The Srila Prabhupada Bhajan Ashrama project

My dear devotees, first of all, my love to all of you in the Jaganat Misra Festival on the birth of Nimay Pandit, who appeared yesterday night during the full moon eclipse. This day was the biggest day of the universe, here in Mayapur there is a lot of kirtan and prasadam distribution.

For the Vrinda mission it is a very significant day, because we were at the lotus feet of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarawati and it seems that, by the mercy of our Lord we are going to have a Bajan Kutir next to his lotus feet. A preliminary contract was signed that has to be concluded officially, something that will be done in Kartik this year. As always, everything depends on nothing but the mercy of the Supreme Lord, and soon we can receive pilgrim tours in Mayapur too. I am going to publish some photos in the page of Prabhu Pancatattwa. The name of the project is Srila Prabhupada Bhajan Ashrama.

Gaura Purnima and Mayapur Dham

Gour Purnima was a beautiful day; we sang all day long, temple through temple, and listened to sweet bhajans when we went to the river of Ganges and then to the Sarawati river, and finally Suravi Kunja, the Bhajan Kutir of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur. From there we walked to Sananda Sucada Kunda were Srila Prabhupada, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur , Bhaktisiddhanta Maharaj and Srila Gour kishor das babaji lived, and where the deities of Sri Sri Gour Gadadhar are. Then we went to the Gopinath Gaudiya Math to assist the abhisek of Lord Caitanya. Srila Bhodayan Maharaj supervised the whole ceremony and these days he received us very gently with daily feasts. We also had a WVA meeting with a big congregation this week, and as always with many plans.

Now we are spending some very peaceful days in the Dham with a group of 17 very nice devotees, and we take the opportunity to visit some places at the holy dham, which sometimes even with eagerness we cannot come to see, specially since we are always organizing the reunion of the World Vaishnava Association.

In the WVA meeting this year, a very nice decision was taken, which gives me good relief. The meetings are going to take place in the sacred days of Srila Puri Maharaj and Srila Madhava Maharaj where all the Gaudiya Vaisnavas meet by tradition. That means I have to run less and concentrate my energy better, to make the reunion more effective.

Representatives of relief

Since it's the day of Lord Caitanya, who is the salvation of our souls and who sent his devotees to preach all around the world, I want to commit myself more to the preaching. As I have told in previous chats, I have the plan that the devotees use their time of preaching, their time of sankirtan, their time of contact with the public, to be excellent cultural representatives of all that the devotees are doing in this world, balanced for each place, of course, exactly according to what the local devotees have to offer in service. I want the devotees to be seen as great representatives of relief, Vedic wisdom, spiritual retreats, pure and tasty and also spiritual food, representatives of music and movies of a big educative content, on a high artistic level.

I want the devotees to represent our Vaisnava academies as centres for the expansion of consciousness to the point of self realization. I want devotees to be seen as people of high ethics and great aesthetics, very loving people, and excellent cooks and with the best books, cd-roms of yoga, vegetarianism etc, that you can imagine.

It seems like a real torment to me, the presentation of the devotees; that it is undeniable that we have to make sacrifices; that we have to organize everything and prepare all what is necessary for this result.

On one hand I am still involved in the production of all these things also here in India itself. With mother Gopa Kumar, we are filming more interviews of Vedic wisdom and of course the beautiful sanctuaries of Mayapur and Vrindavan. On the other hand I am going to visit many places this year, where they intend to become pioneers in this attempt to improve the quality of the representation of the devotees in the world. Myself I will leave some parts, because as you know, sankirtan is my life since I took the mission of my master.

Three important things in the life of a devotee

There are three important things in the life of a devotee. The first one is how to reach the people, how to attract them to give more attention to what our masters have given us. The second one is how to receive the people when they really come to our ashramas with the desire to know more. And the third one is how we care for each other and for those who have decided to become devotees, internally as well as externally. And all this we will not be able to do well if we do not nicely chant the holy names of Krishna and try to become pure devotees of Krishna. So the packet is quite complete, and it is called practice and preach, love for love, gratitude for love, compassion… with other words, what we want to find is what we want to give, something like that. And this is the process, as well as the way and the goal.

No love without sacrifice

Many people talk about meditation and yoga, and there is a big supermarket of this; there are yoga magazines that offer how to love Krishna in a four-day-course, but Srila Prabhupada taught us a very practical process: if you want spiritual love, then live spiritual love, embrace spiritual love, distribute spiritual love, celebrate spiritual love with kirtan and prasadam, make your mind intelligent by sacrifice and love in practice. Embrace the love that we have received and find a way to share it. Without sacrifice there is no love. Without getting up in the morning, when the baby cries, you are not going to be a mom. Srila Prabhupada went to the snow from the beautiful Vrindavan because of the love that he felt for his guru and for us whom he still didn’t know.

A lesson I will not forget

Yesterday in Gour Purnima I had the most beautiful meeting of my life – of course apart from the meeting with my spiritual masters. We were sitting in front the deity of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur when a devotee appeared; a disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Vamana Maharaj, named Dirah Krsna. This devotee was running while performing his parikram, circulating the samadhis, the temple and tulasi with big enthusiasm. The peculiar thing was that he had only one foot, and that foot was so twisted that his ankle touched the floor. He used a walking stick of bamboo with enormous ability, always with a smile and making reverences to each devotee and every altar he found. He could have had twenty thousand excuses for not doing it, but he was so determined and brave, that tears came into my eyes and I felt an enormous shame for every day that I don’t use all my sources for the service of the Lord.

I am going to send photographs, so you can believe what I’m telling. He made the parikram alone, because he did not want to disturb the other devotees. He sat with us and shared his wonderful energy, and despite that his English was not so good, he emanated the love of a master. He told us he was an homeopathic doctor and worked in the temple of Asam. So, life gave us such a big gift in Gour Purnima, that whenever I feel a small pity or a big pity, I am going to think of Dirah Krsna, his very sweet reverences, and his angelic parikrams. Normally we just run when we need something to eat, or for false ego and luxury. The rest of the time we want to sleep, sit in front of a tv or be attended by others, and when when there is no more money we think about moving. We have a complete body, but this devotee accepted biggest incommodities you can imagine, and he did it with a smiling face and thankful to each devotee that he met on the way. He seemed more happy to meet us than we meeting him. That lesson I am not going to forget.

The other day mother Chandrika from Hawaii, gave me a CD of bhajans in English. She and her children sing very well, so I asked for their CD. The special with this CD is that her son Goura Soundar is singing various songs on the CD. He cannot move, due to being paralyzed after an accident, but for sure is he going to move our hearts with this CD when he sings with his mother and sisters. In this way se can see many devotees giving a good example of true surrender, and I feel very fortunate to have met them.

A matter of quality

Here in India we see many hard things as well as beautiful. But there is one thing that is sure: to maintain ourselves as devotees, preaching in the Western world, is more brave and difficult than being a devotee in India, because here everything is easier in a certain way, while in the western Countries everything is a test. Therefore, in this Purnima, I want to express my admiration and joy that I can serve my spiritual masters together with you. It is my sincere desire that you were so blessed that you could become spiritual masters in the school of my spiritual master. He said that it is not so difficult; just repeat the same words you heard from your spiritual master and teach it by your example. And more, make a commitment with people. As a mother and a father are committed to their children, in the same way the spiritual master is committed to people; committed to the higher purpose, with the eternal service or be a servant of the servant of the servant. Thus life becomes joyful, and becoming a spiritual master is not a matter of quantity, but of quality.

The pre-initiation

The Vaisnava tradition is to happily bring as much people as we can to our spiritual master while he is still living here, or ourselves guiding them as a representative of our spiritual master with such enthusiasm that the new devotee feels simply protected and can study to become a good disciple.

In the Vrinda Family we have established the pre-initiation, which can and should be given by the temple president or a sannyasi, always when there are people who want to accomplish to the steps of a pre-initiated, so that everybody can qualify for initiation. Each person who desires to prepare for initiation, should write a letter expressing this desire, and then he has to get a recommendation of the leader which confirms that the aspirant actually has accomplished his serious studies and is disposed to receive and also give love. Then, with these two letters, the spiritual master is going to decide when, how and where he can initiate the disciple. From that moment and ahead, when a person that asks for initiation, he has to feel like a disciple and show in the practice that he is a serious aspirant.

In this way, things will be easier for me, because I don’t have to travel here and there with the same intensity. I will invite the aspirants to travel more to where I am, or when it is possible, to send the initiation in another way. Then I expect those who represent me to immediately start an intense program of training in the temples for all the people that desire to become initiated members of Vrinda family, so they can get proper training. These things are beautiful, but they are sometimes forgotten. Strange that something so beautiful as pre-initiation can be forgotten, and then when the spiritual master comes, he is asked to initiate a big number of people who have not even classes about it. This is not just for fun; our mission is an initiating school, and it is not just about pre-initiating a lot of people to show numbers. It is about delivering, with much attention and much love, the gift that we have received.

An excellent leadership

You must also know that a person that travels as much as I do, and who has so many responsibilities, cannot pay that much attention to each new devotee who comes. I give my personal practical attention to train those devotees who should want to help me take the same responsibilities as I have taken ever since I was in charge of my first tempel. It is about quality in leadership. An excellent leadership is a natural development.

I have been criticised for not having much time for every one, and some undiscerning devotees have become jealous, thinking “Why does he spend more time with this one or that one, but not that much with me?” It’s the same situation as in a family when the kids grow; they leave the house and start having children, and that is good, because it forces them to advance. Then the elder brothers and sisters are responsible of helping and training the younger ones, and accomplising nicely with this task, will allow them one day to continue the line of their spiritual master by themselves.

Take seriously the instructions

The Spiritual Master doesn’t want to carry alone all the weight his whole life. So I hope the leaders will take much more serious the instructions of representing the Vaisnava Standards, as well as my desire to intensify our service and the dignity image of each individual devotee.

Each temple should give a report of their activities, at least once a month, to share the joy of their progress with the others, and if the Temple President doesn’t have time for that, then he should name somebody of his congregation responsible of doing it. Don’t forget the tip to always delegate service to other devotees. Each temple should have a SEVA representative, as well as somebody in charge of reporting the temple activities.

Please do organise internal conferences about the “Book of the Temple President” and meditate in what is said on the chat.

Thank you very much to all of you. Hari bol!

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

Translation: Bhagavati Devi Dasi
bhagavati_devidasi@hotmail.com
and
Manah Siksa Devi Dasi
manahsiksa@gmail.com