Dear Guru Maharaj,
Sorry for taking so long to reply... as soon as I arrived back in LA I ran a shipment of books down to the tksp party in San Diego with the intention of helping out with the marathon, but then some unexpected things came up that I needed to look into right away and now I'm realizing that I'm going to have to really focus to get myself over the initial hump of starting an art "business."
Brghupati prabhu set me up with one devotee we both know to help me with finances, and while trying to help me rebuild my credit he discovered that I still have about 10k worth of student loans I had no idea about which are about to be due soon. (It looks like I may have been somewhat cheated by the debt consolidation agency I worked with last year.) If that wasn't bad enough, I somehow lost a bag with probably 40-50 of my best pieces from the last few months.
It looks like a hard road ahead for me, but the silver lining is that I still have the very best pieces from my last exhibition which I can show to galleries, and I finished a page on Patreon a while back, where I'm basically raffling artworks in exchange for monthly donations. I hope this will help me attain some basic stability and also give me the ability to travel and support different preaching projects, like a book distribution fund. I thought it would be wise to start the first fundraiser project to help me visit the pipeline protest (since it's a cause a lot of people could get behind), but it doesn't look like I'll make enough to go personally. At least I can send some prasad and supplies. Anyhow, it looks like the protesters won for now, apparently Obama stepped in to halt construction. But they're still afraid to leave because the oil co. threatened to build without permission and just pay the fines. Such demons! Plus they say Trump might reverse everything when he gets in office (to protect his investment$$.)
At any rate, I've got my work cut out for me, but some opportunities came up as well. When I was in San Diego picking up wifi in a Starbucks, one scruffy fellow asked to sit by me. Eventually I struck up a conversation and when he found out I was an artist he put me in touch with a childhood friend who now curates galleries all over the west coast! She added me to a list of "open studios" she promotes throughout California so now all I have to do is set up a display on Sundays and people will come to me. How cool is that? I'm hoping I can set up near the temple and take visitors on a tour of the BG museum & Sunday feast!
One last thing... I'm sure you probably heard by now, but Bhakta Philip has tragically left this world. I don't know all the details about the circumstances, but it was a suicide. It's amazing to see how many people he affected in his lifetime as people come forward to offer their respects on the Facebook page Chandranjana mataji made for him. Despite the differences he had with you (and with many others in ISKCON) I still think of him as a senior godbrother. He was a huge inspiration for me and I regret that I wasn't able to get to know him better. I'm helping to organize a small memorial for Phil here in LA where we'll do Harinam sankirtan at the beach in his honor. Now he and Raktak are both gone away, but losing them has inspired me to not take people for granted. I'm trying to spend more time with Bharadraj prabhu, and I just reached out to Govinda Dasi the other day for advice. Another devotee Sri Kalachandji has also offered to collaborate with me on some art projects soon. If you like I can try to write you more often as well... I was just trying to limit my posts to once a month so as not to crowd your inbox. If you ever need to contact me you can reach me at 310.503.2989 or my primary email: [email protected]
Whatever Krishna steals away is replaced with something better: only sorrow is temporary; only joy, forever.
your servant,
Ekāśma Dāsa
HpS - Yes, we heard about Prahlada Nrsmha, Phillip. He has always lived with such a passionate character. I don't think we really had that many 'differences'. He seemed to be always misunderstanding what we were trying to say until it got so we had to include a judge in the conversations. I hope his future is very, very progressive!!!
With all your debts and stuff just keep a strong morning program and regular consculation with good devotees then you can realize it is all service, no? We are half out the door to Mexico and India!!
Look, look, look for meetings with remarkeable people!
