Flowers

Traveling around the world is a fascinating learning experience. I'm older, not much wiser. I miss my new friends and all the great souls all over the world who helped me along the path. I miss St. Petersburg and Moscow, Ukraine and Kiev, Chiang Mai and the folks at Full Dome. I wonder if I'll have a chance to do it all again. In the meantime there's nothing like going home. It's early spring here. 

Jacaranda Trees at the Universidad de Guanajuato

It may be snowing up north...

but  here in  Mexico  everywhere you look there's flowers. It's been a colder winter than normal, but the birds are flying south now and there's plenty of hummingbirds in the trees.

The Bouganvillea spills over tiled roofs into the street...

And flowers bloom everywhere....In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, 

patram puspam phalam toyam
yo me bhaktya prayacchati
tad aham bhakty-upahrtam
asnami prayatatmanah

"If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it."

So I offer a small bouquet of flowers to my friends and hope that they will be of service to you along with some reflections on the properties of flowers.

Earth laughs in flowers. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"

The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers. ~Basho

Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out values all the utilities of the world. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Break open a cherry tree 

and there are no flowers,

 but the spring breeze

 brings forth myriad blossoms.

~Ikkyu Sojun

Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity. ~John Ruskin

Flowers don't worry about how they're going to bloom. They just open up and turn toward the light and that makes them beautiful. ~Jim Carrey

Pārijāta is a heavenly tree brought to earth by Krishna. A quarrel over it ensued between Satyabhama and Rukmini, Krishna's wives. But Krishna planted the tree in Satyabhama's courtyard in a way that when the tree flowered, the flowers fell in Rukmini's courtyard. 

And when flowers are offered, there should be a bit of poetry as well. So here's Shakespeare.

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine: 
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight.
A Midsummer Night's Dream (2.1.255-60)

When daisies pied and violets blue 

And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue 
Do paint the meadows with delight, 
Love's Labours Lost (5.2.900-4)

There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray,

love, remember: and there is pansies. that's for thoughts.
Hamlet (4.5.170-1)

A violet in the youth of primy nature,

Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute.
Hamlet (1.3.9-12)

Orchids

Aurora with Orchids

Please accpet this flower offering to all. 

For those of you with a more philosophical slant, flowers represent ephemeral beauty. This world is temporary and the beauty of a flower is fugitive.

There's a Bengali bhajan  by Govinda Das. It's called bhaja hunre mana. In the song there's a nice reflection on the lotus. He says our life is like a drop of water trembling on a lotus leaf.

(1)

bhajahū re mana śrī-nanda-nandana

abhaya-caraṇāravinda re

durlabha mānava-janama sat-sańge

taroho e bhava-sindhu re

(2)

śīta ātapa bāta bariṣaṇa

e dina jāminī jāgi re

biphale sevinu kṛpaṇa durajana

capala sukha-laba lāgi' re

(3)

e dhana, yaubana, putra, parijana

ithe ki āche paratīti re

kamala-dala-jala, jīvana ṭalamala

bhajahū hari-pada nīti re

(4)

śravaṇa, kīrtana, smaraṇa, vandana,

pāda-sevana, dāsya re

pūjana, sakhī-jana, ātma-nivedana

govinda-dāsa-abhilāṣa re

TRANSLATION

1) O mind just worship the lotus feet of the son of Nanda, which make one fearless. Having obtained this rare human birth, cross over this ocean of worldly existence through the association of saintly persons.

2) Both in the day and at night I remain sleepless, suffering the pains of the heat and cold, the wind and the rain. For a fraction of flickering happiness I have uselessly served wicked and miserly men.

3) What assurance of real happiness is there in all of one's wealth, youthfulness, sons, and family members? This life is tottering like a drop of water on a lotus petal; therefore you should always serve and worship the divine feet of Lord Hari.

4) It is the desire and great longing of Govinda Dasa to engage himself in the nine processes of bhakti, namely hearing the glories of Lord Hari and chanting those glories, constantly remembering Him and offering prayers to Him, serving the Lord's lotus feet, serving the Supreme Lord as a servant, worshiping Him with flowers and incense and so forth, serving Him as a friend, and completely offering the Lord one's very self.

Srila Prabhupada comments on this song in a lecture givine in San Francisco, March 16, 1967: 

Then he says, kamala-dala-jala, jīvana talamala. Kamala-dala-jala means the lily, lily flower. You have all seen lily flower on the lakes. They are tottering, always in the water. Tottering. Any way, any time, it can be overflooded. Similarly, this life is full of danger always, always in danger. Any moment it can be finished. There are so many instances. People look it, but they forget. That is the wonderful thing. They are seeing every day, every moment, that he is himself in danger, others are in danger. Still, he is thinking that "I am secure." This is the position. So life is very tottering and in dangerous position. Therefore one should take advantage of this human form of life and immediately engage in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That should be the request of everyone to his mind, "My dear mind, don't drag me in the dangerous position. Please keep me in Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Thus Kṛṣṇa consciousness, how it can be achieved, that is also being described by Govinda dāsa. He says,

śravaṇa, kīrtana, smaraṇa, vandana,

pāda-sevana, dāsya re,

pūjana, sakhī-jana, ātma-nivedana

govinda-dāsa-abhilāṣa re

Abhilāṣa means aspiration, hope, or ambition. He is ambitious of becoming a devotee in nine different ways. The first thing is śravaṇa. Śravaṇa means hearing. One has to hear from authorities. That is the beginning of spiritual life or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like Arjuna. He achieved his spiritual consciousness, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, by hearing from Kṛṣṇa. Similarly, one has to hear from Kṛṣṇa or from the representative of Kṛṣṇa. One who presents Kṛṣṇa's words as it is—from him one has to hear because at the present moment we have no opportunity to hear directly. To hear directly from Kṛṣṇa is there. The arrangement is there. Kṛṣṇa is situated in everyone's heart, and one can hear from Him very easily, anywhere and everywhere, but he must have the training how to hear. For that purpose one requires the help of the representative of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that one can achieve devotional service of Kṛṣṇa by the combined mercy of Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual master. Guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). By the grace of spiritual master, guru, and by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, one achieves the opportunity of serving Kṛṣṇa in devotional service. So in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is also said that spiritual master is the direct manifestation of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa comes before the devotee as spiritual master just like sun enters your room by the sunshine. Although the sun does not enter your room or your city or your country—he is so many millions and millions of miles away—still, he can enter everywhere by his potency, the sunshine. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa enters everywhere by His different potencies. And to receive this light from Kṛṣṇa, one has to hear. Hearing is so important. Therefore Govinda dāsa says, śravaṇa. Śravaṇa means hearing. And one who has heard nicely, his next stage will be kīrtanam. Just like our boys who have heard a little nicely, now they are very eager to chant, going from street to street. This is natural sequence. It is not that you hear, but you remain stopped. No. The next stage will be kīrtanam. Either by chanting vibration or by writing or by speaking or by preaching, the kīrtana will be there. So śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam, first hearing and then chanting. And hearing and chanting about whom? About Viṣṇu, not for any nonsense. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23). These things are stated in the śāstra. The ordinary people, they are also engaged in hearing and chanting. They are hearing in the newspaper of some politician, and the whole day they are discussing and chanting, "Oh, this man is going to be elected. This man is going to be elected." So hearing and chanting is there everywhere. But if you want spiritual salvation, then you have to hear and chant about Viṣṇu, nobody else. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ. So the poet sings, Śravaṇa, kīrtana, smaraṇa, vandana, pāda-sevana, dāsya re. So there are different processes: hearing, chanting, remembering, worshiping in the temple, engaging oneself in the service. So he is desiring all nine kinds of devotional service. Ultimately, pūjana sakhī-jana. Sakhī-jana means those who are confidential devotees of the Lord, to please them. And ātma-nivedana. Ātmā means self, and nivedana means surrender. Govinda-dāsa-abhilāṣa. The poet's name is Govinda dāsa, and he expresses that his desires are only this. He wants to utilize the opportunity of his human form of life in this way. This is the sum and substance of this song.

So please accept this humble flower offering and I hope that spring comes to you soon. Dandavata to all. 

Renunciation, Dedication and Exploitation

1. 

   My Guru, B.R. Shridhar

2. 
   
   

   My guru used to tell me that the real path is one of dedication. He explained that most people think of spiritual life in terms of giving things up, renouncing the world. Shridhar Maharaja had a tendency towards "self-abnegation" as he put it. He wasn't interested in the things of this world. But he explained that real spiritual life is not a question of renunciation. He put it like this: “Between Scylla and Charybdis.” Do you know this expression? Near Italy in the Mediterranean, there is hidden rock named Scylla near a whirlpool named Charybdis. When a ship goes between them, if it is too near Scylla, it will strike against the rock and be ruined, and if it is too near Charybdis, it will come under the course of the whirlpool and go down. So, this is like bhoga and tyāga. On one side is bhoga—exploitation, selfish enjoyment—and on the other side is renunciation. Both renunciation and exploitation are dangerous, but renunciation is more dangerous than exploitation. It is a more powerful enemy to devotion to Kṛṣṇa than the weak, though chief enemy of exploitation.  Often times I've been told that Shridhar Maharaja's discourse was too high. I can't count the number of times I've heard, "We need to break it down and make it simple so that people can understand." But no matter how I try to break it down, people just don't get it. So I'll translate the above into plain English. Nowadays we don't say, Scylla and Charabdis, but "between a rock and a hard place."  As George put it, "between the devil and the deep blue sea." The Scylla was a fiend, like the devil. Charabdis was a whirpool, or "deep blue sea." The devil represents karma, the world of exploitation. The devil is an obvious fiend. The Devil We are all captive to the devil's spell. And in our devilish moods we get too caught up in the world of exploitation, the world of karma. So much so that we forget who we are. We even stop searching. We identify as Americans, as Russians, as Mexicans, as men or women, old or young. But we forget our own self-interest, being caught up in the enjoyment of the senses. We get involved in exploitation. We want satisfaction and we don't care who suffers. So exploitation is an obvious evil.  But what about renunciation? What if we give up the world, or renounce the devil and all his works? Unfortunately renunciation is no cure for our identity crisis. In fact, as Shridhar Maharaja explains, "Renunciation is more dangerous than exploitation." Why? With renunciation, one becomes proud. Pride is the chief enemy of one who renounces the world.  Between the devil and the deep blue sea Anger and self-righteousness  are by-products of pride and false ego. So if renunciation is not a cure, why not just stick with exploitation? Actually this is just what happens. On one side is bhoga—exploitation, selfish enjoyment—and on the other side is renunciation. Disgusted with exploitation we "renounce" only to find that temptation calls sooner or later and we return from renunciation to exploitation. This is a vicious circle, or as Shridhar Maharaja puts it "between Scylla and Charabdis." Between the devil and the deep blue sea Charabdis is a whirlpool. Shridhar Maharaja used to speak very exactly. His use of the word "whirlpool" means that the soul is actually caught between the devilish life of exploitation and the whirlpool of nonexistence which is the impersonal Brahman realization or the nirvana or void of the Buddhists.  His point about "renunciation" is well-taken. Voidism is no solution. It is something like spiritual suicide.  Nihilism, Voidism, Buddhism, Nirvana. Nothingness. These are really more dangerous than karmic nonsense, since they are destructive to the spirit. The real solution for the soul's tragic sense of life is dedication.  In Sanskrit this is bhakti, while exploitation is karma, and renunciation is tyaga. Dedication may involve some renunciation or sacrifice, just as a mother will do anything for her beloved child. But renunciation is never an end to itself. I leave you with some charming videos. The World of Exploitation ex·ploi·ta·tion ˌekˌsploiˈtāSH(ə)n/ noun 1. the action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work. "the exploitation of migrant workers" synonyms: taking advantage, abuse, misuse, ill-treatment, unfair treatment,oppression "the exploitation of the poor" 2. The action of making use of and benefiting from resources, abuse of nature. The world of dedication ded·i·ca·tion ˌdedəˈkāSH(ə)n/ noun 1. the quality of being dedicated or committed to a task or purpose. "his dedication to his duties"