Letters to the editor

Hare Krishna dear Gurudeva

Please accept our humble obeisances

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!!

Hope you're doing well in Argentina. According to your posts It seems to be like that. I write this report on the blog because I haven't had much time to talk with you during your last stay in Chosica. Anyway, I consider that this medium is more efficient concerning MOE's issues.

1. The current situation of temples is not very promising at the moment. There is an air of conflict and suspicion among the devotees. Congregations have polarized and taken sides in the political situation of the Yatra. The good news is that there have been no regrettable incidents (despite the mood of devotees), the bad news is that the temples are almost empty. Thinking, for the moment, articulating educational initiatives or developing important programs should wait until consensus is reached in other aspects.

HpS - I agree that we should be alert to the other aspects and groups, but we should go ahead with our personal commitment to Srila Prabhupada's books and let that be a very good way to help the integration of the different groups and solution of the political problems. O.K.? We are keeping daily classes, usually on line, wherever we go, and pushing the BhV diploma with GEV etc.

2. Therefore, Gurudeva, we have concentrated on Chosica, where we find a favorable resonance for the development of our service. As I mentioned before, we are collaborating in the organization of seminars of a practical type (cooking, Vaisnava etiquette, worship, kirtan, ayurveda, etc.)in Arequipa in order to establish a fairly solid contact and continue with programs that solve other problems , in greater depth.

HpS - Super, Super, Super, Super!!

3. My trip to Ecuador is pending, I intended to do it at the end of the year, to coincide with the Ayampe meeting, but for economic reasons, it may not be. I am sure that by April 2020 I will be able to do it and establish the desired contact with them.

HpS - That is very good news! Today our SB class was about Katyayani vrata from the SBm K book, etc. Systematic study by following the festivals, no?

4. I do not receive further news from the Bolivian yatra, the devotee in charge of communicating with me is very sparse and poorly communicative. I think I will have to promptly address Prabhu Mathuresh, which I wanted to avoid because something else was agreed upon. Apparently there is no other alternative.

HpS - O. K. You see we are a little slow in responding too, but gettingit done. Keep sending news here and to Tapan misra Das.

5. Our intention remains the preparation of current and potential teachers: Mitravinda dd, Isvari dd, Abhinanda d, Jagat Pavitram d, Indira Sakti dd, Nitya Kisori dd, Tarangaksi dd, Rukmini dd, among others, can be trained to be able to count with a motivated, technical and determined staff that shares work with regular teachers. It is important to decentralize education and look for variety. A single teacher teaching all the courses has proven negative in their results. The main idea is to organize for them the TTC courses, give them seminars to develop skills under the guidance of more experimented teachers and share with some of them some modules of the current courses (for example, I have taught the first semester of Introduction to Bhakti Yoga and Isvari dd is going to teach the second).

6. Finally, we are working on the technification of this courses (avoiding exaggeration), in order to give greater efficiency to the learning process. There is a big difference between the Vyasasana preacher, the school teacher and the adult teacher. It is important to develop class material that differentiates these activities based on defined and ordered pedagogical models.

HpS - Sounds very nice and the more you can show the teaching principles in the SB then the more they are confirmed. What is the classroom environment for the BG, SB??

7. In an upcoming report, I will inform you about the Sunday school activities you opened a few weeks ago.

HpS - And Tapan misra Das??

That is all for the moment Gurumaharaja, I await your valuable suggestions and comments.

Your servant

Gandharva das

HpS - Did you get the Kapi Dhvaja yesterday? Okay? Answer with the Priority Code!

Hare Krishna Maharaja,

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

I write after a while without having communication with you by this means, catching up with the personal sadhana report and general news.

This year we were able to participate for 8 consecutive years in the international book fair with the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, we were also distributing prasadam at the food for life stand at the Jala Yatra Monterrey Mx festival and we attended the festivals at the cultural center regularly

Among other news, I would like to inform you that I have been talking with mother Asta Sakhi to finally be able to take a diksha initiation, I finished my course of guru disciple in 2017 at the Bhakti School of Culture with prabhu Param Padam Das (Argentina) and he has extended a letter of recommendation to continue my spiritual growth under his guidance and mercy

I look forward to serving you in the most sincere way and I would like to inform you that we will be attending for your vyasa puja this year in Houston with the intention of being able to speak with you in person and know how to continue on the path to take initiation

His eternal servant and aspiring disciple

Lalita Madhava d.d.

Hare Krsna. AgtSP... We cannot recognize you from this little letter!!! It is very nice to hear from you, but we cannot connect your personality with your name?? Help!!! Hope to see you soon. Your service seems very, very nice!!! Thank you!!!!

Hare Krishna, dear gurudeva, Pamho, AGTSP!

There are several issues that I have to tell you. I will try to be brief and summarized.

1.- Education.

I always saw two aspects.

a) My contribution to ISKCON and

b) My contribution to the community in general.

That's why I was encouraged to do a master's degree so that my contribution is more professional. I am missing the thesis that I hope to do next year.

a) I am currently giving the Disciples Course to a group. I also have the Bhakti sastri group that ends this year. Next to them I have some students waiting for the exam. All of them would take the exam approximately in March 2020 with M. Candramukhi as an evaluator. From the beginning we kept the course development separated with the examiner. I have been doing this program for ten years.

My proposal is that we follow the program as it is, basically ASA, until the new proposal scheduled for 2021 comes out. Gandharva prabhu agrees. That is why I am going to propose to make a bhakti sastri for a year, for the last time, until the new proposal appears, with a slightly different design with some innovations that I have been making. I hope they let me work well. My fear remains in the implantation of an academic dictatorship through an immovable standard. I'm sorry, I can't avoid my anarchic tendency.

HpS - I hope Gandharva Das can work out the bureaucratic details. We can help. Srila Prabhupada's diploma.

b) Krishna is taking me along interesting paths. I left the previous job in August and continued wandering, thinking if it would be good to continue working outside, etc. The sankirtan of cultivating the human spirit really compels me.

Then came the initiative of the devotees of Chosica who wanted to have a good education. Over time, two groups with different interests emerged. The first wanted one more Vaishnava thing, to put a name, a Sunday school. The second, wanted something different.

The second group was like in limbo and met with you, basically M. Krsna karmini. And you presented your vision. I offered to participate in a meeting to see what it was. They were going to start practically from scratch.

Finally we had a meeting M. Krsna karmi, M. Padmavati and I, the three educators by profession. A brainstorm began and little by little we realized that we wanted practically the same. Of course we start with the dynamic “Who am I? Who we are? What's the plan? What do we need?"

For now I can only say that something interesting will come up. I will not give the details. In the next meeting we will summon other devotees and discuss and shape the ideas. This is not a report in itself. We will create a minimal organization to draw up the plan. The communications officer will give the appropriate report.

ASA - Avanti School in England!

Personally I feel very excited. When we went to visit that interesting school in Chorrillos, with a large campus, I was very impressed. I told myself, this is what I was looking for. The three mentioned were thinking the same. We will analyze the conformation of the team to work radially, as I say, from a nucleus outward according to the degree of commitment.

I have the impression that the gurukula of 2003 and NIMSAR ceased to exist because the team never consolidated.

Now we hope that Krishna's desire is manifested and if he approves this budding project. It is clear to us that it is our sankirtan.

Well, I think we have enough with this. Other issues, later.

Thanks for listening.

Bless, please, my sankirtan, our sankirtan.

Your servant,

Laksmana-agraja das

ASA - This is an example of what you might do? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avanti_Schools_Trust

Hare Krishna gurudev,

There is no need of article and abstract either for your presentation at Universidad Católica.

They just need the power point presentation on Friday 15th November with you when the moment to present arrives.

HpS - O.K.!

ASA - Sigue una carta del gran viajera Yugala Kishora dasi!!! No tiempo ya leer pero pasando. Que pasa Yugala???

Peregrinaje por Vrndavan y sus peligros

Todos los deseos se hacen realidad en Vrndavana. Por arreglos de la divina providencia encontré a latinas viviendo en Vrndavana, escuche decir que Vrndavana es para devotos puros, seguramente estas personas que son tan bondadosas llegarán a serlo. Estas dos amigas en especial, son mis protectoras y acompañantes, Krsna las puso en mi camino. Con ellas realizamos la mayoría de parikram a templos principales. Después de casi dos meses en el dham, empiezo hacer caminatas en solitario, y recuerdo que utilizar el cuerpo en ir a lugares sagrados es también un servicio para Krsna. Después de ir acompañada a Vrndavana Parikram, decidí ir sola a los templo, por ese recorrido. Un día decidimos ir al templo de Radha Raman, pasamos el Yamuna, pero el templo cierra por intervalos cortos, entonces por evitar a monos y posible lluvia pensamos ir antes a templo Radha Gokulananda, en el camino preguntamos y un Vrajavasi muy amable nos llevó, pero también estaba cerrado. Vrajavasi nos quiso mostrar otro templo, a pesar de todas las advertencias de no hablar en la calle con vrajavasis, lo seguimos con un ojo muy alerta, algo me decía que debía irme, muy cerca había un templo lindo con una vista increíble del Yamuna y templos cercanos. A veces se utiliza el título de vrajavasi para tener libertad de actuar, así que en más de una ocasión esta persona me quiso dar la mano, le dije que la etiqueta en ISKCON era diferente, no contacto, en un momento su actitud de que “vrajavasi no hay problema” que decidí irme, manifestando mi incomodidad porque me empezó a tomar foto e intento tocarme la cabeza, me retiré aludiendo que era una mujer casada. Lo cual no es del todo falso, las madres solteras vemos a Krsna como nuestro todo, nuestro esposo y Él me estaba protegiendo, sin ser grosera me retiré en paz y rápido. Cuando le conté a mi amiga, me advirtió los peligros de hablar con vrajavasis varones, respetarlos pero desde la distancia, que las extranjeras somos el blanco de ellos, que en los parikram los líderes siempre advierten, que cosas terribles a veces ocurre a matajis por no ser estrictas en esta instrucción de no hablar con desconocidos. Mi integridad estuvo en peligro por un instante, por no seguir esa instrucción. Al final llegué al templo y pude ver a Radha Raman, mi protector, olvide rápidamente el impase, más no por ello, la lección enseñada.

Gurudeva me encanta Vrndavan, ya vienen los parikran de kartika y más devotas amigas, estoy muy agradecida, hasta estoy empezando un estudio gratiuto del Caitanya C. con P. Mukunda, el líder del pujari, un devoto ejemplar. Krsna hace realidad todos mis sueños hasta traductora tengo, estoy muy feliz, me encanta el templo Krsna Balarama es muy inspirador, quiero llorar de la emoción, cada día cada hora es simplemente maravilloso en Vrndavan. 

Por favor deme sus bendiciones para que se me revele el santo dham y para siempre estar protegida de cualquier mal.

Su hija que lo adora:

Yugala Kishora Dasi

(El león solitario)

Hare Krishna dear Gurudeva,

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

It's been a while since i last wrote. Good things develop both internally and in the family, but in this case i feel the need to share about my practical service.

Yesterday i've organized our third bi-annual kirtan event, which was received with joyful and satisfied response. We had about fifty people this time, a steady increase. A team is starting to form and for our next event we work on establishing this more solidly.

I consider this my offering to you and Srila Prabhupada, to organize this facility for community building and devotee cooperation and the chanting of the Mahamantra. Especially the time prior is very enlivening and spiritually saturated. Since i'm not in the high speed lane of vaidhi sadhana bhakti, this is very much appreciated.

I pray this meets you well.

In the process of becoming a humble servant,

Raghava Pandita dasa

HpS - Jaya! As we read this we are in your neigborhood, Spain. How long is the Kirtan event? Different people lead? For how long each one? Is it only Maha-mantra? Do you match it with a specific holiday???