Annual review
Hare Krishna Gurudev,
Por favor acepte mis humildes reverencias
Todas las glorias a Srila Prabhupada!
y Todas las glorias a Usted!
Thank you for sharing your daily life with us, for being present and accessible. Your constancy is a lighthouse that guides, protects, and inspires.
We try to remain Krishna conscious, with many things still to improve. Sometimes I feel that I am moving backward, but I trust what Krishna says—that there is no loss—and I try to hold onto that perspective so as not to lose enthusiasm.
Honestly, I feel incapable of being exemplary. I do—or believe I do—my very best, yet I still fail to reach the ideal goal. I find it very difficult to be consistent, especially with my rounds. And although I intellectually understand the importance of the practice, in daily life I lose focus. It is also frustrating to fail time and time again. Still, I understand that it is essential to keep getting back up.
HpS/ASA - In very practical aspects, if we heard Srimati Radharani talking to a friend in Vraja, we might hear her making the same self criticism. 🙂
This year, my experience with teaching deepened. We are teaching film and photography to young people at a Waldorf (Anthroposophical) school that Hari attends. We are delving more deeply into Steiner’s pedagogy and philosophy (the founder of Anthroposophy), and it is inspiring to see how—aside from certain details—it is compatible with the Vedic vision. He conceives of the child and the human being as a spiritual being, and designs his pedagogy based on the spiritual needs of the human being at each stage of life and their relationship with the world. His vision and understanding of what a human being needs in order to “be human” is very profound.
The proposal of this particular school is that while we share a craft (in this case, audiovisual work), we also have meetings and guidance to learn the pedagogy. Experience and lived practice happening simultaneously.
This year’s experience was deep in terms of what cinema is capable of offering as a tool for working on character and perspective. We first worked on scriptwriting, stimulating the young people through different literary exercises, searching for a story to tell. I understood that the work of the teacher or facilitator is to help discover the story that the person needs to tell, and to guide them so that it becomes possible.
It was surprising to see how they poured their inner worlds onto the page. In some of them, that writing process and the classroom exchange produced a transformation of perspective—almost a kind of alchemy.
Once again, I was able to see that cinema has the potential to be a tool through which people can practice introspection and connect with spiritual reality.
I would like to design a film curriculum that serves to inspire people in spiritual practice.
HpS/ASA - Wonderful. Offer Rudolf Steiner the KRSNAbook.
Was he contemporary of Jung?
Get four rounds done after you get up. Four more before you take breakfast.
Krsna will never punish you for taking time and energy for chanting 16-nice rounds.
I continue taking the Bhakti Bhaivava course online with Param Padam and a diverse and inspiring group of devotees. We are already in Canto 3, Chapter 24. I am trying to move from an intellectual or mental experience to a contemplative one, as I see that my tendency is to remain on the mental and analytical level.
Hari Vamsi is close to turning 10 years old. He is growing well. At his school he lives alongside a diverse environment—some children of devotees, children from a Sufi community that also attends, and people from many different backgrounds. I see how he absorbs culture in general, integrating what he experiences at home with what he encounters outside. He understands that other people call Krishna “God,” and that there is diversity. He enjoys stories and pastimes and asks many questions. I share with him parts of my readings from the Srimad Bhagavatam.
He also really enjoys football; he goes to a football school and has matches with other groups on weekends.
Please forgive me for such a long letter; it had been a long time since I last wrote.
Thank you very much for your guidance.
I hope I may be able to honor all of your effort.
Your disciple in the making,
Vrsabhanu Nandini Devi Dasi
HpS - Million dollar letter.
Sorry to slow to answer. Imperfect disciple, imperfect guru of a perfect Acharya???
