In2-MeC

IBSA (ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Sadhana Asrama), Govardhana, India
28 January 2004

Sri Advaitastaka
Eight Prayers Glorifying Lord Advaita

by

Srila Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya
 

Text 1

ganga-tire tat-payobhis tulasyah
patraih puspaih prema-hunkara-ghosaih
prakatyartham gauram aradhayad yah
srila advaitacaryam etam prapadye

Let me surrender to Srila Advaita Acarya, who with tulasi leaves flowers water from the Ganges� shore and loud calls of love worshiped Lord Gaura and begged Him to appear.

Text 2

yad-dhunkaraih prema-sindhor vikarair
akrstah san gaura-goloka-nathah
avirbhutah sri-navadvipa-madhye
srila advaitacaryam etam prapadye

Let me surrender to Srila Advaita Acarya. Attracted by His loud calls, the golden Lord of Goloka Vrndavana who is an ocean of ecstatic love appeared in Sri Navadvipa.

Text 3

brahmadimam durlabha-prema-purair
adinam yah plavayam asa lokam
avirbhavya srila-caitanyacandram
srila advaitacaryam etam prapadye

Let me surrender to Srila Advaita Acarya who by making the moon of Lord Caitanya rise flooded the world with a love even Brahma and the great demigods cannot attain.

Text 4

sri-caitanyah sarva-sakti-prapurno
yasyaivaja-matrato 'ntardarde 'pi
durvijeyam yasya karunya-krtyam
srila advaitacaryam etam prapadye

Let me surrender to Srila Advaita Acarya whose mercy is beyond understanding and by whose request alone all-powerful Lord Caitanya disappeared from this world.

Text 5

srsti-sthity-antam vidhatum pravrtta
yasyamsamsah brahma-visnv-isvarakhyah
yenabhinnam tam maha-visnu-rupam
sriladvaitacaryam etam prapadye

Let me surrender to Srila Advaita Acarya who is not different from the form of Lord Maha-Visnu and whose parts and parcels are the Brahma Visnu and Siva engaged in the creation maintenance, and destruction of the worlds.

Text 6

kasmimscid yah sruyate casrayatvat
sambhor ittham sambhavan-nama dhama
sarvaradhyam bhakti-matraika-sadhyam
sriladvaitacaryam etam prapadye

Let me surrender to Srila Advaita Acarya who is worshiped by all who is attained only by devotional service and who as is heard in a certain Vedic literature because He is Lord Siva's shelter has a name and glory like Lord Siva's.

Text 7

sita-namni preyasi prema-purna
putro yasyapy acyutananda-nama
sri-caitanya-prema-pura-prapurnah
sriladvaitacaryam etam prapadye

Let me surrender to Srila Advaita Acarya who is flooded with love for Lord Caitanya and whose beloved Sita-devi and son Acyutananda are also filled with love.

Text 8

nityanandadvaitato 'dvaita-nama
bhaktyakhyanad yah sad-acarya-nama
sasvac-cetah-sacarad-gaura-dhama
srila advaitacaryam etam prapadye

Let me surrender to Srila Advaita Acarya whose heart is Lord Gaura's eternal home who is named Advaita because He is not (a) different (dvaita) from Lord Nityananda and who is named Acarya because He teaches devotional service.

Text 9

pratah pritah pratyaham sampathed yah
sitanathasyastakam suddha-buddhih
so 'yam samyam tasya padaravinde
vindan bhaktim tat-priyatvam prayati

A person whose intelligence is pure and who every morning happily reads these eight verses glorifying Lord Advaita the husband of Sita attains devotion for His lotus feet and becomes dear to Him.

Good News from Outer Space!

Second NASA Rover Lands Successfully and is Sending Pictures
There's Hope for NASA's Mars Spirit Rover
European Satellite Confirms Water on Mars

 

NASA scientists are in ecstacy. On Sunday, 25 January, the six-wheeled, 384-pound robot rover called Opportunity descended from space to a smooth landing in Meridiani Planum, an area that scientists think is the smoothest, flattest region on Mars. Opportunity is 6,600 miles and halfway around the planet from where the rover's twin, Spirit, landed on 3 January. Within four hours Opportunity was transmitting photographs across 124 million miles back to Earth. The main scientist of the mission, Steven Squyres, said of Opportunity's photos:

I am flabbergasted. I am astonished. I am blown away. Opportunity has touched down in an alien and bizarre landscape. I still don't know what we're looking at.

Each rover is equipped with 9 cameras and 6 scientific instruments. Spirit is in the Gusev Crater, believed to be a dry lakebed. On 21 January, Spirit developed serious problems and is no longer transmitting photographs. Some communication is sustained between the rover and its controllers on Earth, enough to keep alive NASA's hopes that Spirit can be repaired in weeks to come.

In2-MeC interviewed two leading space scientists, Stanley Gammon and Oliver Quatsch. "We're delighted," Dr. Gammon exulted. "This project cost nearly a trillion dollars, and it is worth every penny. Look at these latest photographs from Opportunity! There's no doubt about water on Mars now!"

Dr. Quatsch cautioned: "I wouldn't be too hasty in drawing conclusions from these new photographs. I mean, they're just pictures. We don't know if that's real water, some other type of liquid, or merely a mirage. If we can get Opportunity over there to test-taste that liquid, we may--and I stress may--be able to say what it is with certainty. "

Dr. Gammon broke in: "Now look here, Dr. Quatsch--the European Space Agency satellite that's in orbit around Mars has sent in conclusive evidence that the Martian surface has water on it!"

Dr. Quatsch: "Conclusive? What's conclusive in science? What's established as truth today may be overturned tomorrow by a newer truth. Try to maintain the progressive viewpoint, my good Dr. Gammon. "

Dr. Gammon: "Go ahead, tell the people everything you know. It will take only ten seconds!"

Dr. Quatsch: "Gammon, I don't know what makes you so stupid, but whatever it is, it really works!"

Dr. Gammon: "That's enough, Quatsch! I'm out of here. I'd leave you with one last thought, but I don't know where to put it!"

Dr. Quatsch: "Oh, a thought crossed your mind? That must have taken as long as the journey of a spacecraft going to Mars--six months, at least!"
 

Another piece of news from outer space: NASA's space telescope, Hubble, may soon rain down from outer space in pieces. The telescope, launched into a 600-kilometer high orbit above Earth in 1990 at a cost of millions, needs repairs. Unfortunately, since the space shuttle Columbia burnt up in the atmosphere in February 2003, killing its crew, NASA doubts whether another repair to the Hubble is feasible. The telescope can be fixed only when visited by a space shuttle.

The Hubble was scheduled to go out of service in 2011 when a new space telescope is to be put into orbit. Now NASA is contemplating sending a space tug to the Hubble. The tug would pull it over the Pacific Ocean. There the telescope could dropped safely into the Earth's atmosphere to burn up with no danger to human population. If left unattended, the Hubble will probably enter the atmosphere in 2013. Its debris could fall upon populated areas. The tug program will cost $300 million.

The Hubble has made what science considers important discoveries. Because it looks into space from beyond the Earth's atmosphere, it sees much farther than telescopes positioned upon the Earth's surface. The Hubble plotted storms on Mars and mapped weather conditions on Neptune. It detected a distant planet thought to be 13 billion years old. It is supposed to have looked back in time to a moment relatively soon after the Big Bang.

Such successes won great support for the Hubble among the public. Since announcing its plans to let the space telescope "drop," NASA has been flooded with pro-Hubble email. Chad Pavian, age 13, wants to be an astronaut when he grows up. He wrote to NASA:

I came into this world the same year as Hubble went into orbit. This is my poem of solidarity with him.

Like brothers, Hubbie and I.
NASA, why oh why
Do you try
To do the crime
Of letting Hubbie fry
In the dark Pacific sky?
Let my brother fly!

Tina Nudge, 17, who wants to be a nuclear physicist ("just like Nicole Kidman was in that movie with George Clooney"), wrote:

I keep a poster of the Hubble on my bedroom wall. He seems so lonely up there in outer space. He doesn't complain because he's the strong, silent type. But a girl can tell. NASA, don't hurt him! The Hubble's got feelings like the rest of us.

Businessmen argue that NASA isn't showing good economic sense in its $300 million plan to drag Hubble over the Pacific and let it fall. Software magnate Gil Bates, CEO of Micropulp Corporation:

Interplanetary space travel is happening. Right now we've got two rovers on the surface of the red planet and five satellites in orbit above them. It won't be long before people are going to Mars. Computer hardware and software are essential to space travel. But it takes six months to get from the Earth to Mars, what to speak of to other planets even farther out. In that time your technology goes obsolete. You need to upgrade. Let's turn the Hubble into a one-stop shopping mall where space travellers on their way to and from the Moon, Mars and elsewhere can get the hardware and software fixes they need--fast! Let's have repair vehicles parked at the Hubble that we can send to Mars in case a system goes offline, as it happened with the Spirit Rover.

Sketches of a Devotee's Pre-Krsna Conscious Life in India

Back in the late 1980's I tape-recorded a series of interesting stories told me by an Indian devotee, whom I shall not name to protect his privacy. These stories relate his life as a young man from a South Indian smarta brahmin family, and trace how he gradually turned away from material life to Krsna consciousness. What you will read below begins at Dharamshala, where the Dalai Lama has his headquarters.

Arriving at the Dalai Lama's headquarters, I saw some purple- robed monks chanting Om Mani Padme Hum while others played badminton. I asked a young unordained monk who spoke a little English if it would be possible for me to have an audience with His Holiness. The lad shook his head emphatically: "He is Buddha. You can't see him. " But he did take me to an old ordained monk who spoke Hindi.

The old man showed me around the monastery. I offered my pranams to a huge murti of the Buddha, three times life-size, with four arms hands bearing the symbols of Vishnu in each hand. He took me to a large hall displaying many other murtis of Buddha, Buddhist saints and goddesses, all of collossal proportions. The monk explained that these forms represented different levels of buddhatva, or Buddha-consciousness. He pointedly told me they were not worshiped as living personalities, as murtis are worshiped in Hindu temples. Yet everywhere I looked I saw the familiar accouterments of tantric puja.

Prayer-time came. The hall filled up with monks, and my guide told me I could stay and watch. The steady drone of Om Mani Padme Hum from a hundred tongues, the serene golden Buddhas wavering in the glow of many candles, the Tibetan symbolism and architecture all around, blended in my mind to form a numbing arabesque of color and sound.

After half an hour, the Dalai Lama entered to a welcome of ringing bells and flaming lamps. The chanting stopped and everyone left the hall except His Holiness and six monks. What seemed to be a private ceremony then commenced. I had been leaning against a column in the rear of the hall, unnoticed by anyone, and gradually become drowsy. Suddenly I felt someone tugging my cloth. I opened my eyes to see a monk gesturing that I was to come before the Dalai Lama. As I stepped forward, I saw that His Holiness was now alone. I offered prostrations to him as I'd seen the others do.

He asked me what I was doing, and I said that I'd been looking for a chance to speak to him. I explained my spiritual search. He asked about my education and what languages I knew. Then he asked about my knowledge of Buddhism. I admitted I knew very little. He invited me to stay and study, and I gratefully consented. Several South Indian monks were then called and ordered to take care of me. I was given a room. The Dalai Lama seemed to be more personally concerned about freedom for Tibet, the third world war and current world events than giving practical spiritual direction. After twelve days of reading books and attending prayer sessions, I found myself listlessly gazing out of my window at the monks playing badminton. I wrote the Dalai Lama a thank-you note and left for Delhi.

There I put up in a Sikh Gurudvara, which offered clean accomodations and hot food for a cheap price. By now I'd grown weary of my aimless wandering and decided to find a job and lead a sinless life. A chance encounter with a man named Lakhan Pal at a Ganesh temple got me a job in his television retail company as a business advisor. I brought my TVS experience to bear and showed him how to manage his office much more efficiently. But when his unmarried teenage daughter began to make eyes at me, I quit after only one week, fearing that my passions would be inflamed again.

This was a new quandary. I'd only wanted to take up an honest and unassuming life in the city and maintain the clean habits I'd adopted as a sadhu. But even this seemed to be beyond my grasp. At least now I had a little money to live on for a while. Sleeping at the Gurudvara at night, I took to wandering in my sadhu dress through the streets of Delhi by day, still searching for what I hadn't found even in the Himalayas. Every day I visited one or two religious institutions to hear what they had to say. And I remained dissatisfied wherever I went.

Before long this self-made swami met a party of disciples of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. In their association he began to chant Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Even before meeting the devotees he had begun to see the grave faults of Mayavadi philosophy, and the profound logic of Vaisnava philosophy. So he did not have much trouble giving up his search to become God. He took up the sadhana of devotional service to Krsna and in 1976 was initiated in Vrndaban by Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! Sri Advaita Acarya ki Jaya! Sri-Sri Gaura Nitai ki Jaya!

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