Do you know this Babaji?

[Nityānanda dāsa]

I have been corresponding with one devotee named Ujjal Nilomani das, who is a disciple of Jai Nitai das Babaji. Baba is a disciple of Sri Tinkodi Baba, and so I'm wondering if Nitai or Jagadish or Ramdas know this Baba. If so, anything you can tell us about him please? Attached is a photo of him.

[JD33]

Nitai-Gaur, Radhey-Shyam; Hare Krsna, Hare Ram.

I am so Happy and pleased to know my beloved Guru Dadaji is still alive and looks quite accomplished in Bhajan.

Kindly email me the photo. Jai Nitai Dass Babaji Maharaj lived with me and Baba (Gurudev) and the other Babajis for quite some time, but I do not remember him coming to Orissa and Bengal when Baba (Gurudev) got sick.

He moved to Candra Sarava after Baba passed. I went to visit him there and he was so happy picking flowers for devi puja. He is a great person now-a-days I think. Look at his eyes in the photo - He KNOWS !! LOL - I love it !!

[Nityānanda dāsa]

Here's another photo and I'll email them to you as well...

Jai Sri Radhe! 🙏

[JD33]

Nitai-Gaur, Radhey-Shyam; Hare Krsna, Hare Ram.

He is really happening now - due to the devotion of his sisya(s) no doubt.

[JD33]

Nitai-Gaur, Radhey-Shyam; Hare Krsna, Hare Ram.

Kindly send just the first one. Thx.

[JD33]

Nitai-Gaur, Radhey-Shyam; Hare Krsna, Hare Ram.

What are your thoughts about him? Do you think he is worth a visit?

[Nityānanda dāsa]

Radhe Radhe Jagadish Dada!

Yes, the second photo is certainly photoshopped by one or more of his students. It would be nice to see the original and I hope you dont mind I passed it along. I imagine Baba wouldn't be happy about that one being circulated.

At present, I dont know Baba at all, which is why I was asking about him here. Can you tell me more of what you recall about him? How was his sadhana when you knew him? How was his relationship with your Gurudev and vice versa? What was his personality like?

I ask because I'm considering to ask diksa from him. It would be nice to have a connection to Sri Tinkodi Baba! Of course I need to find out more about him. I only know very little. I plan to send him a letter through his students within the next few days.

All I have heard about him is that he has only a few disciples, lives at Govardhan, and does madhukari (daily?). I believe he is busy in his bhajan and he doesn't have a phone.

That's all I know. I'll keep you posted as I learn more. Jai Sri Radhe!

[meeno8]

Can't really say that I remember him, but it could be that we were in the same place at the same time. Then again it was a very long time ago.

[JD33]

Nitai-Gaur, Radhey-Shyam; Hare Krsna, Hare Ram.

Govardhan is special place for my Gurudev and his sisyas, I am glad to hear he is back there. I wonder if he lives alone - it sounds like it.

He is small in stature and has interesting moving eye(s) - he lived with us and did the bhajan we all did. He use to get angry at times with doing physical seva - but he was not lazy at all. He was younger than the Mature Babajis and older than the young idealistic ones - this might be why in my mind he stood out alone or different.

From his first photo it is clear to me he is a Bhajaanandi. It has been over 40 years since living together with BABA. He has been living in Vraja since then and kept his Babaji vows, etc and Bhajan Niyam - AND does Madukari - he looks quite good as a prospective Diksa Guru. My Gurudev did not teach Lila Smaranam - unless Jai Nitai Dada got such siksa - do not expect to learn from him such things.

Kindly know that doing Holy Names bhajan is the sadhana of all CV practioners with or with out actual Lila Smaranam. I think it was Western Sisyas of Radha Kund Mahanta Pandit Ananta Dass Babaji Maharaj that populorised Lila Smaranam as if it was the main practice to do. RK Lila is Realized with the Holy Names.

[malati]

Jul 28, 2020 18:35:43 GMT -6 JD33 said:

Nitai-Gaur, Radhey-Shyam; Hare Krsna, Hare Ram.


Kindly know that doing Holy Names bhajan is the sadhana of all CV practioners with or with out actual Lila Smaranam. I think it was Western Sisyas of Radha Kund Mahanta Pandit Ananta Dass Babaji Maharaj that populorised Lila Smaranam as if it was the main practice to do. RK Lila is Realized with the Holy Names.

I doubt what you said about Lila smaranam. It's a practice in our parivar. I was given an insight into my eternal swarup as a basis for my role/service to Radha Krishna Lila. After Advaita das, I'm only the other devotee in the Sri Sadhu Baba's parivar who is from the west.

And if my memory serves me right, I believe I've read quotes from the writings of our foundational acharyas alluding to or clearly mentioning the practice of remembering the Lila as foundational to CV.

[meeno8]

I would have to concur with Malati on this one. Although our Baba was not giving instruction in lila-smaranam himself (at least not to me), the siksa guru of Pandit Ananta Das Babaji, 108 Krishacharan Das Babaji was instructing me in that practice. What that clearly indicates is that it is not required to get that instruction from the diksha guru, when one can get it from a siksha guru that is willing to teach that. One of the other babaji's gave me a copy of the gutika, and our Baba approved of my having that to use in sadhana.

With respect to who chooses to incorporate lila-smaranam into their practice, and those who do not choose to do so, I would say that is an individual matter.

[meeno8]

American Madhusudan Das Babaji (sisya of Lalita Prasad Thakur), who took bekh from a babaji at Syamkund, was learning the ropes of all the lilas around Braj mandal with the other babajis, in order to get full immersion in the asta-kaliya lila-smaranam practice. He was staying with us at Krishnacharan Baba's ashram back then. He returned to America later and was playing guitar with a band. Then he went to University of Chicago to get his degree, and lives with his wife (not sure if they have kids) in North or South Carolia (I forget which state).

[JD33]

Nitai-Gaur, Radhey-Shyam; Hare Krsna, Hare Ram.


Dear Malati,

You are correct - all Rasik Practioners should read about and remember RK Lila. However, I capitilized Lila Smaranam (LS) to indicate it being something in and of itself, i.e. a specific detailed practice. LS is a two year minimum Intensive Training given by a Shiksa Guru (sometimes one's Diksa Guru). This is what I am referring to above (and elsewhere on this forum) where I mention LS. Usually the sisya (student) knows at least one of four languages: Sanskrit, Bengali, Hindi, Oryia AND lives with the Guru for those two years - or at least close by. In some Linages it is only given to renounciants. And so with this explanation I hope you can now understand the topic I was talking about above.

Since the last 30 years there has slowly been changes in CV Tradition, where there is a shift to ease and other changes I wish not to mention.

I am glad that you pointed this out to me - so that others do not mis-understand what I am saying and therefore be discouraged in any way from reading the Bhagavat - especially 10th book. and of course other writings on GN & RK including Rasik commentaries, and the lives and Teachings of Siddhas and Saints.

[meeno8]

In BRS, Rupa lists smaranam as one of the 64 angas (limbs) of bhakti, but I don't believe he specifies asta-kaliya, which is included in the detailed practice of daily smaranam at the eight times of the day/night. Is the history of the current practice something that can be traced back to its origination in time somehow? Maybe Pandit Nitaidas can shed some more light on that.

[Nitaidas]

Jul 30, 2020 8:48:57 GMT -6 meeno8 said:

In BRS, Rupa lists smaranam as one of the 64 angas (limbs) of bhakti, but I don't believe he specifies asta-kaliya, which is included in the detailed practice of daily smaranam at the eight times of the day/night. Is the history of the current practice something that can be traced back to its origination in time somehow? Maybe Pandit Nitaidas can shed some more light on that.

I don't know who Pandit Nitaidas is, but since he is not answering I guess I will. The story goes (from Radhakrishna Dasa Goswami's paddhati) that Sri Rupa on his death bed gave Krsnadas Kaviraj on overview of the practice and asked him to develop it in detail in a long work of poetry (aka Govinda-lilamrta). Rupa is supposed to have written the 10 verses that present the astakaliya-lila-smarana practice in brief. I think I started a translation of that work once upon a time (Dasa-sloki). It is probably already somewhere on this site, but in case it isn't, you can download it here. Sorry for the odd colors. I was experimenting in those days. And. of course, the work is not complete, but all of Rupa's verses are there. I just have not finished Radhakrsna Das Gosvami's commentary on them. Also, in my view the verses lack Rupa's panache and so were probably written by Krsnadas Kaviraj who was a more pedestrian, but adequate poet. I tell the story of the revelation of the practice in the introduction. Thus, it is a late practice, not really included in the BRS except perhaps in seed form when Rupa introduces mAnasa-seva, the siddha-deha and in the sthayi-bhava section the notion of bhavollasa-rati, the sthayi-bhava of manjaris. This practice (astakaliya) is really more than simple smarana. It is a full-fledged visualization practice not unlike the visualization practices developed in Bengal by tantic Buddhists eight centuries earlier.

My understanding is that the concept of Rupanuga really originates with this practice. Those who developed and adopted it were in the truest sense Rupanagis, whether it is true that Rupa created it or not. As far as the tradition is concerned Rupa did it. The term is first used, I believe, by Radhakrsna das Goswami. If so, this would definitely exclude IGM from being Rupanugis because they completely ignore, discredit, and condemn this practice. So the last thing the sods over at IGM are are Rupanugis. They don't even know the meaning of the term.