Letters to the editor

Hare krsna Guru Maharaja acepte mis reverencias.

Pasamos janmastami con 100 personas aproximadamente , teatro, kirtan y prasadam.

HpS - Noticia de Rama-giri-dhari Das en Navi-mumbai, India, Janmastami era 3-dias y 40,000 personas!!!!!!

Acabamos de tener el festival con Madhava prabhu tuvimos devotos de muchos paises mas de 30 devotos , chile, colombia ,ecuador, y del ciudades de peru. Todo error queda sin valor despues de tener buena asociacion y kirtan.

Gurudev estuvo por cusco m. Ojasvini impulsando un programa de harinam , este programa esta siendo auspiciado por un devoto sudafricano Bali prabhu. Y consiste en salir 3 horas diarias a harinama con 6 devotos y por un tiempo de 6 meses, cumplido esto el devoto Bali prabhu nos paga los pasajes y todo pagado a india , yo personalmente planeaba ircon usted Gurudev pero si hay la oportunidad de hacer este servicio seria bueno hacerlo. Usted que me recomienda Gurudev?

Su eterno servidor Rohini Kumar Das

HpS - Hari Nama!   Banderas?   Volantes??   Super.   Va a India con nostros????   Nuestra calendario en www.jayarama.us/kd/cal.htm. 

Esperamos que la programa pasa muy bien in Cusco y su vida personal tambien. NGD habla mucho de su comida en Lima y comentando tiene que abrir un restaurante en EEUU?  Ha!   Ha...  Cusco es accesso a TODO EL MUNDO.   Necesita un curso de cocina para turistas, donde puede ir al templo o cualquiere sitio un noche, aprender cosinar unos platos vegitarianos peruanos, encontrar a nuevo amigos, la filosofia, comer la ofrenda, obtener un DVD con mas instrucciones etc. Va a volver a Sweden etc. y mostrar a sus amigos!

Dear Guru Maharaja, please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

It is Sunday, fall has started. As everyday, we made puja to our Lord and Mistress/ Father and Mother/ Friend. Then we partook of Their remnants. Then japa-yajna. After we went to the garden where Nirgata and my mother sow different green leafy vegetables and flowers. I took care of weeds that are growing through the cement pathway to our flat.
In our (or should I say Their) garden we have fig trees, tangerine trees, tomatoes, spinach, basilico, celery, different green lefy vegetables, and also various flowers. I like to go pick up flowers for Radha Madhava's enjoyment.

By calendar dates summer ended, but in sunny days it is very nice to go and have a swim in a clean sea. There are no tourists now, so it is not crowded on the rocks, and as there were few strong rains, the surroundings are clean. Although there are still cigarette butts, which are looking  disgusting and smelly. The sea temperature is around 23 Celsius degresss. That is not too cold. These days will be one of the last baths in the sea for this year.

What godsister Madhumanjari wrote to the Blog,  resonates with me. Blog gets me blocked. I am not used to write, specially publicly and in English. I would like to say/write on some topic, but get blocked. Like there is a barrier. But I understand that it can also be a catalyst. <img alt="yes" height="23" src="http://hps-d6.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/thumbs_up.png" title="yes" width="23" /> Somehow, I much prefer a talk face to face. Do not know how to get into dialog on the Blog. I am not in any way saying that Blog is bad. It is wonderfull in many ways. One nice thing about writing on the Blog and have a Blog-sanga is that before writitng, there is more time to think of what to say <img alt="angel" height="23" src="http://hps-d6.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/angel_smile.png" title="angel" width="23" />

Sunday program in the temple go on now cca one time a month. Festivals we celebrate. For festivals, I like any kind of celebration in association with devotees, but for our Pula situation I am keen to do what you informed us - kind of 20 minutes of kirtan, reading and japa each. We still did not do iit like that, but maybe in the future if devotees desire.

I'm in the middle of preparation for BhVai Canto 5 presenatations.

We were invited to visit a ISKCON centre in other town and serve as leading kirtans and giving lectures. Looks we will accept this  call.

H.H. Prahladananda Swami was in Pula for 2 days. Nirgata and myslef prepared prasadam for him. Did he answered your letter?

HpS - We see that he just answered but we have not been able to open it yet.

In your letter to him, you told about suggestions from Bhaktividyapurna Swami. What are those suggestions, if I am allowed to know?

HpS - Ha!   Ha!   Ha!   Maharaja said that many of our ideas about GBC, Sannyasi relations were very good but if we pushed them we would probably get politically marginalized. Of course, if it is a big margin that is O.K.  It is surprising, but I can see that my family has been pioneers for many generations.

In SP Folio I got some more (few) "hits" for a term "Vaisnavi". Those hits are from lectures, conversations and letters. Should I report here?

HpS - Yes!  That would be nice.

This Blog is my most visited site on the internet. Plus Vedabase.com. I am grateful that you are keeping in touch with us through the Blog and for your care. Also, thanks to our dear godbrother Prahlad Nrsimha Ji, a Mayapura-vasi <img alt="smiley" height="23" src="http://hps-d6.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png" title="smiley" width="23" />.

There are some topics more to write about, but let me try to do that in the future.

Your servant Namacarya das

HpS - For some one who has writers block on Blogs, you send such beautiful, informative, practical and important letters.   Thank you!

I will write about some of the topics you mention here in todays, DTC!   Prabhupada: The magic will not be done by you, nor me, nor any living being, the magic will be done by Krsna when we become pure devotees of Krsna!!!!!
Paoho!!!

AgtSP-pamho

Hare krishna Gurudev es realmente bueno escribirle otraves y siempre desearle lo mejor a usted en su servicio a Srila Prabhupada

quisiera saber en que ciudades estara cuando vaya a  India, si visitara Mayapur para el kirtan mela...me gustaria ir esta vez porfavor

HpS - Si, va a nuestra Calendario por la enlace en el Kapi Dhvaja, puede ver la programa que ya tenemos.  Aparece como un mes mas hasta todos los detalles va a ser fijados.

Deme sus bendiciones, muy humildemente se lo ruego quisiera visitar el santo dhan y acompañarlo en esos dias en esta oportunidad

muy probable que viaje solo pero siempre con Nityananda, gracias por su asociacion su estupido sirviente

parama karuna das.

HpS - Claro es muy importante buscar companero de viajes, y contactos en India. Va a India solo es como va a Peru solo.
Una cosa. Pienso era muy bueno si podemos hacer muchos bailes basado en nuestras canciones, como Gaura Arati, Jaya Radha Madhava Kunjabihari, Dasa Avatara Stotra. Va ser un gran conribution del movimiento de Srila Prabhupada.

Dear Maharaj:

Please accept my humble obeisances, all glories to Srila Prabhupada!

I hope you´re very well. We are very happy, working in our projects; Visvanath is organizing the temple´s festival, which has been very beautiful.

Since 3 months ago, I started to use the sanskrit set with the kids in the temple here in Santiago, Chile.

Because I live too far and I haven´t had more time, we are doing it every 2 Sundays; the reception has been very enthusiastic even with non-devotees kids.

The program starts with chanting mantras and then I do a small yoga class so the kids can move some, also I teach them some pranayamas so they can be more receptive for the sanskrit class. We end with simple prasada (fruits, sandwich or what the parents brings).

I´ve adapted some activities so they can be funnier for the kids, because we have a large range of age, from 3 to 13 years old. Nevertheless, I always guide myself by the books. It has been a great challenge to do this service as it´s difficult to have all the kids attention for 1 ½ hrs, but they always seems very happy and anxious to learn more sanskrit, besides they love to write in devanagari!

Please Maharaj, we need your blessings so the program keeps working, improving and giving fruits. There´s a lot to do and learn!

Your aspiring servant

Gita Vali dasi

HpS - Hare Krsna!   Thank you so, so much for this news.   We are trying to develop this Sanskrit learning for oursleves also.  Many citations where Prabhupada encouraged it if it was possible. It gives access to so much knowledge, refined understanding of Prabhupada's translations. We are trying to organize the 3rd Latin American Symposium on Education with ISKCON in Brazil, April 2017. Of course, we will try to make this Sanskrit study more available then. We hope that your good selves or others from Chile can come.
We are sure Krsna will give you good intelligence to expand this and engage us as you can!!!
 

Guru-Lila (Part 6)

20th March 2016
On the way to Pune, three persons in the car, Guruji and Harsh Prabhu (behind the wheel) and myself-the famous (or infamous) Buffalo Headed Punjabi, Jai.
Harsh Prabhu is fired-up and is driving with high speed, Guruji is sitting next to him, and I am on the back seat. We passed through Khandala, a famous hill station near Mumbai, very beautiful views.  Going, going and at some point, we made a few phone calls to some devotees to know the exact location of Pune temple, but still some confusion was there, but by Krishna's mercy, as we were entering Pune city, we saw a Bramhachari waiting on the roadside to get a lift to the temple, he was happy that he got a free lift with us to the Temple and we were happy that he saved us from the harassment of making more phone calls to find out the proper address for the temple.

In the backside of the temple, there is a multi-storied building, and many many devotees are living in that building. now, I can't remember that we were on which floor.  So we entered the temple from the backside and the devotees took Guruji directly to his room, leaving me behind and it was very humbling experience, no one came there to pick me up for more that 15-20 mins and finally, somehow, I found the way.

It was Ajita Nitai Prabhu's house- a disciple of His Holiness Radhanath Swami Maharaj, house is very well built, beautiful and fancy.

There I also met with another god-brother for the first time  --  Shriman Girivardhari-Gopal Prabhu, a nice and sober devotee and so many other devotees-mostly disciples of Radhanath Maharaj, they are all well-educated and well-behaved towards our guruji, and very humble as well, I have to learn from them.

Guruji took bath, shaving etc. He does not shave every day or every 2^nd day or 3^rd day, he says that let people know that I am getting old, he may shave once in a month or earlier if there is some important preaching program, but here in this video, you will see that he looks bright, he shaved yes, but lustre from the purity also, whatever is there inside, it appears outside.

I was very happy with the prasadam the host devotee family offered to guruji, it was opulent, but moreover, it was made with love and affection and served to guruji with the same mood, and needless to say that the dog of guruji got a plenty of remnants. Now here is my bold declaration: - I am ready to remain a dog life after life if guruji keeps giving me his remnants.

After sometime, we moved toward big pandal program, more than 15 thousands youths, program is by ISKCON Pune and Bhartiya Sanskriti Vidyapeeth, many big and prominent people are there.  From ISKCON side, there were His Holiness Gopal Krishna Maharaj, His Holiness Loknath Maharaj, His Holiness Bhakti-Marg Swami and our dear guruji His Holiness Hanumat Preshak Swami Maharaj, you would see all of them in the video, also was there Vraj-Vadhus band (Param Das and Gaura mataji) and you would also see three maharathi disciples of Radhanath Maharaj----Radhe Shyam Prabhu-who is Pune TP and Gauranga Prabhu-he appears on Indian TV many times and Gaur-Gopal Prabhu-the famous You Tuber. They also asked guruji to lighten-up the lamp.  You would also see that guruji is putting ear-plugs because of heavy blasting sound from the speakers, but I doubt if the ear-plugs offered him any help, but the funny thing is that Indian people had no problem from the sound, including our Swamis, it appears that we Indian bodied people don’t mind the sound, since we grow-up with it, but Westerns have really hard time with it.

I also remember many years ago during Ludhiana Rathyatra, guruji was trying to go away from that part of the procession where there was 50 Shahnayi Wala(the guys playing trombones) and big Indian drums. Anyway, altogether, the program was nice, we came back, host asked for more prasadam, but guruji politely refused and retired to his room, we were asked for Prasad, superficially, I said no but the host-Ajita Nitai Prabhu insisted and we happily surrendered, so four of us---Ajita, Girivardhari Gopal, Harsh and the Pretender took prasadam.

More in next episode, thanks.

yours servant,

Raktak Das

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV-BQRpiz54

HpS - Hare Krsna!   Jaya!   So, sorry that you got left at the door when we arrived in Pune!   Please forgive us!!!  Next time bark loudly!
We shave every two weeks, the day after Ekadasi. Once Prbhupada mentioned it as an acceptable standard. Especially we do it because ourselves and our good father were surgically certified as mildly hemophelic. Our blood does not clot as fast as normal people. When you shave, even with best razors, there is always a little cutting and scratching of the skin. For normal people this heals quickly, but for us it is a little slower, so if we shave daily we start to get a rash then infections and we become prime candidates for skin cancer, so, all things considered, once every two weeks.
Thank you for these Diarys. They are very interesting to us!

Hare Krsna,  AGTSP, paoho...
It is 8.51PM.   We are in NGD living room. He is across the room from us. It is a very comfortable Grhastha Ashrama, compared to our Sannyasi cave, but also everyone running around screaming and yelling, loading and unloading. We could not concentrate to well on the two "Little Urgent" letters, but go them done.

We are really, really struggling to advance our service. Who are we? What is ISKCON? What is our little community, ASA, NIOS within ISKCON?  How can we control the tigers of our senses?
We still are not eating as well as we could and so we are causing permanent damage to our body. If you live less than 100-years you are sinful.

Of course, no meat, no fish, no eggs, no onion, garlic, but Chocolate? Condensed Milk???  Fruit at night...
... We, you, are evil. We eat too many sweets, pizza, popcorn... but then we get a little control. We start to keep a regular schedule. We follow our list of priorities.

Nehaabikramo naso sti..   We make a little progress in Sadhana, Vaidhi bhakti, and it is eternal.   We only 50% evil. Other 50% is that we are facing very, very challenging problems. Who else has a passion for our natural Sankirtan? Who else has discovered the best current works on Carl Jung? Of course, you have your passion and nature in Sankirtan. We don't know how to cook pizza, but it can be wonderful Sankirtan.

So, we are pushing, pushing, pushing: NGD, NIOS Board of Directors, North American GBC et al.  What is their Sankirtan.