Letters to the editor

Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja,

Please accept my humble obeisances unto your lotus feet.

HpS - AgtSP. Paoho/BW. We think we have lettuce feet and are aspiring for lotus feet.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to you Guru Maharaja.

Firstly, I am thanking you very much for reading and responding my letter, and giving me your instructions – which are my life and soul. Whatever you ask me to do I will try to carry it out with utmost care.

Guru Maharaja, I regularly read your BLOG posts. But I don’t use Twitter. Recently I have joined KAPI DHVAJA Facebook group. I am not used to with the group, but I am learning it.

Guru Maharaja, His Holiness Bhakti Ananda Haridasa Goswami Maharaja is the main person whom I am associating with. Due to my job, I am little away from the in-person devotees association, but I regularly take association of devotees through phone. His Holiness Haridasa Maharaja frequently comes to our village and I always attend his programs at our village. I like reading Nectar of Instruction very much.

What other books of Srila Prabhupada, Guru Maharaja prefers me to read?

HpS - Reading Krsna book (with others) frequently??

I do preaching to my job colleagues and friend circles. As you instructed, whatever I read I will tell/preach to my colleagues and friend circles. 

Guru Maharaja, please kindly give me the strength for enabling carrying out your instructions. In whatever conditions of life, please give me service of your lotus feet.

When Guru Maharaja comes to Radhakund, please stay at my house also even for some days. If Guru Maharaja wants, please stay there eternally. I am humbly begging this from you Guru Maharaja. Hare Krishna.

Your humble servant

Manjuali Devi Dasi

Kaptanpur, Silchar, Assam, India

HpS - Jaya! Expect Krsna to give you good Siksa gurus who can be local friends.

Expect to make rapid progress, but also not solve all the problems in one day. Look at life of Prabhupada, how much determination he had. Also, see what success he had, is having!

Hare Krishna, Gurudeva

Please accept my humble obeisances. All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!

I've tried to make this report as short and precise as possible. We know the effort it takes to answer each blog post 🙏

HpS/ASA - AgtSP! https://vedabase.io/en/library/cc/adi/1/106/ .

Since I went to India for the 1st time, many incredible things have happened. I travelled to New Vrajamandala with the idea of staying 2 months, but it turns out that a teacher was needed for the Gurukula. So I decided to take the seva. But before that, during summer vacation, I went to India again. Thanks to Bhadra Rupa Prabhu, I had the opportunity to study Hindustani classical music in Bhubaneswar (1 month) with Sangita Panda, daughter of the eldest Pandit in Odisha [Picture 1].

A few days before returning to Spain, I was informed that the Gurukula would be closed, due to its irregular situation, among other reasons. Even so, I returned to NV and organized a summer camp for the children with excursions, vaishnava education, music and drama [Picture 2].

ASA - Super Girl! Very nice. Such an interesting life.

Simultaneously, I was able to make short trips. A friend invited me to join the 'Erasmus program' which allows young devotees (18 - 30 years) to travel to different temples in the EU with all expenses paid. Thanks to this program, I travelled to ISKCON Almvik (Sweden) [Picture 3] and ISKCON Simhachalam (Germany) [Picture 4], where I participated in workshops about relationships between devotees, Career Dharma (given by Urmila dd), etc. I made great friendships with Matajis of my age.

Now, I'm in Bhaktivedanta Manor [Picture 5]. Krishna fulfilled my desire to experience ashram life and strengthen my sadhana. By visiting different ISKCON temples, you can get to know Srila Prabhupada more closely and feel grateful for everything he's done. It'd be great to have programs like this in Latin America.

HpS - It certainly would. It certainly will be!!

Finally, next month I'll travel to India again😅, but this time Tarangaksi dd and Devahuti will come. We want to organize a ceremony for Gauri dd's 6 months of departure and throw her ashes into a sacred river. We still don't know where... Vrindavan, Mayapur? Yamuna or Ganges?

HpS - Both nice.

Also, this time, I'd like to acquire my first deity, whom I could take on all the trips. Since I'm still brahmacarini and have no shelter but the Lord, I'd like to worship Him directly.

HpS - We are lucky to be born in Kali Yuga! In this age Lord is personally attentive to situation of children, women and old men. So, He is much more willing to be your friends and travel with you.

Of course, the more we can take advantage of DVAD: Brahmacari, Grhasta, V'prastha, S'yasa, we should try to do that also.

I feel attracted to Lord Nrisimha. When I visited Simhachalam, I felt inspired by the brahmacharis (boys and girls) who worship Him so reverentially [Picture 6]. Could I worship Prahalada-Nrisimha too?

HpS - Seems fine with me! Talk with some mature ladies and girls your age and situation.

Thank you so much for reading this letter.

Trying to be your disciple,

Rukmini Devi Dasi

HpS - More news as it occurs. You must be Journalist for ASA. Where is Sita?

Hare krishna 🙏

Por favor acepte mis más humildes reverencias, todas las glorias a Srila prabhupada, todas las glorias a usted....

Aproximadamente llevo casi 3 años que escucho sus clases...desde tiempos de pandemia, y tuve el gusto de haberlo conocido personalmente en ciudad de México en el mes de marzo 2023...

Gurumaharaja aquí en León Guanajuato no hay muchos devotos, sin embargo hay dos lugares de predica,dónde nos reunimos para cantar los santos nombres,leemos el bhagavad gita y el Srimad Bhagavatam...

Hace más de 7 años que conozco conciencia de krishna, conocí el maha mantra por una discipula de usted...su nombre es Jaya prema sakhi (Julia cuellar) ella me platicaba respecto a krishna,me decia que el era Dios, también me enseño a cantar el maha mantra, después comencé a acudir a las clases y festivales....

Uno de esos lugares que le mencioné es con prabhu isvacu, ahí es donde acudo frecuentemente,y algunas veces me conecto de manera virtual,otras ocasiones voy a una comunidad en cueramaro gto México.... Es la comunidad más cercana,ahí hay un templo y un poco más de devotos...

En la empresa donde laboro,cada que se me da la oportunidad les platico de krishna y aprovecho para regalar un libro..

Una humilde servidora..

Claudia García

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Hare Krishna 🙏

Please accept my most humble obeisances, all glories to Srila prabhupada, all glories to you....

I have been listening to his classes for approximately almost 3 years... since times of pandemic, and I had the pleasure of having met him personally in Mexico City in the month of March 2023...

Gurumaharaja, here in León Guanajuato there are not many devotees, however there are two preaching places, where we meet to chant the holy names, read the bhagavad gita and the Srimad Bhagavatam...

I have known Krishna Consciousness for more than 7 years. I learned about the Maha Mantra from one of your disciples...her name is Jaya Prema Sakhi (Julia Cuellar). She talked to me about Krishna and told me that he was God. She also taught me. to chant the maha mantra, then I started going to classes and festivals....

One of those places that I mentioned to you is with Prabhu Isvacu [Iksvaku], that is where I go frequently, and sometimes I connect virtually, other times I go to a community in Cueramaro Gto Mexico... It is the closest community, there is a temple and a little more devotees...

In the company where I work, every time I am given the opportunity I talk to them about Krishna and I take the opportunity to give away a book...

A humble servant...

Claudia Garcia

HpS/ASA - Thank you for this news. Just by seeing the smile, comportment, what to speak of their Kirtan and discussions of Krsna, people are benefitted.

Thank you.

This is happening from a previous life?

Who are your associates, family, work?

16-rounds/day?

4-principles?

Hare Krishna Gurudeva

Please accept my obeisances

All glories to Srila Prabhupada

After reading your last response I realize that it is true, I do not read the other letters on the blog, I must make an effort to do so, since your responses are also addressed to other devotees.

I have been quite disconnected from classes, Twitter, etc. My apologies for that. I remember those mornings in the temple when I ate breakfast while listening to his classes.

My sadhana has been stable, except for getting out of bed, I am still struggling with ignorance.

16 rounds with 30% enthusiasm and 4 strict principles, trying to be cleaner.

ASA - 🐒 🐷 👍

• I'm singing all my rounds in the morning.
• I do a little worship at my altar with Govinda, a flower and incense.
• I read the scriptures personally daily and every night I study the sastra with other devotees
• Studying at the institute is going perfectly, the course is easy and I am ready to finish.
• The preaching is going very well, I always leave home with books and when the opportunity arises, I distribute some. I made a bookmark with the Maha Mantra and my contact.

I want to sell books online, I already have the planning to start, but I am waiting to regularize my situation in ISKCON Chile to take that step, so as not to bother anyone.

HpS - We hope, agtSP, that you can do that. We always remember that Rama told Laksmana that there is no mistake we can make that we cannot rectify.

Yet, we have to do the work.

Eg. Allow our victims a few good kicks in our backside etc if they are desirous.

After having collected a list of Sankirtan contacts and talking to those most interested, at the beginning of this year I have been creating short Krishna consciousness content that I send to them privately on WhatsApp periodically.

I extended an invitation to those same people to meet via Zoom and thus study the scriptures together with the study group to which I belong. Two of those souls were enthusiastic and we have already had 3 satisfactory sessions (October 20, 2023).

I have also created a WhatsApp group in which I publish daily small excerpts from Srila Prabhupada's books. This content is aimed at devotees who are already practicing Krishna consciousness.

These internet facilities allow us to preach in an interesting way. For example, in my "down time" traveling, etc., I can dedicate myself to writing and planning.

As for preaching in the arts, I have been working on new musical compositions, lately of social criticism based on the teachings of Srila Prabhupada. For example, the last song talks about industrialization and the damage it has caused, this is also motivated by the classes I have heard from you.

I have already finished my first draft of a novel of what I call "Veda Fiction", since it is like science fiction, but based on Vedic knowledge. You have several times spoken of the coming of a soul similar to Maharaja Parikshit who will stabilize the situation of the planet. Well, this novel places the planet in a dystopian, Matrix-like future where Kali has completely enslaved humanity. In the midst of that horrific scene, Maharaja Parikshit takes birth again on this planet to fight against the dark side.

I have been lazy in composing the songs of the Acaryas. Taking the advice of a devoted friend, I am going to use the temple songbook and start composing based on those songs, I got stuck in wanting to be very exquisite with the songs.

I promise to start making Mangala Arati next year. I also want to take an English course and I wanted to tell you that I intend to start studying another degree next year, I want to study musical production, so I'm happy, it's not sound engineering like you advised me, but it has something to it.

Hare Krishna Gurudeva

My obeisances

Your servant

Piyari Mohan das

HpS - So much content that we had to start skimming near the end. Sounds very nice. Are you still with bi-polar personality?

This letter sounds like someone in the active rather than the depressed stage.

On the other hand.

Maybe you have become stable this level of energy.

There is another letter by your good self below.

We really hope to get to it.

Thank you!!!

Hare Krishna, Gurudeva 🙏🏻

Please accept my humble obeisances!

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

I am writing to tell you that I arrived in Sri Vrndavana Dhama six days ago. In these first days it was difficult for me to adapt here. But, little by little I am becoming more familiar with the place, people, etc.

I am staying near the ISKCON temple, Krishna Balarama mandir, in the house of a devotee from Peru. I have also found here some Peruvian devotees who have come to visit the Dham. They have kindly helped me in different matters.

In a week Rukmini (daughter of Tarangaksi dd) will be arriving. I am going to stay the rest of the time here in Vrindavana with her. Then I plan to go to Mayapur to take the courses with mother Devaki, she is from Germany.

Gurudeva, I would like to take advantage of this stay in Vrndavana, and thus be able to do some spiritual progress.

I again ask for your blessings and mercy..

I miss your association, Gurudeva. 🙏🏻

Thank you for all the things that you have done for us..

HARE KRISHNA!!!

Your aspiring servant:

Mitravinda dd.

HpS - Thank you. Thank you so much for taking us with you. Keep detailed journal. Even things that seem so simple will bring back very complete memories when you read about them in your journal years later!

How is everything in Vraja spiritual? The piles of sand that block half of the road that are being used in building construction?

Respects to The Rukmini Devi Dasi.

Thank you!!

💥

💥

. . .💥

asa[e] sankirtan; world classical literature; sophocles.

Hare Krsna, Gurudeva

My respected Gurudeva, please accept my most humble and respectful obeisances.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

I always wish you the best for your health.

¡Om namo Bhagavate Narasimhaya!

Today I watched the movie Edipo Rey by Sophocles. On this topic I only had remembered The Edipo Complex seen according to Freud.

In Greece, the arts were greatly promoted, theater was a very efficient means to educate, to transmit the necessary messages, the principles that lead man to become a human being.

Bg 1.39-45 came to mind, that family tradition that knows its lineage, so that when a new family is formed, it is known where it comes from, avoiding so many social misfortunes.

Considering each woman as if she is his mother, has a deep meaning. Consulting all relatives and respectable older people about the origin of the gentleman or the lady is so fundamental, for people, for the family, society and the world.

Education is very deficient, currently the basic principles that make a good family are unknown. We are governed by the instinctive-motor and sexuality without giving way to reflection.

There are many important contents in this tragedy, another is Karma, it is necessary to know WHO I AM, to accept ourselves and direct ourselves along the right path, where we will suffer less and cause less suffering to others.

Knowing that each being comes from Krsna is a great solution; If Krsna really guides our lives, with every breath we will keep Him in mind for small and big decisions, if we associate our breathing with the Mantra Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, it would be beautiful, right?

HpS/ASA - Right! So right it reminds me that should be chanting while I am reading! Who am I to read and write without the association of the Holy Names? 🐵

Thank you very much for your attention Gurudeva, your time and mercy.

His disciple

Rohini dd.

HpS - Thank you! Did you read Sophocles as part of a broader educational program? We like the Phaedo? Have you read that?

We will put this letter in the ASA Encyclopedia.

Hope to be more involved with your Sankirtan!!!