Circle Of Friends (Swami BV. Tripurari) - Circle of Friends is more than just a book—it is a spiritual companion for those yearning to unite with the Absolute through divine friendship. At its core lies a poetic retelling of the manifest and unmanifest pastimes of Krsna from the perspective of sakhya-rasa, supported by an in-depth examination of the philosophy and theology underlying the Vaishnava notion of divine play—lila. The text also features how to attain sakhya-prema and the history of its pursuit as it has manifested over the last five centuries within the Caitanya Vaishnava community.
While all four of Rupa Goswami’s divisions of fraternal love are addressed with the nuance they deserve, Swami B. V. Tripurari has at the same time honed the text to focus on the bhava of Krsna’s most intimate friends, his priya-narma-sakhas, who are indispensable to the romantic life of Radha and Krsna. As such, there is also much to be gained from Circle of Friends for sadhakas of the Gaudiya tradition whose practice is centered on madhurya-rasa.
Moreover, the very nature of the entirety of Vraja bhava and how its rasas interact with one another in lila-seva to Sri Krsna is so insightfully and invitingly presented that Circle of Friends stands as a landmark contribution to the entire Gaudiya sampradaya and the religious world at large. To be sure, it is an unprecedented and timeless treasure, certain to inspire and enlighten for generations to come.