Hare Krishna Maharaja, please accept my humble and respectful obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Maharaja, you answered so much of my question about becoming too institutionalized this morning in class. I’m just trying to understand how to use my karma in service still. It’s a difficult bajan!
I haven’t been attending Sunday love feast program for a month now. I’ve been leaving before the program starts but still doing all my services and cooking sometimes. I just want to do other things for Krishna and the program has been really difficult for me on so many levels. It feels like it’s out of humility (knowing where I am at) but then it could be escaping the battle or coping out. I think I like being more behind the scenes but once again I don’t know if that is just my comfort zone I need to break out of. How do we know the difference?
hps - one way is to be associating with Srila Prabhupada through his books... and process... and initiated disciples who are worshipping the Deity.
NoI 5.
"sādhu-vāda-nikaṣaṇāya — to the Lord, who is like a stone for examining all the good qualities of a sādhu;" , https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/5/19/3/
I’m so much more interested in the morning program and it’s going well. Krishna has sent a really nice new devotee (ex Christian/going deeper into Christs teachings with the help of Lord Nityananda:) that texts me great questions every single day and he is coming to Mangala aarti regularly. I feel like he is helping me out more than I am helping him! Bhakta Conar. And we are having so many good discussions during SB class with Madhava Prabhu in the mornings. Pushes me forward into the hectic days with strength.
Maharaja, I would really like to see you and serve you somehow this year. Are you able to visit Boise if we can arrange some nice programs for you? And could I travel with you again? I’m really good at doing the 24 hour check in now for SWA:)
HpS - Sri Hari Das is coming April 3rd, wednesday. we hope more calendar clarity after that. your current class, blog etc participation is very useful.
I hope the weather in Murfreesboro warms up soon and the sunshine on your shoulders makes you happy.
ASA - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5sbTHMP0Ig
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMF5numTEkU
Sunday morning, very bright, I read Your book by colored light
That came in through the pretty window picture.
I visited some houses where they said that You were living
And they talked a lot about You
And they spoke about Your giving.
They passed a basket with some envelopes;
I just had time to write a note
And all it said was "I believe in You."
Passing conversations where they mentioned Your existence
And the fact that You had been replaced by Your assistants.
The discussion was theology,
And when they smiled and turned to me
All that I could say was "I believe in You."
I visited Your house again on Christmas or Thanksgiving
And a balded man said You were dead,
But the house would go on living.
He recited poetry and as he saw me stand to leave
He shook his head and said I'd never find You.
My mother used to dress me up,
And while my dad was sleeping
We would walk down to Your house without speaking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdNPEX7bY-k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sP0_7ware8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUHImtxGuuI read the description. 1/2million people. boxer's song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk
Her number is 432 (= 4 x 108).
Susan Boyle ( susanbolo)
She comes across in the beginning as an absolute looser, but when they push the button, the world was never the same.
128Million hits. The YouTube crashed.
2.31 - Amanda knows that this is the musical point. This is the hard, HARD, impossible note to hit and ... she pegs it!
She picks such high class songs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables_(musical)
I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high and life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I prayed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, no wine untasted
But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hopes apart
And they turn your dreams to shame
And still I dream he'd come to me
That we would live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather
I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream, I dreamed
We can imagine Srimati Radharani singing something like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEm67QbgEGY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uGlL0xafP8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfHnzYEHAow
o dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest to follow that star
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
To fight for the right without question or pause
To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause
And I know if I'll only be true to this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest
And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To fight the unbeatable foe
To reach the unreachable star
After 2.18 I don't know if it is worthwhile.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFAfbkOeOPs&t=442s
Midnight, not a sound from the pavement
Has the moon lost her memory?
She is smiling alone
In the lamplight, the withered leaves collect at my feet
And the wind begins to moan
Memory, all alone in the moonlight
I can dream of the old days
Life was beautiful then
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again
Every street lamp seems to beat
A fatalistic warning
Someone mutters and the street lamp sputters
And soon it will be morning
Daylight, I must wait for the sunrise
I must think of a new life
And I mustn't give in
When the dawn comes, tonight will be a memory too
And a new day will begin
Burnt out ends of smoky days
The stale, cold smell of morning
A street lamp dies, another night is over
Another day is dawning
Touch me, it's so easy to leave me
All alone with the memory
Of my days in the sun
If you touch me, you'll understand what happiness is
Look, a new day has begun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJRg35dTIGE
Suzanne [GURU] takes you down to her place near the river [Yamuna]
You can hear the boats go by, you can spend the night beside her
And you know that she's half-crazy but that's why you wanna to be there
And she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China [Braja]
And just when you mean to tell her that you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer that you've always been her lover
And you want to travel with her, and you want to travel blind
And then you know that she will trust you
For you've touched her perfect body [Siddha Deha] with your mind
And Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower [Cross]
And when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him [Materially Exhausted]
He said all men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them
But he himself was broken, long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human, he sank beneath your wisdom [Jnana] like a stone
And you want to travel with him, and you want to travel blind
And then you think maybe you'll trust him
For he's touched your perfect body with his mind
Now, Suzanne takes your hand and she leads you to the river
She's wearing rags and feathers from Salvation Army counters
And the sun pours down like honey on our Lady of the harbor [Statue of Liberty]
And she shows you where to look among the garbage and the flowers
There are heroes in the seaweed, there are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love and they will lean that way forever
While Suzanne holds the mirror
And you want to travel with her, and you want to travel blind
And then you know that you can trust her
For she's touched your perfect body with her mind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallelujah_(Leonard_Cohen_song)
The lyrics are like self confessed religion in the mode of passion, but the chorus is just the name of God, hallet jah = praise jehovah. Artist is alone with God and the Holy Name.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_NpxTWbovE
Brahmacarini? 😎
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PjkKLhKcAk
Funny.
All this stuff is like a partially reflection of what is clearly in the Krsna book. Volume Two of Two. Big edition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toYfeN0ACDw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YnfCH7LNcM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyJRsp5t9mA
this is maybe the top?? We did a power-point to it with BBT art of Mother Yasoda and grown men where wiping away the tears.
Comments say that it can be a young girls lament in separation or a prayer to God.
etc. etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dXoh12er88
Both Sides Now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w70-1b9SCj0
Radha??? Had to close our eyes to some of the video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9fWjzYiRUE
So much Phil Ochs is nice. Also L. Cohen, but Ochs seems more sincere??? Why do we look for these artists, because we think some of them, their communities, can appreciate the KRSNA book, Volume Two of Two. Srila Prabhupada's Maha-mantra Kirtan.
Then it all merges into transcendence.
A Sannyasi should travel and report to the GBC where there are good places to open ISKCON Centers.
Gauranga!
Your aspiring servant,
Nitisara das
