Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 21, No. 21
By Krishna Kripa Das
(Week 21: May 21–May 27, 2025)
New York City and Washington, D.C.
(Sent from Baltimore, Maryland, on May 31, 2025)
Where I Went and What I Did
For the twenty-first week of 2025, I spent the first six days at ISKCON NYC in Brooklyn, serving Rama Raya Prabhu’s NYC Harinam program by chanting Hare Krishna and distributing Ratha-yatra flyers for three or four hours each day from Wednesday through Monday, except for Sunday, when I did harinama with a party of congregational devotees from Bhaktivedanta Manor who are touring the United States. On Sunday we chanted from the Bhakti Center to Tompkins Square Park, then through Chinatown, and over the Brooklyn Bridge. Then we chanted on the subway to the Brooklyn temple. On Tuesday, I traveled to Washington, D.C., and I chanted with Sankarsana Prabhu in front of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History there. Many people from all over the country and all over the world visit that museum so it is a great venue to share your message. I saw the new temple in Potomac for the first time, and I was impressed with its cleanliness and its magnitude.
I share quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s four main books: Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, and The Nectar of Devotion. I share notes on classes by Jayadvaita Swami and Anuttama (the GBC), Arcita, Radhe Shyam, and Aditya Prabhus. I share comments Vasudeva Prabhu made during an initiation talk by Jayadvaita Swami.
Thanks to the Indian couple from Sacramento for their kind donation while visiting ISKCON NYC. Thanks to Ahaituki Prema Prabhu for his videos and photos of NYC Harinam. Thanks to the Potomac devotees for their hospitality.
Itinerary
May 7–June 16: NYC Harinam
– May 31: Baltimore Ratha-yatra
June 17–August 19: Paris
– June 22: Paris Ratha-yatra
– June 28: Antwerp Ratha-yatra
– June 29: Rotterdam Ratha-yatra
– July 11: Amsterdam harinama
– July 12: Amsterdam Ratha-yatra
– July 13: Holland harinama
August 20: London harinama
August 21–22: Liverpool harinamas
August 23: Liverpool Ratha-yatra
August 24: Manchester harinama?
August 25: London harinama and flight to New York
Chanting Hare Krishna in New York City
I chant Hare Krishna in Times Square subway station (https://youtube.com/shorts/GHwQc4AAMUM?feature=share):
Yasoda Dulal Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Times Square subway station (https://youtu.be/Kcm5qEolydM):
Rama Raya Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Times Square subway station (https://youtu.be/SJmLvA3uLpo):
Jagaddhatri Devi Dasi chants Hare Krishna in Fulton Street subway station in Manhattan (https://youtu.be/MTlcyXrvlqw):
Madhurya Rasa Devi Dasi chants Hare Krishna at Fulton Street subway station (https://youtu.be/FnAcGYKwOio):
Yasoda Dulal Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Fulton Street subway station (https://youtu.be/4RYHex61Ses):
Yasoda Dulal Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Jackson Heights / Roosevelt Avenue, and passersby dance (https://youtu.be/jcXEHYzVauM):
Rama Raya Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Jackson Heights / Roosevelt Avenue, and passersby dance (https://youtu.be/mvo4jW7EEGs):
GBC Anuttama Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Columbus Circle (https://youtu.be/Zpl4VVYyYkA):
Jai Nitai Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at the Bhakti Center (https://youtu.be/F5jlFqoRdJM):
Maha Nrsingha Prabhu from Bhaktivedanta Manor chants Hare Krishna in the Lower East Side of Manhattan (https://youtu.be/YcyafWb6ZNU):
Lila Manjari from Bhaktivedanta Manor chants Hare Krishna on the Brooklyn Bridge (https://youtu.be/a4H8m-K9kXc):
Monday was warm and dry so our NYC Harinam party was back in Washington Square Park. Here I chant Hare Krishna there (https://youtube.com/shorts/dqRTL5sw32k):
Chanting Hare Krishna in Washington, D.C.
Several years ago I promised my godbrother, Sankarsana Prabhu, I would chant with him three days a year in Washington, D.C., across from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
Sankarsana chants there several days a week when weather permits, usually from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. When he was chanting I would chant the response, play the shakers, and dance. I would also offer shakers to people who seemed to appreciate our music and give “On Chanting Hare Krishna” to people who were more interested. I told several Indians about our Potomac temple.
Here Sankarsana Prabhu plays the keytar and chants Hare Krishna by the Museum of Natural History in Washington (https://youtu.be/Fvvn0BVwZQ4):
Here he chants another tune (https://youtu.be/vzXCS5n4JG0):
A few people played the shakers and accepted “On Chanting Hare Krishna.” Some gave donations and accepted books.
Insights
Srila Prabhupada:
From Bhagavad-gita 18.75, purport:
“One has to understand Krishna not directly but through the medium of the spiritual master. The spiritual master is the transparent medium, although it is true that the experience is still direct. This is the mystery of the disciplic succession. When the spiritual master is bona fide, then one can hear Bhagavad-gita directly, as Arjuna heard it.”
From Bhagavad-gita 18.76, purport:
“The result of Krishna consciousness is that one becomes increasingly enlightened, and he enjoys life with a thrill, not only for some time, but at every moment.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.8.4:
“Persons who hear Srimad-Bhagavatam regularly and are always taking the matter very seriously will have the Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna manifested in their hearts within a short time.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.8.37, purport:
“That is the nature of a devotee. He may desire material gain, but he accepts it only if Krishna offers it.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi 4.30, purport:
“The reason the Lord displays the rasa-lila is essentially to induce all the fallen souls to give up their diseased morality and religiosity, and to attract them to the kingdom of God to enjoy the reality. A person who actually understands what the rasa-lila is will certainly hate to indulge in mundane sex life. For the realized soul, hearing the Lord’s rasa-lila through the proper channel will result in complete abstinence from material sexual pleasure.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi 4.147–148:
“The beauty of Krishna has one natural strength: it thrills the hearts of all men and women, beginning with Lord Krishna Himself. All minds are attracted by hearing His sweet voice and flute, or by seeing His beauty. Even Lord Krishna Himself makes efforts to taste that sweetness.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi 4.153:
“The gopis saw their beloved Krishna at Kurukshetra after a long separation. They secured and embraced Him in their hearts through their eyes, and they attained a joy so intense that not even perfect yogis can attain it. The gopis cursed the creator for creating eyelids that interfered with their vision.”
From The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 39:
“In the Eleventh Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Third Chapter, verse 32, it is stated that when devotees are engaged in the discharge of bhakti-yoga, sometimes they cry from thinking of Krishna, sometimes they laugh, sometimes they become jubilant, and sometimes they talk in very uncommon ways. Sometimes they dance, sometimes they sing, sometimes they are actually engaged in the service of the Lord, and sometimes they sit down silently as if absorbed in trance.”
“Similarly, in the Seventh Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Chapter Seven, verse 34, Prahlada Maharaja says to his friends, ‘My dear friends, as soon as pure devotees of Lord Krishna hear of the transcendental pastimes of the Lord, who is the eternal reservoir of pastimes, or hear about His transcendental qualities, they become overpowered with jubilation. Ecstatic symptoms are manifested in their bodies. They shed tears, talk falteringly, glorify the Lord in a loud voice and chant and dance in ecstasy. These ecstasies are always there, but sometimes they overcome all limits, and the symptoms become manifest to all.’”
From The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 41:
“The Lord, Hari, whose bodily hue is like the indranila jewel, whose smiling is as beautiful as the kunda flower, whose silk dress is as yellow as golden autumn foliage, whose chest is beautified with garlands of flowers and who is always playing upon His flute—this enemy of the Agha demon is always attracting our hearts by wandering about Vrndavana.”
Jayadvaita Swami:
From a class on Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi 4.29:
In a well-run organization, employees do not have to be told “Do this. Do that.” They automatically know what they should do, and they do it. Similarly Krishna’s yogamaya automatically makes arrangements to enhance the loving dealings between Krishna and His devotees.
The great love of the Vaikuntha residents is expressed through their adoration.
The highest stage of love is present in spontaneous dealings. For these to take place, the devotees have to forget that Krishna is supreme and they are subordinate.
In Vrindavan there is no respect, just love.
The loving dealings of the gopis and Krishna are expressions of the gopis’ affection for Krishna and Krishna’s reciprocation. They have nothing to do with mundane sexuality.
One achieves spontaneous love by following regulative principles not by transgressing regulative principles.
Q: How to go to Vaikuntha?
A: Follow the regulative principles. And then to go to Goloka, after perfecting that, and go on to spontaneous love.
If Krishna had to worry about setting the stage and directing the show, He could not just enjoy the relationships, so yogamaya does all that for Him.
Comment by Janmastami Prabhu: When I sell people books, I say, “This book tells how to achieve the highest level of pleasure possible for a human being.”
Srila Prabhupada said we do not have to make up anything. We just have to tell them what is in the books.
From an initiation lecture at the Bhakti Center on May 24, 2025:
Srila Prabhupada said many times that initiation means to begin.
Of course, hearing the holy names and reading the books are always good.
Bhajana-kriya means we take up the recommended process. This includes accepting a bona fide spiritual master.
It is good to hear the kirtans and lectures, but at a certain point we must become serious about spiritual life, because the human life is meant for spiritual realization.
My career is important for the time being, but it is not eternally important.
If we have missed the spiritual focus of human life, we have missed human life, as most people are doing.
When we want to understand spiritual truth, we need to accept a spiritual master.
People have so many theories, but they remain morose because they do not have that knowledge that satisfies the soul.
One who is serious about ultimate benefit should approach a guru and inquire about that ultimate benefit.
The two qualifications of the guru: (1) he has heard from a guru in the succession about spirit and (2) fixed in devotional service.
The bona fide spiritual master repeats the words of Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada said his qualification was that he did not add or subtract anything. He just presented what he heard.
Faith is not just a sentiment but practical activity. That practical activity is engagement in devotional service.
I asked Srila Prabhupada, “How does the spiritual master know if the disciple is making advancement?”
Srila Prabhupada replied, “Everyone can know. The face is the index of the mind. If one is happily engaged in devotional service one can see.”
The answers aren’t free. In one sense they are free; anyone can read the books. But to realize the knowledge of the books, you have to render service.
Surrender to Krishna does not mean I sign a paper, “Krishna, from now on I am Yours.” We actually have to act for Krishna.
How are we going to advance by saying “no” to our spiritual master?
The commitment to the spiritual master is beyond all other commitments.
Srila Prabhupada asked a disciple, “What is the position of the disciple?”
He replied, “Servant.”
Srila Prabhupada corrected him, “Menial servant.”
Srila Prabhupada once indicated that Narada Muni is dragging us back to Godhead through the disciplic succession.
Our business is to carry out the orders we have received and to depend on Krishna, whether there is success or failure.
Being a spiritual master is not an independent enterprise.
We do not expect to be like Srila Prabhupada, but we can follow.
Srila Prabhupada used to chant on the initiates beads on the spot.
One who is rasananda appreciates all the rasas that Krishna enjoys, whatever his own position is.
From a talk on “Sadhus and Surgeons” at the Bhakti Center on May 25, 2025:
Srila Prabhupada would say strong words are sometimes needed to awaken a sleeping man.
The duty of the spiritual master is to speak the truth not to confirm our illusions.
Mr. Sethi recalls his first meeting with Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada asked him what he was doing. Mr. Sethi said he was working and maintaining his family. Srila Prabhupada said, “What is the difference between you and a pig? A pig is also working and maintaining his family.” Mr. Sethi accepted it and became a staunch follower of Srila Prabhupada.
A man could not understand why Srila Prabhupada called some person a rascal that the man thought was a saint. Srila Prabhupada took a blue book off the shelf and read the translation of Bhagavad-gita 9.34, and he praised the accuracy of the translation. Then he read the purport, “It is not Krishna that you must surrender to, but the unborn, beginningless within Krishna.” Then Srila Prabhupada concluded, “Therefore they are all rascals.”
Surrender means it is all Yours. I can take a little just to meet my needs.
We are claiming this is my land, but it is not my land, either individually or corporately.
Do not do business with the Lord – this is for me, this is for You. It is all Krishna’s.
A woman who also attended the uptown swamis’ classes said, “Swamiji, isn’t it true that we are all one.”
Srila Prabhupada said, “No. Just like in the body. There are nine holes. Can you put the food into this one or that one? No, you have to put the food in the mouth.”
The Vaishnavas ask the question, “If everything is one as you say, where does the variety come from?”
The Mayavadis reply, “The varieties come from maya (illusion). When the illusion is removed, you will see everything is one.”
The Vaishnavas respond, “Then you have two, (1) the oneness and (2) the illusion. You no longer have only one.”
The Republicans and Democrats are mortal enemies, but if America is attacked they band together to defend the country. We have our differences, but we can unite for a common cause. If we understand Krishna is our common center of interest, then we can be united. That’s why the chanting is so important, that it awakens our understanding of our common interest in Krishna.
From a question and answer session with devotees from London at the Bhakti Center on May 24, 2025:
Q: Ideas for the future.
A: Pay attention to people. Despite our many programs, we can benefit people one person at a time by paying attention to them. Programs with small groups can be helpful. Groups may be according to interest, location, or demographics. You need a separate group for the Western people. In Zurich, they have two Sunday feasts, one for the Tamil people in the morning and another for the Swiss in the late afternoon. Kirtan, pravachan, and prasadam are the substance of all our programs.
If you chant Hare Krishna, you will live without a college education. However, if you live without Krishna consciousness, you will never really live.
We may want to keep doing our service until we are 83, but it is a valuable service to teach others. By staying in our position, we are keeping others from gaining the opportunity.
Srila Prabhupada once told me, “Continue your prescribed duties and train others.”
Anuttama Prabhu:
From a class on Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.8.37 at ISKCON NYC on May 25, 2025:
When Dhruva Maharaja was unable to accept the brahminical instruction of Narada Muni, Narada did not abandon the attempt to instruct him, rather Narada instructed him in a different way. We can learn from this example when we are instructing others.
Dhruva Maharaja, like Hiranyakasipu, wanted a kingdom greater than Brahma, but Dhruva Maharaja only wanted to achieve that position by honest means whereas Hiranyakasipu wanted that kingdom by any means honest or dishonest.
We cannot have a super narrow definition of bhakti if we are to engage everyone in the world in it.
We shouldn’t think for someone to be a serious devotee they have to be like us. People have different natures. We have to encourage the people to engage their talents for Krishna.
We have to help people try to fit into the Hare Krishna movement.
The world is full of people who think they are special, and who are willing to push people out of the way. If we become like that, our movement will not spread, and we ourselves will not be satisfied.
Welcoming everyone in, does not mean lowering our standards.
Sometimes people are too fanatical about their own traditions. One young Jewish man said he heard a rabbi say if you are not Jewish there is no difference between you and an inanimate object.
Comment by Arcita Prabhu: Some people think we pushed editing on Srila Prabhupada, but the editing was Srila Prabhupada’s idea. When Prabhupada met Howard Wheeler and learned he was an English professor, he immediately engaged him in editing his books because he wanted his books to be accepted by educated English speakers.
From a class on Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.8.38 at ISKCON NYC on May 26, 2025:
In the Bhagavatam we see how devotees deal with issues very much like the issues that confront us, and how the Lord protects them in different ways.
We wouldn’t be here if we did not have some glimpses of Krishna working in our lives.
Our happiness is not real because it is not lasting.
Seeing the books in a rich Indian family’s library, I realized that rich people have a whole level of anxiety that I do not have.
There was an orphanage where the babies were dying at a greater rate than average although they were fed and clothed, etc. There was an independent investigation, and it turned out the babies were never held, and they were literally dying because of that.
I know many friends in their sixties who are rebuilding their relationships with their children because they did not understand how to give their children both Krishna consciousness and other care they expected.
We should think, “I have been given so much mercy. I should show others some mercy.”
Sudharma Dasi was a great manager who worked well with both women and men. I asked her how she was able to do that. She said, “I ask the women how they feel about things, and I ask the men what they think about things.”
Arcita Prabhu:
Even before their spiritual-master disciple relationship began, Dhruva had a relationship with Narada. Dhruva’s father is Uttanapada Prabhu, whose father was Syamabhuva Manu, whose father was Brahma. Narada is also a son of Brahma, so Narada is the great uncle of Dhruva.
Maya has everyone in her grip, and they do not even know they are in her grip.
In Tibet, before constructing a building they would carefully relocate all the earthworms.
We are dependent on Krishna for supplying the sun, the rain, etc.
We want everyone and everything around us to be perfect because we come from a perfect world. But we should understand we are not in a perfect world now, so we have to be tolerant.
We may think that we are ksatriyas because we have isvara-bhava, the desire to control, but actually everyone, even a two-year-old kid has the desire to control.
Srila Prabhupada told Yamuna if she did not teach others how to cook she would become envious.
Krishna consciousness is very simple. Wherever God-given talents you have, engage in God’s service.
If everyone in ISKCON did what they wanted to do, how would things go on?
Radhe Shyam Prabhu:
If you have Krishna, you have everything, but if you have everything, you do not have Krishna.
Just as the parents take care of all their child’s needs, the Lord takes care of all the needs of one who surrenders to Him.
Material life is like a game in which you cannot win and you cannot stop playing.
Srila Prabhupada gave people practical ways they could engage their talents in Krishna’s service in addition to giving them spiritual knowledge. We should also do like this.
Srila Prabhupada engaged Haridas, who was formerly a thief and accustomed to stay awake at night, in chasing away the dogs that barked at night and made his dictation tapes difficult to hear.
Both the Pandavas and Kauravas were eternal associates of the Lord. The Mahabharata war was arranged by Krishna to show the different results of pious and impious action.
Vasudeva Prabhu:
Regarding the second offense, it is considered an offense both to consider the demigods to be completely distinct from the Supreme Lord and also to consider them to be identical with the Supreme Lord. They are His eternal servants.
Inattentiveness is an offense whether we are dealing with the holy name, the guru, or the Vaishnavas. We must consider the exalted nature of them all.
Aditya Devi Dasi:
Dhruva telling Narada that he could not follow his instruction to tolerate material dualities like a brahmana would is like Arjuna telling Krishna he could not follow His instructions on astanga-yoga.
Krishna gives us personal instructions in the heart just to inspire us. Although others may not understand their significance, they could be life changing for us.
Some qualities are expected to be attained by all four varnas: Truthfulness, nonviolence, charity, celibacy, absence of malice, to serve God, to be a follower of the king, to follow the scripture, being equipoised, forbearance, to follow one’s duties, and to have faith in God.
We have to be humble to apply ourselves to the process of purification.
Some of the queens of Krishna, who wanted to worship Krishna in the deity form, became sannyasis who worshiped the Krishna deity in Udupi.
In Udupi, brahmanas, by looking how a boy plays, eats, and sleeps and by analyzing his astrological chart, determine which boys are suitable to be trained as sannyasis.
When I was a new devotee in Scotland, all the devotees in the center that I joined had been around for twenty years. They were kind to me and engaged me in different services.
The householders in Vrindavan give rotis to the brahmacaris who go begging. They are happy to do so because they consider it a benefit for them.
In the temple, it is best if the leaders can identify the skills of the devotees so they can be happily engaged.
Everyone was on a book distribution marathon in another part of the country when I joined so at mangala-arati it was just the pujari and me. He said sharply, “I will sing one line, and you repeat.” I did not know the language and had never sung before, but I understood it was important, so I did it. From that the devotees decided I was a singer, and encouraged me to sing at every opportunity, and I became part of a kirtan group that performed in different cities in Scotland.
Training is why we are here and have these brick and mortar buildings.
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The author of Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Krishnadas Kaviraja, eloquently and succinctly defines the difference between lust and love:
atmendriya-priti-vañcha — tare bali ‘kama’
“The desire to gratify one’s own senses is kama [lust], but the desire to please the senses of Lord Kṛṣṇa is prema [love].” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi 4.165)
In the beginning we desire only to gratify our senses, but at the end we hope to desire only to gratify Lord Krishna’s senses. May we steadily progress from the platform of lust to the platform of love by the mercy of the Lord and His devotees.
