This is a Rough Draft, Not for General Circulation, Copying, Distributing, Quoting, Loathing or Defending.
Work Notes
12 April 2008
Rewrote to the end of Chapter Eleven
Rama’s Lotus Feet …
Minding Monkey
The Final Chapter in Occidental Psychology
By Tom Brown
Anjana Suta Academy
He worked on all the problems which medieval philosophy was so keen on and of which our rational mind says, ‘That is all nonsense’. Such a statement only shows that we do not understand. They did understand; we are the fools, not they.
C. G. Jung, Analytical Psychology, Its Theory and Practice, The Tavistock Lectures, Vintage Books, 1968, p 196
Table of Contents
Chapter One - Tree Top Tell Ta(i)les
Chapter Two - Relishing the Ring (Its Shapely Form)
Chapter Three - Going Home?
Chapter Four - Trijata Tales
Chapter Five - Back to the Beginning
Chapter Six - Before the Ring
Chapter Seven - Sinhali Sinks Supraprata
Chapter Eight – Sarama’s Questions
Chapter Nine - Chips of the Ring
Chapter Ten – Back to the Future
Chapter Eleven – Rama’s Lotus Feet
Appendices
1. Glossary
2. Extra Thoughts
Chapter One - Tree Top Tell Ta(i)les
Hello, we are your humble servants, known in China, in medieval times, as Wu-Kong, the Novice, Monkey. Later we became the Victorious Fighting Buddha. Still, still we are going forward on the path of Dharma. A single Journey to the West is not the end of everything. It is just the beginning for bigger things.
Much earlier, over a million years ago, we were known as Hanuman, the servant of Sri Rama, and even now people read of us in editions of the Ramayana.
So we pray to you, Oh! Venerable Mother, Supreme Goddess of the Universe, Original Mother of all Souls, Oh, Hara, on the order of the Divinely Gracious Bengal Monk, Srila Prabhupada, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, with the unlimited chorus of his disciples under his lotus feet may we be engaged in this humble task of trying to reassure you that Sri Krishna, Sri Rama, have not forgotten You, Your desire to serve Them.
We plead of You to be brave and continue to call upon Them to engage You in Their service. Don’t give up hope. Help is on the way. You will get a chance to serve Them in the association of all Their friends very soon.
It would be presumptuous for us to even try to address You if we did not do it from under Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet. We sit in front of his lotus feet in a temple in Vrindavana. He is on a high marble platform above us singing enlightened prayers with his kartals. Actually there are books in front of him on the bookstand, so it seems we should approach his lotus feet through his books.
We have been engaged by him in an arduous task. We travel all over the world looking for You. We are trying to find where the evil captains of iron industry have sequestered You, and return you to Rama. The only book we can carry with us from Srila Prabhupada, which we wish to deliver to you as proof that we are representatives of His Divine Grace and Sri Rama, is his Nectar of Instruction, annotated edition of Srila Rupa Goswami’s Upadesamrta. It is like Rama’s Signet Ring.
• • •
The Chinese philosophers were no fools. We think that the old people were fools, but they were as intelligent as we are. They were frightfully intelligent people, and psychology can learn no end from old civilizations, particularly from India and China.
Ibid, p 76.
• • •
George L. Harte, University of California
A Rapid Sanskrit Method
Motilal Banarsidass, Dehli, 1989
Preface
“It [Sanskrit, the ancient language of India] is, like Chinese, Arabic, Greek and Latin, one of the few languages which has been a carrier of a culture over a long period of time. Thus, the variety of writings in it, and the quantity of those writings, are staggering. An incomplete list of subjects treated in Sanskrit, usually with great prolixity, is as follows:
· The four Vedas
· The Brahmanas and Aranyakas
· The Upanisads
· Grammar
· Epic, puranic, literature - Including 18 major puranas, 18 minor puranas, and hundreds of sthalapuranas.
· Works on Medicine
· Logic
· Astronomy & Astrology
· Mathematics
· Lawbooks
· Architecture
· Music…
On most of these subjects, there is an immense literature still extant. Indeed, a rough estimate of the works which will be listed in the new Catalogus Catalogorum yields a total of about 160,000 works… many so difficult that it would take years of study to properly understand them.
…Sanskrit does have its share of great writers: Kalidasa ranks with the greatest poets, Panini is without question the greatest pre-modern grammarian, the Mahabharata ranks with the Iliad and the Odyssey, and the Bhagavata-purana is among the finest works of devotion every written, being equaled in my opinion only by other works in Indian languages.”
• • •
Oh, Hara! Hare! We can only write this petition to you, glorification of this Bhagavatam-purana, in little pieces. Our intelligence is like that. Also, we find it hard to think about things and not make it into a story. So, we also pray that you take it in that manner.
Also, we have heard that Sriman Hanuman is still on the earth, even at this moment. If that is a fact then he must also certainly be sneaking into the street and buying books from time to time from the Hare Krishnas. He greatly appreciates authentic religious literature. Then maybe he will also be pleased to see some utility in these fables.
Even more so, it would be quite natural that you doubt that we are servants of Sri Rāma. You have been so tormented by false prophets trying to exploit your beauty which is meant only for His happiness. Let us therefore begin by narrating how the author actually came to know Him.
• • •
THE BODY - HUBER HUTCHIN ROBINSON
Took its manifestation on Guam, Marianas Islands, on 12 January 1948. Gaduated first place in psychology with minor studies in biology and electrical engineering from University of California in 1970.
Then we traveled to the East and began our doctoral studies at Northwestern University, Chicago. That was as close to hell as we desire to come, but we had the great, good fortune to meet Professor Donald Campbell who was President of the American Psychological Association and one of the greatest geniuses of our times.
We addressed him, “Professor?”
He answered kindly, “Yes, idiot.”
We continued, “In our rambles in this life, we have studied Physics, Chemistry, Biology and now Psychology, and it seems to us from what we are learning of the East from the Vietnam-war, books and teachers of Yoga etc. that Western knowledge is extremely limited in some of these areas.”
He replied, “Agreed . . . . Take a break: -- M.A, PhD, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, it’s mostly just a way to earn money. Take a break and look around. Maybe go to the Orient and see what they have to offer. If you find anything, come back and tell me what you’ve found.”
×
So we tightened up our belt, kissed our cat good-bye and headed East. We were, and continue to be idiots. Our cat can confirm that, but God is good, God is great and we thank Him that He even fills our plate!
· Understudy with the Second City in Chicago. Please, read Improvisation for the Theater by Viola Spolin.
· First degree Black Belt in Okinawan Auto-Ryu karate. Please find a humble Aikido Master and learn to dance.
· Novice, Senior and now, after thirty-years, pretending to be, Professorial Monk in Srila Prabhupada’s Brahma-Madhava Bengali order.
We are lazy and self-indulgent, but some how or other we have been able to follow, at least basically, the Dharma of the regular monk: Celibate life; no wine; no meat, fish, eggs; up early and praying on rosary; teaching, cleaning and working daily.
[ Insert some Wu Kong]
Some honors have come to us from the world of Maya, but still we remain unsatisfactory in the estimation of our cat.
In every respect we have to conclude that you are our superior. All we have to offer you are the words of our spiritual master.
What have we heard from him? First we heard from, and continue to hear from, his book KRSNA, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, a Summary Study of Professor Harte’s aforementioned Bhagavata purana, in his opinion, one of the finest works of devotion ever written.
KRSNA
Chapter Fifty-five
The Story of the Syamantaka Jewel
There was a king of the name Satrajit within the jurisdiction of Dvaraka dhama. He was a great devotee of the sun-god, who awarded him the benediction of a jewel known as Syamantaka. Because of this Syamantaka jewel, there was a misunderstanding between King Satrajit and the Yadu dynasty. Later the matter was settled when Satrajit voluntarily offered Krsna his daughter, Satyabhama, along with the jewel Syamantaka. Not only Satyabhama but also Jambavati, the daughter of Jambavan, was married to Krsna on account of the Syamantaka jewel. These two marriages took place before the appearance of Pradyumna, as described in the last chapter of Volume One. How King Satrajit offended the Yadu dynasty and how he later came to his senses and offered his daughter and the Syamantaka jewel to Krsna is described as follows.
Since he was a great devotee of the sun-god, King Satrajit gradually entered into a very friendly relationship with him. The sun- god was pleased with him and delivered to him an exceptional jewel known as Syamantaka. When Satrajit wore this jewel in a locket around his neck, he appeared exactly like an imitation sun-god. Putting on this jewel, he would enter the city of Dvaraka, and people would think that the sun-god had come into the city to see Krsna. They knew that Krsna, being the Supreme Personality of Godhead, was sometimes visited by the demigods, so while Satrajit was visiting the city of Dvaraka all the inhabitants except Krsna took him to be the sun-god himself. Although King Satrajit was known to everyone, he could not be recognized because of the dazzling effulgence of the Syamantaka jewel. Once, mistaking Satrajit to be the sun-god, some of the important citizens of Dvaraka immediately went to Krsna to inform Him that the sun-god had arrived to see Him. At that time, Krsna was playing chess.
One of the important residents of Dvaraka spoke thus: "My dear Lord Narayana, You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In Your plenary portion as Narayana, or Visnu, You have four hands with different symbols--the conchshell, disc, club and lotus flower. You are actually the owner of everything, but in spite of Your being the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana, You descended in Vrndavana to act as the child of Yasodamata, who sometimes used to tie You up with her ropes, and You are celebrated, therefore, by the name Damodara."
That Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana, as accepted by the citizens of Dvaraka, was later confirmed by the great Mayavadi philosophical leader Sankaracarya. By accepting the Lord as impersonal, he did not reject the Lord's personal form. Everything which has form in this material world is subject to creation, maintenance and annihilation, but because the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana, does not have a material form subject to these limitations, Sankaracarya, to convince the less intelligent men who take Krsna to be an ordinary human being, said that God is impersonal. This impersonality means that He is not a person of this material condition. He is a transcendental personality without a material body.
The citizens of Dvaraka addressed Lord Krsna not only as Damodara but also as Govinda, which indicates that Krsna is very affectionate to the cows and calves; and just to refer to their intimate connection with Krsna, they addressed Him as Yadunandana because He was born the son of Vasudeva in the Yadu dynasty. In this way, the citizens of Dvaraka concluded that they were addressing Krsna as the supreme master of the whole universe. They addressed Krsna in many different ways, proud of being citizens of Dvaraka who could see Krsna daily.
When Satrajit was visiting the city of Dvaraka, the citizens felt great pride to think that although Krsna was living in Dvaraka like an ordinary human being, the demigods were coming to see Him. Thus they informed Lord Krsna that the sun-god, with his appealing bodily effulgence, was coming to see Him. The citizens of Dvaraka confirmed that the sun-god's coming into Dvaraka was not very wonderful, because people all over the universe who were searching after the Supreme Personality of Godhead knew that He had appeared in the family of the Yadu dynasty and was living in Dvaraka as one of the members of that family. Thus the citizens expressed their joy on this occasion. On hearing the statements of His citizens, the all-pervasive Personality of Godhead, Krsna, simply smiled. Being pleased with the citizens of Dvaraka, Krsna informed them that the person they described as the sun- god was actually King Satrajit, who had come to visit Dvaraka City to show his opulence in the form of the valuable jewel obtained from the sun-god.
Satrajit, however, did not come to see Krsna; he was instead overwhelmed by the jewel Syamantaka. He installed the jewel in a temple to be worshiped by brahmanas he engaged for this purpose. This is an example of a less intelligent person worshiping a material thing. In the Bhagavad-gita it is stated that less intelligent persons, in order to get immediate results from their fruitive activities, worship the demigods created within this universe. The word materialist means one concerned with gratification of the senses within this material world.