After spending a week in Vrindavan, I took a flight from Delhi to Dhaka on the 30th of November. I had not been able to visit Bangladesh during the pandemic, so it was exciting to finally meet the devotees again - after three years of separation...
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I invited Sadhana Mataji to accompany me - we have known each other for many years, as we both joined Krishna consciousness in the mid eighties in Australia. She also spent 15 years living in Mayapur, when we were even neighbors for some years! On my recent tour around Australia we met again - her 5 children are meanwhile grown-up and settled in marriage and jobs. The perfect time to enter the Vanaprastha Ashrama...! So she decided to join me on my short tour around Bangladesh and thereafter assist me in my preaching activities in Mayapur.
It was a great pleasure for me to introduce her to the sweetness and beauty of our Vaishnava culture which is largely kept alive in this country - a different world within Krishna consciousness! Needless to say, we had a jolly time together and visited a number of places where the devotees had arranged various programs. Our trip had a rather action-packed schedule of events - no time to sit idle...
We spent a few days in Dhaka and Uttara churning interesting topics with devotees who were eager to hear and discuss. Then we took a flight to Sylhet to conduct a Ladies' Convention over two days, and on to Jessore where we had a Holy Name Retreat in nearby Khulna. Along the way we stopped over at Rup-Sanatan Tirtha for lunch and went for a little walk around the property and surrounding villages - the beautiful area where Rupa and Sanatan Gosvami appeared! The surroundings often flood in the rainy season, as you can see in the video.
We spent a few days in Dhaka and Uttara churning interesting topics with devotees who were eager to hear and discuss. Then we took a flight to Sylhet to conduct a Ladies' Convention over two days, and on to Jessore where we had a Holy Name Retreat in nearby Khulna. Along the way we stopped over at Rup-Sanatan Tirtha for lunch and went for a little walk around the property and surrounding villages - the beautiful area where Rupa and Sanatan Gosvami appeared! The surroundings often flood in the rainy season, as you can see in the video.
In our Ladies Convention we churned various topics related to being in a woman's body and our relationship with the other gender. The knowledge which Srila Prabhupada gives us in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (4.21.4, 4.26.15), that a woman is meant to serve as the auspicious source of energy and inspiration to man is entirely lost in modern times. On the contrary, the modern woman is competing with men. This is what material life is all about: competition. Whoever competes the most is considered to have the best chances for success. This competitiveness has very serious social consequences; in fact, it has the power to put human society upside down.
If a man still has some masculinity within him, he will not like the competitive mood of a woman. He will strongly object. As a result, there will be difficulties and serious disturbances within relationships on all levels: within marriage and family life, within management, and within society at large. Furthermore, it weakens a man because he will not have the source of inspiration and feminine energy in his life, which he needs in order to be motivated and empowered. We can observe that in Kali-yuga men in general become increasingly ‘feminine,’ and they lose their masculine and heroic qualities of leadership. Therefore in this yuga it becomes very
difficult to find men who are powerful and chivalrous leaders. Also men lose their inspiration to give care and protection to a woman. He doesn’t feel needed and becomes lethargic, lazy, depressed, irresponsible, uninspired and unmotivated, insecure and indecisive.
Interestingly, these are the chief bad qualities that women complain about! Ironically, we don’t realize how much we are contributing to this tendency.
The most painful thing for a man’s heart is to look like a fool and a loser in the eyes of a woman. A woman who competes with him gives him the fear that she can do everything better, and so often we women are so much better at things. So rather than looking foolish and experiencing the resulting pain, he backs off and lets her do it. And thus he becomes insecure and indecisive.
In this way, men tend to lose their masculine qualities and become more feminine. Perhaps this is why Krishna instructs us to perform our own purifying duty imperfectly, rather than somebody else’s duty perfectly.
On the 11th of December we made our way to Mayapur...
Your servant, Devaki dd
difficult to find men who are powerful and chivalrous leaders. Also men lose their inspiration to give care and protection to a woman. He doesn’t feel needed and becomes lethargic, lazy, depressed, irresponsible, uninspired and unmotivated, insecure and indecisive.
Interestingly, these are the chief bad qualities that women complain about! Ironically, we don’t realize how much we are contributing to this tendency.
The most painful thing for a man’s heart is to look like a fool and a loser in the eyes of a woman. A woman who competes with him gives him the fear that she can do everything better, and so often we women are so much better at things. So rather than looking foolish and experiencing the resulting pain, he backs off and lets her do it. And thus he becomes insecure and indecisive.
In this way, men tend to lose their masculine qualities and become more feminine. Perhaps this is why Krishna instructs us to perform our own purifying duty imperfectly, rather than somebody else’s duty perfectly.
On the 11th of December we made our way to Mayapur...
Your servant, Devaki dd
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