The wit of a barber!

Today morning I went to barber to have a hair cut. It was like any other indian barber shop.

The owner was a chubby fellow with a short height & tanned complexion. when started cutting the hair, he asked my whereabouts. While cutting my hears he was constantly conversing. He told some nice points which makes lot of sense. From his speaking I understood he was intelligent & had good observation of the outside reality. He was one among many who dared to think differently rather than shippishly following the trends as hyped by media & portrayed by modern society without giving much thinking. I have noted down those points along with my reflections on them as I heard & read from different bonafide sources.

1> The Indians were slaves of British reign few decades ago, now Indians are slaves of status symbols like car, mobile etc.
-Because people have no knowledge about the real spiritual nature of oneself & they identify with lump of body, they have to depend on the bodily designations for happiness than tapping real inherent inner bliss coming from relation with God. So most of people life goes in working hard for accumulating some pieces of paper to buy some pieces of metal thinking that will give them happiness.
2>Most of the life of the modern Indians goes in paying the loans taken for home & car.

-India was agrarian country & 70% of the population of India constituted peoples staying in villages & they had profession directly or indirectly related with farming. Because of the spoiling of the land  by inorganic farming, spoiling of the natures cycles causing irregular rains & spoiling of the ideology of one can be happy in the simple lifestyle because of the modern movies portraying the lavish lifestyle (fake) of the city causing normal villagers getting desire to come to city they have to work hard for basic necessities like few times of food just to survive in city.

3>Modern peoples lives are so much made busy by the modern capitalists that they should not have to think beyond the food. And they are made addicted to the alcohol so in ignorance they will not think deeply what they are doing & about the higher questions of the life.
-(I had also heard similar plot of the politicians, by gifting TV sets & laptops to the people make them be happy in that only. So they wont have time & brains to think how well the government is governing the state.)

4> He also told his observation  about educating modern people only in the certain field making them almost blind about the other branches of knowledge, practical vocational work & social scenarios. This limits their capacity, this makes them highly dependent on the economical currents flowing in the world making them vulnerable to shifts in trends in some other world.

- Srila Prabhupad used to say real science means study of spirit(The living force,Soul), matter & The controller of both (God). Now in education system there is no conception of God. Just study of the dead matter can not produce any happiness for the living spark, The soul. And study only about matter makes them succumb to misery in the end as matter is perishable in nature so can not give actual permanent happiness. Also this makes them blind about the real purpose of life to
stop the cycle of birth & death & enter into eternal kingdom of God.

Teekacharya- The master of commentaries!

I was searching nearby places to Gulbarga to visit. I got to see name of village malkheda having the samadhi of Jayatirtha on google, Sri Jayatirtha is one of the acharyas in the Madhva line.My spiritual master HH Radhanath Swami has given beautiful classes on Madhvacharya, that propelled my desire to visit the place. I have included one of his inspiring classes on Madhvacharya in the end of this post. It immediately reminded me of Parampara song written by Srila Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati Thakur,  Second Stanza of the song has the name of Jayatirtha...

nṛhari mādhava-baḿśe, akṣobhya paramahaḿse,
śiṣya boli' ańgīkāra kore
akṣobhyera śiṣya jaya-tīrtha nāme paricaya,
tāra dāsye jñānasindhu tore (The two other principal disciples of Madhva are Nrhari Tirtha and Madhava Tirtha. Madhava Tirtha accepted the great paramhamsa Aksobhya Tirtha as a disciple. The principal disciple of Aksobhya Tirtha was known as Jayatirtha. Jayatirtha's service was for his disciple Jnanasindhu.) 

      Around 40 KM  from Gulbarga is the samadhi of the Sri Jayatirtha at the malkheda, they call it is Jayatirther Vrindavan. I immediately decided to visit the place whenever I get a chance. Last Saturday me & my friend Sandeep reached Gulbarga early in the morning. Immediately after that we took bus to Malkheda.

Few kilometers before the city is the Uttarati muth, the place of samadhi of Akshobhya Tirtha & Jayatirtha. Its on the bank of the Kagini river.

We entered matha. It was big. The priests there welcomed us. I told them our sppiritual family connection. We had nice river bath in Kagini. Then we went to the Samadhi of Akshobhya Tirtha & Jayatirtha. 
Jayatirtha is known as Teekacharya for his unmatched commentary "Nyayasudha" on the commentary of the Madhvacharya on brahma sutra. Its said anybody studying Dvaita philosophy must study Jayatirtha's commentary to complete the study. I prayed to get the deep taste for studying the philosophy  & detachment.

I am pasting amazing Life History Of Jayatirtha below 

Legend

According to legend, in a previous birth, Sri Jayatîrtha was a bull that served as a pack-animal, and traveled with Srimad Ananda Tîrtha (Madhva) and his devotees, carrying his library of teachings. When Srimad Ananda Tîrtha gave a lecture, the bull would stand at a distance and listen silently. Once some disciples approached Sri Ananda Teertha to seek the privilege of writing commentaries on his works, and he told them it would not be any of them, but the bull, that would be is commentator. At this, some jealous disciples laid a curse on the bull, so that it would be bitten to death by a snake. When Sri Anand Teertha heard of this, he changed the wording of the curse slightly, so that the snake bit the bull and itself died immediately, leaving its victim unharmed.

Life

Sri Jayatîrtha's biographies include Anu-Jayatîrtha-Vijaya and Brhad-Jayatîrtha-Vijaya. Jayatirtha was born as Dhondupant (Dhondurao) to Raghunath, a Brahmin king, and Sakubai Deshpande. His birthplace was Mangalavedhe, which lies near Pandharapur, about 12 miles south-east of Pandharpur in today’s Maharashtra. Because he was heir to the throne, he had wealth, power, and the affection of his parents and the people. He was very handsome, healthy, intelligent, endowed with physical vigor, and given to outdoor activity such as horseback riding.

Once, when the young Dhond Pant Raghunath (his name during pûrva-âshrama) was horse-riding, he bent down and quenched his thirst from a river without dismounting or even stopping his horse. Sri Akshobhya Teertha, a direct disciple of Sri Anand Teertha happened to witness this and asked him in Sanskrit “kim pashuH pûrva-dehe?” (“Did you have an animal’s body previously?”). This question triggered the memory of his previous birth within young Dhondupant, and reminded him of his duties to Sri Anand Teertha. He was overcome by a desire to renounce material life and devote his life to the services of his master. Sri Akshobhya Teertha then initiated him in to Sanyasa (monastic vows). When Raghunath Deshpande, Dhondupant’s father came to know about this, he was very angry with Sri Akshobhya Teertha and forcibly took the boy back home, in order to get him married. Forced into marriage against his wishes, Dhondupant took the form of a snake, which made his father realize that his son was no ordinary being but was born to great deeds. He acquiesced to Dhondupant’s wishes, and Dhondupant, after blessing his father to have another son who would take care of the family, attained sainthood and became Sri Jayateertharu.

Sri Jayatîrtha's Brndâvana (sacred tomb) is at Malkheda, in the north of modern Karnataka state, from where he continues to bless devotees who, in spite of their own lack of any significant ability, seek to understand Srimad Ananda Tîrtha's writings correctly.

Works and thoughts

After Madhva himself, Jayatirtha is the most important theologian in the Dvaita tradition. He wrote 22 works, including many commentaries on Madhva. His depth of scholarship can be credited with raising the fledgling Dvaita School to a position of scholastic equality with Advaita and Visistadvaita. Jayatirtha’s lucid style and precise expositions Ananda Tîrtha's masterpieces established him as one of the greatest of the Sanskrit philosophical writers.

Nyayasudha is known as Sri Jayateertha’s magnum opus and is the exhaustive and detailed commentary (Teeka is Sanskrit for commentary, hence he is also known as Teekacharya) on Sri Madhvacharya’s Anuvyakhyana which in turn itself is a commentary on Brahma Sutras by Veda Vyasa. Sri Jayateertha has brilliantly and more importantly, sincerely, captured the pithy statements of his master in simple language. It is universally admitted in the Dvaita tradition that the philosophical depth and breadth of Tatvavada can only be appreciated with the help of the Nyaya Sudha. In a very attractive and lucid style, Sri Jayatirtha not only presents and strongly defends almost all the important philosophical and epistemological issues from the Dvaita point of view, but also severely criticizes other major philosophical systems of India such as the Bauddha, Jaina, Nyaya-Vaisesika, Bhatta-Prabhakara Mimamsa, Advaita and Visishtadvaita. Thus, in the Dvaita tradition, the work is held in very high esteem and it is believed that scholarship in Dvaita Vedanta is incomplete without a thorough study of this monumental work. A popular saying, "sudhâ vâ paThanîyâ, vasudhâ vâ pâlanîyâ," conveys the meaning that the joy of studying the Nyâya-Sudhâ can only be compared to the joy of ruling a kingdom.

Sri Jayatîrtha's VâdâvaLî, which is an original work, refutes the theory of illusion, and is considered to be the earliest major Mâdhva polemical text after those authored by Srimad Ananda Tîrtha himself; it also is a precursor to the Nyâyamrta and Tarka-tânDava of Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha, and other later works.

Dvaita

In contrast with the advaita (non-dualist) philosophy expounded by Shankara, Dvaita maintains that there is an eternal distinction between the individual self and the absolute. Souls are in bondage to the earthly cycle of life and death because they are ignorant of the true nature of God. Liberation cannot be achieved through knowledge and performance of ritual duties alone, but requires the grace of God, which can only be acquired through bhakti (devotion). The liberated soul does not become one with God but exists separately in bliss.

Major Works

§  Nyaya sudha (Nectar of logic)

§  Tattva prakashika (The light of truth)

§  Prameya deepika (The light of object of knowledge)

§  Nyaya deepika (The light of logic)

Audio biography Sripad Madhvacharya-

Hitchhiking & me

In recent past I got to travel a lot, while sharing joys of Krishna consciousness with others & for the sake of job. Many times travel details are not fixed like the means & time of travelling.
Moreover I have not bought the bike & local transport in Pune is very bad. In that situation I have to opt for another good way that is hitchhiking. I really feel this way very exciting, thrilling & close to my heart.
It really makes one feel dependent on God when in dead night you ate waiting on highway waiting for a vehicle. Even I have few more connections & reasons to favor for hitchhike ride, I have tried to note below

1>It all started with Hitchhike
I was first year of my graduation. I was studying in the library till late night.  While coming down hill of my college I saw a biker going down. I asked him for lift. He stopped & I sat behind him quietly. After few minutes he asked me Do I smoke?, I told him proudly No I don't. He told me you are fresher & seem to be from good parentage. If you want to maintain the values you have , Please attend a satsang program which happens near college & many college students participate in it. I was already interested in spirituality , in fact one of the reason I had taken admission to my college giving up a government college was to visit a monastery of RamKrishna Matha near my college. But I was more interested in Philosophy that time than mere few rituals.
He pointed out a location. There was a temple near our college while going down. He pointed towards that.
I thought of visiting it later. Then I got down at my place & he went ahead. I did not take his no. or asked his name. Later many times when I would walk down from my college I would look towards that temple but I never saw anyhting happening there & so did I go to ask them. It was in my third year that I got Discover Your Self book from my friend & in two hours my reading, it changed my purpose of life & gave a solid concrete goal of devotional service to the Lord is only aim of life. After that my friend took me to their center near college. That center was just little behind the temple towards which the biker had pointed. That center was little inside & hence hidden from direct observation. Now understood that boy actually wanted to point out to this place but I didn't get that properly. So that hitchhike ride gave me my first encounter with the devotees.

2>A family of Hitchhikers.

My beloved spiritual master His Holiness Radhanath Swami in his prime of his youth, hitchhiked for 6 months from America to come to India in search of God. he didnt have any  single penny during his travels & he had to undergo many situations when his very life was threatened.

My beloved grand spiritual master His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupad, took a hitchhike of a cargo ship in the age of 70. It was order of his spiritual master given to him decades ago to preach the message of God in the western world in English language.  He tried for many months to get a free pass to on a freighter which will carry him to US because he was mendicant & he didnt have money to afford any other means. And finally he got the pass. And the rest is history.

3>My Life as a Hitchhiker

As I told previously, recently I have travelling a lot to share the joys & wisdom of Krishna Consciousness.
I don't have bike & I don't like to make a very rigid plan because it reduces the flexibility & takes away the thrill. Also I am people person. I like to meet & interact with people. Also being born in marwadi family I don't like to spend lot of money(Marwadis are famous for being stingy). So most of time I travel hitchhiking.
Its eco(economical & ecological)friendly. Its really makes pray me very intensely pray to Krishna for his help in urgent times.

4> Life as an Hitchhiker

This life can also be compared to journey. Soul is the passenger. Soul is always searching after destination of happiness. And there are so many vehicles of different philosophies & systems taking people to so  many destinations. Many times soul is cheated by the false promise of the different philosophies of Life. Like many times I took a lift & that person said yes I will drop you there & after sometime I found out that person himself doesn't know where he is going & in certain cases even I didn't knew the path to destination to face the frustration after getting down after some time. So in the life if somebody is fortunate to get the company of the bonafide Spiritual master & authorized method of self realization then he should understand himself as most fortunate person.I feel myself most fortunate to get the lift on the path going towards supreme abode Lord Krishna & the captain for this journey are the acharyas coming in the bonafide line Brahma Madhva Gaudiya Sampraday.