Vraja diary
March 1, 2013
My first trip to Vṛndāvana in 5 years, though I have
been travelling to Rādhākund every year since. It is surrealistic to see
the skylline of Vṛnḍāvana dotted with skyscrapers now as I have the
usual birds eye view of Vṛndāvana from Dvādaśāditya tīlā. There is
Hartal for Yamunā Ko Bāchāo but I manage my shopping still easily.
I take darśan of Bihārījī, who blesses me
with a prasādī mālā.
Then I go down to Advaita Vat, which has
become very opulent with even a luxury glass mandir for Bijoy Kṛṣṇa
Goswāmī and Yogamāyā Mātā,
Kālidaha is now walled and surrounded by
buildings. Still Vṛndāvan remains sweet and divine, as always.
March 4, 2013
My first Girirāja Parikrama, without
blisters or sore feet, the weather is still okay at noontime. Not too hot yet.
At the end I got dugdha mādhukari [milk alms] which I offer to
Giridhari, hot.
March 8, 2013
On Ekādaśī I get dugdha mādhukarī again. It
is not that devotees with money cannot do mādhukarī (though I really
don't have a cash surplus). mādhukarī has nothing to do with economics.
One can also save cash by going to the many feasts that are always
held in Vraja, but Sādhu Bābā forbade me to go there. Instead, mādhukarī
nourishes humility and also bestows vairāgya rasa, the divine flavour
of renunciation. Śrīla Raghunāth Dās Goswāmī said in Vilāpa
Kusumāñjali (6) - vairāgya-yug bhakti rasaṁ - bhakti can be enriched by
the flavour of renunciation. The Goswāmīs were rich, but they gave it
all up to do mādhukarī. They could have kept their cash too if they
wanted it, and they even kept a quarter of it, but still they went on mādhukari
- vipra gṛhe sthūla bhikṣā kāhā mādhukarī -
They begged from brahmins houses. One of Raghunāth Dās Goswāmīs vows in
Swaniyam Daśakam was 'vrajotpanna kṣīrāśana' - "I will drink milk produced
in Vraja."
(That's one for the vegans!)
I can understand why some bābājīs have
separate pots for cooking on Ekādaśī - it was almost impossible to wash all the
small grain particles out of the bowl I use to
knead āṭā in, for cooking the milk in today.
This week my old friend Vaikunthanath Das [Ben Rozendal] passed away. He was the first devotee I met when I attended my first ever Sunday feast in Amsterdam, April 1978. We served in Amsterdam temple in 1978-9 and in Radhadesh 1980, and he helped me a lot when I was in Vraja in the 1980s, especially by hosting my mother during her trips to Vrindavan. He was very generous and always ready to help. Vaikunthanath was 66 years old.
ReplyDeleteAttended Holi-kirtans in Dās Goswāmi's samādhi, Gopīnāth Mandir and Govinda Mandir [quitting the scene before ranga khelā starts]. Sadly hardly anyone attends anymore. Yesterday just 8 women and 4 [!] men...
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