Letters to the editor

previous letter:https://monkeywarrior.com/detail/14836/

Hare Krsna Gurudeva,

AGTSP, PAMHO,

Rounds have improved, back to chanting 16 rounds per day, keeping tracl of backlog, 4 rules super strict.

digital mangal artik on mayapur.tv

trying to practice/live https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/8/7/.

how can dual life , one in externa world and one in internal world... i think thats what we have to practice?

the youtube link on Sikshaastakm is not by Vrindavan Japa Preacher, but famous Late MS Subhalaxmi Carnatic singer

Obeisances,

trying to be Das of Hayagriva Avatar

hps - so nice, agtSP, to get your association. your mercy has always been big, big, thing for us. we have big debt to you, that we try to repay.

arjuna, bg, is this question.

he has dual, triune, quartenary, lives to lead:

• serve wife
• big brother
• family/dynasty
• laws of renunciation, don't kill for kingdom.

how does he do it? fight, not fight...? how? 🙂

she is famous lady. she performed in berkeley temple ⛪

ASA[e] Guru-tattva; Death of Guru

"Dear Maharaj,

PAMHO AGTSP!

In exchange for my Tapasya, I ask Krsna today for more years in your life Guru Maharaj. If Krsna has brought Pralaya in my life, and I must save and bring everything good from this land of India, and cross the oceans and settle a new land, a new age, He has to give me the sages to help. Without you, I’m clueless 🙏🏻. I would like to bring you with me as well back from India this year 🙏🏻. This is what I ask Krsna in return for everything He has taken, Guru Maharaj. 

YAS,

TN D

HpS/ASA --- AgtSP. Paoho. You should read the "Phaedo". Socrates discusses the same points.

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1658/pg1658-images.html

Also, in the Chapter, 'Puranjana Becomes A Woman' there is great discussion of death of guru when Vidarbi's (?) husband leaves his body.

Brother Ass was 40% deaf in August 2023. I think he is at least 50% deaf now in May 2024. So, planning for his complete failure by December 2024 is not impractical. Weather man says 85% chance of rain starting at 1PM so we carry an umbrella.

Maybe we will be in this body until we are 200-years old.

Maybe by the wishes of pious good ladies we will recover our hearing.

I don't know.

Yet, in general, there will always be someone 35 when the elder dies at 75 but he will leave books, etc, and then if the relationship is spiritual then it can go to the immortal level.

When there is Vapu we take advantage of it.

When there is not we focus on Vani.

Many more aspects to this but have to deal with NIOS letter for all of our benefit now.

Will look at the Blog posts later.

Thank you! More Blog-blog-dialog to come!

asa[e] vad; female guru ... guru-tattva; female guru

ASA - Sriman Basu Gosh Das, thank you for the letter:

One point that really grounds us in the discussions of racism, feminism, nationalism in ISKCON is that first we want to distinguish who is Kanistha, Madhyama or Uttama Adhikari in the discussion. If we are talking with/about an Indian, black, woman devotee then we want to know if s(he)it is Kanistha, Madhyama or Uttama Adhikari.

Other point is that Diksa is for us a very [Daivi] Varna-ashrama Dharma position, so if a woman is doing it, then it must be under the protection of her father, husband, grown up son.

Especially for such a role, the Guru must be proper example of an initiated devotee.

When a we think of her in a public relation, it must be obvious to us who is her protector.

For example, Mother Urmilla Devi Dasi, Mother Narayani Devi Dasi, Mother Rukmini Devi Das, are all Gurus to us.

Yet it is not obvious to us under whose protection they are acting in our institution. As a Sannyasi we would really only want to communicate with them under the glance of their protectors. ... Mother Uttama Devi Dasi of the Grhasta Vision team is so much under the protection of my friend, her husband, Partha Das, that I feel communicating with one is communicating with the other... Make any sense?

asa[e] sankirtan; jung

From professor Hayagriva:

Hare Krishna Maharaja, Dandavat Pranam. 🙏🏾Thought you might find this interesting…

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/04/carl-jung-pillars-life-happiness/678009/

asa[e] - guru-tattva, hpswami . vaidhi bhakti, mind control

Hare Krsna Gurudeva,

We were hoping that we would get answer of reports.

HpS - 😟 Yes! We have been struggling with our own laziness and limited ability, and seem to be making some progress to toward that goal. That is why we deny having lotus feet. We hope to be one of many avenues to our Guru, ISKCON Founder Acharya Srila Prabhupada.

We pray that you are getting his association through his books, disciples, the Lord in the Heart, and by using us, even though a limited tool.

Even though we know that you are on the journey towards spontaneous bhakti, though maybe not manifest. Its better to assume as you wrote in Guru-Tattva.txt

We will just summarize, we are sticking to four rules strictly, and some manage to chant.

we also did not want to write because their nothing is inspiring to reads, same problem, same issue, even more aggravating.

HpS - "Contributing or distributing the holy name of the Lord is a sublime example of contributing or giving charity (the dadāti principle)." https://vedabase.io/en/library/noi/4/#bb5907

You can always post the maha-mantra. you can even use different colors etc.

Monkey and Piggy will read it to our ASA Deitys!

our mind rambling is of no help. however on 25 March 2024, the way you checked our chanting,

ASA - Was what? ❓ Impertinent, useful, confussing? Did your mind wander from the rest of the sentence?

..our four rules are intact, Japa has dwindled over 4 months especially in quality, we are maintaing four rules by subtle enjoymets [enjoyments], of history, interviews etc.

ASA - 🐵 send us some of the nice links. We can, must, see KRSNA in our passions. Eg. Krsna says that He is the ability in man, among men he is the monarch. so reading Ramayana is perfect but reading about great historical figures has its utility. Merit. for us fallen 🐶.

we some how implement the idea that communicating with you very essential.

we our getting bogged down, on thought of our VAD situation, basic prasad, sudden crying, adrenaline rush etc.

ASA - Tell us about it! We are still at about C+ in honoring Prasadam. Yet, this is Kaliyuga, so maybe all we can hope for is B+.

Some days we get A scores.

we now prominsing to chant one breath one mantra, for at least 24 minutes. and then chant 16 rounds somehow.

HpS/ASA - I think that may cause hyper-ventilation. Try as many Mantras as you can on one breath. Maybe even a few after your lungs are empty.

https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/3/28/9/#bb26345

we dont know how to maintain even out [our] body....... somehow we think that your Holiness has seen something that he has given inti[ti]ation.

HpS - You passed the test. 🙂 For 1st initiation.

on the other hand we have got introduced to Saint whom we have been hearing , who focuses on Nama-Japa. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CNldKCGK80&t=29s

We are finding him more helpful than IKSCON [ISKCON?] execpt [except] you.

HpS/ASA - He speaks in a "funny" language!!! Does he say the Name of Krsna?

Yeah, IKSCON, is kind of a perverted form of ISKCON. Then there are not perverted, but just neophyte forms of ISKCON eg. ISKCON Life Membership Programs.

They can be nice. They can be neophyte pure devotees, but they are not required to follow the standard of Srila Prabhupada's initiated disciples.

I don't know if I will disappoint you.

HpS - I am constantly disappointing our Guru, Srila Prabhupada, but he does praise us for some things we do.

What percentage of people in our social/psychological group of Indians follow the four principles?

Chant any Japa, under the authority of Saint like Srila Prabhupada?

We recommend readers to Hear : Self Love worskhops my H. G. Mahatama Prabhu other workshop https://mahatmadas.com/workshops-courses-devotees/

we are determined not to disappoint you.

trying to [be] Hayagriva Avatar Das

HpS - We have been friends for many years. Hope we continue forever. Going to your next letter.

Thank you!!!!

asa[e] ISKCON, three levels.

Dear Guru Maharaja, Hare Krsna!

Please accept my obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

I watched more than a few of your talks in Houston. Not all, as there were many of them, and were not listed by name. So between all the other lectures by different devotees, I tried to find yours and listen. Thank you and all the devotees who made the lectures available online.

If you allow, I would like to comment and ask about what you wrote here:

https://monkeywarrior.com/detail/14793/

Somebody said: “Thank you so much for mentioning the three levels of Iskcon, I'm interested to know about that!😃

You answered: HpS/ASA - Look for "Gopis Attracted by the Sound of the Flute" chapter title in the KRSNA book. Tell us what you find there.

——————

I read the chapter.

My observations follow…

Different gopis talk about Krsna and Balarama and Their connection to different personalities (cows, peacocks, birds(sages), clouds, Giriraja, deer, Yamuna, etc.). Each gopi shares something about Krsna. 

There are aborigine women in Vraja. It looks (from my memory of hearing elsewhere) like they are not from Krsna’s village. Interesting is that one meaning of aborigine is original inhabitants. 

Gopis talk about Krsna and what they remember, i.e. they had a direct experience of Krsna as seeing Him. In other words, they did not need to hear and then talk about what they heard but experienced Him face to face. 

Whoever heard the sound of Krsna’s flute was captivated. The flute’s sound extended to all corners of the universe. Does it mean that around 5000 years ago, everybody present in the world heard the flute? If yes, why in another sentence is said that sages took the form of birds in Vrindavana to be able to hear the flute?

HpS - What, agtSP, comes to our mind is that we are always existing in Bhur Bhuvah and Svar. It is like being in the movie theater. We have our immediate sensual environment, but it is limited to what we are seeing and hearing on the screen. We are not conscious of who is sitting next to us.

So, the sound of Krsna's flute is really available to everyone at all three levels, but some are absorbed in the Bhumandala so they need to focus, take birth, in hearing it there.

Calve’s mouth got stuck to the cow's nipples and could not suck milk and tears were coming from their eyes. They knew how to embrace Krsna heart to heart!

Please, could you share the three levels of ISKCON and how they connect to this beautiful and magical chapter?

HpS/ASA - I think I answered this in another letter, but cannot find it. So, this time I am tagging it Category B.

1st level is that the Gopis are good citizens of Nanda Maharaja's village. They milk cows, bargain over the price of their milk products, pay their taxes, voice their opinions about the management etc.

Of course, this is all done with service attitude.

So, we should all have the same relationship to ISKCON as an institution and of course at this level management structure, GBC, is prominent.

We should do our jobs and expect the GBC to do theirs.

2nd level of ISKCON is that it is a group of friends. Gopis heard the sound of Krsna's flute, and externally continued with their institutional, household activities, but began to start having confidential words about the situation, sound of the flute... with their friends.

So, we may have a very close friend who is GBC, Sannyasi, PhD etc but we are Temple cleaners. We act with each other in our Institutional perspective but have confidential relationship.

3rd Level is that each one remembered her direct experience of her relationship with KRSNA. Eg. "Oh, Krsna, composed that song to make me laugh when we were alone last night as arranged by Srimati Radha making garlands for next Surya puja."

When she remembers that she cannot even be completely coherent in your friendly relations, level two.

So, we all have to have a direct, personal relationship with Srila Prabhupada. It may be through so many media, such as his books, other devotees, within our heart, but it is there. It informs us about how to execute levels one and two.

I remember that I had read KRSNA book for one year. Then came to Temple and maybe visited for another year, and then moved in.

At one point I was walking to my outside work up a hill trying to sort out all the chaos of living in the Temple etc.

Then I had this realization that it did not matter if everyone else was crazy, I was going to serve Srila Prabhupada, and I knew enough about what he exactly wanted me to do.

He wanted me to chant 16-good rounds.

He wanted me to make my best contribution to his Sankirtan.

He wanted me to support his institution, make compensations for shortcomings of my superiors etc.

I felt that Prabhupada was aware of my determination and accepted it.

Stopping to meditate on Srila Prabhupada's murti, picture, stimulates this perspective. It also makes me humble in appreciating the superior connection that other disciples have with my Guru and how he is happy when I take advantage of that to approach him.

O.K.?

Thank you very much!

Your servant Namacarya Das