Letters to the editor

Dear Guru Maharaja

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

Although your stay in Dallas was very short, we had a wonderful time associating with you. Thank you so much Guru Maharaja for tolerating our faults and accepting our service. We only wish it was longer.

Radhika Raman Prabhu has finished editing the Preface and has started editing Text 1. He has almost edited half of the transcribed files for Text 1. I printed it for you. Please take a look at it when you have some time and give us your feedback. I think it has come out really well. I am currently transcribing Text 2.

HpS - Thank you. Our visit to Dallas was hard work, but good results. Very good results. Yes, we have the hard and soft copy of the files. As you can see from the DTC we are packed with work right now, but this NOI commentary is very high on our list. Thank you so much for working on this.

I am learning so much when transcribing and the book is going to be a great addendum to Srila Prabhupada's commentary.

Your servant

Srinatha Krsna dasa

Radhe! Radhe!

ASA - In one lecture in London on Radhastami, Srila Prabhupada commented, "Radhe", "Hare", no difference!

Hare! Hare!

Maybe Srila Prabhupada's habit of chanting "Hare Krsna" was to instruct us that we Western folk must be careful to keep Radharani with Sri Krsna, no?

Panto (ASA - Panto? Please accept nine times obeisances? Please accept ours many more!!)

Agtsp

My dear guru Maharaja, first of all I want to thank you for giving me darshan during your Indian tour, pls accept my humble obeisances.

HpS - We felt the same. Also for your family!!

Following your instructions I want to share some pictures and stories of the holy places and festivals in Radhakund.

Today is Siva ratri, the great night of Siva, the story says that Parvati was meditating in her husband and did penances and austerities whole night to protect him, since then this night all women go to ask Lord Siva to protect their husbands and sons.

It is supposed that we do not have to worship demigod, ONLY to ask them to help us to advance towards Krsna.

Here in Vraja when we start a parikrama we should ask Mahadev, Lord Siva, to allow us to do it since he is the gatekeeper of the dhama.

But why or how he got the post of gatekeeper? Here is the story

In the Garga Samhita it is mentioned that when Lord Siva knew about the rasa dance, he wanted to be there to see him dancing with the gopis, so Parvati and him came but only mother Parvati could come in.

Lord Siva was very sad because of this but he was told to go to Vrndadevi to help him, she told him to go to Mansarovar to meditate in order to get a gopi's body, which he did and once he had a female body he went in to the rasa lila.

There he danced with krsna as a gopi but suddenly krsna said "I cannot relish this dance, it is as if some man be here, so he asked Lalita Saki to go and see if there was a man inside.

She came back and told him "No, there is no men inside but there is a gopi with three eyes". Krsna said "go and bring her"

When this gopi came Krsna who knows everything told her "Siva you have relished the rasa dance, now you have to go out, but I have a job for you, from now on you will be the gatekeeper and you are not going to allow any man to come in".

Since that day Lord Siva is in charge of the gate in the holy dhama and that is why we have to ask him for permission to come in.

I an sending two photos in the first is Mahadev in his altar in the entrance of Radhakunda.

The second photo is a deity In Nitai dhama temple where Kunja Bihari is dressed like Mahadev.

Om namo sivaya. Mahadev ki jaya.

Next time we are going to start our parikrama of Radhakunda.

Only one question guru Maharaja, do you want me to write this report in English or Spanish or both.

HpS - If you can do both it would be wonderful.

Thank you once more for your causeless mercy.

Your (trying to be humble) servant

Tungavidya dd

Radhakunda, Syamakunda, Giri Govardhan ki haya

HpS - In CC Adi Seven, near the end, I think where it is described how Lord was visiting Kasi visvanatha Temple, in the purport Srila Prabhupada gives the Brahma samhita mantras as authorized for worshipping Lord Siva, Ganesa et al. Also Lord Siva instructs the Pracetas in Canto Four, no?!

Thank you!!

Hare Krishna, dear Gurumaharaja, Pamho, AGTSP!

"Nobody is a prophet in their own land".

My friend Om Purnam made this comment when I published an article on Facebook that told how well I did on my tour of Cuzco. Then followed Cochabamba and La Paz. It was a tour in the south that lasted 25 days. 15 programs in 25 days; between classes, workshops, seminars, etc. Fairly good. Besides preparation or editing of several ppts, readings, etc to prepare me, were quite a few hours of work. But, I felt happy, dear, useful. It's not that I'm too worried about success and fame. Actually I have always been between fame and infamy all my life. I have gone through several institutions. In summary it was a successful tour.

And I returned to my reality. Once again I realized that I really am not the savior of Chosica, or Peru. I have been in limbo for several weeks.

The point is that I want to preach inside and outside ISKCON, and in Peru the doors close. I have applied to various institutions and nothing has happened. Then, the phrase that I started with took on a new meaning. By the signs, it seems that destiny is sending me to other places.

Some friends recommended me to go somewhere else and I think they are right. They do not need me here anymore. In education there are enough people to develop it in ISKCON Peru. In addition there is not much demand, but outside, in society, there are many people who are looking for alternatives. After my experience in the university and some talks outside, it seems to me that work in the cultivation of the human spirit is a good preaching work.

It occurred to me to talk to P. Mathures (he invited me to Bolivia in my tour), that apart from being my authority I consider him my friend and I asked him to see if there are opportunities outside, in Bolivia or where required. A place where I can serve the devotees and do some work, preaching, outside. I do not want temple life again, I already went through that experience and it's beautiful, but I feel that outside there are many people who are waiting for something.

I finished my master's degree, but I am missing the thesis and that can be completed at any time, and resources are needed that I do not have at the moment. Nothing really ties me here. Here I feel useless, I know that I have a lot to give and I need to go to a place where I can do it.

Well, Gurudev, thanks for listening. I did not write before because I know you are busy and also I did not have things clear. Well, in reality the only thing clear is that there is nothing here for me. I hope that when you return to USA you will have some time to talk and help me clarify my ideas.

Because of your mercy, my sadhana continues to be good and that keeps me alert and without being carried away by frustration. I could have thought ... I gave ISKCON many years, I stopped working outside to help the gurukula, then the ashram and the temple, I did not worry about my future, nor my maintenance, now I'm old and they do not want me anywhere anymore because They accept older people, who have not worked lately. I have no bank account, no opportunities, I live in my mother's house. It would have been simple to have these ideas, in fact many people have left ISKCON with this feeling or are simply full of resentment. Neither do I want nor am I ready to accept sannyasi's order. It would be ridiculous. Prabhupada speaks of those who take the order out of frustration. I want to be useful in the world, to help people from their realities. Cultivation of the human spirit.

Anyway, I know that behind everyting there is a plan of Krishna. Please, help me to find it out.

ss LAD

HpS - ASA --- Jaya! Excellent letter. Thank you. "One who does good my friend is never overcome by evil", Krsna, BG! We all have given years to ISKCON, the church part of it etc. It is more often described as a movement than an institution. Never give up Srila Prabhupada's movement and work to help the institution.

In the USA let us talk. Also, travel seems good. Spain??

Dr Samaresh Bandyopadhyay - interview 190308

This interview is to enlighten and enliven the participants in the 2019-2021 NIOS symposia on Education and the Sacred, planned to be co-sponsored by San Marcos University, Lima, Peru.

Professor Dr. Samaresh Bandyopadhyay, you have had an enriched career in the academic, cultural and religious life of Bengal and the academic world of ancient Indian history and culture.

In one line that might be taken into the thumb-nail biographies of the Websters International Dictionary how would you describe yourself, your life?

____

Thank you, just to expand upon that a little more for our audience, if you were writing to a professional and somewhat close associate how would you describe the contribution that by your own effort or the hand of destiny you have made in your professional, community and personal life?

What work would you be very satisfied to see carried forward by others?

____

Turning more specifically to our symposia theme of Education and the Sacred we have been gifted with three questions by the great scholar and humanitarian, Hector Behar:

1.    With what community do you identify yourself?

2.    In that community what is The Sacred?

3.    How does Education allow the Sacred to be researched and communicated in that community?

_____

Then taking a step backward:

What is your theory and practice of Education, your Philosophy of Education? Of course, this can deal with such questions as:

What is a fully educated man,

What are the steps along the road to that education,

How such education can be effected.

_______

Thank you so much for your valuable time and two more question comes immediately to our mind and of course, your esteemed self may see many other topics that are essential for this short interview:

How can NIOS and its allies organize these symposia in such a way as to have a global impact for modern society? What contribution do think you can make to see this become a reality?

Vyasa-puja 2019

“…according to the Vedic system, on the birthday of the spiritual master the disciples conduct the ceremony called Vyāsa-pūjā.” BG 18.75. Esteemed reader, do you also turn to this purport every year during Srila Prabhupada, Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami’s Vyasa-puja?

Our offering to His Divine Grace’s Vyasa-puja, in this little essay, is an effort to illuminate a little bit of the glories of Srila Prabhupada, Founder Acharya of the International Society for Krsna Consciousness, and author of the book KRSNA, The Supreme Personality of Godhead. We are like weak sighted men, standing in the dark, trying, with our candle, to illuminate the Royal Elephant. We do this for our benefit and the benefit of others.

Thus we work to hear other articles in this Vyasa-puja book that make their own attempts to illuminate Srila Prabhupada, and maybe in choir we can get some little, but practical glimpse of His Divine Grace: No one can take everything that the spiritual master is offering. No one can know the Acharya completely.

“The transcendental pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, are so powerful that simply by hearing, reading and memorizing this book, Krsna, one is sure to be transferred to the spiritual world, which is ordinarily very difficult to achieve.”, Krsna, Chapter 90. Our first real contact with Srila Prabhupada was this Krsna book. One of his disciples, maybe Sriman Buddhimanta Das, was distributing books at the Davis Campus of the Universsity of California about 1972 and he convinced us to donate $10 and take one. This Krsna book seems complete in every way but to gain more and more access to it Srila Prabhupada has given Srimad Bhagavatam, The Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Caitanya-Caritamrta, Upadesamrta, Nectar of Devotion, Isopanisad etc.

“The main business of human society is to think of the Supreme Personality of Godhead at all times, to become His devotees, to worship the Supreme Lord and to bow down before Him. The ācārya, the authorized representative of the Supreme Lord, establishes these principles, but when he disappears, things once again become disordered. The perfect disciples of the ācārya try to relieve the situation by sincerely following the instructions of the spiritual master.” SB 4.28.48. When Srila Prabhupada disappeared from our physical vision in 1977 we experienced just what he describes here and took shelter of the remedy that he describes here also. Now we seem to see in 2019 that our Acharya is beginning to disappear again. This time from the natural passing of the years - Disappearing from the rituals of his society, from the recollections of his disciples as they grow old and pass away. This is quite natural but the remedy is still the same, follow the instructions of the Acharya: Chant 16-nice rounds daily on beads and follow the 4-regulative principles strictly. Then, intelligence (Brahminical culture), and organization  (Ksatriya culture), can be cultivated from that root.

What we have been able to take from our little connection with Srila Prabhupada is that the whole process can be boiled down into eight words: Get up early and get your rounds done. Done with enthusiasm. Then your day will be play. Management will be at your fingers end, there will be no question of shortage of funds, people will respect your preaching.

Thank you Srila Prabhupada for giving us this orchard of fruits, roots and flowers in the form of the wisdom and culture in your books. Thank you for giving us a connection to you through the Lord in the heart. Thank you for ISKCON and all its venerable members. We will try to be more sincere disciples and we hope to find some eternal place in your traveling Sankirtan.

One of your most insignificant servants,

Hanumatpresaka Swami

2019 Mar 08

Dear Guru Maharaja

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

NOI Commentary

I said I would update on NOI Commentary on a biweekly basis. But I think if the updates are monthly, they might be good. They will have something tangible to report.

HpS - Yes, that seems good. Abraham Lincoln said that a man's legs should be long enough to reach the ground.

I have completed transcribing Text 1. Radhika Ramana Prabhu will start editing them next week during his spring break. Once he does the editing on Text 1, we will have a fair idea of how long it takes for him to edit and how soon he will need the transcribed files.

HpS - I hope that it does not take too much of his time and that it is a useful project. Maybe some one else can do a preliminary edit and then he can just do an overview.

Ratha Yatra

I was talking with Caitanya Caritamrita Prabhu about him coming to Dallas for the ratha yatra and he is still not sure about it. We will know about it soon.

HpS - I think I will travel with Hari-lila Das. We are in dialog to determine the best schedule. We need to focus on Sastric Education with the devotees in Houston.

I wanted to request you for a book signing event, like the one in Houston, when you come to Dallas for the ratha yatra. It can be on the ratha yatra day or on the next day's Sunday feast program. I can talk to the sankirtan team here about the scheduling.

We would feel very fortunate if you can stay with us in our house during your visit here. We live at a 5 minute walking distance from the temple or a 2 minute drive.

HpS - Thank you. Can you call Hari-lila Das and work out the details? CCD has his phone number if you do not.

Your servant

Srinatha Krsna dasa

HpS - Thank you so much. We will see you in just a few days.