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Post by Nitaidas on Sept 26, 2007 8:11:22 GMT -6
Bipinchandra Pal was a disciple of Sri Vijayakrishna Goswami and was perhaps the first initiated CV to come to the USA (even before Premananda Bharati). He came in sometime in 1901 or 1902 and gave some lectures. He has written many books and here I shall post some of them, especially his book on Vijayakrishna Gosvami and on Bengal Vaisnavism.
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Post by kingcobra on Sept 26, 2007 18:37:49 GMT -6
That's kind of a difficult fact to substantiate. What about all the initiates that may have come over even earlier, but were not here to do any missionary work, rather just as ordinary immigrants? Some of them may have first emigrated to the UK or other parts of the British empire and then ended up in America. We know that a lot of Chinese ended up on the West coast in the 19th century. There could have been some Bengalis as well, albeit in much smaller numbers. And then there are those that might have been wealthy CV adherents that just came over as tourists for a short visit.
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Post by Nitaidas on Sept 27, 2007 9:00:24 GMT -6
Saint Bijayakrishna Gosvami
by Bipinchandra Pal
Chapter One
Bijayakrishan Goswami
Influence of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Two men have in a special sense helped to make the religious and spiritual history of Hindu Bengal in the last century [BP is writing in 1929]. One was Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and the other Bijayakrishna Goswami. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is more widely known than Bijayakrishna Goswami. This wider, if not indeed world-wide reputation of Paramahamsa is due almost entirely to the missionary labours of Swami Vivekananda. What was St. Paul to Jesus Christ that, in some sense, was Vivekananda to Ramakrishna. When Vivekananda burst upon public notice owing to the challenge which he threw out at the Chicago Parliament of Religions in the name of Hinduism, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was presented as a living example of the highest achievements of the Hindu faith and culture in the name of which Vivekananda had thrown out the challenge.
Professor Max Muller was induced to write a biography of the remarkable Hindu saint, who proved the wonderful possibilities of that Vedantic thought and culture to which European savants had been already introduced through the Sacred Books of the East, particularly Max Muller's own English translation of some of the ancient Upanisads.
After the Chicago Parliament Vivekananda leapt into all-India fame and with him Ramakrishna, his Guru, also became an all-India personality. For these reasons Ramakrishna is far more widely known than Bijayakrishna. But though less widely known, Bijayakrishna's influence upon the evolution of the Hindu religious and spiritual life of Bengal in the nineteenth century has not been less.
[more tonight]
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Post by Nitaidas on Sept 27, 2007 22:18:52 GMT -6
[next section]
No history of the evolution of religious thought and life in modern Bengal can ignore, however, the work of the Brahmo Samaj and the contribution of Raja Ram Mohun Roy, Maharshi Devendra Nath Tagor, and Brahmananda Keshub Chunder Sen. They were not Hindu revivalists, it is true, in the sense in which Paramahamsa Ramakrishna may well be said to have been one and even Bijayakrishna Goswami might be claimed to have been another. But at the same time, it must be admitted that Bengal owes her new national self-consciousness no less to the Brahmo thought-leaders than to the more pronounced revivalists of later days. As for Ramakrishna Paramahamsa it cannot be denied that is was Keshub Chunder Sen who literally unearthed him and brought him to the notice of our modern educated classes, of which Swami Vivekananda himself was one. The meeting of Ramakrishna with Keshub was an important event in our modern religious and spiritual history. There is a universal mental alchemy operating in all human associations. Two men, particularly two such powerful personalities, both literally hungering and thirsting after direct God-realization, could not possibly meet and know each other, without immediately being drawn to each other by irresistible spiritual affection or attraction. And the close friendship that necessarily grew out of their mutual regard and affection, was bound to exert profound influence up the inner life of both. Keshub influenced Paramahamsa and drew him out of the groove of Hindu mediaevalism in which he had been brought up from his birth; and Ramakrishna also contributed a new freshness and reality to the spiritual endeavors of Keshub. Narrow bigotry or sectarian partisanship may try to belittle the mutual influence of these two highly gifted spiritual personalities of our time, but the judgment of history will never do it. Vivekananda himself, before he met Paramahamsa Ramakrishna, had been a member of Keshub's Congregation, and later on he came under the more openly rationalizing influence of the Sadharana Brahmo Samaj that had come into existence as a protest against Keshub's new developments. Vivekananda's Neo-Vedantism was built upon the fundamental teachings of the Brahmo Samaj. In view of all this, the history of the evolution of Hindu religious thought and life of Bengal during the last century cannot possibly ignore the Brahmo Samaj or the contributions that the Brahmo thought-leaders from Ram Mohun Roy onward made to it. Paramahamsa Ramakrishna himself could not escape these liberalizing influences though he certainly brought to these his own contributions of direct God-vision and universal God-realization.
Bijayakrishna had, however, been more directly and intimately associated with the Brahmo Samaj movement, and continued to the end of his days loyal to its fundamental principles and ideals. He did not repudiate these but only transcended them in some respects and along certain important lines in his later life and by so transcending the sectarian opinions and disciplines of the Brahmo Samaj, he achieved a very high place among the makers of our Neo-Vaishnavism.
[more tomorrow]
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Post by Nitaidas on Oct 3, 2007 9:23:08 GMT -6
[next section]
Two Strains of Hindu Religious Life
The evolution of the religious and spiritual life of Bengal has been marked by two main streams or strains, one ShAkta and the Vaishnava. Ramakrishna represented the former and Bijayakrishna the latter strain of our age-long religious life and thought. The Shakti cult in Bengal is pre-eminently Vedantic. The theological background of it is the philosophy of Samkara, particularly the mediaeval interpretation of Samkara's system found in the Panchadasi school. The objective of the Shakti cult or culture in Bengal has been kaivalya or that form of final salvation which comes through the complete merging of the human personality and individual consciousness in the Universal Self or Consciousness which is Brahman. This Brahma-Nirvana or Brahma-Laya is the goal of the religious disciplines and spiritual endeavours of the ShAktas of Bengal. Their philosophy is that of Absolute Monism. Brahman is the One and Only Reality. This Brahman is without any note or mark of self-differentiation in Him. Brahman is Ekaras and Ekamevadvitiyam, Brahma Satyam Jaganmithya. Brahman is the only reality, the world is unreal. This is the basic text of the Bengal school of Shakti-worshippers. There is in reality no room for Bhakti or the cultivation of Love of God in the scheme of this Vedantic culture. It admits Bhakti only as a preparatory discipline. At the final realization there being no consciousness of duality, there can be no room for love and worship which implies duality. When the unity with Brahman is realized and the soul loses itself in Brahman, then who will love or worship whom? In mukti or salvation there is neither love nor worship, but only the sense of supreme anandam. Even this anandam implies self-consciousness. But in kaivalya mukti, there is no consciousness of individual self. It is like dreamless sleep. What we call anandam even is not felt in that state. It is only when self-consciousness breaks out again, that we know the anandam of that dreamless sleep or samadhi. Of course, there are various grades of this samadhi. In the lower grades of it consciousness is not completely lost; only consciousness of all [the] outer phenomenal world is wiped out. And in this stage of samadhi the seer sees within him in the light of his supersensous realization, the many gods and goddesses of the popular Hindu pantheon, Kali, Durga, and others. This is the philosophy of our Shakti-cult. In the highest stage, however, all these visions disappear or merge in what may be called Universal God-Consciousness. The Bengalee Shakti worshippers who attained this highest stage of realization, rose above all particularistic sectarian limitations. They realized their Kali in every object of human worship. In mediaeval times these advanced seers saw their special deity, Kali, for instance in Krishna, the Vaishnavic deity also. This was the kind of Universalism reached by Paramahamsa Ramakrishna. In his direct spiritual realization, ShyAm or Shree Krishna and ShyAmA or Kali, were one. These two were only two manifestations of the One and the same Reality, Brahman. This had been a special note in the culture and realizations of Paramahamsa.
[more later]
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Post by Nitaidas on Oct 4, 2007 8:51:55 GMT -6
[more grist for the mill, we can all have more chapatis.]
But it was really no new experience in the higher reaches of the worship of Shakti in Bengal. We find it in earlier Shakta saints and seers also. It was, in fact, a very general experience of mediaeval Hindu saints and seers. It was practically what may be called Henotheistic experience. The especial object of worship of these superior devotees was almost always identified in their deeper realizations with the objects of worship of other saints and seers. It showed the inmost intuition of Divine Unity of the Hindu mind. It also indicated the real standard of spiritual judgment of our people. Truth was established not on the beliefs or opinions of the carnal crowds, but on the testimony of the direct realizations of superior saints and seers. We find therefore in the Shakti worshippers of even mediaeval Bengal this universality of God-Vision.
In Ramakrishna, however, there was a new development. Ramakrishna had pursued different religious and spiritual disciplines with a view to realize directly in his inner life the deepest experiences of the saints and seers of other sects and systems. Thus we find Ramakrishna adopting even some of the externals of Islamic devotions and general habits of life of Moslem saints in his desire to enter into the inner spirit of their spiritual devotions and realizations. In this, Ramakrishna followed, perhaps without any direct knowledge of it, the line of universalism of Raja Ram Mohun Roy. That was before he had come into touch with Keshub Chunder Sen and the Brahmo Samaj of his time. While Ram Mohun Roy worked up the fundamental philosophy of Universal Religion, and in his personal devotions combined Islamic texts of the Sufi school with those of the Vedantic schools of his own country, particularly texts from the Mahanirvana Tantra, Paramahamsa Ramakrishna followed more or less the same objective through outer physical and psycho-physical methods. But the spirit of Ram Mohun's Universalism was clearly present and operative in the subconscious region of Paramahamsa's mind throughout the long period of his endeavors after God-realization.
[more later]
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Post by Nitaidas on Oct 5, 2007 9:20:19 GMT -6
[next installment. any comments?]
In one respect, however, both the Shakti and Vaishnava cults of Bengal have developed the same type of piety, all their wide and even conflicting theological or philosophical differences notwithstanding. Logically, there is no room, as I have said, for Bhakti in the philosophy of the Shakti-worshippers. But the special character or individuality of the Bengalee mind and culture asserted itself against the fundamental philosophy of the Shakti-worshippers and has brought them, in the practical spiritual life and realizations, into line with the Vaishnava culture of this province. True Bhakti or Love of God can onlyu be cultivated and realized in the terms of the common human relations of love and service. When the ancient Vedic Rishi cried out: "Thou art our Father" --- pitA no'asi --- he must have applied his experiences of love of our common human father to his idea of the Love of his God or Maker. Jesus Christ did the same thing in presenting the Lord Almighty of the Judaic religion as "Our Father in Heaven." Even Mohomet himself when addressing the Lord as "Akvar" --- the King of Kings --- followed really the same method, presenting the Almighty God or Allah in the terms of our common social or socio-political life and relations. But the tenderest experiences of parental love come through our relations with our mother far more than through our relations with our father, not to mention our experiences of the love of the king for his subjects. In our experiences, here in Bengal in any case, the son's relations with his mother are infinitely more tender, more intimate, freer and more confidential than his relations with his father. The son can take liberties with his mother in our society which he would not dare take with his father. The Shakti cult and culture of Bengal have therefore almost from time immemorial sought to realize Bhakti or Love of God, especially in terms of what may be called Mother-Love. And this brought our Shakti cult and culture into line with the cult and culture of Bengal Vaishnavism. On the emotional and spiritual side, the superior saints and seers of both our Shakti and our Vaishnava cults have therefore always had a close affinity which no one could suspect from the divergence and indeed open and sometimes violent conflicts of their philosophical standpoints and their intellectual and sectarian attitudes towards each other. And it was this aspect of the realizations of Paramahamsa Ramakrishna that made it so easy for Keshub and his friends to accept him into the intimacy of their religious and spiritual life and endeavors.
[more later]
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Post by Nitaidas on Oct 13, 2007 13:57:16 GMT -6
[next installment]
But had Ramakrishna come to the notice of Keshub Chunder a few years earlier than he did, the special type of his piety would have failed to impress the Brahmo leader and this would have possibly altered the whole course of the religious and spiritual evolution of Hindu Bengal in our time very materially. The Brahmo Samaj in the earlier period of the ministration of Keshub Chunder Sen was dominated by the spirit of European Rationalism of the middle nineteenth century. Maharshi Devendra Nath Tagore under whose ministration the moribund movement of Raja Ram Mohun Roy received a new life and vigour, cultivated the Vedic or Vedantic type of Bhakti on the one side and was steeped on the other in the higher type of Islamic Bhakti. Even in his last days, the Maharshi used always to recite in moments of spiritual and emotional ecstasy, not texts from the Upanishads which he so much loved but more often sonorous stanzas from the Persian poets Sadi and Hafiz. Devendra Nath though as much a contemporary of Ramakrishna as was Keshub, never seems to have appreciated him as Keshub did. And the psychology of it was that after breaking away from the Maharshi, Keshub and his missionary group became fascinated by the type of Bhakti peculiar to the Bengal school of Mahaprabhu Shri Caitanya. The Bhakti movement in the Brahmo Samaj itself under Keshub Chunder Sen, really prepared the ground for the appreciation of the unique experiences and spirituality of Ramakrishna as soon as he came in contact with the great Brahmo leader. This fact must be borne in mind in any critical understanding of the influence which the Paramahamsa exercised over Keshub Chunder Sen's later developments.
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Post by subaldas on Oct 14, 2007 10:32:34 GMT -6
Maharshi Devendra Nath Tagore under whose ministration the moribund movement of Raja Ram Mohun Roy received a new life and vigour, cultivated the Vedic or Vedantic type of Bhakti on the one side and was steeped on the other in the higher type of Islamic Bhakti. Even in his last days, the Maharshi used always to recite in moments of spiritual and emotional ecstasy, not texts from the Upanishads which he so much loved but more often sonorous stanzas from the Persian poets Sadi and Hafiz. This is very interesting. Why do you suppose he calls Islamic Bhakti "the higher type"? I am also attracted to the Sufiis, especially Rumi. Can you tell us about the Sufi influence on CV?
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Post by Nitaidas on Oct 16, 2007 8:52:33 GMT -6
Maharshi Devendra Nath Tagore under whose ministration the moribund movement of Raja Ram Mohun Roy received a new life and vigour, cultivated the Vedic or Vedantic type of Bhakti on the one side and was steeped on the other in the higher type of Islamic Bhakti. Even in his last days, the Maharshi used always to recite in moments of spiritual and emotional ecstasy, not texts from the Upanishads which he so much loved but more often sonorous stanzas from the Persian poets Sadi and Hafiz. This is very interesting. Why do you suppose he calls Islamic Bhakti "the higher type"? I am also attracted to the Sufiis, especially Rumi. Can you tell us about the Sufi influence on CV? I wish I knew more about this. The sufis were in India for centuries before Sri Caitanya. They came even before the armies of Muhammad of Ghazni (11th). They were generally revered just like any other saint and their shrines are visited by Hindu and Muslim alike. There must have been some influence, but what exactly that was and where and when it was transmitted, I don't really know. It is a good area for research. I will look around for materials on this subject. I, too, admire Rumi and the other Sufis (ibn Arabi, et al). I got to know at various conferences at fellow named John Moyne who is one of the great translators of Rumi and Rumi's father who was apparently a powerful influence on Rumi. Not sure why Pal refers to it as "the higher type." This also brings us back to the "question" of esoteric traditions. Much of the work of Gurdjieff seems to be rooted in the secret Sufi traditions. Gerard. Any comments, insights?
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Post by Nitaidas on Oct 16, 2007 9:03:20 GMT -6
[Another little piece to complete chapter one]
This Bhakti Movement in the Brahmo Samaj was profoundly influenced by Bijayakrishna Goswami. Ram Mohan Roy and after him Devendra Nath Tagore have really been the original initiators of the Neo-Vedantic Movement in our time which had its latest and most powerful propagandist in Swami Vivekananda. Keshub Chunder Sen and Bijayakrishna Goswami have similarly been the inspirers of the new Bhakti cult which stands at the back of all that is true and good in the Neo-Vaishnavic movement. These fundamental facts must furnish the key to a correct examination and understanding of the evolution of Hindu religious thought and spiritual culture in modern Bengal. And in this history Bijayakrishna has as high a place as Ramakrishna. Both of them really worked upon the foundations laid deep and wide by the Brahmo Samaj, from the days of Ram Mohun Roy to those of Keshub Chunder Sen.
[end, Chapter One, Bijayakrishna Goswami, Bipinchnadra Pal]
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Post by gerard on Oct 16, 2007 10:00:56 GMT -6
This also brings us back to the "question" of esoteric traditions. Much of the work of Gurdjieff seems to be rooted in the secret Sufi traditions. Gerard. Any comments? I think there are some very beautiful aspects to sufism (although in the final analysis, advaitic), like the poetry by Rumi, who believed in reincarnation. Their practice of zikr = japa. And listen to this for instance, Abida Parveen singing 'Bulleh Shah' (with English subtitles): www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH8BgubvXWMGurdjieff was never one of my favorites, he seemed a charlatan, a sexual aberrant. It is a definite rumor now that Indries Shah actually wrote "Meetings with Remarkable Men". He claimed to have developed the enneagram but that is much older. His book 'Beelzebub's Tales' was written as a kind of rite de passage or initiation to break down your ego and your old way of thinking and build up a new way of thinking. It gave me a headache.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2007 10:52:26 GMT -6
This also brings us back to the "question" of esoteric traditions. Much of the work of Gurdjieff seems to be rooted in the secret Sufi traditions. Gerard. Any comments? I think there are some very beautiful aspects to sufism (although in the final analysis, advaitic), like the poetry by Rumi, who believed in reincarnation. Their practice of zikr = japa. And listen to this for instance, Abida Parveen singing 'Bulleh Shah' (with English subtitles): www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH8BgubvXWMThanks Gerard, for sharing this nice clip with Abida Parveen; super! I have this one that I watch awhile ago: Rumi Poem, Iranian Music and Divine Dance Not less than interesting, here is another one: Rumi-Turning Ecstatic: Scene
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Post by Nitaidas on Oct 17, 2007 7:58:02 GMT -6
This also brings us back to the "question" of esoteric traditions. Much of the work of Gurdjieff seems to be rooted in the secret Sufi traditions. Gerard. Any comments? I think there are some very beautiful aspects to sufism (although in the final analysis, advaitic), like the poetry by Rumi, who believed in reincarnation. Their practice of zikr = japa. And listen to this for instance, Abida Parveen singing 'Bulleh Shah' (with English subtitles): www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH8BgubvXWMGurdjieff was never one of my favorites, he seemed a charlatan, a sexual aberrant. It is a definite rumor now that Indries Shah actually wrote "Meetings with Remarkable Men". He claimed to have developed the enneagram but that is much older. His book 'Beelzebub's Tales' was written as a kind of rite de passage or initiation to break down your ego and your old way of thinking and build up a new way of thinking. It gave me a headache. Apparently, Rumi's father was even more of a sensual-spiritualist. The new translation of his work The Drowned Book by Coleman Banks and John Moyne does not do him justice from what I hear. I wish we had a good translation of it. I am also suspicious of Mr. Gurdjieff. Never got very far in his Beelzebub, but read parts of Meetings and saw the movie. The dance sequence at the end is rather interesting. But there is a kind of projection of self importance that I find rather distasteful. He follows the "esoteric" pattern, though, that nearly all of the esoterics seem to appeal to: wanderings in youth to secret communities in Central Asia, forgotten by or hidden from the civilized world, secret initiations and gathering of secret teachings, practices and power, etc. etc. Such stories have gathered around Madam Blavatsky. L Ron Hubbard tells such tall tales about himself. In India it is Jnana-ganj, a secret settlement hidden in the Himalayas like the Buddhist Shambhala. My gurus, Gopi Nath and Govindagopal, probably believed in such things. Impossible to confirm and yet so pivotal to the esoteric traditions. A timeless place filled with enlightened sages who are surreptitiously guiding the world through difficult times. Rich in fantasy.
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Post by Nitaidas on Oct 17, 2007 8:17:38 GMT -6
[next installment]
Chapter II
The Awakening of a Soul
Bijayakrishna came of a long line of spiritual preceptors of Bengali Vaishnavas of Shree Chaitanya's school. Advaita-Acharya Prabhu from whom the family of Bijayakrishna descended, was a contemporary and colleague of Shree Chaitanya. Indeed, tradition says that it was the heart-rending prayers of Advaita Acharya that brought about the advent of the Avatara of Nadia as Shree Chaitanya is generally styled. Advaita's heart bled at the degradation of piety and particularly of Vaishnavic Bhakti that he saw around him. This, he believed, according to the teachings of the Bhagavad-geeta, could only be removed by a fresh advent or incarnation of the Lord Shree Krishna. So he made a vow to bring the Lord down to earth for the destruction of impiety and irreligion and the revival of piety and religion. Shree Chaitanya was born, according to this legend of the Bengal Vaishnavas, in response to this vow and the soul-compelling devotions of Advaita Acharya. Bijayakrishna traced his descent to him. The descendants of Advaita had been spiritual preceptors of large numbers of the followers of Shree Chaitanya's Vaishnavic school in Bengal. His father was a devout Vaishnava himself, as was also his uncle who was a great Bhagavata scholar. As Gurus the family derived its earthly subsistence from the pious gifts of its disciples. Bijayakrishna upon coming to age, took up his ancestral profession and commenced to go about among the disciples of his family scattered over the whole of North Bengal administering the Vaishnavic mantra to them and collecting the customary donations. It was during these perigrinations that the first quickening of his conscience or soul came.
[more later]
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