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ASA Lectures on-line & Visit Vrindavan

7 years ago by srinath in Personal Sadhana Reports, Special Category B

Hare Krishna Dear Guru Maharaja

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

Thanks to Dhruva prabhu, we were able to get your lectures and photos from Australia on Facebook. Hope you are getting some rest in India after the busy schedule down under.

I am travelling to India in December to get my work visa stamped. My mother has been wanting to go to Vrindavan for some time now and I have never been there either as I have never felt qualified enough to go to Vraj alone. Radhika Raman prabhu is also there in India during that time and said he can take us to Vrindavan. I wanted to request your blessings and shelter for our visit to Vrindavan so that we may go to the Dham in the proper mood.

My company's facility in SLC is shutting down in June 2018 and they laid off many people. Fortunately by Krishna's mercy, I have been offered relocation to Richardson, TX. It is about 20 minutes from Dallas. On one hand I feel relieved that I still have a job and on the other, I want to look for a job in SLC as I have very nice association here. Radhika Raman prabhu is only a 1.5 hours away and Boise is 4.5 hrs from here. Moving to Richardson seems the logical choice career wise as I like the work I am doing in my company and they value me a lot, but I am not able to make that decision easily.

Gurudev, please guide me on how I should proceed. 

I have also uploaded lectures of yours that I had and most of them from IDT to a common soundcloud account - https://soundcloud.com/user-938973912

I request all my godbrothers and godsisters to send the lectures they have to [email protected] so that I can upload them to the soundcloud account and have all the lectures at the one place.

Your servant

Srinatha Krsna dasa

HpS - Hare Krsna. AGTSP Paoho. Thank you for the letter. Best wishes for visiting Vraja. It is very covered by the bright glare of Kali-yuga, Bollywood, materialism, but with some mercy from Srila Prabhupada you can see behind that.

Richardson sounds nice if it is just twenty minutes from Dallas ISKCON. Nice devotees there. Also taking association of Radhika-Ramona Das can be nice also. Read the Damodara lila story in the 10th cannot of whether M. Yasoda should have stopped giving her milk to Krsna or let the pot of milk boil over.

Saturday workshop

7 years ago by hps in Special Category B

Hare Krishna
We are sitting alone in a room in ISKCON Kolkata after just having listened to the Saturday morning ASA Srimad Bhagavatam workshop recording, SB 7.5B, from Startmeeting.com.
Of course it is extremely difficult for us wandering miscreants to get internet connection etc but the motivation to get the association of devotees is so powerful.
Thank you.
We were enlightened by M. Sundara-Radhika DD's presentation and then the comments from the devotees were practical and heart warming. We hope LAD's cold improves.
Our first principle is just get association. Go to the Sunday Feast. Then later, for members of ISKCON the requirement is daily SB class. We have tried to develop this in our part of ISKCON and gone as far as we can considering or Ashrama and the mercy of others. So next step is to approach our GBC man, Badri-Narayan Swami and his help.
SB 1.1.1 - This SB focuses on the highest truth, reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all.
In the end we must all go to Srila Prabhupada for any direction, intelligence and strength.
Our respects to every one. Two weeks more and we can join on line.
Anjaneya, Hanuman Ji, Ki Jay.
 

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ASIATIC SOCIETY - 30TH October

7 years, 1 month ago by hps in Special Category B

Esteemed Dr. S B Chakrabarti
 General Secretary
 The Asiatic
 Society
 1, Park Street
 Kolkata
 700016
 
We are looking forward to meeting with you and other members of the Society with the greatest enthusiasm on the 30th. We have just arrived in Kolkata after an intense 27-hours of travel from Australia. The ISKCON mission at Albert Road is being very kind in hosting us with all accomodation and help. Out India phone number is now working well: 880058 67 45 so please do not hesitate to contact us by call or texting at your convenience.
Is it possible for the Society to arrange for presenting a Power Point show on our topic? I will come with the show on a USB drive so only a computer and projector would be needed if that is possible.
Though they are also religious institutions, both our ISKCON community and the Gaudiya Matha et al have very keen scholars who have interest in the topic to be presented. Will it in anyway be an inconvenience for the So

Viplavah -Urmilla Devi Dasi

7 years, 1 month ago by hps in Special Category B

HpS - ASA -  Follows our letter in response to Urmilla Devi Dasi's article on the Philosophy of Education for the next issue of 'Viplavah'.

_____________________________

HpS - Hare Krsna!    Thank you all very much. We just got back from an intense tour of Australia and two one hour sessions with Prana Das.
Now we are in Kolkata and looks like we shall be able to get some good work done.
On this tour we met and have corresponded with Bala-govinda Das of Pune and have considerable confidence in him as an editor for this much needed ISKCON book on Phil. Ed.
We will see him here in the next few days and can probably get some more things nailed down on the book.
We read the attached article to our great delight and several things stand out.
1. This is a big task, the 'Philosophy of Education' and this article for 'Viplavah' can serve very well in that development.
2. It is an extremely important task. Our community, ISKCON, are very often people who can apply intelligent ideas in practical life.
3. As Acting Editor for this issue (and why not have others be Acting Editor for following issues (as we look for an Editor with a One Year Contract)) I think the article is fine to be published as it is but ...
Seems it needs a header that will give little introduction to the Author, explains that it is an extract from a longer Phil. of Ed. that is xxx (30-pages?) long, Section Headings are put in with an informal Table of them at the front. It seems that definite topics are being handles eg. Teacher Qualification, so just put a Section Heading. If you all can do this and even then edit it a little bit as you put those Headers in that would be great, or our Editorial Staff of Apes and Goats can do it here.
4. How to contact and serve the Author's service.
5. There are no direct citations from ISO nor BG, so maybe just a word that this is a very camera-flash summary, taste, of the real work where the refined relationship with Sastra is presented.
6. The audience seems to be self declared in the beginning as "Vedic Learners", which I guess would also give us followers of other Indian traditions and even Buddhists, but the definition of terms within the article seems that it is being written for a wider audience. Our article starts with the perspective of the Britannica and the history of Phil. Ed. in the West as a perspective.
Does your final article relate the material to Western educators such as Piaget et al?
7. I will write the 'Message from the Editor' after all the material is assembled and can include some little comments on the article like these there.
8. We have several comments that are related to specific content. Very stimulating article and topic.
Only one line is so unclear to us that we want ask for clarification: "Any learning that cannot...". Do you mean to drop the 'Any', and include topics outside the nine processes in education?
Thank you. So far the Journal has received a lot of reaction, mostly asking for more, but some offering suggestions for direction and limits.

Man Making

7 years, 1 month ago by hps in Special Category B
Hare Krsna!!
Esteemed Prana Das,
Thank you for the extremely stimulating and informative time while here in Australia.
1. Our Hamlet and Arjuna word document and power point show for your school are in our archives at our web site, www.jayarama.us. Look for "wcl-2princes...". "wcl" is an abbreviation we use for "world classical literature".
2. I was going to record an interview with you to get an easy article for this wonderful book NIOS is producing, "Education in Ancient India and Man Making in Modern Times, Siksa-drsa", but the work we did was more fundamental and I think I now have a better perspective on you contribution. Can you answer the following questions in a format that we can publish in the book?
a) What has been your life in education, both formal, external degrees, work experience; and internal motivation, realization. How do these relate to the title of the book? Brief.
b) What have been the principles and practical advice in terms of the title of the book that you can extract from your above mentioned experience for developing man making in modern times, specifically how your ISKCON as both an institution and community of collegues would fit into this.
Thank you. Even a draft would be helpful. We can work on it together and use it for the book and also other efforts.
HpS
Hare Krsna!!
Esteemed Prana Das,
Thank you for the extremely stimulating and informative time while here in Australia.
1. Our Hamlet and Arjuna word document and power point show for your school are in our archives at our web site, www.jayarama.us. Look for "wcl-2princes...". "wcl" is an abbreviation we use for "world classical literature".
2. I was going to record an interview with you to get an easy article for this wonderful book NIOS is producing, "Education in Ancient India and Man Making in Modern Times, Siksa-drsa", but the work we did was more fundamental and I think I now have a better perspective on you contribution. Can you answer the following questions in a format that we can publish in the book?
a) What has been your life in education, both formal, external degrees, work experience; and internal motivation, realization. How do these relate to the title of the book? Brief.
b) What have been the principles and practical advice in terms of the title of the book that you can extract from your above mentioned experience for developing man making in modern times, specifically how your ISKCON as both an institution and community of collegues would fit into this.
Thank you. Even a draft would be helpful. We can work on it together and use it for the book and also other efforts.
HpS

Art and the Sacred

7 years, 1 month ago by hps in Special Category B, Sankirtana / Temple Activity Reports
“Art and the Sacred, Bighting Beans”
HpSwami – We would say that the following dialog between Albert and Bosco would be stimulating for a Tibetan Buddhist concerned wth sacred art as well as we Bengali Vaisnavas.
We would see at least three kinds of sacred art: That which is a sacred object in and of itself, like sacred calligraphy; sacred art that is an iconografic or symbolic representation of the sacred and finally, sacred art that takes us to the sacred. Below we ask if you agree is the first basis for sacred art of the third category.
From the Bible we hear, “Fear of God is the beginning of knowledge”.
So, is fear of God the beginning of art?
We didn’t eliminate God from the  equation, we just marginalized him.
What do you mean, asked Bosco?
I mean that we wanted to continue to enjoy this bodily existence.
The body doesn’t get diseases, the body is a disease, replied Albert with disgust.
Are you sure of that said Bosco.
Yes, said Albert. Bob Bickford who was a tender of a wine bar in Sausalito told us that his body had never done anything nice for him so why should he do anything nice for his body.
Albert, Hmmm!
Bosco, https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/13/8-12, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-
duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; “One should try to understand the distress of accepting birth, death, old age and disease. There are descriptions in various Vedic literatures of birth. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the world of the unborn, the child’s stay in the womb of the mother, its suffering, etc., are all very graphically described. It should be thoroughly understood that birth is distressful. Because we forget how much distress we have suffered within the womb of the mother, we do not make any solution to the repetition of birth and death. Similarly at the time of death there are all kinds of sufferings, and they are also mentioned in the authoritative scriptures. These should be discussed. And as far as disease and old age are concerned, everyone gets practical experience. No one wants to be diseased, and no one wants to become old, but there is no avoiding these. Unless we have a pessimistic view of this material life, considering the distresses of birth, death, old age and disease, there is no impetus for our making advancement in spiritual life.”