Letters to the editor

Hare Krishna Dear Guru Maharaja,

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

Sending report for Spanish books importing.

Mirtavinda Mataji:

• Caitanya Caritamrita Antya: 8 chapters
• La luz del Bhāgavata: whole book

Indira Sakti Mataji

• Caitanya Caritamrita Madhya: 2 chapters

Gandharva Prabhu:

• Caitanya Caritamrita Madhya: half chapter

We waiting for more books and Mataji Mitravinda is inspired to continue with importing.

There are these books online now: El Bhagavad-gītā tal como es, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, El Upadeśāmṛta, La ciencia de la autorrealización, El Śrī Īśopaniṣad and La luz del Bhāgavata.

And I will add pictures into Light of the Bhagavata book.

Your servant Prahlad Nrsimha das

HpS - Super, super, super!!!! We use vedabase.io all the time when we are preaching. The paragraph links are super!!!!

Esteemed Professor Dr. Samaresha et al,

Awk! Hare Krsna.

We are like 97% dead, but happy.

We have had arthritis in our shoulders the last few weeks. It may go away.

We have to talk carefully or our throat becomes in flamed.

We have wanted to report for so long but don't know how to summarize things.

Personally, we have been able to maintain this Japa Vrata of 16-good malas/day and this Dharma vrata of our four principles from the SB(https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/1/17/38/) and Guru. If we did not our Karma would carry us away very quickly like your Fullbright son whose attraction to alcohol killed him very quickly.

It is hard, it takes time, but withour 16/4 we would be even more useless than we are.

We have been working very furiously with the Ministry of Education and this Sastric Studies development, the four diplomas that Srila Prabhupada and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta outlined.

We have been working on the Ministry of Education newsletter, Viplavah, and our NIOS newsletter, Solaris, and developing the symposia for Education and the Sacred.

Just for example, day before yesterday:

Full morning program on line, with Mangala arati, reading Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, Japa together for 30-minutes, answering about five quick questions in the Chat.

1/2-hour preparing for SB class.

1-hour presenting class and discussions.

1/2-hour each with Rama-giridhari Das and Radhika raman Das about political problems in ISKCON, calendar for travel and projects, family issue..

1-4.30PM preparing and meeting with Prog. R. Messier, one of the foremost expert on Islamic studies in USA. He is wonderful person. We had so much to talk about. I showed him Pracyaprajna, Bharati Sanskkrti, Siksa Drsya, Stapathya, Light of th Bhagavata, Solaris. He was very enthused and showed us his current work. He is a historian and doing two original digs in Morocco, and did his doctorate in Numismatics! He is 68 years old.

Our practical relation is developing more and more.

Then we came back from Prog. RM home and went for a walk in the near freezing weather with Ravi and Dr. Kiran Desai and discussed all the NIOS and ISKCON work and answered the many dogs in the neighborhood.

So, we become exhausted, and have to force our selves to rest and read historical novels sometimes.

O.K.

That is a little update.

I hope to call soon unless our voice disappears altogether.

We are always trying to take advantage of the mercy you have shown to us and NIOS.

Best regards to your out esteemed family and hope that your influence is spreading more and more.

HpS

Querido Gurumaharaja! 

Por favor acepte mis reverencias! 

Todas las glorias a Srila Prabhupada! 

Estuvimos preocupados por Su salud, que Sri Nrsimhadeva siempre proteja su energía para servir a Srila Prabhupada, es nuestro humilde oración. Trataremos de volvernos discípulos sinceros.

HpS - Gracias!!! Pienso, poco a poco es mejorando. Estoy aprendiendo mucho cada dia como manejar mejor esta burro.

Envío algunas fotos de la premiación de la marathon de sankirtana.

1 - Jayadeva Hari Dasa

2 - Bhakta Gerardo

3 - Bhakta Mauricio 

4 - Braja Mohan Dasa

Entre muchos, los primeros lugares fueron para los sankirtaneros del Templo de Sri Sri Radha Madana Gopal :)

Muchas gracias a Usted y a nuestra apreciada Karuna Mayi dd y familia. 

Su eterna aspirante a sirviente

Asta Sakhi dd 

HpS - AGTSP. Pienso sus punturas fueron super regalos para devotos. Algo hecho individual!!!!! Pienso es ordenado por Krsna!!! Gracias a todos.

Hare Krishna dear Gurumaharaja

All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to you!

Humble obeisances Gurudeva.

• I am making progress with the process for the certification of Candramukhi dd as Bhakti Sastri examiner. There is only a matter on which I have certain doubts. MOE's requirements are: Bhakti Sastri degree (she has it), Teacher Trainig Courses 1 and 2 (she does not have it), but in exchange she has a lot of teaching experience for almost 17 years and a Master. I'm sending these documents (Master degree and the proof of teaching document) with the hope that they will accept them as valid.

Should I need your intercession??

HpS - I don't think so. When I was with the BOEX in India in October they were all lamenting that the Teacher Training Courses have had both good and very bad effects. One thing was exactly what you said, that it was eliminating or disabling very qualified teachers. So I think it should be O.K.! Let us know if there is any need to change things.

• On the other hand, BhVai certification is in stand-by because Caitanya Candra prabhu and Karuna Krsna prabhu have some doubts about LAD as BhVai instructor. Both prefer to have a personal conversation with you before proceeding. If LAD is the instructor (in spanish). Who's the examiner? You mention someone who is a Bhakti Vedanta student... You?

HpS - To our mind the BhVai diplomas are in a real infant stage. Yes, I would like to talk with Karuna and Caitanya about almost anything. I suggest that you go ahead with organized study of the Bh. Vai. materials and several devotees teach, lead the readings and discussions and then give local certificates at the end of each Canto and later those can be integrated with BOEX standard as needed. To quote B. Vijna Swami in Russia, "We are not fruitive workers!", is we get some nice appreciation for the material, make friends who like the material, and develop life long study habits, that is great! Details of institutional diplomas will follow, no?

• Finally, there has been some small issues in administration because Yamunesvara p. and Ganga Mayi mataji thinks that I'm going to intercede in initiation processes... I need to talk with them, maybe my fault.

HpS - Yes.... Education, Brahmanas, are meant to co-operate with Administrators, Ksatriyas. They are the two legs of prosperity and happiness for the citizens. Of course, it ISKCON we are all very Brahminical now but I am sudra-brahmana(x3). Somebody else more details. We need to adjust these things so we can offer leadership to the entire nation.

Waiting eagerly for your kind answer

Your servant

Gandharva dasa

As you wrote:

We will sit down in The Boro until next weekend and then we go to Houston, Nila-madhavaDhama, with SripadNitai-gaura-sundara Das for the Bhaktivedanta Medical Association conference. Saturday we do a Keynote Address, (Have to prepare it), Science, Psyche, and Spirituality: The Encounter of Professor Carl Gustav Jung with the Mysticism of Srila Rupa Goswami. Sunday we do the Srimad Bhagavatam class. Any suggestions for a verse? We were thinking of the verses about Hari DasaThakura’sJapa disease.

If I may suggest: https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/1/2/10

Translation

Life’s desires should never be directed toward sense gratification. One should desire only a healthy life, or self-preservation, since a human being is meant for inquiry about the Absolute Truth. Nothing else should be the goal of one’s works.

Purport

The completely bewildered material civilization is wrongly directed towards the fulfillment of desires in sense gratification. In such civilization, in all spheres of life, the ultimate end is sense gratification. In politics, social service, altruism, philanthropy and ultimately in religion or even in salvation, the very same tint of sense gratification is ever-increasingly predominant. In the political field the leaders of men fight with one another to fulfill their personal sense gratification. The voters adore the so-called leaders only when they promise sense gratification. As soon as the voters are dissatisfied in their own sense satisfaction, they dethrone the leaders. The leaders must always disappoint the voters by not satisfying their senses. The same is applicable in all other fields; no one is serious about the problems of life. Even those who are on the path of salvation desire to become one with the Absolute Truth and desire to commit spiritual suicide for sense gratification. But the Bhāgavatam says that one should not live for sense gratification. One should satisfy the senses only insomuch as required for self-preservation, and not for sense gratification. Because the body is made of senses, which also require a certain amount of satisfaction, there are regulative directions for satisfaction of such senses. But the senses are not meant for unrestricted enjoyment. For example, marriage or the combination of a man with a woman is necessary for progeny, but it is not meant for sense enjoyment. In the absence of voluntary restraint, there is propaganda for family planning, but foolish men do not know that family planning is automatically executed as soon as there is search after the Absolute Truth. Seekers of the Absolute Truth are never allured by unnecessary engagements in sense gratification because the serious students seeking the Absolute Truth are always overwhelmed with the work of researching the Truth. In every sphere of life, therefore, the ultimate end must be seeking after the Absolute Truth, and that sort of engagement will make one happy because he will be less engaged in varieties of sense gratification. And what that Absolute Truth is is explained as follows.

~~~

Will it be streamed online ?

Your servant Namacarya Das

=-=-=-=

HpS - ASA --- AGTSP!!!!!!! paoho We were looking at the Akincana web site. They say it was started in Croatia but now other devotees have taken it over.

This is wonderful verse! Good health automatically follows when we take our quota... Discussed with the organizers and final resolution is to take the verse from Canto One, The Pandavas Retire Timely, which describes Yuddhisthira folding the different layers of the material body back into the Atma. For doctors will be nice to hear about Sankhya, ISKCON Medicine as Assisted Suicide. All of our relations with this body is to destroy it at the root.

Thank you!!!

Any news about the ?Esther? Indradyumna Das is on line most days for Mangala arati etc.

We will find out about Streaming. The SB class will be at ISKCON Houston at Mayapura TV. Others I don't know.

Hare Krishna Maharaj, 

Please accept my humble obeisances, All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to your divine lotus feet, here and in Goloka!

HpS - We only have lettuce feet. Trying to improve. You are probably more advanced devotee than we are. We are just trying to do a job for Srila Prabhupada, mostly inspired by him rather than our own sincerity!!

I know I just posted my offering to you in the spirit of your auspicious appearance day, and I do not wish to flood your blog! However, I was hoping to ask you for some advice regarding a potential preaching endeavor coming up soon here in Boise, ID… 

You may remember a couple American yogis here in Boise who own their own yoga studio, Satyavani Gayatri and Michael Bittner?

HpS - Yes, we have some recollection of them.

Satyavani used to come at least every week if not multiple times a week in the morning for Srimad Bhagavatam class with Ananta Rupa Prabhu, myself and/or others. She is getting pretty busy with her yoga studio entitled ZenSpot Institute: Vedic & Taoist Studies and hasn’t had time lately for Bhagavatam in the morning. But her business is expanding and she has asked me to teach a “Nectar of Instructions” course at her institute this April of 2020. Because last winter, by Ananta Rupa Prabhu’s request, I had led a NOI class at the temple and some of Satyavani’s students attended them regularly, I felt confident and told her that I was interested, so we planned the dates. She shared with me how she would charge students $299 for a 6-week course. She needs me to create a personal profile so people know who I am and also I will be given 40% of the proceeds from the students.

Maharaj, I feel torn a bit for two reasons. Firstly, I don’t feel completely qualified to create a profile and teach professionally. Secondly, I would be getting paid for teaching Krishna Consciousness.

The first issue: Materially speaking my qualifications are skim. I only have an Associates Degree of General Science from BSU and I am just a housewife working for the Hare Krishna Temple. I have only finished two of the four Bhakti Sastri books (of which 1 of them is the Nectar of Instructions). I haven’t taken a teacher’s training qualifying me to teach the course, "professionally/institutionally". What impressive profile do I have? Am I really qualified?

HpS - Just explain what you have said and then include your daily austerities and for how long you have been doing them and the formal degrees you have taken in ISKCON, what they mean.

The second issue: Maharaj, the proposal is that out of the $300 per student, 60% would go to ZenSpot Institute, and 40% would be given to me. Now if there were even just 5 attendees that is $1,200 of which $600 would go to me, and $900 to ZenSpot. My question is, as an initiated devotee housewife, how should I handle the $600 given to me? Should I give 50%, $300, to the Temple, like Rupa Goswami has recommended?

I feel like giving 50% would be the correct thing to do. And at the same time, I may be in an interesting position because most of the money my husband, Nitisara das, and I make goes towards paying bills, keeping a roof under [over?] our heads, and buying bhoga we offer to Krsna. We buy a lot of bhoga to make nice offerings for Krsna. When Rupa Goswami says 50%, does that mean 50% of gross or, of net profit, after one has paid the bills?

HpS - Here is a citation from NOI!  https://vedabase.io/en/library/noi/4/#bb5913. Here Srila Prabhupada seems to equate "income" with "accumulated earnings". what you keep after operating expenses.

I am teaching Krishna Consciousness, so shouldn’t this be a free service? But what about book distributors who make a living off distributing books? What is your opinion and instructions about such a life?

HpS - As we understand, Srila Prabhupada said that devotees in the Temple who get Prasada, roof, dhotis, etc, but are Ghrasthas can keep 15% of their collection to pay for their Ashrama expenses. So it is okay, service.

A yogini making a life teaching yoga/bhakti sastri material?

Thank you for your precious time, Maharaj. Any feedback to steer the boat will be of use.

Your aspiring servant, 

Anadi Radha dasi.

HpS - $300 for 6-weeks. How many hours/week? $180 for six weeks. Maybe talk with Ananta rupa Das. If there are more students they maybe your fees could be less, because the basic costs could be divided between students. Maybe suggest that the Center charge for its costs, then you ask for donations to cover your basic costs and time and whatever else they students want to give to use for your preaching programs, like the Bhakti Yoga Center etc/