Letters to the editor

pamho, AGtSP!

Have returned from San Francisco's Ratha Yatra seva...some for the better, some for improvement.

Was a Saturday program, a bit smaller than the Sunday events, still ecstatic as ever. We had a good crew of younger devotee's from NJP, about 4 to assist and our semi-regular grhastra's.

The difficulty was in short notice, 2 weeks prior, Berkeley had a Mini-Ratha Yatra on Telegraph, so some people chose not to come to S.F.

Regardless, the latter enthusiasm pervaded the actual day of the carts rolling and we felt the bliss of the Maha-Mantra jubilantly filling our ears. As usual, last-minute quirks brought volunteers to fine-tune or adjust paraphernalia and equipment, though nothing like have a wheel fall off or anything. In San Francisco anything can happen at Ratha Yatra... this time it was mostly mercy to the volunteers.

Missed your association, and the other Sannyasi's, only had the Brahmacari's from San Diego who were dancing all the whole parade with Vaisesika Prabhu, and all welcomed that. The festivities continued at Robin William's Meadow (former "Sharon" meadows) and Jagannatha Swami with Titikseva Kurunika rocked out the final afternoon show. The cooler evening air concluded the event. Break down was one of the best and returned to NJP fulfilled with the knowledge that we did another event for Their Lordships.

HpS - ASA --- I have personal experience of how one person came to the Festival and then Krsna arranged her life that from that experience she became a full time devotee and collected more funds than the Rathayatra cost and distributed hundreds and even thousands of big books!

Flew back to Houston Monday and caught up on the rounds and some rest, a bit exhausting for these old bones, yet all was fulfilled and only minor damage in the use of this temporary vehicle. Let's see how next year goes...

All Glories to the Vaisnava's!

HpS - Next stop, that universe where Lord Chaitanya is actually present in Jagannatha Puri???

Hare Krisna PAMHO TLGASP mi querido Guru Deva Hanumatpresaka Maharaja todas las glorias a Srla Prabhupada.

Le envío los devotos que estaban en Madre Tierra y las casas que están construidas son tres y dos que están por constituir incluida la mia que voy hacer más adelante. Con Jayanta Prabhu lamentablemente ya no es vecino a entregado el proyecto de Navalakunda a la fundación Abay.

HpS - Gracias! The more we chant Hare Krsna, the more we develop broad and deep intelligence for Sankirtan.



Dear Esteemed Guru Maharaj,

Please accept my most humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and NIOS.

I was very enlivened and enlightened to talk with you today about philosophy. I was very glad to hear of your book club on Carl Jung's the Red Book. I am really fascinated and interested in this from the scientific perspective on the topic of consciousness.

HpS - AgtSP. Paoho. Sorry this has taken so long to answer. We don't really have a book club, but are putting out the reading materials we have taken up and looking to record comments and inspiration on The Monk's Podcast, with Chaitanya carana Das.

That is actually my deepest interest - the intersection of philosophy and science. I actually have taken philosophy courses while doing my D.Phil. (Ph.D.) at Oxford because it was a passion of mine (I have taken some online courses from Harvard back then also when I was a grad student and some philosophy course when I was an undergrad at BSU).

I was even an instructor at Bhaktivedanta College Finland and was teaching philosophy courses (but there are some details about Greek philosophers I certainly still need to learn :) But I got now more interested in material that cannot be obtained just from philosophy textbooks.

I got more interested now in something more practical and meaningful - bringing together concepts of philosophy and science. The majority of the world views the world through the eyes of modern scientific thought, which includes theories such as - string theory, parallel universes, the God particle, the God equation, extraterrestrial life, directed panspermia, but what are these all anyway - they are mathematical representations of concepts discussed in the Indian philosophies of Vedanta or Bhagavata.

That is what I am striving to work on - creating a local community of academicians to discuss these concepts in a book club and lecture series - the concepts of Vedanta and Bhagavata to modern science.

String theory (every subatomic particle being a wave / vibrations), parallel universes, extraterrestrial life, Fred Hoyle's panspermia (implanting of DNA of different species on earth - in Bhagavata, Daksha Prajapati) are mentioned in the Bhagavata.

I have had speakers from Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) in my Vedanta distinguished lecture series at my university Texas A&M University - Kingsville. I am now going to be creating more distinguished lecture series and webinars. Also, I am interested in getting some of these distinguished professors, especially from renowned world-class universities to join together for a refereed peer-reviewed special issue of papers in a journal, maybe Solaris.

This I hope would eventually branch off from the Vedanta lecture series. I strive for this effort because I feel that philosophers and scientists need to connect more. They were one and the same discipline in the past, only now has modern education divided them into different fields.

I believe that I as a scientist (having studied science at Oxford and also some philosophy), I can contribute to the interdisciplinary field of philosophy and science.

I am inspired by your holiness and hope I can learn from great and distinguished thinkers such as your holiness. Whenever I listened to your lectures, it always inspired me.

Sharing some of my personal thoughts,

YHS,

Aja Govinda dasa

HpS - AgtSP!!!!! Paoho. Your efforts sound very nice. If we can participate in some little way please let us know. We are trying to communicate our abilities and areas of expertise in the Kapi Dhvaja and then from there we are giving YouTube links and Monk's Podcast links and then links to representative programs we are presenting elsewise.

Science and the Vedas is one area listed on the YouTube Channel.

Thank you.

HpS - Thank you sir. What has happened to the family? Are you still in Texas. Hare Krsna.

GM: My dear Maharaja,

Dandavat Pranams. Jai Vaishnava!

I will drop Anjana to College Station tomorrow. She will start freshmen year majoring in Statistics in Texas A&M.

Sriram is completing internship at Amazon. He is doing Computer Science at A&M and he is starting senior year. Most probably he will get job offer from Amazon. He is very strong work ethic.

I am planning for Vanaprastha ashram as kids will leave in August and I will be alone. My goal is to meditate for at least 4 hours a day. I use word meditate instead of jap as jap can be inattentive.

For me, true japa is sitting straight, keeping back erect, eyes closed and mind fully focused on Bhagavan Ram.

Therefore, I am using word meditate. I hope I can spend 4 or more hours meditating with focused mind. I feel then my life will be successful.

Regards,

Gaurav Mittal

HpS - Hare Krsna!!! BG 4.34.

Hare Krsna.

80% successful today. Krsna's grace.

Lot's of work.

FMP!

SB class. calls, Japa, Walking. We tried our new $9, 108 inch long, hammock. It was GREAT. Chanted for all the cars passing by on Medical Center Parkway.

Offered and honored Mrs. Desai Raja Bhoga.

Was very nice in all aspects.

Now it is late.

Blog mail not done.

Reading Jung's lectures NOT done,

but best to rest, get up early and start again!

Thank you.

!! 🐵

🐷

🙂

Hare Krishna, Maharaja, please kindly accept my most humble obeisances;

all glories to his divine grace, Srila Prabhupada;

all glories to you for your untiring devotional service.

I would like to first mention that there is no measure to how much we all appreciated your most recent and final visit to Boise.

HpS - Same for us! We are still digesting the results, and hope for so much more involvement in the future!

I worry about how this community will continue in the future, now that you will no longer be visiting us.

How and where will we find the inspiration from older, senior disciples and leading grand disciples of Srila Prabhupada if no one comes here to uplift our community with their association?

HpS - We are small dudes, but the general principle is there: I think a good perspective starts here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/4/28/47/

I haven't spoken of these concerns with anyone other than my wife, but I know that they must all be thinking this same way in one way or another, at one time or another.

But what I really wanted to share was something that came to my mind during my japa this morning. I was thinking about "What if I could speak to Ananta Rupa prabhu, and just be upfront and straightforward with him, telling him that the best thing he could for this community is to make me the temple president."

I realize that this is a rather far-fetched idea, more like a dream or wishful thinking. It would certainly be rather bold and brazen on my part as well to attempt such thing. But I couldn't shake this idea from my mind, and there is this ever so small measure of hope within me that just refuses to die. I can't help but feel that this idea is do-able; that it is not as unreal as it may appear to be.

HpS - NoI 3. Enthusiasm is should lead patience, but without patience it becomes passion and goes to a bad conclusion. I think discussing the idea is great and then see what the results are, then re-evaluate.

For the past so many years I have been thinking why should I leave Boise; where can I go where there won't be problems; probably the exact same problems as I am dealing with here, plus unforseen problems of another nature.

I am too old to be running away from my realities, in search of some hopefully better situation. More recently I have been thinking that maybe I am here because Krishna wants me to be here, that Krishna wants me to stay here: but that is just my wild speculation and nothing more.

I have no tangible reason to believe that Krishna has some special plan for me, either here in Boise or anywhere else for that matter, just because of my being an older devotee.

HpS - Hmmm. Old not just in years but also, old in having been in the oven for a long time. The bread gets backed.

As I foolishly tried to share with you during our lunch together without sounding so conceited, I have the desire, the experience and the training to turn things around for this community. The only thing missing really is the passion: but if Ananta Rupa could favor my approach and suggestion, then the Temple Council could and would be willing to help in that matter.

It is because of this lack of passion that I don't just go out and duplicate what Ananta Rupa has already accomplished. I am a complete failure in that regard,

HpS - Again.... hmmm. We all have different natures. Jayananda Das didn't try to do what others had done in terms of pioneering a new Temple.

... but I am confident that if I were to get the blessings and approval of your good self and Ananta Rupa, then everything would be different. I am confident of this.

HpS - In management we always advise: 1. Get advice from many people, 2.Put the plans down on paper with everyone signing. 3. Don't make them forever, but for a practical length of time.

Eg. Balabhadra Das will be President of ISKCON Boise for one year. After six months there will be a review and he may resign or a majority opinion of the Board will ask him to give up the post, but if things are reasonably well then he will continue with sincere help of everyone until the end of one year and then we will take a new look at everything.

The more my mind focused on this concept the more I realized that I need your feedback, your blessings, approval and guidance on this idea, even before I speak of these things to anyone else. I realize that this whole thing sounds rather narcissistic and egotistic on my part: thinking that I could be of some valuable service as the temple president in this community. But I can't help but feel that the proposal of approaching Ananta Rupa, either in person or in a letter, with the suggestion of appointing me the temple president is sound in principle.

After all, from what I am seeing nothing else within the current administration has worked, and my staying away and keeping a safe distance from the internal affairs of this community isn't helping either. And so many potentially nice devotees will eventually stop coming to the temple and leave if things don't improve.

So, I feel it best to put the suggestion before you. If you have any doubts or reservations about this idea then I will probably take it as a no.

If you express any hope on the idea, then I will probably take it as a confirmation and consider how to approach Ananta Rupa: although I feel the safest route is through a letter. That way he can listen to my proposals without my imposing on him verbally and physically, and we don't get into some offensive shouting match as a result.

I know that I am leaving out so many points of concern on this issue, but in the interest of brevity I will stop here: Hare Krishna.

Your lowly servant,

Balabhadra dasa

HpS - Thank you for writing! My observation is that so many senior devotees in Boise feel the same way as you do from their perspectives. They feel that they have to get approval of others and then take more personal commitment in the growth of Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON Boise. Look and see if that is true! They may not want to be a CEO, but they may be determined to take up some other aspect.

Our analysis is above.

Hare Krsna!!!