Objectives of the Symposium

[Nitaidas]

The Caitanya Symposium seeks to explore various aspects of the Caitanya Vaisnava tradition in a non-traditional way. That is to say, the symposium exists to bring people together, scholars, devotees, and merely interested observers, to discuss the Caitanya tradition on the basis of a wide variety of sources of knowledge: scriptural as well as historical and text-critical. The main thrust then is the search for truth in the tradition, to try to decide on the basis of the best available evidence what is true in the tradition and what is false, what is essential and what is superficial, what is abiding and what is temporary accretion.

In order to further the goals of the symposium all views will be entertained and evaluated on the basis of the evidence. All participants are welcome. No view will be censored or participant expelled. Name-calling will be regarded as a vibrant part of the debates, an indication of hot-spots where important ideas or beliefs are in contention. But most of all, members are encouraged to bring their senses of humor to the symposium table. Much fun will be made. Such discussions should be fun.

The model of this forum is obviously Plato's delightful Symposium or Drinking Party, friends sitting around a table drinking, eating, telling stories, and talking philosophy. If too many years have gone by since you last read the Symposium in an introductory philosophy class, take some time and reread it. It is linked to another thread in this forum. That is the spirit that I hope will reign in the Caitanya Symposium.

take up your glass and welcome to the table,

Nitai Das

[subaldas]

Dear Nitai,

Thank you for creating this forum. The topics you listed and the objectives given sound very appealing to me. Thanks also to Harisaran for telling me about this.

[Nitaidas]

Hi Subaldas,

Glad to see you here. Hopefully, we will have some nice discussions over the next few months. This forum is rather large in scope and I hope that we can think about a large number of topics. I always look forward to your input.

[subaldas]

Thank you Nitai. I look forward to discussing these many topics with you too. I enjoyed your writtings on other forums. I think we both approach these subjects from a similar perspective, and I have long wanted to connect with someone of your caliber to work on the spiritual evolution of Radha Krishna devotion in the West. Aloha.

[Deleted]

Yes, thanks, Nitai. I get so sick of those other forums where everyone gets so serious and takes on a holier-than-thou attitude. It looks like you won't do that. You won't will you?

[Deleted]

Relax Rangadevi, no more of those horror N_A_Z_Y camps!

[Nitaidas]

Why does everyone seem so uptight on this board? Let's all relax some. No need for the clash of the titans, I mean egos. Are we all so invested in who we are and what we believe that we can't loosen our grips even a little? I hope not. Perhaps I am to blame. I started this forum after having had a bad experience at some other forum and maybe still stinging from that I come on a bit heavily. I want this forum to be a place where people feel free to experiment with ideas without feeling they will be condemned for thinking outside the usual limits of CV discourse. I don't think that can happen unless we somehow manage to get beyond our egos. What happened to that sense that CV involves a process of freeing ourselves from our egos and becoming humble? I'm not talking about false humility here. False humility is too facile and is really just another expression of the ego. If we really understood or even had an inkling of the immensities we are dealing with here, we would have to feel humble before them. So far the most humble person I have seen on this forum, myself included, is one I know not to have any connection with CV. It is disenchanting.

Anyway, I was hoping to find a few good men and women to try an experiment with me. I will talk more about that later. So far the prospects do not look good.

[Nitaidas]

We have such a learned and vocal group of members here, perhaps we need some sort of shared project to work on together. One thought came to mind: a series of commentaries written on some CV approved work in which we each express our interpretations of the work or text of the work. Perhaps eventually we might publish it as a cross-section of modern Caitanya Vaisnava ways of thinking. At the least we will learn from each other how we differ on some of the basic questions of CV in the modern context. The question is which work should we try this with? The Bhagavad-gita, Bhagavata, Caitanya-caritamrta, or something else? As an example, let's see what some of our members might say about the following verse:

Let us meditate on the real supreme [lord] from whom comes
the birth, [maintenance, and destruction] of this [universe] both
directly and indirectly, who is completely aware of [all] objects,
who is independent, who taught the sacred speech to the first poet
through his heart, about whom even the learned are confused, in
whom the tri-creation [three strands] is not false as in the substitu-
tion of fire, water, and earth for one another, and who by his own
splendor always roots out deception. (1)

All members are welcome to add their commentary on this. I will create a thread in the Bhagavata section and link it here:

caitanyasympos.proboards55.com/index.cgi?board=textualcriticism&action=display&thread=1184967626&page=1#1184967626

[madanmohandas]

Hey! don't you guys get out of bed on a Sunday? Radhe Syam!

[Nitaidas]

madanmohandas said:

Hey! don't you guys get out of bed on a Sunday? Radhe Syam!

Cleaning day for me. Had to sweep and scrub and mop and dust all day. One gets in touch with one's inner janitor, another little known form of Visnu who rarely appears the extant texts. He appears whenever dirt and dust are ascendant and cleanliness in decline. He has four arms: one with a broom, one with a mop, one with a dust cloth and one with a bottle of Windex. His mantra is om namo rajo-vinAzakAya. One of his vilAsa forms is the little bald guy on the bottles of Mr Clean.

[kingcobra]

Working on the Sabbath? What kind of Catholic are you anyways? I'm calling the Pope right now to have you excommunicated eternally.

[Deleted]

I think yesterday was Sunday.

Here was the question:

"Hey! don't you guys get out of bed on a Sunday? Radhe Syam!"

[madanmohandas]

So you did not get out of bed at all? That's a long time to spend merged in Brahman!

[Deleted]

If I remember properly that last Sunday I was up by 4:30am...

Nevertheless you are right, sometime ago I read that every night, when achieving the deep sleeping stage, the soul merges into Brahman...

BTW, while on the awakening stage; Here is something about the deep sleeping stage:

In deep sleep the individual soul rests in Brahman, but there is a thin veil of ignorance between him and the Supreme Soul. Hence he has no direct knowledge of his identity with the Supreme Soul, as in Nirvikalpa Samadhi or superconscious state. The Sruti declares "He becomes united with the True, he is gone to his own (Self)" (Chh. Up. VI.8).

In the Kaunutsaki Upanishad (IV.19) the three places are mentioned together: "In these the person is when sleeping he sees no dreams. Then he becomes one with the Prana (Brahman) alone".
Therefore Brahman is the resting place of the soul in deep sleep.

Click here: Brahma Sutras

[Deleted]

All this makes sound sense to me.