Ecstacy in Sadhana-bhakti

3 Responses to Ecstacy in Sadhana-bhakti

1. Gopakumara dasa

   September 9, 2011 at 11:46 pm

   Nice…very nice. Always my favorite theme: remember you are striving for something tangible.

   Relevant new dissertation put out by Travis Chilcott – The Transformative Path of Krsna Bhakti: The Cognitive Dynamics of Religious Experience in the Gaudiya Vaisnava Tradition. UC Santa Barbara

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2. Citta Hari dasa

   September 10, 2011 at 11:29 am

   I think perhaps the most relevant point made here to most practitioners is “the willingness to retire other interests.” We often have our desires shown to us in the course of our practice but if we’re not proactive in rooting them out when they appear to us then we don’t go anywhere. I know this because I’ve failed to do it on many occasions, choosing instead to harbor the desire. It’s a “have your cake and eat it too” mentality: I want spiritual life without having to give up the things that have been sources of pleasure in the past. As Swami often says, we have to pull up the anchor if we expect our boat to move.

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3. Gopakumara das

   September 18, 2011 at 10:35 pm

   Sure Cittster… Point well taken (i won’t take it too personally, as your posting has an absurd amount of relevance for me!).

   But I guess one can say the piece had at least two points: 1. You want progress, make sacrifices and retire other interests and 2. There is reason to believe progress is feasible.

   After all, why raise the anchor unless you had somewhere to go? As Aristotle and GM say, we move because we have desires and longings.

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