Letters to the editor

asa[e] - sayuja mukti

Hare Krishna, Gurudeva,

Please accept my hopeful obeisances.

All Glories To Srila Prabhupada,

HpS/ASA - AgtSP! Thank you for your Blog post! We were talking with some Senior ISKCON devotee a few days ago and a thought was that 'AgtSP' should come before anything else. 'Ekaki amara, nahi paya bala, harinama sankirtane', (Ohe, Vaisvana Thakura).

Without SP we cannot chant, follow principles, respect each other... .

AgtSP!

Is correct?

We had detail conversation with HG Partha Pratim Prabhu about our own desire and Anarthas.

It came out, we never wanted to serve Krsna, we want Sayuja Mukti (merging with Krsna Body).

Moreover in this world we want Opulence of Fame of Krsna, but we wanted to famous as Renunciant, so that every other famous person ( beautiful, powerful, rich, knowledgeable) will bow down in front of us.

ASA - Even Arnold Schwarzenegger? 😲

We have accepted that we can not become Krsna, so we will try to become as close to him as we can, by even merging in him.

HG said that only good quality /hope is our attachement to you.

We did not know that we envy Krsna so much, that we are ready to eternal Spiritual suicide.

Can you kindly elaborate more in on desire of Sayuja Mukti? Can you add more of your expert comments as Guru ( finding fault with disciple for Disciple's benefit).

Who in scripture was also suffering from this disease? What steps we can take be cured from this disease?

rarest of the offender

Harsh Pradhan

HpS/ASA - Thank you for this question!

https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/1/2/5/

This has been in the back of our mind forever.

We hear about this desire.

SP writes about it a lot, no??!

Yet, he also says that Mayavada, Sunyavada, philosophy is 'incomprehensible'.

We first read this long before initiation or living in SF temple. We were trying to understand Buddhist philosophy.

Eg. God is a circle with its center everywhere and no circumference. We were going mad trying to 'comprehend' it. Then we read Prabhupada's above comment, and 🙂 aaaah. It all made sense.

What does it feel like to merge with Krsna's body or become Sunya, zero?

It seem like a completely silly question.

It is like, "What does it feel like to be dead"? 😄 😄😄

I have heard that SP said the closest we can come to understanding Sayujya mukti is to imagine what it would be like to wake up in the morning and there was no one else in the world except for you.

Hare Krsna!

Very interesting, no?

Would all the bakeries still be working?

-0-

I can only understand wanting unobstructed fame, power etc.

Even that I'm seeing I have childish ideas of what these are. It is like a three year old child thinking that unlimited power would be to eat as many cookies as you wanted whenever you wanted etc.

Now that we are inspired in this meditation, and we have been informed how really great God really is we can start to imagine really big power.

Eg. Benediction of Vrkasura.

Ooof. Scary. Empty. We just want to be servants of Krsna, in so many indirect ways, always at the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada (with you?).

Of course, our personal power, ability, beauty, can continually develop in service in ways that not even Krsna can predict.

That is our realization.

We've seen at moments how deeply rooted these desires for fame are. I suspect that you, me, HG Partha Pratim Das, are doing everything, EVERYTHING, 99.999% for selfish desire.

Only hope is that Radha is more powerful than Durga.

Mercy is the essence of justice, not truth.

O.K.?

Respects to Prabhu.

From Yahoo.Com:

Hare Krishna, Hanumat Presaka Maharaja,

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

Attached below is a first initiation letter of recommendation for Sunita Telhan.

Your servant,

Giri-govardhana Dasa

ISKCON D. C.

HpS:

A A A gSP! Paoho... !. It is so nice to get your association.

On the basis of this official recommendation, our personal contact with Mataji and recommendation of others, we are certainly very happy to act as ISKCON Diksa guru for Mataji.

Very happy.

In general we have stopped giving Hari-nama Diksa because of our advanced physical age and can certainly recommend devotees like Radha-krsna Das in Houston to perform the function, but in Mataji's case it seems appropriate.

What Mataji's date of birth?

The ceremony will be in Rich Mound when we visit in a few weeks?

Thank you.

Hoping you find some engagement for us in your Sankirtan!

Hanumatpresaka Swami

Hare Krishna Maharaja,

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

I hope all is well with you Maharaja.

I just wanted to write something, and to have your association and to hear from you.. and maybe this post could be useful for others too?…

ASA - fIVE gOOD rEASONS tO wRITE! 🐵

I’ve had the good fortune to hear some of your classes and kirtans on YouTube lately, it has been very inspiring. Also I’ve read back through a lot of your DTC posts.. there are many gems of wisdom there. Thank you.. 🙏

Just to share some background, and thoughts I’ve had lately, if I may..

I am a practicing Brahmacari, and overall my experience has been quite nice. Asrama life seems to make following Srila Prabhupada’s program quite easy-chanting 16 rounds, following the 4 regs, etc… it is just nice to be in a place where devotional service is always flowing.. one can take shelter simply by showing up to the programs.. quite a blessing really.

HpS - One time Jayananda Das said to us that Krsna consciousness was eating and sleeping in the best of company, only eat Prasadam and sleep in the Brahmacari Ashrama and you will have no problems!

I really like to give Srila Prabhupada’s books to people face to face, on streets, campuses or whatever. But aside from that initial contact it is hard to connect with people and help them along; I don’t feel so capable of doing that in my current state.

Maintaining relationships with people can honestly be quite difficult, even with others in the asrama, who we’re supposed to be close to and friendly with. Sometimes things feel competitive. Maybe that’s just normal for us in Kali-yuga?.. Would you have any advice how to improve our relationships/behavior/attitudes with other devotees?

ASA/HpS - The answer to that question really seems to be a vast majority of the content of SB, CC etc! When the NoI came out I read Text Five and it helped so, so much. I could then begin to see that there are different kinds of devotees and we talk in intimacy with them differently.

Then of course, Text 10 talks about all kinds of people from Vikarmis to Srimati Radha and gives us hints how to deal with them.

Beyond that, again, Hansadutta told us that SP said that every psychological circumstance that you can encounter is in SB.

Take the stories to heart.

Put them in modern dress.

Do dramas out of them.

Then you will relate to people as expertly as Narada Muni! 😯

I read in a recent blog post, one devotee said something about feeling lonely as ever, even in the community of other devotees and your response was very interesting:

“From reports that I get, most

American devotees feel the same. Once a crocodile, a crocodile until death.”

It made me wonder if it’s just part of the karma of being born American to have trouble getting along with others and wanting to dominate everything.

HpS - Hmmm. Lot of variety in Americans, but I would say that seems we will have a lot of that mentality.

Maybe horses instead of crocodiles.

Just have to learn how to use it in Krsna service.

We really, all, only have one Best Friend, and until we get His association we will feel lonely.

Anyways, I hope I’m not rambling on too much, but thank you for your time! I don’t know if I’ve made any sense here.. but I would be glad to hear anything you have in response..

I feel like a little ant that is just starting to realize the fact that I am only a little ant, with a lot of work to do (to return to Krishna)!

Hare Krishna, thank you again Maharaja. 🙏

Your servant, Abhaya dasa

HpS/ASA - 🐜 . . . 🐒 You are in Chicago Temple, no? Respects to Kishor Kishori.

Hare Krishna Maharaja, please kindly accept my most humble obeisances; all glories to his divine grace, Srila Prabhupada, who has established this worldwide mission of Lord Chaitanya for the benefit of all souls; all glories to your good self, for your many years of selfless devotion to Srila Prabhupada.

I was chanting one of the "Gopinatha" prayers by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and reading over the translation. As I was reading the translation I began to realize more fully how these prayers were meant for me, just to help me realize my precarious position. It's kind of like "Now listen hear Balabhadra, you really don't understand you're in some pretty serious trouble here." There is no way that I can deny that my heart is still full of unlimited desires. How is it that I am able to keep up with my practice of sadhana bhakti in light of this truth is beyond me. There are times when I feel the need to shed tears because I feel so helpless and so useless as a devotee because of so many desires that don't allow me to be more sincere and determined in my life.

This summer marks 40 years since I received brahman initiation and when I began performng full time Deity worship, and yet I don't feel very brahminical at heart. But I do find that I feel hopeful when I have some small opportunity to give someone a book about Krishna consciousness, sharing what little I can. I'm not exactly a stalwart or empowered preacher or book distributor. The online classes that I give help to uplift me and keep me enthusiastic, although sometimes no one else is online, and I am alone. Still, I maintain these online classes even if no one shows up, because I heard on more than one occasion that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta had said "if no one comes to listen, then preach to the four walls." And so, that is what I do, to try and stay enlivened in my devotional service. Keeping up with my sadhana of chanting my rounds, following the regulative principles and being able to serve Sri Sri Radha Govinda on my altar is certainly of great solace, and thus I can feel some measure of hope.

HpS - AgtSP! Are you able to do some worship of Radha Banki-bihari?

I felt the need to write this small bit because I feel like I am in your association when I take the time out to share. I wish that I had more physical association of older devotees, such as yourself. I find great comfort and hope when I listen to the classes of older devotees: in particularly those who are disciples of Srila Prabhupada, but who are less known by the greater world of ISKCON, because of their of simple living as Vaishnavas. The Bhagavatam classes that come out of Hawaii each morning are especially enlivening. The devotees in that group are seasoned with some five decades of devotional service. So often their realizations are out of reach of the younger, lesser experienced devotees. Upfront they are "rank and file" devotees. In reality I consider such stalwart Vaishnavas to be the "unsung heroes" of Srila Prabhupada's movement. How I wish I could be worthy of their mercy and personal association.

I will close here, hoping that I have not committed some offense to any devotees, especially to your good self. I beg for your forgiveness in advance, if I have done so.

Your lowly servant,

Sriman Balabhadra dasa

HpS - Very nice. We just started a Whatsapp group to organize our ASA visit to Boise, and included you!

More news as it comes.

daily sb reading [https://vedabase.io/en/library/noi/3/#bb5883]

Today SB 1.15.41 and 42 because we are preparing for our eminent death, and trying to do it by chanting with an eye to Sankhya is very appealing.

We remembered Maharaja Yuddishira's preparations and then looked them up.

Is very interesting.

We clicked on 'juhAva' in the word-for-word and usually it indicated offering into a fire sacrifice. That is nice.

Also, we were thinking that Srila Prabhupada wrote these purports before he came to USA and had chance to refine his English, though he had young devotees edit them, no?

'Study my purports to the bone!'

So, we have a call into Srinivasa Das to discuss the translation.

It is so, so nice reading these purports after several years. We may have read them like five times over the past 40-50 years.

They are tantalizingly fresh each time.

How do you find them?

Do they help your service?

Maybe we are not trying to directly follow the Sankhya-yoga of Maharaja Yuddhisthira or Lord Kapila, but we should see the same Sankhya results from our Yoga that are described here.

'For every process in the Astanga yoga system, there is a corresponding process in the Bhakti-yoga system.'

Purport: "The material color of the mind is changed when one washes it clean of the contaminations of life-breathing..."

This phrase, "life-breathing", struck us very strongly the first time we read it and we have cited it several times in lectures and meditated upon it as we do our Japa, Kirtan, honor Prasadam.

Practice not breathing when you are chanting. Go on chanting. Make your tongue and jaw move, keep the mind on the Mantra, but see what happens to your body.

We breath to get life.

We eat to get Prana that we can feel filling and circulating in our bones and body, but - we can get the same 'life' from the Mantra.

Ohhh! Wow! Hmm? 🤔

We must learn to do that. We must learn to live without being 'colored' by the material atmosphere, air. Live atop the Himalayas.

-0-0-0-

The we thought of SB 5.5.5 that SP cites in NoI etc. etc. etc. Has same idea? Let us look. 🙄

SB 5.5.5 - 'karma-ātmakam — absorbed in material activities' is the phrase that SP cites in NoI, but did not see it discussed here. Maybe it was prenoted in the previous verse. SP discussed them together in NoI. 5.5.4 is a memory verse.

Do you know it?

Try to chant it now.

. . .

No karma-ātmakam is not there in 5.5.4 but we remember nice discussion in NoI.

🚙

Let us look up how Bhisma deva left his body.

[UG: We discovered that if you put a colon [ : ] and follow it with words, the emo list shows up!

SB 1.9.43, no, no Sankhya there. . . . O.K. . . . . Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare!!

Let the Hari-kirtan guide us in our recitation of SB.

😃

Hare Krishna Maharaja and Devotees;

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

On Saturday, July 8, 2023, Maharaja is going to be busy in doing home programs in Richmond, Virginia, so it won't be possible to have our regular Saturday Morning workshop on July 8, 2023.

This coming Saturday and Sunday, we will have two consecutive classes for our regular SB workshop.

The Sunday class will be held to cover for class we are going to miss on Saturday July 8, 2023. On this Saturday we will be reading from CC Adi lila, chapter 14, verses 70 onwards.

Thank you to everyone for valuable association.

YS

Upendra dasa