AGTSP!
Thank you for updating the Guru-tattva file with Lavanga-mangala Devi Dasi's information and the onerous list of names from Manipura, Assam and Tripura! You must go there with the Nirgata Devi Dasi ane meet them!
Everyone look at the list.
You can find the link in the Kapi Dhvaja. Are there mistakes in your information? There are some mistakes with the font.
O.K. Annual Reports!!!!
Hare Krsna, Prabhu,
AGTSP
paoho....
How are your spirits and material machine?
We are based in the Boro until 1 June then we are off to West Coast and Peru until 26th July.
We read and scanned your "A Collection...". It was very interesting and informative but has covered so much territory that we could not get a precise handle on it to respond well.
We have kept it on our table and finally I would make this response:
Your thesis is: Why take Sannyasa when we already have the Bhagavata Dharma of Harinama.
I would respond that it is in the same line as getting married. If we are Suka-deva Goswami then we won't see naked girls when we pass the bathing Ghatta, but if we have some attachment, then Grhastha, Vanaprastha and Sannysas are excellent helps in accelerating the effects of Bhagavata Dharma. Srila Prabhupad and Srila Bh. Siddhanta followed this path. The two previous followed the Babbaji Vesa, kaupina kantha asritau, path, no?
Even if we have no attachment then Sannyasa, VAD, is still good for two reasons:
1. It is a good example for others.
2. It is just the most natural way for organizing the Sankirtan Party in the material world.
So, that is very satisfying essay for us.
Finally, think I got a clear perspective to offer you. See you soon? Nrsmha-caturdasi??
You know this Purport, Lila, of Narada Muni and his Sannyasa? http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/6/13
AGTSP
AGTHpS
PAMHO.
It has been a while since the last time I wrote to you, I'm Lali from Buenos Aires, 25 years old.
These days I could connect to startmeeting and it made me very well to listen to you, it gave me encouragement to continue with my japa, since I was a little bit down lately.
ASA - Ha! Ha! Ha! AGTSP. We go up and down 15-times a day!
I wanted to tell you that I'm 6 months pregnant, it's going to be a girl. My relationship with Lila Ananda it's getting better. He's a good partner, although we have different ways to understand the philosophy.
I'm very sorry this year I won't have the posibility to see you because of the pregnancy and my economic situation.
I want to apologize for being so clumsy, for not following your instructions as I should have. I wish some day I could serve you as it should be.
ASA - And much more so Srila Prabhupada. Are you religiously married to your daugher's father????
As I said to you in your last visit to the Bs As temple, I've been feeling for years that you are my spiritual master, you are my guide although I can not always follow you. Thank you for inspiring me to go forward, thank you for giving us your association every day at the fmp, it's vital for me to have that contact with you.
Please, forgive all of my offenses.
Who wishes to always serve you,
bktn Lali.
ASA - No pictures?!!!!! If your not married then tell that rascal Lila-ananda Das to stop fooling around. He's got a wife. He needs to do serve austerities to figure out practically what his mission in life is, at least for the next 15-years, then get to work and make us all proud of him.
Hare Krsna,
Sukadeva Dasa (Rsi-raja, no? ?),
I posted your Amazon link on our Blog: http://hps.monkeywarrior.com/node/7880
We certainly invite you to join our Blog and engage in this dialog their. We and our simian community will scrutinizingly respond, or you could outright join our 'Anjana Suta Academy' at www.JayaRama.US, or maybe the most practical for you, we can stay in touch on certain issues by e-mail and then, unless you specifically request us, on certain points, we can post our dialogs to our Blog as appropriate.
We feel that you are a very busy person whose time is very valuable, but... can you generate a proper analysis of the study heirarchy of your books and a perspective on their content? What should we read first?
Thank you,
Prabhu.
A G T S P ! ! !
HK/HR
The following link is for Asish Dalela whom we met as Rsi-raja Das in 1996 in Calcutta with the Bhaktivedanta Institute. We read from one of his books while in Spain and found it expressing many of the ideas that we try to comunicate in this area of Science, Philosophy of Nature. We will ask him for a summary of the relationship and content of his books so that our readers may look at his books systematically.
https://www.amazon.com/Ashish-Dalela/e/B00JH349FI
Hi, Guys!
What do you think of this? Comments? Did you submit your offerings?
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Vehicles
Hanumatpreṣaka Swami (Prof. H. H. Robinson)
We are very delighted to write for this second issue of Solaris. To our experience the first issue was very well received. We heard comments from around the world and so far it seems to fill a necessary position in the global cacophony. In it we were delighted to ride upon the empty boat in the chariot of the mind with a culture of happiness in the company of Dionysius and others. From our point of view it needs a more organized system of developing the theme and articles for each issue and a more explicit Editorial Board. This is like saying a crawler needs to become a toddler.
For this issue let us contribute that after reading Shakespeare, Solomon, Cervantes and Rama [Confucious, Journey to the West, Agatha Christie. . .] we have come to the conclusion that the ancient, mystical, religious Bhagavata Purana as relished in medieval Bengal is the greatest of all world classical literature.
George L. Harte, University of California, A Rapid Sanskrit Method, Motilal Banarsidass, Dehli, 1989
Preface
“It [sanskrita]is, like Chinese, Arabic, Greek and Latin, one of the few languages which has been a carrier of a culture over a long period of time.
Thus, the variety of writings in it, and the quantity of those writings are staggering. . . . Kalidasa ranks with the greatest poets, Panini is without question the greatest pre-modern grammarian, the Mahabharata ranks with the Iliad and the Odyssey, and the Bhagavata-purana is among the finest works of devotion every written, being equaled in my opinion only by other works in Indian languages.”
David Haberman, Bhakti-rasa-amrta Sindhu of Rupa Goswami, Motilala Banarsidass, 2003
The Bhāgavata holds a particularly eminent position in the school of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, for whereas other Vedantic schools produced commentaries on the Vedanta Sutra, the Gaudiyas consider the Bhāgavata as Vyasa’s own commentary on the Vedānta Sūtra.
The Bhāgavata is complete in 12-cantos, comprising about 18,000 verses. It systematically takes the auditor from the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, God, to his smiling face. This reminds us of St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s extensive number of sermons on the Song of Solomon wherein he describes that yes, with God there is the kiss of the lips, but first we must learn the kiss of the feet and then the kiss of the hand.
In his commentary on Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.12 (http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/2/12), Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami writes,
“And as one gets free from the intoxication of sex indulgence by purification of intelligence, one should step forward for the next meditation, or in other words, the progress of meditation on the different limbs of the transcendental body of the Lord should be enhanced in proportion to the progress of purification of the heart. The conclusion is that those who are still entrapped by sex indulgence should never progress to meditation above the feet of the Lord; therefore recital of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by them should be restricted to the first and second cantos of the great literature. One must complete the purificatory process by assimilating the contents of the first nine cantos. Then one should be admitted into the realm of the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.”
We would be glad to join the readers of this article in a progressive study of theses first two cantos, and as we are freed from any unnatural sexual lusts we would like to go ahead with them through cantos 3-6. Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami recommended the first six cantos with the diploma of Bhakti-vaibhava and the final six as Bhakti-vedanta.
Encylopedia Britanica; Philosophy of Education, contributed by Harvey Siegel, Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Miami [https://www.britannica.com/topic/philosophy-of-education]
"The Western philosophical tradition began in ancient Greece, and philosophy of education began with it. …
The introduction by Socrates of the “Socratic method” of questioning (see dialectic) began a tradition in which reasoning and the search for reasons that might justify beliefs, judgments,
and actions was (and remains) fundamental; such questioning in turn eventually gave rise to the view that education should encourage in all students and persons, to the greatest extent possible, the pursuit of the life of reason.
This view of the central place of reason in education has been shared by most of the major figures in the history of philosophy of education, despite the otherwise substantial differences in their other philosophical views."
This reading of the Bhāgavata is not just lip-service, acquiring information, reasonable analysis, nor even poetical justification of life and its aims. Its challenge is that it will take us to the throne of God in the celestial world if we read it in the company of like-minded people and professors.
In the first Canto we see a Preface to the great work: What is the purpose of the work, under what circumstances is it written, what is the character of the author and what are the qualifications of the reader.
The situation described in the Bhāgavata is the end of the Age of Bronze, when Methusalah and others were living hundreds and even a thousand years (See Genesis 5:21–27) and the beginning of the Age of Iron when we a lucky of we live an active 100-years. Maharaja Parikṣit, principal student, is about to die. He was a highly moral, enlightened and powerful world Emperor and has now renounced everything to prepare for death. Sukadeva Goswami, a universally respected teacher of the time, only 16-years old, is selected to give the supplicant, and all of us, the properly enlightenment for this crucial moment.
SB 1.3.43
kṛṣṇe sva-dhāmopagate
dharma-jñānādibhiḥ saha
kalau naṣṭa-dṛśām eṣa
purāṇārko ’dhunoditaḥ
This Bhāgavata Purāṇa is as brilliant as the sun, and it has arisen just after the departure of Lord Kṛṣṇa to His own abode, accompanied by religion, knowledge, etc. Persons who have lost their vision due to the dense darkness of ignorance in the Age of Kali shall get light from this Purāṇa.
(http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/43)
Establishing the credentials and motivation of the teacher and student, the general need for such a text, in the Second Canto, Suka-deva Goswami actually begins his teachings with the Mantra:
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
O my Lord, the all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You.
In the first three chapters he then describes the Absolute Truth as Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān, which we can translate as the progressive spiritual realizations through Pantheism, Mysticism and Monotheism. As we progress to the other ten cantos we will see a didactic organization that is extremely pleasing and practical to the modern systematic mind, also voluble as the highest quality of poetry. Please invite us to join you in this most congenial of studies.
SB 1.2.28-29
vāsudeva-parā vedā
vāsudeva-parā makhāḥ
vāsudeva-parā yogā
vāsudeva-parāḥ kriyāḥ
vāsudeva-paraṁ jñānaṁ
vāsudeva-paraṁ tapa
vāsudeva-paro dharmo
vāsudeva-parā gatiḥ
Synonyms: vāsudeva — the Personality of Godhead; parāḥ — the ultimate goal; vedāḥ — revealed scriptures; …
Translation: In the revealed scriptures, the ultimate object of knowledge is Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead. The purpose of performing sacrifice is to please Him. Yoga is for realizing Him. All fruitive activities are ultimately rewarded by Him only. He is supreme knowledge, and all severe austerities are performed to know Him. Religion [dharma] is rendering loving service unto Him. He is the supreme goal of life.
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