Mādhurya Kādambinī: Unsteady Devotional Service Part 1 | HG Harivaṁśa Dāsa | ISV BYS | June 14 2023

The inimitable Śrīla Viśwanātha Cakravartī Thākur, in his classic work Mādhurya Kādambinī, shows the six stages of unsteady devotional service (aniṣthitā-bhajan-kriyā), as inevitable perils a practitioner will land into if not aware. There, sometimes the practice is thick, sometimes thin, sometimes the determination is weak, sometimes strong, and so on and so forth. Knowing, studying, and discussing these stages goes a long way in fortifying a practitioner against their ill effects.
Harivaṁśa Dāsa (Dr. Himanshu Asnani) is an author, researcher, and translator. Previously he held full-time faculty appointment in the School of Technology and Computer Science (STCS) at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai and visiting appointments at the University of Washington-Seattle, Stanford University, and IIT Bombay. His research interests in academia included artificial intelligence, machine learning, information theory and statistics. He had received his B.Tech. from IIT Bombay (IIT JEE Mains All India Rank 4, IIT JEE Screening All India Rank 1) and M.S. and PhD from Stanford University, all in Electrical Engineering. After his post-graduation he worked in Corporate America (Ericsson Silicon Valley) following which he got involved in some of his edu-startups (currently Aveti Learning) which especially focussed on fostering education in underprivileged areas with minimal access to English, Internet, and Electricity. His awards include Stanford Graduate Fellowship, Marconi Society Paul Baran Young Scholar Award, Amazon Catalyst Fellowship and Bronze Medalist in the International Chemistry Olympiad.
His maternal family roots are from Vrndavana, where he stays when not traveling, actively researching in the areas of philosophy, social psychology, linguistics, and history; and while traveling, he shares the found wisdom with congregation, corporate and university audiences. He is a member of BTG India Editorial Board and is involved with the academic affairs of Bhaktivedanta Research Center. Under the auspices of HH Bhanu Swami Maharaja, he is involved in editing of the Sanskrit to English translations of Gaudiya literatures including their translations in Hindi language.
His debut work in fiction, Horizons, released in May 2023 by Hachette India, is a collection of short stories on life’s fundamental questions.
His next work-a historical novel set in 16th century Mughal India-is coming-of-age saga of love, war, escape, and self-discovery against the backdrop of bhakti renaissance.
He contributes to BTG's English (both US and India) and Hindi editions. (For more information, please visit www.himanshuasnani.com)
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