A blissful time in Mayapur

Reflecting back on my stay in Mayapur during the month of January and February, it was a very eventful, action-packed and blissful time. Over five weeks we offered the usual five courses of "Sheltering Relationships", "The Vanaprastha Ashram", "Being in Harmony With the Other Gender", "Family Life as an Ashram" and "Our Children Are our Future". All courses were well attended, and we had stimulating discussions. On Fridays we established the tradition of distributing some little maha prasadam in the break, which created a personal atmosphere and completed the loving exchanges. I also had an opportunity to distribute my two books.
People eagerly reciprocated by showing their appreciation and gratitude in various ways for the knowledge and insights they received. Some devotees attended all courses, and I could sense that they found some shelter in the personal association of the group. So it was well worthwhile and satisfying to my heart.

During the courses I was also on a marathon to get my third book ready for printing. The title is "The False Ego - Our Constant Companion and Troublemaker". I wanted to get it ready for the ILS, which was a fair bit of pressure. I had to go through the entire text again and again doing the final proof reading, and later on checking the layout many times, always finding little things to be corrected - until I came to the point where I simply couldn't look at it any more...! Publishing a book is like working on a piece of art - it is never perfect. And at some stage one simply has to declare it as 'ready' for printing. By Krishna's arrangement I received the first 200 copies from the printer on the very first day of the ILS...!

I also had to re-print the second book "Sheltering Relationships" and the first book in Russian. My ashram at the goshala turned into a book storage, with boxes of books being piled up along the walls. And we soon discovered them to be handy pieces of furniture....

One Sunday afternoon I arranged in cooperation with the SMIS a fun-event for girls between 12 and 20 years of age. We spent some time brushing the calves at the goshala, and afterwards we went to my place for kirtan and prasadam. Around 35 girls participated, and everybody was joyfully taking part. Parents and teachers had prepared nice prasadam especially favored by the youth: pop corn, burgers, chips and sweets. Once again I discovered how our children are so special and deserve all the care and attention we can possibly give....

During this time I also engaged in my favorite loving exchange: receiving guests for prasadam! Mayapur is the only place where I have an opportunity to invite devotees to my home and feed them - throughout the rest of the year I am usually the guest and have to accept invitations. I especially like to receive and serve my seniors - this year my home was blessed by the visits of Vaisesika Prabhu and his good wife, Nanda and Vegavati Matajis from Alachua, Mother Laxmimoni, Mahatma Prabhu, Candramauli Swami, Gopisha and Jaya Krishna Prabhu with his good wife from New Vrindavan, Anuttama Prabhu and his good wife Rukmini Mataji to name a few. It was a great pleasure for me to please them with our popular cheese toasts, and the Vanilla custard with mango sauce and candied ginger pieces is always a great delight...

One of the main highlights of my time in Mayapur was the ILS - the ISKCON Leadership Sanga. I was invited to offer three presentations on the topic of "Powerful Japa - the Secret of Success" which were well attended by around 60 to 90 devotees on each session. I also had a stall for my Institute for Spiritual Culture, which gave me a good presence.
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I decided to be at the stall all day every day - on all 7 days of the ILS, 12 hours a day: from 8:30 am to 8:30 pm! Only for my presentations I left the stall to immediately return thereafter. In this way I managed to distribute many copies of my three books, and to connect with leaders from all around the world. I received a lot of encouraging feedback, with devotees coming up to me and appreciating the books or some youtube recordings. I was in bliss, talking to people all day - like being on Sankirtan! I considered it indeed a major break-through for my humble preaching efforts....

Your servant, Devaki dd