Bhakti
Bhakti Shastra

Diving into Bhakti-Rasamrita Sindhu

Question: We are reading the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu in a workshop. Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī has ten practices considered “primary in the beginning”—including worship of the banyan tree, etc. Then he speaks of the last five practices as having “extraordinary and incomprehensible power.” My question is, why are śravaṇa, smaraṇam (smṛti), and dhyāna placed in the middle of

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Bhakti Questions & Answers

Paramatma and Krsna, Sattvic Lifestyle as Gateway

Question: I read elsewhere that it is Paramātmā who is present everywhere, in the atoms and in the hearts of every living entity. So, do Kṛṣṇa and Paramātmā both exist everywhere? Or is it Kṛṣṇa that exists everywhere but some see Him as Paramātmā? I am trying to understand the difference in all-pervasiveness of Kṛṣṇa

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Bhakti Questions & Answers

Coexistence of Bhakti and the Spirit of Enjoyment

Question: Sādhana of uttamā-bhakti leads to bhāva and prema. If sādhana-bhakti has as its taṭastha lakṣaṇa the total absence of the desire to enjoy, what happens in the anartha-nivṛtti stage when there are no saṃskāras left to enjoy? Answer: The very word sādhana means “a means to achieve a goal”. At the sādhana stage, one

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Bhakti Gaudiya Vaishnavas Questions & Answers

Samanya-bhakti, Bhakti-yoga and Sharanagati

Question: I heard you say that sāmānya-bhakti can be attained without dīkṣā and that it would grant one sālokya. How does sāmānya-bhakti manifest in this world and where does it bring the sādhaka who practices it? Is there any diversity in it? Answer: The word sāmānya means general. The word meaning itself implies that it is

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Bhakti Gaudiya Vaishnavas Sandarbhas

Diksha Guru Is Also Shiksha Guru

The following are the last questions in the context of Babaji’s podcast interview with Namarasa.   Question: If dīkṣā and śikṣā are never separated, why did Narottama, Śyāmānanda, and Śrīnivāsācārya all take śikṣā from Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī who was not their dīkṣā guru?  Answer: First of all, I did not say that dīkṣā and śikṣā

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Bhakti Sandarbhas

Nāma-aparādha: The Ninth and Tenth Offenses

Offenses of the Instructor and the Instructed To give a valuable object to an unqualified person is indirectly disrespectful to the valuable object. An unqualified person does not understand the value of the object and thus will not respect it. The holy name of Kṛṣṇa is as respectable as Kṛṣṇa Himself, being nondifferent from Him.

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Bhakti Sandarbhas

Nāma-aparādha (The Ten Offenses)

There is a very interesting and popular śloka related to Āyurveda—pathye sati gadārttasya kim auṣadha-niṣevaṇaiḥ / pathye’ sati gadārttasya kim auṣadha-niṣevaṇaiḥ. It says that if one follows a proper diet, then what is the use for a sick person to take medicine? And if one does not follow a proper diet, then what is the

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