One of my gripes for a good while, even while amidst the official GV ranks, was with the extent to which the advaita-aspect was underexposed. Of course, in an environment where any sense of ultimate non-duality is regarded as an offence unto the personal deity, and where even acceptable non-dual concepts are relegated to the lowest rung of god-relationship, there is little to do in the way of balancing the presentation.

For all practical purposes, Gaudiya Vaishnavism subscribes to dvaita-vada — regardless of doctrinal nuances hidden away in the dusty pages of books unread by most practitioners, obscure references a scholar might point to. It goes without saying that thorough, systematic and sensible explanations of acintya bheda-abheda-tattva are hard to come by. The possibilities of advaitic realization hidden in the more esoteric practices of this hybrid vedanto-tantric tradition, in the attainment of unity of nature and awareness with the shakti-aspect of the universal duo, go either overlooked or wholly unobserved.

Dvaita generates bhakti, owing to the fundamental emphasis of the lasting separation between the servant and the served. Advaita generates mukti, owing to the integrated experience of unity it generates, dissolving the triputi of the seer, the sight and the seen, eliminating any sense of fundamental reality that could be attributed to either the objects or the enjoyer-self.

In absence of self-integration and dissolution of barriers between the individual and the universe, the dvaita-solution to craving, and very pointedly so in the raganuga-tradition, is the imposition of a greater craving, indeed an all-consuming craving, that overshadows non-deity-centered sensual and mental cravings. With this, however, the problem of craving has never actually been properly dealt with and dissolved. It has merely been suppressed.

Gaudiya Vaisnavas could benefit a great deal from integrating wisdom-contemplation into their routine practice. On the Buddhist side of generating wisdom there are numerous vipassana-techniques of meditation, and on the Advaita-side the classical tripartite jnana-yoga-sadhana of sravana-manana-nididhyasana, which seem to me to carry the same essential impact when put into practice.

Dhammam ehipassikam — the laws of liberation and the principles of practice exhort you to personally observe their reality through experiment and experience. Observe the short-term and long-term results of your devotional practices on one hand, and knowledge-wisdom-rooted contemplations on the other hand, and mold your ongoing practice on the basis of your direct experience of the utility of the diverse methods, rather than clinging to a certain set of practices on the mere merit of their supposed orthodoxy.

Cross-posting from Gaudiya Repercussions.

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A friend asks:

I'd talk about desired perfections rather than enlightenments, since the Gaudiya Vaishnava final objective is not the attainment of untainted, illumined awareness. They are quite clear in their perfectional objective being one where the conscious faculty and range of awareness are covered and limited by certain divine illusions.

I don't know what generic enlightenment might mean to you. My ultimate aim certainly is not in a world of personal deities, I have grown to seek the transpersonal ideals lurking behind symbolic worlds. I suppose there is a large enough body of shared material among the diverse traditions (Advaita, Buddhism, Sufi, Tao etc.) holding non-personal concepts of ultimate reality to justify the generic enlightenment concept.

I listed my working objectives here a while back.

1. There is a need to wholly weed out greed, anger and delusion from the mind, and cultivate their opposites, namely generosity, kindness and wisdom.
2. There is a need to develop infinite compassion, loving kindness, sympathetic joy and equanimity.
3. There is a need to transcend the conceptualizing mind and obtain unslanted clarity or plain awareness.
4. There is a need to learn to still the mind and bring it to perfect, single-pointed meditational focus.
5. There is a need to, equipped with plain awareness and high focus, explore the nature of the conditional factors to eradicate ignorance.

I suppose the above are methods universal enough to yield "generic enlightenment". In any case, if we are to assume there is an ultimate, non-dual experiential reality that different traditions observe from different angles, the external clutter of each respective tradition — if its way is to reach enlightenment that is — is bound to be shaken off with the escalating attainment of higher reality-experiences, leaving us with a uniform experience.

The doctrine of anatman (Pali: anatta), a central concept in Buddhist philosophy, is sometimes juxtaposed with the Hindu belief in atman. The fundamentals on both sides of the debate deserve a good, careful look.

With my laptop tucked away in my backpack somewhere in the dusty corners of a certain temple in Sarnath, and with increasing reluctance to spend time in internet cafes and amidst technology and civilization in general, the journal mutates temporarily into a retro-format.

I will be writing into my notebook / diary whenever inspiration flows. With a journey to modern civilization with all amenities in sight, I'll snap photos of the entries meant to go online and post them in. People will have to put up with my handwriting (and pandist can debate on alternative readings), and there will be no paced publication strategy whatsoever — as much as I have ready, so much goes online at once.

In all likelihood, the bulk of the entries will be retro until the end of the year. The laptop's going to go, sold away — and do I say that with the pride of an ex-junkie off the hook! Mp3 player remains as a good companion. Camera remains to be seen — it's a bit big and clunky, I'd really rather not drag it around, and it's still worth some monies that would perhaps help me get the return ticket...

Speaking of returning, a great many opportunities for going underground have presented themselves, in India, in Nepal, as elsewhere. I'd need to be off the grid until the end of 2010 to rid myself of the upcoming imprisonment following my conscientious objection. And god knows I'd have been long gone, were it not for some debts I have to friends from our house project a year and two back. A man must bow before his duty, so stands the working conclusion, despite the vast array of allurements the Tempter has presented...

More to come within two weeks or thereabouts, I'm heading back to the hills tomorrow or the day after. And e-mails are, apologies to everyone affected, for the most part really either extremely short or unwritten for now...

There was to be no lengthy solitary retreat, thanks to forest officials and a number of other causes. That notwithstanding, I am still at Bagdwar, the source of the sacred Bagmati river near the peak of Shivapuri. At the moment, I am staying in a small kutir attached to a largely abandoned small Tibetan gomba.

The environment up here, with the relaxed yet wise pace of life — so eminently demonstrated by Todake Baba, a mellow and wise hermit who earned his name ("Tree Baba") by living half a decade in the hollow of a tree — is providing me exactly the right antidote for the long, noisy period I was subjected to at Radhakund.

And the walk from Sarnath to Lumbini, while wonderful in many ways, wasn't exactly the holiday of choice either. Especially with five persons, five minds, and the subsequent five directions aboard. It served to highlight the worth of individual freedom in tending to one's ongoing internal processes.

With coming better to terms with my present needs, I have bowed out from the planned Kushinagar - Bodh Gaya stretch. Not the least since it'd be the peak of the hot season — and I mean hot — and in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar of all possible places.

What I presently need is contemplative peace. Research and reflection. I find myself repeatedly studying my inner samskaric patterns, the awakened and the latent mental circuits. The base reality, present and potential, on which new heights of practice are to be built. To know oneself is to know the practitioner. To not know the practitioner is to have no practice.

Rather than taking a ready sadhana-bundle, no matter how grand the brand, I am finally coming to terms with the fact that it might actually be a good idea to instead develop an individually tailored practice routine that addresses my base rather than that of the generic theoretical person.

A teacher you must have for this, some say — but I've been a bit short on luck in meeting with masters with an ability for direct insight into my psyche. Or even good intuition for that matter! Practically the entirety of such well-wishing attempts for guidance from teachers and fellow travelers have been just shooting from the hip. In the interim, Dhammapada speaks well:


Ah, Dhammapada,. of which I again secured a copy a while back, having given mine to a friend back in Dixitpur on our journey past Devariya. This one isn't bilingual, but will do in absence of something more.

Wisdom ancient in written volumes, how have I come to realize how much I indeed miss it and how direly do I need it! The whole of the walk went practically without reading, and while the extensive walking itself occupied the mind enough to not realize the internal imbalance, the dharma-assimilation necessity became quite acute as I settled down.

So much so that I have just thrown away a good deal of my last pennies in securing a three-volume translation of the Majjhima-nikaya along with a commented Maha-satipatthana-sutta. The one-and-a-half to two kilo addition will no doubt agonize my shoulders in the journeys to come, but if anything is a burden of love... Yea, and there was an economical Tao Te Ching rendered into English and commented on by the good old Alistair Crowley — exploring Tao has been in the air for a fair bit.

A week or two more at the serene Shivapuri, followed by further excursions in Nepal. Where exactly, time alone, and especially the following day or two, will reveal — still some loose ends to tie up.