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Post by Īśvaradāsa on Feb 12, 2020 8:26:25 GMT -6
Caitanyaism for us Westerners has absolutely nothing to do with varnashram and brahmin caste. We were not born into that system, so it is irrelevant. We are outcastes according to that system. For those born into that system, that is their own affair, just as US citizenship for people born in the USA is our own affair. If one is baptized as a Christian, then they have to remain a baptized Christian, even if becoming also a Caitanyite. Since baptism is basically a samskara, then it is not like it can be reversed somehow. It is a right of passage, just like mantra diksha or marriage. Truth to power may seem like some fantastic platitude, but I think we have to be practical. There is little point in storming the ramparts of the IGM institution with siege engines and catapults. Some will continue to stay behind its walls and moats full of alligators, because they find safety in that from the world of 'karmis', and others will find their way out somehow. I don't see critical thinking as some act of bravery, quite frankly. And that is really all that is required to reject apasiddhanta and leave any institution that fosters it. Nitai led the rest of us out of IGM with the torch of knowledge either directly or indirectly, however, so we are indebted to him for that and not being shy about sharing his findings. Thanks for your kind words Minaketan dasji. The truth is that I was pulled out of ignorance, at least ignorance of the true history of IGM, by Dr Kapoor. When I was head pujari at the Krsna-Balaram Temple I used to go visit him at his Radharamana Temple apartment while everyone else in the K-B temple took their siestas. One afternoon out of the blue he told me the story of Bhaktisiddhanta and his fake initiation by Gaurakisora Das Babaji. It blew my mind. I was in shock for weeks. I came back day after day and asked him question after question. He told me the story of Ananta Vasudeva and his last address to the assembled sannyasis and bhaktas of the GM in Delhi in which he told them all that they may as well all go home and get married because they are all leading lives of lies. He told me of Ananta Vasudeva's escape and hiding out in Vrndavan and his eventual reappearance as Puridas Mahasaya and his leadership of the mysterious Chippi Galli group. Nilamadhava dasji suggested that the rumors of his suicide were spread by his well-wishers to protect him. This may well have been the case. Later Srivatsa Goswami filled in the story by telling of how his father took Puridas in and protected him. Dr Kapoor also told me about his own discovery of his true guru in the person of Sri Gauranga Das Babaji whose ashrama is just a few doors down from the Krsna-Balarama Temple. He and his wife were re-initiated, or perhaps more truthfully initiated for the first time, by Gauranga Das Babaji. I asked Kapoor if he would initiate me into the tradition, but he declined. Instead, he sent me to Tinkudi Baba who in his view was the leading siddha baba in Vraja at the time. That is how I eventually found my way out of ISKCON. Kapoor's advice to me was to get genuine diksa from one of the authentic lines and stay in ISKCON. Some day I would become an initiator in ISKCON and I would have the real empowered mantras to pass on. He felt that was the best way to drag ISKCON out of the ditch and on to the authentic path of Mahaprabhu. It took a lot of courage for Kapoor to pull me aside and tell me all of this. He was a friend of Bhaktivedanta's and could have suffered tremendously from his ire and the craziness of BV's disciples. Anyway, it was the grace of Mahaprabhu and especially, I think, of Nityananda Prabhu. As pujari I felt specially close to Balarama at the Krsna-Balarama Temple. I even named my daughter Jahnavi. Well, these are all things you have all probably heard before. I suppose it does not hurt to repeat them. No one has taken up my challenge concerning the identity of Radhika and her name. Kanupriya Goswami seems to suggest that sakti-tattva do not have the quality of being identical with their names (in his Nama-cintamani). That is a trait that is only true of saktimat-tattva. But, if saktimat and sakti are themselves non-different, then should not sakti-tattva also not be non-different for their names? What is the siddhanta here? About that last paragraph, you don’t think Kanupriya Goswami was talking about the bahiranga sakti? |
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Post by Ramdas on Feb 12, 2020 8:53:46 GMT -6
That yuga cycle does not jibe with the fossil record, so it must be rejected on the basis of pramana. We can't just blindly accept everything in Sanskrit texts, if we are to consider ourselves critical thinkers. What we know from historical records is that (as Pinker points out in Enlightenment Now and Angels of our Better Nature) human society worldwide has been evolving towards a more humanist (and far less violent) one for millenia. That is what we call progress. He also points out that we still have challenges with climate change and countries with nuclear arsenals that could unleash them in acts of aggression, but we have had over 70 years of peace with no major wars between nation states (these civil wars, skirmishes, etc. do not count). Will there be a WWIII? The trend does not indicate that at all.
I don't reject jyotish, because I have seen it in action in financial markets. The agents of karma (the nava graha, or nine plantets, which include the sun and moon that are not technically planets) do influence events on earth at a macro scale, so there is some cause (if you know what to look for) for all the plagues, influenze pandemics et al throughout history. Even at the micro level, a French astronomer (yes the guys who look through telescopes, not astrologers that cast horoscopes) found a clear statistical correlation between persons' rising signs and their chosen occupations. The issue one of my astronomy professors in college had with astrology (and that is only Western astrology) is that it does not use the actual position of the planets in the sky. Indian astologers, on the other hand, are very meticulous about making sure the positions are very precise based on where they are when you point a telescope at them in the sky.
People are still reading books and periodicals in print. In fact now that has been trending back up the past few years over people reading on screens. I prefer not to type anything on my phone. The keyboard is just way too small for my fat fingers. I use it mainly as a phone to have conversations. The only app I use other than that (when in the waiting room at the chiropractor) is the Chess app. It is very good and difficult to beat.
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Post by Ldd on Feb 12, 2020 10:37:16 GMT -6
I don't agree with the lengths of each Yuga .. the way most people interpret them. Only science and God can know the truth ..
I type on one finger on Android. I don't have a computer with me all the time. I have a mere netbook. And rarely use it.
Thus my posts are always short and scrappy.
I think we have to maintain a positive hopeful spirit for the future of bhakti. Esp if you go to India now, you will see the need. The bigfoot homosexual demon and his thousands heads of foreign disciples are working hard to suck out the last drop of purity from vrindavan.
I firmly don't believe in all singing and chanting they do, I'm the opposite of impressed. ( I Hate It) In fact I stopped believing in musical presentations all-together, for what it has become.
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Post by Ldd on Feb 12, 2020 11:19:26 GMT -6
Speculations: I think we are not far from destruction, ( we are in Kaliyug) it will be partial. Thereafter more godless civilizations will spring up. As they keep up the path of destruction, the earth will withdraw it's potency. It could be an ice age or heat age. Not sure of timing. But sastra say 425,000 more yrs to go till the end.
At some point Kalki is scheduled to come and kill everyone.
But how is he to go across the planet on a horse? Except if the continents join back together, (possiblity of that occuring) and the horse is very powerful.
To me that's puzzling. Not sure about it. But no way to determine at the moment.
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Post by Nitaidas on Feb 12, 2020 13:56:44 GMT -6
Thanks for your kind words Minaketan dasji. The truth is that I was pulled out of ignorance, at least ignorance of the true history of IGM, by Dr Kapoor. When I was head pujari at the Krsna-Balaram Temple I used to go visit him at his Radharamana Temple apartment while everyone else in the K-B temple took their siestas. One afternoon out of the blue he told me the story of Bhaktisiddhanta and his fake initiation by Gaurakisora Das Babaji. It blew my mind. I was in shock for weeks. I came back day after day and asked him question after question. He told me the story of Ananta Vasudeva and his last address to the assembled sannyasis and bhaktas of the GM in Delhi in which he told them all that they may as well all go home and get married because they are all leading lives of lies. He told me of Ananta Vasudeva's escape and hiding out in Vrndavan and his eventual reappearance as Puridas Mahasaya and his leadership of the mysterious Chippi Galli group. Nilamadhava dasji suggested that the rumors of his suicide were spread by his well-wishers to protect him. This may well have been the case. Later Srivatsa Goswami filled in the story by telling of how his father took Puridas in and protected him. Dr Kapoor also told me about his own discovery of his true guru in the person of Sri Gauranga Das Babaji whose ashrama is just a few doors down from the Krsna-Balarama Temple. He and his wife were re-initiated, or perhaps more truthfully initiated for the first time, by Gauranga Das Babaji. I asked Kapoor if he would initiate me into the tradition, but he declined. Instead, he sent me to Tinkudi Baba who in his view was the leading siddha baba in Vraja at the time. That is how I eventually found my way out of ISKCON. Kapoor's advice to me was to get genuine diksa from one of the authentic lines and stay in ISKCON. Some day I would become an initiator in ISKCON and I would have the real empowered mantras to pass on. He felt that was the best way to drag ISKCON out of the ditch and on to the authentic path of Mahaprabhu. It took a lot of courage for Kapoor to pull me aside and tell me all of this. He was a friend of Bhaktivedanta's and could have suffered tremendously from his ire and the craziness of BV's disciples. Anyway, it was the grace of Mahaprabhu and especially, I think, of Nityananda Prabhu. As pujari I felt specially close to Balarama at the Krsna-Balarama Temple. I even named my daughter Jahnavi. Well, these are all things you have all probably heard before. I suppose it does not hurt to repeat them. No one has taken up my challenge concerning the identity of Radhika and her name. Kanupriya Goswami seems to suggest that sakti-tattva do not have the quality of being identical with their names (in his Nama-cintamani). That is a trait that is only true of saktimat-tattva. But, if saktimat and sakti are themselves non-different, then should not sakti-tattva also not be non-different for their names? What is the siddhanta here? About that last paragraph, you don’t think Kanupriya Goswami was talking about the bahiranga sakti? Kanupriya Goswami simply says sakti-tattva. That passage is a bit ahead of where I am in the book ( Nama-cintamani) at present. He may clarify it more later. I was a bit surprised, though, and it does make sense in terms of describing just bahiranga-sakti. I thought it would be an interesting meditation on the ontological status of Radha's names. Siddha Manohar das Babaji makes the point that Krsna loves to hear the names of his bhaktas more than his own names. That is in the first few verses of Baba's Vaisnava-vandana. He also cites support for that view from our acaryas. He doesn't anywhere, as far as I can tell, say the gopis are their names in his Gopinamaratnamala, but it may be implied. That needs more study. There are many subtle considerations here. Certainly Radhika is part of many of Krsna's names, Radharamana, for instance. And when Mahaprabhu says that Krsna has injected all of his powers in his holy names, doesn't that imply that Radha is there in Krsna's names? An interesting question, possibly most useful as a way to keep both Radha and Krsna in our minds.  |
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Post by Nityānanda dāsa on Feb 15, 2020 9:11:44 GMT -6
Speculations: I think we are not far from destruction, ( we are in Kaliyug) it will be partial. Thereafter more godless civilizations will spring up. As they keep up the path of destruction, the earth will withdraw it's potency. It could be an ice age or heat age. Not sure of timing. But sastra say 425,000 more yrs to go till the end. At some point Kalki is scheduled to come and kill everyone. But how is he to go across the planet on a horse? Except if the continents join back together, (possiblity of that occuring) and the horse is very powerful. To me that's puzzling. Not sure about it. But no way to determine at the moment. Why couldn't Kalki's horse fly or walk on water?  |
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Post by Ramdas on Feb 15, 2020 11:45:31 GMT -6
First of all, tectonic plates move very, very slowly. So for continents to converge is going to take at least tens to hundreds of millions of years.
Secondly, when it comes to ages that last a long time, there is only actual evidence for ice ages, and periods in between as ice sheets advance and retreat over hundreds of thousands of years. We know the cause also: The gravitational pull of the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn on the earth's orbit around the sun. That evidence is in the form of the fossil record and ice cores drilled deep into arctic and antarctic ice sheets.
When it comes to forms of evidence, among others, there is appeal to authority (in this conversation, the Sanskrit texts or shastra), and direct perception (pratyaksha). For those of us in the field of software engineering, the ultimate authority is good design and implementation principles which have been evolving for the past 70 years or so. If the code in the app is good code, then the people using the app can see that it works as expected (pratyaksha), as well how well it works for their purposes. But is the code in conformance to good engineering principles? That takes an authority in writing code, i.e. someone who is knowledgeable of those principles, to make a determination. If changing one line of code breaks the app in unexpected ways, then that is a strong indication of badly designed code.
Does Kalki need an actual horse? Maybe the horse and the sword are just metaphors for some super transport and weapons of the future, even more powerful than the ones we have around today. Maybe spacecraft with phasers, like in Star Trek. I like that idea, personally. Is my inner trekkie showing?
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Post by Ramdas on Feb 15, 2020 14:01:07 GMT -6
Empires and nation states rise and fall over the centuries and millenia. Socrates described political cycles in The Republic by Plato:
Socrates discusses four unjust constitutions: timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny. He argues that a society will decay and pass through each government in succession, eventually becoming a tyranny, the most unjust regime of all.
The starting point is an imagined, alternate aristocracy (ruled by a philosopher-king); a just government dominated by the wisdom-loving element. When its social structure breaks down and enters civil war, it is replaced by timocracy. The timocratic government is dominated by the spirited element, with a ruling class of property-owners consisting of warriors or generals (Ancient Sparta is an example). As the emphasis on honor is compromised by wealth accumulation, it is replaced by oligarchy. The oligarchic government is dominated by the desiring element, in which the rich are the ruling class. The gap between rich and poor widens, culminating in a revolt by the underclass majority, establishing a democracy. Democracy emphasizes maximum freedom, so power is distributed evenly. It is also dominated by the desiring element, but in an undisciplined, unrestrained way. The populism of the democratic government leads to mob rule, fueled by fear of oligarchy, which a clever demagogue can exploit to take power and establish tyranny. In a tyrannical government, the city is enslaved to the tyrant, who uses his guards to remove the best social elements and individuals from the city to retain power (since they pose a threat), while leaving the worst. He will also provoke warfare to consolidate his position as leader. In this way, tyranny is the most unjust regime of all.
In parallel to this, Socrates considers the individual or soul that corresponds to each of these regimes. He describes how an aristocrat may become weak or detached from political and material affluence, and how his son will respond to this by becoming overly ambitious. The timocrat in turn may be defeated by the courts or vested interests; his son responds by accumulating wealth in order to gain power in society and defend himself against the same predicament, thereby becoming an oligarch. The oligarch's son will grow up with wealth without having to practice thrift or stinginess, and will be tempted and overwhelmed by his desires, so that he becomes democratic, valuing freedom above all.
So... that is the reality, and now we have the American empire, which has supplanted the British empire globally, which in turn was just the original Roman empire reconstituted. Progress has brought about a near-utopia for industrialized nations, which hardly smacks of so-called 'kali-yuga' with a descent into barbarism and chaos. The Roman empire's democracy falling to barbaric tribes in Europe, however, does match up with some sort of dark age with the feudal system and fiefdoms, and historians do refer to that period up until the Enlightenment and Age of Reason as the dark ages.
The question is this: What does any of this really have to do with people and their religiosity or lack thereof? If anything, there is historically an inverse relationship between religosity and genuine humanism and non-violence, at least in general. I think a lot of that has to do with appealing to the authority of religious institutions and throwing common sense and critical thinking out the window. And Pinker does a very through job of demonstrating that in his writings. There are common threads of ethics and morality across cultures, and there are also differences between them, depending on the cultures in question. Traditional societies under scrutiny have show themselves to be more violent than agrarian ones, despite the romantic notion of the 'noble savage'.
OK... off soap box. Essay over. No applause needed - just throw money.
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Post by Nitaidas on Feb 15, 2020 15:52:16 GMT -6
Empires and nation states rise and fall over the centuries and millenia. Socrates described political cycles in The Republic by Plato: Socrates discusses four unjust constitutions: timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny. He argues that a society will decay and pass through each government in succession, eventually becoming a tyranny, the most unjust regime of all. The starting point is an imagined, alternate aristocracy (ruled by a philosopher-king); a just government dominated by the wisdom-loving element. When its social structure breaks down and enters civil war, it is replaced by timocracy. The timocratic government is dominated by the spirited element, with a ruling class of property-owners consisting of warriors or generals (Ancient Sparta is an example). As the emphasis on honor is compromised by wealth accumulation, it is replaced by oligarchy. The oligarchic government is dominated by the desiring element, in which the rich are the ruling class. The gap between rich and poor widens, culminating in a revolt by the underclass majority, establishing a democracy. Democracy emphasizes maximum freedom, so power is distributed evenly. It is also dominated by the desiring element, but in an undisciplined, unrestrained way. The populism of the democratic government leads to mob rule, fueled by fear of oligarchy, which a clever demagogue can exploit to take power and establish tyranny. In a tyrannical government, the city is enslaved to the tyrant, who uses his guards to remove the best social elements and individuals from the city to retain power (since they pose a threat), while leaving the worst. He will also provoke warfare to consolidate his position as leader. In this way, tyranny is the most unjust regime of all. In parallel to this, Socrates considers the individual or soul that corresponds to each of these regimes. He describes how an aristocrat may become weak or detached from political and material affluence, and how his son will respond to this by becoming overly ambitious. The timocrat in turn may be defeated by the courts or vested interests; his son responds by accumulating wealth in order to gain power in society and defend himself against the same predicament, thereby becoming an oligarch. The oligarch's son will grow up with wealth without having to practice thrift or stinginess, and will be tempted and overwhelmed by his desires, so that he becomes democratic, valuing freedom above all. So... that is the reality, and now we have the American empire, which has supplanted the British empire globally, which in turn was just the original Roman empire reconstituted. Progress has brought about a near-utopia for industrialized nations, which hardly smacks of so-called 'kali-yuga' with a descent into barbarism and chaos. The Roman empire's democracy falling to barbaric tribes in Europe, however, does match up with some sort of dark age with the feudal system and fiefdoms, and historians do refer to that period up until the Enlightenment and Age of Reason as the dark ages. The question is this: What does any of this really have to do with people and their religiosity or lack thereof? If anything, there is historically an inverse relationship between religosity and genuine humanism and non-violence, at least in general. I think a lot of that has to do with appealing to the authority of religious institutions and throwing common sense and critical thinking out the window. And Pinker does a very through job of demonstrating that in his writings. There are common threads of ethics and morality across cultures, and there are also differences between them, depending on the cultures in question. Traditional societies under scrutiny have show themselves to be more violent than agrarian ones, despite the romantic notion of the 'noble savage'. OK... off soap box. Essay over. No applause needed - just throw money. Push that soap box over to me, baba. It's my turn. You imply that democracy follows oligarchy and presumably that is what we now have in the USA, but I say that we still have an oligarchy. The elections are just for show (just the rearranging of deck chairs on a sinking ship --George Carlin) and whoever is elected is in the pockets of the oligarchs. They control what he or she says and does. Big oil, big pharma, big insurance, they call the shots on the basis of having bought the candidates long before they were nominees. Thus we see that two (Klobuchar and Buttigieg) of the three candidates for the Democratic party nomination have been bought by the oligarchs. Only Bernie has so far escaped this fate. Sadly even Obama was bought and sold before he stepped into office. No need to mention any Republicans here. They are all sold into slavery to the military-industrial complex. So the sad truth is that we have not seen democracy yet in the US and may never see it. The Electoral College is the clearest evidence of a refusal to let the voice of the people be heard. Gandhi should have said "Western civilization, it's a good idea and so is democracy. Someone should try it." Anyway, what can we do about it except lament. Democracy depends on a qualified populace and most of our fellow citizens really don't deserve the right to vote, a purely ignorant lot. How can a democracy work if the people are ignorant and unable to think to the degree that they do not even know what is in their own best interests? And is this a godless society? Fuck no! We have more god-goonies in the USA than anywhere else in the world! The God-goonies are busy osculating the Orangutan-in-chief's butt more than any other group. It is not secularism that has brought us to this sad state; it is too much theism and the profound ignorance that requires. Let's pull our heads up out of the ground or our asses and look around at what is really going on. Okay. I'm done. Who is next? Here's the soap-box. |
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Post by Ramdas on Feb 15, 2020 16:17:37 GMT -6
Exactly, and that was not my point mahashoy ji. I am with you on the oligarchs' reign that has been around since the founding fathers, and really picked up steam along with the billionaire boys club that emerged with the industrial revolution of the 19th Century. I just view politics as just another form of entertainment, which it pretty much as always been. Who is really in charge at any point in time? Elected officials? People with huge bank accounts? Military generals?
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Post by Ramdas on Feb 15, 2020 16:53:31 GMT -6
From my own experience over the decades, the only levels of government that are really palpable are the state, county and local levels. We had civics in grade school, high school and college, which mainly dealt with the exective, legislative and judicial branches of government, but hardly touched upon the other 99% of it, which is all the agencies that keep the lights on, the bridges and skyscrapers from falling down, and another black plague sweeping the populace, among many other functions. Now, when it comes to our one most palable municipal government, there are quite a few questions as to how and why our taxes are spent, or often mispent (if not outright wasted).
As I was saying, we now have the American empire, and we have garrisons in well over 100 countries to keep that empire intact, and ostensibly 'safe for democracy', whatever that is supposed to mean. Yep, everything tends to flow in one direction, as we consume more natural resources than any other nation.
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Post by Ldd on Feb 15, 2020 21:45:57 GMT -6
Esteemed mahashoys: We ask: Could Kalki's horse fly over water? IF GARUDA can fly interplanetary, this horse should be able to skip over water ( if it's a real horse, not a metaphorical one)
Kalki will be moving around on his carrier lopping off remaining heads. (I guess in the spiritual domain, anything is possible esp when it's an incarnation, just see how quickly Krishna moved between locations in India on chariots) and with today's transport it takes days by train. Shiva moves on a bull, and Durga on a tiger - fascinating... Major devotees in animal form serving God. Real cool that Bhagavan is an animal rights champion !
But Kalki's birth will be in India. Will India be in a position to sustain human life half million years from now? By the super-mystic power of Bhagavan, it will obviously. These things take faith to believe in. We don't know enough to challenge anything. Bhagavan is so gracious to give the opp to help us realize we don't know much (me ie.). I give thanks to the sun-god daily for providing light to see my own hands...Even pratyaksha depends on Him.
Politics of today: Driven by gold. How? Kali (a sudra king) was given shelter by Almighty Gold. Thus Kali-yug = the age of iron and plastic, controlled by Gold. The white house orangatun is a symbol of all this. Just so every other leader and monarch etc (one percent of populace) who control the world's wealth.
Xtianity was once upon a time noble - till the greed for money and vice became the main force (there are still sincere Christians in the world, they just do not have a voice ( the same problem sadhus are facing)
A king should be ksatriya that could lead wars. Our sudra kings and presidents work for bankers and merchants and can't even shoot a paper arrow (sudra by nature but ambitious) And they want to be elected - and who raises the most money wins. They keep distracting people day and night, I think a devotee should never pay attention to it.
A shoe salesman could maintain a nice household in the 80's, now he can't even afford to rent a cardboard roof over his head, and people are so dense headed, they continue to vote...
"Let the dead bury the dead" "Many shall be called, but few shall answer" ... Jesus Christ.
With all that, we still have to present hope for the good innocent people left. Krishna did not forget them, he just didn't care about the bad ones..
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Post by Ldd on Feb 15, 2020 22:20:04 GMT -6
Be careful not to blaspheme Trump, for he may have more potential of becoming a bhakta - due to not taking association of vaishnava aparadh (together with hearing something about Krishna) I have more hope for him than a lot of those people chanting naam (so call)
Those who are sinful but remain offenseless - is the larger group we hold out hope for..
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Post by Īśvaradāsa on Feb 15, 2020 23:06:32 GMT -6
About that last paragraph, you don’t think Kanupriya Goswami was talking about the bahiranga sakti? Kanupriya Goswami simply says sakti-tattva. That passage is a bit ahead of where I am in the book ( Nama-cintamani) at present. He may clarify it more later. I was a bit surprised, though, and it does make sense in terms of describing just bahiranga-sakti. I thought it would be an interesting meditation on the ontological status of Radha's names. Siddha Manohar das Babaji makes the point that Krsna loves to hear the names of his bhaktas more than his own names. That is in the first few verses of Baba's Vaisnava-vandana. He also cites support for that view from our acaryas. He doesn't anywhere, as far as I can tell, say the gopis are their names in his Gopinamaratnamala, but it may be implied. That needs more study. There are many subtle considerations here. Certainly Radhika is part of many of Krsna's names, Radharamana, for instance. And when Mahaprabhu says that Krsna has injected all of his powers in his holy names, doesn't that imply that Radha is there in Krsna's names? An interesting question, possibly most useful as a way to keep both Radha and Krsna in our minds. Yes, I agree, that was just the impresión I got from reading his statements in the ‘Awakening’ section (p.xxxix), I'm looking forward to see what else he says. Actually, this reminded me of something in the Foreword by P. Tarkabhusan (p. xiv), about the distinctive traits of the eternal names of the lord: “All objects have names. Objects can be roughly divided into three categories: 1) dull matter, 2) living beings, and 3) the supreme lord. Among them the supreme lord’s name in not different from the supreme lord. The other names are different from the objects named [this is what I think Kanupriya Goswami is referring to]. There is something more to be said on this matter. The supreme lord has so many modern names that are not mentioned in the scriptures. All those names are different from the eternal or scripture-evidenced names in that a modern name brings about the goal of human life by causing the one named to be remembered. But, when repeating an eternal name there is no need for remembering. Whether one remembers the one named or not, uttering the name alone brings about the highest human objective. There is such power in the eternal names of the lord.
Apart from this, there are other distinguishing traits of the immortal names of the lord. Take for instance this: 1) when one repeats other names, that is, when one repeats any name apart from the eternal names of the lord, since the name is different from the one named, remembering the one named only brings about some desired worldly objective. Or, if, even though one repeats the names of others, one agrees with the philosophy that “all names are the names of the lord,” then it is possible to achieve the highest goal. Nevertheless, in that case, it is still by means of remembering the lord that one achieves the highest goal of human life. In contrast, by repeating the names of the lord himself, without depending on remembering the one named (i.e., the lord), one will be cultivating the highest goal of human life in the form of bhakti.”Radha and Krsna would be both eternal names in this sense, sharing the same nature rādhā kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī śaktir asmād
ekātmānāv api bhuvi purā deha-bhedaṁ gatau tau
caitanyākhyaṁ prakaṭam adhunā tad-dvayaṁ caikyam āptaṁ
rādhā-bhāva-dyuti-suvalitaṁ naumi kṛṣṇa-svarūpam
rādhā-kṛṣṇa eka ātmā, dui deha dhari’
anyonye vilase rasa āsvādana kari’(CC. Adi lila 4.55-56) I think this is why Prabhodananda Saraswati says: यज्जप्तं सकृदेव गोकुलपतेराकर्षकं तत्क्षणाद् यत्र प्रेमवतां समस्तपूरुषार्थेषु स्फुरेत् तुच्छता। यन्नामाङ्कितमन्त्रजापनपरः प्रीत्या स्वयं माधवः श्रीकृष्णोऽपि तदद्भुतं स्फुरतु मे राधेति वर्णद्वयम्॥ yaj japtaṁ sakṛd eva gokula-pater ākarṣakaṁ tat-kṣaṇād yatra premavatāṁ samasta-pūruṣārtheṣu sphuret tucchatā | yan-nāmāṅkita-mantra-jāpana-paraḥ prītyā svayaṁ mādhavaḥ śrī-kṛṣṇo’pi tad adbhutaṁ sphuratu me rādheti varṇa-dvayam || May these two letters of Radha's wondrous name
become manifest for me:
This name, which on being muttered
immediately attracts the Lord of Gokula,
which would make all the goals of human life
seem as nothing to the loving premika,
and the mantra composed of which name
Krishna Madhava himself
is dedicated to chanting with love.कालिन्दीतटकुञ्जमन्दिरगतो योगीन्द्रवद्यत्पद ज्योतिर्ध्यानपरः सदा जपति यां प्रेमाश्रुपूर्णो हरिः। केनाप्यद्भुतमुल्लसद्रतिरसानन्देन सम्मोहितः सा राधेति सदा हृदि स्फुरतु मे विद्या परा द्व्यक्षरा॥ kālindī-taṭa-kuñja-mandira-gato yogīndravad yat-pada- jyotir-dhyāna-paraḥ sadā japati yāṁ premāśru-pūrṇo hariḥ | kenāpy adbhutam ullasad-rati-rasānandena sammohitaḥ sā rādheti sadā hṛdi sphuratu me vidyā parā dvy-akṣarā || Hari goes to the forest bower abode by the Yamuna's banks,
and there, like a great yogi with eyes full of tears,
devotedly meditating on the light from her lotus feet,
enchanted by some amazing excited joy of erotic flavors,
he constantly chants that two-syllable mantra rā-dhā.
May those two syllables manifest always in my heart.देवानाम् अथ भक्तमुक्तसुहृदाम् अत्यन्तदूरं च यत् प्रेमानन्दरसं महासुखकरं चोच्चारितं प्रेमतः। प्रेम्णाकर्णयते जपत्यथ मुदा गायत्यथालिष्व् अयं जल्पत्यश्रुमुखो हरिस्तदमृतं राधेति मे जीवनम्॥ devānām atha bhakta-mukta-suhṛdām atyanta-dūraṁ ca yat premānanda-rasaṁ mahā-sukha-karaṁ coccāritaṁ premataḥ | premṇākarṇayate japaty atha mudā gāyaty athāliṣv ayaṁ jalpaty aśru-mukho haris tad amṛtaṁ rādheti me jīvanam || This name that is so far from the experience of the gods,
[Vaikuntha] devotees, liberated souls and Krishna's friends.
This name, which upon being chanted with love,
confers the ultimate joy of tasting the bliss of prema.
It is this name that Hari listens to lovingly,
sometimes murmurs, sometimes joyfully sings aloud,
and chatters incessantly among Radha's sakhis,
his face covered with tears.The nectar of Radha's name is my life.(RRSN 95-97, trans. by Jagadananda Das) Aside from this, another thing I thought about was what Jiva Goswami says: “Yet, even a person who is so resolved needs to chant specific names of Bhagavān that nourish his or her particular devotional mood. By singing the names of Bhagavān that are dear to him [that are in accordance with his or her specific devotional mood], he or she acquires deep love for Bhagavān (anurāga).
Follow that alone does the devotee's heart melt, and this then gives rise to a variety of different corresponding emotions, exhibited externally in the form of laughter, tears and so on”(Bhakti Sandarbha, Anu. 263, trans. by Jagadananda Das) Mani Babu expands on this last point, quoting Visvanatha, who recommends the kirtana of the names that fit one's own type of bhakti, including those of Gaura and Radha for those following in the madhurya path ( Nectar of the Holy Name, Blazing Saphire Press 2005, chapter 1, p.8) |
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Post by Ldd on Feb 16, 2020 7:35:51 GMT -6
I'm not saying that the horse of Kalki is metaphorical, It is real. Not everything is detectable, or provable. Human existence would be very much disturbed if allowed to see things like Garuda carrying Vishnu (only devotees could see it) ---- But they are allowed to see are the vimanas ( interplanetary ships that come here) because it would not be disturbing - it's similar to things they know. One proof we are in Kali-age is demons burdening of the earth @ the financial dominance of a Vasuki type specie in the form of Gates, Bezos, the Tesla guy and others (physical likeness = snake eyes, head. Siddhis: they are able to cross breed humans) trying to devour all the gold $$$ here. Could ONLY be stopped by Krishna and his mighty agents. The real problem we face is Red Riding Hood Wolf Acharyas representing Krishna and preaching worldwide on internet, very arrogant and accountable to no one..I think they are the ones Kalki is coming for. |
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