We are in the final push to finish the temple construction here at Audarya, and all of the major obstacles have been overcome. We are in the home stretch. The exterior is finished except for the deck that will surround the structure. Work on the interior is in progress.

I find it heartening to walk to the temple from my quarters, especially after the sun sets. The starlit sky above with its moon in one phase or another reminds me of the hopeless romantic, Krsnacandra, moving from nakshatra (constellation) to nakshatra with Radha alone on his mind. Resting with her as he does when he is full during the spring Vishakha naksahtra, he shines that much brighter and is thus that much more approachable by all of us. Jaya Radhe!

Sri Rupa envisions the nakshatras as different gopis extending the Vedic metaphor that depicts them all as wives of moon. Vishaka is another name for Radha, and it is under this constellation’s influence that she appears. The love story of Rupa Goswami’s akhila rasamrta murti is thus told night after night in the heavens above, and as specific and esoteric as it appears at times, Sri Rupa’s theology speaks loudly to us of universal love. It has the power to unite humanity, and its so called secret doctrine is written brightly in the starlit sky.

Perhaps among all of the Goswmis, Sri JIva Goswami brings out the universality of Sri Rupa’s theology and how it speaks to humanity more than his contemporaries do. On Radhastami I read an English edition of his Madhava-mahotsava. Sri Jiva’s comments on the six seasons of Vrndavana is relevant.

“Although each of the seasons is best and different from the others, in Vrndavana there is no loss in manifesting their glories simultaneously Contrary elements live together in harmony. Can all living entities not learn from this lesson from the seasons of Vrndavana?”

The devotees here have undergone considerable sacrifice to manifest the temple from the ground up and they have grown considerably in doing so. Tolerating one another and, I believe, genuinely appreciating one another. All of us here are of course still a work in progress, but given the journey undertaken that will never change. I in particular have learned so much from them, bodhayantah parasparam. Thus I look forward to finishing the temple and the rest of Audarya with all of the obstacles that may come. One thing I have learned: Obstacles offer us an opportunity to grow. It’s unfortunate that we spend a good part of our lives trying to avoid them.