Sādhu Bābā's arcanā

Tarjjanī

I just discovered, 27 years after receiving dīkṣā, that our tilak is applied with the tarjjanī, index finger, not with the madhyam, middle finger. Sādhu Bābā said in his Sanksipta Nitya Karma Paddhati: tarjjanī anguli dvārā dvādaśānge tilaka racanā koriben ẏeno nakha sparśa nā hoy – The tilak must be placed on twelve parts of the body with the index finger in such a way that the nails do not touch [the body].”

This exchange followed on Facebook-

Bhakta-
"What is tarjjanī? Could you explain, please?"

Advaitadas-
"The five fingers on the hand are 1. anguṣṭha (thumb) 2, tarjjanī [index finger] 3. madhyam [middle] 4. anāmikā [ring finger] and 5. kaniṣṭha [little finger or pinky]. I have been using the madhyam but I belatedly learned that in my Guru's family it turns out to be tarjanī. It is written in my Guru's paddhatī, which I even typed out by hand, but I failed to catch the point till one bhakta made me attentive to it today."

Bhakta: "Anyway, Advaita, was is the internal meaning /significance of applying tilaka with one's index finger? I'm really curious by now!"

Advaitadas- "tilaka racanāṅguli niyam [rules for fingers making tilak] is described in Haribhakti Vilāsa [4.221]:

anāmikā kāmadoktā madhyamāyuskarī bhavet 
anguṣṭhaḥ puṣṭidaḥ proktas tarjanī mokṣa-dāyinī

"The anāmikā fulfills material desires, the middle finger gives longevity, the thumb gives nourishment (food) and the index finger gives liberation."

Now that I have a cheap phone connection to India, it was no trouble consulting my senior Guru-brother Tapan Kumār Adhikārī:

Advaitadas: "We put on tilak with the index finger, but in the beadbag there's a hole for the index finger because it is said to be contaminated and therefore should not touch the japa-mālā."

Tapan Kumar Adhikary: "Yes but that is different. Tilak has different rules from (touching) the japa mālā - tilak is an exception."

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No Rādhā with Madangopāl?

(Another) Bhakta: "I see there is no Rādhārāṇī-deity next to your Madangopāl-deity (in Sādhu Bābā’s āśram). How then do you worship Her?"

Advaitadās: “When I first came to Sādhu Bābā’s āshram I asked this to swayam Bābā, who told me that Rādhā’s name is carved on Gopāl’s chest – in this form we worship Smt. Rādhārāṇī.”

On the phone I asked Tapan Dā more about Sādhu Bābā’s Madangopāl. He confirms that Rādhā’s name is indeed carved on His chest and also that Bābā saw Him as Kiśora (adolescent lover) and not as a child (Bābā’s Gopāl manifests as Laḍḍu Gopāl, normally a child form of Kṛṣṇa). Bābā experienced Kṛṣṇa's childhood as adolescence as depicted in the third verse of Kṛṣṇa Karṇāmṛta:

cāturyaika-nidāna-sīma-capalāpānga-cchaṭā-mantharaṁ 
lāvaṇyāmṛta-vīci-lolita-dṛśaṁ lakṣmī-kaṭākṣādṛtam 
kālindī-pulināngana-praṇayinaṁ kāmāvatārānkuraṁ 
bālaṁ nīlam amī vayaṁ madhurima-svārājyam ārādhnumaḥ

"We worship that dark bluish young boy, who is the one limitless resting-place of cleverness, who causes the gopīs to slow down their gait with the rays of His restless glances, glances made restless by waves of ambrosial shimmer that are worshipped by Śrī Rādhā, the Supreme Goddess of fortune, who is very fond of the gardens on the bank of the Yamunā, who is the root cause of all Cupids and who is the independent kingdom of divine sweetness.”

Bābā stressed the word bāla, or child, was there and so He reconciled the child-form of Kṛṣṇa in His temple with the divya kiśora mūrti we actually worship. Furthermore, Tapan Dā said, Bābā stressed mental worship (mānasī sevā) over external worship in the temple, so even though Smt. Rādhārāṇī is not abundantly visible in the temple, She is overwhelmingly predominant in our meditations.

The gist of this discussion is added to page 43-44 of Sādhu Bābā's hagiography on my website, along with this teaching of Sādhu Bābā, which sprung to my memory, prompted by a discussion I read on a forum recently:

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siddha deha

On another occasion I asked Bābā how to understand these mysterious verses of Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta (Antya 4, 192-193):

dīkṣā-kāle bhakta kare ātma-samarpaṇa;
sei-kāle kṛṣṇa tāre kare ātma-sama
sei deha kare tāra cid-ānanda-maya;
aprākṛta-dehe tāńra caraṇa bhajaya

“At the time of initiation the devotee surrenders his very self – at that time Kṛṣṇa makes him equal to Himself and makes His body transcendental. In such a spiritual body he can serve Kṛṣṇa’s lotus-feet”

Bābā explains that this does not mean that our material bodies suddenly become spiritual – the last line of the verses clearly shows that this deals with the devotee’s spiritual body, whose seed is planted by Śrī Guru at the time of initiation."