Day 1: Giriraj Dandavat Parikram
- mind already tripp’n about “how we going to do this?” Had to make it equipoise by reminding it of how vandanam (prostrations) gave us shelter when we couldn’t chant japa, couldn’t hear, was somehow away from sankirtana, and mind was too disturbed to do manana (focus deliberation) on Bhagavan’s glories
- As JG writes in Bhakti Sandarbha “Vandanam (offering obeisances) is prescribed separately for devotees who…feel themselves unfit to render service to Bhagavan’s feet, to meditate on his qualities, or to engage in other practices. They exert their full attention simply in offering namaskāra to Bhagavan. This very namaskāra is also counted as arcana (worship of the deity) of Bhagavan”
- It’s also a point of great inspiration that Krsna’s most secret teaching out of all most secret topics (sarva-guhyatama) which constitutes his highest instruction (parama vacah) brings to the fore the practice of obeisances to Him, Sri Krsna specifically: man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru.
- We first went to manasi ganga, Harideva (the presiding deity of Govardhana where Krsna is said to have lifted Govardhana), and cakaleśvara mahadeva (Siva) and sought blessing and then began.
- The mantra that I invoked before offering my first obeisance (a practice I hope to maintain without) and which held me through today’s experience is a couple verses from PadmaPurana and Brahma-vaivarta purana respectively: “In the word namah (obeisance), the syllable ma refers to the ahankrti (self asserting ego/separate I-sense) and the syllable na means the negation of that. Therefore the word namah indicates the living being’s conscious relinquishment of the false sense of independence….” “For those devoid of ahamkara, Sri Kesava is not at all distant. But for those full of ahamkara, mountain ranges stand between them and Bhagavan”
- “Let’s shrink those mountain ranges baby”…body drops, namah!
- As the body is getting more and more “dirty” (from the empirical perspective) the image of a baptism is invoked in my mind and the holy water is the vraja dhuli (dust of Vraja). May the separateness-bhāva (prthag-bhava) dissolve in the holy waters of the vraja dhuli during this extended baptism of the soul.
- As clothes were coming off due to the combination of the heat and the speed we were going this first day (it’s giving mode of passion), and as we’re being stared at (perhaps being foreigners engage in this practice is quite the spectacle for the locals) creating a feeling of being exposed and vulnerable, the gopi vastra harana Lila (Krsna stealing the clothes of the unmarried gopis) appears in my mind space a part of whose import is complete self-surrender; baring one’s soul; a pure-nakedness before Krsna.
- I found these lofty meditations so inspiring—baptism in vraja dhuli, emerging from such holy (dust) water naked, cleanse of the coverings of ego etc., and becoming
- a bare-soul before the Beloved for true love-communion (bhakti-yoga)—that I found myself smiling and jolly through the start of this yajna for Her pleasure.
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