Various pranama-mantras -

Jaya Sri Sri Guru and Gouranga!

Are there any pranam for Ananta Das Babaji or the other babajis of radha-kunda?

Ishvarananda Das

See this topic from a week ago:


http://www.gaudiyadiscussions.com/index.php?act=ST&f=4&t=894

Anyway, the specific answer is, 'No there is no individual mantra for when offering obeisances as in Gaudiya Math and Iskcon'. If one wants to say a mantra, then 'Vancha kalpa...' is sufficient, and can also be said standing up.

The Babajis do have an interesting little thing they yell out when offering obeisances after the Prema-dvani 'ki-jayas' after Arati, which is that while evryone is still on the ground they all yell in unison:

Jaya Jaya Sri Raaadheeeeeeee Shyam Nitai Gaur Haribol!


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As well as that, after evening Arati at the Radha-Gopinath Mandira in Radhakunda, where the Ananga Manjari murti is supposed to be an image of Sri Jahnava Ma, the Babajis all assemble and chant a set of prayers which Advaita has briefly described in the references forum, loudly in unison every evening.

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I think that a Pranam mantra to the entire Parampara is given in some lineages, for the sadhaka to use in sadhana, especially Smaran.

Also there are many standard prayers to Sri Guru, see the Kirtan section for one, 'Jaya Jaya Sri Guru Prema Kalpataru...', which the sadhaka should say in the morning, doing Guru-Vandana as part of sadhana.

Otherwise Guru-puja to the Guru in person might be done once per year on Guru Purnima day.

But a specific prayer glorifying a devotee is not usually written or sung till they die. Then it is their 'Suchaka Kirtan', which is sung every year on their disappearance day.

Even in Gaudiya Math, neither the name nor the pranam mantra of the Guru is chanted in Kirtan, eg 'Jaya Prabhupada'. I have heard Gaudiya Math acharyas tell their western disciples not to do this.

Bhaktivedanta Prabhupad may well be special and entitled to be praised constantly, especially by us westerners. I am not denying this. But generally it is not customary.

Nice to see you both in here....


I thought the "Sri Guru-Pranama": om ajnana-timirandhasya… would do that. Is not that mantra a prayer to one’s Guru and "Sri Vaishnava-vandana": vancha-kalpa-tarubyas ca… a prayer in a general way to glorify the entire Vaishnava community?



That is a real beautiful vision...
Joy Jahnava Ma !

Yours,

That sounds good.

With 'Vancha kalpa..' you may be right, I would have to say now I am not sure whether it is used when offering obeisances to specific devotees at all, but just Vaishnavas in general as you say. Perhaps Advaita could clarify.

I do my prayers like that, Sri Guru-Pranam to Sri Guru and Sri Vaishnava-Vandana to Sri Goura-Bhakta-Vrinda.

I'm Ok in doing that and I fell it has a certain mood... But as you said, may Advaita Das-ji has his views to share; for sure will be nice to know how is the mood of these prayers and other conceptions of these prayers in his Gurudeva's line?

Radhe!

ys,

Aspirants that come from Iskcon should understand first of all that this world of raganuga bhakti is not one unified church - there are countless branches of the Caitanya tree and each of them has specific practises and theories. The Jaya Prabhupada-style kirtan is indeed nowhere in sight, not even in the Gaudiya Math. Guru Pranam mantras are scarce too, although they are mentioned in the paddhatis of Gopal Guru and Dhyanacandra Gosvamis. In my Guru's branch there is a personal Sanskrit pranam mantra for my Guru (don't know who composed it), but mantras are usually not mumbled when one's face is on the pavement (while offering obeisances), this is typically an Iskcon habit. There is also the Bengali song Ashraya Koriya Bando Sri Guru Carana, written by Sanatan Das, which is very popular among all branches of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and which you can find on my site under Songs and Verses. Vancha Kalpa Tarubhyas Ca is chanted during mangalacaranas to Path by Pathaks, not while offering obeisances to individual devotees. I hope this satisfies, otherwise feel free to ask more.

They do that in Narayan Maharaja's group. Probably taken up from ISKCON.


Of course there are plenty of prayers out there one may offer to his guru. We have some we cite in our daily puja, ajnana timirandhasya being one of them.



Since a few years, they've had a rule that in addition to the guru's pranam mantra, one must also recite the first half of Bhaktivedanta Swami's pranam mantra. Thus it becomes something like:

namaH oM viSNupAdAya kRSNapreSThAya bhUtale |
zrImate aparasAkSa gosvAmin iti nAmine ||
namas te guru-pAdAya rasAsvAdana-mUrtaye |
prabhupAdAzraya-vAda sarva-deza-pracAriNe ||
namaH oM viSNupAdAya kRSNapreSThAya bhUtale |
zrImate bhaktivedAnta svAmin iti nAmine ||

The hardcore folks also mutter the optional "namas te sarasvati deve" on top of it all. This is particularly practical when you are amidst a big festival where everyone offers lamps to the deity, and the queue stands still when everyone mutters their murmurs on the floor for a couple of minutes.

That must be a really Iskcon thing, because when I visited S.C.S.M in Kola-dvipa the first thing I observed was that the woman staying in front all the time during the Kirtan and the second thing was at the end of the Kirtan, the prayers were recited stand up. From there on I never put my head on the floor any more. And when I asked to one Hindu man about that he said: When the demigods offer their prayers they do that in a standing up position. Prayers by the Demigods for Lord Krishna in the womb

To be honest, that was a relief to be discovered; besides all, one can’t see his beloved deities in that inconvenient position.



Thanks for that. I (with your blessings) probably will try to upload that on gouraprema@.

Sitanatha is a nice souce of information and inspiration.


The Guru-pranam prayer (in my humble opinion) has an universal appeal to the Guru-Tattva conception, in the sense that one can glorify his Guru with the understanding that Sri Nityananda is the original source of that inspiration. Vancha Kalpa is nice though and is very effective in glorifying one’s Guru, but I do have the tendency and inspiration to use that for a more general glorification.

Radhe !
ys,