of a
Traveling Creature
by Buck White (PIGGY)
AÑJANA SUTA ACADEMY
2011
January 1st -
[ttd]
[Abbreviations:
"R/-4" = Four of our 25-rounds/day left from yesterday;
"DTC" = Diary of a Traveling Creature
C.C.
= Caitanya Caritamrta]
Saturday (Dec/15)
Prabhupada Ashrama
Ferrenafe, Peru
1.36AM
R/0
Hare Krsna!
We fell down yesterday. We didn’t write this DTC at the end of the day. Also, we didn’t put Srila Hanuman Prabhu to bed properly, offer him a pot of water, massage and bath.
Unless we follow the full wake-up Tantra we will fall-down, go back to s l e e p!
Must put a full glass of water to next to the light switch,
so we see it when we wake up, and turn off the clock! Must
not eat much past five o’clock. Must always chant Hare!
+ + +
Journey from BsAs was terrific. Always lines, wait, wait, wait. [Try to do Kirtan to enlighten people around us.] Ears seem to have recovered O.K. Didn’t meet anybody nice.
When we got to Peru was an intense program, one event after another: Go with Palika and Caturatma to Patraka’s house: She, Patraka’s mother and father, Nanda and Mother Karuna Jagannatha, Bk. Tomas, Candra-mukhi DD, Abhirama thakura Das, lunch, budget for The Person Bhagavata, call to Rupanuga Prabhu about conflict at University Ricardo Palma, back to airport, check-in, yogurt Prasadam,
fly to Chiclayo, greeting by 3-devotees, taxi to Ferrenafe (40-minutes), greeting by 10-devotees (one dog), Kirtan, Krsna book, rest!
Hare Rama!
1.54AM
R/0
2.25AM
R/4
2.32
C.C. 2.10.108: Actually
Puruṣottama Ācārya
did not accept the sannyāsa order formally, but
he renounced worldly life. He did not want to be disturbed by the formality of
the sannyāsa order.
This is exactly what we felt and wanted to do! However, B.S. Damodara Swami, Atreya-rsi Das, Swamis Trivikrama, Tripurari, Ramesvara et al all told us that it would be useful service to Srila Prabhupada if we took formal Sannyasa in ISKCON.
Yes, we have found that there have been many encumbering formalities. Being a b’cari maybe we could have developed our periodical writing better, but I guess we will never know because we have taken this path.
Back to Japa!
You are not tired you are:
1.
Hungry.
2.
Thirsty.
3.
Suffocating.
Honor Prasadam properly, Drink properly, Breath properly.
Chant with meaning:
Hare!
[pome]
Oh, Hara! Please pray to Krsna and Rama that we can find You quickly.
Thursday (Dec/6)
B’cari ashrama
Choseeka, Peru
10.26PM
R/21
Long time since we write! How are you all? We finished our week in Chiclayo/Ferrenafe. Was very, very nice. Is very, very nice country community. It is almost impossible to develop these things in the country, but something is happening.
Then we came back to Lima last night with a long grueling journey and came to Choseeka this morning. Then we had a Vyasapuja picnic in a private picnic area near the temple. There are many here. Choseeka is a resort city for Lima. Weather is like 75-times better here than Lima.
Was very intense program. About 40-devotees, adults, children, adolescents, youths. I know them all and they are all going through different intense personal programs and we were supposed to be the center of all of this. It came all pretty well. We are all learning the practical etiquette, protocol for all this. Tomorrow is more intense programs.
But now … we want to make a confession. You are very intelligent and may have suspected something like this all along, but here it is.
As you may remember our great grandfather was a graduate from West-point, the USA Military Academy. Then our grandfather was, as we have often mentioned, along with our Godfather, a mining engineer in South America. However, our family has always been patriotic in a very personal sense and the actual fact is that my grandfather was working for the OSS which of course has become the CIA. While I was in college it was offered to us to also contribute to the heritage of the USA in this way, and after some prolonged discussions with our family and the Agency, what kind of work this would be, we accepted. So, because of that, our career, association, has always been guided by this responsibility. We have been what is known as a Class Three Correspondent. This means that we just go on with a pretty much regular life but send regular reports on Confidential but never Secret events that we encounter. Of course, the decision that we join ISKCON, for example, was very much influenced by this. It has provided a wonderful opportunity to move freely from country to country with convenient places to stay, and of course in a role as an ISKCON sannyasi we have continuous opportunity to hear many confidential things.
After forty years of this, and a lot of stress, we are proud to explain that we have been given the opportunity by our supervisors to finally take a modest pension and retire. Of course, this confession is not something that will be broadcast on public television, but it is the very nature of the type of assignment that we chose to accept that we can make this explanation at this time and beg everyone to understand that it has been a very necessary role for the well-being of our country, which in-spite of some faults has generally been and hopefully will continue to be one of the most merciful and generous nations that has ever existed in the history of Western civilization.
Of course, we do not think that our role with the CIA has compromised our function in these normal social and academic duties, and although we will of course, retire formally from ISKCON and our other affiliations, we will always keep a fond remembrance of these years, and we feel that whatever we have been able to contribute in these various institutions can be accepted as completely valid within terms of the institutional standard and functioning.
So, we hope within these new boundaries to correspond with you all in the future as mutual feelings dictate and we wish the best of success in all of your own endeavors in life.
Sunday (Dec/9)
B’cari ashrama
Choseeka, Peru
3.00AM
R/-9
Ooof! Our alarm didn’t go off yesterday morning, so we didn’t get up until 3.30AM! Then we had an intense morning program with about 65-devotees from five different countries. This is for Vyasapuja. We chanted and exchanged obeisances, answered emergency questions, gave class, gave two first and two second initiations, lunch, rested, went back to the Temple for quick Internet work, two-hours highly efficient V.E.D.A.S. meeting, Gaura-arati, class by Gadadhara-gosai. It is a lot of work for us trying to understand classes in Spanish. We could catch about 20%. Crashed at about 9.00PM and up again at 1.00AM. Can’t chant loudly or we will wake up Patraka Prabhu, so we chanted silently without lips moving. This makes for questionable 10-minute rounds. Then we worked on our Index. It is very satisfying work, but it is questionable how much we will have done in time for the examinations on the 15th. It is laughable.
The above confession was generated because of this work with Ricardo Palma University. It is important because it asks this question: How much do you actually know someone? We are putting so much faith in Srila Prabhupada. He is our Acharya. He is our link to the Parampara, the last lens in the telescope. When you jump out of the airplane, you have to be sure the parachute will open.
There are three things that cannot be in little quantity:
· You cannot be just a little bit dead,
· A girl cannot tell her daddy that she is a little bit pregnant,
· You cannot be a little bit sure that your Guru is a proper representative of Krsna.
Sunday (Jan/16)
Jagannatha Mandir
Miraflores, Lima, Peru
3.07PM
R/18
Hare Krsna, Hare Rama!
Let’s review
the previous stuff.
Pretty informative.
Has been intense program here. We had the time with all the devotees
in Choseeka. Then we came to Lima for the program in Ccuri Wasi, Prabhupada, the Person Bhagavata. Back to Choseeka for initiations, formal Vyasapuja on Sunday and then more time with devotees in Choseeka, visit to La Cantuta
University and to Lima for the weekend.
We had a
Ganga-sagara Mela. The ocean is only 30-minutes by foot, but we
went 35-devotees in a bus. We almost drowned in the weird surf, but we had
30-minutes of nice Kirtana by the ocean.
Now it is
time to leave for the program in the other center in Lima, Wilson. We will stop
at a Gallery and see Rodrigo’s brother’s art exhibit, and get to Wilson
one-hour before the program to talk with devotees.
Then
check-in at the airport. Got to Patraka’s house to
rest, then fly to San Francisco.
You can see
that we are floating above pure devotional service. We are acting as a semi-unconscious
tool of Krsna.
He can use
us but we have to be more intense to use ourselves.
O.K.
Cut, can, post.
We’ll see you in the next DTC
Unless, we crash and roast!
