Last summer, when I was in Albuquerque’s Vespa shop, they were playing some New Mexican music. One of the songs that I heard was this. But I had no idea what it was, so I wrote down a few of the lyrics and was lucky enough to find it via Google and YouTube. I linked to the YouTube video, but that was taken down (I guess the record company didn’t want people to hear and thus buy the music they produce).

Lucky for me (and you) I found it again on the CMT site.

Met her at the Mercado
She was buying avacados
Man… she really turned me on

She reached for my pepper
I grabbed her tomatoes
And I knew, it wouldn’t be very long

She went to the mesa
I grabbed my cerveza
I got the onions and lemon

And the way she looked at me
Man I could clearly see
It wouldn’t be very long

Guacamole! GUACAMOLE!
Guacamole! GUACAMOLE!
We’d be making Guacamole all night long

Guacamole! GUACAMOLE!
Guacamole! GUACAMOLE!
We’d be making Guacamole all night long

She headed for the light
I fell in right behind
Man… She sure looked good to me

She reached for her money
I said “wait a minute honey
I believe, this one is on me”

So we got in my pickup
We started to back up
And headed on down the road

We went to her casa
Tortillas de masa
And made guacamole all night long

Guacamole! GUACAMOLE!
Guacamole! GUACAMOLE!
We’d be making guacamole all night long

A few years ago, I started to get more into photography. This was after my first trip out west. Since then, I’ve dabbled here and there with it.

Those exploits can be seen here, if you like.

I’ve not done much with my photos from Scoot 66. I’ve done a few, but nothing compared to what I did before.

Well, I’ve decided to get back into a bit and have so far knocked out three. Here you go.

I’d love to give a tour of Seattle. The problem is, I’ve not been here for very long and I don’t really know the streets so well. I could take you to Mighty O’s and to the record store in Fremont, but for a real tour of Seattle, I’ll leave you with the professionals.

You can thank me later.

Each week I select a verse from the Bhagavad-gita and compare/contrast four different translations. These translators all subscribe to the Gaudia-Vaisnava philosophy. This examination isn’t to prove one more superior to another, but to highlight the similarities and learn from the differences in ideologies.

The four Gitas are:
-Bhagavad-gita: As It Is by Srila Prabhupada (1972 edition)
-Bhagavad-gita: It’s Feeling and Philosophy by Tripurari Swami
-Srimad Bhagavad-gita by Narayana Maharaja
-Bhagavad-gita: The Beloved Lord’s Secret Love Song by Garuda dasa (Graham Schweig)

More on this can be found here.

Like last week, I’ll jump into a verse from a chapter that I’ve not covered before. Today, that’s the last verse of chapter 12.

Bhagavad-gita, Chapter 12, Verse 20

He who follows this imperishable path of devotional service and who completely engages himself with faith, making Me the supreme goal, is very, very dear to Me.
-Srila Prabhupada

Indeed, I love those who, endowed with faith in my supremacy, are devoted to me.
-Tripurari Swami

Certainly, those bhaktas who engage in My exclusive bhajana with firm faith and worship this nectarean dharma that I have described, are exceedingly dear to Me.
-Narayana Maharaja

Indeed, this is the immortal
    essence of dharma,
    which has been declared;
    those who participate in
    this worship fully.
Who have faith,
    who are devoted to me,
    who have offered their love -
    they are most dearly loved by me.
-Garuda dasa (Graham M. Schweig)

The four different translations of this verse run from Tripurari Swami’s very brief condensation to Garuda dasa’s poetically faithful, but wordy rendition.

Sometimes when trying to explain something simple that requires only a few words, the writer throws in extra words, bigger words in an attempt to trick us into thinking that he or she is smarter than us. As if an expanded vocabulary is proof of real intelligence. It’s true, there are times when many words are required for something. But there are more times when a simple explanation is far more beneficial, both to the listener and the writer.

When I first read these four translations, that thought was in my mind. How could one translation be so short and another so long? Was one superior to the next? Did one give more information with its wordiness or leave out important details with its brevity?

These are important questions. You don’t want a translation of any book that is either too full of words to really mean anything or so sparse that you are robbed of important particulars.

Let’s see if that’s what we’ve got here.

Because of the way this verse has been translated, it’s virtually impossible to take it line-by-line. Garuda dasa’s version is the closest to that and, though wordy, I feel it’s pretty faithful to my discrimination the original Sanskrit. I’ll be using his as the base here.

The first line, ye tu dharmyamrtam idam is translated by Garuda dasa as “Indeed, this is the immortal essence of dharma … those who….” The Sanskrit ye tu literally means “those who indeed,” or in this translation, “Indeed … those who.” Idam is a pronoun meaning “this,” which in this case references everything Krishna has said so far in this chapter.

Here, we’re left with dharmyamrtam. This is actually two words, dharma and amrtam. These are often translated as “religion” and “like nectar” respectively.

That is basically how Narayana Maharaja translates it in his verse (as “nectarean dharma“). Garuda dasa also uses a similar wording with “essence of dharma.” Tripurari Swami leaves out the reference to “nectar” and “dharma,” but focuses on that in his purport. Srila Prabhupada also does not mention either nectar or dharma, instead translates is as “this imperishable path of devotional service.” In his word-for-word section, he translates dhrama as “generosity” and amrtam as “understanding.”

Our next line, yathoktam paryupasate, Garuda dasa has translated as “which has been declared” and “those who participate in this worship fully.” If you reread his fully verse, you can see that even he had to move a line or two around to make it work.

The word yathoktam really just means “as said” or “as described.” Narayana Maharja is the only other translator who uses it in his verse as “that I have described.”

Paryupasate, on the other hand, has been translated by all, but one. Srila Prabhupada translates it as “completely engages.”

Narayana Maharaja, in his word-for-word, has glossed it “worship in every way.” In his verse, he translates, “engage in My exclusive bhajana,” a Sanskrit word which, according to his own glossary, basically means devotional service (bhakti) to Krishna.

Tripurari Swami has again left this out. He makes no specific translation of paryupasate.

The third line of this verse, sraddadhana mat-parama, translated by Garuda dasa as “[those] who have faith” and “[those] who have offered their love.” Again, he switches a couple of lines around for clarity, but it’s basically an exact copy of the Sanskrit.

Faith is not something that has been beaten to death by writers in the Gaudyia-Vaisnava tradition. But it’s there when needed and it is here and its importance is stressed and rewarded, as we’ll see. The word sraddadhana means “with faith.” All of our translators use it in the same way.

That way is mat-parama, “taking the Supreme Lord as everything,” (as glossed by Srila Prabhupada). Tripurari Swami similarly translates “in my supremacy.”

Narayana Maharaja doesn’t specifically reference it, but earlier in the verse writes, “engage in My exclusive bhajana,” which denotes Krishna’s supremacy.

The fourth line bhaktas te’tiva me priyah has been rendered by Garuda dasa as “[those]who are devoted to me… they are most dearly loved by me.”

The word bhakta means devotee. Srila Prabhupada has chosen not to directly use the word “devotee,” but every word in this verse is describing what a devotee is. Narayana Maharaja mentions bhaktas in the beginning of his translation and Tripurari Swami closes his verse with “[those who] are devoted to me.”

The last phrase in this verse is the reward. Te-tiva me priyah means “they are most dearly loved by Me.”

Srila Prabhupada uses “very, very” instead of extremely. I like this as it gives quite a bit of emphasis to what follows, “dear to Me.”

Narayana Maharaja’s uses of “exceedingly dear to Me.” also gives that feel, but hints at this dearness and love increasing.

Tripurari Swami simply states in the beginning of the verse “I love those….”

I’ll admit, I like the verses that have a punchy and rewarding ending. I like it when Krishna describes a bunch of stuff and reveals what it all means. Tripurari Swami’s does the opposite, he reveals the reward and then tells the cost.

Aside from that one small placement issue, I like Tripurari Swami’s translation. It’s concise. He leaves out nearly half the verse, but still manages to express the full meaning. Less words, not less understanding. You can read his and get just as much out of it as the others.

That is, of course, not to say that the others are too wordy. With the exception of Garuda dasa, the other translators also leave out a line or two. This verse makes it easy to do so. Garuda dasa shows that a lot of it is poetic repetition. There is a lot of “those who have.” Also, what may be clearly spoken in Sanskrit may not be so clearly translated in English.

While it may seem simplistic, “I love those who, endowed with faith in my supremacy, are devoted to me.” leaves out nothing. Everything conveyed in the longer verses is there. Again, it’s not that Srila Prabhupada’s or Narayana Maharaja’s translations (or even Garuda dasa’s) translations are overly-wordy, they are also clear and simple. But Tripurari Swami’s verse is a fine example of how even less words can be just as clear.

This is an important lesson for us to learn. I know I need to take it to heart (I say as I’m now well over 1300 words in this post).

But however it is said, our faith and devotion to God is reciprocated. It is not the reason for our devotion, but it is because of our devotion that we are loved by God.

Today was the huge Library Book Sale. With 250,000 titles, I was bound to find something. Especially at a buck-a-book.

I walked away with an arm-full of Washington history books, including Exploring Washington’s Past, which I was going to pay $20 for used. Not bad!

A few “backroads of Washington” books were found too. A 1956 edition of Sunset Magazine’s Discovery Trips in Washington was a really fun find!

Three books on the Oregon Trail made my day too!

There’s one book called Dear Dead Days from 1959 that I found that’s one of the most random and fun books I’ve ever seen. I’ll make sure to post scans from it sometime this week. It’s very freaky.

Yesterday, Sarah, Cole and I hoped in the car and took a 450 mile trip to some of the most beautiful country I’ve ever seen. We went from Seattle, over the Cascades, over the Columbia and to the desert, seeing the ancient riverbeds known as Coulees.

We explored old sections of the Yellowstone Trail and other roads, making me fall completely in love with the state of Washington.

I rode much of yesterday’s trip on the beginning of the last leg of Scoot 66. Oddly, I remember very, very little of it.

The day was packed full (too full) of fun and I didn’t get a chance to check out everything I wanted to. Also, right when we stumbled up Frenchman’s Coulee (very literally, some of the most beautiful land I’ve ever seen), the battery on my camera died a horrible death. I nearly did the same. It was a real bummer.

Here are my pictures and a much more detailed description of the day.
You can start at the beginning and read along!

Here are someone else’s pictures of Frenchman’s Coulee.

A couple of days ago Cole, Ashley, Smartz and I took a quick trip to Carkeek Park. I’ve been there several times before and I think it might be my favorite Seattle Park.

It was getting close to sunset, so lots of folks were there, but the mood was pretty mellow. We played with ducks, watched a train pass and sea-sawed on a big ol’ log.

would you like to see some pictures?

Here you go.