Blog Description


This blog is for sharing one of the six loving exchanges between vaishnavas - bhajana katha sravanam alapa - sharing and discussing bhajan topics with devotees.

It is also my humble attempt to follow the instruction my gurudeva would give at the end of every class: take these pastimes and instructions into your heart. Therefore in the hopes that it will make some impression in my heart, I am sharing lecture notes, quotes, book excerpts, and other words from the brahma-madhva-gaudiya sampradaya and vaisnava/is around the world.


Saturday, June 4, 2011

Nectar about vyasa puja and Bilvamangala Thakura





om ajnana timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah

O Gurudeva, you are so merciful. I offer my humble pranama unto you and am praying from the core of my heart that, with the torchlight of divine knowledge, you open my eyes which have been blinded by the darkness of ignorance.


Here is one quote from Srila Gurudeva, related to vyasa puja, on bonafide guru:


"The guru never thinks that he is making so many disciples. These are all Krsna's wealth. They are all very fragrant, very smooth, and very sweet flowers. Guru takes them and offers them at the lotus feet of Srimati Radhika. Guru only does this. He never thinks, 'Oh, all the disciples are my property.' Never!

"A real guru thinks that all the disciples are very sweet, fragrant, small flowers of Radha and Krsna Conjugal. The guru offers the disciple like a flower at Radhika's lotus feet. She then places that flower in a garland and puts that garland around Krsna's neck."

[Cessnock, Australia, February 1, 2000]




Here is more nectar from Sripad Madhav Maharaja's book "Srila Gurudeva: The Supreme Treasure":


[After blinding himself and arriving in Vrndavana with Krsna's help], Bilvamangala found himself alone. He called out to the boy for a long time, but there was no answer. Finally he thought, "How is it that we have arrived in Vrndavana so quickly? It must be by the influence of that black cheater. That black fellow came to me and said, 'I am also going to Vrndavana', and brought me here very quickly. If He does not give me darsana again, I will not eat or drink; I will fast to death."

If an advanced devotee such as Bilvamangala Thakura has a wish, Krsna is bound to fulfill it, so Krsna felt obliged to give him darsana. He came before him again, but this time He was not alone. He was with his internal potency, His svarupa-sakti, Srimati Radhika.



The sweet young couple came very close to Bilvamanagala, and at a certain point, Krsna said to Radhika, "Don't go any closer."

"Why not? What is the harm? What will he do?" She asked.

"He will catch You."

"How will he be able to catch me? He's a blind fellow."

"Yes," replied Krsna, "he is blind, and blind people have very sharp hearing. They can understand how close a person is by the sound they make, so don't go too close."

"It's all right. I'm still far enough away. He can't catch hold of me."

Through this exchange with Srimati Radhika, Sri Krsna was conveying a message to Bilvamangala. He was moving closer to him, and at the same time telling Radhika, 'No, no! Don't go too close. You're almost within his reach. He'll catch you!' Sri Krsna was actually telling Bilvamangala, "We are very close to you, and you can catch hold of Srimatiji."

Bilvamangala immediately caught hold of Srimati Radhika's lotus feet.

"Thief! Thief! Let me go! Let me go!" She cried.

Krsna said, "What did I tell You? I warned You not to go so close. Blind people are expert at hearing. Now, what can be done?"

"I will not give up Your lotus feet," said Bilvamangala.

"What do you want?" asked Srimati Radhika.

"I want to have darsana of both of You."

Radhika then put Her hand on Bilvamangala's head, and his sight was restored. Seeing the beauty of Sri Radha and Sri Krsna, Bilvamangala wept and continued to hold on to Srimatiji's lotus feet.

She said, "You can let go of My feet now."

"No, I will not."

"Oh! Why not? What more do you want?"

"Please make me blind again."

"Make you blind again? Why do you want that?"

"Now I have seen the beauty of You two. Especially, Srimatiji, I have seen Your lotus feet, and Your beauty. Now I do not wish to see anything else in this world. I want to keep Your lotus feet always in my memory and the beauty of Your beloved in my heart. I do not want anything else."


Friday, June 3, 2011

Srila Gurudeva, the Supreme Treasure



om ajnana timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah

O Gurudeva, you are so merciful. I offer my humble pranama unto you and am praying from the core of my heart that, with the torchlight of divine knowledge, you open my eyes which have been blinded by the darkness of ignorance.



I LOVE this picture of Gurudeva. It is a very favorite of mine. I look at this picture, and there is Gurudeva looking straight back at me. I feel like he is seeing everything in me, and yet he has such a sweet smile on his face. I am soo foolish, yet he still smiles. And how much love is in that gaze!!

After Gurudeva entered nitya-lila, I attended a very nice program in his honor. This particular picture of Gurudeva was there. When I offered my flower to him, I felt like, yes, his photo is non-different from him, he is right here before me and he is looking right at me. It was a wonderful feeling.

This colored copy I found in Sripad Madhav Maharaja's new book, "Srila Gurudeva: the Supreme Treasure", which has just recently came out. I snagged an early copy from Vasanti didi. I am reading it now, and it is SO nectarean! Madhav Maharaja has so much love for Gurudeva. He has so much knowledge; he even said, Gurudeva would make him give classes on guru-tattva all the time.

I had to stop, even absorbed in my reading as I was, when I came to this picture...it just makes me cry and smile and laugh and cry again...

Here is an excerpt from Sripad Madhav Maharaja's book:


"Service to guru is the backbone of devotional absorption. Whoever wants to enter into the realm of bhajana must first dedicate his lie to the service of a bona fide guru. Such a guru will never consider the disciple to be his own property. Rather, he will consider the disciple to belong to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and the Divine Couple, Sri Sri Radha-Krsna. The bona fide guru will transfer the disciple's attachment and dedication for himself (for guru) to Them.

Although he is an expansion of Sri Krsna, he never considers himself to be Sri Krsna; he always thinks that he is His eternal servant.

Our beloved Gurudeva, Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Goswami Maharaja, is such a guru. Whoever reads this work will have a clear conception of the subject of Srila Gurudeva and his teachings. This book will be like a lighthouse that guides those aspirants who want to progress in Krsna consciousness to reach spiritual perfection. Just as Srila Vyasadeva got inspiration by hearing the life history of his gurudeva, Sri Narada Rsi, one can get inspiration from hearing the biography of Srila Gurudeva. Without hearing about and serving sri guru, no one can advanced in Krsna consciousness either now, or in the future.

The mercy of sri guru and the vaishnavas is causeless, as it is independent of any material cause or piety. It is only by such causeless mercy that the jiva can obtain the merciful, sidelong glance of the eternally youthful couple of Vraja, Sri Radha and Sri Krsna, and join Them in Their eternal loving pastimes."


Srila Gurudeva ki JAI! Sri sri guru-varga ki JAI!

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Sripad BV Madhav Maharaja LIVE classes in L.A.

Haribol,

Here you can catch live streaming classes by Sripad BV Madhav Maharaja, who is currently speaking in Los Angeles.

Classes are at 8AM in the morning, perhaps 8:30, and I believe 6PM in the evening.


Live Video streaming by Ustream

To find classes going on later, go to www.ustream.tv, search for user name "saci68" and, on that channel page, you will find any live classes going on at 8AM and 6PM.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Bhavocchvasa



Quote:

Bhavocchvasa...means an outburst of feeling which expresses the bhava hidden in the hearts of the gopis. How does this occur?

The gopis were silent and Krsna was silent. They were feeling the mood of separation. The gopis were weeping and feeling very distressed at heart. But suddenly Krsna approached Srimati Radhika from behind and clasped His hands in front of Her eyes. She knew it was Him by the touch of Hish hands, but She did not let on that She knew. She exclaimed, "Visakha," and Krsna laughed, trying to restrain Himself.

Srimati Radhika was feeling overjoyed. Then just to increase Krsna's mood, She said, "Yes, I know. You are Lalita."

Then Krsna could not check Himself anymore and He at once began to laugh very loudly. Then Srimati Radhika said, "Oh You, You, You, You!" After this They embraced.



This is an example of bhavocchvasa.Srimati Radhika is always experiencing bhava within Her heart. But if an uddipana comes and makes these moods come out from the heart so that everyone can see, it is called bhavocchvasa.

This bhavocchvasa is so powerful that it cannot be checked by anything, just as the flow of a swift-moving river cannot be checked."


- from Gurudeva's commentary on Mahaprabhu's Siksastakam, at the end of the book Sri Siksastaka

The supreme object of human attainment





om ajnana timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah

O Gurudeva, you are so merciful. I offer my humble pranama unto you and am praying from the core of my heart that, with the torchlight of divine knowledge, you open my eyes which have been blinded by the darkness of ignorance.



My two-week-long absence from home has prevented me from posting here. But today, I am going to post a couple posts sharing more from Srila Gurudeva's Sri Siksastaka (which, let me remind, includes commentary by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, and Gurudeva on Mahaprabhu's Siksastakam).

I am currently reading the book's glossary, having finished this beautiful book today, upon arriving home from Los Angeles. I had a wonderful stay at the Radha Govinda Mandir on Rose avenue! It is such a beautiful temple. I was there for two weeks, and my stay included classes by Damodara Maharaja and the Appearance of Lord Nrsinghadev. =D More on that later...I have pictures I hope to figure out how to upload from my phone...

Today our entry is on the Goals of Human Attainment. This is an entry in the glossary under P called "purusartha":


"In the Vedic scriptures [the goals of human attainment] are classified into four categories: 1) dharma - religious duty, 2) artha - acquisition of wealth, 3) kama - satisfaction of material desires, and 4) moksa - liberation from material existence.

Beyond all of these is the development of unalloyed love for the Supreme Lord who is the embodiment of spiritual bliss and transcendental rasa. This is known as parama-purusartha, or the supreme object of attainment. Since this is truly the ultimate goal, why have the scriptures declared the other four as goals to be attained? By careful analysis, the underlying purpose of the sastra may be understood in this regard.



There are many different classes of men in material existence. Their tendencies and tastes are not all the same. Their aspirations may be roughly divided into the four categories mentioned above. When these four are analyzed comparatively in terms of their respective merits, it is seen that kama is lowest, then artha, dharma, and finally moksa.

In other words when these are viewed in terms of the development of consciousness, then it is seen that those in the gross bodily consciousness seek only kama. When one progresses beyond this and desires satisfaction of the mind and intellect, he seeks artha to fulfill his goals. When one looks beyond this life to the next life and aspires for superior enjoyment in the hereafter, he pursues dharma by which his goal may be accomplished. When one completely abandons the quest for material enjoyment and aspires freedom from material existence, he seeks moksa.



Thus when considered in this order, these four goals represent the successive development of human consciousness...If those who desire nothing other than bodily happiness can be encouraged to adopt religious principles to fulfill their goals, then they will develop morality and a sense of duty. If they develop faith in the Vedic principles, then by coming into the association of devotees they can be purified and aspire for the ultimate goal of bhakti...

Therefore, understanding all these points, one should strive for the parama-purusartha of krsna-prema."


[Art courtesy of BBT]