Param Satya is going to be preparing the prasadam with which the devotees will break fast at midnight on Janmastami.

Here in Australia where we are now, and in many parts of the world, devotees talk about an “Ekadasi Feast” to break fast at midnight.

When we arrived in Peru devotees there had never heard of such an idea. They customarily broke fast with the “full bloque“, as they put it (those guys can put away grains…). The first year we were there a GBC man circulated an email instructing that the feast should be Ekadasi prasadam.

In the interest of historical accuracy:

As I understand it, the concept of the “Ekadasi feast” comes from a garbled transmission of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions on how to observe the day.

These instructions are in his letters (you can find them in Siksamrita and the Vedabase), and also in the biographical works of early disciples (it was in Lilamrita or Hare Krishna Explosion or somewhere similar that I read about this).

The idea is that Janmastami is a day when fasting is observed, and that the fast should be broken at midnight with some light prasadam ala Ekadasi, which means some fruit or nuts. Feasting is then observed on the next day, the day of Nandotsava, Nanda Maharaja’s festival for the birth of his son Krishna.

Having a feast at midnight after a day fasting is of questionable sanity from a health perspective, and a little hard to find enjoyable, which is really what feasting is all about. How you break a fast is an important part of the fast from both the material (you can up to kill yourself by breaking a dry fast with too much water) and spiritual perspective (refer to the histories of King Rantideva and Maharaja Ambarisa for examples).

On the first Janmastami (it may have been a Gaura Purnima - the detail may differ, but the principle remainss the same) the devotees where all waiting eagerly in the temple room to break fast. Swamiji (as they knew Srila Prabhupada) prepared so many wonderful preparations for the Sunday Feast each week, so they couldn’t even begin to imagine what incredible banquet of delights this day would bring.

Srila Prabhupada descended the stairs at the appointed hour bearing… a plate with cut up pieces of apple, which he distributed to the devotees.

The instruction from Srila Prabhupada that I read in a letter where this matter was discussed was essentially:

Break fast at midnight with something like Ekadasi prasadam (when you are just supposed to take a few non-grain / bean things like fruits and nuts to keep your body going and the mind nominally pacified). Feasting is observed the day following.

I remember Hanuman prabhu talking about a book he was writing about how to observe Ekadasi according to the actual instructions that were given by Srila Prabhupada. He said to me:

In twenty years, the speculations will have increased ten fold. Right now, even though Ekadasi is supposed to be about fasting there is a special Ekadasi cookbook in the kitchen filled with the most opulent preparations imaginable. It’s like the goal is to avoid austerity.

If it continues this way, in the future on Ekadasi devotees will be chanting “Ekadasi Ekadasi” on their beads, and if you say the word: “Grains”, they’ll pull out a gun and shoot you.

Hanuman has a great sense of humour. The part about not saying “grains” refers to another “tradition” (where did it come from?) of not singing Bhaktivinode Thakura’s song Prasada-sevaya on Ekadasi because “it contains the word ‘anna‘, which means grains”.

According to some, you can’t sing that devotional song on Ekadasi because it contains a word that can be translated as “grains”, but you can of course say “grains grains grains” as you explain why you can’t sing the song.

Up to now I have never encountered an appeal to sadhu, guru, or sastra in support of this tradition, just an appeal to tradition and an obviously twisted and faulty logic. I’d be interested to know what kernel of truth gave birth to that conception - I certainly haven’t been able to find out from any of its proponents so far.

Krishna addresses this pramana, “tradition”, in his Govardhan-lila, and Srila Jiva Goswami discusses its shortcomings in his work on epistemology (how to get valid knowledge) Tattva Sandarbha.

Local audiences, this isn’t a personal dig at anyone, so please don’t take it like that, it’s just me commenting on my journey. International audiences, well, you don’t really care do you? I’m just some guy in a remote country who’s mildly interesting enough to read his site, and hardly threatening to you…

Call me a pedant if you will… and yes, I will be eating whatever is there at midnight, according to what my body needs / can sustain, including the obligatory cashews and caramel. At midnight. After a day of fasting. Now that’s what I call austerity…

I’m not going to do a dry fast and do that though. A year or two ago I did a dry fast and then ate something at 1 am (it’s never midnight) and wiped myself out for a good couple of days. Not advisable. This year I am going to drink water during the day, take some fruits if needed to sustain my energy in the afternoon, and take a small amount of prasadam at midnight in the association of devotees.

With the rigors involved in a public program of the scope that we are doing this year there is small room for error (like losing control of the fire element in the body) so I am prepared to sacrifice whatever benefit there may be in doing a full fast in order to be able to execute that service with full attention. Another year, or another life, when I have no responsibilities on the day I can do a full fast and simply chant from start to finish.

The other thing that we have to balance with the fasting is the impact on our ongoing service. Thursday is another day, and Friday yet another. Atma Yoga is closed one day and we have an obligation to the public that must be fulfilled.

We’re “flying the flag” with a Sunday Feast on steroids at the Graceville State School Hall, 23 Acacia Rd, Chelmer, from 3 pm until late.

The place has a great PA and lighting system and a modular stage made out of nine or ten units like the one we have at the Sunday Feast.

It’s the perfect facility for preaching and we will have one like it someday soon. It is currently used by a church on Sundays - they paid for the lighting system to be put in. I’ll have some photos after the event to show you.

I see a very close parallel to what happened after the end of the Second World War. At the end of the Second World War, the focus was on atomic weapons, the technology. Today, the analogous idea is on information technology. We believe that’s the cure-all for everything.

There’s an art and science to war. The science is in support of the art. The science gives you the weapons systems; it allows you to have the communications; it allows you to have all the things that support the actual conduct of war. War, as it is fought, is an art. It’s not a science. If you try to make it a science, you’re bound to be disappointed.

- US Gen. Paul Van Riper, PBS Interview

Substitute preaching for war, and I think that you have a good assessment of the relationship between information technology and preaching.

These two articles: Disposable Worship: a caution about using too much technology in worship, and The Gospel According to Electronic Culture: What if the medium really is the message? from the blog of Leadership Journal also examine the tension between the art and science of preaching in an age where the dominant science is IT.

These are important points to ponder as we adopt and adapt current technologies to use in Krishna’s service. As Swami Tripurari once said, we run the risk of becoming more absorbed in megabytes than in their maker. Anything used in Krishna’s service is spiritual, but as Srila Prabhupada explained spiritual life is a razor’s edge. It’s good to keep thinking about it, and watching as things swing from one extreme to another to try to find the middle path.

(Random example) Sure, giving all the Atma Yoga guests a membership card with a barcode on it would enable us to process them efficiently with minimal staff, and allow us to capture an unprecedented level of detail of statistics - but is that really a good idea?

I think the example given in the Disposable Worship piece is very good:

Borgmann says technology can make certain wonderful “goods” in our lives disappear without us even knowing it. Example: the central fireplace is replaced by the invisible central air furnace. In the process the family that once gathered around the fireplace to get warm before heading off to bed no longer engages in the community-building routine. The family no longer talks about the day, tells stories, or prays together. Through technology we lose what Borgman calls a “focal practice.” We lose a concrete, formative, and simple activity, and our lives are changed without ever noticing.

At the Sunday Feast we have the projection screen with the graphics, the stage, the mics, the polished practiced performance of kirtan (in the line of that envisioned by Srila Prabhupada for the World Sankirtan Party), and we also have the mrdanga and cartal kirtan with dancing. Keep it simple and direct. Look at people, touch them, move around them and influence them, allow them to influence you, smile, loosen up, have fun, don’t take it seriously, play. This chanting of the Holy Name is immersive and enchanting - and necessary.

The first one cannot replace the second - it can augment and enhance the overall presentation, but the main course is the combined enthusiastic chanting and dancing. Whatever contributes to enthusiastic chanting is favorable, whatever detracts from it is unfavorable.

This morning’s yoga teacher training course lead practice was a restorative class - think Atma Slow Deep Stretch. There were some rope inversions and some partner work, which I did with Elliott. I left my ‘99 vintage hooded Icebreaker on through the whole class, and kept a kashmere shawl over me as we relaxed into the postures. It was just what the doctor ordered after the weekend.

Here are the highlights:

Om Gurudeva His Holiness Devamrita Swami arrived in Brisbane on Wednesday night. Due to my working schedule the next time I saw him was on Friday night at Atma Yoga, where we had 30 guests for a discussion in the Atma Lounge. Sorry, no photos, and no recording.

Saturday I worked in the morning and raced back to Red Hill for sat sang with Gurudeva at midday. I think I recorded this one, but I haven’t checked yet. There were about 15 people there.

Sunday morning there were initiations before the Deities in Graceville. I’ve stopped referring to it as “the temple” because that just creates these phantasmagorical expectations in new people which are complicated to manage. The Brisbane Temple is under construction at 17 Mile Rocks. Until we move there “No, we don’t have a temple”, we have a temporary housing for the Deities. Yes I know that where ever the Deity is, is a temple, but that’s not what new people hear when you say: “temple”. When you say “temple”, they hear “Temple with a capital T” and imagine something exotic and opulent with gold plated domes, robed monks, incense burners, ancient tradition, and so on. Having to then reduce that expectation, or worse, deal with the disillusionment that arises from disappointed expectations, and explain our center in Graceville and introduce the idea of the as-yet-unmanifest Temple in 17 Mile Rocks is a real trip. Best not to go there.

“Do you have a Temple in Brisbane?”
“Not yet, we’re currently building one at 17 Mile Rocks.”

To me that evokes the “exciting future” that we are headed toward.

People who want to have the “Hare Krishna experience” should come to Sunday Feast to experience enthusiastic chanting and dancing, and take prasadam in community. For those who want to go deeper into it, they should get direct association in one of the environments that we have created for that. Once they are sadhana bhaktas they should go to the Deity for their sadhana. When we have a cultural presentation facility that is useful for making an impression on people’s consciousness with the opulence of the service of the Deity and the cultural tradition surrounding that we can invite them to that.

Of course there will always be rare souls who can hook in to the existing facility, but it’s not effective as a general strategy.

Anyway, I digress.

Antje is now Adina-lila devi dasi. Anantara is now Ananta Vrindavan das. I received my second initiation.

Now that I have my second initiation, once my work situation stabilizes again I’ll be getting a moped in order to get to my yoga teacher training, and I’ll also use it to go to the Deities in Graceville to do some personal service for Them.

I recorded the initiation lecture, but again, haven’t checked to see how or if it came out.

Sunday night was the Sunday Feast. We opened with our stage performance of bhajans, Sukanthi Radha dd gave a slide presentation entitled: “Have You Got Time? Or Has Time Got You?”. Then we had a Hare Krishna Network Show with Devamrita Swami as our special guest in the studio, interviewed about his book Searching for Vedic India on the subject of the Vedic Conception of Time.

Again, I didn’t record this. This was an amazing presentation. There are some photos, but no recording that I know of. I was a bit overwhelmed with everything, and you can’t do everything - some things just have to be sacrificed. I apologize to you, the Internet audience, because you were sacrificed in preference for the 150 guests who came on the night.

Vrajadhama was away on a catering gig (he missed out on being in this fire yajna for his second initiation), so the HKN team was a bit understrength, and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything. It’s always like this these days. A lot of change, a lot of responsibility. Anyway, that is what life is for. We keep praying for the strength to do the needful for the mission, and begging for forgiveness for all the failings.

In regards to my second initiation, it has been four years since my first initiation, and I’ve spent the time researching and reflecting on the role and duties of the brahmana, and my own capability to carry them out. After this brief time I still don’t feel qualified to do it, but I feel a need to synchronize my role in the community with the formal positional structure of ISKCON, and I know that by the mercy of the Vaisnavas everything is possible. Under the advice of senior devotees here I’ve taken second initiation, and if I am able to successfully discharge my duties in this regard it will be due to their mercy only. If I am unable to do it then that is due to my own insincerity in receiving their mercy. Let me try my best realizing that that alone will never be enough and depending on Guru, Krishna, and the Vaisnavas as my ultimate refuge.

Part of my yoga teachers training course involves a three hour class each week on Yogic Philosophy. It’s taught by Dr. Tamara Ditrich, who lectures in Sanskrit at the University of Queensland. Her students have included His Grace Svayambhu prabhu and His Holiness Prabhavishnu Swami.

It’s an intense, interesting,and enjoyable experience. Last Friday two of the five of us doing the course went along. Others went to the Nrsimha caturdasi festival at the temple and manned the Atma Yoga program.

The processing of the information that is presented in this course is very good for my conception of Krishna Consciousness. I like to be conscious and intentional about what I’m doing. As Krishna das Kaviraja mentions in his Sri Caitanya Caritamrita, discussing things in this way helps to strengthen one’s faith. I am familiar with all the elements - the facts, the figures, the ideas, the personalities, that are being presented, and what I am really enjoying is integrating the meta-narrative that Tamara weaves them into.

Here is something very interesting that H.H. Tripurari Swami wrote:

In our daily life we should test the metal of our faith in God with the fire of reason. If it starts to melt, we should withdraw to spiritual practice and saintly association - the company of men and women of faith. If it is strengthened through the fire of reason, this faith is no longer tender (komala), and such firm faith will fuel our spiritual practice, and more, it will grant us entrance into spiritual life and enable us to fuel the practice of others.

I am going to write about the material that is being presented, especially the meta-narrative - you can read about all the elements in Srila Prabhupada’s books, but how they fit together is something else - and about my processing and integration of this presentation into my conception.

This is the activity of the madhyama-adhikari stage - the integration of reason with faith. Kanistha adhikari means something like a religious fanatic (outsiders will consider this person to be a bit “dogmatic”). Reason and critical deliberation is unimportant and even suspect. In the madhyama-adhikari stage reason comes more to the forefront. At this point, almost perversely, a practitioner becomes susceptible to doubt and even conversion, if they are not solid in their practice, as mentioned above. In the uttama-adhikari stage, beyond this, reason again retires.

An example of this:

Reporter: “What would you do if you found out tomorrow that Krishna wasn’t God?”

Srila Prabhupada (smiling broadly): “I would do the same thing, because I am happy.”

That is the realization of the Uttama-adhikari - topmost faith - beyond reason, and based on experience. Pratyaksvagamam - direct perception of the self.

Let me first of all talk about the weakness of a purely academic approach to understanding the information and constructing a meta-narrative.

The western ideal of study is to be the impassive, immutable “objective observer” who is neither involved in nor modified by the material they are studying. In this model you try to explain everything from a supposedly neutral point of view, which is in fact whatever subjective state of consciousness you possess, with all its assumptions, preconceptions, and limitations. You try to explain the tradition, and end up in many cases explaining it away.

The idea of the tradition, on the other hand, is not to understand it from your present point of view. The approach to the tradition recommended by the tradition itself is not to try to explain the tradition, but to try to experience it. You do not fit it within your frame of reference, you fit yourself within its frame of reference, and see where that takes you. The goal is not to explain it away, transforming it with the power of reason to make it fit where you are at and what you are all about, but rather to experience it and be transformed by it. You cannot taste the honey by analyzing it and licking the outside of the bottle - you have to dive in.

If I didn’t have a few years of trying to chant the Hare Krishna mantra and do service to my Guru and his mission behind me, then I might be negatively affected by the presentation I am hearing. That effect would be to reduce it to intellectually interesting information which doesn’t translate into a transformative practice. However, after having directly experienced the transformative power of the process and studied the teachings for some time, I’m in a better position to explain the meta-narrative from the perspective of our own meta-narrative, assimilating the presentation into the frame of reference of the tradition.

If you find the processing I do on the information disturbing then please don’t read the articles that I’m going to write about it. The madhyama-adhikari platform is characterized by contention and dispute, but I’m not so much inclined toward debate. I’m happy to share my processing of this information for others who may come across it and wonder how to integrate it with their faith. I’m not trying to promote it as a doctrine, however, but just as my processing of the information. There are many ways to peel a mango, many points of view and valid ways of explaining the same thing in a way that arrives at the same essential conclusion.

I’ve added a new category “Yoga Teacher Training” for recording my experiences on my Yoga Teacher Training Course.

The contemporary Vedic Ashram system of Atma Yoga / The Loft includes a relatively new samskara, engagement. “Classical” Vedic culture doesn’t have it, but people today benefit from a period where they get to taste “committment without entitlement”. It’s a formal position of regulated engagement to ease them into the full grhasta situation. Basically you’re married, but you don’t get to disappear off into your own scene.

I had the great honour and pleasure to address the 80 or so members of the community at Atma Yoga during the ceremony. For me it was a great privilege to be able to serve my dear god brother Vrajadhama in this way.

Engagement Address

This is Vrajadhama, and Bhakticandrika devi dasi from Peru. I’ve known Vrajadhama for now, let’s see, 17 years I think - something like that. No, 15 years. 15 years, and we’ve been through a lot together. We came to this Hare Krishna movement, this Vaisnava tradition together, and then we went and we spent some time in Peru, spent three years there, and while we were there Vraj met Bhakticandrika. It was obviously fate’s divine arrangement for them to connect in that way, because being such a small guy, Vraj probably wouldn’t be able to find someone his size anywhere else.

(laughter)

Yeah, so it was perfect. Everything worked out perfectly.

So today we are observing the engagement, their engagement ceremony. Now, according to the “classical”, in quotes, Vedic tradition there is no engagement ceremony, because there is actually no engagement. People are either married or not married. You see, the ancient Vedic culture is very strict about the mixing of the sexes. In Yoga one of the preliminary practices is brahmacarya, which means basically “celibacy” - and it means conserving the energies, and so they have a very strict way of social interaction where they don’t have that. Today we don’t really have that culture so much in our society, but we try to follow the Vedic tradition, the Vedic way of life, because it promotes elevation of consciousness. Now, there is no engagement ceremony in that ancient tradition, so we are basically making one up ourselves.

Because you see the Vedic tradition - it’s not a stereotypical culture that belongs to a particular time and place. It’s actually a living thing. Just like within our bodies there is the living energy, and when the living energy is gone from the body, the body just falls to the ground. It’s inert - it’s lost its life. But while that living energy is there, the body changes. Once I was a small boy, like our young friend here, now I’m a young man, and I’ll go through different changes. The body has changed so much, but I’m still the same person - still me - experiencing that. So there’s something within me that’s vital, that’s living, and the outer thing changes. So it is with the Vedic tradition. The outer appearance of the tradition changes, but the inner thing remains the same always.

And the inner thing, the inner substance of the Vedic tradition, it is the platform of absolute transcendental reality - that’s the spiritual platform. You know, the part of us that doesn’t change during our life, that’s our spiritual aspect, our spiritual identity. The physical part of us - that goes through changes. So the idea of the Vedic culture is to help people to connect to that identity, to that aspect of our identity. And that thing never changes - that absolute platform, which is known as Brahman in Sanskrit, that doesn’t change. That is eternal and unchanging - immutable. But society does change, so therefore the Vedic tradition changes along with that. You know, it tracks along with that, to keep connecting the people with the absolute platform. So as time goes on the Vedic tradition changes, so now we are introducing the idea of the engagement ceremony.

So why do we have this engagement ceremony? Why are they doing this? What are they doing?

They’re making a public commitment. They’re not just making a public commitment to each other, they’re making a public commitment to all of us. Because life is not just about “me”, and life is not just about “you”. Life is about all of us, and we all, because we’re all interrelated, we all have a duty to each other, and especially in family life. Family is the basis of human society.Community, human community needs continuity, it needs stability.

So when you enter into this kind of relationship, it’s not just about “what do I want to get out of this? What do I want?” It’s actually about “what can I do for others?” It’s not even about “what can I do for this other person?” It’s about “what can we do together? What can we together do for everyone else?” Now if we begin to live from that platform, instead of thinking “What can everyone do for me? What can I do for myself?” If we begin to live from the platform of “What can I do for others?” then the whole relationship becomes different. Instead of “What can I get out of this other person?” it becomes “what can we together do for others?”, and that makes for such a difference in the relationship.

So the commitment is not simply the two of them to each other, but it’s a commitment to all of us. It’s a commitment to contributing to stability and continuity. Community needs stability, and it needs continuity. We need to create a stable community, a stable society, so that people can have a stable situation in which they can pursue spiritual realization. You know when you’re so disturbed and there are so many disturbances, and you don’t know what’s happening from one day to the next, and your future is so uncertain - it’s very difficult to concentrate on anything higher than just getting through the day. But if we can have a stable situation underlying us for our practice, then we can apply ourselves to that practice, and we can make advancement, we can make progress.

So the duty of those who come together in this way is to provide that stability, and making this public commitment in this way to all of us also helps them with their commitment to each other, because they can realize as they go through it that “it’s not just about us, it’s about everyone, and the public commitment that we’ve made.”

It’s called the “Edison method”. Thomas Edison was a famous inventor, and what he would often do is call a press conference, and he would announce a wonderful new product that was coming out. Then after making that announcement in the press conference he would go into his lab and invent it.

So by making a public commitment like this, it helps to achieve your goals, and to be committed to your goals.

There is another aspect to it, as well.

The other day I was reading Madison magazine. I don’t know if anyone here reads Madison magazine? I don’t - generally I don’t read Madison magazine, but this particular Madison magazine - I was waiting - OK, wait a minute, let me tell you how it happened.

I was waiting for the bus down in Adelaide St, and this particular Madison magazine, the cover jumped out at me, and it’s not because it had a picture of Angelina Jolie on the cover. She’s on the cover of practically every magazine this month - or at least the ones that Jennifer Aniston isn’t on. So what it was, actually, that jumped out at me was a headline that said: “Married versus Living Together: Who’s happiest?”

These are the kinds of things that I like to think about, and I was particularly intrigued to know - what did they have to say about that? I didn’t really want to saunter up to the stand and pick up the magazine in case someone coming from the class saw me reading it. So I waited until we were in Stafford, at Woolworths, where I was sure we wouldn’t run into anyone - but actually we did, we ran into Lou. Anyway, the Supersoul goes with us wherever we go - we can’t escape it.

Anyway, I picked up that magazine and I just flicked through the article, and one thing jumped out at it me, and it said: “Statistically it’s proven that people who don’t live together before they get married, have longer marriages.” That’s what it said. And then they gave their interpretation, or a little bit of their commentary on that. They said: “This is because people who don’t live together before they get married, these days especially, they often don’t do so because of cultural or religious reasons, and those same cultural or religious reasons often preclude divorce as an option.”

I think there is some validity in that, but at the same time I think that is a little bit of a disempowering view to take of it. I think a more positive and empowering view of that can be understood from a principle that we find in the science of Yoga, and that is something that Krishna explains about the yogi in the second chapter of Bhagavad-gita, where He says: “sama sukha-dukham dhiram”

In this particular verse He says:

yam hi na vyatayanyete
purusa purusarsabha
samo-dukha-sukham dhiram
so’mrta vaya kalpate

That the yogi, he is “samo-sukha-duhkam dhiram” - he is equanimous. He is the same - sama means “same” - dukha-sukham - dukha means misery and sukha means happiness. He is the same in both misery and happiness. This is this universal principle. This is something that doesn’t change. The rituals might change, the society might change, but let me tell you this - this is something that doesn’t change. This is an eternal principle: If you cannot regulate attachment, you will not be able to regulate aversion - and these two things are the two sides of the same coin. Attachment and Aversion. The two functions of the mind. If you watch what your mind does as you go around - your mind is always saying: “I like that. I don’t like that. I like it. I don’t like it.” Things that you like, the mind says: “Go. Go. Get it. Get it.” The things that you don’t like the mind says: “Get away. Get away. Give it up.”

“Sankalpa Vikalpa” it is called. So the yogi has to learn to control the impulse towards attachment or engagement. Our society today glorifies the uncontrollable whirlwind romance, you know, it’s kind of like: “I was just swept off my feet. I just couldn’t help myself. I just had to get up on the couch and jump up and down. I was madly in love.” That’s kind of celebrated - you know?

But there is another saying: “Easy come, easy go”. If he can’t control his mind on the way in, he’s not going to be able to control his mind on the way out - and wherever there is attachment or attraction there will always be aversion, that will always come. That is the nature of this world. Whenever there is some attraction, some desire, some attachment - there will always come a time where there will be aversion, there will be repulsion. So if we can’t regulate ourselves and control ourselves when the attachment comes, then we certainly won’t be able to control ourselves when the aversion comes. If we can’t control ourselves when kama, or lust, comes, then we won’t be able to control ourselves when krodha, or anger, comes.

So I think that persons who, for whatever reason - because of their own realization, their own control, their own understanding, or even by social tradition - if they can control, if they can learn to control on the outset - then when the difficult times come, and the mind starts pushing them to come apart, they will also find it a lot easier to control that. And then if they also have the understanding that “it’s not just about us and what we think and what we feel”, but “we have a duty to all these people around us, to the whole society, to the whole community” then that commitment that they are making now to all of us, that commitment will push them together. It will help to hold them together. So by doing it in this way they get the support of the whole community, behind them, to help them in their endeavour, together, to serve - to serve the community.

So that is something about the concept behind this engagement ceremony that we are doing tonight. As I said there is no formal ritualistic ceremony for this in the ancient Vedic tradition, so we are creating one as we go, because the Vedic culture is always relevant to our situation.

So it is very simple what we have planned for tonight. We have the garlands for them? And there are some flowers for puspanjali? So we have some flowers - and we are going to hand these flowers around. Last night we were hearing something about the demigods showering flowers? It is very auspicious.

So they are going to exchange garlands, and there is also a ring, which is a sign of commitment in the West.

Anything that is done beginning with the syllable OM is said to be permanent and binding, so we will chant the Guru Pranam mantra, then you can exchange the garlands and give the ring, and we’ll all throw the flowers.

Hari!
Om ajnana timirandhasya
jnananjana salakaya
caksur un militam yena
tasmai sri gurave namah

Esa puspanjali!

His Holiness Sivarama Swami has begun podcasting and has a blog online. It’s been added in to the ISKCON News site.

On the 5th of May he answered a question I asked, in a podcast. The question was:

New Vrajadhama has some renown around the world as being a place where we are having some success in establishing a non-urban (for want of a better term) community. Could Maharaja share some of his insights into the challenges of establishing Vaisnava communities, his realizations on our strategy thus far on “simple living, high thinking”, and his thoughts about future possibilities.

Maharaja’s answer can be found here.

Nityananda-kari devi dasi wrote to share her realization of the three essential elements of Authentic Community:

• Sadhana
• Seva
• Sanga

Here are my further comments on these points:

Sadhana refers to essential spiritual practice. Sadhana is the external gateway to a substantial “inner experience” of transcendence. Krishna Consciousness means consciousness or internal reality. The outer practices begin as forms, but through dutiful practice they reveal hidden reality within. Srila B.V. Tripurari Swami wrote a nice poem about this:

O rite and ritual
the light to reality,
What is your heart?
the river runs freely
I bathe with regularity;
the bell rings, all rise,
for whom doth thou toll?
then rhyme and rhythm,
the drum beats and
we are driven to dance
and song in abandon,
what merry have you made,
and why do I ask on?
O rite and ritual
your performance habitual,
when will we part-
the door between reality
to see your heart of spontaneity.

Mechanical practice alone won’t cut it, but neither will neglect of practice. It’s the middle path.

Social recognition didn’t make the cut for the necessary and essential three S’s. Having other people around us consider us to be a model devotee is no substitute for our inner cultivation. The praise of others around us, while alluring and so much easier than actual application to the process, rings hollow if we are internally empty, and the falsity of the charade cannot be maintained for long.

Our external sensual orientation since time immemorial, enflamed by present-day consumer culture and drawn to enjoyment of the objects of senses, takes us out of touch with our internal reality. We tend to gravitate to the externals of the tradition that our practice comes in and social standing easily and naturally replaces Sadhana and its internally transformative effects as our measuring stick for our progress.

Seva means “service”. It refers to actual engagement in activity, again mechanically in the beginning. The conscious engagement in service cultivates an internal service mentality, transforming our identity, and allowing us to understand our real relationship with reality. Service should be performed under guidance, and it is an eternal function of the living entity.

Before enlightenment - chop wood, carry water.
After enlightenment - chop wood, carry water

Without the service mentality there is no question of Krishna Consciousness. If you don’t have a service mentality, then do service - you’ll get one.

Over the past few days we’ve discussed cutting off our sikhas. We’re not going to do it because everyone will freak out and start saying that we’re deviating. It will also cause some disturbance in our public profile - community needs continuity. The important thing to understand here is that “Sikha” is not one of the essential three. Get rid of your social standing and your sikha, and you can still be Krishna conscious. Get rid of Sadhana and Seva, on the other hand, and it doesn’t matter how big your sikha is or how popular you are at pizza parties.

As new people come to restock the Red Hill ashram the last thing I want is for them to start thinking: “Hey, these guys have a funny haircut. I’ll get a hair cut like them, and then I’ll be one of the boys.” Being one of the boys means Sadhana, Seva, and Sanga, not Sikha. Let me tell you a story that really brings this out:

In Peru I had many adventures and met many con men. One such personality was a guy named Willy who showed up at the temple with a proposal. He wanted to utilize an unused space in the downtown temple during the day to give a course. The course was to be a certified course on “Inyectables”, which where you learn to give injections (South America is… different). His proposal was that he would charge these people money, and give me a cut.

In discussions it became apparent to him (maybe it was when I told him point blank) that I wasn’t interested in money. It should have been obvious from the start - you don’t go from Australasia to an inner-city South American temple for the economic benefits. Anyway, he started trying to figure out what made me tick. I helped him out by telling him: “I’m a missionary. I came here to preach”.

I was not at all swayed by his attempts to exploit my self-interest, but I considered that his coming was an arrangement of the Supreme, and went along with him to see what would happen.

With zero start up capital he secured an inner city space. Next he put up a sign on the street outside: “Employment: Chicas wanted - Apply within”. He soon had a steady stream of young ladies looking for work, and a stack of CVs on his desk. The terms of employment were simple. The girls would be trained for two weeks, with no pay, then they would go out and canvass in universities and schools for the course, and as students started coming and enrolling, money would be generated. The girls would be paid, and we would get a cut from the whole thing.

It was impressive to see him at work, hustling like anything. Meanwhile I was quietly running background checks on him and insulating the operation from the temple.

After one interview he called me over. “Hey, Sita-pati. This chica, she wants to ask you something. She’s interested in your religion”. The girl stood there, embarassed. “Go on,” he prodded her, “Ask.”

She stared at the floor and blushed. “I was just wondering what you do here….” she blurted out.

I explained briefly what our temple operational concept was. “Okay,” said Willie, giving her a push toward me and motioning in the direction of our small temple gift shop. “Now you can take her over there and get her one of those tunics that you guys wear.”

That’s what you call an extremely superficial external conception of what this is all about, and we do not want that.

Willy didn’t last.

Sanga means community. We “find ourselves” in community, not in isolation. We are part of something much bigger than any one of us. None of us is the complete whole, self-sufficient. Our identity is integral to the identity of everyone around us. Relationship, or rasa in Sanskrit, is fundamental and eternal. Community starts with realizing that we are not the center of the universe, and it goes from there.

“Sanga” without sadhana and seva, however, simply becomes social standing. It’s apparent community, not authentic community. At the moment of death we stand alone, and the condition of our heart is tested. All the fallible soldiers that surround us cannot save us at that moment.

What’s another S that we can disqualify from the three S’s? How about “sari”. The previous example showed that how you dress is not an essential characteristic. We need to be careful about relying too much on the external show - the sikha, the social standing, the sari, and allowing that to make us feel like we are “devotees”, when what we need to do is focus on Sadhana, Seva, and Sanga, in order to become transformed. Let’s be aspiring devotees forever, striving to do something, anything, to become a devotee, and never feeling that we have “made it”.

Here is an interesting article about Atma Yoga from 2003 that includes a brief excerpt from Prema Pradipa by Bhaktivinode Thakura where he mentions internal indifference to external formalities, along with external acceptance of them.

It is also mentioned in his Sri Krishna Samhita. Shukavak N. Dasa describes this in his book “Hindu Encounter with Modernity” when he analyzes the Sri Krishna Samhita in the fifth chapter:

Bhaktivinoda begins the Sri-krishna-samhita with a description of two types of men, one he calls Bharabahis, meaning literally one who carries a burden and the other Saragrahis or one who searches for the essence. The Bharabahis are the masses of men who are attached to religious externals (lingas), which he classifies as customs, ritual and doctrine. He points out that sectarian fighting and religious discrimination are the result of the Bharabahi’s over attachment to religious externals.

In contrast to the Bharabahis are the Saragrahis, or the great souls, who are unattached to religious externals and spend their time seeking the essence of truth. The Saragrahis are few in number and do not organize themselves into religious sects. They recognize the Bharabahi’s need for religious externals and so they participate in the use of these externals to a certain extent.

Anyway, we’re not going to shave off our sikhas, because I know that will disturb everyone’s minds, but we should be ready to do it at a moment’s notice, for example, if we have to go to Singapore to preach, where you can’t have a sikha. Being attached to sikha, sari, and social standing is not the goal. Being attached to Sadhana, Seva, and Sanga is. And then there is Lord Rsabhadeva’s instruction to not be attached to the process… but we’ll leave that consideration for the mahatmas. I’ll settle for attachment to the real process, as distinguished from the apparent one.

The Editor, Eurasia Daily Monitor

Dear Sir,

In his recent article “KAZAKHSTAN EXACERBATES “RELIGIOUS THREAT” BY MANEUVERING BETWEEN BEIJING AND WASHINGTON” your correspondent Marat Yermukanov writes:

Recently the local government of Karasay district, Almaty region, dispatched police to forcibly evict 50 families of Hare Krishna followers from their leased land. Members of the sect staged a sit-down strike in protest and ultimately won their case in court.

Firstly, allow me to thank you for writing about this situation and bringing international attention to this issue.

As of May 10th, 2006, the legal situation has still not been resolved, as you can read on their website at www.palaceofthesoul.com, and the Kazakhstani Krishnas are still facing the threat of forced evictions and having their homes demolished.

The Kazakh national government takes pains to point out that the Hare Krishna movement is not being persecuted throughout the country, but it does seem apparent that in this instance, in this particular part of the country, these people are being discriminated against on the basis of their religious faith, and that due legal process and their basic human rights are being violated.

Of course, it’s a lot easier to call your shots and deliver when the Supreme Personality of Godhead is driving your chariot….

“Krishna is my Chariot Driver” bumper sticker, anyone?

His Holiness A.C. Bhaktivaibhava Swami is current GBC Executive Committee chairman. His tenure looks set to be characterized by publicly visible proactivity. On ISKCON News.net right after the announcement of his election to the chair you can read a letter from Maharaja where he commands (ok, “requests” ) all ISKCON temple presidents and GBCs to report back to him by May 8th about what they are doing about the Kazakhstan situation.

There is no centralized response or strategy, but priorities are being set from the platform. It’s the first visible pronouncement from ISKCON’s governing body that I’ve seen in a long time.

Here is the latest from Anuttama das, of ISKCON communications, on the Kazakhstan situation. It’s in the same style I took in approaching the situation. Of course, you need to have people laying down the smack in order to do this. Good cop, bad cop. Here Anuttama das plays good cop:

Update from my end in Wash, DC:

I spoke today for 1/2 hour with the political consulate for the Kazahkstan embassy. The ambassador is in Kaz. I followed the strategy Saunaka recommended and discussed that the situation is heating up around the world (AP stories, Indian media, protest in Hungary) and that WE need to try to find a reasonable solution to this.

I told him our people around the world are increasing disturbed and that there will likely be protests building. Not a good time for this as the US Vice President in in Kaz this month, bad for the govt’ reputation, etc.

He seemed genuinely relieved to have me speak from the point of looking for a solution.

I told him that apparently the 5 day notice (or something to that effect) had been delivered today and that the national government–that is concerned about international issues and reputation– needs to get involved and slow down these guys locally.

He at first tried to explain the legal arguments for the action against Krishnas, but after I pointed out that human rights organizations “on the ground” are telling the media that it is persecution and land grabbing, he agreed it is not proper.

I was pushing him to at least get his govt to buy some time and not let the locals demolish any property. If that happens, I told him, there will be an international outcry of a size they don’t want to deal with.

He is calling his people in the capital and promised to call me back tomorrow. My effort will be to get them to stop the immediate confiscation and demolition so that cooler (national) heads can intervene and find a solution.

Ie, “if they papers are wrong fix it. Don’t demo the place…”

Your servant,

Anuttama dasa

Straiht Wikid Crew, a one-man project of Hare Krsna rapper Jason Fladlien from Muscatine, IA, has released his debut album “Kali Yuga Demolition Vol. 1″.

“On ‘Kali Yuga Demolition Vol. 1′, rapper Jason Fladlien easily exceeds the humorously low expectations that accompany being a Hare Krsna rapper from rural Iowa,” Eric Clark of The Gazette writes.

“Kali Yuga Demolition Vol. 1 has been described as ‘more mack daddy than meditation, more hip hop than Hare Krishna’ by Todd Beemis of Indie-Music.com.

I haven’t heard it, so no comment from me. Original heads up from the Utah Krishna’s site. Word.

Update: This information is from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs website:

Australia established diplomatic relations with Kazakhstan in 1992. Australia opened an embassy in Almaty in 1995, but closed it in 1999 due to resource constraints. Kazakhstan opened a Consulate in Sydney in January 1996, but closed it in March 2003 for similar reasons. In January 2005, Australia established an Honorary Consul in Almaty. Australia’s current Ambassador to Kazakhstan is Mr Robert Tyson, resident in Moscow.

If you hadn’t heard, at the moment it appears that the Hare Krishna devotees in Kazakhstan are being unjustly persecuted. They have a farm community over there called Palace of the Soul, and the government has seized the farm, and the police are evicting the devotees and bulldozing their residences. You can see a video and read more about it here.

You can also read more on in the ISKCON News.Net archive for the 27th of April, and on Forum 18 news.

If you live in Australia and wish to register a protest against this, then contact the Kazakhstan Consulate at:

144 Clyde Street
North Bondi, Sydney
NSW 2026 Australia

phone:(612)9365-3011,
fax:9365-3044
consul@bb.com.au

Update: I tried emailing this address, but it bounced. I called to speak with the Consul, and left a message on the voice mail for them to call me back.

For those who haven’t heard the news, Gurudeva (H.H. Devamrita Swami) was in a vehicular accident in Los Angeles. He’s still going and doing his preaching engagements, but he’s walking wounded at the moment with whiplash. The car he was in was struck from behind at a traffic light. Got the head’s up from Candidasa’s blog.

Update:
I spoke with Candidasa in Manchester via phone this morning and he told me that Gurudeva is not in any danger or severe acute problem.

I also spoke with Guruvani in New Zealand and she told me PLEASE DON’T CONTACT HIM. He’s okay, but he needs to rest up - so inundating him with emails and calls won’t help.

REPEAT: PLEASE DON’T CONTACT HIM.

If you want to express your feelings then do it through prayer.

Reading Our Srila Prabhupada A Friend to All has been nice. Here are another couple of reflections from the book.

First of all, it’s really great to hear about how much time and energy Srila Prabhupada put into his chanting. A number of people remark on this aspect of his behaviour before coming to the West. One person related how he would chant 64 rounds a day. The Holy Name is the first and last line of defense.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati spent 9 years chanting in solitude before beginning his preaching. Srila Narottama das Thakura, a 16th century missionary of Krishna Consciousness spent time chanting with his guru Lokanath Goswami. They were chanting one day when a householder came to request some water from them. Lokanath Goswami continued chanting and did not break his meditation to speak with the man. The man was begging them to please give him some water, and Narottama took pity on him. He stopped chanting and gave him some water. Afterwards his guru Lokanath Goswami was very displeased and ordered him to leave telling him: “You have no faith that by pleasing Krishna everyone will be pleased. You should go away and get married, make some money and give charity to people. Then you will be happy.”

Narottama begged to be allowed to stay, and after some time Lokanath Goswami relented and allowed him. There is a very powerful lesson in this. The unexpected guest is considered to be a representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and should be served as such. If you read the Pancaratra-pradipa, a recent compilation of guidelines based on the Vedic culture, it recommends postponing activities of worship to receive an unexpected guest.

In another case a great sage engaged in meditation did not receive a guest. He was Samiki Muni, and he did not arise from his meditation to give water when requested by King Pariksit, who arrived unexpectedly. The King became angry with the sage for not doing this, and this lead to a chain of events that ended with the King cursed to die within 7 days.

So the two sides are there, and the appropriate rule to apply is a matter requiring discrimination. As we hear in the Mahabharata from the lips of Bhismadeva, “Dharma, or proper action, is not black and white, but composed of many shades of gray”.

Anyway, chanting the Holy Name and meditation, spiritual development is important. Service to others is also important.

In Our Srila Prabhupada A Friend to All many people comment on Srila Prabhupada’s dedication to chanting the Holy Name.

It’s very nice for me to read about this, because it reinforces my understanding of the role of chanting and its relationship to preaching.

In 1998 one high profile leader in ISKCON experienced some difficulty and lost faith for some time. He made some public comments which include stating that “I was with Srila Prabhupada a lot of the time and I watched him, and he did not chant 16 rounds a day!”

At the time I dealt with that by thinking:

“Well that’s all good and well - and when I can sleep two hours a days and spend my nights translating Sanskrit scriptures and my days travelling internationally and preaching, I’ll do the same!”

At the first initiation of Western disciples in the 60s, Srila Prabhupada gave names and japa mala (chanting beads), and said: “Now you must chant 64 rounds a day”. One round is composed of 108 mantras of

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna
Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama
Hare Hare

A round takes between 5 and 15 minutes to chant, depending on the time of day, your attentiveness, how warmed up you are, and your experience.

So 64 rounds would take 320 - 960 minutes, or 5 1/4 - 15 hours.

Actually, I tried it for one month after I read about this in Hare Krishna Explosion by Hayagriva das, and it would take me between 4 1/2 - 6 hours to do it.

Anyway, the disciples responded by saying: “64 rounds? That’s impossible! We don’t have time to chant that much!”

Srila Prabhupada considered, and said: “Alright, you may chant 32 rounds.”

Still they protested - 32 rounds was too much!

So Srila Prabhupada said: “Alright! 16 rounds a day - minimum!”

That’s what I call “The First Order”.

Anyway, there was another thing I wanted to share, more backstory nectar that I read (someone I met in South America is in there), but that will have to wait.

Tonight is the Grand Opening of Atma Yoga, so I have to be off to prepare for that.

16 rounds and counting….

There is a job going for a Marketing Manager in the BBT in Alachua, Florida (job description).

Overall the whole thing looks pretty cool, and I feel it definitely signals a move in the right direction.

Do not hesitate to use your American and European brains to increase, that is Krishna’s special gift to you, now use it. Any activity which will please Krishna should be accepted favourably, this is our guiding principle. Now apply it in this way, by doing everything and anything for spreading this Krishna Conscious literature, and this is really pleasing to Krishna, know it for certain.

(Srila Prabhupada - letter to Kirtiraja, 27 November, 1971)

Two things that I would do if I were recruiting for this position (it’s not clear to me - maybe they’re already going to do this):

1. The remuneration is $1500 / month, which is at least less than half of what the person they want could earn elsewhere. (Sell like a vaisya + manage like a ksatriya + earn like a brahmana + sustain it long term = pure devotee!) I would make it possible to make more money from the position through some sort of commission or performance-based plan. Why shouldn’t we be able to pay people market level salary (eventually), if they can do the job?
2. It talks about the need to undergo continual industry training and education in marketing. I wouldn’t make that sound like a stipulation - I’d make it an enticement, and fund it. In other words - “we’ll be continually investing in training you”. At my present job I get a $2000 / year discretionary training budget that I can spend on professional training, subject to management approval, which has been pretty good so far. Investing in your people is never a cost - it’s an asset.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with aiming to build up an operation to rival current non-devotional operations. Of course devotees begin working as volunteers and putting in the hard yards out of love and dedication to the mission, but it should be possible to continue to facilitate their service beyond a few years, rather than losing their experience to other enterprises that can pay more. We seem to have spent a lot of money on facilities all over the world, but very little on retaining the people we need to manage and staff them.

Another point that I got from Simply Strategic Volunteers is that when you cast vision for volunteers you talk about the benefits that other people will accrue from their actions. For example:

We have a problem. There are currently 6.5 billion people on the planet, and counting. The vast majority of these people are on a march to hell, innocent but mislead by a misdirected civilization. The literary works of Srila Prabhupada and his followers are the only means by which this situation can be changed. However, distribution of our movement’s literature is not proceeding at the pace that we need it to in order to make a significant difference. Every day people are dying in ignorance of their spiritual identity. We are not reaching them fast enough.

We are not open to changing the mission or the message, but we are completely ready to adjust our methods to be the most effective given the changing time, place and circumstances. We need a Marketing Manager, someone who has a deep passion for getting the Bhakti teachings to as many people as possible, to work in conjunction with our existing team of dedicated preachers at the BBT.

Your work to get the teachings of Bhakti yoga out to a wider audience will help to redress the current imbalance of values in society, helping to create a sustainable human civilization, and provide protection for the children being born into increasingly broken circumstances. You’ll be the back line for our sankirtan devotees who go out day after day to distribute these books, and you’ll be working to empower them to be more effective in their mission.

The initial stipend is just the beginning. As we grow the distribution of Krishna Conscious literature in the North American market and begin to push beyond into emerging global markets your efforts will enable us to hire more staff and to retain your valuable contribution by supplying you with sufficient financial support to maintain your family needs (or you can use it to benefact Krishna Conscious projects if you don’t have a family).

Something like that. If you’re not paying money, you have to motivate people with something. Of course money doesn’t motivate the kind of people that we want (but it can help to facilitate and retain them). What we are offering (or should be offering) is a chance to use your talents in the service of the Lord, to become an instrument of His will, to make your unique significant contribution in touch with Transcendence; and helping people to be conscious of that is an important service. As Bhavananda Prabhu summed it up: “Leadership is simple. It’s your ability to inspire the men through your classes and your Krishna Conscious counselling”.

I read an interesting article the other day by Krishna-kirti das on the subject of polygamy. In this article he uses a growing debate about accepted norms of marriage in the Western world to examine the Vedic culture’s internal conception of marriage.

A while ago one reader left a comment on my blog and I followed it back to her blog. There is an article there with links to further articles on polygamy, including some expositions of interesting implications.

The Vedic Conception of marriage is an important cultural element.

Last night at the LCA 2006 conference dinner I explained the four regulative principles that Hare Krishnas follow to my friend Kirby from Sydney. They are no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling, and no illicit sex.

In explaining “no illicit sex” I put it like this:

What we are into is reintegrating the whole natural process and function of sex. Instead of trying to divorce the responsibility and consequences from the act of sex and the pleasure of it, we make it holistic. First of all there is the creation of a stable social and economic situation and environment for dealing with the natural products of sex life (children), in the form of a formal lifelong commitment (marriage). Then we have sex life and let nature take its course. Children are born, and they have a stable situation to grow up to be healthy and happy people.

Marriage is not about you - it’s about the children. When we keep that understanding, that marriage is a service to the children who will be produced, and a service to society, then things go on nicely. When we start thinking that marriage is about our individual pleasure, and focusing on me, me, me, then the problems start, and society unravels.

Geoff has a picture of his altar on his blog. Geoff - I definitely couldn’t find the place to create an account in order to login to leave a comment…..

That altar was in the Auckland Loft for a while, then came down to Wellington. There was another altar in Wellington in the ashram (which was at 102a Aro St) prior to that, that His Holiness Bhaktisiddhanta Swami had brought over from Asia. Sri Sri Nitai-Sacinandana lived in that altar until Municari and Sruticari started worshiping Gaura-Nitai in their ashram in Palmerston North, at which point that altar went up there (where is it now, I wonder?).

Then, the altar that you have now came down from Auckland, perhaps around the time that the Auckland Loft wound up. For a while the Auckland Loft team was divided into two, with half in Auckland headed by Krishna-loka dd and the other half migrated to Wellington with Param Satya dd. Then the Auckland Loft was wound down, and everything was moved to Wellington about 1999.

We moved from Aro St to the Roxburgh Fire station, aka the Roxburgh lounge, and brought it with us there.

my long desired scheme of a Krsna Conscious daily newspaper is being implemented. Please do this work very nicely. It will be a very great step in the history of ISKCON movement.

-Srila Prabhupada, Letter to Satsvarupa 1971

Last night I sent the draft of a script for our television series pilot, an episode about Global Warming, to Gauraseva Prabhu. I’m a little pressed for time for that project, but I am confident that Krishna will send the people to make it happen.

Krishnangi devi dasi from Sydney has a Hare Krishna radio show, and I’m hoping to make that available as a podcast shortly.