I occasionally come across individuals who joined what they thought was an authentic bhakti sect, but end up experiencing coercion by motivated individuals. Such people are emotionally manipulated and trapped in inauthentic sects and find themselves powerless to leave for fear of isolation and slander. Generally, people who […]
This song is sung by the young gopīs in a state called pūrva-rāga—they were immersed in love for Kṛṣṇa, but had not yet met Him directly. In this state, their desire to meet Him personally was very intense because they had only heard about Him and seen Him […]
Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravarti’s commentary on the 10th canto is invaluable in understanding Krṣṇa līlā. We have already seen in a couple of posts how he teaches the significance of the Dāmodara līlā. Here we discuss a verse that in his opinion functions as a paribhāṣā sūtra of Krṣṇa […]
Some days ago, I wrote this article, explaining that the guru cannot take anyone’s karma. To this, a reader quoted the following verse which comes at the beginning of the Haribhakti-vilāsa written by Śrī Gopāla Bhatta Goswami and commented on by Śrī Sanātana Goswami. sāra-saṅgrahe’pi—sad-guruḥ svāśritaṁ śiṣyaṁ varṣam […]
Some explain Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s līlās as follows. Śrī Kṛṣṇa simply acts in His līlās like in a play. He also wrote the script of the play – so the whole līlā is just an act supervised by Him. Śrī Viśvanātha does not agree with such explanations, as we […]
Śrī Kṛṣṇa is Bhagavān as we have seen repeatedly on this website. The Bhāgavata states that fear personified fears Him. He is the Supreme, and yet, He is depicted as afraid of His mother Yaśodā, when she picks up a stick and runs after Him to catch Him, […]