Eat Pray Love [And Perfect]

Those who read the sojourn of Elizabeth gilbert, ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ (The New York Times Best Seller list for 187 weeks) but could not actually translate to their lives, those who saw Julia Roberts starring ‘Eat, Pray, Love’, but fumbled somewhere in the sequence, please pay attention. While I am designing this in dim moonlight of of night, The moon of Lord Chaitanya too has already appeared on the horizon to help us solve our dilemma. I was busy designing this poster. We are commemorating the appearance of Sri Chaitanya, and this is the poster for this event.

Scriptures presents, the root cause of our problems is our separation from God. And solution to all the problems is to reconnect with him, technically called -Yoga.

The process of Yoga is made all the more simple by Lord Chaitanya, it constitutes something which any normal person will love to do.

   

The great vaishnava poet Lochan das Thakur has described Lord Chaitanya as Keval Anandkand (simply Joyful), and the process given by him to reconnect with God is also simply Joyful. The process is, eat sanctified delectable food, sing melodious mahamantra and try to love the divine couple by rendering practical service unto them, the success is assured. By chanting, dancing and feasting we get mercy of Sri Gauranga and Sri Nityananda. And by their mercy we can attain love of God- which is perfection of Yoga practice.

Then why wait, let’s celebrate, if you are fortunate enough to be present in Pune, don’t miss this event!!!

Celebrating Women's Day

My very dear mother Srimati Radharani,

As my writing journey is gaining momentum, I find myself pondering over fuel of topics to drive my imaginations and refer the maps of the scriptures to serve my reader passengers.

As I was contemplating on my next topic yesterday, it suddenly struck me to write on the women’s day and no wonder, I decided that You will be the highlight of my article, since You are the prime of all forms of feminine nature, emblem of all wonderful feminine qualities to please the supreme masculine form of Sri Krishna. People talk of woman empowerment, feminism, etc., but they don’t know that here is the feminine form unto whom even the supreme absolute truth, Krishna, bows down. As I was thinking, I didn’t exactly know the date of the woman’s day, so I left that topic to consider later. When today morning I was standing in the meeting room with all my colleagues, one of my colleague, Ijaj, was chatting with his friends on his smartphone. When I peeked a little, I saw him pinging – “Happy Woman’s Day‘ – to his friend. It clicked me that You want me to write this article today itself! So here I am immediately at Your service.

I remember my very first day and class I attended with devotees, when I was invited to morning program at the student centre near my college. The speaker started singing Mangalacharan prayers and he arrived at the sloka,

tapta-kanchana-gaurangi    radhe vrindavaneshvari

vrishabhanu-sute devi    pranamami hari-priye

I stumbled at the word ‘Haripriya’, who is Radharani who is soooo dear to Hari among all his devotees and other living entities. I asked questioned the speaker at the end of his talk, “Can you please tell me about Radharani?” The topic of the class was “Ascending From fear to love” and my question was quite irrelevant to the topic and it was totally unexpected from the newcomer coming for first time to go into topic of Krishna and his esoteric devotees. So the speaker (Krishna Kishore Prabhu  :-)) told me that he was unqualified to speak. Others were mildly giggling. I couldn’t actually understand why he answered like that. You were kind of complete mystery for me. But now I understand my disqualification.

Then Your festival of appearance came and devotees would sweetly sing the Radhikashtakam prayers. I was determined to get Your mercy, to know and please you. I learnt it by heart. It was the first devotional song I memorized. In our apartment, there was Your picture in Your form as the deity of ISKCON Vrindavan, with the mahamantra printed on it. That form was so sweet; I would chant most of my rounds meditating on it. And I cherished the desire to at least one day in my life, to dress and worship Your this beautiful form in Vrindavan.

In youthful age surrounding temptations are very strong. But I thought in my heart that here are You, most qualified[Sad kaladi pandita], possessor of all virtuous qualities [Sad Gunali Mandita], compassionate[Karuna Bharite] and beautiful and this is only feminine form in my life I want to live for and serve primarily . I was protected, please protect me throughout my life. I heard Radhanath Swami in his class. One boy asked him a question “It’s said ‘Behind all successful males there is a female’. Then who is the female behind all the brahmacharis and you?” Maharaj’s impromptu reply was ‘Srimati Radharani’. You are behind all of us to nourish our devotional service.

Now after spending some time in Bhakti, I have taken things to be granted and I sometimes slip from the level of purity which is expected from me, I pray at Your lotus feet to please protect me from the pitfalls and let Your loving devotional service be the only goal of my life. 

Oh Dear mother, Varshabhanavi devi,

Most Celebrated female of divine glory.

At your lotus feet I am,

Offering my petty life story.

With little borrowed devotion,

Connection to your kins is my only qualification.

Seeing your pure devotees,

makes me understand a little about purification,

But deep in my heart still there is a commotion.

Within lurking desires of enjoyment and tiny devotion

Laying in doubts and apprehension,

Passing days in anxiety and desperation.

In forgetfulness you, O’ mother,

I am like a lonely fawn, lost in forest

Suffering and bewildered,

In remembrance of relation with you.

In shade of your shelter,

Our eternal mother,

Life is much smoother.

Please grant me your remembrance always and allow me to render service purely at your lotus feet throughout my life. May I be able to please you one day!

krsna taba punya habe bhai

e-punya koribe jabe radharani khusi habe

dhruva ati boli toma tai

“I emphatically say to you, O brothers, you will obtain your good fortune from Sri Kriṣhṇa only when Srimati Radharani becomes pleased with you.” [Bhagavan Krishner Pada, Prayer unto the lotus feet of Krishna, 13. sept. 1965,Srila Prabhupad]

Your tiny little servant,

Tushar.

Abstinence or Indulgence

The morning Guru Puja Aarti in Radha Gopinath, Chowpatty temple is always an exciting spiritual activity and I always long to attend it. Not only the meaning of this prayer touches my heart, but the melody and sincerity in singing swipes away the layers of indifference and rekindles deep sense of gratitude in my heart for what I have got. Devotees close their palms in respect, gently dance in swami steps and sing in unison. As the kirtan crescendos, it evokes spiritual emotions and the participants are deeply absorbed and mad in dancing on the tunes of Hare Krishna (I too join the dancing rave). The bliss on each face is indescribable. I often tell my friends, who often join me to visit the temple, that if there was some satellite which could indicate the happiness of the parts of the Mumbai city with colours of different intensity on the map, the area of the Chowpatty temple would be most bright. 

Most of the attendees are the resident monks of this temple. Following the vows of celibacy and dedication, these people have joined this mission of compassion, giving away their high-salaried jobs to share the divine message to as many as possible. They live a simple life, sleeping on the floor on straw mats, wearing white drabs or orange clothes, sharing common facilities in the temple. What surprises most people, is how they can remain out of marital ties and follow abstinence throughout their lives?

The Twilight series written by Stephenie Meyer has brought the topic of abstinence in limelight. (I have not read the book but got to know about it). This book has sold over 100 million copies and some critics consider it so popular that it has done the unthinkable – knocked Harry Potter off his pedestal as prince of the young adult genre! The twilight is a series of books presenting the love story between a vampire (Edward) and a teenage girl (Bella). This book carries influence of the beliefs of author who is a devout mormon.The vampire actually refuses to indulge with Bella before their marriage to protect her and her human virtue. Some critics say abstinence has never been romantic (they have coined the phrase ‘abstinence porn’ for it) except for in Stephenie Meyer’s four-book Twilight series. But most of the reviewers and commenters say it’s unrealistic and less likely to happen in the real world which is so much filled with lascivious vibrations broadcasted overtly through various media.

I too would have agreed with them, had I not seen the monks in monastery of the Hare Krishna temple. Mere Abstinence (not only physical, but from even deliberating on such thoughts) seems difficult and boring, when covenants of religion are applied externally and theoretically. But when I see the monks, I realize that for them it’s not unrealistic and theoretical, but natural and practical. More than mere abstinence, it’s their indulgence in the daily spiritual activities like attending mangal aarti and other prayer sessions, reading, hearing, cooking, cleaning, dressing and worshipping the beautiful forms of the Lord and sharing this with others; practically doing everything with the Lord in the center of their activities makes it an idyllic setting for even outsiders to take refuge in from the daily trifle issues of life and find meaning and purpose in life. The smile which blossoms on each face after visiting a temple affirms this fact. It also testifies the sincere efforts of Radhanath Swami for making this place as it is today and being an ideal example of love, sacrifice and dedication for others. Every part of this temple and every devotee connected to this temple carry profound influence of his teachings and instructions and this fact doesn’t remain unnoticed.  

The beautiful forms of temple deities, prasadam delicacies, melodious kirtans, aromatic odors of incense or flowers, and warmth of love and care of fellow devotees makes it absolute ‘indulgence’ for all sensory faculties, making it easier to abstain from any other agitating temptations, if not impossible. I indulged in writing this article since I could not abstain from appreciating the abundant bliss floating in the Chowpatty temple hall during my favourite Gurupuja prayers and other daily festivities.