(1st part)

Haribol! This chat takes place in the temple of Nanda Falfa with the presence of the entire mela and community. I am showing to them what our chats are all about. This unique forum allows a world istagosthi once a week. Our Istadeva is Sri Sri Guru Gouranga Radha Vrajesvara and our guides are the pure devotees headed by Srila Prabhupada.

Nanda Falva is a beautiful Vaisnava village in the Southern part of Hungary. Since the time of the communist in Hungary the devotees of Srila Prabhupada have established this beautiful community. This is called the pushta. There are planes and forests and fields; a little bit dry is the area and over the years more and more devotees have acquired farms, renovated them and finally in the middle they constructed a beautiful temple of Radha Gopivalabha. This community was started by Bhakti Abhay Narayan Maharaj. The beginning of Hungarian yatra was very interesting. In 1975 I was living at Sweden with my godbrother whose name at that time was Dvarakesh prabhu. He was originally from Hungary, but had escaped with his mother from the communist system, and they received political assignment in Sweden. Here in Sweden he met Prabhupada. I also met him first time when Srila Prabhupada went to Stockholm and all the German devotees were there to meet Srila Prabhupada. Later I was sent to the Stockholm temple as a president and he became my most close friend and vice president. We made most of the preaching programs together and used to live together in the basement in the office.

One day we went to a harinam in the middle of Stockholm, and one of the people in the crowd who was listening the harinam asked for the address of our temple. He was working with the Hungarian government, organizing sport events and was a yoga teacher. When we heard that the Hungarian yoga teacher was there, we called Dvarakesh prabhu, and then this friendship began. And because he was a man with government connections, he invited us to Hungary to teach students Bhakti yoga. At that time no preaching was going on behind the iron curtain. A few years earlier when I was in Berlin, I used to go many days on a one day visa to visit East Berlin, and in this way we started to take some book s and preach to East Berlin, but all the other countries of the communist countries had no connection with the Vaisnava world.

In the same year, Srila Prabhupada had visited Moscow with an invitation from a professor. Srila Prabhupada has said that he wanted to have the message of Caitanya Mahaprabhu sent to all places in the world. He was not discouraged by the heavy restrictions they had from all points of view. When we had the opportunity to go to Hungary, Davarakesh prabhu and myself started to make all the plans. Unfortunately he could not go himself, because he was a refugee from Hungary and he had no permission to enter the country. We decided that I should go and we set together what kind of preaching we had to do with the invitation to a Hatha yoga group. He wrote down several classes in order to prepare myself mentally. How do you preach the glories in country where is officially prohibited to believe in God? How do you speak about the sweet Absolute in a place where the government is against all religions? How can you do the service to Srila Prabhupada and not go into trouble? For weeks we were planning this visit to Hungary. We also wrote a letter to Srila Prabhupada to say where this first going to the communist countries would take place.

Finally the day came and I was going by car. We used to have very nice small sized vans and they all had the arrangement like double flour to keep many books inside and also so you could sleep there. And I kept a truck with books, they were in English and German, all these books I hide under the floor - it was at least 800 books. We had an official letter from the Hungarian government, so we went on this first sankirtan tour. It was the winter of 1976, January, when we got to the border between Austria and Hungary. We had to pass through the checkpoint. Right in front of us, the car in front of us was being searched so badly that they were even checking what he had had inside the tooth paste. I was looking and thinking that they would take these books, and instead of preaching we would go to prison. I was thinking to turn around and go back but I couldn't because we were staying in the car and it was already our turn. The custom man asked me to come out and open all the doors of the car. Of course we were not in devotional clothes. When I was standing in the front of the car, nothing was visible of the double floor. I pulled out the invitation to the yoga school and the custom man read the letter and He asked: 'Yoga?'' And I said: Yes, yoga'. And he said 'GO'. Our knees were shaking.

Then we went to Budapest and met our yoga teacher. In the winter we had to sleep in the garden house; no heating, the water we had to get from the garden (there was a little tank). We had to break the ice to have water for shower. The yoga teacher was afraid about having us there, therefore he put us into his garden house. Everyday we went to have preaching in different programs. We did kirtan and gave classes and the Hungarians were so happy. when I started to send the books, everybody wanted to have them. In the few days we had our pockets full of forints. One of the last program was very big; over 300 people were there. They were demonstrating hatha yoga exercise and we started our kirtan, and 300 people were dancing. One of them was Krsnananda prabhu, who is now also helping me to direct the Hungarean yatra. He became one of the first Hungarian Vaisnavas, and that day was the first meeting.

But the yoga teacher became more afraid, seeing how so many people were taking Krishna consciousness with such joy. When the kirtan really became ecstatic he stopped it, asking 'Please, give the class'. This was the beginning of the mission of Lord Caitanya in Hungary. When Bhakti Abhay Narayan Maharaj heard the details, he became so excited. He continued translating books into Hungarian and we could send books in their own language. He was the real pioneer of Krishna consciousness in his country. Later he came here to Hungary many times; he also started mission in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. He left this world in 1993, but his spirit, his samadhi mandir, his temple, his deities and his devotees are still here.

And today in this chat, from the temple room of Radha Gopivallabha, I'd like to introduce you many wonderful devotees, because you are also taking darshan here today through the Internet. Today we have devotees here from many other places; we have 44 PCs now connected, and we have devotees from Chile, Peru, temple presidents and many sannyasis. We have representatives from Sweden, Ecuador, Austria, Switzerland, Argentina, Colombia from many different places, Costa Rica, Germany, Bolivia and we have Gurudeva Atulananda here also, Spain, USA and many others. Some of them I don't know even myself. Here in Hungary we have many devotees from many cities. Here is Krsnananda prabhu, Govindanandan prabhu, Bhakti Sakti from our Sofia yatra, Tamal Krsna prabhu, the devotees from Szolnok, Balaram Prakash from Debrezen, Svarup prabhu, Premavardhana prabhu from the Vrindavan farm and of course Premkumar, our internet genius, and many other devotees here also doing some seva, because we have a big festival today.

The spiritual process begins with sravanam and continues with kirtanam - the chat is both sravanam and kirtanam. It is very important to discuss how to become better servant. when I first came to Hungary by the grace of Srila Prabhupada, I did not dream that one day from Hungary I would be chatting with all of you; so many devotees from so many parts of the world visiting this place by Internet. Actually, it would be so nice to have a mela where all the members of our family could come together, but that is impossible. But while we are talking, the devotees are watching pictures from all South America and seeing your temples and the devotees. Since it is very difficult for all of us to come together physically, at least we can meet sometimes in Vrinda Kunja in the holly dham of Radha and Krishna or the European summer Mela, which is conducting in this beautiful community. All the devotees are coming from Europe and every house is full and lot of tents put in the near forest. This is practically repeating every year, but our chat is repeating every week.

All we have to do is to learn how to appreciate the beautiful company of all the other Vaisnavas. To admire other Vaisnavas is the happiness of Vaisnavas. Real Vaisnavas do not envy each other, they don't like those feelings. They just feel happy seeing other devotees becoming successful. All the deities in all the temples have also one and different simultaneously. Madavendrapuri brought from South India sandalwood for his deity Gopal, but Gopal told him in a dream that he can offer this sandalwood to Gopinath in Remuna and that would be the same, because Gopal and Gopinath are the same Supreme Lord.

Srila Sridhar Maharaja told us another story that shows to us that all the deities of Krishna are one and simultaneously different. Once when Sridhar Maharaja was going to collect donations for his spiritual master in Calcutta, he went to a street where there were many jewellery shops. He spoke to an owner: "Can you please give a donation for our temple". The owner said: "I have to ask my wife, come tomorrow". Sridhar Maharaja came back and the man was waiting at the door and he asked: "Are you from Bagh bazar Gaudiya Math?" Sridhar Maharaja said "Yes, why?" He said then: "I have to call my wife". His wife told Sridhar Maharaja: "Last time I was dreaming, a girl came to me crying. She said: Someone stole my necklace. Can you help me? I asked the girl: "Who are you?" and the replied: "I am Radharani from Bagh bazar Gaudiya Math". Sridhar Maharaja was very pleased, thinking, "What is this devotee to whom Radharani is coming?" She gave a good necklace and other donations. When Sridhar Maharaja came to the temple, it was true: some of the jewelleries in the temple has disappeared. Just see, Radharani knows everything, and in every temple she is special. And at the same time they are the same Radha and Krishna in every temple. When we worship our deities, we should be very grateful that Krishna has come in this particular form to allow us to serve him.

In the same way, we are so happy to serve Sri Sri Guru Gouranga Radha-Vrajesvara, by constructing yoga planetarium for them. This effort will take time, but we have another big plan. When the temple is finished in Bogotá, we will have a Vaisnava Mela there in Varsana. There will be a very big festival, and I can see many of you will be there. The festival of my great joy… because to make a beautiful temple for our isthadev is a great joy. It is also a great joy to organize great projects, which all of you are currently running.

(2nd part)

Temples are not so important as the preaching. To distribute transcendental books and prasadam and to invite people to meet the devotees, is the greatest happiness. In this way we can increase the family of Srila Prabhupada. We can bring many more devotees to our Lord's family, and that makes Krishna happier than anything else. But the beautiful temple of Bogotá will allow the poor people there to come and take the darsan of Their Lordships. And also especially the projection of yoga planetarium is so attractive, because almost like a museum it teaches Vedic culture and allows us to bring more people to meet the devotees, ecology, art and cosmology; all in one with Maha prasad and caranamrta. With history and practical participation in the seva, the yoga planetarium offers a host of devotional activities and opens the door even to the sceptics, because they have not seen such a thing and then they will surely be attracted by finding more like the beautiful books of Srila Prabhupada. Therefore our Sundays are the sacred opportunity of meeting each other, and those who cannot join us for some technical reason, they can later take the printed out chat sent to them by email.

In Germany from my recent visit we were speaking about the different aspects of responsibility and how important responsibility is. The responsibility of meeting each other on the weekly chat is a unique feature, because in these meetings we are cultivating so many different fields of activity. Every field of your respected devotional service is another field of activity, and the meeting with other sadhus is like watering your field of activity with further enthusiasm and further enlightening. And please, do not forget the special feature of file sharing. Some of the files we are sharing represent one year of devotional service of some very qualified services, some Flash show, collection of pictures; all this, which is developed by one devotee, is available for the other. Without these chats the other devotees would be able to find out these things exist. Everyday I get more surprises. Some special things some devotees have done somewhere and that also helped some projects to further develop. Because this is the form of unity. In this material world you can see, that those, who are against religious principles, are often united. It is very rare to see those united, who are working for spirituality.

But these chats have many possibilities; our members to be united, sharing with each other, appreciating the devotees from other parts of the worlds, sometimes sending donations or helping in other way, translation of books and many other things. The secret of devotion is giving it to others, and this is been promoted so nicely.

Tomorrow is our big isthagosti here. Actually we want to do so many more things, but as usually, there are many projects and not many people participating. Recently the devotees here in Hungary have made some very beautiful recordings of stories. Together with a nice musical background to be part of our audio library. In here like everywhere else we are wondering how to distribute all the nectar from our audio library to other people. What is the best system? In Germany the hartikatha asram has 1200 classes and music and CD ROMs in their catalogue, and we really wonder how we can make everybody aware of all the wonderful things. So many devotees waist their time. They are sitting in the car and cooking in the kitchen, but they do not have 50 lectures to listen each other or to have mp3 player to listen to lectures. When you do some activity you can simultaneously listen to the lecture. For example, if friends come to the temple, there is no need to sell them books you can have a library for landing it. Everyone has the opportunity to listen to 100 lectures and music. This is a kind of service, very much required today. All these things are available at least in our archives. How to circulate them is the big question; how to get the mercy out there to everybody; how to encourage people to investigate further.

There is a saying that says "out of sight out of mind". The devotees don't know how much nectar that is really available. And for the visitors of the temple, even less; the devotees of the temple forget sometimes. And those outside the temples have no chance to listen to classes everyday; they do not have any opportunity for association with sadhus. But in our Archives we have classes of Srila Prabhupada, Sridhar Maharaja and videos of Puri Maharaja. We have all kinds of music you may imagine and so much preaching help; we have slide shows and many home pages, which you can also get in the CD form. For example, for those who don't have Internet, if they get Damodar page, they can have all this in their homes, and in this way the beautiful work done by Angira prabhu, gets to the children. It is sad if a Vaisnava child still doesn't have this nectar. I am sorry to say, many of you are negligent or just you don't know how much nectar there is and how much work your Godbrother has made. And you can get it for free; if you have no money you can have it. This is called Vaisnava generosity.

We don't want to sell the nectar - we want the world to get it. We want every child and man to have the nectar that our guru has given to us. We don't want to make profit with transcendental things. If you can collect for the devotional paraphernalia, there is nothing wrong, but the real point here is that the translators and developers in these projects work hard not for money; they work so all can have these things and become happy. What's the proof of this? That all these things are available without money. When something is free people think it has no value. If you see this CD is very important and it is costly, people think it is valuable; I should have it. If you give it for free, they will think it isn't worth. This is the problem, but really not a big problem. The real problem is how bring to this nectar to all people. This is the responsibility of all of you, sitting in this temple or listening in the Internet. Our responsibility is to give nectar to the others. It requires financial maturity. If you want to have 1100 CDS available, you have to invest 1000 euros and show to the others. That is a secret, enthusiasm and maturity, because that is the only way these things can improve. You cannot open a little shop if you have nothing to put inside. Neither you can open a restaurant if you have no cook, or if you do not have ingredients or a well-organized preacher.

Now I want to give you a special list; that list includes all the things should go on in our temples everyday, especially in those where we have installed deities. We have been discussing this much in the last days. Sometimes in the temple, we see the temple is empty all day. When some visitor comes, they cannot find anybody to tell him anything. This is not very nice. Temples must have life everyday. To solve this problem I have requested all the communities who exist around with installed deities; the temple in Bogotá, Radha Govinda Mandir in Santiago, mandir in Chakra y mar - Peru, like Quito mandir, mandir in Colombia, and Sri Sri Mahaprabhu Girirajprabhu in Berlin, which is going to become the Mahaprabhu Radha Govindasundara in the future. Or temple here in Hungary… All the devotees who belong to this congregation must give one day a month to complete temple service. One day a month you are a preacher and pujari. You have to have second initiation to be pujari, but to be part of the preaching you have to be a friend of Krishna. Here I will give you the list that should go on everyday in every temple. With this list you can train up new devotees and volunteer pujaris to make them aware of their duties when they come to the temple. There are actually two lists and third for special cases.

The first is how the guests must be received and what the condition of the temple should be. The second is what are the pujaru activities in which you can participate. The third is what are the personal activities you can also do inside the temple when that day your service comes. Actually 3 different lists, and everything is important, but something has to be adjusted to time, place circumstance.

The list of temple conditions is first. The temple must be open from mangala aratik to evening lecture. Deities also have to be opened; only if resting the curtain is closed. Everyday there must be some prasadam available; better some sweet balls. Nobody to visit temple and not take prasadam. There must be caranamrta available and everyone to be invited to take caranbamrta, also with the pamcapatra to clean your hands. In the temple there must be continuously transcendental sound, soft Vaisnava bhajan or lecture tape running. If somebody comes and want to meditate, there can be soft background music. Every temple must have sophisticate music equipment with an mp 3 player; you can do that which is connected to simple sound system, all you have to do is prepare it.

Every visitor who comes should be whole-heartedly welcomed. A paper must be given to him that explains what is a temple, what is deities, the program of the temple, and the main songs we sing. This paper is complementary for every visitor of the temple. The devotee who is inside the temple has to explain everything that is going on. He shall explain the deity personally, despite the paper we gave. He should also explain why we offer food, and should explain something about the mission and introduce the visitor some of our books, CDs and magazines.

The temple must be clean. No articles are aloud to hang around the temple. There must always cushions for the people to sit on, and the visitors invited to sit down and treated like very important visitors. From the moment he visits until leaving he must have the feeling that you are very happy. If you don't accomplish that, the program, or the person doing it, is a failure. You have to watch the entrance to be sure there is no mess, and the shoes are always situated in the shoe place. Unfortunately many temples have mountains of shoes in front, which are ugly.

If you are pujari you shall take advantage and take the puja day as a day you memorize your mantras. You can do arati and make offerings. What you cannot do is go away and leave the temple alone. You can utilize this day to chant more rounds than usually, you can do some special reading and memorize some mantras, and you can learn anything you want. But as soon the visitor comes in, he gets the attention. Don't go on chant rounds and ignore the presence of the visitor. You are there to serve, not to chant. If nobody is there, you pray: Please Krishna, send somebody so I can serve him. If you do arati or are making offering and a visitor is coming - indicate to them that they can sit down and wait until you can give them explanation.

Inside the temple, many other projects can go on. Maybe class of the Vaisnava academy, bhajan concerts, or bhakta classes, but the day when your service is to be in the temple you are also helping to coordinate all these activities. We do not want our temples to be empty, and we want our people from the city to know that they can go to the temple from evening to night and to find a nice atmosphere. All I have described here is the minimum requirement for every place with installed deities. Those who do not have that can also try to maintain this standard and to have also deities someday.

This idea is perfectly in harmony to make others happy. What could make you happier than being a pujari once a month or to be Krishna's personal receptionist? How lucky you are! You can also make flower garlands and you can sew for the deities. You can also paint Krishna… so many things you can do in the temple. But please don't take your bicycle inside, be sensitive. The temple has to be beautiful, sweet and full of love, filled with transcendental sound without prajalpa inside. Hopefully not outside either.

Now you bring this list, and the pujari makes an extra list where he has the activities you can do inside. And then don't put it into the file, but hang it up the temple. Give a personal copy to everyone and put my signature and do it. And it will be very good. Don't accept any excuses. If the devotees in your community don't want to participate, it means that nobody has enthused them. What I am presenting is simply the lowest standard. The other standard should be taken by the administrator, that there is always prasadam; it is outside the temple. Inside there is sweet balls and caranamrta. If you don't have paper about the temple and songs, I request Kalki prabhu to make one beautiful. It should be only one sheet, which people can take with them that shows time of the programs, Internet sides, and every temple must print it. This is main service of our community. If we don't know to print it, I will come to collect for it. Don't give me excuses. And I know Krishna will bless you a lot if you make it.

If you have more devotees in the community, there could be two or three people everyday; you organize it between of you so more service can be arranged. The more people in the temple, the better it is. Thank you very much for participation in these programs. The next isthagosti you go with program and discuss. When I go to the next temples I don't want to repeat this. It is your project. Write in the temple whole month calendar, and there you will put who are devotees responsible. In this way we are sure nobody forgets the projects, and this sheet is never ever removed. If any changes, put on top a paper. In this way the Supreme Lord will have complete list of his servitors. Ambarish M. was the perfect devotee in the temple; he showed us that receiving the visitors is so important. When Durvasa Muni came to give trouble, he still arranged the prasadam.

(Third part)

Now we are starting our initiation ceremony. Now we have 56 PCs connected, and behind every PC we have 2-3 people participating, so it is a very nice lecture program. It is going in two languages; Spanish and English, and sometimes to German. If someone wants to translate into Hungarian, you are welcome. This is an interesting facility, and we hope the devotees will advance spiritually.

Vaisnava family is something very beautiful, and it is our duty to protect this our whole life, even though some of the other Vaisnavas may fail. Some make us unhappy but we still have to go on. The love and the trust and spiritual connection with guru, is our life and soul. That is our inspiration of morality and following the dharma. It makes us strong and happy, and with this happiness we help others. Without it we cannot make it. Krishna consciousness is helping others. We take initiation, and in it feeling happiness, because we feel the love coming to us, and it will be our shelter. The holy name of Krishna is substance in the protection. The feeling for Krishna and the master is coming by the grace of the holy name of Krishna. When you make it nicely, you make nicely things. We should do something, and Krishna is taking care of the rest.

I know that without the grace of the Vaisnavas and the Holy Name, my life would be totally useless. And I think, without the Vaisnavas and the Holy Name, your life will be also useless. If you have any problem, you have to do what? What a disciple promises is, that if I have a problem I will come to you, and I will not decide anything before hearing what you explain. I will not let my mind drive me crazy. How can you help if you don't ask him? When the devotees don't say the problem, the guru suffers. If they have disturbance and he knows later this is not fair.

Spiritual life is responsibility. In that responsibility there are principles. And I beg you, before buy something, look at the list of ingredients. You can see that many things you eat have garbage. When you see the numbers, many of them are coming from animal origin. You should publish a list of them and to see which you have to avoid. The taste agents and chemical additives in the food, they are all unhealthy and create cancer. Devotees prefer to take natural ingredients and produce food. What's the problem to make some delicious sweets and keep them in a box? Anytime the children or husband want to eat, give them something nice made and offered. At least look at the ingredients to be a strict vegetarian.

And when you chant the Holy Name of Krishna, please chant if from the heart, not just a repetition. Of course we have to chant everyday and to preach the glories everyday and be grateful, you can chant, you can chant. Make it offering and pray from the heart. Srila Prabhupada told us that if we follow these recommendations and do much service - 8 hours - it means a very serious devotee, and more means more serious. 8h should go to Krishna, including chanting, arati etc., if you live in a temple even more. If you live in the temple, many things happen. I request you to take these invitations to heart, because Srila Prabhupada promised that those who follow these principles can go back to home after this life. And he is not a liar.

I want to say to our new pujari: taking second initiation means we are sold out to the truth; to serve the truth is our choice. We not only accept that Krishna is wonderful - we say we will give Krishna to others till the end of our life. Second initiation makes us representative of our master. The first also makes this, but the second is that you are recognized to take these things to the heart.

Here in Hungary we have a family of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva. The most spiritual leaders produce the better. I request all the devotees to make effort that younger devotees feel that they are in the same level with you of responsibility. Younger respects the older, but for practical issues we have one level. Who drives the car he is responsible, and it doesn't matter 6 months or 6 years. Equal right to participate in isthagostis, equal opportunities in the yuga dharma for the yagya of the age. To present guru to everybody else, this is our program. School of leaders. We need 5000 leaders, not 5. If you don't want to be a leader, it is your problem. But you have desire all the other to become leaders. We are all in the postgraduate course; we are all going into the postgraduate PhD course of humility and service. And you know, the successful graduates are those who don't stop being humble and doing service until they die, and after death they still go on. Wherever Krishna wants them to go.

Haribol and a big hug from my heart!

Always your well-wisher
Swami B.A. Paramadvaiti