Sravanam (hearing) is the first of the nine items of bhakti. Kirtanam(chanting) is the second. These two processes go hand in hand. One chants, one hears, both are rendering devotional service and thus adding capital to their spiritual bank account.  In regards to hearing my Guru Maharaj often quotes the saying that goes, “God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason.” Meaning we should be at least twice as eager to hear than to speak. Of course this must be understood in the proper context. In the company of materialists whose motive is to drag us down into material consciousness, we should be more eager to speak than hear. Yet in the company of devotees, specifically senior devotees who have much more experience in devotional life than we do we should be more eager to hear from them rather than speak.

Something I have noted is that many times inexperienced devotees are very much eager to speak their realizations or to jump in when someone else preaching. It’s not that this is merely an observation, but I have firsthand experience of being that neophyte devotee eager to speak my two cents at said times. Typically devotees are very tolerant and kind and will not check us in doing this but, humbly encourage us and gently correct any mistakes we have made in speaking. Recently I have seen this escalated to the next level, where devotees think that in actuality many of the standards Srila Prabhupada set are in fact not right, but rather based upon some material attachments or mundane upbringing or what have you that Srila Prabhupada had. His Grace Hari Sauri Prabhu wrote about this in his blog, here(part 1) and here(part 2).

Hari Sauri Prabhu nicely explains Srila Prabhupada’s position pointing out that he was not just another conditioned soul but rather a shakti-avesa-avatar (empowered representative of Krishna) sent here to spread the chanting of Hare Krishna around the world. No other acarya in the history of the world has done what Srila Prabhupada has done.  Seeing things in this light, how is it that an ordinary fallen conditioned soul can dare to claim that they have a way that is superior to Srila Prabhupada’s. That only if we allow unrestricted sex life, or some meat eating, or playing sports or hearing mundane music or eating karmi grains or whatever other attachment that you can think of…..can the world become Krishna conscious. Srila Prabhupada greatly reduced the standards of sadhana-bhakti to accommodate the Western mentality. He distilled the process of Krishna consciousness down to the very essence, giving us a prescription whereby we would be able to at least keep our heads just above the raging waters of the material energy. Who do we think we are that we can change that?

As my Guru Maharaj often reminds us, “the process is perfect, but our practice is not”.  While I may not be a perfect Prabhupadanuga or even close, and I have my fair share of struggles in attempting to live up to the standards Srila Prabhupada has set. I fully accept that that the process he has given us is perfect. There is no need to change anything about the process, there is simply a need to change ourselves.

Hare Krsna.

So there is something I have been keeping from those of you who keep up with my internet ramblings. For a couple years I have managed to keep it pretty well secret but as of late it has been leaking out bit by bit so I figure it’s time to come clean. So here it is, I know it may be hard for some of you to accept but… I have a youtube channel that I post videos to…mostly music videos, a lot of which consist of my music making.  For some reason I don’t like posting my art/music so much…largely because of the praise I receive, it’s hard for someone with a false ego problem(like I have) and another part because music/art making is really dear to me, I put all I have into making it so in that way its a source of vulnerability for me which conflicts with my stonehearted nature that most folks know.

Last night at a home program given by my Spiritual Master he cleared my doubts in regards to receiving glorification & praise. He told me, “there is no reason to deny praise. You accept it but, don’t keep it. Offer it all to your spiritual master and the previous acaryas” and in this way you won’t become proud. So seeing how everything worthwhile I have was given to me by my beloved Guru Maharaj and how whatever good I do is by His mercy alone, I figured that perhaps sharing these abilities Krishna has given to me with everyone can serve as another way by which I can glorify my beloved Spiritual Master, His Grace Sriman Sankarshan das Adhikari.

Since I taped a really ecstatic kirtan that my Guru Maharaj led last night at a home program in Round Rock, Texas I figured that this would be an auspicious way to come out of the closet in regards to my semi-secret Youtube video making. So without further adieu, here is the video of that wonderfully ecstatic kirtan (no, it’s not hype):

and here’s a direct link to my channel:

Radhapriyadasi

and while I’m sharing stuff, here’s a link to some of my Art/Graphic Design work (right now it’s only design stuff):

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4462739

*once again if by going to my FB page and seeing the album you are inspired to send me a friend request. Kindly send me a msg along with the request telling me who you are and how you found out about me as I only friend folks I know or well at least folks who are not anonymous.

Alright….

Hare Krishna

 

 

So I have recently been requested to share pictures in addition to my 500+ word blogs about whatever is on my mind at present, on the plea that its Kali yuga thus people’s attn span is not long enough to read a whole lot of text. Seeing how taking photos or maybe not taking photos is one of my vices this is a challenge. More times then not I like living in the moment, being a full part of the experience, rather than being behind the lens of the camera. Nonetheless I have experimented with putting at least a little prana into capturing some moments to share with everyone. I have posted them on my Facebook account. They may be found here:

Govardhan Puja 2009 & Rasikananda & Rantideva Prabhus initiation yajna
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=166283&id=742915992&l=c5e21febc8

Janmastami & Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa Puja 2009
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=154326&id=742915992&l=f8bc78d3fd

This blog post is dedicated to Bhakta Clemens for his advice.

PS…if after reading this post you (meaning anyone) decide that you would like to be FB friends, kindly send me a msg with your request (and blog url if applicable) so that I at least know who I am friends with. Just trying to keep it personal, ya know. Hare Krsna

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” – Bill Cosby

I was cleaning out my gmail draft inbox (as I had reached over 100 drafts!) and came across this bit of writing that I don’t believe ever made it’s way to being posted on my blog. Find said posted below…
After hanging around ISKCON for some time it becomes rather easy for one to pick up the philosophy and even begin to teach others the basics…you are not your body, you are spirit souls whose primary function is to serve Krsna eternally. We are already Krsna conscious we simply have to revive it by chanting the Hare Krsna Maha-Mantra, etc. However, what separates the men from the boys or the ladies from the girls comes the practical application of the philosophy especially the practice of adjusting things according to time, place and circumstance.

Generally when we first attempt to practice Krsna consciousness seriously the tendency is to take things full on, with a no compromise sort of attitude (or well at least that was how it went in my case). After some time doing this I noticed that I was hurting people I loved and rather than attract them to Krsna consciousness my behavior/fanatacism was pushing them away from Krsna. Hence, I could understand the need to adjust my sadhana or bhajan as you will when in the company of non-devotee acquaintances in such a way where they would at least respect and appreciate my devotional efforts if not be inspired to take it up themselves.

Within that there have been innumerable times where I have failed at striking this balance. Going too far to the strict side and thus pushing persons away from Krishna or going too far to the lenient side and thus hurting myself spiritually as well as, missing out on valuable opportunities to give Krsna to others. Too far on either side is counterproductive as Krsna doesn’t want a bunch of fanatical, brainwashed zombies serving Him nor, does He want living entities to be drug further away from Him.

Most recently I majorly failed at this, going way too far to the lenient side, thus bringing my Krsna consciousness down and also wasting much time/energy futilely in trying to accommodate non-devotees comfort zones missing out on many opportunities to give Krsna to them. From this experience I had the realization that the most important thing in any situation is to do that which would be most pleasing to Guru/ Krsna. It’s important to be bold and stick yourself out on a limb for Krsna as you never know what He has in store for you.

On sankirtan, this experience happens regularly (at least for me). I get all mental thinking, “oh I should not approach this person b/c they look scary or unfavorable or Christian or something.” Yet if I transcend the mental platform and approach them anyway, more times then not the person you least would expect turns out to take a book. Same goes with getting all mental about performing devotional service….like offering food or chanting your rounds in front of non-devotees. While it may be a little awkward sometimes in actuality both you and the other party are being benefited from doing such things unless of course they become offensive wherein it’s best to kick it in stealth mode as aparadha/blasphemy towards devotees/Krsna is wickedly counterproductive. But either way the best thing is to be sensitive to the mentality of those around you, and do your level best to do that which would be most pleasing to Guru & Krsna…not that which would be most pleasing to your family/friend.

Your friend/family member may be very happy that you went out to a (non-Hare Krsna) restuarant for dinner with them or did a bong load with them or whatever it may be, yet within this your Krishna consciousness will suffer and Krishna/Guru will not be pleased. So therein, the whole endeavor was useless.

In this connection most recently I read a quote on one of my FB friends “walls” which read,

From Vedic wisdom we can understand the part Bill was missing here. Namely by watering the tree, all branches are nourished or by pleasing the Lord, in due course everyone will be pleased with us. Therein, it comes back to understanding how exactly we can do that which is pleasing to Guru/Krsna in all times, places and circumstances which from my experience thus far seems to come from making a lot of mistakes. Therein it seems the only thing we can do is try and take Krsna consciousness more seriously so we can eventually come to that stage whereby Krsna will dictate to us what our every thought, word and deed will be. Until that where we are completely in tune with the instructions Paramatma (Krsna from within) is giving us, it expeditites matter to take help from and inquire from the bonafide spiritual master as to what is the best way we can come to that level of achieving a perfect equillibrium between the material and spiritual side of things.

Hare Krsna

The other night I was writing in my offline journal trying to make sense of birth and death & the emotions felt at this time through the Vedic scriptures from my perspective as a neophyte devotee.  Hence I was left with the following which I felt inspired to post here in hopes it may resonate with someone else or perhaps someone can enlighten me further on this subject. As always, thoughts, comments, questions, discussions, criticisms, etc are always welcome but do try to go light on the praise, it’s rough on my condition of intimately relating with the false ego. So without further adieu….

Which is worse Birth or Death

Many occurrences as of recent have brought remembrance of my own  mortality. Namely how though I am currently in a 25 yr old body, I could die at any moment. Just recently in the town where I went to high school, one man who graduated HS with my sister,  was a police officer and was shot and killed in the line of duty. His partner who happened to be my sister’s ex-boyfriend in HS was struck by the same bullet in the neck, but made it through it just fine. It was the usual scene of how when something like this happens in a little rural town, everyone is especially shocked and a loss of life at such a young age (around 30) is always tragic. At times like these, people become a little more sober and get struck hard with a glimpse of the reality that we are all going to die. It also brings on a mood of philosophical inquiry about the nature of the soul  namely where it goes after death, and how all these things work.

Though I may be able to quote many verses from Bhagavad-Gita that speak of the temporal nature of the body, and the eternality of the soul, what I can’t seem to find is a verse to quote that is a consolation for the fact that within this lifetime you will not have this persons association again. Though I can understand through the eyes of scripture that I should not lament of the souls changing dress, I can not just be callous in the face of death. It’s a sad time, that I’m not sure any philosophical points can completely remove the pain one experiences when a loved one gives up their present body, especially in an untimely manner. Even if such a miraculous quote were to exist, is it even desirable to get to such an indifferent state of mind?

Another wake up call has come in the form of music. In many old time/bluegrass songs the subject of death is very prominent. One song in particular that comes to mind has a refrain that goes, “Oh sinners you better get ready, sinners you better get ready for Your gonna meet the Lord.”  The purport being are you ready to face the music for all the things you’ve done in this life.

The other night in doing a search for “Hare Krsna” on you tube, I came up with a 2pac video with some guy ranting in the video description about Hare Krsnas/Allah/and Jesus and maybe 2pac as well, all being one and the same  or something…didn’t make much sense to me but through that vid led me to a Bone Thugs N Harmony song called “Crossroads”…(yeah, yeah I know so goes the workings of maya on the internet… you look for one thing innocently enough and end up quite far from where you started an hour later ).  Anyhow, the video was quite powerful as it shows Death personified walking through the hood and collecting souls.  The video really confirmed the Grateful Dead’s statement that “Death don’t have no mercy”.  From newborns to old men, all were on his list. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe twenty or fifty years from now, though sooner than later it will be our time.

So then it comes down to the question: Are you ready to die? Quite the heavy inquiry there.  Immediately this brings to mind Maharaja Yudhistira’s profound observation how though living entities see everyone around them dying, they still act as if they will live forever. Similarly I find myself lumped into that duped category. While I chant my japa each day, and make some attempts to be Krishna conscious, I can’t say I’m at a point where I am ready to die. I feel like I have all the tools I need to die(i.e. maha-mra but, am not at the point where I can skillfully handle them when the time comes. Hence why for me death is a sad thing.

For a neophyte devotee death is sad because while they are on the path, they wasted their life foolishly and didn’t quite make the cut, thus forced to be born again. For the materialist, death is a sad thing as they will have to take birth again and perhaps suffer severe punishment in the Hellish planets for their grossly sinful acts. For the perfect Vaishnava death is a glorious, joyful occasion yet, a sad experience for other devotees of all levels as that means  their association(vapu) with that Vaishnava is finished for this lifetime.

So from the above perspective it seems that more so than death being a sad thing, birth is a sadder thing as it means the jiva will have to pass through another lifetime of suffering. Yet if you look at it from another angle you could say both death and birth are joyous occasions as each is one step closer to that time where we will be fit candidates to go back to Godhead. So therein I believe lies my answer for the philosophical point that relieves much sadness from the business of birth and death, namely that each life we go through we are one step closer to the spiritual world.

Hare Krsna

Last night I was writing in my offline journal pondering over some doubts that were lingering in my heart. I had the realization that doubts are like weeds in our garden of Krishna consciousness. If we let them go unchecked, gradually these weeds will get bigger becoming even harder to pull out than if we had pulled them out the minute we noticed their presence. Once we have a doubt and allow it to linger in our heart and mind we develop more and more arguments as to why this doubt is genuine and why one of our authorities (Sadhu, Sastra or Guru) is wrong.

Hence the best way to rid ourselves of doubt is to catch it in the seed state before it has had a chance to bust out of it’s shell and take root within our heart and mind. While I was prepared to do this last night, my internet connection was out and it was quite late for me to walk over to the study and figure out what the problem was. So I slept on it and have just now gotten the chance to search through my previous correspondence with my Guru Maharaj. I can’t even begin to say how grateful I am to have all these letters and the searchable function of gmail to sift through them and find unlimited nuggets of wisdom to completely destroy even the deepest rooted doubtful weed within my heart.

The amazing thing is that Srila Gurudeva makes this knowledge and personal correspondence available to everyone. All you have to do is navigate your way over to www.backtohome.com, enter your name & e-mail address and automatically you have access to an expert gardener who knows all the ways and means to care for each aspect of the garden from removing the pests/unwanted plants to fertilizing and pruning the creeper of bhakti. Thus is the mercy of Srila Prabhupada & His disciples, they freely give the message of Lord Caitanya for the simple price of our faith.

So I had this specific letter that I had received from my Guru Maharaj nearly a year ago in mind  that I felt had the counter to my doubt. Upon searching through the correspondence and rereading this letter, my inclination had been correct. Not only did it completely destroy the doubt within my heart it also gave me a renewed feeling of gratitude and indebtedness  to my Guru Maharaj for saving me from material life and giving me the shelter of the Holy name.

As one devotee commented in reference to my last post surrender is not something stagnant, like we are fully surrendered and that’s it, there is always a chance to deepen our surrender as Krishna is ever-expanding.  I believe that the same could be said of the Guru-disciple relationship, it’s not something stagnant, like yes I have accepted my Guru Maharaj as a bona fide spiritual master and have thus taken full shelter of him. It goes beyond that where each day is an opportunity to become a better disciple, to glorify/worship your spiritual master more, to study his teachings and gain deeper realizations, fresh inspiration and perfect your attempts to take his instructions as your very life and soul.***

So that’s today’s ponderings. Hare Krishna

***Of course this requires one to understand the position of Guru. Simply put Guru is as good as God because he is purely presenting the teachings of God (like Jesus, he was a Guru), at the same time Guru is not God….just like a govt. official represents the President, will receive all honor on behalf of the President but is not actually the President.

Throughout my years in this present body I have had quite the rebellious nature. When I was a youngin, I chose to rebel against gender roles by being what some call a “tomboy”. From my perception boys played games which were more fun and wore clothes/hairstyles that were more practical. So I raged against what society declared to be the normal thing for little girls to do/wear and did my own thing. The result from this rebellion was a lot of ridicule from fellow students and even teachers calling home to my parents complaining that I was playing football with the boys again at recess. For some reason this disturbed the teachers’ minds.

As I got a bit older I found majority of school rules and even laws to be pretty nonsensical. So I choose to break the ones which didn’t jive with my lifestyle. The result was detentions, suspensions, getting arrested, etc. Within that I had this curiosity to explore all those things which the adults in my life cautioned me against. I remember thinking how cool it was in 5th grade when the state cops brought in all these samples of real drugs behind a piece of glass for us to look at and to warn us of the dangers of doing these substances and what we should do if we saw these things. This in turn made me want to experience these things first hand. I did to the fullest extent. The realization I got from being on that path for 7 years was that all these things don’t really make me happy, they in actuality bring me down.

This realization of the temporal nature of the “ecstasy” one experiences from ingesting a variety of mind altering substances came shortly after I was introduced to the Vedic wisdom. In the beginning I would write my Guru Maharaj with so many reasons as to why hallucinogens or smoking nugs was helping my spiritual life or in some other way was good for me. Sensing my rebellious nature, my Guru Maharaj would say things like, “these things are not required for spiritual life” yet, he very clearly laid down the law that if I were to take diksa I must strictly follow the regulative principles without fail. Gradually from chanting the maha-mantra and studying the Bhagavad-Gita I came to realize what Srila Gurudeva said was correct. Meeting him and his wife in person solidified this fact.

Therein began the ultimate rebellion…rebellion against society itself. Rejecting the cultural brainwashing I had been subjected to for the duration of my life while trying like anything to reject the conditioning that has been accumulated through millions upon millions of birth. If you think about it, by nature those of us in the material world are indeed rebels. We are the rare few (ignorant indeed) who choose to rebel against Krishna being God, thinking that instead we should be God. Therein began this downward spiral of rebellion.

Though even now I find myself by my Guru’s mercy on this path headed back to the spiritual world, engaged in the ultimate rebellion of trying to be Krishna conscious in a world full of materialists…I still find this tendency to want to rebel, to hold onto doubt, to remain skeptical, reluctant to fully surrender to Krishna and Guru. In one sense this tendency to rebel is a great boon as it drives me not to go back to my old ways and become just another sheep adhering to the ignorance is bliss philosophy. This does not appeal to me in the slightest…I want to make informed decisions not just follow the herd off the cliff because that is what the rest of the world is doing. It’s depressing for me to observe how majority of people’s lives are based around what shows come on tv or that “pumpkin brew” has made it’s seasonal debut or that this band/movie/famous person will be in town. It’s like this whole grand scheme of distractions has been created to allow people to pass their whole lives without ever stopping to ask, why am I here, what is my purpose, etc.

While the rebellious tendency in this sense of aversion to material life is the greatest boon. In the sense of still hanging onto this rebellious nature even after coming into contact with the perfect teacher, the perfect philosophy, the perfect way of life, etc it becomes the greatest burden. The result of this rebellion is that I cannot go back to the spiritual world, nor reach that state of blissful equanimity known as brahma bhuta.  Tis’ quite the price to pay for the idea of being “independent”.

Though I may be as insubordinate or not surrendered as ever, the fact of the matter is if I simply employ this rebellious nature to stick to the pathway through thick and thin gradually my skepticism will decrease and in due course I will be fully surrendered to Guru and Krishna. In the meantime all I can do is chant Hare Krsna, serve the devotees, pray for Guru & Krishna’s help to overcome this causeless unwillingness to surrender and ponder “Ka’be Habe Bolo Sei Dina Amar?”.

Hare Krsna

As I was doing some e-service for my Guru Maharaj this morning, I was thinking how much needs to be done with this particular project. Whilst I’m in the midst of completely redesigning the site, which that in and of itself if a huge project (from my perspective), even with the regular maintenance/ weekly updates there are so many areas which could stand a little refinement and be greatly improved by doing so. This caused me to ponder the course my devotional service has taken over the past few years.

When I first moved to Austin, the idea was that I would do a student-teaching internship to become a K-12 art education teacher. I made it two days through the internship and decided that being in a room with 30 K-5th grade kids on a daily basis is not something I really want to do despite the fact you get summers off. It takes a very special person to work with children and I don’t seem to be one.  After that it transitioned into my doing a lot of service at the temple. From 8a -8pm my Guru Mata kept me engaged in doing something or the other. After a while doing that book distribution became my primary service with a little Deity worship and temple service on the side.  Thereafter due to massive anarthas on my part, I was removed from most of my service save and except some gardening work,weekly bathroom cleaning, e-service and book distribution on the side. At this point I had also, upon the instruction of my Guru Mata, gotten a part time job and had begun to take college classes once again, this time pursuing a field which would be a little more financially lucrative as a BFA in painting didn’t seem to get me very far as earning a living was concerned.

So that’s where I’m at currently… 2 part time jobs, taking 12 credits in school, weekly bathroom cleaning at the dham, gardening work for the temple and e-service for my Guru Maharaja with a side of book distribution every spare minute I get (which is not too many). Compared to what I used to do service wise I feel like now I’m not really doing anything these days. Often times I would lament about how I have no service and beg my authorities to engage me once again.

Perhaps it’s complacency on my part but, finally I’m starting to accept the position I’m currently in and do my best at whatever services I am so fortunate to still have. Many times when I’m cleaning the bathroom at the dham post-Sunday feast I think back how my Guru Maharaj tells one story about Uttama Sloka Prabhu. When Uttama Sloka Prabhu was a new devotee he was given the service of cleaning toilets. Instead of thinking badly about this service he embraced it and thought let me do my level best to make these toilets sparkle. Taking that mood in turn made him be blissfully engaged in scrubbing toilets for Krishna.

Similarly Srila Prabhupada gave the following instruction to Rupanuga Prabhu:

Yes, I have no objection if some men go from Europe to India, but now I have received reports that the 30 men which you have sent there are not being engaged properly, so don’t send any more until I hear that they are very much required and that the men already there are being properly engaged and utilized nicely. Now I want that we shall concentrate on making our devotees Krishna conscious and ourselves becoming Krishna conscious, and not be so much concerned with expanding ourselves widely but without any spiritual content. Just like boiling the milk, it becomes thicker and sweeter. Now do like that, boil the milk.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Letter to: Rupanuga  –  Honolulu 9 May, 1972

Anyway my little realization today in regards to my service is that it is not necessary for me to keep trying to expand my service more and more. As what good is it if I am doing 57 different types of services 12 hours each day if they are all done in a rushed manner just so I can get the allotted services done for the day and feel like I’m important because I do so much service. It’s more important for me to embrace the services I have and constantly be looking for ways by which I can refine and improve my service while at the same time attempting to improve the mood, love and devotion by which I carry out these services.After all its not quantity that matters so much but the quality is what counts. Krishna says this in Bhagavad-Gita 9.26:

patram puspam phalam toyam
yo me bhaktya prayacchati
tad aham bhakty-upahrtam
asnami prayatatmanah

If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.

Krishna doesn’t ask for a whole tree, a bundle of flowers or a bucket of water, all He asks for is a simple offering of whatever is within our means. Yet more important than the offering itself is the love & devotion by which it is done. After all what can we give Krishna or actually do to repay the eternal debt we have to our spiritual master. It’s like borrowing money off someone you owe money in order to pay them back, you just keep getting more and more in debt. Of course if you are able to offer a whole bundle of flowers with genuine love and devotion devoid of all tinges of desire for profit, adoration and distinction, all the better. Yet at the same time we have to realistically analyze where we are at and act accordingly. It seems  that this is what my authorities are trying to teach me by keeping me in the position I am currently in service wise.

Hare Krsna

When I was first beginning to go out on books I used to get all excited to see an Indian bodied person thinking that, “this is your culture, surely you’ll appreciate this knowledge and take a book”. Yet time and time again I was surprised to find that many Indians in America fall into two categories

1.) they have come to America in pursuit of adopting what they feel to be a superior culture and have thus labeled Vedic culture as uncivilized, inferior and mere mythology

2.) they already know everything about Krishna *yet only go to the temple once a year to beg for material gain/show their piety* and surely cannot learn anything by reading sastra or talking to a western-bodied Vaishnava.

Of course as with anything there are exceptions to this as we see how many books are being distributed throughout India now, as well as, how many of our temples throughout India are filled with Indian-bodied brahmacaris. Seeing Westerners adopt the process of Krishna conscious inspires Indians to go back to their own culture. Srila Prabhupada noted this and thus his strategy was to make America Krishna conscious knowing that since its a leading nation, the world would follow suit.

Anyways…last week I was out on books and ever since one day of having a “no competion” *, I pretty much approach everyone without discrimination and try not to favor particular types of people I feel will be interested. The idea behind this is that preaching is a numbers game, the more people you approach, the more likely you are to distribute a book. (this was advice my Guru Maharaja gave me). So within approaching everyone I stopped several Indian bodied families, most of which fell into the first category I have outlined above as their children are pursuing “higher education” that University of Texas has to offer and have no need of the “mythological stories” outlined in Bhagavad-Gita.

Upon approaching another Indian family outside of a pizza shop, I stopped the patriarch of the family and canvassed him to take a Gita. He responded that he “already has all these books at home” (a common reply). I countered this saying, “Well, perhaps you have a friend you could give this book to. Krishna explains in the Bhagavad-Gita that no one is more dear to Him than one who shares this knowledge with others.”

He replied, “well you are already doing a good job of that, I don’t need to do.”

I countered,” Obviously I am not doing so well since you are not taking this book.”

At that point his wife chimed in,” we are not going to give you any money”

I replied, “I’m not out here to collect your money. I have two part time jobs. I have never asked for any money from you thus far, I’m out here simply because I want to spread this knowledge.”

Hearing that I actually worked sparked the man’s interest. He inquired further about what I do for a living and the like.

I explained that I am student and work as a production artist/graphic designer and that’s what I am studying in school as well.I explained when ever I get some free time I come out and distribute books.

He remarked, “Even though I’ve went to ISKCON many times I have never spoken to a devotee. I thought all you did was live in the temples.”

I explained that nothing has to be given up in Krishna’s service but rather we must keep our material duties and spiritual duties going on side by side as a train runs on two tracks. If we neglect either we are setting ourselves up for failure as we must maintain the body nicely in order to be able to execute devotional service. (exception being mystic yogis)

At this point his wife’s heart became a little softened to and she became a little appreciative. He very much appreciated this and asked of my story how I came to Krishna consciousness. I told him about how I read excerpts from the Gita in a literature class in my second year of college and that the concepts of karma, and dharma made more sense then anything I have every read before. Thereafter I begin studying the Gita, and shortly thereafter found my spiritual master.

He then asked me, “how do you know this is real? How do you know the process works?”

I responded, “judging by the results. The changes that have happened in my lifestyle speak for themselves. I went from living the typical degraded American lifestyle to a much purer/cleaner way of living”

At this point he responded, “well maybe I can take a Bhagavad-Gita for my son” He then called over his son(whose name was some name of Krishna, Kesava, I believe) and asked me to explain my story to him.

So I repeated everything again, adding that while its alright to undergo material education it is also necessary to cultivate spiritual education as that is all we will be left with at the time of death. His son seemed very disinterested and eager to get back to whatever gramya-katha him and his friends were talking about. Nonetheless he stood there respectfully and heard what I had to say.

His father told him that he was going to buy him a Gita to keep in his dorm room. The son protested some, but saw his father was set on this, so he agreed. His father asked his wife to give a donation(she was the treasurer who was initially not so inclined to give) and took a hard Bhagavad-Gita. I invited them to come to our center and pointed out the address in the back of the book.

All in all, the husband and wife did a complete 180 in my brief conversation with them. Their opinion of the Hare Krishna’s was transformed from not so favorable to completely favorable. They understood that being a Hare Krishna does not necessarily mean that one must live a renounced life in the temple and go out begging alms but rather that one can be successful in the material realm while still being successful spiritually as well. Tis’ not so much about the externals/activities we engage in but, rather the internals/the consciousness we have while doing them.

Hare Krsna

*a no competition is where you and whoever you’re out on sankirtan with have a competition to see who can get the most nos. Its not to say we practice bad book distribution techniques to acquire these but, the idea is that if you are focusing on the nos you are more likely to approach people you normally may avoid. The underlying motive of this is to get you off the mental/bodily platform and help you understand that every one needs Krishna regardless of their dress.

As I was walking down the strip near the campus the other day attempting to distribute books a young lady named Alicia stopped me. Since I can relate how it is to try and stop people while they are going about there business to petition them for a few minutes of their time to explain to them about an important cause, as a general practice I give whoever it is a chance to speak their piece. After all as Hare Krsnas we are seekers of the Truth, always open to take worthwhile advice from wherever/whoever may have it. Anyway, turns out Alicia was a recruiter for Greenpeace whose main purpose was to get me to become a member which entailed me giving a monthly donation. Her whole spiel was politically charged about how Obama or Corporate America is doing this or that and not doing this or that.

Politics on all levels tend to flip a switch in my head that just wants to not hear about it. Seems like it takes too much energy, gets you all fired up, and nothing is changed. After having several goes at the politics within the Hare Krsna movement I found that the most sensible plan to make the changes I wanted to see happen was to start with myself, as Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world”.

So once she had spoken for some time. I interjected, “So what do you want from me?” Hence the membership donation plea since “they don’t take money from the Man” which imo is kinda funny as who is printing the money, where does the money get it’s value? At any rate, I responded that I’m a missionary who attempts to live a low impact lifestyle and already dedicates whatever spare money I have to pushing forward this Krishna Consiousness movement. I explained to her about how I have adopted a cow out in New Vrindavan via ISCOWP’s program and why we do such things. I went on further to explain that while what Greenpeace is doing is a very good thing, caring for the environment, it’s important that we educate people as to why we should do these things. After all blindly doing something just because people tell you it’s the cool thing to do does not make for a very solid foundation for change.

With the philosophy in Bhagavad-Gita we can understand how we are intimately connected with all living beings from the ant, to the tree, to the water, to the Earth as our beloved mother. By understanding this connection naturally we will develop a feeling of love and respect for the Earth and be careful about what we do to her, and how we treat other living entities regardless of their bodily designation. Until we understand this connection we cannot have genuine peace nor can we make any tangible progress towards developing a more sustainable way of life.

She very much appreciated the philosophy and was eager to read Bhagavad-Gita. At the same time she really wanted to make me a Greenpeace member. So what to do?She proposed that she would give me $20 for a Gita if I would join Greenpeace. So my next argument for that was that I was afraid by donating to such a cause I would be indirectly supporting animal cruelty in the form of meat eating employees of Greenpeace. To this she called over a colleague who assured me at all Greenpeace functions they must have a strictly vegetarian or vegan menu but, that Greenpeace could not force all employees to be vegetarian as that would be unconstitutional. So after going back and forth we reached a standstill. She wanted the book, but I didn’t want to join Greenpeace because I felt it to be a band-aid solution in comparison to the holistic solution to all the world’s problems as outlined in Bhagavad-Gita. So I proposed, that she give me $20 for a Gita and I’ll give her $10 back. To this she accepted and happily went to spend whatever was left or her break (as most was spent talking to me) to read Bhagavad-Gita.

Anyway the purpose I write this is that I was reflecting back upon this point about the solution to environmental problems this morning. Preaching is a double edged sword. Not only does it bring other jivas closer to Krishna it also helps to increase/deepen ones own Krishna consciousness and realizations as well. Prior to this day such a thing (re: the holistic solution to environmental problems) had never occurred to me but, the more I think about it the more I can understand it’s true. This goes to show that I have no ability to preach as most of the time nonsensical ramblings awkwardly flow from my mouth upon trying to stop a person to distribute a book. Yet, every once and while when I realize my helpless position; realizations, arguments, words, etc. come straight from the heart to give the receiver what they need to hear to take a book as well as, leave me with nuggets of wisdom to reflect back upon and understand more about how I am not the doer and about my actual position as an insignificant servant of a servant of a servant of Krishna’s devotees. All glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga!