Letters to the editor

Hare Krishna Beloved Gurudeva,

Please accept my humble obeisances,

All Glories to Srila Prabhupada,

At you requested I'm sending again my VP offering.

By conjugation of the planets, we had two vyasa puja celebrations the current year, January 3rd and today. JayaRama!!

Gurudeva, you said in one lecture that you see yourself as those unnamed Vaisnavas among the generations of Sampradaya Acaryas. I only read about the glories, devotion and activities of those Acaryas, but i had the fortune to witness in person your unalloyed surrender to Srila Prabhupada and his mission of preaching in pascatya desa tarine.

HpS - We feel that we are still working to separate our greed from our service. There is some alloyed there.

Thank you so much Gurudeva for visiting Buenos Aires and for that glorious lecture about 'How cats can see ghost' which caught my attention to your preaching style. With your humble character you showed me in perspective the potency of Our Guruparampara. They gave us everything. Let's pray that we can continue with their mission.

Dandavat pranams,

Nikunja Bihari das.

HpS - ASA --- Hare Krsna. It is so nice to see you here in New Govardhana. So much opportunity for work.

If we can breath we can chant, and then if we can think we can chant and then, even as we only are covered by Buddhi, understanding, perspective, we can chant, but then the chanting starts to come from the uncovered soul!

All Glories to Radhe Krishna.

All Glories to Srila Prabhupada and all his beloved disciples.

Most honorable Hanumatpresaka Swami Maharaja, please accept my humble obeisances.

I have being watching your wonderfull lectures and hearing about your glories, pastimes and devotional service at NIOS.

Please allow me to introduce myself, this is Guillermo (Guimo), servant of your servants: Govinda, Lalita, Anandamaya, Gadadhar and their sweet associates from the Bhakti Yoga community in Monterrey, México. I am currently helping them with university programs accordingly with your instructions.

All my life, I have being hankering and wandering for “Something Else”, trying my best, but sometimes behaving like a crazy monkey.

I feel embraced in religious environments, from a to z. But I am vastly and profoundley moved by the movement for the Krishna Conciousness since late 2020.

I started counting on Tulsi beads two years ago, and this year I am finally steadily doing sixteen rounds, daily.

I am reading Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam regularly. After many months of the most wonderful soul journey trough time and space, I am currently reading tenth Canto...

On the academic fields, I have studied Western Literature at UdeM, and earned the Summa Cum Laude award; also post graduate studies on Sociology of Eating, and some courses on Plant Based Nutrition.

I like fruits, ants, the so called master plants, and have recurring dreams with all kinds of tortoises.

Enthusiasm bewilders me day by day as I feel blessed to have Monterrey and Montemorelos devotees association in El Retiro Trascendental ASA. This is the ultimate refugee for the soul!

I would like to continue serving.

Thank you Maharaja!

Sincerely: Your developing servant.

Guillermo Sepúlveda.

HpS - AgtSP! Of course, we have been in contact physically here the least few days in New Govardhana.

We talked about your good self with Adhoksaja Das and others, and on his comments, Gadadhara's and Guru-prasada Swami's approval we are looking forward to your initiation on Sunday.

Hari Bolo!

Hari Bolo!

We were very enlivened by your symposium on spiritual diet. It confirmed some of our experiences and gave us some new understanding.

We always tended toward eating big bowls of fruit, Prasadam, but felt tht maybe that was greedy, but now we see it is natural.

Hope you can keep regular Japa and get a study partner for regular study of Srila Prabhupada's books.

Hare Krishna Maharaja, please kindly accept my most humble obeisances; all glories to his divine grace, Srila Prabhupada, our founder acharya; all glories to your good self, his surrendered disciple and beacon of hope for fools like myself.

HpS - AgtSP!!!

Hare Krsna!!!!!!!!

This year marks 40 years of brahminical engagement, when I first became a full time pujari, after years of sweeping and mopping Krishna's floors and washing Krishna's pots and pans. Finally I had some visibly respectable status. Back in those days as a brand new pujari there were times when I would have as much as half of my rounds done by 4:30. And on some rare mornings, I was even finished with all my rounds before Mangala arotika. I was really on fire back then, and I thought to myself "This is the story of the rest of my life!"

Little did I know then how just wrong I would be on this score. Whilst my sadhana does still exist and sustain me, it is far removed from the standard that I had so enthusiastically embraced in those younger years.

ASA - "No fanatic like a convert", Mormon phrase. 🙂🙂🙂

Still, I am most grateful for those early years of enthusiasm, as ephemeral as they may have been. I can honestly say that I would be totally lost today without those early years of devotional service.

And yet the spirit of true humility has managed to escape me, in spite of my years of service and reflections as a devotee. Even whilst I am constantly being smashed by the material energy, my sense of false pride and envy prevails in my daily living. I struggle with trying to understand just "What is there in me that obliges me to be so proud and so envious? What can I possibly stand to gain by such behavior?"

My only thoughts are that it is due to my envy of Krishna being the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

As I undersgtand it, this is the 'original sin' so to speak that landed each of us in this material world in the first place. It is no wonder that Krishna demands that we surrender. This mood of surrender is a very humbling experience by its very nature, and it is not a popular term in today's world, as it imples defeat, failure, loser. How can I submit myself to such thoughts? How can there be any humility in the heart of an envious rascal? And here I am, trying to make a show of being some kind of a devotee with years of devotional service under my belt.

It's a perfect recipe for requiring another birth.

I can understand better now how important this mood of humility is for our chanting of the holy names, for taking shelter of devotees and particularly for taking shelter of the spiritual master. We accept these principles wholeheartedly in principle because we want to believe that such ideals are real, that they are absolutely necessary, and that they can be had by any and all sincere devotees. But to realize them for their true worth and value, and then to exemplify them in our character is another matter entirely.

I need to close here, so as not to embarrass myself further. Please kindly bless our household so that we may continue with our devotional service, meager as they may be.

Your lowly servant,

Bbd

HpS - Hare Krsna. We are in New Govardhana, couple miles from Allende, Mexico.

Many devotees here. Krsna is here.

Have to surrender our pride of our material abilities, then we have to surrender our pride of respectability and join an out right thief! Butter, clothes etc!

He is always looking for mischief.

Jayananda Das said that humility means not acting artificially big OR artificially small.

Humility means to access our potency and do something within our means!

Next letter.

Hare Krishna, dear guru maharaj.

Please accept my humble obeisances

All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!!

I hope your health is good. I stayed in cantabria for some days and now im in ireland, i came here 3 days ago, i came here with the intention to work for some time, i was working in the same place last year and they call me this year too, i had the idea of cooking some prasadam to share with my work colleagues, i know they like sweet things so i thought about making some nice preparations to share with them every sunday.

I have a few questions that I wanted to ask. 

How moving out of the temple could affect my path for taking initiation and what can I do to keep on the right path?

HpS - It is just details, like working in Madrid or London.

You have to have a personal relation with some ISKCON GBC or Temple President. If you try to do that Krsna will help and then you can be initiated.

Should I do a morning program here or it would be ok if I do it by following some programs through the different temples website?

HpS - Both are good. Maybe even mix. SOme days one, some days other.

Aswell i wanted to know how can I follow your classes. Is there any place in particular where I could watch them or participate??

ASA - ASA Carnival - Face book.

and how can i keep the discipline in my sadhana? is going to be a bit difficult without the association of the devotees every day, please bless me with some clarity for giving the next steps.

HpS - Yes dificult so must do it by telecommunication. Get correspondence partners.

i will attach some pictures of the deities in cantabria

Your aspiring servant,

agustina abalos

Thank you! Two minutes to Arati.

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Hare Krishna Gurudeva todas las Glorias sean a Srila Prabhupada, acepte por favor mis humildes reverencias., espero que su salud este bien, en mi caso estoy muy entusiasmada por el viaje a méxico. Le quería contar he podido participar de diferentes servicios en el templo de chile. En el festival de Nityananda Trayodasi pude estar en la recepción de los invitados entregando prasadam dulce para entregar a los asistentes. También pude hacer unas decoraciones y estoy trabajando en más decoraciones para el Festival de Gaura Purmina. Además continuo con mi servicio los días sábados por la mañana en la cocina de la deidad y adoración asistiendo a la madre Gurú Govinda. Desde la última vez que le escribí mis rondas van mucho mejor cantando las 16 y como usted dijo logrando eso todo funciona mucho mejor. Quería preguntarle si hay alguna lectura que le gustaría que realizara.

Le compartos fotos de nuestro querido servicio .

Hariboool!!

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Hare Krishna, Gurudeva, all glories be to Srila Prabhupada, please accept my humble obeisances. I hope his health is fine, in my case I am very excited about the trip to Mexico. I wanted to tell you that I have been able to participate in different services in the Chile temple. At the Nityananda Trayodasi festival I was able to be at the reception of the guests handing out sweet prasadam to deliver to the attendees. I was also able to make some decorations and I am working on more decorations for the Gaura Purmina Festival. In addition, I continue with my service on Saturday mornings in the kitchen of the deity and worship assisting mother Guru Govinda.

Since the last time I wrote to you, my rounds are going much better, singing all 16, and as you said, once you achieve that, everything works much better. I wanted to ask if there's any reading you'd like me to do.

HpS - Thank you. AgtSP!!! I would say that it seems to us that it is more important with whom you read than what you read.

If you get teacher, study partner, students and read with them, discuss, it is very nice.

Then automatically you will begin to see which of Srila Prabhupada's books you should read.

Of course, Upadesamrta and Krsna book are always our Gurus.

Following and commenting on daily Yatra SB classes is also very primary!!

I share photos of our beloved service.

Haribollll ! ! !

HpS - Thank you! Hare Krsna!!!!!! Thank you!

Haré Krishna, Gurú Maharaja Todas Las Glorias a Srila Prabhupada le escribo para contarle que estamos cantando 16 Rondas diariamente, siguiendo 4 principios regulativos y cocinando domingo por medio en la cocina de la deidad y cualquier servicio práctico que se necesite en el templo de Santiago Mandir, le quería contar que le manda muchos saludos Prabhu Aravinda Dalayataksan das, nos encontramos en el súpermarket y estuvimos hablando de usted, el me contaba como usted lo instruida y aconsejaba, cuando vivía en templo y cuando fue a India Junto a Arjuna das, el esta trabajando de lunes a sábado y todos los Domingos va a la iglesia y sigue siendo vegetariano estricto.

También le quería mencionar que este domingo 5 de marzo daré la prueba de segunda iniciación, he estado estudiando bastante para aprobarla con satisfacción ya que hubieron muchos cambios de administración.

Por último escribe de título de esta carta "mistisismo en casa" ya que hace 1 mes Prabhu Ananta Sila Das amigo de mi esposa Bhuvana Mohini dd dejaron a cuidado en casa sus 150 Silas entre Salagram, Govardhana Y dvarka silas, ya que ellos están de viaje por India, mi esposa las atiende y adora por la mañana, en la casa se siente una energía especial no tenemos palabras para describir, una mezcla de armonía, seguridad, pero a la vez energía fuerte que absorbe, mi esposa tiene sueños recurrente con las silas, además ella hace 10 años a cuidado todos los días a 1 Govardhana sila.

Queríamos pedirle si nos puede aconsejar he instruir respecto a una situación: un discípulo suyo hace algunos años ya no adora a sus Salagram silas y quiere entregarlas a nosotros (20 silas aprox) pero estamos con dudas, una por qué las silas tuvieron una negligencia al dejar de adornarlas y tenerlas guardadas en un cajón, como le menciono Bhuvana Mohini a cuidado 1 Govardhana con buen estándar pero no sabemos si será algo bueno adorar 20 silas que estuvieron guardadas, no queremos comerter ofensas nosotros.

Espero que se pueda entender mi castellano.

Gracias Gurú Maharaja por todo el esfuerzo que usted hace Por Srila Prabhupada y sus discípulos, espero poder verlo en México a fines de marzo.

se despide tu Sirviente Sripati Das

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Hare Krishna, Guru Maharaja, All Glories to Srila Prabhupada. I am writing to tell you that we are chanting 16 Rounds daily, following 4 regulative principles and cooking every other Sunday in the deity's kitchen and any practical service that is needed in the Santiago Mandir temple.

HpS - It makes us very satitisfied to hear this.

Thank you.

I wanted to tell you that Prabhu Aravinda Dalayataksan das sends you many greetings, we met in the supermarket and we were talking about you, he told me how you instructed and advised him, when he lived in a temple and when he went to India with Arjuna das.

He is working from Monday to Saturday and every Sunday he goes to church and he is still a strict vegetarian.

HpS - He was Jehovah's Witness. Hope he is doing well, making nice progress!

I also wanted to mention that this Sunday, March 5, I will take the second initiation test, I have been studying a lot to pass it with satisfaction since there have been many changes in administration.

Finally, write the title of this letter "mystisism at home" since 1 month ago Prabhu Ananta Sila Das, a friend of my wife, Bhuvana Mohini dd, left their 150 Silas in care at home between Salagram, Govardhana and dvarka silas, since they are on trip through India, my wife attends and adores them in the morning, a special energy is felt in the house we have no words to describe, a mixture of harmony, security, but at the same time strong energy that absorbs, my wife has recurring dreams with the silas, besides she has been taking care of 1 Govardhana sila every day for 10 years.

ASA - 😯 💪🙏💪

We wanted to ask you if you could advise us and instruct us regarding a situation: a disciple of yours a few years ago no longer worships his Salagram silas and wants to give them to us (approx. 20 silas) but we are in doubt, one - why the silas were negligent when stop decorating them and keep them stored in a drawer, as Bhuvana Mohini carefully mentioned 1 Govardhana with a good standard but we don't know if it will be a good thing to worship 20 silas that were stored, we don't want to commit offenses ourselves.

HpS - They are like babies. It is better if any nice person keeps them out, clean, and loves them than keeping in s drawer.

No need for complex worship. Just clean then regularly. Wash in little water daily, and then let Them see any more worship that you already do to other Silas, and as far as I know They will be happy and give you any requests They have for more service.

Worship of the Silas is more by the character of the Pujari than the paraphernalia. If Pujari has good character, O.K.

If Pujari has bad character, even with great paraphernalia, They are hurt, offended.

I hope you can understand my Spanish.

HpS - We put it through translate.google.com.

Thank you Guru Maharaja for all the effort you make. For Srila Prabhupada and his disciples, I hope to see you in Mexico at the end of March.

your Servant Sripati Das bids farewell.

HpS - O.K. Hope you are co-ordinating your accomodations and plans with local devotees!

Thank you.