Last weekend Prema and I visited Portland to attend some of Guru Maharaja's talks, as well as to do more research for our upcoming relocation there in the early summer. We flew in on Friday night and missed the program GM gave at Guru Seva's house . The next one was on Saturday afternoon at Hari Bhakti and Scott's home for her yoga teacher trainer students. This is an audience Guru Maharaja has been interested in speaking to for years and now he finally has the opportunity thanks to Hari Bhakti's dedicated work in the field of yoga. Some of the attendees had heard Guru Maharaja speak at the Bhakti Shop on his previous visit, and so were already primed up for more; for others it was their first time hearing him live (all of Hari Bhakti's teacher trainer students are familiar with his Gita as it is a textbook in her course, but hearing GM in person is another experience altogether!). The lecture's theme was compassion, and to illustrate this principle he gave a lengthy explanation of revelation. Agnideva's kirtana was stellar, as usual, especially when he was singing Sri Radha's name--the whole room lit up. The response was very favorable, and Hari Bhakti got follow-up emails from several people who were touched deeply and want to learn more about Guru Maharaja.
On Sunday morning Prema, Hari Bhakti, and I spoke to Guru Maharaja about his vision for the outreach in Portland, and in general. He talked at some length about his idea for the Harmonist website, and how he wants his disciples to begin doing "second tier" writing. With regard to interfacing with the yoga community, Hari Bhakti suggested that the Narada Bhakti sutras might be a good book to do a commentary on and Guru Maharaja was enlivened by the idea and wanted to look into right away.
Guru Maharaja lectured at two other locations, in Beaverton sponsored by an Indian gentleman named Sugumar who he had met on his last trip as well as a program at Portland State University. Overall Guru Maharaja expressed enthusiasm for developing the community and outreach in Portland as a protype for other places he visits and will visit in the future.
Thanks for report, Citta Hari.
Could you expand on what is meant with "second-tier" writing?
Thanks for report, Citta Hari.
Could you expand on what is meant with "second-tier" writing?
Over the years Guru Maharaja has said many times that the Buddhists really have it together in how they interface with their audience, and one of the factors (among others) that helps them to be so together is that their lay practitioners are encouraged to write about their experiences as they gain insight through their practice. They have their core material by their theologians, which is then digested and made more intelligible by those who live in the world for the benefit of the sanga as well as for those who are not Buddhists.
As we know, Guru Maharaja is a theologian of a very high order and as such writes about Gaudiya Vaisnavism at an extremely profound and subtle level. This kind of material can be difficult to access--even by the devotees--what to speak of people who are still only marginally interested. To extend his outreach further will require that the tradition be broken down for those who are still getting the basic message, thus allowing Guru Maharaja to do what he does best: explore the theological depths and heights of the tradition, with a side benefit being that the devotees who write will inevitably learn more about the subject matter.
So anyway, that's the basic idea. Guru Maharaja himself of course could give a much more in-depth explanation of what he has in mind, so perhaps he'll be interested in writing something here so we can all understand his mind better.
I just listened to todays conference call and was delighted to hear Guru Maharaj speak about the Harmonist. At first, it sounded like a Vina clone to me, but now I can see it will be so much more.
Kamalaksa and Krsangi have been speaking about reforming their Absolute truth press website and adding weekly blogs by devotees. I think this would be a form of second-tier writing as well.
I just listened to todays conference call and was delighted to hear Guru Maharaj speak about the Harmonist. At first, it sounded like a Vina clone to me, but now I can see it will be so much more.
Kamalaksa and Krsangi have been speaking about reforming their Absolute truth press website and adding weekly blogs by devotees. I think this would be a form of second-tier writing as well.
I was wondering if you were on the call; I'm glad you got to hear about the Harmonist from GM himself.
About your last comment, I think you're right; GM has mentioned devotee blogs in the past.
I was wondering if you were on the call; I'm glad you got to hear about the Harmonist from GM himself.
About your last comment, I think you're right; GM has mentioned devotee blogs in the past.
GM said something about having a lot of editors for the Harmonist. It would be good to know the list of people so that we can submit the articles to the respective editors.