Letters to the editor

From: Bhaktarupa (das) ACBSP (Puri - IN) <>
To: Srivasa Pandit Das <> 
Cc: HpS (HHR) <>; Vaisesika Prabhu <>
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2017 2:19 AM
Subject: Re: Bhakti Vaibhava certificates
As per the standards there are four areas of assessment, not just one question paper per semester. Since the kind of procedure that you used was never anticipated by the Board members, they will need to be convinced that it was satisfactory. Please prepare a full presentation of what procedures were followed in this regard for all the assessment areas, addressed to the Board.

Your servant, Bhaktarupa Das

___________________________________________________

HpS - Hare Krsna. Prabhu, BOEX

AGTSP Paoho

You asked "Who prepared the exams" and it seems Srivasa pt. Das answered that question. The exams were done Semester by Semester, which I think is pretty common. This included a total of 200 short answer questions over eight Semesters as required and then the one-hundred pages of essays as required. The essays were written more or less as we did each chapter and then collected and edited into one document which is with Srivasa pt. Das.

The Semester Exams also included the testing on the relevant Slokas cited in each Chapter and also those cited within Purports eg. "parasya shaktir vividaiva sruyate svabhavika jnana bala kriya ca".

1. Short Answer

2. Slokas

3. Essays

Personal Presentations: Then, our structure, for four years, was roughly doing one chapter a week. Everyone would use the Chapter Study Guides we had developed and then meet with their Study Partner each week on line - usually 1.5 hours. Then there was a general meeting on-line every Saturday. One member was the Presenter and another the Chief Guest. These presentations were about 50-minutes with Power Point shows and the Chief Guest would come in if there was some confusion during the presentation and everyone would make their individual questions and comments after that. Again that was about 1.5 hours. The next week the Chief Guest was the Presenter.

There were one week for Module Reviews and one week for Semester Reviews.

In rotation each Semester one pair of partners were Curriculum Development Team and they also would set the test questions from the Semester Review Questions, like the Question Study Bank for the Mayapura Institute. The class was about nine devotees: Two PhD, four Bachelor, our selves, Vaisesika Das etc.

There are two more groups now in progress in San Jose.

The Semester Review Questions (Source of Exams) was reviewed by everybody and edited, and many or most cases Radhika-rama Das saw the question sheets and said that they were very nice.

The very last Semester the Temple President in Boise was Anantarupa Das and he had some strong criticisms of the entire world wide program  and local application that have been very useful.

So, and the students presented about every two months over 48-months.

Anything else?

In general, as Member of the Executive Committee of the Ministry etc we see, as Yadunandana Swami said, higher education in ISKCON is in diapers. 

We've watched the program in Mayapura, Govardhana Eco-village, San Jose, Houston, Washington D. C., Vrndavana, Melbourne, Brazil etc and the Board of Examiners and there is a LOT of work we all have to do to bring this up to a good standard, but the diplomas that Harvard gives now cannot be compared to the diplomas they gave in 1636!

My opinion and I hear from others in those programs that all the Sastri Studies Institutions have serious defects and we need to have more communication and cooperation, accept that people will have half a brain in their heads and understand that this is a start up program and we are rewarding students as much for their pioneering spirit as well as for their memorizing facts and concepts.

I think Srivasa pt. Das also explained how Vaiseka Das is already finishing his last Master's Class. These are great and we can include them as part of the curriculum in the future for all BhVai programs if the want.

As far as I can see San Jose followed the proposed system which was approved by the BOEX and it is the basically the same system that is being used by most everyone with adjustment for residential and on-line facilities etc. I don't see how it is something that was never done before????

Also, the students in San Jose in the current groups have physical meetings on a weekly basis now and we have been having a week of physical meetings with all the students in Boise each year.

Hare Krsna!

Mathuresa dasa

__________________________________________________________________

From: Devaki nandana Das 
To: HpS (HHR) Cc: mathuresa das bolivia; Mitravinda Devi Dasi
Sent: Monday, November 20, 2017 6:48 AM
Subject: Re: GBC College Latino America

Pamho. AgtSP
Thank you for your answer gurumaharaja. You are very kind and merciful. We are very very happy that you accepted this invitation. Your presence here will be very enlightening for all of us.
We´ll try to organize the trip with devotees from Peru and Argentina. I´ll check in the blog the communication.
We would like to know, What topics/course would you like to teach or share with the students?. It's possible to give a course or a dharshan (a talk, but not formally a course). For example, Dhanvantari swami and Yamuna acarya das goswami will give dharshan about this topics:
- Dhanvantari Swami: love and trust, self-leadership, sustainability, leadership models. 
- Yamunacarya maharaja will talk about non violent communication.
We also need to know how much time you will need to give each course/topic you want to teach.
We are finishing the organization of the entire program for the first residential. I´ll send soon a list with the details.

Maturesh prabhu told me that you asked him about how to reach Campina Grande (where the Jaladuta Institute is located ). The gbc-college course will be at the Instituto Jaladuta. 
There are two main options:

- The closest international airport is Recife. It's about 4 hours by car from Campina Grande.

- Next option is to arrive in Sao Paulo Airport and from Sao Paulo take an internal flight to Campina Grande. Sao Paulo has a lot of international conectionsWe will organize to cover your ticket. Do you want us to buy it or do you prefer to buy it and then we refund you?

Soon, I will send you details of what we have been working so far in the organization of the Gbc-College for Latin America.

Obeisances.

Your servant Devaki-nandana das.

HpS - Thank you. We will start to look for a ticket and how to co-ordinate with Argentina and Bajo and Alto Peru but please send us any ideas.

The seminar  is two weeks? Should we stay the while time or move on to other places, Argentina, Bolivia etc. What dates? Don't want to schedule Bolivia while everyone is in Brazil.

We can present: 1. Practical Experiences in ISKCON mangement: Head Pujari, Temple President, Zonal Legal Officer, Organizing Symposia with the Universities etc.; 2. Scriptural Perspective - Varna-Ashrama-Dharma and ISKCON Leadership - Sannyasis and Ksatriyas; 3. IMS - Information Management Systems - How to organize your time and facts; 4. Every Temple and Educational Center.

These could be short, all combined into one hour. They could be longer. They could be workshops with other presenters.

These are some of our first ideas.

Hare Krsna,

Anuttama Das Prabhu,
AGTSP!   Paoho.  How is your Grace?  Atreya Rsi Das told us that of all his GBC Godbrothers Hansadutta Swami was the most intelligent, but it wasn't is intelligence he worried about, it was his morality.
Hansadutta told us that we were "a man ahead of our time", but considering that I think the next suggestion is in time.
You should run for President of the United Sates of America with your wife as First Lady and Tulasi-garbha from Hawaii as you running mate, Vice-Presidential candidate.
Please tell your esteemed wife about this (Macbeth).
Both funny and all to serious.
All ISKCON Members would vote for you and support you. All our friends would vote for you. Dharmic and even sane people, the more we get our ideas out, would vote for you and maybe we would not win this time, but maybe we could get in as Secretary of Education, Human Resouces...
O.K. Balls in you Court, Mr. President Elect.

! Todas las glorias a sus señorías más misericordiosas Sri Sri Gaura Nitay!

! Todas las glorias a SrilaPrabhupada y a su sankirtana eterno que salva vidas!

Hare krishna querido Gurudeva, pamho, nuestro reporte es el siguiente;

Sadhana 5:00 am. a 5:30am., algunos días cantamos 16 rondas y otras 25 rondas, tenemos el deseo de volver a las 25 rondas después de casi medio año, 3 gayatris a la hora, los 4 principios está bien, bañando a las silas, recuperamos nuestra lectura del NOD y con mi esposo el SB canto 2.

ASA - Oooof!  Super-chica!

Cerramos el restaurante por algunos inconvenientes y porque nuestra vida espiritual se estaba debilitando, era muy cansador pero logramos la meta de hacer la casa  para tomar como una base de sankirtana.

ASA - Si, restaurante is MUY fuerte.

También dejamos de hacer programas en el centro cultural Bhaktivedanta por una serie de conflictos, revanchismo entre dos grupos y por otras cosas que no quiero dar detalles, entiendo que todos estamos en el proceso, pero lección cumplida para enfocarnos más en la distribución de libros, como Ud. Dijo una vez; el avance se ve de adentro hacia afuera, ahora quiero estar bien yo espiritualmente y que lo demás se dé, aquí donde están los terrenos  y la casa hay un señor juez que quiere ser devoto así que mientras estémos en Huancayo trataremos de darle lo que Prabhupada nos enseñó, estamos haciendo programas en su casa los domingos.

M. Anadi adi Govinda nos invitó para ir a bolivia para hacer sankirtana me encantaría poder tener su asociación para enero 2018, por el momento aquí en Huancayo estámos distribuyendo libros Gadai Prabhu está feliz por volver al sankirtana solo me queda aferrarme a su dhoti  para volverme experta como El. 

En enero un devoto de la India nos está trayendo 60 silas estámos muy felices pero Gadai está más feliz que yo.

ASA - 60!!!

Veo más seguido a mis padres y a mi único hermano, hay más comunicación con ellos, mi padre quiere ir a la India y mi deseo sigue vigente de poder llegar al santo dham, por ello voy a volver a empezar a prepararme espiritualmente.

Eso es todo Gurudeva perdón por ser tan materialista estoy tratando de espiritualizar las cosas en conciencia de Krsna. Vimos fotos de Ud. En India 

Atte. Nadiya Nivasi Dasi

HpS - Hare Krsna!!!      Demurra una mez responder. Viaje a India y Australia. HK!   HK!   Muy inspirador oir de Vds. A veces tenemos que evitar unos otros miembros de ISKCON por que no son de la misma humor de nosotros. ISKCON es bastante amplio, y a veces porque son Kanistha-adhikaris y muy materialist en su servicio.

Siempre buscando como podemos ayudar cualquiere person entrar en el servicio de Krsna. Krsna tiene mucho hacer!!!    Vamos a Peru en Febrero, Marzo.

Entra profundamente en la Lila de Senyor Nityananda.

Hare Krishna Maharaja, Please accept my humble obiesances, All glories to Prabhupada!

Dear Maharaja, I am so concerned with non-devotees opinion of me, such as family, bosses, people in general etc. I feel my consciousness is very much degraded due to my own past sins as well as my association with non-devotees. I am choosing to make some big changes and relocate away from family, girlfriend, job etc and start over somewhere new. I was hired on a very impressive small organic farm in Arizona near Phoneix, So I am going to leave this unwholesome relationships behind and go further develop my farming skills, as well as become an balanced mature adult. After maybe 1-2 years in Arizona I want to go around to our Iskcon projects and help them become more succesful in agriculture/self-sufficiency and communal development.

HpS - Show them your staunch morning program also.

I hope these aspires [aspirations] somehow are pleasing to you and that with Krsna's grace I can become a fully surrendered soul and useful to the Sankirtana Mission.

For some long time I thought there was something wrong with me because I have lived so recklessly toward family and social custom/relations. In my early 20's I never had a problem with caring about jobs, bosses, family opinion etc. I would drop everything in a second and leave a situation. So I have been trying to remediate what I thought was a defective irresponsible habit. But now I am seeing that the real situation is that I just don't want to fit in or be a part of the pscyhopath civilization and I don't want to get sucked in from that bad association. I am finished trying to fit in or please the non-devotees. Therefore I believe today I will quit my job, I will skip my sisters wedding this weekend (it would require me driving 6 hours there and back in 2 days to Nashville) and I will start driving across the country to my new job this Saturday, I will stop by a few temples and spend time with devotees and also engage in preaching/harinama activity along the way.

There is a temple in Phoneix AZ about an hour from the farm, so I am hoping to utilize the spiritual atmosophere at. It feels like it is time to leave the nest. Please give your blessings that I progress on the path of Devotional Service.

HpS - Sorry has taken some time to answer! We have been travling like crazy in India and South America. . . .  Well what happened? Has the Organic Farm in Arizon been nice? Temple is nice? Was the farm actually a cover for a big international jewelry smuggling ring? Did you die of a heart attack when you saw Radha Krsna in Phoenix?

I don't know enough details to tell you if your move seems good or bad. What happened to to all the stuff you planted?? As you descrbie it it seems O.K? Did you call you sister and husband?