Dear Guru Maharaj,
PAMHO AGTSP!
I wish I could offer some new images for your appearance day, but it looks like just a letter will have to do for now since the uploaders out of commission...
Now that my chaotic life is finally starting to stabilize, and I’ve had some time to reflect and process all the ideas and experiences that have brought me to this place, I feel more able to say something meaningful to summarize all this silence.
HpS - ASA --- Yes, AGTSP, paoho, very nice to hear from you!! .. but, you life is starting to stabalize must mean that you are advancing in Sadhana Bhakti, no? Otherwise any perception of stablility in Kali yuga is a trick of The Evil One, no?
I’m still here at Kalachandji Dham, I got your Twirl Your Beads compilation last week and read it the other day. I always learn a great deal from the way you apply yourself to the small battles in your Bhajan. I love the illustrations in there from your mailbox gazette too! I heard you’re coming to Dallas in January so I look forward to catching up and I especially look forward to your Sacred Art film.
HpS - No, look at the Calendar in the Kapi Dhvaja. It is always updated. We go to Houston 2-9th with side trip to Mexico City Sunday and Monday for Vyasa puja.
Reivin and I have been working well as a team so far, though it’s taken some time to build the foundation of our relationship. We are so different in some ways and yet I feel like I have more in common with her than practically anyone else. She has been serving here as a Kalachandji-dham vasi for years, taking shiksha mainly with H.H. Kesava Bharati Maharaj for some time, although currently she is studying under the author and astrologer Kavindra Rsi Prabhu, also known as Jamadagni Das, or Jeffrey Armstrong, the lyricist of the Golden Avatar band.
HpS - We knew him a little whem Hansadutta Das was in Berkeley and from our visits to Santa Cruz. That was a long time ago. He was a very brilliant and even passionate person. Long time ago!
Reivin serves a pair of Nitaichandra Gaursundar deities she rescued from a tire shop one time, so we make offerings and chant with them every day. She has been doing some great art-Kirtan in Dallas lately... not long ago her band got to open and sing the chorus “Jaya Vrndavan” during the Texas senate campaign where she was able to distribute a Bhagavad Gita to Beto O’Rourke, a likely presidential candidate in 2020.
As for me, I haven’t had such dramatic success yet, but I’ve got some exciting things in the tubes. My focus has been on understanding my role in the world and the sankirtan movement, which I see as complimentary. I’m working, studying, creating, and maintaining sadhana as best I can while I’ve gotten valuable experience in packing, shipping, storing, and installing artwork; and I’ve made contacts with curators, museums, galleries, and collectors all over Texas. I’ve been stretched too thin to produce very much (or even keep in touch with people) lately, but I’ve read well over 50 books since I moved, in addition to numerous online courses, to develop the conceptual framework and archetypal language of the art theory I’m formulating. I’m drawing on my background as an activist in order to channel the revolutionary spirit of this age in a direction based on personalism, prioritizing self-reliance and social responsibility, which create the best conditions for self realization and Krishna Bhakti.
The world needs a new vision of hope for the future to unite people and I feel intensely the time coming when I will have to step up to do what Krishna has been preparing me for all my life.
HpS - You can write for our magazine, Solaris. Once a year so far but includes Nobel Prize candidates and other very nice people. It is really starting to have an impact.
Although in comparison to my time as a brahmacari my adherence to rules and regs is less strict, I chant 16 good rounds every day, I have a commitment to read Bhagavatam by the end of this year, and I have never felt more clearly about who I am, what the world is, and what I’m here to accomplish. Despite the hardship, life is thrilling and full of meaning, and I feel that I’ve finally crossed a threshold in this incubation cycle where soon I will start to see the things I’ve been quietly working on slowly start coming to fruition. I hope that despite all my faults the final result will be acceptable to you and Sri Nrsimhadeva. Now that I’m finally starting to come out of poverty, I’d also like to start making regular donations to your sankirtan if you would be generous enough to send me that information. Thank you so much for all you do, maharaj, you are truly a light in these dark times.
your servant,
Ekāśma Dās/bhakta Eric
HpS - Jaya! I guess you can always send checks, monkey orders, to NIOS; 2129 Stratford Rd.; Murfeesbor, TN 37129, Payable to NIOS, but your pure chanting is the best help and whatever follows from that.
PLEASE - Post a report in the REPORT page here! Maybe we see you in Houston!!! Respects to Reivin et al!