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Colourful coronation ceremonies of the new king of Bhutan this morning at the Tashichho Dzong Palace in the capital, Thimphu

Barack Obama’s lucky charms; among them a small murti of Hanuman.

Every spiritual movement is concerned about succession, continuing the teachings and mission. How will initiations within ISKCON be conducted in the future?

Buckland Hall, Wales, in the early morning mist

In keeping with my sharing of new Vaishnava music just as Kurma Prabhu shares recipes, here’s a couple that were sent to me today from producer Kiron J. They feature the songs of Jayadeva Das. Click here

Wherever large crowds gather - for sport or religion - more organisation and safety is required

Srila Prabhupada at Bhaktivedanta Manor in 1973

Yesterday I wrote about daughters, airports and train stations. Today I want to stay with the big spaces theme.

A good day today. We all drove out to the new Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 building to welcome home our daughter Jahnavi from San Francisco. She’s been on the Youth Bus Tour for the past six weeks and we have been missing her.

Naturally, she’s had a great time, helping the Festival of India stage Rathayatra festivals in cities I’ve only heard the name of. In the last few weeks she’d been in Toronto, Montreal, Thunder Bay, Vancouver and had started down the coast of the US reaching San Francisco a few days ago.

On Sunday I was in Ipswich, the oldest continually inhabited Anglo-Saxon town in the UK. It goes back to around 400 AD, when those Angles, Saxons and Jutes first came over here to take our jobs and marry our women. Because they called themselves Englisch they gave our country and people the name. They lasted in power until the Norman French invaded in 1066 and stayed for quite some time.

Srila Prabhupada in Bury Place, London. He personally installed the Deities in December, 1969.

The following piece of information may come as a surprise for many of you; for some of you it will be highly controversial. It may even cause some of you to start an online petition or to frantically search the Vedabase for evidence that will prove me wrong. Still, I have to say it. Are you ready? Here it is:

There’s nothing quite like summer mornings. They seem perfectly designed for tranquility, contemplation, and spiritual thought.

I was able to offer Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra each a carton of raspberries and strawberries picked fresh from my garden on Rathayatra morning. I placed the cartons in the freezer and by the end of the procession they were fresh and cooling for them. I walked up to each of the three colourful chariots and handed the fruits to the priests.

This picture, taken by Jonny 2005, is one of many taken yesterday at London Rathayatra, always a great day for photographers.

Murti of Vedanta Deshika

There seems to have been a great deal of interest in my last post about guruship, so here’s another from a similar period of Vaishnava history. Its by Sri Vedanta Deshika (1268-1387) and it appears in the Sishyakrityadhikara section of the Srimad Rahasyatrayasara, one of his most important works. This piece is about the qualities required of the good disciple.

This evening I accepted an invitation to go to a presentation given by the Ahmadiya Muslim Association. They are a Muslim missionary organisation, perhaps the only Islamic group to actively reach out to others, and I remember them from my time in Kenya some 25 years ago.

I went along to the Bhumi Puja for the new Krishna-Avanti school in Harrow the other day. The ceremony to mark the UK’s first ever government-funded Hindu faith school generated quite a bit of media interest and a short television news report can be viewed here:

Bhumi Puja for new school

On Monday morning I was reminded why I don’t particularly like slugs. The night before, two rows of bright green baby lettuces were gently pressed and watered into their cosy earth beds. The next morning some of them were gone completely, and many others had precious baby leaves missing. I was disappointed but not surprised. Slugs have no respect for other people’s boundaries.

For the past two days I’ve been over here in Radhadesh, Belgium, helping to prepare for our next European Leaders Meeting. Devotees from more than fifteen countries are coming together for the sixth annual conference, and its important that their time is well spent and the results of the conference productive.