Here are the latest updates for you - ISKCON Desire Tree: 04 Feb 2012 - Varaha Dvadasi
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Srila Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami Site sdgonline.org:
| | 4:50 A.M. 
Observing the strange behavior of his own sister,
Abhimanyu becomes very confused and begins to think,
“Why is my sister Kutila speaking such harsh language?
It seems as if she has been seized by some type of powerful ghost;
I’d better go and bring a mantra doctor here to exorcise her.”
Resolving thus, and perplexed by various anxieties,
he goes to the edge of the village to see the exorcist .…Continue reading â | |
Srila Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami Site sdgonline.org:
| | Autobiography The autobiography is a work-in-progress. I have written on my pre-Krishna conscious memories and my career in ISKCON and I will continue to do so. Now I am writing on the books I have written over the thirty-five years. The writing is so important to me that it forms a crucial part of my life-story.… Continue reading â | |
The Gita (2.62-63) outlines the path along which illusion tempts us. This fall from virtue happens through a sequence of fourd’s: we dwell, we desire, we decide, we degrade. Let’s see how: - Dwell (Stage of thoughts): All temptations begin with thoughts; we casually and carelessly let our thoughts wander to and dwell on an object that allures us towards an immoral and self-defeating pleasure.
- Desire (Stage of emotions): When we let our mind dwell on that object, the temptation, being powered by our mind’s imagination, grows to the level of emotions. We start cravings for that object; desires start tugging us invisibly but powerfully towards that object.
- Decide (Stage of intentions): If we let ourselves be sucked in by the fantasies stimulated by those desires, then the pull of the temptation becomes irresistible and our emotions become intentions.
- Degrade (Stage of actions): If we act on our intentions, then we perpetrate regrettable deeds that degrade and defile us.
However, this sequence of four d’s can be countered by another d – the d of discrimination. The Gita (3.43) urges us to use our power of discrimination – our intelligence – to wrench our mind off the sense object and fix it on Krishna. When our thoughts connect with Krishna, we experience a higher pleasure that gives us the inner strength and spunk to kill the temptations at the level of thoughts or emotions or intentions or, at the very least, before they materialize as actions.  His Grace Nitai dasa, beloved husband and dearest friend of Mandali devi dasi and nephew of Nityo Dita Prabhu, departed this world in a vehicular accident on the night of Jan. 31 outside of Jacksonville, FL along with two other young men, Yadupati Das and Tim Carter. Please pray for Nitai and his young friends on this grievous occasion. Please pray for Mandali devi and the parents of Nitai that they will consoled by Krishna's mercy. Nitai dasa was one of the movements bright loving souls whose presence will be deeply missed. Further information and a memorial will be announced shortly.  Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 7, No. 24
By Krishna-kripa das
(December 2011, part two)
Vaishnava Youth Bus Tour to Mexico, Part I
(Sent from Gainesville, Florida, on February 1, 2012)
Where I Went and What I Did
For the last two weeks of December and the first week of January, I went with about twenty-four college-age Hare Krishna youth and three older devotees to over a dozen cities in Mexico, where we shared Krishna culture with the local people. It was the best way I have ever spent that time of year, and many people appreciated the programs, chanted Hare Krishna, danced, and purchased spiritual literature. I include pictures taken by Manorama Prabhu, Rukmini Priya Poddar, and myself, and over 51 minutes of video.
In saying goodbye to 2011, I review the wonderful events I was blessed to attend that year.
I list all the devotees who helped me in my travels this year, as a way of thanking them, and also all those who helped me in the years since 2001, when I started traveling to Europe. If you helped out and I did not mention your name, let me know, and I will try to make up for it. Currently I would like to go to India, but I am about $300 short on the price of a ticket from Europe to India. If you would like to help out, click on the “Donate” button below.
Guru Prasad Swami spoke to our party and also spoke at an initiation ceremony, and I share his realizations.
Vaishnava Youth Bus Tour to Mexico, Part I
The Vaishnava Youth Bus Tour to Mexico has been happening for the last several years during the students’ winter break from school and college. Twenty or thirty Hare Krishna children and a few adults put on Krishna festivals in twelve to fifteen locations each year, as well as visiting the pyramids and beaches in Mexico. This year, on the dashboard of the bus, we had famed kirtana leader Madhava Prabhu’s personal deity of Haridas Thakura, along with the bus tour deities of Sri Sri Gaur-Nitai.
Madhava Prabhu sometimes led kirtana for as long as two hours while we were traveling on the bus, and it was so absorbing no one thought two hours had passed.
Our evening programs at yoga places were the chanting of Hare Krishna with instruments, but at the other places, the majority, we also did a drama on Bhagavad-gita, two or three Bharat Natyam dances, and sometimes played a brief video, Vrindavan: Land of Krishna,with a Spanish soundtrack.
Madhava Prabhu (center) would play at every festival, accompanied by Ananta Prabhu (left) on the drum, and Mother Jaya Sita, a professional cello player (right). 
Manorama Prabhu, our fearless leader, was often seen at our festivals filming videos or taking still pictures. We are so thankful for him purchasing the bus, organizing the festivals, getting sponsors for the tour, and emptying the sewage, so we would not have to do it ourselves and have bad memories of the experience. He is an emblem of tolerance and compassion. Nadia, Mohini, and Bhakti Lata (left to right), all from Alachua, were our bharat natyam dancers and many loved their performances. In the Gita drama, Ananta (front and center), one of the most popular of the actors, is seen below illustrating the illusory happiness, and ultimately distress, that arises from getting material possessions, in this case, a new car.
Mother Bhakti Lata would implore the attendees to rise from their seats and then teach them her version of the swami step to induce the people to dance during the kirtan, and many would. Quickly, the dancing would surpass the basic step, and get more wild, as in Cancun below. 
No event is complete without the distribution of spiritual food (prasadam). Either the bus tour devotees or local devotees or both would prepare prasadam for the event. Here in Tampico, the bus tour devotees, headed by Mother Jaya Sri Radhe, prepared food for the guests. 
Mother Jaya Sri Radhe, head cook, and mother of the tour, serves rice with a smile. 
I took lots of video, and that which covers the December portion of the trip is divided into three parts totaling 51 minutes altogether.
I will intersperse the videos covering the three parts of the trip with my description of them, but if you want to view the entire playlist of three videos at once, click on this YouTube playlist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgrdebobeMc&list=PLA8EF6C029FB07BDF&feature=plpp_play_all
My main service was to distribute books and the Hare Krishna mantra posters and cards. I also kept track of the receipts for purchases. 
We drove from Alachua, Florida, to Houston in one day and did an evening kirtana in the temple there.
The next day, we drove to Monterrey, where despite rainy weather, practically everyone in the audience danced. The prasadam the local devotees provided was wonderful, highlighted by samosas and halava. 
The following day in Tampico many people arrived in the auditorium before the program, and we had positioned the book table in front of the entrance, so many people looked at the books and CDs. I was surprised that we sold 2,000 pesos of books and 1,000 pesos of CDsbefore the program even started! After the program we distributed another 1,000 pesos of each! The total distribution was about 6 hard bound Gitas, 13 medium books, 46 small books, and 17 of Madhava Prabhu’s CDs. Many people in the audience sang, as you can see in the picture below, and many also came up and danced in front, between the seats and the stage. An amazing fact is that the organizer is not even a Hare Krishna devotee, just someone who read about the cultural tour on the internet, who contacted Manorama Prabhu, and who started regularly organizing programs for him in Tampico about three years ago. 
The next program was at yoga cafe in Oaxaca the following evening. It was a smaller venue and a smaller crowd but we still distributed 1320 pesos of books and 1430 pesos of CDs. Many people danced with great enthusiasm. Mother Varsana-rani (wearing the blue-greensari below), a Russian disciple of Indradyumna Swami who just joined us, regularly travels on the Polish tour. She was very good in inspiring the people to dance. 
The hosts were helpful and friendly at Shambhala, a yoga retreat place on a resort beach at Puerto Angel, where there were fewer Mexicans and more tourists. I talked to people from Holland, Denmark, Germany, Slovakia, America, and Canada, and I was happy because I could talk with more people. I told a couple from Oakland, who was present at the end of the evening, about our Berkeley temple. The girl had previously visited our temple in Amsterdam where her mom, also accompanying her, resided. Although many people danced with us, Shambhala was a different story as far as distribution of literature and CDs. We sold 300 pesos of books and a single CD. It was like the people were already were satisfied with their own understanding of spirituality, and so they were not inquisitive. It can be a challenge to interest the yoga community in Krishna consciousness. They are inquisitive to the extent that they encountered yoga, were attracted and became committed, but they may not be interested in going beyond hatha-yoga to bhakti-yogaand thus perfectly benefit their souls in addition to their bodies and minds.
The next day we stayed at the beach. There was the Pacific Ocean, a fresh water lagoon, and a bathroom and showers available. There were even fresh coconuts, reminding me of Mayapur, which many devotees liked. Some enterprising devotee ladies put the bus deities on a surf board in the lagoon. I hoped we would have a kirtana, but all the big kirtanapeople were involved in a athletic game. In retrospect, I realized I would have been more satisfied if I did some kirtana on my own or with a few others not involved in the game.
We spent two days in Tuxtla, December 22 and December 23, one of my favorite cities on the trip. The first day we did a two-hour harinama at two parks in the evening to advertise our festival to the next day. The first park had a daily concert in the evening, and we arrived just before it started so people who came for the concert turned out to hear ourharinama as well. 
Some people took pleasure dancing with us. The next park was ten blocks away, and devotees decided to just walk without singing to save energy. For me, to walk without chanting is a waste of time, so I took up the harmonium and began to sing the first tune I learned and the one I know the best, as we walked to the central park. We found a place where several sidewalks converge, and a crowd of people began to grow as the chanting group attracted them. Several of our girls danced and induced people from the audience to dance as well. Bhakti and Mohini demonstrated some of their Bharat Natyam steps, and Datta did tricks from his magic show. The invitations for our program the next day finally arrived, and we distributed them. Our organizers, as with Tampico, also not Hare Krishna devotees, got us permission to chant inside a mall for one hour, something we would not dream of doing in the USA. Three hundred people came to our evening festival, and many enjoyed singing and dancing in a big way (see below). We sold 13 CDs and almost 3,000 pesos worth of books, one of the biggest days. 
After Tuxtla we went to Agua Azul in the Mayan part of Mexico. There is a really wonderful multiple waterfall, with the river falling over several different rocks. It is a tourist place. We played this game called Secret Santa in which we put all of our names in a hat and each chose one. We had to buy a Christmas present for the person whose name we chose, something of around $5 in value. Those kinds of games are not so fun for me as I hate shopping and have no sense of certainty about what to get anyone. I ended up choosing a girl I knew from the Polish Festival tour, and Jaya Sri Radha offered to trade me as she got a boy. I accepted the offer, as it is not recommended for brahmacaris to meditate on girls, which I would ended up doing for the next week, thinking of a gift. Besides I probably would not have chosen a very nice gift. I asked the boy whose name I got if he had any clue about what to get a boy his age. He explained it was not a question of boys or girls but that we had to get to understand the person and get a sense of what they would like. He also said you could always just get a T-shirt which is something probably anyone could use. Furthermore, he explained that we should package the gift in a creative way, and put our personality into it. I decided to pray to Krishna. Just under an hour before my last chance to buy a gift, I went through the souvenir shops and I asked other devotees for their advice. Other devotees suggested T-shirts, so I decided to go for that. Because my person, Devananda liked math, I decided to choose a T-shirt with a calendar on it, and a Mayan calendar rather than an Aztec one, because we were in the Mayan part of Mexico, and a T-shirt with Agua Azul, the name of the waterfall resort, on it. Mohini suggested a dark color rather than white, which shows the dirt, and thus my gift was decided. And it was $6, near the right range. I wrapped it between two paper plates fastened together with band-aids. After leaving the forest area in our bus, we saw a gas station with a Christmas tree in the parking lot, and decided to stop there and exchange gifts.
It was so amazing to see a decorated Christmas tree appearing as we emerged from the Mexican (below). It was funny that it turned out Devananda and I were the last people to exchange gifts, being Secret Santa for each other, and he got me a bathing suit, which was something I had forgotten to bring, and which proved very useful.
In addition to sharing presents, we also had a piñata which we took turns swinging at, hoping to break it, and grab the candy that falls out. In the photo below, Madhavi tried her best. 
Nuno, who has a yoga ashram called Uno Astrolodge in Tulum, invited us to stay over and do kirtana there. We chanted two hours in the evening and an hour and a half the next morning. Many of the people really loved chanting and dancing. The ones I talked to were happy to hear of our restaurant with its two weekly programs in nearby Cancun. One viola player chanted with great happiness, other people listened with great concentration as a meditation. 
One man (see below) who did the Buddhist Vipasanna meditation told me many people in his sangha of meditation practitioners, probably due to their Christian upbringing, although appreciating some benefit from Vipasanna meditation, realized a need to look beyond it for fulfillment through more devotional activities. It reminded me of the Vaishnavaunderstanding that only through devotion to the Lord can our soul be satisfied for we are His children and parts of His very self.
The girl below loved our chanting and was interested to hear of our two weekly programs at our restaurant in Cancun, not so far from her home. 
This video shows our programs from Houston through Tulum:
The morning we spent at the yoga ashram, I got up at 4 a.m. and chanted for two hours facing the ocean. There was a strong sea breeze, but it was so warm I did not need a sweater. Recently I had been reviewing chapter 10 of Bhagavad-gita and the whole time I chanted japa on the breezy beach I was thinking how Krishna says, “Of bodies of water I am the ocean, . . . and of purifiers I am the wind.” (Bhagavad-gita 10.24, 31). Thus I felt happily surrounded by Krishna as ocean and wind as I chanted His holy names.
On the bus an ocean of conversations of varying relevance entered my ears in addition to my japa most every day but at Uno Astrolodge only the sea breezes accompanied the Lord in His sound incarnation, appearing in my ears.
At our program in Cancun, one man who chants Hare Krishna and has Bhagavad-gita As It Iswas returning home in a taxi. Seeing “Krishna Culture Tour” written on our bus, he inquired and was happy to learn of and come to our the festival. As usual many people danced in the kirtana. We invited interested people to the programs at our restaurant in Cancun.
In Izamal in the Yucatan, there was family all of whom, the parents and the kids, loved our festival and thanked us profusely with all their hearts as they left. It was heart-warming to see such appreciation. Photographer Rukmini Priya Poddar described them as, “an enthusiastic family that became so inspired by our program, they insisted on getting a photo with me and Nanda and exclaimed, ‘We’re a Hare Krishna family!’” 
One lady wanted to organize a festival in large city nearby called Merida from which many in the audience came. Many danced happily in Izamal as you can see below: 
In Playa del Carman, a young Hungarian lady and her three friends, who do yoga together loved the kirtana. She had been to our temple and restaurant in Budapest, and had even been to our New Vraja farm near the Balaton. She and her friends were telling how they took pictures of themselves before and after the kirtana, and were amazed to see how radiant they became from the kirtana. They were happy to find out from Paulina, a local devotee, that we have monthly programs there in Playa del Carman. A mother from Toronto was happy to learn that we had a center in her town. I think of Krishna consciousness being more attractive to younger people but she got much more into thekirtana than her teenage daughter. In the picture below, you can get a feel for the size of the crowd there. That picture is just part of the crowd. 
Near the ruins in Palenque, Martin from Germany, a friend of Nuno, invited us to dokirtana at his little alternative community. He and his friends chanted with us for two hours and then got into some more eclectic chants for another half hour. One lady there had lived in our temple in Heidelberg and at the Nrsimha farm in Bavaria. You could see she had a deep attachment to kirtana from her past devotional service. She was up dancing before the others and sang meditatively and smilingly. She feels Krishna has guided her to this community and wants to develop it. Another couple who visits from Leon one month each winter, recalled their association with Mahajan, former temple president of ISKCON Leon, and how they were once in a conversation with Hridayananda Goswami who came to lecture. Thus several people became reminded again of Krishna from our visit there.
Guru Prasada Swami traveled with us to Veracruz, the home of Eka Bhokta Prabhu, a former resident of Alachua. The swami gave a little talk on the beach, preceded by akirtana of Madhava Prabhu. Our program there was in the crowded town square. One lady and her daughters watched for two hours with great delight. She spoke English excellently, being an employee of the U.S. Government in Mexico City. One older man asked if he could dance to the kirtana on the stage during the first kirtana. Manorama told me to tell him to wait till the final kirtana. He could not stay so I danced with him in front of the stage to make him happy. I would dance with mantra cards in my hands and give them to people who looked at our program with interest. A couple Mexican book distributors greatly assisted us in our distribution of literature. Just see the size of the crowd and their enthusiasm at Veracruz: 
This video shows our programs from Izamal to Veracruz:
At Orizaba we did a New Year’s Eve program from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. The program was advertised around the city: 
A highpoint for me was meeting some people who came last year and liked it and returned. I saw them reading the mantra from the flyer and taking pleasure singing along. The program attendance dropped after 8:30 p.m. as in the pious city of Orizaba, people spend New Year’s Eve in church. As midnight approached we had a lively kirtana on the bus to celebrate the New Year. Nadia made hot chocolate and served out cookies to celebrate. This video shows our New Year’s Eve program in Orizaba:
The year ended but the Vaishnava Youth Bus Tour to Mexico continued, and so I will describe the rest of it in my next issue. Don’t miss it. If you would like to support my going on the tour, I am still $200 short. Click on the following link to help out: http://www.afn.org/~afn18429/mxbustour.html For more photos of the tour, see the following devotees’ photos on Facebook: Manorama Dasa: https://www.facebook.com/manu.dasa?sk=photos, Albums Mexico, Mexico II, and Mexico III. Rukmini Priya Poddar: https://www.facebook.com/ruksi86?sk=photos, Albums named with Mexican cities.
Summary of the Year
I did a six new events, three new Ratha-yatras this year, and harinama in at least a couple of new cities. The six new events were a five-day harinama tour with Janananda Goswami, Parasurama Prabhu’s nine-day Scandinavian Ratha-yatra tour, the Kirtan Mela in Germany, and this Vaishnava Youth Bus Tour to Mexico. All were wonderful experiences sharing Krishna with others except at Kirtan Mela when we shared kirtana with ourselves. Then there were the Crawley Ratha-yatra, Cardiff Ratha-yatra, and the New Orleans Ratha-yatra. I also went to harinama in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Cavan, Republic of Ireland. Although we had done harinama in Berlin many times, the three-hour one on Radhastami was special. I also attended a nama-hatta program in Crawley. On top of that I presented a paper on Srila Prabhupada’s empowerment and his ability to to empower others at an academic conference in Leeds. I felt happy to go new places and do new things, but still I do not do so much for this glorious mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as I should. I hope I can be more useful in the coming year.
The events I liked and repeated included the Ocala Regional Rainbow Gathering, St. Augustine, Tallahassee and Philadelphia Ratha-yatras, Queen’s Day harinama, Munich Ratha-yatra, Nrsimha Caturdasi at Simhacalam, Birmingham 24-hour kirtana, London Ratha-yatra, Stonehenge solstice festival, Croatian harinama tour, Poland Woodstock, Czech Woodstock, Polish tour, and the Ukraine festival.
One good result this year is one girl from a Czech Republic festival ended up attending regularly harinamas and evening programs in Brno, where she goes to school. Meeting the Hare Krishnas, she explained, was a bright spot in an otherwise bleak year.
Returning to Gainesville we have found the devotees continued the harinama at the Farmers’s Market, and at least a couple people from there have become regular attenders to our Krishna House programs because of it. They also maintained the weekly teaching ofjapa to students as a meditation.
Otherwise, we were mostly planting seeds of bhakti through our chanting and festivals, and we hope they will sprout sometime soon. Give us your blessings.
Thank You to My Kind Supporters
As I it is the end of the year, I want to start by thanking all the people who made it possible to travel in fifteen countries this year. People often ask how I can travel so many places although I have no fixed income. Ultimately it is the mercy of the Lord, but it comes through different agents all of whom I am greatly indebted to. I felt bad for insufficiently thanking my many benefactors in previous years, so I thought I would take this opportunity to do it now, and regularly each year from now on.
I want to thank the following people for their kind support during the year of 2011, starting with those who contributed the most: Kalakantha Prabhu, Narayana Kavaca Prabhu, Gauranga (Belfast), Pat Beetle (my mother) , Daru Brahma Prabhu, Mother Sandamini, Niranjana Swami, Prema Sindhu Prabhu (Ohio), Bhavna (Crawley), Sivananda Sena (Rotterdam), Mother Krishnapriya (Antwerp), Caitanya Candrodaya Prabhu (Ireland), Janananda Goswami, Navin Shyam Prabhu, Bhaktin Kruti, Acyuta Rupa Prabhu, Bhakta Alex (Flagstaff), Victor (my sister’s boyfriend), Subuddhi Krishna Prabhu, Karen (my sister), a Crawley nama hatta devotee, the Berlin temple, Jamuna Prabhu (Queens), Dhruva (Los Angeles), Bhaktin Miso (Rotterdam), Varaha Murti Prabhu, Shyamasundara Bhagavan Prabhu, Leipzig temple, Antwerp temple, Gaura Hari (UK), Pandava, Bhakta Alan (Belfast), Radha Govinda (UK), Gopa Kumar Prabhu, Mother Nikunja (Berlin), Govinda Prabhu (Bhaktivedanta Manor), Sruti Sagar Prabhu, a devotee lady from Belarus, Vaidyanatha Prabhu, Navina Nirada Prabhu, Punya Palaka Prabhu, a Czech gas station attendant, and people who gave me donations while I was chanting on the sidewalks and parks in Leeds, Newcastle, Amsterdam, and probably few other places. Beyond the donations of money mentioned above, Narayana Kavaca Prabhu kindly paid for my camera, luggage, and some clothes this year, and my Netbook computer last year, thus facilitating my service greatly.
Here is a summary of my expenses and donations in 2011.
| Description | Debits | Credits | | book purchases/sales | 1.62 | -27.27 | | donations from individuals and temples |
| -2618.48 | | unaccounted for donations |
| -284.63 | | gifts to temples, devotees, and relatives | 298.85 |
| | Internet, phone, and computer | 81.29 |
| | necessities | 13.86 |
| | outreach | 3.59 |
| | food | 56.79 |
| | travel | 2474.38 |
| | total | 2930.38 | -2930.38 |
Apart from the donations and expense mentioned above, four devotees helped sponsor my trip on the Vaishnava Youth Bus Tour in December 2011: Radha Jivan Prabhu of Sacred Threads, Sesa Prabhu, Srikar Prabhu, and Vaishnava Das Prabhu, and I thank them for giving me the most wonderful devotional way I have found so far to spend the end of December and the beginning of January in my life, sharing Krishna culture through festivals in Mexico.
I began traveling in 2001 when I was inspired by Sridhara Swami to visit my diksa-guru,Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, in Ireland and inspired by Indradyumna Swami to visit the Polish Woodstock. Pat Beetle, my mother, kindly paid for my ticket. I loved seeing all the Polish youth engaged in Krishna chanting and decided to go each year to the Polish Woodstock to assist with the festival. Dharmatma Prabhu, who helped Indradyumna Swami collect for the Polish festivals, kindly paid for my ticket in 2002. In 2003 and 2004 I went to the Polish Woodstock and a couple weeks of the Polish Festival of India tour on the Baltic coast, visiting Prague, Czech Republic, for the first time in 2004. Sadaputa Prabhu, who I was working with at the time, kindly paid for those trips.
In 2005 I decided to take the Bhakti-sastri course in Mayapur, and I asked the devotees I knew from the eleven years I lived in Alachua to help me out. Lokavarnatam Prabhu, who had a thriving Internet business at the time, gave me enough for my ticket, and many other devotees helped out, including Prana Govinda Prabhu, Sesa Prabhu, Kaliyaphani Prabhu, Indupati Prabhu, Panchatattva Prabhu, Kishore Krishna Prabhu, Mother Anangamanjari, Urukrama Prabhu, Vidyananda Prabhu, and Vishnu Gada Prabhu. I raised enough money to go to Europe and India twice, without returning to America in between. During the time in India, Sesa Prabhu, Mother Nanda, Mother Sukhada, Nitai (SDG) Prabhu, Ekavira Prabhu, and Yadavendra Prabhu kindly gave me donations, and in 2006 Vaishnava youth from Idaho, Gopal Hari Prabhu, and Polish tour restaurant manager, Rasikendra Prabhu gave me donations in Poland. Later Bhakti Vijnana Goswami kindly sponsored my travel, visa, and accommodations in Russia to present a seminar on Sadaputa Prabhu’s videos at the Russian festival in Krinnitsa, and different devotees gave me donations in Russia and Ukraine. During the 2005–2006 and 2006–2007 winters in India, I worked for MIHET in exchange for room and board, and I thank them for that opportunity.
In 2007 Pat Beetle, Kalakantha Prabhu, Tara Prabhu, Aholavam Nrsimha Prabhu, Sri Prahlada Prabhu, Trilokatma Prabhu, Prema Sindhu Prabhu, Navin Prabhu, two congregational devotees from Tallahassee, Panchtattva Prabhu, Bhakta Victor from Tampa, Rtadhvaja Swami, Prahlada-Nrsimha Prabhu, the Munich temple, and Vraja Vilasa, Nitai, Krishna Kesava, Mahabharata, Gadagraja, Atul Krishna, and Dravida Prabhus gave me donations along with a few devotees in Ukraine. I also got a donation for participating in a Kolkata nama-hatta. In 2007 my mother contributed to a trip for the two of us to South India. In the winters of 2007–2008 and 2009–2010, when I was in Mayapur, I was taken care of the Shastra Prabhu and the harinama sankirtana office, as I did service for them, and I thank them for that most satisfying service opportunity. I hope to return there in February 2012.
In 2008 Pat Beetle, Ahovalam Nrsimha Prabhu, Indradyumna Swami, Mother Krishnapriya, Daru Brahma Prabhu, Sivam, Back to Godhead magazine, Tara Prabhu, the Bratislava temple, the Leipzig temple, the Rotterdam temple, Mother Syamanandini, two bhaktasfrom Slovakia both named Peter, Kalakantha Prabhu, Dravida Prabhu, Isvara Prabhu, Sridhama Prabhu of Daytona, Adi Karta Prabhu, Bhakta Jaroslav from Prague, and Badrinarayana, Lilasuka, and Carucandra Prabhus, a driver and a servant of the presenters at the Ukraine festival, a Ukrainian lady, the London temple receptionist, and an Australiangurukuli kindly gave me donations.
In 2009, Kalakantha Prabhu, Pat Beetle, Niranjana Swami, Dhruva Prabhu, Daru Brahma Prabhu, the Durban temple, Bhakta Matush, Kavicandra Swami, Sri Prahlada Prabhu, the Bratislava temple, Kadamba Kanana Swami, Paramesvara Prabhu, Bhakta Mike, Isvara Krishna Prabhu, Mother Krishnapriya, Mukunda Prabhu from London, Sivam, Anil, Trivikrama Prabhu, Krishna Vidhi Prabhu, my host in Lvov, Bhaktin Eva (from Czech), Tapan Misra Prabhu, Raja Dharma Prabhu (Paris), a black devotee from the London harinama, a devotee in Paris who used to drive Srila Prabhupada, Bernard, Rama Gopal Prabhu, Yasoda Dulal Prabhu, Mother Govinda Priya (NRS), another devotee lady from Ukraine, a college outreach devotee in London, a Bengali nama-hatta, and Bhakta Andres (now Ananda Seva Prabhu) kindly gave me donations. I also distributed a few books in Prague and didharinama in Bern and thus received donations, and I found some money on the ground a couple times.
Kadambda Kanana Swami kindly bought me a ticket to South Africa in 2009 so I could experience how the outreach programs are developing there and share it with others. Thus on my fiftieth birthday, I did harinama in a new city, Pretoria, in a new country, South Africa, on a new continent.
In 2010 Kalakantha Prabhu, Pat Beetle, Ahovalam Nrsimha Prabhu, Mother Sandamini, Daru Brahma Prabhu, Bhakta Peter, the Den Haag temple, Vrajendralal Prabhu, Vraja Vilasa Prabhu, Jaya Govinda Prabhu, the Leipzig temple, Naveen Prabhu, the Berlin temple, Vaishnava Prabhu, Bhakta Dave, people I met on harinama, my host in Lvov, Vijaya Prabhu (my driver in Lvov), Victor, Bhakti Rasa Prabhu, Mother Krishna Karsani, Gaura Nam Prabhu, people me and my friends distributed books to on harinama, an Indian man who bought a Hindi BTG on a train, a devotee (in exchange for a sweet), and the Soho St. temple, kindly gave me donations.
Over the last few years, Drutakarma Prabhu gave me a donation for proofreadingForbidden Archeology, Isvara Prabhu of Touchstone Publishing gave me a donation for proofreading Uddhava Gita, Kalakantha Prabhu gave me a donation for proofreading his book, A God Who Dances, and Baladeva Vidyabhusana Prabhu gave me a donation for scanning the books of Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami.
Thank you all for your kind support of my program of promoting the public chanting of the holy names of the Hare Krishna mantra in different towns and villages. I pray that Lord Krishna blesses you for your kindness, and that you advance in your devotion for Him.
My present ticket ends in London on February 12, 2012. I greatly desire to go to Mayapur for the Kirtan Mela on February 22–25, 2012, but I have only $250 out of the $550 I need. If any of you would like to help, you can send me money using Paypal by clicking the “Donate” link below.
Alternatively, you can deposit money in my Bank of America or Wells Fargo bank accounts. Send me an email for details at:
 Thanks again for your help. Insight from Devotees
Guru Prasad Swami:
As soon as we are interested in sense gratification, automatically we are thinking of ourselves first. When there is a question of service, then we are interested in the other person or in Krishna.
Prabhupada told his disciples that they were proof of the reality of Lord Caitanya's mercy.
Once the fired-up sankirtana devotees were running in kirtana and sliding, like you would slide into first base, however, when Prabhupada saw it, he stopped it.
If the holy name does not touch our real essence, what comes out will not be pure but tinged with this or that.
Q: What does it mean to chant from the heart? A: The first ingredient is association with devotees, intense association (prasangam), asLord Kapila says (Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.25.25). Sometimes we think association with devotees means a pizza party.
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura explained the position of guru as difficult because if you think you are guru then you become gauru (cow). By if you do not instruct your disciples, you are irresponsible.
You cannot purchase a do-it-yourself pure devotee kit because association with pure devotees is so important.
One devotee was just reading and not doing service so the devotees complained to Prabhupada. Prabhupada replied, “Reading is not service?” The leader were worried that all the devotees would stop doing service and just read. Then Prabhupada said, “Of course, if he is reading, then he will understand, you must serve.”
Every order of life has its challenges. To stage a good example as a grhastha is big preaching because show gives people a lifestyle they can follow.
Everyone has iPhones and iPads. “I” means ego.
Comment by Madhava Prabhu: Aindra Prabhu told us that japa is the foundation for goodkirtana.
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prithivite ache yata nagaradi-grama sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama
[Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said:] “In every town and village of the world, My name [the holy name of Krishna] will be preached.” (Caitanya-bhagavata, Antya 4.126) PROGRAM IN BASEL, SWITZERLAND
At the home of Pujarini and Nityananda.
27 january 2012
Kirtan and lecture "Encouraging the heart" - BG 2.3. PROGRAM AT ST GALLEN NAMA HATTA, SWITZERLAND.
1 February 2012
Kirtan and lecture "Discovering your voice (or dharma)" - BG 4.13. When I was 4, I was also giving courses. But my students were much different than today. You can see them in the background. SometimesI speak about leadership and coaching when I give a lecture in the temple. After the lecture devotees ask: Who will be the coach? I reply: "If youcannot find anyone to coach you then we can coach each other. Learn how tocoach and do it, as service to Vaisnavas." What does it mean to coach eachother? It means high quality devotee association. "Let's speak boldly howwe can improve. Please give me feedback - with courage and consideration. Andif you wish, I'll give you mine - also carefully, with due respect foryou." What kind of feedback? Improvement suggestions. And tools andprinciples for dealing with spiritual life's challenges. With great sadness and heaviness in my heart, I want to bid farewell to my beloved godbrother HG Nitai Das prabhu. He just died in a vehicle accident on Jan 31 2012. I first met him in 2008 24 hour Kirtan festival in New Vrindavan and ever since our friendship extended. Although my personal association was limited to few meetings, still I considered him a good friend and godbrother. Both and I and my wife will dearly miss him. More than me, my wife is upset because of his departure. The last we saw him was in november 2011 just 2 months before the fatal day. He drove cross-country and came to our house and stayed overnight with us. It was the month of Damodar. We talked till 2.00am in the morning and he was showing all his photos on Burning Man and his different experiences there. I was thinking one day may be I can travel with him to Burning Man. We also offered Damodar lamps and sang Damodarashtakam together to our deities. It was a pleasure to have him in our house. With sadness in my heart, he will be missed dearly. More than me I think his close and friends, and family will be grieving. I sincerely pray that the Lord takes Him to His abode. My heartfelt condolences to his wife and family and friends. He is relatively a young man. If anything, from this death, we have to learn that this world is temporary and we may die at any moment. This message rings in my head loud and clear. I pray that the Supreme Lord gives me the proper consciousness when I depart from this world. Good luck prabhu!! We will miss you!! Hare Krishna (Kadamba Kanana Swami, Radhadesh, Belgium, January 2012) Lecture: SB 5.18.9
 Srila Prabhupada said:
‘Life is like hard wood and you have to carve Krishna out of it.’
It was a really good quote. It’s not going to be easy to be a sadhu or a saintly person, because the material world is not designed for comfort. It is designed for austerity and that is the basic principle of material life, as Ṛṣabhadeva has analysed it: ‘nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke
kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye
tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ
śuddhyed yasmād brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam’ (SB.5.5.1) So Ṛṣabhadeva is saying that this human form of life (or life in general) is not meant for sense gratification, which is available to the ‘viṭ-bhujām’ – the stool eaters like hogs and dogs. The human form of life is meant for austerity, and then one can attain the transcendental platform of ‘brahma-saukhyam’– happiness beyond the three modes of material nature. It’s not that Lord Ṛṣabhadeva was fanatically emphasising austerity – just because austerity is his thing, since that is not his point. His point is that austerity is an intrinsic element of the basic design of material nature. You can’t escape it – it’s how it is….it’s not a choice: ‘Shall I be austere? Or shall I not be austere?’
That’s not the choice, since it is austere, and it is simply like that. Any form of existence in the material world is austere, because in the material world it is designed for that purpose. Therefore, we cannot expect that spiritual life, or the sadhu mark (the path of the sadhu) is not a path that includes austerity, since it does. Part of that austerity is ‘asat-saṅgha chāḍi.’ is to give up the association of the ‘asat sangha’ of those who are dedicated to non permanent things….those who put all their energy in the non permanent relationships in this world – either with people, animals or things, since whatever is non-permanent has to be given up, and also the intimate association with people who are pre-occupying themselves with these things. That includes our family members, and more remote people. Not meaning that one has to give up his family members completely, but intimate association is difficult. Previously, in the earlier days of Iskcon, devotees would very rarely go home to their family, and if they would go, then they would never stay the night. They would only visit and then just go. Honestly speaking, as a devotee, I never stayed at my family’s place, since it just never happened, because that was the culture. I am not necessarily saying that one cannot stay overnight, since I am saying that, that was the culture that existed, and it had its merits. One devotee told me:
“When I go to my parent’s house, it is as if I am going to a museum of my old habits.” I thought that was very poetic – kind of a classic. So, yes it is like that, (I’m not speaking of those who are devotee parents since that doesn’t count) since if your parents are materialists and when you go there, then they just act as though you are still the same. They call you by your old name and they keep on trying to act as though you are the same person that you always were. Until when you say: ‘I’ve changed!’ ‘Yeah…yeah…yeah.’
They just ignore it, and they hope that whatever has changed would go away – if they just ignore it, which is the idea. So ‘asat-saṅgha’ one cannot avoid, since practically speaking the whole world is ‘asat-sangha’. Wherever you look, the people in the shops – they are everywhere! Rating: 0.0/7 (0 votes cast)  (Kadamba Kanana Swami, Radhadesh, Belgium, January 2012) Lecture: SB 5.18.9
It is explained that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu mentions to Sanatana Goswami that an important principle in devotional service is to give up the association of non-devotees. He classifies the non-devotees as:
“Stri-sangi and asadhu.” Srila Prabhupada translates ‘Stri-sangi’ as a woman hunter, and the other one is a non-devotee. Okay, the non-devotee is obvious because he brings with him so many bad habits, which maybe contaminating, but also with the other category, even the woman hunter is also to be avoided! That’s interesting. So one who is addicted to illicit sex – also a not good association in spiritual life. Of course, a vaisnava will certainly respect such as vaisnava, but we cannot get so close, because one develops desires, according to association, and that is important! Rupa Goswami says: ‘anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam’, Madhya 19.167) One must be free from all the other desires – desires for sense gratification, or desires for liberation: ‘ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-
śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā’, (Madhya 19.167) One must then serve the Lord in a favourable way, and cultivate Krishna Consciousness, by constantly associating with favourable influences, and that is sadhu-sangha. So with sadhu-sangha, it takes some endeavour to create that kind of an atmosphere. A sadhu is never alone and is always with Krishna! And with every point in time, a sadhu realises that the most important person present particularly in this situation is Krishna! But there are so many situations that are coming about: ‘Have you heard? A big thing is going on!’ ‘Fine, lets deal with it. Somehow or other we will have to!’
 When it’s a big thing and it begins to affect our life, then we have to deal with it, but whatever it maybe, Krishna is the most important person in that entire situation, and the relationship we have with Him comes first, before any other relationship (with any other person, with any other situation, or anything in this world). So even when your mother just died – I know it’s a big thing, but bigger still is the relationship we have with Krishna! A sadhu has to cultivate that consciousness, and ultimately so do every devotees (it doesn’t matter what our external role is) all of us (according to our karma) have been assigned a particular role – a particular body in a particular place….a particular destiny in our life and within that destiny we have our minute independence, by which we can choose for Krishna, or not, and that choice we have to decide, to somehow or other make a spiritual life. Rating: 0.0/7 (0 votes cast)  
Respected Devotees: His Grace Nitai dasa, beloved husband and dearest friend of Mandali devi dasi and nephew of Nityo Dita Prabhu, departed this world in a vehicular accident on the night of Jan. 31 outside of Jacksonville, FL along with two other young men, Yadu and B. Tim. Please pray for Nitai and his young friends on this grievous occasion. Please pray for Mandali devi and the parents of Nitai that they will consoled by Krishna’s mercy. Nitai dasa was one of the movements bright loving souls whose presence will be deeply missed. Further information and a memorial will be announced shortly. yr, malati dd http://www.facebook.com/people/Nitai-Das/724282453 FYI, the auto link to his Employer on his Info page is incorrect. Here is the correct link to Krishna Kitchen. DEAR PRABHU’S: PLEASE GATHER IN THE TEMPLE AT 6;30 PM (BEFORE GAURA ARATI) THIS EVENING (2/1/12) . AND THEN FOLLOWING ARATI, THERE WILL BE KIRTAN ACCOMPANIED BY READING SECOND CHAPTER OF BHAGAVAD GITA ON BEHALF OF HIS GRACE NITAI PRABHU. HARE KRISHNA  Last week I drove into Central London at 4.00am. It was refreshing - no cars, no traffic jams, no stress. Unfortunately it didn’t last very long. Cruising toward my destination I unexpectedly encountered major roadworks and got stuck in a huge tailback. Despite the strategic timing of my journey, I still ended up delayed! It reminded me of the challenges encountered in our early morning spiritual practices. Every day we dedicate the two hours around sunrise to focused personal meditation. Through the process of mantra, we whisper sacred names of Krishna and try to conscientiously hear that transcendental vibration. Attentive aural reception frees the mind, cleanses the heart, and brings one in contact with the spiritual reality. You simply have to focus on the vibration. Nothing else. Sounds simple, but in practice is quite problematic since the mind is notoriously difficult to control. One thought leads to another, which leads to a third, and soon we are drifting off and straying far from our purpose. The early morning hours are considered the most conducive for spiritual practice since the mind can peacefully flow toward the spiritual goal. However, just as early morning road works slowed down my car journey to London, mental agitation can similarly inhibit the strength of one’s spiritual connection. As I sat down this morning in preparation for my chanting, a million things were going through my mind. There were doubts and uncertainties about pending situations. There were quarrels and conflicts of opinion on pertinent issues. There were worries about friends and pressures of expectation from respected associates. There was also excitement about future opportunities, a sense of pride at this week’s achievements and anticipation at the day ahead. What can I say... the mind is a busy place! How in the world would I be able to put this all to one side, pacify the mind, and concentrate on the task at hand – to simply hear the mantra and focus on the spiritual reality? I tried to cultivate a broader mindset. Everything in my life can be resolved if I deepen my spirituality. The problem is not other people – but it’s actually my lack of tolerance, empathy and sensitivity. The problem is not the situations I find myself if in – but it’s actually my rigidity, stubbornness and lack of broader vision. It even occurred to me that all my aspirations and dreams can manifest beyond my imagination, but only after I fine tune my motivations and eradicate my ulterior selfish motivations. Everything is coming from spiritual purity, and spiritual purity is coming from determined and focused spiritual practice. As I sat down I thought to myself - “let me just focus on this mantra for the next two hours; after that, life will look quite different; situations and perspectives will change.” It worked. Bucket loads of mental energy saved, and real solutions found. I’ll try the same tomorrow. Wish me luck. Three devotees left this world last night in a car accident. I knew all three - Tim, Yadupati, and Nitai. I have had a hard time catching my breath all day. I feel dizzy. I've walked through my day here but not here, like my head is floating above my body. I've paced the house, my mind scattered into shards of glass thoughts. I have felt and heard my heart pumping all day. I want to be around people and I want to be alone. Prayers don't come to mind. Only memories and images. This evening I left for the kirtan memorial at the temple, unable to bear being alone in my grief any more. I entered into the softly lit templeroom, the room resounding from wall to wall with the beat of the mridanga drum and hundreds of voices. I settled in close. I closed my eyes and felt my tornado of confusion and sadness and anger all twisting and whirling about inside of me. The kirtan kept building. At last, at last, my body responded in a way my mind never could - I raised my arms. The only relief from the tornado was to raise my arms. Surrender. I don't know, Krishna, I don't know. I don't even know if You exist, but I surrender anyway. When the curtains opened for all of us to receive the darshan of Gaura Nitai, Radhe Shyam, and Krishna Balaram, I felt the urge to cover my head and go right up to the altar. I leaned up against the wall in front of Gaura Nitai. I felt so fragile. I realized that my whole body was trembling. Images of Tim, Yadupati, and Nitai kept flashing through my mind. All loved kirtan. All loved to serve. The three of them were probably off on some service venture when the Lord took them. I remember Tim in kirtan - he seemed to be a man who lived and breathed off of kirtan, whether the crowd was in the hundreds or just the two of us singing on campus at Krishna Lunch. Yadupati was an older gurukuli who was also addicted to kirtan - I rarely saw him without a drum. I saw him always within the whorl of the holy name. Nitai was a dear friend whom my family and I have known for many years, and he was also a godbrother, his face so effulgent. I remember him always - always - talking about Radhanath Swami and his next scheme to somehow or other serve his beloved guru. His smile and enthusiasm was contagious. And now they're gone. Gone. I have just returned from the temple to write this. I do not know where to go from here. I just feel this need to write, to express grief. Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu asked, "Of all kinds of distress, what is the most painful?" Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya replied, "Apart from separation from the devotee of Kṛṣṇa, I know of no unbearable unhappiness." - CC Madhya 8.248
Tim Yadupati Nitai
  Careful Stepping Toronto, Ontario Some people have heard about the back packing fellow in America who ventured alone, fell into an abyss and got his arm trapped between a rock and a cliff. He was stuck for about three days and had to eventually cut off his arm in order to free himself. His biggest mistake was to daredevil alone. I felt a little like that going solo today. With the snow's melting and mud all about, the angles that I approached in the ravine left me in an exciting slide-and-leap for grasping the next tree. Most other trekkers were smart enough to let the ravine be, but I went for excitement, an adventurous spirit that translates into dependency on Him (Krishna). Those trees were my saviours as they were spread apart in a calculated perfect distance. They were my brakes. My prayer was, "Oh Krishna, please help me get to my next anchor, the next tree, before I make a fall." It was a deliberate predicament I put myself into. While maneuvering in this way, I forced myself to use whatever God given intelligence was there in the search for the firm step like a mountain climber would. I imposed upon myself a careful footing that would permit the tiny steps of surrender. It was an exercise in balance. Fortunately I came out of the ravine fall-free. Once I made my way out of the ravine I realized there's more chance of danger when dodging traffic in trying to cross the street. It is an understatement to say that the world is a dangerous place, full of accidents, deaths, diseases, aging and so on. One of our elderly members, Ms. Rampiriari Bhakri, passed away on Sunday. The viewing at the funeral home was this evening and about four hundred people from the Punjabi community came to pay respects. Their response to the chanting offered a soothing effect. Condolences to family and friends. 13 Km Going Back Over Atlantic Air
Bhakta Bolo stood tall at the entrance of the GeorgetownAirport. As the only active young blackmember in the Guyanese community (that I could see), he seemed to stand outfrom the rest of the send-off party. Itwas farewell hugs for all.
At security a woman asked me to open my luggage. She got a real charge over seeing my fivefinger Vibram shoes packed inside. Itwas a novelty for her. Seeing a monk wasnot new to her though. On a less formalnote she asked how long I’ve been monking it up.
“Since ‘73”.
That remark raised her eyebrows a second time.
The day went on. Only long corridors at the Miami Airport gave some solace to thesoles. Thanks to the thrill of Floridaelection talks, blaring out of the CNN monitor. The political race may sound exciting for some but how many times mustthe same message be repeated over and over again. I do give it credit for chasing me out of thewaiting gate to explore those sterile looking corridors. It became my major walk for the day.
The last flight to home was sweet. I met a young woman, Mila, an actress, who alsoconsiders herself a destination walker – that is walking with a purposefulintent. Maybe you could call her walk agoal stroll.
And next to her was Dimitri from Russia who happens to bea traveler as well. His mode for movingis ‘in the air’. In fact he’s a pilotand flies 747’s. He shared with Mila andI on his i-Pad, sensational NASA shots of outer space, planets andgalaxies. And finally he took us topictures of his family as a proud father and husband would. At least he seemed to have his prioritiesright. I say that because CNN revealedthe results of a survey done in America. It appears a significant amount of people would sacrifice going to thewedding of a friend or the funeral of some acquaintance for going to theSuperbowl game.
Such priorities are ‘off’ let alone putting the spiritualcomponent in life at the forefront.
In any event ‘good luck’ in your careers Mila and Dimitriand put God in as the horse before the cart.
? km Millions of Drops
Georgetown, Guyana
I did not yet see the Guyanese sun on this trip, butthat’s okay, the sun shines with those pursuing spiritual life.
At the Nimai Pandit training center, the Sunday gatheringof determined souls who braved the torrential rain were brightly lit in theshower of the holy name. Under theshelter of a strong tin roof was their leader Prabhupada Deva, also a local bhaktiinstructor. With his usual smile he expressed to me thathe has an ongoing crew dumping buckets of water from the site. Otherwise we would all be sitting inwater. Being under sea level has itschallenges for a place like Guyana. Whenthe Dutch came here they implemented what they’ve been known for - buildingdykes and seawalls.
I spoke to an attentive crowd on the topic of the realmeaning of Mahatma according to the Gita, as rain kept slapping against theroof surface.
Prabhupada Deva teamed up with me at the Crane ISKCONCenter where he conducted a fire ceremony to assist the formal initiation ofthree men, Radha Nathabhar, Dhronacharya and Jaya Gaura, are the new namesgiven to the initiates, a fantastic trio. I emphasized in my talk that accompanied the ceremony that the world isin need of genuine spiritual leadership.
“Prepare yourselves for this through the study of ourbooks. Try to impress the world withyour good behavior as well as the message you will repeat from the line of information handed down by the sages. Echo the truth and distinguish it from the false promises of mundanepleasure.”
What followed was an explosive kirtan chanting session. After spending hours on this day with people delivering three classesand just as many or more chanting sessions, I felt an urge to have a short timeto myself as people were rushing in for the Sunday Feast, served on lotuspads. Down the road my feet carried meas I sported an umbrella overhead in the wake of millions of descendingraindrops and the sound of millions of frogs as the days closure came intofruition.
3 Km Please share your realisations with other devotees from around the world...simply send me an introduction message and I will be happy to make you a member: rasa108 {at} gmail.com ys Rasa Rasika dasa 
By His Holiness Danavir Goswami: Consumers within ISKCON and the greater society will pay the market price for higher grade (totally non-violent) dairy products if they know what goes into them and what happens and what does not happen to the cows that give the milk. Generating a market for premium protected milk will stimulate our own projects into remembering the value of home-produced milk. Then the next step will be to engage bulls in non-tractor, non-petroleum, non-violent agriculture for supplying our projects and others.  My latest essay at the World Faith Blog
Nearly a decade ago, I had the fortune of reading American Holocaust by David Stannard, which detailed the horrific conquest of Native American culture behind the “founding” of America. I found the very framework of my own cultural understanding thrown asunder. I realized that the “American Dream” had been largely birthed from a nightmare of unimaginable proportions.
I felt like I had been lied to, that the real fabric behind all the myths and legends of America was something else entirely that what I had absorbed as a open-minded youth in school. I now wanted to know what the truth really was, what truth really meant, and how to grasp a truth whose meaning would not be elusive or steeped in hypocrisy.
My own search for truth took me through many experiences and personal experiments into social justice and progressive philosophy into the realm of the spiritual, where I now live as a monk of the Hindu tradition in New York City. Yet I feel my journey is far from complete, as the bridge between the spiritual and activist spaces within my mind, heart, and soul feels unwalked to me. I want to know how I, as a monk, as a truth-seeker, with an open heart, can help to effect the kind of change we need in this world which is not ephemeral, which is linked to the eternal.
This disconnect came to the fore for me as I observed the march forward of the Occupy Wall Street movement over the past few months, its nucleus at Zuccotti Park just a short walk from my own monastery. I felt both a great inspiration for the courage and clamor of the huddled masses defying the fortress of inequality, yet I also felt a distance, a certain aloofness. I couldn’t connect, or find a deep personal motivation to become involved, to put my own body on the line.
As a monk, committed as much as I am to the inner spiritual journey, to the revolution of the heart, the realm of the politic feels incomplete without the consideration of the big picture. I am having a hard enough time occupying myself, knowing that unless I rend asunder my own greed, how can I make any impact taking on the forces of avarice that dominate our world? As great as the carnival spirit of OWS was and is, I desire a deeper connection, a clear bridge between our determination and our divinity.
A recent piece by Dylan Ratigan at the Huffington Post, titled “This Thanksgiving, Occupy Yourself”, helped to crystallize some of my own feelings and hopes with our grand new social justice movement. Dylan boldly challenges our own conception of the “villain” in the struggle that we face, asking us to look within the precepts of our own heart and being.
He writes:
I would point to the concept of the villain itself as the villain. For a villain, “the other”, lets us avoid dealing with the dark part that resides in each of us.
We all have dark thoughts — individually and as a nation. Fear, lust, anger, jealousy, deceit drive much of our decision-making. Yet, these are parts of ourselves we run away from. As a society, we have crafted a culture and set of institutional arrangements to deny this part of ourselves. This is why it has taken so long to even admit we have a problem of wealth inequality. It’s the denial of the dark part of ourselves.
But diabolical energy is part of human spirit, because we are dualistic beings. You cannot know honesty without knowing deceit, good cannot exist without evil, and life is not life without death. Our challenge is to reconcile all of these forces as they all exist in each of us. Any institutional arrangement that denies this, that relies on images of perfection bereft of the shadow, will inevitably be dominated by the very forces of that darkness. Namely fear of the shadow, ironically.
He quotes from Deepak Chopra’s The Shadow Effect:
We have been conditioned to fear the shadow side of life and the shadow side of ourselves. When we catch ourselves thinking a dark thought or acting out in a behavior that we feel is unacceptable, we run, just like a groundhog, back into our hole and hide, hoping, praying, it will disappear before we venture out again.
Why do we do this? Because we are afraid that no matter how hard we try, we will never be able to escape from this part of ourselves. And although ignoring or repressing our dark side is the norm, the sobering truth is that running from the shadow only intensifies its power. Denying it only leads to more pain, suffering, regret, and resignation. the shadow will charge, and instead of us being able to have control over it, the shadow winds up having control over us, triggering the shadow effect.
This is a deep, deep spiritual meditation, a call to face the injustice we cause to our own heart, to our own self. It echoes the tradition of the Bhagavad-Gita, which tells us that the only real enemy we face is the vicissitudes of our own mind, and which call for us to find a
radical and progressive forgiveness towards those we hope can change for the better in their thought and action.
It is my fervent hope that by occupying the secret yet potentially sacred spaces in my own heart and mind, with the courage supplied to me by the great souls around me in my monastery and beyond, that I will be able to make a humble contribution to the OWS movement and to all the peoples struggling and striving to fulfill our common destiny as a human family.
If we want to give divine solace to the pain so many people are feeling, not being allowed their inviolable right to the pursuit of happiness, we must learn to face the pain within us, and learn to speak the language of forgiveness and transcendence.
Chris Fici is a writer/teacher/monk of the bhakti-yoga tradition. He has been practicing at the Bhaktivedanta Ashram in New York City since 2009. After receiving a degree in film/video studies at the University of Michigan, Chris began his exploration and study of the bhakti tradition. He currently teaches classes on the culture and art of vegetarian cooking, as well as the living philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita, at New York University. 1966 February 1: "Today phoned Mr. Felix Morrow of University Books. His representative will let me know. It is also arranged today by phone that the Universalist Church will allow house for holding meeting on every Wednesday evening from 7/30 to 9 pm. Expenditure - Busfare .30" Prabhupada Journal :: 1966 1969 February 1: "Although you are not formally initiated, you have associated with our devotees and it has acted. The seed is already there in you and it has to be helped to grow and fructify. You can immediately start a center wherever it is possible for you." Prabhupada Letters :: 1969 1969 February 1: "There are innumerable living entities wandering within the universe and out of many, many of such conditioned souls, only one will come into contact with a bona fide Spiritual Master by the Grace of Krishna. Krishna can understand from within the sincerity of purpose of a particular living entity." Prabhupada Letters :: 1969 1969 February 1: "Simply engage yourself in Krishna's service. That will protect you from any attack of maya. Maya can take Krishna's place in our heart as soon as there is a slackness on our part. Otherwise, if Krishna's seated always, maya has no opportunity to occupy the seat." Prabhupada Letters :: 1969 1969 February 1: "I am very much encouraged by your proposal for constructing housing. This money will be secured somehow or other. These cottages needn't be very high class finished. They may be very roughly finished. We simply want protection, that's all." Prabhupada Letters :: 1969 1969 February 1: "Introduce to the colleges our Bhagavad-gita. If they are actually serious to receive instructions from Krishna, they absolutely must read our Bhagavad-gita As It Is. If they want some nonsense on the plea of reading Bhagavad-gita then there is nothing we can do to help them." Prabhupada Letters :: 1969 1975 February 1: "Come to India and live in Mayapur. I shall arrange a very nice room and you can peacefully engage in reading Srimad Bhagavatam. I think this arrangement will be very nice for you according to my idea. Now you decide what to do." Prabhupada Letters :: 1975 How can we trust the knowledge given in scripture if even the basic knowledge it offers about the world around us seems to be counter-intuitive to our common sense? is knowledge fixed and immutable that it can never change? While meditation, mantras and yoga are scientifically verified and beneficial to their practitioners - what about cosmology? Is cosmology of the past relevant now? If its irrelevant to the understanding of core spirituality, why is it so emphasized in ISKCON? To hear the answer, please click here To read Dr Thompson's article, please click here
Srila Prabhupada said that the whole world is full of questions and answers and that the human being, unless he is fast asleep at night, is busy with questions and answers. Thewhole process of self-realization and Krsna consciousness starts with the Vedicaphorism athato brahma jijnasa – now, therefore, is the time to inquire of theabsolute truth. Inquiry is extremely important in our spiritual tradition. However,I don’t think we use it enough and, also, we might not be aware what kind ofquestions appear in our mind.
Why Questions? Questionsthat we ask influence our thinking and our thinking influences our actions andour actions influence our results. Therefore questions influence our results. Thequestions that we ask ourselves influence what we get and what we achieve inlife. Thereare empowering questions and disempowering questions. If one is aware whatquestions are better, then he can consciously choose to ask questions all daylong that will bring him better results.
A Question That Saved A Life Thereis a story of a man imprisoned in a concentration camp during a Second WorldWar. He had a perfect situation to feel like a victim, but he was asking adifferent question. He asked “How can I escape, how can I use thissituation to find out a way to escape?” While other prisoners were asking “Why me, why God has put me in thissituation? Why these Nazi’s are so cruel?”, this man did not bother, he didnot waste his time with those questions. He was just asking “How can I escape?”Then one day he gotthe idea to mix with the corpses on the truck that unloaded them outside thecamp. That saved his life. When the corpses, along with him, were unloadedoutside the camp, he escaped.
Gita Cards Thereis a way to train ourselves and train our mind to ask empowering questions. Ihave something called Gita Cards, that have short texts with questions andquotes by Srila Prabhupada. One of the cards is called “Ask the right question”. If you find the right question about anysituation then it is a very powerful success tool which increases the likelihoodof success in that situation.
Effective Questions Thereare questions that waste time, e.g., “Whyothers are not perfect?” That typeof question is a waste of time because you can’t do much about it (unless youcan influence them and they can accept what you tell them). Betterthan asking why others are imperfect you can ask “How can I improve?” or “Howcan I influence them?”, if you want them to change. In this way you canlearn what questions are most effective and use them. Onequestion that my audiences like in my seminars (sometimes it’s a wake up moment)is when I ask them “What do you want inyour life, excuses or results?” Sometimes half the audience is being movedwith it and they think “Oh my God, thisis a question for me!”
Focus Peopleask “How can I be more focused? How can Ibecome more focused on what I want to do, without my mind being distracted?”I recommend that you ask yourself the right question. The good questionimmediately changes your focus, makes you refocus on your highest priorities,on what matters most to you. For example, if you find yourself lost during theday or you have too much to do, or you have nothing to do, you can ask yourselfa wonderful question “What is the mostvaluable use of my time right now?”
Create Questions Onething we can do individually is create questions that will inspire us or upliftus. Some devotees like to ask in the morning“How can I serve today or how can I contribute today? What can I give today?” The day thenstarts in a wonderful way regarding your activities for the day. Thereare devotees who sometimes fall into self-pity or they are not happy with whatthey have in their lives. I advise them to ask themselves in the morning “What am I grateful for?” I ask them to write down 10 things they aregrateful for. Youcan also ask this wonderful question “Whoare the people in my life that I love, who mean a lot to me?” This alsochanges your focus from being negative, depressed and in the scarcity mentalityto understand what you already have. Ihave caught myself so many times where I feel everything is there but I feelthere is something lacking. Then if I look around I can find so many thingsthat I need and I think “I don’t havethis, I don’t have that”. But then if I look around a little more and thinkabout who can help me and what is already, then I realize that everything ormost if it is already there.
An Amazing Story Thisis a true story about a man called W. Mitchell. He survived an aeroplaneaccident where he was heavily injured and it took him a very long time torecover. He was very determined to recover and he did. Then he had another (amotorcycle) accident where half of his body and face were burned. He became acomplete invalid. While he was in hospital he was very determined, he had avery strong mind. He didn’t lament and ask “Whythis has happened to me?” Instead,he asked “How can I use this?” Therewas a beautiful nurse that was caring for him and he was asking himself “How can I go on a date with her?” Hisroommates laughed at him said “You arecrazy, you’re like a piece of flash!” But he was asking this question andgradually they developed a relationship and this lady is now his wife. Also,another unbelievable thing is that this man is now a motivational speaker. Hegoes in a wheel chair on a stage. He does not have fingers, he is still aninvalid and his face is still burned but he teaches people how to be happy andsuccessful. So he asked a different question in a difficult situation.
A Starting Question WhenI ask people questions, one of the most difficult questions is “What do I want?” This question can be presentedin many different versions such as “Whatone great thing would you dare to dream if you knew you could not fail?” Thereare many reasons why this type of question is the most difficult. One of themis fear of failure or fear of success. Peoplesometimes don’t know what they want or they are afraid to admit what they want.They then supress it. They can be afraid to admit it for many reasons, e.g., thedesire may not be 100% pure, or they don’t think it’s achievable, or they fearthey will get it, and then what? For example, if someone wants fame but theyare afraid to admit it, they might think“Whatif I become famous? Then I am in trouble”.
A Precious Discovery Onequestion I like to ask when someone comes to me with a problem is “HHHowwould you solve this problem if you were super intelligent?” Or anotherquestion I ask is “If you were a worldexpert on these problems how would you solve it?” Then I ask them to come up with 10 solutions.I had this session with a devotee and I asked him to find five solutions forhis problem. At first he was reluctant but then he surrendered to the exercise.When I came back he was smiling. He was very happy that he had found his ownsolutions to his issue. So then I said you not a world expert anymore you areyourself again and I want you to find the best excuse for each of thesolutions. I went out for 5-10 minutes, when I came back he was laughinguncontrollably. I asked him “Whathappened?” He replied “I justrealised I have been sabotaging myself my whole life”. He had five nicesolutions which he came up with and he also had five best excuses for each ofthose solutions. He was laughing at how ridiculous his excuses were. You candiscover how the mind works and how the mind creates these excuses, why somethingcannot be done.
Why It Can Be Done? OnceI said to the devotees “I am notimpressed when you tell me why something cannot be done. But instead you tellme how something impossible can be done, tell me how it can be accomplished andthe steps involved”. We know from the scriptures that anything is possibleby Krsna’s mercy and the mercy of the Vaisnavas. So if we properly connect andask the right questions we can achieve amazing things.
What Else? Thereis a powerful question that expands options. The question is “What else is possible? What else can I do?”You can always expand the number of options that you have about any issue, anyproblem you wan to solve, or result you want to achieve by simply asking “What else?” In this way you expand thepossibilities and options.
Start A Day Irecommend starting a day with a good question, like “How can I please Srila Prabhupada today, or how I can please Krsnatoday, or how can I serve the devotees today?” These are simple question but they can help alot to define what we will do during the day. I think we are made in such a waythat if we do not improve constantly we cannot be happy. You can do anything toplease yourself, but if you don’t work on your character, your skills or yourability to please Krsna you cannot be happy.
Turnaround Question Thelast powerful question that is very practical and relevant is the one we canask when we face any problem. It is “Howcan I turn this problem into an opportunity?” Turning problems intoopportunities is a very important skill. We face problems all the time, butinstead of allowing problems to overwhelm us and think that these problems arethere to destroy or crush us we can actually turn them around and use them to learn,to grow, to develop, and ultimately to become successful.
Questions To Satisfy The Soul SrilaPrabhupada writes in the Srimad Bhagavatam Purport (SB 1.2.5) that satisfactionof the soul can only be obtained by questions and answers on the subject ofKrsna. In the ultimate issue, we want to ask questions that will help us makespiritual advancement and please Krsna and His devotees. We may use the abovequestions, and many other powerful questions, to transform our lives and graduallyattain the ultimate goal of life.
If you would like to have a seminar onquestions in your community, contact Akrura dasa on akrura@gmail.com
Theseminar is called: Excellent QuestionsFor Excellent Life. The Power Point Presentation and outline areavailable on request. For more spiritual and professional ideas and tools visitGita Coaching blog: http://gitacoaching.blogspot.com/ 
The below is a repost from last year to honour the disappearance day of Sri Madhvacarya. Although the reference to "yesterday's lecture" is referring to a lecture from almost a year back, the article remains substantial and important to understand our lineage and to respect and appreciate the parampara that Srila Prabhupada has so mercifully linked us to. Sri Madhvacarya ki Jaya!
Today marks the disappearance day of Madhvacarya. Srila Prabhupda stated that "Our original sampradaya stems from Madhvacarya". There is an adage that "you need to know where you come from to know where you are going". In the teachings of Lord Kapila, Srila Prabhupda firmly places our sampradaya roots with the following statement:
"At the present moment, the Brahma sampradaya is represented by the Madhva-sampradaya, and we belong to the Madhva-Gaudiya-sampradaya. Our original sampradaya stems from Madhvacarya. In that sampradaya there was Madhavendra Puri, and Madhavendra Puri’s disciple was Sri Isvara Puri. Sri Isvara Puri’s disciple was Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Thus we are coming in the disciplic succession from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and therefore our sampradaya is called the Madhva-Gaudiya-sampradaya."
There is also another adage, that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing". Once in India there was a picture of Madhvacarya and I paid my obeisances and another devotee did not pay respects.
In regards to our connection with Madhvachary, Bhaktivinoda Thakur wrote in his 1892 work Mahaprabhura siksha that those who reject this connection are “the greatest enemies of Sri Krishna Chaitanya’s family of followers.”
Another adage is "do not judge a book by its cover". After the afformentioned incident I asked the devotee about the picture thinking that perhaps I was confused. Something to the effect "must be some sort of mayavadi" was said. Perhaps this assumption was based on the unique look and picture of Madhvacharya. Well quite the opposite (and that is an understatement).
I have borrowed the following paragraph...
"Madhvacharya’s learning and devotion to Krishna were famous throughout India. His life’s mission was to defeat the views of the impersonalist philosophers. They say that God’s form is simply illusion (maya), and thus they are called Mayavadis. “Even if God was a person in the beginning,” these people say, “He has distributed Himself throughout the creation and thus lost His individual identity.” Madhvacharya smashed this monistic (“all-is-one”) idea with the philosophy of shuddha-dvaita—pure dualism. He proved logically that God is always a person and is always distinct from His creation. As anyone can see, the sun is producing volumes of energy but remains the same sun. Similarly, a tree may produce many fruits, but it remains the same tree. Likewise, Lord Krishna produces the material world, but He Himself remains separate from it—He remains the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Here is the real teaching of the Vedas.Thus, Madhvacharya ‘s teaching is called tattva-vada—tattva means “truth,” and vada means philosophy.”
Yesterday evening there was an excellent discourse by Rohinipriya das in which he addressed how the impersonalists even renounce Krishna. In his lecture he also talked about the sentamentalists trying to elevate themselves to a level of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu by showing all sorts of emotions which require significant elevation to achieve. I have heard with my own ears a devotee telling me that they had "tears" listening to the raas of a lecture. And in his lecture he used the example of how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu of course demonstated the signifcance of the Holy Name but also how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu demonstrated brilliant Vedanta philosophy in Varanasi to defeat Prakashananda Saraswati and the Mayavadi philosophy.
This synergy of stories demonstrates the disciplic succession and vedanta of Madhvacharya and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. It also shows the stress of both the holy name and strong vedanta. But as the adage goes, "often immitated but never duplicated", we should not try to artificially elevate ourselves to demonstrate false sentamentalism.
Madhvacharya set the stage for the Krishna consciousness movement. He stressed the chanting of the holy names of Krishna. Commenting on the Mundaka Upanishad,he wrote that in the present age one can satisfy and worship Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, simply by chanting His holy names. Madhvacharya also wrote, “There are many lands, fields, mountains, and oceans throughout the creation, and everywhere the Supreme Personality of Godhead is worshiped by the chanting of His different names.”
So in this way let's not only recogize the picture of Madhvacharya but also recognize our disciplic succession/sampradaya and honour Madhvacharya.
Srimad Bhagavatam 1.6.26 - Purification, knowledge, and a higher taste are important factors in a devotee's life. Earthquake in Ratha-Krishna Temple – Sivarama Swami’s Bhajans 14/01/2012
A daily broadcast of the Ultimate Self Realization Course Wednesday 1 February 2012 The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna, and His eternal consort, Srimati Radharani are enjoying transcendental pastimes in the topmost planet of the spiritual world, Sri Goloka Vrindavan. They are beckoning us to rejoin them. (Click on photo to see a larger image.) Our Mission: To help everyone awaken their original Krishna consciousness, which is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. Such a global awakening will, in one stroke, solve all the problems of the world society bringing in a new era of unprecedented peace and prosperity for all. May that day, which the world so desperately needs, come very soon. We request you to participate in this mission by reviving your dormant Krishna consciousness and assisting us in spreading this science all over the world. Dedicated with love to ISKCON Founder-Acharya: His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, our beloved spiritual master, and to you, our dear readers. For Transcendental Association Connect With Other Members of this Course. Join this Conference: http://groups.google.com/group/sda_students Help Popularize Our Message By Liking Today's Thought on Facebook: Today's Thought: Don't Be a Fool Who Simply Serves His Senses uploaded from Bhaktivedanta Ashram--Austin, Texas USA Don't make the foolish mistake of wasting your human form of life by dedicating it to the service of your temporary material senses. Why foolishly dedicate your entire life to serving something which is not you? The senses are not the self. They are simply coverings of the self. So come out of these coverings and be who you actually are. Serve your real self, the eternal spiritual being within. Give up your suffering and celebrate your eternal spiritual identity as the eternal servant of Krishna at every minute. Don't be a dead man. Become a fully enlightened being by regularly chanting Krishna's holy names with love. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Celebrating Our Eternal Relationship with Krishna Kirtan at Bhaktivedanta Ashram--29 January 2012 http://www.backtohome.com/images/Austin_2011/Austin_Kirtan.jpg Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: What is Krishna Consciousness? Dear Srila Gurudeva, Please accept my humble obeisances. When people ask what is Krishna consciousness, what should I answer in a simple and clear sentence? Your servant. Yamunadevi Malaysia Answer: Know Who You Are and Be Who You Are. Krishna consciousness means to know who you are and be who are. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Transcendental Resources: Receive the Special Blessings of Krishna Now you too can render the greatest service to the suffering humanity and attract the all-auspicious blessings of Lord Sri Krishna upon yourself and your family by assisting our mission. Lectures and Kirtans in Audio and Video: Link to High Definition Videos Link to Over 1,000 Lecture Audios Lecture-Travel Schedule for 2012-2013 http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/schedule Have Questions or Need Further Guidance? Check out the resources at: http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com or write Sankarshan Das Adhikari at: sda@backtohome.com Get your copy today of the world's greatest self-realization guide book, Bhagavad-gita As It Is available at:http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/store Know someone who could benefit from this? Forward it to them. Searchable archives of all of course material: http://www.sda-archives.com Receive Thought for the Day as an RSS feed: http://www.backtohome.com/rss.htm Unsubscribe or change your email address Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Daily_Thought Thought for the Day on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Ultimate.Self.Realization Copyright 2005-2012 by Ultimate Self Realization.Com Distribution of this material is encouraged. Simply we request you to acknowledge where it is coming from with a link to our sign up page: http://www.backtohome.com Our records indicate that at requested to be enrolled to receive e-mails from the Ultimate Self Realization Course at: This request was made on: From the following IP address: {contact_address  Date: January 30th, 2012
Topic: Sri Advaita Acarya's Appearance day
[C.C. Adi 6.5]
Speaker: HH Bhakti V.V.Swami
advaitam harinadvaitad
acaryam bhakti-samsanat
bhaktavataram isam tam
advaitacaryam asraye TRANSLATION:Because He is non-different from Hari, the Supreme Lord, He is called Advaita, and because He propagates the cult of devotion, He is called Acarya. He is the Lord and the incarnation of the Lord's devotee. Therefore I take shelter of Him. [CC Adi 6.5] read more More Recent Articles | |
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