Letters to the editor

Dear Maharaja: 

All the glories to Sri Sri Radha Krishna
All the glories Srila Prabhupada
All the glories to you
Please accept my humble obeisanced

This is the second time I write, the first time I didn't receive an answer, so here a copy of that letter.
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Dear Maharaja:    
How are you?!  
This is the first time I write. I´m Carol, from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I'm 25 years old, I'm dressmaker.
I have many questions, but I’m going to leave them to another opportunity. The main cause for this letter is to telling you about a delicate situation that I´m going through, because of this reason I need your wisdom.
A friend is very ill, she is going to leave the body soon, during this illness, I asked myself: How would I live if I had short time?
So I said myself, I would chant Hare Krishna everyday, I would spend time with devotees, I would eat a lot of prasadam. In that time I wasn´t chanting 16 rounds neither going to the temple regularly.
Then another question appeared: why would I wait to the end to live like this? I can do it now.
Now i´m chanting 16 rounds, following the four principles, and doing service every time I have the chance.
My association got better, I made awesome friends who help me so much in my spiritual path, my life is sweeter, but I still having sadness for losing a beloved friend, I can´t explain how much I love her nor the pain that makes me feel.
I don´t know how to deal with this and I need a guide. 
I promise to write about prettier things soon.

HpS - ASA --- Thank you for your letter. The one that did not get a response probably came while we were traveling in India.
We just got back from traveling in Spain so letters are also a little delayed because of that also.

We also lose the association of people we like. We always give the example of one comment that we heard from Srila Prabhupada. Maybe it is like 1925. Your father is going to go from your home in San Francisco to work in China for 15-months. It is a very lucrative and important work. Everyone goes down to the big steam ship to say good bye. You and your brothers and sisters, mother, aunts, uncles, cousins...  are all there.  Of course, you feel separation, but it does not mean that there will not be letters, phone calls and eventually you will meet again with many presents exchange, many prizes that you won to show your daddy etc.

Losing a friend is a good lesson. Do you really want to get closer to your friend?  Then you are going to have to get out of this superficial view of life. Death tells you that, "Learn how to love people, not just their bodies and things".

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I'm happily doing service, I'm going to Harinama every Friday, and to the Temple's Kitchen on Sunday. I really enjoy it.
I was thinking I always dreamt about love, at the beginning I only had a romantic idea about that, I think the society's concept of love is wrong. Now for Srila Prabhupada's mercy I know love is service, is on our eternal relationship with Krishna.
I read that Lord Krishna only can be conquered by devotees's love, and at the same time the devotees can be conquered by Krishna's love. I want to be conquered for him in such way that I can't think in anyone else, can you help me with that?

HpS - ASA -- By directing you to our Guru, Srila Prabhupada...   Chant your rounds for him.

Thanks Maharaja for your mercy
To serve you
Bhaktin Carol

ASA - So nice to meet you. Send pictures!

Querido Gurumaharaja:

Por favor acepte nuestras respetuosas reverencias!

Todas las glorias a Srila Prabhupada! 

Leimos el Kapi Dhvaja pero no supimos leer bien el calendario.

Ya encontré los datos

June 21^st – July 26^th – Mexico, Peru, Chile, Bolivia,

21[We] – IAH – MEX (6.00AM – 8.30AM), MEX – LIM [5.00PM – 10.45PM] In Mexico City for at least six hours.

Muchisimas gracias por la corrección!!

En días pasados platicamos con los hermanos espirituales, si Usted esta de acuerdo podemos ir a la casa de Saranagati.

ASA - Por que no, casa del Presidente?   Enrique Peña Nieto?    Cual es el humor de la gente en esta estacion?   Todas han ido a la playa??    Programas culturales, artisticos?  Professores, alumnos, politicos, abogados disponible para un almuerzo Miercoles?

Alguna instrucción para nosotros?

HpS - Glorifica Srila Prabhupada mejor! 

Algún vaisnava que requiera ver en particular ese día?

HpS - Todos que podemos, no?

Japitas para Perú?

HpS - Ya hay suficiente. Esperamos pasar por migraciones, aduana rapido. Solamente equipaje de mono.

Disculpe nuestras ofensas por favor.

HpS - ASA -- No es posible. Tiene que pagar una gran multa de tamales para Sr. Nrsmhadeva!

Vuestra eterna servidora 

Asta Sakhi dd. 

HpS - ASA --- Reverencias a todos!    Esperamos sus respuestas!

Hare Krishna Maharaj,

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

Following is the summary of 1.2.22 and 1.2.29 as discussed on Sunday.

The theme of this section is “Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and one should only worship Him”

Verse summaries:

V22:

• Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the svayaṁ-rūpa Personality of Godhead, and all other forms of Godhead are Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s plenary portions and integrated parts.

V23:

• From Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the next manifestation is Baladeva. From Baladeva is Saṅkarṣaṇa, from Saṅkarṣaṇa is Nārāyaṇa, from Nārāyaṇa there is the second Saṅkarṣaṇa, and from this Saṅkarṣaṇa the Viṣṇu puruṣa-avatāras.
• Purusa Avataras : Maha Vishnu, Garbhodaka Sayi Vishnu, Ksirodakasayi Visnu
• Guna Avataras : Brahma(can be a living entity), Vishnu(Supreme Lord), Siva( No Living entity can occupy this post)

V24:

• Fire wood – ignorance, Smoke – Passion, Fire – Goodness
• one has to rise to the platform of the mode of goodness (sattva) so that one can be eligible for the devotional service of the Lord. 
• Even from the platform of tamas, can gradually rise to the sattva platform by the expert direction of the spiritual master.

V25:

• Except for the mahājanas, or the authorized agents of the Lord, no one knows the purpose of religion. 
• Mahajanas: Brahma, Narada, Siva, Four Kumaras, Kapila, Vyasa, Bali, Sukadeva Goswami, Bhishma, Yamaraja, Prahlada and Janaka

V26:

• One should never classify the Vishnu Tattvas, or the plenary portions of Narayana, the Personality of Godhead, in the same categories with the parts and parcels.
• Kala Bhairava, Smashana Bhairava, Chandi, Sani – worshipped in the mode of ignorance
• Brahma, Siva, Surya, Ganesha – worshipped in the mode of passion
• Vishnu Tattvas - worshipped in the mode of goodness
• Highly qualified Brahmanas don’t worship any forms other than Vishnu Tattvas but they respect them.

V27:

• Material enjoyment should be accepted only up to the point of the bare necessities of life and not more or less than that.
• One should work hard and worship the Supreme Lord by the fruits of one’s hard labor for existence, and that should be the motto of life.

V 28-V 29:

vāsudeva-parā vedā
 vāsudeva-parā makhāḥ
vāsudeva-parā yogā
 vāsudeva-parāḥ kriyāḥ

vāsudeva-paraṁ jñānaṁ
 vāsudeva-paraṁ tapaḥ
vāsudeva-paro dharmo
 vāsudeva-parā gatiḥ

• One should accept voluntary bodily inconvenience for the sake of knowing Vāsudeva because that is the way of real austerities. Otherwise all forms of austerities are classified as modes of passion and ignorance. 
• No one should bother himself with fruitive activities or dry speculation about transcendental knowledge. Everyone should at once engage himself in the transcendental loving service of the Lord.
• The Lord is always transcendental to the laws of the material world

Next week’s syllabus is 1.2.30 – 1.2.34. Sorry Maharaj, it was a lot of time crunch resulting in my confusion when I called you.

Your servant,

Sundari Radhika dd.

HpS - ASA -- These summaries are so nice. We noticed many of the same points. It is 6.23AM here in the Castle in Spain. Our clothes are almost dry. We have 10-rounds done. Now we will pack and at 7AM wwe leave for Madrid and the airport. Then Atlanta we change planes and guess we get to our cave in Murfreesboro at 5PM, which will be 12AM midnight here, so we will be traveling fromm 7AM to 12-midnight.

The technical stuff is getting adjusted very well also.

When does our Leader, Ananta-rupa Das, return?

HpS - ASA

Hare Krsna Dear Gurudev,
    Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet.
    All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
    All glories to Guru parampara.

    Very happy to hear from you. True, we can see that you are at Rural Castle in Spain.
    Do you like rural area? Like - village or small town?

HpS - They have like six cows here, lots of fresh milk, beautiful deities. About 10-minutes from small town of Brihuega by auto. Agriculture is not so good because of the soil and the weather. Village and town are both nice for Sankirtan.   Our pear tree that we planted has survived the Winter and is beginning to have flowers!

    No, did not received the key (to your room) to back to the Temple. I convey the message to HG RGD.
    He will send soon.

HpS - Oooof!     We will try to be better guests!

    You are always inspiration for all of us. When we think about you we get energy, hope and path.
    You are light for us in 'bad times'.

    i feel very bad, when my regular schedule for spiritual activates get affected by material schedule.

HpS - Perfecting Vaidhi bhakti means learning how to adjust the program in terms of different schedules, no?  Jayananda Das would leave for the vegetable market very early, when they were doing most of their business, so he would not be in Mangala arati in the temple, but he would take two Bhaktas with him and sing the Gurvastakam and Kirtan while driving.
    Then i think about you and get path. You always travel across the globe but your spiritual schedule don't get
    affected by anything.

    Because of you Krsan helps us, guide us if we are honest about our Sadhna, otherwise we are far from Krsna.

    Do you have plan to come in India in Karthik ? in Vrndavan?

HpS - We mentioned this in the last Kapi Dhavaja.  We are still investigating. We get back from South America the 26th of July, then one plan is that we should leave the 26th of August for Hawaii and Australia and then go on to India. That gives us only one month without travel!   We are investigating.

your fallen servant,
Girivaradhari-Gopal Das

HpS - AGTSP!!!   Paoho.  Thank you for the news.   Please also write about your Deity seva!

 Guru Maharaj,

Please accept my humble obeisances on this auspicious, beautiful day of Ram Navami.

I wish to inform you that after receiving Harinam diksha at Radha Damodara temple at Toubul,the birth place of Sripad Maharaj, every Sunday after Srimad Bhagavatam class, we go for Nagar Sankirtan and it is  a real exalting experience for me.

HpS - ASA -- For everyone, no?!!

I wish to seek your blessings to make this programme more attractive and more meaningful . How best can we go about spreading the sweet Lord's  name through these kirtans? We are a small group of devotees attending Srimad Bhagavatam classes regularly. The response has been indescribably sweet and blissful.

Ardently seeking Your forgiveness always,

Your humble servant,

Sarada Gaurangi Devi Dasi

Manipur

HpS - In Manipur they already have so many nice elements in their Nagar Sankirtan, no?  Many colorful flags is very important. Devotees chanting with pure heart (following four principles). Devotees dressed nicely, some maybe in costumes. Very nice flyers, booklets to hand out. Prasadam in bags. Stop and do some short dramas some times: Scholar and the Boatman, Bird in the Cage...

O.K?   Send some fotos.

I have to say , I have just now, even though I'm getting richer from nem decentralized blockchain.. my mother would I guess want me to suffer as much as possible, because I defended my step little brother (for whom I had to tell in the winter why he couldn't see his father for twenty years, it was because his mother started a police investigation on my father about pedophily 20 years almost ago, just to get a complete denial for my father to see his child, but he is a drunkard also, but never seen him doing pedophily), not her child, and especially Srila Prabhupada.

My mother's fear is very strong now, because I was so stupid that I moved in with one of Bhakti Vikasa Swami's disciples named IP dasa, after I lost my only love in life.. Nitai Priya Devi Dasi.... I moved in with IP and his young girl friend, very much Krishna-consciousness trying girl. But soon it became obvious that he was only taking oxycont, burning it from aluminum foil,,,   that was his secret, and he said at the beginning already,, that he had already slept one night with my ex... but I mean oxycont is very strong opiate,,  so I guess he just tried to make me so called [xxx], or how it is said. Sorry my language. [It's O.K. Piggy censored it] But that seemed to be all the game about. But we had, thank Krishna, only one year rental contract, so I got away. But he became very like dominating towards the end, I guess he was afraid I would talk too much. But he made it all himself. How could one live in heaven forever and speak just for warmth of it?? He spoke how he started using book distribution to get XXX, and always he kept saying that women love XXX, ok so he has made 5 theater plays for ISKCON.. but. And then I heard in last winter that he would been XXX. And now in more spring I heard from Mahabala, another rape accusation from Turku Finland, about him, and another was his girlfriend's friend. But I had to came out when I heard that my ex Nitai Priya had a black eye, because she started drinking with different guys when we split up, even though lived ten years in temples all around the world, even though she said that she was only looking boys, I still don't see it like that, but that's my problem, we split up, when my father's father died and I tried consolidate him and tell about Krishna, but he was always yelling completely drunken that I should leave that non secy auntie type Nitai. And at the same time Nitai's father took alcohol and medications too much, and fell in wc and got a brain injury, quite bad, so wasn't seeing her too much, just listening to my father.

But the problem seems to be, for me now, that some freightening guys in Helsinki, Finland temple wants to defend somehow him , or maybe not, or maybe it slowly changes, but you know an actor on opiates, is very good, Maharaja, I think you have seen this. But I started thinking, because my mother so crazily detests all the movement, even though  she is artist, not always, but most of the times she continues making insults, and she wants me into mental asylum, to a looney house. Still I started a thinking process, that how are they treating people in here, in ISKCON, but maybe it's just my mother's endless anger, the darkness almost itself.

By the way, through Ter Kadamba Devi Dasi I got into contact with you, she saw me in Krishna Kshetrta Swami's facebook pages making some comments, and started to speak for me in private messages. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Sriila Prabhupada.. I was waay too blue eyed about people who have diksha...

Hare Krishna, thyine humble servant(trying) Nanuk Henrichs

HpS - ASA -- Hare Krsna!  Jaya!  Your letters give a very strong perspective on things.  http://www.vedabase.com/en/iso/11

We should focus on the pure, spiritual world, but if we don't also take constant attention to the contamination of the material world, we will become Sahajiyas and take spiritual life cheaply, like fairy tales.