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Sunday July 6Â
Baltimore is only 45 mins. drive from the WDC temple. The temple in DC had already booked Sri Nandanandan from Vrindavan to do kirtan and speak on Sunday afternoon, so the devotees from Baltimore asked me to come here.
The temple is the same one that Srila Prabhupada visited on July 7 1976 when he came to see Sri Sri Gaura Nitai. I didn’t recognize the building though because all the nice gardens it used to have are all gone, and the house has been painted very garishly in bright red, blue and yellow. Â
I got into WDC in the late afternoon. It was hot, 93 degs. We have 14 acres in Potomac, the most expensive real estate in WDC. Srila Prabhupada had a memorable visit here for a week in 1976 during the American bi-centennial celebrations which I have recorded in TD 3. Â
The Polish festival tour sounds wonderful. Sitala and Rasarani-priya are having a great time, busily engaged in a variety of preaching activities. There’s no time for anything but Krsna. Its really difficult to appreciate what exactly Indradyumna Maharaja is doing for Srila Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya’s movement. He is an ideal sannyasi and preacher. I admire his dedication and sheer effort very much.
I sit back sometimes and wonder how it is that I haven’t done as much. I have gotten lazy and I am still mired in so many desires. I guess it takes a few lifetimes to get to the platform Indradyumna Maharaja is on.
Here in Houston I am staying with Advaita Candra and his wife Kalasudha. She is the daughter of Bhaktajana Priya prabhu and was largely brought up in Mayapur. Now she’s actively preaching in Houston with her husband, who is a product of the Chowpatti preaching.They have a beautiful, new, large house in Houston so it is spacious and comfortable. They have made their living room into a temple and do a simple mangala arati at 5.30 AM every day.
 
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Now I am in Dallas. I haven’t been here since the NA GBC meeting in 1994. In those days of course, Tamal Krishna Maharaja was very much the main presence here.
Keshava Bharati Maharaja is staying in the room next to mine, which is good news because he and I are quite close. He’s in good spirits and his health is pretty good nowadays. A year ago he couldn’t get off his back due to a severe rupture in his vertebrae. Now he has a strict exercise routine that he upholds religiously.Â
He is spending 7 hrs a day recording the Brhat Bhagavat Amrta for an audio book for the BBT. There are several other devotees around the world who are working on similar projects. The BBTÂ has finally gotten serious about the genre and I think it will be a big success. Read the rest of this entry »
Before I get onto the New Vrindaban experience, here’s an interesting letter from Srila Prabhupada I found and just sent to Pradyumna. I thought that since he is working so closely with the UN on ecclesiastical matters he would find it particularly interesting:
Letter to: Syamasundara — Seattle 10 October, 1968“I am also trying to get one secretarial office in the Church Center of the United Nations, with a view to confer with the heads of the United Nations, both political and ecclesiastical, to propagate our Krishna Consciousness.”Â
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Ok, so the weekend in NV. Brilliant! They held a 24 hrs. kirtan–mela. It was really excellent. Â
Here’s a couple of shots of Gopal and Madhava, and Karnamrta:
I headed out from NY on June 18 to Cleveland. The program was at one of the devotee’s houses, Dayal Nitai and his wife Tanya. I was impressed with their house, they have turned their living room into a full-on temple.
I have never been to Cleveland before but it turns out I have vicarious connection-my wife Sitala and her ex-husband, Narottamananda prabhu, were the first devotees to open a temple here in 1971. And the Deities of Radha Muralidhara I saw at the Sanctuary yesterday are also originally from here. Read the rest of this entry »
The day after Rathayatra I went over to the temple in Brooklyn for the Sunday feast. Its always big the day after Rathayatra and at least 800 guests were there at the peak. Ramabhadra prabhu the TP graciously allowed me to show my powerpoint presenation of the Bhaktivedanta Archives and I sold a few of my books.
Highlight of the evening was ‘As Kindred Spirits’ a devotee band headed up by Gauravani, the son of one of ISKCON’s oldest kirtaniyas, Baradvaja prabhu, and mother Rukmini. Gauravani has inherited all his father’s kirtan skills. He’s an excellent bhajan/kirtan man and can keep an audience enthralled for hours.
I have strong ties to this temple. I was the one who bought it in 1982 when I was GBC here for a year. We were in a terrible mess at that time with the main temple a small building on 7th Ave. between 53 & 54. It had been closed to the public and Sri Sri Radha Govinda were living in a miserable condition. Read the rest of this entry »
I have two daughters, Rasarani-priya who is nearly 16, and Sachi, who just turned 23 on Gaura Purnima. Both of them are doing really well in their respective environments.Â
Sachi is from my previous marriage and hasn’t been brought up as a devotee. She is a life-long vegetarian though and has her own belief in God. She’s a great person, ethical and hard working. She just informed me that she has graduated with distinctions after four years from her engineering course at Cambridge in England. She is the national training coordinator for Engineers Without Borders in the UK, a voluntary role that keeps her more than busy. Now she’s considering whether to go for her Phd. and has already been interviewed by a panel.
In the meantime she’s headed out to Brazil for the month of July. She has an interest in alternative power but she hasn’t yet decided what field of work she’ll go into.
 Rasarani-priya is also doing great. She took initiation from Indradyumna Swami in Mayapur on Gopastami in Nov. 2007, the one day of the year when Radharani’s feet are exposed for darshana.
 
                                 
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We had a fantastic Rathayatra. After a ride on the NY subway, I met up with the devotees at the starting point on 57th. Over a couple of hours we traversed about 50 city blocks, which is a couple of miles, right down 5th Ave. which Srila Prabhupada said was the most important street in the world.
There were tens of thousands of people out on the street, and more than 2,000 devotees turned out. Its the biggest Rathayatra in America and devotees from all down the east coast came, including a bus load from Alachua.Nowadays everyone has a digital camera (except me!) and so there must have been many thousands of pictures taken of the carts and deities and devotees. I saw one motorcycle police woman who was assigned to direct the traffic take out her mobile phone and take pictures of the chariots as she directed the traffic. Read the rest of this entry »
Thursday June 12, 2008Â
My old friend Bindu Madhava prabhu picked me up from the airport and drove me to his home on Long Island. He has a big old wooden house on half an acre of land, its a great place. I also saw another couple of old New York friends there, Romapada Swami and Adarshi prabhu when I arrived.
On the way to the house Bindu took me to a big mall and bought me two pairs of sandals, one Crocs and the other Teva. They are really comfortable and have good arch supports, which for a flat-foot like me is essential. I can’t say that I am overly impressed with regular Crocs-everyone in ISKCON seems to be wearing them; ugly is in! But the ones I got are more traditional open-toed sandals and they are just what I wanted. Read the rest of this entry »
The return to Alachua was productive. As the Exhibits Coordinator for the Mayapur Temple of the Vedic Planetarium (TOVP) I had requested a meeting for June 10 with the main contributors to our cosomology team.Â
Accordingly we all met at Brahma Tirtha prabhu’s house in Gainesville–Sadaputa, the main brain behind our challenge to material science; Ravindra Svarupa, who is heading up the Vedic Cosmology research team; Jayapataka Swami, GBC and Exhibits Director; Drutakarma, famous anti-evolutionist; Nitya Trpta, who helped develop the exhibits in New Delhi temple; Sraddhadevi, disciple of RVS who coordinates the cosmology team’s efforts; Vilasini and husband Anup who are the new architects and work force coordinators on the TOVP; and myself.
We kicked off the meeting with a brief update on the main dome. This will house the Deities and three levels of exhibits showing the four dhamas mentioned in Brahma-samhita: Devi-dhama, Mahesa-dhama, Hari-dhama and Goloka-dhama. Those exhibits will not come under the purview of this group however.
Hanging from the main dome will be a gigantic chandelier which will rotate and demonstrate the movement of the main planets and the sun around bhu-mandala. Sadaputa prabhu is working on a draft proposal for this but basically it will look like an inverted orrery. Never heard of one? Check out a google search on orreries. Here’s a dictionary definition:
“a mechanical model of the solar system in which the planets can be moved at the correct relative velocities around the sun [C18: originally made for Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery”Â
 Ours of course will show the geo-centric model presented in the SB and have the sun revolving around the earth.
Here’s a few examples:
Yadubara and I drove up from Alachua to Atlanta together on June 6. It was pretty smooth going and took five hours. Yadu did all the driving. I am a terrible car traveler. As soon as I get in anything with four wheels, I want to sleep:
TD Vol. 1 — March 22nd, 1976, Mayapur
“At 5:30 a.m. Srila Prabhupada descended the stairs amid a loud kirtana and excited shouts from the devotees. He stepped into the back seat of the car, and we sped off for Calcutta, accompanied by an escort of six vans and one of Hamsaduta Swami’s buses. Pusta Krsna Maharaja drove our car, Tamal Krishna Maharaja sat in front, and I sat in the back next to Prabhupada. Read the rest of this entry »
 I arrived in Alachua late on Sunday morning after setting off from Mexico on Saturday afternoon. It was a bit of a marathon, I was traveling for about 19 hrs. including transits in LA and Charlotte.
 LAX was a bit of a scene. My own fault because I didn’t read my ticket carefully enough. Read the rest of this entry »
After Los Angeles I made my first trip to Mexico City. In 1990-91 I lived in San Diego and served BTG as managing editor. Mexico was just a short drive over the border and I had a desire to visit, but I never made it there. I had applied for a green card and couldn’t leave the country.
This year HH Guru Prasada Swami invited me and the devotees sent me a ticket. So right after the LA Prabhupada Festival I made the 3 hrs. flight to one of the biggest, and reputedly, most polluted cities in the world. Read the rest of this entry »
I have just completed my first American tour in 14 years. Its been an interesting experience to be sure.
First place visited was Los Angeles for their annual Prabhupada Festival. It was an excellent opportunity to meet some old friends, sell some of my books and do what I love to do, talk about Srila Prabhupada.
My ever gracious host Svavasa prabhu put me in the apartment above his own, so I was very comfortable, and a couple of devotees assisted me with setting up my book table, laundry, puja etc. I was really well looked after and my talks on Srila Prabhupada were well received. Read the rest of this entry »
On November 3, 2007 at 1.21 PM Nirguna Krsna dasa prabhu left his body and returned to the Lord’s eternal abode.
Nirguna prabhu a few hours before he left
A dearly beloved godbrother, Nirguna Krishna prabhu, left his mortal coil in Sri Dham Mayapur in November 2007. It was a singularly ecstatic event, a perfect departure of a saintly devotee, after a life of sincere service. I wrote a series of postings on Dandavats.com which I am reproducing here, in honour of Sriman Nirguna Krsna prabhu. I thought this would be an auspicious way to start my blog…
