Letters to the editor

AgtSP!

Paoho...

As we remember,when we were in San Jose (California), with the new Temple there, Bh. Vatsala Das, Vaisesika Das' brother-in-law, and a super manager in the medical-insurance industry, was flabbergasted by the problems with the Temple management. So he decided that he would offer to become Temple President, and it was enthusiastically accepted by one and all.

After two to three months he told me, as he shook his head in astonishment, that managing in the non-profit sector was completely different than the business sector. So much of the work for Wikipedia, Green Peace, PETA, is all done by full or partial volunteers.

They are not working because you are paying them, they are working because you are inspiring them. You have to keep high-ideals and broad philosophical perspective alive in the day to day work of the corporation.

What to speak of the religious sector!

He said that managing in ISKCON was like herding cats.

You try to get all the cats rounded up and moving in the same direction, but half of them just look at you in incomprehension and peacefully begin to lick their paws and groom themselves.

Ayeeee!

On the other hand, he said, when devotees are motivated, they will do things that you cannot people pay any amount of money for them to agree to do it.

Dear Guru Maharaja

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

Thank you so much for helping ISKCON Dallas get the Bhakti Sastri center approval. All the devotees were very grateful for your guidance.

We finished our overview of the Bhagavad Gita course a few weeks back. We had 16 students and most of them attended all the 9 sessions. We had a very personal connect with all the students and all of them gave very positive reviews. A couple of students even gave dothis to us after the course as a mark of dakshina!

HpS - AGTSP.. The Mormon missionaries get neck ties!

Since I have been coordinating the adult sastric education program in Dallas, I have been getting a lot of questions by email from the students. It is sometimes very personal. I have questions on how they need to deal with certain specific situations. I am comfortable answering philosophical questions, but it is scary when they ask for advise. I don't think I am qualified to act in that capacity, but I have been praying to you and Krishna before answering them so that the right words may come out of me.

Please tell me how I should handle this service Gurudeva, because I anticipate more and more people asking such questions as we continue this program.

HpS - Just be honest. That simple. If they have an false impression of who you are then try to correct it.

In terms of Bhakti Sastri, before starting the program, the education team (Devadarsana Prabhu, Nrtya Kisori Mataji, Rasaraj Prabhu, Hemangi Mataji and myself) had a few questions. With the current circumstances, it also looks like Krishna's arrangement to give us some time to prepare before starting the Bhakti Sastri course.

1. Are there any syllabus materials for teachers that we can have access to such as VHIE, MIHE, etc

HpS - I don't think so. You have to ask them.

1. Are there any student handouts that we can have access to?

HpS - Same.

1. We had requested the BoEx for a teach and learn program where some of the teachers teaching the course could also earn their BhS degree. So, for the tests, can someone else give us the exams and grade the exams so that we don't need separate exams for the teachers without BhS degree.

HpS - What did they say when they gave permission? We did similar and we had separate test for the Testers.

1. Considering our community is a grihasta community, what should be the scope of the BhS course? How may hours is a student expected to put in apart from attending a 2-3 hr class every week? Do we need essays every week or is there a minimum number of essays we can have per module and one closed book short answer exam per module?

HpS - Hmmm! This was not all clear when they made you a teaching and examination center? It is funny. Again, I do not know what the current standard is. The only persona that I think who might know is Radha Krsna Das in Houston.

Thank you so much Gurudeva for engaging me in this service.

Your servant

Srinatha Krsna dasa

HpS - Does this file have some help is it? http://www.jayarama.us/archives/tpp-bs.docx

NAMA OM VISHNU-PADAYA KRISHNA-PRESTAYA BHUTALE

SRIMATE HANUMATPRESAKA SWAMI ITI NAMINE

OM AJÑANA-TIMIRANDHASYA JÑANAÑJANA-SALAKAYA

CAKSUR UNMILITAM YENA TASMAI SRI-GURAVE NAMAH

Estimado maestro espiritual. Primeramente desearle un feliz Vyasa-Puja. Quiero expresarle mi gratitud por la oportunidad de ser su discípulo y comentarle lo importante que esto ha sido en mi vida. Ya que como comenta Srila Prabhupada:

Aquel que no está iniciado de manera apropiada puede presentarse como si fuera un gran devoto, pero de hecho, sin duda, encontrará muchas dificultades en el progreso hacia la comprensión espiritual, con el resultado de que habrá su plazo de existencia material sin alivio. Una persona así está desamparada y se compara a un barco sin timón, porque, sin timón, un barco no puede llegar a su destino (C. C. Adi Lila, Cap. 1, verso 35).

               Por otra parte muchos quisiéramos prestar servicio directo, continuando con los comentarios de Srila Prabhupada. “Si no le es posible servir directamente al maestro espiritual, el devoto debe servirle recordando sus instrucciones. No hay diferencia entre las instrucciones del maestro espiritual y el maestro espiritual mismo” (C. C. Adi Lila, Cap. 1, verso 35).

               Lo que me interesa a mí es afianzar mi interés por participar en actividades de su proyecto Educación y lo Sagrado para lo cual pido sus bendiciones. Quisiera que este fuera el aspecto central en mi proyecto de servicio para este año, y desde luego seguir sus instrucciones.

               Le deseo buena salud y que conserve esa energía que le permite seguir los pasos de Srila Prabhupada.

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NAMA OM VISHNU-PADAYA KRISHNA-PRESTAYA BHUTALE

SRIMATE HANUMATPRESAKA SWAMI ITI NAMINE

OM AJÑANA-TIMIRANDHASYA JÑANAÑJANA-SALAKAYA

CAKSUR UNMILITAM YENA TASMAI SRI-GURAVE NAMAH

Dear spiritual master. First of all wish you a happy Vyasa-Puja. I want to express my gratitude for the opportunity to be your disciple and tell you how important this has been in my life. Since as Srila Prabhupada comments:

He who is not initiated properly can present himself as if he were a great devotee, but in fact, no doubt, he will encounter many difficulties in the progress towards spiritual understanding, with the result that there will be his term of material existence without relief. Such a person is helpless and compares to a ship without a rudder, because, without a rudder, a ship cannot reach its destination (C. C. Adi Lila, Chapter 1, verse 35).

On the other hand, many of us would like to provide direct service, continuing with the comments of Srila Prabhupada. “If it is not possible to serve the spiritual master directly, the devotee must serve him by remembering his instructions. There is no difference between the instructions of the spiritual master and the spiritual master himself ”(C. C. Adi Lila, Chapter 1, verse 35).

What interests me is to strengthen my interest in participating in activities of your Education and the Sacred project for which I ask for your blessings. I would like this to be the central aspect in my service project for this year, and of course follow your instructions.

ASA - We are still working on Education and the Sacred, but especially on the magazine, Solaris! Yes, you help would be very valuable!

I wish you good health and keep that energy that allows you to follow in the footsteps of Srila Prabhupada.

HpS - Gracias!!

Hare Krishna dear Maharaja,

AGTSP, PAMHO.

Aqui tiene el email y teléfono del Director del Instituto Universitario de las Ciencias de las Religiones de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid:

Fernando Luis Amerigo Cuervo-Arango: [email protected]; Teléfono: 91 394 5539

Secretario Instituto Universitario Ciencias de las Religiones:

Enrique Santos Marinas: [email protected]; Teléfono: 91 394 5301; http://ucm.academia.edu/EnriqueSantosMarinas

No pude conseguir sus WhatsApp. No quisieron darme sus teléfonos móviles.

También tienen una revista: Ilu, Revista de Ciencias de las Religiones: https://www.ucm.es/iucr/revistas

A Su servicio,

Diego

HpS - Somos confudidos. Tengo dos nombres. Marco y Diego. Estuvimos visitando al Director con quien????? Biodata de ambos Marco y Diego????? Gracias la informacion!!! Esperamos utilizamos.

Tue, Mar 17, 2020 Hanumatpresaka Swami wrote:

AgtSP. Paoho. We have seen your two large books on NOI, An Ocean of Gauras prema amrta krpa. We have been studying and teaching NOI for decades. We have developed study guides, PowerPoint shows. From Intro to Bh. Vedanta. Your books are a great resource. If we can be of any help to you or know more about your projects let us know.

Hanumatpresaka Swami. 

On Saturday, March 21, 2020 Srimati Dasi wrote:

Hare Krishna, Hanumat Presaka Maharaja,

Please accept my most humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and your service to his educational mission.

So glad you find the Gaura-premamrta-krpa (NOI) books helpful. If senior Vaisnavas like yourself are pleased with my insignificant and imperfect attempts at devotional service, that is my perfection. Many thanks for your kind words of encouragement.

With you in service at Srila Prabhupada’s divine lotus-feet,

Srimati Dasi

P.S. Maharaja I would be very interested in any resources you have developed for teaching NOD, and would be most grateful for soft copies of the same if at all possible. Many thanks.

AGTSP paoho. We have been struggling, struggling, struggling with our institutional efforts to contact Dr. Shamdasani et al to push forward our dialog between Jung and the Bhagavata. Bhati Vijnana Swami told us once, "Jung is essential for our preaching!" but so many difficulties. So, we are finally just writing a letter from our actual lowly position to him with copy to esteemed!!! Professor Bernardo Nante.

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Esteemed Prof. Shamdasani,

We hope you remember us. We were the Bengali Sannyasi who gave you the Laddus and a copy of our magazine, Solaris, when you were on stage in Buenos Aires with the very poweful Prof. Bernardo Nantes. Later we were able to participate in the programs in Cordoba.

We have been developing East-West bridges with National Museum of India, Govenors of West Bengal, three day excellent Seminars on Contribution of Ancient India Toward Making a Better World,

National Library of Peru, Psychology and the Sacred,

San Marcos University (oldest in the Western hemisphere), Lima,

And ISKCON (now with one million members).

Our most active title is "Science, Psyche and Spirituality: The Encounter of Prof. C. G. Jung with the Mysticism of Ancient India".

We would love to converse with you for any given time, but we feel that you are far too busy for that, and would like to know if there is anyone you can recommend who is conversant with Jung's cosmology, development of this ideas, and would resonate with integrating these with Indian, Caitanya Vaisnavism, for general illumination of this world.

As a common academic standard there are texts such as Prof. David Haberman's translation of the 15th century, Bhakti-rasa-amrta-sindhu, of Rupa Goswami and of course, our Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami's, translations.

We will be in Argentina in April and hope to continue work in this area with Prof. Bernardo Nantes et al. He has been essential inspiration to us, and guided us most recently, to "Jung in India". Of course, in this effort we have read "Jung and the Making of Modern Psychology" et al.

Thank you so much for any time and direction in this matter.

(Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, after reviewing all of the major Western philosophers commented with some intensity, that amongst all of them Carl Jung seemed to have the most common sense!)

Hanumatpresaka Swami (Prof. Huber H. Robinson)

NIOS (North American Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies)