Letters to the editor

Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja!

Jay Radha Krishna!
Jay Giri Govardan! (today we celebrate in Arg)
Jay Patita Pavana Srila Prabhupada
Jay Guru Maharaja

Accept my humble obeisances to your Holy lotus feet.

HpS - ASA - Homely feet.

Dear Gurudev, Thanks for answering my annual report, thanks for your blessings and here we go with my answers.
This topic of Grihasta Asrama is a very huge thing! I can see that we do not receive the proper education about that, many ideas about what it is or what it is supposed to be. I see that I must have more consciousness in less free time. We are in the phase of Artha, economic development, many austerities and anxieties.
With my husband things go well both got same vision, I think it makes things easier to make choices.
I kept my job, 12 hours outside home (travel + work). Sometimes more time.
Next year we hope to visit Holy Dham to get the blessings of the Dham to be more enthusiastic and develop more inspiration. After this trip we will reconfigure our way of action. More risks to keep our family and individual spiritual life.
Few months ago Srila Virabahu Maharaja (Father-in-law Guru. He refers to himself in this way, because I get married w / His disciple) visit Buenos Aires and we serve Him and talk some times.
I doing a Bach flowers course, to be flower therapist. Keep on in Ratha Yatra, I think it´s my last year in organization. 
Gurudev i´ve realize that’s my more important service is maintain myself Krishna Consciusness, devotional service, association and many other thing are the way to keep involved in this issues, but my real service is maintain my vote and serve my family. 
 

Hope my letter find you in a really good energy. You´re my reason to stay inspired, like i always say thanks for be my Spiritual Master and Thanks for be an example of disciple.
My obeisances to your holy lotus feet.

Thanks for your time and for your patience.
your servant.
Rati-Mañjari DD.

HpS - Hare Krsna!   AGTSP paoho.   So nice to hear from you Rati-manjari Devi Dasi.  You are married?  You are in Argentina?   Ha!   Ha!     We have hard time keeping track of people as we get older, but we can remember you very well. Did you go to India since this letter?   We think there is another letter within the last three days.

Do you have your own Deities? Do you serve them with your husband?   Is Krsna, the ultimate husband and others are His representatives?

These are some of the intricate questions that only you, someone from Argentina ISKCON can answer!

We all wait with baited breath for your answers!!!!

Hare Krishna !  TLGSP 

I respond is letter, with many questions. my intelligence is not pure, and i have very little time by work now, but we always try to sing japa, i dont forget krishna and let´s  get better this. Actually my plans to serve in the temple need enthusiasm. This year i have worked cities different, and i have had many positive vision from those experiences.

The subject of the thesis was very the importance of singing in children for development of early musicality, benefits and application.  A very simple research from psychology to practice and we trust a book of Arnold Bentley, and other investigations. We write and musicalize part of works for childrens theather very scarce. 

I am very grateful for mercy de Srila Prabhupada, and sometime when i travel i read his biography and his mission with his bhaktisidanta spiritual master, understanding this point ...  also, i met a disciple of Srila Prabhupada which began in iskcon and is now is disciple of Atulananda Maharaja... other disciples of Vana goswami maharaja disciple de Narayana Maharaja, etc, etc. This very confusing but i appreciate the details.  ¿How do we know  our destiny?

HpS - First, by asking the Creator of Destiny, Karma. He answers in BG etc, in a general way. Your Destiny is to get sick, grow, old and die, or to chant HK more, listen to Srila Prabhupada more (even a little, little more) and go back to heaven with your friends where Krsna, who really misses you a lot, is waiting for you with everyone. Your ways of knowing will get better as you wake up more and more.

We have the book by Carl Jung , is very valuable in Chile, and there is a monopoly of the books, then  we have it pdf , and we will begin to read. I want to write your carl jung classes, by my memory is fragile and sudra,  and the only way  is to shape in the mind writing to learn. .. Thank you very much. 

I hope i do not offend ... my reverences ...excuse my english,  i am at your dispose. ..

HpS - ASA --- Hey have you got a little daughter?

“If Kṛṣṇa is satisfied by one’s actions, then everyone will be satisfied.”

From BG 2.41 purport

Dear Guru Maharaja, please accept my humble obeisances.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Taking these words, and whole sentence, literally as they mean, at least to my understanding, it means that when some devotee does anything in the matter of Krsna-seva, and if that service is satisfying to Krsna, Krsna will be satisfied and what follows is that everyone will be satisfied.

I can say that at this moment I know at least few persons who are not satisfied. Does this mean that at this moment there is no devotee somewhere who pleases Krsna?

Also, Srila Prabhupada was present for 80 years on this planet and of those years, 11 in the west. I believe it would not be an exaggeration to say that during those years there were people who were not satisfied. Does this mean that Srila Prabhupada’s service was not pleasing to Krsna? Because, if his service was pleasing Krsna, at least at some moment(s) everyone had to be satisfied, no?

Of course, possible sub-questions are: what means “satisfied (in connection to Krsna and in connection to everyone”) and “everyone”.

Apart to the direct inquiry here, the background of the question is what SP is saying to us and if sometimes his words can mean different things. I specifically think of situations when SP uses words “always”, “never”, “everyone”, “nobody”, “only”.

Thank you!

Your servant Namacarya das

HpS - ASA - Hare Krsna. Good question.  For us the basic ideas is that when we put water on the root of the plant then all the parts are satisfied. But what if somebody wants to be and obtuse, anti-social son of a base female dog? Well, he is also satisfied. He gets more things to complain about. You can hate your wife, you can hate your car, you can hate your boss, but....    Oooooo!    You can really hate Krsna!!!    You can really hate a devotee!!!

Hate Jesus Christ and look what happens!    It's in the newspapers on the TV, cinemas, books for the next 2,000 years!

Srila Prabhupada's arguments have passed though PhD students in Oxford to Alister McGrath who was Head of the Department of Theology at Oxford University. He used them to fight with Richard Dawkins, BIG atheistic biologist and maybe Prof. McGrath and Dawkins didn't know where the source of their satisfaction, a good fight(?) was coming from.

O.K?       Service to Krsna is service to the Devil?

Hare Krishna dear Gurudev Please accept my humble obeissances

All Glories to Srila Prabhupada

I hope that you are well, and that you can rest in USA.

HpS - ASA --- Actually we feel really sick at the current moment. We feel like we are suffocating, no full respiration. How about you? If we do Pranayana, take full breath in, hold it and then blow it all out and hold it out, as Srila Prabhupada mentions in SB, then we can see that as we hold it out we get demand for air, deeper and deeper. If we can satisify that little man within we are still alive and hope to expand to to the gross body.

about me, everything's it's better...
i am studying english in an institute since 2 weeks, (so i still have to use the google translate hehe)

HpS - Yes, but you can start to recoginze what Spanish words to give the Translator so he has an easy job!

i am also going to sankirtan 2 or 3 times a week, but the books distribution in universities its finish for now, back to "person to person" mood. A few weeks ago we had the visit of Aravinda Prabhu (from mexico), and he was so kind with us (priya sakhi, gokulesvari and i... my  "sankirtan team" for now) we had a sankirtan meeting and he inspired us so much. He also give a seminar called "sastra seva" with prabhu Govinda Damodar. 

With my husband, we are still working in prasadam, everythings its going better, your advice help me a lot, for the mercy of Lord Jagannatha my husband will paint the ratha yatra´s chariot, and he is very enthusiastic with that, tomorrow he start. He is really trying to correct his mistake, as you said, so i am giving him a chance.

From tomorrow i will join again to fmp, its been dificult to me chant my rounds in the morning, because of my job, i have to start to cook at  6 o clock and because the sankirtan in universities was in the afternoon I arrived late at my house, 10 pm approx, then my sadhana has been very messy this last time, I sing the 16 rounds during the day, I'm sorry, I know you are very emphatic in the sadhana , but from now on I hope to improve this.

HpS - Krsna NEVER suggests anything impractical. If you make 16-nice rounds your priority then EVERYTHING will improve in the fastests way possible.

thanks for everything dear gurumaharaja and please excuse my faults

always yearning to be able to become a better disciple

Indu Lekha devi dasi

HpS - You are doing pretty good, Mama!

From: Bhaktarupa (das) ACBSP (Puri - IN) 

To: Srivasa Pandit Das  
Cc: HPS BhaktiVaibhava ;Vaisesika Prabhu <>
Sent: Monday, November 13, 2017 8:45 PM
Subject: Bhakti Vaibhava certificates

> Dear Bhaktarupa Prabhu,

> Please accept my humble obeisances.  All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

> The following the devotees who have completed their work for Bhakti

> Vaibhava.

My congratulations to the successful candidates!

I will need the award dates for printing on each certificate.

Please confirm that all the devotees below want their name spelled as "Dasa"

instead of "Das". Sometimes devotees want to use their certificates outside

of ISKCON and prefer the more pronouncible "Das".

> Hanumatpresaka Swami

> Vaisesika Dasa

> Namacarya Dasa

> Srinivasa Acarya Dasa

> Sundari Radhika Devi Dasi

> Chandramukhi Devi Dasi

> Upendra Dasa

> Srivasa Pandit Dasa

If you are the Program Administrator then you cannot approve your own

assessment. I am travelling right now and don't have all my records with me,

so if there is some special situation that covers this case then let me

know.

> Can you please let us know what we can do further to get the certificates?

As I am travelling it will be a few weeks before I can print them, but just

send me the full address to which they should be sent by air parcel post and

I will send as soon as possible.

Your servant, Bhaktarupa Das

___________________________________________

HpS - ASA >>> Srivasa Pt, Vais, B. Rupa, Radhika, Anantarupa, Bh. V. students, Badri Swami, Hari-lila and Radha-krsna Das (Houston)... 

Hare Krsna, Prabhus, Maharaja,

AGTSP. Paoho. We are glad to see that Srivasa pt. Das is pushing this forward. First we would like to say that from our perspective all the candidates he mentions have satisfied the ISKCON requirements for the diploma by the ISKCON standards except for one thing, and we think that the ISKCON standards would satisfy Srila Prabhupada. We don't think anyone scored 100% in their studies, nor has ISV scored 100% in its course administration. Maybe all of us have just squeaked by with a D score, but we think that we are pioneering this and going ahead in ISKCON is the secret.

In our opinion the diplomas should not be awarded until Prabhu Vaisesika Das finishes his last Masters Class of the four he promised to give. He is listed as one of the teachers in the application ISV made to be a BhVai. Diploma Center. He should do it and we all should hear it and write a little essay for it.

Another thing is that all of the students need certification that they are engaged in favorable devotional service by a senior ISKCON devotee. Again, this does not have to mean that they are free from faults, but they are practically engaged. For the students in Boise, as far as I know, former Temple President,Radhika-ramana Das; ourselves and Badri-narayan Swami would attest that they are favorable engaged as far as they reasonably know.

Any well wishing objections?

nunc aut loquetur pacem in sempiternum tenere
Speak now or forever hold your peace.

As a general note, feel that there are fundamental adjustments that need to be made with the ISV program administration. We feel that there should be personal involvement of the Temple President with the local students and also the Diploma Center. There should be a form from the Ministry to be filled out and submitted by the Temple President of the Diploma Center of his review of the program each quarter(?) etc.

We feel that education, daily SB class, should be understood to be the primary way to please the Deities rather than Srngara tan Mandira-marjinado. Of course, they are related and nice Diety worship is the proof that the Temple has organized a good SB sanga for its members.

First challenge for Temple President is to see that their is physical opportunity for neighborhood devotees to sit together morning and evening and hear SB together. This will be the fastest (and maybe only) way to improve peoples character and eliminate personality disputes. President should adjust the timings for modern work schedule and members should adjust their work to be able to join. Krsna will help us in both cases.

If we want to say that devotees who live too far to come to Temple for morning class are Members of our Congregation then we should offer them some on-line program that they can join. This is simple in the modern world if we make it a priority service for the Deity.

Then Members can (must) come on the weekend for live discussions and review of the week's SB study.

Unless this can be arranged then we feel we should be honest and tell our authorities, GBC, Gurus, that we cannot act as proper Temple Presidents or Disciples and the Center should then admit that it is a Preaching Center and not an ISKCON Temple. That is also GLORIOUS, no? 

These are our opinions, from our position of encountering the elephant, from visiting centers in USA, India, around the world (Pune, Mayapua, Brisbane, Melbourne), working with the Ministry for years, running our own Center(s), giving a pint of blood in personal efforts.

We are just little pigs, but we will continue with this effort by your mercy and make our small squeaking sounds, and then listen to yours  large squeaking sounds.

We will publish this letter at our Blog etc. so that we can follow in Pandita Ji's footsteps, all of your footsteps, and push things forward.

Thank you, Prabhus and Maharaja's

Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna,

We broke Ekadasi with some baked-to-a-crisp puris and milk.

We read the "Poison Antidote" by Mayesvara in PDF format. Tough on our eyes but pretty good document. We put the link in the letter to Nanuk.

We just finished a Report to Prof. Samaresh (RGD):

-------------------------------------------------------

Hare Krsna!

Esteemed Professor, Rama-giri-dhari Das,

It is 3-minutes to midnight, Tuesday. Of course, we are in the iron grips of Jet Lag. We crash about 9AM and wake up about 3PM. We wanted to call at 9PM Kolkata hour but we were just to weak.

In general we are very weak, exhausted. The last push from Kolkata ISKCON to Houston ISKCON was 43-hours of hard work. We got a fever and cold, but with our efforts our deranged Pitta is about 90% normal now. Normal for a 70-year old Donkey.

We told Dr. Pankaj Gupta from the 24-December program and Sriman Gopal-bhatta Das from the 4-February programs that we would have to confirm by the 15th of November that they wanted us to present at Jendal University and ISKCON Leadership Sanga, so we should be able to finalize those calendar dates by tomorrow.

Dr. Ravi, put his foot down and set the requirement that if we came back to India so soon we would have to travel Business Class to avoid the intense pressure on our body that Economy Class presents.

I informed Dr. Panaj of that and he said he would investigate and get back to us.

In general, we feel that we pushed ourselves to the limit and unless we severely rest from travel for at least three months we are heading for an early death.

More natural seems to rest here until 15th February, then go to South America for two months. The programs with NIOS and ISKCON Ministry of Education have reasonable potential for us there.

Our Ashrama space here is pretty good. Car is O.K. Bathtub hot-water valve is broken and leaking.

I have to do the paper-work, accounting, for the last two months for ASA (NIOS).

I talked with Sesa Das (Dr. Seth Spellman), ISKCON Minister of Education, and we are supposed to have a conference call to settle the work to be done with the magazine, 'Viplavah.

For Siksadrsa I have looked on this little computer and cannot find any older files. Now as I remember we were using a computer borrowed from the Kolkata Temple to do the work in January and I looked at the three other USB-drives that I have here and also no more recent copy of Siksa than I gave Sanjaya. Hmmfff.  Can we just start to go through the book with Sanjaya from beginning to end? He can send the work as he finishes it to me as a PDF and then I can review it?

We left Canadian dollars with Sri Hari-dasa in Delhi and about 165-brochures, carrying 35-with us as hand luggage to the USA.

I will try to call today, Wednesday at 9PM.

Your stumbling servants,

HpSwami - ASA.