Letters to the editor

Hare Krishna Maharaja
AGTSP
Thank you very much for your answer, the truth is that it leaves me a lot of homework to study and begin to seek from the intelligence ways to discipline me to determine me. Put aside the emotionality and abide by the instructions.

HpS --- No!!!  Don't put aside emotions!   They are our means of progress.  They are the wind, the senses are the sails and the Guru, Srila Pabhupada, is the captain who uses the winds to take us where he wants us to go, not where the unguided winds want to take us.

Today was a very difficult day, I cried a lot, talk to a dear mataji who advised me. Then, some children arrived with their caregivers who were taking a walk and belong to a home of abandoned children. We met them in a food for life program that we did in their residence and today they wanted to visit the temple. With Abhimanyu we were just there, since lately we are not visiting the temple on Fridays. It was beautiful, the children asked me to go to the temple and to be in class, I felt that it was Krishna taking care of what moves me every day, which is to work with children with social problems. A child repeated the verse that was mentioned in the class at the beginning, he was delighted, with his eyes glued to Srila Prabhupada, and I had glimpses of enthusiasm.Then, I asked Prasadam for the children, ice cream, they denied me because they told me that they were for sale and that the person would not do more if they gave them to me, I did not keep the negative, I went ahead for those souls that had the opportunity to meet Srila Prabhupada, hear a verse from BG.

With respect to:

"1. ISKCON as an institution.

2. ISKCON as your friends

3. ISKCON as you and Srila Prabhupada.

Can you live in all three? "If I can, but it's hard for me ... what does it teach me to start moving forward on these points? Like ISKCON as your friends?

HpS - Srila Prabhupada will be your personal, eternal, friend. Just develop that relationship. Then develop your circle of friends in service. In the end, our message is that you have free will and personal responsibilities of the same quality as God. If is frightening, but also intoxicating: I really matter!
Nothing can discourage you unless you let it.
Yes, the whole universe depends on your choices.

Thank you very much Maharaja for helping me, I will be writing more often, even more if I am not well with my spiritual life. I will name RADHE and with love I will continue to serve Srila Prabhupada, you, my Siksa guru and Maharaja Dhanvantari.

Please give me your blessings to stop falling, give me your blessings to fight with maya, I want to advance in Krishna Consciousness and preach this great movement, that this is the meaning of my life. Even so in the crisis I see that that is my goal, there I want to be, sheltered in the Lotus Feet of Krishna.

Waiting for you to be very well Your humble well-wisher, Ma. Soledad Oyarce

HpS - I get exhausted by conflicts in ISKCON. Sometimes I see that I am the source of the problem. Accept it, apologice as practical, fight your mistakes.

Won't solve all the problems every time but the progress is eternal. Step by step.

Hare Krsna, Gurudev Maharaja!
Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet.

HpS - And ours to the feet of everyone who has taken birth as Manipuri Vaisnava!

All glories to Srila Prabhupada, Sripada, and Guru Parampara,                        

Goura Bhakta Vrnda Ki Jay, Radha Krsna Ki Jay.

Dandavat Pranam Guruji Maharaja!

I have downloaded Gurujis amritabani reply of my previous letters. I am so happly to get Guruji’s reply and I thing I am just siting with Guruji’s and discussing about different topics.

Guruji I had seen in the T.V. news that in America now adays the temperature is too low upto -12 to 15 c.s degree and snow fall upto 1- 4 feet in the plains.  What about Guruji’s areas?

HpS - We are almost in Nashville, Tennessee. Yes, it also cold here and we must fight with it to some degree but the material world means austerity, but if we use the austerity for Krsna then we can asvance in devotional service.
We use the cold and isolation to learn how to be close to Krsna and become more qualified, qualified, in His confidentieal service.

In Manipur also it is winter season and the temperature is 3 degree c.s. So, I am facing a difficult to do mangal arati but continuing regularly.

To-day, is a strange one for me, when I am japing Hari Nama Mahamantra, after mangal arati, I remember the qualities of Sri Krsna – He is the father of fatherless, mother for motherless, He is so kind to the inoents, helpless, wealth for the poors. He receives the offer of tulsi leaf, wather, flower and fruits if we offer honestly and sincerely. On the other hand I think and asked myself whether He is hearing my japing. Suddenly tears falling down from my eyes and realize myself that He is listioning attentively and excuse my unclear pronunciations. He is satisfying in my unexperience services.

One more thing I want to know that everybody says,   “Krsna is so beautiful and attractive”.  But I could not feel such situation when I look Krsna’s pictures hanging on the wall of my house. When will I start feeling such instincts, and  when  my eyes will see attractively?

HpS - There is not like a fixed mechanical process and time. The verse "adau sraddha sadhua sange.." in purport to 4.10 BG, from Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, gives all the stage in such detail of the advancement. One step along the path is Ruci. Of course, we can get glimpses of it before we arrive there in full consciousness. Then Nistha, Asaktis, Bhava...  the taste expands. You can also look for better pictures.

Guruji! I have search A. C. Prabhupada’s lectures in the internet and found the visual life history of Prabhupada and different lectures. I have downloaded some lectures and the life history (visual-picturisation) in English in 18 volumes. When I am free in the office, I see the pictures. In the picture Prabhupada told his deciples that “Generally people worship Lord Krsna because He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but we (ISKCON) devotees are the worshipers of Srimati Radharani. We love Krsna because Radharani loves Krsna most”. Please comment.

HpS - Generally people are Karmis. They, we, want things because we think things will make us happy. If they take to religion it is to get things. They are nice Karmis. If their idea of God becomes more personal they see Him in his aspect ofr Maha-visnu, master of the universe, but we increase our service, pleasure giving to Vaikuntha, Ayodhya, Mathura, Vraja.... NOI 10 has wonderful summary.
Maybe we can understand the Gopis to some degree, but we have to fit into practical service at a least appreciating that the Rasa-lila is the ultimate pastime, but maybe the fastest way to join that service is by first going through Ayodhya.
Chant, chant, read and then we can see our level and type of advancement. Then we can be very satisfied that we are really contributing something useful at every level and advancing our realization and service.

Yours fallen servant

Yamunesvara Das

All Glories To Srila Prabhupada!  

Please accept my humble obeisances! 

I go to a public school Maharaj and I study the following subjects: English, Maths B, Legal Studies, Philosophy, Chinese and Diploma of Business.

HpS - ASA -- Incredible.  What are you plans?   It seems like you might go into the diplomatic corp or go into international business and ecology programs.

At the moment, I'm not entirely sure what I want to pursue in the future but I do know that a Business degree is a very broad option that may lead to several different careers that I may use in Krsna's service.

HpS - My question is answered but we addes a couple of ideas.

I know my father always had a desire to open a restaurant or go into the food business, so I do wish to fulfil that at some point. But my mother says it will be like a hobby, secondary to my primary job (steady income). So I still need to study something and perhaps once I'm established, then I can think about prasadam distribution (either in a food van/stall or a restaurant called "Krishna's Kitchen").

Otherwise, I hope this year will reveal to me what I deeply have interest in so that I may be prepared for University. 

As for drama teachers, there weren't enough students who displayed interest to take the subject, so in our grade, we don't have drama.

Maharaj, may you bless me with your knowledge and expertise to guide me to a path in which I may enjoy and use it as my service to Lord Krsna. 

Hope your health is in good, healthy condition always! 

Hare Krsna!! 

Yours servant,

Lakshmi Devi Dasi

HpS - The real thing is coming out of our addiction to the material world. In philosophy did you study Plato's allegory of the cave?  We gave the allegory of the cell phone. These bodies are proectors - shadows or smart phone, the movie making machinery behind the thin covering reveals that. We are not these kindeys.

So real life means waking up.

We can play in the drama to help others wake up, preaching, we can play in the drama to stimulate our desire to return to the real world.
For that there is Varna-ashrama-dharma and with psycho-social position as a woman then the natural ashramas are brahmacarini, grhasta and vanaprasta. Always Krsna is our first love, so he sends a nice partner and we both realize that this ashrama is for purification. Natural dharma for women in Vedic culture is to thank Krsna for arranging a nice partner, with a nice family and then use that nice situation to do her part to send them all back home, back to godhead, and let the gopis sort them out.

All Glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to Guru Maharaj HpS. PAOHO.

Hare Krishna Guru Maharaj,

Getting so excited for the Second initiation. Praying for all the mercy from Guru Maharaj for bestowing enough strength  so that this ignorant servant gets some service . Yes Guru Maharaj, we are getting Bhakti Shastri classes from HH Haridas Maharaj. Sincerely wish to join the full 4 months course conducted at Mayapur but Institute won't allow leave of absence for that period of time. Thinking about online course.

Guru Maharaj, praying for mercy for my japa. Feel satisfied only after chanting 30 or more rounds....if 16 rounds are not completed in the morning , I feel sort of irritated for no reason. On Ekadashi it feels so good.

Just working on a plan to open a congregation centre near our hospital. Looking for a place on rent.Our students are relatively free after their classes end at 4pm. Planning to start daily evening kirtan by 4.30pm followed by Prasadam distribution. As we have holidays every second saturday of the month, we plan to have Gita classes on this day. Almost every year we lose students to suicide. MBBS is a tough course with so much pressure and we wish to help them in some way.Seeking advice from Guru Maharaj. Kindly help us.

HpS - We don't have much to say. The effort seems perfect!    Krsna will do the magic.   His decisions are always magic, whether they are what we want or not.

We had wonderful kirtan last Sunday....as we started from the local Radha Gopinath and Radha Madhav temples, we were literally dragged in from one house to another.....we had kirtan in all the houses we were invited ...so much so that we did not have time for nagar kirtan...felt so sad. Prabhu Banamali suggested we go for Nagar kirtan at the same place next Sunday.

Your ignorant servant,

Sarada Gaurangi DD

HpS - Our local Tennessee devotees want to visit Manipur in the middle of October?   Is that a good time?  Is it too cold???   Of course, they want to see the Vaisnava culture.

<var>Hare Krsna Maharaja!!!</var>

<var>Reciba por favor mis humildes reverencias a sus pies de loto....</var>

<var>Todas las glorias a Srila Prabhupada!!!</var>

<var>Maharaja estoy en chosica,viviendo en casa de prabhu Kanupandit, asisto al programa, solicite servicio a madre Nitya Kinkari, me dio servicio haciendo guirnaldas y entrando al Pujari como ayudante....tambien me ofrecio vivir en el ashrama.</var>

<var>Mis rondas Maharaja siento han mejorado,pues me doy cuenta sonrio mucho cuando canto y me gusta cada vez mas cantar.....16 rondas 4 principios cumplidos cada dia con gusto,sabe maharaja los principios ya no se sienten como una obligacion,es algo mas normal parte del dia a dia....trato de conectarme siempre a startmetting cuando no lo hago es porque sigo en el templo.</var>

Lectura esta algo floja ,porque recien termine de desempacar,se que no es excusa ,para proximo reporte habre retomado.

HpS  -  El libro KRSNA!

Me causo mucha emoción ver a la madre Nitya Kinkari despues de tanto tiempo y a otras madres y tener su asociacion nuevamente,Las cosas han mejorado muchisimo para mi,en todo sentido,no tengo mayores necesidades,tengo todo y más....y hare todo para que asi continue.

Muchas gracias maharaja por eatar siempre pendiente,por reaponder las cartas,sus sabias palabras y consejos o recomendaciones....disculpa si al escribir no uso palabras más bonitas o elaboradas,solo escribo lo que pienso y siento en ese momento.

Perdona por favor mis ofensas,mis metidas de pata,mis caidas,mi mala cabeza,mi falta de control,soy alguien que algun dia espera poder servirte y serte util en este moviento de Sankirtana...espero con ansias verlo pronto.

Bhaktin Amparo

HpS - Jaya!!   En otro nivel!!!     Esperamos mucho entusiasmo por el templo en Chosica.

All Glories to Sri Sri Radha Krsna

I offer my obeisances to "my" Gurupadapadma

Patita pavana Hanumatpresaka Swami.

Srila Gurudeva, just to inffor You that I am doing well with principles and chanting 16 round  of the maha mantra that You gave me. Thanks for that gift. Now I am reading Caitanya Bhagavata, Antya Lila chapter five, when I finish reading the book I will startwith the Sri Caitanya Caritamrta a second time according to Your instructions. I am happy knowing that You are going to stay in South America from 2019.

Srila Prabhupada mentions many books  at the end of Sri Caitanya Caritamrta,  will not reach time in this life, I wish to advance longe before my next  demise.

HpS - Krsna keeps writing, doing, more and more books. We have to look at them in general and then chose some in particular, talk with others about their books, no?

I hope to be useful, servant of  Your servant, amalakaruna das.

HpS - It is so good to be getting regular news from you.  I know Mathuresa Das is trying to work out your relation with the temple is Cusco.  We can reach the whole world just by preaching in Cusco,no!  Do that!