New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

Dressed in a kaupina and kantha, living by eating fruit fallen from the trees, not speaking useless words, not passing the time in useless deeds, abandoning all pride, going to each house to beg a little alms, and following those for whom Sri Radhika is their entire life, I will live in Vrndavana.

[Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrindavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, 1-64 Translation.]

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Bob Wilkinson, an independant WV film maker, put together this 5 minute video about Srila Prabhupada’s Palace. It includes commentary about the history of the Palace and New Vrindaban by Soma dasa, Param Dhama dasi and Sankirtan dasa.

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What is this wonderful thing? I don’t know. The crowns of the Vedas lovingly glorify it. Krsna eternally serves it. It is the source of the sweetest nectar of love. Is it a creation of the most wonderful nectar of intense bliss, or is it the purifying land of Vrndavana.

[Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrindavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, 1-62 Translation.]

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Follow up on a Throwback Thursday’s picture of two young boys with oxen. Photo supplied by Judy Logsden, Floyd’s daughter.

A few weeks after arriving in New Vrndavan at the end of 1973 I was incorporated into what was then referred to as the “plough department.” Although most of the work with the horses at that time was being done by Kasyapa Das (Varsana Swami) the department was headed up by Paramananda Das.
At that time there were three teams of horses. Tom and John a beautiful team of young Belgians that Kasyapa drove, Prince and Molly a team of white horses which I was trained on and drove, and Ranchor and Saivya which were primarily a back up team.

In the next year Manonatha Das and Garga Rsi also drove the horses for brief spells. My brother in law Kholaveca Sridhar Das, was a frequent helper to all the various horse drivers. Madhava Ghosh worked closely with all aspects of the “plough department.”

Across the road from Bahulaban in a very small house just past the “new barn,” lived Floyd Coffield. At that time I believe Floyd would have been in his late sixties or seventies. Floyd Coffield was the person that sold the Bahulaban property to the community and then continued to live there in its shadow.

When I was learning about the horses on more than one occasion Paramananda Das took me out to meet with different local farmers that he had developed a rapport with. Sometimes it was in regard to buying equipment and sometimes just to learn from them. Both Paramananda Das and Kasyapa Das had not only talked very highly about Floyd Coffield and his knowledge of farming and specifically the horses but both took me over to meet with him and ask him questions at different times.

Floyd was always very generous not only with his time but also generous of spirit. It must not have been easy for an elderly man from West Virginia to understand and accept a bunch of young westerners living the lifestyle that we did but you would never have known it by how Floyd treated us.

When Floyd turned ninety years old which must now be almost twenty years ago we had just tried to start a “New Vrindavan Residents Association.” One of the first and only things we ever did before disbanding was to purchase a gift certificate of one hundred dollars to present to Floyd for his birthday. Looking back now it is something that we did for a neighbor that I think we could all be proud of. I wish we could have done more not only for Floyd but for other good neighbors such as the Bardalls.

Floyd’s daughter Judy still lives across the road and has remained a good friend to many members of the community. She presented me with the picture of Floyd and his brother and their team of oxen outside of the building which would become the temple of Sri Sri Radha Vrndavan Candra more than five decades later. I would dare to say that the picture shows two of the earliest cowherd boys of New Vrindaban dhama.

I pray that I may engage in the service of the moving and non-moving residents of Vrndavana. What are Brahma and the other demigods in comparison to them? The residents of Vrndavana are more glorious. They are very dear to Vraja’s king. Their forms are eternal, spiritual and full of nectar. Their glories are limitless. They are the root that sprouts into the bliss of the Upanisads.

[Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrindavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, 1-61 Translation.]

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Effect of Loving God :

Goal of Human Form Of Life :

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The front cover art of Sankirtana Das’ Mahabharata book.

A New Vrindaban Storyteller Releases New ‘Fast-Paced’ Mahabharata

By: Madhava Smullen for ISKCON News on Aug. 9, 2013.

Professional storyteller Sankirtana Das (Andy Fraenkel) has just published his own retelling of the great Vedic epic Mahabharata that stands out from the crowd with its unique fast-paced approach.

The book, Mahabharata: The Eternal Quest, is the culmination of years of experience in the dramatic arts, as well as a long relationship with the Mahabharata.

Young Andy Fraenkel first encountered the epic while living on New York’s Lower East Side and studying theater in college in the 1960s.

In his college library, he came across The Indian Story Book by Richard Wilson, which included several stories from the Mahabharata.

“The story of Yudhistira and the dog really jumped out at me,” he says.

Andy created a script based on the story, and turned it into a short play that became part of a full-length presentation his college theater group put on for elementary schools in the New York City area, along with The Emperor’s New Clothes and Rudyard Kipling’s The Elephant’s Child.

After this, Andy began to get more interested in Indian spirituality. He got a copy of ISKCON Founder Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is at the ISKCON temple on 61 2nd Ave—Bhagavad-gita of course being a central part of the Mahabharata.

Then, in 1971, after graduating from college, he and his wife visited Nova Scotia to stay with another couple pursuing the arts. During their stay, they read the Bhagavad-gita more, bought and strung their own beads for chanting, and began to implement a vegetarian diet and cut out intoxicants.

After meeting Srila Prabhupada in Detroit later that year, they eventually joined ISKCON in Chicago in 1973, and were initiated by Srila Prabhupada as Sankirtana Das and Ruci Dasi.

“We knew we were making a very serious commitment,” Sankirtana says. “And at that time, I was ready to leave all my attachments about theater behind.”

Sankirtana became a dedicated missionary, spending his time distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books at Chicago’s O’Hare airport.

But in 1976, after moving to New Vrindaban in the West Virginia Hills, he began to think more deeply about what would come next for him.

“I began to realize that to stay in the movement for the long haul, I needed to be connected to some particular service,” he says. “I thought about getting into one of the arts and crafts, doing stained glass or pottery. And as I was trying to rack my brains as to what to do, I thought, ‘Wait a minute, I have something that I’m connected with—theater!’”

Starting the Theater Project in New Vrindaban, Sankirtana performed a one-man theater program called An Evening with Krishnadas Kaviraj. After a stint with the Vaikuntha Players in New York performing the Ramayana, he was joined back in New Vrindaban by Lokamangala Das of the Players when the group disbanded. The two had a close working relationship for a decade,  putting on Nandulal: The Story of Bilvamangala Thakur; The Advent of Lord Krishna, The Ramayana, Lord Chaitanya and the Kazi, and Jada Bharat: Three Lives.

Throughout the 1980s, they would put together one play every year, and perform it through the summer for New Vrindaban visitors. Then, in 1987, their efforts culminated in a two-man performance of the Mahabharata.

“The international theater director Peter Brook was bringing his nine-hour Mahabharata to New York City, so we decided to develop our own Mahabharata,” Sankirtana says. “At first we tried to get more people involved. But when we saw that no one was going to make such a big commitment, we resigned ourselves to putting together a two-man Mahabharata.”

Sankirtana and Lokamangala performed their under two-hour Mahabharata for a five-week run in the 100-seat American Theater of Actors Off-Broadway in New York City, with a musician providing live musical accompaniment and Bharat Natyam dancer Deva Deva Jagat Pate performing dance.

Meanwhile, Peter Brook’s nine-hour Mahabharata production, with its forty actor cast and half a dozen musicians, played simultaneously.

Despite being much more low key, Sankirtana and Lokamangala’s play, referred to as ‘the other Mahabharata,’ was also reviewed in the New York Times, which stated that the duo “dedicate the work to their eternal Spiritual Master, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.”

Lokamangala Das and Sankirtana Das (right) perform their two-man Mahabharata Off-Broadway in New York City.

For four years, the two toured the Mahabharata at colleges, Hindu temples, and Rathayatra festivals around North America.

But then in 1991, Lokamangala moved away from the New Vrindaban community. And in 1994 Sankirtana suffered a major heart attack, rendering him unable to shoulder the intense task of producing plays.

A performer, however, is always a performer, whatever the medium. And so, undaunted, Sankirtana transitioned to solo dramatic storytelling.

“For the last twenty years, I’ve been a professional multicultural storyteller, telling stories from Indian, African, Jewish and Native American traditions,” he says. “I developed a repertoire of stories which I took to high schools, elementary schools, and colleges, and I also developed several workshops on the dynamics of storytelling.”

In 2005, Sankirtana Das received a West Virginia Artist Fellowship Award for his outstanding efforts in professional storytelling.

And in 2006, he was invited to the National Storytelling Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and told to submit three stories, of which he would tell one. He chose three stories from the Mahabharata.

“Devotees had been saying, ‘Why don’t you work on a film of the Mahabharata?’ But I didn’t have the capacity or energy for something like that,” he says. “So in 2000, I decided if I couldn’t make a movie I would write a treatment of the Mahabharata as if it were a film. It would be so visual, graphic and character and action driven, that when people read it it would be like watching a movie in their minds.”

When Sankirtana submitted his three stories the Storytelling Conference asked him to tell all three, which he did, in front of a thousand extremely appreciative listeners.

This encouraged him to refocus on the Mahabharata that year, in 2006. Finally, he once again refocused his energies on the epic in 2011, putting aside his other projects, and completed and published the work this year.

There have, of course, been many different versions of the Mahabharata, both outside of ISKCON and within, but Sankirtana’s brings its own unique style.

“Today’s culture is so visually driven, obsessed with Internet, video games, and movies,” he says. “So I wanted to make a Mahabharata available that addresses that inclination in our culture. I wanted it to be a fast-paced story, not bogged down with too much description and dialogue.”

In his relatively slim 280-page edition of the Mahabharata, Sankirtana attempts to retain the essence and depth of the story while always keeping it moving forward quickly. His years of experience in the dramatic arts, which he feels applies in all forms of art, helped him to keep this balance.

Sankirtana has geared his book towards a very broad audience, but hopes that the shorter, more digestible narrative will make it especially ideal for use in college classes compared to other editions, some of which near the 1,000 page mark.

At the same time, he has tried to make the book interesting to devotees who may already be familiar with the story by using narrative tricks and turns that keep readers on their toes.

“I have three  prologues,” he says. “One with Bhumi and the demigods praying to Lord Vishnu in Svetadvipa; one about Vasishta Muni cursing the Vasus; and one of Lord Krishna telling a story about Dharma to Yudhistira.”

After these three prologues, the narrative jumps to Yudhistira walking across the battlefield at Kuruksetra to seek permission from Grandfather Bhisma and Dronacharya to engage in combat. Bhisma then thinks back on how it all came to this terrible war, and we flash back to the traditional beginning of the Mahabharata, wherein Bhisma’s father Shantanu meets his mother Ganga.

During the course of the narrative, Sankirtana ties all these different “loose ends” together, keeping even the most seasoned reader interested to see how he’ll do it. Through this, three important themes arise: Sankirtana helps the reader understand the nature of Dharma; the age of Kali; and Krishna’s relationship with his devotees the Pandavas.

Intriguingly, in relation to Krishna, Sankirtana recreates for his readers the experience that people had 5,000 years ago during the events of the Mahabharata. As ISKCON Founder Srila Prabhupada explains, a very small number of people actually knew that Lord Krishna was God Himself at the time.

Thus, not wanting to spoon feed his readers or bash them over the head, Sankirtana never mentions in his text that Krishna is God. Rather, he lets the other characters and events in the book steer them towards that natural conclusion: for instance, the way Grandfather Bhisma and others address Krishna as the Supreme, Krishna’s showing His universal form to Arjuna, and Krishna’s appearing instantly to save Draupadi when her modesty is attacked by Dusashana during the gambling match.

“Prabhupada used to say that when someone sees a [Krishna conscious] play, they’re performing devotional service,” Sankirtana says. “Because if the play is done well, the hearts of the audience will go out towards the heros of the play—the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So in my book I try to make the characters sympathetic and give the full scope of their relationships with Krishna, so that the reader will naturally sympathize with these personalites. And they’ll be performing devotional service as they read it, whether they know Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead or not.”

“I don’t spoon feed the reader,” he concludes. “I accept that the reader is intelligent, and hopefully Krishna in their hearts will lead them to the right conclusion.”

Sankirtana Das’s book Mahabharata: The Eternal Quest is available for order now at Mahabharata-project.com.

You can read more from Sankirtana Das at his blog.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Adi 1.87, Translation: The appearance of ?r? K???a Caitanya and Prabhu Nity?nanda has surcharged the world with happiness.
The purpose of the appearance of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nity?nanda is to dispel the darkness of the soul.

CC Adi 1.94, Translation and Purport: All kinds of activities, both auspicious and inauspicious, that are detrimental to the discharge of transcendental loving service to Lord ?r? K???a are actions of the darkness of ignorance.
The poetical comparison of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nity?nanda to the sun and moon is very significant. The living entities are spiritual sparks, and their constitutional position is to render devotional service to the Supreme Lord in full K???a consciousness. So-called pious activities and other ritualistic performances, pious or impious, as well as the desire to escape from material existence, are all considered to be coverings of these spiritual sparks. The living entities must get free from these superfluous coverings and fully engage in K???a consciousness. The purpose of the appearance of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nity?nanda is to dispel the darkness of the soul. Before Their appearance, all these superfluous activities of the living entities were covering K???a consciousness, but after the appearance of these two brothers, people’s hearts are becoming cleansed, and they are again becoming situated in the real position of K???a consciousness.

CC Adi 13.61, Translation: In R??hade?a, the part of Bengal where the Ganges is not visible, Nity?nanda Prabhu, Ga?g?d?sa Pa??ita, Mur?ri Gupta and Mukunda took birth.

Another place nearby is named H???ug???. A fair is held there on the birthday of ?r? Nity?nanda Prabhu.

CC Adi 13.61, Purport: Another place nearby is named H???ug???. It is said that Lord Nity?nanda Prabhu brought all the holy places there. Therefore the people in the surrounding villages go there instead of to the Ganges to take bath. It is named H???ug??? because ?r?la Nity?nanda Prabhu used to perform the dadhi-ci?? festival of distributing chipped rice with yogurt pras?dam there and He took the pras?dam kneeling down. A sanctified lake in this place is always full of water throughout the year. A great fair is held there during Go??h???am?, and there is another big fair on the birthday of ?r? Nity?nanda Prabhu. In the Gaura-ga?odde?a-d?pik? (58–63) it is described that Hal?yudha, Baladeva, Vi?var?pa and Sa?kar?a?a appeared as Nity?nanda Avadh?ta.

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