New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

Dear Devotees:
Everyone is invited to bring a dish to share and gather for a potluck in the field by the apartments this Thursday at 5:00pm.  Please bring the family for light-hearted devotee association and games!

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6-16, 2-chome, Ohhashi
Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan

August 20 1970

My Dear Hayagriva,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 5th August, 1970.

Regarding Janmastami arrangement, it is going on nicely— that is very encouraging. We have started New Vrndavana in America and it must be finished in the American way. In Vrndavana there are so many temples, they say 5.000, or in Vrndavana every home, every cottage, is a temple. As far as possible try to develop New Vrndavana on this standard. In the coming meeting of Janmastami amongst other business you must have a resolution how to finish the development of New Vrndavana in the right sense of the term. At the same time, please make a very nice scheme to purge out the non-Vrndavana spirit that entered in our Society.

I have received telegram from Jayapataka. They have secured a nice place for accommodating at least 30 men. But we are going there only six on the 29th of this month. So settle up in the next meeting of GBC to send at least another 20 men, some of them may be women, also to India without delay. I have got a very nice idea this time to capture the communistic people for spreading Krsna Consciousness Movement. I do not know how far it will be successful, but I wish that all other major movements in the world may be cut down and only the Krsna Consciousness Movement be taken up in all seriousness.

Krsna says in the Bhagavad Gita to give up all other engagements and take to Krsna only. So Krsna Consciousness Movement being non-different from Krsna we have to try our best to make this Movement predominant all over the world curbing down all others.

You are thinking of money, how to go to India, but I think it is not a problem. Where there is a will there is a way. If Krsna wants your service in India there will be no scarcity of money—He will supply you. Let me first of all go there and I shall write you again what to do next. In the meantime make the New Vrndavana meetings very successful and send me a report at the following address: ISKCON; 37/1 Hindustan Raod; Ballyganj; Calcutta-29.

Offer my blessings to Srimati Shama Dasi, all-blissful Samba, and all other devotees in New Vrndavana. I thank you very much for your anxiety when I shall come back and I wish I shall come back as soon as possible. Hope this will meets you in good health.

Your ever well wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

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His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami will visit New Vrindaban, arriving mid afternoon Monday Sept 8th. Look forward to a class from him on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. His specialty is instituting Varnashram coupled with self sufficiency. He has a few projects to this effect in different areas of the world such as Cambodia and India.

He will be staying in Room 9 in the temple guest wing for those who wish to meet with him.

There will be a special Farm Circle Meeting with Maharaja on Tuesday Sept. 9th at the Santee Garden by the Goshalla, weather permitting. Otherwise, in case of the predicted rain, we can move inside to the Temple Guest Kitchen behind Jagannath’s altar. Please come and meet Maharaja and exchange your experiences and realizations with him. He has given his life (and one leg) in the service of Srila Prabhupada’s mission.

(Monday evening is open for suggestions.)

Hare Krishna Dear Devotees!

This is a reminder that Radhastami is this coming Sunday, Sept. 7th (there is a fast until noon).  All of you wonderfully unique Brijabasi cooks,  please bring your favorite Radhastami offering to the kitchen/ deity room by 11:30 am.  Jaya Sri Radhe!

Schedule:

10:00am-12:00pm Bhajan Serenades for the pleasure of Srimate Radharani

11:30 am         Abhishek of Radha Vrindaban Nath by the Brahmin Pujari’s

12:00 pm         Katha (The Glories of Radharani)

12:30 pm         Raja Bhoga Radhast1ami offering (Please deliver home preps by 11:30 am)

1:00 pm           Arati (Interactive Arati* for all participants & guest)

2:00 pm           Feast

Evening: 

7:00 pm           Sundar Arati- Candlelight Bhajans following Sundar Arati through the final Darshan

* Interactive arati with incense, ghee lamps, flowers and balloons, etc for everyone to offer along with your heart felt vrat (vow) or sentiment for Sri Radhika to be offered to Her in a silver basket. And, everyone will receive a Radharani Maha gift!

** There will be a Pre-Radhastami gathering/ satsang for ladies at Malati’s cabin Friday evening @ 5:30 pm to make some of items for this special occasion (304-845-9591).

 

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Wednesday 9/3 at 5:00 PM all devotees are invited to Shyam and Vidya’s house for a potluck picnic and sports!

 

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by Hrishikesh das

After two years of paperwork, Malini, a four-year-old two-ton female Indian elephant from Mayapur, India, arrived in the United States during the autumn of 1985, and spent the winter in Myakka City, Florida. Kirtanananda said she was to be “the first of thirty elephants for New Vrindaban.” [i]

Tattva Das, Malini’s trainer (mahut), explained, “Malini is a very happy elephant, but when kirtan starts, a huge smile comes across her face and she flaps her ears back and forth and sways with the music. Sometimes when the kirtan really gets going, she rapidly flaps her ears individually in time with the kartals.” [ii]

On March 15, 1986, Malini arrived at New Vrindaban with much fanfare. [iii] About 5:15 p.m. on Saturday, March 15, the huge elephant trailer bearing Kasyapa, Tattva, other devotees, and the star of the show, Malini, New Vrindaban’s baby elephant, rolled into the temple parking lot. Members of the gurukula spotted the trailer, which looks more like a giant semi truck, as it lumbered down the road. The word spread like wildfire among the teachers and children. In seconds, ashram after ashram poured out of the ground floor of the Lodge, spontaneous kirtans broke out in every direction and key. Malini’s chauffeur sounded a few loud blasts on his horn to announce her arrival.

The crowd, now including many adults, cheered and ran towards the parking spot to welcome our new celebrity. Malini was greeted by Kuladri, to whom she offered a garland, obeisances, and fanned him with a chamara. Kasyapa, bright-faced and misty-eyed, fed her laddus. She seemed to be all smiles at her long awaited arrival in her new home.

Tattva Das, who studied advanced elephant care during a five-week training course at the San Diego Wildlife Animal Park, explained the purpose of New Vrindaban’s elephant program, “Most Americans think of elephants as some kind of animal-machine, carrying logs, hauling bricks, and so on. Our elephant program is being designed to educate people in general about the cultural role elephants have played throughout the centuries. In India, elephants are employed in huge processions and gala religious festivals. They’re decorated with beautiful jewels and golden ornaments, stylized quilts, and body paints. It’s an impressive and very beautiful sight. Malini can already offer her obeisances, dance in the temple, offer flower garlands, and wave a chamara—a yak tail whisk used in religious rituals.” [iv]

During the summers, Malini lived in a small barn across the street from the temple, and during the winters, at a small farm in Myakka City, Florida. Sumati Morarji, the elderly owner of the Scindia Steamship Company who gave A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami free passage to the United States on the Jaladhuta, agreed to ship New Vrindaban’s second elephant from India on one of her ships. [v]

During the summer of 1988, Malini won a trophy at a Moundsville parade competition in the category titled “best dressed.” Tattva explained, “Malini is not an ordinary elephant. She is classified as kumariband, a rare strain of Indian elephant which appears about once in every thousand elephants born in captivity. Kumaribands are considered the most beautiful and most adaptable for temple functions.” Tattva also spoke about Malini’s intelligence and sense of humor, “But Malini also lays claim to an uncanny sense of character judgment,” when he recalled with a smile the time she sprayed a trunk full of water on a visiting West Virginia senator. [vi]

(See a picture of Mallini here) ——————————————————————————–
[i] Kirtanananda Swami, quoted by Kasyapa Das, “New Vrindaban’s First Elephant: Malini,” Brijabasi Spirit, vol. 2, no. 2 (c. Spring 1986), 36.
[ii] Tattva Das, “Update Malini,” New Vrindaban News (February 17, 1986), 4.
[iii] “Malini Arrives,” New Vrindaban News (March 19, 1986), 2.
[iv] Tattva Das, quoted in “Krishna Devotees Bring Baby Elephant Into U.S.” New Vrindaban News (June 14, 1986), 4.
[v] “Stories from Bhaktipada’s Trip,” New Vrindaban News (March 19, 1986), 2.
[vi] Tattva Das, quoted by Tracy Roberts in “Happy Birthday, Malini!” Wheeling News-Register (May 5, 1987).

3764 Watseka Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90034

July 19 1970

My Dear Hayagriva,

Please accept my blessings. Since you have gone I have not heard from you, neither do I know whether the property is purchased. I have not heard anything from Kirtanananda also. So I am anxious to know whether the festival in New Vrindavana will take place.

It is already announced in the circular letter regarding the Constitution that the meeting will take place in New Vrndavana. I have also promised that. I shall go to New Vrndavana. So if everything is fixed up, then you can send me the traveling tickets.

Further, if I go to New Vrndavana I wish to go via Boston so that I may be able to see the temple and the press while going on the East side.

So kindly treat this as urgent and let me know your decision.

Your ever well-wisher,
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

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Dear Devotees,

We were blessed with a male child on 27th August at 12:38pm. By mercy of Sri Sri Radha Vrindavan Chandra, it was normal delivery and child and his mother are both in good health. Please bless that the child may grow performing devotional service and become a completely surrendered soul to all the true Vaishnavas and the Supreme Lord Sri Sri Radha Vrindavan Chandra.

Thank you very much.

Your servant,

Shankaranand Das
Govinda Priya Devi Dasi &
Little Premanand.

(see a poem about a baby)

(Adapted from the 4Th chapter of Krishna book words and music by Devananda Pandit das.)

Peace came from the east
Success came from the west
And the sky was riddled with a billion stars
In villages and towns
Through many miles around
Signs of fortune offered their regards

The forests and the waters
Where dressed with fragrant flowers
The birds began to sing and peacocks danced
The wind was so appeasing
And the sense of touch was pleasing
It seemed that everyone was in a trance

Celestial beings and angels
Rejoicing with no bounds
Looked upon from their jeweled towers
The ocean waves subsided
And the thunder was delighted
Well the demigods together showered flowers

Then in the dead of night
To everyone’s delight
Lord Krishna made His way into this world
Appearing like the moon
A transcendental boon
The prophecy now finally had occured

copyright 2001 Denis Moreau