Mayapur Katha try

BY BHABY BHAGGAVATAAVATAMM RITA DAS:RITA DAS:CASTING OF THE

PANCHA-TATTVA DEITIESread p. 3 - 6

NEED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OFCOMMUNITY BUSINESSES

read p. 20 - 21, 24

‘Everyone is tal ki ng aboutvarna-ashrama, but she isgoing out there and doingit. She has left everyonebehind’. Read p. 9 - 12

“C“C OWOW PP ROTECTIONROTECTION ” ” Read p. 19

PIONEER

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Jaya sri krishna chaitanya prabhu nityananda sri advaita gadadhara srivasadi gaura bhakta vrinda

"So it is better not to mix with my Godbrothersvery intimately because instead of inspiring our stu-dents and disciples they may sometimes pollute them.This attempt was made previously by them, especiallyM.Maharaja and T.Maharaja and B.Maharaja, butsomehow or other I saved the situation. This isgoing on. We shall be very careful about them andnot mix with them. This is my instruction to youall. They cannot help us in our movement, but they arevery competent to harm our natural progress. So wemust be very careful about them."

Tirupati, 28 April, 1974, letter to Rupanuga

Radha-Krishna. Radha's name is first. Why?Nobody can be better devotee than Radharani.As soon as Radha's name is there, Krishna ismore pleased. That is the way. If we glorify thedevotees, the character of the devotees, beforethe Lord, He's more pleased than to glorifyHimself, He directly.

Hawaii, march 24, 1969Even Krishna,

whom we acceptas the SupremeLord, had to go to

Gurukula andserve the spiritualmaster as amenial servant.

Durban, October 10, 1975

Yes, we are prepared to purchase the land at arate of not more than Rs 1500/- per bigha. They areunder the impression that Americans will purchaseat any price so don't be taken in. We can purchaseany neighboring land at the above price.

Letter to: JayapatakaLondon, 24 August, 1971

It is very encouraging that you are devel-oping our Mayapur center very nicely. Thefences are complete and now you are sowingsome hedge plants. Do it nicely.

I am glad to hear that you are harvestingrice. The crop may be saved to utilize for ourmembers nicely. Regarding the bricks, it is avery good idea that you have ordered 10,000bricks but as soon as the rainy season isstopped we will build our temple. So werequire many lakhs of bricks. So if possible,why not purchase them now and soak themin the water. London, 14 August, 1971,letter to Acyutananda

Actually cottage life for chanting HareKrishna Mantra is very nice, but because weare dealing with the Western people, Americansand Europeans, they require some nice apart-ment. Therefore we have to construct a nicehouse for them. My Guru Maharaja's policywas to give nice facility to devotees so thatthey may chant Hare Krishna Mantra peace-fully and make advancement. But we cannot beluxurious. As far as possible minimize theneeds of our life but we shall not curtail thebare necessities. London, 14 August, 1971,

letter to Acyutananda

Prabhupada Vani

the vaishyas are meant to protect the cows andbulls and utilize them to produce grains and milk.The cow is meant to deliver milk, and the bull is meantto produce grains. [SB 1.17.1 Purport]

‘MAYAPUR KATHA’

is a facility for you to share your ideas, articles, suggestions , comments, realizations ,concerns, etc... with the community of Vaisnavas. You are welcome.

EDITOR: ........................................Padmalochan DasLAYOU T/P HOTOS :..... .....................Vrindavan Lila Devi DasiTYPING: .................... ....................Vrindaranya Devi DasiPROOF READING:.............................Apurva Nimai DasPRINTING: .....................................Purananda Nitai Das ph: 245-279 ; e-mail:

[email protected]

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Hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna/hare hare hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

MK:MK: Prabhu, please tell us about the casting of LordNityananda.GANGA PRABHU: On the 8th of May we did the cast-ing of Lord Nityananda. We reached there the day before. As usual we did the

puja and the yajna. This time a lot of devotees camefrom all over South India. We were very fortunatebecause H.H. Jayapataka Swami also came with twohundred devotees and we had a big program.

We rented one Kalyana Mandapam, which is like ahall for marriages. One life-member had the placethere. And we arranged for the program before the cast-ing of the Deity, around seven o'clock. JayapatakaSwami came from Trichi, where he had another preach-ing engagement and we had a nice kirtan, bhajan andlecture. Then prasadam was distributed to all the devo-tees.

Around nine o'clock we started the casting process.They begun to melt the metal at 4:30 PM, it takes along time to melt the metal. By 9:30 PM we started topour the metal into the cast.

Jayapataka Maharaja personally came there and putgold and silver inside of each pot (crucible). At thattime a lot of devotees were just continuously removingtheir gold earrings, necklaces, and bracelets - veryspontaneously they wanted to serve. We put all the jew-elry in paper packets, one for each pot - this time therewere forty-four crucibles. Last time we had extra metalleft, so this time we put less. Lord Nityananda is oneinch shorter then Lord Caitanya.

This time the sthapati hired a crew of people, whichwere less in number, there were about sixty workers,and last time there was one hundred. But these weremuch more organized and much more efficient, muchmore professional. So, the whole casting took actuallymuch less time. This time the whole operation wasmuch better organized. Of course practice makes per-fect. We are learning more and more and becomingmore experienced.

All the devotees present there were doing kirtana thewhole time the casting was going on. The weather was very very hot, even at night it was

almost forty degree, plus the fire… JayapatakaMaharaja wrapped a wet chadar over his head and putthe paper packets with jewelry into each pot witha six-foot long spoon.

Many devotees gave their jewelry spontaneously onthe spot. Before we put the gold and silver in the

mixture H.H. Jayapataka Maharaja chanted theprayer and read the names of all the devotees who haddonated their gold and silver jewelries. It was a big listof about sixty-seventy devotees. Maharaja alsodonated one kilogram of silver. So, actually a littlemore gold and silver went into Lord Nityananda's formthan in Lord Caitanya's. There was almost one kilo-gram of gold and around two kilograms of silver. Wedid not melt all the jewelries into one lump as before,but cut them and put into forty-four paper bags, onewent inside each of the melting pots.

We have the list of names of all those who donatedgold and silver.

Anyway, everything went smoothly, we finished inmuch less time. The casting was finished by eleveno'clock at night.

The next morning we took a small sample of themetal and compared with the sample from LordCaitanya's casting. They polished the samples, so wecould see the difference in the color. Lord Caitanya ismore golden color and Lord Nityananda is more red-dish. Very beautiful.Ten days after the casting, they opened the cast and

the sthapati said that it came out very nice. They also made two extra samples of the metal for twoother Deities - Advaita and Srivasa, because they aresupposed to be more whitish. So they are making someslightly different mixture of metal. MKMK :: Why are the Deities different colors?GG:: According to H.H. Jayapataka Maharaja, eachDeity should be a different color, slightly different.That's the description of the Shastras. Lord Caitanya ismore golden, Nityananda is a little redder, Gadadharais the same color as Lord Caitanya, Srivasa andAdvaita are more whitish color.MK:MK: How is the difference made?G:G: They make these differences by mixing larger orsmaller quantities of different metals, like copper,zinc, lead, etc. They have some kind of composition, Ido not know, I am not a metallurgist. But the sthapatiis making samples for us to choose from.

Now they are working on Lord Caitanya - filing,polishing, cleaning and chiseling. Everything appearson time, within the schedule. They want to finish allthe casting before the monsoon sets in. Down there itstarts sometime in August-September. After theyslowly polish and finish them. So by November-December the Deities should come to Mayapur. u

Casting of Nityananda Prabhuby Ganga Das

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The casting of Gadadhara Pandithappened on the 19th and 20th ofJune. On June 19 they started thepreparations and on June 20 thecasting was done. It was the sameprocess as previously. They startedto bake the clay model and the nextday were pouring the hot metal.So, it was basically the same asthe other castings.

We were very meditative onSrimati Radharani and the appear-ance of Gadadhara, so that mercywould come to us.

We also almost got rained out.If during the casting, one singledrop gets into the pot of hotmetal it creates a splash, therewould be an explosion and thedroplets of hot metal could hit peo-ple. So, cast ing is always done atn ighttime because it is cooler then,between six and ten PM.

The model was baked on June19, that took all day. It cooled offthrough the night and the next dayin the evening they started casting.The workers were the best, theyreally knew what they were doing.The whole thing was very fast.

The cast takes three days to cool.With Lord Caitanya they left it forone week, the backside was openedafter three days and after a fewmore days they opened the rest. Butnow they opened everything afterthree days, no problem.

Meanwhile we saw LordCaitanya, he is getting morebeautiful by the day. You can seealready his shiny effulgence isthere. Lord Nityananda also. Theyare carving them, the full shape ofthe hands is already there. Verybeautiful. Outstanding job. Thesesthapatis know their job, they aredoing excellent work. u

MK:MK: When was Srivasa Thakura's form cast?B:B: On July 20 they started preparations and on the 21st the casting wasdone. Casting takes two days - one day for preparations and the nextday for the casting itself. MK: MK: What were they preparing?B:B: The cocoon. The deity is wrapped up in clay. They already took the waxout previously and now they heated the cocoon again at a very high tem-perature, so if any wax was still left it just evaporated. Clay cocoonbecomes hard like a brick, very strong after heating. Plus there wereone inch steel bars going the full length from head to toe and sideways, reinforcing the model. When the metal goes inside - it is threethousand kilos, so if you don't have a strong model, it breaks. The claymodel was already heated up from the day before, so there would notbe a ny thermo-shock when the hot metal is poured in.

When they built the cocoon they did it in layers - one layer thenanother, put rods in between, then another layer, another one. You can-not see the rods from the outside, but they are inside, the whole thingis very secure.

Plus there are also metal rods inside the form, going from the head tothe legs and arms. There will be three thousand kilos of pressure on theankles of the deity. This is the weakest point, so it helps to give strengthin that point, otherwise sometimes even smaller forms can crack.

When they do the wax model these rods are inside and wax allaround. When they melt the wax these rods are held by small metalwire like strings, attached to the clay model. So, the rods are stayingright in the middle.

Advaita Acharya was cast twenty days before Srivasa. GangaPrabhu was there and he stayed for Shrivasa's casting withoutcoming back in between. MK:MK: Did they cast Advaita Acharya with beard on?B:B: No. Let me tell you this. This is a pure technical problem. According to the sthapati, if they cast with beard they will cast thewhole form with cloth, fully dressed and everything. If they castwithout beard we can put the beard later, like clothes, ornaments,etc. So, it was decided that he will be cast in a simple formatlike all other deities and the beard will be put on later. MK:MK: Don't they just do whatever you order them to do?B:B: Yes, in a sense. But we cannot order them anything. We cannotorder something, which is not in tradition with Silpa Sastra orthe way they cast the deities. We can tell them where to put orna-menting, shape of the eyes - they will follow that with no prob-lem, but if you ask them to do something that is against their tra-d ition - they will talk to us and show why they can not do this andit always makes sense. They have been in this business for 350years and they have done a lot of casting and are good at it.u

Casting of Gadadhara Pandit

Srivasa Thakura

By Bhagavatamrita Das

& Advaita Acharya

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MK:MK: How is the metal poured into the clay mold?B:B: The form is put into a huge hole in the grounddiagonally with face down and back up. The metal ispoured through the feet. The first pouring goes straightto the face. They complete the whole job in forty-five minutes. They have to continuously poure hotmetal. There is not just one hole, there are three holesand there are also a few channels from the arms, legsand chest for the air to go out. They have a special wayof doing that. So they poure in one hole and the airis coming out through another hole.

When everything is finished they fill in one hole witha big iron bar and you can see the liquid metal ismoving like water in another hole, as one liquid mass.They do it to check if the metal is solid inside andthere are no air pockets. MK:MK: How do you see inside the holes? Are they big?B:B: Well, the holes are about ten inches wide. It is likea cup of water, when it is full liquid starts to come out,so you can see that it is full. Plus the hot metal givesradiance-like light because it is so hot, so you can seethe whole thing in there against the dark backgroundof the night. MK:MK: What do they do if some metal is left over?B:B: The extra metal, they put in the ground and makebars to be used in the next casting. MK: MK: What about other deities, which had been castearlier?B:B: Lord Chaitanya is ninety five percent ready andhe is looking so beautiful, unbelievable. The massivesize of the Lord is definitely more than life-size, amountain of golden radiance that couldn't match theeffulgence of His compassionate mercy.

Lord Chaitanya's hands and beautiful ornamentalbelt and bracelets and anklets and His gorgeousbrahman thread across His beautiful lion-like chestare the most wonderful thing to behold. Particularlyhe has a small tiny dhoti, because they don't cast deityin a caupin like in Bengali tradition. All the fine dec-orative work on that dhoti is amazing, and it is allin metal, very beautiful design. On top of the dhotithere is a belt, which has a beautiful design too.

The first time they carved a very elaborate design,but Jananivasa Prabhu said 'no' to it. Then theymade a simple, but very beautiful design, GaudiyaVaishnava type of design. He also has anklets,bracelets, armlets and he has a beaut iful brahminthread that goes over his chest with brahma-muhurta(the knot) carved with a very beautiful design.

The chest of the Lord looks like a lion’s chest.According to the Silpa Shastra when you look at thechest and abdomen of the Lord it should resemblethe shape of a cow's face. Sthapati showed uswhere it is.

Work on the hands is finished - they look very

I think that all of us in the Mayapur communi-ty should focus on one thing - we are always think-ing 'well, one day Pancha-tattva will come, one daythe temple will come, may be five years, ten yearsfrom now '.

The time has come and the time is now. Now,today, now. This incredible manifestation of mercyis coming to us today. And we have to get it inour mind.

smooth and beautiful. His hands are raised and palmsare facing forward and slightly down giving bless-ings to everyone. 'Not to be undone' - Jananivas Prabhu has few, butwise words to confidentially share with us - 'wewere surprised to see the amount of work that hadbeen put into the Deities after They came out ofthe casting mold'.

We naively thought a very small amount ofwork, like a little polishing here and there and theDeities would be ready. But reality taught us oth-erwise. The massive amount of work in all of theDeities is truly impressive. There are hundreds ofwork-hours put into each Deity.

The first line of polish is the removal of mudcakes encrusted into ‘the metal of the Deity justafter the casting is done, then a second polish or carv-ing to bring a general shape of the details of thingslike the belt, armlets, earlobes, etc. This is called sofar the rough polishing. After that the smooth pol-ishing starts. Which is then done by more seniorartists. The whole process is intense and at least 10workers are at any one time working on thedeities within different levels of polish ing.

Work is going on simultaneously on LordNityananda's form as well. MK:MK: So, are now all five deities cast?B: B: Yes. With the casting of Shrivasa Thakura it waslike final manifestat ion of the Pancha-tattva. It wasastounding, like a puzzle - when you put the lastpiece in you suddenly have the full picture. WhenShrivasa came I felt that this work is done now -They are here, They are here to stay. Now finishing work is going on, polishing and then

we will bring Them to Mayapur. Then we will haveinsta llation and this will be the g lory of Mayapur.

We strongly suggest to all the devotees of theuniverse and beyond to attend the Installation atMayapur in February 2004! The next opportunitywill be 4 million years from now on the next Dayof Brahma!!!

Epi logue

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We should get it out of our mind that it will happen sometime in the future. Today, now, it is hap-pening, the mercy, Lord Caitanya is there and when the deities will come here - there will be incrediblepressure to build the Adbhuta Mandir. This is it. Now , today. Installat ion is just around the corner. Whatwill be after that? Adbhuta Mandir.

This is our chance to take this challenge and bring Mayapur to the next level. And for that we have tobe prepared to be on the next level ourselves.

We will go to the next level of devotional service, because the preaching here will be incredible. Everybody will want to come to see these deities. Lord Caitanya is going to bring this mercy.

We know that by His mercy we are in devotional service, we could not be in devotional service with-out Lord Caitanya. When Lord Caitanya comes, many more people will get to know how to serve Krishna. This means churning the nectar of devotional service. This means we will get busy here and this is justright for us. u

MK:MK: What had inspired the idea tomake a Dress Department here,before where were the dresses made?Jananivasa Prabhu: They weremade in Vrindavan, Omkar Prabhuused to make them, then he left.After that Mother Vidya also wasmaking dresses there. We weremaking nightdresses here, bhaktaFrance was making them. Then westarted to make day dresses as well.This was for several reasons, one isthat it was cheaper, another reason,we could see the work as it pro-gressed and could also makechanges. Sometimes we have aconception, but when we put it oncloth it looks different, so we wereable to make changes as we weregoing along. When it was made inVrindavan we just had to wait forthe finished results. Sometimesthere were some mistakes also. So,it is a lot easier to make dresseshere.MK:MK: When did the dress-makingdepartment start here in Mayapur?J: In the late 80s. Isani Mataji wasthe first one. Before Omkar Prabhuwas making everything and after heleft we started to make night dress-es here and day dresses were made inVrindavan. Isani Mataji started tomake nightdresses. Bipul was thefirst tailor, he is still here, and thenbhakta France came. Bala Gopala

Mataji, she was living here then,with the help of some ladies shemade one of the first day dresses.Kurma Chaitanya Prabhu broughtthe jari workers here. MK:MK: Before the jari workers camewho was decorating the dresses?J:J: Before the dresses were deco-rated in a different type of way,with some cloth designs, BalaGopala was designing the dress.So we started to do half dresseshere and half still in Vrindavan,and slowly got more and moreworkers and now we are makingeverything here. MK:MK: Where do these jari workerslive?J:J: Some of them local, somefrom Kolkata. They have a room

either here or outside. Some ofthem live in Gouranga Nagar,just up the road, some in SwarupGhange, some in Navadvip. Alsothree brahmacharis are involvedin dress making. Nama AvataraPrabhu oversees the work. Thereare also some initiated devoteesin white. MK:MK: Who is purchasing clothand jaris?J:J: Some devotees and sometimesworkers go into Kolkatta, we tellthem what we want and they arepurchasing.MK:MK: Who is making the designs?J:J: Keshavi Mataji is makingdesigns for the day dresses, thenwe decide on the colors. MK:MK: Does the designer supervise

Interview with Jananivasa Prabhu about theDeity Dress Making Department

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the work or just hand it in?J:J: The designer first comes to meand we discuss, sometimes mak-ing changes, then we go aheadand make the pattern, then we layit out on the cloth, then we dis-cuss it again, see if we want tomake any changes. By the one pat-tern we understand how muchmaterial is going to be needed forthe whole set. Then somebodygoes and purchases the materialand we start making the dress. MK:MK: How long has Kesavi Matajibeen doing this service?J:J: She is involved with makingdresses more or less from thebeginning. She is married intothe Department. Her husbandBalaram Nitai Das has been aPujari for years. MK:MK: So, she started to work inthis department since she gotmarried?J:J: More or less. Before she wasalso giving some ideas some-times. She is a very humble devo-tee. She actually has an artisticdegree, her paintings are verybeautiful.MK:MK: She has three children now,

did it affect her service?J:J: She is doing more than before.She is doing all the drawings for thedresses, laying it out, she has tosupervise the work. She is keep-ing an eye on it and makes thedesign for the crowns also.MK:MK: For the last two yearsRamadevi Mataji is making night-dresses for Janmastami andRadhastami, involving half of ourcommunity in the process. Is it atradition now? J:J: She just comes up before thefestivals to make dresses. She willalso make a nightdress for GouraPurnima this year. She has anoth-er work to do, delivering babies.(She is working with SriMayapur Vikash Sangha as mid-wife) But, I think she wants to come fulltime into making dresses. MK:MK: You said that she just comesfor making dresses before the festi-vals. What work is going on inthis department at other times?J: J : That more or less takes thewhole time. Now we have to startmaking dresses for the big Pancha-tattva, who are coming soon.

MK:MK: When are you going to startto make dresses for Them?J:J: Yes, we already started.Keshavi Mataji is making design(dhoti and chadars for now).MK:MK: How many dresses will youmake?J:J: We want eight sets before theinstallation. We will keep itsimple because we also willhave to make seven nightdress-es. All together there will be fif-teen. MK:MK: Are you intending to keepthis simple design for the futureas well or do something morefancy later?J:J: Yes. This is Lord Caitanya'sst ile - dhoti, chadar.MK:MK: How do you understandwhat Srila Prabhupada saidabout dressing Lord Caitanya asthe prince of Navadvipa?J:J: Yes, it means opulent dhoti,chadar, you can have turbanwith mukut, jewelry. In the Gaura-arotik song Bhaktivinoda Thakursaid: "Just see the opulence ofLord Caitanya". MK:MK: Thank you Prabhu. HareKrishna.

Pavan Das and Krishna DeviDasi had a daughter born tothem on Rathayatra Day andthus she has been namedSubhadra Devi Dasi. She wasborn in Krishnanagar hospital.She is the first child of this youngcouple, her mother is eighteenand father is twenty-five. KrishnaDevi Dasi was born and grew uphere, in ISKCON Mayapur, herparents are Kamaka Das andMaha Laxmi Devi Dasi. Her hus-

band, Pavan, was born in Santipur and came here veryyoung with his parents, Sada Sidhi Das and Gitamrita DeviDasi. At present his service is kirtana - teaching, singing inBhajan Kutir, attending different preaching programs askirtanier.

More Babies in our community

Little Yamunangi was born onAugust 8, on Pavitra Ekadasi andalso Sri Sri Radha-Madhava JulanYatra.

Her parents are SuchitendriyaDas and Gouri Devi Dasi, who is adaughter of Srila Prabhupada'syounger son, Vrindavan.

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MK:MK: Mataji, how do you do thesewonderful designs?Kesavi Devi Dasi: JananivasPrabhu gives the conception and wemake some sketches on paper, sam-ple on the cloth. We try in differentways till he is satisfied. Once abasic design is approved, we drawthat design on the tracing paperaccording to the actual measure-ment and pattern. After this stagewe discuss more details. The fact isthat Jananivas Prabhu is designingeverything and out of his causelessmercy he is allowing me to takepart.MK:MK: How is this design trans-formed onto the cloth?K:K: We make tiny holes on thedrawing line with a pin, place thattracing paper with pin holes on thecloth which is set on the flame liketable, spread the mixture ofkerosene oil and chalk powder onthe paper, thus when we remove thepaper and chalk, a dotted lineremains on the cloth.MK:MK: Where do you get these mate-rials?K:K: From Kolkata and Delhi.MK:MK: Who is sponsoring the Deitydresses?K:K: Radhapada Prabhu used tosponsor most of the dresses beforehis departure from this world.

Nowadays, different devotees,life-members and temples donate.Jananivas Prabhu knows exactlywho donates for which dress.MK:MK: Where did you learndesigning?K:K: I took a fashion design coursein my college in Japan andlearnt it in an academic way withcomplicated mathematical calcu-lation to draw the line on the pat-tern, scientific explanation of thematerials, history of fashion. Ilearnt the art of ancient kimonodesign also. After I finished col-lege, I went to a fashion designspecialist in Tokyo to learn the pro-fessional way of designing whichincludes developing the concep-tion, presentation, the materials,drawing, colouring, textile design,pattern making and stitching.MK:MK: Who is your spiritual mas-ter? Where did you get initiation?K:K: My diksa guru is H.H.Jaypataka Swami. He kindly gaveme initiat ion in Tokyo, April 1985.MK:MK: How did you come toMayapur?K:K: I came here for Goura Purnimain 1984 as a karmi. At that timeRadha Madhava where in theLotus Building and Their closedarsan was overwhelming. MyGuru Maharaja came to Tokyo in

June 1984. Just by seeing hisaffectionate dealings, full of com-passion, deep concern for a rottenperson like me, my hard heartmelted, my stupid dream tobecome a famous fashiondesigner disappeared.

I desired so much to surrendermyself to his lotus feet, and Imoved to the Temple the sameday. Although I was staying in theTokyo Temple, I always wantedto come here to serve RadhaMadhava.

I painted the mataji's asramwith sky blue and saffron colour(famous Lotus building colour),made a sign "Sri MayapurCandrodaya Mandir", set up abig photo of Radha Madhava onthe wall imagining that I was inMayapur. Otherwise I would havegone mad, I think I was mad.

Anyway, everyone thought thatI was mad, so they let me go on myway to Mayapur. In 1988 I wasyoung and new to India, verymuch bewildered. Ishani Matajiwas taking care of me affection-ately and we were making dressesfor Radha Madhava together.Since then I'm still serving RadhaMadhava in the same bewilderedstage.MK:MK: How long do you want tocontinue with your service?K:K: My Guru Maharaja told me:"you are very fortunate that youare serving Radha Madhavaunder Jananivas Prabhu, he is yourboss. Do whatever he says, thatwill make me happy". If I cancontinue this service without com-mitting any offence till the lastbreath of my life, I consider itwould be the perfection. u

I wish to do more. Butmy 24 hours is almostfully occupied by mytwo-year-old baby,Bhakta Vatsala, who right-ly demands so much atten-tion. My daughters,Medharani and Manjulalitake very nice care of thebaby after they come homefrom the school, so I canwork on the dress if I amnot too tired. Somehow orother we manage to finishthe dresses on time by themercy of Guru &Gouranga.

Tra nscend en ta l ta ilo r

interview by Gopa Mukherji

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Interview with Hrimati Devi Dasi

MK:MK: Tell us how you got the idea tolive like this - in a hut with cows, etcvery simple life style.H:H: I had to move, I used to live in theExpo, and it was to be demolished,therefore, I needed a place. We had aplot of land and so we built a houseaccording to our budget.MK:MK: This is a very cosy two-storiedhut with mud floor, bamboo walls, anda thatched roof. How much did yourhouse cost to build?H:H: Well, with the mud (you have toput mud first, it took twenty truck-loads of mud) it was ten thousandRupees. Twenty loads of mud, meanstwenty tractors. One tractor wasabout 130 Rupees. About 2,600Rupees went on bringing and puttingthe mud and later little more, so moreor less, Rupees 3,000 worth of mud.MK: Does one consider this somekind of mud house?H:H: It was mud before. The first

year we had mud floor, but so manybugs, frogs, and snakes came all chas-ing each other. In addition, after therains, because the land is quite low,the floor stayed wet. Therefore, wedecided to reinforce it. First, we putbricks around and as money came, wecemented the floor. My brother gaveme a little bit of money. The rest of thehouse is bamboo, Rupees 3,000 worthof bamboo. Labour charge to make thehouse was also 3,000 Rupees. Thelabours were working for two weeksto finish the whole thing, thatchedroof, and all.MK:MK: How did this adventurous ideato build a house like this come to you?Did someone suggest it to you?H:H: No. Everyone needs a roof overtheir head, don't they?MK:MK: Do you have electricity?H:H: That came later. At first, we had noline. Now we have our own line.Actually, there is no problem living

like this.MK:MK: Why did you decide to get a cowand a bull?H:H: Well... we needed milk. We tried toget milk from the Goshala, but we livefar away, so it was always a problem,and we did not always have money tobuy milk. So, then I asked the templeif they could give me a cow. I askedGaura Hari and Radhaduti Prabhus.They said that I would have to get per-mission from Pancharatna Prabhu, ifhe says it is okay, then I could have acow. When I asked Pancharatna, hesaid, "YOU want a cow?" However,after I assured him, that I knew a littlebit about cows and my Gardener,Gauranga Gosh, knows also how totake care of cows, he agreed.Thereafter Gauranga and I went to theGosala and they told us that we couldhave this one, this one, or this one;however, they needed to check thepapers, if someone already sponsoredany of those cows.

My children and I had to go toKolkata for some urgent reason thenext day and when we came back; toour great surprise, we found two hugecows in our barn. My gardener saidthat he had gone to the Goshala andthey told him to take Vishnupriyabecause all the others were sponsored.I never even saw Vishnupriya before.As cow comes with a calf, I gotBalaram, the bull, as well. So, I havethis huge Friesen Holstein cow andmassive half Holstein half Sirivalbull.

Vishnupriya was only giving aboutone and half litre of milk a day. So, Ithought; well let us get some food infor this cow. We went to Baman Pukurand purchased some cow feed andgave it to her with lots of Love. Cowsrespond to Love, you know… Withinthree days, only three days, I am notlying now; she gave us five litres -three in the morning, two in theevening. Now we had too much milkand did not know what to do with it.MK:MK: How old was Balarama then?H:H: Eight months old.MK:MK: For how long have the cowsbeen with you so far?H:H: I got them more then two yearsago. Balaram is three years now.

I make yoghurt and ghee. When Iwas making a lot of ghee I used to

From Pankajanghri Prabhu:

She is actually showing that it is practical to live like that.She lives in a straw hut, she goes everywhere by bullock cart, she ismaintaining herself somehow by cottage industry, she is using thebull and the cows to increase her income. She has three children withher. So, she is doing it, supporting all of them somehow. At themoment her health is not good, but she is still pulling on with it.She is a pioneer of what everyone is talking about. Everyone istalking about varna-ashrama, but she is going out there and doingit. She left everyone behind and shows how it is possible in prac-tice. And the fact that she is doing it single-handedly with threechildren is amazing. Of course, it is a little austere - this is why sheis glorious.

10

Jaya sri krishna chaitanya prabhu nityananda sri advaita gadadhara srivasadi gaura bhakta vrindagive it to

Radha-Madhava. Jananivasa told methat he was using it for TheirLordship's bath every morning. Heliked the ghee because it was allfrom the Dham - cow eats food fromthe Dham, was born in the Dham etc.

So, now we have Balaram. Manypeople used to tell me 'what are yougoing to do with this bull? He willget too big and dangerous'. In reply,I said, "no, we will use him". I calleda vet and he castrated the bull. Wehave one neighbour, a local farmer,who trained Balaram. He used tohitch him up with his own bull toplough the field, so he learned how toplough the field quite early and to lis-ten to all the commands. He turned outto be a very good animal.

I always had this idea to make acart. I found one Professor NSRamaswami, from South India; he sentme the design for a single animal bul-lock cart. Then, during Goura Purnima2003 I met a very nice devotee, whosponsored the cart, because I did nothave the money for it.MK:MK: How much did the cart cost tomake?H:H: The wheel assembly and axel costfive thousand Rupees and the rest wasabout eight thousand. It was new forthe workers to make this, so I had to bethere and look over them, measureeverything and tell them what to do.MK:MK: How do your sons like this kindof life style?H:H: When we first moved in here,Abhay was a little shy to tell peoplethat we are living in a straw hut.However, Nandulal would sit on theveranda and say, “this is real life,natural life, I don't like anything arti-ficial”.MK:MK: How many sons are with younow?H:H: Originally, they were four, but nowone went to the West, so three are stillwith me.MK:MK: How many children do youhave all together?H:H: Seven, but only four came withme to India. Now Navadvip grew upand has gone for some training toItaly. Abhay and Nandu are twins,fourteen years old; they are still goingto the Day School. Japa goes toGurukula in Vrindavan. He is sixteen.

MK:MK: So, your children basically man-aged to adapt to the new style of living?H:H: Yea, there is really nothing oddabout living in a straw hut. It is cool inthe summer.MK:MK: Do you use a fan?H:H: Well, I use it when it gets veryhumid. In the Expo, the place where wewere living before was very hot, likeliving inside an oven. Now I don't getbothered by the summer so much,except for when I have to go out intothe sun. The straw is very good insula-tion from the sun.MK:MK: And your transport is the bullockcart?H:H: Yes. I have a bicycle, but it is dif-ficult to cycle for me due to somebone disease I have. Sometimes I justhave to get off the bicycle and walk.The bullock cart is actually helpingme a lot to get around. In addition,when we come to the temple we cutsome nice green grass for the cowsand are take it home with the cart.MK:MK: How much do you pay to yourcow keeper?H:H: At first, I was paying him 1,300Rupees a month, but since my cow hadanother calf, I increased his money to1,500. It is a female calf, so now wehave got two cows and the bull. ThisGouranga (the gardener) is taking careof all of them under my supervision.MK:MK: Are you growing something onyour land?H:H: Yes. All kinds of things according tothe season - spinach, cauliflower,beans, ladyfinger etc, we also havesome mango trees, neem trees, jackfruittrees, a lime tree, and kadamba tree.MK:MK: Are they giving fruits?H:H: Not yet. We planted them from theseed in a natural way. And since wemoved, there was no flood, so the treesdid not die and will have fruits in2 or three years. We are eating onlyhomegrown vegetables. Potatoes, salt,rice, flower, and some spices I buy inthe market. I don't buy any oil. I cookonly with the ghee I make myself,from the milk I am getting from mycow. We are also getting plenty of milkto drink. Also I sell milk - four to sixlitres a day. Money from that pays forthe cow-keeper and extra goes forVishnupriya's feed. We have to getextra cow-feed for her. Plus we growsome grass for them on some land near-

by.MK:MK: Is it some special grass?H:H: Yes, Sorghum, it grows very tall.The cows do not eat it directly fromthe field. We cut it for them. Of course,they also go out in the afternoon tograze. In the wintertime, we growchickpeas and green peas for them. Thewhole plant goes to the cow and shegives a lot of milk. Little by little, welearned what feed they like, andwhich grass is good and which is not.MK:MK: How much milk are you gettingfrom your cow?H:H: After she had a new calf inDecember, she was giving eleven totwelve litres.MK:MK: Who is milking?H:H: The cow keeper, but I watch him,so he milks properly, because some-times he is pulling too hard. I haveexperience of milking cows from whenI was young; I was living on a HareKrishna farm in America. I've alwaysloved Animals. When I was a kid, Iused to be part of an Animal ShelterClub, in Germany. I used to go aroundasking donations for the benefit ofrejected Animals. At home I alwaysused to keep birds, hamsters, dogs, etc.I even had a pet fish.MK:MK: How did you join ISKCON?H:H: My brother August got me intoit in 1971.

I remember he used to burn those‘Spiritual Sky’ s trawberry incensesticks in his room. Those Incenseback then were by far worse thanany incense s ticks you can buy in ourdays in ISKCON temples. I told mybrother "If it smells like that in thattemple of yours, I will never go there."For our birthday, my twin brothergave me a small record produced by theApple company; it had the songGovindam Adi Purusham on side 'A'and Govinda Jaya Jaya on side 'B'. Iliked side A so much that I wrote thetext with big letters on the wall inmy room. To the dis like of my foursis ters, I played that song day in andday out. The record cover had a pic-ture of Krishna offering Puja to acow on it. I made a little Altar in thecorner of our room and offered, inmy own way, water and a flowerevery day to Krishna. So, slowly, slow-ly I met some devotees and startedchanting more and more, like that.

11


clothes. At night, I was rolling outmy mat to sleep on. In the morning,I was doing service, during Japaperiod I had to go to my job and thenI came back in the afternoon. Devoteeswould save Prasad for me. Then Iwas doing service in the temple, I wassewing. I was always sewing. And nowalso, I am earning money by sewing(dolls). Even after marriage I wasalways in the temple sewing some-thing, everybody would come to askme to sew something for them -Sankirtan bags, Bead bags, fix theirtorn clothes etc.MK:MK: Did you get married inGermany?H:H: Yes. Later we moved to America.I lived there for many years. After Ihad my twin boys, my marriage fellapart. For five years, I was workingvery very hard to support my sevenchildren on my own. Until I just did notwant to live like that any more.Children jus t off in a school some-where, no Krishna Consciousness.MK:MK: What were you doing?H:H: Bookbinding work at Hi-techPublication. It was very hard work. Idid not want my children to grow uplike that. So, I quit my job and went toEurope. There Harikesha Maharajasaid "why don't you check outMayapur? There are schools, it is greenand lush, you can make lots of newfriends.... I think you will like itthere" and I went for it. I never hadbeen to Mayapur before, so in 1996 Icame here for the first time.

So, now, when I moved in this hut Iwas really poor actually. I used to havesome income from Germany, but thatabruptly finished. There is a verse inSrimad-Bhagavatam, which states thatsometimes to show special favour toHis devotees Krishna takes away allone's material opulence. I had to comeup with some idea for income. So Idecided to make dolls. I got material,made a doll and sold it. Then I gotsome more material, made two dollsand sold them and so on. Then some-body ordered one hundred dolls andgave me half of the payment inadvance. So, I was able to buy materi-als and made a hundred dolls. It gaveme a little boost. And now, after threeyears I am still making dolls and Ikeep my children and myself alive

MK:MK: Did you meet Srila Prabhupadain Germany?H:H: I was initiated by letter in April1973. I first met Srila Prabhupada in1973 after my initiation. There was afestival in Sweden and I went there,I was very young then. When Ijoined, I was fifteen. Right after I finished school, the next

day, I went to the temple and nevercame back again. I was from Hamburgand I went to Heidelberg temple tospend a weekend because they hadsome Matajis there. In my town's tem-ple they did not have any Matajis,only brahmacharis, so I wanted to gosomewhere, where there was somelady-devotees and where I could stayover night and get some experience.When I wanted to go home after three

days, someone asked me "why are yougoing home? Just stay." I never eventhought about it, "you mean I canstay?" So, I stayed. I refunded mytrain ticket, bought a sleeping bag andstayed in the temple. My parents didnot complain until one year later.

I had not gone home since I wentthere. However, they were not veryworried in a sense, knowing that Iwas in a temple and nothing bad wasgoing to happen to me. They had tenchildren. My brothers and s isters weregiving them plenty of worries. At thattime, everyone was into drugs and Iwas the only one who was not. So,when I went to the temple my parentshad no time to go and search me outuntil a year later. My father actuallythought that it was a good experiencefor me, but when I was not comingback, he started to get a little worried. Later I made a deal with my dad. Hewas saying that I had to have a job,had to learn something, so I couldearn some money later in life. Hefound me a job in a dressmaking place,so I could learn how to sew andbecome a fancy dress maker. I wasallowed to stay in the temple inHamburg, near my father's house.From there I was going to my jobevery day. At that time there wereonly Brahmacharies living in thetemple, so they gave me a corner ina small hallway where everybodyhung their coats, just before enteringthe House from the main entrance. Ihad a banana box for keeping my

with that. It is with the doll money Ibuilt this house. You see, Krishna isacting in a very mysterious waysome times. Sometimes Krishna mayput us into some difficulty just topurify us and force us to advance inKrishna consciousness.MK:MK: Where are your other children?H:H: I have three older children. Mydaughter, Nandini dasi and son NamaChintamani Krishna das are inAmerica. My eldest son JaiNrisimhadeva is in Germany. All ofthem are married and have their ownchildren. I have four grandchildren.MK:MK: Do you go to see them some-time?H:H: No, I have no money. My eldestson has two daughters and I havenot even seen the wife. I have nomoney to go and visit them.MK: MK: Are they devotees?H:H: They are initiated devotees. Mygranddaughter's names are Mirabhaiand Lilavati. My son is doing elec-tric welding. My daughter is a tech-nical writer, she writes law books.She has a six year old son namedNitai. My other son is an artist andhe is going to Colorado StateUniversity, he also works and has ason named Nimai. I love my childrenvery much and they love me too.They are good children. They all wentto Gurukula and now they havetheir own lives. Navadvipa is now inItaly, learning some managementfrom my brother, who is running abig hotel there. He is helping myson to get his life together. ButNavadvipa wants to come backhere, to Mayapur.

I want to stay in Mayapur, I have noother place to go.MK:MK: What about your younger sons?H:H: They like to live in Mayapur. IfI could find a good education for themhere… They are talented and want tolearn things. Abhay is an artist andNandulal is inclined to write, helikes nature. I never push my chil-dren. Desire to be devotee has tocome naturally and it is coming natu-rally. Nandulal especially doesn'tlike to be pressured from either side.They are devotees. By living in theDham this is coming naturally. Abhayis our pujari at home, he is dressingour Gaura Nitai Deities, offers flowers

12


and cleans the altar. I am not pressur-ing them that they have to live austerein a straw hut, it is just what we havegot. Except for the spiders and frogsjumping across the floor, it is not dif-ferent from living anywhere else. Ihave become kind of attached to livehere. It is natural living actually. SinceI am living here, I have more respectfor Nature. It keeps you somewhathumble. Once there was a snake curledup in a water tray underneath myfridge. I went to empty the tray andfound this snake sitting there. "OK,sorry to disturb you, but I need mytray empty…" That's been one of thereasons why we redid our floor withcement instead of mud. The mud floorwas too soft, the house was full offrogs and snakes would go after them,sometimes we see a snake goingacross the room with a frog in it'smouth, trying to swallow it. You see,it is not boring living in a hut.MK:MK: Would you say that you becamemore self-sufficient then before?H:H: The self-sufficiency is what Ireally like. Prabhupada wanted that.He told us to grow our own food,make our own clothes. "Work isthere. If you have cows and if youhave got land, then you till the landget grains, and there is milk, there isfruit, there is flower. Anywhere, youcan live peacefully." He even saidsomething about making dolls inMayapur.

"Similarly we can import nice dollshere. Gradually as our men becomeexpert they can manufacture the samething here. So, Mayapur inhabitantscan be engaged in such a small manu-facturing enterprise as well as farmingto become self sufficient."

So, now we are living off the land,the cows, we are even making cow-dung patties, gobar patties and givingthem for puja purposes. At night Imake a fire with the patties to get rid ofthe mosquitoes. I make ghee andyoghurt and we have milk. We sell itto support the cows. I am also mak-ing dolls and bead bags.

Prabhupada actually wanted this. So,I am happy. I am much more contentand happy then I used to be. I usedto be depressed sometimes. You getless mental when living naturally. I

heard that Srila Prabhupada in Hislast days wanted to go on a bullockcart visiting the holy places.

I am sure Prabhupada would notobject to what I am doing. If I wouldlive in some apartment over there, Iwould have to look for a job. It cost alot of money to support all that stuff.Here we just depend on the land andthe cows.MK:MK: It's great what you are doing.Such an example! Many cannot evenimagine that it is possible to live likethis having a Western body.H:H: It is actually very peaceful liv-ing and the local people don't envyyou so much. The Indian people arelooking, "wow! this Mataji is livinglike this".

His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swamiwas staying next door, in DinaCaitanya's house during last GouraPurnima. He was saying, "this isamazing that you are living likethis, with the cow and everything…".He was asking how I am maintainingand I explained, he said, "it is justlike Prabhupada wanted!"

I've done a lot of mistakes in mylife. The way I live now is a lot morepeaceful, for the mind especially. Ithink it is important to live withnature.MK: MK: Of course, when no one is dis-turbed with you, your mind is alsonot disturbed. Has anyone followedyour example so far?H:H: Yes. I don't know how he knew,but one devotee from England, Davidwrote me an e-mail, asking detailsabout living in a straw hut becausehe heard that I was living like this.And then he actually came and builta hut in Taranpur. He is living therewith his son. He is a teacher in theGurukula.

Another Spanish devotee built him-self a hut across the field. We cansee it from here. I used to live in astraw hut. I lived like this in thePhilippines, my son NavadvipaChandra was born in a bamboohouse. That is where I got the ideato build a hut like this one.MK:MK: Who built it for you?H:H: Nazir, a worker from Maharaja'sGurukula. He built huts for them,but I told him that I wanted straight

walls and showed him how tomake a second floor.MK:MK: So, you lived in Mayapursince 1996. Had you been to Indiabefore?H:H: I was in India before, in 1976 forone year, mos tly in Vrindavan andon the Hyderabad farm. Prabhupadanamed my daughter. She was bornon Srila Prabhupada's Vyasa PujaDay in Vrindavan.

In Hyderabad Prabhupada talked alot about living simply off the landand with the cows. I was livingsimply there.

We spent a lot of time withPrabhupada there. It was veryinspiring to see Srila Prabhupada'senthusiasm for developing the farmproject. The land was just acquired,there were many thieves, and if youput clothes on the line to dry, theywould take not only the clothes, butthe line as well. Or in the morningopen the altar and there are nomore pictures. It was a totally unde-veloped area. Devotees had 108cows and only two or three of themgave milk, about two-three litres aday and there was only eight or tendevotees there. It was quite a strug-gle.MK:MK: Are you feeling secure here inMayapur?H:H: Local people are very friendly.Thieves are everywhere anyway.MK:MK: Where do you sell your dolls?H:H: Goura Purnima Fes tival, KartikFestival in Vrindavan. I also supplyby Mail Order to 'Back to Godhead'magazine. I also have a webs ite. Mydaughter and elder sons are helpingme with it.MK:MK: How is making the dolls?H:H: I make them myself, and oneMataji, Malina, is helping me doingsome handwork and stuffing. That'sthe way to live. I do somethingwith my own hands.MK:MK: Thank you Hrimati Mataji, forsharing your experiences in KrishnaConsciousness.H:H: You welcome, Hare Krishna.

13


ABHAI: I am fourteen and I have lived in Mayapurfor seven years and I like it very much here.Mayapur is a very beautiful place.MK:MK: What do you like to do? Do you have any planwhat to do in life?Abhai: I don't really know. My mom says that I am agood artist and she wants me to become better. Ihave an art class twice a week, Chandramukhi Matajiis teaching us in the Day School.MK:MK: Are you going to try for an Art School?Abhai: I don't know. I went to some places, but theywere doing with paints mostly. I like more with pen-cils.MK:MK: Are you looking at some pictures when youdraw? Abhai: No, I see it in my mind.MK:MK: Do you think that you are a good artist?Abhai: My friends and mom say I am. I don'tknow. Also I really like our bull and cows. MK:MK: Do you help to look after them?Abhai: Yes. They are really enjoying when you brushthem. I also learned little bit about milking. MK:MK: How do you feel about living out here?Abhai: I think it is great here. Life in the city is sodisturbing, you hear the cars all the time. MK:MK: How old were you when you came to Mayapur?Abhai: When we came here I was just turning seven.I remember I was so amazed. Things were so differ-

ent and people too, how they did things. It was a newthing to see bulls ploughing the fields. I was especiallyamazed with Deities. They are so beautiful, NrisimhaDeva especially, I always liked Him. MK:MK: Have you been through some floods since you arehere?Abhai: Since we moved on this side there was no flood.I had been through some floods in Mayapur. It seems tobe fun, but not when you hear about the people who dieoutside, lots of people died. MK:MK: Do you have any plans what to do after graduatingfrom school?Abhai: Sometimes I think about that, but don't haveanything in my hand now. I still kind of thinking about it.My mother is getting old, so I may be try to help her. MK: MK: Do you have someone to look up to in spiritual life?Abhai: I don't know, somebody like Jananivasa andPankajanghri Prabhus. I have some friends, one schoolboy, also Abhai, came from Spain, I really like him. MK:MK: Do you want to be a brahmachari after graduating?Abhai: Previously I wanted to stay brahmachari. I don'tknow now. I don't know what to think about when Igrow up. Things are changing all the time. MK:MK: Do you have association with someone whoinspires you?Abhai: No, I am not getting any. I have brothers. I reallymiss my older brothers, I haven't seen some of themfor five years. I hope to see them in the future. u

NANDU: Well, I have a lot of friends here and Ihave a lot to do. I am studying Ju-jitsu four days aweek. MK:MK: Can you cure someone or help yourselves withwhat you learned there?Nandu: Recently I had diarrhoea, someone didsomething we learned in the Ju-jitsu classes, and ithelped. We can cure headaches, diarrhoea, constipa-tion and all kinds of diseases. We are also learningcomputer in school along with the other subjects. MK:MK: What can you do on the computer?Nandu: We learned about Microsoft Excel andMicrosoft Word. We know how to type on computer.Before me and my brother used to help with cleaningthe floor in the temple before mangala-arotic. I alsowrote to 'Mayapur Katha' before. Now I am mostlyhelping my mom. MK:MK: What do you do to help your mom?Nandu: Wash pots and kitchen. I like living natu-rally here and it is more private then living in the

Housing area. It is nice and cool, not so hot and wehave whole bunch of mangoes, kadamba trees, we aregrowing bindis and other subjis. MK:MK: Do you have friends here?Nandu: Yes, Phanishvara Prabhu's sons. They live justacross the road. MK:MK: Do you have some plans what to do in life?Nandu: I want to be a preacher, travel and preach. Firstdo some preaching and then may be something else.MK:MK: What do you think to do to be a preacher - are yougoing to join the ashram or you want to travel with someother preaches?Nandu: Travel. MK:MK: Do you already have experience of that?Nandu: I travel a little with Phalguna Prabhu and dis-tributed some books during Ratha-yatra in Kolkata.We were going around Kolkata doing kirtan every-where. We did kirtan in the New Market area andsold a few books. MK: MK: Do you want to travel in India or outside of India?

Interview with Hrimati Mataji's twin sons, Abhai and Nandulal, age 14

continued on p. 14

Interview with Jamastami Dasa

14


MK:MK: How long have you beenorganizing the MIHE?JANMASTAM I DASA: I started inMay of 1999.MK:MK: Are you satisfied that it hasdeveloped according to the visionthat you had when you started it?J:J: In many ways, I am, but therehave also been some disappoint-ments.MK:MK: What do you feel are itsbiggest successes?J:J: The MIHE has developed afacility whereby devotees fromaround the world can intimatelyassociate with the most seniordevotees in the movement. Thisyear we have seventeenPrabhupada disciples teaching, outof which nine are sannyasis.

Last year I heard from our stu-dents many moving testimonies ofhow attending the MIHE had savedtheir spiritual lives. Hearing andchanting in Sridhama

Mayapur is very powerful.Systematically studying SrilaPrabhupada's books as we havebeen doing in our VTE Bhakti-sastri course and as we will do inour new VTE Bhaktivaibhavacourse is a particularly powerfulapproach to this fundamentalprocess of hearing and chanting inthe Dhama. This is true becausenot only are devotees learning indetail the powerful philosophythat Srila Prabhupada has givenus, but they are also learning itin such a way that they can easilyapply it in their lives and in theirpreaching.

Many of our Bhakti-sastri grad-uates have gone on to becomeBhakti-sastri teachers themselves.

The MIHE is also attractingserious devotees to Mayapur tostudy and live.

This year we will have around30 international devotees comingto Mayapur for the Bhakti-sastricourse. We anticipate over 500students during our upcomingsemester. In this way, the MIHE ishelping to develop brahminicalculture worldwide and locally.MK:MK: What are you disappoint-ments?J:J: I do not like to focus on thesepoints, but since you ask.

I think the biggest disappoint-ment is the toll my seva to theMIHE has taken on my life as adevotee. When I moved to India, Iwas hoping that my hearing andchanting would increase as wouldmy time for spending with my fam-ily.

In moving here, I planned towork within education as my seva.I tried to work with the existingschools, but somehow or other thechemistry was not quite right, so Istarted the MIHE. I had no ideahow much of my time and resourcesthe MIHE would demand in estab-lishing and maintaining. I under-estimated how difficult it wouldbe to accomplish even simpleadministrat ive functions in India.As a result, my time to hear, chantand associate with my familyactually decreased substantially.MK:MK: What are you doing to dealwith this?J:J: By Krishna's grace, three verysincere and competent devotees,Bhakta Stefan, his wife, BhaktinGosia, and Rama Prabhu, havecome to the MIHE to run much ofthe administration. By theirinvolvement, I will be free to attend

the MIHE Bhakti-sastri andBhaktivaibhava courses this year,and teach courses myself insubsequent years.

I am also not going to go tothe West to collect as much as Ihave in the past because I havedeveloped the ways and meansof maintaining the MIHE andmy family without resorting tothis unpleasant endeavour. I amtherefore able to spend muchmore time with my family andwith the devotional activitiesthat I love.MK:MK: What are your plans fordeveloping the MIHE in thefuture?J:J: We are going to try to stabilizeand fine tune what we havealready developed, and wait to seehow Krishna inspires and facili-tates us for future development.

u

the Director of the MIHE

Nandu: Anywhere.MK:MK: Do you have someone tolook up to? Do you want to travelwith some particular preacher?Nandu: It could be anyone as longas he is a nice person.MK:MK: What do you mean by 'niceperson'?Nandu: someone who is not toostrict with you, of course heshould be a bit strict, but not toostrict. Let us be on our own some-times, let us do what we want to dosometimes, and also have goodkirtans. I can play mridanga andkaratals.MK: MK: Where did you learn?Nandu: I did not learn anywhere,I just picked it up. I watched afew people playing, that also werejust practice mantras, not kirtanonce. Kirtan mantras I just makeup myself and play. u

continued from p. 13

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Recently Education in Mayapur has taken amajor step forward towards fulfilling SrilaPrabhupada's desire that the schools here should beexemplary. The Bhaktivedanta Gurukula and the SriMayapura Chandrodaya Day School have amalga-mated into one school, under one administrativeumbrella, recognizing similarities in educationalgoals and the economic practicality of uniting as asingle educational st ructure.

This combination means that resources, such asscience and computer laboratories, that were oncelimited to either one of the schools are nowshared by both schools, greatly benefiting the chil-dren. The unified school now boasts well devel-oped primary and secondary educational facilities,classes being established from KG to grade 10. Allaspects of the curriculum of both primary andsecondary school are standardized. Children receivean education which is on a par with world stan-dards. To ensure that the education we offer is of ahigh standard the school is subject to an annualexternal assessment.

The school is affiliated to Cambridge. We are rec-

ognized as a sub-centre and have our own regis-trat ion number. Grade 10 students may write cer-tificated IGCSE exams, which are written in Calcuttaat the British Council. These exams are internation-ally recognized and are accepted by Indian universi-ties. Children at the end of Grade 8 write theCheckpoint exams. We are also in the posit ion tooffer local children the opportunity to write DelhiBoard ICSE exams at the end of grade 10.

So, we have one school on two campuses. Olderboys have classes at the former BVG campus andco-ed primary classes and senior girls have classesat the former Day School campus. Teachers movefreely between the two campuses.

All children, local or from afar, are welcome toapply to join the school. They are required to takeassessment tests and have interviews with academ-ic and ashrama teachers. The school tries to pro-vide a balance between the academic and the spir-itual aspects of the children's' lives.

This combined effort of the schools to educateKrishna Conscious children is extremely positiveand education in Mayapur now presents a unitedfront. u

By Lalita Devi Dasi

Update on Education In Mayapur

Story of an English teacher

By Bhakta DavidHare Krishna!

My name's David, I came toISKCON Mayapur in October2002 and I teach English as a sec-ond language to adults in theGurukula here.

Originally from London, UK, Iwas brought up in an atheisticfamily in a secular society, but Iknew something was missing. AsI watched my culture crumblearound me and in an attempt tohelp get things back together, Itrashed and practiced as a socialworker in central London. My

days were spent talking withlocal prostitutes about their livesand unwanted pregnancies,arranging care for their children;with confused, depressed andabandoned elderly about theirlack of self worth and purpose;with youths turning to crime intheir own search for identity andsense of belonging.

It was an interesting but stress-ful 10 years as I realized that thesocial work, psychiatric and gov-ernment services were ill-equipedto make any real, fundamental

change. A brief flirtation withpolitics brought a speedy realiza-tion that the political scene is notthe place to look for solutionseither.Then I met a young Rastafarian,an African with knotted hair,who smoked ganja and chattedincessantly in sweet monologuesabout Jah-a name for God takenfrom Yahwah or Jehovia in theBible. I retrained as a carpenterand we set up a small furn iturebusiness together. We never mademuch money - we spent so much

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time "reasoning", an important artto Rasta who uses reason andlogic to d isentangle cond itionedthinking from reality. We went todances in shady h ideaways, danc-ing to Roots Reggae - music aboutGod and reality - until dawn.

When I had my own son -11years ago - we decided to explorethe world with him while he wasyoung. I bought an old van, con-verted it into a motorhome andmy son Zakaya, his mother and I,together with a friend in anothervan, set off on a 2 year drive toIndia.

I had trained as an Englishteacher to make money en routeand I left England with a vaguenotion of wanting to "find God".

Some way into the trip we dis-covered that amongst our travelreading there was a book in eachvan by an unknown guru - SrilaPrabhupada. We read both booksand my friend was immediatelyconvinced that he wanted tobecome a devotee and that weshould head straight forVrindavan. I agreed, but was morecaut ious. Vrindavan was a cultureshock for me. Intensely hot andjust simply intense, I bought aGita and set of Bhagavatams andwent up to the cooler Himalayaswith my family. My friend wenton to Mayapur - he is nowNavaratna das.

When the time came to leaveIndia we drove straight toMarocco. We'd been attracted byIslamic culture and wanted toknow more. I met a local muslim,we became friends and we setup a tourist campsite on the beach,still living in our van.

I was now praying in the mosque,reading the Quoran, but alsoreading the Vedas and starting tochant Hare Krsna. I managed toget hold of a Gita in Arabic andI and a group of locals spentmany hours on medina alleywaycorners, discussing the similarities

between the Quoran andBhagavad Gita.

I came to ISKCON basicallybecause Zak was outgrowinghome education and needed morethan I could give and we needed toexpress our faith. The BhagavadGita expressed beautifully what Ihad felt to be true but had neverbeen clear before, but I was fearfulabout entering an organizationand secretly hoped we wouldn'tlike it and could return toMarocco. In the event Zak and Ifell in love with the Gurukul andthe whole Mayapur ambience. It'sbeen difficult to leave what weknew behind, but now we're set-tled and want to stay as long aspossible. We stay in a small placein Taranpur, and the openness,sweetness and unattachedapproach to life of the villagershas added to our pleasure here.My Gurukul service brings meinto contact with a wide range ofdevotees and locals. We've hadabout 90 enrolments in the 2 threemonths sessions run so far.Brahamacaris, grasthas, somelocal villagers, ISKCON workersaged from 16 to 70, male andfemale, beginners to quiteadvanced. Vedanta, an ex-gurukulstudent helps by sort ing andcopying materials, administrationand translation of the teachinginto Bengali for the lower levels.We use a communicative systemof learning, which means studentsare encouraged to use the lan-guage in class in various con-texts, in pairs, in small groups orwhole class activities. This doesn'tsuit everyone, particularly thosewho are a little shy or more usedto a formal classroom, butnobody is forced to speak, espe-cially in large groups, if they can't.

We use games, roleplays andtasks as a basic for usingEnglish. A typical activity mightbe that a student has to find outa certain piece of information

(for example - who ate the health-iest breakfast this morning) Thisinvolves them in formula-ting aquestion, asking it, understandingthe replies and presenting themback to a group. We also covermore traditional areas of grammar,spelling, reading, writing, pronun-ciation, stress the listening to audiotapes. We follow an OxfordUniversity course and some mate-rial is unsuitable for India anddevotees. I'm trying to build upmore devotional-type material but itis time consuming and often diffi-cult to adapt a text without distort-ing the meaning. We have used theKrsna book for comprehension,gapfills, story telling, Krsnaquizzes, etc, and we've had a stu-dent present a work Bhagavatamclass.

I'd like to see the serviceexpanded to offer a proof-readingservice for documents and leafletsbeing sent outside ISKCON orhelping individual devotees withtheir own correspondence inEnglish. There is some demandand we've done some work likethis, but need an extra teacher(ideally Celta trained) to offer afuller service. I'd also like to hearfrom potential students who mightprefer an alternative style of class.

There is a need to expand knowl-edge of the language in ISKCON,so we can better communicateamongst ourselves and with visi-tors and outsiders.

On two days a week, Mahasrngaand I d istribute prasadam in acouple of local villages.

Finally, I'd like to pay tributeto the sweetness and devotion ofthe devotees here and thank youfor your inspiration.

Hare Krsna.

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I wish that this letter would be useful for us toincrease the care, maintenance and respect for a PureDevotee such as Srimati Tulasi Devi, who we wor-ship in the temple with "lots of devotion", but out-side the temple she is being treated as an ordinaryplant.

Yes, She has the body of a plant, but she is thepersonification of Pure Devotion. I will not be ableto explain the real position of Tulasi Devi in con-nection with the philosophy of KrishnaConsciousness due to my lack of qualification, but Ibelieve in her merciful association.

Tulasi Devi is not only an opportunity to serve apure devotee. Without doubt, to serve Tulasi Devi isa duty of every devotee of Lord Krishna, whoalways resides where Tulasi Devi is, in that way, shealways accompanies Him. This is another reason fortaking care of Tulasi Devi with respect, considerationand changing the mentality such as: "I am going topick fresher leaves to make Krishna happy." But wedon't consider that Krishna is actually happy whenwe care for and serve His devotees, in this case apure devotee as Tulasi Devi is.

The leaves of Tulasi Devi are her life, and she needsthem for her growth and well-being. It is explainedin the instruction book of 'Taking Care of Tulasi'that we should offer a manjari with two leaves. Itis also explained that one should pick leaves froma full-grown and healthy plant that has lots ofleaves. Just take a few of them (3-4) to offer toKrishna.

Sometimes Tulasi has a few or no manjaris, butit's not a question of filling up the bag with leaveswithout considering whether the plant is big

Letter to the community from Manohara Gopi Devi Das i

Nectar of Devotion, Ch. 11In the Skanda Purana there is another statementabout t ulasi, as follows: "Tulasi is auspicious in allrespects. Simply by seeing, simply by touching, s implyby remembering, simply by praying to, simply by bow-ing before, simply by hearing about or simply by sow-ing this tree, there is always auspiciousness. Anyonewho comes in touch with the tulasi tree in the above-mentioned ways lives eternally in the Vaikunthaworld."

Tulasi the giver of devotion

enough for picking leaves or manjaris. Thinkingthat I want to offer manjaris and leaves to LordNrisimhadeva (for my own benefit), but I am risk-ing taking away Tulasi's life due to ignorance.

Each house already pays 20 Rs a month for themaintenance of the park, how is it that many ofthe Tulasi plants are being surpassed by grass?Are we giving more priority to the flowers and veg-etables then to the care of Tulasi Devi?

If there are only a few manjaris to offer - so be it.Krishna knows very well the reason why we are notoffering Him 30 manjaris, but only 3. He does notneed the quantity, but all He sees is the quality ofdevotion and care for Him and especially His devotee.

I am sure if the Mayapur authorit ies educate thedevotees a little bit on how to take care of TulasiDevi, then she will grow healthy and beautiful,because it's true, the Tulasis are growing every-where naturally, but are they healthy? Only the onesthat are being cared for and protected survive, otherones leave the body when they are small due tolack of care.

Tulasi Devi sometimes needs cow dung, which isone of the essential elements for her health andirrigation. Or at least leave her the leaves that areher support. The essential medicine for her is loveand support, considering her on the same level asthe Deity, who we worship in the temple with all theparaphernalia.

Srimati Tulasi Devi, thank you very much for beingso merciful to everybody. Now it's our duty toserve you and protect you. u

Tulasi plants growing averywhere in Mayapur, even on the pathways and doorspeps

TU LASI

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Curiosity motivated me to askMahasringa Prabhu and his wifeApavrita if I could accompany them toa neighboring village, Maheshganj, lastSaturday. This is one of the villages theyvisit for their weekly Prasadam distribu-tion program.

For some time I had witnessed a biggroup of villagers, many children amongthem, coming to their home and holdingecstatic kirtans, that could be heard in allthe grihastha area. I observed the strongbond those villagers have developed withMahasringa's family. So I decided to gowith them and learn about the preachingactivities in the villages.

We reached Maheshganj at 3 p.m. thatday. The people that saw us approachinggreeted us with expecting happy facesand some loud "Haribol". What then I wit-nessed was amazing.

Living in the Dhama since over sixyears I had a fixed idea about what theresidents around us are like and I had car-ried some kind of suspicion about them.They are seen by most of western devoteesas strangers with unfamiliar lifestylesand habits. Some villagers also carry intheir minds memories of unpleasantexchanges with ISKCON devotees ondifferent occasions.When we arrived Mahasringa Prabhu andbhakta Dave, his voluntary helper, hadalmost finished preparing the kichari forthe distribution. They cooked in a gigan-tic pot, the size of a huge bath tub. Itwas supposed to feed about 600-700people that day.

Mahasringa's wife had told me that withoutthe enthusiastic help of some friends among thevillagers this weekly program wouldnot bepossible.

A nice network of supporters has developed,simply because the people are so enthusiastic toreciprocate with Mahasringa's friendship and careby keeping this program going. There are somethat buy the bhoga and collect the firewood. Somebefriended shopkeepers in Maheshganj donatesome little amounts of bhoga for the cooking. Oneman built a hand water pump near the cookingplace, so water for cooking is easily available

now. After the cooking was done Mahasringa Prabhu offered thefood on the altar in another friend's house. Immediately thereaftermany eager helpers came forward with buckets ready to distribute thePrasad to the franticly awaiting crowd of Maheshganj residents.Patiently awaiting their turn, they had their plates filled and also theirtiffins to take some Prasad home to their families. There was a friend-ly mood in the crowd without much pushing and shouting. I also hada turn with distributing the kichari and I saw many familiar facesof people that work inside our ISKCON compound.

Srila Prabhupada considered Prasadam dist ribution around the Temlesas one of the most important preaching programs and one can eas-ily understand the importance.

The people of the surrounding villages are mostly Bangladeshrefugees or lifelong residents of the Dhama. This free Prasadam distri-bution makes them feel connected to ISKCON and their eagerness fora pure life of kirtan and other spiritual practices is easily reawakened.They feel especially deeply connected by receiving personal care fromMahasringa Prabhu and his helpers. He constantly holds bajans indifferent places in the villages and they often last for many hoursand are incomparably enthusiastic. He also cares for the people'spersonal needs, when they are sick or need any kind of help in theirlives. He himself feels very much inspired by all the cooperationand help for this preaching he receives from the villagers.

After the gigantic prasadam pot was emptied, which took only forty-five minutes, the whole clean up was done by another enthusiasticgroup of volunteers. One older dadu, around 75 years, cleaned thebig pot by sitting inside it and scrubbing it single handedly.

Then Mahasringa took us around the village to visit some of hisfriends. In each and every house we were welcomed with a lot ofhospitality, and Prasadam was offered always to us. I could feel howmuch trust the people have developed towards the devotees.

Mahasringa and his w ife told me that they get so many invita-tions from other nearby villages, also Muslim communities. It's hardfor them alone to honor them all, because it takes a lot of ener-gy from them to cook such big amounts.

If you like to participate in any way, please feel free to discusswith Mahasringa Prabhu in the housing area.. u

PREACHING IN THE VILLAGESBy Sankalpa Devi Dasi

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by Nanda Krishna Das :As per decision a of ISKCON Cow Protection Ministry, ISKCON Sri

Mayapur Goshala is now adopting the policy to stop breeding cows untilsufficient funds are available in the future. From the month of August2003 milk production has been reduced to 100 liters per day, because ofcows part ially or completely dry.

We just const ructed a delivery home for the cows. But with implemen-tation of the new rule - stop cow breeding - it is obvious, if there is nobreeding, there is no necessity of a delivery home.

Some money is coming in from selling cow urine, pachanamrita and toothpowder made from cow dung ash, which is g radually increasing day byday.

From Goura Hari Prabhu:We put before the MAC a pet ition not to stop cow breeding completely,

because it is not healthy for the herd and Radha-Madhava won't get anymilk. So, MAC's decision was to carry on breeding the twenty best milkingcows, so Sri Sri Radha-Madhava would have milk. (No one else will - thanksto the ‘wise’ decision of the Cow Protect ion Min istry)

GOSALA REPORTAUGUST 2003

TO SEPT E MB ER 2003Milk cows - 68Retired - 10Bulls (working) - 3Bullocks (training) - 14Bullocks (working) -2Heifers - 18Cal ves male - 27

female - 22Total - 164

Letter to the communityAs a new resident of Mayapur, I'd first of all like to offer my

respectful obeisances to all the Mayapur-vasis and beg for their mercyand prayers that I may be so fortunate to live the rest of my life in thismost sacred place.

I arrived here for the Gaura Purnima festival 2003. Although I havebeen initiated since 1975, I have been here only twice previously, in1977 and 1985. This time I came more in a mood of taking shelter ofthe Dhama and thus experienced much transcendental happiness. I wasmarried here on March 6th to 7-year resident Sati Devi Dasi and amgrateful to her for encouraging me to relocate to Sri Mayapur. Afterspending the summer in Switzerland, I was very happy to return to thetranscendental atmosphere of Mayapur. I greatly perceive the mercyof Caitanya Mahaprabhu here and feel very much at home. Manydevotees here have been very kind and made me feel welcome.

I am serving as the Communications Director for Sri Mayapur Development Project. I work under the direc-tion of Pancaratna Prabhu, and my duties include managing the database of our list of donors andprospects, publishing Mayapur Journal, and assisting the fund-raising campaigns in various other ways. Iwould like to welcome and encourage devotees to write articles for the Journal.

I have 18 years experience indexing books and have done many indexes for BBT publications. I alsohave fairly good editorial skills. I would like to use these skills to assist in the publication of the wealthof devotional books that are being and will be produced by t he disciples and followers of Srila Prabhupada.

I look forward to assisting the development of Mayapur. It is an exciting time to be here with the mag-nificent Panca Tattva Deities to be installed this Gaura Purnima and the construction of the big templescheduled to begin in 2004. - Grahila dasaGrahila Prabhu can be contacted on PAMHO, by phone (245491, or in Chakra office #202.

“The vais hyas, the mem-bers of the mercantilecommunities, are especiallyadvised to protect the cows.Cow protection me ansincreas ing the milk produc-tions, namely curd and but-ter.” [SB 1.9.26 Purport]

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MK:MK: Prabhu, do you have some ideas to share with thereaders of 'Mayapur Katha'?Bhagavatamrita Prabhu: Yes. We are talking aboutbeing practical. And we are talking about economicdevelopment here. Srila Prabhupada said that brahmini-cal culture is cow and land culture. So, based on thatwe have to see how to develop life here in the HolyDhama, otherwise our endeavours will be fruitless.Land is the greatest bank in the world. Bank gives tenpercent a year. Land gives thousand percent - you putone seed and get thousand fruits with thousand seeds,which you can put in the land again. So, the land isthe greatest bank, you have to do work though. To dothat, we need a comprehensive effort from theMayapur authorities and from the grihastha communityhere. We have to have a synergetic approach. Don'texpect that one guy will go there, put his moneythere and come up with some solution, make some-thing happen. There were people here making bread,ice creams - they left, because there is no businessculture here.

And I see that a lot of businesses here that theytake a grihastha out and put a brahmachari instead.So brahmacharis are working in the place of gri-hasthas - so the grihasthas are begging and the brah-macharis are hav ing troubles. This is not very wellsituated. We have to start from the top and we have totalk about these things.

Do I have some solutions? I think I have and otherpeople have too and I want to hear from them. Wehave to have a forum for them and discuss all thesethings, make plans and implement them. Part of it isinvestment. We have to set up a vision how we aregoing to finance all these operations, how we aregoing to control the development of these opera-tions, so people are happy and productive. And whenthey are happy - they develop brahminical culture,land and the cows, chant Hare Krishna, they have noworries and go back home back to Godhead. Theydevelop a brahminical culture - the land and the cows.This is the nutshell approach. From there we can devel-op in so many ways.

This is an eco-friendly business vision. Not thatyou have to go to the West, leaving family unprotectedhere, but you're a part of this place here.Prabhupada said, "what ever you want you can getfrom Mayapur" and I believe that. If I have to goout and collect money from outside - it is a failure, Iwant to get what ever I want from the Holy place,from Mayapur, so I do not have to leave this place

and I want other devotees also to do the same. MK: MK: Do you have any practical things in mind?B:B: There is many practical business, like we haveboat program or we are doing Samadhi auditori-um program, we are charging to see a movie. We havehere a bullock cart, which is a simple program, butit is actually happening. We also have a project foroil extraction by bullock power. MK:MK: Are you already doing it?B:B: No, we are gathering the information to put it alltogether. We need to get few machines. I have adesign, so the ox can generate the power to runthese machines. MK:MK: What machines?B:B: Oil pressing machines, so we can make mustardoil, ginger seed oil, sunflower oil, etc - oil productionwith bullock power. But in the beginning stages itneeds the support of the management, of the com-munity.MK:MK: Do you mean that they should cooperate withyour ideas?B:B: Unfortunately, people are expecting these thingsjust to happen. Nothing is just happening in thematerial world. You have to put endeavour, you haveto work towards a goal, and you have to make ithappen by your action. So, if we have that visionand make endeavours for it to happen, it will hap-pen and people will be able to stay here and workthe land and get what they want to survive here. MK:MK: What stage is your oil project at now?B:B: Right now it is in pradhana stage. But it takesvery little for it to manifest - just information andthen we go for action. But, right now I am trying toget situated here, so I can get my bills paid, I haveto go and get some money quick. I don' t have muchtime to concentrate on it. MK:MK: What do you do to pay your bills?B:B: Right now I am praying to Sri Sri Radha-Madhavaand Lord Nrisimha Deva and somehow They areanswering. I want to actually get some business goingand produce, get my bills paid and also have otherpeople have their bills paid from it.

I think that management has a duty to set up thatvision and make sure that that vision is being car-ried out by the grihastha community. Economic devel-opment is also one of the primary duties of thekings, the managers, to oversee that it is expressedproperly. They have to see that the people are satisfied- otherwise there will be a chaotic arrangement in thekingdom. We should not have brahmacharis run-

Economic development in Mayapur communityInterview with Bhagavatamrita Prabhu

21


ning business and grihasthas are begging for sur-vival here. This is not what Vedic society is allabout. Brahmacharis should study and chant andpreach and grihasthas should be left to do business.

I know some people want some big plan, some bigscheme how to make money, but everything startswith a vision. If you don't have a vision you don'tknow where you are going and even if you aretrying to go you may not go anywhere. MK:MK: Once you have a vision, what is the next step?B:B: Vision is everything. Some people think 'I wantto be a lawyer/doctor/ teacher/…/devotee…' andbecause of that vision they start to focus their activ-ities on achieving a particular goal. Action withoutvision is just a waste of time, because you actual-ly don't accomplish anything. MK:MK: How comes your thousands of visions don't man-ifest on the ground?B: B: The thing is that part of the vision has to comefrom the authorities, from the management here.MK:MK: What do you mean?B:B: First to talk together and make a plan. Secondis to implement that plan. That's how everythingstarts. I can try to do something by myself, but itwill be just a waste of time, unless I will go out-side of the community and do some small scalesomething. People tried that. It did not work very wellas far as I know. They came, tried to put work into it,but just had so much hard time from the manage-ment. MK:MK: What do you think the management has to doexactly?B:B: The management has to have a desire and thepolitical will to bring about the economic develop-ment of the community. Unfortunately people thinkthat somebody will come and they will do some-thing. THEY will not do until WE take it seriouslythat we have to deal with this matter, we got to makeit happen. Of course, so much the management herecould do to help if there is a political will to lis-ten to what is required and work in that directionslowly but surely towards accomplishing that plan.That's where it starts. MK: MK: What comes after the vision?B:B: After the vision comes a plan. Prabhupada gave aformula. Now we need a place, man-power, we needmanagement, we need money. Most of these things thegrihastha community will come with, some of ithave to come from the management. For example,H.H. Bhakti Purusottam Maharaja was saying that itwould be nice to have a bank here, where peoplecan take loans - one, two lakhs of Rupees and start abusiness here. That was never implemented. Withoutthe overall vision where this idea fits into, who is

pushing it forward? When you have a vision set upthen all the ideas will find their place. Then we will gosomewhere, then every step is a step forward, because itis fulfilling the overall vision of the whole situation.There has to be someone who is caring like a fatherfor the son, caring for the vision, caring for the devel-opment of this project, pushing it forward. In India theyhave a finance minister, this and that minister - why?Because someone has to accomplish all these thingsand push it. We also have to have that. Unfortunately wethink, “oh, this is going to happen somehow…” Nothingis going to happen. Everything, for every brick here -there was orders from someone at some point 'put ithere', 'put this there', etc. Nothing just happened. Weneed political will. Will and desire to accomplish that.

Start with motivation of grihastha community here.There are a lot of people who want to invest theirmoney here, but they are afraid 'what's going to hap-pen?', 'is it going to be a political thing, is my moneygoing to disappear?' There is plenty of money here,we have to capitalize this money properly with goodcredibility, manage it properly and make the goods weneed to come out from the community here. And ittakes endeavour from all of us.

Do not think that the grihasthas are going to do it bythemselves. Grihasthas are never independent from thekings. The kings would grant land, grant concessions,grant the license for business - they help too.MK: MK: It sounds from what you have said that from bot-tom to the top people don't trust and from the top to thebottom they don't want to help. Is it right?B:B: I would not say it is a lack of trust, I would sayit is lack of political will, the desire to carry some-thing to the very end, what ever it cost.MK:MK: So, you are saying that there is no leadership?B:B: Something with the leadership and also from thebottom we are not organized ourselves to come upwith some plan to the leadership. You cannot justblame one side, it is both sides. We should be soorganized that leadership will be inspired - "hey, let'sdo something together". MK:MK: So, you are saying that at the bottom peoplehave to get together.B:B: They have to get together to be organized andhave a team spirit. To help each other means to be apart of systematic approach, not just individual per-sons doing individual things. We have to act as a teamendeavour, hundreds of people acting together for aspecific goal. MK:MK: Are you calling for a natural leader from themass?B:B: Born-leaders are 0.1% of all people. People actually

continued on page 24

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Thanks to the Temple Commander:

"I would like to congratulate the Temple Commander, Kesava Prabhu, for introducing the ox cart to removethe garbage from around Mayapur. It's hundreds of times better than that horrible motorized cart thatwould roar around the temple complex like a gigantic insect. Having oxen do the job is so much moresattvik and in line with the "simple living, high thinking" principle. Please keep up the good work!

Your servant, Ananda Tirtha das

Dear Padmalochan prabhu, can you please put this short note from me in thenext issue of 'Mayapur Katha'. Thank you. Ys, Bharat Maharaja Das

A FEW WORDS OF APPRECIATION:I would like to express my gratitude to the devotees of the Treasury department for their service. They are alwayscourteous and efficient and are setting a very nice example of how to deal with other devotees and the public.Hare Krsna, Bharat Maharaj Das

Dear devotees, Hare Krishna! Chatura's, Aja's and my experience here in Sri Dham

Mayapur has been nothing but an ocean of mercy. Inthe material world there is danger at every step, herein the Holy Dham there is mercy at every step. Srila Prabhupada asked all the devotees, His disciples,

to come to Mayapur at least once a year - we certain-ly have not been following this instruction. But whenwe come we really can see the value of that instruction- coming to the Gaura Purnima festival, getting theassociation of the Holy Dham, getting the association ofall the elevated Vaishnavas here, taking advantage ofthe f ive most important processes of devotional service,to see how they are magnified and easily relishablehere in the association of the devotees and the HolyDham. We are appreciating all of this.

It would be hard to put into words the extent of themercy that we have received and so in the same waythe gratitude we feel. There is an obligation to ourspiritual master, there is an obligation to all thewonderful devotees here, there is an obligation to theLord for giving, giving, giving… so much to us. So,hopefully, we are trying to imbibe the mood ofDhamavasis of wanting to give Krishna to others, givethe process of devotional service. We pray to be able toeven if it is in a small degree, try and share the glo-ries of devotional service as we live in separation fromthe Dham, hopefully for only a short time.

We do sincerely pray - not one of those 'if I haveoffended you please forgive me…' - but I know that weoffended so many devotees with our words, our body -please forgive us for our offences.The nature of the advanced devotees that we find here

is that they don't even notice when you offend them andthey are giving so much mercy being absorbed in just

giving and sharing the nectar of devotional serviceand glories of the Holy Name and glories of elevat-ed associates of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Pancha-tattva and Radha-Madhava & Their eternal associatesin Vrindavana - just giving, giving… The obligationthat we have is like… I was thinking today how we cannever repay the spiritual master for what He hasgiven us and I was beginning to appreciate a little bitthat I do not know how I could repay the devotees herein Mayapur Dham. But at least there is some desiresomehow or other to render some service or at leastto express my appreciation.

My glorifications you certainly will not hear whenwe are thousands of miles away, but we will sing theglories of you Prabhus. To the best of our abilities wewill try to encourage our associates, our god-brothersand god-sisters and our family members to comehome here, this is our home.

You, Prabhus, live here and you make us feel verymuch at home, you help us very easily fit in by yourkind acts and generosity. So, as a way of trying togive some token of payment for the obligation thatwe have - thank you, thank you, thank you very much.

And also we will pray that you would kindly thinkof our well-being, and hope that we will rememberthe mission of our spiritual master as we are awayfrom the Dham and pray that we will very sooncome back to be in your association here in Mayapur.

So, being very low, being a fool, being puffed up,I am not able to express myself very well. But atleast within my heart I very much feel sincerely whatI am saying and begging of you. So, if I may in thevery near future be given an opportunity to rendersome small service to you I hope I will be able to. Thank you, Prabhus. Hare Krishna!

Words of appreciation from Rajendra Nandana Prabhu

Poems aboutSrimati

Radharani by the school

children

23


Radharani

By Balaram das (13)

Her beauty that compares The jewels She wears

Her cooking is the best, So She passed Krishna's test

She is compassionateEven to the passionate

She is so attractiveThat She makes Krishna

active

She is very shyAnd never tells

a lie

ByCintamani Dasi (13)

Radharani, Your are so fine,Radharani, Your lotus eyes shine,Radharani, such nice lotus feet,

Radharani, You are so sweet

Radharani, Your complexion is gold,Radharani, You are beautiful to behold,

Radharani, Your clothes match Krishna's dhoti,Radharani, You are Krishna's favorite gopi

Radharani, You are quite shy,Radharani, You make delicious potato pie,

Radharani, You are very helpful,Radharani, Your dance is so graceful

So, Radharani, as we conclude,You can even control Krishna

When You are in Yourcharming mood

MK:MK: Can you briefly describe your Gurukula history?Nimai: Well, I came here in 1999 for the first time and I really liked Mayapur. My father and I decided that forlack of any good educational system in Australia (that's where I am from), we should look into other possibili-ties, and the Gurukula in all its glory was at the top of our list. So I joined and quickly adapted to the lifestyle,making lots of friends. Since then I progressed through the Gurukula academic system until I finished my yearten exams.MK:MK: How do you feel now that you have graduated from Gurukula?N:N: I feel thankful to all my teachers and the gurukula for providing for me an academic system in KrsnaConsciousness, whereby I could obtain a Gcse certificate and Krsna conscious training at an essent ial time inmy life. I feel that such systems, which provide a balanced educational upbringing should be highly valuedin our Movement. It's not like passing year 10 is a major check-point in your life, I mean I'm still me. I wouldalso like to incessantly thank my friends and teachers like Gauravani and Manasi Ganga Mataji for givingme support, encouragement, hope and love, the basis of my will to go on and achieve my potential.MK:MK: What are your plans for the future?N:N: Well right now I have to go back to Australia. I'm hoping to start year 11 and 12 very soon. If we chanceupon a nice school in Australia then I might continue my education there. I would like to take advancedmaths, physics and psychology for A levels. If Gurukula can provide the necessary teachers then there is quitea possibility that I will return and finish my education here. I guess my future is in Krishna's hands.MK: MK: Thank you. Hare Krishna.

Interviewwith Nimai:

Radharaniis the greatestBy Nandulal das (13)

Radharani so gentle and sweetShe makes Krishna only Her best

sweetsThe most beautiful in the worldThe most shy in the Universe

No one can separate Her from KrishnaOnly because of Her pure love

But I can never understand Her perfect nature

Because I am The most fallen

creature

Jaya sri krishna chaitanya prabhu nityananda sri advaita gadadhara srivasadi goura bhakta vrinda

become leaders by persever-ance, consistency and hardwork. Leaders will makeleaders by training. Naturalleaders are very small quanti-ty and if we are dependent onwaiting for them we cannotdo anything. You make lead-ers by proper training. We cando that if we have every-body lined up in the sameconsciousness, consciousnessis the most important thing.When the soul enters the bodyit starts to grow.

We don't have a clearvision yet. But we can readabout, talk about and startmoving in that direction. Andall it takes is political willto do what ever it takes toget to the end. MK:MK: You are using the words'political will' so much. Theword 'political' is not the mostfavourite word among devo-tees…B:B: Nobody likes, but that'show it works. It hurts andwhen it hurts it puts pres-sure on the heart and whenpressure is on the heart we dosomething about it. Otherwisewe will sit around for the nextten years wondering wherethe next pizza will comefrom. 'Political will' means that wecan put aside the self-interestand do what is best for thewhole community. Becausenow sometimes self-interestcomes before the good of thecommunity, so we have to beable to put that aside. u

continued from page 21:

Sri Navadvipa Astakam

1I remember Sri Navadvipa-dhama, the eternal and blissful landwhich is splendidly situated on the charming banks of the holyBhagirathi River in Sri Gauda-desha

2I remember Sri Navadvipa-dhama, which some say is Vaikunthaand others say is Goloka, but those who have realised the truthknow it as Vrindavana.

3I remember Sri Navadvipa-dhama, the land which illuminates alldirections. Attractive with its gentle, cooling breezes and variousbeautiful trees, it provides Sri Gaurasundara with a wonderfulfacility to perform His midday sankirtana pastimes

4I remember Sri Navadvipa-dhama, where with her many waves theBhagirathi joyfully flows, and where steps made of gold decoratethe river banks.

5I remember Sri Navadvipa-dhama, where countless golden palacesare splendidly situated and where Laksmidevi resides in each andevery home.

6I remember Sri Navadvipa-dhama, where the residents are ador nedwith all good qualities such as knowledge, compassion, forgiveness,and sacrifice, and are praised even by the sages, demigods, and per-fected souls.

7I remember Sri Navadvipa-dhama, where Sri Gaurasundara per-formed pastimes such as taking birth and where the blissful home ofSri Jagannatha Mishra is situated.

8I remember Sri Navadvipa-dhama, where Sri Gaurahari and Hisdevotees wandered here and there performing sankirtana, whichwas so full of prema that it immersed everyone in an oceanof ujjvala bhava.

Those who joyfully recite these eight verses of poetry, whichbring remembrance of Navadvipa dhama, will obtain love forthe lotus feet of Sri Saci-nandana Gaurahari.

Srila Rupa Goswami

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