Hare Krsna Guru Maharaj,
Please accept our most humble obeisances! All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada!
Little Arjun made his swift entrance into this world 18 minutes after being checked into the hospital at 11:58 pm, making a last minute Mother’s Day appearance (Hare....KRSna!). He arrived after Ashrita mata, a wonderful Sunday school attendee mother tapped on our door and told us that we should eat pineapple...! We ate a cup of it at 9 pm and shortly after (9 days past the due date) we had intense contractions.
We were off to another realm, purpose, vortex!
Dharmic prayers regularly given.
Hopefully we can discover who we really are...!
Keep our ear to the ground, monkey warrior blog and Prabhupada-vani audio, and a prayer books in tow (no atheists in Fox holes as you say) We really never wanted to be a soccer mom with a mini van, but we hope something higher may manifest through all of this. 🙏
ASA - No atheists in delivery rooms? Ha! Ha! Thank you Mataji!
There are sporadic cries of other new souls reverberating the walls. Guru Maharaj, would you bless our family by blessing Arjun with a middle name??? 🙏 We pray for a simpler life a this with lots of garden boxes, and to increase our home deity worship standard in Idaho city. Little house on the prairie the Hare Krsna way!
ASA - Middle name?? ?? !! Arjuna Krsna!!
- We reflect on our quiet and thoughtful brahman by varna 2 year old (Sita Sundari),
- our toddler Kshatriya princess (who just asked why we can’t eat demons that Krsna kills??😂)
- vaishya sensitive artist Aja and now a calm baby peaceful warrior.
If we want to cry from all of the service we have to do for them, we end with hot milk bottles, Krsna book, and feel Krsna “save” us. We finish rounds in silence with our Spotify ambient playlist. sometimes want sweets and movies at night but if we finish rounds in a concentrated way this desire 70-80 percent of the time will go away (some teenage escapism tendencies still manifest. We are working on it).
During the day with our toddler girls we play with Krsna dolls, act out pastimes, watch British baby Bhagavatam narrator/YouTuber Vrinda Kishori.
We take off two afternoons a week to homeschool Aja: the K12 curriculum allows him to pick topics on Peter the Great, Karl Marx and write a research paper on how he can prove the existence of God (his choice!).
On Mother’s Day we realized while watching home videos that helping Krsna’s children has given us a type of moment-to-moment, ever-changing, walking-improvisational-performance-‘ART’ to always react and respond to.
It stomps out (or messes with) our false ego every day. We are not Van Gogh and lost in solitude but we have our own mom solitude to contend with. How can we do better ???? How can kids and activities with them not be extended sense gratification? Is that ok sometimes as long as we have a FMP and chant our rounds??
ASA - You have to gratify your senses the same way you put gas in your auto's tank. They it shows you it's happy with the fuel gage going up. [Burp !]
We go to work to see clients with adult attachment issues and see what a mess it is to unravel the psychy without a daily shelter, an ideal father and mother (you Guru Maharaj, Srila Prabhupada, Krsna and Radha??) principles (the foundation of the house) chanting (the walls??) and NOI, BG, NOD, SB part one two three (the 5 floors of the house) . A relationship guru/writer (who’s Jewish and been married to his therapist wife for 34 years) describes a similar metaphor called the Sound relationship house that should be manifest with a partner(Trust is the walls, how well you know each other the foundation, conflict resolution is the main floor, letting one another influence each other is floor 2, shared values and goals floor 3, etc). Of course what is missing is the simultaneous access (at least within walking distance) to the first house or temple we described which seems to give us the ideal parent/friend/partner (and how to manifest this with scriptural instructions).
Perhaps both houses described could be introduced to a client or even a devotee struggling with childhood wounds and current relationships.
I think of couples like Mother Uttama dasi and Partha das who figured out how to maintain both an ideal relationship with Krsna and with each other.
How can we present some key communication and relationship building principles to devotees (I would like to ask Uttama and Partha how they have done this) without leaving out spiritual principles when helping devotees
Also how can I introduce some spiritual principles to clients without just introducing them to relationship building techniques?
ASA - All relationships are relationship with KRSNA, I have a relationship with the King [of the family?] but Krsna explains in BG, among men I am the monarch. We have to see Krsna in things before we can show them to others. Of course, again, we may not be conscious we are showing Krsna. We may just be showing someone the taste in water! For the rest of their life they appreciate good water.
We have discovered groups such as the International Association of Near Death Studies and Association of Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling (ASERVIC). We hope through attending their webinars and becoming members leaders like you Maharaj could have a platform to introduce our philosophy. We’re hoping these groups could be great ways to inadvertently preach and bring spirituality into our practice. https://aservic.org.
ASA - Lord Caitanya joined the Sankara sannyasa sampradaya!
I pray that I can continue to put my rounds first and foremost as our main service. We are continuing with serving the deities 4 nights a week, cooking and doing daily puja to our Saligrams. I am still serving as a secretary on the Board and Sunday school teacher. I pray I can come to your lotus feet and Srila Prabhupada’s to sing prayers/read for 30 minutes and offer the service to our children and to you. Is it ok to move this time to later (6 am?) and do family kirtan and reading at 9 am?
ASA - Don't understand the question exactly, but ask the Boss, and if he thinks it's also o.k. then guess it is. B. muhurta is a specfic time. We should be chanting Holy Names then, no fail.
Your ashram and life is a prime example of a divine standard. Your example, and writings are our compass as always. We are so excited about your upcoming visit to Boise!
ASA - Still tentative but would like to. Balarama purnima!!!
Your servant,
Kamagayatri dasi
ASA - HpS ... Next letter, tell us about Murari Das. Who is he?
Congratulations on having such nice preaching programs. Whatever skills you acquire are eternal.
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