Gleanings from (beyond) the Field
The latest Bhaktivedanta Research Centre (BRC) (Kolkata) newsletter is here: http://brcindia.com/featured/quarterly-newsletter-13/
I’m connected to the BRC as an academic advisor, assisting Pranava Prabhu (from Sweden), the academic director of the Centre. You can see on the website earlier newsletters, giving further info on what sorts of work is going on there and what sorts of acquisitions they have been receiving. (One of the first acquisitions, on “permanent lone”, was the complete library (some 3000 titles) of Sundarananda Vidyavinoda, the scholarly disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura whom the latter often requested to write reviews on various books, for inclusion in the journal The Harmonist.
Srila Prabhupada’s travels, 1965-1977, are graphically represented here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A.C._Bhaktivedanta_Swami_travels.webm
Interesting and amazing how much he traveled—a true parivrajaka (one who moves all around) ācārya!
My godbrother Kripamoya Prabhu has written an insightful reflection on the guru-disciple relationship in the “postmodern” age: http://iskconnews.org/post-modern-perspectives-on-the-guru-disciple-relationship,5502/
Walking, and Rama-smarana
Today I walked and chanted japa along Oyster Bay Cove, viewing the large and elegant houses with beautiful lawns near and on the opposite side of the cove: Who lives here, and how have they come to such privilege? There are some truly huge mansions in the area, hidden behind high fences and trees, with big iron gates and winding driveways. In the early 20th century, big industrialists built their mansions (at the cost of who knows how many others’ tireless, underpaid toil; any given mansion typically with 40 or 60 rooms) here on the north shore “Gold Coast” of Long Island, where they held wild all-night parties, spent lavishly, and drank alcohol despite Prohibition laws. Just a few hundred meters from where I am staying (with Atmanivedana and Subhangada, in their much more modest, comfortable home) is a cemetary, where Theodor Roosevelt (early 20th c. US president) is buried (his prominent tombstone atop a knoll is surrounded by a big black iron fence). What sort of person was he, that he came into such a position of (temporary!) power? Where is he now?
On Rama-navami we had a small program in the evening with a few guests (in the home of my hosts), reading from a translation of Tulsidas’s Ramacaritamanasa, about Sita persuading Rama to take her with him to the forest, and then the tribal king Guha hosting them in the forest. The ferryman refuses to ferry Them across the Ganga unless and until he can bathe Rama’s feet.
Rama’s Friends
[a tentative, work-in-progress, theo-poem]
I’ve heard tell of Rama, like no other,
(not in suit and tie)
roaming remote ranges seeking Sita;
Where are they now? Who can know them?
Who can know them, not just of them?
Heard tell of Sita, like no other,
(not in high-heels, holding purse)
lost to Rama, waiting for Rama,
found by Hanuman, super-monkey jumper;
Is she really in Lanka?
Could anyone but Rama really see her
if even Lakṣmana sees only her divine feet? …
What can 10 heads, 20 eyes see?
Can two eyes see that divine Two at once?
Or is even one head too many?
The train will stop, the door will open
at Back Bay, Boston. We all stand, waiting.
Little Sarah and Sam are ready with multi-colored backpacks,
Their grandma and grandpa close behind—
Which of them, if any, could care for Sita under the ashoka tree,
for Rama, bow in hand, beginningless, limitless?
If we listen, and listen again,
and ask, we may come to know.
Godbrothers give insights and inspiration
I was blessed to spend “quality time” with Dhanurdhara Swami, Satsvarupa Das Goswami, and Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu, during two days with them in upstate New York (two hours by train, plus 20 minutes drive, from Manhattan). Some days prior to this I had nice meetings with two other godbrothers living in the NY area, Yogesvara Prabhu and, later, Abhirama Prabhu. Then, the morning before my departure from New York to Boston, I was blessed to have a two-hour conversation with Radhanath Swami.
It is crucial for spiritual well-being to make extra effort to get good association with one’s spiritual peers and seniors. Such devotees can help us to see aspects of ourselves that we may have not been consciously aware of. By ourselves, we tend to build up and maintain stories about ourselves that are not entirely accurate. The accuracy fades in time, and so they may not be helpful for your progress in spiritual life. These stories need constant revision, and we need to do regular “reality checks” with the help of friends to keep ourselves on track. And of course friends become part of our stories, and we become part of theirs… Ultimately it is Krishna’s story (and still our story, of how Krishna is in our lives).
We may also allow ourselves to become settled in particular routines, into a “comfort zone” in which our best interests are no longer served. Sharing ourselves with other devotees—especially with well-wishing peers—is essential spiritual nourishment for keeping enlivened and rightly situated in spiritual life. Preaching is extending the circle, forcing oneself out of the comfort zone to reach out to others one does not know. Risk-taking and preaching go together.
Abhirama Prabhu, who had much association with Srila Prabhupada, told me how he once asked Prabhupada what varnasrama-dharma actually means. Prabhupada gave him a simple answer: “Varnasrama means living off the land.” Abhirama told me that he never forgot this instruction, and now he hopes to start a project to realize it. When I met him, he had just gone to see a 300-acre (120+ hectares) farm north of NY, available for purchase. Abhirama is a savvy businessman, and he hopes to develop an organic food-growing and distribution business that will be linked to other devotee projects in NY, especially the Harinam Ashram in Brooklyn. Harinam Ashram is the base for several devotees who do harinam samkirtan in Manhattan everyday for several hours a day. On a sunshiny warm Sunday, after giving the Sunday morning class at the Bhakti Center, I joined them for 45 minutes at Union Square, together with Subhangada Dasi and her husband Atmanivedana Das (who demonstrated his dancing skills).
And there, with the Harinam boys, I also learned something: set out on a corner of the carpet on which they sit and sing were a variety of shakers and rattles, including a few very small rattles. When two small boys stopped in front of us to watch, the devotee next to me offered a rattle to one of the boys. At first he wouldn’t take it, but then the other boy readily took one, then the first boy also took one, and together they joined the kirtan by shaking the rattles for a few minutes before setting the rattles back down on our carpet and trotting away. So this is a nice way to engaged kids, who are typically together with their parents, and thus the parents also become engaged (Indradyumna Swami has also always shown how engaging the kids brings the parents).
Dhanurdhara Swami shares his insightful KC thoughts here:
http://wavesofdevotion.com/
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami shares his daily meditations on Srila Prabhupada here:
http://www.dandavats.com/?p=20490&page=7
And here is Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu’s nice website:
http://www.rsdasa.com
In such ways, by such devotees, the sankirtan ocean increases – ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam…