Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 21, No. 42
By Krishna Kripa Das
(Week 42: October 15–21, 2025)
Stuyvesant Falls, Schenectady
(Sent from Stuyvesant Falls on October 25, 2025)
Where I Went and What I Did
The forty-second week of 2025, I lived at Viraha Bhavan, the ashram of Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, my Guru Maharaja, in Stuyvesant Falls, New York. I helped his caretakers with different services like cleaning the kitchen, waking up the deities and uploading dictation tapes. I also did some personal service for Guru Maharaja. On Thursday, I tried doing a half-hour harinama on the porch, an extra activity for me I’d never done before at Viraha Bhavan. On Sunday afternoon I attended the feast program at ISKCON Schenectady, where I gave a lecture on Bhagavad-gita 8.14, and talked about how Krishna is easily attained by those who already remember him.
While at Viraha Bhavan, I would chant the “Gurvastakam,” Hare Krishna, and the Nrsimhadeva prayers each morning before the amazing Gaura-Nitāi deities, who came from Ekachakra, as Krsna dasi did the arati. We would also do the tulasi arati and kirtan. In the evening I would chant the “Gaura Arati” song, Hare Krishna, and the Nrsimhadeva prayers almost always by myself, and several of us would chant “Damodarastakam” together.
I share quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s The Nectar of Devotion and Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead. I share quotes from Caitanya-bhagavata by Vrindavana Dasa Thakura and from its commentary by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.
Thank again to Shreyakari Devi Dasi and ISKCON Schenectady for their kind donation and for the video of me chanting at their program and the photo of me playing the drum.
Itinerary
September 12–October 31: serve Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami
October 31–January 3, 2026: NYC Harinam
January 4, 2026: Miami Ratha-yatra?
Chanting Hare Krishna in Upstate New York
I asked Satsvarupa Dāsa Goswami one day if he thought it would be OK if I played harmonium on the porch. He said, “Did someone tell you couldn’t? I do not see why not?”
On Thursday I chanted on the porch with the harmonium for half an hour. It reminded me of 2020 when I did chanted on the porch of ISKCON Tallahassee three hours a day for three months because of the lockdown.
On Friday Damodara Priya, who has a better voice than me, was gardening, so I had someone to sing the response, and it was more ecstatic.
I chanted Hare Krishna at the beginning of ISKCON Schenectady Sunday program (https://youtube.com/shorts/UqCHSVCjc9Q?feature=share):
Later I played the drum while Radha Dyuti Devi Dasi chanted the tulasi kirtan.
Photos
My guru told me one day that the breakfast cereal was too bland. I recall Yashoda Devi Dasi, who worked for the BBT, made a great breakfast cereal in San Diego over 30 years ago, and she told me using salt and butter were her secrets. The next day I put 1/8 of teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of ghee in it, and my guru told me twice how good it was!
I learned recently that if you keep the avocado pit in the guacamole, it keeps it from spoiling.
Maple yogurt with walnuts is an awesome dessert.
Insights
Srila Prabhupada:
From The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 49:
“There is another statement as follows: ‘Please look at this devotee of the Lord who is dancing just from remembering the lotus feet of Krishna. Simply by observing his dance you will lose all interest in even the most beautiful women!’”
From Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Chapter 72:
“Although Jarasandha was killed, neither Krishna nor the two Pandava brothers made a claim to the throne. Their purpose in killing Jarasandha was to stop him from creating a disturbance to the proper discharge of world peace. A demon always creates disturbances, whereas a demigod always tries to keep peace in the world. The mission of Lord Krishna is to protect the righteous and kill the demons who disturb a peaceful situation. Therefore Lord Krishna immediately called for the son of Jarasandha, whose name was Sahadeva, and with due ritualistic ceremonies the Lord asked him to occupy the seat of his father and reign over the kingdom peacefully. Lord Krishna is the master of the whole cosmic creation, and He wants everyone to live peacefully and execute Krishna consciousness. After installing Sahadeva on the throne, He released all the kings and princes who had been imprisoned unnecessarily by Jarasandha.”
From Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Chapter 80:
“King Pariksit was hearing the narrations of the pastimes of Lord Krishna and Lord Balarama from Sukadeva Gosvami. These pastimes are all transcendentally pleasurable to hear, and Maharaja Pariksit addressed Sukadeva Gosvami as follows: ‘My dear lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, is the bestower of both liberation and love of God simultaneously. Anyone who becomes a devotee of the Lord automatically attains liberation without having to make a separate attempt. Because the Lord is unlimited, His pastimes and activities for creating, maintaining and destroying the whole cosmic manifestation are also unlimited. I therefore wish to hear about other pastimes of His which you may not have described as yet. My dear master, the conditioned souls within this material world are frustrated by searching out the pleasure of happiness derived from sense gratification. Such desires for material enjoyment are always piercing the hearts of conditioned souls. But I am actually experiencing how the transcendental topics of Lord Krishna’s pastimes can relieve one from being affected by such material activities of sense gratification. I think that no intelligent person can reject this method of hearing the transcendental pastimes of the Lord again and again; simply by hearing, one can remain always steeped in transcendental pleasure. Thus one will not be attracted by material sense gratification.’”
From Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Chapter 82:
[Vasudeva, the father of Krishna, said to his sister, Kunti:] “We should always remember that we are all only toys in the hands of providence. Everyone is under the control of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”
“Seeing Lord Krishna present on the spot, all the visitors felt transcendental pleasure and became very peaceful.”
“As far as the gopis of Vṛndavana were concerned, from the very beginning of their lives they did not know anything beyond Krishna. Krishna and Balarama were their life and soul. The gopis were so attached to Krishna that they could not tolerate not seeing Him even momentarily when their eyelids blinked and impeded their vision. They condemned Brahma, the creator of the body, because he foolishly made eyelids which blinked and checked their seeing Krishna. Because they had been separated from Krishna for so many years, the gopis, having come along with Nanda Maharaja and Mother Yasoda, felt intense ecstasy upon seeing Krishna. No one can even imagine how eager the gopis were to see Krishna again. As soon as Krishna became visible to them, they took Him inside their hearts through their eyes and embraced Him to their full satisfaction. Even though they were embracing Krishna only mentally, they became so ecstatic and overwhelmed with joy that for the time being they completely forgot themselves. The ecstatic trance they achieved simply by mentally embracing Krishna is impossible to achieve even for great yogis constantly engaged in meditation on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Krishna could understand that the gopis were rapt in ecstasy by embracing Him in their minds, and therefore, since He is present in everyone’s heart, He reciprocated the embracing from within.”
[Lord Krishna said to the gopis:] “Fortunately, you have developed loving affection for Me, which is the only way to achieve the transcendental position of association with Me. Any living entity who develops such unalloyed devotional affection for Me certainly at the end goes back home, back to Godhead. In other words, unalloyed devotional service and affection for Me are the cause of supreme liberation.”
From Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Chapter 85:
“Lord Krishna intended for Vasudeva to see everything with the vision of a maha-bhagavata, a first-class devotee, who sees that all living entities are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord and that the Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart. In fact, every living entity has a spiritual identity, but in contact with material existence one becomes influenced by the material modes of nature. He becomes covered by the concept of bodily life, forgetting that his spirit soul is of the same quality as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One mistakenly considers one individual to be different from another simply because of their material bodily coverings. Because of differences between bodies, the spirit soul appears before us differently.
“Lord Krishna then gave a nice example in terms of the five material elements. The total material elements, namely the sky, air, fire, water and earth, are present in everything in the material world, whether in an earthen pot or in a mountain or in the trees or in an earring. These five elements are present in everything, in different proportions and quantities. A mountain is a gigantic form of the combination of these five elements, and a small earthen pot is made of the same elements, but in a smaller quantity. Therefore all material items, although in different shapes or different quantities, are of the same ingredients. Similarly, the living entities – beginning from Lord Krishna and including millions of Vishnu forms, and also the living entities in different forms, from Lord Brahma down to the small ant – are all of the same spiritual quality. Some are great in quantity, and some are small, but qualitatively they are of the same nature. It is therefore confirmed in the Upanisads that Krishna, or the Supreme Lord, is the chief among all living entities and that He maintains them and supplies them with all necessities of life. Anyone who knows this philosophy is in perfect knowledge. The Vedic version tat tvam asi, ‘Thou art the same,’ means not that everyone is God but that everyone is qualitatively of the same nature as God.”
From Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Chapter 87:
“‘Dear Lord,’ the personified Vedas continued, ‘the devotee who wants to elevate himself simply by the process of devotional activities, especially by hearing and chanting, very soon comes out of the clutches of the dualities of material existence. By this simple process of penance and austerity, the Supersoul within the devotee’s heart is very pleased and gives the devotee directions so that he may go back home, back to Godhead.’ It is stated in the Bhagavad-gita that one who engages all his activities and senses in the devotional service of the Lord becomes completely peaceful because the Supersoul is satisfied with him; thus the devotee becomes transcendental to all dualities, such as heat and cold, honor and dishonor. Being freed from all dualities, he feels transcendental bliss, and he no longer suffers cares and anxieties due to material existence. The Bhagavad-gita confirms that the devotee always absorbed in Krishna consciousness has no anxieties for his maintenance or protection. Being constantly absorbed in Krishna consciousness, he ultimately achieves the highest perfection. While in material existence, he lives very peacefully and blissfully, without cares and anxieties, and after quitting this body he goes back home, back to Godhead. The Lord confirms in the Bhagavad-gita, ‘My supreme abode is a transcendental place from which, having gone, one never returns to this material world. Anyone who attains the supreme perfection, being engaged in My personal devotional service in the eternal abode, reaches the highest perfection of human life and does not have to come back to the miserable material world.’”
“Sridhara Svami, the great commentator on Srimad-Bhagavatam, has composed a nice verse in this regard, the meaning of which is as follows: ‘My dear Lord, I am eternally a part of You, but I have been entrapped by the material potencies, which are also an emanation from You. As the cause of all causes, You have entered my body as the Supersoul, and I have the prerogative of enjoying the supreme blissful life of knowledge along with You. Therefore, my dear Lord, please order me to render You loving service so that I can again be brought to my original position of transcendental bliss.’”
“Those who have tasted the nectar of devotion by relishing the transcendental vibration of chanting Your glories – Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare – do not care for any other spiritual bliss or for material comforts, which appear to the pure devotee as less important than the straw in the street.”
“The personified Vedas continued, ‘Dear Lord, when a person is able to purify his mind, senses and intelligence by engaging himself in devotional service in full Krishna consciousness, his mind becomes his friend. Otherwise, his mind is always his enemy. When the mind is engaged in the devotional service of the Lord, it becomes the intimate friend of the living entity because the mind can then think of the Supreme Lord always. Your Lordship is eternally dear to the living entity, so when the mind is engaged in thought of You one immediately feels the great satisfaction for which he has been hankering life after life.’”
“Women such as the gopis were attached to Krishna, being captivated by His beauty, and their mental concentration on Krishna was provoked by lust. They wanted to be embraced by the arms of Krishna, which resemble the beautiful round shape of a snake. Similarly, we, the Vedic hymns, simply concentrate our minds on the lotus feet of Your Lordship. Women like the gopis concentrate upon You under the dictation of lust, and we concentrate upon Your lotus feet to go back home, back to Godhead. Your enemies also concentrate upon You, thinking always of how to kill You, and yogis undertake great penances and austerities just to attain Your impersonal effulgence. All these different persons, although concentrating their minds in different ways, achieve spiritual perfection according to their different perspectives because You, O Lord, are equal to all Your devotees.”
“The living entities are therefore called jivatma, and the Supreme Lord is called Paramatma. Both the Paramatma and the jivatma are within this material world, and therefore this material world has a purpose other than sense gratification. The conception of a life of sense gratification is illusion, but the conception of service by the jivatma to the Paramatma, even in this material world, is not at all illusory. A Krishna conscious person is fully aware of this fact, and thus he does not take this material world to be false but acts in the reality of transcendental service. The devotee therefore sees everything in this material world as an opportunity to serve the Lord. He does not reject anything as material but dovetails everything in the service of the Lord. Thus a devotee is always in the transcendental position, and everything he uses becomes spiritually purified by being used in the Lord’s service.”
“The Krishna consciousness movement therefore issues a supreme call to all kinds of religionists, asking them with great authority to join this movement, by which one can learn how to love God and thus surpass all formulas and formalities of scriptural injunction. A person who cannot overcome the jurisdiction of stereotyped religious principles is compared to an animal chained up by its master. The purpose of all religion is to understand God and develop one’s dormant love of Godhead. If one simply sticks to the religious formulas and formalities but does not become elevated to the position of love of God, he is considered to be a chained animal.”
“The personified Vedas continued to pray. ‘Dear Lord,’ they said, ‘from all Vedic information it is understood that You are the supreme controller and all living entities are controlled. Both the Lord and the living entities are called nitya, eternal, and so are qualitatively one, yet the singular nitya, or the Supreme Lord, is the controller, whereas the plural nityas are controlled. The individual controlled living entity resides within the body, and the supreme controller, as Supersoul, is also present there, but the Supersoul controls the individual soul. That is the verdict of the Vedas. If the individual soul were not controlled by the Supersoul, then how could one explain the Vedic version that a living entity transmigrates from one body to another and enjoys or suffers the effects of his past deeds, sometimes being promoted to a higher standard of life and sometimes being degraded to a lower standard? Thus the conditioned souls are not only under the control of the Supreme Lord but are also conditioned by the control of the material nature. This relationship of the living entities with the Supreme Lord as the controlled and the controller definitely proves that although the Supersoul is all-pervasive, the individual living entities are never all-pervasive. If the individual souls were all-pervasive, there would be no question of their being controlled. The theory that the Supersoul and the individual soul are equal is therefore a polluted conclusion, and no sensible person accepts it; rather, one should try to understand the distinctions between the supreme eternal and the subordinate eternals.’”
Vrindavana Dasa Thakura:
From Sri Caitanya-bhagavata, Madhya 21.18:
“Anyone who discriminates between Me, My servant, and the book Bhagavatam is certainly destroyed.”
From Sri Caitanya-bhagavata, Madhya 21.22:
“One who thinks, ‘I understand Srimad Bhagavatam,’ does not actually know the conclusion of Srimad Bhagavatam.”
From Sri Caitanya-bhagavata, Madhya 21.45–48:
“As the drunkards followed the Lord in jubilation, some clapped their hands and danced while chanting the name of Hari. The drunkards joyfully danced and sang, ‘Hari bol! Hari bol! Jaya Narayana!’ The drunkards made a great commotion while chanting the name of Hari. Such is the result of seeing Vishnu and the Vaishnavas. While seeing the activities of the drunkards, Visvambhara laughed and Srivasa cried in ecstasy.”
From Sri Caitanya-bhagavata, Madhya 21.22:
“Krishna appears in this world in four forms—Srimad Bhagavatam, tulasi, Ganga, and the devotees.”
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura:
From his commentary on Sri Caitanya-bhagavata, Madhya 21.45:
“Some of the drunkards joyfully folded their hands, danced, and chanted the names of Hari as they followed Gaurasundara. Having received the association of the Lord and His devotees, the drunkards also became intoxicated in the mellows of devotional service to Hari.”
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This verse from Bhagavad-gita is not often quoted, but it does make a very important point:
tattva-vit tu maha-baho
guna gunesu vartanta
iti matva na sajjate
“One who is in knowledge of the Absolute Truth, O mighty-armed, does not engage himself in the senses and sense gratification, knowing well the differences between work in devotion and work for fruitive results.” (Bhagavad-gita 3.28)
One who really understands that the end result of engaging devotional service is a life of eternal bliss, and knowledge and the result of sense enjoyment is continued material existence, with its inevitable miseries, exclusively and continuously engages in the devotional service of the Lord and ultimately becomes situated on the spiritual plane of eternity, knowledge, and bliss. We wish everyone all success in this endeavor in this very life.
