How can a temple be in the present when it is presided over by a dead statue of a former guru as many ISKCON temples are? They also like to quote Prabhupad as saying “Don’t change anything.†A dead guru, a dead religion focused on the past. This was not Bhaktivinode’s view, and it is […]
Dr. Michael Valle and Subal Das continue our conversation: MV: Universalist systems of spirituality are often criticized as being too permissive. You have written that all of the primary religious texts in the world are revealed, although you concede that some may be more advanced than others. How might a person identify a candidate scripture […]
Dr. Michael Valle and Subal Das continue our conversation: MV: Are all or many of the primary religious texts in the world, in some significant sense, revealed by God-dess? If so, in what way? SD: Yes. They are revealed scriptures. God-dess is within everyone. When we surrender, our life, will, thoughts and actions to God-dess, […]
Dr. Michael Valle and Subal Das continue our discussion of Universalist Radha Krishnaism. MV: Is God-dess present in other religions? If so, in what way? And how do we explain the exclusivism that is often present in religions? SD: God-dess is present in other religions, but usually in a more limited stage of realization. For […]
In recent years calls have been made by influential and academic Vaishnavas for a reform of Vaishnavism, particularly, but certainly not solely, as it is practiced in the West. Following Prabhupada’s success in introducing Westerners to the Radha-Krishna-centered Vaishnavism of Chaitanya, many people have yearned for a Radha-Krishna-centered form of spirituality that can be adapted […]
Radha Krishna are the feminine-masculine poles of God-dess. When we see the two as one, we see the androgyny of God-dess and by reflection, of ourselves. Chaitanya is the embodiment of Radha Krishna and therefore, considered their incarnation. The introduction to the Chaitanya Charitamrita beautifully describes Krishna’s reasoning for incarnating as Chaitanya. He wanted to […]
I am not a strict follower of Bhaktivinode, or anyone else, in the sense of accepting his opinion as the final word on things. He lived in Victorian, British India and geared his teachings to the educated Bengalis and British whom he interacted with regularly. As government servants, he and Lalita Prasadji associated with all […]
While meditating on what gopis might be like today and how we might translate “gopi†so that it has meaning for contemporary Western devotees, I had an insight. “Gopi†is traditionally translated as “cowherd damsel, girl, woman or maiden.†They are Krishna’s lovers in the cowherd village of Vrindaban who serve Krishna in a mood […]
Let us assume that all the gods and goddesses, heavens and hells all exist within us. This would be consistent with the Upanishads, Jung, Campbell and others. Many of Chaitanya’s followers are said to have experienced Krishna within their hearts. Rather than an external, transcendental experience, perhaps we seek an inner, immanent experience of divinity. […]
God-dess refers to the Divine Couple, Radha Krishna, God and Goddess, energy and energetic, the ground of all being, the cause of all causes. God-dess is the basis of existence, the source of all life and love. God-dess is eternal. God-dess exists before the beginning of time and beyond time in eternity. Time and space […]