Letters to the editor

"the spiritual master's order should be taken as the prime duty of life. If one gets a bona fide spiritual master and acts according to his direction, then his perfection of life in Krsna consciousness is guaranteed."  Bg 18.57

"TRANSLATION: When all the sons of Pracinabarhi left home to execute austerities, they met Lord Siva, who, out of great mercy, instructed them about the Absolute Truth. All the sons of Pracinabarhi meditated upon the instructions, chanting and worshiping them with great care and attention.

PURPORT

It is clear that to perform austerities or penances, or, for that matter, any form of devotional service, one has to be guided by a spiritual master. Here it is clearly stated that the ten sons of Maharaja Pracinabarhi were favored by the appearance of Lord Siva, who, out of great kindness, gave them instructions regarding the execution of austerities. Lord Siva actually became the spiritual master of the ten sons, and in turn his disciples took his words so seriously that simply by meditating upon his instructions (dhyayantah) they became perfect. This is the secret of success. After being initiated and receiving the orders of the spiritual master, the disciple should unhesitatingly think about the instructions or orders of the spiritual master and should not allow himself to be disturbed by anything else. This is also the verdict of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, who, while explaining a verse of Bhagavad-gita (vyavasayatmika buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana, Bg. 2.41), points out that the order of the spiritual master is the life substance of the disciple. The disciple should not consider whether he is going back home, back to Godhead; his first business should be to execute the order of his spiritual master. Thus a disciple should always meditate on the order of the spiritual master, and that is perfectional meditation. Not only should he meditate upon that order, but he should find out the means by which he can perfectly worship and execute it." SB 4.24.16

BJB:PAMHO AGTSP! Since I have been a devotee for many years already and have not ever been formally initiated yet, I have learned to become directly attached to Srila Prabhupada as the person I (as it says here) always meditate on and make his words my life and soul. If you do the initiation I would like to continue this. Is that ok with you?

 I ask this because I notice that in different circles of devotees that have been initiated by different guru's it seems that either the guru or the initiated devotee try to or has developed this mood directly with their initiator and not directly with Srila Prabhupada.  I feel this mood (as stated above in the 2 Prabhupada quotes) directly with Prabhupada and in you being the initiator I want it to only increase.

Thanks so much!

Bhakta Joe Blow

HpS - AGTSP  paoho.   Certainly.  Wouldn't have it any other way!  Krsna is the ultimate Guru, no? And as we advance we see Trnad apri sunicena... How everyone is his representative in different ways  So Srila Prabhupada is the Founder Acharya of ISKCON, somebody else is responsible for making decisions about printing books, somebody else is super inspiration and technical guru for us in our Sankirtana.  Drona acharya was the Astra guru for the Pandavas.  All of these Gurus know their relative positions and co-operate to serve each other.

If you want to take me in my little position as a representative from Prabhupada in this perspective then you can hear FROM MY LIPS that I heard FROM SRILA PRABHUPDA'S lips, that he would never die, he would live forever in his books.  Now people can here that FROM YOU LIPS!

My humble obeisances Gurumaharaj, I have recently been complimented on my work to do a great job as an engineer, but I did not care that flatters me, because if I try to dothe right thing is for service to Krishna and Krishna-conscious act, and SrilaPrabhupada explains that "the act Krisnha consciousness, one can give you themaximum service to all, that is, the self, family, society, etc."
I'm trying to make arrangements to distribute books.
Gurumaharaj, how I can do to serve you better?
Waiting for your visit Chile, Your aspiring servant,
Bhakta Manuel  

HpS - AGTSP  pamho. My service is just a little part of Srila Prabhupada's service. See to His service and ours in that perspective.
What is your age?  What kind of engineer are you? 

Diary of a Traveling Creature

Buck White (PIGGY)
Hare Krsna!   Prabhus!        AGTSP!      Paoho.      We invented these two acronyms!   Did you know that?
[Yes, you already mentioned it 5-times]

Hmmm?    Well anyway.   We just got back to the USA.   You can see our mention of that in other letters.   The letters we receive are pretty cool.  People are stuggling with powerful adversaries.  Hari-lila Das met us at the airport and we came to his home.  He was BIG structural engineer when he was working.  80-story buildings.  He knows so many verses just from his Indian birth.   So nice.
Tonight we go, in 15-minutes, to Ksitiji Kapoor's apartment.   He and his wife are finishing their work to be psychiatrists and they will have about 22-of their colleagues there.  Indians.  With very intense questions.  They expect you to know scripture and have actual experience of what you are presenting from performing real austerities.
Then we are here in Houston until Tuesday and then off to  Tennessee.   A lot happening.  We just chant Hare Krsna and try to see our way through the hurricane to our actual position in Srila Prabhupada's band.  A lot of that is definitely his books.
Be sure to join our asa-pdp Yahoo! group if you want to do Bhakti-vaibhava study with us.

O.K.   More tommorrow.    The cellular phone works!

        Todas las glorias a Sri Sri Goura Nitay                                                                      Todas las glorias a Srila Prabhupada                                                                                Por favor acepte mis mas humildes reverencias                                                              Hare Krshna    Querido Maharash , soy Daniel de Mar del Plata , Argentina , tuve la gracia de conocerlo en diciembre , en el Loft , y le pedi refugio.                                    Conoci a los devotos en abril de 2010 y desde junio canto todos los dias mis 16 rondas .una ves por mes cocino para la fiesta de Domingo , con un grupo que aprendimos cocina ayurveda con Nicacio. Siempre que puedo hago servicio arreglando las cosas que se rompen en el Loft . durante las tardes trabajo en una universidad haciendo mantenimiento. Y todo mi tiempo fuera del trabajo trato de pasarlo con los devotos.                                                                                                      ¿Quisiera saber como puedo hacer para servirlo ?                                                         Hare Krshna

HpS -        A - G - T - S - P !   So much nice news from Mar.     I only hope that you can inspire me to serve Krsna and His representatives more!     Read BG 5.29.     What do you think of it.

TLGASP Tan mucho buen noticias de Mar.  Solamente espero que puede inspirar me servir mas a Krsna y sus representantes!    Lea el BG 5.29.      En lo cual, que piensas?

Esta pensando tomando refugio de Srila Prabhupada formalmente?

AGTSP!!
Please, accept mis mas humildes y respetuosas reverncias.

Dear Maharaja:
At the moment Im chanting 5 rounds daily, but I know in an offensive way, because I dont follow the regulative principies extrictily. I want to talk to you abuot that especificly:
-Eat meat: cow meat: no, chicken anf fish, sometimes.
-Intoxication: drugs and alcohol: no, cigarrettes: yes
- Ilicital sex: sometimes, not to much.
-" Juegos de Azar": no
I think and hope, since more rounds I chant I will stop do this things, but at the moment is the best I can do. I know is to few, Im so " caida" and ignorant, please, give me your mercy.

Dear Maharaja, why when Im chanting my japa I feel so happy, and then, when I finish, sudenly, an emptyness comes in my heart, and then I have but thinkings? like ghost in my mind?? like remembers of my past? I dont understand it good, I remember one day Prabhu Kanu Pandit told me this: " when you start to clean your house, the dust come over, is it like that? I think is like that, because is that I fell, the ghost of my mind and my heart are going out because Im cleaning my heart?? can you explain me this?

19 March Goura Pornima in Chosica Mnadir!!
JAYA SRI CAITANYA MAHAPRABHU!!!
JAYA SRILA PRABHUPADA!!!
JAYA GURUDEVA!!!
With all my heart and devotion, your eternal sirvient Cristina ♥

HpS -  Jaya!   A G T S P ! ! !     I was wondering how you were.  We had not heard from you for some time.   We just got  back to Texas after three very, very, very intense days in Mexico.  Now we should be able to slow down a little bit.  We will be in USA for three months.
Yes, we have these addictions to stupid habits, and yes, the best way to get free from them is to chant Hare Krsna.   Of course, we should also try to stop them just because we know they are stupid, but real essence is getting higher kind of life.   While we are smoking for example we can chant, and then very quickly we will give up the habit.
I don't know the details of your life, but yes, it is  a sure fact that as we begin to get a higher life the lower life becomes more obvious.   One man said, "I can't stop smoking when every I want to.  I've already done it 18-times." <img alt="" src="http://hps-d6.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/a04.gif" title="" />
Even with such a simple thing as smoking we don't realize how attached we are until we stop.  So then, when we start to examine deep things about our life: Am I a good person?   Have I lived my life in vain? Then we may start to see how shallow our life has been.

So, basic thing is to just chant as much as you can on beads.  Chant as much as you can at important moments.  Read some regular books.  Have lots of association with devotees.
Seems to us this Gaura-purnima Festival in Choseka is going to be something incredible.

HpS: Seems that some feel that the person giving names, beads, evaluating the candidate on behalf of Srila Prabhupada is a priest that deviates us from Srila Prabhupada for one moment but then we return to Srila Prabhupada afterwards.  On the other hand is the idea that we can see the above mentioned person as representative of Prabhupada before during and after the fire sacrifice.

What is your comprehension of this?

BJB: PAMHO AGTSP! If the initiator is as you say giving names, beads, evaluating the candidate on behalf of Srila Prabhupada and may also give relevant spiritual guidance to the candidate in line with Prabhupada then I don't see how the initiator could deviate the disciple from Srila Prabhupada. Such a Guru is linking him to Prabhupada. If he is deviating the disciple from Prabhupada then he is not a Guru at all! 

I like the, as you say: "the idea that we can see the above mentioned person as representative of Prabhupada before during and after the fire sacrifice." Prabhupada used the term "officiating acharya" and said in EJTOP's "become a spiritual master himself, just as a student becomes a monitor in class with a limited number of disciples." In the teachers absence the student is acting on behalf of the teacher.

Actually all this guru tattva stuff really makes my head hurt, I have tried to understand it from so many different angles for so many years but it is so difficult to understand, and confusing. I don't think it can ever truly be put into words at all. It is transcendental. I just had to go over all this with you and think about your answers for some time (the last few years) meditating on it deeply and trying to see if it felt right to me. But I think as of now as far as I can tell I feel pretty satisfied and am ready to move forward with this.

Thank you.

I hope I have not offended you in any way with my intense challenging or questions or whatever! I have great respect and appreciation for you.

Hare Krishna, Bhakta Joe Blow

HpS - AGTSP!   paoho.   Yes, I think it can give Srila Prabhupada a headache also.   I was also trying to figure this all out before I tried to become an "ISKCON Guru".   Then I had a dream and Srila Prabhupada looked at me a little disgusted and said, "Guru-tattva: You are following me and you are going back to Godhead. Anyone following you following me is goind back to Godhead. End of discussion. Get out on Sankirtana".
Is funny it might be so simple.

I understand that we can follow many people, the more the better, who are following Srila Prabhupada. One of those is connecting us according to the formality of rounds and principles.  We can also follow Srila Prabhupada through his books, his Murti, the Super soul.  We must put all these in proportion and in the end it is for us to accept and reject different representatives as they are connected or not connected at different times.
We hope to see you Wetware soon!  (Gross body).
Tommorrow back to USA!