Wednesday

This morning I walked with Gina to the train station to see her off, and was half way home when my stomach sank and my eyes almost welled up as I realized that I had forgotten my purse in the apartment. I was locked out with no money, no passport, no key. I'm sure you all know the feeling.

So, the other thing that I really like about Gina's apartment is that the landlady speaks English, and I knew where she lived and she was very helpful to me. She took me in and gave me tea and tried to find a copy of the key. She didn't have one, so she lent me a thousand yen and I went to Gina's school and managed to convince the staff to let me talk to her. So I got home and all is well. Phew! It just took a few hours longer than expected. A late breakfast for me.

This afternoon I met Gina at the station. She was chatting with a Japanese woman who likes to practice her English on people like us. She got us to sign her book, which probably had hundreds of notes from people all over the world. Then she made us an origami crane. It was nice.

Tuesday

I am feeling much better today. I am still coughing some, but much less. Today I went to four stores without so much as a hack.

The thing I like most about this apartment is the bathtub. I can sit in water up to my nose and lean back and relax for as long as I want. It's in its own little shower / tub room. Then I can conserve water by running a load of laundry using the bath water for the first cycle. The washing machine is equipped with a pump and a hose just for that.

Gina's black cat, Nimai, sure does enjoy the company of little Josie, the mostly white female kitten that Gina might adopt. She is here as a foster cat right now. They have a good time racing around the apartment playing chase. Josie gets into trouble in kittenish ways, like yesterday. I made muffins in the silicone pan, and there were 2 left in it sitting on the stove. Later on, while Gina was gone, I was in the bath and heard a clamor. I went out to find that Josie had gotten that pan and I think she ate half a little muffin. Nimai seems to have outgrown such pranks. He is 3.

thoughts

Gour Nitai told me not to worry so much when I was dressing them yesterday. They said I would make myself sick if I worry too much.
So,
Don't worry about material things because it is all temporary. The thing to do is to switch you consciousness from material to spiritual.
but then, how do you deal with material things, problems, relationships.
Don't worry about them too much. It's all temporary and not of much consequence.
hmmm
So introspective.

Iskcon Gainesville History, as i recall it

Late 1960s - Gargamuni preached at the University of Florida and gained some followers including David Lieberman (Amarendra) and his wife Gayatri, Gaudi, Aja, and others.

Amarendra and Gayatri established a temple in Gainesville on 2nd Ave (maybe). Srila Prabhupada visited in the early 1970s and gave a lecture at the Plaza of the Americas.
The temple acquired property on Depot Avenue, next to PK Young, in the early 70s. It was a 2 1/2 acre complex with a big old house and a dormitory building about 2 blocks from campus.

Big brass Gour Nitai Deities were installed at the temple on Janmastami in 1974.

I joined the temple in Gainesville just before Lord Nrsmhadeva's appearance day in May 1975. Other devotees who joined around then were Sranti, Bhranti, Gopa Patni, GangaGati, Bhaja Govinda, Munustreshas and Dhusula, Akincina Krishna, etc.

There were about 50 to 75 devotees living at the temple for the next few years. The atmosphere was very family like. Amarendra was the head and Gayatri was the loving friend. It was Prabhupada's program, 16 rounds, morning and evening program, sankirtana, prasadam distribution on campus (which has evolved into Krishna lunch).
Devotees began doing airport and rest area sankirtana, and lots of laksmi came in. Amarendra decided to look into buying a farm, as Srila Prabhupada had been enthusiastic about such programs. He found the 120 acre farm outside of Alachua and the sale went through exactly on the disappearance day of Srila Prabhupada in 1977.

For the next couple of years things began falling apart, Amarendra and Gayatri moved away, a succession of temple presidents began. Devotees moved away. Laksmi disappeared.

Just after Janmastami in 1980 the temple property was sold, supposedly for a quarter million dollars, a lot at the time. We had two days to vacate the premises. (The deal fell threw and we were broke.) It was chaos. Gour Nitai and the Prabhupada murti went to stay at Alan Weinkle's mobile home on 239, about 5 miles from Alachua. The Deities stayed in the added on room and I took care of Them with some help from Jalungi. Most of the devotees moved away.
After a month the Deities were moved to a single wide trailer in the middle of the cow field with no running water or electricity. It took at least a month to get those luxuries.
We continued 7 offerings and arotics a day and making all of the milk sweets daily. Full scale Deity worship went on.
At this time there were about 12 devotees in the area.
Srila Acharyadeva came to live on the farm for about a year.
There was a continued succession of temple presidents.
When Vaninatha Vasu dasa was president he convinced the boy's school and Laxmi Moni's ashram to move here. That started the growth of the temple.
After numerous plans and ideas, the temple was built in the later 1990s. Jnanagamya and Parambrahma were largely responsible, and I think Prahnada was instrumental for the fund raising.
Radha Shyamasundara were installed on Radhastami 2000.
Krishna Balarama arrived here in 2004.

SIGH.....responding to other peoples comments on facebook makes me nervous, but sometimes I just have to do it.

moon

I do not believe that the earth is closer to the sun than it is to the moon.

Wha?

The older I get, the more experiences I have, the more I travel, the more I read, the more I wonder how much of the American history that I learned in school has any basis in reality.
So many lies, so much manipulation. It is disconcerting.
Of course, perhaps the miracle of America is that I can learn beyond the indoctrination.

scary crazy

Tonight a weird thing happened. Dad was driving home from men's group in Alachua and a dark SUV started tailgating him for the last few miles, speeding up and slowing down when he did, and staying right on his tail with their brights on and sometimes flashing them. When he pulled in the driveway, the car went and turned around at the church and then pulled in our driveway. We guess that they only came partway in and must have backed out and left, but still scary.
Kitten got in a fight with some stray today too.
I exhibited disturbing incompetence when I went to pick up the catfood and made the check out for 20$ extra. Ultimately I made it a present for the little baby that was there.
What I like least about this country right now is that I don't feel safe. Is crime worse here than other places?

EEE

I love my little computer.

No Sewing book

I am probably not going to write a book on Deity sewing techniques. My experience tells me that it would be a total waste of time. I wrote nice directions for making chota blouses, but nobody used them ever, either because they didn't speak Engllish or just didn't care, so why should I waste my time on that. nope
I keep thinking that I should do something productive though. What could it be?

Insomnia

I wish I could sleep like a cat, or even my husband. I wish a sleep wave would sweep over me about now. I have to get up in 4 hours.
I am a ten year survivor of breast cancer this year. During these years I have seen at least four acquaintances die of breast cancer. My sister has also been treated and is surviving. I know one other lady devotee who is also a survivor.
Why is the death rate so high for devotees? Well, it is probably because most devotees are extremely suspicious of western medicine and try anything else first. That is not the way to beat cancer. But, who knows, they might have died from it in any case. No one but Krsna knows that puzzle.
Why do so many devotees get breast cancer? I wonder if the average is higher among these vegetarians who lead relatively pure lifestyles. I figure it must be the cheap milk produced from hormone enhanced poor mother cows.
We went vegan several years ago, upon being faced with the reality of modern dairy farming practices. These days the only milk products we get are from the temple, and I try to avoid them mostly, especially since the temple will always buy the cheapest possible milk. Occasionally they do use some milk given by a protected cow, but it's only a drop in the bucket. The devotee diet is heavy on milk and fried foods.
I have issues with the temple these days, unfortunately. Mostly there is the demigod worship issue, I suppose. There is also the issue of feeling uncared for by the temple and the devotees. That especially became clear when I was being treated for breastcancer. After the original flurry of good wishes and concern, I felt largely forgotten. I suppose it was just as much my fault, lacking in social skills and ambition as I do, but the feeling carries on even today that the temple doesn't care much for my welfare or concerns. Somehow it seems that Krishna offers protection though. We always seem to get by.
One of my other issues is how sad I am that nobody seems to like any of the outfits that I made for the Deities. It makes me cry when I hear people talk about how much they don't like them. It makes me question whether I have spent all of those hours and energy in vain, but I know that Krishna is more generous than those ladies, and he understands my heart.
One piece of advice is that night outfits and accesories meet much less criticism, though it is still there. Over the years I have tried to only criticize my own work, thinking it improper to find fault with Krishna's paraphernalia.
I'm thinking about writing a book called Techniques for Deity Sewing.
I thought of the name for my future restaurant, Live Long and Prosper. It will have a Vulcan theme and be vegan. I must check with Paramount about the name.
Time to try to sleep again.

I miss my Nitai Koruna.

NK is sick

Nitai Koruna is sick with some cold/flu symptoms. She went to the clinic yesterday and they told her that it wasn't flu. They gave her some pills and told her to gargle wiith green tea. Interesting. Anyway, this morning she has a fever of 101.5 and has school and visa renewal to deal with, plus it is ekadasi. Maybe she can get out of class.

email from VisnuPriya about Siva worship to our GBC

Tamohar Prabhu,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.


My mother became a life member of Iskcon in 1974 at the Hyderabad temple in South India. She was a physician who provided free medical treatment to the devotees at the temple. I grew up going to the temple every day and rendering service to Their Lordships until 1983 when I got married to Godruma Prabhu.


Srila Prabhupada was very pleased with the service rendered by my mother and would always request to speak with her whenever he visited the temple, In 1976 he stayed at the temple for quite a few days and everyday my mother and I would go and have his darshan. He had several conversations with us (some of which are mentioned in Hari Sauri prabhu’s books) and gave us quite a few instructions.


My father and mother were living in different cities on account of their work. During one conversation Srila Prabhupada had questions about my father’s beliefs. My mother told him that my father worshipped Lord Shiva and Srila Prabhupada said: “Your husband is not very intelligent as he does not follow the Bhagvad Gita”, When one worships Sri Krsna then that worship is complete and there is no need to worship anyone else. He looked at me and told me I should listen to my mother and continue rendering service at the temple. He went on to say that this Krsna consciousness movement simply advocates worship of Lord Krsna and none other.


During his stay there were several incidents where he would be challenged about the relevancy of worshiping demigods. Srila Prabhupada never compromised his beliefs and there were a few incidents where the person who was arguing with him had to be escorted out of the temple.


I am surprised to see that the Alachua temple will be celebrating Shivaratri this year.

As our GBC we look to you to provide the guidance and leadership we need to continue improving our Krsna Bhakti.

Please let me know why you are sanctioning this ceremony to take place in Srila Prabhupada’s temple.

Thank you.
Your servant,

Visnupriya dd


TAMOHARA'S RESPONSE

Dear Vishnapriya Prabhu,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Thank you very much for your letter and concern. I value your opinion highly, as a dedicated servitor of Sri Sri Radha-Syamasundara. Of course, I agree that Srila Prabhupada was very clear that as Vaisnavas, we do not worship demigods. Sometimes, I have seen certain temples go a little too far in this direction for the benefit of cultivating their Indian congregation.

I also asked the temple management about this, to make sure we were not doing anything inappropriate. Apparently, there have been small ceremonies for Sivaratri in past years. As you are probably aware, this is a popular Holiday among the Indian congregation, and they pointed out that it is an opportunity to bring them to the temple, so they can learn the true position of Siva, as a great devotee of Vishnu, or Krishna.

This was my point: We must be clear that any worship of Siva is clearly discussed and taught as worship of the devotee of Krsna. We know from Srimad Bhagavatam that Siva is the greatest Vaisnava.

In one lecture, Srila Prabhupada said,

"What to speak of minor demigods, even big demigods just like Lord Brahmä, Lord Siva... You can worship. Vaisnava is ready to give respect even to the ant. And why not Lord Siva? And why not Lord Brahmä or any other demigods? They offer. But they offer in which way? As servant of Krsna."

There is much evidence in our Vaisnava tradition that Lord Siva is respected as a great devotee. Even Lord Caitanya would visit Siva temples and offer respects. But the understanding is that Siva is the greatest Vaisnava.

From a Third Canto Purport:

Lord Çiva is the ideal husband, not in the sense of riches or sense gratification, but because he is the greatest of all devotees. Vaiñëavänäà yathä çambhuù: Çambhu, or Lord Çiva, is the ideal Vaiñëava. He constantly meditates upon Lord Räma and chants Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare. Lord Çiva has a Vaiñëava sampradäya, which is called the Viñëu Svämé-sampradäya.

In this particular ceremony at our temple, the actual worship will NOT be in the temple. I agree that temple worship should be reserved for our Vaisnava deities. They will hold the ceremony in a small tent outside. Also, the figure of Siva will be offered water, flowers, etc, that are all prasadam from Radha-Syamasundara, clearly establishing that Siva is a devotee of Krsna, and accepts his remnants. Further, the lecture will clearly distinguish respect for Siva as a devotee from worship of Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

I hope that all of these provisions will make our position very clear to guests, and there will be no mistake that we are worshiping Siva on an equal level as God. I think I share your concern that these things be done very carefully and clearly. We do NOT want to become a Hindu temple. We are clear, and must remain clear, in our philosophy and worship.

Let us see how this goes. I think it will be done very tastefully and be satsifying to everyone. If not, we will certainly change this in this future. Thank you again for expressing your concern that our worship be appropriate and proper.

your servant,

Tamohara das

Demigod worship

Dear Prabhus,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Once again I am impelled to object to the demigod worship being performed in Srila Prabhupada's temple. It is his instruction to offer respect but not to worship the demigods.
Last year management said, Oh, but we are only offering prasadam flowers. This year you are sliding further down the slippery slope and have an abhisheka scheduled.

Regarding Shiva ratri and other pujas, I feel strongly that there is a necessity not to confuse ourselves with so-called Hindus, especially here in the west where Indian traditions are synonymous with polytheism. I think we need to be very careful not to give the impression that we worship demigods.

Please consider Srila prabhupada's desire and mood, as well as your actions carefully.

your servant,
Shyamapriya dd

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Randy Meier
Date: Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 5:35 PM
Subject: RE: to managers and board
To: Mukhya devi dasi , Kesava hotmail , Tamohara Tamohara-y
Cc: sandraelsey@aol.com


First of all "Vaisnavanam yatha Sambhu" the greatest of all Vaisnavas is Lord Siva.
Then it is also said (and I can supply the quote later) that better that the worship of Vishnu is the worship of His devotees.
Then Krsna is also described as the "worshipper of His devotees".
Lord Siva is the orgin of an entire sampradaya (the Rudra sampradaya) So he is also Adi guru just as Lord Brahma is for us in the Brahma Madhava Gaudiya Sampradaya. So to perform worship of the guru is always advised and Srila Prabhupada strongly established this tradition in ISKCON. Srila Prabhupada taught us to respect the acharaya and certainly Lord Siva is an acarya.
We are not worshipping just any or all Demigods. That is not and will not be happenning.
Lord Siva is practically the only "demigod" worshipped in Vrndavan. He has 4 temples that all Vaisnavas visit and pay all respects. Eg. Gopisvari Sivam . He is considered protector of the Holy Dhama.
In Navadvip there are several temples of Lord Shiva that the devotees visit and offer dandavats, etc..
The temple of Harihara, Half Siva and Half Vishnu is there in Navadvip and part of the Navadvip Parikrama.
Should I go on?
Your servant
Ramiya dasa






---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Susan Torgersen
- Show quoted text -
Date: Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 1:40 PM
Subject: Fwd: to managers and board
To: Mukhya devi dasi


The temple's email address does not appear to work.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Susan Torgersen
Date: Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 1:38 PM
Subject: to managers and board
To: temple



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: tamohara
Date: Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 5:49 PM
Subject: RE: to managers and board
To: Mukhya devi dasi , Kesava hotmail , Randy Meier

To be honest, I have never been very into this worship around demigods. Some temples really overdo it, and it becomes questionable. However, I understand it is for the benefit of our Indian congregation.
The main point that I think Srila Prabhupada made was we must be clear that Lord Siva is worshipped as the greatest Vaisnvava, a devotee of Krishna, and not the Supreme. Of course, we understand this, but we must also make this clear to our congregation. We are Vaisnavas, not Saivites.
your servant,
Tamohara das






---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 6:27 PM
Subject: Re: to managers and board
To: mukhyadd@gmail.com


Srimad Bhagavatam 4-4 Text 38 purport - It's right there. Talking about the gopis worshipping Lord Shiva to get
Krishna as their husnand. prabhupada says, "There is no harm in worshiping the demigods, providing that one's aim is to return home back to GODHEAD."



Reply

Forward

Reply by chat to Mukhya

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Randy Meier
Date: Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 8:57 PM
Subject: Re: to managers and board
To: tamohara , Mukhya devi dasi , Kesava hotmail
Cc: sandraelsey@aol.com


We never present anyone other than Krsna as the SPG.
But still people of all varieties of faith and beliefs are attracted to visit our temples. Just as we sometimes have atheists and agnostics come to our temple and participate. We hope by our association and preaching they will come away with the Vaisnava understanding and belief but it is not always the case. This is preaching work.
Do we think all the "Americans" who come to our temple are Vaisnavas?
Do we expect them to "convert" after one or 2 visits?
Or do we just hope that they have a good enough experience that they will continue to come and gradually understand the philosphy?

Why are Indians so different? Which is worse, being a demigod worshipper or an atheist? Either one should be welcome in our temple.
We are after all - all followers and disciples or grand disciples of Srila Prabhupada. We are not getting mislead here. We are preaching.

If not, I will go join the Presbetarians.
Ys
Ramiya dasa

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kesava Das
Date: Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 10:58 PM
Subject: RE: to managers and board
To: ramiya , tamohara , Mukhya dd
Cc: Sukhada



Hare Krishna.

This is how I'll reply.


You said, "Once again I am impelled to object to the demigod worship being performed in Srila Prabhupada's temple. It is his instruction to offer respect but not to worship the demigods".

Thanks for your concern about worshiping the demigods. It is true that in some of our temples the worship of demigods may be questionable but there are also many temples that attract hundreds and thousands of indians to an extent that they become friends of our society and many become practising devotees who perform great service for the movement.

We all agree that Srila Prabhupada is against worshiping Lord Shiva as supreme but he is glad to see that Lord Shiva is worshiped as the best of the vaisnavas. Some quotes are attached.

Our only reason for doing all this is for preaching purposes and we do make it clear that the flowers or milk for abhisekh are all first offered to Radhe Shyam then the prasadam is offered to Lord Shiva.

Respecting Lord Shiva and bathing Him as the greatest devotee of Krsna is in line with Srila Prabhupada's instructions.


"Regarding Shiva ratri and other pujas, I feel strongly that there is a necessity not to confuse ourselves with so-called Hindus, especially here in the west where Indian traditions are synonymous with polytheism. I think we need to be very careful not to give the impression that we worship demigods."

We are worshiping Lord Shiva outside the temple under a tent, not on the altar. We chant Hare Krsna mantra, not, 'Om namah shivayah", we dress as vaisnavas with tilaka etc., we worship Lord Shiva as a vaisnava, we explain to others the difference between Krsna and Lord Shiva. We worship Krsna everyday and we teach others to worship Him also.

Srila Prabhupada wanted us to reach out to everyone and for the indians he said Krsna Consciousness is just below the skin.

People may get that impression if we are NOT enthusiastic to explain the philosophy to others and NOT strong in our worship of Krsna. For many years we have struggled for not having a strong Indian support and many of our temples such as LA, Washington, Atlanta, The Manor etc. are maintained to a large extent by indian congregation.

In Alachua we are being carefully examined by our own members to stay on track and the whole world is looking to us for guidance.

Your servant
Krsna Kesava Dasa

Then I sent a reply that I understand their arguments but do not agree, and that they should make their intentions more clear because I have met immigrant devotees who think that we are supposed to worship Lord Shiva.
Arguments not presented are that their actions are totally racist, and that Srila Prabhupada did not introduce Shiva worship in his temples which he established in India.

Sleepless

I can't sleep tonight. I laid there for hours. Finally I got up and played spider solitaire.
The superbowl party was loud and long. The men had a good time. Kitten and I retreated to my room. I came down when they left and helped clean up some.
I have to get up at 4 and it is one now. Not good.
My shoulders are all sore. I have weak muscles there.

New modem

This morning I awoke to find that the internet wasn't working. I did the normal things to fix it, but no luck, so we plugged in the new modem which Windstream had sent to us a month or so ago. Still no luck. I called for help twice, but Windstream ended up sending someone out to restart the account. I saw them at the Windstream box next to the post office on my way to get the mail.
NK got a new credit card today, another world mc gold. Hopefully we'll get some airmiles from it.

passat

Yesterday we took the passat in to get new brakes. They nfound other things wrong with it too of course. We will go pick it up today.
It is a beautiful day today, highs will be in the 70s.

ekadasi

Twenty six lunar years ago Nitai Koruna was born. Today was a similar day, cold and clear. What an amazing event that was so long ago. What a great soul Krishna blessed us with.
Tomorrow we are going to St. Pete. It will be Mom's 86th birthday. Kitten is going too stay at the Cat's Pajama's bed and breakfast. Hope he likes it. We're coming home on Sunday, via a cricket game in Wesley Chapel.

Yay Obama

Today we got a new president. I feel so hopeful.
I mailed NK's birthday package. I forgot to put one game in it. D'oh.

love.

Little realization today... Krsna wants us to worship him because of love, not fear or sense of duty.
Realizations are things that you know already, but become more clear.

Lost and confused

Today we went to Gainesville to pick up a scuba tank (for paintball use) that Dad won on ebay. We looked up the address on google, and even though the location didn't seem right, we headed off to find it. We drove down to SE Gainesville near Wiles elementary, but there were no apartments there. Bewildered, we called the seller for directions, but we could only leave a message. So we drove to where it seemed like that address should be located, on south thirteenth street near ChopSticks, but no luck. Defeated we were heading home when my cellphone rang. The seller gave us directions. It was in a new apartment complex near the mall, so off we went. Dad got his scuba tank and the afternoon was shot, but we had a nice tour of Gainesville and got our rounds done.
That was actually the first phone call I have ever answered on my cell phone. It started playing a tune, and I was wondering where that music was coming from when dad pointed out that it was the cell phone.

Why do people leave piles of trash right where other people are going to walk? This is trash including prasadam flowers.
Will this blog be a place to gripe?
Super tired today.

Here I am to save the day

This is my first blog. I wonder if I will use it.