Travel Adventures of a Krishna Monk

Travel Journal#7.24: Mexico Tour, Part 1

2012-02-01T09:11:00.011+02:00

Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 7, No. 24
By Krishna-kripa das
(December 2011, part two)
Vaishnava Youth Bus Tour to Mexico, Part I
(Sent from Gainesville, Florida, on February 1, 2012)

Where I Went and What I Did

For the last two weeks of December and the first week of January, I went with about twenty-four college-age Hare Krishna youth and three older devotees to over a dozen cities in Mexico, where we shared Krishna culture with the local people. It was the best way I have ever spent that time of year, and many people appreciated the programs, chanted Hare Krishna, danced, and purchased spiritual literature. I include pictures taken by Manorama Prabhu, Rukmini Priya Poddar, and myself, and over 51 minutes of video.

In saying goodbye to 2011, I review the wonderful events I was blessed to attend that year.

I list all the devotees who helped me in my travels this year, as a way of thanking them, and also all those who helped me in the years since 2001, when I started traveling to Europe. If you helped out and I did not mention your name, let me know, and I will try to make up for it.

Currently I would like to go to India, but I am about $300 short on the price of a ticket from Europe to India. If you would like to help out, click on the “Donate” button below.

Guru Prasad Swami spoke to our party and also spoke at an initiation ceremony, and I share his realizations.

Vaishnava Youth Bus Tour to Mexico, Part I

The Vaishnava Youth Bus Tour to Mexico has been happening for the last several years during the students’ winter break from school and college. Twenty or thirty Hare Krishna children and a few adults put on Krishna festivals in twelve to fifteen locations each year, as well as visiting the pyramids and beaches in Mexico. This year, on the dashboard of the bus, we had famed kirtana leader Madhava Prabhu’s personal deity of Haridas Thakura, along with the bus tour deities of Sri Sri Gaur-Nitai.

Madhava Prabhu sometimes led kirtana for as long as two hours while we were traveling on the bus, and it was so absorbing no one thought two hours had passed.

Our evening programs at yoga places were the chanting of Hare Krishna with instruments, but at the other places, the majority, we also did a drama on Bhagavad-gita, two or three Bharat Natyam dances, and sometimes played a brief video, Vrindavan: Land of Krishna, with a Spanish soundtrack.

Madhava Prabhu (center) would play at every festival, accompanied by Ananta Prabhu (left) on the drum, and Mother Jaya Sita, a professional cello player (right).

Manorama Prabhu, our fearless leader, was often seen at our festivals filming videos or taking still pictures. We are so thankful for him purchasing the bus, organizing the festivals, getting sponsors for the tour, and emptying the sewage, so we would not have to do it ourselves and have bad memories of the experience. He is an emblem of tolerance and compassion.

Nadia, Mohini, and Bhakti Lata (left to right), all from Alachua, were our bharat natyam dancers and many loved their performances.

In the Gita drama, Ananta (front and center), one of the most popular of the actors, is seen below illustrating the illusory happiness, and ultimately distress, that arises from getting material possessions, in this case, a new car.

Mother Bhakti Lata would implore the attendees to rise from their seats and then teach them her version of the swami step to induce the people to dance during the kirtan, and many would. Quickly, the dancing would surpass the basic step, and get more wild, as in Cancun below.

No event is complete without the distribution of spiritual food (prasadam). Either the bus tour devotees or local devotees or both would prepare prasadam for the event. Here in Tampico, the bus tour devotees, headed by Mother Jaya Sri Radhe, prepared food for the guests.

Mother Jaya Sri Radhe, head cook, and mother of the tour, serves rice with a smile.

I took lots of video, and that which covers the December portion of the trip is divided into three parts totaling 51 minutes altogether.

I will intersperse the videos covering the three parts of the trip with my description of them, but if you want to view the entire playlist of three videos at once, click on this YouTube playlist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgrdebobeMc&list=PLA8EF6C029FB07BDF&feature=plpp_play_all

My main service was to distribute books and the Hare Krishna mantra posters and cards. I also kept track of the receipts for purchases.

We drove from Alachua, Florida, to Houston in one day and did an evening kirtana in the temple there.

The next day, we drove to Monterrey, where despite rainy weather, practically everyone in the audience danced. The prasadam the local devotees provided was wonderful, highlighted by samosas and halava.

The following day in Tampico many people arrived in the auditorium before the program, and we had positioned the book table in front of the entrance, so many people looked at the books and CDs. I was surprised that we sold 2,000 pesos of books and 1,000 pesos of CDs before the program even started! After the program we distributed another 1,000 pesos of each! The total distribution was about 6 hard bound Gitas, 13 medium books, 46 small books, and 17 of Madhava Prabhu’s CDs. Many people in the audience sang, as you can see in the picture below, and many also came up and danced in front, between the seats and the stage. An amazing fact is that the organizer is not even a Hare Krishna devotee, just someone who read about the cultural tour on the internet, who contacted Manorama Prabhu, and who started regularly organizing programs for him in Tampico about three years ago.

The next program was at yoga cafe in Oaxaca the following evening. It was a smaller venue and a smaller crowd but we still distributed 1320 pesos of books and 1430 pesos of CDs. Many people danced with great enthusiasm. Mother Varsana-rani (wearing the blue-green sari below), a Russian disciple of Indradyumna Swami who just joined us, regularly travels on the Polish tour. She was very good in inspiring the people to dance.

The hosts were helpful and friendly at Shambhala, a yoga retreat place on a resort beach at Puerto Angel, where there were fewer Mexicans and more tourists. I talked to people from Holland, Denmark, Germany, Slovakia, America, and Canada, and I was happy because I could talk with more people. I told a couple from Oakland, who was present at the end of the evening, about our Berkeley temple. The girl had previously visited our temple in Amsterdam where her mom, also accompanying her, resided. Although many people danced with us, Shambhala was a different story as far as distribution of literature and CDs. We sold 300 pesos of books and a single CD. It was like the people were already were satisfied with their own understanding of spirituality, and so they were not inquisitive. It can be a challenge to interest the yoga community in Krishna consciousness. They are inquisitive to the extent that they encountered yoga, were attracted and became committed, but they may not be interested in going beyond hatha-yoga to bhakti-yoga and thus perfectly benefit their souls in addition to their bodies and minds.

The next day we stayed at the beach. There was the Pacific Ocean, a fresh water lagoon, and a bathroom and showers available. There were even fresh coconuts, reminding me of Mayapur, which many devotees liked. Some enterprising devotee ladies put the bus deities on a surf board in the lagoon. I hoped we would have a kirtana, but all the big kirtana people were involved in a athletic game. In retrospect, I realized I would have been more satisfied if I did some kirtana on my own or with a few others not involved in the game.

We spent two days in Tuxtla, December 22 and December 23, one of my favorite cities on the trip. The first day we did a two-hour harinama at two parks in the evening to advertise our festival to the next day. The first park had a daily concert in the evening, and we arrived just before it started so people who came for the concert turned out to hear our harinama as well.

Some people took pleasure dancing with us. The next park was ten blocks away, and devotees decided to just walk without singing to save energy. For me, to walk without chanting is a waste of time, so I took up the harmonium and began to sing the first tune I learned and the one I know the best, as we walked to the central park. We found a place where several sidewalks converge, and a crowd of people began to grow as the chanting group attracted them. Several of our girls danced and induced people from the audience to dance as well. Bhakti and Mohini demonstrated some of their Bharat Natyam steps, and Datta did tricks from his magic show. The invitations for our program the next day finally arrived, and we distributed them. Our organizers, as with Tampico, also not Hare Krishna devotees, got us permission to chant inside a mall for one hour, something we would not dream of doing in the USA. Three hundred people came to our evening festival, and many enjoyed singing and dancing in a big way (see below). We sold 13 CDs and almost 3,000 pesos worth of books, one of the biggest days.

After Tuxtla we went to Agua Azul in the Mayan part of Mexico. There is a really wonderful multiple waterfall, with the river falling over several different rocks. It is a tourist place. We played this game called Secret Santa in which we put all of our names in a hat and each chose one. We had to buy a Christmas present for the person whose name we chose, something of around $5 in value. Those kinds of games are not so fun for me as I hate shopping and have no sense of certainty about what to get anyone. I ended up choosing a girl I knew from the Polish Festival tour, and Jaya Sri Radha offered to trade me as she got a boy. I accepted the offer, as it is not recommended for brahmacaris to meditate on girls, which I would ended up doing for the next week, thinking of a gift. Besides I probably would not have chosen a very nice gift. I asked the boy whose name I got if he had any clue about what to get a boy his age. He explained it was not a question of boys or girls but that we had to get to understand the person and get a sense of what they would like. He also said you could always just get a T-shirt which is something probably anyone could use. Furthermore, he explained that we should package the gift in a creative way, and put our personality into it. I decided to pray to Krishna. Just under an hour before my last chance to buy a gift, I went through the souvenir shops and I asked other devotees for their advice. Other devotees suggested T-shirts, so I decided to go for that. Because my person, Devananda liked math, I decided to choose a T-shirt with a calendar on it, and a Mayan calendar rather than an Aztec one, because we were in the Mayan part of Mexico, and a T-shirt with Agua Azul, the name of the waterfall resort, on it. Mohini suggested a dark color rather than white, which shows the dirt, and thus my gift was decided. And it was $6, near the right range. I wrapped it between two paper plates fastened together with band-aids. After leaving the forest area in our bus, we saw a gas station with a Christmas tree in the parking lot, and decided to stop there and exchange gifts.

It was so amazing to see a decorated Christmas tree appearing as we emerged from the Mexican (below). It was funny that it turned out Devananda and I were the last people to exchange gifts, being Secret Santa for each other, and he got me a bathing suit, which was something I had forgotten to bring, and which proved very useful.

In addition to sharing presents, we also had a piñata which we took turns swinging at, hoping to break it, and grab the candy that falls out. In the photo below, Madhavi tried her best.

Nuno, who has a yoga ashram called Uno Astrolodge in Tulum, invited us to stay over and do kirtana there. We chanted two hours in the evening and an hour and a half the next morning. Many of the people really loved chanting and dancing. The ones I talked to were happy to hear of our restaurant with its two weekly programs in nearby Cancun. One viola player chanted with great happiness, other people listened with great concentration as a meditation.

One man (see below) who did the Buddhist Vipasanna meditation told me many people in his sangha of meditation practitioners, probably due to their Christian upbringing, although appreciating some benefit from Vipasanna meditation, realized a need to look beyond it for fulfillment through more devotional activities. It reminded me of the Vaishnava understanding that only through devotion to the Lord can our soul be satisfied for we are His children and parts of His very self.

The girl below loved our chanting and was interested to hear of our two weekly programs at our restaurant in Cancun, not so far from her home.

This video shows our programs from Houston through Tulum:

The morning we spent at the yoga ashram, I got up at 4 a.m. and chanted for two hours facing the ocean. There was a strong sea breeze, but it was so warm I did not need a sweater. Recently I had been reviewing chapter 10 of Bhagavad-gita and the whole time I chanted japa on the breezy beach I was thinking how Krishna says, “Of bodies of water I am the ocean, . . . and of purifiers I am the wind.” (Bhagavad-gita 10.24, 31). Thus I felt happily surrounded by Krishna as ocean and wind as I chanted His holy names.

On the bus an ocean of conversations of varying relevance entered my ears in addition to my japa most every day but at Uno Astrolodge only the sea breezes accompanied the Lord in His sound incarnation, appearing in my ears.

At our program in Cancun, one man who chants Hare Krishna and has Bhagavad-gita As It Is was returning home in a taxi. Seeing “Krishna Culture Tour” written on our bus, he inquired and was happy to learn of and come to our the festival. As usual many people danced in the kirtana. We invited interested people to the programs at our restaurant in Cancun.

In Izamal in the Yucatan, there was family all of whom, the parents and the kids, loved our festival and thanked us profusely with all their hearts as they left. It was heart-warming to see such appreciation. Photographer Rukmini Priya Poddar described them as, “an enthusiastic family that became so inspired by our program, they insisted on getting a photo with me and Nanda and exclaimed, ‘We’re a Hare Krishna family!’”

One lady wanted to organize a festival in large city nearby called Merida from which many in the audience came. Many danced happily in Izamal as you can see below:

In Playa del Carman, a young Hungarian lady and her three friends, who do yoga together loved the kirtana. She had been to our temple and restaurant in Budapest, and had even been to our New Vraja farm near the Balaton. She and her friends were telling how they took pictures of themselves before and after the kirtana, and were amazed to see how radiant they became from the kirtana. They were happy to find out from Paulina, a local devotee, that we have monthly programs there in Playa del Carman. A mother from Toronto was happy to learn that we had a center in her town. I think of Krishna consciousness being more attractive to younger people but she got much more into the kirtana than her teenage daughter. In the picture below, you can get a feel for the size of the crowd there. That picture is just part of the crowd.

Near the ruins in Palenque, Martin from Germany, a friend of Nuno, invited us to do kirtana at his little alternative community. He and his friends chanted with us for two hours and then got into some more eclectic chants for another half hour. One lady there had lived in our temple in Heidelberg and at the Nrsimha farm in Bavaria. You could see she had a deep attachment to kirtana from her past devotional service. She was up dancing before the others and sang meditatively and smilingly. She feels Krishna has guided her to this community and wants to develop it. Another couple who visits from Leon one month each winter, recalled their association with Mahajan, former temple president of ISKCON Leon, and how they were once in a conversation with Hridayananda Goswami who came to lecture. Thus several people became reminded again of Krishna from our visit there.

Guru Prasada Swami traveled with us to Veracruz, the home of Eka Bhokta Prabhu, a former resident of Alachua. The swami gave a little talk on the beach, preceded by a kirtana of Madhava Prabhu. Our program there was in the crowded town square. One lady and her daughters watched for two hours with great delight. She spoke English excellently, being an employee of the U.S. Government in Mexico City. One older man asked if he could dance to the kirtana on the stage during the first kirtana. Manorama told me to tell him to wait till the final kirtana. He could not stay so I danced with him in front of the stage to make him happy. I would dance with mantra cards in my hands and give them to people who looked at our program with interest. A couple Mexican book distributors greatly assisted us in our distribution of literature. Just see the size of the crowd and their enthusiasm at Veracruz:

This video shows our programs from Izamal to Veracruz:

At Orizaba we did a New Year’s Eve program from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. The program was advertised around the city:

A highpoint for me was meeting some people who came last year and liked it and returned. I saw them reading the mantra from the flyer and taking pleasure singing along. The program attendance dropped after 8:30 p.m. as in the pious city of Orizaba, people spend New Year’s Eve in church. As midnight approached we had a lively kirtana on the bus to celebrate the New Year. Nadia made hot chocolate and served out cookies to celebrate. This video shows our New Year’s Eve program in Orizaba:

The year ended but the Vaishnava Youth Bus Tour to Mexico continued, and so I will describe the rest of it in my next issue. Don’t miss it.

If you would like to support my going on the tour, I am still $200 short. Click on the following link to help out:

http://www.afn.org/~afn18429/mxbustour.html

For more photos of the tour, see the following devotees’ photos on Facebook:

Manorama Dasa: https://www.facebook.com/manu.dasa?sk=photos, Albums Mexico, Mexico II, and Mexico III.

Rukmini Priya Poddar: https://www.facebook.com/ruksi86?sk=photos, Albums named with Mexican cities.

Summary of the Year

I did a six new events, three new Ratha-yatras this year, and harinama in at least a couple of new cities. The six new events were a five-day harinama tour with Janananda Goswami, Parasurama Prabhu’s nine-day Scandinavian Ratha-yatra tour, the Kirtan Mela in Germany, and this Vaishnava Youth Bus Tour to Mexico. All were wonderful experiences sharing Krishna with others except at Kirtan Mela when we shared kirtana with ourselves. Then there were the Crawley Ratha-yatra, Cardiff Ratha-yatra, and the New Orleans Ratha-yatra. I also went to harinama in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Cavan, Republic of Ireland. Although we had done harinama in Berlin many times, the three-hour one on Radhastami was special. I also attended a nama-hatta program in Crawley. On top of that I presented a paper on Srila Prabhupada’s empowerment and his ability to to empower others at an academic conference in Leeds. I felt happy to go new places and do new things, but still I do not do so much for this glorious mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as I should. I hope I can be more useful in the coming year.

The events I liked and repeated included the Ocala Regional Rainbow Gathering, St. Augustine, Tallahassee and Philadelphia Ratha-yatras, Queen’s Day harinama, Munich Ratha-yatra, Nrsimha Caturdasi at Simhacalam, Birmingham 24-hour kirtana, London Ratha-yatra, Stonehenge solstice festival, Croatian harinama tour, Poland Woodstock, Czech Woodstock, Polish tour, and the Ukraine festival.

One good result this year is one girl from a Czech Republic festival ended up attending regularly harinamas and evening programs in Brno, where she goes to school. Meeting the Hare Krishnas, she explained, was a bright spot in an otherwise bleak year.

Returning to Gainesville we have found the devotees continued the harinama at the Farmers’s Market, and at least a couple people from there have become regular attenders to our Krishna House programs because of it. They also maintained the weekly teaching of japa to students as a meditation.

Otherwise, we were mostly planting seeds of bhakti through our chanting and festivals, and we hope they will sprout sometime soon. Give us your blessings.

Thank You to My Kind Supporters

As I it is the end of the year, I want to start by thanking all the people who made it possible to travel in fifteen countries this year. People often ask how I can travel so many places although I have no fixed income. Ultimately it is the mercy of the Lord, but it comes through different agents all of whom I am greatly indebted to. I felt bad for insufficiently thanking my many benefactors in previous years, so I thought I would take this opportunity to do it now, and regularly each year from now on.

I want to thank the following people for their kind support during the year of 2011, starting with those who contributed the most: Kalakantha Prabhu, Narayana Kavaca Prabhu, Gauranga (Belfast), Pat Beetle (my mother) , Daru Brahma Prabhu, Mother Sandamini, Niranjana Swami, Prema Sindhu Prabhu (Ohio), Bhavna (Crawley), Sivananda Sena (Rotterdam), Mother Krishnapriya (Antwerp), Caitanya Candrodaya Prabhu (Ireland), Janananda Goswami, Navin Shyam Prabhu, Bhaktin Kruti, Acyuta Rupa Prabhu, Bhakta Alex (Flagstaff), Victor (my sister’s boyfriend), Subuddhi Krishna Prabhu, Karen (my sister), a Crawley nama hatta devotee, the Berlin temple, Jamuna Prabhu (Queens), Dhruva (Los Angeles), Bhaktin Miso (Rotterdam), Varaha Murti Prabhu, Shyamasundara Bhagavan Prabhu, Leipzig temple, Antwerp temple, Gaura Hari (UK), Pandava, Bhakta Alan (Belfast), Radha Govinda (UK), Gopa Kumar Prabhu, Mother Nikunja (Berlin), Govinda Prabhu (Bhaktivedanta Manor), Sruti Sagar Prabhu, a devotee lady from Belarus, Vaidyanatha Prabhu, Navina Nirada Prabhu, Punya Palaka Prabhu, a Czech gas station attendant, and people who gave me donations while I was chanting on the sidewalks and parks in Leeds, Newcastle, Amsterdam, and probably few other places. Beyond the donations of money mentioned above, Narayana Kavaca Prabhu kindly paid for my camera, luggage, and some clothes this year, and my Netbook computer last year, thus facilitating my service greatly.

Here is a summary of my expenses and donations in 2011.

Description	Debits	Credits
book purchases/sales	1.62	-27.27
donations from individuals and temples		-2618.48
unaccounted for donations		-284.63
gifts to temples, devotees, and relatives	298.85
Internet, phone, and computer	81.29
necessities	13.86
outreach	3.59
food	56.79
travel	2474.38
total	2930.38	-2930.38

Apart from the donations and expense mentioned above, four devotees helped sponsor my trip on the Vaishnava Youth Bus Tour in December 2011: Radha Jivan Prabhu of Sacred Threads, Sesa Prabhu, Srikar Prabhu, and Vaishnava Das Prabhu, and I thank them for giving me the most wonderful devotional way I have found so far to spend the end of December and the beginning of January in my life, sharing Krishna culture through festivals in Mexico.

I began traveling in 2001 when I was inspired by Sridhara Swami to visit my diksa-guru, Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, in Ireland and inspired by Indradyumna Swami to visit the Polish Woodstock. Pat Beetle, my mother, kindly paid for my ticket. I loved seeing all the Polish youth engaged in Krishna chanting and decided to go each year to the Polish Woodstock to assist with the festival. Dharmatma Prabhu, who helped Indradyumna Swami collect for the Polish festivals, kindly paid for my ticket in 2002. In 2003 and 2004 I went to the Polish Woodstock and a couple weeks of the Polish Festival of India tour on the Baltic coast, visiting Prague, Czech Republic, for the first time in 2004. Sadaputa Prabhu, who I was working with at the time, kindly paid for those trips.

In 2005 I decided to take the Bhakti-sastri course in Mayapur, and I asked the devotees I knew from the eleven years I lived in Alachua to help me out. Lokavarnatam Prabhu, who had a thriving Internet business at the time, gave me enough for my ticket, and many other devotees helped out, including Prana Govinda Prabhu, Sesa Prabhu, Kaliyaphani Prabhu, Indupati Prabhu, Panchatattva Prabhu, Kishore Krishna Prabhu, Mother Anangamanjari, Urukrama Prabhu, Vidyananda Prabhu, and Vishnu Gada Prabhu. I raised enough money to go to Europe and India twice, without returning to America in between. During the time in India, Sesa Prabhu, Mother Nanda, Mother Sukhada, Nitai (SDG) Prabhu, Ekavira Prabhu, and Yadavendra Prabhu kindly gave me donations, and in 2006 Vaishnava youth from Idaho, Gopal Hari Prabhu, and Polish tour restaurant manager, Rasikendra Prabhu gave me donations in Poland. Later Bhakti Vijnana Goswami kindly sponsored my travel, visa, and accommodations in Russia to present a seminar on Sadaputa Prabhu’s videos at the Russian festival in Krinnitsa, and different devotees gave me donations in Russia and Ukraine. During the 2005–2006 and 2006–2007 winters in India, I worked for MIHET in exchange for room and board, and I thank them for that opportunity.

In 2007 Pat Beetle, Kalakantha Prabhu, Tara Prabhu, Aholavam Nrsimha Prabhu, Sri Prahlada Prabhu, Trilokatma Prabhu, Prema Sindhu Prabhu, Navin Prabhu, two congregational devotees from Tallahassee, Panchtattva Prabhu, Bhakta Victor from Tampa, Rtadhvaja Swami, Prahlada-Nrsimha Prabhu, the Munich temple, and Vraja Vilasa, Nitai, Krishna Kesava, Mahabharata, Gadagraja, Atul Krishna, and Dravida Prabhus gave me donations along with a few devotees in Ukraine. I also got a donation for participating in a Kolkata nama-hatta. In 2007 my mother contributed to a trip for the two of us to South India. In the winters of 2007–2008 and 2009–2010, when I was in Mayapur, I was taken care of the Shastra Prabhu and the harinama sankirtana office, as I did service for them, and I thank them for that most satisfying service opportunity. I hope to return there in February 2012.

In 2008 Pat Beetle, Ahovalam Nrsimha Prabhu, Indradyumna Swami, Mother Krishnapriya, Daru Brahma Prabhu, Sivam, Back to Godhead magazine, Tara Prabhu, the Bratislava temple, the Leipzig temple, the Rotterdam temple, Mother Syamanandini, two bhaktas from Slovakia both named Peter, Kalakantha Prabhu, Dravida Prabhu, Isvara Prabhu, Sridhama Prabhu of Daytona, Adi Karta Prabhu, Bhakta Jaroslav from Prague, and Badrinarayana, Lilasuka, and Carucandra Prabhus, a driver and a servant of the presenters at the Ukraine festival, a Ukrainian lady, the London temple receptionist, and an Australian gurukuli kindly gave me donations.

In 2009, Kalakantha Prabhu, Pat Beetle, Niranjana Swami, Dhruva Prabhu, Daru Brahma Prabhu, the Durban temple, Bhakta Matush, Kavicandra Swami, Sri Prahlada Prabhu, the Bratislava temple, Kadamba Kanana Swami, Paramesvara Prabhu, Bhakta Mike, Isvara Krishna Prabhu, Mother Krishnapriya, Mukunda Prabhu from London, Sivam, Anil, Trivikrama Prabhu, Krishna Vidhi Prabhu, my host in Lvov, Bhaktin Eva (from Czech), Tapan Misra Prabhu, Raja Dharma Prabhu (Paris), a black devotee from the London harinama, a devotee in Paris who used to drive Srila Prabhupada, Bernard, Rama Gopal Prabhu, Yasoda Dulal Prabhu, Mother Govinda Priya (NRS), another devotee lady from Ukraine, a college outreach devotee in London, a Bengali nama-hatta, and Bhakta Andres (now Ananda Seva Prabhu) kindly gave me donations. I also distributed a few books in Prague and did harinama in Bern and thus received donations, and I found some money on the ground a couple times.

Kadambda Kanana Swami kindly bought me a ticket to South Africa in 2009 so I could experience how the outreach programs are developing there and share it with others. Thus on my fiftieth birthday, I did harinama in a new city, Pretoria, in a new country, South Africa, on a new continent.

In 2010 Kalakantha Prabhu, Pat Beetle, Ahovalam Nrsimha Prabhu, Mother Sandamini, Daru Brahma Prabhu, Bhakta Peter, the Den Haag temple, Vrajendralal Prabhu, Vraja Vilasa Prabhu, Jaya Govinda Prabhu, the Leipzig temple, Naveen Prabhu, the Berlin temple, Vaishnava Prabhu, Bhakta Dave, people I met on harinama, my host in Lvov, Vijaya Prabhu (my driver in Lvov), Victor, Bhakti Rasa Prabhu, Mother Krishna Karsani, Gaura Nam Prabhu, people me and my friends distributed books to on harinama, an Indian man who bought a Hindi BTG on a train, a devotee (in exchange for a sweet), and the Soho St. temple, kindly gave me donations.

Over the last few years, Drutakarma Prabhu gave me a donation for proofreading Forbidden Archeology, Isvara Prabhu of Touchstone Publishing gave me a donation for proofreading Uddhava Gita, Kalakantha Prabhu gave me a donation for proofreading his book, A God Who Dances, and Baladeva Vidyabhusana Prabhu gave me a donation for scanning the books of Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami.

Thank you all for your kind support of my program of promoting the public chanting of the holy names of the Hare Krishna mantra in different towns and villages. I pray that Lord Krishna blesses you for your kindness, and that you advance in your devotion for Him.

My present ticket ends in London on February 12, 2012. I greatly desire to go to Mayapur for the Kirtan Mela on February 22–25, 2012, but I have only $250 out of the $550 I need. If any of you would like to help, you can send me money using Paypal by clicking the “Donate” link below.

Alternatively, you can deposit money in my Bank of America or Wells Fargo bank accounts (send me an email at kk@krishna.com for details).

Thanks again for your help.

Insight from Devotees

Guru Prasad Swami:

As soon as we are interested in sense gratification, automatically we are thinking of ourselves first. When there is a question of service, then we are interested in the other person or in Krishna.

Prabhupada told his disciples that they were proof of the reality of Lord Caitanya's mercy.

Once the fired-up sankirtana devotees were running in kirtana and sliding, like you would slide into first base, however, when Prabhupada saw it, he stopped it.

If the holy name does not touch our real essence, what comes out will not be pure but tinged with this or that.

Q: What does it mean to chant from the heart?

A: The first ingredient is association with devotees, intense association (prasangam), as Lord Kapila says (Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.25.25). Sometimes we think association with devotees means a pizza party.

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura explained the position of guru as difficult because if you think you are guru then you become gauru (cow). By if you do not instruct your disciples, you are irresponsible.

You cannot purchase a do-it-yourself pure devotee kit because association with pure devotees is so important.

One devotee was just reading and not doing service so the devotees complained to Prabhupada. Prabhupada replied, “Reading is not service?” The leader were worried that all the devotees would stop doing service and just read. Then Prabhupada said, “Of course, if he is reading, then he will understand, you must serve.”

Every order of life has its challenges. To stage a good example as a grhastha is big preaching because show gives people a lifestyle they can follow.

Everyone has iPhones and iPads. “I” means ego.

Comment by Madhava Prabhu: Aindra Prabhu told us that japa is the foundation for good kirtana.

-----

prithivite ache yata nagaradi-grama

sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama

[Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said:] “In every town and village of the world, My name [the holy name of Krishna] will be preached.” (Caitanya-bhagavata, Antya 4.126)

Travel Journal#7.23: Tallahassee, Gainesville, Alachua

2012-01-03T23:14:00.006+02:00

Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 7, No. 23
By Krishna-kripa das
(December 2011, part one)
Tallahassee, Gainesville, Alachua
(Sent from Uruapan, Mexico, on January 3, 2012)

Where I Went and What I Did?

I spent a week in Tallahassee during the end of November and the beginning of December. The highpoint of that was when enthusiastic Krishna House devotees came to assist our outreach at First Friday. Also wonderful was that the next day at Lake Ella, a lady liked Pritha’s chanting so much, she wanted Pritha to call her the next time she sang so she could come hear. After Tallahassee, it was chanting at Krishna Lunch in Gainesville as usual and the Farmers’ Market on Wednesday, or this time, across the street from the market due to competition. We had an extra late night Friday night end-of-the-semester street chanting program attended by a few enthusiastic devotees and appreciated by some local party-goers. Purusarta Prabhu and Madhava Prabhu (our local Madhava) have been doing kirtana on Saturday nights at the Gainesville Krishna House, and there is great response in terms of local devotee attendance. Here is some video of these end-of-the-year kirtana events:

The UF Campus Ministry Cooperative (an interfaith group) had a progressive dinner, visiting four places of worship and sharing food. Krishna House supplied their famous spaghetti, which was served at St. Augustine Catholic Church, as Krishna House was off of University Avenue. I connected with lots of students in different ways, the most rewarding being seeing that students who sang in the choir agreed that singing for the Lord was the most powerful spiritual experience for them. The entertainment for the event was Ekendra Prabhu playing guitar with Kalakantha Prabhu and Gopala Prabhu assisting him on bass and drums, respectively. One student was happy to find in me another person not too shy to dance to the music.

The Alachua community chanted at two Christmas parades at that second Saturday in December. The devotees were spirited, and their joy was appreciated by the locals, through glances, smiles, waves, and moving with the music. Devotees distributed one thousand of pieces of spiritual food and lots of literature. I was surprised that Alachua parade was mostly faithful old-timers and a bunch of kids with just a few young adults attending, and our attendance seemed smaller than in the past. Of my Gainesville friends, I recall seeing only one. The High Spring parade attendance, with just twelve devotees, although very enthusiastic ones who made it a success, was more disheartening. Chanting in these parades during this holiday season is such a simple way for us to share with hundreds of our friendly neighbors the joy of connecting with the Lord through his chanting the holy name, and that joy is what Christmas and what life itself is all about! Come out next year, Alachua County devotees, and increase the ecstasy!

I share wise words from Bhaktisiddanta Sarasvati Thakura, Srila Prabhupada, and lots of contemporary devotees, notably Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami and Chaturatma, Malati, Kalakantha and Sesa Prabhus, in particular, as well as some Krishna House devotees and friends, like Ekendra Prabhu, who made some valuable observations.

First Friday with Boost from Krishna House

About twelve devotees from Krishna House joined our kirtana program at Tallahassee’s First Friday where Daru Brahma Prabhu serves Krishna dinner to about two hundred people. I was surprised to see their enthusiasm to explain to those walking by and waiting in line for food about Krishna and His teachings. At one point, there were at least three devotees talking to the people, including some who did not usually do that kind of thing. One high school girl remembered seeing us chanting at Lake Ella and was happy to see us again. Mother Amrita Keli talked to one guy for over an hour. Estefania even sold someone a set of chanting beads, in addition to the many books the devotees distributed. When the Tallahassee devotees joined us, we had so many people that we could chant at the prasadam serve out and also have a chanting party walk throughout the whole area. Our serve-out place is too dim to take video with my camera, which is meant for still shots, but I did take a clip of the walking chanting party, when a local dancer took pleasure dancing with us:

Seeing the enthusiasm of the Krishna House devotees made me think that groups of three or four of them could go to other cities and settle there and create new Krishna centers by their youthful enthusiasm and by their faith.

Insights from Devotees

Srila Prabhupada:

from Siksamrita on rural living:

Better to produce ghee rather than cheese.

Try to avoid purchasing food from outside for the cows.

Send some cows from New Vrndavana to our goshalas in Vrindavan and Mayapur.

The Western civilization will be finished as a result of this sinful activity of killing the cows.

Comment by Mother Citraratha: I was a new devotee and twenty years old in 1975, I received a little inheritance and knew I should offer it to Krishna. My temple president asked how I wanted to spend it, and I said I wanted to buy a cow for New Mayapur farm in France, and so we did.

Comment by Dr. Dina Bandhu Prabhu: When I was Ekacakra [in West Bengal], all the prasadam we had was grown in that place.

In your country, the dog is protected and the cow is killed.

In New Vrindavan, the mountains can be renamed New Govardhana, and if there are lakes they can be renamed Shyama Kunda and Radha Kunda.

Do not make it too much luxurious but have the basic necessities of life.

The problem in your country is that people want to maintain attachments to sense gratification and also advance transcendentally.

The defect of this modern civilization is people make volumes of money but do not know how to use it. They waste it on illicit sex and intoxication.

All these properties are of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Comment by Mother Citraratha: Radhanatha Swami tells a great story how Srila Prabhupada wanted Hayagriva Prabhu to become New Vrindavan temple president. Hayagriya Prabhu felt he was not advanced enough, and he did not like the idea. He came up with many arguments to support his case. When he went to meet Prabhupada, Prabhupada told him he wanted to expand his service by having him take sannyasa, the renounced order of life. He explained elaborately why he thought that would be good for Hayagriva and humanity as well. That was a most horrible idea to Hayagriva, who considered he was much to attached to practically be a sannyasi, and he rebelled against the idea. Then Srila Prabhupada suggested that Hayagriva become the temple president of New Vrindavan. That was such a relief from the idea of sannyasa that Hayagriva accepted it.

The foolish idea that plants or animals have no life is the cause of all sinful activities.

from Srila Prabhupada’s Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.10–13, purport: “When one desires the benefit of the soul and nothing else, he is said to be desireless.”

from a Prabhupada DVD:

Lady: Can you see God?
Srila Prabhupada: Yes. You cannot see? God is everywhere. You do not see? Do you want to see?
Lady: No.
Srila Prabhupada: Because you do not want to see, you cannot see.

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura:

Our main disease is to collect objects that have no relation with Krishna.

Only if our body falls chanting the name of Lord Hari will our life be successful.

Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:

from his Vyasa Puja 2012 lecture:

“I had a job in the welfare office, and at first I wanted to quit so that I could be with Swamiji all day long like the other boys, who were all unemployed. So I resigned, handed in my official resignation, and went and told Swamiji. To my surprise he was disappointed, and he told me a story. He said there was a man, very nasty man, and he was married to his wife, but he wasn’t faithful to his wife. He was always hankering to visit and go enjoy himself with a very expensive prostitute, but he didn’t have the money. So when his wife learned of this, she went to the prostitute and said, ‘My husband would like to enjoy with you.’ And the prostitute laughed and said, ‘You don’t know how much I cost. I cost a thousand dollars a night.’ So the wife said, ‘Please accept me as your servant and I’ll serve you to earn money so that my husband can come to you.’ So she worked for her for a year, and the prostitute finally said, ‘All right. You can bring your husband.’ And the wife told the husband, and he so ruthlessly went to the prostitute and enjoyed himself.

“So I didn’t know why Prabhupada was telling me this story (or I did know). He said, ‘Whatever you may say about that wife, about her morality, we would have to admit that she was a very chaste wife to her husband and just tried to please him. So you may think the association in that office is not very spiritual, that it’s a dirty place to be. But by being there and contributing to our society you are doing the best service, better than if you stayed here.’ So I immediately went back to the office and retracted my resignation.”

“Prabhupada told me to write. He encouraged me very much in writing for Back to Godhead magazine.”

“Then with the Library Party we decided that there should be a book that we could circulate in the academic circles, an academic book about Krishna consciousness which would be acceptable in their Hinduism courses. So I wrote a book entitled Readings in Vedic Literature and Prabhupada approved of it.”

“Prabhupada said I wasn’t a good manager, but he kept me on the GBC because I did what he said. But he encouraged me in writing and thought of me as a writer.”

And then at the end of Prabhupada’s life, some members of the BBT wrote to his secretary Tamala Krishna Maharaja and asked if they could write a biography of Prabhupada as he was about to disappear. They wanted to get approval. And he said ‘Yes, and Satsvarupa Maharaja should write the book.’ So then at the GBC meeting after his disappearance, they commissioned me to write the Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta. So that was another order from Srila Prabhupada.”

“I wrote a book called Srila Prabhupada Samadhi Diary in Vrndavana. I had been going to see Narayana Maharaja, and then at a certain point I felt I should not continue to see him because it compromised my chastity in going to see Srila Prabhupada as my only guru. So I expressed my feelings of wanting to come back by visiting the Prabhupada Samadhi and Prabhupada rooms at different times in the day. And I wrote to him intimately.”

I would write timed writing sessions in different locations.

“I’m a writer, and this is my preaching field to readers, casting Lord Caitanyta’s net further–now and in the future.”

75% of my books are out of print, and I want to put them back into print, and I want you, my disciples, to help me do this.

I want to approve all these books before I pass away.

Mother Malati:

Christ earned the glorification of the Christians by tolerating a few nails in his body, but Bhismadeva spoke on religious principles with hundreds of arrows in his body.

As Bhimsadeva transcended the pain of arrows in his body to speak on religious principles, Srila Prabhupada transcended the pain of disease and old age to speak his Bhaktivedanta purports in his final days, whispering into a microphone a devotee held near his mouth.

If you want to talk about someone in a negative way you should not mention his name. This is explained by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura who said to illustrate this that rather than say ‘cow’ say the big animal with horns that gives milk.

To separate a person from Krishna is violent.

One governor was called a coward by the very man whose sentence he reduced from the death penalty to life in prison. The governor did not pardon him because he was innocent but because he did not want anyone to be executed during his time in office.

Sometimes devotees stress vegetarianism when in fact eating vegetables not offered to God is also sinful, and sometimes Srila Prabhupada would say, “If Krishna ate meat, we would also eat meat.”

We may not immediately instruct people about the details of varnasrama but the dharma is the chanting of the holy name, and as the people become purified by chanting, we can tell them more.

Once a devotee was chanting during Srimad-Bhagavatam class when Srila Prabhupada was speaking, and Srila Prabhupada said, “What is this noise?”

Comments:

Gopal: The arrows were just two fingers apart all over his Bhisma’s body.

Olivia: I had an idea of purifying myself from bad qualities. Now as a devotee, I see more clearly exactly what those bad qualities are and which I should first try to give up.

Mother Citraratha: So many extremists have their ideals which they violently advocate, but Prabhupada peacefully described how people should act for their betterment.

The scientists give different symptoms of death:

no breathing
no pulse
loss of color
livor mortis—blood settling in the lower part of the body
rigor mortis—stiffening of the body
decomposition

I saw the body of one godsister who had died many hours before but she did not lose the color in her face.

There is one type of body building in which you work out in a gym, but we advocate another kind of body building.

One devotee mother was shocked when her child died untimely at age seven. She was shocked and was almost completely dysfunctional. It was decided they would take the body of the daughter to offer to the holy river Yamuna by carrying the body in a harinama party.

One devotee seamstress took darsana of the Lord for whom she had made outfits for years, having been away for quite some time because of Alzhiemer’s disease. I was surprised to see her absorption in the Deities. She saw me looking at her, and turned to me, saying “You may try to forget Krishna, but Krishna will not forget you.”

One Indian industrialist in his nineties, whose son became a fulltime devotee, was in Vrndavana area for Karttika, and while there he left his body. He folded his hands, and said, “Jaya Prabhupada! Jaya Gurudeva! Jaya Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu! Jaya Sri Rama!” And left His body.

One devotee wondered what would happen in the case of sudden death. Prabhupada replied, “Do you think Krishna is ungrateful?” Then explained that Krishna would certainly take care of his devotee.

Chaturatma Prabhu:

The First Canto gives us everything the Bhagavatam will give us. The remaining cantos just expand it out.

Sometimes Srila Prabhupada says household life is a license for sense enjoyment and sometimes a license for sex enjoyment. If one is not careful they become one and the same.

In India they offer Ganges water back to the Ganges. What is the point of that? By doing that we are acknowledging the source. In the same way, we offer Krishna’s property back to Krishna, for what else can we offer him?

Here the dharma of the king or ruler is such that in the present day, a dharmic leader would close the slaughterhouses and the liquor shops and promote religious principles in society, not merely promote one religion as opposed to another. We do not see any political candidates addressing these issues.

Because people have no sense control, parents abuse their children, political leaders abuse the citizens, and teachers abuse their students.

Kings would keep base desires in check by associating with saintly persons.

Unfortunately in modern society equality for women often means to have the opportunity to attain the same bad qualities that men have. Real equality is to have an equal opportunity to serve the Lord.

The tendency of the householder is to think this is my house, this is my property, this is my game room. In reality all these are the property the Personality of Godhead, and they should be used in His service.

There is a Govardhan-sila that formerly belonged to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu which presently resides in the Radha-Gokulananda temple. It has the thumb print of Lord Caitanya in it which you can see if you give the pujari a donation. The history of this sila is that Lord Caitanya gave it to Raghunatha Dasa Goswami who served it in great ecstasy. Next Krishna Dasa Kaviraja took up that worship and then Mukunda. Mukunda gave it to Krishna Priya Thakurani, who then took up the worship and then passed it on to Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, who ultimately turned over the sila and his other deities to the Radha-Gokulananda temple.

Sesa Prabhu:

This pastime of Bhismadeva leaving his body is a culmination of all the emotions of the Mahabharata.

The ultimate goal of Krishna consciousness is not just to learn philosophy but to experience transcendence emotions in relationship with the Lord and His devotees.

We can get to the stage of transcendental emotions by engaging as Bhismadeva did in Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.9.32: “Let me now invest my thinking, feeling and willing, which were so long engaged in different subjects and occupational duties, in the all-powerful Lord Sri Krishna.” The result of doing this is described ten verses later, “Now I can meditate with full concentration upon that one Lord, Sri Krishna, now present before me because now I have transcended the misconceptions of duality in regard to His presence in everyone's heart, even in the hearts of the mental speculators.”

Seeing anything separate from Krishna is the cause of all the suffering in this world. By engaging everything in Krishna’s service, one become frees from this duality.

Srila Prabhupada was questioned about his naming the deities of New Delhi as Radha Parthasarati as that seems to be an incompatible mixture of different moods, but he knew what he was doing. He wanted to make it clear to everyone that the Krishna of Vrindavan and the Krishna of Dvaraka are in fact the same person.

We do not accept “seeing is believing.” For us “hearing is believing.”

Hearing some Bengali bhajana singers playing in a competition, Srila Prabhupada said, “Stop this. There are just singing for money.”

Becoming Krishna consciousness is like waking up from your waking state.

Krishna is aware of our hearing about Him and our meditating on Him.

Tolerance means we go on hearing despite our imperfections due to impurity.

Comment by Mother Madhumati: Although hearing is sufficient, sometimes we experience if we see Bhagavatam acted out it more powerfully awakens our transcendental emotions.

Yes. That is true. Hearing can be aided as by acting in theater.

Comments by Mother Malati:

We are careful to read the label before we put something into our body but we do not restrict what we put in our ears.

One devotee asked about hearing in the toilet room, and Srila Prabhupada replied, “There is no prohibition.”

from a Sunday feast lecture:

At Christmastime there is an awareness of being good is valuable, whether we are children being good in order to get gifts or we are adults considering giving in charity.

In the “Divine and Demoniac Nature” chapter of Bhagavad-gita, Krishna talks about the good qualities of our original spiritual nature.

Aversion to fault-finding (apaisunam) is a key divine quality.

One Vaishava teacher says that to describe the bad qualities of another, whether or not they are true, is very bad quality.

Krishna was not interested in efficient administration by a king with bad qualities. Duryodhana was not a bad king but a bad person.

Although he looked everywhere, Yudhisthira could not find one more fallen than himself. How many of us could honestly say that?

The consciousness of “me first” or “you have to look out for number one” does not help society.

If we see no one greater that ourselves that means we are finding fault with everyone else.

Bhaktisiddhanta Saravati Thakura advised, “Amend yourself rather prying into the frailties of others.” He also said, “In this world, only ‘patience, humility, and respect for others’ are friends of hari-bhajana.”

If we are going to change the world, we have to change ourselves.

Why do we find fault?

To make ourselves look better.
Because others criticize us.
Insecurity.
Because I have bad qualities, I think others have the same bad qualities.
As a matter of gossip.
To correct problems in society, we criticize supposed causes.
When we are disturbed or in pain, we lash out.
We fail to look within.

If our first instinct is look within, then we go down a different path than if our first instinct is to criticize others.

The truth about our situation in this world is very humbling. Krishna says humility is the first item of knowledge.

We must respect all living beings, not just human beings. We cannot talk about peace on earth and good will to men, as we enjoy our Christmas turkey dinner.

If fault-finding happens in the association of devotees, we lose our original nature.

Jagai and Madhai changed their hearts and became humble.

If I could ask one gift from all of you this holiday season, it would be to remove the tendency for fault-finding.

Comment by Yamaraja BTS: When we feel like finding fault, Bhakti Tirtha Swami recommends in Spiritual Warrior 3, breathe in the bad quality and breathe out love.

If your humility does not result in increased hari-bhajana [glorification of the Lord] then perhaps it is a destructive low self-esteem.

We do not need to fear. The Lord will protect us. We have to have that faith in the Lord’s protection to act with these spiritual quality.

Comment by Chaturatma Prabhu: If we serve others, that will neutralize the fault-finding tendency. After all, we do not want to serve someone who has bad qualities.

Kalakantha Prabhu:

I heard this Mahabharata story in a lecture by Gauranga Prabhu. Four people ask Bhima about inconceivable events they experienced. Bhima cannot offer an explanation and so he refers each to King Yudhisthira, his eldest brother.

The first says that overnight his fence moved a few feet out onto his neighbor’s property.

The second says that he distributed the contents of a full waterpot to several smaller pots, but when he returned the water to the original pot, it was only half full.

The third says that he saw an entire elephant pass through the eye of a needle but then its tail got stuck.

The fourth says that a huge boulder was blocking the road and that no one could move it by any means until a sadhu came, waved his chadar, and the boulder immediately moved.

Yudhisthira explained that all of these events were symptoms of Kali-yuga, the present age of quarrel and hypocrisy, which was just then beginning.

The first event showed that in this age, no matter what one has, one is envious of what others have.

The second showed that one gives full love to his family members but only receives half in return.

The third showed that a rich person will give any amount of money for sense gratification, social functions, etc., but when asked by a saintly person for a small donation he will say he has no money.

The fourth showed that the obstacles of Kali-yuga cannot be moved by any means except by the blessings of a saintly person.

Ekendra Prabhu:

Why don’t we know Krishna? Because we do not love Krishna. If we do not love someone, why bother getting to know them?

There are so many, many things that we are very interested in. Practically we are interesting in anything but Krishna.

If we do not know Krishna then we are incoherent. If someone has an head injury, to see how serious it is they ask the person questions to determine their coherence. What is your name? Where do you live? Who is the president? In the same way, there are questions one could ask to determine one’s spiritual coherence.

Even in high graduate classes in the university, people do not take philosophy seriously. One professor at Temple University asked his students, “What is philosophy?” Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu, who was a student, replied “To understand who we are, where we have come from, and where we are going.” The professor replied, “Oh, one of those. That is easy to answer. I am Mr. Smith. I have come from the library, and I am going to the administration building.”

To get beyond the influence of the material energy is simple in principle, to surrender to Lord, but it can be difficult in the application.

If you are addicted to Krishna, you will not be addicted to all the things that other people are addicted to.

If you are humble, it is easy to find someone greater than yourself that you can learn from.

Gopala Prabhu:

That this age of Kali is degraded we can see from the news reports:

A ten-year-old boy shot himself and six others because a girl would not go out with him.

They did an experiment by putting several men and women in a room and saying they could do anything they wanted. They started out talking and hitting each other with pillows, but then they ended up having sex, and later on they become violent. [This reminds me of the progression given in Bhagavad-gita 2.62: “While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.”

Comment by Nimai Pandit Prabhu: Mother Narayani said, “Every saint has had a past, and every sinner has a future.”

When I was in my twenties, I started chanting sixteen rounds and following the four rules, but later I ran into difficulty. I felt like the person who had immense wealth and lost it and thus was always thinking about it.

Braja Hari Prabhu:

Krishna is completely under the control of His devotees because of the purity of their devotion.

Candrasekhara Prabhu:

There is a conception that dhotis and saris are devotional dress, but most men in India who wear dhotis are not devotees, and most woman in India who wear saris are not devotees.

-----

kṛpālu, akṛta-droha, satya-sāra sama
nidoṣa, vadānya, mṛdu, śuci, akiñcana
sarvopakāraka, śānta, kṛṣṇaika-śaraṇa
akāma, anīha, sthira, vijita-ṣaḍ-guṇa
mita-bhuk, apramatta, mānada, amānī
gambhīra, karuṇa, maitra, kavi, dakṣa, maunī

Devotees are always merciful, humble, truthful, equal to all, faultless, magnanimous, mild and clean. They are without material possessions, and they perform welfare work for everyone. They are peaceful, surrendered to Kṛṣṇa and desireless. They are indifferent to material acquisitions and are fixed in devotional service. They completely control the six bad qualities—lust, anger, greed and so forth. They eat only as much as required, and they are not inebriated. They are respectful, grave, compassionate and without false prestige. They are friendly, poetic, expert and silent. (Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya 22.78–80)

Words in Praise of Yamuna Devi

2011-12-26T00:08:00.000+02:00

Words in Praise of Yamuna Devi

While chanting on my meditation beads on Christmas morning it occurred to me I should write in honor of Srila Prabhupada’s disciple, Yamuna Devi, who passed away recently. I met her just a few times. Although she was gracious and friendly, I had a sense she was on a level of sincerity and devotion way above me. I think my limited sincerity kept me a little distant from her. I wanted to say a few things which I was able to appreciate about the interactions I had with her, tell my favorite recipe from her most famous cookbook, and conclude by sharing the notes I took on what she said [and what others said of her] at the fortieth anniversary of the installation of their most beautiful and most merciful Lordships Sri Sri Radha Londonisvara at Soho Street, London, back in November 2009.

My first contact with Yamuna Devi was indirect, by hearing her voice. Back in the late 1970s I was a student at Brown University, where my friend would play the Radha Krishna Temple Album after we would do our meditation. I loved all the songs on the record, including the “Govindam” recording in which Yamuna Devi was the lead singer.

I first recall meeting Yamuna Devi when she attended a wonderful program that Kartamasa Prabhu (known by most as Kar), a very devoted Vaishnava youth, had at his place in Alachua. Almost every other Sunday, as far as I recall, Kar would invite a senior devotee to his house to speak to his friends, mostly a crowd of the Vaishnava youth, the children of the Hare Krishna devotees. I would come too because I knew Kar from chanting with him at Krishna Lunch in Gainesville one or twice a week for two hours while was working on his master degree in sociology. Kar would ask the senior devotee he invited two questions:
(1) How did you join the Hare Krishna movement?
(2) Why have you stayed in the Hare Krishna movement?

Usually he would record these programs on video, and I hope he still has the tapes. There would also be worship and singing for his deities of Krishna and Balarama. Yamuna Devi was a devotee Kar had the utmost respect and affection for. When Yamuna came, that was the first time I got to hear her singing live. Then in addition to her beautiful voice in the kirtana, I recall most how she tried to encourage each devotee there. She asked a question to the devotees and had each one of us respond. She listened carefully and discussed what each person had to say. I could see from that that she really cared about the devotional lives of each of us, and that impression remains in my mind until this day. That was more powerful to me than how she answered Kar’s two questions, which I actually forgot.

When I go home to visit my mother, sister, and niece, I do all the cooking, and my sister has a copy of Yamuna Devi’s largest cookbook, Lord Krishna’s Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking. Yamuna includes a recipe I love for a rice with carrot and coconut which is really simple and tasty, and comes out every time. I thank her for the tremendous achievement of writing such a voluminous cookbook that received awards for being the best vegetarian and best Indian cookbook when it came out, all as a beautiful devotional offering to Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krishna.

In December 2009, Kar was in Mayapur, and he invited me to come each evening to a program they had there with Mother Yamuna, where they chanted all the bhajanas in Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s Gitavali over a period of several days. It was attended by about twenty devotees, ranging from Vaishava youth teenagers to Prabhupada disciples in their sixties. I could not attend the whole program each day as it overlapped with the three-hour harinama program in Mayapur I attend which ends at 6:00 p.m., but I came several times and I was there for the last session. You could see she really appreciated the message and mood of Bhaktivinoda Thakura and wanted to share that. At the last session, she asked for our realizations of the program. I expressed that her program of hearing the bhajanas and their meaning made me realize that these are a gift that Srila Prabhupada gave us that many of us do not fully appreciate. We have systematic study of the scriptures like at Mayapur Institute for Higher Education and Training and other places, but we do not, as a worldwide society, encourage the devotees to sing, learn, and appreciate the bhajans of the acaryas. Perhaps we should do that more in general and also, in a systematic way. I felt she appreciated my words. Perhaps now as Yamuna Devi has passed away, in her honor, our leaders might consider promoting bhajana study throughout the movement at their upcoming meetings in Mayapur.

Devotees Speak About Yamuna Devi at the London Forty Years Festival

Guru Das Prabhu:

Srila Prabhupada himself said that the Bury Place temple was like a family, that I (Guru Das) was the father, and Yamuna was the mother, and the proof that it was like a family is that the men and women were just a floor apart, but there was no mixing because they were so happy being engaged in devotional service.

Malati Prabhu:

Yamuna was attentive, submissive and always inquiring. Thus Srila Prabhupada taught her many things.

Bhagavat-asraya Prabhu:

I was always told that Guru Das Prabhu and Yamuna Prabhu were the father and mother of the family. There are different conceptions of ISKCON, the corporate conception, etc., but the family conception is the best. We always tried to keep it like a family.

Sarva Mangala Prabhu (Bhagavat-asraya’s wife):

The devotees really loved the devotees who introduced them to Srila Prabhupada, who had since gone to India, and they would often talk of them, especially Yamuna Prabhu. I think that Radha-Londonisvara have really blessed us that when we serve Them together we develop nice relationships between each other. When you practice Krishna consciousness it changes your heart, and you can pass that on to others. Let’s keep the family spirit.

Dhananjaya Prabhu:

Srila Prabhupada gave Yamuna lessons in singing the slokas of Bhagavad-gita. I do not recall he did that for anyone else.

When Srila Prabhupada was sick he engaged Yamuna in making hot chili pakoras to increase his body heat. As a person who regularly massages Srila Prabhupada, I was entitled to the remnants of his lunch. Since I did not want to share them with anyone, I ate them in a room with the light off. The pakoras were unbearably spicy hot, but I was determined to eat them anyway. Besides, I didn’t want to be caught with some of the remnants, although I felt there must be smoke coming out of my ears.

Srutakirti Prabhu:

I always remember seeing Yamuna making chapatis for Srila Prabhupada at Radha Damodara. All I could think is about Mother Yasoda cooking for Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada insisted that I take prasadam, and so I did. I never tasted anything that was as good as what Yamuna cooked for Srila Prabhupada.

Yamuna Devi Speaking at the London Forty Years Festival

I never had a desire to cook. Cooking, for me, meant cleaning up all the time, so I was not attracted. But I found out cooking for Krishna was different.

Within an hour of meeting Srila Prabhupada, he engaged me in cooking.

Srila Prabhupada was expert in so many things, besides being a devotee empowered to spread Krishna consciousness. He learned cooking from his maternal uncle, auntie, and street wallas (vendors).

There was never a time Srila Prabhupada did not ask a guest to take prasadam.

After meals, Prabhupada asked me if knew how to cook everything that was served. If not, he wanted me to learn.

Sometimes Prabhupada was lenient, and sometimes he would reprimand with such subtlety we would only understand it years later.

Prabhupada would describe the ingredients in a dish, and then critique it after we made it, indicating first class, second class, and third class with gestures.

He demonstrated how to make pera, explaining the principles.

Srila Prabhupada revealed a buni or bunji kitri, a thick kitri, for Ratha-yatra for Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra. It should be the main dish at every Ratha-yatra feast.

All I have is a notebook from autumn 1969. I like to remember the pastimes with other devotees. We all remember different things. It is wonderful having Malati’s association.

Srila Prabhupada said of deity worship, you are dealing with the supreme pure, so you have to become pure. The same is true of him.

This is the only place Srila Prabhupada gave the instruction for mantra-snana [bathing by mantra] Deity worship. We did not ask why. Perhaps it was we were understaffed.

I came to the marriage of my sister. I thought Krishna consciousness was alright for my friends but not for me. I liked Srila Prabhupada. At one point, I decided I would do an experiment and try to follow the four principles and chant. I read the first seventeen chapters of Srimad-Bhagavatam and was truly impressed. I was chanting practically all day.

Next time I saw Srila Prabhupada, he inquired about my plans, and I said I wanted to go to a higher place, like the Himalayas. Srila Prabhupada replied, “I can take you to a higher place than the Himalayas. Just see. Just see.”

My cooking for Srila Prabhupada, I felt, was progressing from kindergarten through high school. In London, we had been devotees only a year and a half.

Srila Prabhupada was so perceptive on so many levels. We all appreciated him differently. Sometimes he would just indicate things with his eyes.

Srila Prabhupada would repeat an instruction until we got it, and then he would move on.

All glories to Yamuna Devi, a great devotee of Srila Prabhupada, who imbibed the devotional attitude from him.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada, who spread Krishna-bhakti all over the world.

For those wanting to read a broader descriptions of Yamuna Devi’s life, click here.

Travel Journal#7.22: North Florida

2011-12-23T20:00:00.011+02:00

Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 7, No. 22
By Krishna-kripa das
(November 2011, part two)
North Florida
(Sent from Tuxtla, Mexico, on December 23, 2011)

Where I Was and What I Did

I was chanting at Krishna Lunch the second half of November, mostly in Gainesville except once at the end of the month in Tallahassee. I gave a lecture for the Gainesville Sunday Feast program on dancing and spirituality, and it was well received, with almost everyone chanting and dancing. Madhava Prabhu and Visvambhar of the Mayapuris came to chant at Gainesville’s Krishna Lunch one day and both the devotees and some onlookers appreciated, as you can see in this video below:

The last two Saturdays in November we chanted at the stadium in Gainesville before the Gator’s last two football games, and visiting devotees, such as Guru Prasad Swami and Dravida Prabhu, joined us. The video below, includes clips taken at these football game harinamas, following a brief one showing the Gainesville Friday program kirtana.

The Festival of the Holy Name, Alachua’s 24-hour kirtana, split over two days, and with several days of wonderful evening kirtanas leading up to it was a absolutely wonderful major event during the end of November.

There are valuable insights from Prabhupada in the Acarya videos and Prabhupada Siksamrita, and from visiting devotees, Guru Prasad Swami and Dravida Prabhu, as well as many regular Krishna House speakers. Different devotees share different beautiful things that they were thankful for at Thanksgiving dinner at Krishna House.

The Festival of the Holy Name

Beginning the Saturday evening, the week before The Festival of the Holy Name, there was chanting of the holy name for several hours, every night, with the possible exception of the Thanksgiving at different places in the Alachua community. It was wonderful to see the devotees’ faith in and enthusiasm for the chanting.

One young lady from Florida State University who is doing her Ph.D. In ethnomusicology on kirtana in Hare Krishna festivals came to take video of the Festival of the Holy Name and to interview devotees. She had visited Alachua before and attended the Ratha-yatras in New York and Los Angeles, but she found the kirtana at the festival the sweetest of all and was very impressed.

I tried to stay for twelve hours both days except on Saturday when fifty of us chanted for two hours before the football game in Gainesville. I was impressed as usually only twenty people come out for that kirtana, but here thirty additional people chose not to hear some of the best kirtana singers in the Hare Krishna movement but to instead share their enthusiasm for the holy name with others. The final day, the kirtana ended just before midnight, but I had to stop dancing half an hour before that because I was physically exhausted. I joked with Madhava Prabhu, the final kirtana leader, saying that he defeated me before he was able to keep singing but I had to stop dancing. I did not take much video of the event because I saw many people with better video equipment videoing it already. You can find videos posted by YouTube user bvdasa, who has two play lists of videos from the Alachua holy name event. Find them at http://www.youtube.com/user/bvdasa. I did take many still pictures, hoping for a one that is good enough to use for the chant page of Back to Godhead. I tried to get shots of devotees really absorbed in the chanting. Here are a couple:

Dancing for Krishna

Hanan, manager of Krishna Lunch, invited me to speak at the Gainesville Sunday Feast program, which is designed to encourage our friends from the university community in their spiritual life. My topic was dancing and spirituality. I explained how Srila Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, described his practice has having four features, chanting, dancing, feasting, and philosophy. At Krishna Lunch, the feasting is prominent, but the chanting is also there and the philosophy is evident in the books on the information table and through talks with devotees. The dancing, however, is somewhat lacking. I told about how my guru ordered me to dance more, and how dancing is there in the practicing stage of Krishna consciousness, in the stage of spiritual perfection, and in the spiritual world. God Himself, Krishna, is the source of dance and the best dancer. I complied a video of devotees dancing in different parts of the world, and I showed that for the audience. Then I taught the swami step, a simple dance taught by Srila Prabhupada himself, and seeing everyone participate in the chanting and dancing my joy knew no bounds. Mother Amrita Keli, who graduated from both University of Florida and our program at Krishna House and who is in charge of the academic aspect of it this year led the kirtana. One girl, who was a friend of Andrea, one of our most enthusiastic resident dancers at Krishna House, said that she did not expect to like the dancing, but that she found she did. Hanan Prabhu and his wife both loved the program, and I felt very successful. Here is the video I showed the people:

If you want to hear the lecture, it is on ISKCON Desire Tree. Click here.

Insights from Lectures

Srila Prabhupada:

From the Acarya videos:

Vedic religion means to accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the Absolute Truth.

We chant to keep in touch with Krishna by just as by listening to the radio people keep in touch with what is going on.

From Prabhupada Siksamrita:

If one always remembers Krishna and prays that he may not fall down, Krishna will protect him.

For persons who were completely engaged in service, occasionally Srila Prabhupada did not consider their failure to chant sixteen rounds very seriously, but if anyone was not completely engaged in service, it was a great defect not to complete his japa quote, and it should be made up the next day.

Srila Prabhupada says in a purport, “One with material attachments cannot understand spiritual freedom.”

In one letter, Prabhupada said we should read at least twice a day, morning and evening.

“You are to keep your beads very carefully because they are your direct link to Krishna.”

“Keep chanting and any offenses, because they are not intentional, will be vanquished.”

“Keep your beads in a bag and keep the bag around your neck. In this way you will not lose them.”

“If you lose your initiation beads, you do not to have your spiritual master chant on another set of beads. Once your chanting has been sanctified by the spiritual master it is eternally so.”

Regarding split personality, there is no question of split personality, just a very disturbed mind. Fix your mind on chanting Hare Krishna and that will bring the mind under control.

Guru Prasad Swami:

Srila Prabhupada said the disease of you Americans is that you want to change things.

For the devotee, every day is Thanksgiving, or he is thankful just to be allowed to engage in devotional service.

I tell the devotees that the first principle is that the preacher himself must be happy. The thing that will change devotees’ hearts is if a devotee is happy. Because happiness is what everyone is looking for.

People in general are thankful for the earth’s bounty, but they are not thankful for calamities.

In this world of duality we try for pleasurable situations and avoid the unpalatable ones, but the devotee sees Krishna in every circumstances and finds happiness everywhere.

Being deprived of someone's association causes one to relish it more when one has it.

Surrender to Krishna, desiring to please Him, is the essential feature of the devotee, and the other twenty-five qualities may or may not be present. Even if a devotees does not have all the Vaishnava qualities we must appreciate the presence of this most important quality.

The devotee is thankful that his suffering is reduced beyond what he deserves and that his facility is increased beyond what he deserves.

When prosperity occurs we are thankful for a greater opportunity for serving externally and when deprivation occurs we are thankful for a greater opportunity for internal work.

A mature devotee sees everything to be meant to be engaged in Krishna’s service. Although nothing every leaves Krishna’s control, Krishna makes it look like that so the devotee can reclaim it and engage it on His behalf.

When there is a rebellion, the government tries takes away the rebel’s facility. But Krishna is so kind he gives facility to the rebels who protest His existence.

Some modern psychologists do not think children should ever be restricted, but even plants are restricted so they may grow in the proper direction.

If you are too tolerant, people will take advantage of you, and if you are too stern people will rebel.

You should be tolerant of a person’s offense if the person has no knowledge or the person is repentant or they are unable to understand the gravity of the offense, or it is the first time. If it is the second or more offense, or when they know it is wrong but they do it anyway, you must be stern.

We should not waste time defending the false ego.

In his youth his village was wiped out by plague, but Bhaktivinoda Thakura saw it as Krishna’s mercy.

We are trying to govern the whole world by varnasrama, but we first have to follow varnasrama ourselves.

Srila Prabhupada's purport to Bhagavad-gita, purport to 10.4-5 is very illuminating.

On this day of Thanksgiving, we thank Krishna for everything He has given us.

Q: One lady I met on harinama said she was already happy without any spiritual endeavor. What to do?

A: Unless persons are interested, Prahlada recommended not speaking to them. That lady was not ready to listen. She was ready to speak. Also sometimes Krishna sends us people to defeat our false pride.

Bhaktisiddhanta Saravati Thakura would only speak to the more intellectual people and let his disciples speak to others. This was not his lack of humility but his practicality. When there was a chance to distribute prasadam, however, he would eagerly distribute to everyone.

Krishna intervenes in a devotees life when he surrenders, otherwise he just gets the response of the cosmic karmic mechanism.

Krishna never creates a situation that is impossible for a devotee to handle, but we may require to take extra help from the devotees to understand what to do.

The only purpose for a pure devotee to suffer unnecessarily is to show that the devotee's happiness is beyond material plane.

Christ says that not only he but all are sons of God. [ask him for verse reference]

The tendency is to bring the scripture down to our level instead broaden our intelligence to come to understand the Lord.

In school we hear of the activities of the same historical figures year after year. My experience was it was boring the first time, and it remained boring. But Krishna’s pastimes are ever fresh.

Sometimes people interpret another intentions, but the real way to understand a person’s intentions is to ask the person.

Bhagavad-gita, according to the great spiritual teachers, is just an introduction to the spiritual science, yet most people do not understand it in a whole lifetime.

At Radha Kund Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakra spoke about sa vai pumsam and other Bhagavatam verses and Sri Isopanisad to make the two points that (1) unless one understands the basic philosophy one cannot appreciate the highest knowledge of spiritual relationships, and (2) one advanced in the spiritual science can hear repeatedly the basic knowledge and relish it. In this way he was simultaneously chastising those who were proud and giving nectar to the humble.

The South Indian brahmana who could not perfectly pronounce the Sanskrit verses of Bhagavad-gita but had great appreciation of the sweet relationship between Krishna and Arjuna in the estimation of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, attained the highest success in spiritual life simply by meditating on this single pastime of the Lord.

The proof that one has understood the philosophy of life is that one is always happy and satisfied. If you understand the knowledge of Bhagavad-gita you must be happy, what to speak of understanding Srimad-Bhagavatam or Caitanya-caritamrta.

Lord Krishna wanted to speak Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna because he was a playing the role a common man in human society and not a great saint such as Narada or Sukadeva Goswami.

Sometimes we want to be Krishna consciousness, but when we encounter some obstacle, we hesitate and become like Arjuna, saying in effect, “Krishna, change my service.”

Krishna says that He is the taste of water. If your tongue is dry, you cannot taste something without water in. Water is necessary to relish the taste of things.

When Nrsimhadeva appeared He saved Prahlada Maharaja, but when Krishna appeared He delivered even those inimical to Him, and what to speak of Lord Caitanya, who came to give everyone love of God.

We are advised to follow the gopis who wanted no spiritual or material happiness but only Krishna’s pleasure

Once Rukmini was crying, and Krishna asked why, wondering if she was remembering His joking words. She replied that was not it. She explained the problem was that He did not understand the feelings the devotees have for Him.

The Bhagavad-gita and the Srimad-Bhagavatam are all based on inquiry. One who is humble will inquire and easily advance.

In japa we are sitting down alone with Krishna.

Bhaktisiddhanta Saravati Thakura says kirtana is powerful because we have the reinforcement of others.

Srila Prabhupada says when we are chanting, here is Krishna, here is Vrndavana, etc.

To improve japa get up so early there is nothing else to do.

Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami (from Memory in Krishna Consciousness):

The spiritual transformations that we seek do not come by accident. Only by deliberate management of our lives, taking time to go deep into the subject of spiritual devotion, can we obtain our hearts’ desires.

Dravida Prabhu:

We are taking the interest of the body and mind as our true interest and forgetting the actual interest of the soul.

Arjuna surrendered to Krishna when he realized he could not determine his actual self-interest and asked Krishna to instruct him about his real self-interest.

When we awaken from a dream, whether it is a nightmare we wish to forgot or a pleasant dream we may wish to return to, it is only temporary.

We invest every day, in our studies, in some relationship, or in Bhagavad-gita. And Srimad-Bhagavatam tells us where to invest.

Now instead of doing dharma to get economic development, people engage in technology to achieve that end.

Prahlada explains those who only see the value of the material cannot place their faith in Krishna. Because of uncontrolled senses they chew the chewed and view the viewed. Because they ignore the goal of Vishnu they take shelter of false goals, being led by blind men. Without taking shelter of the pure devotee, one cannot gain the goal of freedom from false goals.

Contact with the holy name gives us another kind of pleasure, and this pleasure is the antidote to all kinds of material addictions.

Serving Krishna means serving our true self.

We obey lust because we think it is us.

If we everything to Krishna, we get everything back. We have to have that faith that the more we give to Krishna, the more we get back.

Do we want to live eternally? Yes, but we have so much reluctance to do what is required to attain that state.

Srila Prabhupada asked his disciples, “What do you accept Krishna as God?”

One said, “Because what Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita.”

No said, Srila Prabhupada, “Because of you, Srila Prabhupada,” another said.

No, Srila Prabhupada, “Because you are experiencing bliss by chanting Hare Krishna.”

The Gaura-arati song is a description of the Maha-Prakasa-lila of Lord Caitanya.

There is no point at which material piety can produce bhakti. Only spiritual piety can do that.

Greed is good, if it is greed for the Holy Name, or greed for service to the Lord. That comes from service to the guru.

As soon as you start chanting Hare Krishna, your previous life makes no difference.

Kalakantha Prabhu:

Because Drupada did not give Drona half his kingdom as he promised as a kid, Drona engaged his students in defeating Drupada as guru daksina [remuneration for their education], and thus winning his kingdom. Drona gave half back to Drupada so the promise would be kept but Drupada was so angry he performed sacrifice to have a son who would kill Drona, and thus Drystadyumna was born.

After the battle, when Arjuna is taking with Krishna about what to do about Asvattama, he offers prayers showing he is in full consciousness of Krishna as the Supreme Godhead and he is clearly surrendered to Him. Although in a serious situation, he is not freaked out because of his enlightened consciousness, and so he takes the time to glorify Krishna before asking for help.

People are looking for happiness in the mode of ignorance and passion but not finding it because happiness is there only in the mode of goodness. By living in an ashram we can come to mode of goodness.

Progressing in spiritual life is like walking on a tight rope, and sometimes Krishna will wiggle the rope. Actually you can count on Him to wiggle the rope.

When Srila Prabhupada heard that President Nixon asked the nation to pray for the safely of the Apollo 13 astronauts who were in danger, he chuckled and said, “They did not consult God before sending up the rocket.”

The people I ask to give class here [in Gainesville] have gone through many trying situations and remained in Krishna consciousness and so I think their realizations will benefit you.

In the 1970s, Srila Prabhupada could see that women’s liberation was promoted by men so they could exploit the women for their sense enjoyment without taking responsibility to maintain the women and their offspring. No one else was seeing it like that.

In Bg. 9.32 sudras are considered to be sinful birth, but in the Bhagavatam everyone in this age is said to be less than sudras, so we are all less than sinful.

One scientific study showed:

The weight of the brain is proportional to the weight of the body and thus women have smaller brains simply because their bodies are smaller. As a proportion of body weight there is no different in brain size between the sexes.

The study also showed that men work mostly with the left brain which specializes in discrimination, while women work with both sides of the brain and have better intuition and emotional intelligence. So the sexes excel in different areas.

Because of how they think women are better at passing on culture to children which is important and requires some time, therefore full time mothers play an essential role in society.

If a man cannot provide for a woman, he is not ready to get married.

The question, “Can pure devotees make mistakes?” often really means “Can I judge whether or not someone is a pure devotee by whether or not they make mistakes?”

Good judgment is born of experience, and experience is born of bad judgment.

One of my senior godbrothers used to tell us that Srila Prabhupada said, “My body is Indian, but my ideas are all American.”

Sesa Prabhu:

From a discussion on punishment:

Comment by Vaishnava Prabhu: Manu Samhita recommends different punishment according to the consciousness of the person who commits it.

Comment by Kalakantha Prabhu: To reduce meat consumption, I recommend taxing meat and reducing health insurance for nonmeat eaters.

Revenge is inconsistent with Krishna’s purpose of creating the material world.

Comment by Mother Amrita Keli: If forgiveness is globally applied, lawlessness will reign.

In a conversation with Prahlada Maharaja, the idea of sometimes forgiving is recommended, as never forgiving or always forgiving will not work.

From the legal point of view if one does not know of the illegal objective of an act he cannot be convicted for conspiracy to commit it. Thus because the meat eaters in general do not know it is sinful to kill animals they cannot be said to be part of conspiracy to do so.

We have to educate people about the connection between slaughtering animals and war and pestilence.

Animal rights theories:

For animal rights: Peter Singer, on the equality of all beings because they are sentient.

For animal rights: Tom Regan, animals have a right not be used in a way they experience pain or suffering.

Braja Hari Prabhu:

Somebody once told me that Arjuna decided to fight, because otherwise Krishna would explain the whole Bhagavad-gita all over again, and he did not want that. This of course is not true. Arjuna relished hearing the words of Krishna, although sometimes we [in our neophyte condition] get tired of hearing them.

Dr. Dina Bandhu: Without activity that is based on faith, there is no evidence that a person actually has faith.

“I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith. . . science without faith is lame, faith without science is blind.”—Albert Einstein

Mother Govinda Mohini dd from South Africa:

My mother is very supportive of my spiritual life, and she knows that Krishna has to purify me. Once when things were very difficult for me here in America, I decided to go back home to South Africa. My mother discouraged me, saying, “You are like a patient who is on the operating table in the middle of an operation. You should stay there.”

As Lord Caitanya accepted the form of a sannyasi so people would offer Him respect, sometimes Krishna would display the four-handed Vishnu form of the Supreme Lord so people would realize His divinity and take Him seriously.

Comment by Amrita Keli: When I burned my arm and was there in the hospital with Ali Krishna I really felt how I was not my body. I had been praying to Krishna for purification for two weeks, and I really felt Krishna taking me seriously.

In difficult situations, I feel we should be grateful and ask for help.

Thanksgiving Dinner:
[Many devotees at Krishna House said what they were thankful for, and I wrote down some of them.]

Krishna-kripa Das:

I am thankful to see so many devotees who really love kirtana and who chant together morning and evening here. I am thankful that the Krishna House devotees maintained my program of chanting Wednesday at the Farmers’ Market when I went away for the summer. I am thankful to see how things are increasing here in so many ways, and I am grateful to be allowed to live here.

Nimai Pandita:

If feel the three years I spent at Krishna House were the most valuable and educational in my life.

I am thankful Kalakantha Prabhu encourages people to offer their individuality in Krishna's service.

Padma:

I am thankful Arjuna was uncertain and needed guidance.

Anna, the Quaker lady:

I am thankful I heard the chanting at the Farmers’ Market, and that Terri taught me the Hare Krishna mantra. It does make you happy.

Gopal:

I am grateful that, unlike many men my age, I have the time to come and participate in Krishna House because I have not so many other responsibilities.

Trey:

I am thankful that I met Donna, a Unitarian universalist charible person, who came with me and spontaneously brought fruit to offer. I thankful for Krishna House.

Clayton:

I am thankful to Kalakantha Prabhu for letting me live here, to Estefania for making breakfast, to Gopal for cutting up all the vegetables, to Mike for his cooking, . . .

Govinda Mohini dd:

I am thankful for my month-long stay. I feel refreshed. I am inspired by the seriousness of the new devotees, some who are more serious than I am. I will always treasure this time.

Indian student:

I am thankful I applied to UF, and that Krishna House is right by the campus and Krishna Lunch is served every day.

Olivia:

I am grateful to Kalakantha and Caitanya Prabhus, who preached to me every day. Before meeting the devotees, the words on the Dr. Bronner’s soap bottle were all I knew of God. I see you are all very saintly people, and I am very happy to be in your association.

Sruti Sagar Prabhu:

I am thanks to Srila Prabhupada for bringing Krishna Consciousness to the West, and Gaura Nitai for allowing me to serve, and Kalakantha Prabhu for tolerating me. Thanks to all the devotees.

Jagannatha Puri Dhama Prabhu:

I feel thankful for Gopal every day [as he chops all vegetables I cook]. I am thankful for your calamities because it keeps me employed.

I am thankful for this amazing community that has been taking care of me in every way. Thanks for Kalakantha.

Joy:

I would not have become a devotee without Krishna Lunch and Krishna House. I have never lived in an ashram, although here I can pretend to.

Estefania:

I am thankful to Kalakantha Prabhu for dealing with all our stuff. I am thankful for my sister for becoming a great devotee, and Tony for teaching me mrdanga. I am thankful to Gaura Nitai, Srila Prabhupada, and Radhanatha Swami.

Mike:

I am thankful for my parents who are so supportive. I am thankful for all the great devotees who have created this place. Thanks for the friends. It is amazing you can make 25 friends all at once.

Ananta:

I am most thankful for Kalakantha Prabhu for facilitating my stay. I did not know what to expect. My mom said, “You are going to the Krishna House.” Everyone’s heart is so open here, even at 5:00 in the morning. Thanks to Tony for being such a respectable roommate. And Baladeva for being the ultimate gurukuli.

Ananda Seva Prabhu:

I want to thank Andrea for taking over this service [of organizing Thanksgiving dinner]. In the beginning I was worried letting the new people do my services. Now I like it. I do not think I would have been able to go back to school without Krishna. I would like to thank the Krishna consciousness management and all the devotees.

Brahma Tirtha Prabhu:

I am thankful for an interesting phenomena. In the beginning, we had more determination than patience, and we had Srila Prabhupada. But then Srila Prabhupada left, and we were left without any adult guidance, and somehow we just stuck to what we gave, and now we see you new devotees have come, and you have more patience and other good qualities, and to see this I am thankful. I can see how things will go on.

Hanan:

I am thankful for all the devotees I work with. Srila Prabhupada says in Nectar of Instruction that devotional service begins by appreciating the devotees have something valuable. Every day, every week, and every month I learn something valuable from the devotees.

Kalakantha Prabhu:

I am inspired to see all the devotion and all the happiness of the devotees.

Madhava Prabhu [from La Crosse]:

When we see a movie, we may cheer when the hero is victorious, but who is hearing our cheers? But when we glorify Krishna, it is different because He reciprocates.

Because we have an eternal relationship with Krishna, when we hear about Krishna, it awakens our spiritual emotions for Him.

Some devotees consider the First Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam a favorite part of the book because we are introduced to Krishna. We see how Krishna drives Arjuna’s chariot, He protects King Pariksit in the womb, he reciprocates with Kunti’s prayers.

Aindra Prabhu tells an analogy about a sitar and our relationship with Krishna. The sitar has two sets of strings, one that is played and another that vibrates when the others are played. Those reciprocal strings of our relationship with Krishna vibrate when we hear of Krishna.

Bhaktivinoda Thakura discussing Srivasa Thakuras son’s death and Srivasa’s words to the lamenting ladies, as long as you are in this world understand that your husbands, sons, etc., are temporary relationships. Do not get so caught up in them and forget your real relationship with Krishna.

Krishna has taken His dear one for His own pleasure.

Krishna may not protect your body or your mind which is so attached to your body, but He will protect your soul.

From Kalakantha Prabhu: When people are in lamentation over a loss, the best thing we can do is hear and try to understand their pain. Then if they are willing we can read Bhagavad-gita, just the verses about the eternality of the soul, without giving any of our own purport. You can ask their permission to read Bhagavad-gita.

Krishna did not call Arjuna a fool until he surrendered. Before they just had friendly talks.

When my mom was passing away, my relatives would watch TV as my mother lay dying. The first thing I did was turn off the TV. They were so attached to watching TV, you could see that disturbed their minds. Some even left soon after. I would take longer shifts than the others just so the TV would be off, and I would play kirtana softly. My relatives saw I knew how to deal with situation better than them, and that I was happier. My brother asked me about it, and I explained Krishna consciousness elaborately. But at a certain point, he realized to experience it, he would have to give up things that he was attached to, and so he stopped inquiring.

Some of the people you could see were making a show of grief, so in those cases, there is no grief to relieve.

On sankirtana one women was obviously disturbed my lamentation. She gave money and took a Coming Back. The next day she thanked my profusely, saying her son had just died, and she was so relieved after reading the book.

Dr. Dina Bandhu Prabhu:

Everyone just wants to be saved by just believing in something without worrying about changing his actions.

Just because you do not see your anarthas (unbeneficial qualities and behaviors) does not mean you do not have any. It just means you are in the mode of ignorance [illusion].

Madhava Prabhu [from Switzerland]:

Kirtana is very special. It is our connection to Gaura Nitai and Srila Prabhupada.

Aindra Prabhu would say Krishna has very fine ears. If you do not know how to play the karatalas, then do not play them. There is time to learn them, but now is not that time.

Subuddhi Krishna Prabhu:

Here Shiva is described as being satisfied by his own ecstasy. Most people are satisfied by their wealth and other material possessions, but here we find Shiva is satisfied by his own ecstasy.

We say that Krishna is identical to Vishnu, and some places in the Vedic literature, as here, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are described as nondifferent, thus people protest, “Why should we worship Krishna as Supreme?”

Comment by me: Perhaps we should show them the statements where Brahma and Shiva address Lord Krishna as being Supreme, as being their own worshipable deity, and as being the source of their potency.

-----

atmendriya-priti-vancha—tare bali ‘kama’

krishnendriya-priti-iccha dhare ‘prema’ nama

“The desire to gratify one’s own senses is kama [lust], but the desire to please the senses of Lord Krishna is prema [love].” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi-lila 4.165)

Travel Journal#7.21: Gainesville, Tallahassee, New Orleans

2011-12-17T01:45:00.003+02:00

Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 7, No. 21
By Krishna-kripa das
(November 2011, part one)
Gainesville, Tallahassee, New Orleans
(Sent from Houston, Texas, on December 16, 2011)

Where I Went and What I Did

I stayed in Gainesville, chanting daily for 2½ hours at Krishna Lunch and 2 hours at the Wednesday Farmers’ Market, through the Ratha-yatra on November 4. Then taking a bus immediately afterward, I went to Tallahassee for First Friday that very evening, and a week of chanting there at Lake Ella, Krishna Lunch, and on the campus in front of the library and in front of the statues. The next weekend I had a great adventure traveling with the Vaishnava Youth bus, including many of my friends from Gainesville’s Krishna House, to New Orleans for the Ratha-yatra and its two-day festival, via New Talavan, the Mississippi Krishna farm. Then I came back to Gainesville to continue our program of chanting at Krishna Lunch.

I include notes on a few lectures from October, which did not make the last issue, such as one by our local Madhava Prabhu on Krishna’s Govardhan pastime, one by Yogesvara Prabhu on George Harrison at the Krishna Lunch 40 Years Festival, and one by Hanan for newcomers on spiritual enlightenment. There are also great quotes from Srila Prabhupada from a Back to Godhead article, from Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami from his new book, Prabhupada Smaranam, and from a lecture Yogesvara Prabhu gave on the spiritual side of George Harrison’s life, and there is much, much more.

Gainesville Ratha-yatra

Each year Gainesville and Alachua devotees do Ratha-yatra in the University of Florida Homecoming Parade. This year I was assigned the role of holding the sign, and so I could not take any video of the event. It was challenging enough to figure out how to dance while holding the sign. I think we had a few less devotees than usual. Still many people smiled, waved, took photos, and danced as a result seeing the Ratha-yatra procession.

Chanting in Tallahassee

I was very happy to see a lot of enthusiasm for chanting in Tallahassee. We chanted longer than ever before at First Friday, about four and a quarter hours. Pritha participated practically the whole time despite being six months pregnant. Sivam, who read in my blog I was coming to Tallahassee, choose to return to his former home the week I was there, and he chanted for four hours. That was first time I had been at First Friday since April, seven months ago, and I was happy to see the enthusiasm.

That weekend and the next Friday, the Veteran’s Day holiday, we chanted at Lake Ella. At Lake Ella, lots of people get their exercise, walk their dogs, and stroll their kids. On Veteran’s Day one man donated two cases of water to us, and sat nearby for some time and made it clear he liked the chanting. Later a middle-aged lady liked Pritha’s chanting so much she said if did not have an appointment, she would have stayed there all day listening.

Normally we chant at Krishna Lunch on Tuesdays in Tallahassee when I am visiting, but Sivam was interested to go out on Monday, so we chanted twice at Krishna Lunch that week and a few people voiced their appreciation.

Chanting on the campus in front of the library, I met an older lady who was a professor of archeology who liked Krishna food and had even taken a cooking class at the temple in the past. One attractive young student joyfully ran up to me eager to find out where our Krishna Lunch was served. She did a paper on Hare Krishna and heard of the lunch program but could somehow or other never find it. One senior who had been vegetarian for five years had never heard of the Krishna Lunch, so I could see we definitely need to do more advertising there.

One new devotee visiting from North Carolina to take care of his sister in Tallahassee visited the temple for the day. He came out with me and was very good at distributing the sweets.

On Wednesday, we went to Garuda Prabhu’s yoga class. Turns out that five out of the ten people there that night were Hare Krishna devotees. Garuda introduced Subuddhi Krishna Prabhu, the temple president, and had him explain some Bhagavad-gita verses, in the course of the yoga class.

Thursday I went with Subuddhi Krishna to an Indian family’s home for a fire sacrifice, a Satya Narayana Puja, and the offering of lamps Krishna in His Damodara feature. The kids really participated in the chanting of Hare Krishna that was done. I could see Subuddhi Krishna Prabhu, the new temple president, was making progress reaching out to the Indian community.

All in all, a lot of public chanting happened in Tallahassee, eight times in eight days, with Rafael joining me seven times and his wife, Pritha, coming out six times. The final day I was in Tallahassee, Rafael and Pritha found out about the youth bus tour to the New Orleans Ratha-yatra which left that very evening. Amazingly enough two seats were free on the bus so they were able to come. I told them this good fortune was the Lord reciprocating with their enthusiasm for the public chanting.

Here is some video from our chanting in Tallahassee:

New Orleans Ratha-yatra and Two-Day Festival

Lots of people were eager to watch the Ratha-yatra and to take pictures as well. A few people had a great time dancing in the parade. And one mother pushing a stroller, accompanied by her family, enjoyed walking in the parade for awhile.

There were different styles of the devotional music on the stage show, and Bhaktimarga Swami directed a play.

Just behind our exhibit tents one evening Bhaktimarga Swami led some congregational chanting. Devotees were spontaneously attracted to join, and others watched. Sometimes Bhaktimarga Swami would invite one of the onlookers to dance in the middle, and most everyone who was invited would do so.

On the whole it was a very lively event. I was especially glad to see my Gainesville Krishna House friends contributing by playing the instruments, dancing, distributing food, distributing literature, and talking to the visitors.

Here is some video from the event:

Insights from Lectures and Writings

Srila Prabhupada [quoted in BTG]:

No. It is not God’s plan that you suffer; you suffer because you violate God’s laws. He is controlling everything, but He has given you minute independence: You can either follow His laws or violate them. But you are so foolish that you do not understand you are suffering. Your position is like that of the cats and dogs, who also cannot understand that they are suffering. Our point is that you are suffering because you have violated

God’s laws, and if you become obedient to God you will not suffer.

If you are suffering from some disease, you cannot expect to be cured immediately. But one who is taking the medicine is very intelligent. His sufferings will soon be gone. But these nondevotee rascals will not even take the medicine—Krishna consciousness—so they will continue to suffer.

Niranjana Swami [from recording of class in Hartford]:

Vaisesika Prabhu tells the members of the audience they may leave their cell phone on, but that if it rings during class they have to buy a Krishna book for $5.

Lord Caitanya came to teach people how to perform devotional service by His example:

Simply by chanting the holy name of the Lord one can attain all perfection in life.

Lord Caitanya did not wait for us to surrender, He took the first step.

The first thing that fallen persons have to recognize to get Lord Caitanya’s mercy is that they are fallen. For the proud, advancement is difficult.

Simply by chanting the holy name, dancing, and taking prasadam with a motive to please the Lord we can easily satisfy Lord Krishna in His form as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami [from Prabhupada Smaranam]:

“Srila Prabhupada said, ‘It is your fault if you stick to false religionists and reject religion. If you receive counterfeit coin you should not reject all coins.’” (p. 93)

“Just as when he was in a very grave mood we became serious, so we laughed with him wholeheartedly when he tickled our ribs with a laughable point of view.” (p. 94)

“Telephone communication and even internet have improved the communications, but these material advancements don’t make up for the loss of the peace and purity that once reigned in Vrindavan.” (p. 97)

[Commenting one a picture and discussing Prabhupada’s samadhi:] “Prabhupada’s warm smile and gesture of hands and pranamas is a cheerful welcome. However one may have strayed away from Prabhupada or if one never met him in one’s lifetime, he is waiting to forgive us and welcome us to his eternal residence, provided we come with an open heart and an attitude of submission to the dearmost resident of Vrindavana who traveled away from Vraja to preach its glories and returned permanently to whoever has the good sense to come and associate with him.” (p. 99)

“I am a little afraid of him [Prabhupada]. It is a fear that comes from love. I am afraid of displeasing him. It would be terrible if I displeased him. Yet I feel very thrilled and privileged to be accepted by him, to know that he trusts me and gives me responsibility. It is a dynamic relationship, tense in some ways, not easy and casual, yet with a deep bond. And when all is said and done it is very simple: you walk closely behind him and you are filled with dedication and ready to do as he says.” (p. 106)

“In 1966 Swamiji allowed us to wear a small wooden Jagannatha murti on a necklace around our necks, in addition to the standard tulasi-mala. An eye-screw was inserted into His flat head and a strap or necklace was worn around the neck coming down to about the chest. For awhile it was quite popular and many of the then-few devotees wore them. I even wore mine with my suit and tie to my welfare office job. When the case workers went on strike, and I broke the picket lines they used to mock me for wearing my protective amulet and threatened to harm it. Some devotees even dressed the deities. But after a few years the fashion wore out. Maybe even Prabhupada suggested it wasn’t such a good idea.” (p. 109)

“Once when being driven through Paris, Prabhupada noted the great museum Le Louvre and said, ‘Its perfection would be to be used as a temple for Krishna.’ He always looked at beautiful buildings with that in mind. Sometimes he asked the owners to give us the building free because we were using it for such an important purpose. Only George Harrison responded by donating the handsome Bhaktivedanta Manor as a gift.” (p. 214)

Madhava Prabhu[in Gainesville]:

We cannot understand Krishna’s Govardhan pastime without entering the Vrndavana mood, focusing on Syamasundara Krishna [His youthful feature].

This pastime is to draw us to take exclusive shelter of Krishna through Govardhan Hill.

Nanda was easily dissuaded from the Indra sacrifice as his heart was not in it.

Krishna was making the point that you can get this reciprocation you are getting from Indra even more from Govardhan.

The Vrajavasi were all laughing during the Govardhan puja as they were happily engaged in their constitutional position of pure service to Krishna.

When Indra sent the clouds, Nanda doubted for a moment and entered his puja room and began to chant Indra mantras. Krishna came in with angry eyes and accused his father of not trusting him, and encouraged him again to take shelter of Govardhan.

In the Govardhan pastime Krishna brought all his groups of friends together instead of just spending time with the boys, the girls, or the elders.

Yogesvara Prabhu [author of Here Cones the Sun—A Spiritual and Music Tribute to George Harrison]:

His father wanted George to become an electrician.

In 1964, Bill Epstein, Beatles manager, predicted that in 50 years young people would still be listening to their music. Just this year, the Beatles collection was released on iTunes.

At age 21, he got a million parcels for his birthday.

Half the town of Sydney came to one concert (300,000).

In 1964 when the Beatles toured America, 50 million dollars of Beatles merchandise was sold.

Someone who heard the Beatles liked Hare Krishna dressed in a sheet, and burst through a skylight, falling on the piano, and rolling to the floor. John Lennon said to George, “this must be one of yours”, and kept strumming the guitar.

By age twenty-three, he was burning out on success. “It was a little part that got played in this life.”

When George was in the womb of his mother, she heard a program called All India. When heard the sitar of Ravi Shankar he felt a familiarity. Was it from the time in the womb or a previous life? We will never know.

Ravi told him, “Make the right sound and you can reveal God.”

George liked the idea that the love in this world is a reflection the love that is in God.

George took the Beatles to Maharishi’s ashram in Hrishikesa.

I picked up the sitar and found that notes when I found my song “Norwegian Wood” needed something.

They wrote forty songs in Hrishikesa.

After that trip, he met Syamasundara, and some time after with Prabhupada.

He chanted on beads.

The first day the Hare Krishna mantra sold 40,000 copies. And in 9 countries it made the top ten.

All Things Must Pass was the first three-record album.

He did a charity concert feeling that he should give something called “The Concert for Bangladesh.”

Living in the Material World also quickly rose to the top of the charts.

His third album received critical reviews, as the fans wanted the Beatle George, and not the preacher George, and he went into seclusion, and depression. The death of John Lennon intensified this mood.

When you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there.

At the end of his life there was only the deeply spiritual side of George.

Ekendra Prabhu:

Some songs you get tired of hearing and some songs you don’t get tired of hearing, and the Hare Krishna mantra is one of those that you do not get tired of hearing.

Mother Tsurit:

Autumn is a time of festivals of light. In the Jewish tradition, Haunaka is an offering of another lamp each day.

Hanan Prabhu:

I want to give a class on enlightenment that I could give in a church, mosque, temple, or synagogue.

One definition of enlightenment is a situation of full understanding.

What is enlightenment to you?

Mother Caitanya: To know ourselves as spiritual and to know the Supreme Spirit.

Mother Tulasi Priya: To understand why we are suffering.

Krishna-kripa das: In addition to knowing ourselves as spiritual and to know the Supreme Spirit, to act in harmony with the Supreme Spirit is necessary for enlightenment.

Michelle: To have a fresh intelligence to act in harmony not in a static way.

Q: Is it true our body changes every seven years?

A [by Dr. Dina Bandhu Prabhu]: All the chemicals of the body change in under a decade. Even the cells that do not divide and the DNA are composed of new molecules as time passes.

Symptoms of the enlightenment:

Free from happiness and distress.

Always satisfied in oneself.

Uses senses at one’s discretion like a tortoise.

I had an idea that I could escape all suffering by living in Hrishikesa. But as I lived there, I realized that was a very neophyte idea. I returned to Israel and got a job at an insurance company to make money. I met the Hare Krishnas, and I learned to chant. I would do my job, chant, and spend time with the devotees. I found I was making more progress spiritually than by living alone in the mountains. That was because I was following an authorized process.

Back in the 70s, Giriraja Swami’s father wanted his son to return home from his life as a Krishna monk and offered Srila Prabhupada a million dollars. Srila Prabhupada said his son was free to come or go as he chose. The father offered the money to his son, but Giriraja Prabhu felt his experience as Hare Krishna was so valuable he didn’t accept the million dollars in preference to it.

Dr. Dina Bandhu Prabhu:

Whether one is good or bad by nature, one who is sincere can advance in devotional service.

“Communion with the Lord by transmission of the transcendental sound is nondifferent from the whole spirit Lord Sri Krishna. It is a completely perfect method for approaching the Lord.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.39, purport)

The demoniac simply pursue material objects because they have no faith in the value of devotional service to the Lord.

As children have a list of gifts they desire from Santa Claus, the materialistic religionists have a list of items they want from God.

Q: Which of the four kinds of pious persons were you when you came to Krishna consciousness?

Ananda Seva Prabhu: I guess I was inquisitive because I would always talk with the Mormons when they came to visit. When they tried to force me to get baptized, I lost interest in them. The next week I met the Krishna devotees.

Olivia: As I child, I always thought that when I grew up, I would automatically know what the purpose of life was. When I was older, I could see that no one really knew the purpose of life; they all had different ideas.

Ananda Seva Prabhu: The Spanish equivalent of the word “miscreants” means “badly raised.”

The asuras are committed to the idea that there is no God, while the other three classes who do not surrender to Krishna are not necessarily so.

Q: Can we judge our sincerity by our chanting and following the rules forbidding sinful conduct?

A: Actually, we are not a very good judge of our position. Our spiritual master is a better judge. Until we have a spiritual master, our position is unclear.

Q: A devotee in the second-class platform avoids the atheistic, but here it says the Bhagavatam can benefit them. How do we know what to do?

A: Each person is different. Hear their philosophy and try to determine how much Krishna consciousness they can take and give it to them.

Kalakantha Prabhu:

When we realize there is no way to get out of a situation, we can understand that Krishna has created the situation so we will take shelter of Him.

Story illustrating knowledge and realization: Einstein’s driver heard him practice his lectures in the car so much he could give them himself. When the driver finished a sentence once before he finished it himself, Einstein came to understand this, and when he was not feeling well he asked the driver to give the lecture for him. All went well until the time came for questions. After hearing the first question, very long and involved, the driver said, “That question is not very significant, even my driver can answer it.” And he got Einstein from the car when he was resting to answer the question.

Bhaktivinoda Thakura said that one who walks the path of God will find it strewn with thorns. Why is this? Because Krishna wants to purify us.

Billy Graham was the spiritual adviser of every president from Truman to Bush. When asked after 9-11 [the destruction of World Trade Center towers], why God allowed such suffering, he replied that people have been asking me that question for years, and I have never been able to answer it to my full satisfaction. The advantage of Krishna consciousness is that there is an answer to that question. It is the karma of the people involved to suffer for some misdeeds in the past.

Peter Burwash gave his check for $1000 for life membership to the temple president of Hawaii, who disappeared with the money the next day. Peter asked Srila Prabhupada how to understand that, and Prabhupada said, “Do not blame the instrument of your own karma.”

America has two-thirds of the world’s lawyers, and if you get in an accident, you’ll get calls from several before you make it to the hospital. The tendency to blame others for our suffering is great, and people are ready to capitalize on it.

Wisdom comes when we go through things, and we persist in Krishna consciousness.

Although Brahma never touches the ground, when he apologized to Krishna for stealing his playmates, all four of his heads touched the ground.

How to deal with setbacks?

(1) Understand they are ultimately Krishna’s mercy.

(2) Understand the suffering is a result of my activities.

(3) Continue offering obeisances to the Lord with mind, body, and words.

Srila Prabhupada said the material world, “Shock after shock.”

If we have no expectation of enjoyment in this world, then we will have no disappointments.

It is abusive to say “it is your karma” to one who is not able to understand it.

If we give them Krishna consciousness, they get rid of their suffering permanently.

Intellectually understanding the philosophy that our material suffering is superficially is helpful, but the knowledge must ultimately go from our head to our heard to fully benefit by it.

Srila Prabhupada said, “If you chant your rounds when you are sick, that is real devotion.”

Comparing ourselves to others is not good. Either will become proud thinking we are better than other people or we will be feel bad thinking we are worse than others. Either will distract us from our service.

Mother Ali Krishna:

We are trying to be Krishnacentric, to have our lives revolve around Krishna.

Varnasrama is meant to gradually develop one’s renunciation.

We begin in a renounced order (brahmacarya) and we are supposed to end in a renounced order (sannyasa), a kind of renunciation sandwich.

Four stages of sannyasa:

Kuticaka—one lives in a hut outside the village and receives food from home.

Bahuduka—one does not accept food from home, but begs madhukari, like a bee, who collects nectar here and there.

Parivrajakacarya—one travels and preaches.

Paramahamsa—one settles in one place and absorbs himself in spiritual consciousness.

Renunciation is not devoid of action but full of action.

As a child we play with so many toys, but as we grow up that naturally falls away. Similarly by developing spiritual attachments, we naturally give up our material attachments.

Renunciation is part of all the varnas and ashramas, but it manifests in different ways in each.

Mother Govinda Mohini:

You have to accept a guru if you want to advance. If you do not take a guru, then your mind will be your guru.

Mother Caitanya:

Other yogas subdue lusty desires but they do not satisfy the soul.

Although I never met Srila Prabhupada, I feel I have a relationship with him through following his instructions.

If we do not develop friendly relationships with the devotees, we may think my mother has so much affection for me, more so than the devotees do, and my old friends liked me more than the devotees do, and in the way leave the association of devotees in search of friendship, although such friendship is often materially motivated.

Mother Amrita Keli:

When I visited home while I cooked I played my kirtana tapes, and I left books like Sri Isopanisad around. I would chant japa in the car. And it really backfired. My mother concluded we were really “out there.” Then Kalakantha Prabhu gave me the amazing advice to preach by not preaching.

At the first home program I attended, Jayananda Prabhu, whose place it was at, told me he was a geologist, and it was really great because in the Hare Krishna movement we worship rocks (silas). I thought it was really cool.

Comment by Jayananda Prabhu: Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati said we should never consider that we make someone a devotee because they are already devotees [by constitution].

Sesa Prabhu:

In 1975 I went to the Chicago Ratha-yatra. One taxi cab driver expressed extraordinary amazement to see Lord Jagannatha on his cart. He explained he was a soldier in East India, and he had seen the original Ratha-yatra in Puri, and now he was seeing it unexpectedly in Chicago.

Jagannatha’s cart is 45 feet (13.5 meters) high and is made of 832 pieces of wood and has 16 wheels. Balarama’s cart is 44 feet (13.2 meters) high and has 14 wheels. Subhadra’s cart has 12 wheels.

Skanda Purana: Those who are fortunate to see the deities at Gundica attain benefits of 1,000 asvamedha yajnas.

Lord comes out of the temple to reveal Himself to the people so they can get His darsana.

The Puri pandas threatened to beat Varuna Prabhu and threw him out of the temple because his America-made T-shirt tipped them off to the fact he was an ISKCON devotee and not a “Hindu.”

Gaudiya Vaishnava’s know Lord Jagannatha’s confidential reasons for performing the pastime: The verse spoken by Radharani longing to enjoy the Lord’s association in Vrndavana on the bank of the Reva under the Vetasi tree. She was not happy to see the Lord in his Dvaraka ksatriya mood. Ratha-yatra is not a cultural festival, a place to gain heavenly benefits, an opportunity for liberation, but an expression of the confidential mood of vipralambha-seva.

The Ratha-yatra festival in New York in 1976 was a peak in Prabhupada’s preaching. Eleven years before he arrived in New York, not knowing anyone, not knowing whether to turn right or left, but now he was riding on the Ratha-yatra cart down Fifth Avenue, with hundreds of followers, celebrating the most auspicious religious festival on the most important street of the most important city in New York City.

I organized some Ratha-yatras in new cities like Atlantic City, and we entered the Mummer’s parade in Philly.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, commented on the Mummer’s Parade on January 1, “What can you say about a parade in which the Hare Krishna’s are the most conservative group?”

Q: What is the right mood to approach Ratha-yatra?

A: Understand the internal meaning, but make arrangements for people to become attracted to Krishna consciousness by participating it in.

On the web site for the Puri temple, it is said that Jagannath is Lord Krishna.

I [Krishna-kripa das] thought of things to say about Ratha-yatra in the questions/comments part of the class, some of which I said, and some which I didn’t. These include:

I went to the Puri Ratha-yatra:

It was so hot that people were spraying the crowd with water.

Hundreds of people were running, pulling the cart, after getting it moving from its stopped state. They did not want to stop. Ahead the thousands of people were walking much slower than those running from back with the cart. Feeling trapped, I cried out “Krishna!” with more sincerity than I ever had before or since. It was such a scary situation! Being trampled by the crowd, I lost my shoes, as did three of my friends. I found my shoes, but two of my friends did not.

Prabhupada’s saying that at death those who have seen the Jagannatha cart attain the spiritual world was Jayananda Prabhu’s motivation for personally doing everything he could do to make Ratha-yatra happen.

When I explain that Ratha-yatra is the Lord coming out of the temple to show mercy to those not able to come to the temple and see Him, people generally find that a pleasing idea.

At many Ratha-yatras I attend, there are kids carts.

Almost every year I see a new Ratha-yatra: 2007 in Brno, Czech Republic, 2008 in Prague, 2009 in Trutnov, Czech Republic, and in Wroclaw, Poland, and 2011 in Hamburg, Germany, and Frederikstad, Norway.

Even the drunks in Poland pull the cart, with a beer bottle in one hand and the rope in the other.

Subuddhi Krishna Prabhu:

The Mura demon was harassing the demigods and no one could defeat him. Finally the Lord Himself engaged in battling Mura. It was a severe fight, and Lord Vishnu took a break in the middle and took rest in a cave. Mura followed Him to the cave, and found Him resting. Mura was very happy, thinking that this is the opportunity I have been waiting for to avenge the deaths of my demoniac associates by Lord Vishnu, and he prepared to kill the Lord. Just then a goddess appeared from the Lord’s body, and slew the demon. When the Lord awoke, He saw the goddess, and inquired about her identity, and she explained she was His potency. Inquired about her name, and she explained she had none, and requested the Lord to name her. Because it was the eleventh day of the moon, the Lord named her Ekadasi Devi. When He understood she had killed the demon, He offered her a benediction. She asked the Ekadasi day be known as the day of Lord Hari, and that it be celebrated by fasting from grains. He asked how that be accomplished. She asked Him to order sin personified to enter food grains. Thus it is very important to avoid eating grains on Ekadasi.

Three acts detrimental to progress: immorality, appreciation of the association of sinful people, or blasphemy of a saint or permitting it.

My mother would only eat on Wednesday because there was some restriction on every other day. When she came to see me in Bangalore, I encouraged her to ignore the other restrictions and just focus on fasting on the two Ekadasi days each month. It was difficult at first, but I ultimately convinced her. The whole family was very happy about it for the artificial austerities had not been good for any of them.

On Vaikuntha Ekadasi, the Ekadasi after Gita Jayanti, many pilgrims visit the temples in India, and the devotees take advantage to sell many Bhagavad-gita.

The Pandavas were told by Narada that if they observed Ekadasi they would get their kingdom back. When Bhima heard the restrictions, he said he could not follow, and he was given the concession that he fast without water just one day a year.

There is one room in the Jagannatha temple where the priests put all the ingredients for cooking and turn on the stove, lock the door, and return in an hour, and find a variety of preparations perfectly cooked by Laksmi Devi, the goddess of fortune and consort of the Lord.

The Supreme Soul can be understood by regulated spiritual practice, so it is no wonder that not many people know Him, because how many people seriously engage in a regulated spiritual practice?

To show that no one should think he is far superior, Krishna accepted Sandipani Muni as guru and Lord Caitanya heard spiritual topics from Ramananda Raya.

Srila Prabhupada would always translate bhakti as devotional service. Without service there is no meaning to devotion.

Doing karma is like sowing a seed, and karma-phala is the fruit of the seed.

Sometimes I ask the Indian people why they do not come to the temple. They say when Krishna calls me I will come. I ask them, “Do you think you are such a special person that Krishna will call you? Do you just invite anyone to your home? No, you invite your friends. So you if become friendly toward Krishna you can expect Him to reach out to you.”

If you get the children into Krishna activities then the parents get involved in them.

The story of Balaji is written in the Padmavati Upapurana of the Padma Purana.

The Devi Purana is not bona fide and says things like Krishna or Rama emanate from Durga.

Vishnu Purana, Naradiya Purana, Padma Purana, Garuda Purana, Varaha Purana, and Bhagavata Purana are in the mode of goodness. Garuda Purana tells the thousand names of Vishnu. Naradiya Purana tells about Jagannatha Puri and Dvaraka.

Brahmananda Purana, Brahma-vivarta Purana, Markandeya Purana, Bhavisya Purana, Vamana Purana, and Brahma Purana are for those in the mode of passion.

Brahma-vivarta Purana contains the harer nama verse.

There is part of the story of Vamana that Sukracarya wanted to stop Him from taking water from his water pot by becoming a fly and blocking the hole. Vamana took a kusa straw and forced it open, poking Sukracarya in the eye.

Matsya Purana, Kurma Purana, Linga Purana, Siva Purana, Skanda Purana, and Agni Purana are for those in the mode of ignorance. Kurma tells of Krishna instructing Visvasvan. Skanda Purana also includes Lord Shiva glorifying Lord Vishnu so the Vaishnavas also quote from it. Agni Purana tells about how to identify salagram-sila.

Creation, re-creation, history of sages, manvartara, geneology of kings are the topics of the Puranas.

We had a controversy about what the size the home deities could be as in India many people say because the home standard of worship is lower the deity should not be larger than your fist. Just before Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance day, I had a dream with Srila Prabhupada sitting just across from me. He put his hand on my shoulder and smiled and said it does not matter if the deity is the small or large.

One Indian man who came to the temple occasionally, went to India after a seven-year absence. While visiting the ISKCON Hyderabad one devotee asked him if he had chanted japa before and personally led him into the temple and sat him down and chanted 2 rounds with him. He told him, “Think of this as your gift to Krishna. Each day chant with your wife and children.” “I do not have any children.” he said. “You will,” the devotee replied. That was September 19. Turns out that within a couple months the man and his wife had adopted a baby that was born on September 19.

One Swedish lady gave the Puri pandas 20,000,000 rupees, and she got a special darsana.

The tree the priest determined to be the one to use for the Jagannatha deity was on the property of a Muslim man who did not like the idea of it being used for a Hindu deity. Jagannatha appeared in the dreams of everyone in the household indicating they would lose their house, if they did not give up their tree, and the Muslim man submitted.

The fact that Indra is worried that a performer of austerities may take over his post is proof that Indra is a position not a personality, something that many people in India do not know.

Braja Hari Prabhu:

Bhaktivinoda Thakura predicted the spreading of Krishna consciousness all over the world very soon. Although the British were in control of India, Bhaktivinoda Thakura had faith in the scriptures and he knew the world change while the scriptures would not change.

Dharma is the obstacle for Indians to preach Krishna consciousness because they think they have so many other duties.

Brahma-tirtha Prabhu:

A place with spiritual sound vibrations is a true sanctuary.

Elegant solutions unexpectedly resolve a problem so that all concerned are satisfied.

I was on an airplane that was being hijacked, and I was in the front row of seats. I was very fearful, and I prayed to Krishna. The hijacker, who was in the process of trying to break into the cockpit, poured of a pot of hot coffee on a stewardess that was impeding him. I was outraged at such cruelty to an innocent person, and I stood up and looked him in the eye, and shouted, “You are going to die!” He stopped in his tracks and glared back as me, locking eyes with me, as the pilot safely landed the plane.

Q [by Gopala Prabhu]: What is the difference between gossip and calling a thief a thief?

A: We should always be ready to call ourselves a thief. If someone steals the hundi [donation] box, it is good to catch him. Once one devotee stole a lot of money, and they asked Prabhupada if they should call the police. Prabhupada said not to call the police because if they called the police then that devotee would never come back.

I associate with those people I trust.

Boot camp is great training, but if you spend your whole life in boot camp, you will go crazy. Srila Prabhupada put a fence around us so we would be protected as we grew up, just like farmers protect a young tree. But if you keep the fence in place once the tree is bigger, it will stifle the growth of the tree.

Sankarsana Prabhu [from BTG]:

“The first offense is to be critical of those who have dedicated their lives to spread the Krishna consciousness movement. Such devotees are always to be loved and respected, even if we sometimes have a difference of opinion with them. Krishna says that unless we are the devotees of His devotees, then we are not His devotees. Therefore in all conditions we must remain the devotee of His devotees.”

Caitanya Carana BTG article:

“because we are living in this world and taking air, water, sunlight, and food from nature, we need to know and follow the rules laid down by God, who gives what we need to live, including the knowledge of how to live.”

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kalim sabhajayanty arya

guna jnah sara-bhaginah

yatra sankirtanenaiva

sarva-svartho ’bhilabhyate

“Those who are actually advanced in knowledge are able to appreciate the essential value of this age of Kali. Such enlightened persons worship Kali-yuga because in this fallen age all perfection of life can easily be achieved by the performance of sankirtana.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.5.36)

Travel Journal#7.20: New Vrindavan, North Carolina, Florida

2011-12-13T00:31:00.005+02:00

Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 7, No. 20
By Krishna-kripa das
(October 2011, part two)
New Vrindavan, North Carolina, Gainesville, Orlando
(Sent from Gainesville, FL, on December 12, 2011)

Where I Went and What I Did

By the grace of the Lord and His devotees, Bhakta Max, from Columbia, drove me from New Jersey to New Vrindavan where I participated in the 24-hour kirtan (chanting) program there. Then Mitra Sena Prabhu kindly drove me to North Carolina where I stayed at Prabhupada Village for two days, chanting once at the North Carolina School of the Arts, before Madhuha Prabhu drove me to Gainesville. One weekend, the Gainesville devotees chanted at the Veggie Fest in Orlando. We also chanted at The Fest (a punk festive in Gainesville), at the forty year anniversary of Krishna Lunch festival, and downtown on Halloween as well. [Halloween is always slower when it is on a Monday.] All in all, October was a great month for extra kirtana.

I include notes from lectures by Prabhupada disciples, Kalakantha Prabhu, Mother Nanda, and Ranjit Prabhu, and also some from several younger devotees at the Gainesville Krishna House.

New Vrindavan Karttika 24-Hour Kirtan

At the conclusion of the 24-hour kirtana, temple president and disciple of Sacinandana Swami, Jaya Krishna Prabhu, said that New Vrindavan is committed to having two 24-hours kirtanas a year, one in the summer and the other at Karttika. He also said they are thinking about doing a Kirtan Mela, like the devotees did in Germany this year.

I chanted the response for some time while my friend Garrison sang between 1:10 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. I was so tired that at least ten times I was awakened when I nodded off and my mouth touched the microphone. I do not know if it was obvious. I would be curious to see the video of it.

I danced for 90% of the time I participated in the kirtana event. There was some dancing but not as much as at the Kirtan Mela in Germany. This was partly because there were several times more people at Kirtan Mela.

Out of the twenty-four, I lost three and a half hours from sleeping, three and a quarter hours from taking meals and talking with devotees afterward, an hour from taking showers and dressing. I spent an hour helping in the kitchen. I planned to either sing or played kirtana tapes and sing along with them to keep the kirtana going, but I spaced out perhaps half the time so I should subtract another half hour. Thus I spent fifteen and three-quarters hours in kirtana or about two-thirds of the time. That reminds me how Sacinandana Swami recommended that we chant at least eight of the twelve hours each day at the Kirtan Mela in Germany, or also two-thirds. I chanted japa during the kirtana while the leader was singing and during pauses between the lead and response. I would chant the response and count it as one mantra toward my japa. In this way, I chanted sixteen rounds in two in a half hours instead of an hour and three-quarters, and I was able to chant the response to the kirtana almost the whole time.

Here is some video I took of the 24-hour kirtana:

Prabhupada Village in North Carolina

I was happy I got to sing in a new state and a new college for me, North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. Three people talked to me during the three hours I was there. One high school girl sat down and chanted a few mantras. One boy from Columbia had Hare Krishna friends in his home country, and he knew of ISKCON guru, Bhakti Bhusana Swami, originally from Germany. The police stopped me after I had chanted my three hours, so it did not really matter. We had guessed wrong about the location of the free speech area.

Every place its challenges, and the shortest path from Mitra Sena Prabhu’s house to the temple in Prabhupada Village is to walk through the creek. I am not used to walking through creeks in the dark of the early morning, so it was a little challenge for me!

Mitra Sena Prabhu is super friendly and a great musician, playing a variety of intruments. He played a really sweet Hare Krishna tune on the banjo one night, and I had a great time chanting and dancing along.

Orlando Veggie Fest

The Orlando Veggie Fest was a great event to share Krishna consciousness at. Many people listened to our kirtana, sat down on our blanket and chanted with us, and some danced along to the kirtana as well. Sometimes people interact with our kirtana party when their consciousness is altered by intoxication, because they are too shy otherwise, but these people were choosing to associate with the devotees and the chanting in their normal consciousness. Trivikrama Swami and devotees from Orlando were there doing kirtana, and the Orlando devotees joined with us and the collaboration made it more powerful. Mothers Govinda Mohini and Olivia walked around and distributed many books to the people there. Next year we hope to distribute prasadam as well.

This video begins we our chanting at the Orlando Veggie Fest, and includes many of the other harinama programs around Gainesville in October:

Harinama at the Punk Fest

Usually on Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance day, the devotees do a special arati in evening for Srila Prabhupada and then chant Hare Krishna in the temple the rest of the evening. This year after the evening Prabhupada arati and a brief kirtana, we had a harinama downtown. The reason was to benefit the some of the thousands of people in Gainesville for the annual punk festival, known as The Fest. Adi Karta Prabhu led some very enthusiastic kirtana, playing his accordion. Lots of people waved, clapped, chanted, and danced with us in the course of the evening. We were a little overambitious in chanting, entering a couple of bars, which did not go over too well, especially with the police. We have not developed the rapport with the local establishments that Miami's Siddha Vidya Prabhu has, which make him beloved for his chanting in their places. Still it was nice to spend the evening of Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance day in sharing his gift of the holy name with others. People all over the world come for that festival, and we talked to some boys from Austria who appreciated our chanting.

Insight from Lectures

Kalakantha Prabhu:

Saintly persons do not reject the world but see how it can be used in Krishna's service.

The saintly person sees how materialistic people are essentially spiritual and does not judge them for their temporary material covering.

In the mode of goodness one sees the commonalities as prominent while in the modes of passion and ignorance one sees the differences as prominent.

Definition of Politics: Who gets what, when, and where.

Prabhupada said he was never defeated in argument except when his guru, Bhaktisiddhanta Saravati Thakura, convinced him that Indian independence was not necessary to spread its spiritual knowledge.

There is three million dollars for every man on earth.

Actual revolution means changing our consciousness.

Headline in Vancouver paper after Bush’s second election: “How Can 51 Million People Be So Dumb?”

Ballaba Prabhu: Srila Prabhupada says in his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.14.31. It is the duty of a saintly person to upset the demoniac political situation: “If the king or government becomes demonic, it is the duty of a saintly person to upset the government and replace it with deserving persons who follow the orders and instructions of saintly persons.”

The morning program is like a daily medication.

A few people with conviction can change the world.

Lord Caitanya was living in India when the Muslims were in control, but he never advocated overthrowing the Muslim rule. Only when they stopped the sankirtana [the congregational chanting of the holy name] did He protest.

Mother Nanda dd:

I like to review the context in the Bhagavatam class because if we understand the context we will understand the importance of the present text in relationship to its surrounding ones and thus be more inclined to remember it.

This idea of indebtedness is a very Eastern idea. We are indebted to our parents, our society, etc.. Often in the West we forget this, but it is very important.

When I lived in South Florida, occasionally I would do some preaching. One Bhakta Tom came for some time and then did not come for a year or so. When he returned, he said, “Not a day went by when I did not think of Krishna at least once.”

Q: How do we know if we are spiritually advancing?
A: Detachment from material desire.
A (by me): The nine symptoms of bhava, which include detachment as you mentioned, also include attachment to the holy name and the holy dhama [the holy places], great eagerness, and hope of attaining the Lord’s mercy.

The devotee may seem to suffer the same reactions as a materialistic man, but in fact, his suffering is administered directly by the Lord for his purification.

One man was telling Srila Prabhupada that he was struggling greatly in devotional service, and he asked if there was any special mercy that he could attain. Srila Prabhupada said that there was indeed special mercy, and he explained that when Krishna is especially favorable He takes away all one’s material assets so one is forced to surrender to Him. Prabhupada asked if he wanted that mercy, but out of fear, the man declined.

The tendency when something bad happens to us, is to think we do not deserve it.

If we think everything that happens to us is happening by Krishna’s kind arrangement, that greatly increases our remembrance of Krishna.

Thinking we are unworthy is actually based on reality, but if that idea is used to pull us away from doing devotional service, then it is a manifestation of maya [illusion].

Lord Caitanya’s mercy is that all the people are getting the opportunity for devotional service although they do not deserve it.

Q: How do I become free from doubts for good? They go and yet return.
A: Krishna explains in Bhagavad-gita they should be slashed with the weapon knowledge.

Sometimes we look ahead to the goal of pure devotional service, and we feel despondent because we have so far to go. But if we look back and see how far we have come, then we will be encouraged. If we only look back, then we can be illusioned, thinking we have come so far, and therefore, we have to look both ahead and back.

Ranjit Prabhu:

An important understanding in our Vaishnava tradition is that everything emanates from God and thus everything is actually part of God.

There is an interest in investigating the cause of the universe, and modern society spends billions of dollars on scientific research, both on macroscopic level with astronomy which deals in measuring the extent of the universe through telescopes, and on the microscopic level, dealing with atomic particles.

Sometimes the particle physicists will do an experiment and find a particle which does not show up when they replicate the experiment.

The material world is endlessly mutable.

The problem with cancer is that everyone has a different mutation of the disease.

The motive of science toward material progress and freedom from suffering is different from that required to understand reality.

Bhagavad-gita ultimately teaches we must be engaged in spiritual activities 24/7. [twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week]. This state is accomplished by surrender to, service to, and inquiries from a self-realized soul.

Chanting in groups or alone is the most powerful practice.

Faith sustains one’s practice at all stages.

Some qualities and activities leading to devotional development are present in the lives of the perfectly realized. Faith in the protection of Krishna is there in the residents of Vrindavan, as in the cowherd boys who fearlessly entered the serpert, Aghasura. Worship is there as well.

Q: Some of our spiritual ideas are known to other groups as well so what is so secret about them?
A: Although there some knowledge, the experience may not be there. One cannot taste the honey without opening the jar.

Comment by Abhi: Srila Prabhupada says faith comes from reading Bhagavad-gita.

Braja-hari Prabhu:

We can remember Krishna if we have love for Him. Analogies to show how love makes steady remembrance possible include the analogy of the wife and paramour and the mother and the baby. Because of love the wife remembers her paramour, even while she does her household duties, and because of love, the mother remembers her child despite other activities.

Srila Prabhupada says practice can bring about success in an activity that we have the ability to perform. A child can practice to walk with success, however, if a child practices to fly, he will be unsuccessful.

I remember the five most important items of devotional service in this way:
A – association with devotees
B – Bhagavatam reading
C – Chanting the holy name
D – Deity worship
E – Entering the holy dhama [I would modify this to “Existing in the holy dhama.”]

Q: What does it mean to see all beings equally?
A: To see how they can be engaged in devotional service to Krishna.

There is a story of saint who tried to save a scorpion from drowning, but each time the scorpion bit him. Finally he was successful, and a disciple asked why he was so determined to save the scorpion although the scorpion bit him. The saint said, “The scorpion was determined not give up his nature, so why should I give up mine?”

Dina Bandhu Prabhu:

Because I was so trained as a scientist, it was difficult for me read Srila Prabhupada's books for long periods at a time because he criticized my view of the world so forthrightly.

I find if I cultivate a relationship with a person who is beginning to read Srila Prabhupada’s books and they understand how much Srila Prabhupada is important to me, they will be more inclined to take his words seriously.

Kusum Sarorova is said to be bottomless. During British times the British tried to find the bottom of it to disprove the religion but they could not.

When they drained Radha and Shyama Kunda a few years back you could see how they were connected at the bottom. It is significant as it is described the gopis used water from Shyama Kunda to fill up Radha Kunda.

Apparently the monkeys leave the Seva Kunj area in the evening.

I found it easier to chant in the holy dhama, and I felt greater respect for the chanting.

I had a sense that the deities there were conscious of my deviations of mind and so I was more conscious to think devotionally before Them.

Hanan Prabhu:

The Mahabharata is so attractive that the Indian parliament recessed so they could watch it when it was on TV.

When one Israeli soldier returned home after five years of captivity, he was welcomed by the prime minister, the general, and his parents. It was very moving, and I was telling my wife, “Just think how much Krishna and the residents of the spiritual world will be happy to see us when we return there.”

Being dissatisfied is part of our spiritual life, and it helps us to move forward.

Arjuna vowed, “If anyone makes me put down my Gandiva bow, I will kill him.” But seeing his relatives on the opposite side on the battlefield was so traumatic that his bow fell from his hand.

The village of Radha Kunda was previously called Aristagrama.

Krishna defended his killing of the bull Aristasura by saying that Aristasura was not a bull but a demon taking the form of a bull.

Visakha said He should undergo atonement for killing the bull just as Indra had to undergo atonement for the killing of the brahmana, Vrtrasura.

Krishna invited the gopis to enjoy with Him in Shyama Kunda, but they refused saying that the water was contaminated by His sinful reactions. Instead they wanted to create their own bathing place.

Comment by Olivia: A materialistic person thinks obtaining the self-gratification will bring satisfaction and is not really sure what is the cause of his dissatisfaction. A Krishna conscious person knows why he is dissatisfied and knows that by engaging in devotional service he will be satisfied.

In Mahabharata Vidura tells Dhrtarastra that being angry with someone is like holding a burning cinder that you hope to throw on the person who incited your anger, but all the while, the cinder is burning you.

Comment by Dr. Dina Bandhu: The mental effects of anger are unclear, confused, and irrational thought. Physically there is increase heart rate, increase blood pressure, your pupils dialate, and your face may turn red.

Mohammed was asked thrice for a single deed most beneficial to spiritual advancement. Each time he said, “Give up anger,” explaining that if you do so, heaven is yours.

Alexander the Great story: Alexander came to Vrindavan and wanted to see a reputed sage there. They reached the sage’s place, and Alexander sent his messenger to the sage telling of the king’s arrival. The sage was not impressed. He told the messenger that Krishna is the only king in Vrindavan, but if Alexander wants to come in, he is quite welcome. Alexander could not follow the message, and repeated his request and got the same response, finally Alexander stormed with sword in hand, but was disarmed by the peaceful sage, so much so he set his weapon aside. The sage said, “You are servant of my servant.” “How is that?” replied Alexander. The sage replied, “I control anger, so anger is my servant. You are controlled by anger, so you are the servant of my servant.”

Comment by Ekendra: Originally when I tried to fix the sink, I did it in the mood thinking I was the doer and I was going to fix the sink. Things did not go at all well. The next day, before I attempted the task, I prayed to Krishna as His dishwasher, hoping for an improved facility and it went a lot better.

I asked one psychology student after he had studied for seven years if psychologists actually solve people’s problems. He said no, but they help the people see their situation in a broader perspective. I said that is also what Krishna does in Bhagavad-gita, as an expert psychologist. He gave Arjuna knowledge so he could see his predicament in a broader perspective.

By associating with God’s name, we are associating with God, who is the most patient person, and thus we become more patient by that association.

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krishna-mantra haite habe samsara mocana
krishna-nama haite pabe krishnera carana

“Simply by chanting the holy name of Krishna one can obtain freedom from material existence. Indeed, simply by chanting the Hare Krishna mantra one will be able to see the lotus feet of the Lord.” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrita Adi-lila 7.73)