– a introduction to Vaisnava exchange for the culturally retarded – sometimes us westerners need it spelled out in plain English – I sure could have used a book like this

This week I was wiped out with the worst flu I can ever remember having. I managed to drag my carcass to teach on the Friday and it was nice to see the kids showed concern over my not being there. It was genuine and sweet. So plenty of time for reflection this week.

“The author of Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, Srila Rupa Gosvami, very humbly submits that he is just trying to spread Krsna consciousness all over the world, although he humbly thinks himself unfit for this work. That should be the attitude of all preachers of the Krsna consciousness movement, following in the footsteps of Srila Rupa Gosvami. We should…

“Death in any other Holy Place brings liberation or future sense gratification, but death in Navadvipa brings pure devotional service.” Urdhavamnata Tantra “In Navadvipa, an untimely death, a painful death, a violent death, or a peaceful death at home – are all auspicious.” Caitanya-sataka — all the more reason to live there.

Thanks Sitapati Prabhu for feeding me with some stats. 🙂 (We like stats to help get a perspective on the world preaching situation amongst other reasons I suppose.) If anyone’s interested I found the complete results of last year’s survey by the same firm. (This years survey costs money to download the entire thing.) 2004…

Bg 4.16 kiṁ karma kim akarmeti kavayo ‘py atra mohitāḥ tat te karma pravakṣyāmi yaj jñātvā mokṣyase ‘śubhāt SYNONYMS kim—what is; karma—action; kim—what is; akarma—inaction; iti—thus; kavayaḥ—the intelligent; api—also; atra—in this matter; mohitāḥ—are bewildered; tat—that; te—unto you; karma—work; pravakṣyāmi—I shall explain; yat—which; jñātvā—knowing; mokṣyase—you will be liberated; aśubhāt—from ill fortune. TRANSLATION Even the intelligent are…

“Our knowledge should be through the sastra. That is practical. And our process of knowledge is this: we get knowledge from sastra, like Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Vedic knowledge. We do not claim to be very big scientists. That is not possible. But we get knowledge from the best scientific man or person, the Personality of Godhead,…

“A funny thing would happen when I would go to India. Many local people would laugh at me because they would try to speak to me in the local languages and not understand why I could not respond. They assumed that I would understand the languages due to my dark complexion. Once, due to my…

They have an interesting way of weeding out kids with problems here. By the time they reach year 11 they have all pretty much been counseled to either continue academically or to focus on vocational courses offered here. Also many of the students who have trouble with the core curriculum are channeled into sports and…

A child looked out the window at the evening sky at the beautiful moon and requested her mother to give it to her. The mother, of course, could not do that, but she devised a plan how to satisfy the child. She brought a mirror and handed it to the child in such a way…

by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur Śrī Chaitanya-śīksāmrta 3.4 (with footnotes as in original) What is the relationship of varnāśrama, which was previously discussed, with vaidhi-bhakti? Should a person take shelter of vaidhi-bhakti and give up the rules of varnāśrama-dharma, or should he practice vaidhi-bhakti for developing devotion while still following the varnāśrama rules and duties? It…

Actually the whole world is full of Krsna’s singing, but it is appreciated in different ways by different kinds of living entities. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita: ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham [Bg. 4.11]. Krsna is dancing, and every living entity is also dancing, but there is a difference between the…

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. This is going to be an interesting teaching practice. I like being here though as I see many opportunities to develop myself as a teacher. There is a very tangible and strong sense of support from the staff here and they are all…