Letters to the editor

Hare Krsna, Dear Gurudev,
Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
All glories to Guru parampara.

Gurudev, am happy that you would stay in US for Sankirtan till Feb 2018.

we require you for long time for guidance, Without your guidance, we are unable to progress. Only because of you, we are confident for success.

HpS - We are unique (you are unique), but there are many nice devotees who can give us good association. Ultimately they are all manifestation of our one Guru, Krsna!!

Whatever we have, given by you only. You are the source of our strength. We are not capable, helpless, useless to make anything in Radha-Krsna's services.

we need your blessings for faster progress. Your each word is precious for us and i need to deep down to understand and follow.
 
Thank you so much Gurudev.

your fallen servant,
Girivaradhari-Gopal Das

HpS - Hare Krsna.   AgtSP.   Who is Krsna?    If He was in Pune would you recognize Him?  How would He live?   Read the books, distribute the books, knowledge, love.

HAHRE KRISHNA DEAR GURUMAHARAJA.

AGTSP

PAMHO

Updating our report, we tell you that we continue working in Puerto Maldonado, we have many difficulties with the Internet, it is very restricted in our work and having an internet plan in the city is a bit expensive. We travel not to Cusco not very frequent and it is difficult to participate in the programs of the Temple, nor do we have communication with Goura Rupa Prabhu. P. Govinda das went to Lima two months ago, and we are alone here, alone fighting with our mind and trying to do some service here, not just karmi work, we started having problems. We told you that two and a half weeks ago, our sadana is trying to get up a little more intense, and we are finishing singing our rounds before 6:00 am so that we can be very energetic, we are reading the Srimad Bhagavatam with my wife, at 6:00 a.m. by phone, our priority is to get to sing 20 rounds a day, the additional rounds if we do not finish it before 6 o'clock we try to complete it at another time, the free hours we have are reading a bit to refresh our little intelligence, for it we try to sleep less hours, we are giving fight to the mind, We are trying to get up at 3:00 am to be able to sing our rounds and finish them after Mangala aratik.

Things with the family are fine, trying to solve Nilacandra's neglect problems in the school, very distracted, we are always talking, Vrisabhanu Nandanu, does not have many problems, is very intelligent, learns fast. My wife is calm because of the work that I have, she is not very worried about the separation, she knows that if I do some nonsense here, I would not know how to explain that to you, it would show that I have little intelligence ... very little. For everything else everything is fine, always thinking of you. and how to recover the lost time ... of the project that I spoke to you I will have it ready for your VP, as an offering. We will try to do a little sankintan here, for our spiritual good. Dear Gurudeva, we are always thinking of you, we pray for your blessings to get out of this material puddle, we no longer want to suffer. We plan to stay here for a few more months and then return to Cusco, but we want to do it with new thought that will contribute to Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON. We will always be grateful to him for his unlimited Mercy. May the mercy of Sri Krishna always be poured out on you.

Hare Krishna Dear Gurumaharaja.

Your useless servant wannabe

govardhana das

PS: I will write to Guora Rupa with a copy of my situation, as my authority. The times I can go to the Temple I associate with devotees, especially with my Sister Goura Gadhadara dd.

HpS - ASA -- Hare Krsna!    You are a Sannyasi. Even if you smile at people it has potency. It goes deep and they give up doing bad things and hope for a better life. Are there churches there? GO to church. What are you reading with your esteemed wife?  How old is your child? Only one?

<cite>Hare Krsna dear Gurudeva, All glories to Srila Prabhupada our savior </cite>

<cite>Please Accept my humble obeisances</cite>

<cite>Hope your health is ok.</cite>

<cite>HpS - Best use of a bad bargain! AGTSP!    Paoho.   No reason to impede the rot. As the body rots it becomes the basis of new bodys.</cite>

<cite>Well after some time i’m back in the blog…</cite>

<cite>In some days i will be admitted in the hospital for health reasons so it’s good to write now. Well, body needs some readjustment… (It is the 8th time only this year, each time takes about 2 or 3 weeks)… i’m taking this situation as a learning. Depression is part of our days lately. I don’t know exactly what is the learning but at the end Everything Krsna does is PERFECT even if we don’t understand.</cite>

<cite>HpS - Depression. That means our energy in depressed. Not even enough energy to push the corners of our mouth up, smile, but as soon as I smile my heart responds, Ha!  Ha!   Ha!
Incompetent as we are. No matter how small and with no matter how little energy we have, with a smile and a light heart we can brachiate after Krsna with others to help.</cite>

<cite>This year was very tough in all circumstances, specially in spiritual life…chanting is getting very difficult but we keep trying to do it… when the mind is thinking in others things (we realized how attached to our body we are) is more difficult to concentrate in chanting… So chanting, worship and reading is ok but we want to do it in a better consciousness.</cite>

<cite>HpS - So do the Gopis!   Ha!   Ha!   Ha!</cite>

<cite>Due to this situation i had to leave my job and i hope to back again next year to work in the school and study at the university. We tried to do many things but the body told us to slow down. We want to help a lot but better to start doing it with ourself first.</cite>

<cite>We want to tell you many things but we are trying to keep this short so we can send more letters to the blog…</cite>

<cite>Maybe next letter from THE CAPSULE (hospital)</cite>

<cite>Thanks a lot for all your help and support</cite>

<cite>Your useless servant</cite>

<cite>Patraka Das</cite>

<cite>HpS - Maybe we tortured frogs in our last life and this is the reaction we are getting. Maharaja Bharata became a deer, but Visnu is supreme, not Siva nor Brahma, so do not look at destruction. Look at what eternal service you can develop.</cite>

<cite>Waiting for your next report.</cite>

What do you think of this:

_____________________________________

(Sannyasa) Suburban Bobba

by Guy Gismo PhD, Anjana Suta Academy  (www.jayarama.us)

Urban Monk: Exploring Karma, Consciousness, and the Divine by Gadadhara Pandit Dasa; Amazon.com

We are concerned with serving Krsna:

nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema 'sādhya' kabhu naya
   śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya  (CC 2.22.107).

It is our normal life. For that, we need to become immortal. If we are going to die and then become sheep, turkeys, pig-keepers, then how will we be Krsna conscious. Srila Prabhupada may not be able to hang on to us unless we get free from so many strong material attachments like … breathing air. He may lose contact with us and we may plunge again into the 8,400,000 species of life for all eternity or for an aeon.

This is sannyasa:

Nyasa - renouncing.
San-nyasa - completely renouncing.

It is like Vanaprastha Ashrama and then Sannyasa Ashrama. You give up gross sex with a woman and then you give up even joking with women.

Of course, our ISKCON Sannyasis are trying to do this. Yes, they take Sannyasa for the fame, easy life, peace, but they also do it also for the right purpose, to get free from Samsara for their benefit, for benefit of society and for … the benefit of Krsna (Yasoda-nandana).

How can we do that in the modern world??

The Lives and Challenges of Vaishnava Sannyasis in Modernity by Yadunandana Swami https://blservices.com/product/sannyasis-in-modernity/

Gadhadhara Das, in the book cited above, talks about being an Urban Monk, but Srila Prabhupada’s mission is to deliver the Western world and most of that also requires going into the Suburbs where our congregational base lives, Suburban Monk.

How do we host an ISKCON Sannyasi in the Suburbs? Help him do his work of seeking liberation, exalted devotional service and leading us to the same platform?

Discussing the cause of his fall-down H. H. Satsvarupa Das Goswami comments that he broke the first rule of Sannyasa, being alone with a woman.

“There are so many rules and regulations to be followed in the renounced order of life. Most important of all, a sannyāsī is strictly forbidden to have any intimate relationship with a woman. He is even forbidden to talk with a woman in a secluded place. Lord Caitanya was an ideal sannyāsī, and when He was at Purī His feminine devotees could not even come near to offer their respects. They were advised to bow down from a distant place.

This is not a sign of hatred for women as a class, but it is a stricture imposed on the sannyāsī not to have close connections with women.

One has to follow the rules and regulations of a particular status of life in order to purify his existence.” BG 16.1-3 (p).

Ladies should not talk to Sannyasis unless their husband, father, grown-up sons or brothers are present.

SM: Ooof! That is not practical!

It is with some effort and the result is wonderful for all.

SM: Did Prabhupada follow that with Sally Agrawaal in Butler, Pennsylvania? He came from the YMCA where he was staying and cooked lunch before Mr. Agrawaal came home. Didn’t he talk with her alone, in a “secluded place”.

UG: Yes, there are reports of some instances like this, but we find so many times Srila Prabhupada was very strict about not being alone even for regular discussion with respectable ladies. Maybe he was in the same open room while they put flower vases in place. Maybe he answered questions simply but did not initiate or extend conversation.

These are our, Prof. G. Gismo, Anjana Suta Academy, realizations, standards, an line authorized.

SM: What if I have to talk with a visiting Sannyasi about something. Can I call him?

Make a conference call with your son. Text him with a copy to your husband.

If a Sannyasi is staying in your house and you the Dude has to go to work and leave him alone in the house with the ladies, then you offer to drop him off at the library. Understand that as a host you must have a male devotee, gentleman come and keep him company if you will be out of the house.

How can we help him in his Sannyasa?  By taking advantage of his association.

Why do universities exist? So teachers can learn.

Plan on taking Sannyasa. Understand that your comfortable Suburban environment is temporary. It is a step on the way to Vanaprastha and that is a step on the way to Sannyasa.

We may think, “Oh, I am a devotee, why do I need to undergo these formalities, Sannyasa, civil widow?” The answer is that they are formalities but not without meaning. We may have deep personal commitment between a man and a woman but still they should get formally, religiously, married.

This is a good basis, no?

Question: What does your, Uncle Gismo, PhD mean.

UG: Doctor of Phalocracia. Study it with us and we will award you the same title.

SP: You are half mad, no?

UG: Yes, but… Lord Caitanya said that one can understand Srimad Bhagavatam only when he becomes a madman like him. Of course, there are many madmen, but we want to become madmen like Lord Caitanya.

Controlling the tongue, belly and genitals.
A Sannyasi who is traveling has to eat, engage his tongue and belly, in many different places. Srila Prabhupada was a “miser” but he took the expense of traveling with a personal (even female (with male secretary)) cook, no? Once we had lunch at five different ISKCON restaurants in Mexico City before we came to Houston. We were completely sick! All of the food was Sattvic but it was all different, different consciousness. Ask your guest what he wants to offer to his Deities. Don’t offer what you think he would like, which often may be opulent, or special food that you think you would like.

Often people will cook special preparations for a Sannyasi or any special guest rather than the simple food they take daily. You don’t cook these special preps every day so many times they aren’t cooked that well and if he is eating special, opulent food daily the Sannyasi will get sick and die very soon and become a street dog.

What does he want? Does he want to cook? Let him. Invite him.

Ask him what he wants. So many times we see that people ask XYZ what this Sannyasi eats and get the wrong information. Ask him.

Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna.

All of us going with Srila Prabhupada to see Krsna.

Want more news, express your views? Visit us and our Blog at www.JayaRama.US.

Oink!   Wiggle, Wiggle!

Buck White here!

Can you write when you are hungry?  Are all of your essays, just your stomach talking?

Eat for you heart, eat for your soul,
   What about eating does your stomach know?

Words are like little sounds: Click! Click!   They Srila Prabhupada's feet in Braja do surround.
If you are a human or a hound, keep your nose to the ground (of Braja) and you will quickly hear Krsna's flute making a bewildering sound.

Then with the guidance of Subal et al, your chances to offer your special service will abound, on the ground, all around, with nice sound.

For how many life times we are writing these poems?  For how many lifetimes are we reading yours as they come to our homes?

We live in the dust at Srila Prabhupada's feet. We hope your messages there we will meet as we scavenge for p-nuts and raisins quite sweet.

Any service for us?

Hare Krsna, Prabhus,

Paoho.  AGTSP. Prof. Guy Gismo, here (Uncle Gismo).

For all of you Bachelors reading, you can always offer Macaroni and Velveta cheese to your Lord Nrsmha deity.

Also, if you are eating while you are typing (well, low class, but it does happen) and you get honey on your computer keys and they stick. Then, usually you can pry them up from the side and they will pop off and then you can clean the key and then push the key back in place. We say usually but maybe it will wreck your computer.

That's Science, always and element of risk.