SHYAMDAS 1953-2013 IN MEMORIAM

Jai Jai gave me a room in his
ancestral temple home in front of
the Govardhan Hill. His grace-filled
patrimony, with its lovely paths through
the groves of Vrindavan, became the
avenues I loved to stroll. And for me,
he became the living manifestation of
the Path of Grace.
Although timeless, the Path
of Grace was manifested by úrà
Maháprabhu Vallabhácárya (1479-1531),
Jai Jai’s forefather, fourteen generations
ago. úrà Vallabhácárya taught that this
creation is comprised of Blissful God,
and nothing but God. Such a pure view
inspires us to discover Käüóa’s joy not
only in ourselves, but in the world as
well. We should experience úrà Käüóa
everywhere and with every feeling.
For grace-filled souls, the world is not
unreal or something to be overcome,
but rather a divine realm in which the
experience of God and of His manifold
creation can be experienced as a làlá, or
divine play.
I was encouraged by Jai Jai to
live happily in this world and to offer
everything to the Lord of Sweetness.
“úrà Käüóa,” he told me, “pays close
attention to those who adore Him and
returns every favor a hundredfold. To
know and love Him is devotion. To
experience His rapture is Grace. So
employ the powers of your heart and
mind in His pleasure, use your body
and every resource in a brilliant and
sensitive manner, so you can ultimately
become possessed
by Divinity. In that
blessed state, what
need is there of even
liberation?”
I discovered
the path of Satsaïg,
or association with
the saints. For if we
truly live in the light
of good fellowship,
the loving mood
of devotion will
be “downloaded” through emulation.
First is the recognition of devotion in
someone else. Then, if we humbly bow
to the bhakta’s realization, we may be
allowed in. But for all this to occur,
there must be Siddhánt, which is the
34 Special Issue • Shyamdas ~ In Memoriam
teaching that brings us to perfection.
Siddhánt is true philosophy. It is
“siddha,” perfection, at the “anta,” or end,
and is strictly for soulful attainment.
I found úrà Vallabhácárya’s nondual
Path of Grace full of devotional
inspiration, and began to study his
teachings and poetry, first in Hindi
and later, as my knowledge grew, in
Sanskrit. Satsaïg became my main
practice, and I spent the next thirty
years developing a taste for the gracefilled
view. I learned that sublime
matters become part of daily life when
they are contemplated daily.
Whenever Jai Jai traveled outside
of the Braja area, I would stay in the
village of Jatipura and attend a daily
Satsaïg with two senior practitioners,
Jetabhai and Gopilal. Gopilal was a
Yogi Sanskrit man who not only taught,
but wrote Sanskrit. He had lived all
over the Braja area and had gathered
in his blessed being profound Käüóa
experience. Jetabhai was a Käüóa bhakta
and the only man in town who spoke
English. Every evening I would sit
between the two of them and listen to
their Hindi Satsaïgs. This association
nurtured me and protected my mindheart.
For the seed of devotion begins
as a subtle notion and matures into a
wishing tree that provides the blessed
one with the priceless fruit of bhakti. In
this blessed state, the Beloved appears
first in the heart and then everywhere.
When i was in
high school,
learning another
language proved
so difficult for me
that I obtained
special permission
to forgo taking a
second language. In
Jatipura, however,
just by sitting
between these two
practitioners, I
began to understand them within a few
short months. As I listened, my spiritual
interests increased and I would literally
run to meet them every day.
In spiritual life, a clear
understanding of why a practice is
undertaken, as well as an intense desire
to come face-to-face with Hari, is
needed. Yet it is always easier to listen to
the teachings of those who have already
advanced than it is to try to formulate
something on our own. My first years
in India were spent in absorbing the
teachings and honoring the wisdom
of those who had traveled the Path
before me. My goal remained the Path
of Grace and I was helped along by the
teachings of úrà Vallabhácárya and his
followers who composed a remarkable
body of spiritual teachings in Sanskrit
and Braja Bháüá based on the Vedas,
Brahma Sâtras, Upaniüads, Gàtá, as
well as the úràmad Bhágavatam.
úrà Vallabhácárya’s teachings
are referred to as Brahmaváda, or the
reasoned doctrine that explains that all
is Brahman and nothing but Brahman.
This pure, non-dualist view of threading
the mind into úrà Käüóa served to
support the devotional view and
practice that was natural to me. This
view holds that the whole of creation is
úrà Käüóa’s divine play. It is His làlá. We
souls manifest into it like sparks from
a fire and are like actors appearing on
the authentic stage of the world. Such a
view of unity allows for diversity that is
free of animosity. The world is not an
illusion, but a perfect conclusion, God’s
own modification. What is needed is
for us to correctly cognize and witness a
non-duality between the soul, the world
and blissful Brahman.
Another aspect of Brahman’s
formless, timeless, endless, total being
is the creation. It seems to be an
illusion only when vision is tainted
with máyá. When that confusion is
removed, the world is seen as it is, as
comprised of pure Käüóa, Who stands
at the beginning, middle and end of
everything. He is existence, its cause,
its support, and its end. He is the rays
of the moon and the light of the sun.
His forms are varied and His face is
hidden everywhere. Concealment
and manifestation are the two powers
whereby He brings forth the dance of
creation.
It was in the Braja region that
úrà Käüóa expanded and tasted the