Letters to the editor

Hare Krsna, Dear Gurudev!
Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
All glories to Guru Parampara. Radha Krsna Ki Jay.

Dandavat Pranam,

I am so so happy to get Guruji's amrtabani reply of my previous question. Sometimes it happen and make confusion at the time of translation. Next Sunday, I will narrate Bhagavatam 9:12:1-16. It is our continuous process. In the midle I will try to explain the process of Bhakti. How it will implement in our Mandir and Bhaktas. The explanation of Anyabhilasa-sunyam, Bhava, Prema, Raga-Anuraga, Rati etc. in the  simplest form.

From next year, I will start to distribution the  monthly journal of ISKCON Imphal "Bhagavat Paojel" among our bhaktas and surroundings. So, it will help me to contact new members and get a chance to talk with them about the  Bhagavan Sri Krsna, His Name, Guna, Rupa, Lila, Dhama, and His associates in Vrndavan.

When reading BRS with sangskrit text, I took NOD as reference. It makes me easier to graps the ideas with examples.

My son got his service and will join from the 12th of this month at Moreh the border town of Manipur with Myanmar (Burma). Now he start reading ISKCON books but not started chanting.

Before going Nabadwip, I had study some idea about nine dwipas. It will help me personally after seeing the exact 9 dwips.

As mataji informed me Guruji's Vyasa Puja fals on the 20th Dec. 2017. We will join at Imphal and participate Guru Pujah. 

Please guide me from time to time.  

Yours fallen servant,

Yamunesvara Das.

HpS - You make us cry!   You are such a hurricane of devotion! We hope you also have peaceful time to just go for walks with Krsna!!!
We wait for news of the ISKCON newspaper.

Hare Krsna Gurumaharaja
Please accept my humble obeisances
All gflories to Srila Prabhupada !!

I have not written you for some time, this year my letters have not been very frequent and I apologize for that. This year has been important in many aspects: issues such as the role of men and women in marriage, false renunciation, celibacy and control of the senses, devotional service in grhastha asrama and mundane work, surrendering and other matters have been murky, but now they have become more understandable. 

The artificiality with which we assume these commitments were very negative and brought confusion and pain for a while. On one hand, we are very ignorant in certain subjects, on the other, there is a lot of information out there and does not always come from devotees who have realized positively these issues.

There are also no well-established programs of devotee care or counseling for couples. Many of us live our process in isolation. Indira sakti and I want to be devotees and little by little we have gone finding answers to our doubts. Thank God, by reading your letters again and again, by reading the books of Srila Prabhupada and by hearing classes of exemplary devotees on the Internet we could find gold. Today we are better, the component of happiness in our process it seems to bloom discreetly, at last.

HpS - So, lets develop nice educational programs for Grhasthas.

On the other hand, I think I have found the service that best fits me in the present conjuncture of the yatra. For 8 months we have been serving the deity in Wilson's pujari and it has been a great experience. There's a lot what to learn. We really like to wake them up because the deities are more eloquent at that time, it is also a silent, intimate and solitary service, although very intense. Japa seems firm. My readings are kept systematically; in addition to Bhakti sastri with LAD, we are translating and studying  the study guide of Gauranga Priya Prabhu.

Also I am reading the complete work of the Prabhupada Lilamrta and scientific dissemination texts like Emergence by Steven Johnson that is about the theory of self-organization or about how to develop massive complex behavior from individual,  simple behaviors (ants? neurons? cities?)

HpS - Ha! Ha!  But Rome was started by two complex individuals, no?

In relation to  service, we have been gathering with  Karuna Krsna prabhu and Yugala Kisora mataji  for the coordination on education but we have not been able to do much. It seems that the National Board does not think that Yugala mother and I should be part of this commission, they would prefer other devotees more close to them. 
Working with prabhu Karuna Krsna. For now, under KKD instruction, we are working on a intellectual level, writing articles related to educational development issues. KKD is working on topics related to VAD and I prepare an article on the mechanics of learning, entitled "Learning to learn". When it's ready, I'll sent it to you so  you can kindly give me your opinion, Gurudeva.

I say goodbye with optimism because the problems are getting solved, maybe not at the pace we want, but we are improving.

I take advantage of the circumstance to ask you a question: Krsna seems permanently to expand His experience of pleasure, however, he is completely self-satisfied. Where does that longing for pleasure come from, or rather, how can being full satisfied give rise to a desire?

HpS - I think it was Goethe who said, "In desire I lack all fulfillment, and in fulfillment I lack all desire", but with Krsna let us say that part of His complete satisfaction is the knowledge that He still has desires. It is so satisfying to finish the job but then know that another job is just now coming. It is a matter of tasteful arrangments of desire and satisfaction that would be  hard to accomodate in a purely Euclidean Space, so maybe we have to include Polar Geometry as well. Ha!  Ha!    (Or even higher spaces lile Braja).

I hope your health is improving, Gurudeva.
I hope to see you soon.

Your servant
Gandharva dasa

ASA - Yeah!    You discuss so many things that we cannot respond to all of them. Even half of them. Write more often in smaller portions.
In general it seem good that your conclusion is to still be working with SRILA PRABHUPADA's Iskcon. Make it your own personal responsibility.

Hare Krishna, Guru Maharaj

Todas las Glorias a Srila Prabhupada

Por favor acepte mis reverencias

La semana pasada comenzé dos grupos Bhakti vriksha. En el Callao, en casa de Prabhu Abhiram y en Chorrillos, en casa de Prabhu Gandharva. La intención es unir a los devotos y ver la manera de predicar Conciencia de Krishna. 

El curso de Introducción de Bhakti yoga esta planeado para que termine en Febrero, a la vez ellos también están realizando servicio de guirnaldas en el templo y tambien dos devotas desean aspirar a un maestro espiritual. Los alumnos que tengo son constantes y estoy tratando de acercarme más a ellos

Aprovechando mis vacaciones, estoy asistiendo 4 veces a la semana al templo de wilson para el mangala artik, a la vez que aprovecho la asociación de los devotos

Gracias por su constante inspiración

Jagat Pavitram Das

(LIMA - PERU)

HpS - Muy bien. Si, Bh. Vrksa es super sistema y por que no ampliando hasta hay seis Bh. Vrksa in Callao en entonces un Centro Permanente!

Haré Krishna dear gurudeva please accept my humble obeisances all glories to Srila Prabhupada

thank you very much for your answer

ASA - Two Months ago!   Sorry for delay. Traveling to India.

...is just  i needed, you are the main force for me, 

now I have been given the great opportunity to travel through South America doing Harinama and sankirtan with Mahavisnu Swami until December and the temple authorities agree

I feel that I am very white I need inspiration.

ASA - White???   Green, maybe?  Means fresh, new, inexperienced.

Please, I ask for your blessings in order to distribute thousands of books.

HpS - Hare Krsna!!!!!  It may help a little bit, but need blessing of other ISKCON members more.

you are my own life

HpS - You are very kind!  What has happened since this letter?  You had a big fall down and have been eating chocolate every month?  You have been instructed to take Sannyasa??

his servant Vrajndra kumara das

ASA - Your servants!!!!!   HpS, TB, BW et al. Try to make people ito book distributors.

From: Prahladananda Swami 
To: Hanumatpresaka Swami
Sent: Saturday, December 9, 2017 11:25 AM
Subject: Sannyasa Annual Service Report 2017
 

Hare Krsna, 
Esteemed Prahladananda Swami et al,
Is the following adequate?

________________________________________________

GBC - ANNUAL SANNYASA REPORT (2018)

Hanumatpresaka Swami

(This Report Can be Made Public except for the phone number)

www.jayarama.us

2129 Stratford Rd.; Murfreesboro, TN 37129; USA

Phone: X X X

We followed the four principles strictly and chanted a minimum of 16-enthusiastic rounds daily although there is plenty of room for improvement in not overeating and not letting the mind wander during Japa.

We are based in Nashville, Tennessee, USA with Nitai-gaura-sundara Das as President of our non-profit educational corporation, NIOS. Our GBC Secretary is H. G. Tamohara Das (who is of ripe old age enough to take Sannyasa, no)?

Traveled to India in January and October with a side trip to Australia. We have been doing academic programs with such agencies as the National Library of Peru and Chile, the Asiatic Society of Calcutta and others. We have been presenting Psychology and the Sacred with good response from many communities especially the Jungians.

You can see a sample of this if you go to YouTube.com and search for "psychology and the sacred 2016".

We also have been pushed to continue with "Hamlet and Arjuna", this has involved national poet laureates such as Raul Zurita and others.

In the USA we visit Houston, Seattle, San Francisco etc, and in South America Peru, Argentina, Chile.

We are members of the Latin American GBC, Executive Committee of the Ministry of Education. We are doing a lot of work with the MOE.

We find some things in ISKCON in a lot of chaos, but we find the same thing in our life, so we don't feel much inclined to be too critical of others. Our focus has been, "Get up early and get your rounds done". We have and on-line program when we are not traveling through our web-site: www.jayarama.us that has 10-18 devotees daily for Mangala-arati, NOD and 30-minutes of Japa and Chat.

Of course a lot more details but this is a good sample. We are very eager to assist any of our readers if we can, and if anyone has any interest in "Science, Psyche and Spirituality - The Encounter of C. G. Jung with the Ancient Mysticism India" then please contact us. Prabhupada commented in "Dialectical Spiritualism" that among all the Western philosophers Jung had the most sense.

Hanumatpresaka Swami

hare Krishna maharaj, pamho, AGTSP

i personally don't know how to say all this. But we were surprised that you said in DTC that you were working with us in India. We never felt that we are working with you. It seems we took much more from you, and even did not appreciate you in return.

we want to take intiation from you, but due to...

HpS - ASA - Ahhh!    This is the same as the other letter. Well, as we said, our situtation is just the same as yours and your honest and penetrating description of the situation has helped us clear our brains a lot. Thank you Dr. Pradhan.

As far as the ISKCON gurus and GBC Secretaries etc. etc. that I know, most of them are in the same situation as you and me.

For me I can start with what I personally heard from the lipz of my spiritual master. If you want to take me as a spiritual master in this aspect you can now hear it from my lipz (word processor). SP said, "I will never die. I will live forever in my books".

O.K.

DP - We can't interpret how to apply what he says.
ASA - Well, he says things to a lot of different people because people are on different levels and in different boats. He says things that ladies in the class can understand and you and I cannot understand and vice a versa, but some things are quite appropropriate for us all.
For example, there is no doubt that he wants us to chant Hare Krsna/Rama as much as possible.
O.K?  Now you have full engagement in ISKCON - Chant Hare Krsna, Hare Rama, as much as possible...
 

DP - But I can't chant all the time!
ASA - Don't say that, chant.

DP - I can't! I can't!

ASA - Well, then chant Kirtan morning and evening with your family and friends [as much as they will join you [and if they don't join you then let The Evil One take care of them]]. Read the KRSNA book and chant Jaw Pa Pa!

One rounds, two rounds ....    Make some vow of how many rounds you will chant a day for a certain number of days and declare your Vrata here in The Blog and then Report, here in The Blog.

We will chant 16-rounds per day for as long as we can breath and follow the 4-principles strictly (with the possible fall down into Illicit Vanilla Ice-cream Consumption though we hope to surpass even that by the mercy of Guru Prasad Swami).

Simple, no?    Even a Software Engineer could do it, what to speak of a Management Engineering Docent, no?    Other details will follow?
 

O.K? ?  ??   Koi prasna hai!?

        O.K.  with all of the guys who are in the same situation as Dr. Pradhana???      Come on!  I can think of at least two, three more immediately.

ASA Staff