Letters to the editor

Hare Krsna,
Thank you, SIr.  If we can help or be helped in any way by your work then please let us know.  We will send general updates without a doubt. In January we will be in India for a program on the Bhagavata Purana with Ravi Gupta and scholars from all over the world that we are organizing at the University of Madras.

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On Sat, 8/27/16, Darrol Bryant <[email protected]> wrote:

 Subject: RE: HpSwami, Hello.
 
 Hi
 
 Thanks for the update...  I think often of our
 meeting in Peru...  Since returning I have been busy with
 the editing of a volume on Practices of Compassion: An
 Interfaith Exploration...  It grows out of a Conference
 initiated by the Ven Doboom Tulku that I organized in
 Hyderabad in January 2016...  And I have also completed my
 Out of Galilee: the History of Christian Thought as a Great
 Conversation.... 
 We have had a hot July and
 August, but I have just returned from a week in Northern
 Ontario communing with the water, woods, rocks, and loons
 ....  It was wonderful...  Away from phones and internet
 and just being present to this glorious creation...
 
 All the best,
 
 Darrol
 
 
 
 
 "
 ______________________________________
 From: HpS
 Sent: Friday, August 26, 2016 8:03 PM
 To: Beverely Zabriesky; Darrol Bryant; Radhika
 Ramana Dasa Ravi Gupta; Nitaigaurasundara das
 Subject: HpSwami, Hello.
 
 Jaya Sri Krsna!
 
 Esteemed Scholars, Friends et al,
 We are first concerned that you are all well
 and in the best of spirits. We have not heard from Jungian
 Psychology in New York or Inter-faith Dialog out of Canada
 since we parted in Peru!  We wrote to Beverely and called
 once but have not heard. Any problems?
 
 We have continued with our little efforts to
 illuminate the world while also being seduced to some degree
 by the forces of darkness in the form of too much nighttime
 orange juice and ice-cream.
 
 Ramon continues with great enthusiasm in these
 educational lines we saw blossoming in Peru. With the new
 President and his newly appointed Minister of Culture, Ramon
 may continue as Director of the National Museum for another
 five years, but in any case he has already been directly
 invited by the new President to be his Director of the
 Bi-centennial events for the anniversary of Peru's
 liberation from Colonial, political, domination. Of course,
 the question of liberation from intellectual and cultural
 domination immediately  arises and to this extent he is
 very, very open to literary or other contributions from
 Indian or other perspectives that address this issue in very
 practical ways.
 
 "Solaris" magazine is going out in
 Spanish and we are already expanding our dialog with
 Trans-personal Psychologists. We are quite advanced toward
 publishing the English edition. Our current strategy is to
 work toward a world-wide symposium in 2018 on "Art and
 the Sacred", and during 2017, smaller, effective
 dialogs with professionals in the area of "Psychology
 and the Sacred". "Solaris" would be the
 backbone of developing all this. Very personally we are
 starting to work very seriously on a book on
 "Sankhya", which is the whole cosmology of the
 Vedic wealth. We are enjoying the help of Alejandro, Miguel
 Polo  and Professor Ravi Gupta. We hope to do something
 very useful.
 
 Our heath is
 pretty good for 68-years old. Our office/Ashram was invaded
 by sometimes mean spiders while we were gone, but we seem to
 be winning that war. Our religious institution, ISKCON, is
 growing. For example, receiving a robust personal letter of
 congratulations from the new Prime Minister of England, and
 of course, along with that facing new, very serious
 challenges that are complete different from the ones that it
 originally faced as a young evangelical movement (God's
 Marines).
 
 What is your
 news?    We are based in Nashville until January 1st, then
 go for some Symposia and other work in India until third
 week of February. This October-November, we will be in a
 little tour of Chicago, Richmond, Raleigh and D.C. Any work
 we can do for you?  We would certainly like your help in
 this "Solaris" and other work!
 
 Sincerely,
 Hanmatpresaka
 Swami
 Prof. H. H. Robinson
 NIOS
 

Dear Huber ( as your mother called you). Eduardo, Ramon, Alejandro, Ravi Gupta, and Ravi Singh -(altho I do not have his email- please forward to him)

There has been a shameful delay in my writing to send my extreme appreciation for having been part of a most excellent project and experience with you all in Lima.  

Your unusual confluence of energies produced a most compelling program. I was glad to be part of it.

I am sorry for not writing sooner. This has been an intense summer so am just now settled enough to gather my thoughts.

It was a pleasure to be with the kind and generous  Nios group, to be with Eduardo and Guida in Lima, to meet the attentive and shepherding Alejandro, to glimpse the full personality of Ramon.

I learned a great deal from Ravi Gupta, and felt at ease with the gracious Ravi Singh group.

I received your idea for a conference on art and the sacred while here on Naoshima, an art island in Japan's Inland Sea. It is extraordinary,  a Tadeo Ando mix of buildings and outstanding art on this island and several of the surrounding ones. There are works here be De Maria and Turrell that are religious experiences. It is an artlover's paradise.

Four years ago, I was part of the art and psyche working group that produced a four day conference in New York: Art and Psyche in the City. It was an excellent conference with artists, art teachers and critics, curators, art therapists, and analysts interested in art. I could send you the program to see what we organized if you like.

The visual arts are certainly a huge field. Are you thinking of focusing on the visual? or interested also in music and dance and literature?

If you proceed with this plan I could offer you some fine speakers. Kenneth Soehner, the chief librarian of the Metropolitan Museum Watson Library, and John Haworth, current director of the Museum of the American Indian in New York, He is very active in work with indigenous peoples and also in truth and reconciliation efforts.

One artist who it would be a coup to have involved is the video artist Bill Viola.

So yes your idea for the next conference is stimulating.

Next week is the Jungian International Conference in Kyoto, and then back to NYC mid September. If any of you come to New York, please let me know in advance as it would be a pleasure to greet you.

Once again I thank you for your invitation, for your kindness to me while there, and for allowing me to participate in such a fine enterprise.

With appreciation and the very best wishes,

Beverley Zabriskie

=================================================

HpS (Huber)

Jaya Sri Krsna,
We got your letter. Thank you. We have been drowning in our work also.
Thank you so much for your words.  We hope that you and your community can be excellent source of strategy for this 2018 conference that it can do great good for this world.   We were thinking of all art.
Marshall McLuhan: Art is whatever you can get away with.
We will send more news soon. Very best of wishes for your work.
Our dream in life is to be able to have a few words with Shonu to clarify his thoughts about Jung, India etc. Maybe you can find some chance for a little concentrated exchange with him.
Thank you.

Hare Krishna, dear Gurumaharaja. Pamho, AGTSP!

Thanks for your response.

I couldn’t go back to sleep until I could write this letter.

Well, I was expending something else, and I got an institutional answer. But anyway that’s what I deserve, I guess.

Maybe the message is “stop whining before your spiritual master and do your bloody job”

You are not my shrink or my daddy. I was probably expecting an “attaboy” or “well done”, but I got “we probably better shut down the whole damn thing”. So, people, “don’t brag before your spiritual master, just do your job the better you can”

Maybe I was looking for some sympathy. So “don’t play the victim, just do your job.”

Thanks for teach me a lesson. “Just do your job”.

HpS - ASA --- We don't have a lot of communication here so when you send letters it is with a lot of undevleoped perspective. Actually we were very appreciative of the history you gave. Again. Thank you. Like we said you seem to be doing a whole lot to satisfy Srila Prabhupada!

Tom Brown: Atta, Boy, well done!  You have earned your Sargent's Stripes in the Army of the ISKCON Apes!

However, and not to be cruel of judge anyone more harshly than WE judge ourselves, we have to set practical goals and do them. Without these regualr Nimsar reports we can't run "ASA Branches" of which NIMSAR has been in first or second place.

Yes, we (NIMSAR) need a lot of improvement. I guess what are we doing is not good enough. We need to be more professional, etc. I think we need more people working together to do better things. We are on it.

I still want to do some improvement for BVB in Spanish. Actually I have like 8 new students for Pada Padma so that is forcing me to work on the Tpp study guides. I’m translating the entire material again and I’m adding some little things like photos, etc.  So, If you allow me I can carry on with this job. We need to work on the BVB authorization also. Currently we are working as an informal branch of your own program.  

I’m revising the ppt for Bhakti sastri as well and I got 3 more students on-line for that purpose and of course to remember the thing for myself and help others.

I still need  to prepare myself better and do my master degree but maybe I’ll do it in Peru. It’s going to be way too expensive to do it abroad.

M. Isvari already sent you the report last ekadasi.

NIMSAR is reporting everything to the authorities and always asking for permition, but in a kind of an impersonal fashion.  Jiva sakti prabhu said that we need to approach them to have better communication.  It was a brilliant piece of advice.  That’s probably what they are expecting.

Please, we need your constant advice.

I hope we (NIMSAR and I) can have your blessings to carry on and do a better job.

Your servant,
LAD

ASA - Thank you for the quick response!!!  There is nothing in ISKCON more important than this dialog. We got a letter from Isvari Devi Dasi, our Secretary for NIMSAR, so let's see what she has.

About the the TPP stuff for BhV and BhS we need to talk. I would say that there is no loss in the work you are doing, but we can improve it more if we co-ordinate it.
So, the NOI lectures that we did should pass to Ajata-satru Das and Abhirama Das for Editing?  See, this is what I mean. We have to discuss our priorities here in the Blog. We can communicate here eternally and transcendentally.

Let's look at Isvari Devi Dasi's letter.

Hare Krsna,

AGTSP!   Paoho.   How are you?  It is 31-degrees celcius, about 91-degrees farenheit, here. About 50% humidity. If we sit directly in the fan on the porch, or use our little, mobile, air-conditioner to cool down one little room in our dilapidatred mobile home then we can tolerate it, but is is tough.  Of course, guys in Africa who eat once a week have it tougher.

There are so many more miseries, no?    We, you, could start listing the things that are bothering us: Heat, cold, insects, cuts and bruises, social cruelty...  but if we just chose to smile in every situation, Hare Krsna!  Then amazingly it all looks O.K.

This place is designed as a place of austerity and we are trying to enjoy it (I have a few more options).  When we see it for our purification and a chance to teach others to engage in scientific austerities, then it all makes sense.

We see our religious institution, Mormons, Evangelicals... have theirs, having so many problems, our local branch has so many problems, but something that we have seen while we have been traveling all over the world, for years, and decades, is that if you just get up early and have a full morning program, chant good rounds, four principles, do Sankirtan to the best of your miserable ability, when the day is done, the week's visit is done, there will be definite, tangible improvement every time. We will have definitely take strength from the Witch's hands and helped people make eternal progress back to Goloka, where Krsna really needs our help.

Today was better than yesterday. We could really say that it has been the best day in a series of improving, days over our whole devotional career. We live alone. We have money. We can go to the Super-Market and buy 1,000,000 different items for sense gratification: Ready to bake apple pies, and canned whip-cream, and three kinds of ice cream and ...

... but we don't (well a little (frozen orange juice (condensed milk sometimes))), this means we are advancing.

We fall into orange juice and condensed milk (what's your problem? Gossip and political dealings?  Movies?) not just because we are evil, but also because they satisfy sane desires that we have no sane way of satisfying. We need strong protein. Prabhupada said that Western devotees in India could take Paneer, cheese, daily. Indians, he said once a week. Of course, you are going to die a quicker Western death, but that may be unavoidable. In some cases we have to just give things up, but really it is usually just finding the real desire that is being pervertedly satisfied and looking for a better source of satisfaction. Of course, this is the material world, so there will always be some imperfection, which of course is one of its perfections.

Did our Samkhya reading today, answered mail, heard the Hawaii class, gardening, cooking for Lord Nrsmhadeva, preparation for BG class tomorrow, SB class on Thursday, talked for one hour with Miguel Polo and Abhirama Thakura over internet about the NIOS programs in Peru etc.

Tweeted about it all.

O.K.  Was a really good day.   Can we keep up this pressure?  We can die trying?  Don't expect us, we don't expect you, to live a long time. This one week may be it. Don't try to live a long life, try to live a useful life, no?

O.K. Pack up. NGD will be calling. It is 6.15PM now. Then off for our evening walk. Fill our water bottle.

Hare Krsna!  Hare Rama!

Lot of work to do.

Priorties = Vaidhi bhakti.  Regular schedule is part of priorities, but we must review them again and again.

Thank you so much for your association.
Very intense thoughts about NIMSAR in Peru in the letter to/from Laksmana agraja Das.

Hare Krishna, dear Gurumaharaja, Pamho.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

NIMSAR, I think, is making great contributions to ISKCON through their service in education.

Since 2008, first by organizing and studying ourselves, we have been contributing to the formation of the devotees as an educational option for Peru and the region.

In 2011 we  introduced a formal course of Bhaktas in Peru by the mercy of HH Swami Hanumatpresaka and collaboration of many devotees, especially P. Jiva shakti i

We managed to graduate so far about 70 bhakti sastris, 20 bhaktas  and 50 devotees in the course of disciples, and continue our work.

We have given the course of disciples in Chosica, Arequipa, Cuzco (Peru), Guayaquil (Ecuador) and now we are going to Tarapoto (Peru jungle) in September and possibly Bolivia, if we got authorized.

Also, globally, we have participated in two congresses in Chile and next year will go to Brazil. We are connected to the international network trying to meet the requirements of the ISKCON Ministry of Education.

Currently we are still working hard. We have had two very enriching seminars with P. Baladeva, communications secretary of the Ministry of Education for Latin America. We had the second regional educational meeting with the participation of important leaders such as P. Karuna Krishna, P. Omkara, P. Jiva shakti; influential devotees in the community as P. Anandamaya , P. Gandharva et al; representative of the young devotees as Bhaktin Margi and M. Padmavati. Everything under the guidance of P. Baladeva.

Personally I also worked in Chosica Gurukula the years 2002, 2003 and 2004.

I have done other services, however teaching is what I was trained. I studied in college, I worked in Catholic schools, bilingual schools, etc. In ISKCON, Bhakti sastri, Bhakti Vaibhava, etc.

I know I have to improve a lot in my service, study more, better preparation of my classes, etc. and the authorities made it very clear. I will continue until end of the year with the course of Bhaktas, but I'm not allowed to give Bhakti Sastri or Bhakti Vaibhava in the temple unless I improve my teaching methods and improve educational material, as the study guides of yours ,"Tava Pace Pace". Jagajivana Prabhu, as well, considered the possibility to revoke my license to give disciples course in ISKCON because I don't have sufficient knolewdge of the ISKCON laws, etc.

With that wake-up call I'm trying to improve. And possibly take a year off to study my master. Next year the bhaktas course will be in charge of another person. We’ll  suggest M. Lila sakti, which is a very talented young college student in education being coached by NIMSAR. We hope they accept their service. For now so that devotees are cared for their educational needs I'm giving courses on-line, until the authorities find someone more qualified for this service.

I am considering looking elsewhere to exercise my service, as I prepare myself better. I see the need for change for me and for NIMSAR. This year we will continue to contribute to strengthening NIMSAR and see what happens next year.

When I was almost diying in bed at the hospital, three years ago, my only concern was: What will happen to my students, what will happen to NIMSAR? I think now NIMSAR is in good hands. We need more, many more, but I think I could now retire in peace for a while to improve, study, and perhaps return.

ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada's mission is universal, somewhere they will be somebody merciful enough to accept the mediocre and poor service of this your eternal servant,

Laksmana-agraja das

HpS - ASA -- Jaya!   Very interesting letter. Thank you. We have not talked for a long time and now...   ...  there has not been a fort-nightly Nimsar report for one month.  Ayeeee!!!     What has happened.   It is such a critical time. We should have written a letter to Caitanya-candra Das as new President of the Junta National making very clear and friendly relations with him.
Ooof!   Practically speaking we have to suspend our presence as Anjana Suta Academy, as Nimsar, in Peru unless we can adjust this situation immediately, no?

No longer accepting students or donations in the name of the Academy.

This lack of communication, of which we are a definite part, shows us that we do not have proper relations with the Temple and GBC authority, Jaga-jivana Das. Everybody has to improve. If anyone thinks that their function in these relations is perfect then they are living in illusion. This is material world, there are problems everywhere, but...  we are asociation of devotees. We always want everyone to improve. We don't want anyone to fall aside.

I remember one letter that I passed on to Jayatirtha Das from Srila Prabhupada where he finished saying, "You cannot live without my mercy, and I cannot live without your mercy, this mutual respect, this mutual love, is Krsna consciousness".

About editing the Tava Pache Pache lectures, you said that you wanted to do it but it has also been over a month since you mentioned that and we have heard no more?  Now Ajata-satru Das wants to do the work. So what should we do?

Of course, we can just chant and dance and accept whatever little Prasadam Krsna offers, and if he wants, like He did for the Pandavas, then we can leave these bodies. It seems that Srila Prabhupada took Tamal Krsna Goswami and others.

What is the situation with our meetings with Param padam?

I think that you are doing quite well, really advancing, but like us you have to improve your self and then politely impulse others to change also.

Waiting for your news.   Don't hesitate to put, "Urgent", in the subject field if you need faster response than we are giving.

Dear Swamiji

AGTSP, PAMHO. I was wondering what are your upcoming travel plans. Many devotees from all over Bali are asking me to invite you to visit Bali. Devotees here want your association.

HpS - AGTSP paoho.  Good to hear from you Ken!   Hey, we are publishing it here in the Blog and in the Kapi Dhvaja.     If you turn the Filter to Calendar Development you can see all the relevant posts. Also, there is a Calendar link in the Kapi Dhvaja every fortnight.  Sikh and yee shall fined!

Not xt month I'm planning to order a set of Bhagavatam. Currently I listen to downlloaded lectures from Mayapur.

ASA - "Not xt" = ??

Last month during Rathayatra his holliness Kavicandra Swami asked me to try to do foo for life. So im trying to have a cart built for prasadam distribution that I can pull with my motorbike.

I'm thinkng to start by giving free lunches at a local government primary school.

Your servant,

Ken

HpS - Whatever you do regularly you will become expert at that, no? Prasadam and then Kirtan! How is the Abhimanyu Das?  Can you read at www.vedabase.com?  You can also download the pages, chapters from there little by little!  Become preacher on the same level and Narada Muni!