Letters to the editor

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

We are doing well, working to simplify our lives, to find the common thread that allows us to carry out our service in the best way, smoothly and balanced.

HpS - Wow!  That sounds like going beyond Karma-misra-bhakti to Dhyana-misra-bhakti, heading toward Raganuga Bhakti.

This balance is delicate, unstable, volatile, but we are making some progress.

HpS - It is unstable for the inexperienced chemist like walking is unstable for the baby who is just trying to do it, but now, how many times an hour do you fall on your butt when walking?  Ahh, it will become second nature!

 
I have already finished reading the Chaitanya Caritamrta. What a beautiful adventure! I tried to enjoy the huge variety of emotions which stimulates this great poem. Different feelings were provoked: laughter, tenderness, anger, doubt and love; I think that, thanks to the book, my heart softened
a little more and is very good to know it. I found a set of lessons on certain chapters written by HG Gauranga dasa. I am translating them into spanish, in order to make some lectures and seminars on the teachings of Chaitanya Caritamrta for begginers.

HpS - Super!  If it is the same one, he is a very famous devotee in India. Even big international preacher.

Last Sunday NIMSAR organized a meeting with Prabhu Baladeva and interesting ideas emerged. In summary, I'll colaborate with Prabhu Jiva Sakti in developing short seminars on various topics for basic, intermediate and advanced levels. It would be great that these short seminars could be given online, as well as to bhakti vrksa groups (one is starting in Chosica), exposed during Bhagavatam classes or to take them to different cities. The idea is to apply modern pedagogy that allows the assimilation of background ideas supported by workbooks and audiovisual materials. I love this service, the development of educational content is really my thing.

HpS - This modular education is very nice. Actually many people say that the BA and BS degrees are disappearing. Everyone wants short seminars on specific practical topics, but, it is important to integrate them into a general whole.
What is the goal of education?  What is your Mission Statement for Education with ISKCON Peru?

I have already presented the communications plan to the board and has been accepted. As you suggested, I will dedicate the most resources to recover communication channels among devotees. It is a challenge, Gurudeva. Trust is something badly damaged in the Yatra. It abounds mistrust, backbiting and gossip, but we are devotees and that is the key to heal. We all have the same desire to serve Srila Prabhupada and this special motivation is almost impossible to find in other enviroments.
For now, I am organizing communication spaces for different sangas:pujaris, educators, kirtaniyas and senior devotees to start with. Everyone has something to say, and sometimes the authorities are unwilling to listen as it should. Later, we will have the collaboration of a specialist in group psychology. At the moment we have received a Baladeva Prabhu good training through the ISKCON course for alternative conflict resolution, organized by NIMSAR last week. I hope these efforts are directed properly for the welfare of this wonderful community.

HpS - O.K!  You saw our answer to M. Isvari's last NIMSAR report and that includes some ideas we have that we would like to see presented to the National Council also.

Indira Sakti and I are fine, we miss you while doing very clumsy efforts to follow your instruction. Thanks for giving us so many things and stimulate in us the daily desire to become your servants.

Your servant
Gandharva dasa

HpS - ASA!!  Hare Krsna!    Thank you for such a nice letter.  It seems that you need to develop a more defined strategy to organize many different work projects, but priority to 16-good rounds, no??   If we can teach people to love basic Sadhana practices and use those as the basis for everything else, we have become first class educators, no?

Hare krishna Gurudeva, Pamho-tlgSP, Tlg a Usted. 

Espero que al recibir este mensaje se encuentre bien de salud.

HpS - AGTSP!   Salud esta bien, Vd? 

Gurudeva el Profesor Graciano Gonzales Arnaiz, quien es uno de los cinco contactos que nos ha facilitado Abhiram Prabhu, aceptó entrevistarse con usted. 

El nos ha pedido llevarla acabo para el mes de Octubre, ya que ahora se encuentra de viaje.

Volveremos nuevamente a ponernos en contacto con èl a finales de este mes, para concretar fecha y hora.

De momento eso es todo. 

Muchísimas gracias por dejarnos colaborar con este pequeño servicio. 

Sus aspirantes a sirvientes Sananda & bhadra vardhana.

HpS - En la otra carta a Vd. estamos explicando el viaje ahora en terminos de parar en Espanya regresando de India.  Ya no es posible, PERO, otro visita particular es bueno.

Podemos, todos, hablar por Skype?  Vds en cuarto con el con alguien otro quien es devoto/psychologo en Espana?

                    HARE KRSNA GURUDEVA,

                    PAOHO, AGTSP

                    HOW ARE YOU?

HpS - ASA -- We are O.K.   Our days are like 97% Krsna-conscousness. We just have to get the other 3% purified and that takes WORK!

                    OK, WE THOUGHT OF TWO POSIBLE TOPICS FOR NEXT SOLARIS:

                    "ECOLOGY, EVOLUTION AND MENTAL HEALTH"

HpS - Each of these topics are whole areas in themselves and can be connected to the SB etc very nicely.

                     "HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY AND ITS ORIGINS" (IT COULD BE EASILY CONECTED TO JUNG AND THEN THE BRIDGES BETWEEN ORIENT AND WEST, COULDN´T IT?)

HpS - Is Humanistic Psychology still a School of Psychology. Carl Rogers, Gordon Allport and other worked under that name. What has become of it now. We see that Dr. Almendro and others are using Trans-personal Psychology but that they attempted to have it listed as a formal division of Psychology by the American Psychological Association and failed. It goes in as a sub-division of somethings else.

                     <img alt="indecision" height="23" src="http://www.hps.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/whatchutalkingabout_smile.png" title="indecision" width="23" />...

HpS - It seems that all these topics depend on who they will reach. If we are focused on "Art and the Sacred" for 2018, and another "Psychology and the Sacred" in 2017 that would be feeding into the 2018 theme, then from that perspective we could determine our audience. To whom do we want to preach. Prabhupada established institutions and wrote different things for preaching to different communities.
Please continue to meditate on this!
We got a letter from Kalyan Kumar Cakravarty. He is in the current issue of Solaris and is in Spain until 30 September. I told him that you all could help him if he wanted to get in contact with you. 

                      WE HAVE WRITTEN TO ALL THE CONTACTS, EXCEPT FOR ONE...WE WILL DO THAT ONE SOON...

                      WE WISH TO KNOW THE EXACT DATES  THAT YOU WILL BE HERE SO WE CAN START ORGANIZING.

HpS - ASA --- Ooomp!    Did you see our India itenarary?    We spent THREE-HOURS working on the India (Europe) ticket and had quotes up to $6500.   We tried left, right, center, leaving from different places, including segment for Madrid, including stop-over for Amsterdam and then looking for separate ticket for Madrid....    Conclusion is for $785 (incredible price) we have a round-trip ticket from Houston, Texas to Delhi.

Now.   It appears that God wants us to work on visiting Europe as a whole separate show. That makes sense to me.

So, the Spain dates are open!!!    If we get a chance to meet with Shonu Shyamadasani we will be there tomorrow [more or less].

                       NICE THINGS NICELLY, AND AVOID YOU GETTING SO TIRED LIKE LAST YEAR (AFTER SUCH HORRIBLE

                       TRIP...ETC)

                       THANK YOU FOR LET US DO OUR BEST TO SERVE YOU, THANK YOU ALSO FOR YOUR DAILY ASSOCIATION

                       AND THE CHANCE TO GRADUALLY BECOME ACTUAL PEOPLE.

                       BHADRA VD AND SANANDA DD

HpS - Our pear tree had some disease when we bought it. Maybe thats why it was only $12 and now it is spreading. We don't know what will happen. We pray for it and water it.

08/27/16  Esteemed Guru Maharaja:  All glories to Srila Prabhupada!  Please acceptmy humble obeisances.

1.     Yes I can do some editing.  Thank you for the offer of this seva!  If there are questions on my part, I will be able to contact Monkey or Piggy via text, phone or personal e-mail, no?  If so, please send me an attachment so I can take a look at the project.  T.Y.

ASA - We are just getting to the actual work now. We are supposed to have all the files, now we need to open them and then we can start send to you if need be.

2.  By Krsna's mercy, ISKON Sac Janmastami program went smoothly with 200 attending!!!! I will request Dave P attach photos to another e-mail within 2 days.

ASA - Jaya!!!!

Best I can do.  YR attended with Mother Lucille.  Was sooo good to see her!!!  She looked the same; recently broke a toe so is coping with that.  Said she has rented out their previous house and she cannot go back there for grieving.  She has stayed in 26 different places during the last year.  I guess with Narayan Maharaja devotees, 2 weeks at a time.  I will contanct her soon.  She's a dear.

HpS - Please give our respects!   Can she join our Blog?

3.     "Iron Woman."  I like that!  The iron has put me on my feet but I'm still tired alot and need too much rest.  Chanting is very nice.. Hoping energy will improve in time as I begin to store more iron reserve in bone marrow.

HpS - We have never had any problem with being vegetarian for over 40-years. If there was a Vitamin B-12 deficiency of something like that you think it would have shown up by now.  Every Body is different.

3.    Hummmm... leave body.  Not sure this event is immenent.  However maintaining body is getting disgustingly time consuming.

4.     Jai Radhe!  Jai Krsna!

Your useless servant,

Kalindi Devi Dasi

HpS - ASA --- Thank you for news from New Jagannatha Puri.  Second week in June is the plan for  Seattle, Education with ISKCON.  We could come to Bay Area before that. Muck around in autos and then all get on the Amtrac and ride together on the Sunset Limited to Seattle.

"We would have liked for people to chanted differently etc. but we expect that maybe until we get to Goloka we may still find imperfections in the Kirtan's etc as far as we are concerned."

Dear Guru Maharaja, please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Please, can you tell what you mean when you say that you would like that people chant differently etc. ?
Thank you.
Your servant Namacarya das

HpS - ASA -  Hmmm.  There are many things in Kirtans that we would like to be different. We would like that our Kirtans would be different.

1. The Kartals are played on beat. Sometimes, Indians will play they in a completely asynchromous manner and it is very hard to chant in group then.

2. Prabhupads said, "First I chant and then you listen, then you chant and I listen, this is Hearing and Chanting". It is a very intense kind of group yoga. Improvisational Theater training does similar things, but often the leader just chants and then doesn't listen to the response but goes on chanting, or he stops chanting but is not really listening to the response, nor are the responders really listening to his leading, so it becomes two paralletl mono-logs. Has some value. May take your to take birth in India is a pious family.

People engage in other discussions during the Kirtan and it makes it hard for us to concentrate.

The chanting is for sense gratification. albeit celestial sense gratification. If we chant the name properly then the Form Manifests everyone starts looking at the Deities.

Often the drum covers the Holy Names.

We don't realize that the Holy Names are people and that chanting is really calling a real person and that They can answer with Their Form, Qualities (smile), Associates and Lila.

We got a lot of room for our own improvemt.
 

Sorry I am just now publishing at the blog. Just recently I could clearly understand that in addition to constantly communicating directly with you, it is important to communicate via blog, by doing so the rest of the community which encompasses your Sankirtan may not only be updated but also may actively participate and thus develop and improve our service.

After the event “Psychology and the Sacred I” we have had several meetings at different levels, some with you and Miguel Polo, others with Ramón and also with some members of SATTVA, and then our priorities have been settled:

1. Distribute the SOLARIS magazine in Spanish as much as possible and position it as the communication media for announcement and participation for the Mega-event of the century: ART AND THE SACRED for June 2018.
2. To finish the English version of SOLARIS. All the articles are already translated into English, we are still missing the summaries. What has been concluded is that the English version is going to have small differences in relation to the Spanish version (presentation and summaries). The goal is to have it ready, printed and in the USA by early December.
3. To sign an agreement with the BNP (Biblioteca National del Peru) in order to carry out the “Psychology and the Sacred II” in June of 2017. This event would not have the same traits as the one this year, but will mainly become the stepping stone for the Mega Event ART AND THE SACRED (June 2018). We are as of now defining its contents, any suggestions are welcome.
4. Be ready for the first week of November, the Organizing Committee  for the event ART AND THE SACRED and in about 15 days we will post the official invitations to form the Central Council and the rest of the commissions.
5. <pre data-fulltext="" data-placeholder="Translation" dir="ltr" id="tw-target-text"> Note : Beverly Zabriesky , Eduardo Gastelumendi and Cecilia Montero, have written and expressed their support, participation and contacts for the event "ART AND THE SACRED"</pre> That is all for now. Thank you very much for your association and inspiration, your insignificant servant, Abhiram Thakur das.

HpS - ASA ---  Our comments at the bottom!

Hare Krishna respetado Gurudeva por favor acepte mis humildes reverencias, Todas las Glorias a Srila Prabhupada!! Todas las Glorias a Usted!!

Disculpe que recién publique en el blog. Ahora tengo claro que además de comunicarme directamente con usted constantemente, es importante la comunicación a través del blog, ya que, de esa manera, toda la comunidad que está en torno a su Sankirtan puede estar al tanto de las cosas y además puede participar activamente y así todos desarrollamos y mejoramos nuestros servicios.

Luego del evento “La Psicología y lo Sagrado I” hemos tenido varias reuniones en varios niveles, algunas con Usted y Miguel Polo, otras con Ramón y también con algunos miembros de SATTVA, entonces han quedado fijadas nuestras prioridades:

1.- Distribuir la Revista SOLARIS en español lo más ampliamente que se pueda y posicionarla como un medio de comunicación, de convocatoria y participación para el Mega-evento EL ARTE Y LO SAGRADO para junio de 2018.

2.- Terminar la edición en inglés de SOLARIS. Todos los artículos ya están traducidos al inglés, solo faltan las reseñas. Lo que ha quedado claro es que la edición en inglés va a tener pequeñas diferencias en relación a la versión en español (la presentación y reseñas entre otros). La meta es tenerla lista, impresa y en los EEUU para los primeros días de diciembre.

3.- Firmar un convenio con la BNP para realizar en junio del 2017 “La Psicología y lo Sagrado II”. Este evento no tendría las mismas características que las de este año sino principalmente está orientado a servir de actividad previa al Mega-evento EL ARTE Y LO SAGRADO (junio de 2018) entonces estamos definiendo sus características, cualquier sugerencia es bienvenida.

4.- Tener listo, para la primera semana de noviembre, el Comité Organizador del Mega-evento EL ARTE Y LO SAGRADO para lo cual en 15 días haremos las invitaciones oficiales para la conformación de la Consejo central y el resto de comisiones.

Nota: Beverly Zabriesky, Eduardo Gastelumendi y Cecilia Montero, recien han escrito y manifestado su apoyo, participación y también con contactos para el evento “EL ARTE Y LO SAGRADO”

Eso es todo por ahora. Muchas gracias por su asociación e inspiración, su insignificante sirviente, Abhiram Thakur das.

HpS - ASA --- Super!  SUPER!   . . .  S U P E R! . . . . . .     In this Blog we can all know what is happening.

So by beginning of November we need and Organizing Committee for "Art and the Sacred".  this is September. So we can talk with people about that and if they can commit themselves to being on that Committee and working. We are committed.

I talked with Dr. Samaresh about AandtheSacred and he said the as everyone else: It is a big topic and we have to focus on specific aspects. As a historian of Ancient History he said that every ancient culture that he has every know had a relations between art and the sacred in their culture.

O.K.

More news as it comes.