About
All students should be encouraged to write some article after reading Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita and Teachings of Lord Caitanya. They should realize the information, and they must present their assimilation in their own words. Otherwise, how they can become preachers?
Śrīla Prabhupāda to Brahmananda, Los Angeles, July 1, 1969
Yes, that is a nice proposal if you speak like a learned scholar. Everything is there in our books; so learn it and put in your own way by reproducing. You are also materially well-educated so reproduce what I have taught in your own language. These things are new thoughts in your western countries, everyone will be interested. Writing is also required.
Śrīla Prabhupāda to Kirtananda, Tokyo, May 2, 1972
Write about Viṣṇu, Kṛṣṇa. This is cultivation of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. Hear, write, remember, try to understand. Don’t be dull, dull-headed.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, Lecture on Śrī Brahmā-saṁhitā, Verse 32, Los Angeles, August 14, 1972
This blog is not an attempt to “preach” or proselytise for Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism—though I reject both the disdain of the contemporary world towards those who challenge its artificial constraints of sincerity and the kerygmatic zeal that unfortunately reduces those sincere efforts into callous irritations. Instead it is an attempt to serve the vision unveiled in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books and teachings, to digest them out loud and to hear myself think; in the clarity of distance I may be able to understand better how much I have understood, and hopefully even more so see how little I have grasped. I will also confess, that I feel more discussion of our siddhānta is something that is needed in the broader Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava community, and though there are many infinitely more qualified, I feel hypocritical in asking for it when I am not attempting to contribute it myself. “Be the change you want to see in…” and all that.
Now, we have received this news, very pleasing. Now next duty? Taj-joṣaṇāt. Now, if you little try to assimilate it. And what is that assimilation? Smaraṇam. Simply by thinking, “Oh, this has been spoken.” Try to argue whether it is true or not. So you have to think over. Satāṁ prasaṅgān, taj-joṣaṇād āśv apavarga-vartmani. And if you do that… Suppose you hear something of the Bhagavad-gītā, and it appeals to you, or even does not appeal to you. Just try to think over: “What Bhagavad-gītā says? How Swāmījī has discussed this matter?” Apply your arguments. Apply your logic. Don’t take it as a sentiment or as in a blind faith. You have got reason; you have got argument; you have got sense. Apply it and try to understand it. Neither it is bogus. It is scientific. Then you will feel… Taj-joṣaṇād āśv apavarga-vartmani śraddhā bhaktir ratir anukramiṣyati. You will gradually develop your attachment for hearing it, and devotional service will be invoked in your heart, and then, gradually, you will make progress.1
1 Śrīla Prabhupāda, Lecture on Bhagavad-gītā 4.11–12, New York, July 25, 1966.
Some may say it is not correct to write one’s own ideas; though the epigraphs present here resist such a challenge, it may be presented that the realm of ideas entered in here is the much—feared—rightfully so—“mental speculation.” After all, we must simply repeat the ideas we have heard before, for otherwise we wander into the realm of the mind, Calvin’s factory of idols, and produce nothing of value. While I cannot say that all of my posts are devoid of such empty words, and it is perhaps more likely that they are primarily composed of such rhetoric, the endeavour to transcend beyond this production and instead hope to increase one’s bhajana in reflection on and remembrance of Kṛṣṇa is a process distinguished against “mental speculation” and detailed by Śrīla Prabhupāda himself:
As for the difference between mental speculation and philosophical speculation, we take it that everything is known by the psychological action of the mind, so that philosophical speculation is the same as mental speculation if it is merely the random or haphazard activity of the brain to understand everything and making theories, “if’s” and “maybe’s.” But if philosophical speculation is directed by Sastra and Guru, and if the goal of such philosophical attempts is to achieve Visnu, then that philosophical speculation is not mental speculation. It is just like this: Krishna syas in Bhagavad-gita that “I am the taste of water.” Philosophical speculation in the accepted sense then means to try to understand, under the direction of Sastra and Guru, just how Krishna is the taste of water. The points of Bhagavad-gita, though they are simple and complete, can be understood from unlimited angles of vision.2
2 Śrīla Prabhupāda to Chaturbhuj, Bombay, July 21, 1972.
This pursuit, driven by my personal conviction to “gradually” make progress, defines this blog: to ruminate on and delve into the infinite plurality of meaning and depth that can be drawn from the heritage of the Bhaktivinoda-parivāra, inducing greater attachment and love for Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and to see from a few more of the “unlimited angles of vision” that our śāstras provide, freeing the flow of our tradition into the intellectual liberty dreamt of and lived by our ācāryas. It is under the direction of the overflowing heritage of our Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Guru-varga that such an endeavour can be successful, and so I commence this blog with three prayers.
We must think for ourselves and try to get further truths which are still undiscovered or unadapted in the present conditions and circumstances for purpose of our realisation of the same… we have been advised to take the spirit of the śāstras and not the words. The Bhāgavata stands therefore for a religion of liberty, of unmixed truth, and of absolute love. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, The Bhagavat, 29.
Firstly, I reverently pray to beg the mercy of Śrī Guru, without whom I am lost in the darkened abyss of “mental speculation:”
To the one through whom my eyes,
once blinded by cataracts of ignorance,
were unsealed with the collyrium-rod of knowledge,
to that revered teacher, I offer obeisance.
अज्ञानतिमिरान्धस्य ज्ञानाञ्जनशलाकया । चक्षुरुन्मीलितं येन तस्मै श्रीगुरवे नमः ॥
Secondly, I pray forgiveness from the Vaiṣṇavīs and Vaiṣṇavas—who are undoubtedly amongst the desire trees I have named this blog after—that they may forgive me the arrogance of sharing my voice, that they may both pardon any of the voluminous mistakes and errors that are sure to emerge in my attempt at digesting our Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava philosophy and provide the mercy to correct it, and that they may continue to bless me in my endeavour of bhakti-yoga, their blessings and care being the soul substenance of my life:
Unto the trees that may satisfy the depths of desire;
Unto the overflowing oceans of mercy;
Unto the saviours of the most neglected and fallen:
Unto the Vaiṣṇavas, may my obeisances never cease.
वाञ्छाकल्पतरुभ्यश्च कृपासिन्धुभ्य एव च । पतितानां पावनेभ्यो वैष्णवेभ्यो नमो नमः ॥
Thirdly, I pray to Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Whose divinity is the bedrock of my faith, the heart of all my convictions, and the pillar of my life. I pray equally and jointly to Nāmācārya Śrīla Haridāsa Ṭhākura, who is the only evidence I need to know that Gaurāṅga is Kṛṣṇa Himself, and that Kṛṣṇa exists at all:
I offer my obeisances unto Haridāsa Ṭhākura,
and his lord, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu;
Who, though his body had attained full rest,
cradling it in His own lap, danced.
নমামি হরিদাসং তং চৈতন্যং তঞ্চ তৎপ্রভুম্ । সংস্থিতামপি যন্মূর্তিং স্বাঙ্কে কৃত্বা ননর্ত যঃ ॥