After spending some days in Cologne/Germany I flew to Florida/USA on the 24th of March to visit the devotees in Alachua - one of the most prominent projects within ISKCON, with many well-known disciples of Srila Prabhupada living on the property and in the surrounding townships. No lack of senior association....
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I had decided to spend this year's Gaur Purnima Festival in Sofia/Bulgaria and came already ten days earlier in order to visit other small devotee communities in Burgas and Varna. The devotees also drove me to a privately owned farm project three and half hours away from Sofia. Here, two twin brothers have a commercially set up farm with a huge area of greenhouses for growing all kinds of vegetables and flowers which they sell in the nearby cities; a farm project starting off with serious farming.
My three months' stay in Mayapur was a busy, dynamic and blissful time, with lots of preaching engagements and programs - 6 weeks of courses, then various classes and interviews for youtube channels, and above all: the 4-day ILS, the ISKCON Leadership Sanga. I was invited to offer a presentation to the participating leaders on the Vanaprastha Ashram which was well attended and received; I also had a stall presenting the Institute for Spiritual Culture offering the 6 books I published. By Krishna's mercy my new book "The Vanaprastha Ashram - Meeting Death With Joy" came out three weeks before the ILS took place which was a great opportunity to launch it. On these four days, I was from early morning til evening on my stall, meeting devotees from all around the world, getting their contacts and distributing lots of books. Book distribution to the practising devotees is by far more satisfying to my heart than distributing books to non-devotees. Srila Prabhupada's famous letter he wrote in 1972 to Hamsaduta comes to mind:
"Now we have got so many students and so many temples but I am fearful that if we expand too much in this way that we shall become weakened and gradually the whole thing will become lost. Just like milk. We may thin it more and more with water for cheating the customer, but in the end it will cease to be any longer milk. Better to boil the milk now very vigorously and make it thick and sweet, that is the best process. So let us concentrate on training our devotees very thoroughly in the knowledge of Krishna Consciousness from our books, from tapes, by discussing always, and in so many ways instruct them in the right propositions." On our arrival in Mayapur on the 10th of December we immediately dived into the preparations for the Holy Name Retreat at Ekachakra - our annual event of bliss and immersion into chanting the holy name.
The following article was posted on ISKCON News... At the end of November last year, after spending a few days in Gurugram near Delhi, I flew to Kathmandu for two weeks - together with Dhara Mataji from Cologne. We were booked to visit Bangladesh together, but because of the recent political instabilities we were advised better not to come; and so we went to Nepal instead.
I had not visited Nepal for around 12 years, so it was wonderful to meet the devotees once again, after such a long time. We stayed at the comfortable Guest House of the main temple in Budhanilkantha - outside of Kathmandu - and we were very nicely taken care of. Devotees had arranged a number of programs at the temple and in the nearby preaching centres of Patan, Chandri Giri and Bhaktapur, and Dhara Mataji led nice kirtans everywhere. In the last 12 years the local devotees have developed the property of the main temple very nicely and created more facilities with the help of substantial government funding - ISKCON has been recognised for preserving Hindu culture in Nepal. Also there has been a lot of internet preaching going on, which brought many young devotees to the temple, with the Mangal Artik being amazingly well attended! Last year when I visited Bangalore, the devotees were very busy preparing for the inauguration of the new Radha Vinoda Temple & Cultural Centre (ICC), and thus they could not receive me. So this year I specially went to Bangalore to visit their newly opened temple and was surprised to witness how nicely their community has developed since my last visit in 2018. I felt very inspired about the dynamic mood and all the various activities and educational programs going on in the temple, including for the youth and children of various age groups.
Devotees kept me busy with lots of programs at the temple and in devotees' homes, and I had a blissful time connecting with many serious devotees and distributing lots of copies of the books I have published. Kanpur is famous for having established the first institute in India to offer computer science education, with the earliest course starting in 1963. Today, the IIT campus is huge - with parks, nice houses for teachers and professors, and hostels for the students. Almost like a little city in itself. Away from the hustle and bustle of the busy city and with lots of trees and greens, it creates a sattvic atmosphere and conducive environment to concentrate on studies.
The devotees have managed to establish a nice and lively preaching centre on the campus and conduct regular morning and evening programs for eager students, and also regularly serve prasadam. Sometimes, they also conduct public lectures at university halls. I arrived in Vrindavan on the 23rd of October and stayed for two weeks to celebrate the wonderful festivals of Govardhan Puja and Srila Prabhupada's disappearance. Besides, I relished connecting with senior ladies and old friends over lunch in the MVT restaurant and enjoyed attending the morning program, hearing the SB classes given by elevated devotees. My favorite place of pilgrimage is always Srila Prabhupada's house, where I spent every day some time chanting japa.
I was also invited to visit the Gurukula outside of Vrindavan for two days and offered a couple of programs to the student boys and teachers. Upon returning to Vrindavan we had a ladies' sanga at the Kirtan Ashrama, which was well attended and received. In this way, I spent a blissful time during Kartik in Vrindavan. On the 15th of October I travelled from Pune to Nashik to spend one week in the association of the dedicated servants of Sri Sri Radha Madan Gopal, Lalita and Vishaka. Their Lordships are of exquisite beauty and truly offer a glimpse into the spiritual world....
The devotees kept me busy with a variety of programs, and I enjoyed connecting with people while trying to inspire them. One of these programs was for unmarried men and women who desired to prepare themselves to enter married life. The compatibility for marriage is always a highly intriguing and important topic for young people to discuss. During the first two weeks in October I had the good fortune of visiting the devotees in Pune which is one of the most dynamic and vibrant Vaishnava communities in India. Apart from the main temple (NVCC - New Vedic Cultural Centre), there is the original temple (RKBM - Radha Kunjabihari Mandir) and two more devotee communities - the BCEC (Bhakti Centre for Education and Culture) and an extension centre in Hinjewadi. I had the opportunity to spend time in all four communities, and devotees kept me busy with lots of programs at the temple and in people's homes. I could clearly feel that devotees have cultivated a genuine taste for hearing and inquiring which is a healthy sign of devotional practice.
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Devaki Devi Dasi's Travel DiaryDevaki Devi Dasi is sharing her realizations and adventures in her Traveling Diary.Welcome to relish this nectar! Archives
December 2024
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