We're all just passing through...

Allow me to introduce you to two incredible women who have recently entered my small reality. This here is Nisha. Several months ago she offered to sponsor my ticket to India. In gratitude, I have been helping her take care of her 9-year-old daughter, Radha Sakhi, for the last month here in DC. Her presence in my life is a godsend. I'm not sure which one did the sending part, but certainly the order came from the top.














Te presento Miss Radha Sakhi Vrinda. She has instantly become my smiling guru and dear little sister.This is a picture of us making tilaka-shaped pancakes, one of the finer pleasures of devotional life. Radha Sakhi is in 4th grade and is aspiring to be a disciple of H.H. Indradumnya Swami. Often times, she gets in trouble for daydreaming about him in school. Perfection!

"Stellaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"The doors of wisdom are never shut. Well done is better than well said."-Ben Franklin

This past weekend I celebrated RathaYatra in Philadelphia, and, yes, both Ben Franklin and Rocky were in attendance. I have fond memories of last year's Ratha Yatra, including my confusion and serious questioning of the movement when some random lady forcibly handed me several Back to Prabhupada magazines to distribute. There I was, passing out rikvik literature in a starched old sari, feeling really uncomfortable and thinking to myself what in the world am I doing here. Good thing big

brother Balaram was there to set things straight, but I have to admit, I was pretty traumatized by the event.

Later in the afternoon, at the Questions & Answers tent, all of my anxieties were relieved by Bhuchari Prabhuji, who had everyone laughing and crying at the same time. I thought to myself, this is a self-realized person! I later watched Matati Prabhu ride the space wheel and felt reassured that I was in the right company.

This year's Ratha Yatra was again beautiful and full of realizations. My current service of choice, being book distribution, has me introducing myself to the coolest people. One sister I met was on her way back from mass. She is an exchange student from Italy pursuing a PhD in molecular biology. She was fascinated by the diorama depicting the changing of the body from youth to adult to grandpa and back to youth. She bought a book and we talked for almost an hour about vegetarianism and Christianity.


I shared another hour-long conversation with a beautiful brother from Mexico City who is pursuing the teachings and religion of the ancient Toltec people of Mesoamerica. He performs traditional Toltec dance and had just boughten peacock feathers for his headpiece when I met him. He shared with me the similarities between the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita and the Toltec ethos concerning reincarnation, consciousness, spirit versus matter, and self-realization. When he saw a picture of Lord Jagannath on a postcard I had given him, he immediately wanted to know who He was. I brought him over to the chariot to introduce him to the deities and gifted him a garland to take home to his girlfriend.

Before I knew it, the sun was setting. I took the remaining moments of the festival to wallow in the nectar of sweet kirtan, the satisfaction of a full day spent distributing Srila Prabhupada's books, and the company of visiting devotees from Alachua and New York. My gratitude manifested itself in the form of ecstatic dance.

The next day, I followed Achuta, Janaki, Jvalamukhi, Bali, Vish, Gauravani, Ananda, Kumar, Sundeep, and family (aka As Kindred Spirits) to their gig lined up at George Washington University. The performance followed a yogathon in which the participants performed 108 sun salutations to raise donations for the Global Mala Project and Trees for the Future. The yogis perfected their meditation with a kool-down kirtan and dance party.



As Ben Franklin once put it, "Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it."

God Bless America.

I'm back on the east coast folks! For the next two months, I'll be living in the DC area working as a nanny for a friend of mine and her 9-year-old daughter. On Saturday, we decided to take a day trip into DC and check out the national peace march in which people from across the country travelled long distances just to march in.

Gathered in front of the White House, approximately 10 to 20 thousand enthusiasts were present. I came to the event armed with a bag full of Srila Prabhupada's books. The way I see it, I'd rather actively work for something than against something.

My main book of the day was a vegetarian cookbook called, The Higher Taste. As a proponent of educational awareness to create a solid foundation for the peace movement, I shared with my fellow activists how animal genocide goes hand and hand with the injustice of civilian death.

I met one nice boy from Peru, another from Mexico, a Peace Corp worker from Mali, and several activists from LA. I traded one book for a conscious hip hop record from a local Philly artist known as Tha Truth and another book for a fresh "Peace in Iraq" (written in Arabic) t-shirt from a Muslim brother who designed it himself. My Philly brother said he would definitely check out Philly Ratha Yatra next weekend.

So many amazing people were gathered. I had many conversations and some important realizations. What initially attracted me to the teachings of Srila Prabhupada was that he was a staunch follower of Gandhi in the forefront of the British resistance movement in the early 1920s. But upon the first encounter of meeting his future guru, he was told that self realization is too important to wait for a change in politics, nor is it dependant on who rules. He was told that man-made political systems come and go but real welfare work is that which helps reawaken one's original and eternal relationship with the Supreme.

Srila Prabhupada, then a young boy named Abhay Charan, thought to himself that British slaughter of innocent citizens was a reality and that independence would benefit the people. Spiritual life was a luxury that could be afforded only after independence and the people's cause was, in itself, God. Yet, he recognized this guru as being truly wise and learned, a man who was not concocting a new philosophy rather representing the eternal, timeless teachings of Vedic literature. There was something profound and intriguing about the explanation given by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta who referred to the independence movement as a temporary, incomplete cause.

I'll conclude this post with several quotes from a purport written by Srila Prabhupada that talks about the historic civil disobedience movement of Lord Chaitanya.

"The Kazi's order not to perform sankirtana could stand only as long as there was no civil disobedience. Under the leadership of the Supreme Lord, Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, the chanters, increasing in number, disobeyed the order of the Kazi. Thousands assembled together and formed parties, chanting the Hare Krishna mahā-mantra and making a tumultuous sound of protest. Thus the Kazi was very much afraid, as naturally one should be under such circumstances.

In the present day also, people all over the world may join together in the Krishna consciousness movement and protest against the present degraded governments of the world's godless societies, which are based on all kinds of sinful activities.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam states that in the Age of Kali, thieves, rogues and fourth-class people who have neither education nor culture capture the seats of governments to exploit the citizens. This is a symptom of Kali-yuga that has already appeared. People cannot feel secure about their lives and property, yet the so-called governments continue, and government ministers get fat salaries, although they are unable to do anything good for society. The only remedy for such conditions is to enhance the sankirtana movement under the banner of Krishna consciousness and protest against the sinful activities of all the world's governments.

The Krishna consciousness movement is not a sentimental religious movement; it is a movement for the reformation of all the anomalies of human society. If people take to it seriously, discharging this duty scientifically, as ordered by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the world will see peace and prosperity instead of being confused and hopeless under useless governments. There are always rogues and thieves in human society, and as soon as a weak government is unable to execute its duties, these rogues and thieves come out to do their business. Thus the entire society becomes a hell unfit for gentlemen to live in. There is an immediate need for a good government — a government by the people, with Krishna consciousness."
- Śrī Caitanya Caritāmrta Ādi 17.141 purport

Still feeling the Burn...

For more pictures, click here.
To watch last year's rockin' video of Krishna Camp, click here. I'll post this year's video as soon as it comes out.

Feel the Burn.

What can I possibly say? Krishna Camp was there. We built, we cooked, we created, we opened our hearts, we distributed love, we conquered, we were sober.

I've done my fair share of partying. I have gone far out of my way to find a good party, crossing several borders and continents in search of a good time, and just when I thought I would take a break from partying this summer, I get a call from Nitai.
Burning Man is unlike any concert, festival, Rainbow Gathering, Demolition Party, etc that I have been too. We are talking 50,000 folks, average age of 35, assembled for one week of creative debauchery in one of the most extreme ecosystems on the planet. Brilliant.

It actually kind of is though. Everyone is totally out of their average day-to-day element. The festival is meant for creative, uninhibited expression. Everything has to be built from scratch, all materials carried in, including water, and not a trace to be left behind.

You'd be interested to know that this constructed city called Black Rock City is built on top of an ancient lake bed, an ecosystem called the playa. Batholithic deposits and sedimentary marine packages characterize this fascinating desert landscape. Fortunately, a few of us arrived early to set up camp and I was able to appreciate the land's unique beauty before the madness ensued.
I quickly locked in as the kitchen mobilizer. I've cooked in some interesting places, but never with 45 mph sand storms threatening the feast. Everyday the sand came, everyday the kitchen was destroyed, a half inch of playa covering everything.

We did manage to serve some incredible prasadam. Coconut-avocado smoothies, mango salsa, Spanish rice, donuts, pineapple nectar, oriental noodles with ginger-peanut sauce, hot puris and chai to name a few of the delectables.
The most amazing night was that of the official "burn." The major creative component of this year's Krishna Camp was to reconstruct a Ratha Yatra cart that was recently acquired from the Vancouver temple. The amount of work, effort, sweat, tears, suntan lotion and pure devotion that went into building the cart blew me away. When the cart was finished, a light rain showered the playa and a double rainbow appeared in the sky.

The "burn" refers to when the mascot burning man is lit up in flames while thousands of fire spinners dance around and tens of thousands of fellow burners do their thing amongst one another. I watched the madness from the most pacifying, exciting, secure, and satisfying seat in the universe, on Lord Jagannatha's chariot at the side of Lord Baladeva. For hours the devotees, new friends, and I sat and chanted, sang, prayed, observed, smiled, laughed, and cried while the havoc ensued down below. This was one of the most fantastic moments in my entire life. I felt complete confirmation from Krishna to pursue this spiritual path of loving devotion and purification.
Amazingly enough, I made it out sober, invigorated, inspired, and alive. The ol' feet got pretty busted but they are quickly recovering. I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to everyone at Burning Man for such an awesome experience and especially to the devotees and friends at Krishna Camp for their example of unmotivated, unalloyed devotional service. You are the personification of love and compassion. How can I ever repay you for the inspiration you have given me?

Count me in for next year. I love you all.