Archive for January, 2008
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
living in a cocoon
I’ve been Reflecting upon my life for the last 8 years living in the ashram and being guided by my Gurumaharaja. Today I read this wonderful quote which gave me a little more insight into the relationship I have with him and our organization’s purpose.
“If you clip a cocoon to help a butterfly emerge, you will cripple the butterfly. Pushing against the interior of the cocoon is an essential, organismic struggle that brings fluids into the spiny tubules that will eventually harden into wings. Without this resistance and great effort, the wings will not develop and the butterfly will not fly. Likewise, if you meet a child with nonjudgemental support at the edge of his or her struggle, that child will break through challenges into the next developmental stage in his or her own time and own unique way. Every individual longs for a cocoon of safety, for loving support and encouragement to break through the discomforts of learning in order to discover his or her unique and personal vision of the self and to realize fulfillment as an individual.”
-Don Stapleton, Self Awakening Yoga
This is what I look like in my yoga cocoon.
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Thursday, January 31st, 2008
Ice Sculpture of Shiva
From a photo set on Flickr.
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Thursday, January 31st, 2008
Cooking Contest in New Vrindaban
New Vrindaban’s First Annual Lord Jagannatha Food Fest and Cooking Competition
February 1st Friday
7: 45 PM!!!!
ALL WELCOME
Judged by a panel of experienced Prasadam Lovers, winner will take home:
First Prize of $100 and title of NV’s Best Cook of 2008
To qualify for participation […]
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Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
Sri Sri Radha-VrindabanChandra’s Temple Room Renovations
These pictures show the renovations in progress, from the old original dark brown color to what you see with these contrasting lighter colors.
The Temple Room is starting to be repainted, and the initial color scheme looks like it will brighten the whole room up considerably, undoubtly saving considerable on electric consumption. I can remember that from time to time, there had been talk […]
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Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
The Wonder Worker
While in Chowpatty, I asked HG Govinda Prabhu a question about my feelings of inadequacy in coming up to the platform of brahmacarya, of a renounced life devoted to God, because I had been raised in a secular Western atmosphere, born with a Western body that has all kinds of desires. He very kindly and firmly told me to never think I am disqualified from a renounced life because of my background, and if I do think so, I am instantly disqualifying myself.
My personal connection to him is that, amongst my immediate family in Detroit, he is still a household name. He spent nearly 20 years in Detroit working in St. Bonaventure Monastery, with an all-day open-door policy that allowed each and everyone, espiecally the sick and poor, to come to him for deep wisdom, practical advice, and miraculous blessings. He also helped to open one of the city’s first soup kitchens that is still feeding the hungry in Detroit today.
His words….
“We must be faithful to the present moment, or we will frustrate the plan of God for our lives.”
“Be as blind as possible to the faults of your neighbors, trying at least to attribute a good intention to their actions.”
“God is constantly planning wonders for the patient and humble.”
“Let us not worry about past stupidities and sins, but rather thank God for having rescued us from hell and from the jaws of our unruly passions.”
“Jesus is no crank! He knows we are not angels but poor sinners, and He understands when we fail.”
“We should be ever grateful for and love the vocation to which God has called us. This applies to every vocation because, after all, what a privilege it is to serve God, even in the least capacity!”
“Confidence in God-the very soul of courage-is victory assured.”
“We worry and fret about tomorrow as though our dear Lord had never spoken a word about His divine providence, or proved His loving solicitude for each of us a thousand times a day.”
“The thing the world calls ‘life’ is short after all, and the hereafter so eternal, that nothing here ought to really disturb us.”
“Shake off anxiety. Last year it was something that you smile about now. Tomorrow it’s something that will not be serious if you raise your heart to God and thank Him for whatever comes.”
“How merciful the good God is in letting us now and then run up against a snag of some kind, that halts us for at least a moment of reflection on the real purpose of our existence as rational creatures: eternity in God.”
“Courage, therefore, and with the soul’s eye fixed on the goal of eternity, struggle on.”
“Be sure, if the enemy of our soul is pleased at anything in us, it is ingratitude of whatever kind. Why? Ingratitude leads to so many breaks with God and our neighbor.”
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Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
don’t break the ice
On an other BMX note, did you ever see that movie “RAD”? Well I’ve watched it thousands of times and there is that song at the beginning “Don’t break the Ice”. It has taken 15 years to experience the importance of that song. A few days ago I walked across a two mile lake! Back and forth! It was the scariest thing I have ever done.
What happened was I was out on a walk trying to get out of the giant building and connect with nature. I made it to the lake and saw that it was frozen solid. Im from Arizona originally so frozen things are of great interest to me. One time a friend and I walked across one of the ponds at New Vrindaban. 
Here I went out on the ice and I met Brenda from my yoga class. She is very quiet woman who I haven’t spoken to much. I dared her to walk across the lake. So we both decided to take the challenge. It took an hour or more. We walked in great fear light footed and shallow breathed. Do you know that sound in those sci fi films of unseen life forms woowoomp woowoomp woowoomp? After some time we realized that it was the sound of air being released from cracks in the ice.
We wanted to turn around every few minutes but felt so much excitement meeting our fears. It was so much fun. We reverted back to our child inside. One time I dared Brenda to jump on a big crack on the ice and she did. Nothing happened until I stepped forward and we heard the sound of cracking ice. We both screamed and started walking faster and softer towards the shore. The sun peeked through the clouds and the ice started cracking more and more as we walked and the woowoomp sounds became louder and more frequent. After a half hour of great terror we made it to the shore where we were greeted with dark chocolates and hugs from other members of our class. 
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Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
Pluralism Project Features New Vrindaban
Student papers at the Global Leadership Center at Ohio University profile the conversion experience of some of the residents of New Vrindavan Community. The students broke into groups and interviewed devotees on the phone a couple of times, spent a month doing research into the community, and then actually came to […]
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Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
Forgetting Krishna Is The Real Disaster
Recently Mudakari dd was looking through some old Brijabasi Spirits and found some articles I had written. She photographed them and emailed them to me, a kindness I greatly appreciate. They are in jpg format.
This one is from an issue in 1982 called Vol. IX, #4.
In retrospect, I look at the article now […]
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Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
Sri Sri Radha-VrindabanChandra - then and now -
Dec. 1979 at Bahulaban Temple and Dec. 2007
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Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
Cooking Ghee
While it isn’t on the level of how I used to cook ghee when I worked at the ghee factory, I still make some on occasion. Back then, I would load forty 25 Kg blocks of butter (that would be 2200 pounds) into a 300 gallon(1135 liter) steam jacketed cooker and turn it into […]
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Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
Smoker Dave
My old friend Dave Schilling called me yesterday with the best of news. One year ago He was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Everyone was struck with amazement. We all thought he would get lung cancer! His nick name was Smoker Dave. We were all affected in various ways. For me it allowed us to reconnect after a long period of separation. He was really going off in the wrong track. It was truly a blessing now that we reflect on the past year and all the transformation he has gone through. What seemed like a curse was actually a great blessing. Oh Yeah he called me in great joy. After intensive chemo and many life changes mentally and physically there is not any trace of cancer in his entire body! Amazing, simply amazing.
Check out a video part of his:
http://www.vitalbmx.com/video/displayimage.php?pos=-313
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Monday, January 28th, 2008
The Mystic Krewe of Barkus-
The mysic Krewe of Barkus is the Mardi Gras Krewe that puts together New Orleans dog parade. Perfect for Dog worshipers but by far the smelliest parade so far. To attend (and enjoy) this parade you must be accompanied by either a child or a dog- preferably both. People and their dogs walk […]
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Monday, January 28th, 2008
fasting til death.
Yesterday in the depression of my sickness I spoke with my close friend William(picture above). He was revealing the glories of his recent fasting. I took it as a message from God. I remember Gauranga Kishore Prabhu explaining sickness to me many years ago. I often forget its purpose. My body is talking to me, What is it saying? So I fasted the yesterday and today. For bfast I drank maple lemon drink and now I just burped out the last drink of my Trilogy Kombucha. I feel much better today but still need recovery time.
Tomorrow is my last practice teach before my certification. Im nervous and need to do a long head stand to relax a bit. I got a new roommate last night. I was chatting with my psychotherapist til 11:30pm and went back to the room thinking I would be creeping in on my new roommate. Amazingly he was not there. I turned on my night light and read Bhagavad Gita until he came in. He arrived after a few paragraphs and we chatted til 12:30am. Just like last time I was here I got teamed up with the perfect roommate. He is a very mature man who owns a yoga studio near by and teaches iyengar, vinyasa and astanga. He is very interested in the spiritual side of yoga now and we connected very well.
Got to go now!
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Monday, January 28th, 2008
Thomas Merton Category
I get an email Reflection from the Thomas Merton Institute every week. Occasionally, I mash one of these up with a quote from our Vaisnava literature. The resonation is so striking that I consider Thomas Merton to be a great Vaisnava saint, who happened to take birth in a Christian culture. He lived […]
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Sunday, January 27th, 2008
Math-man and the Sri Yantra. January 23, 2008- Chicago Illinois
I was sitting in the Chicago airport, on a rather long layover, when a out of nowhere, a stranger approached me and said “Hi. I was wondering what you are working on…because I work in math. I think I can help you.” I immediately thought- “hey- what are the odds?” Those word rolled around in […]