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I want to start the chat today with some general instructions, but first a small report from Bolivia. Our Bhaktivedanta Parbat Maharaj has opened a centre of the Vrinda family in the Bolivian Chaco. The village is called Camiri, and there he opened a restaurant and is giving conferences. It is a strategic place on the way to the south. In 9 hours one can reach Tucuman in Argentina, where there is a temple. So the devotees from Buenos Aires can go to Peru via Tucuman, Camiri, Sta Cruz, La Paz, Puno, Cusco, Lima. You are invited to stop in Camiri and visit Maharaj. There is a lot of jungle in Camiri and high mountains, but they also cultivate oranges and corn - a paradise for the ecological farm.

In La Paz we are building a new Bramacari ashram in Goculsa. Here are various centres where the devotees come together. The principle is the centre of Sridhar Prabhu. It is a marvelous temple restaurant in the best area of La Paz. From here many activities such as TV programs take place. Yesterday they also decided that there is a big need for creating a Vishnu priya ashram in La Paz, with facilities for single mothers, since there are already several very ecstatic single mother devotees here.

Gripo Sakti from Prabhu Drubanat gave a concert here in the temple. They are excellent musicians and he plays notably Andean, and is already famous at the melas. By the way you can download from the section downloads (Hotline) the last songs from the group Om shanti Om by Prabhu Rasa Kirtan and Nara Shimha Caitanya. Their music is a Latin pop style with very deep messages. When they played their song in El Armonista in Lima, we had to stop the dancers because they were going to break the roof, and I am not exaggerating.

We can also report that a new temple is being built in Cuzco, but we leave to them to report for themselves. With the blessings of Gurudeva Atulananda we have given a white sari to Mother Yogesvari from Cuzco, and who is supporting the preaching there. She will try to send a photo for Vaisnavi.com We are also going forward with the arrangement here to take half of the devotees to the mela. Imagine! It is almost 5000 kilometres to travel. But what won't the devotees do to come together to see the other Vaisnavas! Even to walk 8000 kilometres from Buenos Aires to Colombia. These parikramas are so nice, because additionally on the way one can visit sanctuaries of the devotees.

In Bolivia the situation is like in the start of a yatra, but there are many good perspectives. We have to strengthen Ceba and also the devotees from Arica are here with Narayan Maharaj, who have another Truly Ashram 7 hours away from La Paz. And the devotees at Cochabamba are also active. Nanda Kumar prabhu has producesd 3 new CDs with a nice design. It seems that Lord Krishna wants to conquer the world with pure music, because as it started with the maha mantra to become famous by George Harrison, now again the songs of G. Harrison are preaching with video clips by Rasa Manjari.

The topic or the chat today is the acceptance of our Karma. Perhaps this is one of the aspects that disturb the majority of people from time to time, since it seems that one is rather limited in one's physical and mental condition. On one hand, we should accept the karma of our father. Since there is no way to change it in this life, we should thank him. And even though plastic surgery could transform me; we have to accept the body that we have received as it is. And the attempts to change our body by surgery are very disturbing and this has not produced any Miss Universe. It is better to realize that we are not this body, neither men nor women, we are spirit souls and we have to accept our Karma.

And with reference to our mind we also have to accept the conditions that brought us to this body. Of course, one can chant the maha mantra and improve the disaster, and besides that, also by the company that we have we can improve the situation. The same with the influences that we receive from the society. What surrounds us forms our consciousness. Therefore we should be very careful to always keep our association of well-intending persons, naturally even better of pure devotees.

Our consciousness is a long history; existence and with subconsciousness full of varsanas, "seeds of desires" that continuously drop missiles towards our consciousness. So we pick up lusty ambitious thoughts and other stupid things we do not even know the origin of, but this was the result of the movie you watched 6 months ago, or from some perversity you did in your previous life.

We should live very healthy, but we should also accept our sicknesses. Sometimes sicknesses make us awake and we become aware that we are living in a wrong way. We have to become very loving, but we should tolerate the karma if the world does not treat us well. Or the phenomenon of the couples; despite the great majority of people in this world that have the desire to find a partner, it seems that they rarely find the appropriate one, and the saying that one marries with the enemy from the past life sometimes seems very convenient.

Accept your karma and always be so much Vaisnava as you can. Do not complain about the past, and do not go into the delirium of your own greatness. The future depends completely on your deeds in the present, and what you cannot change is destined to happen. Be grateful. Like the funny saying: Smile - tomorrow will be worse! To accept our karma in Krishna consciousness produces joy. Accept the karma, or as they call it, "luck", and do not produce a certain depressing fatalism. You can realize your conditions with the great happiness by the process of becoming unconditioned to hope, beauty, compromises and responsibilities. You can smile, you can grow, you can accomplish and learn to love. Whatever it may be, you have the marvellous opportunity if you want to accept it.

Nobody, being a devotee, can say that "I can do nothing". Bhakti Ananda Goswami has paralysis, he has been lying in bed for many years and can move only some fingers, and with these fingers he manages the PC and preaches via Internet to plenty of people, and he is the WVA coordinator of the interreligious committee. And for the majority of you, all parts of your bodies are working., but you spend your time complaining. What a shame! For one who can estimate the value to have a healthy working body, to accept the karma also means to put all forces and resources that God has given to you, in the service to God and in the evolution of your own consciousness. One who stagnates with the received resources is wasting this marvellous human body. He is an unfortunate person, and exactly this is one of the principle rules we received in Krishna consciousness; that we can praise the Lord, deliver the sacred message of SP and try to arise the fallen spirit of so many brothers who have not been able to accept their karma or learned to be grateful for what God has given.

To accept the karma immediately brings the necessity to look beyond. We should study why our karma is like it is and how we can triumph on our way. It is impressing to see how all souls are longing for triumphing, even when we sing in the bathroom we want to triumph. The triumph, and the longing for it, is a product of our constitution to want to meet the most glorious person. And when we are really crazy, we think that we ourselves are the person with maximum glory. Of course, the mirror and the results discourage us. But who is the most glorious person to meet? Where can I find him or her and how to qualify to meet this person? This is the principal question of the existence and obliges us once again to look beyond. Or do you think that a casual meeting with Michael Jackson, George Bush or Miss Universe could satisfy that longing? In this world there exists no such person with maximum glory in the material level. Of course, a pure devotee is a person of maximum glory by representing Krishna, the eternal person of maximum glory and without having any intention to cheat the rest of the confused souls. Rather, a pure devotee does not belong to this world even if it seems so in the eyes of the ignorant.

The triumph to find a person of maximum glory could be celebrated in your own heart. This is called the meditation on the Supersoul, the eternal Master, the omnipresent Lord who has an extraordinary tenderness for you and who has decided to reside in your heart to support you in your search for the truth. Satyam shivam sundaram. There is nothing more beautiful and auspicious than the Truth. In other words, the triumph is not far away from your possibilities, and if you have spiritual fortune, you will understand that the triumphant meeting can be celebrated each time you go to artik and see the deity, each time when you hear the transcendental sound of the Lord at the conference of SB, and each time that you get your japa to invoke the divine presence of your Lord, to offer your soul at His feet. Really impressing, the triumph is not far away; it is all a condition of consciousness. In other words, when talking about accepting your karma, I also invite you to accept your glory, your spiritual chance to triumph at once. This is the gift that Srila Prabhupada gave us, and logically all of that is put into practice in life, in your willingness to execute a triumphantly lovingly unselfish service. Of course it is not easy to come to this, either. Man proposes and God disposes.

When I listen to some being from this world in company of the devotees or chanting the holy name, my heart starts to dance. I think: "How bad our karma has been, how much suffering, but today someone reached the maximum goal". If you remember God in the moment when you die, you will reach the goal. In other words, if you remember the Supreme Personality of God now and serve Him, you are already living in the maximum goal. In the materialistic consciousness, one projects the success towards the future, because in the present it does not exist. And even the maximum pleasure of the bodies in the sexual orgasm is not any triumph. After a second of joy follows immediately fear, frustration, regret or some other strange thing. (This is not applicable to that sex that conforms to the principles of the religion.) And the rest of the material conditions, the triumph for a great financial gain, for example lottery prize, bring immediately problems, lamentations and preoccupations, envy and a lot of work to invest the money and so we live with souls that hope to triumph in a future. How many people do not suffer the agony of jealousy that comes with having a beautiful wife?! And without any reason. If someone still thinks he can triumph in the material samsara, he needs glasses of Srimad Bhagavatam to liberate from this illusion.

So, by accepting this obligatory karma, our consciousness will go to sweet dimensions of the liberated soul and its loving relation with God. Celebrate your eternity. The Hindu calendar calls it the wheel of joy. Stop being frustrated, malicious bitter and undecided. There is a lot to do, get your hands to work! First work and then samadhi, to discover the samadhi is in the work. Give a final kick to the laziness that make you fast to the bed of your lamentation. Without desire to practice Bhakti yoga, there is neither quality nor austerity. Be a hero to the end, armed with the sword of knowledge. Get up, fight! So, this is the karma that plays, and the instruments that God gave you are the instruments of love for God and for all. Don't be afraid of anything. The reason why we have so much fear in this world is that we go worried to meet another rascal like myself. Anyway, what has to happen will happen, and one who did nothing has nothing to fear. Besides that, in the conflicting and problematic situation come masked blessings for overcoming problems, so you really have nothing to fear. Like Queen Kunti who welcomed the problems, remembering that in the moment of the problems she was united with the Lord in her heart. Like when there is an emergency, people pray, and when everything is fine they go to the bar to get drunk. Friends, from my soul I wish you the maximum triumph every moment! Continue chanting the holy names of the Lord with good intentions to serve the truth, and there exists no demon that can dispute you. You can rather become a light in the life for others, and one who is a light in life of others, never walks in darkness.

With these words I end the chat of today: Accept your karma. Thank you very much for coming to the chat. Nitai Gouranga! Jay Pabhupada! And all the pure devotees!

Always your well-wisher,
B.A. Paramadvaiti Swami