I have received the following response to a blog from last February:
haribol dear advaita, i have been reading your blog last time and would have one question considering one remark that some devotees, who spend more time in vraj tend to go mad. could you please send me some thoughts on how you meant it? i do not know from when the log is but i hope that does not matter. i was asking some friends of mine about it but no one could give any question on it. many thanks! jay sri radhe
My response:
Dear J,
You refer to a discussion I had with one devotee who, just like me, spent a long time continuously in Vraja and has seen many people go the wrong way. The point of that remark is that Vraja is a very sacred place and many people come there and decide to stay there permanently, being sincerely attracted and sincerely wanting to live a full lifetime of bhajan there. People like that devotee and me, however, have experience - with ourselves and with others - that it is not so easy and cheap as it initially seems, that most of us are much more conditioned and fallen as we initially think ourselves to be, and then the trouble starts. For 'going mad' you can fill in 'falling in māyā' (though some did go nuts indeed) - they start running after sexual partners, start big construction projects, start a Guru-career, start gossiping about their fellow devotees, listening to rock music, smoking pot etc. I have seen this going on, and it is going on now too. This is all a change of purpose and leads to offences to the holy dhāma. For the vast majority of new devotees it is better to make short visits to the holy places and otherwise remain at home. When one is purified by harināma and the senses and the mind are purified, peaceful and strong one becomes qualified to live full-time in Vraja or Navadvīp or wherever. I hope this answers your question. Rādhe Rādhe. Advaitadās.
Posted with permission of the correspondent.
haribol dear advaita, i have been reading your blog last time and would have one question considering one remark that some devotees, who spend more time in vraj tend to go mad. could you please send me some thoughts on how you meant it? i do not know from when the log is but i hope that does not matter. i was asking some friends of mine about it but no one could give any question on it. many thanks! jay sri radhe
My response:
Dear J,
You refer to a discussion I had with one devotee who, just like me, spent a long time continuously in Vraja and has seen many people go the wrong way. The point of that remark is that Vraja is a very sacred place and many people come there and decide to stay there permanently, being sincerely attracted and sincerely wanting to live a full lifetime of bhajan there. People like that devotee and me, however, have experience - with ourselves and with others - that it is not so easy and cheap as it initially seems, that most of us are much more conditioned and fallen as we initially think ourselves to be, and then the trouble starts. For 'going mad' you can fill in 'falling in māyā' (though some did go nuts indeed) - they start running after sexual partners, start big construction projects, start a Guru-career, start gossiping about their fellow devotees, listening to rock music, smoking pot etc. I have seen this going on, and it is going on now too. This is all a change of purpose and leads to offences to the holy dhāma. For the vast majority of new devotees it is better to make short visits to the holy places and otherwise remain at home. When one is purified by harināma and the senses and the mind are purified, peaceful and strong one becomes qualified to live full-time in Vraja or Navadvīp or wherever. I hope this answers your question. Rādhe Rādhe. Advaitadās.
Posted with permission of the correspondent.
Very nice. Thank you for the caution- I take it to heart!
ReplyDeleteI heard that Radhakund is for siddhas, not for sadhakas, still, many people say it is very auspicious to live there. In my experience if we are too close to any sacred place or even the Guru, we tend to take everything for granted. I myself have met devotees who came back from holy plcaes after years and gave up bhakti altogether, they were crazier than before they met KC. What is your opinion? Thanks.
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