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Post by meeno8 on Dec 8, 2019 16:54:48 GMT -6
A Gujarati bhakta I know asked me the other day how I would describe the difference between meditation and prayer. I replied in so many words that in the West someone might pray to have their broken ankle healed, for example. In our tradition we pray for Krishna-prema to manifest for us. Of course we can pray to Our Lady, Srimati Radhika, for whatever our hearts desire. However is that not what our hearts should always be desiring above all else? We could pray directly to that one who plays his flute in the forest, but what would be the point when we can pray to her? The maha-mantra is sufficient in and of itself without mentally or verbally praying for what we really want, is it not?
These are rhetorical questions, so please do not reply to those, but feel free to jump in and discuss this topic.
Thanks for reading my posts here, everyone!
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Post by Nityānanda dāsa on Jul 11, 2020 12:19:06 GMT -6
Radhe Radhe!
Some quick, non-thought-out thoughts. Or maybe they're non-thawed-out...
Do the gopis and gopas pray? Do they meditate? Or do they just yearn to play and dance again with Radha and Krishna, as they sleep in their Gokula beds?
Maybe they pray to Vishnu or Siva? "That was a close call today! Krishna was almost eaten by that big snake in the Yamnua. Please Vishnu please protect Krishna!!"
Is prayer non-raganuga? I don't know. It seems that the Gosvamins pray to Radha Krishna, so is that vaidhi or raga? Can there even be vaidhi towards them?
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Post by Īśvaradāsa on Jul 11, 2020 16:06:51 GMT -6
Radhe Radhe! Some quick, non-thought-out thoughts. Or maybe they're non-thawed-out... Do the gopis and gopas pray? Do they meditate? Or do they just yearn to play and dance again with Radha and Krishna, as they sleep in their Gokula beds? Maybe they pray to Vishnu or Siva? "That was a close call today! Krishna was almost eaten by that big snake in the Yamnua. Please Vishnu please protect Krishna!!" Is prayer non-raganuga? I don't know. It seems that the Gosvamins pray to Radha Krishna, so is that vaidhi or raga? Can there even be vaidhi towards them? Radhe Radhe! Well, my personal view in short is ‘yes’. The difference between vaidhi and raganuga is not so much in the actions themselves, but in the motivation behind them. The rest of the answers I feel you can find them in the Bhagavata itself (am I getting too CV now?) take another look at the ending portions of the Kaliya and Govardhan lilas there, or at the Gopi Gita itself, or is it that perhaps that’s why you’re posting these thoughts? While practicing or performing sadhana we might need to stay clear from some pernicious practices and ideas that might conflict with our objective, but in the Siddha stage there’s no such consideration, the hints or overt references to Krsna’s divine nature made by Nanda Baba or the Gopis themselves are not hindering their feelings for him. I think something similar happens during Mahaprabhu’s teachings to Sanatana, all the talk about aisvarya leads Mahaprabhu to an ecstatic state after which he dwells into Krsna’s madhurya which he discusses next. I believe Prema is beyond theism/atheism, religious or secular, and in it Rasa manifests even in the absence of the external ingredients, in fact even things unrelated get turned into stimulants for it, in the end madhurya overrides any intrusion of actual aisvarya awareness. Anyway, there’s a lot of nuance to this conversation that I’m avoiding because I believe you already know all of this, probably better than I, so I won’t expand unnecessarily, still I hope I haven’t made this too cryptic. Nitai has written about this extensively as well, so he could chime in and correct me or expand on his own views about it, these are just my two cents. |
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