Jaipur Had a lovely first-time visit to a gorgeous big old Ganesh temple here in Jaipur, on behalf of an acquaintance in California who asked me to propitiate on her behalf; here’s (a modified version of) what I wrote to her describing the moment. Ji, First of all, thank you for reaching out and asking…
My first Indian train lila in quite some today. Amazingly, Govardhan has a daily train to Jaipur, which so far is a bit slow but fairly uneventful, in contrast to my recollections of previous train experiences here. The rest of the satsang gang is joining me by car later for an evening at Jaipur’s Diggi…
Jatipura Took a chill day at home with Vallabhdas and Premdas, while Vraja Gopi took the visitors around on Vrindavan yatra. I had a chance to do a brief interview with Premdas ji, Dr. David Haberman, asking him about his sense of the differences and overlap between the whole “tantra” and “bhakti” philosophies here—definitely added…
New Delhi 11 a.m. Can’t say these have been the most inspiring of days. (Though there’s been a few moments.) I quasi-tweaked my back in Jaipur—just one of those funny movements where I felt a sheath of muscle in my mid/upper back suddenly tense and contract and serve notice that any more bad moves would likely…
Back in Jaipur Rajasthan, Tuesday 8:45 a.m. (still no photos uploading…) Groggily awakening from the warehouse-cruising stupor of recent days, and recovering from last night’s hair-raising ride down what passes for the Jodhpur-Jaipur highway. I’ve generally appreciated my driver Ram’s acumen behind the wheel, and yesterday’s 5:30 p.m. departure started well—making good time, safely. But come…
Jaipur Rajasthan Wednesday 2:05 p.m. At last night’s Dhrupad Festival of classical Indian music, I was blessed to hear some outstanding pakhawaj drumming by two excellent players: Mohan Sharma (the teacher of my friends Vasant and Tulsi), and Devaki Nandan, a man Shyamdas described as possibly the finest pakhawaj player in all of India (which is…
Sunday 1 a.m. Fires in Jodhpur. The other day I posted a photo of a cow ambling through the Sardar Market in Jodhpur; 2 days later a fire raged through that old market and destroyed 40—50 market stalls—a good portion of the area. Also, same day another fire destroyed at least one old furniture warehouse;…