Churning the Kartik Ocean part 2

Just some pictures of what we've been up to. read the blog below.
There's so much to write about and so little time, so forgive me if my words to come across so clearly. One thing I must mention is that Spiritual life means fearless life, focused life. Its not vague with extravagant words and gestures one dare not ask the meaning of :)

Enjoy!

Churning the Kartik Ocean

I mean, how better can it get? Krsna consciousness is simple, yet sublime! When one gets the opportunity to hear, chant and remember Krsna in his village and at the places he played; associate with his devotees and gradually have all doubts about spiritual life flee, then you know you're in the Spirit Soul business.

Govardhana puja was one of my favorite festivals this year. Ok, so we're staying at the foot of Giriraj and everyday is a deeper journey to find the root cause of entanglement in matter, and cut it off for good. The morning began with setting up chairs and other accommodations for guests, putting up schedules for the program, and marveling at the huge pots being set up to cook the feast every time I walked by.

Gopiparanadhana prabhu gave the morning lecture followed by go puja, worshiping two of the cows we have at the asram here. We then proceeded to the Hill itself, right across the street, with a Kirtan led by Vaisesika Prabhu. Next, we bathed Giriraj with Ghee, Honey, Milk, Yogurt and water, and then placed at his feet an arrangement of vegetarian preparations, fresh fruit and my favorite, an array of sweets- gulabjamums, rasagula, laddhus, kheer, etc.

There was so much food to be served out, that just looking at them I felt completely satisfied. I had already eaten with my eyes (plus the gulab I stole off the maha plate), so I just kinda stood there in amazement until HH Kesava Bharati Maharaj, laughing at me, mentioned how amazing the festival was. Turnout was much less than before, but the crowd of devotees sitting to take prasadam couldn't match stomachs with the pots in the kitchen. After feeding guests- three different arrival of guests- they devotees took the rest of the food to the gate to distribute to the pilgrims doing parikrama around the hill.

The guest list was amazing with devotees on every level- swamis gave their darshans, Senior disciples of Srila Prabhupada, peers, well wishers, villagers, simply wonderful.

We ended the reading with our usual three hour reading and discussion. Last night we read a section of Caitanya Bhagavat describing Lord Caitanya's sannyas.



Overall, I felt happy to have been engaged in devotional service all day! Everyday can be a festival if we allow ourselves

AT THE FOOT OF A HILL

SATAM PRASANGAT




There's a famous saying, a man is known by the company he keeps. Lately the company I've been allowed to associate is more than I could ever claim to deserve. I was praying to go deeper in my spiritual life and make some substantial advancement that I could use to help uplift the consciousness of others. Little did I know that Krsna's mean motive is to bring all of us back to his association in the spiritual world, therefore when one desires to help in that mission, He rapidly sees to it that the right arrangement is made for such persons.

Here in Vrindavan, or should I say here at the foot of Govardhana, the program is definitely surcharged with Spiritual energy. In the association of people who are my heroes in spiritual life, the bliss flows uninhibitedly. Apart from waking up by 2:30 every morning to chant Japa, we have readings from 1- 2 pm and from 4-7pm daily. The discussions are so intense that sometimes I feel like I've been working in a cotton field. It's a beautiful experience watching and listening to devotees who have given 30+ years of their lives share their realizations and experiences.



The monks here are so happy! There's such purity at the foot of Govardhana and I feel completely unqualified to be here. But Krsna consciousness is a rare gift and the only price one can pay to get that gift is one's intense eagerness. So unqualified I may be, but I'm sticking with this association until I drown in Mercy.

New York Donuts In India

My Trip So Far (unedited, posted quickly to save on internet charge :)  )

    The fun in India began at the Airport- in America. Boarding time was a glimpse into the coming months in the east. As the flight attendants called for passengers in the business class, a crowd of people gathered at the front to board the plane, only to be turned back over and over again. “please wait until your seat number is called for boarding; do not crowd the entrance to the gate.”
Customs had some computer problems but we ultimately got through and met some unexpected friends at the airport who had flown in from Los Angeles. While driving through Delhi we stopped at a red light with some slum kids, and after begging for a while, I decided to give one boy one of my New York Donut Prasad bought from the Donut plant in Manhattan. These Donuts are world famous and apparently Oprah orders them and has them flown to Chicago. With my broken Hindi I let the boy know that these Donuts were from America and his face lit up as he shouted to his friends “ America!”
As he happily ate, his friends crowded the taxi to ask for more, but I only Had seven and was saving them for some friends. ***** DONUT STORY**** 45 minutes before my shuttle pick-up I race from the Bhakti Center with Vasudeva  to the Donut Plant to get some. It was Ekadasi, so I couldn't enjoy them till next day. We got back right in time to board shuttle and get to airport.

Vrindavan
    I didn't stay in Delhi as I had planned to, and arrived in Vrindavan at 1:30 AM. Wired like a person on crack for a month, I showered, chanted my rounds, and attended Mangal Arati. I finally fell asleep at Nitai's flat around 2 PM, twelve hours later, and woke up in the dead of night, awake and alert. I knew I either shoulda gone right to sleep or stayed up until 6PM or so. Now I was awake and the rest of Vraj was asleep. We did Parikrama the next day and I noticed how the western world is rapidly flooding Vrindavan. I practically chanted my rounds in anger, but these simple people are not to blame. Providence and time will tell. Vaisesika prabhu advised me to soak my feet after the walk and I kinda procrastinated, waking up the next morning to an allergy attack- my immune system was trying to fix ten things at once; jet lag, aching muscles, insomnia, etc etc. Yesterday I finally soaked my feet and poof* things started for the up slope. Its also been raining a lot, but that's good since Vrindavan got little rain this year during the Monsoon season.

Internet is of course hard to come across, but I'll be posting once a week, at most, once every two weeks. I'm off to Govardhana tomorrow to be of some service to the swamis and senior devotees. Pray for me :)
Keshi