of a
Traveling Creature
by Buck White (PIGGY)
AŃJANA SUTA ACADEMY
2011
January 17st -
[ttd]
[Abbreviations: "R/-4" = Four of our 25-rounds/day left from
yesterday; "DTC" = Diary of a Traveling Creature; C.C. = Caitanya Caritamrta]
Monday (Jan/17)
LAN 2608
Lima to San Francisco
5.01AM (PST)
R/20
We don’t smoke.
We don’t chew.
The Maha-mantra
is always new!
All the dudes around
us are sleeping. We’re on like a nine hour, all night flight, from Lima to San
Francisco! Had-a-lot-a stress, we’re packed up with barely enough space to
cross our legs, there’s no space for bicycle riding, you sit beside someone you
don’t know, damage to the ears from altitude change, pig or chicken meat is
what they offer you to eat, in case we should drown, in case we should
suffocate, we got vests and hankys for you to
contemplate.
How are you?
Haw! Haw!
Haw!
I think you are worse.
This whole world is perverse.
The only good thing,
Is God’s glories to
sing.
Then we can hope,
That those blind souls who grope,
In the ignorance of
flesh,
Will recollect who they are,
Realize that home is
not far.
The robot says,
“2.08 hours to Destination”
Our destination is
San Francisco. We expect to meet Srivasa Pandita Prabhu there. Then we
will go to his home in Newark, give him his Bhakti Sastri
test, then tomorrow continue on to Houston, Texas.
Sankirtana yajna, ki
jai!
Now let’s work on
our Bhakti-Bhaihava Index.
Tuesday (Jan/18)
Srivasa pandita Ashrama
Newark, California
3.05AM
R/0
Feel like fudge.
With red chile pits!
Fighting fever, devotees same,
Before we left Grand Lima’s reign.
Yesterday, as often goes,
We missed Srivasa when we cleared the Custom’s rows.
He was inside we were out.
We were outside he was in.
Our quarters got phone talk, but we were braking all up,
Then we connect much later but he walked South all abrupt.
We ran after him and finally shook hands.
(Wiggle, waggle)
Drive to Newark, and talk and talk. About all that’s happened in South
American walk.
At home an ocean of ginger and beans, we select something and it’s all pretty
green, but then on the phone for our tomorrow’s all flight and Giriraja Swami is almost insight. An evening program is
looming ahead, and Subhra and CC visit us after a
brief crash in bed. All
very nice.
Two hours for oral exam for Bhakti Sastri for
Srivasa Ji. Score was
99.97%
We didn’t want lunch but was social convench.
Escaped with mild damage and at 7PM with Maharaja and 9-devotees Kirtan was a cinch.
Was very nice talking with Maharaja and the devotees.
He led a very nice Kirtana. Hearing
of his Sankirtana. Gita-priya
is 4-years old and showed us her Ramayan movies and all that Vyasa
and Valmiki told!
Well … here
we are, still alive!
Let’s chant Japa.
We were also able to answer all the letters on the Blog yesterday. It
is really, really helping! We answer and
many other people hear the same thing.
So much to learn. Yet, better just a little do… Four good rounds and again we will write to
you!
3.18AM
R/0
3.51AM
R/4
Our mystic powers are small but they are real. Like Hanuman we can change shapes, we can open a new internet address, put on a suit and tie. Yet, better to chant Hare Krsna and rely on Rama to dress us and groom us and teach us which song.
Radharani is sad, She wants to cook for Shyama. Yet, somehow She’s been sequestered by Jatila and Jatura for a time all too, too, long!
4.24AM
R/8
We always feel better physically when we chant also. Yet, our mind identifies with our disease, “Oh, I feel really bad, can’t work, it will get worse!”. With the Japa, however, we can be quite high internally, to the point of leaving this body, buddy, behind.
Mangala arati will be 5.30AM. That’s B’moo-hurta here.
Partners in the Search!
If we have to search alone, we can become exhausted, and with empty hands go home!
10.32AM
R/16
Hare Krsna, Hare Rama, sitting in the airplane Dhama.
Flight 48, Southwest Lines, we’ll be in Texas in no time.
Distributed a LOB to Giriraja Swami last night. Talked to one girl who lives across the street from the San Diego Temple. Electronics off – 10.37AM.
Friday (jan/21)
Nandulal’s Cave
ISKCON, Houston
2.48AM
R/4
Never accept any thought independent of constant recitation of the Holy Names.
3.31AM
R/11
Radha is pretty,
Shyama is clever.
If you just know this,
You need no more endeavor!
3.05PM
R/20
Oink! Oink! We are at 39,002 feet in Continental flight 60, headed from Houston to Newark. We just asked the attendant for water and gave him our little lotta that we got from Mahendra. He was charmed. We hate plastic. Maybe it’s O.K. if you reuse it like 12-14 times.
The plane took off one hour late.
We were in anxiety because we were afraid we would miss our flight in Newark and then all hell would have broken loose, but now looks like we will make the connection. We can spend the night together. We can chant 9-rounds from tomorrow before we take off. Of course, if one of the motors break and we fall from the sky we will no longer have this body.
Now let’s work on our Index for a little while.
7.52PM (EST)
R/25
We’ll, the flight was one hour late leaving, but still we had a little margin to catch the flight from Newark, but then, the wind changed, and Newark put us into a holding pattern for 30-minutes. We were going in circles, and circles, and circles, and finally we headed in, but there was no more margin of safety. Ahhhh! We landed started running from gate 20 to gate 121. It was awesome. The Raksasa of Jarasandha tried to eat our flesh, the evil soldiers of Kamsa threw bologna sandwiches with garlic in our path, but we made it to the gate just as the said, “Last call, we’re closing the gate!”. Hare Krsna! Jaya Srila Prabhupada!
We’re on the airplane now. We ate our pakoras, we ate our bananas, we ate our potato chips, we ate our dried fruit and we watched the end of a stupid Disney kid’s movie about a girl and a dog who love each other. The reflection is there, how Krsna really misses us. He is so wonderful, and He misses Radharani so much. She’s been captured by the evil Captain of Industry, Ravana, and we have to find Her and give Her His ring, the Upadesamrta. Why are we wasting our time with any other book, with any other Society? He is amazed Himself by the newer and newer character of spiritual life.
Saturday (Nov/22)
Radhadesa
Belgium
3.21PM
R/6
Hare Krsna! Hare Rama! AGTSP paoho. Oink! Oink!
How are you? This will be our first post to the Letter Blog! Well, we arrived in Radhadesa, Belgium, Europe! In six days we’ve gone from Lima to San Francisco to Houston to Newark to Brussels, passed through four time zones, given one Bhakti sastri test, met with Giriraja Swami and students, friends, strangers, officials, Cardinals, and given five lectures!
Brother Ass is still not convinced that we aren’t heading out for more travel tomorrow.
Our accommodation here is quite nice. It’s Prahladananda Swami’s room in the Castle. Little cold and dark, but got WiFi.
Now, we gotta work on our Bhakti-rasamrta Seminar.
Ears are O.K. Eyes are weird. Hari bol! We’ll work on our rounds also. All night in the airplane. Seven hours time difference.
Thank you:
· Patraka, Candra-mukhi, Oscar and all the devotees in Lima and,
· Srivasa, M. Malini, Bali and all the devotees in the Bay Area and,
· Shyama-sundara, Hari-lila and Nandulal and all the devotees in Houston
It is just amazing, amazing, amazing how many nice people there are in this movement. Thank you for the granola, pakoras, dried fruit.
Hari bolo!
Monday (Jan/24)
Radhadesa, Belgium
9.45PM
R/25
Hari bolo!
We are almost on the ground. We will still probably have Jet-lag for a week. Now it is 2.45PM in Lima, so our body is completely awake. If we go to bed now, our regular time, we will just lie there awake. Then during the day we are hardly able to stay awake.
However, we have been able to get a little systematic communication going, work on projects. We prepared for our week-long seminar on NOI by reviewing our Annotated ASA NOI. It’s always updated at the Web page as:
www.jayarama.us/archives/asa-noi.doc
It is very satisfying. Then about 45-devotees came for the class after the Arati. As usual some guests are here staying in the Guest House. It was pretty satisfying. We didn’t distribute any NOI’s but hopefully it will have that effect down the line. Someone will appreciate it and distribute it. If we had some copies we could have offered discount price, autographed copys and distributed some. We will keep working on our book distribution.
That’s about it.
We noticed during Japa, that as often, we felt bad to start with, but chanting adjusted our Prana and then after some time we felt good. Japa satisfies many necessities.
Did a truck load of work on Bhakti-sastri today with VEDAS. Now we will post this to the Letter Blog and HpSwami will answer some of the Letters. Then I guess we might be sleepy and get up by 1.15AM.
We are reading David Haberman’s Bhakti-rasa-amrta-sindhu Preface for our class next week and for our Bhakti-vaibhava curriculum.
Saturday (Jan/29)
ISKCON Brussels
Preaching Center
12.43PM
R/18
AGTSP pamho. Here we are in the preaching center in Brussels. There is no Temple. One devotee, big African hero, lives here and uses 90% of the space for the preaching center. He is super nice person, professional musician, Jita-prana Das. Mother Bhadra is cooking for the program at 1.30PM with one older Afgani member. Prahlada has gone out to buy p-nut butter or pen-drives?
We re-read the DTC postings above. They are pretty good, but have the feel of the mode of passion, a lot a hyper-physical energy, running through the body. It seems to be a fact. You have your anartha’s, we have ours. We have to calm down and always be associating with the Holy Names in our heart!
Our BRS Seminar is going 97% perfect. We should be able to publish it as part of our Bhakti-vaibhava Essays, then we should be able to finish up our Bhakti-vaibhava work while we are traveling in Spain.
Hare Krsna, Hare Rama
Now it is 4.26PM. Amazing! We were writing to you and then we got a Skype call from Ambarisa Das in Mayapura, then devotees started arriving for Bhajan at 1PM, then we made a lecture from 1.30PM to 2.45PM, then we ran to catch the train, then here we are, in the train.
Cho! Cho!
Cho!
Guess we will finish here. We, Piggy, have been experimenting with posting our Diary to the Blog each night, and maybe that is better. We’ll see. Don’t speculate too much for Krsna. Learn by chanting HK/R and doing!
Blog = http://hps-d6.monkeywarrrior.com
Wherever you go, whomever you meet, tell them about Krsna!
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