New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

From one of the inmates Muktakesh used to correspond with.

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RECOLLECTIONS OF JANMASTAMI/VYAS PUJA ‘72

nu mrupa

Srila Prabhupada was only personally with us for 10 celebrations of Krishna’s appearance day followed immediately by His own appearance, Krishna and Guru together. How incredibly appropriate a way to solidify in disciples’ heads the two tracks of the Bhakti train that must be in place for pure devotional service to be fully uncovered and freed of the limits and conditions of materialistic existence.

At the time I had no such appreciation. I was only a new bhaktin in the Denver yatra, visiting New Vrindavana for the festival and a chance to see and hear Srila Prabhupada for the first time.. But as soon as I got out of the little Datsun pick up truck we had driven in from Denver, I knew I was home.

Anyway, that being the case, I am sure my recollections are very limited and tainted by my ‘newbie’ vision and understanding. They are also a bit skewed by time and in some places are merely out of context images rather than coherent date, time, place, event type memories; conveying impressions only. So, please forgive me if I short change someone else’s more complete and mature memories. Please feel free to correct me at any point, as I am sure getting it straight will increase my own and everyone else’s appreciation of the pastimes that occurred.

As soon as we had arrived, I was assigned to the festival kitchen up the hill behind the newly finished temple and below and off to one side of the lecture/kirtan pavilion the next hill over. And that’s pretty much where I stayed for the whole festival except for a few times by Krishna’s grace that certain ‘accidents’ happened.

Actually, at that time, Denver was a Lord Jagannatha temple. Sri Sri Radha Govinda hadn’t arrived yet. The Denver devotees took their things to one of the two pavilions also located on hillsides out and about the Bahulavan temple and the lecture pavilion.

The women’s pavilion was out behind the old cow barn that was originally part of the farm property. It was much closer to the temple than the present deserted barn is. And you had to be a bit discreet about which way you faced your sleeping bag and things because in one direction, it looked over into the men’s bathing ‘ghat’ also behind and a bit above that barn. I’m not sure where the men’s pavilion was located.

One of the first things we had to do there was dig a trench around the upper side of the pavilion to drain rain water running down the hillside from washing mud and muck through the living area. We thought that was a lot of fun being so fundamentally earth oriented in relation to living conditions.

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by Caitanya Das

College outreach begins again:while arranging the cooking class at University of Pittsburgh last week, I am getting bounced around form bureaucrat to bureaucrat, drowning in a deluge of red tape and rhetoric. Everyone is blowing me off. But then Krishna intervenes and sends me 2 floors down. The facility is beautiful. I hope for the best. Its 5:15 pm-tough luck finding anyone around in university administration. They watch the clock even closer then bored school kids, cut out at 4:59 on the dot. I round the corner…could it be? It is possible? Yes! Today is my lucky day. I’ve found Prema! (The first person I saw, a PhD student working with the department. What are the odds?)

Very kind she is. I explain, we talk, she takes to me to her boss, coordinator of the department. Turns out she had talked about doing some demonstrational cooking classes this semester, but we just missed her. Prema gives me her number and email. Success. I love it when Krishna does stuff like this.

The next day I call her. She is very sweet. We become friends. I tell her about our cooking classes at other colleges, our ideas about taking food relief and welfare work to a higher level; proactive; introducing wasteful Americans to the culinary and lifestyle secrets of “economical and environmental by force” cultures. What can unite across cultural borders more effectively then delectable international cuisine? What able bellied person can resist its charms? She likes it so much she suggests we might consider collaboration. How could I argue with that? Pure genius. They do what they do best, organizing, providing facility, advertising, maybe even sponsoring the food. We do our thing: show up, cook, feed the kids and clean up. Everyone is happy. Krishna is very kind.

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7:30 Gaura-arati, Nrsimha-arati with extended kirtan
8:30 Children’s Costume and Talent Show* (see below)
9:00 Drama (Caitanya Prabhu)
9:30 Boat Festival with Bhajans ( bhajan texts will be provided )
10:30 Drama (Damodar Prabhu)
11:00 Slide Show
11:15 Appreciations
11:30 Kirtan
12:00 Darsana 

*8:30 Children’s Costume & Talent Show

 Who: Children of all ages

What: Costume andTalent Show of Krishna’s pastimes (from any Lila-Lord Rama, Nrsimha, Pandavas etc.)

When: Tuesday: Janmastami evening after arotik (around 8:15pm)

Where: Inside RVC Temple
All children entering receive a goodie bag. Those that perform a talent (song, poem ,skit, dance etc.) receive an additional gift!

For more info or questions please contact Rama Lila at 845-2911
There will also be other children’s activities in the evening such as gopi dot painting, coloring and video.

Dear New Vrindavan Devotees,

Please accept our humble obeisance’s. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the Brijabasi’s for heir wonderful service to New Vrindavan. It is because of all of you, with your sincere desire to serve the order of Srila Prabhupada, that New Vrindavan came into existence and has been continuing to exist for the past 4 decades. You have all made such sacrifices, performed such austerities, and tolerated unthinkable conditions just to serve the order of Guru and Krishna. We cannot even imagine what this must have been like.

Since our appointment by the New Vrindavan Board of Trustees, we have been trying to make sense of a chaotic situation and do our best to facilitate the needs of Radha Vrindavan Chandra and their devotees. Needless to say, we are far from perfect, and there is still much to be done. We will be the first to admit that we could be doing much more much better. We are young and foolish, our learning curve is long. You are experienced and wise. We need your help.

NVMT hereby officially requests any and all devotees who have suggestions, complaints, comments, or anything else to please share them with us. We can be reached by email at NVMT@pamho.net, and letters can be placed in the mail boxes located on the wall next to the offices of Janak Mahahjan das and Caitanya das. We have already received some valuable feedback from a few devotees. The more the better. Please do not hesitate. We are here to serve. This is our goal. Please help us to realize this goal by telling us how we can serve you best.

Very Truly Yours,

NVMT (New Vrindavan Management Team)

Chaitanya das, Janak Mahajan das, Radha Sundari Dasi, Shyamsundar das,

Here’s the link to Hari Bhakta’s blog. He’s putting updates on Gopi Lila’s health there.

http://hari-ontheroad.blogspot.com/

Please note: The actual day of Janmashtami is Tuesday September 4th…

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Your Servants,
Congregational Dept., NVMT & Arya Siddhanta dasa

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