Letters to the editor

Hare Krishna Beloved Gurudeva,

Please accept our humble obeisances,

All Glories to Srila Prabhupada,

Dear Gurudeva,

We are still living in the Sri Govardhan eco-village, along with our dear wife and our little daughter Margarita.

Some days, Benjamin comes to stay with us, although most of the time he lives with his mother.

HpS/ASA - AgtSP, your 'first wife'. 🤔

Our eldest son is in Europe, traveling and taking his first steps into adult life.

We remain enthusiastic, trying to fulfill our initiation vows: 16 rounds and the four principles.

However, some days, due to our lack of sincerity and material desires, we behave more like Bhakta Nicasio than Nikunja Bihari Das.

We feel very bad when that happens, but very good when we manage to fulfill our initiation vows.

Recently, at a birthday celebration with the devotees, we were chanting the mahamantra in a kirtan, and suddenly the leader of the bhajan began to sing "Govinda Jaya Jaya...". The vibration changed automatically, and I was able to experience for a second the potency of the holy name and the importance of chanting only the mantras established by our Founder Acharya.

Thank you, Gurudeva, for always reminding us of the importance of being connected with the holy name, as the most crucial point in our spiritual practice, especially when doing it early in the morning, after our morning program during the brahma muhurta. Thank you for being a living example of Srila Prabhupada's teachings and for always being so accessible to us, your fallen followers, who undertake the difficult task of developing Krishna consciousness in family life during Kali Yuga.

We will try to send you a small report every Ekadasi to stimulate our refuge at your divine lotus feet.

Attempting to serve you with many shortcomings but with tenacity.

Your stubborn servant,

Nikunja Bihari Das.

HpS - Obeisances to you all. hope the other letters today are also useful to you.

KK HH!

Life pushes us to look for the eternal.

so many relative truths and relations fall away.

Prabhupada chants HK HR with such simplicity.

He is satisfied.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rvXbRgygqic&pp=ygUcUHJhYmh1cGFkYSBnb3ZpbmRhIGpheWEgamF5YQ%3D%3D

Is Mantra you heard?

Prabhupada chanted and glorified and the beginning of ISKCON later did not.

Hmmm?

Maybe devotee chanting had a different understanding of this Mantra than his understanding of HK mantra even if it was superficially heard from Srila Prabhupada.

O.K. Now tilak and Podcast.

Thank you.

You feed us with your life.

Think your first wife, kids, community get life from your sincerity, and you from them?

Reading step by step from the first to twelfth Canto

In the "Srimad Bhagavatam" Preface, Srila Prabhupada writes: The only qualification one needs to study this great book of transcendental knowledge is to proceed step by step cautiously and not jump forward haphazardly as with an ordinary book. It should be gone through chapter by chapter, one after another. The reading matter is so arranged with the original Sanskrit text, its English transliteration, synonyms, translation and purports so that one is sure to become a God-realized soul at the end of finishing the first nine cantos.

Dear Guru Maharaja, please accept my humble obeisances. 

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Please, if that is fine with you, have a look at my questions and observations. 

I understand that the single requirement needed to be able to scrutinize this superb book of spiritual lore is to go forward gradually, and carefully and not read hither and thither incidentally (as with a common book). 

Q1: Where in the sastra is said that SB (or BG, CC, or other) should be read in sequence from the beginning to the end? And why it is like that? Moreover, if a devotee is doing that (reading systematically), at what moment s/he is to go to the next verse? Is that in any way described somewhere in sastra?

 I finished reading the first nine cantos (maybe more than once). Kind of, I do not feel God-realized soul! Perhaps I just read and did not study it. I would like to know if there is a direct quote from sastra about going step by step and how. I am aware that there are verses that talk about doing it with attention, sincerity, etc. , but I would like some more elaboration on that. I ask for my personal bhajana, and also if at one point I will do a presentation of, that kind of, a system, I have sastric references at hand (as some bhakti yoga sadhakas will/may ask for it).

It's important to note the remarkable results of studying the Srimad Bhagavatam in the prescribed manner. Simply deeply engaging with the text, even without reading it in its entirety, can lead a person to God-realization.

HpS - AgtSP. Sorry it has taken so long to answer! Lots and lots of stress to finish the last DTC video...'Hanuman Reports to Rama".

Now we are in New Jersey on the way to Spain. Some real time to answer letters.

I wonder about your question also.

I do not know any specific answer from memory, but I think the second chapter has some comments on these concepts.

I think Srila Prabhupada is especially dealing with the Sahajiyas who jump to the Rasa lila chapters from zero and make movies about such stuff.

Also, comes to mind that self realized can mean different things.

Do you believe that you are your gross body and that all you need to become happy is to 'rethink your drink', meet the right woman...?

P'pada talks about Gopal Bhatta's recitation and 'nitya bhagavata seavaya' etc.

Even Sanskritist like Radha-ramana Das say that the depth of the poetry, grammar and philosophy in SB unfathomed by them.

Also, some one maybe on the level of Krsna's waiste from their previous religious work, so the teacher may take them pronto to the fifth canto.

Personally: https://vedabase.io/en/library/kb/90/#bb92801

and we chant Holy Names to get direction how to read from the BV Likrary etc.

Q2: I do not know what Srila Prahupada meant by “ordinary book”. He does not describe it, but usually, ordinary books are read from the beginning to the end, no? Sure some books can be read jumping all around, but those are less common. Am I wrong?

HpS - AgtSP. Same answer as above, no?

We see that people fast forward t 'juicey' parts of movies.

**Some more personal observations**

From my understanding, teaching in the past primarily involved oral transmission from teacher to student. During these interactions, students were encouraged to ask questions if they had any doubts. Once a student grasped one concept, the teacher would move on to the next. This approach represents simplified version of the teaching and learning process. For sure there are more details to it. 

Today, books play a significant role in education. Teachers often refer to their books (Srila Prabhupada's books) as comprehensive sources of knowledge. However, if students proceed through the material without thoroughly understanding each step, they risk misunderstanding key concepts. Some of us still have "living" gurus and associations with fellow devotees to discuss and clarify topics. This interaction can help us stay on the right path, though there's still a possibility that we might misunderstand things collectively.

-

Thank you!

Your servant Namacarya Das

HpS - Thank you! We also, never found good dscription of what Srila Prabhupada means by "Godhead", though he says in Preface to KRSNA book (?) that, 'those who know what we mean by 'godhead' '.

Yet, reading on we get some perspective at heart and going to library we got lots of understanding.

So, so, much fun reading Prabhupada's books, satisfaction, in association of devotees.

so many questions.

so much new solid information.

reading BG As It Is again is like nectar.

...

we will look for any more recent letters by you now.

3.45PM should go get read for Pod cast. Get properly dressed.

Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to you Guru Maharaja.

First of all, I am humbly seeking your forgiveness for not writing to you for a long time.

His Holiness Bhakti Ananda Haridasa Goswami is from our village, but later on Maharaja had settled at Guwahati, the capital city of Assam. He is a very good friend of my father who passed away in 2010. When my father was alive, Maharaja used to visit our home from Guwahati and do preaching. While leaving his body, my father requested His Holiness to keep on visiting our home and do more and more preaching at Cachar (a district of Assam). Maharaja has made many devotees from that preaching till date. Maharaja is not yet an initiating Guru of ISKCON, but it is under process.

Guru Maharaja, I am renting one room at Lakhipur and staying there for my job which is little far away from my home village, Kaptanpur. Here at Lakhipur, preaching of ISKCON is almost none. During the last visit of Haridasa Maharaja, I had invited him and organized one preaching program. Around 70 people attended the program. It was very nice and a successful program with nice prasadam distribution. Everyone was happy. They all appreciated the program and they are asking for more in the future.

During the Ratha Yatra of ISKCON Silchar, I did book distribution along with few devotees. One Bengali Bhagavad-gita and other 26 Srila Prabhupada books were distributed in that. Because of the summer’s scorching heat, I am unable to go out for book distribution, regularly. But sometimes I am doing it. Kindly forgive me Guru Maharaja for this irregularity.

Guru Maharaja, my sister in Vrindavan – Kalpalatika Devi Dasi, your disciple is pregnant for her second child. In the last week of August, she may deliver a baby. Kindly bless her and her baby in the womb. By your blessings, let she and her family be able to render more and more sevas for Srila Prabhupada and your satisfaction.

Guru Maharaja, I regularly read monkey warrior blog posts, your twits in the X and regularly attend your online classes. We are eagerly waiting for your arrival in India. Myself and few other devotees are arriving at Radhakund on 14 September and we are eagerly waiting to get your divine association at Radhakund. If Guru Maharaja is going to Manipur, we also will accompany you there. Thank you Guru Maharaja. Some photos of the program are attached here.

Your servant

Manjuali Devi Das

Silchar, Cachar, Assam

HpS/ASA - Thank you! AgtSP.

Paoho.

Please read the two posts from today. One from Sadhu in Manipur and one from 'Rose of the East'.

We will win.

The "Black Witch" cannot keep everyone.

We will learn how to do Sankirtan better and better.

We are sitting in the "Sannyasi Room" in the old Temple in New Jersey.

It is big, big, building. Very nice, but collapsing.

They have new, big marble, place ready to open.

Yet the biggest temple in the world is an open heart, no?

In one hour we go with Subal Das to pick up renta car, then go to Nama-rasa Das' podcast. Tomorrow we go to Spain with Yadu' Swami.

22-hours of travel!

Very tough for our old donkey.

Maybe we get drone bombed or Maharaja go crazy.

Maybe we make it to Radha kunda!

Hari Bolo.

Hare Krsna!

All glories to Sri Sri Radha Krsna

All glories to Sri Sri Gaura Nitai

All glories to Srila Prabhupada

All glories to you

Please accept my obeisances

I haven’t written in almost three years. During that time, so much has happened that deeply impacted my mental health, but now, I finally feel like I'm starting to be myself again.

To begin with, my husband suffered from severe burnout and had to stay in a psychiatric facility for five months. The months leading up to that were incredibly difficult, watching his mental state deteriorate while being unable to help him. When he was admitted to the clinic, I was left to face the harsh reality of being alone in a new country. The isolation, loneliness, and overwhelming sadness took a toll on me, and I became ill. Anxiety, depression, insomnia, sensitivity to light and sound, and constant nausea left me unable to leave the house or even care for my basic needs. Eventually, I too needed treatment and spent time in a psychiatric facility.

After being discharged, I continued therapy and, following a series of tests, was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome and Atention Deficit Disorder. This diagnosis didn’t come as a shock, as I had always struggled in various ways. Many times I prayed to Krishna, asking for clarity and understanding about what was wrong with me, hoping to become a better servant. Now that I had an answer, I embraced the opportunity to learn more and develop strategies to manage my symptoms.

Just as I began to feel better, my husband confessed that he had been unfaithful. It was devastating, pushing me into an even deeper depression, unsure of how to cope. At that time, my sadhana was almost nonexistent, though I was just taking care of my beloved Gopalito. 

With the support of therapy, medication for ADHD, depression, insomnia, and, most importantly, with Gopal’s company, I slowly began to heal. I’m in a much better place now, and my sadhana has improved. I haven’t yet reached the standard, but I’m working towards it.

One thing that weighed heavily on me was the feeling of unworthiness. I feared I was not fit to be in contact with you because I had struggled to keep my vows during this period. Your words in Guru-tattva.txt echoed in my mind: 

“Unless you are chanting 16 nice rounds, and that means Mangala-arati, Srimad Bhagavatam, Sankirtana, and maintaining a practical relationship with ISKCON, while strictly following the four principles, we cannot function as your Diksa-guru, representative of Srila Prabhupada and the Guru-parampara. If you want, we can serve you again as Vartmana-pradarshika-guru, help you get back on the path, and then we can be Diksa-guru once more. But don’t cheat yourself.”

When I took initiation, I believed I would always be able to follow, so I didn’t think much about these words. Now, they are constantly on my mind. I find myself thinking what it all means—am I no longer your disciple? Am I no longer connected with the parampara and Krishna?

Perhaps I’m being overly emotional, but I still don’t fully understand the idea that you are no longer my guru, but could become so again. Is our connection not eternal?

Your aspiring servant,  

Rose of the East

HpS/ASA - Esteemed Ravaged Rose. I have applied the practice that as long as I can breath, I can chant.

Of course, Imay not have gone through anything like you, but from my experience of physical and mental distress, I can raise both hands in the air like Draupadi and chant ´"hey, Govinda", "Krsna Krsna Hare".

I got a simple job description as described above.

I'm not Prabhupada, but if I cannot function as your Diksa guru and you are sincere then Srila Prabhupada will come and tell me, it's O.K. let me take charge of this one, no?

Yet, as said, I can function as pat-pradarshika guru and help you get back on the path ie. 16-rounds. 4-principles.

"The amount of mercy a real guru will show to a sincere disciple is practically inconceivable", Bhavananda said that Prabhupada said.

So, write to us.

Pray to Prabhupada.

Krsna will engage you in Lord Caitanya's movement.

[.. and maybe give your husband a good swift boot in the butt 😎]

Hare Krishna Maharaja,

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

Maharaj, we really love you and we have a lot of appreciation for you. You are the only person among the godbrothers of Guru Maharaja who is genuinely helping the devotees of Manipur after Guru Maharaja’s departure from this material world. Even if we did commit many mistakes to you, please kindly forgive all of us considering that we are fools. We love to see you as many times as possible in Manipur. This time also during your India visit, we want to see you in Manipur and get the opportunity to serve you.

I have been closely monitoring the situation of Manipur since long time ago to invite you Maharaj and His Holiness Yadunandan Swami. It was quite normal till Janmastami festival. There was huge turn up from the public for the festival. Huge crowd was there. The festival was a grand success. We were expecting good number of visitors for Radhastami too which falls on 11 September. But the situation of Manipur has changed suddenly into worse. There were bombings by using drones and rocket bomb attacks, escalating the violence in Manipur further. Now also, strikes and agitations are going on in manywhere demanding government’s proper and swift action to control the situation immediately. From the last 3-4 days, public curfew has been imposed by one civil society organization. Schools, colleges and all educational institutes are closed. We have regular visitors of 250-300 congregation devotees for Sunday programs. But yesterday’s Sunday program was less than 100 congregations. The current situation impacted the devotees too.

Now is really a hard time in Manipur. In this current scenario, we are unable to decide whether it is good time to invite or not to invite you to Manipur along with HH Yadunandan Swami. Maharaj, please you decide. Temple is not much affected by the current situation even though the number of visitors is very less. We can have nice programs inside the temple campus. I had spoken to many professors of Manipur University to organize a seminar during your visit to Manipur. But the situation is not conducive for such programs now. Everyone is in tension in Manipur except the devotees.

Maharaj, preaching is growing in Manipur amidst the ongoing crisis, Namhatta program has started. Our target is, by the end of this year, to open at least 20 Namhatta centers. I am sending herewith some pictures from the Janmastami Festival.

Eagerly waiting for your reply Maharaj. Hare Krishna.

Your humble servant

Sadhubhusan Das

ISKCON Imphal, Manipur

HpS - So, very nice to hear from you. AgtSP. We love Manipur.

Sarad bhari Devi Dasi said that in her opinion and ofter consulting with devotees and Haridas Swami it was too dangerous to visit.

That was few months ago.

She said devotees would be coming to Radha-kunda to visit us.

"We're all going to die.

It's how you live that counts!", Conan the Barbarian 😆

With the above news, many devotees will come to visit us in Radha-kunda.

Yet, again, we all love Manipur.

We hope that Krsna-kirtan and keep it safe.

Maybe we could visit before we leave India from Delhi on the 9th of October?

Sankirtana in New Vrindaban

All glories to Srila Prabhupada All glories to Srila Gurudeva

Please accept our obeisances dear gurudeva

General report of the activities in the New Vrindaban community

New Vrindaban has different areas where each devotee can find their place in Srila Prabhupada's Sankirtana: Deity Worship, Gosala, Eco village, Gift Shop, Govinda's Restaurant and Govinda's express and the lodge.

The food for life program operates 365 days a year and is responsible for preparing more than 200 plates of prasadam daily for NV residents and pilgrims and more than 800 plates on weekends. Some dishes are made with milk, cheese and ghee made with milk from the gosala.

The school is located next to the apartments where families and devotees of the community live. The gurukula teaches from preschool to seventh grade.

The entire community works through work teams: management team, pujaris, cooks, kitchen helpers, cashiers, gardeners, dishwashers, tour guides, pilgrim care, accountants, lawyers, designers, event organizers, musicians, artists, construction team, sales, etc, etc.

Of course, the main attraction of NV is Prabhupada's Golden Palace. In the summer season, thousands of visitors are received and it is one of the strongest preaching areas where new people and others interested in learning about Srila Prabhupada's history and the practices of the devotees are received. It is a truly beautiful place and one can appreciate the effort and love of so many devotees.

The main festivals and educational programs that are celebrated annually are: Ratha Yatra, Children's Camps, Art Workshop with H. H. Bhakti Marga Swami, 24 hours of Kirtana at the beginning of spring and at the beginning of Kartika, Puspa abiseka, Japa Retrat with H. H. Sacinandana Swami, Man Retrat, the Boat Festival and the main festivals such as Sri Krishna Janmastami, Radhastami, etc.

Tourism continues throughout the year from Canada and other nearby states of the USA, but once winter begins, visits decrease.

In the month of December, resident devotees have more time to deepen their japa or spend more time in activities that strengthen their spiritual purpose. The activities are not so focused on external preaching, but on strengthening the community internally. So, we thought it would be good if you would like to come to NV and spend some time with the resident devotees. We are a community with around 200 devotees, brahmacaris, families, children, youth and senior devotees. There are many devotees here with interest and talents in the arts, the study of Srila Prabhupada's books and transmitting Srila Prabhupada's instructions to new generations. It is really important that you share your vision and experience in preaching through the audio-visual content that you have made with the film of the Light of the Bhagavat and your book Tava Pache Pache. There are many resources for preaching here; only, perhaps it is necessary to further expand the experiences and effectiveness of the preaching, making use of more current pedagogical tools.

HpS/ASA - AgtSP. Paoho. Thank you for the Report! 😃

What about a New Vrndavana Media Department producing and distributing regular material like movies for YouTube etc.

You have always been distinguished as a guru ahead of your time, for your up-to-date and academic preaching; for that reason, we think it is of great importance that you visit New Vrindaban.

We think that on your return from Spain, since your return ticket is to New York, it would be very close to New Vrindaban. We can do everything necessary for your visit, transportation, lodging and also offer facilities to our spiritual brothers who wish to come and spend time with you and the beautiful community of New Vrindaban. The hotel can accommodate more than 200 guests for one day or for long periods.

We will be really happy to receive you and do everything possible so that our brothers can spend a truly wonderful spiritual vacation.

We will continue reporting on the blog and we hope to be of help in your sankirtana to SrilaPrabhupada

Thank you very much dear gurudeva.

Your servants Rohini kumar D, Saranagati DD and Gopi Radha DD.

HpS/ASA - Was so, so nice to see all of you and receive and distribut the boxes of Prasadam.

Devotees here felt your presence as very substantial and vibrant.

Gracias.

We are also thinking that visiting from our return to USA in New York might be possible, but as our senses and mind are only 60% functional a decreasing, by December we may have been stuck in Radha kunda and declared Medically Unfit for Travel. 😃 😃 😃

So, let us stay in touch as we are and see what is the Lord's next plan as work (the Pandavas Retire Timely).