Letters to the editor

They are trying to make a Strategy for Preaching in the Region. Here are our suggestions on Strategy Development and an entry in our ASA Encyclopedia, VAD,

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The management model that we have is based on a celestial message from Lord Balarama while we were sitting at Rama/ghata during the Braja Mandala Parikarama with Lokanatha Swami and later confirmed when one disciple gave us, "From Good to Great" which was a key text that Micron was using in their management training courses. 1. Who am I?    What are my inspirations,duties, in the current situation, project.  Takes introspection, Japa to answer this question. Separate youself from the environement. What is my real nature, passion, pleasure in deeloping this project. We started the North American Mnistry of Education Meetings and agan and again we would lose our way, and then stop and get our feet on the ground with this questions.  2. Who are we?   Can you find anybody else who has answered the first question? It is rare. most people are working on the guidance of others or reacting to the environement. If you do then get a common motivation. Eg. I am a school teacher. I am a school admiistrator. I am a school building maintenance man.  Then obviously ...  3. What's the Plan?   After 1 & 2 it is easy to make 3, but now it is based on clear personal character and motivations, and clear team relations and motivations abilities.  4. What do we need?   If the plan is clear then the materials needed are clear. Eg. We are going to start a primary school in Houston. The families are a little dibursed. We need two medium size school busses and drives.  Who am I? Who are we? What is the plan? What do we need?

Hey, Prabhu, my father gave me an office and $55,000.

Great!!!  ..... what do we do???     What's the plan???

So often we start with the resources and work backwards. I saw a plan for New Vraja Mandala, the Spanish rural project that had an elaborate plan to the extent of three dimensional physical models of the property, but when questioned, not ONE of the people involved personally wanted to participate in the project, but -they thought it was a GREAT plan-?

We are pretty fixed in a Full Morning and Evening Program. Without those we have no basis for planning stuff. We check our mail to see what others want and our own motivation is to follow the inspiration we receive from chanting HK/HR at the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada from as deeply as we can.   We can adjust to work with other's motivation but our own nature is to look for and produce cultural, artistic and logical expressions of Krsna consciouness and connect those with ISKCON.  For example we are connecting with Harvard University, London School of Medicine, Peruvan and India Fine Arts Academy on this issue of Jungian psychology and the Bhagavata Of course this results in them hearing the wonderful ideas of Srila Rupa Goswami and then we hope readin… I feel we will not develop an ETERNAL, UNIVERSAL strategy, but one for this Campaign, like Alexander against the Persians or Hannibal agains the Romans on their penninsula. Then another one later.

Education and the Sacred 2019-2020

2019 November 27, Santiago, Chile,

We, Hanumatpresaka Swami (Prof. H. H. Robinson) and other NIOS members, have basically rounded the corner in this 2019 Education and the Sacred tour passing through Spain, India and South America. This tour has focused on developing the 2020 event of the same name. It has been a lot of hard work and excellent results.

Of course, we always want to thank the members and institutions of ISKCON, Founder Acharya His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, for their support and active help without which this tour would have been very difficult.

We have personal confirmation of participation from:

·       Universidad Complutence (Center for the Scientific Study of Religions), Madrid,

·       Bhaktivedanta Research Center, Kolkata, Mumbai, New York,

·       San Marcos University (Center for Asian Studies), Pontifical Catholic University and Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University (Prof. Juan Dejo), Lima, Peru,

·       Waldorf and Montessori schools, Peru,

·       Universidad del Salvador and Fundacion Vocacion Humana (Prof. Bernardo Nante), Buenos Aires,

·       Pontifical Catholic University (Center for Study of Aesthetics), Santiago, Chile,

and several other excellent, decorated artists, scholars, religionists and institutions.

The events in these mentioned places during this tour have been super excellent. Very specifically in Lima, San Marcos University hosted Education and the Sacred with an exhibition-fair of one week, and three nights of formal academic and cultural presentations. During these presentations Prof. Miguel Polo presented the Papal Bulletin on Ecology, Juan Dejo on the history of learning intellectual discrimination in spiritual issues from pre-Socaratic times up to the founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit), Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Prof. Hector Bejar on the apparent loss of spirituality when modern life is carefully compared to traditional cultures, ourselves on Learning Ecstasy as a goal of education and many others.

Now we will go back to Lima to begin to make final decisions for our journal, Solaris, and events in this project for next year.

We will approach Prof. Shonu Shyamdasani and the Philemon Foundation (Jungian) and Prof. Francis Clooney (Director, Harvard School of Divinity) for their participation and finish in Mexico.a

Hare Krishna, ISKCON being a multi guru association we have multi guru opinion and conclusions.

ASA - Yes. The Six Goswami's would meet and discuss philosophy, strategy, no?

Some say the initiation must be done by a liberated soul, because only a liberated soul can take you back to Godhead. So who is doing the actual guidance? Srila Prabhupada or mantra guru is initiating on behalf of Srila Prabhupada? 

ASA - From what I have heard, Prabhupada's comment was that taking iniation formally, and receiving instruction formally or informally from him directly of from his disciple was both fully potent. The candidate, by the mercy of God and his own effort, has to do the work of seeing if the disciple-guru is bona fide. Not to any great level. Just to a practical level for the current level of work. Eg. is this disciple qualified to teach me how to put on Tilak at this beginning level. O.K.??

And regarding the initiation on behalf of Srila Prabhupada this guru is all for it absorbing the RITVIKS!

ASA - What does "absorbing the RITVIKS" mean???! Sounds a little sinister?? https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fm.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FM%2FMV5BYzI4NmVhNmItYzAzNC00ZTJmLWExMjAtMjBjN2VjYWVmMDQwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMzAxNjg3MjQ%40._V1_UY268_CR5%2C0%2C182%2C268_AL_.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Ftitle%2Ftt0063350%2F&docid=2VHr1sTf-EsPEM&tbnid=etfcCak0NsE4KM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwj4g4bLiIbmAhUOIrkGHTfPDWMQMwhhKAEwAQ..i&w=182&h=268&bih=713&biw=1235&q=the%20night%20of%20the%20living%20dead&ved=0ahUKEwj4g4bLiIbmAhUOIrkGHTfPDWMQMwhhKAEwAQ&iact=mrc&uact=8

Punjabi Warrior - https://youtu.be/-bpdoMqzRAk

ASA - We started the video but is too slow for us. Can you just summarize in twenty words or less??

What is the diksa monkey gurus HPS opinion OR UNDERSTANDING? Is he taking disciples on behalf of Srila Prabhupada and just acting as Siksa? Or HPS is a liberated soul and taking disciples as his disciples?

ASA - We answered in the Guru tattva link. We are basically basing our Guru tattva on NOI. At the end of Text Five, "In this verse Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī advises..." we understand that things can go on just as when Srila Prabhupada was here. In one letter I remember that is exactly what he suggested. We don't present ourselves as being any more liberated or qualified than Madhyama adhikari, second class devotee, so we give advice, Siksa, and perform the rituals, and accept disciples from that platform. We only accept people as disciples if they have personally accept Srila Prabhupada as an Uttama adhikari Guru.

As we know the history it was hard to get the beads to Srila Prabhupada while he was traveling so he authorized Jayatirtha, Brahmananda, Bhagavan et al to chant on the beads and Nitai or others were chosing the names often and recommendation from Temple President was enough for Prabhupada to accept someone as a disciple.

As far as I know Jayathirtha chanted on my beads, Bhakta Das recommended me for first initiation and Nita Das chose my name. Whose disciple am I. Ha! Ha! Ha Ray!!

Here are some videos of Sankirtan in Yuba City California where I try to distribute Srila Prabhupadas books to Punjabi’s and Muslims.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud6qx4C9McE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmWXwF78t9M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud6qx4C9McE

ASA - Really cool!!!! Photo of your self? Our fotos attached. Inside and out. Search for "Godbrother" on vedabase.io gives lot of nice instructions! Very nice videos!!!

And if I call a rubber stamped guru bogus because of having to sign a gag order of the GBC IS ok..🙏🏾

Did HPS sign a gag order that can be used against his guru license and can be suspended anytime?

HpS - ASA --- Hare Krsna. AGTSP.... Esteemed Sac Singh. Can we know a little more about you? Your questions seem to cover a lot of ground to give very specific answers.

Did you read our explanation of what is understanding of how we are giving initiation? It is at http://www.jayarama.us/kd/guru-tattva.txt . It is based on the NOI but I think it is quite complete enough for practical purposes.

O.K.?

I don't have the connection to look at the videos!!

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We have met in Sacramento and Berkeley. Currently I am studying the Iskcon Guru's business system of initiations which are confusing as hell, because each guru has a different understanding and the GBC police is making GURU's sign gag orders and they can suspend an ISKCON guru licence and ban, so the rubber stamped ISKCON GURUS are under the subjection of the GBC and not free to speak or act against a system which is not proper.

ASA - I didn't have to sign and "gag order" that I know of? I explain things as I understand them here and get some reactions, but not threat of annhiliation. For sure Krsna ksetra Das and I have similar ideas. With Jayapataka Swami of course we have variety but I personally asked him in class about six years ago if one had to be an Acharya with a BIG "A" to be a Guru in ISKCON and he said, no? The big A was Krsna's perogative.

After reading that guru tattva page. It seems two people are initiating. One is HPS and the other is Srila Prabhupada? So Srila Prabhupada is taking the initiate back to Godhead according to the article on this website! If Srila Prabhupada is taking HPS and HPS's disciples back to Godhead, it would mean HPS is unqualified to take you back to Godhead!

HpS - Reading and reading and then discussing with Harvard Oxford Scholars, Hrdayananda Goswami and Radhika-ramana Das they said the same thing that I concluded. We are not a ritualistic Sampradaya, Diksa Sampradaya. Our line passes through Siksa. So, I take that I am a Diksa guru because I "initiate according to the regulations of the śāstras", CC Madhya 8.128, and this is done under a system accepted by Srila Prabhupada. As long as a Madhyama Adhikari guru is following an Uttama Adhikari guru. we can follow him, no? Get Srila Prabhupada from his books, paramatma, other disciples etc!!!!

Why even bother with HPS formal initiation, why not take shelter of Srila Prabhupada directly ? Why doesn't HPS give initiation on behalf of Srila Prabhupada and say you take Srila Prabhupada as your guru because he is taking you back to Godhead, I HPS am just doing a formal duty to connect you to the Acharya.

HpS - We have explained our ideas on this above. Why not boy and girl just exchange garlands, and accept they are married? Seems O.K. in some situations.

This doesn't make sense..the initiating GURU (HPS) is not fit to take you back to godhead but he is initiating and saying Srila Prabhupada is going to take you back to Godhead.

HpS - Rather seems quite clear to me and hope the same to those who I am initiating. Just as Bhakta Das did the ceremony and recommended me and Jayatirtha Chanted on my beads. Krsna is God. Srila Prabhupada is our Guru as Founder Acharya and from those two perspectives we can have practical understanding how others in ISKCON represent Srila Prabhupada. You are working as Siksa guru in the videos. Why not just put the books there and walk away. (Pretty fiendish argument, no?)

IF HPS acts as siksa guru and sets an ideal example and you take a vow to chant Hare Krishna - 16 rounds and regulative principles, you don't need HPS but HPS can act as Siksa or a conduit of connection to Srila Prabhupada the Acharya.

HpS ._. Answered above, no? We are not opposed to people having as much direct relationship as they can with Srila Prabhupada. We are just trying to act as one channel. If that involves be a link in the formality of initiation. O.K. If that involves explaining the books O.K. but our only desire is to just be a transparent via media to Srila Prabhupad and Krsna.

Right now I am reading Srila Prabhupada's dialectic spiritualism, an awesome read where he defeats bogus western systems of thinking etc.

HpS - We base like 90% of our current preaching on his las comment on Carl Jung. We are finding a really vibrant community to approach for communication Rupa Siksa.

Our "first disciple", Raktaka Das, was from Fazilka, District Ferozpur. We, he, had a very clear, practical understanding or our relationship with each other, other ISKCON devotees Guru nanak and Srila Prabhupada.

Thank you for your time. Has been very nice conversation. Maybe if we go anyfurther we can reset the history and just start with new questions and answers.

Dear Hanumath Presaka Swami, please accept my humbles reverences, all Glories to Srila Prabupada and his sincere followers! 

How is it going? I hope you are well in all aspects. It has been a month since you were in Madrid giving a lecture about Jung at the University and I am writing to keep in touch.

The director of the Institute of Religion Sciences of the Complutense University of Madrid told me the day of your lecture about the possibility of formalizing relations with NIOS by signing a collaboration agreement between Institutes. In the next few days I will continue talking with him to know the details, I will keep you informed.

HpS - AGTSP! Very nice to hear from you??? PhD??? Japa??? We have had Convenios with San Marcos University in Peru. What about Universidad Valencia where Yadu Swami is working? The project could be Education and the Sacred. We heard that the current minister of education in Chile wants to include religion in the curriculum again so people can become peaceful but the political parties so that they do not want it because religion makes people stupid. Jagat guru das commented that before when it was a state religion, catholicism that seemed to be true. They were only teacher catholic dogma and the priests were abusing the children, but what we could do is cooperate with Complutense to design a curriculum that we consider religion from a scientific perspective, rational, empiricism .... what is matter, what is atma, what is paramatma, which would include different relgious representatives ini the curriculum design. It could included an overview of different religions and relgion in contrast to other philosophies of nature such as science.

I would also like to contact the Superior School of Dramatic Arts for when you visit us again in Spain.

HpS - Yes, that is one of our strongest areas even within academic perspective. Let us stay in touch on that. We will do the same in Peru next week. Maybe we could have an international collaboration on the history of drama theory India, Greece, London and Madrid.

Hamlet, Arjuna and Sancho Panzo!

On a personal level I am singing 16 rounds a day for a month,

HpS - My God. Satan is weeping in frustration!!

I am reading the BG and NOD and my intention is to begin to follow the 4 regulatory principles strictly to be able to ask you to iniciate me in singing the Holy Names.

HpS - Different people have different attractions. Some for political power, some to dominate the opposite sex, some intoxication!!!! "If you want to get free from intoxication, take the austerity to cook nice lunch for Krsna", Tom Brown

I want to move to an apartment to live alone to be able to prepare and offer food to Krsna and follow my Sadana without family disturbances, what do you advise me?

HpS - You seem to be one step ahead of us. Try it for two months?

I want to thank you for your patience and time.

Please accept my humble obeisances.

Hare Krsna !!

HpS - Thank you for reading the Kapi Dhvaja. It goes again tomorrow.

Nov 1, 2019

GauranHare Krsna, Gauranga et al,

AGTSP paoho.

We are still alive. After Noida we raced through Madrid with very strong program in the department of philosophy at Complutence University in Madrid.

Then here in Peru we have barely been able to breath with the Education and the sacred symposium. Now we are finishing everything to pack and fly all night to Argentina.

Already we are planning 2020 with Harvard University, University of London, San Marcos (the oldest university in the Western world), BRC et al.

The heart of this is learning the SB, no?

In the next few days we hope to get the time to put everything more in order for the next step.

I propose that our groups of Bh Vai students in San Jose and Houston et al study your sixth canto study materials on line. Are they on line? Then offer suggestions for the evaluation questions. Then I propose they go back and do the same for the 1st and 2nd Cantos.

This will be a little work for them but it seems to us, are we wrong, that they need this little more austerity to be up to the standard established by our first batch in North America.

O.K??

Other topic. Have you had any more contact with the people who are proposing to automate the Vidyapitha studies?  Did you get our last suggestions about a basic global evaluation including personally evaluated lectures and online automated examinations?a darshana, Bali m., Srivasa, Hari-lila Das,

Esteemed Radhika-ramana Das, Srinatha Krsna Das,

Hare Krsna.

AGTSP.  Paoho. It is 5.17PM here in Santiago. Spring is coming and the days are long and even hot. We ate too much at breakfast and too much yogurt and fruit just now. Yogurt gives us headaches at night and even now we have it. Sunset is about 7.30PM.

Yogurt at night we hear destroys your brains.

We are half way organized.

We just finished our edit (ediot) of Dr. Gupta's edit of the TPP for Text One.  Hope it is O.K. Several more edits done (before we reject the entire project?).

Lord Acton had a 60,000 book personal reference library, but he never wrote too much. Critics say he know too much and could not synthesize it properly and didn't want to write mediocre stuff, so he never wrote too much.

Yet just one phrase of his has made him immortal.

"Power tend to corrupt and absolute power (tends) to corrupt absolutely."  Then not cited much but it goes on like, "and almost a powerful men have been bad men."

NOTE - Prahlada nrsmha Das has got the NOI up at vedabase.io in Spanish!!

At your service.