Parikrama (Circumambulations of Supreme Abode)

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This book Parikrama pertains to circumambulation of twenty five wings of the Supreme Abode i.e. Paramdham. All religious scriptures have preferred to remain silent about the name, form, plays and home of the Supreme Lord, but Mahamati Prannath has provided detailed account of Paramdham in this book. The learned people were so far not able to hypothesize the grandeur, wealth, grace and prosperity of that eternal region while Mahamati has done it in terms of worldly language. This book was descended upon him during the period Samvat 1740 to 1748 when he was staying at Panna, known as Padmavati Puri Dham.

The book begins with a section on eternal love. The concept of love has been clarified by stating that one can attain the nearness to the Lord only by means of love based devotion and details of His abode can be known through the route of selfless love. Without love the acts of worship do not lead to one's entry there. The importance of prayers, repeated remembrance of the features of Paramdham, understanding of the spiritual knowledge of awakening soul and true devotional worship have been vividly included here. The various forests of cereals, honey and mahavan, seven banks of river Yamuna, Pukhraj Mountain, Kausar Lake, Maanik Mountain, seven circumambulations, eight oceans and other features have been very explicitly described. All this is the wealth of the souls. The pleasure giving plays and games; where Lord Raj, His consort Shyama and all other souls participate and enjoy to their hearts' content, have been narrated in very lucid language.

The dictionary meaning of PARIKRAMA is circumambulation i.e. taking round. More often this word is used in literature for going around a religious place like a temple, a mosque, a church, a tomb or any other place of reverence for paying the regards. Here in this book it refers to taking a journey through the eternal region of the Supreme Abode. Although it is considered almost impossible to describe the details of the various features of Absolute consciousness in terms of worldly system of languages, still Mahamati Prannath has quite explicitly given its detailed overview in his verses of this book. He has described all this based on what he learnt from his guru Devchandra, and his own experiences, the verses coming out spontaneously from his mouth as a consequence of the spiritual knowledge of Tartam. This happened when Mahamati was asked by his disciples to tell them about the grandeur of the Lord and His Abode. He realised that the description of transcendental plane in humanly words and script is beyond the capacity of a living being but he wanted to convey the significance of the Abode to satisfy his devotees and followers by bringing the limitless within the limits of mind and imagination. Parikrama is the outcome of this contemplation.

Since time immemorial the learned and enlightened sages have been trying to explain the nature of God and of His omni presence. As they could not describe the reality of His majesty, they called Him formless and succeeded to some extent in satisfying the inquisitiveness of their followers. But for others, who believed in His form, there was confusion and they started regarding demi gods as Supreme Being. Mahamati modelled his description based on worldly concepts of beauty, charm, architecture etc., which is familiar to them; knowing fully well that there is nothing in this world that can be compared with the Absolute.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages