Puna Authors Speak

Sat., March 20, 2-4 pm

Katalin Koda:  Reiki Master, Visionary Artist, Poet

Sacred Path of Reiki: Healing as a Spiritual Discipline unites traditional wisdom, dharma and Reiki healing.  Katalin teaches all levels of Reiki, Tarot, holds Sacred Feminine workshops and passes Munay Ki initiations.  She is initiated in Raku-kei, Shamballa Reiki, Tibetan Buddhism, shamanic practices and  Munay Ki.  Forthcoming is her book, Divine Feminine in Fall of 2010.

Erika Ginnis: Clairvoyant, Energy Healer, Spiritual Teacher, Sylvan High Priestess

Essential Mysteries: A User’s Guide for the 21 Century Mystic combines pagan & mystery teachings with New Thought, providing practical instruction for meditation and energy awareness for everyday life & is for seekers from any spiritual tradition. She offers lectures, workshops & classes in Meditation, Energetic Healing, Inner Journey work, Spiritual Leadership, and Personal Transformation.

Steve Bohlert (Subal Das): Spiritual Teacher, Philosopher, Rebel

Universalist Radha-Krishnaism: A Spirituality of Liberty, Truth & Love presents a rare, inspiring insight from a universalist worldview. Steve’s intimate knowledge of traditional Radha-Krishna devotion, as a Hindu monk, and Christian spirituality, as a UCC pastor, inspires seekers to embrace life and progress on the path to full, intimate God-dess realization. The book is philosophically invigorating and spiritually joyful.

Book Signing … Puu Puu’s … Lively Discussion

On the Big Island at Kalani Oceanside Retreat - Hale Aloha

On the Kalapana-Kapoho Rd / Red Rd between the 17 and 18 mile-markers   965-7828

Co-sponsored by Big Island BookBuyers & Dr. Roy Lozano, Pahoa Chiropractic

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theological biography of my grand-spiritual-teacher, Bhaktivinode Thakur. It supports natural devotion and Universalist Radha-Krishnaism. He was very influenced by 19th century rationalism, Christianity and Unitarian thought. Bhaktivinode presented the teachings of Krishna Chaitanya in a new way to intellectuals of his day, just as I adapt those teachings to thoughtful Western people today.

Shukavak Dasa concludes that “if Chaitanya Vaishnavism is going to have a lasting position and positive impact on the West, then it must intellectually move beyond the literalism by which it entered the West and begin to develop new forms of intellectual expressions and perspectives that are a part of the Western intellectual and academic traditions. Bhaktivinoda’s work provides the basis for such a development.”

This is a mission I have been working on for thirty-five years. I shed most of the Indian cultural externals of Vaishnavism and maintain the spiritual essence. “Bhaktivinoda’s separation of the phenomenal and the transcendent, along with his implicit distinction between religious faith and belief” frees me to experiment with the task of creating a lifestyle where by Westerners can utilize the spiritual practices of Chaitanya Vaishnavism without having to become alienated from Western culture or pursue the life of a renunciate. “Bhaktivinoda recognized the need for spiritual and cultural adaptation.”

“If Chaitanya Vaishnavism is to become indigenous to the modern and even Western world, then it must…adapt to conditions of modernity and to the West.” This may take some generations and much experimentation. However, Universalist Radha-Krishnaism addresses this need.

“Bhaktivinoda envisioned the modern religious thinker as a saragrahi, one able to transcend the limitations of his own religious culture and appreciate the spiritual essence of other religious traditions.” My long periods of immersion in Chaitanya Vaishnavism and Christianity as an ordained religious leader along with extensive study and practice of other traditions certainly qualifies me in this regard.

Bhaktivinode “approached the transcendent through religious faith rooted in sahaja-samadi, innate religious intuition.” This is also my mode of operation. It allows freedom and creativity in the religious realm for new revelations of spiritual truth that are not bound by the past.

“Chaitanya Vaishnavism as it now exists in the West is largely disconnected from the tradition of raganuga-bhakti-sadhana, and for this reason is somewhat alienated from the esoteric depths and spiritual inspiration of its parent movement.” I was initiated into this path of natural devotion to Radha-Krishna by Bhaktivinode’s son and disciple, Lalita Prasad Thakur. This frees me from over dependence on rules and regulations, which seem to preoccupy so many devotees. Natural devotion cultivates entry to the esoteric spiritual realms of devotion. Thus, I live a modern, Western life conducive to my spiritual growth. This is what I offer others as well.

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The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis S. Collins, head of the Human Genome Project: I mostly agree with his position. He says, “Science reveals that the universe, our own planet, and life itself are engaged in an evolutionary process.” (p 45) I would add that our knowledge of God-dess and even God-dess are evolving. Everything is in process according to process theology and Universalist Radha-Krishnaism.

“An effort to understand the origins and workings of the cosmos has characterized nearly all religions throughout history…” (p 57) Religion seeks to make sense of life. Ancient religions used the knowledge of the day to describe the nature of the cosmos and its relation to us. Such descriptions of the origins of creation, life and humans fall under the heading of myth. These myths tend to show a God-dess imposed order which eliminates the sense of chaos. We are assured we are not alone, but are connected to a loving beneficent God-dess who will insure things work out well in the end.

“Scientists are constantly reaching into new arenas, investigating the natural world in new ways, digging deeper into territory where understanding is incomplete.” (p 58) I believe this scientific attitude of discovery should be applied to the spiritual quest. We should not simply settle for truths of the past, but ever seek to discover new truth thus expanding human understanding. God-dess is not static but dynamic. In an ever changing world, we need ever fresh ways to approach God-dess.

“Perhaps most profoundly, our concept of the origin of the universe has undergone a fundamental change over the course of the past seventy-five years, on the basis of both theory and experiment.” (p 60) Should not spiritual seekers adjust their understanding of cosmology, creation, and origins to the facts as they are known today rather than resolutely defending outdated ideas from thousands of years ago? Is it possible we know things our predecessors did not?

“The consequences of the Big Bang Theory for theology are profound. For faith traditions that describe the universe as having been created by God from nothingness (ex nihilo), this is an electrifying out come.” (p 66) Science has its limits. This is where religion steps in. Science cannot tell us the cause of the Big Bang, what happened before it or what exists outside this universe. Science in no way negates the existence of God-dess, the Cause of All Causes, The Ground of Being pervading and sustaining the entire creation as well as transcending it.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God-dess, and the Word was God-dess.” John 1:1 “In the beginning.” In the beginning of what? In the beginning of the creation of the material universe. In the beginning of time. In the beginning of space. Before the beginning of creation, there was no time or space. There was just eternity, without beginning or end, just the eternal now. There was something at the beginning. What was that something? It was the logos, it was the Word, it was God-dess. BANG! The Big Bang! OM! My God-dess, what’s going on here? What’s with all this racket? I believe it is the event horizon exploding from the primal singularity.

Of course, no one can adequately explain the beginning of creation. No one was there—not scientists or religionists. Yet persons want to know how creation began. Where does all this stuff, including ourselves, come from? There are many versions from science and religion, each trying its best to explain the unexplainable. People want to know. Yet, it is unknowable. Give us your best shot. Give us something to hold on to.

Humans want to know where we come from, what is our purpose, why are we here. Various religious traditions tried answering this question for millennia in numerous ways according to the understanding of the persons addressed in particular times and circumstances. Therefore, we have diverse religious interpretations of the creation story. Many of these interpretations are allegorical, and many are based on the best scientific understandings of the day.

To teach these mythological stories as scientific fact equal to the cosmology of the twenty-first century is absurd just as twenty-first century cosmology will seem absurd in the thirty-first century. While myths are “true” on a spiritual level, they are not scientific truth. The ancients who wrote these stories had completely different goals in mind when writing them than do modern scientific thinkers. They were not concerned with facts as much as meaning. What is the spiritual meaning of creation? That is what they were trying to address, and these mythological explanations are “true” from a spiritual, ontological perspective although they are not objectively factual.

I enjoy reading the scientists’ explanations of the universe and believe the Big Bang and evolution to be valid, truthful scientific explanations of how creation came about. Both the scientific and mythological explanations can be “true” at the same time. They deal with creation on different levels of reality or understanding. One is to be taught in science classes and one in religion and theology classes.

While science and religion are separate endeavors, their cross pollination can produce wonderful results. Religious interpretation can add meaning to science, and science can add grounding in twenty-first century cosmology to religion. The two do not have to be at war with one another. They are complementary. When both views are held simultaneously, a fuller understanding of multidimensional reality is attained.

Collins says, “The Big Bang cries out for a divine explanation. It forces the conclusion that nature had a defined beginning. I cannot see how nature could have created itself. Only a supernatural force that is outside of space and time could have done that.” (p 67) That supernatural force is God-dess.

“This general conclusion is referred to as the Anthropic Principle: the idea that our universe is uniquely tuned to give rise to humans.” (p 74) This conclusion supports the idea that we are created in the image of God-dess for the purpose of establishing a loving relationship. The universe is God-dess’ play.

Collins continues, “Clearly, the scientific worldview is not entirely sufficient to answer all of the interesting questions about the origin of the universe, and there is nothing inherently in conflict between the idea of a creator God and what science has revealed. In fact, the God hypothesis solves some deeply troubling questions about what came before the Big Bang, and why the universe seems to be so exquisitely tuned for us to be here.” (pp 80-81) There is purpose to life. We are not just an accident of evolution, but rather the result of the unfolding of a grand cosmic plan set in motion by God-dess fourteen billion years ago.

“If God created the universe, and the laws that govern it, and if He endowed human beings with intellectual abilities to discern its workings, would He want us to disregard those abilities? Would He be diminished or threatened by what we are discovering about His creation?” (p 153) I don’t think so. The schism between science and religion is artificial. We should use all of our God-dess given gifts for the glorification of God-dess and to better understand his-her workings along with advancing our consciousness and material well-being.

“Now it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show a vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn.” (p 157) I am embarrassed by religious fundamentalists either Christian or Hindu and do my best to distance myself from such willful ignorance. No wonder atheism is so popular today when religion is most often portrayed from a fundamentalist perspective. Who can believe such unbelievable rubbish?

“If God is outside nature, then science can neither prove nor disprove His existence. Atheism itself must therefore be considered a form of blind faith, in that it adopts a belief system that cannot be defended on the basis of pure reason.” (p 165) God-dess’ existence cannot be proved or disproved by religion either. It ultimately comes down to faith. Faith need not be blind, however. It can be reinforced by reason and experience.

“Science cannot be used to justify discounting the great monotheistic religions of the world, which rest upon centuries of history, moral philosophy, and the powerful evidence provided by human altruism. It is the height of scientific hubris to claim otherwise.” (p 169) If a scientist can be humble enough to admit the limits of science, religionists should also be humble enough to admit the limits of religion.

“The intention of the Bible was (and is) to reveal the nature of God to humankind. Would it have served God’s purposes thirty-four hundred years ago to lecture to His people about radioactive decay, geologic strata and DNA?” (p 175) The same may be said of the Vedic literature. The scriptures are contextual and must be reinterpreted for each new context.

“Can faith in a loving God be built on a foundation of lies about nature?” (p 176) The scripture writers wrote to the best of their knowledge and ability at the time. They were not trying to deceive anyone. If we persist in presenting the old stories as scientific truth in the face of new evidence to the contrary, ignoring or denying conclusive scientific proof to preserve “the authority of scripture,” we do a disservice to scripture, science and truth. This hurts religion more than science.

“I found this elegant evidence of the relatedness of all living things an occasion of awe, and came to see this as the master plan of the same Almighty who caused the universe to come into being and set its physical parameters just precisely right to allow the creation of stars, planets, heavy elements, and life itself. Without knowing its name at the time, I settled comfortably into a synthesis generally referred to as ‘theistic evolution,’ a position I find enormously satisfying to this day.” (p 199) I also find this satisfying. I would change “Almighty” to God-dess and call it “panentheistic evolution.”

Collins “proposes God as the answer to questions science was never intended to address, such as ‘How did the universe get here?’ ‘What is the meaning of life?’ ‘What happens to us after we die?’” (p 204) In this way, we need to distinguish the limits of both science and religion and not confuse their different worldviews.

“I do not believe that the God who created all the universe, and who communes with His people through prayer and spiritual insight, would expect us to deny the obvious truths of the natural world that science has revealed to us, in order to prove our love for Him.” (p 210) I agree. Yet, many followers of fundamentalist sects are asked to do just that and believe the unbelievable. It is time for a rational approach to spirituality, which I call Universalist Radha-Krishnaism.

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Comments on The Place of the Hidden Moon: Erotic Mysticism in the Vaishnava-sahajiya Cult of Bengal, by Edward C. Dimock, Jr.

As Elder Olson says, symbols ‘cause us to entertain ideas remote from, or totally outside of, ordinary experience, by the extension of ideas we already possess.’ The image of human love is, in Olson’s terms, a ‘natural symbol’; for what more apt image could there be in all human experience to express transcendent joy and the silent, unknown place of St. John? Or what more apt image could there be to express the longing of the soul for God than that of the longing of the human lover for the beloved? Or what more apt image to express religious rapture than that of sexual pleasure? (p 4)

This is the beauty of the symbolism of Radha-Krishna, the Divine Couple, being the highest, purest representation of God-dess. They represent the perfection of erotic love based on classical Indian aesthetics. These aesthetic principles aid the Indian mind’s entrance into Radha-Krishna’s eternal dalliance. However, many of these principles become stumbling blocks for the Western mind. Besides the foreign, language, costumes, customs and mannerisms, the acceptance of adulterous love as better than married love is repugnant, even to most modern Indians. It also leads to unwanted social consequences when devotees try to act out this model in their own lives.

The idea of entering into an erotic loving relationship with God-dess is most appealing. The followers of Chaitanya created a compelling mythos in this regard. I am humbly reworking that mythos so that Radha-Krishna may be seen and accepted as a universal symbol for God-dess in the 21st century.

“To the orthodox Vaishnavas, as to the troubadours, it is the very longing, the intense desire itself, that is the end; the longing is an act of worship, pleasurable in itself, and giving pleasure to Krishna.” (p 14) This longing for union with God-dess is also common to Christian and Sufi mystics. So long as we are in this world, our primary relationship to God-dess is mostly one of separation based on our existential situation. But, the longing for union is almost as sweet and intense as the union itself.

man and woman have in them both the divine Krishna and Radha: a woman is female because she has in her a preponderance of Radha; a man is man because he is mostly Krishna. Love between man and woman thus reduplicates in microcosm the love of Radha and Krishna, a love that had both phases, separation and union. (p 15)

This makes sense from a number of perspectives–spiritual, psychological, social, familial, personal. When a loving couple unites in love, it manifests the love of God-dess and is a foretaste of spiritual bliss. God-dess is within us and indeed is our very self. When we are able to unite the male and female parts of our psyche, we become whole and holy, another taste of bliss. Granting equal status to men and women as partial manifestations of God-dess would alleviate gender discrimination and dominance. Seeing everyone as a manifestation of God-dess, whom we are in a loving relationship with, would go a long way toward increasing peace and justice in the world.

Though Radha was a symbol, the poets found in her a real woman also, and their poetry about her love is warm and personal. On the basis of the simple stories of the Bhagavata, the poets built the story of a complicated affair, with all the jealousies and pain, the pique and joy, the angers and satisfactions of human love. (p 20)

The character of Radha was developed according to the aesthetic principles of medieval drama and poetry. They did an excellent job, however, it is a bit dated and culturally bound. I hate to say it, but much of it seems overly melodramatic and not the kind of relationship I want to be in with God-dess. Just as Shakespeare wrote wonderful plays, still I often prefer a contemporary movie. I present Radha-Krishna in a contemporary Western manner because this mythos has so much to offer, just as Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted as wonderful contemporary movies in order to reach today’s audience.

“The term sahaja literally means ‘easy’ or ‘natural’ and in this meaning the term is applied to a system of worship and belief in which the natural qualities of the senses should be used, not denied or suppressed.” (p 35) This is what attracts me to the philosophy, these general principles. Universalist Radha Krishnaism is both easy and natural. Why not model our life here on the eternal life we envision for ourselves, and why not envision an eternal life that can be a model for the life we live here and now. As Joseph Campbell says, eternity is a dimension of here and now. Why not sacramentalize our life here in a holistic, life affirming manner?

“Krishna the supreme God of the Vaishnavas is indwelling in man as the divine principle. The nature of Krishna is love and the giving of joy; it is this in man’s nature that is to be realized and experienced.” (p 37) This reasoning is a simple and elegant theological rationale. I would reword it as: Radha-Krishna the supreme God-dess is indwelling in all as the divine principle. The nature of God-dess is love and the giving of joy; it is this in one’s nature that is to be realized and experienced.

After dinner, Jahnava and I drove down to the Kalapana coast and walked across massive lava flows from the 1980s which wiped out one of the greatest beaches in Hawai’i to an incredible new black sand beach with a blazing full moon glistening in a clear starry sky over the water. Incredible elemental vistas stretching out in front of us. It seemed like we were in a giant full surround theatre watching this awesome spectacle right in front of us and yet somehow removed–we on the land and the waves just there. This mighty ocean which this morning threatened to overflow its borders now kindly stayed within its limits. Young woman lithely running in the moonlit shallows. Fountains of lava shooting into the sky on the mountain behind us and flowing down toward the sea. How much more alive, elemental, and primal can it get. Aloha blessings.

While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.” So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses.
– Bible, Numbers 15:32-36

I’ve heard something like the following at least a hundred times in my life:

Just chant Hare Krishna maha mantra purely and be happy!

Or seen people believing in something like this:

The ideal all devotees strive for is exclusive dedication to sri guru. [...] The purity of spiritual advancement depends on the grace of sri guru. Only when he or she is pleased with the disciple can the disciple attain purity, and no one can please their guru by abandoning or relativizing him or her — by not being chaste.
– Harmonist, July 2009

Why is God bound by purity to bestow happiness unto us, little flock on a tiny planet Earth, a mere speckle within the endless universe? Sounds silly and paradoxical.

It very much reminds me of the psychology that propels a market mechanism, especially stock market. People reach deep into their pockets, grab some money to buy investment shares, real estate, government bonds, valuables like jewelry, original art, rarities, and so forth. Utilising money to purchase happiness, comfortable living in this life and utilising purity to bargain for some happiness, God’s mercy or good prospects in future life — what’s the real difference between them? They both illustrate a market approach to get what we need to “feel secure” and to be “saved from the blazing agonies of material existence”.

Bizzare rules of purity

The true trick with every market is that is not ruled by the abundant offer — no matter what that can be — but only by means of acquisition, which in this case becomes purity. In traditional stock markets money rules. Similarly in spiritual markets of this world purity rules. When purity becomes currency, then nothing else matters for currency can “buy you anything”. You live not to spend it, buy things with it and then forget about it, but the market entails: you need to be constantly liquid. Liquidity means being able to easily convert all your assets into currency, or in our case in purity. Gordon Gekko, a ruthless multi-millionaire character played by Michael Douglas in Oliver Stone’s masterpiece movie ‘Wall Street’ would call that “You become a player.” A player in the stock market of purity.

Purity puts a pressure on you. You need purity. Desperately. Purity gets you everything. Therefore you work hard every day to earn purity. However, oftentimes that is not enough to play in demanding market games, so you need more income flowing in. What can help? Selling something, rather than pouring in penances and hard work alone? Or filling up pockets with other valuables appreciated in the stock market of purity? Both are absolutely necessary. As Gordon Gekko further said in the movie, one third of the wealth comes from hard work and two thirds from everything else: mainly from inheritance, interest accumulated, stock and real estate speculation.

Let’s see inheritance. In markets of purity inheritance is something you get by belonging closely to someone who was recognised as a great player and was considered a wizard of purity. Being in the line of some well known market guru, for example. Being born in a family of priests, imams or brahmins is considered to be very propitious. Or being their good friend, or a distant relative. You scratch your back on your ancestor’s life of achievements, the resulting social status and use it as a winning bid to get more currency and investment options. Your true achievements don’t really matter because inheritance puts you instantly forward. Suddenly your voice matters and you’re in the game.

Interest accumulated is everything you gain on assets properly invested into purity market options. Spiritual markets of purity claim God, as a supreme treasurer and a bean counter, carefully calculates all your deposits and adds on a proper interest that you can withdraw at a certain time, or use to reinvest. The choice is yours, but obviously market indeed wants players to accumulate as much currency as possible because that’s the true goal. Liquidity. So you’ll probably tighten up your waist belt and reinvest.

However, even all that is not enough, as market has tremendously high expectations from its players. Often you ask yourself does this frantic game makes any sense, but you have little time to reconsider and change your life, as you’re firmly bound to market rules by different sets of fears for your very existence. Can you find courage to challenge them? But you don’t have enough time even to earn enough to stay in the game. Now when you’ve reaffirmed yourself this is the only way to go, you’ll shout out one more loud banzai and continue.

What major promise keeps you in the game? An oracle that says you should never forget that one percent of all players possess half the spiritual wealth available in those markets, and only one percent of those one percent will even attain God’s mercy. You really want to be one of them. You indeed need to venture into stock and real estate speculation.

What is that? It is following: you need carefully observe the bids on the market and try to predict where’s best to invest. Is there someone or something really popular at the moment in spiritual markets of purity you should come close to? Invest in his or her shares? You need to monitor everything carefully, for you never know who’s gonna appear next, with a more comprehensive portfolio, inheritance capital and thus more promising future for investment. Be careful, for investing into stocks of ‘wrong saints’, ‘out-of-ordinary gurus’ or some suspicious religious thoughts may cause banishment from the circle of your friends and mentors. You surely don’t want that.

You should also re-evaluate your assets regularly. Do they yield enough purity? Should you get rid of something? Perhaps that which is not pure enough, that doesn’t earn a high interest rates in purity markets at the moment. That can be some real estate of your life, say, relationships with others which the culture of purity markets call ‘impure and non-winning bid’ relationships? Say, abandoning school, family, young children, wife or a husband, friends? Or it can be your own industry, talents, hobbies, ideas and fruits of your knowledge and thought that is considered impure and not worthy of God’s mercy?

Greed for purity is mighty. Those who give up just everything impure in people eyes are considered sheiks in the purity stock markets. They are “top players”. We also call them renunciates. But however you call them, everyone looks at them attentively, watching how they bid in order to learn few tricks ‘from the best’. That’s why they, like Gordon Gekko, have thousands of poor Bud Foxes who want desperately to become like them and will do anything.

“Save us master, we are fallen. We want to become as pure as you are,” they pray in exhaustion. A whole new paradigm of spirituality arises, which rules this world by mockery and fear, and drives it downhill.

Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”?
– Bible, Proverbs 20:9

In his book ‘Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time; The Historical Jesus & The Hearth of Contemporary Faith’, postmodern Christian thinker and theologian Marcus Borg reflects on matters of purity which are old as eons. He writes:

“The famous words of Paul also negate the world of purity and cultural boundaries and express the same inclusiveness: In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female. Paul is not here announcing an abstract ideal; rather this verse reflects the new social reality of the [Christian] movement itself. In short, there is something boundary shattering about the imitatio dei that stood as the center of Jesus’ message and activity: Be compassionate as God is compassionate. Whereas purity divides and excludes, compassion unites and includes. For Jesus, compassion had a radical sociopolicital meaning. In his teaching and table fellowship, and in the shape of his movement, the purity system was subverted and an alternative social vision affirmed. The politics of purity was replaced by a politics of compassion”.

And it came about when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, that they were watching Him closely. And there, in front of Him was a certain man suffering from dropsy. And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they kept silent. And He took hold of him, and healed him, and sent him away. And He said to them, “Which one of you shall have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day ?”
– Bible, Luke 14:1-5

Compassion vs purity

Compare this act of Jesus with an act of Moses and Aaron, who sentenced a poor man to death for breaking purity laws on a Sabbath day, mentioned at the very beginning of this essay? They stand opposite, startlingly different. One is an act of compassion and causeless love despite laws, yet other a cold-hearted exercise of purity laws that seldom make any sense at all. Can a sane person today really believe that God indeed demanded a poor man collecting wood (and thus breaking some obscure social rule of purity) to be stoned to death? What a poor man should do to please God through Moses and Aaron? His purity market stock options were obviously low, and he was not a friend or a relative of anyone ‘important’. Then he was a good scape goat to show people, to scare them profoundly, what will happen if they don’t obey laws of purity. However, I wonder has God thundered his command for the execution of a man from the sky above, so everyone could hear it, or it was Moses who claimed he was the one who heard it?

Can a thoughtful person really believe we need purity to get few drops of happiness, or a step in ’spiritual advancement’? We find infinitely more mercy in scouts organisations, or just one hospital by practicing doctors and nurses who save endless lives than in hundreds of asylums of Moses-like gurus and teaches who ‘hear God’s voice’ and whose mercy ‘thou hast to yet deserve’. What is so ‘advanced’ and ‘worthy’ in the climate of purity, which is always ruled by fear? What a horrifying God demands all that? Do we really want rules that create such a sadistic, hopeless, heartless world with its roots in bigotry?

With a following paragraph I want to conclude: everything we do is better to do with love, no matter how small, or how insignificant we think it is. We cannot measure love. Loving attitude is better than purity of any kind, no matter how big the latter one is. Love is a higher principle than purity. Purity is a serious impediment and becomes a goal in itself, which is a sad truth in all spiritual practices today and of antiquity. Purity is disgrace that denies our humanity, denies life, denies compassion. It always needs some ‘impurity’ to justify its sorrowful life, and thus it lives to find blemishes and spots in everything and everyone. It rules by fear, stops people to think and to feel outside its boundaries. It has nothing to do with spiritual, or life affirming. Quite the opposite — it’s life denying.

But if I said it just like that, without any elaboration, who’d believe me a word?

– Zvonimir Tosic

“Steve’s Musings” from 2003 to 2009 are archived here. They trace my development over the years leading to the writing of Universalist Radha-Krishnaism. I hope you will appreciate its new home here and the changes that will be happening to the the rest of the site.

My active blog is now “Jungle Dispatch” which is also found on this site. Look there for the latest writings and information. Aloha.

“Whereas mainstream Hinduism tends toward puritanism and life-negating asceticism, the culture of the Vedic tribes of circa 1500 to 1000 B.C. was clearly life-affirmative and sex-positive. They loved music, dance, and gambling, were not at all averse to inebriation, and prayed for a hundred years life on Earth, many children, and plenty of cattle. As one Vedic hymn exhorts, “O men! Lift, lift up the penis, the bestower of satisfaction! Move it, dig deep for the acquisition of wealth [in the form of progeny]!” While some of the prayers have a symbolic content, many others are to be taken quite literally.

“The Tantric adepts have always claimed that their new teachings were really only a restatement of the old Vedic religion. This claim has never sat too well with the brahmins, the custodians of the Vedic heritage. It is true, however, that an examination of the ancient Vedas yields Tantra-like elements. In fact, the Vedas contain a rather elaborate sexual symbolism. (138)”

In the same way, Universalist Radha-Krishnaism mines the riches of the perennial wisdom from the past and presents them in a contemporary manner to create a life-affirming, sex-positive spiritual path for today. Sometimes the past holds the keys to the future. Just because certain views seem to have been around forever and dominate today’s thinking does not mean they are best, right, or useful. My primary approach to Universalist Radha-Krishnaism is to remove the detritus accumulated over the centuries and explain what remains in contemporary language to present a more workable, sustainable model for spiritual growth now and in the future.