I’ve mentioned before that with a serious disease I think we need to become active in the treatment of that disease. This is because not all doctors are created equal.
There are doctors that graduate at the top of the class and those that graduate at the bottom. And then there are those doctors no matter how smart they are scholastically will never make a good doctor.
Once when asked what Jesus meant by “He who beholds me beholds the One Who sent me”, Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda explained that the son of God, or the empowered agent of God, is the pure medium of God. Because they are without any desire to be lord or master and are fully surrendered, they are able to be used by God. As Jesus himself puts it “……I have not spoken on my own initiative, but the Father Himself Who sent me has commanded me what to say and what to speak.“
A DEEPER MEANING
Jagad Guru explains further: “When Jesus says “To see me is to see the Father” he is giving us the key to vision of God because vision of God begins with faith in His actual existence. When one looks into the eyes of Jesus, looks at his sacrifice, at his life, he sees present there, real love for someone. He sees that Jesus really is relating to someone.
To see the reality of someone’s love for another person is to simultaneously see the actual existence of the person being loved. To see the reality of a relationship is to see the reality of the personalities involved…..
Love for God can stand only on the secure platform of faith in and knowledge of His actual existence. So from time to time God will send His son or servant or come Himself just to inject faith and knowledge into the hearts of the pious, so they may come back to Him.”
Namaste and Merry Christmas 2016!
Chaitanya das/Charles Robinson
Since I started this blog 6 months ago I have received many heartfelt messages of encouragement and thanks from so many people in different countries around the world. It has been humbling. I have tried to document my personal spiritual journey and I did not know how it was going to be received. But I have not had one negative comment.
This can be a crazy time with business people and others trying to hijack a spiritual celebration and turn it into a commercial opportunity, endeavoring to turn Christmas into Xmas! I personally am trying to maintain the focus on Lord Jesus and his teachings at this time. I guess I’m one of the ‘politically incorrect’.
Whether you do or don’t believe in a higher power, the Supersoul, the Father, Krishna, Jehovah, Lord Buddha, Allah – we are all brothers and sisters.
So to all of you who find this blog, who share my life and spiritual journey, I thank you.
I hope you and your loved ones have a happy and safe Christmas 2016 and if the Lord is willing we meet again in the New Year!
Namaste and Happy Krishnamas!
Chaitanya das/Charles Robinson
*The above image was made by one of my very talented daughters, Yogananda dasi (that silhouette is suppose to be me btw!). She is always busy so I’m pleased she found time to do this. There is more of her art on her FB page: https://www.facebook.com/yoganandadasi/photos
There are four H.A. Weymann and Son instrument catalogs that I know of still existing that feature guitars:
Weymann Instrument Catalogs, from left; c.1890 (retail), 1924, c.1928, c.1931
There is also a c.1930 Banjo catalog which only contains banjos.
1. WEYMANN – Early 1890’s Retail Catalog. Additional Information added 21 Sept 17: This catalog has been dated from 1896-1899 by a reader, see his comment on this post below.
Page 1.
Page 3.
Page 2.
Page 4.
Only four pages in total, this retail catalog shows that Weymann was making guitars at this early date under their own “Weymann’s Highest Grade” and “W and S Keystone State” labels.
Some people date this catalog to 1889 but I think it is more likely a few years later than that (thus the early 1890’s).
(Inspired by talks by Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa)
Make your way through this impermanent, transitory life in whatever way you can, keeping the goal of worshiping the Lord foremost in your minds.
Don’t abandon this goal, even in the face of hundreds of dangers, insults, or persecutions.” Shrila Bhaktisiddanta Sarasvati Thakur 1874-1937
(I have had requests to write more about my spiritual teacher and my relationship with him so I have added more to this post on November 2016, and again on April 2021 — Chaitanya das)
These days it’s sometimes seen as ‘uncool’ to talk about a guru, or a spiritual teacher.
For many the word ‘guru’ evokes the unfortunate idea of a relationship where there is lack of individual thought, of giving up one’s own free will. I’d like to dispel that emphatically as far as my spiritual teacher is concerned!
‘Guru’ as an adjective means ‘heavy or weighty’ as in ‘One who is heavy with spiritual knowledge and wisdom.’ ‘Guru’ also means spiritual master or one who has dovetailed his body, his mind, his intelligence, and his will with the will of God. In other words, guru means one who is the loving servant of God and the well-wisher of others — not the master of other people.
There are times that I refer to Jagad Guru as my spiritual master, however it’s very important to understand that a bona fide guru never sees himself as the controller or master of anyone. There are so many definitions of the word ‘master’ but the one I am referring to is “One who masters a particular field of endeavor”, in this case, spiritual endeavor.
Rather than as a master of anyone a genuine spiritual master or teacher dedicates his life to helping everyone find true happiness. He is therefore the loving servant of the Supreme, the servant of his spiritual teacher, the servant of his students, and the well-wisher and servant of everyone!
He never teaches that he is God nor tries to take the place of God in people’s lives. He is someone who is filled with bhakti or love for the Supreme — and therefore filled with love and compassion for all living beings who he understands are all parts and parcels of the Supreme.
If I’m honest with myself, I had very little attraction for any spiritual process when I first met Siddhaswarupananda over 40 years ago, but he challenged me to think carefully about spirituality. Not only to think, but check what he was telling me and what we talked about.
John Church can thank the generosity of Oliver Ditson for his success in business.
John Church Portrait – Late 19th Century Photo courtesy www.antiquepianoshop.com
Oliver Ditson set up successful businesses and allowed his managers to take them over. This was the case with John C. Haynes, Boston, who made ‘Tilton Improvement’, Bay State, Excelsior and Hub Guitars. Also with George Lyon and Patrick Healy, Chicago, who under the Lyon & Healy name became the biggest manufacturer of stringed instruments in the early part of the 20th century.
Oliver Ditson also set up a music branch in Cincinnati managed by John Church. Somewhere between 1859 or 1871 (accounts are conflicting) John Church was signed over as the owner and he incorporated The John Church Company in 1885. He had a retail arm of all things musical, specializing in pianos and sheet music, and a small manufacturing arm producing the ‘Imperial’ label of instruments.
From left to right: Oliver Ditson, John C. Haynes, George Washburn Lyon and Patrick Joseph Healy
ALBERT EINSTEIN 1879-1955
Physicist, Musician, Thinker…and founding member and president of The Fluffy Slipper Appreciation Club!
My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.” Albert Einstein
At some point in our lives we ask the questions: what am I doing with my life and what am I looking for in life?
We are all seeking something. Something that will make us happy. A deep enriching enduring happiness that reaches our very core.
A happiness that satisfies me, the eternal spirit soul inside this body made up of temporary matter.
All of the revealed scriptures give the same answer. The way to achieve this spiritual happiness is by reviving our loving relationship with the Supreme, with Krishna, with God.
Lord Jesus
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”.
And in the Bhagavad Gita, the Supreme Lord says: “To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me”. (BG 10:10)
That the Weymann manufacturing business evolved out of their retailing is significant. Their retail establishment initially allowed Weymann to have a ready market for what they produced, as well as access to the end user that we would today term ‘extensive market research’. It allowed them to experiment and produce a wide range of instruments, where other makers could not.”
Once when asked what Jesus meant by “He who beholds me beholds the One Who sent me”, Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda explained that the son of God, or the empowered agent of God, is the pure medium of God. Because they are without any desire to be lord or master and are fully surrendered, they are able to be used by God. As Jesus himself puts it “……I have not spoken on my own initiative, but the Father Himself Who sent me has commanded me what to say and what to speak.“
