->

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #12 – Rāgānugā-bhakti Made Easy

March 17th, 2025

Rāgānugā-bhakti Made Easy[1]

 

I spoke to a Vaiṣṇava scholar in Vrindavan recently who described his perspective on rāgānugā-bhakti. He depicted it as a challenging path. Śrīla Prabhupāda also taught us that the path is for those who are advanced in bhakti. That scholar’s explanation:

 

The most important thing in perfecting one’s devotion is chanting the holy name properly. One day my guru maharaja called me into his room when he was chanting and asked me to sit with him. He sat like a statue totally absorbed for three hours. That made a deep impression on me. Since then, I tried to follow his example. Every day I try to sit up motionless for hours to make sure my mind is not diverted away from the holy name to my body.

 

“When one is absorbed in this way, eventually the Lord’s rūpa (form) appears within the mind. Continuing in this way, then the lord’s guṇa, his sixty-four qualities, manifest within the name. Eventually while chanting, the Lord’s eternal associates spontaneously appear. While chanting one then observes those devotees all intensely focused on different aspects of the Lord’s form (rūpa) and various qualities (guṇa).

 

“Ultimately by chanting in this way a desire awakens within the heart to perceive, serve, and follow Krishna in the same way as one of these eternal associates, and naturally in the same relationship that devotee has with Krishna. Such devotees whose very essence or state of being (ātmikā) is intense devotional passion (rāga) are called also rāgātmikā bhaktas (perfected devotees. Rāgānugā-bhakti is thus the practice of devotion that arises from the spontaneous desire to follow (anuga) the intense yearnings (rāga) of such rāgātmikā bhaktas, obviously a practice that awakens at an advanced stage of devotion.”

 

For many reasons, spontaneous (rāga) devotion (bhakti) is generally for those who can execute devotion with very deep taste and are thus not ruled by the scriptural injunctions of obligatory (vaidhī) devotion (bhakti). Śrī Caitanya specifically came to give the experience of spontaneous devotion, and Śrī Jīva gave some encouragement for those still on the level of vaidhī-bhakti. He recommended that one should consciously cultivate a taste for Vraja (rāgānugā-bhakti) while remaining determinedly fixed in one’s spiritual practices out of duty (vaidhī-bhakti) by reading about Krishna’s pastimes in books like the Bhāgavatam and singing songs about Krishna. One then can naturally think of Krishna and his associates while performing devotional activities. He called this ajāta-ruci-rāgānugā-bhakti (following in the wake of spontaneous devotion before the taste has awoken).

 

This process requires some determined effort. But compared to the more advanced practices of rāgānuga-bhakti, it is simple, so I call this “rāgānugā-bhakti made easy.” This post outlines rāgānuga-bhakti in a way that offers encouragement to the reader to take up the path along the lines Śrī Jīva recommended.

 

Here are some excerpts from Śrīla Prabhupāda’s commentary on the beginning of the dāmodara-līlā, where Mother Yasoda’s churning of yogurt into butter is described.

 

“While churning the butter, mother Yaśodā was singing about the childhood activities of Krishna. It was formerly a custom that if one wanted to remember something constantly, he would transform it into poetry or have this done by a professional poet. It appears that mother Yaśodā did not want to forget Krishna’s activities at any time. Therefore she poeticized all of Krishna’s childhood activities, such as the killing of Pūtanā, Aghāsura, Śakaṭāsura and Tṛṇāvarta, and while churning the butter, she sang about these activities in poetical form. This should be the practice of persons eager to remain Krishna conscious twenty-four hours a day. This incident shows how Krishna conscious mother Yaśodā was. To stay in Krishna consciousness, we should follow such persons.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.8.1-2, purport)

 

Anyone who desires to be Krishna conscious in motherly affection or parental affection should contemplate the bodily features of mother Yaśodā. […] Advanced devotees must cherish this description, always thinking of mother Yaśodā’s features — how she was dressed, how she was working and perspiring, how beautifully the flowers were arranged in her hair, and so on. One should take advantage of the full description provided here by thinking of mother Yaśodā in maternal affection for Krishna.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.8.3, purport)

 

Of course, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s commentary describing the practice of rāgānugā-bhakti indicates that a serious attraction for Krishna’s pastimes is still required. But it is described in a way that is accessible for those who have not yet attained such a spontaneous (rāga) mood. Therefore why not follow Śrīla Prabhupāda and Śrī Jīva, embrace their mercy, and take the path of “rāgānugā-bhakti made easy”.

 

 


[1] According to my inspiration during the week I write a post for Monday Morning Greetings. Sometimes the subjects are more generic and sometimes they deal with subjects more esoteric. This week my inspiration is to write about rāgānugā-bhakti, a more esoteric subject. If one wants to understand the subject more deeply or if some of the terms used in the article are unfamiliar, I have written a more comprehensive article on the subject: https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/srila-bhaktisiddhanta-and-rāganuga-sadhana-bhakti/.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #11 – The Genius of Śrīla Prabhupāda and the Principle of Intrapreneurship

March 10th, 2025

In my last article “Build Devotees, Not Temples,” I opined that institutions like ISKCON need to spend more resources supporting and empowering its people, especially those that are creators and doers, to successfully carry its mission into the future. I shared this article with a friend who was a business consultant. He was intrigued by the article and shared with me something from his own experience in the business world that he thought was relevant to the topic at hand. He described the concept of intrapreneurship. In this post, I will briefly share his experience and show how it inspired me to even further realize Śrīla Prabhupāda’s genius.

 

My friend worked for Adobe as a consultant. They had basically one product, Photoshop, and the engineers who had developed the company had improved it as far as it could go. The CEO became concerned. He saw that this one-product company was gradually losing the culture of initiative that initially spurred its success. He knew the history of several successful companies developed by self-motivated and creative people who gradually ceded their authority to technicians and managers only to see the company become stagnant and fail. He became concerned.

 

He thought of Kodak, for example, who were pioneers in the technology of photography. It went from an established major company to bankruptcy. Led by bureaucrats resistant to internal change, they lost their ability to keep up with smaller, more nimble competitors that could innovate quickly and respond to changing market trends.

 

The CEO realized he needed to do something. He decided to apply the principle of intrapreneurship.

 

Intrapreneurship refers to a system within an organization that enables creative and innovative people to take the initiative to develop pioneering products and services. And to encourage such creativity and risk-taking, the company not only empowers the employees to innovate but ensures the “intrapreneurs” that they will not be held accountable for any failures or losses as a result of their experiment. It’s called intrapreneurship because it gives the same creative freedom to people within a corporation or organization that independent entrepreneurs have.

 

It has been seen that companies who find ways to allow the self-motivated to leverage their creativity and ingenuity are more likely to survive and grow, especially in the rapidly changing modern world. One of many such examples of success include Google’s “20% time program” which allowed their employees to allot a fifth of their worktime to freely engage in intrapreneurship. The result: Gmail.

 

When listening to my friend’s experience of intrapreneurship I thought of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s genius in setting up ISKCON along similar principles by encouraging a system of management that would empower independently thoughtful and creative devotees. Śrīla Prabhupāda’s understanding of the principle of intrapreneurship is outlined in his famous letter to Karandhara dasa.[1] Below is a relevant excerpt:

 

“Regarding your points about taxation, corporate status, etc., I have heard from Jayatirtha you want to make big plan for centralisation of management, taxes, monies, corporate status, bookkeeping, credit, like that. I do not at all approve of such plan. Do not centralise anything. Each temple must remain independent and self-sufficient. That was my plan from the very beginning, why you are thinking otherwise? Once before you wanted to do something centralising with your GBC meeting, and if I did not interfere the whole thing would have been killed. Do not think in this way of big corporation, big credits, centralisation–these are all nonsense proposals. Only thing I wanted was that books printing and distribution should be centralised, therefore I appointed you and Bali Mardan to do it. Otherwise, management, everything, should be done locally by local men. Accounts must be kept, things must be in order and lawfully done, but that should be each temple’s concern, not yours. Krishna Consciousness Movement is for training men to be independently thoughtful and competent in all types of departments of knowledge and action, not for making bureaucracy. Once there is bureaucracy the whole thing will be spoiled. There must be always individual striving and work and responsibility, competitive spirit, not that one shall dominate and distribute benefits to the others and they do nothing but beg from you and you provide.” [emphasis mine]

 

Genius? At least, it’s quite remarkable that more than fifty years ago at the beginning of his fledgling movement he so clearly understood these principles of empowerment and tried to set up his movement on principles of intrapreneurship that only became prominent in modern corporate leadership over thirty years later.

 

It is frustrating that when Śrīla Prabhupāda so clearly promoted the spirit of individual striving, especially within a movement based on the principles of bhakti, centralization and bureaucracy still pose a threat to his legacy. Let us all honor in our own capacity the genius of Śrīla Prabhupāda and the principle of intrapreneurship.

 


[1] https://vanisource.org/wiki/721222_-_Letter_to_Karandhara_written_from_Bombay

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #10 – The Supreme Personality of Rice

March 3rd, 2025

The Supreme Personality of Rice [1]

If you look at my astrological chart, you will see that my Venus is debilitated. I joke sometimes that even if you buy me a new set of silk clothes, as soon as I put them on I will walk out the door and somehow my pocket will get caught in the doorknob and my fine clothes will be torn. I don’t know much about astrology, but I know that, among other things, Venus rules very fine things. It’s just not my karma to procure, possess, or be surrounded by fine things. I surmise that’s a good thing in general for a sannyāsi, for if one overly makes demands on the environment for fine things it would be difficult for one to remain an honest renunciate. Now on to the “Supreme Personality of Rice”.

 

Narma Sakhi from the Middle East invited me to lunch and the rice preparation was so fine it was almost like I had never had rice before. The imported rice itself was so fragrant that just keeping it in the room, even before cooking it, seemed almost like lighting incense. It was perfectly cooked and mixed with finely sliced almonds and pistachios, raisin sized pieces of fried paneer, and bright saffron. It was all of the finest quality ingredients and the taste was simultaneously incredibly rich and subtle with flavors. What to speak of the walnut/pomegranate sauce served on top! It was so ambrosial that after the meal I joked that I just had the supreme personality of rice.[2]

 

 

I am by no means a connoisseur of food, but boy was that rice good! And how much I enjoyed not just the taste, but also the aesthetic of it. It was so fine and perfect in every way, from the texture and color to the fragrance and taste. So here is the question: Is it good or bad to like fine things? Or perhaps a better question would be what is the role of fine things in society? First, we need a definition of culture to give us a foundation to understand the proper role of fine things in life. Here’s one that I particularly like:

 

Culture is the deliberate organization of society for the purpose of creating impressions in the consciousness to help one learn, communicate, and relate better.[3]

 

The key point here in the definition to help us understand fine things is the aspect of helping one relate better. Fine things are an essential part of exchanging love or relating better with others because love means offering the best to one’s beloved. A proper culture therefore evolves fine music, art, and so on, as well as fine cuisine in order to, among other reasons, enhance the expression of affection for others, including one’s devotion to God.

 

Another aspect of the necessity of fine things is the effect fine things can have on elevating the consciousness to transcendence. Things like art, music, or even great natural beauty elevate the consciousness by impassioning one with an undeniable feeling of meaning and truth in life, whether one believes in God or is secular. Leonard Bernstein, the great American conductor and composer, expressed this concept beautifully in relation to hearing properly composed music, but it can be applied to all finely created things:

 

Beethoven turned out pieces of breath-taking rightness. There is something that checks throughout, that follows its own law consistently: something we can trust, that will never let us down.

 

Also, in relation to music, in The Republic Plato discusses how good music puts order in a child’s soul by training the child to have proper emotions even before he or she can intellectually understand them. He thus speaks of quality music as educating “through habits, by imparting by the melody a certain harmony of spirit that is not science, and by rhythm, measure and grace” and affirms its instrumental educational role “because more than anything else rhythm and harmony find their way into the inmost soul and take strongest hold upon it.”

 

Śrīla Prabhupāda makes the same point not just about music, but the effect of fine things in general in his commentary on verse 1.11.12 in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam where the beauty of Krishna’s city of Dvārakā is described. There he comments how “beautiful gardens, parks and reservoirs of water with ducks and swans playing in the midst of lotus flowers […] are essential for developing the finer tissues of the human body.” In contrast he described how congested, run down industrial cities “deteriorate the finer sentiments of the human being and society to form a dungeon of demons.”

 

Of note here is that the fine things of culture are never just limited to those of economic status. It was the duty of the government to provide an environment of fine architecture and nature, and the duty of those with money to especially construct beautiful temples and churches to soothe and elevate the consciousness of all the citizens, regardless of caste or creed. Of course, deep poverty can ruin all good qualities, and the government needs to assure a minimum sense of decency. If people have even a simple standard of living, they can keep their immediate environment and behavior fine and clean in order to deepen their spirituality, from how they keep their home to the music they listen to and so on.

 

Back to our original question: Should one in spiritual life dedicated to simple living surround oneself with fine things? Like all enjoyment in life, the value of fine things, as described above, is determined by how it is used. In other words, fine things, like most things in life, when applied appropriately and according to one’s nature and ashram, can help purify the consciousness. But when they are used ostentatiously or indulgently they can degrade it.

 

It should be noted that one in bhakti-yoga who has a propensity for fine things and has the means to procure them can become absorbed in deity worship where, according to one’s means, one can procure the best for Krishna. And by offering them to Krishna we can see, smell, and taste the finest things, not in the consciousness of selfish enjoyment, but in devotion. One can also exchange lovely gifts and finely cooked prasādam with the devotees to enhance the culture of loving exchanges so necessary in opening the heart for bhakti.

 

Certainly, as a renunciate I should cultivate detachment to anything not directly used in Krishna’s service, and not seek fine tastes and food, but boy was the supreme personality of rice good!

 

 


[1] Originally published December 17, 2018.

[2] Morassa Pulao (Nuts Rice)

Serves 6

Ingredients:

  • Rice, 6 cups
  • Oil, 8 tablespoons
  • Water, 10 cups
  • Salt, 6 teaspoons
  • Powdered saffron, 1 tablespoon
  • Curd cheese (paneer), chopped into 1 cm cubes, 2 cups
  • Chopped pistachios, 1 cup
  • Chopped almonds, 1 cup
  • Barberries (washed and drained), 1 cup
  • Cooking raisins (washed and drained), 1 cup

 

Directions:

  1. Wash and drain the rice.
  2. Heat 4 tablespoons. of oil over medium heat in a large pan and fry the rice for two minutes. Then add the water and salt and bring to a boil. Place the lid on the pan and simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes.
  3. Add a little hot water to the powdered saffron in a small bowl
  4. Heat the rest of the oil in a pan and slightly fry the curd cheese. Fry the chopped pistachios and almonds together with the barberries and raisins for 5 minutes and add the saffron to the mix. Mix all the ingredients with the rice and let it cook for further 10 minutes.

 

[3] I remember reading this definition of culture, but offhand don’t remember where it came from.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #9 – Build Devotees, Not Temples

February 24th, 2025

Recently I was inspired by an article by Bhakti Vijñāna Gosvāmī titled “How Not to Turn ISKCON Into a Religion.” My initial desire was to write a review for this week’s Monday Morning Greetings. I soon realized that to do it justice was beyond the scope of a post. His article was very comprehensive. I thought it was better to just share my own realizations on the same subject and leave a link to his article so my readers can read it in full.[1]

 

First, a short introduction to his piece. His article is a detailed analysis of what the philosopher Max Weber calls “the routinization of charisma” as applied to ISKCON. The “routinization of charisma” is when a charismatic spiritual movement seeks to preserve its legacy by making the structure and organization (the routinization) more important than its initial spiritual inspiration and objectives (its charisma). In his article he outlines carefully how this adversely affects the spiritual depth and enthusiasm of its members, the vision and quality of its leadership, and its relationship with other spiritual and religious sects.

 

The purpose of an institution is to carry its culture—what is right, real, and of value—into the future.[2] What I would like to discuss in this post, inspired by Mahārāja’s article, is how the institutionalization of a movement fails in moving its objective forward if not done very carefully. I will do that through a brief analysis of the concept of empowerment and then briefly discuss my own plan to temper the over-routinization of a movement.

 

I define empowerment as recognizing, encouraging, and facilitating a person’s abilities and then setting broad parameters describing where that person’s service is to function. I describe disempowerment as when the single focus of those in charge is not someone’s abilities and initiative but the parameters in which one is to serve. This often manifests in an emphasis on bureaucracy which inevitably leads to the imbalanced focus on the structure and organization of the institution over the empowerment and support of its people. In this way, by not sufficiently recognizing and encouraging its members, such bureaucracy discourages and disempowers them, and most unfortunately, especially those with the charisma and initiative to carry on its initial inspiration and objectives. The institution thus meant to carry forward its culture loses it.

 

When I look back at my life, I see how I have also fallen into this same prioritization of the structure of an institution over service to its members, especially at the beginning of my devotional career. I want to do something different now. I just see too many qualified people without the encouragement and support needed to reach their potential. In that regard I started The Yoga Maya Fund: Build Devotees, Not Temples —started with a kind donation by Yudhisthira dasa, the former long-time secretary of Śrīla Tamal Krishna Mahārāja. It is not that I have anything against building temples. They also perform an important function in serving and expanding the bhakti movement. I just see exorbitant amounts of money spent on so many temples, when a miniscule amount could allow us to accomplish so much more by supporting qualified people who have the potential to share the path of bhakti with others.

 

This year I was able to bring four such devotees to India, two from South America and two from the Middle East. They are all dedicated to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission and gifted in sharing it with others. They could not, however, afford to come to the holy dhāma to get the inspiration they needed to achieve their full potential. With a little help, they made the trip, and they left India with renewed vigor to serve the mission of Śrī Caitanya. It was more than worth it to sponsor their pilgrimage.

 

“How Not to Turn ISKCON Into a Religion” is a comprehensive analysis of the challenges ISKCON faces in preserving the purity of and fidelity to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s original vision. Bhakti Vijñāna Gosvāmī concludes with a description of “things that can and should be done if we want to establish bhakti as the science of God and ISKCON as an international educational institution dedicated to teaching this great science.” I was much inspired by his article and within the confines of just a weekly post now share my own limited inspiration after reading it. I think we all should do our part according to our capacity to understand Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission so his revolutionary movement never degrades into just another disempowering ‘religion.”

 

Build devotees, not temples!

 


[1] https://articles.goswami.ru/en

[2] Joseph T. O’Connell’s article on the subject, “Movement or Mission”—https://gaudiyadiscussions.gaudiya.com/topic_1446.html

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #8 – The Mission of Śrī Caitanya and the Genius of Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja in Presenting It

February 17th, 2025

I have written an article before about the genius of Sanātana Gosvāmī in presenting the mission of Śrī Caitanya in the first book of Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta. The mission of Śrī Caitanya is to give spontaneous love for Krishna (rāgānugā-bhakti) to the world. I was in awe of how creatively Śrī Sanātana did this. First, he weaved the plot of the book to build a foundation to help us understand its esoteric subject. Then, he highlighted the spontaneous love of the gopīs for Krishna through various dramatic exchanges between the devotees of Dvārakā in the last chapter. I recently saw the same type of literary brilliance of highlighting an essential point in various creative ways in the first chapter of the Antya-līlā of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta by Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja.

 

Before I continue, a disclaimer: I like to write, but I am hardly an authority in literature. I suppose every classic has themes that are presented in various ways, often by telling, showing and dramatizing as found in Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta and Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Still, I found these works exceptional. The authors not only insert their points through the texts in dramatic and creative ways but do it in verse form. The genius of their presentation certainly shone through to me and I’ll try to share some of that here with you.

 

The Antya-līlā of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta is the story of the last eighteen years of Śrī Caitanya’s life as he settles in Puri to fulfill the internal reason for his descent (his personal objective rather than his contribution to the world)—to relish the love of his topmost devotee, Śrī Radha, at the height of her love. It is the most esoteric subject in Krishna bhakti, and we are told throughout the book that it is impossible to grasp it simply by the force of one’s intellect. How then to enter the Antya-līlā , where this subject will be extensively discussed? We need the mercy of God and His pure devotees. Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja establishes this point throughout the first chapter in a myriad of ways. I found the way he did it quite brilliant. Here are some of the ways he approaches the subject.

 

By direct declaration, as we are informed in the first verse that the impossible is made possible by mercy:

 

“I offer my respectful obeisances to Śrī Krishna Caitanya Mahāprabhu, by whose mercy even a lame man can cross over a mountain and a dumb man recite Vedic literature.” (Antya-līlā 1.1)

 

By his personal example:

 

At the beginning of the Madhya-līlā (the middle pastimes), only one third through the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, he decides to summarize the pastimes of Śrī Caitanya, which were practically known only to himself due to his direct service and access to Svarūpa Dāmodara, the Lord’s personal confidante. He begins composing one verse for each pastime, and having completed that, hopefully plans to unpack each verse to tell the full story of Śrī Caitanya’s life as far as he can go. His fear is that he is old, nearly blind and invalid, and that he will either die or become incapacitated before he completes the book. Imagine his daunting task. He had to create one verse after another in Bengali in his mind, encapsulating his subject within strict poetic parameters, and then having only one shot to put it to paper. Somehow, however, he completes the Madhya-līlā and now he is faced with an even more daunting task, to approach the Antya-līlā , which describes the most esoteric part of Śrī Caitanya’s life and philosophy in verse form. His hope:

 

“My path is very difficult. I am blind, and my feet are slipping again and again. Therefore, may the saints help me by granting me the stick of their mercy as my support.” (Antya-līlā 1.2)

 

Through the story line as he presents it:

 

Śrī Caitanya has just returned from Vrindavan to fulfill the internal reason for his descent. His devotees get word of his return and proceed on the long journey from Bengal to Puri to join him under the leadership of Śivānanda Sena. On their journey Śivānanda gives shelter to a stray dog who joins the party. It’s a long story about how this dog was cared for by Śivānanda, and the story ends with the dog going back to Godhead. The message is clear: The impossible is possible by the mercy of God’s devotees. We too can enter, or understand, the Antya-līlā by their mercy. Śrīla Prabhupāda’s commentary encourages us:

 

“We may conclude that even as dogs we must take shelter of a Vaiṣṇava. The benefit will be the same as that which accrues to an advanced devotee under a Vaiṣṇava’s care.” (Antya-līlā 1.24, purport)

 

I could continue how expertly this theme of entering Antya-līlā for Śrī Caitanya, His devotees, the author, and the reader are expertly woven into the text, but it’s beyond the scope of a brief post. I haven’t even recounted the epiphany of Śrī Rupa on his journey to Puri that reveals the essence of the Antya-līlā and our entrance to the subject through him. I wanted to give just a glimpse of the literary genius of Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja in giving us the method of entrance to the heart of Śrī Caitanya and what He has given us and the world. Without a doubt, he’s a kavirāja, a genius of wordcraft.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #7 – Is Teatime an Item of Devotional Service?

February 10th, 2025

Joking. Not really. The story:

 

I was holding my fourth annual BIG (Bhakti Immersion Govardhan) Retreat. It was a motley group of devotees from a professional clown and a lead hard-core guitarist to the housewives of New Jersey—three middle-aged ladies with twelve children between them with at least one of their teen girls here to boot. Sure, we would have morning and evening program and daily parikramā, but this group, I thought, also needed “fun.”

 

Before the evening program I scheduled a get-together in my ashram in the downstairs apartment next to mine. I had our charming Middle Eastern lady and her beautiful and talented twenty-four-year-old daughter arrange teatime with the ambrosial brews of orange blossom and saffron infused teas they brought from their country. At least I thought such “fun” was needed. Their non-stop raucous cacophony of laughter pierced the Braja sky, and certainly the wall of my adjacent room, with what sounded like bhakti-killing “prajalpa” (idle talk).

 

What kind of offering was this before the sacred mount of Govardhan, just fifty yards before us and visible from their courtyard? A thought spontaneously arose in my cloistered Hare Krishna monk mind, a kind of, “Is this authorized, prabhu?” I thus happily broke up the party just in time for evening kirtan.

 

Young Satya, our middle eastern tea brewer, was designated to lead. She closed her eyes and for two hours with deep bhāva and a simple but melodious melody gradually built up the tempo. As I looked around the room, I couldn’t find a single devotee soul not deeply lost in the experience, all immersed in the holy name. Then suddenly the collective bhāva of the kirtan finally merited an explosion of the tempo and we all danced and danced. From the quiet male hairdresser to the former lady infantry soldier, we all danced without attachment and without inhibition. Parmananda of the old music band Shelter called the kirtan epic. For me it was arguably one of the deepest kirtans I ever experienced.

 

So I was wrong, “Teatime is an item of devotional service.” Well maybe not an item of devotional service, but certainly of value to our devotion. I guess I owe an explanation.

 

Day after day the devotees, mostly the ladies, joined for joyous teatime and shared their lives and thoughts and jokes, and more jokes. Each day the kirtan reached new heights. I saw a connection.

 

People today generally live in a lonely world, and if they are blessed with a community, their gatherings are too far and few between. A tight trusting community allows us to shed our self- interest for a spirit of common interest. It helps us to drop the self-centered and limited concept of “I” restraining us from the uninhibited and non-detached open heart required for full immersion in the nectar of the holy name. It’s thus a principle of rasa that shared bliss is higher than individual bliss, and thus saṅkīrtan, chanting with community, gives special feelings of heightened devotion. We did start with many people who had a deep connection already, but I don’t underestimate the power that our teatime had to bring everyone into the fold of community.

 

Wait—isn’t prajalpa one of the obstacles to devotion? Isn’t sense gratification antithetical to pure devotion? We are not against sense gratification. We just need to understand it’s not the goal. We take what we need to forge a peaceful mind for the higher endeavor of Krishna consciousness. Teatime may not be for everyone, and it wasn’t for me, but most people today desperately need community . It brought our group, from the clown to the housewives of New Jersey, together in the saṅkīrtan of the holy name with a depth and relish unimaginable weeks before, even for me.

 

Teatime anyone?

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #6 – Love Makes the World Go Round and Śrī Caitanya’s Practice of Bhakti Yoga

February 3rd, 2025

Years back, when I was giving seminars at yoga studios, I was always looking for a relatable definition of bhakti for my audience. One day I unexpectedly found one. I was walking through the flower gardens of Vrindavan when I came upon a calf being born. I watched as the calf immediately went to drink milk from the mother’s udder, and the mother began to lick its calf passionately in return. The calf didn’t have the capacity to analyze her situation, thinking “this is an udder, and it provides my sustenance. It is from a cow, my mother!” Still the calf, due to their natural relationship, spontaneously identified with and reacted to the cow as its mother.

 

Observing this, I had an epiphany—this spontaneous exchange between the calf and cow is a perfect template for love in general which is the spontaneous energy flowing between two people with a natural relationship. It also offers a perfect analogy for the natural energy of bhakti that flows between the soul and God. More important for me, it was the relatable definition of bhakti I was looking for: bhakti is the instinctive energy of love that naturally flows in the relationship between the soul and God.

 

This also gave me insight into the spiritual practice Śrī Caitanya performed to attain His goal—to experience the devotion of Śrī Radha, His best devotee, at the height of Her love. In the mood of His own devotee, He drew out this natural energy of affection between Himself and God by focusing on the Supreme Lord in the form of His holy name and He also recommended that same practice to all of us to awaken our true self. But there is more.

 

He also was day and night tasting the verses and songs of the person whose name He was chanting and He daily worshiped Lord Jagannath, the form of the person whose name He was chanting. By doing this, His sambandha or relationship with the holy name, and consequently his absorption in the holy name, deepened. And this increased the intensity of the flow of love between Himself and God to the level of prema, perfect love for God.

 

As soon as I saw the spontaneous and intense exchange of love between the calf and cow, I immediately understood that I had a powerful way to explain to relatively new practitioners what bhakti is and why chanting God’s names is such an effective method to awaken love of God in our hearts. It worked! What could be a more relatable concept of reality and our relationship with reality (God) than the concept that there is an energy of pure love that helps define the ultimate reality, and that our participation in that exchange of pure love is the goal of life. So yes, “love makes the world go round!”

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #5 – Logos, Logic, and Prasādam

January 27th, 2025

Logos, Logic, and Prasādam[1]

Have you ever gone on a “word journey”? I made the term up, but I really think it is an apropos name for my engagement with the word “logos”. That journey began when I heard it used in a particular context in a lecture and was inspired to begin a search for the root of its meaning. I then began a correspondence about the term with a friend who is a professor of Philosophy. I thought a lot about it since and feel that I gained some very important and practical insights from that journey that I would like to share.

Here is the basic notion of logos, as my friend presented it in our conversation:

“Originally, ‘logos’ meant something like rationale, reasoning, or account. So if you gave a speech or made a case for something that would be your logos. The pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus adapted it to be the term for a divine world order, the ordering of the world around a rational principle. So, if you were in touch with the fundamental logos, then you could see the world in harmony. If not, it would seem confused and disjointed. Christian authors adapted this idea to say that the logos is God’s divine will that orders the world. And when they say, “Jesus is the WORD,” “WORD” translates “logos” from Greek.”

Now let me summarize what I learned from this journey about the meaning of logos.

  1. The universe is rationally ordered according to God’s plan.
  2. When you act according to His plan there is harmony.
  3. When you act against this order there is chaos and suffering.
  4. God’s rational plan for the universal order is expressed in words. Such knowledge is called Veda or based on śāstra (scripture.)
  5. Therefore the most important service in society is to create order by the clear conceptualization and expression of knowledge that creates peace and harmony.

Based on these principles I also came up with what I think is a reasonable definition of logos that I need to share before explaining my insights: the divine rational order of the world and the knowledge or words that express that. Now I will share the practical insights I gained from this study.

Every year I host a retreat in Puri, which is where I am writing this article now. I take pains to organize every detail of the retreat because I have the strong conviction that there is a way or “order” to do things and when executed properly there is harmony and ultimately happiness. While overseeing the retreat in this way I realized how connected this type of effort is to the concept of logos that I was meditating on. The activity of the retreat that best struck me as a way to highlight this correlation was the serving of prasādam. In that regard, I have made an outline below showing that correlation:

Prasādam Serving and Logos at the Puri Yātrā

  1. The universe is rationally ordered according to God’s plan.

There is a right way to serve prasādam that I learned by living in India for over forty years. I believe even practical details like this are ultimately embedded in logos or the divine rational order of the universe.

  1. When you act according to His plan there is harmony.

The prasādam was served properly and people thus enjoyed the prasādam without anxiety in addition to feeling served or loved in the process.

  1. When you act against this order there is chaos and world suffering.

Fortunately, that didn’t happen, but just one person who serves improperly would have impeded the quick and gracious flow of serving and caused anxiety.

  1. God’s rational plan for the universal order is expressed in words. Such knowledge is called Veda or based on śāstra (scripture).

There is a proper way to serve prasādam that is carried down in word or oral tradition in India that I learned from observing the beauty and efficiency of the process by living there for over forty years.

  1. Therefore the most important service in society is to create order by the clear conceptualization and expression of knowledge that creates peace and harmony.

Before we began I personally instructed the servers on the proper method to serve prasādam. I then carefully supervised the serving to make sure they understood how to do it properly. Notice that we have used language and verbal directions inspired and directed by divine order to create harmony and peace.

Below are just a few of the main principles I emphasized.

  1. The cook will instruct people how much to serve of each item and in what order.
  2. The servers will carefully and quickly place the modest amount directed by the cook on people’s plates in a pleasant mood of service and move on to the next person.
  3. Ideally the servers should move in a way so they can serve quickly. Best therefore if they can remain bent at the waist so they can proceed without having to bend again and again slowing and impeding the serve out. At all costs they should not put the bucket down to engage with any person disrupting the flow of service.
  4. If people sitting are not conversant in the culture of prasādam serving and demand huge helpings when we first go around, politely tell them that seconds will come, or if they insist just give them a little more and move on.
  5. Remember that the joy of prasādam is not just the sensual experience but also the exchange of love that people feel when being served nicely, which means efficiently and graciously.

The result of following guidelines in serving prasādam is that it is served quickly, graciously, without waste and peacefully. Doing it with these principles in mind not only pleases the devotees but also invokes Krishna’s grace on the assembly. Of course this is just one example, but the principle remains in all activities – that if things are done properly reflecting an order that is imbedded within the universe by God there will be harmony.

Conclusion: By tapping into the proper ordering of things, and by properly instructing those who are willing to learn about the proper ordering of things, we can be centered on the Lord’s will in any activity and create harmony and joy for our self and others.
 


[1] Please excuse me for the second reprint in a row, which is very rare for me. But I am fully immersed in leading and teaching in our 19th annual Puri retreat and don’t have a minute to spare. One additional service I have is that at the retreat I personally take charge of serving the prasādam in a more traditional way. This article explains why and is distributed to anyone who wants to assist me.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #4 – Believers and the Elephant in the Room: Tackling the Challenge of Evil

January 20th, 2025

Believers and the Elephant in the Room: Tackling the Challenge of Evil [1]

At the age of twenty-one Jeff, my youngest cousin, was mercilessly beaten to death by the local police in a Midwest jail for no reason. His crime: He had asthma and was Jewish. From what the family could gather, it was Jeff’s first day of law school and due to his asthma, he sat near the window in the library to help with his breathing. When the school librarian told him to move because the window seats were reserved for upperclassmen, he refused due to his health and out of principle; the place was nearly empty. When he repeatedly denied the librarian’s demands she summoned the local police. They eagerly hauled off this city boy from Los Angeles to jail, and unfortunately he never again saw the light of day again. He died in jail. His parents and his three older sisters, who loved Jeff practically more than their own lives, were devastated. This sort of suffering and loss is all too common in this world. And it leads us to consider the elephant in the room for theistic belief, sometimes called the problem of evil. If God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, why then when He knows about it, has the power to do something about it, and is supremely good does he allow such cruelty to continue? The existence of evil thus logically contradicts the existence of God. Or does it? Below is my attempt at theodicy: answering the challenge that if God exists, why does He permit evil?

 

Explanation I: One good argument doesn’t necessarily prove one’s point. One must weigh the cumulative evidence or arguments.

 

There may be very strong evidence or argument that one has committed murder, but that is not enough to convict a person. There also may be very strong arguments that one is innocent. The jury must come to a fair conclusion based on the cumulative evidence. Similarly, the argument against God from the reality of evil is a strong argument, but to come to a fair conclusion one must weigh the cumulative evidence. I would posit that the arguments for God’s existence are very strong, stronger than the problem of evil. Just one of the arguments below called “Monkey on a Typewriter”:

 

It is more probable that a monkey on a typewriter by chance produced the complete works of William Shakespeare or the Encyclopedia Britannica than this world happens by chance. And if you think about it, as I write this very article, every word scribed that fits into a sentence, or anything in the world that moves with reason or order, at every second increases exponentially the improbability that this world has happened by chance. And if the probability of the world having arisen by chance is as close to nil as mathematically possible and ever increasingly so, then the account of the world wherein God creates it has far more power to explain the nature of the world than the denial of God and its consequent randomness. Therefore, the argument by evil, although strong, cannot in itself establish the verdict that God does not exist.

 

Explanation II: The argument for evil itself proves the existence of God.

 

By recognizing the existence of evil we are acknowledging that objective moral values exist, which seems to far more point to the existence of God than to deny His existence. If everything ultimately is just particles of matter moving randomly then on what basis can any action be judged moral, and if everything is deterministic how can anyone be held morally accountable? In other words, our capacity to deem something genuinely good or morally evil requires an acknowledgement of something transcendent that is morally meaningful (God), otherwise moral judgments, even concerning the most horrendous actions, become reduced to subjective expressions of cultural conditioning or personal preference simply based on chance and consequent evolution. Even the most hardened atheists shudder to fully embrace the consequence of atheism where even the most horrendous actions are deterministic and not objectively wrong. Therefore the existence of evil, rather than denying God, points to His existence.

 

Explanation III: The acceptance of free will includes the choice for evil.

 

Love, which is the supreme ethic, requires freedom and thus the possibility of wrong choice—even evil. Thus rather than evil negating the possibility of God, evil affirms God’s existence because it is a world of humanity and not compliant or forced “good”. Simply put, God allows sin (moral evil) at the cost of freedom and that is His perfection. There are many reasonable arguments, both simple and complex, by substantial religionists and philosophers that deal with this train of response to the problem of evil. They are a little beyond the scope of this paper, but I recommend researching them. [2]

 

Although there is some weight to the argument of free will, I can also conceive some challenges to the argument by a conception of an all-powerful God who somehow is able to create a free choice and consequent love without the possibility for evil,[3] which is why I like the argument given by Leibniz as a complimentary one. It follows.

 

Explanation IV: The world God created is the best possible of all worlds.[4]

 

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura gave a similar reason to one posited above by Leibniz. He argued that God would not be complete as the enjoyer of all energies if He didn’t also have the experience of exchanging with the material energy. On the surface, this argument may make God look self-serving or callous, but I think there is a sense to it that I would purport as follows: The material world allows for the beauty of compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and the special flavor of a soul’s personal triumph over suffering that enhances God’s manifestation rather than contradicts His existence.

 

Explanation V: Soul-making theodicy and the law of karma. [5]

 

Evil only negates the existence of God if you look at the world from the very selfish perspective of affirming God’s goodness only when it serves our enjoyment and control. Judging God in that way is like a spoiled child evaluating his parent’s character based on the rewards and punishments he receives. In a similar way, evil and suffering is best understood by looking at the world from God’s perspective, which judges what is ultimately good, not what superficially rewards or punishes. In traditional Indian thought this perspective falls under the conception of the law of karma, which sees and even tries to prove that whatever happens to one, even if painful, are perfect conditions created by God to rectify one’s behavior for the purpose of everlasting joy. At least one serious about spiritual life should be able to connect the trials and tribulations in one’s life to his or her personal growth and then to project that onto the world. Evil does not therefore a priori negate the existence of God’s benevolence. It is a tough pill to swallow, but all traditional Indian philosophies, even if they disagree fundamentally on many core points, agree on this one: There is a moral force called the law of karma that is Absolute and ultimately good, even when one is on the receiving end of cruelty.

 

Explanation VI: Humility

 

It is one thing to equate suffering with growth and renewal, but what about pointless suffering? Does not pointless suffering challenge the existence of God? Bhīṣmadeva answered a similar question when enlightening Yudhiṣṭhira. I like his answer from a traditional Indian philosophical perspective: “No one can understand the inexplicable will of the Lord.”[6] As we have been entangled in this world since time immemorial, it is not possible to estimate our level of misconception and what it takes for the Lord to enlighten us. I think anyone on a genuine spiritual path cannot help but be amazed at the sheer number of constant and unending painful life lessons that one has endured that have helped expand one’s present awareness, lessons that one had absolutely no ability to comprehend at the time they occurred. So basically the answer to seemingly pointless suffering is to humbly accept that we lack the capacity to understand what we need, or to fully ever understand God’s will.

 

The elephant in the room—the problem of evil: Acknowledge it. Confront it. The theistic conclusion still stands.

 

 


[1] I have been busy organizing our 19th annual Puri retreat. Please enjoy this article originally posted on March 26, 2018.

[2] Alvin Plantinga’s summary of his argument for free will: A world containing creatures who are significantly free (and freely perform more good than evil actions) is more valuable, all else being equal, than a world containing no free creatures at all. Now God can create free creatures, but He can’t cause or determine them to do only what is right. For if He does so, then they aren’t significantly free after all; they do not do what is right freely. To create creatures capable of moral good, therefore, He must create creatures capable of moral evil; and He can’t give these creatures the freedom to perform evil and at the same time prevent them from doing so. As it turned out, sadly enough, some of the free creatures God created went wrong in the exercise of their freedom; this is the source of moral evil. The fact that free creatures sometimes go wrong, however, counts neither against God’s omnipotence nor against His goodness; for He could have forestalled the occurrence of moral evil only by removing the possibility of moral good.

[3] In Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism we have the concept of Śrī Rādhā and her eternal associates, who are the embodiment of the highest love, but have no choice of choosing evil.

[4] Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz, 17th century German Philosopher

[5] John Hick developed what is called “soul-making” theodicy in which he argued that God allows evil and suffering in the world in order to develop humans into virtuous creatures capable of following His will.

[6] Bhāg. 1.9.16

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #3 – Do You Believe in Miracles?!

January 13th, 2025

Do You Believe in Miracles?![1]

 

When something miraculous happens, we have two mutually exclusive choices to explain it. Either its cause is supernatural or within the scope of known natural laws. For example, the famous magician David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear. His audience was blown away, but when later it was discovered how he did it, it was clear that it was just a brilliantly orchestrated stunt.

 

But does that mean that all “miracles” have an explanation within the laws of nature? In this post I will explain at least some miracles in my own life that don’t seem to have a natural explanation. You can be the judge about which approach provides the best way to understand them: Are they miracles, events not explicable by scientific laws, or just natural occurrences?

 

The mystic jaundice doctor

 

In Vrindavan, there was a simple sādhu named Shyama Sakhi who cured jaundice by chanting mantras and pouring water over the afflicted. As the water turned yellow, the jaundice would wash away, so he claimed. Many people I knew gave testimony backing his claim. Despite their claims, I remained skeptical until a visit to Bangalore one summer when I completely lost my appetite and began to sleep all day. I was forced to immediately accept medical help because in three days I had a non-refundable ticket for the forty-eight-hour train ride back to Vrindavan for an extremely important meeting. The doctor checked me thoroughly and pronounced his diagnosis: “You have a very severe case of jaundice and must rest for a minimum of three weeks!” I wasn’t happy when he also nixed my travels plans. The train ride was much too dangerous for someone in my condition, he emphatically informed me. By providence, that afternoon I met a local person visiting our ashram who was informed of my condition. He told me of a simple middle-class housewife who could cure jaundice. I was desperate and I made an appointment to see her that afternoon. I remember this very ordinary housewife splashing water over my eyes. The water turned yellow, and soon I was free of jaundice. Within a day I was eating samosas and was able to return to Vrindavan as scheduled! Seems like a miracle to me.

 

The mystic rasagullā

 

In 1974, my college roommate invited me to visit him at ISKCON Dallas during my summer break from graduate school. We had met devotees four years earlier together. While he immediately joined, I hesitated. Despite my own conviction in bhakti, I was unable to make the decision to become a “devotee.” In those days, for a man that meant shaving up and moving into the ashram. By fortune, however, just a week after I arrived in Dallas, Śrīla Prabhupāda was also visiting the temple. He invited all the devotees to his room to distribute prasādam to them. I remember waiting on a long line for my turn to enter. The whole time I was fervently praying for the strength to fully surrender, but still the obstacles seemed insurmountable. I concluded that despite my desire to join, that there was just no way I could become a devotee. When my turn came, I walked respectfully into Śrīla Prabhupāda’s room, paid my obeisances, stretched out my hand and received a rasagullā directly from his hand. The minute I bit into it, all doubts were gone and I decided to stay and move into the ashram. I was shocked. How did that happen? Certainly, those without my faith could offer so many natural explanations based on their study of psychology. I know my mind, however. The change was just so sudden, so beyond my reasoning at the time, and the transformation so timed with that one bite, that the only plausible explanation is the inconceivable mercy of God’s devotee.

 

The miracle of coincidence

 

I have written about this several times. I met devotees at a Sunday feast in Los Angeles, became inspired, and the next day with my friends headed up to San Francisco on Highway 1 singing Hare Krishna. Our first stop was a Chinese restaurant. When we left the restaurant, the devotees were right outside chanting in a lively kirtan. We joined in. That evening the only place we could find to sleep was the parking lot of a football stadium adjacent to Golden Gate Park. There was only one Hare Krishna Center in the whole city. Somehow the back door of that storefront temple opened to that parking lot and by coincidence we parked our car directly under their window! The rest is history, so to speak. I became a devotee.[2] An excerpt from an article where I describe this incident:

 

“Basically, I argue that if one carefully studies his own life he will find a synchronicity between certain events, or ‘meaningful coincidences’ as Carl Jung defined it, whose probability of occurrence was so small that it was far more likely that the cause of those events rests beyond any random occurrence under the laws of nature. What makes those events even more improbable is the link between those external events and our inner life, as if those events were personally directed towards helping us grow.”

 

In summary, the best explanation for the preponderance of the occurrence of mutual coincidences in my life, and a devout life in general, is so far beyond the explanation of chance, that the best explanation for them rests outside the laws of nature.

 

The miracle of fine tuning

 

This is a big topic and a more general one, but it involves a miracle in our life, nonetheless. Basically, the universe is extremely fine-tuned for the appearance of life. Many favorable, but unlikely, conditions, are met. The probability of all those conditions happening by chance is likely under 1 in 10120. The conditional probability of life arising by chance should be set close to zero. So yes, the existence of a fine-tuned universe supporting our existence itself is just a miracle. And the best explanation is God.

 

Do You Believe in Miracles?!

 


[1] This is a relatively famous quote spoken in 1980, but perhaps not for someone born after 1965 not in the USA. Anyone in my audience also know the source?

[2] https://wavesofdevotion.com/2016/06/13/an-original-argument-for-the-existence-of-god/

 

Next »