Arcana Field - From all Angles of Vision

This phrase “all angles of vision”, from the title of my presentation, is taken out of context. Srila Prabhupada would, when speaking about reading, studying, and discussing Srimad Bhagavatam, sometimes say that we should discuss the Bhagavatam from all angles of vision. I have always been struck by that phrase, and now I want to transfer it onto the subject of archana, of Deity worship. I hope that you will all tolerate my experiment. 

I will present to you an assortment of books, which could be interesting for all pujaris. First I need to justify doing this, because some of you could say, “What you are showing us, it is not part of our spiritual canon. What we study is Srila Prabhupada’s books, his letters and conversations.” That mood of wanting to keep the focus on Srila Prabhupada is certainly justified. 

Having acknowledged this, my personal experience over the years is that I find it helpful to become aware of the wider landscape of Deity worship. One way to put it is to say that we cannot exist in vacuum, neither is sense of space nor of time. In other words, there is a history. Just as there is a history of our Gaudiya Vaishnava Tradition, going back to Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we don’t exist in the vacuum of history. And that means that we are interacting with the world around us, in many ways. And in terms of space, I feel that everywhere, every one of you, pujaris and cooks of our movement are the unsung heroes of the Krishna consciousness movement. People talk about so many things in our movement, but they rarely appreciate what the pujaris and the cooks are doing every single day, day in and day out. But again, we don’t exist in a bubble, and therefore I will give you a little exposure to some very well researched and written books on topics that are related to arcana or certain temples. Maybe you will be able to find some time to explore some of them. 

As first, I want to introduce the book Haribhaktivilaasa, vol. 1 by a good friend of mine, Dr. Mans Broo, also known as Bhrigupada Das. He lives in Finland. I would imagine that you are more or less familiar with Haribhaktivilaasa of Srila Sanatana Goswami. Perhaps you have read the translations. Here we have a very carefully done (not just the) translation of the mula, the original text and the commentary, but what is called a critical edition. I will not go in details about what that means but it’s the result of a very painstaking process of comparing manuscripts because the manuscripts in Sanskrit literature tend to have variations. In this case, Bhrigupada Prabhu was able to collect over one hundred different manuscripts. Aside of printed editions, there are manuscripts and he compared them and narrowed them down to thirteen. This book records all the little and sometimes bigger differences. Here is only volume one, as this is a projected four-volume publication. This volume one includes the first five of all twenty chapters of Haribhaktivilaasa. What is especially interesting in addition to the very well accomplished text itself is that some translations into English are translations from Bengali-translations from Sanskrit. That Bengali is sometimes simply mistaken or wrong. Because of that the author had to start from the original. Bhrigupada Prabhu has written an introduction which is about a hundred pages long, going into great detail about so many different aspects of his work. One very interesting point was that Bhrigupada Prabhu was able to establish what Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur always said, which is that Haribhaktavilaasa’s author is Sanatana Goswami and not Gopal Bhatta Goswami as Sri Sri Radha Raman’s priests, the Radha Raman Goswamis claim. He has found definitive proof of that. This book is also published in open access, which means you can download the book completely legally. The publisher is known as Brill. This link leads you directly to the book (otherwise search for the title): https://brill.com/edcollbook-oa/title/63760. 

The next book is Communication with God – The Daily Puja Ceremony in the Jagannath Temple by Gaya Charan Tripati, published by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Delhi. This is a very detailed study, a translation of different texts which are used in the Jagannath Temple in Puri. We need to be aware that their process of worship is not our process. The story goes that Ramanuja Acarya visited Puri and wanted to reform their worship. For that, he was thrown out of Puri, literally, in the night, as he was sleeping. Where did he end up? I believe, in Kurukshetra. I found it extremely fascinating to know what they actually do in the temple. The book is about daily puja. Gaya Charan Tripathi is a fine gentleman that I met personally. He spent some time in our Centre in Oxford some years ago. 

The next book’s title is The Body of God: An Emperor’s Palace for Krishna in Eighth-Century Kanchipuram. It was published by Oxford University Press. It is about the Vaikuntha Perumal Temple in Kanchipuram and its Bhagavatam iconography. Late Dr. Professor Dennis Hudson spent approximately twenty-five years studying this one temple and he became absolutely fascinated by it. This temple still stands and it has many sculptures of pastimes which are described in the Bhagavatam. Hudson goes into great detail to elaborate how the positions of each of these images in the temple is meaningful. What may be particularly interesting for you is that he shows how this all ties in with practices and principles of pancharatra. This temple was built in the 8th century of the common era; the author gives definite dates for when it was built. By that Dr. Hudson establishes that the modern mundane scholars speculations that Bhagavatam did not exist until the time after Ramanujacarya (only because he wrote no commentary on the Bhagavatam) don’t hold stand. The author demonstrates that we have to accept that Bhagavatam is at least from the sixth century, because one allows some two hundred years for a book to be established. You will say, “Wait, no, the Bhagavatam is 5000 years old!” That’s right. But in terms of contemporary Indological scholarship, this is a matter of debate. But for pujaris I think it is interesting especially because of what he has to say about pancaratra. 

The next book is Temple of Love: Architecture and Devotion in Seventeenth-Century Bengal by Pika Ghosh, published in Indiana University Press. We are moving from Puri to Bengal. You may be familiar with the story of Narottam Das Thakur, Shrinivas Acarya and Shyamananda bringing the books of the Goswamis to Bengal. And before they reached their destination the books were stolen. There is an elaborate story about how Shrinivas Acarya found them. While recovering the books he also converted Raja Vir Hambir who was behind the thefts. His conversion led to the king of that area becoming a dedicated devotee of Sri Sri Radha-Krishna, so much so that he built various temples in that area. Vana Vishnupur is a town in the present-day southern part of West Bengal, which I also visited some years back. Those temples were built over decades and maybe centuries in very interesting styles, and they all are dedicated to Sri Sri Radha-Krishna. We don’t usually hear about temples in Bengal and so I think this may be interesting and relevant from a historical point of view. It is possible to visit Vana Vishnupur. Although we had a tour there; unfortunately, our tour guide didn‘t know very much.

Now we are moving to Vrindavana. The book Seeing Krishna: The Religious World of a Brahman Family in Vrindavan is written by Margaret Case, and published by Oxford University Press. The book focuses on one of the Radharaman temple priests and his family. Many years ago, a part of my research for my doctoral dissertation was on the Radharaman temple. Because of that I came to know this scholar Margaret Case and this book of hers. I read it and found it fascinating because she spent a lot of time with this family and became a close friend of the late Purushottam Goswami’s family. Shivatsa Goswami is one of Purushottam’s sons. I have come to know Shivatsa Goswami, and we also became friends as I was doing my research on the temple. It is an interesting book because it gives an inside look into Brahminical culture as it is practiced in a Krishna temple community today. For us, it may be somewhat theoretical in some ways. We might say, “Well, we are not interested in these people because they are cast brahmanas. They are jati gosai, this is one of the thirteen apa-sampradayas that Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur rejects.” Yes and no. What I would say from my experience engaging with some of these Goswamis is that they are sincerely devoted to Krishna. I think we need to appreciate that they have maintained the Radharaman temple over the centuries, over generations, for 460 or 480 years. 

A much more recently launched book is Loving Stones: Making the Impossible Possible in the Worship of Mount Govardha by David L. Haberman (Prem Das), published by Oxford University Press. David Haberman is a follower of the Vallabha Sampradaya. And he is a professor of religion at the University of Indiana. He is a very devoted person. He has written several books of which this one is his latest. One of his earlier books was about Vraj Mandala parikrama. He took part in it and described it. Another book is on Yamuna River and its pollution, or apparent pollution, as he elaborates. Another book about the worship of trees in India. This one Loving Stones is about Govardhan. He talks with people, he interviews them, asks questions of those who do the worship, who practice, people who live there, and people who visit. It is a book on ethnology. The author is not just reading books, he is talking with people and drawing out their experiences of how they understand what it is they are doing in worshiping Govardhan. He is a devotee and therefore, unlike some scholars of religion, who are sometimes religion bashers, quite the opposite. He wants to show how the worship of Krishna is a wonderful thing. And he wants to make it accessible for a wider audience.  

The next book is Hindu Images and their Worship with special reference to Vaishnavism: A philosophical-theological inquiry, written by Julius Lipner, and published by Routledge. An in-depth, philosophical and theological analysis of images and worship of images. First, I should confess, I haven’t read it yet. The author is retired now, he was a professor at Cambridge University and a doctoral supervisor of the late Tamal Krishna Goswami. This book is philosophical and theological; one has to expect some dense reading. The author has studied this tradition extensively from this philosophical-theological perspective. And I dare to say that he appreciated my book on the subject of worshiping Krishna, that I will show you in a minute.  

This is Attending Krishna’s Image: Caitanya Vaishnava murti-seva as devotional truth by Kenneth Russell Valpey, published by Routledge. A reprint is available at Bhaktivedanta Services, Belgium. It focuses on two temples: Radharamana in Vrindavana and Bhaktivedanta Manor in London. It is a product of my research that I was mentioning before in Radharaman temple. I have heard years ago, that Srila Prabhupada instructed Yamuna Devi and also Narottam Prabhu to study the worship at Radharaman temple. Actually, he mentioned three temples: Radharaman, Keshavaji Gaudiya-Math in Mathura and the Govindaji temple in Jaipur. So, I have met one of the Radharaman Goswamis at the temple many years ago and he impressed me as a cultured person, very learned in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition and Sri Caitanya Caritamrita. This inspired me to get to learn more about their tradition. That particular priest very sadly died quite suddenly but peacefully, several years ago. However, his sons are there. I have had some friendly relation with him. What do I mean with “devotional truth?” Well, I could do a whole discussion on that but to make it short, I did a comparative study in this book between the Radharaman and the Radha-Gokulananda temple of ISKCON outside of London. One temple in Vrindavana that is 450 years old, and one temple in London, which is now about 50 years old. Both of them are Gaudiya Vaishnava temples but in different circumstances. The question was for me, how to make a comparison.  I was very much helped by a comparative religious project that was done in America twenty-five years ago. Twenty scholars wrote three books called Comparative Religious Ideas Project. From that project I drew some ideas and some of them I then turned upside-down to make my presentation. 

Next book is Krishna’s Wonderful Form: A Guide for the Perplexed by Krishna Kshetra Swami. The book consists of questions and answers on Deity worship. It is for general readers, and also available at Bhaktivedanta Library Services, Belgium. This is a differently styled book. A year before Covid hit the world, Devamrita Swami asked me to write a book on Deity worship for a wider public. I was still thinking about it when Covid came and being in a lock-down situation I thought, “Okay, it’s time to write that book.” Krishna’s Wonderful Form: A Guide for the Perplexed is the result of it. The subtitle comes from Moses Maimonides, a Jewish philosopher of the Middle Ages. The book is in the form of conversations. I invented three young people who are open-minded, curious and interested in Krishna Consciousness in general. They are asking a certain Krishna Kshetra Swami various questions and he is replying. Writing it was kind of fun. It’s a paperback book. I don’t know where else this book is available other than in Bhaktivedanta Library Services in Belgium. I don’t think it was available in India although it was printed in India while published by BBT-Australia. 

Perhaps some of you are familiar with two wonderful volumes of Yamuna Devi: A Life of Analloyed Devotion. Maybe you are also familiar with the third volume that Dinatarini has written, namely The Study of Seva Puja, which is basically Yamuna Devi’s notebook from the research that she did, following Srila Prabhupada’s instructions to study other temples. There are many photos in all three volumes but all of them are a wonderful documentation of just how dedicated Yamuna Devi was in her worship of Sri Sri Radha-Krishna, and Deities in general, but especially her own Deities, and of the struggles that she went through, as a devotee. 

You may also be familiar with Giriraj Swami’s book, I’ll Build You a Temple, which goes into great detail in challenges that Srila Prabhupada and his followers struggled with to establish the Juhu Temple. A wonderful way to appreciate Juhu temple is to visit ISKCON Juhu and see this incredible edifice and how complex it is now - knowing what was there in the beginning and how everything went from zero to what it is now. 

I want to mention also a biography Aindra: Kirtan Revolution, by Kalachandji Prabhu. Aindra is known for his total dedication to kirtan in the Krishna-Balaram Mandir over so many years. But he was also extremely dedicated to Deity worship. I visited him couple of times in his room in the Gurukul of the Krishna Balaram Mandir. When you entered, it was a completely other world, with I don’t know how many shaligram shilas and his Gaura-Nitai Deities. Kalachandji, the author, is the younger brother of Tamal Krishna Goswami. He is now retired but he was a professor of English at a University in central USA and he was helping Aindra to write his book, by editing it. They spent a lot of time together in Aindra’s last months, and Kalachandji got to know Aindra very well. And because Kalachandji is a writer, it’s an excellent biography, a very moving one. 

If you are into shaligram worship, you might want to get the recently published book Shaligram Pilgrimage in the Nepal Himalayas by Holly Walters. This is also an ethnography. Her research took her to Nepal and other places, interviewing the local people about their understanding of pilgrims that come to find shaligram shilas. 

The next book has a humorous title The Cow in the Elevator: An Anthropology of Wonder. It is written by Tulsi Shrinivas. She is the daughter of one famous Indian sociologist, I forgot his first name. She is an anthropologist and her interest is in the whole notion of wonder, adbhuta rasa. She focused on two temples in Bengaluru. One was a Ganesh Temple and the other one, a Krishna temple. The title, The Cow in the Elevator, refers to something that really happened. Someone had purchased an apartment on a top floor in a new building in Bengaluru and wanted the priests to come and perform the griha pravesha ceremony. The priests from this temple came and they brought a cow with them. And they led the cow into the elevator and took her up and had her walk into the apartment. Tulsi Shrinivas is talking about ritual innovation, in particular, how priests don’t necessarily keep to the book, how they may innovate for various reasons. 

The next book, Hinduism in Middle India: Narasimha, The Lord of the Middle by Lavanya Vemsani. I have not read it, but the title attracted me and I am sure, it is very well researched. It’s specifically about the worship of Narasimha in central India. 

And this is the last one, Gods of Flesh, Gods of Stone: The Embodiment of Divinity in India by Joanne Waghorne and Normal Cutler. This is a collection of articles. This book is at least thirty years old but it has very interesting articles about some very different kinds of practices that are going on, including some (you may find) too far-out descriptions of a person becoming ritually possessed, by a Deity; something that in a particular tradition is performed, I think once a year, as part of some festival. 

-From the address of H.H. Krishna Kshetra Swami at the Mayapur Academy Alumni Sanga, on January 18, 2025