Most expect that to be able to see a true Hindu temple you would have to travel to . . . well . . . India, or at least a country in which Hinduism is a more dominant religion. But that’s not necessarily true. Throughout the years, as immigration has become more common, Hindu temples have been erected wherever believers have settled, including in America, including in Texas.
The Barsana Dham is located just south of Austin in the hill country. It was built in 1990 and today is the main U.S. center of Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat, a holy man in Hinduism born in 1922 in Mangarh village. It is said that all who saw his sweet smile and serene look loved Jagadguru Kripaul Parishat from the start. His virtues and intelligence were lauded from a young age, particularly when, at age 14, he traveled to Indore to study Sanskrit literature and mastered every topic he chose to tackle. At age 16, Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat finished school and took up his Divine nature. He spent the rest of his life, which continues on today, teaching the people of India and all who would listen about his beliefs and ideals as a divine and devout Hindu man.
In 1990, Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat gave his blessing for the creation of Barsana Dham. It was designed on a 200-acre property to be a representation of the holy land of Braj, where Shree Radha Rani and Shree Krishn appeared more than 5,000 years ago. Those who visit it are meant to take from the Temple and its surroundings a sense of serenity and calm that often cannot be found in the outside world. It is also hoped that visitors will walk away having learned of the knowledge of the Vedas, the Gita and the Bhagwatam, as well as the process of divine love consciousness, the energy Hindus believe unites one man’s soul with the Supreme God.
Every year, all the major Hindu festivals are celebrated at Barsana Dham in the traditional style. For example, in September, Radha Ashtmi is celebrated. This is a day commemorating when Shree Raseshwari Radha Rani descended into Barsana. The celebration begins with chanting of the leelas and virtues of the goddess, followed by more chanting and praying and a prepared lunch. It is a day in which many in the United States come to celebrate, just as all of the other Hindu festivals are from Mela Fair to Maha Shivrati to Jhulan Leela.
Truly, Barsana Dham is not a place to be missed when you are in Austin, regardless of whether you are there for religious or simply tourist purposes. But do be aware that the visiting hours are compact; general visiting is only permitted between 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., daily. At those times, all may visit the holy places, view the temple architecture and take in the beautiful culture living within the site. At other times of the day, holy services are taking place and it is requested that general visitors not roam the grounds.
Barsana Dham Janmashtmi Discourse by Diwakari Devi Ji
AUSTIN: Krishna Janmashtami is
being celebrated with great enthusiasm
in India and around the world. Here’s
the first of our Janmashtami reports
begins with the celebrated at Barsana
Dham. Hindus all over the world every year celebrate Shree Krishna janmashtami, from simplest festivities with families and friends to large gatherings with thousands in attendance. Shree Raseshwari Radha Rani Temple, Barsana Dham in Austin is unique among them all. Barsana Dham, founded in 1995 by HD Swami Prakashanand Saraswati, has offered truly exceptional and ecstatic
Janmashtami celebrations for the past 13 years.
This year, families from all over Texas and beyond came to Barsana Dham. As usual for celebration times, the ashram was filled to capacity. A delicious dinner prashad was served ; mouth watering puries, chaval, dal, sabji, mithai filled everyone’s plat. Soon everywhere you looked people were eating and relaxing with friends and families in the marvelous and beautiful garden-like grounds.
After dinner, everyone rushed to the Temple to secure a front row seat for the evening program. Children were jumping and giggling, tugging at their parents begging to take them to their own special outdoor program, complete with a baby calf who was quickly named “Cowie”. Chanting soon began– “Mero Gopala Mero Nandlala” and“Govind Gokul Ayo”; jaikars filled the air, dholak, dhol, manjira, jhanch, the traditional instruments of India, enlivened the hearts of all.
A traditional and eloquent Janmashtmi message was delivered by Sushree Diwakari Devi, president of JKP, Barsana Dham. Diwakari devi (Didi) explained the importance of doing bhakti. Following the discourse, the leela presentation began; people mummered in expectant excitement, the prayer hall lights were lowered and conches heralded the first glimpse of 12 year old Shukdev entering the stage. Everyone delighted in receiving the darshan of baby Krishn – candy was thrown to all during the joyous jamn scene. Further, everyone enjoyed a delightfully charming bal leela performed by children from all over Austin.
The evening continued with chanting of Krishn name until midnight in the main prayer hall concluding with the arti of Bal Krishna.
There are two eternal powers involved in the creation of the universe: (1) The absolute supreme Gracious God and (2) the metaphysical universal energy, the cosmic power, called maya. Maya, being initially lifeless, receives its enlivenment from the supreme Gracious God and then manifests the entire universe.
The true and absolute supreme God has four most important personal virtues. He is all-Gracious, He is all-kind, He is all-Blissful (and all-loving) and, with all of His virtues, He is omnipresent. Apart from that He is also almighty because the mighty power maya is under Him. He is the creator because He enlivens the power, maya, which manifests the universe, He is omniscient because He knows each and every action of the unlimited lives of all the unlimited souls of this universe; and so on.
One other question that has puzzled the theologians for millenniums is: whether God is He, or She, or it?
Bhartiya scriptures say that He is all. He is He as well as She, and Both forms She and He are absolutely one and synonymous. That’s how, being absolutely one, They always remain in two forms, She and He.
What about ‘it’? How does ‘He’ become ‘it’? The answer is, that He doesn’t become ‘it.’ ‘It,’ in fact, is an aspect of the personal form of God. ‘It’ is such an aspect where all of His powers and attributes are absolutely dormant. It’s like a person who is deeply sleeping in a dreamless state where all the dignity of his being, including his personal identity, is fully submerged into his totally inactive state. This aspect of God is called nirgun nirakar, which means virtueless and formless God; the other one is called sagun sakar (or sakar), which means the all-virtuous personified form of God. Thus, sakar is the main form of God, and, with His sakar form, He/She is omnipresent with all of the virtues: Graciousness, kindness, all-Blissfulness, all-lovingness and many more. These Divine situations and existences are the Divine miracles that are beyond the material logic because they are beyond the realm of ‘time’ and ‘space’ factors.
Now we know that unless the above mentioned attributes and virtues along with the prominence of the personal form of God are included in the general meaning of the word ‘God,’ it would not represent the true Gracious God, it would only represent the absolute metaphysical energy of the cosmos (and up till now these facts have not yet been incorporated into any of the English dictionaries).
(Above: ShukdeoJI explaining the ultimate aim of human life: receiving the Divine love of Shree Krishn. Leela performance at JKP, Barsana Dham, US Ashram of Jagadguru Kripaluji Maharaj)
The word God is very common. Everyone knows this particular word. Then what is meant by the word God? Seldom people know. In our Vedas, it says, “As you know Him, you find Him.” If you don’t have Him, it means you don’t know Him. It means the knowing and finding are simultaneous. The Gita says the same thing: “As soon as a person knows God, dedicates himself to God…then what happens? Whatever he wants.” Let us look at this idea more closely.
Krishn, God Himself, tells us in the Gita, “Suppose a devotee has surrendered himself to Me, but his mode of surrendering, his motivation behind that dedication is unique. His conception about God is unique. His relationship with God is unique. According to all of these uniquenesses, he attains Me, but in that unique and variable form because I have uncountable forms, because I am almighty and loving.” Thus God is here, He is everywhere, He is in His Divine abode, He is Divine, but His form is uncountable. You cannot count. So a devotee or a true aspirant is really wanting God, but in what form is he wanting God? That makes all the difference! So we must look at who or what we believe God is.
What is the definition of God in our minds? If you look through the books available nowadays on spirituality, God or meditation, you’ll find that the definition of God is very much changed as it was hundreds and thousands of years ago. In those days God was only absolute love, absolute Divine love, but now the definition has been changed and people are thinking all in psychic terms. Everything that is a little different from what we normally experience, everything that seems superior, everything that appears abnormal, we just put a label, ‘G-o-d’, God.
The question is: Is that the God of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu? Is that the God of the Gita? Is that the God of the eternal Vedas? This is the real question.
Take a factual example: You wish to know about God, and I am here to teach of God. But what I think about God is in my mind, what you think about God is in your mind. What I mean to say is that actually, what is God? Unless you understand that aspect, there cannot be a path to or a devotion of or a meditation for God realization.
Say, for instance, you are going to meet someone. All you know is that the person lives in Los Angeles. You flew from New York, came to the Los Angeles airport, and now you are trying to find that person. It’s such a big town—miles and miles and miles. Can you find that person among the millions of houses? I think it is impossible. But you know he is there, he is there somewhere, but it is impossible. You can devote your whole life and still you may not find him. You must know the exact address of that person, the person’s name, who that person is. Only then you can reach him.
Similarly, unless you know the exact definition of God, the exact form of God, the exact path of God realization, then and only then can you directly proceed on the path. Otherwise, there is no possibility. You may spend your whole life—even lives and lives—you may spend all your time before you realize you are lost, and then it is too late. You started on some path and you sincerely believed it was the path to God. You followed it, perhaps wholeheartedly, but after 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years you began to experience that you are getting nowhere. You noticed you are feeling more attraction towards the world than towards God. Your heart is burning with increased desires and discontentment, and you feel far from God’s consolation and Grace. Now it is too late to change your path to God.
So it is very important to know what is the actual definition of God. And who can tell? Who can tell? That’s the greatest question: who? There are millions of missions, religions, philosophies and belief systems all over the world. In every country there are hundreds and hundreds of missions and belief systems related to God, and they confuse you more and more. How are you going to find out if that problem is solved? Solve that problem and then at least a major problem has been solved.
To this end I can only suggest that you know there are Saints, prophets, descensions of God on this earth, descensions of the loving and Gracious personality of God, Divine personalities, Saints sent by God to propagate His mission. They will not be in thousands or hundreds—not at any one time on this earth, but in our history, in our scriptures, they are in the thousands. So those Divine personalities they introduced God. They were one with God. They propagated only God’s love, so their writings can guide you a little to find what is the path to God.
We can have a quick survey of all of those. We can’t have all, just a few important scriptures, starting from the very beginning of the human civilization. Vedas were the only scriptures which were revealed in the very beginning or you can say even before human civilization. According to our Indian Divine history, the very first people on this earth were all the descended Saints. They appeared with the will of God and then it started through one generation.
So from those days, Vedas existed. All the Vedas, there are many, many branches, but in gist, there are two main points: “We cannot find God with intellectual speculation or intellectual analysis or intellectual research.” But Ved doesn’t say that you can never find God, it says you cannot find God with your intellect. Then what is the path? Ved says, “Bhakti…” Dedication… It’s not an act of your intellect; dedication is an act of your heart or you can say your emotional mind. So through dedication, through complete dedication, you can find God.
Now come to the Gita. It says, “Through bhakti, through dedication, through exclusive dedication…you can find God.” Exclusive means… Say for instance you are in the world. You have a family, husband or wife, children, you have to support. You have a job. Don’t leave anything. Devote some time for God also. It means you are doing 50-50, you’re putting half of your mind in the world and half in God. Even then it is quite enough. Suppose you have got that great longing for God realization and you want, “Oh, I must find God right now. Not tomorrow, not tonight, why not now?” And you supported your thought with your understanding. Here comes the right use of your intellect.
What is your understanding? That He is kind. You know that through the scriptures, through writings of Saints. He is kind and He can shower His kindness any time. So when He’s kind, why cannot he shower His kindness on you now? There’s no reason. Because He is almighty, He has no dates or no appointments for various people. There is no appointment book because there is no limitation. We keep our appointment books because there’s a limited twenty-four hours in a day, limited about thirty days in a month. We have got all limitations. So we get the appointment book and make appointments. But in God’s kingdom there’s no limitation of anything, there is no diary. It is open every time, it is open, come and receive. Delay is from the soul’s side, not from God’s side! The Giver is giving; it is for the receiver to receive when he is ready to receive. So that is what you have to understand mentally.
Let’s say both things are being properly used, your mind and your heart, your emotions and your intellect. So when you have intellectually learned, when you learned that yes, He is kind and He can show Himself any time, then why not now? With this understanding, when your longing goes deeper, and deeper, and deeper, He comes closer, and closer, and closer to you. But you see even if you try to force your mind that way, a part of your head will say “No.” Why not? “No.” This is because you hesitate in trusting that He will appear, or even that he may appear, maybe in one hour or tonight. You don’t trust. From the heart you feel, “No, No, it cannot be that easy.” It is your heart that hesitates. God is ready.
Why won’t you accept it? Why is there something that is pulling you back, something that you don’t know, that brings you back? That something has to be avoided. I’ll explain what is that something. Anyway, if that comes in your mind that “truly I want Him now” and you have the intense longing for Him, there is no reason why He should not come. That is complete dedication as taught in the Gita. It means exclusive devotion or exclusive bhakti or exclusive surrender. Surrender, dedication, devotion, bhakti, all of these four words signify the same thing.
So when that thing happens, then He reveals Himself. You can see Him. You can visualize Him face to face. You can merge yourself in Him. You can experience His absolute radiance which is omnipresent in the world. You can play with Him. Whatever you wish, everything is perfect. But whatever you wish, that depends upon you, and upon your conception about the personality of God.
In this conception you cannot think of God using your psychic powers or abstract intellectual ideology. I mean it should be the real God, but in the form that you love Him. Say, for instance, in the world you love someone as your daughter, someone as your friend, someone as your sister, someone as your mother, they’re all women but the relationship is different. That’s what I mean, that you must remember the real God. In that way you feel yourself related to God, that relationship and those feelings may appear. In that form, He will come to you.
So in this way, this is bhakti, this is dedication or devotion, or this is surrender. The Bhagwatam explains that there are many, many confused aspirants who try to find God in their own way and devote years and years and years in isolation, transcending inside into samadhi and trying to find God in their hearts. They are called yogis and gyanis. They fail. But Krishn, the supremely charming and loving personality of God, says, “A devotee who is not trying to find Me with his intellect, but rather he is trying to dedicate himself, the one that knows that his soul and I are not just closely related, but that we are eternally closely related, that our relationship is not a formed relation, but it is an internal and eternal relation that can never die, he experiences Me as his Divine Beloved and tries to find Me, not with any demand or request. He only wants Me to love, that is all. Such a devotee or such a disciple or such a bhakt, I take care of Him even during his devotional period, and I don’t let him fall in the worldly mire. I protect him. Slowly as his divine love consciousness increases, he feels Me closer and closer, and in the end he finds Me.”
There were many Saints in India, they all said very similar things. Harivansh, Haridas, Roop Goswami, Sanatan Goswami, Vallabhacharya, Nimbarkacharya, many, many acharyas, very similar things they said. Dedicate yourself to loving, Gracious God, He will take care of you, and in the end He will come to you in His Divine personified form. Just start something: cry for Him, cry for His Grace, for His Love alone. That will purify your heart and put positive imprints on your mind and move you towards the path of dedication. In this way a devotee or any person who determines to find God understands that this life is a golden chance to find the love of God. It can start any time he desires to. Your time is passing. Every moment…what is gone is gone. It will never come back. Start now.
Every soul in the world desires happiness. Happiness is synonymous with God. Whether one says ‘happiness’ or ‘Bhagwan’ or ‘God’, all these have one meaning. The Ved says that God is happiness, anand. As souls, we are a fraction of God who is the form of happiness, and that is why we naturally desire happiness. Every fraction naturally desires its source, and by attaining that, becomes complete. This is the law of nature. In fact, we could never desire unhappiness. Even if we were to try, it is impossible because everyone naturally desires happiness.
Can we determine if there happiness in this world? The Ved defines happiness as, Yo vai bhuma tatsukham. True happiness is of an unlimited limit and it remains forever. What are the qualities of worldly happiness? First, it is limited, because a greater happiness always exists. In our world, those who are millionaires are superceded by multi-millionaires, and ahead of them are billionaires, and ahead of them are multi-billionaires, and the richest is Kuber, the god of wealth. This means that worldly happiness is not of an unlimited limit, and what does exist, keeps on changing and ultimately comes to an end.
Just like you hugged your mother. From the first hug you got a lot of happiness, from the second hug, it was less, from the third, it decreased further, and by the fourth, it was finished. We experience this daily in this world. So there are two problems in the happiness of this world. First, it is not of an unlimited limit, and second, it is not for an unlimited time. The happiness we truly desire is with the unlimited ocean of Divine happiness, Krishn, or you can say we desire Krishn, Who is the form of happiness. But He is not visible to us, so how will we receive His happiness?
If we want something from someone, how do we get that? One way is to grab the person, tie him up and snatch it. Another way is to steal it from him. Another way is to beg. These are the three ways. God is all-powerful and the soul has very limited powers, so it is impossible for a soul to forcibly take anything from God. God is also omniscient, omnipresent and knows what is in everyone’s heart, so stealing from Him is also impossible. So there is only one way left: request God for alms of His happiness. Beg Him. It is God’s rule, “If you ask, I will give.” But you have to request properly. There shouldn’t be any craftiness or deceit in your heart.
How long does a newborn baby have all his desires fulfilled by his mother just by crying? If he feels cold or hungry or if he has pain anywhere, he cries. There is one remedy for all his demands: crying. That is called complete surrender. In the same way, shedding tears before Krishn with a pure and sincere heart, we can ask for Divine happiness. When will this happen? When we have complete confidence. Our present confidence is that perfect happiness is in the world, and one day we will attain it. We have to change this decision. This is done by detaching the mind from this world (vairagya) and attaching the mind to Krishn, (abhyas) and tearfully requesting His Divine Vision, Divine Love, and Divine happiness. Devotional love is the practice and Divine love is the attainment.
The scriptures say that with the Grace of Guru and God everything is possible, but where do the Guru and God bestow their Grace? Grace is received in the heart and the heart is mayic, material. On one side, the heart is occupied by the commanders of maya like lust, anger, greed, attachment, passion, and jealousy. On the other side, all our worldly attachments are seated there. God asks, “Is there any space for Me?” So He says, “Purify your heart first through your tears of love, than I will give My Divine happiness.”
TV Asia airs the discourses of Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj (Shree Maharajji) daily
Weekdays at 8:00 am & Weekends at 10:00 am EST.
Shree Maharajji was offered to become Jagadguru by the Kashi Vidvat Parishad of Varanasi, India in 1957. Thus, he became the fifth original Jagadguru in the last 5,000 years. Shree Maharajji founded a worldwide non-profit, educational and charitable organization, Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat which has five main ashrams. Four in India and the fifth, Barsana Dham located in Austin, TX. For further information visit www.BarsanaDham.org or call (512) 288-7180.
.jpg "Barsana Dham Janmashtmi Discourse by Diwakari Devi Ji")
