Rajanaka Newsletter March 25 2023

 Saturday, March 25, 2023

 

Aho’Rajanaka,

 

Gonna keep it short.

 

 (You’re laughing already, I know, I know.  That guy?  Keeping it short?  He’s gonna die in mid-sentence and breathless…more like it.)

 

Got work to do.  In America we tend to think of everything that is really important, valuable, or commendable as work.  Play is leisure, frivolity, vacation (as in vacate work), and even when we think we need some, deserve it, or have earnedit, our comparison is to work.  That isn’t going to make play better or more meaningful or actually less guilty, rationalized, or justifiable.   We justify play.  Why is that?  Could it be the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism doing its own insidious work upon our subconscious?  (Thank you, Weber.)  

 

Work is toil by definition when it isn’t drudgery.  Work is effort whether or not it’s travail.  What’s the antonym of work?  Entertainment? Laziness? Negligence?  I’m weary just thinking about this one.  And the prolllem’  (that’s Jersey for “problem”) is that play is just as prollematic wordwise.

 

Since when is being called dreamy regarded a good thing?  I think we think play more like a distraction, an amusement, a hobby, a lark, at best an adventure but hardly ever a well-worth it fortuitous exploit.  Of course, have too much time on our hands and next thing you know we’re doing yogaunicornenlightenment somestupitQanon thing, fantasizing that we’re superheroes taking on cittavrtti the world.

 

I’m suggesting we need some more, regular even ordinary play time, not the kind we compare to work but the kind we decide not to compare.  We need cloud-counting and star-gazing, reading a poem, making music, studying yoga to be so important that it’s not that we make time but live.  We need deep play.

 

If anything’s become clearer to me these past few years it’s that living mustn’t be reduced to obligations and bonuses.  We can, maybe should reconsider work but it’s the meaning of play that’s at stake.  It can’t be serious-play---that sounds too much like another task---but with play we become more elastic, emotionally supple, quicker to recover, and, yes, tougher, capable, and buoyant, even  resilient.  Life is likely “a careful dance of logistics” but deep play is what we need as much any meaningful work. 

 

Deep play, let’s have at it.

 

Satuday, March 18, 5pm. The Tamil Goddess, Second Session, the Warrior Lover.  Here is the Amman, the most ancient goddess, as we know her in myth and imagery.  Join us. This is really good.  

Saturday ZOOM: https://rochester.zoom.us/j/95057662268

Archive: 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/owz6urldp6rnl4nv6bpdh/h?dl=0&rlkey=7rty7mxnjwk301bjk6vt7qtpi

 

Sunday Mahabharta.  We are reading Nala, the most important story imho in the Epic.  Join us!  It is always a new day in the most ancient of stories.  You’re never lost or maybe always but it’s always fun. 
Sunday ZOOM: https://rochester.zoom.us/j/314987250:

Archive: 
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bfqt15y3n0uglir/AAAB_89LiCOob0hJI1w8BK7_a?dl=0

 

All Sessions are now $15, please use PayPal or Venmo: svcourses@gmail (Venmo is douglas-brooks-8).

 

We resume The NonBinary Muruga: Myths of the Six Temples on Thursday. March 30th.  These are great stories, amazing myths, and taken all to heart might change your life at least a little.  

Thursday ZOOM: https://rochester.zoom.us/j/98183733328

Archive:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/1fwu9qhlghlmz9t1a1sd2/h?dl=0&rlkey=2lz0ox3znbhl0iqc48qu59gpx

 

See you soon, play on, 

Douglas

 

 

 

&&&Below the line is important playful stuff

 

 

 

 

 

We are just about to launch INDIA PILGRIMAGE.  Dates in India not including travel: December 29th 2023-January 13th 2024.  Registration will begin NEXT WEEK and All The Details.  

 

Rajanaka Summer Camp, Bristol, NY, July 6th-10th.  Plan now.   Deposit is $200.  Camp tuition will be $600, includes lunch and Curry Night, tea and snacks, you cover other meals and transportation, as it has always been since 200X.  Venue: Bristol Valley Winery, Lane Road, Bristol, New York.  More details with the Come to India Pilgrimage this coming week.  Please come.  Please?

 

You can find all of our Newsletters on the Kalliyam Blogspot here:

https://kalliyam.blogspot.com/2023/01/rajanaka-newsletter-january-10-2023.html

And so much to read on the Rajanaka Sammelana, Rajanaka Adesa, and the Contraiety [SIC] Blogspots, links here:

 

https://rajanaka.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-story-in-news-rajanaka-past-and.html

 

https://rajanakadesa.blogspot.com/2023/01/vrata-resolutions-and-new-year.html

 

https://contraiety.blogspot.com/2022/08/what-you-havent-earned-is-more-important.html

 

 

 

 

&&&this is the line, so look below for more stuff
Stories from the Tamil Temple and our focus is the Great Goddess, the Mother called Amman.  We will visit with her first as the huntress bride, the wielder of the bow and spear, dauntless and committed to love but unwilling to be managed or housebroken.  The Tamil vision of Amman is diacritic, extraordinary, and a far cry from meek or pliant.  She offers love but never passivity, she is accommodating, merciful and ingratiating but never acquiescent or servile.  The temple myths tell these stories of her deep desire for connection and relationship and we are invited to see her in ourselves and all around us.  We begin tonight at 5pm, the Zoom link is here and there will of course be Archive recordings.  Tuition is $15 per Session, that’s $90 for all Sessions to PayPal or Venmo (svcourses@gmail.com) .  If you can’t make it live, the Archive recording will always be available.  

The Zoom for all Saturdays at 5pm is always the same.  ZOOM LINK:

https://rochester.zoom.us/j/95057662268

Dates: March 4, 18, 25, April 1, 8, 15

 

So much more.  NEW FREE ONE HOUR, A Conversation About the Goddess Aranyani, The Wild One of the Forest, on the Archive here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fzcqc48pzzlilxa/AAB6LMj-WGPpjEBuEp6eqjz5a?dl=0

 

THURSDAYS IN MARCH & APRIL at 7pm Eastern

SIX MURUGA MYTHS: THE NONBINARY ARCHETYPE

You may not be much familiar with Ganesha’s brother Murugan.  He is really only “important” in south India where his temple cult is significant.  But in this archetype of the Tamils resides one of the great body of stories and imagergy.  One of Muruga’s names is Shanmukha, Six Faces, and for each there is a temple and a very particular story.  We will go on mythic pilgrimage together to the six temple myths of Muruga.   (In December we are visiting these very temples on India Pilgrimage.  This would be a great opportunity to make these trips. 

Tuition is $15 per Session, or $90 for all Sessions to PayPal or Venmo (svcourses@gmail.com) .  If you can’t make it live, the Archive recording will always be available.  

The Zoom for all Thursdays at 7pm is always the same. ZOOM LINK: https://rochester.zoom.us/j/98183733328

 

You can find all of our Newsletters on the Kalliyam Blogspot here:

https://kalliyam.blogspot.com/2023/01/rajanaka-newsletter-january-10-2023.html

And so much to read on the Rajanaka Sammelana, Rajanaka Adesa, and the Contraiety [SIC] Blogspots, links here:

 

https://rajanaka.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-story-in-news-rajanaka-past-and.html

 

https://rajanakadesa.blogspot.com/2023/01/vrata-resolutions-and-new-year.html

 

https://contraiety.blogspot.com/2022/08/what-you-havent-earned-is-more-important.html

 

·       Pancamukha Anjaneya, The Five-Face Hanuman of the Tantra. NOW IN ARCHIVE. Here is the link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/d62llefrjvyidefn3uequ/h?dl=0&rlkey=p774e7zbme37d8cc49ocysog2

What will you find?

Six Sessions and PDF to aid in study.  Write to me if you need help.

Description: No form of Hanuman is more important or less understood and studied than the great Pancamukha.  Here Hanuman bears the visage of Varaha the Boar, Garuda the Raptor, Hanuman the Monkey, Narasimha the Lion Man, and Hayagriva the Horse.  We will bring this character to life in mythos, mantra, and mudra, in theory and practice, and there will be new stories and work that extends far beyond what we have done before with the Tantric Hanuman.  Everyone is welcome.  We start at the beginning and we go deep.

Tuition for Six Sessions is $150, payable over time if you need, use PayPal (svcourses@gmail.com or nallapaampu@gmail.com) or Venmo (douglas-brooks-8 or svcourses@gmail.com) If you can’t afford full tuition, talk to me.  Your access is guaranteed.  Tuition further promises unlimited access to the Recorded Dropbox Archive that will allow you to listen whenever you like.  Registration for all is by attendance and tuition is on the honor system.

·       Saturday CORE: Rasa in Theory and Practice.

Time: Six Sessions on Saturday Evenings, 5pm Eastern

Dates: January 14 we begin!  Jan 14/21/28 then February 11/18/25

ZOOM link for all Saturdays: https://rochester.zoom.us/j/95057662268 

ARCHIVE is HERE: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/d4uwwjw17seca2livd6r2/h?dl=0&rlkey=nh4g7xj6x7skeghw4x6tcsk2c

Description: Rasa means essence, taste, liquidity, flavor, sentiment, elemental feeling and emotion.  At the heart of the study of poetry, Rasa Theory is a remarkable, rich, and complex method of analysis and appreciation of artistry and aesthetics.  But rasa is also a roadmap, a process and practice, a method for understanding and exploring our most elemental feelings.  Rajanaka has among the most developed and useful rasa traditions of yoga.  At the center of every yoga is engagement with feeling and the development of “taste”: rasa is the core of our being and here we learn the way through that labyrinth of essence.

Tuition for Six Sessions is $150, payable over time if you need, use PayPal (svcourses@gmail.com or nallapaampu@gmail.com) or Venmo (douglas-brooks-8 or svcourses@gmail.com) If you can’t afford full tuition, talk to me.  Your access is guaranteed.  Tuition further promises unlimited access to the Recorded Dropbox Archive that will allow you to listen whenever you like.  Registration for all is by attendance and tuition is on the honor system.

 

·       SUNDAY MAHABHARATA.  

EVERY Sunday is a new story, every bit of it makes sense no matter when you choose to attend!

Time: Sessions on Sundays at 5pm Eastern.
Dates: Every Sunday unless we announce otherwise!

ZOOM link is the same for all Sundays: 

 https://rochester.zoom.us/j/314987250

Tuition: $15 per Session or $20 and all goes to India causes. Your call. Complete Archive INCLUDING a free Audio book is here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bfqt15y3n0uglir/AAAB_89LiCOob0hJI1w8BK7_a?dl=0 

 

Tuition for any of these Archives is $150 for complete access. You are on your honor to access them as you please and offer tuition via PayPal (svcourses@gmail.com or nallapaampu@gmail.com) or by Venmo (svcourses@gmail.com or douglas-brooks-8).  

 

Gayatri Mantra

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/r58rwnp3ryxgi6a6y8yme/h?dl=0&rlkey=59kbd7hjdrl8n809zv8becmdi

 

Lalita 1000 Names

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/18o5rtle7p91hz2/AADQnph8ofpPAX5mtW7mX-L4a?dl=0

 

OM Autobiography

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/11jd30d14ibjjtv3wauaj/h?dl=0&rlkey=1wugbag9m7myo1c50gt6qoa6d

 

Shakuntala for India

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/osx5n6i9vrz5vi5ek9vch/h?dl=0&rlkey=pa7akqysgrauu07mw9te61yb1

 

Pancamukha Hanuman

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/d62llefrjvyidefn3uequ/h?dl=0&rlkey=p774e7zbme37d8cc49ocysog2

 

Rasa Theory

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/d4uwwjw17seca2livd6r2/h?dl=0&rlkey=nh4g7xj6x7skeghw4x6tcsk2c

 

Free Saturdays in 2023

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/rm505c2fcy04y3upn5abv/h?dl=0&rlkey=6gk1d5rzyypn0r37100wzv5hk

 

Sricakra Puja Appa Svadhyaya

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bi7z70589ztuak4/cakra%20puja.wav?dl=0

 

Religion 270 The Meaning of Life

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ab5ioprn7bk2qgsd8800i/h?dl=0&rlkey=k9g4xukvctff91fkye1wo5mdr

 

Poised for Grace Audio Book

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iw0za7jwml6m7mc/AACjDhxf9owOXjbkzT2r2k-Ra?dl=0

 

Patanjali Essential Core

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2qd7wc5qroiva3v/AAAaZPvnc9I2JQSrO88Iv1exa?dl=0

 

Sivakamasundari Practicum

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ifddb0hglwrm5hx/AABGyYYfSJ9B_KHhU1LgdsT3a?dl=0

 

Mahabharata Sundays
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bfqt15y3n0uglir/AAAB_89LiCOob0hJI1w8BK7_a?dl=0

 

·       FREE One Hour Conversation this week on the Archive entitled Prana and the Five Pranas, Origins, Meanings and Mudras.  (Please download directly from Dropbox, you need not ask to join the folder.)  Link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/qcc7o1wxw69v55iyt5nlf/h?dl=0&rlkey=6jhxlo0i6zp2o69kuoxe8mkh5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

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