Letters to the editor

Hare Krishna Gurudeva

Acepte por favor mis reverencias

Todas las glorias a Srila Prabhupada

Quería contarle que desde febeero estamos distribuyendo prasadam a las personas en situación de calle en el barrio, todos los sábados. Tal vez esto aumente con el tiempo.

Nosotros cocinamos y los distribuyen miembros de la comunidad que conocí haciendo Sankirtan.

Deseamos pronto ver su revista que hará para barrio, así poder tomar el concepto y hacer una aquí para nuestros vecinos.

=-=-=-=

Hare Krishna Gurudeva

Please accept my obeisances

All glories to Srila Prabhupada

I wanted to tell you that since February we have been distributing prasadam to homeless people in the neighborhood, every Saturday. Perhaps this will increase over time.

We cook and are distributed by members of the community that I met doing Sankirtan.

We hope to see soon your magazine that you will do for the neighborhood, so we can take the concept and make one here for our neighbors.

HpS - Thank you for the news! It is super... By your association we hope to get to our Neigborhood, Village, Bulletine: Hillcrest Howler. Hillcrest is name of the street. We live like at the crest of the crest of the street, and Howlers are types of monkeys. So maybe we can adopt that ego. We wrote notes for it but not yet published. Your association gives us much impetous.

HHare Krsna Gurudeva!

Agt SP!!!

Agt Guru and Gauranga!!!

I wish You are Ok in all aspects.

I began to work like truck driver and I have got now very little time.

Sorry for not write before, in a few weeks I will be with more organitation to write.

I like so much yours tweets and news.

Thanks for all.

I all go well i will be doing international routes.

Thanks to Krsna I have now a job.

Varuna is well, in one way, I spend the holydays with him. I wish he will grow with more independent mind. I wish...

I will write soon with more news and more time to write in the computer.

Hare Krsna Maharaja.

Have a nice day.

Hariiii bolo!!!

hps-asa --- good!! agtsp.. good job.... more news.

Hare Krsna Dear Gurudeva

Por favor acepte mis humildes reverencias

Todas las Glorias a Srila Prabhupada!!!

Orando a Nrshimhadeva por su protección, esperamos que el dolor de cabeza se vaya pronto... Como le dije en el Chat del FMP, hable con Sita Lalita, y otras madres (necesito confirmar su participación) que dominan el ingles para poder traducir "Olas de la Devoción" al español... Si gusta puedo hacer las coordinaciones, solo necesito el archivo virtual, para distribuirlo... Usted que opina? podemos hacer ese humilde servicio? Espero escribirle pronto mi reporte... Gracias por todo Gurudeva.

Hare Krsna Dear Gurudeva

Please accept my humble obeisances

All Glories to Srila Prabhupada !!!

Praying to Nrshimhadeva for your protection, we hope the headache will go away soon ... As I told you in the FMP chat, I spoke with Sita Lalita, and other mothers (I need to confirm their participation) who are fluent in English so that I can translate " Waves of Devotion "into Spanish ... If you like, I can do the coordination, I only need the virtual file, to distribute it ... What do you think? can we do that humble service? I hope to write my report soon ... Thank you for everything Gurudeva.

HpS - AGTSP. paoho. Wonderful. It will be a great benefit.

I don't have a virtual file. I have the book.

Ask Laksmana agaraja Das if he has a soft or hard copy, and anyone who reads it and has it can write here or contact you personally.

Dhanurdhara Swami gave us copyrights to do it.

Also check with Param-padama Das to see if he has a soft copy or one that can be scanned.

Hare Krishna Maharaja

Receive my obeisances

All glories to Srila Prabhupada

I wish that you receive this letter in good health and love for life in Krishna consciousness.

I am writing this letter after the suggestion of Maharaja Bhakti Prabhupada Damodara, for the matter that you are already aware of. I still didn't want to write you this letter and I feel almost obligated to do so, but here I am. I understand and appreciate the good intentions of BPD Maharaja but it causes me distress that he has communicated with you (once again) without taking into account my opinion about it and that makes me feel dejected, I feel that with this action he has disregarded my sense of individuality. I apologize to you for causing unnecessary distractions with this matter that is personal, important to me but it is a matter that I did not want to make public yet and the reason being the following.

Since January of this year I have gone through ups and downs that have affected me a lot in my service and sadhana, I am working every day to fix it, talking with my mind and acting to follow your instructions. However, as you have already noticed, I am absent from the daily programs with you and the reason is that unfortunately (for me) I am having doubts as to whether I am the type of disciple who can follow your instructions. For me it is difficult to write public letters, I prefer personal dealings, create a more personal guru-disciple relationship and lately I am not perceiving that with you, it seems a silly or superficial reason but it is affecting me more than I want, another reason is that, you always say that you are going to leave the body soon and that scares me. I feel despondent because it took me a lot to find you and value your position as a teacher as it should be and when I read that, I feel anguish of losing something extremely valuable.

Many years ago I knew that the relationship with you was with public letters and with daily programs, I accepted it and I got closer to you, since you inspire me greatly to be better every day, you awaken in me great admiration, one that I have not felt in other teachers.

 But in my heart there is also joy and inspiration with the instructions of another prabhupada disciple that I prefer not to mention for now. I am sad because I was sure that you were the teacher who inspired me to follow the path of bhakti but that inspiration, for now, I cannot perceive. I have looked for another preaching style to be able to "feel" that I am advancing in my spiritual development. I understand that it may be due to my irregular sadhana or lack of good association, there may be many reasons, it is my mind that is sabotaging me constantly.

It disheartens me that I would like to feel I am at the right level to be considered an excellent disciple, but as of now I am not doing so well. I am embarrased to write this letter and miss the great opportunity to continue to work with you on your daily programs. I am not sure how to conclude this letter since there are no apparent solutions and I do not want to occupy your time in small matters, I just want to apologize to you for any inconvenience and thank you for each of your teachings and your inspiration.

Stefani N. Salazar Michelena

(Petti Michelena)

Chile

HpS - ASA --- Hare Krsna. It is very nice to hear from you. Even now our eyes are growing a little weak and it is difficult to see the keyboard clearly. Happens to everyone. Srila Prabhupada could not see well at all near the end of his physical body.

First the kids feel afraid of going to school, then they learn that it is so much fun they don't want to stay home.

We are afraid of losing bodily connection but then we learn that only when we give up the bodily conception of life can we actually have a personal relationship.

Madhumangala Das from BsAs told me about three years ago, that after being initiated by us for seven years he had finally figured out that we were not his psychologist we were his spiritual master. So, it is like that. Fear really comes from ignorance. Not so easy to understand Krsna. Not so easy to understand Balarama, the original Guru. Even Radha is trying to understand Balarama better.

I talked with BPVD Swami and I think he was just trying to do the austerity of arranging things for his disciple and of course he wanted to know my relationship with your good self. I told him that we had not had much contact her or in individual letters. So that forced him to try to approach it from different angles.

You can see that your situation in general is like, like maybe six more people. I can even name some of them. I cannot possible communicate about these more general perspectives with everyone. I was getting 450 letters a month before we started this Blog. Now is is probably manageable if we work at it.

Then again, for specific details there can be specific letters.

When I was living in the Berkeley temple but probably not initiated yet, Revantinandana Swami visited for some time. He had been Srila Prabhupada's secretary and spent a lot of time with him physically. He told us that one time he asked Srila Prabhupada that some of his disciples thought that he (Prabhupada) was conscious of everything they were doing eg. washing the temple floor, and was it true?

He said that SP said that he was not the super soul. When he needed to know something about a disciple then Krsna would inform him and usually externally.

The only really personal relationship that will satisfy you is with Krsna. He is everyones dear-most friend. It will come through father, husband, sons, Diksa gurus, Ashrama gurus, etc.

So again thank you.

We are very happy if you can develop relations with so many siksa gurus who can connect you with Srila Prabhupada. You have to have a personal relationship with him.

All Glories to Sri Sri Goura Nitay!

. . . . All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!

All Glories to you Guru Maharaja

. . . .Please accept my respectful obeisances.

I hope you are in very good health.

HpS - Three weeks to answer this letter! This body does not get diseases, this body is a disease. My body is a 73-year old disease. My car is a 21 year old Mercedes. The power-train is excellent, but the luxury items like electric windows and even thermostat on the room heater don't work. Okay. We fix it so that it will work for a few more years and then pass it on to the next generation.

Someone might ask you how old is your disease [body].

First of all I want to apologize for my vague communication through this medium, but we always hold you in our thoughts, hearts and service, always looking forward to your association. I want to thank you for all your service, because thanks to the technology and the devotees who spread on social networks, we can listen to your classes daily, thank you very much for your constant service and mercy to us, thank you for your example of perseverance and trustworthy faith in Srila Prabhupada Guru Maharaja.

It has been a long time since my last letter, at that time we were in service in a temple restaurant and without a pandemic.

The pandemic arrives and we remain at the mercy of the Lord, as Prabhu Lalita Madhava Das has already commented to your esteemed self, now we are delivering prasadam, almost from Monday to Monday we work, they have been months with ups and downs, but we managed to survive. We have not yet finalized our marriage union due to the eternal waiting lists for the pandemic, we have been constant despite everything, supporting each other and being exemplary for each other.

HpS - Your report to just this point makes you an example to the whole universe. [Maybe your were married as god and goddess in your previous life 😎]. Chile is blessed by such ISKCON.

We follow 4 principles, rounds every day the most we can and fixed sadhana daily.

HpS - At least 16???

I am going to the temple to do garland service once a week and that gratifies our heart and spirit, although the allergy keeps us very bad for more or less three days, we have daily association with Raman Reti Devi Dasi with his audio books very good service, very active in reading.

Hoping that this year we can have your association in person.

His would-be servant Manjulali Devi Dasi

HpS - ASA --- !!! Thank you!!

We will write an essay on the future of ISKCON Temples and the Global Pandemic in the DTC. Please take a look at it.

Please have lots of disciples along with Prabhuji.

Your family?

Any dreams of your Poppa?

Hare Krishna, Guru Maharaja!

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to your wonderful service to him.

Whenever I finish school work early on any given day, I have been reading Memories, Dreams, and Reflections. So far, it is a very interesting and smooth read. Carl Jung analyzes his childhood with a level of depth that I never used to think about my own childhood experiences. I thought I would write to you on a few points that seemed intriguing to me from the first 50 or so pages.

1) Jung felt more comfortable with God, than with Jesus Christ, because he heard that no correct conception or image can be formed regarding God (27). Based on this page, my preliminary impression was that Jung was attracted by mystery as opposed to certainty, more of an impersonalist approach as opposed to personalism. Is this correct, Guru Maharaja?

HpS/ASA - AgtSP!! I think this can be a very useful endeavor. Please keep your notes.

Next, I have heard criticism (Prof. Shyamdasani?) that it is not exactly an auto-biography that lady who co-wrote it put her biographical notes in as Jung's own comments without complete authorization, so some things may be a little off.

I would say that it might be as you say. I and most of us are contaminated with impersonalism to some extent, and so to some degree negating material personalism for mysticism is a better way to approach God unless you get a 'bija' by the mercy of Guru and Krsna.

In perspective, and maybe not true, but my impression is that Prof. Jung was on the level of Hiranya garbha realization ie. above Virata rupa but not up to Paramatma. All three of these have some impersonalism, but a lot less than a gross Karmi.

2) Just when Jung was six years old, he found an "inexhaustible source of interest" the illustrations of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva in a children's book he had, and secretly believed that they resembled his "original revelation" (17). While it is unclear what exactly the nature of this resemblance is, I think it would be interesting to hold on to the idea and attempt to dissect it further as I read the book.

HpS - Yes! I don't remember that!

3) I was also struck by the deep and negative impression his mother's absence made on Carl Jung. He speaks of his mother repeatedly throughout the pages I've read thus far. He mentioned that his feeling associated with the word "woman" was that of "innate unreliability," due to his mother being away from him for a few months on account of illness (8). I couldn't help but think about the modern practice of sending children to India for a few months or dropping them off at daycare centers for 8 hrs/day so that their mothers can work, and how drastic of an effect it may have on children's psychological and emotional health as they grow. In relation to modern methods of child-rearing, I remembered BG 3.35, where Krishna instructs us that it is better to perform one's one duty, even faultily, than performing another's duty perfectly.

HpS - Haw! Haw! Haw! This is exactly how I was raised. My parents were very nice people for the time and circumstance, but I grew up speaking English and had to go through the Hippy culture.

Seems like you have a good start.

.Srila Prabhupada ----- Jung.

Thank you very much for tolerating me and engaging me in service, Guru Maharaja. I will continue to read the book, and hopefully, I can come up with more substantial notes. I am trying to consciously improve in my devotional service every day, as you instruct. We had a nice Nityananda Trayodasi festival (pictures attached) for Gaura-Nitai, at home.

Your fallen servant,

Sugopi Radha Devi dasi