By Krishna Kripa Das
(Week 46: November 12–18, 2025)
Stuyvesant Falls, Chatham, New York City
(Sent from Stuyvesant Falls, New York, on November 22, 2025)
Where I Went and What I Did
The forty-sixth week of 2025, I lived at Viraha Bhavan, the ashram of Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, my Guru Maharaja, in Stuyvesant Falls, New York. I helped his caretakers with different services like cleaning the kitchen, waking up the deities, singing for Them, and uploading dictation tapes. I also did some personal service for Guru Maharaja. I chanted Hare Krishna one hour on the porch most days, usually in two parts, half an hour each, because of the cold. I attended the Chatham Wednesday Program. I went to New York City on Saturday, and I chanted Hare Krishna in Tompkins Square Park after lunch and later with the NYC Harinam party at the Times Square subway station.
In the evening I gave a lecture on Bhagavad-gita 8.20 at 26 Second Avenue, with half an hour of kirtan before and after.
I share quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sri Caitanya-caritamrita and The Nectar of Devotion. I also share notes from a lecture by Jayadvaita Swami at the Chatham Wednesday Program. I share quotes from papers on science and Krishna consciousness by Sadaputa Prabhu and Arka Prabhu.
Many thanks to both Atmanivedanta Prabhu and Yugala Piriti Devi Dasi for their kind donations. Thanks to Chris for the ride to New York. Thanks to Tony for the videos of me at the Chatham Wednesday program. Thanks to Subhangada Devi Dasi for the video and photos of me at 26 Second Avenue.
Itinerary
September 12–November 23: serve Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami
November 23–January 9, 2026?: NYC Harinam
– December 6: Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami Vyasa-puja / Hudson Winter Walk harinama
Chanting Hare Krishna in Upstate New York
Tony kindly took some videos of the kirtan led by Patrick and assisted by Katie as I was playing the mrdanga.
Patrick and Katie chant Hare Krishna at the Chatham Wednesday Program (https://youtube.com/shorts/wmnOMfDzvv4?feature=share):
Katie chants Hare Krishna at the Chatham Wednesday Program (https://youtube.com/shorts/uesXgmnGQNI?feature=share):
Later I let someone else play the drum, and I took a video of Patrick’s second kirtan (https://youtu.be/bOSjD9nqaV0):
I felt grateful to Chris, who I met at the Chatham Wednesday Program, here admiring the Hare Krishna tree with his son, for driving me 2½ hours to NYC on Saturday so I could speak at 26 Second Ave.
I wanted to chant Hare Krishna by the Hare Krishna Tree in Tompkins Square Park, but a guitarist was playing there. I asked him to play “My Sweet Lord” but he sang “Here Comes the Sun” instead (https://youtube.com/shorts/fLduopalNbc?feature=share):
Then I chanted Hare Krishna half an hour at the playground while Chris’s son, Phoenix, played.
Then we joined Rama Raya Prabhu’s NYC Harinam for two hours in Times Square subway station:
Jayananda Prabhu chants Hare Krishna (https://youtu.be/QoRq7PAVzEU):
Sevika Devi Dasi chants Hare Krishna (https://youtu.be/JvnuzgFySpw):
Her kirtan became more fired up, so I took some more video (https://youtu.be/wYDLwV26CD0):
Then we went to 26 Second Ave. I decided to chant the Prabhupada tune after five minutes as the evening melody was too hard for the attendees (https://youtu.be/2QDVYA9ysYs):
We had half a hour of kirtan before and after the talk, which is what Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami told me was the standard when Prabhupada was present there. In my class I quoted from Srila Prabhupada’s lectures on the same verse back in the fall of 1966.
It was truly an ecstatic day.
Photos
The 26 Second Avenue storefront is a Hare Krishna museum these days.
Here’s what you see:
Srila Prabhupada:
Photos:
Panels:
The Happening Album:
Insights
Srila Prabhupada:
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.9.15:
[Lord Brahma prays to Lord Krishna:] “Let me take shelter of the lotus feet of Him whose incarnations, qualities and activities are mysterious imitations of worldly affairs. One who invokes His transcendental names, even unconsciously, at the time he quits this life, is certainly washed immediately of the sins of many, many births and attains Him without fail.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.9.17:
[Lord Brahma prays to Lord Krishna:] “People in general all engage in foolish acts, not in the really beneficial activities enunciated directly by You for their guidance. As long as their tendency for foolish work remains powerful, all their plans in the struggle for existence will be cut to pieces. I therefore offer my obeisances unto Him who acts as eternal time.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.9.22:
[Lord Brahma prays to Lord Krishna:] “Let the Supreme Lord be merciful towards me. He is the one friend and soul of all living entities in the world, and by His six transcendental opulences He maintains all for their ultimate happiness. May He be merciful towards me so that I, as before, may be empowered with the introspection to create, for I am also one of the surrendered souls who are dear to the Lord.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.9.24:
[Lord Brahma prays to Lord Krishna:] “I therefore pray that in the course of my material activities I may not be deviated from the vibration of the Vedic hymns.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.9.24, purport:
“Unless one is sufficiently protected by the Lord, he may fall down from his spiritual position; therefore one has to pray constantly to the Lord for protection and the blessing to carry out one’s duty.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.9.25, purport:
“The gopis are predominated expansions of the internal potency, and therefore the Lord’s participation in the rasa-lila dance is never to be considered like the mundane relationship of man and woman. It is, rather, the highest perfectional stage of the exchange of feelings between the Lord and the living entities. The Lord gives the fallen souls the chance for this highest perfection of life.”
From The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 22, 60. Attractor of Liberated Souls:
“There are many examples of how Krishna attracted even great liberated souls like Sukadeva Gosvami and the Kumaras. In this connection the following statement was given by the Kumaras: ‘How wonderful it is that although we are completely liberated, free from desire and situated at the stage of paramahamsa, we are still aspiring to taste the pastimes of Radha and Krishna.’”
From The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 25:
“A person who is freed from the false egotism of material existence, or an advanced mystic, is eligible to enter into the kingdom of God, known as Vaikuntha. Such a mystic becomes so joyful by constant execution of the regulative principles of devotional service that he thereby achieves the special favor of the Supreme Lord. Yamaraja, the mighty superintendent of death, is afraid to go near such a devotee; so we can imagine the potency of advanced devotional service, especially when devotees sit together and engage in talking of the pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Those devotees express their feelings in such a way that they automatically melt with ecstasy, and many transcendental symptoms become manifested in their bodies. Anyone desiring advancement in devotional service must follow in the footsteps of such devotees.”
“Anyone who becomes exhilarated by hearing of the pastimes of Lord Krishna when He was present on this earth with His associates is to be understood as nitya-siddha, eternally perfect.”
From The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 26:
“To be attracted by the qualities of Krishna means to be attracted by Krishna Himself, because there is no real distinction between Krishna and His qualities. Krishna’s name is also Krishna. Krishna’s fame is also Krishna. Krishna’s entourage is also Krishna. Krishna and everything related with Krishna which gives stimulation to love of Krishna are all Krishna, but for our understanding these items may be considered separately.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi 3.13, 19, and 20:
“Lord Krishna enjoys His transcendental pastimes as long as He wishes, and then He disappears. After disappearing, however, He thinks thus: . . . ‘I shall personally inaugurate the religion of the age—nama-sankirtana, the congregational chanting of the holy name. I shall make the world dance in ecstasy, realizing the four mellows of loving devotional service. I shall accept the role of a devotee, and I shall teach devotional service by practicing it Myself.’”
Jayadvaita Swami:
From a class on Bhagavad-gita 1.44–46 in Chatham, New York, on November 19, 2025:
Arjuna had reasons not fight, but Krishna considered them rationalizations.
Arjuna was not giving flimsy arguments, saying “I’m just not into it.”
First of all, Arjuna offered all these great arguments, and then he admitted, “I am bewildered.”
This first chapter sets the stage for delivering transcendental knowledge, because as Krishna points out, all Arjuna’s reasons for not fighting were based on the material consciousness of identifying the self with the body.
Krishna says, “You are speaking like a learned person, but a learned person would not speak in that way.”
Sadaputa Prabhu:
From The Nature of Biological Form:
“The study of the atma similarly requires some procedure for isolating it in its pure state. In our normal experience the atma is intimately bound up with matter by very powerful interactions, and therefore it is very difficult to discern its characteristic properties. In order to isolate the atma from the influences of material interaction it is necessary to take advantage of its basic distinguishing property—consciousness—and the agency—paramatma—governing its interactions.
“This requires the study of the relation between the individual conscious entity and the all-pervading absolute consciousness.”
Oliver Zambon (Arka Dasa):
From “Evolution in Post-Darwinian Gaudiya Vaishnava Communities”:
“So overall to use Bhaktisiddhanta’s own words, he thought that ‘empirical knowledge is useful on the level of the external reality, while religious knowledge is useful on the level of internal consciousness.’”
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This verse is a summary of Lord Caitanya’s movement and its contribution. Everyone is looking for meaning and for happiness, and one can find it here:
tattva-vastu—krishna, krishna-bhakti, prema-rupa
“The Absolute Truth is Sri Krishna, and loving devotion to Sri Krishna exhibited in pure love is achieved through congregational chanting of the holy name, which is the essence of all bliss.”
