Letters to the editor

HpS - AGTSP. We have just read RGD's excellent letter. We agree with everything except we are still squirming on making it a Journal for all of ISKCON Education. We really, really, really feel that it should be a Western Hemisphere, USA Canada, English language journal, that includes ISKCON news and views from the Western Hemisphere and the rest of the world.

This is a view from my perspective on the elephant, the backside.

I think that will make it work, make other Continents work and then from that chorus of maybe five Journals we will get an overarching Journal.

We are humorously fanatical about this, but don't think it should really adversely influence the production of the Journal. We are going to do this and our copy will be ready for our circle as the related date copy of our "Kapi Dhvaja".

We will write to the participants of the Seattle Symposium for short sumarries of their presentations with references for more information if any readers wish to contact them.

RGD - Can you contact, twist the tails, of the two other working groups: Accreditation and Curriculum Development, for their reports for the Journal?

Again we hit the USA 27th September running and should be able to talk on phone by that time. This Journal will be wonderful.

From: Ramanan Nagarajan <[email protected]>
To: 'Vinode Vitthala' <[email protected]> 
Cc: 'HpS (HHR)' <[email protected]>; 'Sesa Prabhu' <[email protected]>; 'Jagad Guru Das' <[email protected]>; 'Nrtya Kisori' <[email protected]>; 'Indira Meshram' <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2017 1:36 PM
Subject: RE: ISKCON Education Journal
 

Dear Prabhuji,

Hare Krishna. Dandavats. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I had a call with Hanumat Presak Maharaj sometime ago. We are happy to have Mukunda Datta Prabhu being part of the team for editing and related services for the journal. We were only considering that he is presently in India (that’s what maharaj told). So we should clarify and also be prepared that whilst he is part of the team, we would keep moving forward with our publishing just in case if we are NOT able to get Mukunda Datta Prabhu’s involvement due to time constraints. This is in the case of first journal, and since we will be publishing every quarter we can engage him in the future issues as well.

We also discussed the following:

• First issue will be a printed and also e-version (which we had discussed) but then we will do the printing regionally. For India, Ramgiridhari will take care of the printing and distribution and for USA maharaj will facilitate for printing and related. Distribution shall be taken up through our appointed 3 regional representatives for USA (Gopi Geetha, Balimardan pr and Visvambara Pr). For south America Jagad Guru Prabhu will take care of the printing and distribution (both the English version of it and also a parallel Spanish version of it).

• Maharaj is proposing the name of the magazine as “Pascatya Desa Tarine - A Journal of the ISKCON Ministry of Education”. If anyone have any other suggestions please share them here. I have few thoughts. I shall think further on this and circulate them tomorrow.

• We have discussed that the first journal being an introductory one can cover about our (recently concluded) Seattle conference and also what we intend to do thru this journal.  We also discussed if we should restrict this journal for North America… we finally discussed and concluded (which we had also agreed before) that this shall be a single global magazine for the ISKCON’s Ministry of Education as we don’t have many team members to run continent wise magazine. If in the future we have more team who can take up regional initiatives we can facilitate them. It is important that the outline of the first magazine should be finalized.

• I had shared with Maharaj that I have got some draft version. I shall share them shortly with everyone. I strongly urge that each of us write down our thoughts on what should go in the Journal in general and if anything specific we wish to have them in the first one.

• We have 20 more days to wrap up the content and the layout of the journal. We are strongly desiring to launch the first journal on Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa Puja day (August 16^th 2017).

Please keep this thread active and lets consolidate our thoughts and enable the content team to finalize them asap.

Nityananda Prabhu,  I will be in Houston between August 17^th and 31^st. Maharaj is also planning to come to Houston then. We were wondering if either you could come to Houston during one of the days or if myself and Maharaj could come to Dallas to chalk out the rest of the 3 issues for the year. This is just a heads up. More details have to be worked out.

Finally, this journal is an important part of our Ministries activities and hence lets make it happen and network all the educational initiatives.

So the immediate TO DO List is:

• Name for the journal – Everyone shall contribute (just in case if we need other names apart from what Maharaj has proposed)
• Outline for the first journal – If possible nominate who will / should provide the content – Everyone can contribute for this.
• Contacting Mukunda Datta Prabhu for being part of the editorial team – Nityananda Prabhu / Maharaj to contact him.

Your servant,

Ramgiridhari Dasa

Hare Krsna, Professor,

Here we are back in Lima, Peru, after about two weeks on Chile.

We have not seen any e-mail or any Text messages from your good self nor any of our Kolkata friends for weeks. We don't know if you got our last letter.

We are in continuous stress and distress but we have learned to ignore it unless it is very, very, bad and just go ahead with the work.

In Chile, the results were past human imagination. We presented, "Hamlet and Arjuna", at the National Library at request from local promoters. The last time we did this theme was about 5-years ago but it seems to have left a lasting impact.

The auditorium was filled. Raul Zurita, the National Poet Laureate, was with us to make his comments. He is an extremely distinguished international scholar who has lived and suffered through the genocides of Latin America, is standing as continuous guest scholar at universities such as Sorbonne and Berkeley. From his appearance he is about 80-years old and as handsome as Cicero.

He also did an acclaimed translation of Hamlet into Spanish. Chile is a country smaller than Bengal that boasts two Nobel Laureates in literature et al.

The program started with Om Bhakti. They are local classical Indian musicians, lead by our disciple who has studied for seven years total in Kolkata and Varanasi. You know the kind of experience I have with classical Indian music and I must say that I have never heard better anywhere.

Then I did our slide show of our constrasts of Arjuna and Hamlet with Raul listening on the stage and then he made his comments on the presentation and read for about 15-minutes from extracts of his translation. Stage program finished with a violin solo by Russian artist who had studied at the Tchaikovsky Institute in Moscow of Bach to match the feelings of the Seminar. It was most excellent with the audience practicall rising to dance with  him.

After this five kinds of Indian sweets and savories in the marble halls of the library fourey. We and the organizers were flooded with comments from heads of culture of the best national T.V. channels etc.

Everyone wants more.

The program on "Jung and the Bhagavat" was even bigger if it can be imaganined.

(Spelling is terrible in this letter, because the computer is geared to Spanish orthography)

Of course, the internal programs with ISKCON Chile, the multitude of personal consultations with friends and disciples who had traveled from Brazil, Panama, Argentina, programs with the Indian Community, Yoga studios, Karate association on Pranayama and Varna-ashrama-dharma etc and the continuous stress from cold made a program in which we were almost hysterical, but we did our little part and now the universities, scholars, all want to know how they can join, "Art and the Sacred", or whatever NIOS will be doing.

We have also been representing ISKCON Board of Education.

Back in Lima, things are even more disorganized than when we left. Not only has the director of the national library changed 3-times but now Sandip Chakravarty has been repositioned to New York. A new gentleman is coming to take his place from Mexico and the Yoga Instructor, Ayam Gupta, a very excellent person, is the interim Ambassador for one month.

We are trying to have another meeting with Ramon today to fix some kind of strategy for what we will do next.

Seems that God, our Ayur-vedic doctor, all are pushing us to stay completely out of management except to field questions that come to us from the field below and we should be calming down, becoming introspective and then putting something in writing.

We have tried to call again and again, but the connection has been hard, and you can see that many times we have just been under too much fire to think straight.   We apologize sincerely and will try to call soon!

We left the ISKCON Chile temple at 1.30AM. At the airport 11-devotees met us and the the line was two blocks long to the check in desks, but we only had hand luggage so we were able to get a Kiosk boarding pass and stayed in the line for one hour to give to/take company from Pancha-tattva Das who was head back to Brazil and had luggage. Then flight to Lima. One night in Alejandro´s house. Met out team of about 15. Looked at the movies clip summary of Psychology and the Sacred 2017. It is O.K. and is now being subtitled by Gandharva Das who is a professor of the history and practice of advertising art.

We saw the English translations of four of the Spanish edition articles of Solaris 2. Again they were abominable, but also perfect, close enough, so I could see the content of the articles, ideas. The ideas are exciting. We want to comment, but I don´t think it is strategic to work on a full publication of Solaris in English this time. I want to send these rough translations to you, Radhika, Dr. Kalyan and some others for your appreciation. There are very fine thinkers in the world and so far Solaris has a definite place to play.

One night in his house in Callao near the airport. Next night we passed in our Lima Central ISKCON temple from where I write how.

It is old and delapindated. Maybe 150-year old adobe building, but very accesible to all the devotees. At 4.30PM we will have meeting of all the local educators to discuss Education with ISKCON in Peru etc. We have challenges integrating the education with the Temple managament structures etc.

One night in Callao.

One in Lima Central.

Tonight back to Callao.

Fly South to Arrequipa for Saturday and one night.

Another night in Callao.

Next night in Cusco the former capital of the Inca Empire where any historian of classical culture would leave his body and return every fifteen minutes looking at the remants and living heritage.

Then 10-days in Cochabamba, Boliva, for a National Winter Festival with us. The devotee there has the UPS (DHL mail) franchise for the country. Is our ISKCON Governing Body Commission (GBC) Regional Supervisor and maybe the most active in Education in South America.

We are promoting Radhika´s mother´s super, super, acclaimed (why not it has at least produced three Oxford scholars) book on Home Schooling, which is now in Spanish as the basis for starting Collective Home Schooling. There are over 125,000 school age children in ISKCON now.

Then one night back in Callao and 36-hours to finish everything in Peru. Next night in the airplane. Eight hours in transit in Mexico City with our scholars and friends and then arrive in Houston at 5PM.

Lecturing, breathing and working there until from Wednesday to Monday and then back to our base in Tennessee. There we will be based until September 27th when we leave for India.

(I can tell you the name of our Travel Director if you want to use him).

INDIA PLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sept

28-2 Oct -- Delhi-Vrndavana

Oct

3-4 Ministry of Education Meetings Ujjain with Rama-giri-dhari Das et al

5-11 Bombay side. Any work for us?

11-21 Australia: Melbourne, Gold Coast, Brisbane.

21-25 Bombay ?

25 - 8th Nov, Kolkata, Manipura side.

How can we be of service to you with this schedule? ?

Although this is a report from a soldier in the field, I hope you can see that some strategy prevails. With NIOS we are looking for our Emperor Ashoka or Constantine to put this scholar-ship into practice. Maybe that will emerge from our meetings with Ramon Mujica. We have an incredible team of world-class motion picture directors, historians of art, Deans of Universities, devoted friends and master.

With ISKCON we are focusing on the proposed quarterly North American Journal on Education.

We finished our 100-pages of Essays for our Internal, ISKCON, Bhakti-vaibhava Diploma and shipped them today. We have to write Grant applications for NIOS within the next few weeks. We have practical relations with Rama-giridhari Das on all this work and we are hoping for your mercy and advice (and all the other readers with whom we share this Report).

Thank you,

Hare Krsna!

HpSwami (Professor H. H. Robinson)

Anjana Suta Academy

CAMP: Avenida Garcilaso de la Vega

Across from National Art Gallery.

Hare Krsna,

Mates!

We just finished the latest revision of our Pada padma, Seminar Notes and will post it at www.JayaRama.us/archives/pdp-csg.docx

How are you?   The stress is much less in Lima, but still we are moving on a higher taste. Our Donkey feels bad, but at heart we are quite clear.

Hare Krsna!

Estamos dejando copia de la traduccion en Espanyol del lbiro de home schooling de la madre arrudha devi dasi con la madre yugala f por medio de abhirama th das como ella y LAD puede revisar la traduccion.  No haz mas copies.

Entonces va a ser disponible a personas quien integran con groupos de estudio para home scholing y vamos a educar nuestras monstrocitos.

From: dhrsta >
To: "[email protected]" > 
Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2017 6:32 PM
Subject: Inquire about educational area of ​​Iskcon Argentina
 

Hare Krsna Maharaja

Accept my obeisances

All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I hope you are well.

HpS - AGTSP!   Can only hope to die an efficient death.

My name is Dhrstaketu das a and I am serving the national board of Iskcon Argentina and we are tackling an educational project.

I have spoken with various educational devotees about educational content, as well as with Mother Isvari dd (BBS) about an organizational structure.

But for me it is important your vision about the relationship that may have the devotees teaching and the administrative area of ​​Iskcon.

What benefit can an educational department have with an administration, such as a temple commission or national board?

What benefit can the existence of a Ministry of National Education have?

What would be the administrative relationship of this Ministry of National Education with a National Board?

Any comments you wish to make Maharaja, will be welcome.

Thank you very much for your valuable contribution to this project.

His servant

Dhrstaketu das a

Villa de Merlo San Luis, Argentina

HpS - Hare Krsna. It is very nice to meet you. We thank Mother Isvari Devi Dasi for helping in this meeting. Please, please, please get into our Blog - www.hps.monkeywarrior.com. I heard you had some difficulties but NOI 3. niscayena.  We cannot handle mail through yahoo in any quantity. The Blog is a wonderful forum. I will post this letter there. 25-more people will read it. If there are details confidential details then we can communicate confidentially. Our phone is +1 209 505 3219. That is a secret, but you can always text us.

The Ministry of Education is organized by the GBC. Its Minister is Sesa Das, very wonderful, intelligent person, lawyer, two nice daughters. Rama-giridhari Das is the Executive Secretary and myself and few others are serving as Members of the Executive Committee. We are just developing Regional Representatives.  Baladeva Das and Param-padam Das have been doing some nice work in this area for some time.

The Regional Representative is the administrative link between the Ministry and the local ISKCON educational programs. They are working to define that role and what is their service.

Of course, a National Education Minister, Ministry, is wonderful. BG, SB are full of educational programs. Sankirtan is education. We might define the areas as:

1. Philosophy and Strategy of Education
2. Books are the Basic - Bh. Sastri, Bh.Vaibhava etc
3. Varna ashrama Dharma Education
4. Early education - pre-school, kinder, primary, secondary, home schooling, Sunday school
5. Higher Education - Studying and Teaching in the Univesities
6. Building a Global Network.

The Ministry can help you develop all of these.

Just ne example of the relation between education and the Local Temple. If the Temple has an excellent school system for children then good Grhastas will move there even at the sacrifice of personal convenience. Then they will look for service for themselves in the Temple.

We will be producing a quarterly journal on education in Spanish starting Janmastami. If we can stay in touch then we can take your contribution.

We will be in Chile from June 6-July 12. Ambarisa Das and others are coming from Argentina so we can get a lot of work done.

So very nice to meet you.

Again please get on our Blog.

Thank you so much. Respets to all the Mahatmas in Argentina ISKCON.

Hare Krishna Gurudeva, please accept my humble obeisances.

All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!!

All Glories to Hanumatpresaka Swami!!

THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM PSYCHOLOGY AND THE SACRED / Bridges between east and west, it’s going well, we already have the program to 95% (It’s missing the name of the presentation of three speakers). In the beginning of the week, Bhaktin Rukmini will translate the entire program to post it here on the blog. Now a brief summary:

MONDAY, JUNE 26th from 6 to 9 p.m.

6:50-7:10        1st Presentation: THE PSYCHE IN THE PSYCHOLOGY AND THE SACRED. Ramón Mujica.

7:10-7:30        2nd Presentation: VEHICLES. Hanumatpresaka Swami

8:00-8:15        3rd Presentation: THE DESIRE IN EXILE: The conditions in which the saint emerges. Rafael Fernández Hart.

8:15-8:30        4th Presentation: LOSS AND RECOVERY:The sacred and the digital <<Pharmakon>>. Víctor J. Krebs.

TUESDAY, JUNE 27th from 9.30 to 1.30 p.m. SUM (Multipurpose room) of the National Library of Peru (BNP). Av. de la Poesía 160, San Borja

1st DISCUSSION GROUP / Speakers.

Héctor Béjar. Topic: UNIVERSALIST VISION OF HUMAN SOLIDARITY.

Luis Ernesto Fodale.  Topic: ……………….

2nd DISCUSSION GROUP / Speakers.

Dolores Chávez. Topic: Three dimensions of spirituality in crisis: The systemic unsustainability.

Walter Ojeda.  Topic: The Genealogical Tree of Jesus as a model of spiritual evolution.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28th from 9.30 to 1.30 p.m. Auditorium of the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences of the UNMSM. Universitaria Avenue, University City.

1st DISCUSSION GROUP / Speakers.

Nureddin Cueva. Topic: The World and the others in the spiritual realization of Islamic Sufism.

Erick Devoto. Topic: The rebirth of the spiritual in the postmodern age.

2nd DISCUSSION GROUP / Speakers.

Miguel Polo. Topic: ……………………………………

Cesar Farias Aseng. Topic: …………………………….

In terms of the budgets for this event, this once, the BNP and the universities give us the auditoriums and we take charge of the advertising, decoration and prasadam. So, we have:

Advertising: 2000 full color hand programs + 1000 personal invitations + 1000 envelopes for the 1000 invitations + 100 posters + 3000 one color handbills: $ 800.

Decoration for the three days: $ 200 (100 the first day, 50 for the second y 50 for the third).

Prasadam for the first day: $ 180

Prasadam for the second and third day: considering that it will be a lunch for about 20 people per day (the Jesuit university is sponsor if it’s coordinated at the the beginning of the year, in the case of San Marcos, they don’t have budgets): $ 250

Transport, photocopies and incidental expenses (that there are always): $ 100

Production of two videos (bilingual) one short (2 or 3 minutes) and other (6 or 9 minutes): $ 300

HpS - So, that is a total of $1830, no?   Of course, this is just 4-weeks before the event and we should have made a Budget before this, but also can understand that you are under great stress due to doing a lot of this work alone.
We will consult with NGD about the Budget, but...  NIOS has already been blessed to make an investment in this excellent project, no?  It was $800 on December 24th through Caturatma - Palika DD. Before the next money can be released then the accounting for that needs to be received.

Thank you so much for you efforts in these areas. We are very grateful that you still deal with us inspite of all of our faults. Except for you and your crew there is no one els doing all this.

In terms of managements with the National Director of the BNP for THE ART and THE SACRED for June and July 2018, before an agreement with many details, the first thing I have proposed is that he accept to reserve the rooms for the following dates:

- From June 14th to July 12th in the exhibition hall a SAMPLE OF SACRED ART of Perú, India and China (there is a consensus that the person indicated to direct this is Ramon Mujica, he agrees).

- From June 21st to July 12th in the HALL of entrance a PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPOSITION OF SACRED ARCHITECTURE.

- From July 2nd to July 6th THE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM OF ART AND THE SACRED in Mario Vargas Llosa Auditorium.

I’m working on the documents they ask for; his secretary and his Director of Image are collaborating. Our aim is that in the June 5th reunion he officially accepts with a letter that the BNP will be the host of the ART AND THE SACRED, so we will know in which other things he will collaborate or if he will only give us the venues.

That is all for now. Hare Krishna Gurudeva, forgive my limitations, your servant, Abhiram Thakur das.

INFORME DE AVANCES  DEL II SIMPOSIO INTERNACIONAL LA PSICOLOGÍA Y LO SAGRADO.

Hare Krishna Gurudeva, por favor acepte mis humildes reverencias.

Todas las Glorias a Srila Prabhupada!!

Todas las Glorias a Hanumatpresaka Swami!!

El II SIMPOSIO INTERNACIONAL LA PSICOLOGÍA Y LO SAGRADO / Puentes entre oriente y occidente viene avanzando bien, ya tenemos el programa listo al 95% (falta el nombre de la ponencia de tres expositores). Comenzando la semana, la madre Rukmini va a traducir todo el programa para publicarlo aquí en el blog. Ahora un breve resumen:

LUNES 26 DE JUNIO de 6 a 9 p.m.

6:50-7:10        1ra Ponencia: LA PSIQUE EN LA PSICOLOGÍA Y LO SAGRADO. Ramón Mujica.

7:10-7:30        2da Ponencia: VEHÍCULOS. Hanumatpresaka Swami.

8:00-8:15        3ra Ponencia: EL DESEO EN EXILIO: Las condiciones en que emerge lo santo.Rafael Fernández Hart.

8:15-8:30        4ta Ponencia: PÉRDIDA Y RECUPERACIÓN. Lo sagrado y el <<Pharmakon>> digital. Víctor J. Krebs.

MARTES 27 DE JUNIO de 9.30 a 1.30 p.m. SUM (Sala de Usos Múltiples) de la Biblioteca Nacional del Perú-BNP. Av. De la Poesía 160, San Borja.

1er CONVERSATORIO / Expositores.

Héctor Béjar. Tema: Visión Universalista de la Solidaridad Humana.

Luis Ernesto Fodale.  Tema: ……………….

2do CONVERSATORIO / Expositores.

Dolores Chávez. Tema: Tres dimensiones de la espiritualidad en crisis:  la insostenibilidad sistémica.

Walter Ojeda.  Tema: El Árbol Genealógico de Jesús como modelo de evolución espiritual.

MIÉRCOLES 28 DE JUNIO de 9.30 a 1.30 p.m. Auditorio de la Facultad de letras de y Ciencias Humanas de la UNMSM. Av. Universitaria S/N, Ciudad Universitaria.

1er CONVERSATORIO / Expositores.

Nureddin Cueva. Tema: El mundo y los otros en la realización espiritual del sufismo islámico.

Erick Devoto. Tema: El renacimiento de lo espiritual en la era Posmoderna

2do CONVERSATORIO / Expositores.

Miguel Polo. Tema: ……………………………………

Cesar Farias Aseng. Tema: …………………………….

En cuanto a los presupuestos para este evento, esta vez, la BNP y las universidades ponen los auditorios y nosotros ponemos la publicidad, la decoración y el prasadam. Entonces tenemos:

Publicidad: 2000 programas de mano a todo color + 1000 invitaciones personales + 1000 sobres para las 1000 invitaciones + 100 afiches + 3000 volantes a un color:  $ 800.

Decoración para los tres días: $ 200 (100 el primer día, 50 para el 2do y 50 para el 3ero).

Prasadam para el primer día: $ 180

Prasadam para el 2do y 3er día: considerando que van a ser un almuerzo para unas 20 personas cada día (para que la universidad jesuita sea sponsor eso se ve al comienzo de año, en el caso de San Marcos ellos no tienen presupuesto): $ 250

Transporte, fotocopias, gastos imprevistos (que siempre hay): $ 100

Producción de dos videos (Bilingüe) uno corto de (2 a 3 minutos) y otro de (6 a 9) minutos: $ 300

En cuanto a las gestiones con el Director Nacional de la BNP para El ARTE y lo SAGRADO para junio y julio de 2018, antes que un convenio con muchos detalles lo primero que le he propuesto es que acepte reservar los ambientes para las siguientes fechas:

- Del 14 de junio al 12 de julio en la sala de exhibiciones una MUESTRA DE ARTE SAGRADO de Perú, India y China (hay consenso que la persona indicada para dirigir esa curación sea Ramón Mujica, él está de acuerdo)

- Del 21 de junio al 12 de julio en el HALL de ingreso una EXPOSICIÓN FOTOGRÁFICA DE ARQUITECTURA SAGRADA.

- Del 2 al 6 de julio SIMPOSIO INTERNACIONAL EL ARTE Y LO SAGRADO en el Auditorio Mario Vargas Llosa.

Estoy avanzando con los documentos que piden, su secretaria y su Director de Imagen están colaborando, nuestra meta es que en la reunión del 5 de junio acepte oficialmente con una carta que la BNP sea la sede de EL ARTE Y LO SAGRADO, luego veremos qué otra cosa pone o si solo pone los locales.

Esto es todo por ahora. Hare Krishna Gurudeva, disculpe mis limitaciones, su sirviente, Abhiram Thakur das.

HpS - ASA - NIOS --- Muchas gracias Senyor!  Somos todos llena de faultas. Muy bien. Minimizando y adelantanda nuestras buen cualidades.  Cart a ido a NGD con presupueto. Necesita reportaje del inversion anterior.  Gran evento. Todo el mundo puede participar.