namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

I was planning on writing something up on Friday about my recent trip to the UF museum of natural history but man proposes and God disposes.

Friday morning I was rushing around on my way back from picking up a crib, as I was rushing back to meet a friend for lunch I rear ended somebody at a stop sign. We were both stopped with a third car in front of us, somehow I though he had gone through the stop sign so I accelerated and ran right into him, I was kind of looking over my shoulder trying to adjust some of the crib pieces that were in the back seat of the car. Oops. He was in a pick up truck so his metal bumper smashed my light, bent by hood and knocked my radiator back into the engine. Considering I only paid seven hundred dollars for the car I definitely wasn't going to try to repair the car, it would've cost much more than the car is worth.

So Saturday was spent trying to figure out how we would get a new car. We decided that we would just get a new car and put it on our Credit Card and then hopefully when I get my students loans and grants, and TA money in the beginning of september we would be able to pay off the whole bill.

I called around to dealerships and found a car that I like in our price range, around $3,000, it seemed to check out, not that I know that much about cars, and we purchased it, thanks to my mom who drove me out to the dealership.

Lacie wasn't even too sad about me wrecking the other she was kind of happy because it forced us to get a new one, the last car had no muffler, tons of exterior body damage, most of the doors didn't work properly, the interior was really dirty, and it wasn't reliable. No place for a baby.

The new car is a 96 Subaru Legacy station wagon. The car seems to drive well, is in pretty good shape for its age and will be a good family car. One big lesson I've learned is that it is not worth skimping on insurance so this time around we have full coverage in case anything does happen. I'm really hoping and praying that this car doesn't have any serious problems and lasts of a while.

And tomorrow I'll post something about my trip to the natural history museum.

Today I was thinking about how we are conditioned to look for and enter relationships, and how we either are seen or feel like a failure if not in one; and no matter how much we get hurt there is a continuation in the pursuit. I was thinking how as a young child if you [...]

There is a nice story from the Sri Sampradaya where Ramanuja Acarya grew tired of hearing his celibate brahmacari and sannyasa students squabble over little things like who accidentally put on someone else's cloth, who had another person's lota, etc ...

They would also constantly deride Ramanuja's householder disciples as being materially bewildered and lacking in renunciation.

Sri Ramanuja had a very devoted householder student who lived a simple married life. The only material wealth he possessed were two costly bangles around his wife's wrists as per south Indian tradition.

Sri Ramanuja instructed that one of his brahmacari disciples should sneak into their home while they were unaware and take whatever they could find of value.

One brahmacari eagerly volunteered and then began to stake out the home waiting for an opportunity to, according to his vision, reclaim some material possessions from Maya and use it in the service of the Lord.

The husband left the home and soon the wife laid down to take rest. The brahmacari then carefully crept into the home but couldn't find anything of value. He tiptoed into the room where the wife was lying on her side and caught sight of the gold bangles around her thin wrists. Her body was quite frail due to an austere diet.

She seemed deeply asleep so he carefully slipped the bangle from one wrist off of her hand. Her other wrist was going to be more difficult to take from because she was partly lying on it. If he were to try to slip that bangle off it would most likely wake her.

Just then she stirred in her sleep and rolled over, exposing the other bangle. Despite that now the bangle was accessible, the brahmacari was already jumping out of the open window in fear that she had awoken and would catch him in the act of stealing.

He ran back to the ashram where Sri Ramanuja was waiting.

"Well", Ramanuja inquired, "Did you bring me anything from this householder?"

"Guruji, all I could find of any value was this bangle."

"I see, and where is the other one?"

"Your Divine Grace, I couldn't bring that one to you because she woke up and I had to flee."

Then Sri Ramanuja called all of his renunciate disciples to an assembly. He also sent someone to bring this householder couple.

When everyone had arrived he asked the couple to come forward.

In front of the assembly he asked, "Why are you only wearing one bangle, dear mother? Please speak clearly so all can hear."

She obediently cleared her throat and, while modestly looking at the ground, explained in a clear voice: "Your Grace, I am wearing only one bangle today because one of your brahmacari students was so desperate for money that he crept into my home while I was trying to rest. I felt pity on him that he must not be getting enough food to eat or enough cloth to keep him warm so I let him take my bangle while I pretended to sleep. When I rolled over to let him take the other bangle he fled out of fear and thus I couldn't fulfill my duty as a householder and support the young student. Please forgive us, Maharaja."

The entire assembly of saintly renunciates sat quietly aghast at the deeply selfless admission of this woman.

Sri Ramanuja filled the silence with one statement, "That is renunciation."

Then he returned to his quarters.

One thing that is always hard is to admit your own limitations, failings and faults; but this is essential not only in devotional life but also in our personal and professional life. To be truthful I am just an average nurse despite all my talk this is the reality; and that I have a tendency [...]

Chanting at a rapid
pace, hearing the
mantras with no pain.
You feel a sense of
accomplishment as you
build your numerical strength
and separate each word
distinctly. This is not
top most japa but
you are up early, alone,
and talking to Hare and Krishna
with all the attention
you can muster. You’re awake,
not sleeping

From Bhajan Kutir #30

Here's a interesting movie about C.S. Lewis of Narnia fame, he was an Oxford professor and represented religion in that very hostile environment where belief in God is often seen as antiquated and silly, he is considered by many to be one of the greatest Christian apologists.

The movie is mostly about his later life and his relationship with a woman that he married quite late in life, which makes it quite interesting, it also touches on the issue of the existence of suffering, initially from a philosophical perspective as Lewis preaches the importance of pain for spiritual growth but then he struggles when confronted with the pain of losing the love of his life.

(follow the links to the rest of the movie)

Here are some Quotes that you might enjoy:

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

I gave in, and admitted that God was God.

I sometimes wander whether all pleasures are not substitutes for joy.

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.

If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.

If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

It's so much easier to pray for a bore than to go and see one.

Let's pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere.

Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.

Long before history began we men have got together apart from the women and done things. We had time.

Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.

Miracles do not, in fact, break the laws of nature.

No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.

Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours.

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

Part of every misery is, so to speak, the misery's shadow or reflection: the fact that you don't merely suffer but have to keep on thinking about the fact that you suffer. I not only live each endless day in grief, but live each day thinking about living each day in grief.

Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.

Some people feel guilty about their anxieties and regard them as a defect of faith but they are afflictions, not sins. Like all afflictions, they are, if we can so take them, our share in the passion of Christ.

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.

A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride.

A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.

Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.

An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason.

Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.

Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.

Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.

How incessant and great are the ills with which a prolonged old age is replete.

Humans are amphibians - half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.

Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey 'people.' People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war... Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest.

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.

The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather for the devil.

The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.

The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way."

There is, hidden or flaunted, a sword between the sexes till an entire marriage reconciles them.

Thirty was so strange for me. I've really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult.

This is one of the miracles of love: It gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted.

We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

We are what we believe we are.

What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.

What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.

With the possible exception of the equator, everything begins somewhere.

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.

You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.

For several years I worked not only in an NHS hospital but also for one night a week a small private hospital down the road, a contrast to say the least both in philosophy and organizational structure. Whilst doing the induction days at the private hospital one thing was that the liaison officer gave a [...]

Jaya Srila Prabhupada!

It´s our humble realization, that there is a direct connection between our ability to concentrate on chanting and the way how we keep our belongings. Dirty mind manifests as messy surroundings.

For myself it´s a continuous challenge to keep my belongings in order, but I always see, that the more there is sattva-guna, the more tidy I keep my stuff, the better the chanting.

In Kali-yuga laziness is all pervading. It´s rare that something is done well. Often we are not cleaning, or if we do, we just haphazardly clean one place and move the mess to another room. But messy belongings, unnecessary broken items in our closet, all kinds of unfinished works etc. all these are subtle burdens in our minds and make it harder to chant with clear and jolly mind.

Real cleaning means cleaning with a heavy hand. In feng shui there is good formula for cleaning: 1. Take all your belongings and sort them into three piles: a) things you use regularly b) things you think you may need c) things you never use or that are broken. 2. Get rid of the pile c and most of the stuff in pile b.

Try it out and see it works.

Your servant Muniraja dasa

Mad props to DJ Vraj for the video.

Jaya Radhe!

Inspired by H.H.Rasamrita Swami we have started to embhasize the style that all the devotees of the temple chant japa together in a temple room.

It brings very nice mood when everyone is trying his or her best to chant seriously. Japa-culture we could say. It should be the general standard in the temples that early morning, before Deity greeting is reserved for japa. If everyone starts e-maling, sending sms, going back to sleep etc immediately after mangala-arati there is no encouragement for chanting seriously. Pujaries and cooks are exception, but for the rest of us, if there is no emergency in the morning, forget your computer, phone, management lists etc and try to chant with focus.

Full morning program, the ISKCON sandwich, means from it´s very beginning to it´s very end. Mangala-arati, two hours of japa, Deity greeting, guru-puja, lecture. If there is only 3 or 6 rounds of japa there, the full benefit is not there. If there is early morning seva, that´s different story, but as a general rule, japa is best to be done in the early morning.

Your servant Muniraja dasa

Please share your realisations with other devotees from around the world...simply send me an introduction email and I will be happy to make you a member:

rasa108@gmail.com

ys

Rasa Rasika dasa

Each one of these statements are a powerful meditation and have the power to transform our spiritual practice if we apply in our lives. Try memorizing and repeating one of them that seems particularly relevant to your spiritual practice. 

We are put to test and trial in this world. Only those who attend the kirtana of the devotees can succeed.

Every spot on earth where discourses on God are held is a place of pilgrimage.

Possession of objects not related to Krsna is our main malady.

Let me not desire anything but the highest good for my worst enemies.

As dalliance with the body in luxury increases, so wanes the spirit of service of the Lord.

Those favored by God find their paths set by thorns.

There is no peace or happiness in our worldly life. Circumstances create turmoil and annoyance.

Chant the maha mantra loudly and with attachment. This will drive away inertia, worldly evils and pests.

Be indifferent to bazaar gossips, stick firmly to your cherished goals, no lack or impediments of the world will ever stand in your way.

Pay due respects to the extroverts of the world, but do not be appreciative of their manners and conduct. They are to be shaken off from your mind.

A devotee feels the presence of God everywhere, but one averse to the Lord denies His existence anywhere.

You cannot appreciate transcendental matters with the reasoning of the world. It is sheer nonsense to decry them with the measuring stick of your intellect.

To recite the name of Sri Krsna is bhakti.

Life is for the glorification of topics on Hari. If that is stopped, then what need is there to carry on life.

Physical illness with Hari-bhajana is preferred to physical fitness without Hari-bhajana.

Our span of life on earth is short. Our life will be crowned with success if the body wears out with constant discourses on Hari.

We are here on earth not to work as artisans for making big buildings with wood and stone but to work only as messengers for the teachings of Sri Caitanya Deva.

A sycophant is neither a guru or a preacher.

To transform the adverse desires of the jivas is the supreme duty of the most merciful. To rescue one person from the stronghold of Mahamaya is an act of superb benevolence, far superior to opening innumerable hospitals.

Unless we are devoted to God, secularism shall not leave us.

Look within. Amend yourself, rather than pry into the frailties of others.

In this world of Maya, averse to the Lord, full of trials and tribulations, only patience, humility and respect for others are our friends for Hari-bhajana.

The Lord, Gaurasundara, puts His devotees in various difficulties and associations to test their patience and strength of mind. Success depends on their good fortune.

When faults in others misguide and delude you - have patience, introspect, find faults in yourself. Know that others cannot harm you unless you harm yourself.

I wish that every selfless, tender-hearted person of Gaudiya Math will be prepared to shed two hundred gallons of blood for the nourishment of the spiritual corpus of every individual of this world.

When we look at the pictures of the British Rage in India we see them in expensive Rolls Royce cars and opulent homes so the impression is that the ruling class at the time was rich and wealthy; but the true story was that actually the cars and homes were not owned by the British [...]

It was good. I chanted all 16 rounds in a row and kept my attention on the silent mantras without wander­ing to other thoughts. It is an easy process when you get the cooperation of your mind. There’s nothing to do but adoringly hear the repeated names of Hare, Krishna and Rama. It is mantra meditation and the most recommended form of God real­ization for this age.

From Bhajan Kutir #26

As you can probably see if you're reading this the blog has gone through some big changes over the weekend. I've changed the name, although I couldn't change the URL without starting a whole new blog, which I may do at some point. I started the blog a number of years ago, kind of on a whim, and a lot has changed since then, if I could start over I wouldn't have my name as the website address but at least I wanted to change the tittle.

The tittle The Pilgrim's Progress is the short form of the title of an allegorical Christian work written by Paul Bunyan. It is actually kind of a cool little allegorical story about the spiritual journey as understood from the traditional Christian perspective. If your interested check out the wikipedia entry here.

Srila Prabhupada also uses the term in the third canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam to describe Vidura's pilgrimage to different holy places, that is where I originally came across the phrase and looked it up as I was curious to see what it was a reference to.

Some of the pages are still under construction and I may add a few more as well.

I hope you like the new look and feel. Please let me know if have any suggestions.

Association and the mind, who we associate with reflects the state of our mind, who we associate with effects our state of mind, our mind craves attention and causes us so many problems but despite this we continue to listen to it. But in reality we need association, the association of our peers in work, [...]

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We just found out thursday that we are having a baby daughter. I actually knew the whole time, so for me it was more of a confirmation.

Somehow right from the beginning I was quite certain it was going to be a girl, and then pretty early on I had this incredibly lucid dream, the kind that seems to have more reality than the waking state of consciousness, in the dream this beautiful little child came and kissed me on the nose and I knew that it was my child, and then I thought "I wonder if it is a boy or girl?" I looked down and saw that it was a girl and then I woke up and pretty much knew for sure.

We are planning to name her Rati Keli, that was one of the first names we came up with and after going through lots of different choices that one was the one we both liked the best. The name is taken from the fifth verse of the gurvastakam and refers to the conjugal pastimes of Radha and Krishna.

She is due on October 31st.

Everyone please give your blessings to her and to us in this new phase of our lives.

Dearest, note how these two are alike:
This harpsicord pavane by Purcell
And the racer’s twelve-speed bike.

The machinery of grace is always simple.
This chrome trapezoid, one wheel connected
To another of concentric gears,
Which Ptolemy dreamt of and Schwinn perfected,
Is gone. The cyclist, not the cycle, steers.
And in the playing, Purcell’s chords are played away.

So this talk, or touch if I were there,
Should work its effortless gadgetry of love,
Like Dante’s heaven, and melt into the air.

If it doesn’t, of course, I’ve fallen. So much is chance,
So much agility, desire, and feverish care,
As bicyclists and harpsicordists prove

Who only by moving can balance,
Only by balancing move.

Filed under: Poetry

The other day I was repairing the roof of the old tulasi house at the Manor and heard my phone go being unable to answer it I left it to go onto answer phone; however when I was able to see who it was there was a pleasant surprise it was HH Mahavishnu Swami so [...]

Everyone of you should be thoroughly convinced of the power of the Hare Krsna mantra to protect you in all circumstances and chant accordingly at all times without offense. Then advancement will be swift and you will gradually come to see everything clearly so that you may act for the pleasure of the Lord without uncertainty. When one is spontaneously engaged in this way, always in the service of the Lord and anxious to avoid all mundane activities, he is actually experiencing the taste of bliss in Krsna consciousness.

From a letter to Damodara - January 10, 1971

I am in Chicago staying at my Aunt Ruth’s on the way to the 2010 National Kidney Foundation Transplant Games in Madison Wisconsin that start this weekend.

I was really busy tying up loose ends before I left and doing conditioning work ergo no posting.

One of my events will be a 20k (12 mile) bike race. I have done several 10 mile practice runs so I feel confident I will be able to do the 12 miles though a collapse may follow it. The first time I managed 10 miles the next day I spent the whole day languishing on a couch unable to perform even clerical tasks, but earlier this week I did 10 miles on back to back days and still was able to do some packing on the second day so I have improved quite a bit.

I am counting on race day adrenalin to push me the extra 2 miles and am allowing for a large chunk of time for recovery.

This is a long ways from when I bicycled 2000 miles (3300 k) from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Daytona Beach, Florida. Then I would  cover 15 miles in an hour, take a short break , then do it again many times a day, then get up and do it all over again the next day, day after day. 

Just see the effects of old age and disease. :-)

I also signed up for a 5k which is Saturday, the 20k bike race is Sunday, then Monday an 800 meter run (1/2 mile) and softball throw.

Yesterday Tulasi and I went to a nearby park, him on a borrowed bike, with two of my aunt’s gandsons, ages 11 and 12. We did an estimated 9 miles but broken up into two chunks with a rest in between.

During the rest, I got a tutorial on how to throw a softball. Even though I  played baseball as a youth and could make a reasonable attempt at throwing, I got some good pointers from these currently active ball players and added 15 meters to my throw by the end of the session.

Today we are going to watch the boys play a water polo game then hit the road to Madison so I can get registered. My aunt  is also going to come to Madison and do the 5K. My sister Laura is coming down from North Dakota and doing the 5K as well and they are both staying on for a couple of days so we will get a chance for a nice visit.

Tulasi brought his laptop so hopefully I will get some internet access in Madison and be able to do some posting from there.

Filed under: Liver Transplant, Sports

They were hampered by the pain and by a little inattention, but I kept mainly in the groove and did my sacred duty. Chanting early in the morning is a blessed state, and I don’t like to sacrifice it for anything.

From Bhajan Kutir #24

One of the benefits of being married was getting to double the size of my library. One of the books Lacie had was called The Wisdom of Imperfection by Rob Preece. I didn't read the whole thing but I thought this passage was very accurate and it is something any spiritual organization would do well to keep in mind.

"It is evident from my work as a psychotherapist that these spiritual solutions do not always address the root cause. Many people on the spiritual path have more of a problem with their basic identity in the world than they do with their relationship to the divine. Likewise, spiritual organizations often attract distressed people seeking spiritual solutions that do not necessarily address their core suffering. It can take a sophisticated insight to understand the nature of our emotional wounding and the patterns and defenses that crystallize around it. Perhaps, therefore, it is unwise to assume that a spiritual practice will automatically resolve these deep psychological issues"

We often hear that Krishna consciousness is the solution to all our problems, which it is ultimately on a philosophical level, but this is true on a philosophical level, not necessarily on the practical level. While existing in the material world we have to do the needful to take care of our physical and mental bodies, while cultivating Krishna consciousness. Krishna consciousness doesn't automatically replace all these other needs because we have them as long as we have material bodies and dealing with them is often times a pre-requisite for performing devotional service. Krishna consciousness can only be executed from the liberated platform.

Practically speaking we have seen that devotees haven't fared well trying to ignore psychological issues, they usually end up hampering a persons progress in spiritual life, in the similar way that ignoring a physical illness

We shouldn't expect Krishna consciousness to cure a persons mental diseases just as we shouldn't expect Krishna consciousness to cure cure cancer, diabetes or any other physical ailments, yet as the author points out these are oftentimes the reason why a person takes to a spiritual path.

It is an interesting paradox. Many take to a spiritual path to not have to deal with certain painful emotions but we find that we can't really make progress until we do.

Of course Krishna consciousness is the ultimate solution and to loss sight of that and chase other solutions to the myriad of problems we face is pointless because even if we solve them all we still lose in the end. Krishna consciousness is the solution but Krishna consciousness doesn't replace all other social, political, economic, or psychological solutions, it is rather the underlying thread which ties them all together, it encompasses all of them in a way that leads one towards the ultimate solution.

Chanting japa should be done early in the morning with full concentration preferably during the Brahma Muhurta time. Concentrate fully on the sound vibration of the mantra, pronouncing each name distinctly and gradually your speed in chanting will increase naturally. Do not worry so much about chanting fast, most important is the hearing.

Letter to Radhaballabah das - 6 January, 1972