Letters to the editor

“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.

Todas las glorias sean a Sri Sri Gaura Nitay
Todas las glorias sean a A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Todas las glorias sean a los Vaisnavas del Señor

Por favor acepte mis respetuosas reverencias querido guru maharaj, espero que se encuentre bien, por ahí me comentaron que estuvo delicado de salud, asi que oramos por usted, o lo intentamos sinceramente. esperamos que visite buenos aires en algun momento, aquí estamos con adi yajña, gopal govinda, parama karuna, maha hari, carudesna, nanda, vasudeva, bhakta nehuen, bhakta ignacio, bhakta anthony y bhakta alex. estamos tratando de limpiar el corazón, limpiando los baños y las ollas también.. estamos tratando de mejorar la calidad de los servicios para agradar a krsna!

HpS-ASA -- Hare Krsna!!  AGTSP.   Somos sus servientes muy, muy, pequenos. Gracias su carta. Esperamos visitar a BsAs en Feb-Marzo!

Fuimos a un lugar campestre a distribuir libros y fue muy bueno! gradualmente se comprende aun mas la importancia de dar a krsna en forma de libros... ante eso me surge una pregunta, si damos libros para complacer a krsna, a prabhupada y a usted, pero no nos agrada hacerlo, eso se considera bhakti?

HpS - Upadesamrta-7, no? En la comenza no hay gusto pero estamos ocupado por razones basicas, como esperamos escapar de sufrimento, liberacion. Y tambien posible estuvimos experimentado un poco de servicio devocional puro, una Bhakti-lata-bija, https://www.vedabase.com/es/cc/madhya/19/151, y por medio de hacer Sankirtan estamos agotando nuestra pequena semilla, planta. Entonces puede ser servicio devocional en diferentes etapas.

O si uno realiza cualquier tipo de servicio para agradarle a krsna pero sin el gusto por realizarlo, se considera bhakti?

HpS - Diferentes niveles de Bhakti, no? 18,000 verso en SB para explicar los detalles. Kanistha, Madhyama, Uttama Bhakti. Hay gusto de devoto buscando liberation de sufriemento, gusto, los Gopis.

Por ahora estuvimos viendo un verso del srimad bhagavatam junto los devotos, donde el señor kapiladeva le dice a devahuti que sus devotos dan su vida por él, y que el unico interes que tienen es el interes del señor, y lo desarrollan sin interrupción. wow! muy lejano estamos de eso, pero hacia allá vamos --->  \ ° 0 ° /
 

Solo le escribo para contarle un poco del insignificante servicio que realizamos, que esperamos sea aceptado, para irnos de este mundo lleno de drama.
Danzando sobre nuestros propios demonios como krsna sobre la serpiente kaliya
Cultivando el deseo para algun lejano día nadar en los lilas asta-kaliya
su aspirante a sirviente mandara sakha das.

HpS - Hare Krsna!!!   AGTSP. Paoho. Servicio devocional es muy divertido. Esforzamos hacer el correcto. Evitar las trampas de La Bruja. Y jugar con Gopal. Siempre es una nueva dia para ir al bosque con el y los demas y pastorear vacas, Sankirtan. Siempre nuevo.

Dear Gurudeva:

All glories to Sri Sri Radha Krishna

All glories to Sri Sri Gaura Nitai

All glories to Srila Prabhupada

All glories to you

Please accept my most humble obeisances

Guru Maharaja I have been making friends, studying BG, I continue sewing clothes for Radha Krishna, they will be installed on 2019, and going to the Temple´s kitchen on sundays, keeping 16 stusiastic rounds and following principles. I always pray for your health and wellness.

Last week I went to the doctor to consulte about my sleeping problem, the doctor diagnostied a insomnia type, I need to do some tests and take some medicine.

I want to talk about some topics, one of them is veganism, iwanted to ask what do you think about this, first I searched vegan in the blog because I thought that I am not the first devotee who ask, I found some results, I read those letters and it seems clear to me. I consume dairy and it´s ok for me if others dont, I understand, and respect it. Although another thought came in to my mind, the continued debate about this between devotees who consumed diary and devotees who not, I see the devotees try to convince each other, sometimes I dont feel comfortable with this.

HpS-ASA - Hare Krsna. AGTSP. Thank you for such a nice letter. Basic thing is Srila Prabhupada took milk in then same circumstances as we now have so we also take it. Maybe some details for different people. Can look at the logic if we need to look! O.K?

In a different subject, I always have the dubt of why woman cannot take sannyasa, I thought: Are we not spiritually able? Then I read this quote:

"The spirit soul is equal in either a man or woman. In the Bhagavad-gita, 6th Chapter, 1st Verse it is stated "anasritah karma..." One who is actually engaged in the service of Krishna, there is no such distinction... phalam karijam karma karoti yah/ sa sannyasi ca yogi ca na niragnir na cakriyah. Anyone acting for Krishna, he is a sannyasi or sannyasini. So spiritually everyone is equal. But materially a woman cannot be given Sannyasa. But you should not be bothered because you are serving on the spiritual platform. "

{Srila Prabhupada's Letter to Aditya, Mayapur, 4 February 1976}

Why if men and women are spiritually equal, women cannot take sannyasa?

HpS - We could look at it in a gross sense, "If men and women are sp. equal why men cannot have babies"? Of course, the reason is physical, not spiritual. Of course there may be very specific cases where a "man" can have a baby and a "woman" can take Sannyasa. The material distinction about Sannyasa is not gross. The Varnas and Ashramas are a part of the Virata-rupa, just like earth, water, fire ... space, so normally a human female gross and subtle body cannot function safely without guidance by an adult male. Just like three year old children cannot functionw without a Mother.
We have to breath air, we have to have a husband, brother, father, grown up son. If no one is qualified then Krsna, the Deity, can do the work!

I have another question, I have been worshiping Gopal for a while, I started sometime before to take shelter I didn't ask you if I can do it, I dont want to do it without your blessings, Can I continue to worshiping Gopal??? The relationship we have means a lot for me, He's so kind with me, he is giving me so much spiritual strengh, and I´m trying he felt loved.

HpS - As far as I know it is O.K. Love Him, keep Him clean and do your service regularly.

I remember that in some occasions your answers to my questions were directing me to Srila Prabhupada, to take his asociation and his example to have realizations, I think about him everyday and I would like to share with you my thoughts and feelings. I am dreamer, and I used to dream with the day when I met the love of my life, I was eager for this so hard. Prabhupada introduced me to Radha Krishna, the love of my life, and this love is completely reciprocal.

I´m not afraid to death, I´m chanting the Holy Names, I´m writing you, my beloved spiritual father and all is for him, I feel He is teaching me personaly through his books.

For you my relationship with Srila Prabhupada is closer, I´m so grateful, a way to thank doesn´t exist.

Always thinking on your lotus feet.

Thanks Maharaja for your mercy

To serve you

Bhaktin Carol

HpS - Hare Krsna!!!    Lord Caitanya reveals the eternal truth in the Vedas: In the is age of Kali chanting the Holy Names is best process. As we do that we get so much more general and then very personal education about how to chant properly. All these relations will be revealed. Thank you so much for your association. It is very purifying for us. All of us.
You are in BsAs, no?   We hope to visit in Feb, Mar! !!