In the attachment.
HpS/ASA - Nice poem.
Many nice realizations.
Seems like seeing Goloka through the moving branches of the forest trees.
The basis for exalted realization is being more and more fixed in Santa rasa, service to the lotus feet of Krsna, no?
Better rounds.
More fixed four principles.
(Too much sugar is also intoxication?) Snack life.
We 🐵 🐷 🌳 add a picture of Krsna!!!!
Hare Krishna
Querido y recordado Gurudeva
Por favor acepte mis respetuosas reverencias
TLGASP!
No se cómo explicar ni defender mi mal comportamiento, sólo quiero decirle que estoy tratando de salir adelante en mi vida espiritual, con muchos tropiezos, muchos anarthas, algunos pocos avances pero también retrocesos, esa es la verdad.
Actualmente mi servicio en el Templo de Arequipa es administrativo, y gracias a las madres y devotos que realizan su servicio devocional de forma satisfactoria, las actividades son relativamente buenas, ha crecido la comunidad de devotos, la prédica a los nuevos amigos de Krishna es diaria y constante; cada cierto tiempo salimos a las calles a hacer Harinam Sankirtan y Food For Life. La concurrencia del público al Templo es buena en las fiestas devocionales. Pensamos realizar un ratha yatra este año en el Corso de la Amistad por las principales calles de la ciudad, pero aun es solo un proyecto (seria el 15 de agosto 2025).
En lo personal, he vuelto nuevamente a estudiar el Srimad Bhagavatam todos los miércoles con el grupo de estudio de prabhu Laksman Agraja das. Eso ha despertado mucho entusiasmo en mi y también me sirve de repaso, como también la lectura del Bhagavad Gita y Néctar de la Instrucción entre otras obras.
Mi sadhana todavía es muy debil, a veces no llego a cantar todas mis rondas, con la promesa de recuperarlas al día siguiente, algo que no logro cumplir; pero aun así trato de seguir cantando como sea y donde pueda sin perder la atención en el canto. No logro despertarme más temprano de mi horario habitual, soy un tanto perezoso debo confesar. A pesar de ser vegetariano desde hace muchos años, no siempre me alimento de Krishna prasada. Por lo demás, sigo los 4 principios regulativos de manera formal.
Le debo confesar algo, si no le he escrito anteriormente es porque me he sentido avergonzado de no ser un buen discípulo, ni siquiera un candidato de discípulo para usted, a quien considero un fidedigno representante de Dios en la tierra. Pero le estoy profundamente agradecido por su infinita misericordia y por darme la oportunidad de poder mejorar y ser un digno representante del movimiento Hare Krishna de ISKCON.
Su insignificante seguidor,
Raya Ramananda das
-0-0-0-
Hare Krishna,
Dear and remembered Gurudeva
Please accept my respectful obeisances.
TLGASP!
ASA - AGTSP!!!!!!!! !!!
I don't know how to explain or defend my bad behavior. I just want to tell you that I'm trying to move forward in my spiritual life, with many setbacks, many anarthas, some small advances, but also setbacks. That's the truth.
Currently, my service at the Arequipa Temple is administrative, and thanks to the mothers and devotees who perform their devotional service satisfactorily, the activities are relatively good.
The community of devotees has grown.
Sermons to new friends of Krishna are daily and constant.
Every so often, we go out into the streets to perform Harinam Sankirtan and Food for Life.
Public attendance at the Temple is good during devotional festivals. We plan to hold a ratha yatra this year on the Corso de la Amistad (Friendship Parade) through the main streets of the city, but it is still only a project (it would be on August 15, 2025).
HpS - Do it!!
Personally, I've returned to studying Srimad Bhagavatam every Wednesday with Prabhu Laksman Agraja das's study group. This has sparked a lot of enthusiasm in me and also serves as a review, as does reading the Bhagavad Gita and Nectar of Instruction, among other works.
My sadhana is still very weak; sometimes I don't manage to chant all my rounds, promising to make them up the next day, something I fail to do. But I still try to keep chanting however and wherever I can without losing my focus on the chanting.
I can't seem to wake up earlier than my usual schedule; I'm a bit lazy, I must confess. Despite being a vegetarian for many years, I don't always eat Krishna prasada. Otherwise, I follow the four regulative principles formally.
I must confess something: if I haven't written to you before, it's because I felt ashamed of not being a good disciple, or even a candidate for one, for you, whom I consider a true representative of God on earth. But I am deeply grateful for your infinite mercy and for giving me the opportunity to improve and become a worthy representative of ISKCON's Hare Krishna movement.
Your insignificant follower,
Raya Ramananda das
HpS/ASA - You, me, are better than some, worse than others.
NoD/Rupa Goswami, Srila Prabhupada, says that if we cannot chant our 16-rounds, then fix a number that we know we can chant for a fixed number of days eg. I know I can chant 9-rounds/day until the next Ekadasi.
Then don't accept excuses from your mind. Do it!
Then judge by the results and take the next vow of number and days.
It works, you will be fixed in doing it, because it works!!!
Thanks for your report.
Your association is always desireable.
So much respects to everyone in Hari Kripa.
Hope to see you soon.
All Glories To Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga!
PAMHO AGSTP!
HK MAHARAJ! how are you???
HpS / ASA - AgtSP. Died and gone back to heaven.
well in response to your letter I would really like to discuss with my new devotee friends topics related to digital marketing, advertising and ayurveda within ISKCON. Also would love to meet entrepreneurs if possible.
Maharaj I would like to please ask you about some other topic which is communism. I know Srila Prabhupada had a standpoint very against it (https://vedabase.io/en/library/cc/adi/8/20), yet some devotees proclaim themselves as communists.
What is your opinion about this matter?
HpS - In my opinion he is against Materialistic Communism and in favor Spiritual Communism. To our mind it is not a very well defined terms and people use it in very different ways.
Prof. Hector Behar has commented that as far as he knows there is not a major political movement in the world today that declares itself Marxist which Marx himself would accept as Marist!
Thank you once again :))
please accept my obeisances,
Federico Molnár
HpS - Hari bol from Heaven!
Join us in next letter.
AgtSP 🐕 🌟 🐕 🌟
We had intense Sankirtan programs from 1.30am to 4.30pm!
Scores of devotees.
Went through the WhatsApp mail.
Looked at Blog mail.
Some recent posts three days old, but will look at them tomorrow, no?
Thank you.
Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna beloved Gurudeva :
AGTSP PAMHO
I am recovering from a very strong flu. I had fever all day. I went to work anyway (laboral explotation)
Please may you be so kind and give me one contact in Iskcon Miami. One of my colleagues is going to travel there and due to the fact that she had some contact with devotees (prasadam, bharatanatyam,etc). We were together at Palika's beach Houston and took some prasadam.
She watts to go to the temple. What is the accurate address of the temple?
Thanks in advance
Your servant
Cmdd
HpS - AgtSP. We will send you Abhiseka Das' WhatsApp number.
Just introduce yourself and see if he has contact.
I think his father in law is very nice initiated devotee there.
Just Google Iskcon Miami for the address, no?
Thank you!
You are inspiration to us.
Dear Siksha Gurudeva, Srila Hanumat Presaka Swami Maharaja, please kindly accept my most humble obeisances; all glories to Srila Prabhupada; all glories to your good self for your many years of selfless and exemplary devotional service; all glories to all the devotees of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. I will leave it up to you to decide whether or not you wish to print this letter for all to see. I have stopped caring one way or the other.
I have been wondering whether or not to share some things that had happened prior to my leaving the temple for a second time, back in the summer of 2023. I purposely withheld these topics from you because I know that you are often assaulted with grievances from devotees: all of whom, like myself, look to you for some hope, some guidance. I did not wish to burden you with additional grievances. But I have had a change of heart, and I am thinking that you should know at least some of the details from my side of the story. I am quite sure that you have heard plenty from the other side. I will be very brief, leaving out lots of details.
HpS/ASA - O.K. AgtSP. We will make our effort to see that these topics are suitable for this forum, and hope that Srila Prabhupada does 99.999% of the work.
First, we only heard that there was some disturbance, that some Temple administrators felt your preaching to some neophytes needed some changes in perspective, but that is about all.
From top to bottom, from you and others, some administrators approached you and administrators and friends, and we heard from them that it was a misunderstanding, but that is all, and maybe we will read other perspectives as we go on.
Before the very first Thursday evening Krishna Lounge ever got started in early 2022, I was offered the honor of being the very first speaker at the Thursday night programs here.
However, that event was passed on to to Bhakti Sundara Swami, a visiting guest speaker: and I can understand that it was Krishna's arrangement. But since that beginning, I was NEVER ever invited to give a class at the Thursday evening programs at any time. I don't know why; nothing was ever explain to me. So, I simply accepted it quietly as Krishna's arrangement for my own purification.
HpS - Does seems strange. Same thing happens to us, even now? Some times I try to gentle catch of sniff of why we are not invited, though not rejected, and sometimes it is because the organizers think that we are only for use in big programs!
Maybe we are useless. 😃
I never inquired and I never complained. And I still participated in all the temple functions: with the exception of the Thursday night programs.
About a year later, at the start of 2023, again for reasons unknown to me, I was removed from ever giving a class or leading a kirtan at any Sunday Feast festivals, or any other Vaishnava celebrations.
HpS/ASA - Amazing
Nothing was explained to me about why; and again I simply accepted it quietly as Krishna's arrangement for my purification: never questioning or complaining about it. And still, I continued to attend all the temple functions.
When H. H. Badrinarayana Maharaja came for a visit in 2023, just prior to your own visit to Boise, Maharaja requested that I be the one to drive him to the airport for his departure. And it was during that drive that he expressed to me some grievances that the temple had against me. He felt bad about it, and he asked me to somehow consider making some changes to my involvement: in other words not to be so involved with the ongoing preaching efforts of the new administration, as if I was doing something very wrong.
HpS - You mentioned this a little and said that you felt Maharaja was speaking as you well wisher, no?
I tried to accept it as Krishna's arrangement as another chance to be humble, to keep my head down, to swallow my grief and be at peace somehow: but I couldn"t. I actually suffered an emotional breakdown, and there was no one I could run to for shelter. And it wasn't until the very next day that it came to me as a realization that I had to remove myself from this community. And it was then that I informed the community as a whole on Whatsapp, and I informed you as well at the same time.
Since then, several appeals were made to try and bring me back, but I was convinced that if I were to do so, I would be setting myself up for a third occasion to be chased away. As offensive as my words may sound, "I really don't give a damn anymore what happens to this temple."
HpS/ASA - Ooops. Red Flag!! Even if I separate from difficult devotees, people and communities. I go to Krsna, Prabhupada, and I see that they are well wishers of all living entities and so I have to situate myself so that I can help them. At least not hate them and be ready to help as an opportunity arise, in this lifetime or the next.
Yes, let Krsna deal with situations that are too difficult.
Sitting outside the Temple, Institute, on a house stoop around the corner on a Saturday in the Sunshine, with many shoppers passing by, I recovered from raising my hands in the air like Draupadi while being attacked again, by one devotee, and a few tears came to the eyes, and Krsna took us out and we found a comfortable place to sit and chanted.... and after some time we got the intelligence from the chanting on how to relate to the situation, painful person, and returned to make our resignation from full participation in the institution, but remaining as a well wisher from a distance.
That worked, was functional, but two years later was another conflict with the same person, even at some distance.
Hari bolo!
Hare Krsna.
Maharaja Parkishit cursed by a Brahmana boy?
Reaction for our hypocritical actions?
Doesn't stop our main progress. Will be resolved.
Maybe in our next life in Nadiya with Nimai.
I have tried to serve, even after I was expelled from this temple back in 2008. I have nothing but complete distrust and despondency for this community. I don't feel safe here at all, and the only reason why I am still living here in Boise is because I am too old, too tired and too lazy to move once again.
I realize that this must be a most offensive letter to unload.
HpS/ASA - Who are we to judge?
Yet, we are chanting and following process, so our opinion is of some worth.
From that perspective we feel that you aren't looking at the situation from the view point of Prahlada Maharaja toward his father. 😆
But I feel compelled, otherwise I will simply struggle with depression if I don't. I wanted to share these things with you long ago, but I didn't have the heart to impose upon you, knowing how you must hear so much of the same griefs from others.
HpS - Feel to some degree we have learned how, and how much we can get involved in these situations as counselor, or 'victim' 🙂.
We can always take up the attitude of the Brajavasi, ISKCON members :In Braja only Krsna and Balarama kill demons. Everyone else calls, Hare Krsna, Hare Rama
You have been a great source of encouragement for my wife and I in our lives. And yet, somehow I feel like I have lost everything and I am without a friend in the world.
But I still have my sadhana. In 1984 I went before Sri Sri Radha Govinda in Denver and took a personal vow to chant 20 rounds of japa every single day: a vow that I have kept for over 40 years to this very day.
I worship my Deities on the altar twice a day, every day.
I have my daily readings of Srimad Bhagavatam, my daily attendances on Bhagavatam classes from Hawaii, plus my evening Bhagavad gita classes 3 times a week.
I still have my Iskcon Prison Ministry preaching, and my book distribution when driving for Uber.
If you find yourself unhappy or disgusted with me and choose to push me away, I will accept it: painful as it may all be. But know for certain that it is genuinely impossible for me to care about this community, where I have felt most unwelcomed and unwanted even from the very beginning. Their "jai prabhus" laden with smiles, and their invitations to come back are all facade and pretentious.
I pray that you can forgive me for this offensive letter. I pray that you will still show some mercy upon my wife and I, and find favor with us. If possible, maybe you can allow us to serve you some prasadam in our home during your upcoming visit.
Your lowly and unworthy servant
Balabhadra dasa
HpS // ASA - We read in the Ramayana that Rama sent Hanuman to talk with Vali about reconciling with Sugriva, but Hanuman came back and said that Vali will never accept that Vali did not intentionally betray him and bury him alive and give up his anger toward him until Vali dies.
Long story.
Yet we can only recommend that if we cannot deal with situations as Uttama adhhikaris, (Which we face in our own life), then we should at least face them as Madhyama adhikaris and avoid what we perceive as demonic character in devotees.
Later Krsna may show us that it is a misunderstanding or he may adjust the situation for the offenders.
Then we go ahead.
Going ahead, means cultivating another community as you say, and that means finding some way to go ahead, every day.
My experience, as a Sannyasi, is that if we do it sincerely, then Krsna will protect us even if we are old, and have to physical resources.
Of course, maybe we do not need to move physically, just accept that for the next few short years, we will have mostly virtual association.
O.K. Thank you.
Maybe others will want to comment on these comments. This is about the most we can do. It may not be much, but it is something!
Five minutes past our bed time. 💤
