All Glories to Srila Prabhupada,

Hare Krishna Dear Guru Maharaja,

I have been far from this blog for a long time, practically since I accepted the temple president service here in Chile, maybe because of my time management problems, which are being addressed now little by little.

I came here today to share this quote from Mark Twain. My thought is that Mark Twain is American. NIOS is North American. And he travelled to India. NIOS travelled to India but it was established in the USA.

The year when those writings came to Twain's mind is interesting too.

“India is the cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great-grandmother of tradition”

In the original paragraph, he makes even more valuable statements. I have the ebook with me, so I will share with you the whole original paragraph too here:

“This is indeed India! the land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendor and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps, of tigers and elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the country of a hundred nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods, cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great-grandmother of tradition, whose yesterdays bear date with the mouldering antiquities of the rest of the nations—the one sole country under the sun that is endowed with an imperishable interest for alien prince and alien peasant, for lettered and ignorant, wise and fool, rich and poor, bond and free, the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the globe combined.”

Source: Book ”Following The Equator: A Journey Around the World” , Chapter 38. First published in 1897. Author: Mark Twain. His travel to India was in 1896 for more than two months. A special year to ISKCON devotees because it when Srila Prabhupada took birth in this planet and Bhaktivinoda Thakur sent his books to the western world. Where we were that year?

Second quote but from Srila Prabhupada now

Another quote that I would like to share with you Guru Maharaja, heard today from Guru Prasada Swami in a meeting with regional leaders about the following Marathon, is from Srila Prabhupada and maybe you can use it in classes.

Maharaja mentioned that he was trained on how to react to nuclear bombs in his school. So, with that feeling a devotee asked Srila Prabhupada once, What we can do if they drop the bomb above us, Srila Prabhupada?

-         If you start to hear the bombs falling, you can start a kirtan… and then, you can continue it in Vaikuntha. – Prabhupada replied.

Hare Krishna Dear Guru Maharaj,

You are my main inspiration in spiritual life, and I try to become a better disciple every day. I’m not being successful in that effort, but the goal is clear at least.

HpS - We consider, agtSP, that we have not been capable of making Krsna and Srila Prabhupada main inspirations in your spiritual life. Hmmm.

We are a greedy mail man.

We seem to be making a little progress, but 99.999% the result of Srila Prabhupada holding our hand. Tolerating our offenses.

We saw Mark Twain's India comments also. We did not read all of his experiences. Many year ago we made a banner of part of the quote above for our festivals.

Yes, we have used Mark Twain in our NIOS work!!!

Also, Walt Whitman, Thoreau, Emerson!

Continue with your own personal Sankirtan, in the perspective of your family, nation, church, Sanga!

If you have no personal spiritual wealth, what can you offer your community.

A community is great, great tool for acquiring personal spiritual wealth.