(Sent from Brooklyn, New York, on March 21, 2026)
Where I Went and What I Did
During the eleventh week of 2026, for first two days I lived at ISKCON Tallahassee and chanted on the campus every day of the week for an average of three hours. Friday night I went to Alachua with Ananga Mohan Prabhu, and I attended the morning program there on Saturday.
That night I stayed at the Veda Foundation, Bhakti Charu Swami’s rural project in Deland. I attended their Sunday program midday and in the late afternoon I attended the ISKCON Orlando Sunday feast program. I hoped to fly out of Orlando to New York the next day, but my flight was canceled so I chanted at the airport on Monday and at Blanchard Park, just a fifteen-minute walk from the Orlando temple, on Tuesday. Wednesday I flew to Newark and made it in time to spend the whole afternoon on NYC Harinam.
I share quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s Srimad-Bhagavatam. I share quotes from Karttika Moon and My Stories by Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami. I share notes on a class by Acarya Prabhu in Alachua and by Krishna Prema Prabhu in Orlando.
Many thanks to Dattatreya Prabhu for his very, very generous donation. Thanks to Ananga Mohan Prabhu for his rides to Alachua and Daytona Ratha-yatra. Thanks to Purnachandra Prabhu for his ride to ISKCON Deland. Thanks to Krishnanand for his ride to ISKCON Orlando. Thanks to Max for his ride to Orlando Airport. Thanks to Seth for his ride to Orlando Airport.
Itinerary
January 12–April 10: harinama and college outreach in Tallahassee and Tampa
– March 16–22: NYC Harinam
– March 21: Bhagavad-gita class at 26 Second Avenue
– March 23–25: harinama at University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa
– March 28: Tallahassee Ratha-yatra
– April 11: St. Augustine Ratha-yatra
April 25: King’s Day in Amsterdam
April 29–May 3: Nrsimha Festival in Simhachalam, Germany
May 4–June 14: NYC Harinam
– June 13: St. Augustine Ratha-yatra
June 28: Paris Ratha-yatra
Chanting Hare Krishna in Tallahassee
On Friday I was speaking to a student who planned to major in mechanical engineering, but he flunked out. He had taken enough philosophy courses, however, that his academic advisor said he could remain in school if he changed his major to philosophy. Because he was interested in philosophy, I showed him Beyond Illusion and Doubt, where Srila Prabhupada compares the philosophy of Bhagavad-gita with those of several famous Westerner philosophers. He was attracted and gave $10 for the book. I said he could take another book, so he took Bhagavad-gita too. Thus my last day on the campus before spring break was fruitful. It is so rare to meet students who are actually interested in philosophy!
Chanting Hare Krishna in Alachua
I was appreciating the guru-puja kirtan in Alachua, and I decided to take a video of it, but unfortunately I was too late to catch the Hare Krishna part, so I just share a photo.
Chanting Hare Krishna at Daytona Beach Ratha-yatra
Passerby happily plays shakers to the kirtan just before the Daytona Beach Ratha-yatra cart starts moving (https://youtube.com/shorts/G8Hbz569wuM?feature=share):
Bhadra Prabhu chants Hare Krishna as the Daytona Ratha-yatra begins, and beachgoers follow the procession and sometimes even pull the cart (https://youtube.com/shorts/cyhVPJ3H154?feature=share):
Daytona beachgoers enjoy playing shakers as Jagannatha cart passes by them (https://youtube.com/shorts/UL4itMNAyLA?feature=share):
Bhadra Prabhu chants Hare Krishna as Daytona Beach Ratha-yatra begins, and beachgoers play shakers and dance (https://youtube.com/shorts/pabHBQ2kIBQ?feature=share):
At one point, I had lost two pairs of shakers, but I able to recover one as we were returning to where we started, and I recognized a couple I lent them to.
Beachgoers dance with devotees on Daytona Beach Ratha-yatra (https://youtu.be/_amjUhoXIGI)
Visvambhar chants Hare Krishna, and beachgoers dance with devotee women at Daytona Beach Ratha-yatra (https://youtu.be/AOZxvYfGmyo):
A nice feature of Daytona Beach Ratha-yatra was that Visvambhar Sheth engaged many people in chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra (https://youtu.be/JpGUTJMPrVU):
In previous years, people would always join our Daytona Beach Ratha-yatra procession and dance for a few minutes, but this year a whole group of people joined the procession for quite some time, following us as we returned to the place that we started from, and many of them danced along the way (https://youtu.be/83BT3mPWSaM):
Here Yudhisthira Prabhu plays guitar and chants Hare Krishna at Daytona Beach Ratha-yatra stage show (https://youtu.be/zLKXo9HXFVE):
Chanting Hare Krishna in Orlando
Marisha chants Hare Krishna at the beginning of ISKCON Orlando Sunday program (https://youtu.be/VW-M2LVvJh8):
Krish chants Hare Krishna at ISKCON Orlando Sunday program (https://youtu.be/XIbwiyn2rd0):
Gopi Bhava, the daughter of temple president, Dvaipayana Prabhu, chants Hare Krishna during Gaura Arati at ISKCON Orlando Sunday program (https://youtube.com/shorts/tR5lQvOuZak?feature=share):
Marisha chants Hare Krishna at end of ISKCON Orlando Sunday program (https://youtu.be/nZJXc-dJTtU):
I had hoped to chant with NYC Harinam on Monday, but my flight was canceled. Actually we had all boarded the aircraft, but we had to get off so they could do some maintain. While we were waiting for the maintenance to be complete, they told us the flight was canceled. There were no flight for three days to the New York area, just some flight in two days to nearby cities like Philadelphia. There was a flight Monday night to Norfolk, Virginia, and for $31 a Chinese bus company had a overnight bus to New York. I decided to go with that. Because I like to chant Hare Krishna in public three hours a day, I decided to chant outside the baggage claim, where people wait for rides. I did that for an hour. The security people did not restrict me. There seemed to be more people at the public bus stop, so the next two hours I just stayed there. I would take a five or ten minute break every hour. I had no instruments, but sometimes I would clap and sometimes I would dance slowly with the song. One guy who was born in Hyderabad, spoke briefly with me, and another guy asked where to catch bus 407. When I went to the gate for my evening flight, I found that flight was also canceled. Now, however, there was a flight to Newark in just two days instead of three, so I went with that.
The next day I chanted for three hours at Blanchard Park, just a fifteen minute walk from the Orlando temple. Four people talked to me, attracted by the chanting. I invited them to the temple, and they seemed interested enough to actually come. One was a young Jamaican woman with two children who said she had some Indian ancestry. Another was a young woman who correctly identified me as a Hare Krishna. She mentioned that there was a yoga studio on the other side of the park. Perhaps we can do a kirtan there someday. The most amazing was a junior in computer science at UCF who spontaneously came up to me and gave me a donation. He accepted “On Chanting Hare Krishna.” I told an Indian man who had seen our ISKCON Orlando sign that we had a program on Sunday at 4 p.m., so that he might come sometime.
During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 I was a pujari at ISKCON Orlando, and I chanted in that park for five weeks. A woman who I invited to the temple for Janmastami ended up doing gardening for the temple for five years. Perhaps some of the people I met on Tuesday will take part in Lord Caitanya’s movement in some way or another.
Chanting Hare Krishna in New York City
Tulasi Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Manhattan (https://youtu.be/dY9n4SQBN0I):
He is another video of that kirtan in portrait orientation (https://youtube.com/shorts/08-vy7biSHU?feature=share):
While Tulasi Prabhu was chanting Hare Krishna in Manhattan, a guy played the shakers (https://youtube.com/shorts/j27qrIWscOU):
Chatamayi Devi Dasi chants Hare Krishna in Manhattan (https://youtube.com/shorts/0op99xMc-bc?feature=share):
Mani Manjari Devi Dasi chants Hare Krishna in Manhattan (https://youtube.com/shorts/t-OlwHq4-CA?feature=share):
Rama Raya Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Manhattan (https://youtube.com/shorts/xRnryfdhuKg):
“This attachment of the devotee to a particular form of the Lord is due to natural inclination. Each and every living entity is originally attached to a particular type of transcendental service because he is eternally the servitor of the Lord. Lord Caitanya says that the living entity is eternally a servitor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna. Therefore, every living entity has a particular type of service relationship with the Lord, eternally. This particular attachment is invoked by practice of regulative devotional service to the Lord, and thus the devotee becomes attached to the eternal form of the Lord, exactly like one who is already eternally attached. This attachment for a particular form of the Lord is called svarupa-siddhi. The Lord sits on the lotus heart of the devotee in the eternal form the pure devotee desires, and thus the Lord does not part from the devotee.”
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
From Karttika Moon:
“A devotee was basking his face in sunlight in the courtyard here. He’s one of the pujaris, an older, good looking man, brahmacari. Taking shelter in ISKCON and doing his bit. Wanting to receive the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and not something else, Catholic or business or family or whatever. Who knows why people, such a few, join in each nation? They come forward, as I did, and hear from the Swami and it all makes sense, it’s what they always wanted.”
“The story of our travel is a precious few days. It’s a botheration austerity with uncertainties and fears of delay and breakdown. But also it’s a rare road time in which intimations come, not all to be followed and not all to be ignored.”
“Happiness is getting off the ferry quickly.”
“I heard Srila Prabhupada comparing material nature to the police force. He said the law-and-order department is so strict that even a child is not excused. If a child touches fire, he will also be burned. It struck me since I heard this while suffering a headache. So, it’s the police.”
“Govindaji—I want to love Thee and know Thee as a Christian knows Christ and says his name. Please give sweetness to me when I say Govinda or Your many names. Gopala, Gopinatha, Gopi-jana-vallabha.”
“There is no
way to forget when
Krishna is your center”
“Krishna of the black wavy locks,
He protects the surrendered.”
“‘Just be grateful like
the baby praying
in the womb, and you’ll
be happy’
he says loudly.”
“I enjoy the chances
we get and try to give to
Lord Krishna, in a way He’ll accept.”
“You know
‘there’s not enough justice to
go around.’”
“Just think it over
and do something that
is compassion. Start with
yourself. Don’t feel guilty, love
God in your heart ask
Him, please make me
Yours.”
“Oh, what’s this?
It’s my remembrance of a
day…
go forth and be with God
in the simple life He gave—
“Linked by the sound—
hold hands in maha-
mantra.”
“You can play, improvise, don’t be
afraid, God is talking through
you and you give back to Him affection.”
“Please take me from my
stupor and envy, I wish
to honor the great and small
devotees and see God-Krishna
even in the little stones
and preach.”
“We see You kill a giant
demon and then desire to
be cuddled.”
“Sadness will be defeated
eternal joy with Krishna
and rejoined all sadhakas
who get taken apart
only a while.”
“He was blue
cried about that but
I told him, just
make an offering of any little
thing you have to Krishna.”
“O Krishna, I want change and no change.
Oh, all friends blown
away like leaves. No
reason to like them any
more. I can’t live near
them.
“I can’t bear to keep up with
what they’re doing and after
meeting they say, ‘Don’t
write about me in your
diary.’ So, what is to be
done?”
“Guru says, ‘Walk the path, my
disciplined one.’ ‘Yes, but only
if I choose too,’ says the cela.”
“It is in Krishna’s control.
Whatever you have, you
offer to Him.”
“Mantra is not taken away.
That beat he keeps even
while the critics watch
and listen.
“I scorn them back
and do my own thing, Krishna.”
“Here’s an old sannyasi telling
us to read as he does
not, and hari-nama as he
forgot.”
“I want to be accepted
as a devotee although I
don’t exert myself in so
many mainstream activities.”
“A devotee doesn’t have such
a hard time. We read that
today. It meant he may
‘meet with reverses’
but he survives cool and
calm because he’s near to
Krishna. Again, and again, Prabhu-
pada gave evidence.
“Madhu and I said nothing to
contradict it or assure
it. We knew it wasn’t
us. We’ll get upset
when stuff happens.
“But we want to believe some
kind of ideal devotee
doesn’t suffer. We want
to believe the philosophy,
faith
in Lord Krishna and His
strong devotees.
“They go on chanting His
holy names, see Him
in their lives, even
die in spiritual light
and the awareness, ‘Krishna is
my Lord. May everyone
serve Him.’
“‘Even if they can’t do it
but just wish they could,’
I heard him say,
they are liberated.”
“In a shed a little man
came. He got solace from
his pen.”
“He said there is no joy in
the world unless
you please the Lord
and that’s the joy.”
“They have to be trained ‘Hari-
jana’ not just stamped as
Gandhi did said Srila Prabhupada.”
“I ain’t got nobody but
my spiritual master and that’s good
enough.”
“I think it will go
its own way, and karma
will put you on a stretched bed.”
“Keep in tune whatever
he gives and don’t jump
ahead and don’t
fall back to
materialism.”
“In the lone lane. In the briar
patch. As I want it.
Don’t imagine this is a
prayer. Don’t claim this
is preaching. Don’t bluff
you’re a pure devotee.
Free yourself a little of
some envy and eat your
bread, after the prayers
to the Lords and
don’t complain.”
“Oh I am not afraid of Y2K
we have twenty kinds of dal a
big bag of rice and although no
source of heating yet
that we’ll do later.”
“Dear sweet devotee who seeks help from me,
know that I am seeking help too.
We want to serve in Srila Prabhupada’s movement.”
“Don’t make fun bring to
the world the compassion
of a preacher in some
form a contribution
which is right
and he asks for.”
“One champion can’t come
forward, but we expect
you to at least make
a tangible connection with your
Guru Maharaja
you claim you are loyal.”
“I worried if Krishna
is God how come sometimes
we wonder why there is
suffering in the world? There
are classic answers, and when
it hurts close you use
them and ‘no answer’
may be best alongside the
philo-theological ones.”
“Heaven, hell, in between,
baby comes out headfirst
in bloody position and cries,
smack him welcome
the prayer is over
that he made
in the womb.”
“I believe the girl next to
me is my sweetheart and
I’d marry her and have
children and I’d be a
welfare worker with
little income
“but we’d manage some-
how and I’d get addicted to
drugs because I was never
satisfied with 9 to 5
“that story I never
lived because I was
fortunate to meet a
Swami on the Lower East Side.”
From “Satisfying the Self” in My Stories:
“Life will be auspicious, he says, if you simply hear about Krishna. All right, I have my understanding of that. That means I will give myself the time to hear about Krishna. I insist on it.”
“Be satisfied and all your other desires will automatically come about. Don’t put the cart before the horse. Take what comes as you fully apply your senses in His service and be pleased with what you get.”
From “Scribe and Two Voices” in My Stories:
“Srila Vyasadeva knew well the importance of stories, so the Bhagavatam is full of them and so is Caitanya-caritamrta. We’re certainly safe if we repeat the stories that come down to us in the sacred books.”
“Be a rolling stone and gather no moss or widows or children or mortgages …”
“Rupa Gosvami says that it will take koti-janma, many, many lifetimes, before we can attain laulyam, the intense greed required for krishna-prema. Therefore my goal is to become as Krishna conscious as possible. To please Srila Prabhupada. To remain a devotee until I die and go out thinking of Hare Krishna and Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krishna and Krishna consciousness—while kicking out material desires with my last kicking strength.”
“The ultimate goal is to serve forever in this life and the next with fearless, unalloyed bhakti.”
From “My Story Time Or Time to Tell My Story” in My Stories:
“When I expressed to Madhu that I felt more comfortable in Europe than America, he joked, Actually, you’re Irish. You’re Irish and Italian.’ I mumbled, ‘Transcendental.’”
“I remember one time a reporter said to Prabhupada in Dallas that it must be very draining to be a Hare Krishna devotee in America. Prabhupada didn’t understand her point right away and she clarified, ‘Because people are against you.’ Prabhupada replied that some people are against us and some people are for us. Then he asked her, ‘Aren’t some people against you and some people for you?’ She admitted it was true. Prabhupada then said his devotees are not fickle.”
“Hare Krishnas not fickle. Not fickle and not sour pickles, not too delicate rose blossoms that shatter at the touch. Not snarling dogs either, nor dogmatists. Not hippies, but happies.”
“Haribol, I’m a real person. See you at the prasadam hall. If you love me, then I’ll love you. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Let us show our love for him by how we cooperate together—and somehow get this message out and into the mainstream of America and all the other so-called countries on this earth.”
From “Visiting Relatives” in My Stories:
“I looked from adult to adult, from cousin to cousin, and no one was in God consciousness, certainly not me. At best I looked within myself for satisfying private desires, and a desire to be somewhere else, doing something else . . .”
From “Stories for Good” in My Stories:
“Some stories we’ve heard many times. Some may be new. The old ones are not bad just because of being old. On TV recently, the same old stories, Ramayana and Mahabharata were told to new and old generations for many weeks running. Pious people draped flower garlands over the TV while watching the sacred episodes.”
“Srila Prabhupada’s kirtanas did that. We joined him in the spiritual world. Then a half hour later he’d stop and we’d be back, surrounded by the inimical sounds of Second Avenue on Friday night.”
From “Signing” in My Stories:
“Even Srila Prabhupada was frustrated that they wouldn’t take it. They are so puffed up, blind . . . But he never desisted in trying. People don’t cooperate with us, he said. If we flatter them, they would come. But because we tell the truth that they are the eternal servant of Krishna, no one cooperates.”
From “The Earnest Mind” in My Stories:
“The earnest mind was able to keep sticking its head out. I mean, while chanting Hare Krishna mantra, the earnest mind noticed, ‘I’m off the track, not paying attention,’ and brought itself back where it wanted to be, hearing the Hare Krishna mantra.”
“I’ll reach a point where I know it’s time to praise God. I’ll go and do this anywhere in the world. Set up a madras, a few books and start chanting. It will work if the devotee is sincere. Prabhupada will please him.”
“In 1967, January, he wrote back to New York temple president with two points:
1. Don’t wait for some utopian scheme to happen such as a gift of a temple building from Mr. Payne. But work honestly on your own.
2. Hold kirtanas in halls and public places as I am doing in San Francisco and popularize the movement—in this way, money and buildings will come as Lord Krishna will reciprocate.”
“God’s material energy made these bodies. The pure soul is beyond all this. He wants to be in Krishna-loka, but is detained here by his petty desires and distractions.”
“Krishna consciousness supplies all spiritual and material needs. The highest conclusions of each world religion are within Krishna consciousness. Buddhism’s nirvana, Christianity’s love of God, Islam’s service to God— all of these are in Krishna consciousness. I thrill to hear my master speak in this way.”
“The fact is, that some of our Godbrothers, starting even with infants, are suffering from permanent hearing loss. I guess that’s also in favor of a milder kind of kirtana, the way Prabhupada used to have it. It was always lively and certainly soulful, but not that high volume of crash-crash-crash. It’s almost like being near industrial sounds when you think about it.”
Acarya Prabhu:
From a Sri Caitanya-caritamrita class in Alachua:
Prema is like bhava but more.
Sahaja literally means natural or born with [born – ja / with – saha].
The mistake of sahajiyas is to consider that one’s natural material inclinations are actually spiritual.
Srila Prabhupada said regarding his books, “Every book is for everyone.”
Examples of the ten kinds of imaginative talk (citra-jalpa) are found in the pastime of Radharani talking to the bumblebee. The Srimad-Bhagavatam purports on that pastimes tell the Ujvala-nilamani references to the ten kinds of jalpa.
Srila Prabhupada told Satsvarupa Maharaja, “If you ever have time, read my books.”
Krishna Prema Prabhu:
From a Sunday feast lecture in Orlando:
There were 18 million fighters at Kuruksetra.
Everyone wants peace, but they want peace for themselves.
After associating with Srila Prabhupada and the devotees, George Harrison wrote a song about false ego called ‘I Me Mine’ which was one of the last songs that the Beatles did together.
Most of our biomass is not our body itself but the bacteria inhabiting it.
You conquer the material elements by starting from the most subtle, false ego, rather than starting from the most gross, earth.
I had a friend who stayed in the Vrindavan gurukula. He once watched a monkey look into his pocket, reach in, grab his money, take it to a vendor, and buy some fruit.
The soul is covered by false ego as a materialistic person is covered by varieties of fashionable clothing and make-up.
Through humility we can learn the techniques of becoming free from false ego.
George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” was the biggest-selling single of 1971.
The Palace of Gold, built in honor of Srila Prabhupada at New Vrindaban over 12 years, is called the “Taj Mahal of the West.”
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The Vedic literature is full verses telling of the great benefit there is in chanting and hearing the glories of the Lord. Queen Kunti informs us that even a bystander who simply appreciates this activity gets the same benefit. Sometimes on harinama, people show spontaneous appreciation of the chanting of the devotees. It is only a matter of time before these people attain the same benefit as the devotees themselves.
srnvanti gayanti grnanty abhiksnasah
ta eva pasyanty acirena tavakam
bhava-pravahoparamam padambujam
“O Krishna, those who continuously hear, chant and repeat Your transcendental activities, or take pleasure in others’ doing so, certainly see Your lotus feet, which alone can stop the repetition of birth and death.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.36)
