Letters to the editor

Hare Krsna dear Gurumaharaja

Please accept my humble obeisances

All glories to Srila Prabhupada !

I apologize in advance, because this message will not be short. I have already sent my proposal for the BhVai questionnaire in Chapter 3 of the 2nd Canto to your e-mail. I hope it agree with what you have in mind. Please allow me to make the necessary corrections otherwise.

HpS - We hope that MOnkey and Piggy get to it and we can help! You class was wonderful. We sent the link to Atul, Yadu Swam et al. SO was Isvari's. We can help with ed. dev. in ISKCON at the highest of its levels.

If you are satisfied with the questions, I would ask you to allow me to continue with another chapter. Honestly I have learned many things from this experience and I have had a good time doing something that I really like which is research.

*************** 

On the other hand, and with regard to the education landscape in Peru and the region, I would like to share some ideas with you, as well as some doubts with the purpose of knowing your point of view.

Bhakti sastri :

• At the moment things are moving to the rhythm of their possibilities. Only a few online programs maintain their activities. I just had a conversation with Deva Deva Vyasa prabhu who starts a Bhakti Sastri course this weekend with 71 enrolled! ( wow ! if most of them finish the course, they will generate irreparable brain damage to our examiner!) The good thing about all this is that the devotee is willing to collaborate with the MOE and we periodically have conversations on Skype to clarify the doubts he may have. Their intentions are to continue with institutional policies and offer an official course. LAD and I continue with our program separately and everything is presented without further inconvenients. Both courses will be ending before the middle of next year.
• CMDD BS examiner record was rejected as she lacks training in Teacher Training Education courses 1, 2 and 3. Bhaktarupa prabhu asked me to at least she must take the TTC3 course. Her extensive teaching career is recognized, but BoEx devotees have raised the bar , with which I fully agree. Param Padam prabhu offers teachers recommended by the MOE 50% discount on any of their courses, so in the coming weeks LAD, CMDD, me, Rupa Gosai and Deva Deva from Bolivia will acquire this training. After obtaining the certificate, I will resubmit the file of our future examiner.
• Last minute news! Guayaquil is starting two BS courses next week (one line / classroom) with Rupa Gosai prabhu, I have just had a kind conversation with Guru Mangala prabhu who has shared with us their needs , expectations and concerns on education. He sends you greetings and his best wishes for your sankirtan program.
• The educational tide is pervading and nurturing each corner of this land of God, by the grace of Sri Sri Radha Madana Vihari. All glories to his Lordships! I'm so, so, so happy.

Pada Padma ( BhVai )

• LAD has formed a small but enthusiastic group of students that I am pleased to be part of. We started as a larger group but little by little we were reducing. The level of discussion is interesting and the commitment of the participants is serious. It may be necessary to work on the study material which seems to me, it does not have the level of the material developed for BS yet, but the effort is being made. This first official experience is meeting the expectations of the temple and the students.

Introduction to Bhakti- yoga

• Isvari Radha devi dasi is finishing the annual course with a small but highly motivated group with a strong inquisitive profile. Hopefully by the second half of this year we can start another group online. Very comprehensive study guides have been developed. The first five topics of the course were developed by me and the second five, by madre Isvari . The material is organized in the form of synoptic charts and diagrams and is serving as a model for the study guides I am developing for my Bhakti Sastri course . Later, we can put it all together in a database. The important thing is that this material is in Spanish entirely. My intention is to make it interactive and include hyperlinks that allow less linear and more dimensional access. Little by little I am working on this idea.

Strategies:

• I suggest to change certain paradigms regarding educational administration. The ISKCON Chosica temple can be the point of origin for these transformations that can then be replicated (as necessary) in the rest of the region. The administrators of some centers have a somewhat rural idea of ​​what ISKCON development can represent, locally and globally. For decades, educational services have facilitated administrative issues, such as initiations, which generate labor for the practical services of the temple, which is what matters most to these sectors. The education of two or three devotees (no more) to teach the weekend classes is also part of their interests but without the intention of facilitating a platform for collective and personal growth for the majority of the members, according to their service. and position in the VAD. Therefore, since education becomes an instrument of political exploitation, they have no greater interest in understanding the possibilities of sustained growth for their communities.
• The old culture of the temple education officer appointed by the authorities is still very much in force. The temples have remained isolated from each other and the temple educator ran the universe for his congregation , and (literally) was unaware of what was going on in other spaces . There are devotees who have a hard time coordinating, I think it is important to meet to find ways to understand the purposes of the MOE. Only in this way, education in Peru and the region can be articulated with the ISKCON pedagogical current worldwide trend.
• The administration of the sastric courses (BS, Pada Padma - BhVai , Introduction to Bhakti Yoga (IBY) and Disciples Course) should be more orderly, locally speaking. BS has two teachers, an administrator and an examiner, I propose to replicate the model in the others. IBY also: administrator, examiner and one or two teachers, depending on demand. Pada Padma will conform to a similar scheme when we can access BhVai accreditation and the Disciples Course is examined by the same teachers but I also propose an administrator. The administrator should be responsible for overseeing compliance with course standards, providing content, and serving as a link between examiners and teachers. 
• In this way, I strongly beleive a specialization should be developed in each course. Teachers must specialize in one course (or two at most, as it is done in the universities). Multi task teacher who gives 3 or 4 courses corresponds to an educational system of a smaller scale and of little scope. It seems to me that we must turn each course into a program, supervised by the MOE and the national education officer. This is what is being done globally.
• It may be necessary to give teachers more tools, although the TTC courses are not a panacea, they serve to organize a language and didactic and pedagogical standard. Param Padam prabhu wants to collaborate with the MOE, I will take him at his word.
• I do not know if it is possible to develop an online seminar program with MOE's accreditation, something like diplomas on various topics, given by devotees in two, three or four 2-hour sessions. These certificates can allow devotees to access specialized services in temples or abroad. I haven't fully developed the idea but I think it can be interesting. Would a MOE-certified program be possible? I'm presenting in short a project to you an TMd for its discussion, if you allow me, Gurudeva.
• It is necessary for devotees interested in children's education to hone their skills. For this I think that a network of early childhood education training can be developed that formally links educators in the region with educators in Dallas or Houston (or elsewhere) , that way they get enthused and can apply that knowledge in their own jobs (many of them work as teachers or education assistants in schools).
• What about the Sastra Mela in june? Which are the details or where can I look at them? It's an open invitation for all the regional teachers?

I regret the length of this message. I am looking forward to your opinions and recommendations, Gurumaharaja . May Lord Nrsimhadeva take care of your sankirtan .

Your servant

Gandharva das

OOOh!! Sri Sri Gaura Nityananda have given us their infinite mercy by allowing us to worship them at home, these two beautiful deities have come to light up our lives due to the generous heart of our beloved sister Nitya Kisori devi dasi, the Lord bless her always!!. Nitai Gaura Haribol !!!!

 HpS - Gaura nitai Ki Jai!! We had to start scanning the letter and could not read everything. It is far to technically advanced for us. I don't see the institution being able to handle such a complicated system. Hmmm! It depends on how you can develop relations. I have a nice but simple relation with the BOEX now. I don't know how it will develop or disappear. Our ideas may be lost. ISKCON may fade away after 100-years and Krsna come again and start another. He will never give up.

1. Who am I? Two Mantras are enough, first. Then on that BASIS how do other books fit in.
2. SB class on some day. NOI evening on the other days. Is working well.
3. Bonk.. We ge tired... Hare Krsna Hare Krsna!! Priorities. Personal relations then building systems that people THOSE people will maintain. Moltke, "No plan of battle survives after the first thirty minutes of serious contact with the enemy".

Thank you for this letter!!! Any close friends in these projects?

Hare Krishna Gurudev,

Please accept my humble obeisances,

All Glories to Srila Prabhupada,

Can you please provide an email address where I can send you the Gurukula file?

Thank you,

At your service,

Nikunja Bihari das.

ASA [email protected]. Confirm that we get it, please.

HpS - Thank you for using the Kapi Dhvaja Priority Code. It was Piggy-1 and you used that. Some members think that "KDPC" is the KDPC. That is like thinking that the word "Banana" is a Banana!

Hare Krishna Gurudeva! 🙏

Please, accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet!!

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!!!

I would like to make a brief report about our service for Vedabase.io :

The last book we finished for Bhaktivedanta Library in Spanish was "Teachings of Queen Kunti". It is already on line.

Then, it's been two months that we have been waiting for more books from BBT. I kept communication with Prahlada Nrsimha prabhu and he told me that there were no books to import into Spanish yet, he had gotten some books but those were not possible to import at the moment as they do not exist in English.

So, now I want to tell you that a few days ago and by Krishna's arrangement BBT sent "Néctar of Devotión" !!!

Now I am working on it. I hope I can finish it soon. It would be ideal if it will be finished when you finish with Sri Isopanisad reading on FMP.

HpS - Yes!!! AGTSP paoho. It was there in VedaBase.Com!

Gurudeva, I am happy to be able to do this service, I am enthusiastic to do it and also feel happy because I know that you have been wanting NOD to be on Vedabase.io in Spanish language for a long time.

HpS - I think Srila Prabhupada also!!

Please, Gurudeva give me your blessings to do a good job !!

Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to purify myself !! 🙏

Your aspiring servant 🙏

Mitravinda devi dasi.

HpS - Jaya!!!! Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna. More chanting more service! Thank you. Go ahead.

Hare Krishna, dear gurudeva, pamho. AGTSP!

Just to answer some questions you asked me before.

I am not working outside. I tried very hard to get a teaching job, but it didn't work. I think Krishna wants me to work only with devotees for now. And in fact I am doing it full time doing the activities that I mentioned before.

ASA -- Check!

P. Karuna was already organizing the classes online since before I suggested it. So that point is fine.

Yes, I´m trying to balance vidya and avidya as we are meditating on the FMP. Furthermore we were putting emphasis on that with the Bhakti sastri group. We have already finished the ISO and now we are going with the NOI.

I feel quite confident, for the simple reason that I try to listen to you carefully, as much as I can.

Already for some time. I cannot take everything that my spiritual master gives me, as you always say, but something remains in my mind.

I feel completely identified with ASA thinking and I try to motivate my students according to what I have learned from you.

HpS - !!! I fell like Big Brother out of "1984". Was that translated into Spanish?

Of course, I also try to practice what you always recommend. I am increasingly convinced of the importance of the FMP. Some still see it as a temple ritual, as something ad libitum, not as essential for spiritual advancement.

As for administration in general, I am not much involved now.

As for the Romeo and Juliet matter that you mentioned to Raman reti dd, I think it's a matter of time. We are both clear that we are going to come together to do service together. The theme of romance will be there for a while until we can handle it better and move on to a more detached stage. Of course with your blessings and the blessings of all the Vaisnavas and authorities.

HpS - Ha! Ha! Ha! Maybe a new phase. For some great sages, the Vanaprastha and Sannyasa stage became a source of INCREASED attachment to wife and home, because now the wife's chastity became manifest on the subtle platform and the husband knew that his wife would follow him into death just to be with him (catch him, Ha! Ha!) again in the next life! Only solution is increased attachment KRSNA!!! Worship the Deity!!

Thanks again for your patience.

I hope someday to be a servant for you.

Laksmana-agraja das

HpS - We hope that we can all integrate - HpS, LAD, KKD, CMDD, Yugala-kD, et al, et al, Gandharava in building a nice educational system in Peru.

Hare Krishna, dear gurumaharaja. Pamho. AGTSP!

HpS - All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!!!! Without his mercy, at best, we would be nice, moral, Christians, with some intuitive perspective, but..... basically suffering!

Thank you very much for replying to my last two letters.

My dharma is definitely education. Being a teacher-facilitator is what makes me what I am, at least in this current situation being a conditioned soul.

ASA - SP -- 1) Become self realized, 2) build your character and 3) preach! Step one accomplished.

I will continue until the end of the year with the teaching of Pada padma and bhakti sastri once a week. Unfortunately we could not continue with the Pada padma that we were going to do in the temple, nor could we do the seminars that were scheduled for Sundays in the temple. I am going to suggest doing Srimad Bhagavatam and / or Bhagavad gita classes online as they are doing in many places (Ecuador, Chile, Argentina).

Yesterday I was very honored to give an online class for a preaching center run by Prabhu Hari-samkirtan. He got excited and participated in the class that you gave last night. The schedules were perfect and we were able to do both, teach and listen to your class.

HpS - Oooof!!!

Not long ago I did my first 2020 disciple course with devotees from Ecuador, Chile, Alachua, Colombia. It was very rewarding. It was Monday and Friday. Then it occurred to me to occupy those days with seminars. After talking with several devotees, we saw that the subject of association is essential to move forward. Even more with this issue of social distance.

ASA - "Sangat sanjayate kamah - One's desires and ambitions develop from the company we keep", Cited in NOI!! First goal of our ASA Sastric Education is that we learn how to associate as: Teachers, Study Partners, Students; with other Bhaktas gathered around Srila Prabhupada's books. Then Systems of Study/Evaluation, will develope out of that association. Claro, it is different in Lima than Govardhana Eco VIllage in India!

So that's what we're doing, devotee association seminars. Of course, our trend is always ASA and NOI (always trying to follow in your footsteps). So we did seminars based on NOI 4-6. I included things that I learned in ISKCON courses, my university experience, and things that I have been discovering and learning from you and Srila Prabhupada, through reading your books and listening to you for almost 20 years now. We will continue with this as long as we can.

HpS ---- Ha! Ha! Hare!!!! We can continue with it forever, no? Meet again, even in other bodies and develop this same work.

It also occurred to me that I may submit an article to Viplavah about my ASA vision of education. "Yathādhītaṁ yathā-mati".

HpS - What is taking you so long!! 😀

Janmastami issue is academic issue, so write it so that your professor in school can read it and the rest of the issue.

Studying my master's degree, I discovered that the best educational currents coincide with ASA and Srila Prabhupada's vision, in some way. It is actually the other way around, knowing a little about your vision and Srila Prabhupada's vision, which are somehow the same, he perceived, for example in Constructivism, much of the ASA vision. I want to write something simple, not very technical. My tendency is minimalist in ideas, I am not very thorough or elaborate. Anyway, it's something I wanted to tell you about.

ASA - Develop your outline and post it here.

As for the work on the Pada padma, I will be watching to see how I can fit into your working group and I will be ready in case I am needed. I estimate that your suggestions for the First Canto of the SB need to be evaluated and discussed in the BOEX.

HpS - Yes, we are having a little bit of trouble integrating with BOEX. It is distance, they are professionally trained educators (eg. always citing Bloom's Taxonomy, which we just began to look up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Bloom) and we are a little lazy, and maybe we are more strategy incklined!

My personal life is going quite well and my relationship with Raman-reti devi dasi too. When the quarantine ends we will make plans for her to come to Peru and get married. We are very excited about our sankirtan plans. As one of my siksa gurus, Prabhu Atmarama from Australia said, “If you get married and stop preaching, why do you get married?

HpS - Wow!!

Thank you very much for your patience with me.

Your servant,

Laksmana-agraja das

The servant of Laksmana's older brother, that is, one more monkey (The Blue Baboon)

ASA - Please send current foto of BB! -0- Laksman "taught some good lessons" in Lanka!

Hare Krsna dear Gurumaharaja

Please accept my humble obeisances

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

I hope everything continues correctly. I am writing to report on some activities and ask some questions and for some advice:

HpS - Our first advice is to be pretty proud of your efforts to help Srila Prabhupada's movement, thank you.

• You mentioned that an evaluation model is being developed to be implemented worldwide in the Bhakti Vaibhava program. A bank of short answer questions of closed book and open-book essay questions. A few weeks ago I spoke to LAD about the need to do something similar with Bhakti Sastri, at least for the area of ​​Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. We agreed, so we will expand the number of short questions to 75 (true-false, multiple choice, fill in the blanks, etc.) and add some other essay topics. The idea is to be perfectly aligned to BoEx regulations.

HpS - The Boex has just finished a collection of BG questions that they think are pretty standard, but it may be some time before they roll those out. In general, to quote Bhakti vijnana Swami from Russia, we are not fruitive workers. The diplomas and titles actually have real value, but the essence is 1. developing friendship centered around studying Srila Prabhupada's books, 2. That will naturally develop into regular meetings and systems of association, 3. Then we can learn facts, ideas, and have evaluations.

• In relation to this point, I am working on the SB 2.3 questionnaire. Firstly I have chosen reading only the translations of the first three chapters to find the elements of relation. Second, I am implementing the system that you suggest, subtracting the textual fragments and from them the questions.

HpS - Me too. It is nice. It is self propelling. I find more and more depth in the Purports, structure of the book. I really wonder if I can get beyond just a few Cantos in this whole life time! CC is more pastime driven.

• Are there other regional representatives in Argentina and Chile? If so, who are they? Would be convenient to contact them. On the other hand, I would like to contact me directly with the operational representatives in the USA and articulate, in some way, to their network. I am a bit isolated in these latitudes!

HpS - We started that, no? You join the Regional meetings with USA. There is Param-padam Das in Argentina. Do you know him. Then Nara-narayana Rsi Das. He is there also and wanted to help. Whatsapp us and we will try to get you their email address.

• Karuna Krishna prabhu has contacted me to develop an online preaching program for Chosica temple. Free online conferences and seminars. Any suggestion? Could you participate in a two or three session seminar? For the moment, Pada Padma and Bhakti Sastri are teaching online normally.

HpS - NOI and whatever closed topic seminars that anyone wants to and is qualified to do. Eg. Rupa Siksa, CC Madhya 19.

• The regional sastric education program was beginning to develop vigorously. LAD and I in Chosica, Isvari Radha dd in Wilson, Deva Deva Vyasa prabhu and his online BS program for San Borja et al., Rupa Gosai prabhu and the BS in Guayaquil, Maharsi prabhu and his Introduction course to Bhakti Yoga in La Paz. For now, online programs survive, others should wait.

HpS - You say, "was". Were they victims of the Karuna virus? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlVfVBFdMaM (extracting gold from a messy place).

That's all gurudeva

I await your recommendations and thank you very much for the opportunity to serve you.

HpS - Our practice, which I can recommend, is to read a little of different books every day. Involve others sometimes and do it alone others. We do:

CC before managala arati.

NOD (Iso now) after.

SB regularly developing things and focus with the community and your intest

Lilamrta during breakfast

NOI each evening

KRSNA book and hot milk before taking rest. All for the purpose of distributing them. Hear them and they will come out of your mouth, mind, heart.

Your servant

Gandharva dasa