śvetāmbara paridhānaṁ śveta mālānulepanaṁ
varābhaya karaṁ śāntaṁ karuṇāmaya vigraham
vāmenotpala dhāriṇyā śaktyāliṅgita vigraham
smerānanaṁ suprasannaṁ sādhakābhīṣṭa dāyakam
Wearing white garments, garlands and unguents,
His hand, raised in benediction, bestowing fearlessness,
His figure peaceful and full of compassion,
embraced by a divine Shakti that holds a lotus flower in her left hand,
His countenance smiling in satisfaction,
He bestows all objectives to the spiritual practitioners.
This night, running up to Guru Pūrṇimā, I dreamt of Bābā, which is very rare.
Guru Pūrṇimā is celebrated in Sādhu Bābā's Ashram with harinām sankīrtan and abhiṣekh of Śrī-Śrī-Rādhā-Madangopāl...
"embraced by a divine Shakti that holds a lotus flower in her left hand"?
ReplyDeleteWhen I asked my senior Guru-brother Niranjan Prasad Das the same question, he replied in a letter (July 25, 1996): “This is the awakened kula-kuNDalinI shakti that is born from Shri Gurudeva’s divine body. Whoever has this transcendental power is a pure, genuine Guru (sat guru).”
ReplyDeleteMadhava: "How do you (or your lineage) view the relationship of kundalini and bhakti-yoga?"
ReplyDeleteI asked Baba about this and he said that if pranayama and the like increase one's Krishna Consciousness why wouldnt that be bhajan?
Hari Bhakti Vilasa (5.71) prescribes pranayama before chanting Gayatri. And "Before doing the mula mantra japa, one should practise 3x pranayama." (Hari Bhakti Vilasa 8.199) Baba might have quoted that to me then but its too long ago to remember really.
I must add here that I interrupted Baba preaching to third persons, and that sermon was not aimed at me personally. Baba was a very versatile personality
and thus he also attracted birds from many different feathers.
Since he instructed me only in
harinama and bhakti practise I have never practised kundalini or
pranayama etc. myself.
"both works with direct influence on our tradition"
When you speak of 'our tradition' it is good, with this particular topic, to focus further on our
sub-tradition of the Advaita Parivara, more precisely the Advaita Vamsa. Advaita Prabhu is Sadashiva, and his descendants will naturally be heirs to His attributes, one of them is His being fond of yoga. So it is not surprising that Sadhu Baba and his illustrous granduncle Vijay Krishna Gosvami show such propensities. It does not permeate each member of the Vamsh though. Baba's father and brothers were purely into raganuga practise and, in turn, Sadhu Baba was again heir to that. How wonderful!