Yesterday I had the good fortune of listening to three monks glorify one of our deceased monks who helped push the Hare Krishna movement forward. His name was Tamal Krishna Goswami.
From his initial meeting with our movement's founder, Srila Prabhupada, he completely showed symptoms of a first class disciple. A first class disciple is one who knows what the teacher wants before his/her teacher even asks for it. He was known to always think outside the box and do innovative things to help the movement in its early years. He was known to many as someone very diligent, punctual, strict in his monastic vows, and loyal to the service of his guru.
We all sat at the ISKCON center in Govardhana, a grazing pasture for cows since thousands of years. Govardhana is a very holy place of pilgrimage for Krishna devotees and while walking along the side street you may find many great yogis performing dandavat parikrama, prostrating themselves flat all around the hill which is about 12 miles or more.
After the talk we all had a nice chanting session and then were sumptously fed four different vegetable preparations including Kofta balls, cabbage subji, dahl, three tpes of sweets like gulab jumins, sweet rice, jalebis and a nice lemonade that made me miss you Krishna lunchers :)
I then had a nice conversation about monk life with one of the monks, His Holiness B B Govinda Swami and afterwards left for vrindavan.
Realization:
Holy Places aren't made of sticks and stones but of the people you associate with when you're in such a place. By serving these holy people you get their mercy to advance in spiritual consciousness and fully understand the goal of life.
From his initial meeting with our movement's founder, Srila Prabhupada, he completely showed symptoms of a first class disciple. A first class disciple is one who knows what the teacher wants before his/her teacher even asks for it. He was known to always think outside the box and do innovative things to help the movement in its early years. He was known to many as someone very diligent, punctual, strict in his monastic vows, and loyal to the service of his guru.
We all sat at the ISKCON center in Govardhana, a grazing pasture for cows since thousands of years. Govardhana is a very holy place of pilgrimage for Krishna devotees and while walking along the side street you may find many great yogis performing dandavat parikrama, prostrating themselves flat all around the hill which is about 12 miles or more.
After the talk we all had a nice chanting session and then were sumptously fed four different vegetable preparations including Kofta balls, cabbage subji, dahl, three tpes of sweets like gulab jumins, sweet rice, jalebis and a nice lemonade that made me miss you Krishna lunchers :)
I then had a nice conversation about monk life with one of the monks, His Holiness B B Govinda Swami and afterwards left for vrindavan.
Realization:
Holy Places aren't made of sticks and stones but of the people you associate with when you're in such a place. By serving these holy people you get their mercy to advance in spiritual consciousness and fully understand the goal of life.
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