About Spiritual Practices

I think sadhana (spiritual practice) needs to vary from person to person. I don't have a one size fits all program. I make my japa chanting requirements minimal--at least one round of each mantra the person in inititated in daily. I like the idea of bhajans (songs) in the native language. I need some poets and musicians to work with.

Everything is Krishna and Krishna's energies. He is everywhere, in everyone and everything. Yet everyone and everything is not Krishna. When I have surrendered my life to Radha Krishna and am motivated by love in all I do and work for the good of all walking in the presence of Radha Krishna living in the transcendental Vrindaban wherever I may be, then everything I do becomes spiritual.

So far as sexual practices, that's also a very personal, individualistic path. I believe it is best done in a commited, loving relationship. They can also be done individually or by any two consenting adults. However, marriage vows need to be respected.

I don't know much about sahajiyas really except what I read recently on GR and other places on the net. While I like the basic premise of following the natural, easy way, I disagree with the practice of having sex with others spouses. I have studied and practiced some tantric and Kama Sutra techniques.

Now I have my own very informal methods. Keeping the sexual (kundalini) energy flowing and active is important. Gazing at the partner is very effective for breaking through and seeing the real person. Chanting the holy names and mantras increases the spiritual effect. Being loving and nurturing and delaying organism helps.

I don't think it's good to imagine ourselves to be the Divine Couple in whatever form. We are not them. We are their servants. We pray that their love may be manifested through our love, but not that we become them.

Spiritual Age

I have decided that in the spiritual world, my eternal age will be eighteen. When Lalita Prasad initiated me into the eleven moods of a maidservant of Radha, he said I should pick an age between ten and thirteen. I said thirteen. I would have liked it to be older then, but I wasn’t about to start asking for changes at that time. For over thirty years, I accepted the 13 year old age. Yet I always imagined myself as about 18. One of the most effective techniques I have found for visualizing my spiritual body is to draw it. It’s a great meditation. I always look 18 in the drawings.

As a seminary trained, ordained clergy person, I am very aware of sexual boundary issues. I am also aware of the large numbers of children who are sexually abused. Even in India, the idea of child brides is losing favor, especially among the more Westernized classes. Since Radha and her maidservants engage in drinking and erotic pastimes with Krishna, I think that for Westerners, it is better that the maidservants be 18, Radha 20 and Krishna 21. This maintains the traditional age differences, but makes them of an age where they are better able to exhibit such pastimes. Adding five years to the ages of the confidants, etc. also adjusts things.

Lalita Prasad said I should let him know if I made any changes. I hope he has internet. I have made the change on my spiritual disciplic succession sheet. Now, anyone who comes to me for the eleven moods of a maidservant will also be eighteen. That will be a distinctive feature of my line of succession. Jai Radhe!

To Bhaktivinode Thakur

All glories to Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur, my grand-guru, at whose lotus feet I cling. His songs, books and life are an inspiration to me. He began the process of Westernization of devotional yoga and love of Radha Krishna. He was a revolutionary pioneer, a bridge between East and West, a universalist, the Emerson of Bengal. He has not disappeared. He lives on in us.

Ever New and Fresh

Why must we be bound by the past? I don't believe the descriptions in scripture are literal. It's all symbolic. You can't contain God/Goddess in a book, statue, nature, mantra or anything else. They're all symbols pointing to the Divine.

In my searching, I have found no more attractive description of the spiritual world than Goloka Vrindaban. It's where I want to be. I have my own version of it as I've adapted it in my own mind. I feel like I'm in a good space now and want to share with others how to get there too. I want to attract persons to this because it's so beautiful. Yet the heavily enculturated Indian presentations present obstacles for me and other Westerners in the enjoyment of rasa. So many of the plants, foods, etc. can't even be translated because there's no English equivalent. Of course, it's culturally conditioned. Every thing we experience is.

Radha Krishna, the Divine Couple, represents the epitome of realization of the Eternal Ground of All Being. They are represented differently as the Lord and Lady, Aum, yin-yang, etc. I believe it is possible to separate the divine essence, the Archetype, the symbols, etc. and transplant them to the West. I want to maintain the erotic pastimes and pure love of the Divine Couple for each other and for all beings. It's what attracted me to this path from the beginning.

I feel and believe I was an Indian devotee renunciate in my previous life. I spent my first Saturn cycle relearning what I knew in my previous life (ISKCON sannyasi, Lalita Prasad Thakur & three years in India). I spent the second Saturn cycle readapting to the West, seeing what stuck from the past, exploring lifestyles and various spiritual paths. I have just begun my third Saturn cycle which is a time to synthesize and bring together East and West. That is why I have renamed my autobiography Full Circle: A Spiritual Journey and am continuing it up to the present.

I am ready to bring East and West together to form a new whole. Something new is being born, but it must be born from the old and not some concocted half-baked endeavor. This indiginization of Radha Krishna devotion must be done by those of us who are first and second (third?) generation Western devotees. Bhaktivinode Thakur would see this as progress.

Major Web Site Changes

I have just published a major update, rebuild of my website. The church's beliefs are now easy to find. I also published a new chapter of my autobiography which is now titled Full Circle: A Spiritual Journey. I've also added pictures here and there. Check it out.

God As Mother

In order to better understand how the Radha tradition has developed so that she may be better understood by Westerners, I went to amazon.com yesterday and purchased "God as mother: A feminine theology in India : an historical and theological study of the Brahmavaivarta Purana" by Cheever Mackenzie Brown who wrote an excellent essay on the subject in The Divine Consort.

I invite anyone who shares my interest to also purchase a book and we can discuss it on-line. Any takers?

How flexible is our conception of God/Goddess?

Regarding the leelas (pastimes), it all depends on wether you view them as the absolute literal truth of the one and only way the spiritual world can be described, or is it relative to the Indian context in which they were created. If RKs leelas are infinite and they can assume infinite forms, what is to keep them from enacting ever-fresh leelas for the Western world of the 21st century? Don't they respond in which ever way a devotee approaches them? I seek to make them not an Indian God/Goddess but the Universal Divine Couple.

The Post-modern Way

The post-modern way is to look at scripture as writings of different persons at different times addressing their particular circumstances and needs. Disciplines such as source criticism, historical criticism, textual criticism, exegesis and hermenutics are employed in the study of scripture. Scriptures are considered to be relative to their intended audience and need to be made relevant to their intended audience today. Another process, is to view the narrative world of scripture and understand the reality it depicts and look at how things are "true or real" within that narrative world. It's the scholarly, academic approach which does not rule out faith. Beliefs may change, but faith remains strong.

Initiations

I give inititations in person after getting to know the person. Mahamantra is fairly easy. Mantra diksha requires more trust and relationship to develop, and ekadas bhav / siddha pranali is for advanced, trusted disciples. I don't want a bunch of persons going around saying they are my disciples unless I can be proud of them. I live in a beautiful tropical paradise that is being developed as a wellness retreat area. It is a lot easier to come here and spend time with me than to go to India.

Be Whole and Holy

I am 22 pages into Sri Vrindavan Mahimamrita by Prabodhananda Sarasvati (it's a 640 page book that I paid a good amount for), and I really can't stand to go on reading it. It is the last and largest of several books I bought at the same time. It looked like it had a lot of potential and I saved it for last.

It's full of things like: "Dear friends, do not fear to transgress Vedic injunctions, do not fear to disobey the instructions of your parents, do not bother to follow worldly customs, do not show compassion to your poor relatives anymore, and do not be repeatedly bound by affection in this material world anymore. Just immediately start for the abode of Vrindaban!" (Text 52)

And, "A sinful person who comes to Vrindavan and then suddenly leaves for another place is like a person who has attained the platform of liberation yet runs towards hell. Such a person, even after obtaining a touchstone in his hand, throws it away in the ocean. Moreover, such a person, having been able to control the Supreme Lord, becomes as abominable as a dog." (Text 60) That's where I stopped.

I can't take such a negative, judgemental approach to life in the material world. Sure, it isn't the spiritual world, but I think we are here for a purpose that is more than just escaping from a prison. We are here to learn to love and live in such a way that we become qualified to live in the spiritual world. We should look for Radha Krishna and Vrindaban everywhere and act in loving ways like we would there.

I agree with Osho when he says, "In the East people have condemned the body, condemned matter, called matter 'illusory', maya--it does not really exist, it only appears to exist; it is made of the same stuff as dreams are made of. They denied the world, and that is the reason for the East remaining poor, sick, in starvation. Half of humanity has been accepting the inner world but denying the outer world. The other half of humanity has been accepting the material world and denying the inner world. Both are half, and no man who is half can be contented.

"You have to be whole: rich in the body, rich in science; rich in meditation, rich in consciousness. Only a whole person is a holy person, according to me."

The good news is that I am 38 pages into Krishnahnika Kaumudi by Srila Kavi-karnapur. It is a delightful short (66 pages) description of Radha Krishna's pastimes through the 24 hours. A little lacking in Radha's pastimes when she's not with Krishna, but good none-the-less.

Pastimes People Can Relate To

OK. Here’s why I made the call to change some of the traditional writings that may or may not properly be called scriptures. What is a scripture anyhow?

When I received ekadas bhav from Lalita Prasad Thakur, Babaji, he also taught me to remember the pastimes of Radha Krishna using Rupa Goswami’s Sri Sri Radha-Krishnayor Asta-kaliya-lila-smarana-mangala-stotram. I have no problem with that. I currently use Advaitadasa’s translation. Thank you.

This work is a very brief outline of the pastimes of Radha Krishna throughout the 24 hours of the day. The practitioner is to remember the pastimes and engage in those pastimes in one’s spiritual body. With just an outline to go by, the practitioner has a lot of freedom to imagine the pastimes in different ways.

I’m better at remembering and imagining than I am at “visualizing” per se. Reading books describing Radha Krishna’s pastimes is most pleasing to me. I have long wanted to read Govinda Lilamrita, which more fully describes the pastimes throughout the day. I just finished reading Advaita dasa’s translation last night.

It was so disappointing. Radha is portrayed as extremely emotionally unstable. She’s always torn between loving Krishna and being angry at him and rejecting him, and there’s just far too much rejection for my taste. I might describe her as a drama queen, in need of life coaching, in need of Prozac, etc. I’m always thinking, “Come on, give the guy a break. You know that’s just the way he is and that he loves you the best. Look. He’s broken hearted. What more do you want?”

Then there’s the relationship between Krishna and his mother. She’s always soaked by her tears and breast milk as she fondles him. And I thought Jewish mothers were a bit much.

There were certainly some good parts in the book that I would want to keep. However, what I would like is an electronic copy of the translation so that I could delete sections I don’t like and rewrite others. The book is in need of a major edit and rewrite. It would be even better if Advaitadasa did it.

I also have his translation of Raya Shekhara’s Astakala Lila Padavali which I can’t bring myself to read. In it Ray Shekhar mixes himself in the pastimes using his male practitioner name. It seems so inappropriate.
So I’m looking for some good literature describing the erotic pastimes of Radha Krishna that I, my wife and other Westerners can relate to. Post-modern feminine ideals are much different than16-17th century Indian feminine ideals which I come out in the writings of that period. Some books are better than others.

I’m also reading Sri Madhava Mahotsava which is a quite nice description of how Radha became the Queen of Vrindaban. It needs less editing. I started Krishnahnika Kaumudi last night. It’s another shorter 24 hour pastime book. Next I’m reading Sri Vrindavana Mahimamrita, a book of poetry by Prabodhananda Sarasvati.

Making all things new

"Can you explain how we, in our present limited state of evolution and consciousness, can superimpose our ideas on Radha Krishna in regards to things like their age? Can you explain from the UCRK's viewpoint how reinterpreting that in the scriptures can be justified.

Many understand how teachings and worn out ideals of older scrptures have a need to be reinterpreted for the modern world, whereas changes in the scriptural discriptions of God and his pastimes themselves may rattle a few feathers.

Can you please speak on this further..?"

First of all, why do you think we are in "a limited state of evolution and consciousness?" Bhaktivinode Thakur thought history was progressive and evolutionary. He saw Westerners as more advanced than Indians and thought devotion to Radha Krishna would evolve when indiginized in the West.

Regarding how we "can superimpose our ideas on Radha Krishna in regards to things like their age," That's exactly what previous generations of their devotees did. Why not us?

I'll "explain from the UCRK's viewpoint how reinterpreting that in the scriptures can be justified." Being a post-modern church, we see such things from a relativistic perspective rather than "as eternal, unchangable, infallible ABSOLUTE TRUTH." Each generation has to make the teachings relevant to their time and circumstance. Also, as a process theology church, we believe everything is in process, including Radha Krishna, The Divine Couple, the Origin of All Processes. Everything is being revealed through the grace of Radha Krishna today, just as it was hundreds of years ago. Why should God & Goddess suddenly stop speaking? The scriptures are not a closed canon but are still expanding.

You say,"changes in the scriptural discriptions of God and his pastimes themselves may rattle a few feathers." That's OK. Change always ruffles feathers. If Krishna is All Attractive, what is the harm in making him more attractive to Westerners? Don't his servants dress and decorate him to make him most attractive to those he wishes to meet? Didn't he say,"How so ever one approaches me, I reciprocate accordingly?" Haven't such changes been going on constantly?

There's an interesting essay in The Divine Consort which describes the evolution of Radha Krishna in the different layers of the Sur Sagar, a growing compendium of poems attributed to Sur Das. One may see which poems are earlier and later by comparing various editions. Then studying the asthetics of each layer, one can see developmental differences in understanding the Divine Couple.

I think changes are needed to update the myth and keep it alive and attractive for Westerners today and tomorrow.

A call for help

I am looking for some devotee scholars and poets who would like to collaborate with me to update the Radha Krishna devotional literature. The GV corpus was put together based on 16th century Indian asthetic theory. What would it look like with 21st century, Western asthetics? How can the philosophy be developed in such a way that post-modern critical thinkers and seekers can be devotees without having to compromise their intelligence? How can we take and adapt the best and leave the rest? This is a major undertaking.

One thing I think is needed is to make Radha Krishna and their friends older--like Radha is 20 and Krishna 21. We don't have 12 year old married women here. What's with this obcession with illicit love being higher than married love anyway? I'm talking about a major reimagining of the myth to make it more relevant today and in the future.

Such persons need to be self supporting and do this work because they feel called to it.

Let me know if you are interested. Thank you.