Letters to the editor

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.

<img alt="" src="http://hps-d6.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/40.gif" title="" />All Glories to Sri Sri Goura Nitay! <img alt="" src="http://hps-d6.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/40.gif" title="" />
<img alt="" src="http://hps-d6.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/40.gif" title="" />All Glories to Srila Prabhupada! <img alt="" src="http://hps-d6.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/40.gif" title="" />
<img alt="" src="http://hps-d6.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/40.gif" title="" />All Glories to Yoou ! <img alt="" src="http://hps-d6.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/40.gif" title="" />

Camila <img alt="" src="http://hps-d6.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/36.gif" title="" />, 19 years old, student of Social Work, Santiago, Chile.  

PAMHO !  ! PAMHO ! ! PAMHO !! <img alt="" src="http://hps-d6.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/04.gif" title="" />

4 Principles and 16 rounds. 

Hare Krishna dear Maharaj, since u'been gone I feel so much enthusiasm w/my spiritual life, You reminded me of who I really am, an eternal servant of Krishna. I'm very grateful to you, thanks you very much. You are a great inspiration to me, I hope someday to serve you, and continue to do in life after life. 

Here(Chile), in Govardhan's day, I asked if I could take refuge in you, we where with Prabhu Patrak Das, and Bhaktin Andrea, and you told me that it was okay, and "yes", and I had to write continuously on the blog, so we can have a formal relation. One day before you will travel to Peru, Prabhu Om Kesavaya Das told me that I was no longer a refugee in you, he doesn't tell me about the reasons of that, for many days i was very bad, very sad, trying to understand what happens... I realized that Krishna does this, he knows why he does things, and actually, I'm not one to question the decisions of You Maharaj, or the temple authorities, Krishna acts and I can only surrender to his will.
But i have to say you, that I can not understand how the Prabhu Om Kesavaya Das, told me things, because something that is so important to me,  has told me in the temple hall, unprepared, so arrogant, and telling that I was not refugee and could not call you "Guru Maharaj", without concise arguments to understand what had happened. It is for this reason that I was so affected, and I've taken so long to assimilate it, makes me very sad the way I was told this.  It is the messenger that has produced me this upset, but not the message. 
I talked with the president of the Temple, Prabhu Amara Gouranga Das, and he told me that the temple recomended me for refuge....so clearly i don't understand what happened...so i'm asking you that if you can explain me what happened, I'm prepared to receive any answer, i'm just confused, and I just want to know what happened...
 

Please excuse me if I have committed any offense, not my intention<img alt="frown" src="http://hps-d6.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/confused_smile.gif" title="frown" /> . I think it is right to tell you what happens. 
And please excuse me for my terrible English, and do you read this letter...I do not want to bother you, I know you must be very busy with projects of NIOS & ASA.

Please accept my most humble obeisances at your lotus feet. <img alt="" src="http://hps-d6.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/40.gif" title="" />

Hoping to serve you, your dumb servant Bhaktin Camila R. <img alt="" src="http://hps-d6.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/38.gif" title="" /><img alt="" src="http://hps-d6.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/36.gif" title="" />

HpS - ASA - Jaya!   AgtSP!   Paoho.      We got notification that Nimai Das sent a copy of this letter to us at the Yahoo Group.  We were only using that until the Blog was fixed. Now it is fixed so we are stopping using the Yahoo Group for letters.  Back to the Blog.

This seems to be a common test that Krsna gives people. Almost the same thing happened to me when I went to the Temple in San Francisco the first time. So I went back out to my car and took shelter of Srila Prabhupada's KRSNA book and practically the first thing I read was, "One should not be discouraged if there are obstacles in the path of devotional service in the beginning. One should go ahead with enthusiasm and everything will be successful."

So I went back to the Temple and tried again and was great experience.

When the list of Candidates for being Aspirants and Initiation was made up there was not proper evaluation by the ISKCON standard. I can't remember the details but I think it was communicated to us that although you were doing very well, you had not been chanting sixteen rounds a day and following full program for six months.

Is that a fact?

If so, that is the formality that we have to accomplish.

For how many months have you been chanting 16-enthusiastic rounds and following the 4-principles strictly and keeping regular morning program and participating in the Sankirtana of Lord Caitanya in ISKCON?

   Booop!     It is a simple clear standard, but it is actually very personal. It is a contract that Srila Prabhupada made for us with the Son of Maharaja Nanda

O.K.   We wait with great expectations for your answer!

Nitai-Gaura, Radhe-Shyama, Jaya Krsna-Balarama!

AGTSP!  (paoho)   By the mercy of PND we have the ASA Blog again. It is now 5.10AM, Monday, 17 December. We are in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in our ASA Trailer-Camp Office.

Oink!       Oink!                Whoop!   Whoop!

We've not got much to say: Many people, many projects, one Mantra, Hare!     We must do some more Japa to keep our 25>28/day on beads.

         Pause, to chant one Mantra during any work.  Chant while you work. Make chanting your work and let everything else flow from it.

                   Vande guroh sri caranaravindam.

    Japa, 64-rounds/day.   25 on beads, or more, and the rest as you type, cook, dance, your flute with all the other boys play. 
 

           Hare!    Krsna!                         Hare!  Rama!!!

 

    AGTSP   paoho.   Our Blog may be working again.  I got your call I will respond by phone.