Letters to the editor

Leave Houston 3PM, 27th September, arrive Delhi like 10.45PM the next day.

. . .

Leave Delhi 3AM, 8th November, arrive Houston, 1.30PM

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. . . Six weeks.
Visit Kolkatta, Vraja, Ujjain (GBC Meetings), Mumbai...??

!! AUSTRALIA (for Ten Days) - Just need a round trip ticket, Mate!!

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Oink!   HAre Krsna!

We offered orange juice, raisins with walnuts, and then boiled carrots and potatoes with salt and butter to Lord Nrsmhadeva.

Last night was program at NGD.  Every Firday when they are there and no one is too sick. Only about 8-people came because many had to go to a funeral.

Seems to us that our joints get stiff from one week or two of not dancing, but given a hint, everyone wants to send the Holy Name deep into them.  Hope it reaches the heart too, soon.

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Next week and the week after the following week NGD and family will be in Chicago and at the Kirtan mela. We will be ALONE!!!!

Maybe some one will invite us too tea.

Workshop this morning was so nice.   Getting practical work done.

No contact with RGD for several days. Several projects floundering.

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You can see the letter for Seattle.

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Seems the 2018 Symposium in Peru is also finished. No commitment from the National Library, but as long as we have life we can preach!

Now buy India ticket!  Abhirama, Yugala, CmDD ... LAD... Anandamaya...    Ananda vardana ...  Bhadra gopal.... everyone should go to India, Bharata!

Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

First of all, thank you very much for your letter, and sorry for answering so late, but from 27th april to 1th may, I have been with Yadunandana Swami Maharaja in Avila, to attend the bi-annually meeting of "Encuentro Iberico de Yoga" organized by the portuguese yoga association, and I didn't check the email this days. It has been a very nice experience.

HpS - Jaya!   Preaching to Maitreya Muni et al.

Talking about the link "understanding about Diksa guru", I have read it completely and I accept it. I only have one question, the next day of the annual report is 13th January 2018?

HpS - ASA -- No, Dec. 19th. "Our" Vysapapuja Day. Always day before Disappearance of Jiva Goswami. We will put notice in the Blog and hope that we get lots of other reports even before that.

Currently I keep on following all the principles and chanting the 16 rounds (but still not of good cuality [quality], I hope it will change in future) and attending Mangala arati, and morning program in Nueva Vraja Mandala, and will be here until 11th May to attend GBC meeting (following the request of Yadunandana Swami), then will come back to Torrevieja (Alicante) and will come back to Nueva Vraja Mandala at the beginning of July till the end of July. This weekend I'll start Bhakti Sastri course with Yadunandana Swami.

On the other hand, of course I would like to have a closer contact with you, not only formally for Diksa, so I would like to ask about the posibilities of visiting you where ever you are (USA, Peru, India) in future and maybe spend some time in an Ashrama doing seva (as I'm doing in Nueva Vraja Mandala).

ASA - If you look at the Calendar in the Kapi Dhvaja you can see our program and start to think about plans to join with us. Of course, we hope to get to Spain as soon as possible. Then we can all be together on the transcendental plane.

Please accept my humble obeisances.

Bhaktin Maria

ASA - Nice photos!   More and more interest in Yoga.

Hare Krsna Dear Maharaja.

PAMHO. AGTSP!

I hope your body is in good health.

HpS - ASA -- Ha!    HA!    HA R E!     This body IS a disease, but now is manageable for Sankirtan!    Thank you.  Hope yours and your families also.

I share the following concerns with you if you can give me your generous opinion,

1.-We are all told to sing 16 enthusiastic and sincere rounds. I comment this to a devotee (initiated) by encouraging her to sing his rounds, But he told me: I do not feel encouraged to sing, I have done it as an obligation but I feel that this is not right, one must sing of his own free will and not feel obligated. Before leaving, the devotee told me that he read the SBG and that he liked it better than singing japa. I did not say more to disturb him, I just asked him to try to sing 2 to 3 rounds.

HpS - Child does not like to go to school. Wants to play, but parents and teachers oblige him. NOI 7. Of course, this can be done in such a way that it is great fun, but usually some element of fear or greed is pushing us to chant our rounds in the beginning.

This made me think the following: In life many times we do things by obligation if we want something we are forced to perform an action to get it by just thinking or meditating we will not get it (unless it is krsna). Even chanting japa is part of the process of meditating on Krsna.

On the other hand, there are psychological tendencies and pedagogues that say that things should not be forced to do so but should be encouraged to do so, however in Eastern cultures (China, Japan, Korea). It is said that: Discipline precedes the intelligence and for this reason, the discipline was given much importance; Differentiated what is "your will" with "what is your duty".

ASA - Again NOI 7 says so much about this, no?   In sports it is the same thing. We force ourselves to practice believing it will become fun later.

I am not an expert in psychology but I think that many things are being confused and some are taking new trends to justify their lack of discipline, I see that there is a tendency to skip or to obviate the processes and call that spontaneous service.

I do not know what the middle term is here, would there be a psychological damage to say that the rounds are obligatory for an initiated devotee? (Also looking for ways to lift their enthusiasm).

HpS - ASA - Prabhupada says that artificial repression can be worse than the disease, but...   we don't force anybody to become initiated. That is a voluntary thing. Of course, ISKCON institution is not perfect, and there may be force in certain social or subtle ways, but seems that any sincere person can avoid that and then will be making their own choice if they want to chant 16 rounds for the rest of their life.
Even then you can stop and accept the reactions of breaking your promise. It is very clear. NOI 7 -8. So many places, Learning Piano, Tennis, natural attraction usually comes from some formal practice.

2.- At the moment I see a great increase of feminism in the society (there are also cases in Iskcon), the women have obtained many things that they consider freedom and now they want more and more, but also have arisen negative things of all this that do not want to see or to admit.

Particularly I do not like to speak of machismo or feminism, for me it is to identify me more with the body, however I have seen and I see the dangerous thing of not taking care of the "psychology" of the woman and of some way it is notorious the problems that also are being generated in ISKCON.

I think that perhaps these issues should be addressed not only at the GBC level but at the level of Spiritual Masters.

HpS - ASA -- Yes, but there is so much in the SB about this, no?   Right in the begnning we see several points about feminine mentality of Draupadi when Asvattama kills her sons. Of course, The Battle of the Sexes goes on forever, Radharani and Her friends, versus Krsna and His Friends. So, it is also very much fun and sarisfying dealing with problems in terms of properly understanding feminine and masculine needs of the person and their body.

Any items in specific about this??

Sri Nrsimhadeva protect you.

with affection

ys and spiritual niece

Isvari dd

HpS - ASA --- Thank you very much!!    Hope you all can join the Seattle Conference with lots of benefit.

Hare Krsna / Hare Rama!

Thank you Visvambara Das et al, (SEE LETTER BELOW)

KALA

15th - 18th June 2017

Thursday Evening - Reception: Temple Hosts (Eg. President, Harivilasa Das), Sesa Das (Rama-giridhari Das) Ministry of Education, Protocol Officer.

Friday Morning - Srimad Bhagavatam Class (???), Topic 1 - Chairman: HpSwami, "Philosophy and Strategy of Education with ISKCON" (Presentation about 20-minutes, Contribution Discussion from Everyone. Chairman and others can make the Presentation)

Topic 2 - Chairman: Visvambara Das (And one other?!), Early Education (Pre, Primary, Secondary)

Topic 3 - Chariman: Partha Das / Uttama Devi Dasi (Grhastha Vision Team), "Varna-ashrama Education, Preparing for Marriage, Preparing for Sannyasa" 

Friday - Afternoon - Gay and Delightful Workshops to be decided. These of course can be topical groups such as Early Education, but they can also invite expert contributions eg. Early Education can Invite Sastric Education for 15-minutes.

Friday - Evening - Cultural - Entertainment. Suggested: "The Taming of the Shrew" with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, with short intro by HpS on Teaching and Shakespeare in the Guru-kula

Snore!!!!!!!!

Saturday

Srimad Bhagavatam (???  Maybe Vaisesika Das on line)

Topic 1 - Chairman: Radhika Raman Das - "Studying and Preaching in the University and Academic Environment". This will include reports of the incredible results. Orienting Early Education to send students on this route etc.

Topic 2 - Chairman: Hari-lila Das (HpS) - "Sastric Education". Report of Results in USA and World. Discussion of how this fits with other topics eg. Early Education.

Topic 3 - Chairman: Rama-giri-dhari Das (Ananta-rupa Das). "Education in with ISKCON in the Western Hemisphere - Building a Global System". This will include Latin American Devotees who will be involved with Tele-conferencing and a Simultaneous Translator.

Saturday Night - Cultural Program (???)

SUNDAY

Srimad Bhagavatam (??)

Breakfast of Fraternal Felicity

Closure Session with Summation and Action Items

NOTES: You can see that this is going to be a tight, intense, powerful program. We will need the Chairpeople to start collecting input, discussingn topics, so that this meeting is just a moderate part of the pre and post work.

We are available. We will be in Boise and San Jose the weeks before.

As an action item we would very much like to see the selection of an Editor for a Periodical: Education with ISKCON in the Western Hemisphere.

PURUSA

Who is joining?

Physically

Sesa Das, Rama giri dhari Das

Harivilasa Das, HpSwami, Seattle Devotees, Synergy School! Ananta-rupa Das

Visvambara Das, Gopi-gita, Subra DD, Dallas Gurukula,

Ananda Vrndavana DD, Hari-lila Das, Kartamasham, Uttama DD and Partha Das.

On-line:

Mother Aruddha Devi Dasi, Radhika-raman Das, Nitya-ananda Das Prabhu (Dallas, GBC North American Chairman), Srivasa Pandita Das (Sastric Education ISKCON Silicon Valley). Devotees from Latin America such as Candra-mukhi DD + Lalita-gopi DD (PhD both (Mexico Yatra)), Laksmana agraja Das (et al Peru), Jagat-guru Das, Param-padam Das, Baladeva Das, Mathuresa Das (GBS Zonal Supervisor) (Running Schools and Education in South America), 

We will broadcast this schedule now and invite more participation on line. The connection, in the shadow of Micro-soft, should be excellent.

TRANSPORT AND ACCOMODATION

Temple can house 15-devotees in devotee homes:

We count -

HPS, RGD, SESA, Partha - Uttama, Kar, Vis, Subra, Gopi + Nitya, Hari-lila, Anantarupa, Ananda V Mataji.  Any others?

That's thirteen.

Airport is like 45-minutes from the Temple.

HpS, Hari-lila Das, Anandavrndavana DD are arriving at Seattle airport from San Jose at 2.37PM on Delta 5738.

Please send your itenarary ASAP and try to combine things for easy travel.

FINAL WORDS

This program is about 51% organized, but we are all Brahmanas, right?

We have just brushed the surface describing the intense qualifications of the people coming and the programs that are in motion.

We hope that the sound of Krsna flute is everyone's dearmost companion during all these days!

HpS

From: David Aguilera 
To: 13- primary schools et al
Sent: Saturday, May 6, 2017 10:10 AM
Subject: ISKCON Ed Conference Agenda
 

Dear Friends,

Hare Krishna. I hope this email finds you all well.

Subhra and I had the opportunity to meet with Hanumatpresaka Maharaja by phone to discuss the upcoming ISKCON Education Conference in Seattle on June 15 - 18. The general agenda that is shaping up seems to be morning presentations with afternoon breakout sessions. 

We want the time we spend in Seattle to be worthwhile. A thought Subhra and I had was for the school leaders to spend the afternoons together supporting each other by presenting relevant topics and sharing our experiences. The idea is for us to come away from the conference having had the opportunity to connect with each other and to bring back ideas from the discussions that we can use to help improve our schools.

I have put together a Google Sheet for us to start compiling what we want to talk about:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16gQ7WtbgyYaoLO5NG7GO4vNNwxOKL0ouGAAleHXfCCk/edit?usp=sharing

I encourage you to start plugging in topics as they come to mind. Don’t hesitate to duplicate topics that someone else already put in. If the same topic comes up multiple times, we will know this is something that should go to the top of the discussion list.

Another thing we want to have on the agenda is to allow time in the morning sessions for each of us to give presentations about our schools: introduction, history, current status, accomplishments, and challenges. Let me know if you are interested in doing a presentation, so I can work with Maharaja to put them in the morning agenda.

These are just some ideas. None are set in stone. Your thoughts on the formatting and how we best spend our time is much appreciated. 

I am looking forward to finally getting together with all of you (knock on wood).

Yours in service, 

Visvambhara Dasa
Head of School
Bhaktivedanta Academy
 

Hare Krsna.

Nandulal Das will arrive on same plane as us in Lima and will leave back to Houston same day we leave for Santiago.

Who wants to help him with his visit. Very, very nice person. He owns an elephant.

Go sightseeing in Lima.

Shopping.