Hare Krsna Dear Maharaja.

PAMHO. AGTSP!

I hope your body is in good health.

HpS - ASA -- Ha!    HA!    HA R E!     This body IS a disease, but now is manageable for Sankirtan!    Thank you.  Hope yours and your families also.

I share the following concerns with you if you can give me your generous opinion,

1.-We are all told to sing 16 enthusiastic and sincere rounds. I comment this to a devotee (initiated) by encouraging her to sing his rounds, But he told me: I do not feel encouraged to sing, I have done it as an obligation but I feel that this is not right, one must sing of his own free will and not feel obligated. Before leaving, the devotee told me that he read the SBG and that he liked it better than singing japa. I did not say more to disturb him, I just asked him to try to sing 2 to 3 rounds.

HpS - Child does not like to go to school. Wants to play, but parents and teachers oblige him. NOI 7. Of course, this can be done in such a way that it is great fun, but usually some element of fear or greed is pushing us to chant our rounds in the beginning.

This made me think the following: In life many times we do things by obligation if we want something we are forced to perform an action to get it by just thinking or meditating we will not get it (unless it is krsna). Even chanting japa is part of the process of meditating on Krsna.

On the other hand, there are psychological tendencies and pedagogues that say that things should not be forced to do so but should be encouraged to do so, however in Eastern cultures (China, Japan, Korea). It is said that: Discipline precedes the intelligence and for this reason, the discipline was given much importance; Differentiated what is "your will" with "what is your duty".

ASA - Again NOI 7 says so much about this, no?   In sports it is the same thing. We force ourselves to practice believing it will become fun later.

I am not an expert in psychology but I think that many things are being confused and some are taking new trends to justify their lack of discipline, I see that there is a tendency to skip or to obviate the processes and call that spontaneous service.

I do not know what the middle term is here, would there be a psychological damage to say that the rounds are obligatory for an initiated devotee? (Also looking for ways to lift their enthusiasm).

HpS - ASA - Prabhupada says that artificial repression can be worse than the disease, but...   we don't force anybody to become initiated. That is a voluntary thing. Of course, ISKCON institution is not perfect, and there may be force in certain social or subtle ways, but seems that any sincere person can avoid that and then will be making their own choice if they want to chant 16 rounds for the rest of their life.
Even then you can stop and accept the reactions of breaking your promise. It is very clear. NOI 7 -8. So many places, Learning Piano, Tennis, natural attraction usually comes from some formal practice.

2.- At the moment I see a great increase of feminism in the society (there are also cases in Iskcon), the women have obtained many things that they consider freedom and now they want more and more, but also have arisen negative things of all this that do not want to see or to admit.

Particularly I do not like to speak of machismo or feminism, for me it is to identify me more with the body, however I have seen and I see the dangerous thing of not taking care of the "psychology" of the woman and of some way it is notorious the problems that also are being generated in ISKCON.

I think that perhaps these issues should be addressed not only at the GBC level but at the level of Spiritual Masters.

HpS - ASA -- Yes, but there is so much in the SB about this, no?   Right in the begnning we see several points about feminine mentality of Draupadi when Asvattama kills her sons. Of course, The Battle of the Sexes goes on forever, Radharani and Her friends, versus Krsna and His Friends. So, it is also very much fun and sarisfying dealing with problems in terms of properly understanding feminine and masculine needs of the person and their body.

Any items in specific about this??

Sri Nrsimhadeva protect you.

with affection

ys and spiritual niece

Isvari dd

HpS - ASA --- Thank you very much!!    Hope you all can join the Seattle Conference with lots of benefit.