds of nyasas, bhuta-suddhi, pranayama, etc., etc. Going through the commentaries on bhuta-suddhi were interesting. It's a bit much to translate, but pranayama is an integral part of the bhuta-suddhi process. One is to chant the vayu bija 16 times mentally for puraka, 64 for kumbhaka, 32 for recaka. This is to be accompanied by meditation on the "papa-purusha" or the embodiment of one's sins. With the vayu bija one dries the papa-purusha. Then with the agni bija, one burns him, etc. I think that this would make a great visualization exercise also. I have heard of similar such exercises (burning one's doubts, etc.), but this one seems to have particular power.

There is also much talk of the chakras in this section. The reference to Brahma-samhita is of course there--sahasra-patraM kamalaM. The thousand-petalled lotus in the cranium, where Goloka is supposed to be situated.

I find all this particularly interesting because of the ongoing curiosity about tantrik elements in Hinduism and Vaishnavism. In my other reading, I have been going through a Hindi book by Hajari Prasad Dvivedi on Kabir, the great Sant Bhakta of the 15th century. Dvivedi is almost overwhelming in his enthusiasm for discovering the connections between Kabir and the Nath yogis, who must have been very influential at a certain time, as there were over 10 million of them in India in the 1931 census. Of course, now they exist as a separate caste, not as a religion, and many of them converted to Islam, and many are Vaishnavas in Bengal (like Radha Govind Nath). Goraksanath is the founder of Hatha Yoga. Whether he is the fellow who started all the speculation and sadhana of the kundalini, I don't know (probably not), but certainly he and his sect contributed to it greatly. They claim that tantra is an offshoot of yoga.

But though it is of great interest to dwell on all these connections, I just want to cite one statement that recurs throughout all these texts--in the Yogis, in the Sants and in the Sahajiyas--to quote Guru Nanak--jo brahmANDe soI piNDe, jo khoje so pAve : "Whatever is in the universe can be found in the human body. He who seeks shall find."

All these groups map the universe with its higher and lower planets, with the ultimate perfection of spiritual existence in the highest place, onto the spinal cord, with the thousand-petalled lotus in the skull representing the highest achievement. For the Vaishnavas, this is the location of the Paramatma (see HBV 5.65 and elsewhere) or of Goloka and the Yoga Pitha. N.B. I have not yet come across any mention of Kundalini sadhana in the Hari-bhakti-vilasa.

And this is why we get only this much of nectar?

Radhe, Radhe!

So Giridhari had his first guests last night, three to be exact. I was wondering all day what to do. I decided that I wanted to use the traditional Vaishnava kirtans rather than those used in IGM, so I spent some time printing them out in usable form.

We sang the "Nityanandadvaita Gauranga" kirtan and I ended up taking an hour and a half to discuss the Pancha Tattva, the different biographies of Mahaprabhu, Kheturi, the importance of the Chaitanya Charitamrita in establishing a concept of Mahaprabhu that had lasting power, etc. So this is the second class I have given, and both times I have ended spending most of the time talking about history. It was totally unplanned--I had actually been intending to talk about the concepts of antar-mukhi and bahir-mukhi... I am sure things will settle down soon.

I think Giridhari is happy, by the way.

One day, Radhe,
When I become your handmaid,
I will comfort you.

I will help you master
a thousand ways to forget Krishna,
each way a nail in the mansion
of his memory.

We will hold hands,
we will share tears;
the black blood in our marrow
will mingle.

One day, Radhe,
when I become your handmaid,
I will comfort you.

But right now, Swamini, it is this I pray:
Please, O please, comfort me today.