My apologies for being so late
Your Holiness,
Please accept my prostrated obeisances. All glories to your good self.
I feel blessed that you have shown so much compassion to me by writing to me.
HpS - Oooof. Please excuse the lateness of our letter. We did a USA tour of 14-cities in five weeks, came back to our base in Tennessee for Radhastami Festival and then our annual akhanda sankirtan and interfaith dialog. Theh were both wonderful.
Then we had to put both shoulders to the wheel and with five devotees organize our annual participation in the Celebrate Nashville Festival. Usually 40,000 people come and we had four booths and 40-minutes of stage time to organize. That was last Saturday and now on Wednesday we are 67.3% recovered and now... turning to our main focus, Carl G. Jung and the Bhagavata.
I knew His Holiness Bhaktisvarup Damodara Swami. He invited me and my father to have prasadam with him. He especially liked my father who is a complete heretic and invited him for conferences a couple of times. Now I go two to four days a week to the Kolkata BI centre, and render whatever little devotional service I can.
HpS - This is the center in Raghunatha pur, no? I was the first person to live there. It was the hottest summer in 30-years, 1996.
Who is working there now?
Our very, very good friend is Professor Samaresh Bandhyopadyay who domiciles in Lake Town.
I am very interested in scientific preaching because of obvious reasons that if scientists are convinced then convincing the general masses is far easier. I was aiding in the BI stall in the Kolkata Book Fair and I saw, how inerested people would become when we would show them how Nobel Laureates are interested in the spiritual dimension of life. Of course not everyone would be interested or impressed. Yet I felt that if notable scientists back the spiritual frontier it becomes easier to be interested in spirituality not just for neophytes but even for someone like me who has been trying to practice for the last 15 years or so. I remember how I felt comfortable being an atheist after a superficial reading of a book by Richard Dawkins and I know that many unfortunate people feel the same way and I would like to help them. I also feel satisfaction from seeing the defects in the best of atheistic arguements and thinking how fortunate I am to believe in a personal God atleast to some extent.
My big weakness is that I do not have a very credible academic degree having earned just a bachelors degree in engineering with very ordinary grades.
Right now I am having a difficult time because ever since 2004 my parents are forcing me to stay at home and be treated for a disease called "paranoid schizophrenia". They are not allowing me to go and stay in a monastery which I would like to do. They force me to take medicines which, make me sleep 10-12 hours a day, slur my speech and make mantra chanting difficult, and cause my body to tremble constantly. They have also admitted me to mental hospitals on three occasions and the doctors tortured me quite severely. On one occasion they kept me there for about 10 months. My father keeps threatening me that they will again put me in the mental hospital.
I keep thinking of how to deal with my situation. I feel that Narasimha stuti will help me. But there are different Narasimha mantras and I do not know which one to chant and how many times a day. I would be very grateful if you could kindly guide me in this matter.
I feel very interested in the service you are doing regarding working on Carl Jung. I would be only too grateful if you could kindly reveal to me how I could be of any use in your project.
Because of the effect of the drugs, which slow me down physically and psychologically, I am not able to do all the things I wish to or resolve to do. That is why I did not write to your blog for a long time. Please forgive me.
I am a member of the British Council Library. Also I have access to the BI library. So I will be only too happy to do some research work that you might so wish to give me the opportunity to do.
I look forward to your kind replies.
Your aspiring servant
jashodev
HpS - Of course, we graduated first in psychology and then the President of our NIOS is Nitai-gaurasundara Das, Director of a Psychiatric hosptital here. He says if you are a rich white lady you are diagnosed bi-polar, but if you are a poor black lady then you are diagnosed schizophenic.
Can you read Carl Jung's biography. It would probably help with all these things.
Then write again. Don't hesitate to write even if we don't answer. From the DTCs you will see what is happening with us.
