Thursday, March 26, 2009

kabir



I've been having dinner parties again at my place. I love it. I invite my friends over every week for dinner and kirtan and we have fun. I make a couple of things--last week it was macaroni and cheese, and then some apple crisp--then people bring whatever they want to add to it. We had spinach and strawberry salad, a mixed vegetable salad, apple chutney, coconut chutney, sweet rice, and different juices to drink. Then a sweet little kirtan. But, mostly it's us sitting around the table talking, playing with the babies, seeing what everyone's been doing, how far the basement renovations have gotten, the newest healthy drinks, laughing, crying, and, for me, being thankful to be with such nice people. In our hustle bustle world, it's important to sit with friends and share some time with them. Ours is a personal philosophy in more ways than one.

Next week there's a Kabir Festival at Princeton University. Starts off with a film festival on Tuesday. On Wednesday, it's Prahlad Singh Tipanya, Musical Concert in Folk, Sufi, and Classical Styles. The films are on Tuesday, our regular dinner party night. So, I'm making chocolate cake to go! We think there will be food there, but, if not, I'll make brown bag dinners for anyone who want to meet us. I was surprised that some of my friends didn't know about Kabir. His poetry is so wonderful.

I was recently writing about poetry the other day to a devotee. For me, poetry often captures thoughts and feelings better than explanations. It's a lot like Sanskrit--writing about things that can't be explained, feelings that can't be transmitted, people you can't see, in a language that has multiple meanings. If it transports you, you've found it. If you don't get it, you don't get it. Our words aren't the thing, they're explanations used to capture that thing we're trying to express. Except, of course, words brought to us from Krsna, words that are Him--Radhe Syama!

I can't find my Bijak of Kabir, translated by Linda Hess--must still be in a box somewhere--but here are a couple of his poems I've gleaned from the Internet. These are from Poet Seekers.

My body and my mind...

My body and my mind are in depression because
You are not with me.
How much I love you and want you in my house!
When I hear people describe me as your bride
I look sideways ashamed,
because I know that far inside us we have never met.
Then what is this love of mine?
I don’t really care about food, I don’t really care about sleep,
I am restless indoors and outdoors.
The bride wants her lover as much as a thirsty man wants water.
And how will I find someone who will take a message
to the Guest from me?
How restless Kabir is all the time!
How much he wants to see the Guest!

The Bhakti Path

The bhakti path winds in a delicate way.
On this path there is no asking and no not asking.
The ego simply disappears the moment you touch him.
The joy of looking for him is so immense that you just dive in,
and coast around like a fish in the water.
If anyone needs a head, the lover leaps up to offer his.

Earthen Vessel

Within this earthen vessel are bowers and groves, and within it is the Creator:
Within this vessel are the seven oceans and the unnumbered stars.
The touchstone and the jewel-appraiser are within;
and within this vessel the Eternal soundeth, and the spring wells up.
Kabir says: "Listen to me, my Friend! My beloved Lord is within."

Secret

O HOW may I ever express that secret word?
O how can I say He is not like this, and He is like that?
If I say that He is within me, the universe is ashamed:
If I say that He is without me, it is falsehood.
He makes the inner and the outer worlds to be indivisibly one;
The conscious and the unconscious, both are His footstools.
He is neither manifest nor hidden, He is neither revealed nor unrevealed:
There are no words to tell that which He is.

Wake Up

Friends wake up
why do you go on sleeping?
The night is over--do you want to lose the day the same way?
Other women who managed to get up early
have already found an elephant or a jewel...
so much was lost already while you slept...
and that was so unnecessary.

The one who loves you understood, but you did not.
You forgot to make a place in your bed next to you.
Instead you spent your life playing.
In your twenties you did not grow
because you did not know who your Lord was.
Wake up! Wake up! There's no one in your bed--
He left you during the long night.

Kabir says: The only woman awake
is the woman who has heard the flute.

.
.
.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Virtual Temples


This is very interesting. Just as I found the 360 degree site, a friend of mine sent me some emails about other "virtual temples." Check these out!

Virtual tour of Arampur
Interesting presentation of village
http://virtualvillage.wesleyan.edu/virtualvillage/index.html

Beautiful temple, Bolton, UK
http://www.360spin.co.uk/qtvr/bolton/hindutemple2.htm
http://www.360spin.co.uk/qtvr/bolton/hindutemple.htm

Kapaleeshwarar Hindu Temple, Mylapore
But, not inside
http://www.willpearson.co.uk/virtual_tours/chennai/chennai-005.php?format=fpp

Wow--Jaipur, Agra, and lots more!
http://indiavrtours.com/hampi/index.html

If you have any others you'd like to add, send me a comment.

Here's a question for you: What's your favorite live darshan site?

Only by Radha's hand. Radhe Radhe!
.
.
.

Monday, March 16, 2009

OMG

This is a great website http://www.360darshan.com/en/home.html You may have seen it before, but I just ran into it. Amazing! Once you're there, click on the Pano-Ramas tab above for more. So cool! You can get a 360 degree tour of different temples in Vrndavana and Navadvipa. Nice bhajans playing in the background.

I love Spring Break!

Oh, and here's a picture of Sri Shyamasundara in Vrndavana dressed as Siva for SivaRatri. He's Shyam.

Radhe Radhe!
.
.
.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Bhakti in Second Life

I've never written about how much I like Second Life. (I really like it.) Second Life is an online, virtual reality community. When I was sick with cancer, it was a really wonderful way to keep my mind busy with challenges and talk with devotees around the world. I'd like to share some pictures of the Second Life (SL) temples with you and some of my realizations about SL. You can click on any of these pictures to see them a little larger.

In SL my name is Dasi Lane. This picture on the right is what I look like there. When I joined, you didn't have too many choices for your name and this seemed like another way to say bhakti marg. Once you're there, you create an "avatar" for yourself to be able to move around and interact with your environment. You can buy clothes and create things for yourself and the world around you.

I've met so many devotees there. People all around the world--England, Spain, Australia, India, and the US. True, we're goofing around, but we're trying to be devotees in this virtual world, too.

When I first started this, I never realized that temples would disappear and so I don't have many pictures of the first temples I saw. Isle of Krishna and Gauranga Bay were some of the first ones. But, Prabhupada's Lotus Room was by far the best. I celebrated Janmastami there last year (see post for September 14, 2008) and gave a class in real time. We even had a kirtan. The Lotus Room has since disappeared due to the change in US currency exchange, but other temples have sprung up.

There's a sweet treehouse temple with Jagannatha and Panca Tattva Deities. One devotee has put together pictures and movies of the Khumba Mela and displays them in a tented bazaar setting.There's another sweet little temple with Jagannatha Deities and beautiful pictures inside of Krishna.

Then there are the larger temples for the "Hindu." Interestingly enough, the Maha Mantra and Srila Prabhupada are also represented there.


Some people have laughed when I tell them that I go to SL. It's not such a "spiritual" practice. Not to justify it, but I think it's just as "spiritual" as what I do here in real life (RL). Hmmm.

In SL I have an avatar to interact with, in RL I have a body which I also use to interact with. The "I" here is me, as spirit/atma. Moving around in SL is with intent, same as in RL. Atma is "doing" things with intent. In SL, one time I transported from one place to another and realized that I hadn't really gone anywhere, I was just seeing something different. Same as in RL. The "virtual" aspect of reality is more apparent in SL than RL. In SL I can jump off buildings and walk in water without any problems. In RL we can do this without any damage to atma, too. Not that I'm going to be jumping off buildings any time soon, but I think you get it.

The illusion of me is just as clear in SL as it is in RL. Is bhakti just as real in SL as in RL? Yes, I think it is. One time in SL, a devotee made a ghee lamp that could be picked up and wrote a script that made the avatar circle the arm as if offering it. She also included a bell for the left hand with a ringing sound. I was so excited, I went to every temple in SL and offered this ghee lamp to every temple. For a while, when I was sick, that was my morning program--to go to all the temples and offer a ghee lamp. It was so exciting. I could even fly above the ground and offer it to everyone and everything below me. Bhakti, SL or RL, so exquisite.
.
.
.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Kirtan


Had a little kirtan at my place last week. Keshavacharya das, with his wonderful fiance Kamaniya, came to sing bhajans about Krsna. So very nice. Check out his website: http://www.keshavacharya.com/ Fifteen to twenty people came, some I knew, some were new, friends made great food, grandson played kartals, I played his drum, everyone sang sweetly to Sri Sri Radha Syamasundara. One friend wrote: "Jay jay jay. It was a lovely evening. The name is our taste.....our spiritual experience." It's true. My little apartment was filled with joy, Vrndavana was here, it was sublime. It was so very empty when everyone left.
.
.
.