Categories of Indian Thought YOGA, PEACE AND ART • ISSUE 27 WINTER 2020 2021 NĀMARŪPADIGITAL & PRINT-ON-DEMAND NĀMARŪPA Categories of Indian Thought Publishers & Founding Editors YOGA, PEACE & ART ISSUE 27 • WINTER 2020-2021 Robert Moses & Eddie Stern Advisors Krishna for Today 4 Keshav Venkatraghavan Dr. Robert E. Svoboda Dr. Robert Svoboda 6 Living with Reality Meenakshi Moses Jocelyne Stern Eddie Stern 16 States of Consciousness Editors Satya Moses interviews 24 Nara Allsop Eddie Stern & Robert Moses Steven Rosen 32 Vaishnava Art Design & Production Robert Moses Jadurani Dasi 36 Everything Around Us is Temporary Editing & Proofreading Dr. Robert Svoboda 44 Maintaining Sanity Meenakshi Moses Eddie Stern 56 Obstacles in Yoga Melissa Stephenson 64 Inner Peace Conference Day 1 Website www.namarupa.org by Roberto Maiocchi & Robert Moses Suzanne M. Culhane, Wessel Paternotte, Radhanath Swami, NaRon Tillman, Judy Lief, Rick Hanson, Jana Long, Articles do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publishers. Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Maarten von Huijstee, Eddie Stern 90 Inner Peace Conference Day 2 Cover: Vira Hanuman ©Nara Allsop Dena Merriam, Bob Roth, Agapi Stassinopoulos, Sharon Salzberg, Back cover: Bhairava (detail) ©Satya Moses AnnaLynne McCord, Adam Bucko, Laurie Anderson, Veet, Eddie Stern NĀMARŪPA Categories of Indian 9,23,89 Artwork Thought, established in 2003, honors Satya Moses the many systems of knowledge, prac- NĀMARŪPA uses tical and theoretical, that have origi- अ आ इ ई उ ऊ diacritical marks, nated in India. Passed down through a ā i ī u ū as per the chart, for the ages, these systems have left tracks, ए ऐ ओ औ the transliteration of paths already traveled that can guide e ai o au all Sałskŗta words. us back to the Self—the source of all Many of the articles names NĀMA and forms RŪPA. The ऋ ॠ ऌ ॡ अं अः ŗ ř ļ ĺ ał aģ do contain these publishers have created this journal marks, but it is not a out of a love for the knowledge that it क ख ग घ ङ universal occurrence reflects, and desire that its content be ka kha ga gha ńa in the magazine. In clear and inspirational, without any those cases where particular agenda or sectarian bias. च छ ज झ ञ ca cha ja jha ña authors have elected NĀMARŪPA is published in both not to use diacritics, print-on-demand and digital versions. ट ठ ड ढ ण Sałskŗta words NĀMARŪPA YATRA guides annual ţa ţha ďa ďha ņa remain in their pilgrimages to sacred places in India. romanized form. NĀMARŪPA BANDHĀVA त थ द ध न helps raise ta tha da dha na funds for the education of children in the Uttarkashi and Gangotri regions of प फ ब भ म the Himalayas. Learn more and donate. pa pha ba bha ma NĀMARŪPA is funded by sales & donations. Contributors have offered य र ल व their work freely. Editorial and all ya ra la va production assistance is voluntary. श ष स ह NĀMARŪPA LLC śa ša sa ha "Gauri – Nitai" P.O.Box 271, Dublin, NH 03444 USA � � � [email protected] kša tra ña ©Śyāmarānī dāsī (Jadurānī dāsī) www.namarupa.org www.bhaktiart.net 2 Issue 27 Winter 2020-2021 3 KRISHNA FOR TODAY KESHAV VENKATRAGHAVAN When you paint a canvas...it is a journey... in a new light, without in any way disre- it is a process. You plan your content; what specting customs and traditions. For more you are going to draw, how you are going to than a decade, it has been my endeavour draw it, will tell a lot about who you are. It to present Krishna in various avatars, is finding oneself. showing his various facets (often called Leela or sport) through my drawings and rishna has been represented vi- paintings. These were shared in social me- Ksually for thousands of years—in dia and now extended to a website. literature, sculpture, painting, dance and Krishna for Today is an exploration into other folk arts. Indian art uses symbols to realms of divinity. communicate complex philosophy and About us. About the world. And our abstract ideas contained in our epics. For relationship with the Supreme. me, it was a treasure waiting to be discov- I hope you experience the divine ered in a long and exciting journey. It cul- through these works of art. minated in Krishna. Krishna represents Ananda—Infinite My parents were very liberal. I had a bit Joy, Eternal Peace, Everlasting Ecstasy, of a problem with money. I couldn’t buy Unbounded Compassion, Unlimited materials to paint, not even paper! So my Love, Unfathomable Knowledge. father used to get notebooks which were half Indian thought treats the whole Uni- complete, etc; I would draw on the backs of verse as one big family—Vasudaiva Ku- calendars and regularly with chalk on the tumbakam. And Joy is a natural aspira- floor. My parents helped—whatever they tion for all of us. Hence, universal. As could do to help, they did. And they never these ideas speak the eternal truth, they said no. Despite being from an orthodox are relevant today, more than ever before. family, my father’s thinking was liberal and It is a beacon, offering solace to the trou- he had a broad outlook. My parents and my bled soul. wife encouraged and facilitated my work. This is an attempt to visually inter- Without family support it wouldn’t have pret the infinite qualities that Krishna been possible. represents and to give the viewer a pleas- ant experience —Krishna Anubhava— www.krishnafortoday.com through Indian Art. Instagram:@krishnafortoday According to the Indian treatise on Faceboook page: painting, Chitrasutra, the purpose of art is facebook.com/Keshav61 spiritual. A painter should be conversant Twitter: @Keshav61 with dance, sculpture, music and archi- January 2020 tecture to mature into a complete artist. At this confluence of art and divinity A sampling of Keshav’s daily Krishna for began the journey of Krishna for Today. Today paintings are featured in this issue It seeks to decipher and understand what of NĀMARŪPA. our wise men of yore wanted to convey. Krishna for Today aims to show Krishna 4 Issue 27 Winter 2020/2021 5 LIVING WITH REALITY DR. ROBERT SVOBODA Talk given at the Nāmarūpa Living with Reality virtual retreat in the Spring of 2020, transcribed and edited. iving with reality: go off and try to do that. This is sadly you put it through all sorts of process- LFor me the living part is not too what happens when fake news inter- es to get out the gold, in addition to difficult, because all of us who are sects with real reality. obtaining the gold you will also obtain here participating today are alive. We Now, a big challenge in the world a giant amount of waste. So the very are certainly a lot more alive than the in which you and I live is that there is fact that there is a real reality in the corona virus, because the virus, strict- ultimately only one reality and that is universe puts the rest of the universe ly speaking, is not alive. It’s parasiti- the reality of the Supreme Conscious- into a sort of shadow, into a profound cal in the extreme; it’s nothing but a ness. That Reality has no limitations, depth of darkness. This permits the little packet of genetic material. This no qualities, no characteristics. No great light of Consciousness to create virus is an RNA virus—slightly dif- nothing, in fact, except Itself. Some- a starkly enhanced difference between ferent from a DNA virus — but it’s times it’s described as sat-chid-ananda, those two realities—even though they just genetic material that’s wandering sat meaning true or real, chit in this are but one reality. This emphasis on around looking for cells to penetrate context meaning awareness and anan- both the relative reality of the differ- and use as factories to create more of da meaning joy, here the joy of being ence and the absolute reality of the itself. That’s its reality. That’s the real- aware of its reality and its existence. unity is the reason why, when it comes ity of the virus. Sometimes it is instead referred to to advaita, I adhere to the Shuddad- How it impacts us helps to generate as satyam ritam brihat, satyam again vaita approach of Vallabacharya. our reality. At the moment, the reality meaning true and ritam meaning har- that all of us are living with is the real- monious. Ritam and rhythm sound al- t’s always nice to have a text ity of this nonliving thing that is hav- most the same and mean roughly the Iwhen exploring an Indian vidya. ing a tremendous effect on a few other same thing. Brihat means immeasur- You go to your text, take a line or two species like bats and felines, but chief- ably vast, gigantic. Satyam ritam bri- or three from it and discourse upon ly on humans. This virus, even though hat means that the Supreme Reality is it; you unpack it, explicate it. Here it’s not alive, is directly influencing real, is gigantic and is harmonious. It is a simple piece of text from the Ve- the reality of many other things like is thanks to the Supreme Reality that dic literature: ekam sat vipra bahudha you and me that are alive. So that’s a we enjoy balance, resonance, and har- vadanti. Each of these words is very good place to start—a place where we mony in our universe.