Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Bhajahu Re Mana Sri Nanda-nandana

This is a song sung by the great poet Govinda das Kaviraja.


"O mind, just worship the lotus feet of the son of Nanda, which make one fearless. Having obtained this rare human birth, cross over this ocean of worldly existence by associating with saintly persons.

"Day and night I remain sleepless, suffering heat and cold, wind and rain. For a bit of flickering happiness I have served wicked and miserly men.

"What assurance of real happiness is there in all one's wealth, youth, sons, and relatives? This life totters like a drop of water on a lotus petal; therefore you should always worship the lotus feet of lord Hari.

"Govinda das longs to hear the glories of Lord Hari, chant His glories, constantly remember Him, offer Him prayers, serve His lotus feet, become His servant, worship Him, serve Him as a friend, and completely offer Him his very self."

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Sri Lalita-Pranama-Stotra: Bowing Down to Sri Lalita






This is a poem written by Srila Rupa Goswami. In this poem he describes the glories of Srimati Radharani's closest friend. My wife is named after her. Lalita means "one who plays." My wife's full name is Lalita Sundari devi dasi or "the servant of beautiful Lalita."


Verse 1
I offer my respectful obeisances to charming and virtuous Lalita-devi, who worships the perspiration from Sri Sri Radha-Mukunda's lotus feet, and who, out of great love, is very bold and arrogant.

Verse 2
I offer my respectful obeisances to charming and virtuous Lalita-devi, the beauty of whose face rebukes the full moon's splendor, whose eyes are like the lovely eyes of a frightened doe, and who is famous for artistically decorating Srimati Radharani.

Verse 3
I offer my respectful obeisances to charming and virtuous Lalita-devi, whose transcendental form is gracefully dressed with a bodice, ornaments, and silk garments wonderfully colorful as the tail of a jubilantly dancing peacock, and whose fair complexion rebukes the splendor of gorocana.

Verse 4
I offer my respectful obeisances to charming and virtuous Lalita-devi, who gives the following instruction. "Radha, please hear these beneficial words: Be contrary with the rogue who is the prince of Vraja. O dishonored one, do not become gentle and submissive for Your own doing."

Verse 5
I offer my respectful obeisances to charming and virtuous Lalita-devi, who, seeing Him even slightly cheat Sri Radha, with reddened eyes shames the prince of Vraja with a flood of words.

Verse 6
I offer my respectful obeisances to charming and virtuous Lalita-devi, who is the abode where the queen of the gopas places her love, who is the teacher of the arts of friendship to her friends, and who considers Sri Sri Radha-Krishna as dear as life.

Verse 7
I offer my respectful obeisances to charming and virtuous Lalita-devi, all of whose desires became at once completely fulfilled when She saw in Vraja the path of Sri Radha blocked by a certain person.

Verse 8
I offer my respectful obeisances to charming and virtuous Lalita-devi, who is the first of Radha's friends in Gokula, and for whom the meeting of Sri Sri Radha-Krishna is the greatest of jubilant festivals.

Verse 9
Srimati Radharani, the splendid desire vine in the family of King Vrsabhanu, lovingly accepts among Her own associates a person who happily and with pure vision reads these eight verses describing the charming virtues of Sri Lalita.

What Hurts The Soul? By Rumi...




We tremble, thinking we're about to dissolve into nonexistence, but nonexistence fears even more that it might be given human form!

Loving God is the only pleasure.
Other delights turn bitter.
What hurts the soul? To live without tasting the water of its own essence. People focus on death and this material earth.
They have doubts about soul water.
Those doubts can be reduced!
Use night to wake your clarity. Darkness and the living water are lovers
Let them stay up together. When merchants eat their big meals and sleep their dead sleep, we night thieves go to work.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Symbols Splashed Over My Daily Life




Panting in the darkness from the object that never was
Painting pictures in your mind that you'll never be able to finish by hand
Newspapers scattered with headlines that challenges the qualities of humanity...
Humanity makes great use of pictures and sounds to produce emotions that you never wanted to deal with...
Exhausted from dismantling the confusion I created by identifying with that which is not
Turn up the volume and kiss the wind
Pick up the stone and touch the sky
Determined to love and be loved in a world full of suffering, yet you pull it off with a devilish grin that provokes strangers into fantasizing...
This girl cries when she doesn't get what she wants...
Focus... Pull... Push... He drags his daughter to the rainbow... She blows a kiss
She giggles as the sun tickles her face

When I assume a position of power, I'll see how helpless I really am
Filled with guilt and rotten guts from worrying too much
Bloated from greed and lust, tainted by the disease of pride...

Skip to the back of the room
She talks about conspiracies to those who don't want to listen
I whisper dirty secrets that float around with the fly
Our daughter picks up the mess and explains through practice that we should live like innocent children who are content, no, astonished at kitten rolling in the dirt...
When I'm older will I live in a state of constant emergency?