New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

by Sacimata

Dear Devotees of New Vrindaban,

PAMHO. All Glories to Srila Prabhupada! Happy Radhastami! Recently there have been a few changes with the Radharani Club and the sewing department. Since, Mother Kunjabiharini left, the Radharani Club purchased the new Radhastami outfit from the taylors in Vrindaban. We are eagerly awaiting their arrival, and praying they reach us today.

Although, we were not able to sew the outfits ourselves, they are still a sincere offering of love to Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra. I will be away for a few weeks, but am extending a sincere thank you to all devotees who have helped make Radharani Club possible, and will be sending out a more formal thank you letter upon my return.

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(third in a series of six continuing articles (Sections) as taken from the Brijabasi Spirit from the 1970s, written by Taru dasa)

(Part 2)

Laddu Sadhu

Being addicted to Krishna prasadam is not the same as being addicted to anything else. Prasadam is completely spiritual and if anyone tastes it, he makes spiritual advancement. Still, if we eat too much and fail to control our senses that is not good for spiritual life.

Naturally, a devotee of Krishna wants to become free from material contamination. So there is al­ways a kind of moral dilemma for a prasadam ad­dict. He doesn’t want to eat too much. But at the same time, prasadam is so wonderful that there is no way to control yourself.

The only hope one is left with is the promise that if he only eats Krishna prasadam and nothing else, then Krishna will help him take less and less. As for myself, even that consolation seemed like a remote possibility. The whole situation was com­pletely out of control. There was no question of returning to the old material world, where I was always miserable and given to attacks of suicidal depression. Nor did there appear in be any ques­tion of controlling my eating habits.

The superexcellent quality of the Lord’s prasadam did not help my predicament any. I used to imagine that if all there was to cut was something very simple, like porridge or plain rice, then after some lime, you wouldn’t want to eat too much. Instead, prasadam was always delicious and there was always some new fantastic prepara­tion that 1 had never tasted before.

Take, for instance, the laddu. Who is there who can sufficiently describe the wondrous attributes of this illustrious sweet ball? One indication of the potency of this preparation is given by a famous painting of Krishna taking lunch near the Yamuna river. The Srimad-Bhagavatam describes how Krishna, surrounded by His cowherd boyfriends, appeared just like the whorl of a lous flower and all the boys appeared like the leaves of the lotus. By Krishna’s mystic opulence, although the boys sat around Him in a large circle, each one of them was seeing Krishna face to face.

Busy Eating a Laddu

In the picture, all the boys look very ecstatic just to have this opportunity to sit and look at Krishna’s moon-like face. All of them are ab­sorbed in looking at Krishna with great affection, except for one boy, who is busy eating a laddu.

This must surely be Madhumangala, who is men­tioned in many Vaisnava books and songs as a great lover of laddus. Being a brahmana boy, he used to promise to give Krishna benedictions in exchange for laddus. So if a laddu is so potent as to be able to distract the attention of one of
Krishna’s most intimate friends, who can calculate its effect upon an ordinary conditioned soul in the material world?

If it helps any, we can tell you that a laddu is made by slowly cooking chick pea flour in butter and then adding powdered sugar and sometimes nuts. But to describe the taste is impossible.

There is the wonderful richness of the butter, the tantalizing sweetness, the pleasant nutty flavor. But there is something else, the laddu-ness of it, which just isn’t comparable to anything. When you taste one, all you can do is say, “What is this?” And all anyone can do is tell you, “This, my friend, is a laddu”.

So although I was already totally addicted to prasadam, the first time I tasted a laddu, I developed a special fixation. This is one unique feature of prasadam addiction, that there is so much variety. You can be addicted in general, ad­dicted to sweets, addicted to maha-prasad (that which is offered on the very plate the Lord eats from), addicted to taking the remnants of great devotees, or simply addicted to one of many thousands of different preparations.

I was addicted to everything, from the simple chapati to maha cheese-cake with cooked-down milk topping. But my affection for laddus sur­passed everything else. Whenever there was any opportunity for obtaining laddus, I forgot all other considerations.

Once, the devotees prepared several hundred laddus to distribute at a college engagement. Un­fortunately, not too many people showed up, so the bulk of them were returned It) New Vrindaban. They were stored away in I he back room of Maharaj’s cabin and were to he saved for the feast on the following Sunday.

When I found out there were a couple hundred laddus put away, my mind went berserk. Dream­ing of laddus, hoping for laddus, remembering laddus, that was one thing. But to know there were hundreds of them just sitting there was too much to bear.

At this particular time in history, we used to take turns on guard duty. One person would stand watch during the night and also during the evening and morning temple program while all (he devotees were in the temple. Now I’m not going to tell you that I betrayed my post by stealing into the laddu room when I was supposed to be on guard duty. I did think of it, but I wanted lo be a good guard.

What I did was wait until one of my God-brothers, who was also quite fond of laddus, was on duty, At 4:25 A.M., when all the devotees were in the temple just before mangala aratika, I slid outside into the darkness. No one was in sight except my friend who was to alert me in case of danger. I went up to the cabin and slid in through the back window, since the doors were locked.

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I think it was yesterday.

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Dear Vaishnave Devotees:

        Please accept my humbly offered obeisance’s. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and his wonderful followers.  About three weeks ago, I sent out a humble request for anyone who might  be willing to consider stepping forward as a possible living donor with a liver transplant for His Grace Shyamasundar Prabhu, Srila Prabhupada’s personal secretary and the innovator behind the great success in
London at the time of the Beatles. Certainly, I understood that this was a very unusual request, but the urgency behind it allowed me the liberty to ask. I believe that Srila Prabhupada would not stand in the way of something that could help any one of his great soldiers in a time of need. I have also seen the effects of such surgeries in at least three devotees, whose lives have been extended in a wonderful way, allowing them the gifted opportunity of further service to Srila Prabhupada and his mission as well as to devotees at large. The response to my request was most incredible and heartfelt. In fact, the doctor who coordinates these operations was astounded, she asked Shyamasundar, “Who are you anyway? I have never had this kind of response in my life. And, from all over the world! Who are you?”  (Giving him the opportunity to talk about Krishna).

       To all the wonderful souls who offered hope in the form of prayers and well wishes, what to  speak of those who were willing to part with a piece of their own liver, I offer my most deepest most sincere gratitude. While I never cry when chanting the Holy Name, your loving responses brought tears to my eyes, again and again. It melted Shyamasunder Prabhu’s heart, giving him immense support in the face of his ordeal. 

I am pleased to report that today, we recieved the following good news:

Dear Prabhus & Matajis, Please Accept My Humble Obeisances.  All Glories to Srila Prabhupada. All Glories to Sri Guru & Sri Gauranga.        

     Just received the preliminary report of my liver biopsy from hospital here & they confirmed me to be the liver donor for HG Shyamasundar Prabhu. The earliest possible surgery date is 2 October 2007, so we will prepare for the same after returning to respective homes after 18 September 2007.  

So please pray for us & shower your blessings.

Thank you very much.

Your servant, Gopinath das. 

     

(Gopinath Prabhu is a disciple of His Holiness Radhanath Swami who lives in New Vrindaban and works with Share Your Care, a non-profit organization that assists Bhaktivedanta Hospital. All glories to Sriman  Gopinath Prabhu!) 

I am without the elequence to adequately express myself except to sincerely thank each of you and pray that our loving Lord Krishna continues to shower you with His unlimited mercy at all times in all circumstances. 

Yr servant, Malati dasi

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Kirtans at New Vrindavan have been found to regularly exceed maximum allowed sound levels. Due to concerns for the auditory health of everyone in the temple, and in order to comply with GBC policy, the following changes will go in to effect immediately:

1. Kirtan will be un-amplified (no microphone) except for large festivals (greater then 60 people in temple room). Microphone will be removed except for classes to ensure cooperation.

2. No kartalas larger then 3 inches in diameter will be allowed in kirtans.

3. Improper whomper playing will result in loss of privileges.

Thank you very much for your cooperation. If there are any questions of comments on this new policy please feel free to contact the New Vrindavan Management Team (NVMT) at nvmt@pamho.net.

Sri Hari Nama sankirtan ki jaya!

-NVMT

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Friday: HG Malati devi dasi
Saturday: HG Janak Mahajan das

Sunday, Sept. 16: HG Kripamaya das
Monday: HG Arcana devi dasi
Tuesday: HG Syamsundar das
Wednesday: HG Shankarananda das
Thursday: HG Malati devi dasi* (possibly out of town)
Friday: HG Soma das
Saturday (ekadasi b.f.:6:13-10:11am): HG Balaram Candra das

Sunday, Sept. 23 (Vamana dwadasi): HG Sankirtan das

October 5th, 6th, and 7th In New Vrindaban Dhama

Rejuvenate yourself amidst scenic fall foliage in New Vrindaban for a weekend with distinguished Vaishnavi’s featuring:

Discourses, Seminars, Workshops, Interactive Presentations

Courses in Shastra, Yoga, Massage, Health, Healing

Healthy Prasad prepared with love

Campfire Bhajans & Satsang

Intimate morning with Srila Prabhupada in His Palace.

Hosted by your servant, Malati devi dasi

$151 includes all meals and presentations (accommodation not included in this fee) to be paid upon arrival (discounts available for Residential Temple devotees)

For accommodation, call 304-843-1600 ext. 111, Mention “Retreat” for discount!

Nearest airport: Pittsburgh, PA/ Nearest bus station: Wheeling, WV

Pick up service available for a small charge

For Registration, Pick-ups and Info contact: Servingkrishna@aol.com

Olivia: 304-845-9591

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

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Click on the Image to see full size image or read the text only version below… Enjoy!

****CLUB108 NEWSLETTER (VOLUME 1 – ISSUE 1)*****
Sight – Sound – Vision – Multimedia Outreach – “Where East Meets West”

POWER-POINT PRESENTATIONS ON JANMASTAMI

Club108 was pleased to unveil its multimedia offerings for the New Vrindaban Community by presenting a series of Krsna-Lila power-point presentations made from our slide archive. It was viewed by dozens of pilgrims and guests during this year’s Janmastami celebrations.

Pictures of Krsna-Lila from the community’s slide archive were transferred over to digital images with the help of our newest Club108 member, the Super CoolScan 5000. The images combined with Prabhupada’s sweet narrations from Krsna book made for transcendental entertainment for young and old alike. We also featured an info table about our plans and projects, complete with a growing e-mail list. Feedback was uniformly positive, and we hope to make these Power-point Presentations a regular happening during festivals and busy weekends.

Thank-you Janaka Mahajana Prabhu for your enjoyment and appreciation of our Power-point presentation and the $10 donation, which was immediately put to good use

108 REASONS FOR YOUR STOMACH TO BE HAPPY

By the tireless efforts of HG Jagadish Caitanya Dasa, Club108 canvased community members to voluntarily cook and deliver 108 delicious preps for the Janmastami festival on Sept 4th. We offer our most humble thanks to all those in the community who prepared a cornucopia of different subjis, sweets, and other succulent delights for the pleasure of RVC, Their devotees and guests. The austerity of the all-day fast quickly transformed into a blissful feast thanks to the efforts and realized recipes of all those who were involved. Club108 hopes to continue offering this service of organization for future festivals.

THE VIRTUAL TOUR

In recent weeks, you may have seen and heard Arya Siddhanta and Bhakta-Chris making quite a ruckus in the RVC Temple room, using cameras, tripods, and loud voices, explaining to seemingly nobody and everybody about the unique features of our beautiful temple room. The fruit of this labor is a 20 minute first draft of the RVC Temple Virtual Tour. As an alternative to our face-to-face guided tours, which we are also developing, guests will be escorted through the temple by our virtual guides on state-of-the art personal video players. The Virtual tour includes unique visuals of the temple design and layout with exclusive narrations and accounts of the history by the devotees who built it, live in it, and worship in it. In the following weeks and months we request your input. Come and try this virtual tour, so we can get your feedback to improve its quality and make it a truly unique and authentic experience.

NEW VRINDABAN TO SOON HIT THE AIRWAVES

We are in the process of applying for a FCC license. When approved we’ll launch New Vrindaban’s first radio station. Stay tuned to this newsletter for further developments or talk directly to Bhakta Chris. By the way Bhakta Chris produced his own Ann-Arbor based radio show. Likewise, Kamalavati dasi was a 6 year radio personality at U-Mass in Amherst. Devotees interested in Krsna conscious radio should contact us with ideas, experiences and feedback. Don’t touch that dial.

“BAD KARMA IS NOT SUSTAINABLE” WORKSHOP APPROVED!!!

The emerging allicance between sustainable development and spirituality is a dynamic preaching field. Recently, the Pennsylvania Association of sustainable agriculture (PASA) accepted Tapahpunja Prabhu’s controversial proposal entitled “Bad Karma Is Not Sustainable-Farming As If Your Next Life Depended On It” His presentation will be delivered at State College on February 9th, 2008. The workshop entreats participants to carefully consider the sobering results of earning income through the sacrifice of animal or plant life. This is a block-buster breakthrough for integrating Krsna conscious philosophy with the world’s fastest growing grass-roots movement, sustainable development.

SUPERCOOLSCAN5000 IN FULL EFFECT!

As mentioned earlier, the newest member of our Club, the SuperCoolScan 5000 is up-and-running. We are now in the beginning stages of transferring the communities massive collection of slides over into digital format. This will allow us to create so many different and wonderful Power-point presentations taken from old slides. Be on the look-out for future Power-point presentations which will include themes such as the building of Prabhupada’s Palace and the history of New Vrindaban. Big thanks to Jaya Murari Prabhu for providing us graciously with the slide-scanner and feeder. It has the capacity to automatically transform 100 slides into digital pictures within an hour’s time.

THE HISTORY OF NEW VRINDABAN

Another Club108 initiative is to create a comprehensive chronicle of New Vrindaban community history. This is our biggest and most important project and we need your help! In the coming months, we plan to record audio and video accounts of the history of New Vrindaban. Our aim is to preserve the rich legacy of New Vrindaban, its struggles and successes, for the benefit of generations to come. Sankirtana Dasa has pioneered this chronology on a website hosted by Hanover College (http://www2.hanover.edu/newvrindavan/timeline.html). Remember, next year commemorates New Vrindaban’s 40th Anniversary as one of America’s oldest continuously existing intentional communities. The combination of advanced technology and carefully documented memories are the ingredients for making this chronicle a source of pleasure for Srila Prabhupada and Lord Sri Krsna.

OUR PRESENCE AT RADHASTAMI

The next transcendental festival here at New Vrindaban will be Radhastami, the Appearance Day of Srimati Radharani, which occurs on Wednesday, September 19th. Our plans for this great day include a Power-point presentation with narration, complete with live kirtan, and we are also approaching HH Varsana Swami to enlighten the community with a discourse on how Radharani combines with Her beloved Krsna in the form of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

THE CLUB108 FILM FESTIVAL

Plans are in the making for a regular film festival. We plan to present a series of thought-provoking and inspiring films on topics of devotion and also issues of self-sufficiency and sustainability. The format will include the showing of the film, discussion, and prasadam refreshments. If there are any films that you would like to see shown, please stop by the Club108 office. Later this month we will kick off the festival with a New Vrindaban debut of Vegan Cooking Workshop, a short film made by our own brahmacari’s detailing their wildly successful prasadam and preaching programs at Ohio University.

THE CONVERSION EXPERIENCE

In conjunction with the Global Leadership Council and the Pluralism Project, (http://www.ohio.edu/glc/), Prof. Greg Emery, a longtime friend of the New Vrindaban Community, will be working with select devotees on a project focused on how people come to Krsna consciousness, or “The Conversion Experience.” Prof. Emery’s 30 plus students annually visit New Vrindaban to interview devotees. Their purpose is to see how we live and relate. Their report includes testimony about why someone chooses to break away from mundane society to get the higher taste of Krsna consciousness. We look forward to working with Greg and his students, and we’ll have more news and realizations as this project develops in the weeks to come.

CLUB108 WISH LIST

1. VIDEO CAMERA – With so many video projects in mind, one of our immediate needs is a professional quality digital video camera. Were humbly asking for a donation. Our price range is flexible, but the most important consideration is a quality camera that can create professional-quality films (i.e not “home movies”) for the pleasure of RVC and Their devotees. The models we are most interested in are: the Sony HDRSR7 DV Camcorder, the Panasonic PV-GS320 DV Camcorder, and the Sony HDR-FX1 High Definition DV Camcorder. Thanks for your help.

2.SLIDE SCANNING AND CLEANING HELP – We have boxes and boxes of old slides. Because they are dusty, each slide is in need of cleaning. Would you like to help us clean the slides, and also to learn how to transfer the slides into digital format? See you next issue…

Your Servants @ CLUB108,
Tapahpunja dasa
Arya Siddhanta dasa
Bhakta Chris &
Jaya Murari dasa

Email: NVCLUB108@Gmail.com
phone: 304-843-1600 x101
Address: RD1 NBU2
Moundsville, WV 26041

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Monday, September 17th, the day Srila Prabhupada arrived in America, has been designated as “World Holy Name Day”. Either on this day, or on the following weekend (September 22-23), devotees are requested to make an extra effort to spread the holy names.

The New Vrindaban community will be taking part by holding an all-day kirtan on Saturday the 22nd. If you’d like to participate, please contact Caitanya Dasa at 304-843-1600, ext. 104.

We are also hoping to have a harinam in Pittsburgh on the 17th. Again, please contact Caitanya Dasa to participate.

Hare Krsna!

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(Second in a series of five or six continuing articles (Sections) by Taru as taken from old Brijabasi Spirits, from the 1970s)

Adventures in Prasadam Land:

In one sense, New Vrindaban never changes. Radha Vrindaban Chandra are always here, Kirtanananda Maharaj is always telling us to give up our sense gratification, surrender to Krishna and get to work. The same old devotees keep hanging in there. But in another sense, things are so different from when I first came that it’s hard to remember what really happened. Especially when it comes to prasadam. In a few short years, it has all taken on the quality of a legend. Nobody really believes the stories of what we used to eat, how much we used to eat, the austerities of cooking outdoors. It all seems like a myth.Sometimes new devotees still come up to me and say, “I hear you used to eat ninety chapatis a day”. I just kind of shrug my shoulders and smile and mumble that everybody used to eat a lot more then. (The truth of the matter is that one time I kept count up to seventy and then gave up counting).But who’s going to believe that. anyways? Better to let it remain a myth. That goes for everything you’re going to read in this article. Maybe it happened and maybe it didn’t. Actually, it did happen, but it’s better to believe it didn’t. Everyone at Bahulaban used to live in the Temple building, except for the householders and women. Amburisha and his wife were the householders and there were just two other women. And Siddhababa, the only child. So upstairs was the brahmacari ashram, which is now two rooms, the store and the old sewing room.

Old New Vrindaban:

It was just one big ashrama and there were 14 brahmacaris, counting myself, staving up there. Across the hallway, where the darkroom is now (1979), was Kirtanananda Maharaj’s room where he lived with one servant. Altogether, counting the other two farms, there were maybe fifty devotees in New Vrindaban. Now there are two hundred and fifty. So all the other details have changed just about as much. Coming to New Vrindaban from the city temple where I joined was at least as big of a change as it was to come to the temple for the first time. The temple in the city was like a lush oasis in the middle of the desert. The world of maya was all surrounding. All you had to do was look out the window and there it was: the car wash, doughnut store, six lanes of traffic, crowds of people in a mad rush back and forth for no reason. The same insane, monotonous drone and whiz of materialistic life that I had been engulfed in since the time I was born.To be sure, the temple was a complete shelter against all of that. But all you had to do was look out the window and there it was.By the time the car with Kirtanananda Maharaj and the other boy and me got to New Vrindaban. I had lost all bearings. Half or full asleep most of the way, I started opening my eyes toward the end as we made our way through the hills of West Virginia. Being a city boy, I wasn’t used to seeing so much unused space. Hill after hill with nothing on them but trees and grass. I tried to imagine what it would be like living here. It didn’t even seem like farm country, just as wilderness.

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