Day 8: Giriraj Dandavat Parikrama Musings
- a literal 500 monkeys at the starting point today! They’re being fed nicely here at Govardhan, that is why they’re way more śanti (peaceful) then the monkey mafia in vraja!
- They’re lined up in a row at one point like devotees during prasad serve out and as we offer namaskāra, we’re practically at their feet
- This has been a sweet experience through out—being at the feet of the dogs who are resting, or cows, or goats, or hogs, or (often naked) village toddlers, or Vaisnavas; and ants and other insects I don’t know the names of
- Krishna in His final instructions to Uddhava (11 Canto, Chapter 29) speaks about antaranga-bhakti (interior devotion) a process He considers “the most complete” out “of all methods”: “A person of pure heart should see Me alone (Krishna [mām eva īkṣeta] as oppose to say Paramātmā), the Supreme Self (svayam-Bhagavan) as fully present internally and externally in all living beings as well as his own self and as devoid of all covering like space” [11.29.12]
- Sheltered in this vision of nonduality [jñānaṁ kevalam āśritaḥ], one is enabled by the vision of equality [sama-dṛk] to honor all of life — a brahmana, an outcaste, a thief, the sun, a mere spark, the tender hearted or the cruel — precisely because one specifically intuits the existence of Svayam-bhagavan within and pervading them; and this is the mark of embodied wisdom (pandita). [11.29.13-14]
- The result of this embodied wisdom born from the womb of true recognition of svayam-Bhagavan Krsna’s ubiquity is the sloughing off (like a snake sloughing off its old skin) of those ancient saboteurs of communion, viz. rivalry (toward equals), envy (toward superiors) and disdain (toward inferiors) along with ahamkara. [11.29.15]
- Now here’s the clincher! As a practical putting into practice of this teaching on antaranga bhakti, Krsna recommends sarva-namaskāra—obeisances to everybody (ain’t going lie the Oprah meme “you get a car, you get a car, everybody gets a car came to mind
- “Being unconcerned with his own associates who jeer at him, abandoning all prejudice based on bodily identity, and giving up all sense of shame, HE SHOULD FALL ON THE GROUND LIKE A STICK, offering obeisance even to a dog, an outcaste, a cow, and a donkey.” [11.29.16]
- This practice (sarva-namaskāra) as a psycho-somatic-vocal expression should continue until the Sun of Krishna (specifically) rises from the horizon of this fully integrated practice [11.29.17] and the vision of the dark Lord lights up the world, revealing it as a manifestation of the Absolute (Brahman) [11.29.18].
- “I consider this process alone of intuiting My existence within all living beings through the faculties of one’s mind, speech, and body, to be the most complete of all method.” [11.29.19]
- All glories to obeisances!
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