Letters to the editor

"Hare Krishna Guru Maharaj

PAMHO AGTSP

How are you Guru Maharaj.

Bhakti charu Maharaj decipal group wanted to check how is your schedule on 4th of July, they want to invite you at DeLand Florida, for Bhakti charu swami Maharaj Tirobhava mahotsav."

HpS-ASA --- AgtSP. Paoho. Thank you for forwarding the invitation. We always have happy feeling in our heart when we remember H. H. Bhakti-caru Swami. We was a human being!

We have just finished 6-months on the road, consolidating our decades of traveling and preaching/teaching, and now are just getting our Base Camp in Nashville open and running. We just got our car registered, insured and running last week.

Very nice.

Right now we have no plans for traveling out of town, Murfreesboro, even for the rest of our life. Of course that may change as we get in a better position to see Krsna's plan of work.

Yet, right now we could not join the festival, but might join online.

Thank you.

"Hare Krishna, Gurudeva, accept. my obeisances. I am meditating hard on everything I learned during your visit. honestly during this new goverdan event it was very instructive and i am very grateful to the devotees, but i have my personal reservations and i want to serve sankirtan but i feel very ignorant. develop good communication with Dhruva Prabhu and his Family. , . we want to do sankirtan and start a preaching movement. here in Latin America as a new Goverdan base. MONTEMORELOS."

HpS - ASA -- TlgaSP!.... Thank you. I think 50% of your effort is now finished, you followed up on the visit!

Many times we organize and event. That is 50% of the effort. The other 50% is to continue.

1. It depends on our effort and Krsna's effort. Try to understand Krsna's plan from goof Japa, Srila Prabhupada's books, advice from nice devotess and people - one, two, three. Krsna wants Kirtan, hearing and chanting, in Kali-yuga, so if New Govardhana is amined at that then it is proper.
2. Judge by the results. See how things are developing and then adjust accordingly. You have already done that in terms of your Sankirtan and got good results.
3. Purity is the force. Four principles and 16-nice rounds (Mangala arati etc). Anything you want to accomplishin Sankirtan or with your family will only improve as you stick to these things.
4. Keep posting results, news, here in the Blog. Let us see if the devotees respond.

Thank you, Hare Krsna!!

We just finished watching the film. The family was delighted by so many aspects---the soundtrack, scenes, storyline.

We realized that many people leave big buildings with their names on them, but you have given us a community---of devotees, teachers, statesmen, temple builders, philosophers.

That community is visible throughout the movies---in Peru, Boise, Richmond, Nashville, Houston, and soon, in Spain and India.

How wonderful this is!

Thank you.

HpS - ASA - We say AGTSP, and just recently we realize that it means that when someone glorifies us, it is just correct to point out that we are maybe the brush and the glories mostly go to the artist.

In this case, we would not have even done this work unless, many people had pushed us to "consolidate" our Sankirtan efforts. Thanks to all of them.

Thanks to all of the members and friends (and even intelligent enemies) of ISKCON!

Thanks to our Producer, Director, Director of Photography, local professional photographers, cooks, hosts, rivers, grass, dogs, birds.

There is a kind of funny tombstone in graveyard of the Cathedral at Canterbury. It is understood as a kind of pun, that the deceased would have loved, that says, "He knew his place".

Thank you.

Respects to everyone.

Hare Krishna, maharaja, PAMHO AGTSP.

Thank you for sharing the link for the movie. We watched the movie, and we really appreciated all your efforts you have put into making this film. It is definitely a lot of hard work. Throughout the film, we got to see mangoes 🥭 that have ripened by your mercy. 

I just had a suggestion that I would like to share with you. At some points in the film, it felt like certain individuals were playing a very important role and were being given more screen time than others.

I just feel like this whole Krishna movement is not one man show. It definitely takes a lot of group effort, and every devotee needs the association of other devotees. For example, it would be nice to see the pictures at the end of those people who have put so much effort into making this film happen. Or like how so many devotees are doing service together and inspiring each other. 

I beg for forgiveness if I have done any offenses while expressing my thoughts. 

Your servant, 

Bhaktin Sitarani

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AgtSP!!!!! He made the movie, no? Paoho. Thank you for this very nice comment. Very, very, nice. We felt exactly the same thing when we saw this and the first movie.

We did not edit the movie. We gave suggestions, but in the end Pablo Rivas Plata, Director of Photography, had to push the buttons and make the cuts.

Me, Raul, Abhirama et al made editorial comments, but Pablo had to do the job.

We feel that we were too prominent in the movie. It is about Tom Brown more than HpS, but it is better than the first one.

In Houston, we did full interviews with Subhra Devi Das and one of her Goswami Academy students, Guru-bhakti and Sarva-bhauma, Hari-lila and Nandulal. They are all great.

The same in true in Peru.

We have interviews with devotees who are now on committees with the United Nations.

Ooof!

I wanted so much more to be in the film. I pushed to get some interviews in there because they I felt they were representative, an example, of the general service that so many were doing, but so, so, so much more was possible, but really not practical. Personally, considering how much he has worked to understand ISKCON, us, Pablo made a fantastic collection of final cuts. Fantastic.

I commented to Abhirama that it seems there are six more full movies from the footage we shot during our six months in Peru.

He laughed and said that he, Raul and Pablo had decided that there were ten more Eg. Science and the Vedas, Management in the Church Sector, Hamlet and Arjuna...

The same in true in Houston, Richmond, Boise, but... we have the footage there. All in 4K. So more movies can be made.

You!! Should make movies about the Yatra. About your life. Stop and talk about all that has happened to you, like Sridhara and Radhika rama in the movie. I remember going out with you and M. Arrudha DD doing primary and middle school programs in the summer. You would talk to the kids and dance, no? It was so much fun!

Radhika was in the first movie in Peru.

His family shows up in the second movie.

He won't be in three or four.

Professor Bejar is in the first movie, not in the second, at the end of the third and very prominent in the third.

It will will allow people to have "traveling" companions as they go through the series.

Your idea of a collage of people at the end exciting to me.

I think Pablo tried to catch that with the Rathayatra festivals.

Bhakti Siddhanta made us Brahmanas.

Srila Prabhupada gave us the Vedas.

We have to make the movies, no?

P.S. What do you think of these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_cinema

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotte_Reiniger

asa[e] - VAD, Sannyasa Dharma, Advisor

Dear Maharaj,

PAMHO AGTSP!

I wanted to write to you to ask your guidance on where to go from here. Next year I can pursue college as you expressed. Until then I can pursue martial arts as you guided. But before I start martial arts, I need to wrap up previous projects. I wanted to ask your guidance on an alternative place to stay? People where my parents stay ask awkward questions to which we don’t have answers to yet.

YAS,

YS

HpS/ASA - AgtSP! paoho.... We are relating to the physical and mental world through a 75-year old California body. At 30-years old the physical energy in the body starts to diminish. At fifty the mental. We can only relate to specific planning, mental plans, by writing stuff down. We can write this kind of letter because we can write and re-write it. Focus on one "local" plan.

Very funny, very fascinating.

Same will happen to you, everyone.

As your body doesn't jump and hop, mind the same, you begin to realize that you are not body or mind.

Then, "Who am I"? Because we have spiritual resources we can, and are gratefully pushed, to realize our intellectual (Buddhi) nature.

Hmmm. How is my intelligence? What is my attitude to life? Bhava? Most people never really ask this question. They just accept the attitude to life that their culture, Disney, Netfixs, gives them.

If we get the Bhava, perspective, that BG gives us, then we can reawaken our spiritual nature and go to dance in Goloka.

Cha! Cha! Cha! ....

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So, often people ask us for specific advise. We can give general suggestions and focus on a few specific situations, but without knowing the specific details, we cannot give detailed advice, Eg. In which city to live, what career to take.

It just bewilders us.

We feel like a buffalo looking at a person sitting in front of us on a motorized lawn mower, honking their horn and waving at us to move.

""Hu????"

We wrote about this topic two days ago: https://monkeywarrior.com/detail/14018/, please read that post, it should help.

We get this question often and try to explain our limits. As Mangala-ananda Das told us, "After seven or so years as your disciple, I have figured out that you are my guru, not my psychologist".

We feel bad because we would like to study every situation and help, but it is just not possible. We are not the supreme enjoyer, proprietor or FRIEND. The last mistake got Maharaja Bharata and Adam, husband of Eve.

We were pushed into Sannyasa by many intelligent people. O.K. Then we realized that it meant going beyond Kuticaka, living in a Temple cave near the Temple and just taking food from that Temple and giving advice. The administrators had some expectation that you would give advice that would be comfortable to their administrative ambitions. Oooof!

So, we took to Parivrajacacary.

We had stayed in Kolkatta helping our esteemed Sannyasa guru and Sankirtan leader, H. H. B. S. Damodara Swami, develop the Second World Congress for a Synthesis of Science and Religion for over a year. It had been my first summer in India and the hottest one in Kolkatta in 35-years. We lost 20-pounds, were so weak we had to be careful walking that we did not fall down. Yet, we still went out on Indian buses to do Sankirtan! Jay!!

Severe austerities for the B.I.

We had promised to stay for three months.

We did.

Maharaja asked to stay another three months.

.. . . . ... We DID.

Then he asked for another three months and

. . . . We D I D ! !

Then... yes, he asked again (each time by phone), please stay just a little longer. 'Don't always run away'!

Oooof!!!

We stayed and worked.

Then Maharaja, my Sankirtan leader, came to India, and the Congress was scheduled to start etc.

He was critical of how many contacts that we had been able make etc. etc.

We were very hurt. Whine. Whine. Whine. We had gone way beyond what he had asked. We had tried our, agree limited, best, and then he was criticizing us.

Ooof.

After about one-hour he came out of his room smiling and said, "Come here". I went into his room and he showed me some documents in his suitcase that he was unpacking. From the Kolkatta weather they had gotten so damp, they were sticking together, and one Brahmacari was very carefully pulling them apart so that they were not destroyed.

He laughed and said that he had to make a very serious apology to me, that he had forgotten (he was a graduate student in Kolkatta for many years) what it was like in Kolkata.

I was happy.

Often ISKCON leaders would be overly critical of us and never apologize. Between myself and Maharaja I feel a very intimate friendship. We hope to see him soon!

Yet, he is not God. He made mistakes. He could not give perfect advice.

If you want perfect career advice, you must talk with God. Srila Prabhupada, and They may say, that even they don't know.

The Jiva's have free will, and because of that they can do delightful never before dreamed of things that charm Radha and Krsna. We are all special. Unique, of inestimable value.

I could go on with this theme.

It describes how we scrounged a ticket back to USA. To leave Kolkata we had to duck under Maharaja's radar as more and more and more people were coming to organize this Congress etc. We arrived in New York in the middle of Winter and two feet of snow. No place to stay but on the street.

We just would not compromise with any of the Temples we knew to get a place to stay in exchange for being an "accommodating" Sanyasis.

We called Shankar Shastri and he was happy for us to stay for a few days, but beyond that it would interrupt his life style.

In the end we were determined, as must be you, and anyone seeking to become a Goswami and then a pure devotee, that we would rather die than lie to people about the truth.

Eg. "Prabhu, I know that you are Temple President, GBC Secretary, rich man, but I have to say that on this point you are wrong. You are being to arrogant with the devotees in this situation".

So, I was thinking that I would just go and sit behind a tennis back-board in a school athletic yard and freeze to death with honor and be found in the Spring thaw.

Then, little by little, Krsna revealed a plan for preaching and traveling for the next three months.

O.K. That's all we had, but that's enough.

!!!! Chant good rounds. Read Prabhupada's books. Talk with six good devotees who know you and then see if Krsna wants you here or in Goloka. If He wants you here, maybe the best he can do is give you a plan that will take you up: O.K. He has not given me an ultimate plan, but He has given me a career move that will have some immediate results and put me in a better position to take advantage of opportunities in the future. !!

You see we have taken a lot of time to answer your question.

Before this Blog we would have had to write this letter seven times each year!

Now we feel that we have done the best for many other devotees, because we can answer your excellent question, but for many other also!

O.K.???

We are facing exactly the same challenges as you right now.

We are trying to clarify what is going to happen with NIOS etc.

We are doing our work. We visited all of our work stations for six months. Now we are back in Kishkindha and we are trying to understand Krsna's next plan of work. Really, it is very possible that Krsna wants us to abandon this body and mind and go to work in another planet.

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As we understand many devotees, including us, had the same question wen Tamal Krsna Swami died in the car accident, "Oh, Prabhupada, how could you let this happen"?

"I need him for other work here. I let him stay with you for as long as possible. If you did not take advantage of him that is your fault, not mine".

Unless we accept that Sankirtan may kill us, Maya will always have us under her control.

Visnu priya was just as good a Goswami as Lord Caitanya.

Tell us the opinion of others about your situation, the insights from your chanting. Citations from your readings of SP's books that related to your decision making.

O.K. We look at a few more letters.

The go rake leaves!

Thank you!!

Expect to hear great results from your war on Maya!

JHpS - ASA

Hk pamho

Querido Gurudeva por motivos personales tuve que regresar a Perú, pero sus instrucciones las llevaré a cabo, ya estoy trabajando en ello, prefiero que se mantenga en reserva.

Me quedé encantada con el templo de México, la cabeza es muy importante, el GBC visita sus dominios, habla personalmente con cada persona, es muy estricto sobre todo en lo que se refiere a la atención a la deidad, por lo que me contaron, ingresa sorpresivamente y si ve algo incorrecto lo corrige en el momento. Si bien es cierto que estuvimos más en la finca, vi gran inspiración y entrega en Ciudad de México, muy buen lugar para realizar vida espiritual. Los devotos, los monges muy activos e inteligentes. Seguramente Krsna me permitirá volver y conocer más de ese hermoso país.

Por otro lado, al regresar a Lima salí un día, un rato a distribuir libros y la gente llevaba los libros. Son muy pocos los que hacen ese servicio. Posiblemente siempre que pueda intentaré hacerlo. Por favor deme sus bendiciones para poder entregar los libros de Srila Prabhupada. Ahora ya no vivo por Chosica, asisto a una iglesia franciscana que se llena de 500 personas, me llamo la atención, muy rústica, construida con cañas de bambú, calaminas, muy buena organización, vi acólitos mujeres, al parecer en todas partes la presencia de la mujer es cada vez más notoria, no me sorprendería que de aquí a unos años ellas den misa.

Con respecto a Miraflores, los devotos que aceptaron la descabezada propuesta de las autoridades, “el camello”, no elegir una propuesta, sino crear un consejo, elegir el líder de cada propuesta e incluir a la administración que se supone que salía, ¡¿A nos otros aparece locura?! Formaba parte del equipo de una de las propuestas, cuando crearon al “camello”, inmediatamente me desvinculé, creo que un sacrificio como es abrir un templo debe hacerse en bondad, con un equipo humano a fin, que compartan los mismo ideales. Es una pena, porque con ese proceder solo dejan mal el nombre de su Maestro, a quien aprecio mucho, lamento que se tomen las decisiones sin pensar en el beneficio de la prédica, hay mucho inconformismo e indignación entre los devotos por el proceder de las autoridades en este asunto, recién algunos grupos, después de tantos años desean hacer algo, un poco tarde, sin embargo, espero que se salve a la predica en Perú. Perú es hermoso, turismo, historia, comida, quisiera decir lo mismo en predica. Templo hermoso, deidades bellísimas. Espero pronto se aplique una reingeniería. Un cambio urge.

Otros grupos religiosos son exitosos, otros yatras que visito periódicamente están mejorando, y Perú se rezagó, retrocede. Todo esto es preocupante. Ud. Siempre dice que en Vrndavana solo Krsna mata demonios. Espero pronto venga la ayuda necesaria. Hay muy buenos devotos merecen tener un yatra tan bueno como ellos.

Estoy tomando un curso de sastra, continúo apoyando al programa de Bhakti Yoga los sábados con Prabhu Kolaveca el encargado de predica congregacional.

Por favor deme sus bendiciones para avanzar espiritualmente y servir sobre todo a gente inocente que desea conocer a Krsna.

Muchas gracias Gurudeva por su constante asociación on line.

Su hija que lo adora:

Yugala Kisora Dasi (el león a punto de saltar)

hk pamho

Dear Gurudeva, for personal reasons I had to return to Peru, but I will carry out your instructions, I am already working on it, I prefer that it be kept in reserve.

I was delighted with the temple in Mexico, the head is very important, the GBC visits its domains, talks personally with each person, is very strict especially when it comes to attention to the deity, from what they told me, it enters unexpectedly and if it sees something wrong it corrects it on the spot.

Although it is true that we were more on the farm, I saw great inspiration and dedication in Mexico City, a very good place to lead a spiritual life. The devotees, the very active and intelligent monks. Surely Krsna will allow me to come back and learn more about that beautiful country.

On the other hand, when I returned to Lima I went out one day, for a while, to distribute books and people brought the books. Very few do that service. Possibly whenever I can I will try to do it.

Please give me your blessings so that I can deliver Srila Prabhupada's books.

HpS - Many, many, many best wishes and hopes that we can practically help you and that you also bless us. We gave an NoI to the mechanic who worked on our car yesterday and thanked him.

Now I no longer live in Chosica, I attend a Franciscan church that fills up with 500 people, it caught my attention, very rustic, built with bamboo canes, corrugated iron, very good organization, I saw female acolytes, apparently everywhere the presence of women is increasingly notorious, I would not be surprised if in a few years they will give mass.

Regarding Miraflores, the devotees who accepted the headless proposal of the authorities, "the camel", did not choose a proposal, but created a council, electing the leader of each proposal and including the administration that was supposed to leave,

¡¿ To us it seems like madness?!

I was part of the team for one of the proposals, when they created the "camel", I immediately disassociated myself, I believe that a sacrifice such as opening a temple must be done in kindness, with a human team that share the same ideals.

It is a pity, because with this procedure they only leave the name of their Master, whom I appreciate very much, bad, I am sorry that decisions are made without thinking about the benefit of the preaching, there is a lot of nonconformity and indignation among the devotees for the conduct of the Authorities in this matter.

Recently some groups, after so many years want to do something, a little late, however, I hope that the preaching in Peru will be saved. Peru is beautiful, tourism, history, food, I would like to say the same in preaching. Beautiful temple, beautiful deities. I hope soon a reengineering is applied. A change is urgent.

Other religious groups are successful, other yatras that I visit periodically are improving, and Peru has lagged behind, is going backwards. All this is worrying. You always say that in Vrndavana only Krsna kills demons. I hope the necessary help comes soon. There are very good devotees deserve to have a yatra as good as them.

HpS - Yes, we are a little involved in the process. We receive some copies of the letters and make some small comments. Again, the first principle is that we avoid the demons, make friendship with the devotees, love KRSNA and preach to the innocent. So as much as we see devotees strongly attached to some material perspective, Madhyama adhikari, is best to avoid that aspect of their association. Preach to them from their devotional perspective and, yes, call 'HARA KRSNA, HARE RAMA" and expect RAMA and KRSNA to come and destroy the demoniac attachments in our hearts.

Let us watch for that and be ready to help.

I am taking a sastra course, I continue to support the Bhakti Yoga program on Saturdays with Prabhu Kolaveca, the congregational preacher.

Please give me your blessings to advance spiritually and to serve especially innocent people who want to know Krsna.

Thank you very much Gurudeva for the constant association of him online.

His daughter who adores him:

Yugala Kisora Dasi (the liones about to pounce).

HpS/ASA - Lioness on Sankirtan. Lamb in the Templ!

'@',m,~

THANK YOU ! ! ! for such nice photo album of Mexico. Photo journalism.