Letters to the editor

PAMHO     AGTSP...     Dear GM, In Chapter 15 of NOD about Spontaneous Devotional Service, I am wondering if there is another synonym for 'attractive' because I am not clear about how envious and fearful beings can be considered attracted to their object of envy and fear. Is the message in these paragraphs that being envious or fearful can be considered spontaneous attraction, however, they cannot be considered devotion, bhakti?

  Jaya!  -  AGTSP   paoho... Why is this so small?   Robot!    Yes, we are envious of Krsna because He gets all the best food first erc.     So we are attracted in envy.  Duryodhana got all the Ksatriyas together in one place at one time to hurt the Pandavas, Krsna's devotees, Krsna. He was empowered to do this "krsna anu silanam", empowered service to Krsna. He got them all in one place at one time so Krsna could finish off His mission of incarnation quicky, but it wasn't "anukulyena", it was "pratikulyena". First means with a CONSCIOUS intention to please Krsna, the second means wih CONSCIOUS desire to hurt Krsna.  This is "anyabhilasita sunyayam.." NOD 1.1.11.
It's cited in NOI.

The essential verse of the BRS (NOD)

Danurdhara Swami's "Waves of Devotion" gives so much detail with grafics to help understand the NOD, Sceicne of Devotion.

So these are not types of raganuga bhakti?

    HpS - No, this is like Karma-yoga.  Linking your passion to Krsna.

"The gopīs may be considered to be examples of spontaneous love in sensual attraction. The gopīs are young girls, and Kṛṣṇa is a young boy. Superficially it seems that the gopīs are attracted to Kṛṣṇa on grounds of sex. Similarly, King Kaṁsa was attracted to Kṛṣṇa because of fearfulness. Kaṁsa was always fearful of Kṛṣṇa because it had been foretold that his sister's son, Kṛṣṇa, would kill him. Śiśupāla was also always envious of Kṛṣṇa. And the descendants of King Yadu, due to their family relationship with Kṛṣṇa, are always thinking of Him as one of their members. All of these different kinds of devotees have a spontaneous attraction for Kṛṣṇa, in different categories, and they achieve the same desired goal of life. The attraction of the gopīs for Kṛṣṇa and the affection of the members of the Yadu dynasty are both accepted as spontaneous, or rāgānugā. The attraction of Kaṁsa to Kṛṣṇa in fearfulness and the attraction of Śiśupāla in enviousness are not accepted as devotional service, however, because their attitudes are not favorable. Devotional service should be executed only in a favorable frame of mind." YHS tcsd

         HpS - See...  the Gopis and Yadus are distinguished.  Kubja is attracted to Krsna in conjugal love to enjoy with Krsna.  LIke somebody who wants to gratify their lust with Prasadam, but will only take Praletsadam. Prabhupada says that we have to be careful because Krsna associates with this Shakti only some times, but with the service attitude conjugal Sakti, Laksmi, all the time.
But someone like Kubja who is attracted to Krsna as the Supreme candy will advance if She doesn't commit offenses.

Take Prasadam for lust and eventually you will think about Krsna and want to take Prasadam like the Cowherd boys have lunch with Krsna!
 

hare krsna maharaj. pamho, agtsp. how are you.

   HpS - Almost dead!  AGTSP   paoho.  Many letters to answer after Blog is back!  {:O)+

.... how was program in ecuador. what did yiu present there. can u upload socrates y pariksit on archives. ------------ in india a terrorist was hanged. at his last moment he was chanting lord name(may be he can not remember lord). it seems he was convinced what he was doing was for god, he is dieing for god. may be this is offensive chantingg..... so how to avoid offensive chanting. esp third offence disoneying sp master. esp when he gives adcices, suggestions.. are his advices and suggestions are also instruction .... we can not expect guru to micro manage life. but is it possible that devotee can b in illusion that he is following guru and god. regards, caballo

            HpS -  AGTSP!!!!! ! ! ! !       Yes, if we want to think we are following Guru so that we can obtain material gratification then Krsna will cheat us with false inteligence.    We will think, I am an intimate associate of Gurudeva,I deserve special treatement!   Yet Krsna will use this teach us.   We can know when we are sincere.  BG 10.8-9..   Krsna is in our heart, He will tell us.
Everyone is different.   Prabhpada took like 11 years to get initiated formally, no?   He teaches by example.  So it may take some time to control our senses, vanity, anger.  Yet, we should be able to see progress!

All glories to Sri Sri Gouranga Nityananda
All glories to Srila Prabhupada
All glories to Sri Hanumatpresaka Swami

Please accept my most humble obeisance

Hare Krsna Gurudeva, I hope that you are felling stronger and healthier. My name is Ignacio González and I`m from Viña del mar.

            ASA - Jaya!  Ignacio.  We remember you really well.   We are Monkey/Piggy from China!

I want to present you the advances that we have make in the vision and mission of NIMSAR, and also the progress at Bhakti sadacara.This information is in the images, if you want the original file, here is the link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sdbme0iypn4br0c/Vision%20%2B%20Mission%20%2B%20Objetvies%202.0.docx

(report: 4 principles for 2 weeks… 16 rounds 3 years. First program at Cinthya´s house this Sunday)

Your lousy servant

Ignacio

                ASA - AGTSP.....  paoho.... Actually "lousy" means one who has many "lice".   Actually the four principles are natural. Krsna never suggests anything unnatural.  Be enthusiastic. Get free from unnatural libations. Be heathy and natural. Nature will reciprocate!

Aaaagh.  We cant look at the attached grafics until we respond to you letter.    Will do that and then apost and edited version.

HpS - AGTSP   paoho.  We posted them and they are still too small.  And  we don't have time to look at the link!  If we do then we won't finish our BhVai work.  Aaaah!

Send verbal summary of your ideas in the next letter are the link to look at them.

Hare Krishna Maharaja, please kindly accept my most humble obeisances; All glories to Srila Prabhupada.  We are all anticipating your arrival here in Boise next month. 

It so happens that on the day that you are scheduled to arrive, Jan. 21, that day happens to be inauspicious: It's my birthday, and I will be turning 62. 

I have already filed for Social Security retirement, but my wife would have to wait another 11 years before she can retire.  Things have been going south for us for the last 6 months or so, in terms of economics.  I have been mostly out of work; now my wife is mostly out of work; The tenants that we had have moved out and it has become near imppossible to replace them with new tenants who are willing to live with older people who also happen to be vegetarains and Hare Krishna's to boot.  If we don't make a decision soon and things don't change for the better in terms of employment, we be in serious dire straights. 

Now that you have a graphic update, I can tell you that we have decided that it is time to once again become devotees.  We are sick and tired of begging for jobs, being rejected because of gender, age and religious discrimination.  We are seriously talking about sellling the house, and even moving out of the country, but we are scared because all of this is new to us, and we don't know where to go, what to do and what we will find after we move; Also we know that by selling and moving we lose whatever so called security we have and are at the mercy of whatever community we find ourselves in. 

I am hoping to take shelter of your guidance.  We are both thinking of perhaps living in South America somewhere.  There is an ad in Chakra about devotees living in Guyana, and we have responded.  So far, we are awaiting to talk to the devotees on Skype so that a relationship can begin.  It's is not that we have decided to live there; Simply we are investigating is all.  But I would like to know if we have your blessings, and if you ever make any visits to Guyana.  If you don't, but you give us your blessings, then perhaps we could engage in some form of preaching that would attract your association-should we decide to live there.   

There is more to say, but I was hoping to have some private moments to say these things to you when you arrive.  If this is acceptable to you that would be wonderfully helpful and appreciated.  I know that I am not a surrendered soul by nature, but I have no hope but to try, and you have been most merciful to us that it is only natural that we both turn to you for guidance on this matter.

Your lowly servant,

Balabhadra dasa

HpS - AGTSP  pamho.   We may all die of starvation! Did we ever think otherwise?   Old age is a kind of starvation, so it's going to happen one way or another, no?
What I have understood is, "don't leave, don't deviate". Whatever service you KNOW you should do, then do it. If it is only 16/4/mangala arati and SB, then do it. If you know more. Then do it. Don't try to adjust things too much by mental speculation. Some is O.K. but mostly is listeneing to what Krsna is planning.
Draupadi didn't understand Krsna's plan, but she was convinced that there was a plan. If she knew the plan she may have flipped out and run away.

She was the cause of the death of 640,000,000 people. Maybe better not to know what is the plan!    Yesssss, we can meet in Boise.... Five weeks from today!!
 

Hello gurumaharaja, Hare Krishna.
Please accept my humble obeisances, all glories to Srila Prabhupada.
 

In response to your reply to my letter, sorry that you have to explain again how things work in ISKCON, it could have given a bad impression from my side. Not that i don't know these things, but i have understood from our personal conversation at the time that after six months we would be okay. This is what i've been keeping in mind all the time and what's been my inspiration. That's why i was waiting for your visit to Radhadesh, early 2013. Sadhana wise, not much change. Sure, i am up to date with chanting a minimum of sixteen rounds daily,  after i picked it up again last april, and i've followed the four regulations strictly. I take part in (temple) programs at least once a week. I'm already almost a pure devotee (wink). Getting up at brahma muhurta is fluctuating, but GUERD is my motto. Therefore i was a bit upset at first to read your response, because i have been looking forward to it, and have meditated on it on a daily basis.

So, my apologies for this misunderstanding. I was thinking about this development, what to do? I am but a puppet, grumbling. Frankly, it impresses me as somewhat unpractical, we coming to Radhadesh during a short symposium in may when there's two weeks time in februari, but i was thinking, as an alternative, perhaps in may we can do a honeymoon to Spain, New Vraja Mandala. Still, i hope for february, financially that is certainly a lot more secure for us.

I wish you a good time in your writing marathon, good health, and i hope to have the chance to meet you and the other devotees at Japa Joe's.

Signed,
an inspiring devotee.

           HpS - ASA -  AGTSP!!!  paoho.   This Guru-Disciple thing is very individual in many ways. Some are more strict on the exact dates, some are less strict, some preach more strict but are less strict...   We are kind of bull headed about the basic stuff and more intuitive about other stuff.
You may have seen another letter with this same situation. It is common, but it is good.  The marriage has certain ritual actions and words, but those are authorized and then the relationship is a personal contract between God and (wo)men.
Your going to chant for the rest of your life, so what difference does some formality mean?

This Brahma-muhurta thing, up and chanting 96-48 minutes before dawn is ESSENTIAL in our discipline. Basically we won't be chanting ENTHUSIASTIC rounds without it.  Then after five years you will be depressed because of the lack of progress and then you will give up altogether. We have seen it so often.
Yes, Spain, may be the best option. If you are fixed in the Sadhana for a year then Spain would be VERY nice place for initiation!

What ya think?
 

Dear Maharaj:

Namaste. Jaya Srila Prabhupada!

1.  Sorry that my last attempt at explaining what a naskshatra is was confusing. Let me try again.

HpS - Jaya!   AGTSP   paoho.   Sorry our Blog hasn't been working.   We read the last letter but didn't get a chance to post any answer.
       In Berkeley all the lower division classes were one or two digits. So beginning astronomy would be Astronomy 1A, B, C and third semester would have been 101!!!       I have a pretty good grasp of astronomy in some ways. We just came from Ecuador and the sun was rising over the column in the Centennial plaza across the street at a little different point each morning. So, as the earth revolves around the sun (in a helio centric model) it also revolves on its axis which matches the 24-hours of day changes, but the earths axis is tilted at xxx degrees from perpendicular to the plane of its rotation around the sun which as I understand is an eliptical orbit and not a circular orbit, so this is why the sun appears to change its position each day. also is terms of the star map this inclination is also rotating something like every 73-years. How much is it?
So this must also change the position of the star map from the view point of the earth.
Then,   from a geo-centric model, which is one of the three models presented in the 5th canto, the planets such as mars are traveling in epicycloidic motion, like a cockroach on the wheel of a bicyle.  Even this is of course eliptical and not circular motion.

Such a technical field. Then we have to change these to Sanskrit terms. Then we have to discuss the relationship between these bodies in motion.
So, wow. For some people it is their service.  For others it is cooking. I bet that most ISKCON astronomers don't know the recipe for gulabjamons.   However, it doesn't restrict them from offering them to Krsna and knowing that they are a sweet that needs to be served in a bowl to keep the juice and not a savory.
Ha!     Ha!!!!!!!    Know a little about everything and a lot about something(s)..

2.  What is a nakshatra? It is a group of stars close enough together to be called a constellation. There are 27 such groups and these are called "nakshatras", the vedic term for constellation. Nakshatra (singular) and nakshatras (plural). This word is Sanskrit in origin.

3.  These nakshatras (27) are all located along the same path of the sun and moon

    ASA - Using geo-centric model, no?

...which is called the "ecliptic". They make a single rotation around the Earth 24 hours as the sky rotates aroung the Earth, or in modern terms, as the Earth rotates on its axis. They were identified to keep track of the daily progress of the moon as it (the moon) goes through its various phases during a single month.

4.  Each day the night sky advances eastwards a little bit so that in one month's time, a different constellation (nakshatra) is in the background of the full moon. The full moon of each month gets its name from whatever constellation is in the background at that time. Out of 27 such constellations, only 12 of them are ever in a full moon's backround. All of them however are in the backround of various moon phases throughout the year, during different months, one day at a time.

   ASA -  Jaya!  That's nice.   It's interesting that the moon and the, and all the planets as far as I know, fall within the same "plane", ecliptic, by only a few degrees of inclination. The moon could go arounf the earth in a north pole, south pole orbit. Mars could go aroud the sun the same way.  Hmmm?  Designer? Also, the speed of rotation of moon on its axis EXACLTY equals the time it takes to rotate around the earth, so... we only see one side.  Even if these to rates of rotation were different by the tiniest degree after 2,000 years we would be peeping at a little othe backside of the moon. Yet the map of the moon from our ancestrial cave men was just the same as today.
However, there is progression of the Naksatras, no?    The rotation of the moon around the earth, fixing full moons, is not exactly in correspondence with the one year around the sun, star map, so the Naksatras are in a little different place each year, no??
 

5.  There is one exception to the 12 full moon rule. Once every 3 years the is an "extra" full moon in one year's time which shows up against a background constellation which typically only shows up in other moon phases. A moon phase is a visible or invisible (new moon) portion of the moon. They change everyday from new moon  to new moon. Each constellation has a Vedic name.

6.  Therefore, in one year's time, the moon moves through all of the 27 constellations (nakshatras),  one moon phase each day, one constellation a day. It does so 12/13 times a year. This can be easily seen with the aid of simulation software, such as at, www.astroviewer.com.

7.  Please let me know any portion of this explanation which is still unclear to you. You are my test case and explaining this effectively to an intelligent new-comer is very important to me and to my service as a Vedic cosmologist/astronomer.

8.  Sorry, I already quit my day-job and this is my full-time service!

Thanks for taking the time to stick with this with me.

Your servant, Saranga Thakura das

HpS -  Wow!   Long to study this.  Now we have 25-more letters.  I hope nobody wants to teach us how to make Gulabjamons today!  Ha!               Ha!           Ha Ha Ha(re)!!

We will look at www.astroviewer.com after we send this letter!!!  Thank you.