Letters to the editor

Haré Krsna Gurú Maharaj,

Please accept our most humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

We are completely elated by your recent lecture on book distribution Guru Maharaj! So many gems and highlights to glean on. My most favorite is your encouragement towards the organizers to incorporate Brahman participation to encourage and sustain the management and devotee community infrastructure.

Would it be ok to ask the Brahmans in the community who are the most talented at lecturing to have a regular program?

HpS - Sure!

There are various programs going on right now, but I would like to organize a program just for the whole devotee community to participate in and be inspired by.

HpS - All I know about is our regular ASA programs. They are not so great but they exist. Others??? http://www.vidyapitha.in/ ? Mooo!

I wanted to give an update that we had a successful Gita Jayanti with over 20 children (which included 8 regular Sunday school children) reciting well pronounced BG verses during the 5 hour program.

HpS - ASA ---- https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/10/47/63/ !!!!!

Also, the Sunday school distributed over 200 sweets to congregation and City Of Lights women and children’s shelter for the 5th Prasadam bake sale. Each year it funds new Srimad Bhagavatam activity books for the Boise Sunday school program.

ASA - Stop! Stop! It is too much ecstacy! We will have to leave our body.

Here is the Facebook link Guru Maharaj for the regular Sunday darshan from 12-2.https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007255276109&_rdr Also we will broadcast darshan on New Years for the annual Japathon from 10-6.

I am struggling with the papa pequeño now becoming the size of a melon! I am trying to beat exhaustion and getting a cold this last week.

Attending the MA and Japa program has become more difficult but I am still trying to regularly attend the LA MA and chant before the kids wake up. Chanting from 8-10 pm is my second backup once the kids go to bed. Trying to divide my rounds into segments during weeks like this to still make sure all of my rounds are completed.

HpS - Wonder woman kills all the evil Nazis and saves the world! Thank you!!!! Just hang in there and do your best. Krsna will help (a lot!). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_nclUG-0SQ Even a dog can take part in this movement and dance in ecstacy!!!

You are pioneering a path that many will follow.

It seems like it will be amazing.

When you get tired just say, "Oh, my God, Krsna! That's all I can do! Help!" and He will hit send the Tinkerbell to put your to rest for awhile and have Mickey Mouse, the Sorcerer's Apprentice to fill the buckets. I am joking a little bit, but I really ahve experienced this.

I tried to curb my deep Christmas samskara spending spree by spending 40 Percent on homemade gifts for devotees and coworkers, Christmas cards with Radhanath Swami quotes, deity paraphernalia, and Radha Krsna Gaura Nitai Nirsimha dolls for the girls. Somehow a materialist side of me came out which I would like to control more? I have rarely had extra money in my life so far, so I am trying to put it towards saving for our house essentials for the new property and not spending frivously but saving.

I cooked a Sunday feast by myself (Malai kofta) for distribution to 25 guests and devotees this last Sunday and this seems to dovetail some spending desires.

Please let me know if you have any advice of how I can suppress/dovetail ego building tendencies that come with having a profession and Lakshmi.

HpS - Just do what you are doing. Bhisma deva said that we can save money by avoiding bad association.

I am very fearful of it changing me as a devotee and how to cultivate humility. How did Maharaj Parikshit cultivate this mood so seamlessly ? How do great devotees like you Guru Maharaj and Radhika Raman, who are so intelligent but also have so much humility cultivate this quality?

TB - Krsna sends advice through devotees and the heart but if we ignore that then He sends strong impetous from the environment (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIRE0FSvrw8) that we can't ignore the message. We just have to accept all this mercy.

Thsnkyou (!) so much for tolerating my meanderings. I would like to go through your Blog, newsletter, and Wandering Miscreantd archives Guru Maharaj to start extracting your Poetry to create a compilation if you will allow me to engage in this service. Please let me know how I may be able to find your poetry/prose. Is there a way to find archived newsletters? Can I search your blog posts in the monkey warrior?

Your lowly aspiring servant,

Kamagayatri devi dasi

HpS - Maybe some of the stuff that TB/BW post on Twitter???

Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I hope you receive this in good health and spirit.

HpS - Only by Guru krpa! Other wise we should have died at about 65.

I've read in your updates about your physical struggles, and since my body is also giving me trouble with ageing, i can appreciate it more. I admire your strength in maintaining your purpose. Please find below a general update.

Tom Brown - Please find attached a photo of General Ape.

We are still a family, two daughters 8 and 5, doing relatively well. Surroundings are below average, kids education and development above average. Physically going through challenges. No strength of determination to chant 16 but i do 5 or 8. Listen to classes and audio SB or CC, read with children (Hanuman / Ramayana, Krishna Book for Children, right now Dr Edith Best's Learning English books with spiritual stories, and with the eldest we always read the "Golden Book" Srimad Bhagavatam First Canto for children before sleeping.) We listen to devotional music at home, but not all the time. Plus the children are half Russian, so that also gets attention.

TB - Top half? Bottom half?

I have devotee friends with whom i meet regularly and others with whom i call. We visit home programs, and we organise kirtan events occasionally, also in connection with ISKCON Amsterdam. Occasionally a book goes out (i carry them with me on walks). So it's still going steady, but at the same time i don't meet my vows with chanting. Some days i don't have the time or the mental (+ spiritual) energy, and some days i just relax.

My favourite days are when i have insomnia and get down to chant in the middle of the night, because the rounds are usually the best, but sometimes it is too much and i just have insomnia and no strength to chant. To chant while undergoing mental or physical challenges is really next level chanting. I never quite managed to pull that off.

HpS - Just lie on your back with your eyes half open and your beads in your hand and chant: Haw!

Ray!

Krish!

Na! .... Realizing that EVERYTHING in the three worlds will the maximum benefit from yhou sacrifice.

As for internal matters, i experience progress in seeing Krishna in everything and everything in Krishna.

TB - !

That's basically my life in a nutshell. Basically i do believe that Sri Sri Radha Gopinath or Sri Sri Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra still accept me because i do feel connected, but finding myself a wayward disciple because of the above, i don't feel very much part of our monkeywarrior yatra. I seek your blessings in finding a siksa guru with whom i can physically associate.

HpS - Me too! Krsna is so, so, so, so kind, no? https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/3/2/23/

Before i forget it, you mentioned Journey to the West, and i've read Monkey (the Arthur Waley Edition), and it was such a fabulous story!! A good reason to burn incense.

ASA - And be celibate, and only drink monastic wine, and be vegetarian, and try to get an as you like it cudgel. Then you could become the Duke of Amsterdam and set things in more order.

Still with mixed feelings of dedication and fear of rejection,

Your aspiring servant,

Raghava Pandit das

HpS - Hey, could be a L O T worse. You seem to be on the right path. As you get older and your daughters marry young men just like you, you will get a lot of impetous for Sannyasa life. You wife will be pleased with that and your daughters will fight over with whom see stays.

Work on getting more energy. How to honor Prasadam better. Does your donkey need more Pasta?

Start your own business.

Don't work for others.

Hare Krishna dear Guru maharaj, Please accept my dandavat pranams, All glories to Srila Prabhupad. Thank you very much maharaj for giving me the opportunity. Here is the transcription from 10:00 to 15:00 . Thank you also to Sugopi mataji for her help in parts of transcription

you servant

NC Das

HpS - ASA/MOE = Thank you so much. As we said in the DTC today, this was such a nice team effort. We hope to have the 'Viplavah' out soon so that we can all see how nice this is.

Why don't you write? Interview people. Make comments on modern world? Krsna will give you opportunities.

=================

HPSwami(10:00): For participating in being book distributors, the full morning and evening program is kind of like enough? What do you do,what is your program like reading and studying that integrates with book distribution?

Vaisesika Prabhu(10:10): Well ofcourse, Prabhupad said different things at different times and there is recording for Prabhupads enthusiastically saying Read 2 or 3 hours a day. Well depends on what the morning and evening class is like also, Some classes by the time,end up, somebody finishes singing Jaya Radha madhava and reads the verse, you get like 5 minutes of discussion, personally I need a lot more than that and when I had that experience in SanFrancisco, When Prabhupad personally said you must read my books, I felt that he was so emphatic that, I took the liberty to do that, Through out my book distribution career and continue to do so. I read at least 41 pages of Bagavatham every day and because that means that I finish the whole bagavatham in 1 year and every year, following in the footsteps of His Holiness Hanumat Preshak Maharaj , who is my mentor for reading Prabhupad books and I also take a month, at least a month, 5 weeks in Govardhan every year. This is first year, I have missed in 20 years because of the pandemic, where we sit down for 5 hours a day and hear Bagavatham every single day of kartik and I try to have longer classes here in our community, because I feel that devotees need to hear Prabhupads voice and they need to be really familiar with Bagavatham in order to have lifelong commitment to devotional service. So, I personally need more, myself to engage my mind. I just impose that upon others who come around me in the community.

Hp Swami( 11:48): I remember another letter that Prabhupad wrote, he said “are all your pujaris I think he said chant your Gayatri? Do they all have 1 hour a day to read my books and Temple president or somebody said, Prabhupad they are very busy. No, An intelligent man will not be satisfied, unless he has 1 hour atleast a day to read. So, like you are saying, Different diets, Some people very Shakti oriented, they are are just happy that other people are buying, everything else. Other people they really got to have very intellectual work so that, before they can preach

HpSwami (12:27): Number 3. What are the different modes of distribution, eg., Bhaktivedanta Institute, rock concerts…

Vaisesika Prabhu (12:36): Oh, well, Rockefeller distinguished himself as an entrepreneur because he took the production of oil to a new level, to say the least. He got thousands and thousands of uses out of one substance – oil – and that is how he made his money. So, as many devotees as there are, there are techniques and avenues for book distribution. As an example, during the pandemic we are finding ways that we had never seen before, online, using the telephone to contact people and talk to them. Bhaktivedanta Institute? Absolutely. Rock concerts? Absolutely. There is… as many places as there are people, there is ways to distribute books. So, we recommend that people start book distribution in their communities for what it makes of them to engage in it. And, when devotees have an opportunity to go out and do book distribution at least once a month, on a weekend, even if it is for a short amount of time, then they get this kind of oxygen from going out into the great unknown and doing the right thing and going out of their comfort zone. So, like right now, we just discovered, there is little free libraries that people put outside of their homes. It is actually a network, there is 42,000 of them in North America, and we are now working on a network to put Prabhupada’s books in each one of the 42,000 little libraries that go outside people’s homes. We are also putting them in hospitals and hotels, we are meeting people on the streets, we are selling books online, and the list goes on and on.

HpSwami (14:43): So, on our evening walk, we go walking every evening with Nitai Gaurasundara Dasa, and our group here, and we walk right by. One of our neighbors has one of those little places there. And what I was thinking, wow, you know, it is like we need so many kinds of books. A lot of children’s books are in there. And that’s the whole thing too, like you are saying, is that I heard Prabhupada say “every salesman has his own technique.” And you can steal ideas about how to sell from other salesmen, but in the end, you have to develop your technique.

HpSwami (15:15): Okay, number 4. Are there webpages, books, others, who our readers can contact in terms of how to develop book distribution?

AGTSP

paoho

H. H. Guru-prasad Swami being enthused by H. G. Aravinda Das has sent us an e-mail asking us to enthuse our disciples to buy many books for the Krist Mas Marathon!

We are not sure what 'disciple' means in this context. It could mean the devotees who sent in their Annual Reports and were following Srila Prabhupada's standard for initiated disciples last year.

However, I guess the most practical definition would be the readers of this Blog who are not reporting their scores to another ISKCON Temple etc.

Buy a case of BBT books yourself, or write here that you will share a case with others, and how they can contact you.

Then, become a wise man from the East, giving gifts (books) all year, 2021, to the followers of Baby Jesus, wherever you go, however you meet them.

We buy cases of Light of the Bhagavata, Nectar of Instruction and Teachings of Lord Caitanya (hardbound) regularly.

On Friday, December 11, 2020, 07:09:11 AM CST, Baladeva das wrote:

Dear Hanumat Presaka swami.

Please accept my humble obeisances 

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Hoping you are well and Happy

I am Baladeva das from Argentina.

With the Global Communications team we are looking for scholastics who appreciate Srila Prabhupada in order to plan conferences around the world (especially in our case in South America) to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Srila Prabhupada's appearance next year.. That is why I am in contact with you for any suggestions you have. 

It would even be important to know if there are any academic women who can give a speech about it. Sure it's better, but it's not limited to her being from South America.

Thank you very much Maharaja a joy for me, to be in contact with you.

ys bd

P.S. Did you finish writing the book on Indian architecture with that phd who met you at Radha Govinda temple in Vrindaban?

-0-0-0-

HpS/ASA (Anjana Suta Academy)

So very nice to hear from you! We want to get your association many times, so this is very nice. We have done a lot of academic preaching is Hispanomerica. Check with Abhirama Thakura Das in Peru, Arjuna and Jagat guru Das in Santiago and Ambarissa Das and Rati-manjair Devi Das (Wife of Temple President) in BsAs.

O.K.?

We got an academic Journal: http://www.jayarama.us/archives/solaris2020.pdf

Of course, many of these scholars are just coming in contact with Srila Prabhupada so we would have to explain your goals to them gradually.

Thank you!

Tom Brown/Buck White wrote to:

https://bearnibbles.us/

Hello, Hare Krishna,

We are the 'Anjana Suta Academy' [www.JayaRama.US].

We want to buy a lot of your fruit leathers but...

. . . will they fit into envelopes for mailing ie. are they less that 1/4" thick?

How much does each flat packet weigh?  We tried 'Stretch Island Fruit Leathers'. They were pretty good, 1/2oz. but seems we might be able to work with you-all a little better. 

ASA is about 400-direct members, but the broader Hare Krsna community, ISKCON, is about 1-million.

https://vedabase.io/en/library/rkd/2/12/#bb1581004 

Thank you,

Hanumatpreska Swami