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Travel Adventures of a Krishna Monk.
\nGaruda Prabhu: Often when yoga is there in the verse, Srila Prabhupada puts devotional service in the translation. Some object to this. As far as I am concerned he has every right to. This is because Srila Prabhupada knows goal of yoga is bhakti. As I scholar, I cannot do that.
\nHouston Smith, who liked many of my books, said the mystics are the impatient ones. They do not want to wait until the end of life.
\nUnion implies two. That means uniting the individual soul with the Supreme Soul.
\nPatanjali\u2019s Yoga Sutras are the Bible of yoga. In them, there are innumerable references to bhakti, more than I imagined.
\nIn four or five places Patanjali speaks of isvara-pranidhana.
\nThat word has three parts:
\npra – moving
\nni – deeply
\ndhana – into the core of our being<\/p>\n
Isvara to be means the divine center of all reality. It is Bhagavan and Brahman with us in between.<\/p>\n
Yama \u2013 ethical disciplines
\nNiyama \u2013 essential practices<\/p>\n
Isvara-pranidhana is an essential practice.<\/p>\n
Patanjali says samadhi siddhi isvara-pranidhanat. Isvara-pranidhana is the perfection of the perfection. Thus isvara-pranidhana is the beginning and the end.<\/p>\n
In the Gita Krishna teaches self-realization and then self-abandonment. We nourish ourselves so we can get ourselves out of the way.<\/p>\n
At raganuga every act is part of your service.<\/p>\n
Patanjali does not identify isvara but advises one must seek out isvara. The word ista-devata comes from the Yoga Sutras.<\/p>\n
Krishna is beautiful, delightful, and playful.<\/p>\n
Nirvikalpa samadhi is complete absorption in Krishna.<\/p>\n
Bhakti yoga is entering Krishna\u2019s world, the big picture. Our little pictures are sometimes distressing but not the big picture.<\/p>\n
Srila Prabhupada calls yoga \u201cdevotional service\u201d because it is the union of the individual self and the Supreme Self.<\/p>\n
Bhagavan-kripa, the mercy of the Lord, is there in the Yoga Sutras, but people do not know it.<\/p>\n
In my book, my thesis is that the Yoga Sutras do not make any sense if we do not understand Krishna bhakti.<\/p>\n
Yale was started by disgrunted Harvard professors.<\/p>\n
Krishna embraces us as much as we want to be embraced.<\/p>\n
Krishna does not force, coerce, and manipulate souls to love Him. He waits for an eternity for souls.<\/p>\n
We have one great kirtaniya here. Not you, Gauravani, Srila Prabhupada!<\/p>\n
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