DTC 21(SA)
[Especially written so that ART Das can forward is to Ramon]
1.12AM – Brother Ass is doing pretty well. It is rather cold here in village, Ananda Bazaar, cold and foggy mornings. We are typing on our platform-bed under a THICK blanket with our arms sticking out. We have a room in The Tribal Guest House. Now the water has ceased to flow but the one lamp and one plug, across the room, are working. No heat. There is a wedding party gaily blasting their music across the village.
At 4AM we will take a sponge bath from a bucket of well-water, go to Mangala-arati in the Temple down the hill, dance to keep warm and insure good digestions and at 6.30AM we leave for Silchar. It is about 60Km from here but the road moves like a snake in the jungle, so we won’t arrive until noon.
So far this India Tour has been very productive. Three weeks completed, three weeks to go, a good way to die.
We met with Dr. Kalyan Kumar, Dr. A. P. Dutta and Śriman Yuddhisthira Das in Delhi. Respectively they are Director of the National Academy of Fine Arts (Kalyan Academy), Director of the Indian Council on Philosophical Research and Assistant Director of Communications for the ISKCON-Birla Foundation Glory of India Cultural Complex. We can develop our NIOS publications and symposia with all of them.
Next we went to Chennai and participated in a symposium on The Bhagavata Purana – Its Art and Its Impact, co-sponsored by the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and the University of Madras. We were variously informed about the research and appreciation of the Bhagavata though illustrated manuscripts, the millennial tradition of different scholastic-yogic commentaries and made our own presentation titled: PASCHATYA DESA TARINE – Śrimad Bhagavatam and the Scientific Mind Set. We have a pile of Name Cards and contacts to process of related scholars.
Next Kolkatta where we of course were deeply involved with the ISKCON Albert Road Temple and Professor Dr. Samaresh Bandyopadyay, Principal Advisor to NIOS, and former Professor and Head of the Department of Ancient Indian History and Culture at University of Calcutta. With the former we did several lectures on the Bhagavata, introduced our NIOS work and lectured at Asutosh University to a packed room of 120-Psychology students and five professors. They will begin to study Jung and participate in writing for Solaris projects. With the later we focused with intensity on the next academic book by NIOS, SIKSHA-DRSA – Education in Ancient India and Man-making in Modern Times.
Finally, hours of flying and driving in the Himalaya foothills from Kolkata to Ananda-bazaar. It is a kind of Shangri-La if we look at the industrialized world. Milk and fruits and vegetables, grains and beans, houses and heat still come from the local fields and forests. Here we joined The 11th Annual Festival of Loving Exchanges as a Sannyasis-guru, Chief Guest. Both sides of the rode were lined with men and women, boys and girls, with candles, Kirtan, when we arrived. The Kirtan is with drums and gongs illuminating the traditional hymns and prayers.
We formally Baptized, gave Diksa to twenty serious students and again joined the lecture and ritual Kirtan process along with local ISKCON Pandits. Our cell-phone provider, Voda-phone, does not work here, so we have had excellent chance to rest our eyes – Simple and Refreshing.
Tomorrow we will have internet connection and we can see if Prof. Shamdasani from the Philemon Foundation has answered our letters. If not we are already drafting one more letter. We have been promoting the Foundation wherever we go and we consider Jung essential for building this bridge between East and West. We are looking for friends who share this appreciation to divide up the work necessary . Beverley Zabrieskii of the Foundation has already given us good reading materials to work on. We need more Officers, Directors, Advisors for NIOS in the USA.
2.00AM – Review this Diary Post and “Chant One Round”.