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Post by Nitaidas on Mar 19, 2011 14:58:30 GMT -6
Sorry, folks. It looks like I will not be able to participate much in the next few days. My father appears to be dying and I am about to head out with Betsy to be with him. I have little hope of getting there before he passes, but who knows? He is pretty tough. I expected that this would happen soon, but not this soon. Anyway, I will be back in a few days to pick up the threads. He has had a good life and it looks like he will have a good death. Life is impermanent. Death waits round the corner for each of us.
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Post by malati on Mar 19, 2011 15:47:23 GMT -6
Nitaidasji
Sorry to hear about your father. But you had it pat down right. We all have to go, sooner or later.
Dont worry about us.
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Post by JD33 on Mar 19, 2011 19:23:49 GMT -6
I also found alot of similarities between Caitanya V. and Tibetan Buddhist meditation..... I was going to make a study on it - maybe for a degree...... but then found I would rather do practice...... I am glad to hear your experience reading the life of Milarepa.
Hope your Father has a nice passing.
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Post by Ldd on Mar 20, 2011 12:42:53 GMT -6
me too. thats a nice way of saying it Jagadish. I like this.
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Post by Ekantin on Mar 20, 2011 20:02:59 GMT -6
Sorry to hear about your father Nitai. Hope he will be at peace.
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subala
Junior Member
Posts: 67
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Post by subala on Mar 23, 2011 4:18:43 GMT -6
Nitai...
Sorry to hear the news about your father. I'm sure everyone with be thinking of you at the difficult time...
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Post by gerard on Mar 25, 2011 9:25:51 GMT -6
I also hope your father has a peaceful passing, but as you have only one father I wish you strength in this difficult time for you.
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Post by Nitaidas on Mar 26, 2011 10:48:29 GMT -6
Thanks for all your kind wishes. I got back from Colorado the day before yesterday and had to prepare immediately for my class yesterday.
My father passed away peacefully when we were about two hours into our drive to Colorado (12-13 hour drive). He hung on most of the day and then when the nurses came in to change his position and clean him up he stopped breathing. I was out with him the week before and said goodbye to him then. It was, I believe, an auspicious day for his passing. It was Gaura-purnima, was it not? The moon was at its closest to the earth in a long time and hung large in the skies. It was also an important sacred day for Catholics celebrating St Joseph the Worker. He was indeed a very hard worker. The viewing of the body took place on Tuesday and the funeral on Wednesday. All went very nicely, mostly of course, to ease the sorrows of his survivors. The priest said all kinds of fantastic things during the mass and even I got up to read from the Old Testament (Book of Wisdom). My father in life did not believe in any of that nonsense and I hardly recognized him in the portrayal of the priest who did not know him. As I said, it was mostly a ceremony to ease our sadness at his departure. My uncles who are good Catholics really needed the pomp and circumstance. I would have been happy with a simple farewell, some poetry, and some good music. Afterwards many of us gathered at Delmonico Hall in Denver and had a big feast in his honor. It was nice getting in touch with my extended family again. We see each other all too rarely and then only on occasions such as this.
So according to Catholicism he is burning in purgatory, to Islam and Judaism in some sort of (tormented ?) sleep in his grave until Judgment Day, to Buddhism in Bardol on his way to his next body, in Hinduism before Yama (or perhaps because of the side effects of my sadhana, before Visnu), and according to the materialists he has vanished forever, his molecules spreading slowly throughout the universe.
He lives on in my memory as hard-working and competitive, positive in attitude and independent in thinking. I will miss him, indeed, but it has been several years since we were able to communicate in any meaningful way. He had a bad fall several years ago, damaging his brain and eventually making him into an invalid incapable of walking or of speaking more than a rare word or two. It was hard to see him like that.
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Post by malati on Mar 26, 2011 16:10:48 GMT -6
Niraidasji
May his peaceful passing lighten a bit the sorrow of separation being experienced by his loved ones.
You said: ........ according to the materialists he has vanished forever, his molecules spreading slowly throughout the universe.
Well, not exactly. Remember your physics -- the law of conservation of matter. It is this: matter can not be created or destroyed in a closed system. And as per E=mc squared, matter and energy are interchangeable.
Reflecting about this science , it makes me think that the matter that was once "you dad" is now an energy?
Reflecting on this still, it makes me think the Gita is speaking a truthful wisdom: Never was there a time when you and I did not exist.
Welcome back to your home!
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Post by Nitaidas on May 18, 2011 11:31:53 GMT -6
Hi All,
Just wanted to let everyone know that I am on the road now for a week or so. I will not be able to post some of the texts that I have been working because I don't have them with me. When I get back I will start posting regularly. Thanks to Malati for continuing her postings from the Padyavali. Anyone else got something to post?
I was working hard to try to finish the Bhagavad-gita before I left, but there still remains about 60 verses to translate in the Appendix. The cover is done and though I had begun working on an introduction for it, I think in the interest of getting it out soon, I will leave it out for now and perhaps put it in a later edition. I wanted to post it so that Ekantin and anyone else who wants to help could proofread it. It has gone through editing and the rest of the steps. It does need a good reading, not only the English, but the Sanskrit sections too. Vivek, are you up to it? Perhaps you could compare the Devanagari text to the transliterated text. That would help. At present the main problem I am facing with the Sanskrit text is that the candra-bindu will not appear properly. I will have to consult some experts in the typesetting program to see why. Usually, they can help me solve such problems pretty quickly. Anyway that will go online when I get back.
Next will come Kanupriya Goswami's book. That has an appendix that needs some translating and the introduction is still hanging undone. I did not bring it with me, so I will have to wait until I get back.
Texts that I will try to post regular increments of are:
Bhagavata Purana Sri Krsnacaitanya caritamrta (Murari Gupta) Brhadbhavagavatamrta (Sanatana) Harivamsa Sri Krsna-lila-stava (Sanatana) Lord Gauranga () My Guru (about Manohar Das Babaji)
That is the plan at any rate.
In the meantime I am visiting family and attending graduations and doing what work I can.
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Post by vkaul1 on May 19, 2011 13:08:48 GMT -6
Nitai ji, do you want me to check the consistency in the "Roman" and the devanagari scripts? Yes I can do that.
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Post by Nitaidas on May 24, 2011 9:33:58 GMT -6
Nitai ji, do you want me to check the consistency in the "Roman" and the devanagari scripts? Yes I can do that. Actually, this might be a waste of your time because of the way I did it. I basically cut and pasted the Devanagari code to make the transliteration. So they are going to be the same. I started to put in variant readings for the first two chapters, but discontinued that. Yes, there are variant readings for the Gita and some of them are significant. We have them because of some of the alternate early commentaries that have partially survived, like that of Bhaskara and others. It would be great to have all those variants in the footnotes of the Sanskrit side of the text. Anyway, that is not a job you are up to at this point, I don't think. I will have to work on that at some point. It would be good, though, if you read through the text and compared it to another edition, perhaps that of the Gita Press or some other reputable edition (maybe Edgerton's or van Buitenen's). There might be some mistakes in the main text. Once I post it, if you can go through it maybe a chapter a day and call my attention to anything that looks fishy to you, that would be a great help and good for your Sanskrit.
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Post by Nitaidas on May 30, 2011 11:44:17 GMT -6
Hi All,
I'm back. I will be at home for the next couple of weeks and then off again for a brief few days. I will post the Gita this afternoon. If our proofreaders would be so kind as to give it a good read and call my attention to any flaws, I would be very grateful. I am putting the finishing touches on it today. Still undecided about the introduction. I started one and there are things to say, but I don't want to delay this work any more than it already has been. Focus specially on the Appendix containing the summaries of the Gita. That is new in this edition and may be of interest.
I hope to post something new each day this week.
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Post by Ekantin on May 30, 2011 22:14:24 GMT -6
Looking forward to it.
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Post by Nitaidas on May 31, 2011 23:04:04 GMT -6
I really wish somebody would study the effects of chanting on the mind and body. It would be great to know scientifically what happens to someone as he or she chants a lakh of nama over the course of the period it takes to complete it (two to eight hours, depending on how concentrated one it). Does the heart-beat increase? Are certain hormones released? Are there certain areas of the brain that are stimulated? Can one tell if one is concentrating or distracted? Does a person's reactions change over time as one continues the practice and even increases the numbers? There are so many questions that can be asked. If nothing at all happens, does that mean the practice is worthless? But certainly something will happen. Perhaps it is just not what one might expect.
I still favor the self-hypnosis thesis. We don't sufficiently understand hypnosis, but becoming so focused on one thing that nothing else registers seems like the state one wants to achieve in chanting. But what is that state and is it beneficial or dangerous? Why and how are we able to achieve it, some more than others? Ekantinji, any light to shed on this?
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