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Dear devotees,
everyone received Bindu #89? Some excellent material!
The admonishment(?) of Srila Prabhupada about sleeping in class was
very timely as well as highly interesting to read. I must admit that
when I stay at the temple overnight performing service for some big
occasion like Janmastami, Gaura Purmina etc, I sometimes nod off in
class due to the exhaustion of the service. I feel guilty about this
but I sit there anyway because the morning class constitutes the
morning program which Srila Prabhupada personally set up, so I would
not like to mess around with his "formula."
However, this extract from quote is interesting: "Better not to sit.
Sleep twenty-four hours, but don't make show like: 'I am sitting
here,' and then dozing. This is very much disturbing to me. Better
to frankly sleep."
So this really hit home for me since I guess I am making a show of
sitting for class. It also hurts me to know that this brings pain to
Srila Prabhupada. After all, since he himself takes the time to
explain to us the great truths of the siddhanta then it is the very
least that I can sit and listen attentively.
I wonder if this also applies to reading his books? Sometimes when
reading books, our minds might get distracted by other things that
are happening, or even just generally wander, or we might skip over
some "less interesting" parts to get to the "exciting" parts. I
suppose this might come under the category of reading inattentively,
and perhaps we can work on making our reading of his books much more
attentive so that we can actually understand the subject matter.
Srila Prabhupada's comment about not making a show also find a
parallel in the teachings of Guru Maharaja (Gour Govinda Swami). I
am not sure where I read it, probably in an older Bindu, but Guru
Maharaja also said practically the same thing. He used the example
of eating prasadam; it is better to eat plenty of prasadam and be
satisfied, rather than eat a little and making a show of tapasya.
At least there we can see how Guru Maharaja never deviated from the
path chalked out by Srila Prabhupada, and even found another device
to hit us hard at home.
Guru Maharaja's article was very nice. I always love the part where
he speaks of Mahaprabhu and gaura-lila most of all and this little
article is no exception. This was the best part of the article in my
opinion:
"That prema of pure loving conjugal dealings of Krishna with the
gopîs is sadhya-vastu — it is the goal and asset of all Gaudiya
Vaishnavas. That love is relished more in viraha-bhâva — the mood
that is known as vipralambha-rasa, separation. madhurya-asvadana
vipralambha-rasa — The rasa, mellow, that is relished in separation,
vipralambha, is crores of times better than that which is relished
in union, sambhoga. Therefore, vipralambha, separation, is the
highest affair."
He further explains exactly why vipralambha is higher:
"On those devotees whom Krishna showers His real mercy, He puts them
in viraha, separation. That is real mercy, because in that way they
are able to relish such durlabha-vastu — rarely achieved prema."
The slice of Brhad-bhagavatamrta about the mood of sparation was
extremely beautiful and I hardly feel qualified to comment on it.
Srila Sanatana Gosvami was truly a spiritual genius and this is
obvious.
I notice that they are using the BBT edition that was published by
Gopiparanadhana prabhu. I must admit that I'm not so keen on this
edition because, by Gopiparanadhana prabhu's own admission, he has
summarised the commentary of Sanatana Gosvami and put it in his own
words. If one actually reads the Gosvami's own commentary to Brhad-
bhagavatamrta, one will find that the Gosvami has commented by way
of slokas and these slokas have not been presented/translated as
they are. We are in effect reading Gopiparanadhana's summary of the
Gosvami's commentary.
Any thoughts on this issue of Bindu from our members?
dasanudas, Gaurasundara
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