Its late but there's so much yet to be done. I'm trying to pick out the best music for a dance piece I will be performing on Saturday. It has to have tablas and it has to be fast (might Muslimgauze be appropriate?). After two years of dreaming and plotting a shadow espectacular, I have been given the go ahead from within and carrying it to fruition. It's gonna be awesome.
Moving to New Vrindaban has been so good for me. These past two years had been frustrating because I felt from the bottom of my heart, a yearning to find good work, meaningful work, yet to no avail. Finding a focus point or project that would engage all of my God-given gifts to the best of their ability was my meditation. New Vrindaban has slowly given me this very opportunity. Now it is up to me to take this mercy and run with it.
Last weekend I went to a sister farm community in Pennsylvania for a celebration festival in remembrance of a beloved guru in the ISKCON community. Bhakti Tirtha Swami was one of the first black-bodied gurus, maybe even the first, within the Gaudiya Vaisnava tradition. His disciples are some of the coolest folks I have ever met. The mood was BBQ tofu marinated in dance fever. Soul sister #1 Mother Jagannath ki jaya!
Krsna consciousness can be summed up by three activities: chanting, dancing, and eating. My every day revolves around these three activities. And as I was reminded this weekend by the Vice President of the Brooklyn ISKCON temple, bring me home!, "The secret to Krsna consciousness is enjoying it!" And I thought I was moving to the ashram to renounce, HA!
The days are packed. Yesterday I was cleaning the cabin of one of the senior-most devotees in the ISKCON movement. Her name is Madre Malati and she is somethin' else. I went to clean her cabin as a favor. I wasn't really stoked to do it. Who really likes to clean anyway? But as I was dusting and organizing, I was finding things like, the original slide negative of Srila Prabhupada and Allen Ginsberg deep in conversation (circa late 1960s, I would guess), Srila Prabhupada's slippers, and old vintage video footage of the early ISKCON days. Malati and her husband personally introduced George Harrison to Krishna consciousness when they moved to London to open a temple in the late 60's. The story goes something like Malati and her husband flew to London, arrived with nothing but a bag full of Prabhupada's books, slept in a cardboard box in some alley, and, one week later, found themselves living and preaching in the home of George Harrison and John Lennon. This saintly woman has totally dedicated her life to Srila Prabhupada's mission, saving the world from godlessness. Doing favors for saintly people who need more time to fully immerse themselves in transcendental projects and initiatives, is a nice place to start practicing devotional service, bhakti yoga. This is an example of the beauty of service and how I met someone I admired. By offering her some service , I have extended myself and opened the doors to a inspirational friendship. With any luck, her good qualities might just rub off on me. Heh, transcendental vacuuming, who would have thought it could be so ecstatic?
Anywho, I picked up Madre Malati from the airport today. She had been flying for two days straight from India and didn't even stop to eat when we got back to New Vrindaban. What other person has such dedication? I am beginning to understand what it means to be empowered by guru.
Serve God, community, or myself? If serving the former fulfills the desires of the latter, why not water the roots and satisfy the needs of the entire tree?
Moving to New Vrindaban has been so good for me. These past two years had been frustrating because I felt from the bottom of my heart, a yearning to find good work, meaningful work, yet to no avail. Finding a focus point or project that would engage all of my God-given gifts to the best of their ability was my meditation. New Vrindaban has slowly given me this very opportunity. Now it is up to me to take this mercy and run with it.
Last weekend I went to a sister farm community in Pennsylvania for a celebration festival in remembrance of a beloved guru in the ISKCON community. Bhakti Tirtha Swami was one of the first black-bodied gurus, maybe even the first, within the Gaudiya Vaisnava tradition. His disciples are some of the coolest folks I have ever met. The mood was BBQ tofu marinated in dance fever. Soul sister #1 Mother Jagannath ki jaya!
Krsna consciousness can be summed up by three activities: chanting, dancing, and eating. My every day revolves around these three activities. And as I was reminded this weekend by the Vice President of the Brooklyn ISKCON temple, bring me home!, "The secret to Krsna consciousness is enjoying it!" And I thought I was moving to the ashram to renounce, HA!
The days are packed. Yesterday I was cleaning the cabin of one of the senior-most devotees in the ISKCON movement. Her name is Madre Malati and she is somethin' else. I went to clean her cabin as a favor. I wasn't really stoked to do it. Who really likes to clean anyway? But as I was dusting and organizing, I was finding things like, the original slide negative of Srila Prabhupada and Allen Ginsberg deep in conversation (circa late 1960s, I would guess), Srila Prabhupada's slippers, and old vintage video footage of the early ISKCON days. Malati and her husband personally introduced George Harrison to Krishna consciousness when they moved to London to open a temple in the late 60's. The story goes something like Malati and her husband flew to London, arrived with nothing but a bag full of Prabhupada's books, slept in a cardboard box in some alley, and, one week later, found themselves living and preaching in the home of George Harrison and John Lennon. This saintly woman has totally dedicated her life to Srila Prabhupada's mission, saving the world from godlessness. Doing favors for saintly people who need more time to fully immerse themselves in transcendental projects and initiatives, is a nice place to start practicing devotional service, bhakti yoga. This is an example of the beauty of service and how I met someone I admired. By offering her some service , I have extended myself and opened the doors to a inspirational friendship. With any luck, her good qualities might just rub off on me. Heh, transcendental vacuuming, who would have thought it could be so ecstatic?
Anywho, I picked up Madre Malati from the airport today. She had been flying for two days straight from India and didn't even stop to eat when we got back to New Vrindaban. What other person has such dedication? I am beginning to understand what it means to be empowered by guru.
Serve God, community, or myself? If serving the former fulfills the desires of the latter, why not water the roots and satisfy the needs of the entire tree?
1 comment:
I found it.
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