Letters to the editor

Hare Krsna,

AGTSP!   Paoho.   How are you?  It is 31-degrees celcius, about 91-degrees farenheit, here. About 50% humidity. If we sit directly in the fan on the porch, or use our little, mobile, air-conditioner to cool down one little room in our dilapidatred mobile home then we can tolerate it, but is is tough.  Of course, guys in Africa who eat once a week have it tougher.

There are so many more miseries, no?    We, you, could start listing the things that are bothering us: Heat, cold, insects, cuts and bruises, social cruelty...  but if we just chose to smile in every situation, Hare Krsna!  Then amazingly it all looks O.K.

This place is designed as a place of austerity and we are trying to enjoy it (I have a few more options).  When we see it for our purification and a chance to teach others to engage in scientific austerities, then it all makes sense.

We see our religious institution, Mormons, Evangelicals... have theirs, having so many problems, our local branch has so many problems, but something that we have seen while we have been traveling all over the world, for years, and decades, is that if you just get up early and have a full morning program, chant good rounds, four principles, do Sankirtan to the best of your miserable ability, when the day is done, the week's visit is done, there will be definite, tangible improvement every time. We will have definitely take strength from the Witch's hands and helped people make eternal progress back to Goloka, where Krsna really needs our help.

Today was better than yesterday. We could really say that it has been the best day in a series of improving, days over our whole devotional career. We live alone. We have money. We can go to the Super-Market and buy 1,000,000 different items for sense gratification: Ready to bake apple pies, and canned whip-cream, and three kinds of ice cream and ...

... but we don't (well a little (frozen orange juice (condensed milk sometimes))), this means we are advancing.

We fall into orange juice and condensed milk (what's your problem? Gossip and political dealings?  Movies?) not just because we are evil, but also because they satisfy sane desires that we have no sane way of satisfying. We need strong protein. Prabhupada said that Western devotees in India could take Paneer, cheese, daily. Indians, he said once a week. Of course, you are going to die a quicker Western death, but that may be unavoidable. In some cases we have to just give things up, but really it is usually just finding the real desire that is being pervertedly satisfied and looking for a better source of satisfaction. Of course, this is the material world, so there will always be some imperfection, which of course is one of its perfections.

Did our Samkhya reading today, answered mail, heard the Hawaii class, gardening, cooking for Lord Nrsmhadeva, preparation for BG class tomorrow, SB class on Thursday, talked for one hour with Miguel Polo and Abhirama Thakura over internet about the NIOS programs in Peru etc.

Tweeted about it all.

O.K.  Was a really good day.   Can we keep up this pressure?  We can die trying?  Don't expect us, we don't expect you, to live a long time. This one week may be it. Don't try to live a long life, try to live a useful life, no?

O.K. Pack up. NGD will be calling. It is 6.15PM now. Then off for our evening walk. Fill our water bottle.

Hare Krsna!  Hare Rama!

Lot of work to do.

Priorties = Vaidhi bhakti.  Regular schedule is part of priorities, but we must review them again and again.

Thank you so much for your association.
Very intense thoughts about NIMSAR in Peru in the letter to/from Laksmana agraja Das.

Hare Krsna!
AGtSP!!!    paoho.....    I am tired. I have a headache. We want to see Krsna.

Funny (Ha!   Ha!    Hurray!), He wants to see us also. He has the most amazing things to tell us about different things that are developing in Braja, but we gone off in this Blue Cloud, looking a Maya and totally forgetting the least thing about the Spiritual World which is staring us in the face on all sides.

Everyone is looking at us, with amazed consternation and humour, "We told him not to look at that flower, "the external energy". When will he snap out of it so we can get back to work. Such a funny flower.

4.48PM

Our rose bush had buds that have now blossomed.
Does Candra-mukhi Devi Dasi and her sister and mother have a garden? Do you? It takes almost no space. Then you can offer flowers and peas to your Lord Nrsmha-deva, Balarama-Subhadra-Jagannatha. . .

Hare Krsna. Hare Rama >>>========>
R(20)...

Hare Krsna.

We could get really depressed really easy. We face the same challenges as you all. It is 7.00PM. It is almost dark outside. Definitely dark in our cave.    Good thing is our little air-conditioner is working enough to keep it cool enough to write. 95* outside this room.

NGD is the center of our real Vaisnava association here, and we have been immersed in ritual festivals the last two days and this evening he is drowing with rounds to catch up so we are alone in this Big, Impersonal, World.  (Boo Huu Huu!).

Actually a lot of it is that it is dark, our stomach is not pumping energy and we are alone.

After this letter we will go to Wal-Mart and look for a jar. There will be light and many people there and we can look at over 1-million Gismos and chant our last six rounds. With the hope of developing our eternal relations with all of our Sankirtan partners today, tommorrow and during the next year.

Janmastami was the best we ever had. Of course, previous ones have individual events that were also perfect, but this one was the best. We did hard, hard, hard physical labor for 3-hours planting a pear tree and a rose bush. That kept our senses fully active. (We hit a big hard root and had to remove it). Then the evening program was very nice with 20-minutes Kirtan, 20-minutes Reading and 20-minutes Japa for about two hours. After that more devotees and guests came and so we had to accomodate their attention with more culturally oriented programs. Also, we gave the Hawaii Janmastami SB class. There is very elevated peer association there.

On Janmastami we take a little milk at midnight, stash as much Maha-prasadam as we can get, and then take it after Mangala-arati. The sun hasn't risen so the fast for Srila Prabhupada hasn't started then. There was way, way, way too much chili in the offerings for us and we were suffering a lot from that, but made some adjustment with milk and cookies for Srila Prabhupada's feast.

We would have liked for people to chanted differently etc. but we expect that maybe until we get to Goloka we may still find imperfections in the Kirtan's etc as far as we are concerned.

We can smile. We can laugh at the Witch. We are doing practical work for Krsna.

Don't become depressed and try to drown your sorrows in Burfee or Mango-nectar.

I don't think we will answer anymore mail tonight. It is mostly practical and nothing practical can be done after 8PM.    O.K.  Chanting Japa, going out the the Bright City Lights.
Krsna book.

See you tommorrow!

Best of wishes for your Gaura-Sankirtan work!

Hare
Krsna!
AGTSP

paoho...  5.51PM here.  Our pre-mangala arati, CC reading took us to Antya 17.54, and that took us to Krsna, Dharma's Mahabharata at Vedabase.com where we are looking for the story of Pingala the prostitute, or cortesan, as some might say.

Then we got a call from Rama-giridhari Das right after FMP, 5.45AM, so we talked for about 1/2-hour, but we are all so busy with Janmastami celebration that we couldn't deal with all the details. Monday we will talk again. Was there a Latin American Educator's meeting last Friday? Did we miss it?  When is the next one?

Then we got sucked into gardening and trimmed two hedges. One is where the poison ivy is. It looks like 91% of it has gone to Goloka from the Poison we used, but it is still dangerous. We thinki we will buy two fruit trees on Janmastami. They are only $25 now.

Visala Das called six times and we called back. He wants to join the Start Meeting class tommorrow. We worked on the Powerpoint Show for that and the same one for tommorrow night.

Then we got final word from Subal Sakha in Richmond so we worked out the calendar and bought the tickets and posted the accounts!  That takes time.

Then we are here. Ready to go to NGD's home for BG class. It is hot, like 35*.

Tom Daigle called and we discussed changes in Prabhupada's books.

O.K. Let's look at the mail!
(Oh, one girl came selling ATT cable service and we told her we didn't use it but gave her a "book from  India".)

Oink! Oink!     Whoop!  WHooP!    '@'     'g'         8.11PM. We just finished "Noche Sabado Directo". "Saturday Night Live", on Start Meeting. About 11-devotees in thre groups. Is getting better and better.

For us it was almost impossible in the beginning because it comes at the end of Saturday which is a very full day, and so we were exhausted, but now we are getting our rhythm and planning our energy.

We were doing the Blog mail and then the connection collapsed!   So, we did as much as we can. We seem to be getting our senses under control more and more.   I guess and ordinary person is addicted to Peparoni Pizza and Beer and Hot DVDs with his friends Saturday night, although Sunday morning he feels like hell. So we may have problems with chocolate cake or condensed milk, or too much fruit, but still these are obstacles to doing better and better service.

Krsna loves to dance with pretty girls!!!   But you have to be a good dancer to do this with Him.  We HOPE we are progressing.  Seems that we are getting a practical rhythm here so that we can get a lot of work done in the next four months: End of August to End of December.

Our focus has been Art and the Sacred, 2018, but Ramon has been approved by the Congress in Peru as Minister for the 200th anniversary of Peru's independence celebration. So, we are suggesting Dr. Sameresh and Kalyankumar can write about this very, very strongly from the perspective of India's experience of Colonialism and the aftermanth.

This can also be done in art. If our world is dominated by this European colonial consciousness what will we have?  War?  Animal slaughter?

Is Indian and Peruvian traditional consciousness a good step toward Krsna consciousness?  Prabhupada established the "Sunday Feast". That is not a Vedic festival. He catered to his best customers, Hippies.

Art, like Ekasma Das and others can do is the way to create traveling shows that go on large scale form town to town to educate the people. Then the government will be good!!

Jaya Sri Krsna!

Esteemed Prof. Samaresh Bandyopadhyay, Anjana Suta Academy,
Here it is Thursday, night, 7.48PM and we are seated in the living room of Dr. Ravi Singh. It is very cool here, but in our cave and outside it is about 30* and 85% humidity. It makes it very hard for us to work, but we did get a small air-conditioner installed in one room of our mobile-home and it brings it down to a workeable level in that room.

Again, we tried to call last weekend but could not get through. We got your letter and will try again on Saturday with Dr. Ravi.

This week we were supposed to have a conference call with Rama-giri-dhari  Das about the NIOS work, and the ISKCON Ministry of Education, but he Skyped us apologizing that he was caught in travel, so we have not met so far.

Ramon Mujica, who was Director of the National Library in Peru for five years, and our staunch supporter and friend, has not yet been chosen by the new Minister of Cultural to retain the position, but he has been asked by the new President himself to take up the responsibility, directly under him, of Director for the Centennary Celebrations of Peru's Independence from the Spanish colonial powers. He has asked Abhirama Das that anyone of our community who would like to do anything in this regard then please present it to him. For your good self and Prof. Kalyankumar it seems like there would be excellent opportunity to make very practical comments about colonial independence in comparison of India and Peru and modern development of national identities and missions.

Solaris is going out and we are already getting new friends from it in Spain. I downloaded the English files today and I can start work on them and as discussed we were hoping that you can review the articles and then write the Foreword for this first number and the whole Journal.

Personally, between battles with lust, spiders, local projects etc, I have ordered Prof. Gerald Larson's translation of Isvara Krsna Das' Sankhya Karika, as recomended by Prof. Ravi Gupta and Miguel Polo, and hope to use it in developing our efforts in adjudicating  Sankhya with the world models of the West from such philosophers as Carl Jung, Marshal McLuhan and E. T. Hall. Is it the proper book?

Finally, our Calendar seems to be settling down and we would come to the all glorious land of Bharata on January 1st for an ISKCON-Christian dialog in Tirupati and Radhika's developing Bhagvatam syposium at Madras University about the 7th. Then we are at the disposal of your good selves until about 10th-17th February when the is a Guru, Sannyasi, GBC Sanga in Mayapura. After that we were thinking to head by the USA with a quick stop in Spain.

Well this letter sounds half-way sane and we hope to talk with you this Saturday.

HpSwami - ASA