Hare Krishna Dear Guru Maharaja

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to you!

I hope you are getting some rest and recovering from your hectic sankirtan in South America.

HpS - We are, AGTSP!!!    Paoho...  but we also have to deal with the hectic Sankirtan in Murfreesboro, USA.  Ha!   Ha!   Hare!

It is so inspirational to read about your travel and preaching in the blog. I visit the blog everyday to see if you have posted.

HpS - Goodness!!!    Puts more pressure on us to post decent things!!!!

Last month has been very inspirational as well as challenging.

I went to Boise in the beginning of July to take darshan of HH Gopal Krishna Maharaja. This was my first time meeting Maharaja. It was a very nice experience.

HpS - We had a very wonderful dream of him. He was very affectionate to us but we felt that our birth and early culture has given us very dirty character.

Then a couple of weeks back, I got somehow pulled into a dispute between two devotees when I had been consciously trying to avoid getting involved. It was really bad. My chanting suffered a bit. I always considered ISKCON my happy place. It broke my thinking that nothing could go wrong in Prabhupada's institution. I didn't know what to do but in hindsight I think it was orchestrated by Krishna to force me to take more shelter of your lotus feet and demostrate that it is the material world and there is no happy place here.

HpS - In 1974 when we moved into the Temple these things were very tough to deal with, problems in ISKCON. ISKCON San Francisco and ISKCON KRSNA book. Then the Upadesamrta was published and it helped SO MUCH!!   Texts 4, 5, 6 make it clear that there are different levels of devotees and how to deal with them. Of course, there are more and more details as we read P'pada's books.   Avoid the material attachments in other Second Class devotees like us.  Make frienship with them in their purified aspects and preach to their innocent side.  Duck, smile, pat on the back.

What you wrote in the previous Kapidhvaja gave me lots of inspiration to chant with focus after being disturbed - Hold the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada in your heart and chant the maha-mantras there for his satisfaction. I have been chanting 16 rounds everyday and following the four regulative principles strictly.

HpS - You are an inspiration for all of us.

Sankirtan wise, we distributed 49 Bhagavad Gitas last month. Our monthly goal was 45. We have been reading Srimad Bhagavatam in the morning call and are in the second chapter of the first canto now. I gave my first Saturday feast talk too. I think it went ok.

We distributed 10 NOI's by mail and one in Kroegers.

My yonger brother got an admit to do his Masters in University of Bridgeport in Connecticut and he came to the US last week. I am going to the east coast during the labor day weekend to meet him. Since it is 1 hr ahead of Tennessee time, I should be able to attend the FMP during my stay there.

HpS - Great. We will have a big online program that weekend.

Yesterday we celebrated Balarama Purnima in the temple and had Julhan yatra. I was remembering how you asked me in Chennai, if I knew who the author of Jaya Radhe Jaya Krishna song was and when I guessed it was Narottam Das Thakur, you corrected me saying it was Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami.

Thank you so much Guru Maharaja for your causeless mercy and for inspiring me everyday by your example.

Your Servant

Srinatha Krsna Dasa

HpS - Tell us about your parents!!!   Family!