Tattva-viveka

Kartika drops

Syamasundara - October 26, 2007 4:08 pm

vāṇī guṇānukathane śravaṇau kathāyāḿ

hastau ca karmasu manas tava pādayor naḥ

smṛtyāḿ śiras tava nivāsa-jagat-praṇāme

dṛṣṭiḥ satāḿ darśane 'stu bhavat-tanūnām

SB 10.10.38: Henceforward, may all our words describe Your pastimes, may our ears engage in aural reception of Your glories, may our hands, legs and other senses engage in actions pleasing to You, and may our minds always think of Your lotus feet. May our heads offer our obeisances to everything within this world, because all things are also Your different forms, and may our eyes see the forms of Vaiṣṇavas, who are nondifferent from You. (Manigriva and Nalakuvara to Lord Damodara)

This year my kartika vow is to read half an hour of sastra a day no matter what. Sounds simple, but, as much as I want it, it is a little austerity for me to get around to doing it.

Reading sastra now, after being in touch with the Vaisnavas for 15 years, and after a long pause is yet another blessing that's falling on me. Every sloka feels like a nuclear bomb in my consciousness, every character comes alive, every thing makes me sigh a lot.

Incidentally, the last line of this sloka has a meter that has nothing to do with the previous ones. I wonder why. To express the emotional state of Manigriva and Nalakuvara?

Read this prayer carefully; it's one of the best out there, which I am sure I did read some 15 years ago, both in Italian and English, yet then it was just a moment in the narration. SP just touches upon it in his purport, but that's just an impetus to read all of his books, and all of his purports to have a proper appreciation of each sloka, and become serious.

sadhu-sanga sadhu-sanga sarva sastre kay

lava matra sadhu-sange sarva siddhi hay

PS Can everyone view the diacritics as I do? Should I adjust it?

Nanda-tanuja Dasa - October 26, 2007 6:07 pm

Beautiful prayer...

Bhrigu - October 27, 2007 6:27 am

Kartika is the best of times! I have no special vows this year, apart from chanting the Damodarastaka and Kartika-kirtanas and offering a lamp to Damodara, but those things in themselves are so sweet. I love these kind of "timed" events -- waiting for it to begin, offering the sweetrice on Rasapurnima, then Govardhana-puja, etc...

Shyamu: the metre of the verse is Vasantatilaka. You need to read darsane as darasane to make the metre of the last line correct (like sparasa for sparsa in the hantayam adrir-verse, but that is there in the writing as well). I haven't the time to check other editions of the text right now, but I would suspect that this is adjusted in other editions. The diacritics look good, but there are some extra dots here and there.

Syamasundara - October 27, 2007 6:46 am

Gotta love those tricky semivowels.

I see those dots and apostrophes, too, but I wouldn't know how to adjust it, I pasted it straight from the vedabase online.

Vows are a tricky thing, besides being a meditation, they can be a spur to a deeper meditation and vijñana. I was just coming back from my pottery class one hour ago and feeling separation from the Bhagavatam; I caught myself thinking: "I'd read some more even if I already read my half hour this morning, but if I did, then my vow would lose shape and identity."

Now, isn't that the lamest thing? One thing is to make sure you don't keep fasting when Ekadasi is over, because it would feel like you are fasting for your own reasons, and not because it was auspicious and "hari-tosana" to do it at that time, but the Bhagavatam is a fountain of eternal youth for a Vaisnava or apprentice.

So I think I'll tap some more. After all I said "at least" half an hour a day.

Tadiya Dasi - October 28, 2007 5:04 am

Kartika is the best of times! I have no special vows this year, apart from chanting the Damodarastaka and Kartika-kirtanas and offering a lamp to Damodara, but those things in themselves are so sweet. I love these kind of "timed" events -- waiting for it to begin, offering the sweetrice on Rasapurnima, then Govardhana-puja, etc...

Agreed! :Cow: I find the whole Damodara-lila and the singing of the Damodarastakam/offering the lamp to be such a sweet period of time in the Vaisnava year. It's good to be reminded of the light of prema in the middle of the Finnish darkness in a daily basis :Shame On You:

And, Syamasundara, that prayer is wonderful! Thank you for sharing it with us.

Syamasundara - October 31, 2007 6:37 pm

Well, this thread may not go on after all. I was just reading the verses on the vedabase online, but when I came to that prayer I opened the purport, with all those quotations, and I remembered how GM used to study, going from one text to the other as SP would quote them in his purports. Now with those hyperlinks it's really a piece of cake, and it would be lame not to do it. The thing is, every purport has a lot of quotations, and so does the purport of the quoted texts, so this morning I realized I was lost in the labyrinth of the Srimad Bhagavatam. It's nice here, though, everybody is friendly: SP, Prahlada, Jiva Gosvami, Cakravarthi Thakura. I realized, What happened to the yamala-arjuna trees? I am really tempted to stop this verse hopping and go back to Krsna lila, but at this point that feels like enjoyment, while here there are so many personalities that have something to say, I'd feel like walking out on them.

Anybody else can come with kartika drops, though.

So much for books being the passive agent... but SP's version of Bhagavatam is a book that's full of gurus. How could I ignore the Bhagavatam for so long? :Big Grin:

Syamasundara - November 7, 2007 6:48 am

There you go:

deve varṣati yajña-viplava-ruṣā vajrāsma-varṣānilaiḥ

sīdat-pāla-paśu-striy ātma-śaraṇaḿ dṛṣṭvānukampy utsmayan utpāṭyaika-kareṇa śailam abalo līlocchilīndhraḿ yathā

bibhrad goṣṭham apān mahendra-mada-bhit prīyān na indro gavām

TRANSLATION

Indra became angry when his sacrifice was disrupted, and thus he caused rain and hail to fall on Gokula, accompanied by lightning and powerful winds, all of which brought great suffering to the cowherds, animals and women there. When Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is by nature always compassionate, saw the condition of those who had only Him as their shelter, He smiled broadly and lifted Govardhana Hill with one hand, just as a small child picks up a mushroom to play with it. Holding up the hill, He protected the cowherd community. May He, Govinda, the Lord of the cows and the destroyer of Indra's false pride, be pleased with us.

Madan Gopal Das - November 8, 2007 2:32 pm

I haven't had time to comment Shyam, but I've been in touch with you because I also have been reading 10th canto for kartika. I am reading a translation done by Advaita, published by Penguin. This time of year is so wonderful. Out here we have beautiful colors from the turning leaves... The leaves show such incredible beauty in the process of their death. I was listening to a class of GM yesterday where he was saying that we need to come up with our own analogies, from our lives, to express how the world is speaking to us the truths of the Bhagavat, in the same way that the trees and grass spoke to Mahaprabhu. Then today happened to be one of my favorite chapters of 10th canto, description of autumn. I couldn't resist posting some here to share...

5. When the appropriate time came, the sun began to release the earth's riches, in the form of water, which it had drunk for eight months by means of its rays.

6. Huge, fierce, lightning-bearing clouds, driven by the wind, released their pleasing water, just like merciful people.

7. Watered by the gods, the earth, which had been parched by heat, became fertile, just like the body of one undergoing austere practices with desires in mind, when it has obtained the fruit of these practices.

8. Because of the darkness, it is the fireflies that shine at the onset of night, not the planets, just as, because of sinfulness, it is the heretical doctrines that shine in the kaliyuga and not the vedas.

9. After hearing the rumbling of the clouds, the frogs, who had previously been resting silently, gave out their calls, just like brahmanas at the conclusion of their religious observances.

13. The inhabitants of the water and the land displayed pleasing forms as a result of the contributions of the new water, just as the devotees do from the service of Hari.

14. The ocean, abounding with waves and wind and joined by rivers, was agitated, lie the resolution of a neophyte yogi when driven by lust and influenced by the gunas.

15. The mountains did not flinch when pounded by the water-bearing clouds, just as those whose minds are dedicated to Adhoksaja do not flinch when assailed by adversities.

19. The moon, covered by clouds and illuminated by its own light, did not shine, like the soul, covered by the concept of ego and illuminated by its own light, does not shine.

20. The peacocks welcomed the arrival of the clouds and were joyful, like those who are depressed and unhappy at home become joyful when the devotees of Acyuta arrive. - (Several devotees of Acyuta will be arriving at our household next week!)

21. The trees, who drink through their feet, become transformed after drawing in water through their roots, like those who had previously suffered and became exhausted by austere practices become transformed through indulging in pleasures.

25. So Hari, accompanied by Balarama and surrounded by the cows and cowherders, entered that immense forest to play. It contained ripe dates and jambu fruits.

32. In due course, while Balarama and Kesava were living there in Vraj, autumn arrived with gentle breezes, clear waters and cloudless skies.

34. The autumn removed the debris from the water, the mud from the earth, the intermixing of the elements, and the clouds from the sky, just as devotion to krsna removes impurities from those who follow the asrama.

36. The mountains sometimes release pre water and sometimes did not, like the wise on occasion give, or do not give, the nectar of knowledge.

40. Upon the arrival of autumn, the ocean becomes quiet and its waters still, just as, finding quietude in teh self, a hogi completely refrains from the agama ritualistic texts.

45. The people, embracing the wind from the forest flowers, which is constant in cold or heat, let go of their distress - except for the gopis, whose hearts had been stolen by Krsna.

Now that is what I call poetry!!!

Syamasundara - November 8, 2007 3:29 pm

This time of year is so wonderful.

It's the most wonderful time of the year,

with the lamps every ev'ning and vows for achieving and Damodar's here!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

It's the hap- happiest season of all,

we'll be a host and a half, and we'll worship a calf, on the ground we will roll,

it's the hap-happiest season of all!

:Hypnotized:

Syamasundara - November 8, 2007 9:52 pm

And now, check out what I've come across:

Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti's Govardhanastakam

1. krsna-prasadena samasta-saila-

samrajyam apnoti ca vairino 'pi

sakrasya yah prapa balim sa saksad