of a
Traveling Creature
by Buck White (PIGGY)
AÑJANA SUTA ACADEMY
2010
December 19th - 31st
[Abbreviations: "R/-4" = Four of our 25-rounds/day left from
yesterday;
"DTC" = Diary of a Traveling Creature]
Sunday (Dec/19)
The
Loft
Mar del Plata,
Argentina
10.54AM
R/20
Where is Srimati Radharani? She is dying
for a copy of Nectar of Instruction.
Maybe She’ll be at the Sunday Feast. We’ll be
presenting the NOI there. We’ve already introduced it with this Light of the Bhagavata
symposium.
Monday (Dec/20)
Car of Nicassio
En-route from Mar to BsAs
11.30AM
R/17
Ben Up since 2AM. Werk’n hard.
Now we’re on the
High-way from Mar to Buenos Aires. It’s a highway two lanes in each direction.
We are in the middle of trees and grasslands. Everything
pretty green. Hard to write. Too
much light on the screen.
Guess we should take a nap.
It’s four hours
to BsAs, then at 10PM tonight
we fly to Asuncion, Paraguay. It’s about two hours away.
5.36PM
R/22
Could not write in the car. Too much light to see the screen. Chanted Japa. Hellish nap. We
passed like nine or more cattle trucks with about 40-cows in each one. Such violence. Had nice discussion with Nicasio
about challenges in Grhastha-ashrama and development
of the facilities in Mar. Also worked our memory verses for
Bhakti-vaibhava. We were reviewing the verse, “yan namadheya sravana anu kirtanad…”, and we
remembered that we first started to memorize it while we were in Chile about
six months ago!
It is amazing but
we have actually memorized a lot. For every effort there is a result, nehabi kramo naso sti..!
Thank God we had
some nectarean, bread and a little potato bean Subji when we got here, Temple in Buenos Aires. We are
flying and won’t get to bed until mid-night. Here Adi-yajna
has a nice room for us to rest. Thank you Krsna!
Now we must
publish the Kapi Dhvaja!
Thursday (Dec/23)
ISKCON Temple
Asuncion,
Paraguay
2.08AM
R/-4
We have some
pretty fixed service habits for each day. They allow us to conquer the mind and
be of some service to Srila Prabhupada,
we hope. We have to fix ourselves in this journal writing each night. Otherwise
we engage in some frivolous sports to relax before taking rest.
The monkeys dispatched by Sugriva began their search. They scanned cities, towns and villages. Scouring woods and forests, they climbed mountains and dived into lakes and rivers. They explored deep caverns and entered holes in the earth. Going as far as possible in the directions they were assigned, they scrupulously searched everywhere for Ravana and Sita
Then each day,
after the day’s search, they would regroup and discuss their results. That is
the purpose of this Diary. We have to get that habit of writing in the night,
reading the Krsna book, taking hot
milk and taking rest!
2.19AM
R/-4
Prahlada Delivers
the Message of Narada Muni
into the Hearts of
his Demoniac Classmates.
Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna
Hare Rama, Hare Rama!
Inhalation Therapy: Take a deep breath and inhale a lot of dust at
the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada
and chant five, or as many, Maha-mantras as you can.
Mother Sita will hear our chorus!
3.04AM
R/0
3.42AM
R/4
Time for Bath,
Temple program, Breakfast, Sankirtana…!
Friday (Dec/24)
ISKCON Temple
Asuncion,
Paraguay
9.11PM
R/25, G/3
Hare Krsna! AGTSP!
Paoho. Here we are in our
room in the Temple, Iskcon Center. We didn’t write
last night. We tend to be too exhausted mentally and want to play some computer
game that involves mental variety but doesn’t require any Bhakti or higher
intelligence. We think that maybe this is not all wrong. Several people have
commented that we can be too mental. If we push ourselves we get a headache and
then that can lead to the now popular brain strokes.
Hare Krsna!
Today we went on Hari-nama Sankirtana for Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada’s avir-bhava-mahotsava
(Disappearance Festival). Jagajivana Prabhu was leading a very mellow Kirtana
and many people were smiling and chanting. Two or three book
distributors.
Then nice, very
simple Prasadam, and we worked on using Window’s Movie Maker trying to
upload the samples to the Internet. It was time well spent but don’t know how
practical it will be. What do we have to say? Who will listen? What will be the
benefit?
Vrndavana-dhama-mahimamrta
By Prabhodananda Sarasvati
Sataka Fifteen
73 I shall tell you a mantra that is hidden from all the Vedas and not manifested anywhere in the most confidential scriptures. When a person chants this mantra the great spiritual perfections come before his feet and the opulence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead stands in his hand.
74 For a person who chants this mantra there are no orders or prohibitions. A person who understands the dust of this mantra’s lotus feet purifies they who know the rules of the Vedas. This mantra is the sweetest nectar. It is the auspiciousness of all auspiciousnesses. It is filled with all limitless wonderful glory. It is the attainment of all attainments.
75 It is the ultimate goal of all goals. It is the wild bliss of all wild blisses. They say it is the secret of all secrets. Without thinking of anything else, day and night chant this mantra: Radha.
76 This mantra is a flood of sweetness churned from the sweetest nectars. It is a precious flood of the wild sweetness of the bliss of pure love. O fortunate one, who understands us? Who understands the meaning of this mantra that is a flood of bliss flowing into the heart?
Piggy: Yet, we think that “Hara” in Srila Prabhupada’s Maha-mantra is even
a better form!
Hare!
O.K. Chant Hare Krsna and adjust everything with
the bliss of the service of the Gopis. Read some more
VDM, World Classical Literature the KRSNA book and take rest until 1.00AM!
Sunday (Dec/26)
ISKCON
Asuncion
2.18AM
R/4
EMBRACED BY THE
LIGHT
VARAHA AVATAR
Imagine a pig as
big as a tree,
Something we might find just on TV.
Then run through
the town,
At the top of your voice,
Declaring to
everyone,
That they have no choice,
But to worship Narayana,
With songs and great praise,
From their
earliest hours,
To the end of their days!
YOGI-RAJA
I think I knew a
man of fudge,
His brains were thick,
They would not
budge.
But in his heart
was motion clear,
He would dance to Kirtana
without fear.
One day they
asked of this great grace,
He replied, “All things are in their place.
Trained by
Mother, Aunt and school,
I went to classics from baby-drool.
Ready and willing
we met His Divine Grace,
And have begun with death this desperate
race.”
Re-awaken our ecstatic love
of God before we lose this human field.
2.30AM
R/4
Yesterday was recovery from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada’s Day. We talked on Skype for 40-minutes with Radhika Prabhu, and then went to an evening, home program at Mother Madhavi’s home for Lord Christ. It was nice, pleasant, very simple but opulent Prasadam. We just took Subji and some cheese was in it.
Amazingly we got up at 1AM with our alarm and don’t feel tired.
Hmm?
O.K. Some more Japa!
3.03AM
R/8
In the Sandipani Muni school,
What does we contemplate?
Who is so great?
Even the all-marvelous
supreme Guru is marveled by His teacher.
3.21AM
Japa Joe
Sit properly. Breathe properly. Hydrate properly.
6.06PM
R/22
Sunday Feast: Dumb, dead, deboomed! Jaga-jivana’s Halavah was another level of consciousness. Now everyone is just smiling and smiling and saying nothing.
Hare! Krsna!
Hare! K r s n a ! She can cook with the rarest, finest spices and give Nanda’s son such unlimited energy that he can take care of the cows, the inhabitants of Vrndavana, all the universes! Vrsabhanu-nandini Ki Jai! Yet, She is the most embarrassed when anyone glorifies Her for Her skills. She is honestly completely humble thinking that so many other devotees are doing so much better service than She!
This is
our last night in Asuncion. We take off tomorrow for Buenos Aires. The
ABC catches the winds at 8.30AM and should run to moorings about 10.05AM. By
the day Monkey is an avid worker, often perched up in the crow’s nest.
At night he settles in for serious reading
from the Never Ending Bookshelf (Piggy also). They occupy upper and lower
births. Uncle Gismo mans the rudder. The current book was about a bull-peasant
in a country called Armenia. May have something to do with Armenia in your
world, has to have something, but what are the details?
The bull-peasant’s name was Brussels. He built boats to bridge the deeps. His boats were powerful because he felt the wind and waves when he was building them.
Even if we align with a tiny fraction of the energy of the Lord, we have more energy than we ever imagined possible: The waves of popular sentiment, the waves of canonical justice, the waves of ocean motion!
Brussels used wood to
build his boats.
He laughed at iron and tin.
Pound for pound bamboo has
more compression strength than steel.
He had actually seen the Pandava hero, Arjuna, come completely out of the water as he wrestled with a sperm-whale one year. Such a strong, flexible, wooden craft he had. All for gratify the lotus feet of Dvarka-puri’s Prince.
The whale was harassing many people who tried to cross the waters to Dvaraka, so Arjuna surcharged him, he left, and the souls of the harassed one’s, which had been held in trust by Dvaraka-devi, attained new destinations.
SNap (Short Nap)!
Monday (Dec/27)
TAM 703
Asuncion > Buenos Aires
8.54AM
R/9
Well, AGTSP, paoho, our nap was like two hours and then we were up ALL night, writing letters, answering letters. We wrote Garuda Prabhu about the NOI Grammar. We answered five Annual Reports. We answered five Letter Blogs, three disciple letters about Jiva-tattva etc. Oink! Whoop! Hare Krsna!
We tried to sleep at 1:15AM but couldn’t do it. It stimulated us much to think that with proper austerity and Prasadam we can sleep a lot less and write a lot more.
Now they are passing out breakfast, Peeg and Cheeckin. Maybe they have Veg for Senor Hanuman! Otherwise one juice and one water.
Let’s look at Monkey’s movies and work on the Kapi Dhvaja. It should organize everything.
4.36PM
R/17
We did work on the movie. We waited 55-minutes in the line in Immigration! It was Krsna’s mercy. Chance to chant our rounds. Temple, Bath, Rest, Prasadam with Bhakti-bhusana Swami.
Narayana-para Das sent us fotos of December 13th and following days in Mar de Plata in the Loft and with the Interfaith Dialog.
LOFT: Maha-jana Das, Hanumatpresaka Swami, ISKCON
Light of the Bhagavata
Different strong Religions should
come out of their caves, churches, and
join together to sing the glories of God.
Rabbi – Padre Hugo Segovia – Sufi Abdul Karim – HpSwami – Mahajana Das
ORGANIZER – Bhakta Nicassio
DIKR – Muslim Kirtan of the Holy Names
“All that is needed for evil
to prosper is for good men to do nothing”, Thomas Paine(?)
Tuesday (Dec/28)
ISKCON
Buenos Aires
9.28PM
R/24
Regular day. Very nice. Up early, Japa, Temple program, Prasadam. Many challenges in developing potent preaching programs. We are actually quite small. In Vrndavana, only Krsna and Balarama kill demons. The Vrajavasis just call, “Hare Krsna! Hare Rama!”
Now let’s read the KRSNA book and take a little rest, and dream of Krsna. Service in dreams!
Thursday (Dec/30)
ISKCON
Buenos Ares
1.42AM
R/-2
One of our biggest challenges is working with devotees. They are not always pure, free from selfish desires. So, intense conflicts and passions enter into the work. It causes us intense stomach aches. It brings up our material attachments. We think murderous thoughts. This is all good because it makes us realize that we must purify our hearts. Constant our Japa.
We live in a bubble of time
and space,
Predominated by the feet of
His Divine Grace.
Let’s chant Japa! Have to do it softly because H. H. Bhakti-bhusana Swami is on the other side of the wall and he doesn’t get up until 3.00AM. Then he works all day. We take a nap. Srila Prabhupada says that the real standard is two hours a day of sleep with Snaps, Short Naps.
1.50AM
R/-2
8.38PM
R/27
SANNYASA for
YOU
If people want to spit and fight,
Then let them do it, that’s alright.
Babys filled with fury rage,
Just cup your ears and turn the page.
The KRSNA book’s at fingers reach,
It talks of Dvaraka and Yamuna beach.
Each day’s end it’s where we spend,
Our final moments then dreams we spin.
We enter
this world as toothless suckers,
And depart in a manner
same. 
In between we make all things complicated,
Molesting our ears and
brains!
_۩_
Friday (Dec/31)
ISKCON
Buenos Aires
2.39AM
R/2
Get up at 1.15AM but don’t chant Japa because we can’t chant loudly for fear of waking-up our neighbors. Better to bath, write, read, and then at 3.00AM we can start chanting with Japa with vigor. Our room overlooks the entrance-patio. Mildly cool breeze blowing, Buenos Aires means, “Good Airs”. Around the corner at the “Good Side” there is a crowd of people singing and drinking and laughing all night.
At our stage it is so important to have good systems for organizing our time: Sankhya purvaka nama gana …. (Sad Goswami Astaka), then we can control the mind. Namacharya Das has weird work schedule also. This is Kali-yuga, who doesn’t!? (Few mosquitos.)
Ekadasi is one of the most inviolable days for us. Forget and eat grains and you become a murder of your … So, we finish these Diarys on Ekadasi, Oink! Oink!, and post them.
Guess we should do it now because we are on the road all day and our destination is a place where there is no internet.
Review and edit this DTC (2.48AM)
(3.05AM We couldn’t review past the 27th, but looks O.K.
Our only hope is to inspire Sankirtan. To be a Leader, to see our
Institution moves along.
Write to the Blog address in the Kapi-dhvaja.
O.K. See you in the next body (Diary))
Buck
White
