date – sunday, june 25th

times – 2:00pm-3:30pm

location – the bhakti center / temple room

admission – free of charge

for more information, please write to Erin at erin@bhakticenter.org

Please join us for a beautiful presentation of Jayanta Das’s poetry. Jayanta Das will share his story of how he came in contact with Krishna Consciousness, and how his journey and Kadamba Kanana Swami’s suggestion led him to publish a book of poetry, “Miracle of Mustard and other poems”. He will share with the audience 10-15 poems along with a power point presentation so the audience can read along. There will be Q&A at the end. 

Jayanta Das lives in New Jersey and works in New York as a lawyer specializing in Immigration Law. Before starting his legal education, he studied English literature and earned a Masters degree. He went on to do graduate research on the influence of Asian spiritual practices, including Zen and haiku, on modern poetry. 

He is particularly inspired by the poetic ideals and themes found in the Vaishnava scriptural literature celebrating Krishna. These include the Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, and the Caitanya Caritamrta. In addition, many poets have explored devotional expressions of love and longing, and their collections also are revered texts in the Vaishnava tradition. Their works are often romantic in tone but certainly spiritual in their direction. The poems exhibit a wonderful interplay of ideas and meaning and playful methods of exposition. 

Jayanta seeks to place these themes and poetic methods into a contemporary context, exploring our modern pressures and misdirection and expressing the hope for progress on the path of bhakti. His poetry is an element of his sadhana, or spiritual training.