Raganuga.Com Audio Archives

The audio archives of the now retired Raganuga.Com are available for download at The Internet Archive:

Raganuga.Com Audio Archives

The download area contains all materials hosted under the lectures (patha) and songs (kirtana) sections of the site. Most of the materials come from Advaitadas's old source tapes I once cleaned up and uploaded.

The kirtana are recordings of songs primarily from Radha-kunda from over the decades. The patha are Advaitadas's translations of lectures by Pandit Ananta Das Babaji and Pandit Vaishnava Pada Das Babaji.

     

Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5, the media can be freely downloaded and shared. A special mention goes to The Internet Archive for their hosting service.

Total download size in MP3 (VBR) format is 1.9 GB. The files are available for download individually in several formats (MP3 64kbps, MP3 VBR, Ogg Vorbis) and in a single zip file.

Raganuga.Com Audio Archives

Gaudiya Discussions Archives - Back Online

These are the reinstated archives of Gaudiya Discussions, the once mighty giant of online Gaudiya Vaishnava discussions, debates, history, theology, controversy and creativity. Browse the 3440 threads in 42 forums, unearth the treasures, escape the gremlins, and come out the other end a bit wiser than you were.

Some hated it. Some loved it. Some avoided it, not knowing what to think of it. It made an impact, and it deserves to be available for the future as an important attempt at exploring, experiencing and documenting the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition.

http://www.gaudiyadiscussions.com/

The Eternal Loveboat Heaven

The History and Theology of the Eternal Loveboat Heaven

Publ. Church of Titanic, White Star City, April 15th 2912

For the millennium memorial year of The Great Sinking

The Great Sinking, leading to Jack's sacrifice of love and the opening of the Eternal Play.

The Eternal Loveboat Heaven was originally exposed to the broader public in the 1997 movie Titanic, directed by the great James Cameron; blessed be his soul. The narrative, dubbed "The Greatest Love Story of History" by the learned, has inspired devotees worldwide over the last millennium.

Titanic tells the story of Jack Dawson, the Eternal Lad, a young, handsome artist and adventurer of poor background, and his forbidden love, Rose DeWitt Bukater, the Eternal Lady, of aristocratic background, bound to an arranged marriage with a wealthy man she does not love in the least.

Lady Rose with lead antagonists, Mother and Fiancee, in the Historic Play.

The Historic Play

The story begins with Rose, this charming embodiment of love, asail on the greatest and most magnificent ship of all time towards a destiny she squints, a life of duty and bondage. She would much rather taste the joy and infinite possibilities of life alongside Jack, the most charming of all young lads she had met but mere hours ago, who prefers a life of adventure and excitement, and who during their brief acquaintance saved her life, talking her out of suicide.

As the journey over the infinite waters unfolds, Rose soon finds herself sneaking off for clandestine love journeys across the ship under the prying eyes of her mother and fiancee. They dine together with her family, feigning innocence, they gaze into the horizon, they make love on the back seat of a car the cargo compartment, they flee through the engine room from those who would forbid them, relishing their play of love.

The Evil Iceberg, breaker of ships and hearts, looming in the horizon.

A great tragedy is to come, however — Evil Iceberg would cringe its teeth, seeing lovers united past the sea. The ship, sailing full speed into the Iceberg, has five water-containing compartments breached and flooded, and the unsinkable begins to sink. Jack is framed for arrest by the jealous fiancee for robbery of Heart of the Ocean, the greatest of royal jewels, given to Rose by her wealthy husband-to-be, attempting to purchase his way into her heart.

As the ship begins to sink, Rose forsakes her place and family in the life boat, returning to Jack who is locked in the depths of the ship by the Fiancee's evil assistant. Risking her life in a desperate attempt to rescue her love, she fights her way to the depths of the flooding ship and back. The lovers join once again at the fore of the ship, the place of their first meeting, enrapt in kiss and embrace as inevitable doom looms in the horizon, Titanic now torn in two and sinking fast.

Artist's recreation of Jack's illustration of beloved Lady Rose wearing The Heart of the Ocean.

Both fallen in ice-cold water, Jack gives his life in a great sacrifice of pristine love, offering Rose a floating piece of ceiling they come across, and a possibility for life. Frozen and dead in water, Jack sinks to the depth of the oceans as Rose meets her rescue — but at what cost? Is life without Jack worth living for? And yet she had given him her sacred promise to never give up. In her ripe old age of over a hundred years, she still cherishes the memory of Jack in her heart's chamber of secrets, shared with but a chosen few, destined to a long life of painful separation from her eternal beloved.

Whosoever hears or remembers this sacred narration, the Historic Story, the greatest love story of all time, will soon have his heart filled with pristine love for Rose and Jack, his heart-disease of attraction for other narrations cured, and he is to meet Jack and Rose together again in The Eternal Loveboat Heaven.

Rose and Jack united in the Meeting Chamber of the Eternal Loveboat.

The Eternal Play

Its deep meaning unknown to all but the most devoted, the closing segment of the narrative offers us a glimpse into the Eternal Story, a timeless Titanic sailing forever and ever across the deep blue seas, Rose and Jack meeting again and again in their love adventures on the ship. On the eternal Titanic, the Fiancee and the Mother along with their companions are but shadows present not in flesh but as memories and life-like imaginations, so as to invoke the feeling of forbidden love. Especially, there is no Evil Iceberg in the Eternal Story to force the lovers apart.

In truth, none but those given fully into acting as a supportive player in the love drama may enter The Eternal Loveboat Heaven; for it is those, the supporting elements, that enhance and facilitate the union of the Eternal Lad and Lady, worthy of worship for all.

Jack and Rose enrapt in Dance of Bliss at their daily down below meeting.

Since the early years of the third millennium, ardent devotees have contemplated on the Eternal Play to return unto their Lad and Lady at the end of their lives, enrapt in contemplation of their daily deeds according to their own preference. In some, a special fondness awakens for being a member of the crew, while others share the ambition for joining the circle of Miss Molly Brown's attendants, and yet some long to be one of Jack's rowdy pals. There have even been movements in Eastern Europe and parts of the Grand Soviet Federation recruiting passengers into second and third class of the Eternal Loveboat.

Grand-Captain Dicaprius IV of Vatican, one of the leading early theologicians of the Church of Titanic, has established that regardless of individual inclination, all devotees aspiring to sail with our Eternal Lad and Lady shall drink of the same infinite ocean of spirit, for all are united in the service of Jack and Rose's eternal love. Who can fathom the beauty and depth of love, the pinnacle of touching beauty, so aptly embodied in the two? Who but the cruel'est of men could fail to be attracted to their service?

The Unsinkable Molly Brown, wise mother goddess of Eternal Loveboat Heaven.

And there is much service to be done throughout a day in the Eternal Play. The crew members are required when Lad and Lady storm through the engine room, and in particular when intruders need to be distracted from the cargo hall. The chéf and his entourage are instrumental in preparing the daily meals, the orchestra must be present at all but the most secret of trysts, and Miss Molly Brown's retinue is always available to give Rose guidance on matters of love after a lovers' quarrel.

This is how devotees remember the Eternal Play of their Lad and Lady, full of longing for their service on the Eternal Loveboat, sailing to the farther shore of the seven oceans of love. For testimonies on how the cosmic play of Rose and Jack has affected millions, be sure to tune in to The Eternal Loveboat Heaven. Thank you for your attention. Be sure to read the comments, too!

GeeVees - The Great Repercussion

The random audience has repeatedly sought my comments on diverse subjects related to the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, of which I was a part in its several forms for well over a decade. This six-part series should contain most of the themes on my mind at the time of this writing, the outcome of countless nights of reflection, creative contrasting, recontextualization, and selective discarding or re-adaptation of old mental constructs.

• 00: Roots — On my background, on Gaudiya Vaishnavism, on the purposes of this series.
  
• The Nectar Name — Reflections on my experiences with chanting the name, subsequent experiences contrasted with other traditions.
• Ritual Culture — Integating into a native Gaudiya Vaishnava environment, mastering a culture of ritual purity and superstitions.
  
• Gopi Girls Forever — A gloss on the method of living in the "love land", reflections on its applications, psychological dimensions.
• Agamas and Sahajiya Roots — The natural human and the fundamental divinity of duality, heterodox roots of the methods of worship.
• Divinities and Tantric Buddhism — Archetypal deities and classical tantric deity practice, Tibetan Buddhist methods and theologies.
• The Human God — Dimensions of divinity, graded perceptions of dualistic, antropomorphic god and the dimension of nondual existence.
• Doctrinal Picks — Fundamentally valuable aspects in the Gaudiya Vaishnava doctrine, their universal application.

None of the essays that are to follow should be considered final in terms of research. Think of them as previews, alpha-version renderings of elaborate themes. I have no timeline for the current production, I work on pure inspiration. Bear with me and enjoy the ride.

Bheda-abheda - Duality and Unity

Posted 26th of May, 2008 @ Vraja Journal.

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One of my gripes for a good while, even while amidst the official Gaudiya Vaishnava 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 offense 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.