Letters to the editor

Dear Maharaja,

Hare Krishna, pamho, all glories to Srila Prabhupada. Hoping this meets you well!

Our Houston Friday program at the Urban Farm has been happening on Zoom the last 3 or 4 months during the Plandemic.

We wonder if you would like to be our guest speaker on Friday October 30th? The topic can be Carl Yung, Dvidida Gorilla, or whatever you choose. It goes from 7:00 pm to about 8:15 pm Houston time, which I believe would be 8 pm to 9:15 in Tennessee.

HpS - No, HOuston and Nashville in same time. Sounds very nice. We just put it on our Cell Phone Calendar. Are there not some areas in focus that would be good for you? You know our nature.

Gratefully,

Sarvabhauma dasa / Houston

Hare Krishna,

PAMHO, AGTSP

we are writing small letters, which you can reply at your discretion. hope that is fine, and this is also sankirtana.

HpS - It is good!!!

we hear your sat class, where you were talking about some post in SAS, which you floated and then, nobody applied, and your grace roled it back. our passionate eyes can not see such advertisement. please can you consider our application, qualification and intent for such post.

HpS - Hmmm. Don't understand. Yet, maybe others know the exact situation you are addressing.

SAS - Sweet African Syrup?

Hare Krsna Maharaj, PAMHO,AGTSP,

You are great Brahmana who not only knows Social etiquette, but also how to connect people to God at their respective levels.

ASA - Too much devotion is the sign of a thief! Yes...... what is it you want?? 🙂

what we are asking you because you seem to us person who we think knows us best.

Since our wife and kid left, our parents are staying with us. Our father is very much attached to us, and do lot of service to us. seems to be "harsh conscious" most of time.

My father acknowledges power of god like Indra. he does yagya, shrad , hanuman worship.

My mother is tolerant, and just breathing. I am very grateful to her that she read ramayaana when i was in her womb. though not much philosophy or rituals. But i am saved becasue she read ramayan.

but some times he talkes to mother in very verbally disgraceful manner (not abuses).

HpS - ??? Not abuse? What does he talk about??? Heavy metal Rock Music??

what should i do ?

HpS - Don't know the details. Ask others what they think. Chant and ask the Lord in the Heart. Do what comes naturally.

as brahamana i can think its between karma between two people, and just like person who is silent on somebody's rape , can go ahead.

i can tell what i did, I have mode of passion, and As ksatriya, i just fired my father, and said i am ready to forget father son relation, the way you treated this woman. rest details you can understand.

some thing like BG: where for wifes revenge, Arjuna has to kill his grandfather.

please guide this ignorant:passion>goodness. soul

HpS - Again we don't know details. It is very, very, very old relationship. It is in Oedepus Rex. Freud talks about it. Basically, again, talk to other family members, friends, about the exact situation, chant Hare Krsna, and act naturally FOR EVERYONE'S BENEFIT.

Hare Krna dear Gurumaharaja

Please accept our humble obeisances

Jaya Srila Prabhupada!

I am writing to ask you a question regarding the worship service. In SB 4.27.24, Srila Prabhupada mentions: "A devotee follows the principles of pāñcarātrika-vidhi as well as bhāgavata-vidhi. Bhāgavata-vidhi includes preaching work - śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ - the hearing and chanting of the glories of the Lord Viṣṇu, the Lord Viṣṇu Supreme Personality of Godhead. The pāñcarātrika-vidhi includes arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam ātma-nivedanam. " In his commentary, the process of pāda-sevanam is not mentioned. I have heard from you that a neophyte devotee performs the first three processes, the madhyama devotee the next three, and the first-class devotee the last three.

Is the worship service (at home or temple) whether puja, Salagram Silas bath or other seva, considered pāda-sevanam or arcanaṁ?

HpS - AGTSP paoho. Our knowledge in these areas is not so great. You can ask other devotees! In general if they are installed dieties and saligrama sila we would understand it to be arcana, but if they are just your own unistalled statues or pictures, then I would inderstand it to be Pada sevanam. Of course, the relationship with a pictures eg. Lord Nrsmhadeva by your door to whom you pray upon coming and going, can be more intense than someone may have through the formal externally satvik procedures of workshipping installed deities.

Being a neophyte devotee, should I perform my worship service emphasizing meditation (smaranam) because I am at that level?

HpS - Technically if we have taken second initiation we are Madhyama adhikaris. The worship of the deity as described above is a specific process. I can be, and is, combined with other processes eg. you have to kirtanam, chant, prayers while you are doing it. Of course, smaranam is very natural for the prayers, Holy Names and, and, and, the Form of the deity.

What is the difference between pāda-sevanam and arcanaṁ?

HpS - As dscribed above, as we understand, PS is doing service for Krsna eg. buy things. cleaning His house. Making money for Him, going to His temple, but arcanam is the formal ritualistic diety worship.

Do the processes of pāñcarātrika-vidhi require higher qualifications than a brahmana?

HpS - As far as I know some of them can be performed by non-intiated people who might be helping or becoming Second Diksa devotees, and others would be aimed at Goswami level devotees.

Thank you very much in advance

Your servant Gandharva das

HpS - Hare Krsna.

AGTSP!

Paoho

We see some tendency to reject some statements of Srila Prabupada in conflict with modern science. I have doubts about rejecting some seemingly incorrect truth statements where popular science contradicts the Vedas and Srila Prabhupada's presentations.

Eg as I understand, having studied quantum mechanics at U.C. Berkeley, etc, Sadaputa shows in his first book that the sun is closer to the moon than the earth comes from the definition of the earth as Bhu-mandala and not the globe of dirt circulating in space.  It is an amazing glorification the Vedic cosmology, but certain words have to be interpreted. They are not wrong. He is using them in a non-standard way.

It is not fair to demand that he be accurate in our modern standard. As far as understand the sun is closer to Bhu-mandala, the ecliptic, than the moon.

There seem to be so, so, so many holes in modern astronomy that to say that the stars are suns like ours is subject to question.  Eg. if I put a stick in water you can "see" that it is "cut" and shifted very sharply where it hits the water. "Oh, Oh, haw, haw!  This is an optical illusion".

Well, yes, but it is just a fact that the speed of sound in water, air, metal etc is different. Having experienced the media on the earth and the moon (?) then are we to say that what we are seeing from Mars is not coming through different media making it shift this way or that way?

Then Mars is just a few million miles away.

You know that the closest star is Alpha Centauri, no?   According to my calculations they place it at 7.6 trillion miles away. If we push Mars to 76 million miles away then we are extending our speculation by a factor of 10,000, no? Ie. one Gulabjamun is good two are better, three are better, therefor 10,000 will be really great.

Space is steady all that distance? There is no gravity river around our solar system...?

Hmmmm?

Hare Krsna. We were sent two papers on this topic from GBC, so we have to do that. We are certainly open to being corrected!!!!!!!