Sunday, August 27, 2006

Correction Vilāpa Kusumānjali


(On the veranda of Śyāma Priya Kuñja, Spiringen, Switzerland - left to right - Mādhava Dās, Advaitadās, Kṛṣṇacandra, Tarun Govinda, Subal Sakhā)


The eka-niṣṭhatā mentioned in Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu 1.2.291 is not a requirement for the rāgānugā- candidate, as is sometimes mistakenly thought, but a symptom of the Vrajavāsīs. This was wrongly translated by me in my 1990-1993 editions of Vilāpa Kusumāñjali, where this translation (combined with that of the following verse) appears in the commentary on verse 57, p.224:

"Those who become greedy after the mood of the Vrajavāsī-devotees, that are called the rāgātmikā-devotees, in a one-pointed manner and that give up all considerations of scriptural injunctions logical arguments after hearing about the sweetness of their loving feelings, are the proper candidates for rāgānugā-bhakti."

The correct translation of the two verses is:

"Anyone who desires to attain the feelings of the residents of Vraja, who are exclusively fixed in rāgātmikā-bhakti, qualifies for rāgānugā-bhakti. The hallmark of the birth of sacred greed after these feelings is that after hearing of the sweetness of their different emotions the conscience disregards scriptural rules or common sense."

I have added a new pdf-file to the "literature"-linktab to my website http://www.madangopal.com/, called Vilāpa Kusumāñjali corrections, with this correction as the first entry.

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