It was a great honour and pleasure for me to once again visit Dallas temple - my first visit was in 2019. It is one of the first temples which Srila Prabhupada established in the United States and used to be a church - now transformed into the palace of Sri Sri Radha Kalachandji, Lord Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra, and Gaur Nitai. The temple room is arranged in royal style, and Their Lordships receive a high standard of worship with opulent dresses and jewelry.
The temple restaurant "Kalachandji's" is very attractive - the courtyard with its tree and plants creates a very unique atmosphere and is frequented by many prasadam lovers every day. Customers have to queue up in line at the entrance, and they patiently accept such inconvenience for the sake of taking the delicious prasadam.
Srila Prabhupada especially stressed the importance of developing a gurukula here, and he wrote a number of famous letters with detailed instructions on teaching children. Even though the present school is not exactly a Gurukula, but at least it is still functioning.....!
HH Tamal Krishna Maharaja was the main spiritual leader in this community, and up to this very day there are many of his senior disciples here who maintain things nicely according to his desires and instructions. I had the honour to stay in his quarters - a very spacious and well furnished flat in the adjacent building to the temple.
The devotees kept me busy with several house programs and a Sunday program at an extension center, the evening lecture on Rama Navami and the Sunday program at the main temple. So it was an action-packed week with lots of meaningful exchanges.
Srila Prabhupada especially stressed the importance of developing a gurukula here, and he wrote a number of famous letters with detailed instructions on teaching children. Even though the present school is not exactly a Gurukula, but at least it is still functioning.....!
HH Tamal Krishna Maharaja was the main spiritual leader in this community, and up to this very day there are many of his senior disciples here who maintain things nicely according to his desires and instructions. I had the honour to stay in his quarters - a very spacious and well furnished flat in the adjacent building to the temple.
The devotees kept me busy with several house programs and a Sunday program at an extension center, the evening lecture on Rama Navami and the Sunday program at the main temple. So it was an action-packed week with lots of meaningful exchanges.
Srila Prabhupada told us that in order to become Krishna conscious we first have to become conscious. And very often, we are so unconscious! We may not even be particularly aware exactly what consciousness is; how our consciousness is affected by others and our surroundings; and how our consciousness in turn affects others. So let us now become more conscious of consciousness.
In the Bhagavad-gita (13.34), Krishna explains:
"O son of Bharata, as the sun alone illuminates all this universe, so does the living entity, one within the body, illuminate the entire body by consciousness."
Consciousness is a very powerful, subtle energy emanating from the soul – the life force that permeates the entire body, just like the sun illuminates the entire universe. It is in every cell of the body and keeps it alive. Without the presence of consciousness, the metabolism in the cells does not take place, and the cells die. Consciousness also emanates from the body as a powerful energy coming through every pore of the skin. This is what we call the aura of a person.
A saintly person emanates an effulgence arising from his pure and sublime consciousness. Therefore, in Christianity, holy personalities are always depicted with a halo, a golden effulgence emanating especially from the head.
In the book Srila Prabhupada and His Disciples in Germany by Vedavyasa dasa, we can read the following incident in Chapter 12:
"I remembered an incident that some New York devotees reported. Two policemen came toward Prabhupada and his disciples on a morning walk. When they passed the group, one of them turned to the other and said, ‘Look! That man is glowing’.
Even non-devotees could perceive Srila Prabhupada’s effulgence. It is a reality. In the same way, material consciousness emanates from every pore of the skin – not only pure and sublime consciousness. A person who is very lusty, envious, angry or greedy carries a negative energy, which emanates from his body. It is subtle, yet a fact nonetheless. The more purified we become, the more perceptive we will be towards such subtleties. We have probably all had the experience of being in a room with somebody with whom we experienced some tension and conflict. The atmosphere can be surcharged with negativity emerging from our consciousness, almost as if electrified.
Every movement is executed through consciousness. Again, Srila Prabhupada is the most wonderful example of how saintly and divine consciousness allows every movement to be so amazingly beautiful and attractive – in fact spiritually uplifting to others who witness it. Sometimes we hear disciples of Srila Prabhupada remember how everything he did was so sublime: how he walked, how he smiled, how he laughed and danced, how he would delicately flick a piece of prasadam into his mouth, even how he would scratch his
nose – absolutely everything!
On the other hand, a person who wants to be the centre of attention and always tries to show off, who is driven by false-ego consciousness, his mindset also manifests in his actions and movements: how he walks, laughs, speaks, etc. A person who is perceptive can feel a negative and polluting energy emanating from every action of such a person – from his mere presence.
We can find two categories of consciousness in this world: spiritual, pure and divine consciousness on one hand, which we may call the ‘humble-servant consciousness’; and materialistic and contaminated consciousness on the other hand, which we may call the ‘false-ego consciousness’.
In between these two categories is a broad spectrum of all kinds of mixtures and blends. The process of Krishna consciousness is exactly meant to bring about this very transformation, so that the false-ego consciousness is purified and transformed back into our original and sublime consciousness of being a humble and insignificant servant of the Lord and His devotees.
On the 1st of April I flew on to Tucson/Arizona....
Your servant, Devaki dd
Please visit www.theholynameretreat.net
www.therootsofspiritualculture.net
https://www.facebook.com/instituteforspiritualculture/
In the Bhagavad-gita (13.34), Krishna explains:
"O son of Bharata, as the sun alone illuminates all this universe, so does the living entity, one within the body, illuminate the entire body by consciousness."
Consciousness is a very powerful, subtle energy emanating from the soul – the life force that permeates the entire body, just like the sun illuminates the entire universe. It is in every cell of the body and keeps it alive. Without the presence of consciousness, the metabolism in the cells does not take place, and the cells die. Consciousness also emanates from the body as a powerful energy coming through every pore of the skin. This is what we call the aura of a person.
A saintly person emanates an effulgence arising from his pure and sublime consciousness. Therefore, in Christianity, holy personalities are always depicted with a halo, a golden effulgence emanating especially from the head.
In the book Srila Prabhupada and His Disciples in Germany by Vedavyasa dasa, we can read the following incident in Chapter 12:
"I remembered an incident that some New York devotees reported. Two policemen came toward Prabhupada and his disciples on a morning walk. When they passed the group, one of them turned to the other and said, ‘Look! That man is glowing’.
Even non-devotees could perceive Srila Prabhupada’s effulgence. It is a reality. In the same way, material consciousness emanates from every pore of the skin – not only pure and sublime consciousness. A person who is very lusty, envious, angry or greedy carries a negative energy, which emanates from his body. It is subtle, yet a fact nonetheless. The more purified we become, the more perceptive we will be towards such subtleties. We have probably all had the experience of being in a room with somebody with whom we experienced some tension and conflict. The atmosphere can be surcharged with negativity emerging from our consciousness, almost as if electrified.
Every movement is executed through consciousness. Again, Srila Prabhupada is the most wonderful example of how saintly and divine consciousness allows every movement to be so amazingly beautiful and attractive – in fact spiritually uplifting to others who witness it. Sometimes we hear disciples of Srila Prabhupada remember how everything he did was so sublime: how he walked, how he smiled, how he laughed and danced, how he would delicately flick a piece of prasadam into his mouth, even how he would scratch his
nose – absolutely everything!
On the other hand, a person who wants to be the centre of attention and always tries to show off, who is driven by false-ego consciousness, his mindset also manifests in his actions and movements: how he walks, laughs, speaks, etc. A person who is perceptive can feel a negative and polluting energy emanating from every action of such a person – from his mere presence.
We can find two categories of consciousness in this world: spiritual, pure and divine consciousness on one hand, which we may call the ‘humble-servant consciousness’; and materialistic and contaminated consciousness on the other hand, which we may call the ‘false-ego consciousness’.
In between these two categories is a broad spectrum of all kinds of mixtures and blends. The process of Krishna consciousness is exactly meant to bring about this very transformation, so that the false-ego consciousness is purified and transformed back into our original and sublime consciousness of being a humble and insignificant servant of the Lord and His devotees.
On the 1st of April I flew on to Tucson/Arizona....
Your servant, Devaki dd
Please visit www.theholynameretreat.net
www.therootsofspiritualculture.net
https://www.facebook.com/instituteforspiritualculture/
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