In2-MeC

ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Sadhana Asrama (IBSA), Govardhana, India
17 May 2004

Hare Krishna Maharaj,

Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

I draw inspiration from your journal every day of my life. Your journal is very practical and we can see Krishna Consciousness working every day of our life because of your writings.

Thank you very much for giving us this mercy.

Hare Krsna Maharaj,
Please accept my humble obeisances.

nice to c you back on in2-mec. well to be very honest . . . the photos were absolutely breathtaking esp. the one of gandaki at sunset. really one could feel being out there with all you people in the beautiful valleys of river gandaki.

Absolutely magnificant.

Sri Radhikastaka
from the Govinda-lilamrta, by Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja
Versification by Dravida dasa (ACBSP)

kunkumakta-kancanabja-garva-hari-gaurabha
pitanancitabja-gandha-kirti-nindi-saurabha
ballavesa-sunu-sarva-vanchitartha-sadhika
mahyam atma-pada-padma-dasyadastu radhika

Her gold complexion steals the pride of golden lotus tinged with red.
Her fragrance mocks the scent of lotus bloom with saffron powder spread.
Her skill in satisfying Sri Hari is perfect and complete . . .
May Radhika bestow on me the service of Her lotus feet.

kauravinda-kanti-nindi-citra-patta-satika
krsna-matta-bhrnga-keli-phulla-puspa-vatika
krsna-nitya-sangamartha-padmabandhu-radhika
mahyam atma-pada-padma-dasyadastu radhika

Her colored silken garments shame the splendor rubies can display.
She is a blooming garden where the bee of Krsna loves to play.
She worships Surya every day so She and Madhava can meet . . .
May Radhika bestow on me the service of Her lotus feet.

saukumarya-srsta-pallavali-kirti-nigraha
candra-candanotpalendu-sevya-sita-vigraha
svabhimarsa-ballavisa-kama-tapa-badhika
mahyam atma-pada-padma-dasyadastu radhika

Eclipsed by Radha's tenderness, the fame of budding blossoms dims.
The moon, the lotus, sandal paste, and camphor serve Her cooling limbs.
When Krsna burns with love's desires, Her soothing touch dispels the heat . . .
May Radhika bestow on me the service of Her lotus feet.

visva-vandya-yauvatabhivanditapi ya rama
rupa-navya-yauvanadi-sampada na yat-sama
sila-harda-lilaya ca sa yato 'sti nadhika
mahyam atma-pada-padma-dasyadastu radhika

Though youthful goddesses adored by all adore the goddess Sri,
She lacks Sri Radha's beauty, youth, and every other quality.
So when it comes to lovers' sports, with Radha no one can compete . . .
May Radhika bestow on me the service of Her lotus feet.

rasa-lasya-gita-narma-sat-kalali-pandita
prema-ramya-rupa-vesa-sad-gunali-mandita
visva-navya-gopa-yosid-alito 'pi yadhika
mahyam atma-pada-padma-dasyadastu radhika

In arts like dancing, singing, joking Radha is by far the best.
She shines with endless traits divine, like love and gorgeous form and
dress. Among the famous gopis of Vrndavan, She's supremely sweet . . .
May Radhika bestow on me the service of Her lotus feet.

nitya-navya-rupa-keli-krsnabhava-sampada
krsna-raga-bandha-gopa-yauvatesu kampada
krsna-rupa-vesa-keli-lagna-sat-samadhika
mahyam atma-pada-padma-dasyadastu radhika

Eternal pastimes, beauty, youth, and love for Krsna make Her rich.
The loving gopis tremble just to see Her love, at highest pitch.
Her meditation on Sri Krsna's form and pastimes is complete . . .
May Radhika bestow on me the service of Her lotus feet.

sveda-kampa-kantakasru-gadgadadi-sancita-
marsa-harsa-vamatadi-bhava-bhusanancita
krsna-netra-tosi-ratna-mandanali-dadhika
mahyam atma-pada-padma-dasyadastu radhika

Perspiring, trembling, hairs on end, and crying, falt'ring of the voice,
Impatience, joy, and guile--these signs of rapture make Her friends rejoice.
For Krsna's eyes Her many jeweled ornaments provide a treat . . .
May Radhika bestow on me the service of Her lotus feet.

ya ksanardha-krsna-viprayoga-santatodita-
neka-dainya-capaladi-bhava-vrnda-modita
yatna-labdha-krsna-sanga-nirgatakhiladhika
mahyam atma-pada-padma-dasyadastu radhika

Apart from Krsna for a moment, Radha feels anxiety
And restlessness and other moods--the highest kind of ecstasy.
But when She meets Him with some effort, all Her sufferings retreat . . .
May Radhika bestow on me the service of Her lotus feet.

astakena yas tv anena nauti krsna-vallabham
darsane 'pi sailajadi-yosid-ali-durlabham
krsna-sanga-nanditatma-dasya-sidhu-bhajanam
tam karoti nanditali-sancayasu sa janam

Exalted goddesses like Parvati can hardly ever see
Sri Krsna's lover, Radhika. But if a humble devotee
Recites these verses, then Sri Radha, who enjoys with Sri Hari,
Will pour the nectar of Her service down on him eternally.

Rendering Service to Devotees

In the Padma Purana, there is a nice statement praising the service of the Vaisnavas, or devotees. In that scripture Lord Siva tells Parvati, "My dear Parvati, there are different methods of worship, and out of all such methods the worship of the Supreme Person is considered to be the highest. But even higher than the worship of the Lord is the worship of the Lord's devotees. "

A similar statement is in the Third Canto, Seventh Chapter, verse 19, of Srimad-Bhagavatam: "Let me become a sincere servant of the devotees, because by serving them one can achieve unalloyed devotional service unto the lotus feet of the Lord. The service of devotees diminishes all miserable material conditions and develops within one a deep devotional love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. "

In the Skanda Purana there is a similar statement: "Persons whose bodies are marked with tilaka, symbolizing the conchshell, wheel, club and lotus--and who keep the leaves of tulasi on their heads, and whose bodies are always decorated with gopi-candana--even seen once, can help the seer be relieved from all sinful activities. "

A similar statement is found in the First Canto, Nineteenth Chapter, verse 33, of Srimad-Bhagavatam: "There is no doubt about one's becoming freed from all reactions to sinful activities after visiting a devotee or touching his lotus feet or giving him a sitting place. Even by remembering the activities of such a Vaisnava, one becomes purified, along with one's whole family. And what, then, can be said of rendering direct service to him?"

No one can approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead directly. One must approach Him through His pure devotees. Therefore, in the system of Vaisnava activities, the first duty is to accept a devotee as spiritual master and then to render service unto him.

Sri Rupa Gosvami affirms that all the quotations given in the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu from different scriptures are accepted by the great acaryas and devotees of the Lord.

--Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 12

What is Euclidean and non-Euclidean logic?

Euclid was a Greek mathematician of the third century B. C. who applied the deductive principles of logic to geometry, thereby deriving statements from clearly defined axioms. Architects and cartographers surely owe a profound debt to Euclid. But his geometric logic exerted an influence on the Western mind that went far beyond mere technical fields. It became the fuel of the faith of the rationalism of Descartes, "the father of modern philosophy. " Rationalism believes that the secrets of life can be entirely figured out by the human intellect. (Descartes once bragged in a letter that he was convinced he would live far beyond a hundred years of age because of the power of his rationalistic investigation of health matters. He died at age 53. )

To render it into a definition of as few words as possible, Euclidean logic is the axiomatic method of thought. An axiom is a self-evident rule. A classic example is the rule that the three corners of a triangle, any triangle, when measured with a compass, will add up to 180 degrees--or in other words, an arc that describes exactly half a circle. This value is always true and is never an approximation. There's no chance involved--we do not need to "check" using human methods of observation and measurement to make sure that the corners of an odd-shaped triangle shown on the page of a book really add up to 180 degrees. They will. Hence Euclidean logic seems to usher us into the presence of absolute truth.

Euclidean geometry operates in reference to a library of axioms. When Western European thinkers rediscovered this geometric logic of the ancient Greeks, they were fascinated and enthusiastically assumed that it could be applied to fields of inquiry like philosophy and theology.

Now, in Srila Prabhupada's explanation of Krsna conscious deductive logic (avaroha-pantha) we can discern a similar-looking system of thought. Srila Prabhupada said:

Just like if the child is warned, "My dear child, do not touch fire. It will burn you. " So if the child accepts, then he gets the perfect knowledge immediately. If the child does not accept, he wants to make experiment, then he will burn his finger. So our process of knowledge--you should take from the supreme authority. Then we save time [from being used up] for research work. That is Krsna consciousness movement. We take perfect knowlege from Krsna. (--Lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam, 22 May 1975, Melbourne)

"If you touch fire, it will burn you" is an axiom. Hence the avaroha-pantha (descending method of knowledge) is a kind of axiomatic method of thought. But it is important to understand that it is a transcendental kind of axiomatic thought. As Srila Prabhupada concludes above, "We take perfect knowledge from Krsna. "

At the end of the day, material axiomatic thought caves in to mundane assumptions. For example, there's an axiom that every man has a father. Srila Prabhupada employed this axiom on numerous occasions. He asked his listeners to consider that as each of them has a father, so similarly their father has a father, and that father has a father. . . on and on it goes, back through the chain of fathers until at last we come to the Original Father: Krsna. Once a man challenged Prabhupada's transcendental conclusion that Krsna is the original father. He thought the axiom "every man has a father" must be applied to Krsna too. "Who is God's father?" he demanded to know from Prabhupada. His Divine Grace replied that God, by definition, has no father even though He is the Father of everyone. The man retorted, "It becomes a belief rather than a logic now, then, for when we think about the God. You were saying everybody has father, so why God, in exception, He hasn't got a father?" Prabhupada stuck to his point that God is by definition the Father of everyone who Himself has no father. Prabhupada's position in no way contradicts the axiom, "Every man has a father. " The axiom tells us only that every man has a father; it does not tell us that every father is a man. But the fellow who raised the challenge tried to attach the assumption "every father is a man" to the axiom.

"Whenever you assume something," goes a saying, "you make an ASS of U and ME. "

"Every father is a man" makes a very poor axiom. Don't dogs have fathers? And if they do, are the fathers of dogs men?

Ponder this point a moment. Because it ushers to the doorway of non-Euclidean logic.

Rationalist philosophers and theologians who embraced Euclidean logic supposed that it gave them the right to speculate freely on metaphysical problems and to present their speculations to the public as absolute truth. If a rationalist was criticized for making pronouncements about things outside of human reach, he could point to Euclidean geometry as evidence that some absolute truths are accessible to deep thought--so why not others?

But Euclidean geometry is not absolute.

Consider this globe:

If we divide any of the squares on the surface of this globe into triangles, we'll find that the sum of the arcs of their corners exceeds 180 degrees. That's because these triangles exist in spherical space, not flat space.

The axioms of Euclidean geometry work only in terms of flat 2-D space.

There is another kind of curved space called hyperbolic, which curves toward a point. Think of the sides of a cone. The sum of the arcs of the corners of any hyperbolic triangle is always less than 180 degrees.

Curved space is essential to the theory of relativity. Relativity in turn brings up issues of dimensions, which I discussed in a recent In2-MeC entry. Non-Euclidean geometry is simply non-Flatland geometry! Remember--we actually live in a world of three dimensions, of curved space. Therefore non-Euclidean logic is certainly practical. But when you read about it, it's often given this aura of something so very abstract and esoteric.

That's because most of the conceptual, metaphysical thinking that was going on in the Western World until quite recently was Flatland thinking.

This willy-nilly excitement to apply geometric logic to problems of philosophy and theology belies a sudra bent of mind. Srila Prabhupada often said that a brahmana is broad-minded. Which means he has the capacity to think in other dimensions, particularly the transcendental dimension of Brahman. The word sudra means "one who always laments. " He's trapped in the low-D realm of human assumptions. If you're a regular reader of In2-MeC, you know what assumptions I mean: social issues and stuff like that.

A long time ago, man would listen in amazement to the sound of regular heartbeats in his chest, never suspecting what they were. He was unable to identify himself with so alien and unfamiliar an object as the body. The body was a cage, and inside that cage was something which looked, listened, feared, and marvelled; that something, that remainder left over after the body had been accounted for, was the soul.

Today, of course, the body is no longer unfamiliar; we know that the beating in our chest is the heart and that the nose is the nozzle of a hose sticking out of the body to take oxygen into the lungs. The face is nothing but an instrument panel registering all the body mechanisms: digestion, sight, hearing, respiration, thought.

Ever since man has learned to give each part of the body a name, the body has given him less trouble. He has also learned that the soul is nothing more than the grey matter of the brain in action. The old duality of body and soul has become shrouded in scientific terminology, and we can laugh at it as merely an obsolete prejudice.

But just make someone who has fallen in love listen to his stomach rumble, and the unity of body and soul, that lyrical illusion of the age of science, instantly fades away.

--Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, pgs. 39-40.

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