All Glories to Srila Prabhupada
All Glories to the International Society for Krsna Consciousness
I offer my respectful obeisance’s at your feet
All Glories to your Service in the advancement of Krsna Consciousness
Dear Maharaj,
I offer humble apologies for having taken so extremely long to reply to your answer to my Introduction/Shelter letter a few months ago. There have been various spiritual, physical and emotional aspects of my life that have proved somewhat of a distraction, not to mention that I clearly also needed to make some further advancement within myself.
Earlier this year I sustained a knee injury that was misdiagnosed as a patella dislocation which I unfortunately continued to work on in service until after a more severe event it was finally realized that I had severed the ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) & torn the meniscus very badly in a few different places. Once this was found an ACL reconstruction was necessary along with trimming what parts of the meniscus that were not repairable.
HpS - Robot maintenance!
Added to this it has taken me over a year to address my time management issues and properly balance my Sadhana, Service & Study program here at the Temple / Farm.
ASA - Rapid progress. We come into this human form after hundreds of millions of other lifes! AGTSP!
Having also not addressed my conditioning to be unable to refuse any kind of service offered by the Lord I found myself becoming exhausted on all levels of material existence, running from one service to the next.
HpS - In NOD, 64-types of devotional service, 'One should not accept more service than he can do'. I think 98% of us modern people have to learn to prioitize our service. Mother Yasoda had to decide between giving her milk to Krsna or saving His milk on the stove.
It seems that Krsna had placed me in a position to learn some assertiveness that I did not think would be necessary in a spiritual community & thus the mind took quite a beating. Fortunately, I’ve managed to scrape through with my Bhakti Sastri studies & have maintained my Sadhana rising early enough to have my rounds chanted preferably before Mangal Arati, although my chanting could most certainly improve in quality & hopefully now will with less stress. I have now somewhat recovered from my surgery although it will take until July next year to be safely healed. I have only now managed to carve out a firm service program that is a healthier balance allowing for an appropriate amount of time for both personal and formal studies.
I do understand your comments referring to the formality of first initiation & quite like your Marriage Ceremony analogy. It took me a little while to absorb your advice regarding taking initiation from someone closer whom I could have a more regular contact with. For some reason I had my heart immovably set on gaining you as Diksa / Siksa Guru. Sometimes understanding & comprehension can become slightly separated. However, since being able to clear my mind & slow down, I have had the realization that if that was truly my desire then perhaps I should have been more surrendered so as to actually listen to the first piece of advice that you offered me. What kind of disciple would I make if I was unable to take such direction on board immediately.
I can certainly now see the wisdom of this advice along with its practicality & I am far happier for this understanding. Recently Bir Krishna Das Goswami Maharaj visited & I was able to attend all his programs having been extended invitations from my friends here who are his disciples. This was quite wonderful as he was also a Spiritual Master who I listen to & had considered approaching for Diksa. This I have done & he has agreed to give me shelter in Krsna Consciousness. He comes generally twice a year if not more as he operates within this part of the world & is also very easy to contact. Had I been more surrendered, thinking straight & actually listened to you earlier I would have realized that Krsna was providing me with the opportunity for both Diksa & Siksa Guru’s for whose teachings and missions I feel a particular connection with.
For so very long my service imbalance & exhaustion was really causing me to be reactive & less considered in my thoughts. I continually & repeatedly listen to your lectures & enjoy them immensely. Most of my life has been involved with the Arts embracing a milieu informed by philosophy, psychology, science & spirituality that would be considered quite alternative to the mainstream of society. Thus, the informed nature of your words & experiences reverberates deeply with me & I have an immediate recognition with your mood as you have a wonderful comprehension of conceptual thought in the western world as well as its application & presentation under the authoritative auspices of Sastra. Therefore, despite it taking me so long to reply, I would very much like to accept your offer of a Siksa relationship if this is still possible. You speak in a language that has an immediate resonance within me & I greatly enjoy your sense of humour. I sincerely feel that I can learn a lot from building such a relationship with you.
HpS - !!!
You asked about my name which I can explain although there is no too much to tell. I have had this name for some years before returning to look at ISKCON, though as you can guess it is not my birth name. When changing my name, I’d decided to take a name that I was using s my ‘pen name’ under which I wrote poetry, yet when I came to complete the paper-work I simply wrote Aja Jai Ishwara Kripa. Which according to my very poor Sanskrit was to mean Unborn Victory by the Grace of God. There are some specific reasons for each word, but I probably don’t need to go into that, except to say that despite Aja being a name of Vishnu, to hear Aja every time I am addressed was to serve to remind me that I am not the body but rather that which is, in its true position, unborn & unconditioned by this material existence. Anyhow, that is a brief explanation as to how & why I came to have this name.
ASA - Lord Brahma is called A-Ja. unborn, because he has no mother. From the lotus of Visnu. 'o'
Again, I apologise for not replying to you far sooner, but it seems that Krsna had much for me to realize & organize within my self & my spiritual practise. I do very much hope that you would still be willing to act as Siksa Guru, something that Bir Krishna Das Goswami Maharaj is aware of. I greatly anticipate the possibility of building such a relationship based upon my intense and heartfelt appreciation for your teaching. I do believe that this would greatly assist me to more fully occupy my constitutional position as a servant of Krsna & my sincere desire to serve in some meagre way to help Prabhupada’s mission to advance Krsna Consciousness throughout the world via his international Society for Krsna Consciousness as well as aid me to purify my chanting of the Holy Names.
Sincere Humility
Aja Jai Ishwara Kripa
Hare Krsna
P. S. Apologies I don't really have any pictures of myself, so Ive just taken a quick selfie while sitting at the keyboard.
HpS - Thank you for the letter. Because of time constraints we had to start scanning it a little, but got 97.777%. Thank you! We are very happy to give our little Siksa, advice, as we meet or here in the Blog etc. Please, keep us informed of your Sankirtan, and respects to Maharaja. We are old friends!!!!!
Collect some nice art and post it here after some time.
