Tag: jīva

What is bhāvollāsa‑rati?

Bhakti is the name of a spiritual path that stands apart from all others. Rather than simply offering a new teaching to replace an old one, it invites us into an entirely new way of understanding and experiencing spirituality.

When Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared in 1486, Vedic philosophy had become entangled inits own infinity. Though the scriptures consistently affirm that the Divine is composed of infinite being, consciousness and bliss, the seeker’s actual experience remained limited—confined to the information they could access and comprehend through writings and teachings of the brāhmaṇa class. We were finite beings tragically attracted to infinite life. Divine perfection was promised, but only through in impersonal books, lifeless rituals, and the teaching of others finite beings. 

Continue reading →

Life is given

Being takes the form of giving.

We are most fully in existence, most fully present, most fully ourselves, most authentic, pure and real, when we are giving. This is perhaps why we experience life as most meaningful, purposeful, and worthwhile when we are kind and generous with each other. 

Nothing true or lasting about what we are, concerns what we have, what we had or might some day have. To ‘have’ means to be formed by what we at some earlier time did not have. It is to be determined by something we have acquired, which by something we in some future moment will no longer have, either because we consume it, lose it, destroy it, or simply because it withers away.  

Continue reading →