Search for Shri Krishna

My blog has been all about search. 30 years ago, at Guardian of Devotion Press in San Jose California, a small group of truth-seekers working as a team published a book. The title was "The Search for Sri Krishna, Reality the Beautiful." The story of how this book came to be is a long one, with a lot of twists and turns. But basically, it goes like this. In the early 70s, we were disciples of Prabhupada.

Beatle George Harrison  with friends

Prabhupada

We believed in peace, love, understanding, and Hare Krishna. It was all about gettting high naturally. We went to India, shaved our heads, dressed in robes, and did our best to adhere to the principles of spiritually reality as laid down by our guru and his guru before him.

Chanting Hare Krishna

The war in Vietnam was on. Black people were denied civil rights. Women were demanding theirs. We thought we could change the world by distributing the message of divine love and peace. Krishna.

 It wasn't as easy as it seemed 

After translating a number of important books from Sanskrit, including Bhagavad-gita,

 Prabhupada passed from this world.

 And after Prabhupada's passing from this world, we felt we needed higher guidance to continue with our spiritual lives. We sought out his best friend and mentor, Sridhar Maharaja. 

Sridhar Maharaja with Prabhupada

Here's more photos of Shridhar Maharaja with Prabhupada. A photo is worth a thousand words. You can see from the photos how happy they are and how affectionate their relationship was.

That's me, Bhakti Vidhan Mahayogi on the left. On the far right is Goswami Maharaja, my friend and partner at Guardian of Devotion Press. His Divine Grace Bhakti Sundar Govinda Maharaja, successor Acharya is next to Goswami Maharaja. As you can see this picture was taken at the exact same location as the above photo of Shridhara Maharaja with Prabhupada. We're standing above the Nath Mandira at the Shri Chaitanya Saraswat Math. This picture was taken in 1986 on the occasion of  Govinda Maharaja's acceptance of sannyasa from Shridhar Maharaja.

The passing of our guru, Prabhupada, left us with a great void. It's hard to explain. He was our spiritual mentor and guide. I have always been a truth-seeker. I went from Tolstoy and Thoreau to the Bhagavad-gita in a natural progression. The Bhagavad-gita took me to its translator, Prabhupada. I embraced the principles of self-abnegation and meditation on the holy name. But just as I felt I was making progress, he passed away. We were lost. 

Pounding the typewriter, 30 years ago

But we found hope in the message of Prabhupad's spiritual mentor, B.R. Shridhar. So much hope that we were determined to publish his message. At this time, there was a lot of sectarianism in the yoga movements we belonged to. We didn't care. At the risk of being ostracized, we continued. We began with a simple 32 page pamphlet that we printed with a mom and pop operation in San Jose. They printed the first edition, but balked at a second edition. They had read our book and were convinced it wasn't patriotic enough for their taste.


We went on to buy our own printing press. It seems freedom of the press is guaranteed if you own a printing press.  Here's an excerpt. It's as fresh today as the moment we first heard it 30 years ago.

EXCERPT FROM THE SEARCH FOR SHRI KRISHNA, REALITY THE BEAUTIFUL, 

by B.R. Shridhar

Everyone is searching for rasa, pleasure. The status of rasa is the highest. As persons we have our subjective existence, but rasa, pleasure, has His supersubjective existence. He is a person. He is akhila rasāmṛta-mūrtiḥ: the reservoir of all pleasure. He is Kṛṣṇa. Rasa is Kṛṣṇa. There cannot be rasa in any other place but Kṛṣṇa. He is the fountainhead of all different types of rasa. So, by the nature of our constitution we have to search after Kṛṣṇa.

            In the Brahma-sūtra it is said, “Inquire after the supreme cause of this world. Search!” From where has everything come? How is everything maintaining its existence? By whom? And ultimately, where does everything enter after death? That is brahma, spirit, the most fundamental plane from where everything springs up, remains, and ultimately enters.

            Where is brahma? The Brahma-sūtra advises us to inquire after the prime cause, the biggest, the all-accommodating. But Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu replaced that, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam replaced that with Kṛṣṇānusan-dhāna: the search for Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

            Brahmā-jijñāsā, the search for spirit, is a dry thing. That is only the exercise of your thinking faculty, a jugglery of reason. Leave that behind. Begin the search for Śrī Kṛṣṇa and quench the thirst of your heart. Rasa jijñāsā, raso vai saḥ. The things acquired by your reason won’t satisfy you. Jñāna, knowledge, cannot really quench your thirst, so instead of brahma-jijñāsā accept Kṛṣṇānusandhāna and begin the search for Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

            Where is Kṛṣṇa? Our real want will be satisfied only by getting the service of Kṛṣṇa; not by anything else. We want to satisfy the innermost demands of our hearts. We don’t care to know where we are or what is controlling everything, but we really want to quench our thirst for rasa, for mādhurya, for sweetness. We must search neither for knowledge nor for the controller of this world; we must search after rasa, ānandam, after beauty and charm.

            Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam have taught us what to beg for, what to pray for, what to want. They have taught us, “If you beg, beg for Kṛṣṇa, not for anything else.” So, the fate of the Vaiṣṇavas, the students of the Bhāgavata and the followers of Mahāprabhu, is sealed in the search for Śrī Kṛṣṇa. We want nothing else but Kṛṣṇa.

            The Vedas say, sṛṇvantu viśve amṛtasya putrāḥ: “O, you sons of nectar, sons of the nectarine ocean sea: please listen to me. You were born in nectar; you were born to taste nectar, and you must not allow yourselves to be satisfied by anything but nectar. So, however misguided you may be for the time being, awake! Arise! Search for that nectar, that satisfaction.” The Vedas tell us, “Oṁ!” Oṁ means a big “Yes!” “What you are searching for, that is! Don’t be disappointed.” The Vedas say that the object of our inner search exists. The common search of all your hearts is existing, and your thirst will be quenched. By your constitution you are meant for that and you deserve that, so don’t be afraid; don’t be cowed down. It is already given in your being. And you can never be satisfied with anything else. So prepare yourself, after your long search, to receive that long missing nectar in its full form and quality. Awake! Arise! Search for your fortune and you cannot but have that. It is your birthright. It is the wealth of your own soul. It cannot but be within you. You have no other business, no other engagement but Kṛṣṇānusandhāna, the Search for Śrī Kṛṣṇa: Reality the Beautiful.

The Search for Sri Krishna is still in print. Or you can try an electronic copy direct from my dropbox:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/etd39ozngh7sckf/Search%20for%20Sri%20Krishna.epub?dl=0

Mayan, Aztec, and Cambodian Pyramids

The similarities between the Cambodian pyramids at Prasat Thom, Koh Ker 

And the Mexican pyramids, this one at La Cañada de la Virgen, Guanajuato...

are striking.

Anyone who has seen pyramids in Mexico cannot fail to note the remarkable similarities. Did the Mexican temples derive from some strange form of Shiva worship?

Pyramid Temple in Cambodia

Pyramid Temple in Tikal Mexico

The resemblance is uncanny. Was there communication between these ancient peoples?

Tikal, Mexico

Koh Ker, Cambodia

And what relation if any, exists between the giant carved heads at Bayon,

Giant Head at Bayon, Cambodia

And the huge, carved Olmec heads made by the ancient civilizations fo Mexico?

Olmec Head, Mexico

Olmec

Cambodian

Were these mysterious civilizations linked somehow?

Temple of Shiva at Koh Ker

Perhaps what is at work here is what's called, "independent parallel development." When people have the same environment, knowledge, and tools, they create similar buildings and styles without ever having been in contact with each other. Both Cambodia and Mexico have tropical forests. The Yucatan peninsula is very similar to the areas around the Tonle Sap lake. 
The jungle is similar with similar vines. Bananas, mangos, and coconut palms grow well in both areas. Both places had a powerful heirarchic civilization, well-advanced in social structure. Cambodians knew the use of iron, bronze, silver, and gold. Mayans were not as advanced in terms of technology, but they were close. The Mayans made advanced astronomical calculations of eclipses stretching for thousands of years. Their pyramids were exactly aligned to the cardinal points. The temple at Angkor is off by about 2 degrees. So with the same technical skill sets they set out to build a stairway to heaven, a tower to the stars. The best structural form available for sustaining heavy stones was the pyramid. Perhaps it is no wonder after all. Simply a marvelous set of coincidences.

Here's prominent Professor of Anthropology, Dr. Coe, discussing differences and similarities between ancient Khmer and Mayan civilizations. 

Some anthropologists believe in what's called, "cultural diffusion." That is that some communication must have existed between the different civilizations of the past. That this is not impossible was investigated by Thor Heyerdahl in his famous Kon-Tiki expeditions where he sailed by raft across the Pacific to prove a relation between Polynesian groups and South American societies. 

http://www.history.com/news/thor-heyerdahls-kon-tiki-voyage,

Thor Heyerdahl

Different theories abound. Here's a website on the "Hidden Pyramid Code."

 http://www.ancient-code.com/the-hidden-pyramid-code/

Perhaps we will never know how these parallel structures came to inhabit both sides of the Pacific, so long ago. As a truth-seeker, I'm struck by the idea that perhaps vestiges of the Vedic Civilization and its temples may have penetrated the Americas in a distored form, so long ago. Thanks for checking in.