New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

by mrupa Madhuvana-smokey, cold, crazy, and dirty. Madhuvana-one of the 12 forests of Vrndavana where Dhruva performed austerities and met both Narada and Lord Visnu face to face. Madhuvana-an extension of the Lord Caitanya half of Golaka Vrndavana where Lord Caitanya and His associates reside eternally. Where ISKCON along with Srila Prabhupada are and where […]

By Srila Jiva Goswami dasa (continued from Part 1) To me, I was the cutting and slashing very greatest of the greatest when it came to driving. I just loved it. Towing another Sankirtan Van back from the Buffalo area late one evening, I’d been obliged to carry a few Devotees with me. Maru Deva, […]

By Srila Jiva Goswami dasa From child hood, I harbored a longing to operate construction machinery. The Heavy Equipment Department at Old New Vrindabana really whet my whistle. The passing of Pippaladha up on the huge Road Grader, or Varshana Maharaja for example, carefully moving along the road with a medium size house suspended intact […]

By Srila Jiva Goswami dasa In the late nineties, I started coming back to The Temple. I was living in Wheeling. I came to the Temple every morning, took the Association of The Devotees, participated at Mongol Aortik, chanted 16 Rounds and Guyatri, and polished it off by taking morning Prasadama with the Devotees. I […]

By Srila Jiva Goswami dasa Disappearing One morning, at the Columbus Temple, Krpa Maya Prabhu saw me cleaning the floors, as he had taught me, and he asked if he could talk to me a moment. “There is a boy who is coming to see me,” Krpa Maya declared. “He is sort of a nuisance.” […]

By Srila Jiva Goswami dasa As a Bhakta, in the Columbus Temple, I had a hard time dealing with visitor’s questions. I was afraid to give the wrong answer. When anyone asked me anything at all about Krsna Consciousness, my response was always, “Just a minute.” Then I’d run and consult Narada Muni or some […]

By Srila Jiva Goswami dasa Has anyone ever deliberately spit in your face? In early 1967, I was a twenty-one year old African American in my home town of New York City. Having just spent four years in the military, I’d never heard of the Hare Krsna Movement. I was heading across 23rd Street for […]

By Srila Jiva Goswami dasa Mukta Kasa Prabhu had a funny way of chanting Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. I used to tease him by getting up in his grill and intoning, “Hey ditty ditty,” as if that was what he was actually saying. […]

By Srila Jiva Goswami dasa Once, at Old New Vrindabana, just after the morning program, I came across Puskar who was known to me as a fabulous artist. He was sitting in the lotus position on the back of a flat bed trailer down at Bahulabhana. He was chanting quietly and his eyes were closed. […]

By Srila Jiva Goswami dasa This article presents practical experiences of a member of the racial minority community in Krsna Consciousness. Instead of revealing shocking narrations of racism and discrimination, you may see instead here documentation of the opposite. There is no actual racism in Krsna Consciousness because of the fundamental truth: We are not […]