Happy Lila's in Ireland

It is GREAT in Ireland !

I am living in a massive 5 bedroom house in a field of green green grass.

Everyone has such big houses and so much land to grow fruit and veg and flowers on.

All the devotees live in the same area and it is all a stone's throw away from the Temple.

The Temple is on a 22 acre Island of it's own !

I am eating salads, soups, homemade bread and smoothies everyday.

Simply living and high thinking at it's best.

It is amazing ... like a paradise here!

I will be able to upload my pics maybe next week when I visit Belfast City as no facility here in Derrylin Library !

Might be going to Dublin at the weekend... a devotee runs a fast food store.... everything offered to Krsna! They only have this staff on a Saturday and live off the profit each week... so amazing !

We had a ladies sanga yesterday and on Monday we were at the Temple President's house for Kirtan night which he has every Monday.

It is too much here!

Bon Voyage !

I am off to Ireland tomorrow for 2 weeks.

Going to stay with my good friend Shelina who lives a stone's throw away from Inish Rath Temple.

Will log in every couple of days and keep you all posted with my adventures !

Take care and will write soon. :o))

Swimming upstream

Trying to be spiritual or spiritually inclined in this material world is like trying to walk in water - nearly impossible.

Have you ever tried to walk in water?

It is really hard !

This material world is designed to be anti spirit and pro matter.

It is called the material world after all.

So we should not beat ourselves up when we find that things are tough and not going ourway.

Don't fall for the false humility syndrome or the "I am the greatest sinner" mindset.

Just keep going!

Maya is already successful when we just start to think we are too useless to stick at our spiritual life.

But Krsna stays in the Bg that He carries what we lack and preserves what we have.

So we have nothing to fear really as Krsna will definitely pick us up when we falter.

Japa = spirtual strength

I was thinking today what is the single most activity that keeps me strong in Krsna Consciousness... and I realised that apart from prasadam (!) it is the fact that I manage to chant all my rounds in one go.

This is so powerful !

If you have not tried yet please put aside some time to do it... the earlier in the morning the better.

Brhat Mrdanga Prabhu once said that when we chant our rounds we are wearing an armour which maya cannot penetrate.

You can really sense the truth in this when you don't chant all your rounds in one go.

You start to space out, feel floppy, bored, restless.... start to make offences... the list goes on.

I wsh you good luck in doing this... you won't regret it!

Running (or very fast walking!) for Krsna

Dear Glorious and Generous Devotees,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

All glories to Sri Sri Radha Londonisvara.

I will be running (or fast walking!) in the BUPA 10k marathon on 25th May – Bank Holiday – for our Food for Life project as well as other general temple projects.

I want to also raise awareness of the 40th anniversary of ISKCON in London and so those of us running will be wearing specially designed t-shirts too.

Why not click on the link below and sponsor me?

http://www.justgiving.com/bhavabhakti

Also you can register for the race too and join me!!

Hope to see your sponsorships on my web page soon: o)

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!

Running for Krsna

Okay guys.... listen to this .... I am very serious....


I have registered for the Bupa 10,000k marathon in May and so will be giving details of how you can sponsor me soon ...watch this space!

The money raised will go towards the Temple preaching activities and Food for Life.

.... wish me luck !!

Me and Krishtee at Ratha Yatra 08

The art of patience

Sticking at something requires patience.

In this material world we have 3 presiding deities or controllers.

Lord Siva, Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu.

Siva is in charge of destruction.

Brahma is in charge of creation.

Vishnu is in charge of maintenance.

Now we might think that to create something or to have the power to destroy something is pretty authoritative and superior.

But actually to learn the art of maintaining is the most difficult.

I can start many things ie: a new diet, a new friendship, a diary, a job etc... and I can just as easily dismantle these things ie: stop the diet and binge eat again, break up a friendship, stop writing my diary after the first day and quit my job.

But to see these things through is a real art in itself.

To learn the art of doing the same thing everyday and making sure it gets done and remaining enthusiastic ... now that requires faith and determination.

And these are the qualities required if we want to make progress in spiritual life.

To give up or to lose hope once the going gets tough is for neophytes.

FIGHT! Like Arjuna did for the pleasure of Krsna and you will always be happy.

Keep chanting Hare Krsna Hare Krsna even if you are bored, it is tasteless or you wanna do something else.

As this very act of maintaining your vows will make you very dear to Krsna.

Material Attachments

Material Attachments hurt like fire.

They burn you through and through.

Material attachments cut like a knife.

They slice your heart in two.

Why do we keep falling for material allurements time and time again?

Srila Prabhupada explains that this curtain of Maya or illusion is sooooo strong that even great sages what to speak of us are swayed by it.

We should not feel bad if we are temporary covered by this curtain but instead just dust ourselves off and get back on that path back to Godhead.

Tough people

Robert H. Schuller - "Tough times never last, but tough people do."

Krsna who?

Seems like there is something in the planets ... it is weird.... I had a series of meetings today.

Heavy duty ones but was kinda spaced out for some reason.

It seems that we need to regularly re-fuel ourselves with Krishna Consciousness or we start to become like zombies.

We also need to constantly remind ourselves that it is all about KRSNA Consciousness and not I ME AND MINE consciousness.

It is sooooo easy to be Krsna Conscious without Krsna!

So easy to get caught up in the rules and regulations and forget that the whole point is to learn to love Krsna.

You know Krsna.... that little blue boy... who captures the heart of the gopi's.... who has planets coming out of His breathing .... who is the end of all knowledge ... who is the cause of all causes.... that personality Krsna is who we are chanting japa for, reading daily for, going to be temple, carrying out voluntary services ... interacting with the devotees... etc.

So important to constantly remind ourselves of that beautiful blue boy that is Krsna... the goal of all our devotional endeavours.

Work

Went to work today after having quite some time off post operation.

Everyone looks the same.

Some new faces.

But same gripes and issues.

Makes me wonder how much of a groundhog day we live in.

Without Krsna Consciousness we are just chewing the chewed.

We do the same thing every day - every week - every year.

Srila Prabhupada said we are like two legged animals if we do not inquire into the Absolute. Might sound heavy but it is true.

Life is so humdrum and boring without the exciting dynamic dimension which Krsna Consciousness adds where every step is a dance and every word is a song ....

Jaya Prabhupada!

Personal Change

"When you are through changing, you are through."

Enter the Mood of Japa

Entering Into the Mood and Meaning of the Mantra

The maha mantra is a prayer in which the devotee petitions the Lord for pure love. Yet we may sometimes chant in another mood, a mood disconnected from the meaning and intent of the maha mantra. This kind of chanting tends to be more of a mindless repetition of sounds than a prayer full of emotion. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta said (real) chanting is not lip deep, it is heart deep. And Prabhupada said the quality of one’s chanting depends on feeling. Feeling is first expressed in the heart before it’s expressed in words. If you say something you don’t mean, it doesn’t communicate. It is when you speak from the heart that it enters another’s heart. The same is true with chanting. Krsna is moved by love, not by parrot like repetition. Our challenge is not just to get our rounds done. It is to bring devotional meditation into our chanting. Chanting is a sacred communication. It is not a ritual. It is not a mechanical, mindless robotic process. It is an offering of the heart, a pleading for mercy, a begging to be accepted by the Lord. It is a crying of the soul to be engaged eternally in the Lord’s service. The emotions these moods invoke nourish our chanting. Devotees often ask, “Should I be thinking of anything when I chant or should I just hear the mantra? And if I just hear the mantra, how can I entertain thoughts that nourish the proper emotions?” When I was young my mother would take me across the street to play with my friend. When I wanted to come home, I would stand across the street from my house and yell, “Mommy.” I didn’t yell, “Come and cross me,” or “I miss you and I really want to come home now.” Yet just by saying “Mommy” I meant all of this. And she understood and felt this. Similarly, so many feelings and desires for Radha and Krsna are meant to be communicated through Their Names (all while focused on hearing). To help you better enter into the proper mood of chanting, I am listing some meanings of the maha mantra given to us by Srila Prabhupada and other acaryas. Chanting is like the genuine cry of a child for its mother. “Please engage me in your service.” “Oh my friend. Oh my friend.” “Please accept me.”“O Krsna, please pull my heart to you.”“O Krsna, may I please develop a taste for serving you.”“O Krsna, please attract my mind and free me from material bondage.”“O Radha, please make me qualified for serving you.”“O Radha, please show me how to serve you.” “O Radha, I beg you to be pleased with me.”

In his commentary on the Brahma Samhita, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura writes, “Study and try to enter into the spirit of this hymn with great care and attention …”

In the same vein, let us enter into the spirit of the maha mantra so that the proper devotional moods enter our hearts while chanting.

(By Mahatma dasa)

Happy Appearance Day to Lord Rama !

Today is the auspicious appearance day of Lord Ramacandra.

He is an incarnation of Lord Krsna.

Just sat in a 3 hour class by Ramanuja Prabhu on the glories of Lord Rama.... great for the soul but tough on the old legs !

Ramacandra Bhagavan ki jay !

Why did you do this God?

Death is as certain as birth or more popularly heard as taxes.

Yet we always express surprise at someone's death and then blame God for having taken that person away.

God is not responsible for that person's death ... you are... the person who dies is the person who accepted this false livelihood in the first place.

This false identity as a man, woman, Indian, American, Chinese.... this binds us into thinking we are a part of a specific background and environment.

We live a lie all our lives not realising we are related to a wonderfully powerful and amazing person ie: God.

And then we die ... in illusion and fear.

Our current life is a blue print for our next life.

Fill it with service to God and you will surely go to God.

Dishonour is worse then death.

“…for a respectable person, dishonor is worse than death.”
Lord Krsna - Bg 2.34

Why do you strip me bear of my image Krsna?
The image I so carefully tendered with love and deceit?
Why do you not regard the many faults of others?

It is My love for you that made Me do it my beloved.

Love? You call this love?

To be exposed in front of the very people I pull up morally?
To be standing unarmed – false egoless – before You and others?
It is better to retreat to the forest and hide.
Rather than face my true self and allow others to face me.

You are better then this.
You are My part and parcel.
That makes you special and intelligent and more learned then your conditioned nature.
Rise up and fight your enemies.
The enemies in the form of false ego, pride and lethargy.
Become superior to the material mind, intelligent and false ego.
Don’t live in the gutter of ignorance and despair.

Oh Krsna… it is not easy. You have made me surrender too much.
I was happy bit by bit.
Why did you strip me off my comfort blanket of duplicity and deceit?
I thought surrender was independent.
Why did you force it upon me?

Because I love you My beloved and heard your earnest cry.


[I wrote this poem after Krsna very kindly stripped me of my honorable reputation recently !)