OUT OF THIS WORLD

In the third week of events, the topic for discussion was “Understanding your karma.” I gave a short talk on the topic, interspersed by questions and discussion, and we read several verses from the Bhagavad-gita as we went along.

As there were a few new people there, we started with the very basics, verse 2.12:

“Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.”

We discussed about the difference between the body and the self, and how we are eternally individuals. This last point is often a new one for students today as they have usually heard from various sources that when they “merge into oneness” they will lose their individuality. However, most students seem not to be particularly attached to that idea and, when presented with the philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita as it is, they don’t have a big problem with it.

Then we read a few other verses from the second chapter, including 2.13 and 2.22 which led us into a discussion about reincarnation. I explained that the soul transmigrates through different species. The question that usually comes next is “How do I know what type of body I will get next?” And that is where the discussion about karma begins.

We read several verses from the eighth chapter, beginning with verse 8.3:

“The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: The indestructible, transcendental living entity is called Brahman, and his eternal nature is called adhyatma, the self. Action pertaining to the development of the material bodies of the living entities is called karma, or fruitive activities”

We talked about good karma and bad karma and how both these types of karma keep us stuck in the material world, going around and around in the cycle of birth and death (samsara). Finally we discussed how to perform activities without karma (akarma) and how to break out of this cycle and return to the spiritual world through bhakti yoga.

The eighth chapter ends with a great purport. OK, so they are all great. You can read the whole purport here. For those with less time, here’s an excerpt (the last paragraph):

“One who has a little faith in Bhagavad-gita should learn Bhagavad-gita from a devotee, because in the beginning of the Fourth Chapter it is stated clearly that Bhagavad-gita can be understood only by devotees; no one else can perfectly understand the purpose of Bhagavad-gita. One should therefore learn Bhagavad-gita from a devotee of Krishna, not from mental speculators. This is a sign of faith. When one searches for a devotee and finally gets a devotee’s association one actually begins to study and understand Bhagavad-gita. By advancement in the association of the devotee one is placed in devotional service, and this service dispels all one’s misgivings about Krishna, or God, and Krishna’s activities, form, pastimes, name and other features. After these misgivings have been perfectly cleared away, one becomes fixed in one’s study. Then one relishes the study of Bhagavad-gita and attains the state of feeling always Krishna conscious. In the advanced stage, one falls completely in love with Krishna. This highest perfectional stage of life enables the devotee to be transferred to Krishna’s abode in the spiritual sky, Goloka Vrindavana, where the devotee becomes eternally happy.”

I’m getting a bit behind on my KC@uni journal, so although the title says recent, this event is not so recent:

On May 25th, we had the second session in a series of four at the UQ Bhakti Yoga Club. For all these sessions we used a clubs and societies meeting room, next to the Red Room (campus bar). The talk/discussion was advertised as “India’s Spiritual Wisdom” on the flier we made for this semester. I was going to give the talk but fortunately my spiritual master, HH Devamrita Swami was in town, so I asked him if he would be so kind as to bless the BYC with his association. He agreed to give the talk. He had arrived in Brisbane the night before and I only asked him about it on the morning of the talk, so there was no time to do any extra advertising, but we did send the message out by email to some of our regulars.

When we arrived at the room, we set it up for the talk. Campus rooms tend to be a bit stark and uninviting. In our regular room we have a pile of chairs (of various old-fashioned colours and shapes), a couple of round plastic tables, one rectangular table, and a big white-board that is propped up by two mismatched chairs. It’s not exactly the tasteful decor and comfortable setting of Atma Yoga, but there is not much I can do about it, and students seem to be immune to the austerities of university interiors anyway. I just try to do my best to arrange the chairs as well as I can and make sure there is not too much mess in the room.

Nobody came for the talk so Sukanthi Radha dd, Brisbane’s top book distributor, went out to distribute some fliers and invite people. One new person came in the that way - she was on her way somewhere else but Sukanthi distracted her from that and brought her to the BYC. A couple of regulars also turned up a bit late so we began. I introduced Devamrita Swami as a disciple of Srila Prabhupada who has been practicing and teaching Bhakti Yoga for over thirty years and I mentioned his books and his travelling.

We decided to make this a question and answers discussion session. I started the discussion by addressing one of our regulars (a student of international relations) who has been reading the Bhagavad-gita and I asked if he had any questions on what he had been reading. He did, and the discussion continued from there.

One of the first lessons that Devamrita Swami gave to the students was about how to read a book. It had come out during the course of the discussion that a couple of them had been reading the Bhagavad-gita by “dipping-in” wherever the book happened to open for them, reading a bit here and a bit there, sometimes at the beginning, sometimes at the middle or end. Devamrita Swami explained that you start at the beginning of the book, you go on reading through the middile, and you finish at the end. I have often heard him say that it is not enough just to give people the books these days, you have to hold their hand and take them through it. Here were some of the future leaders of society, already at university, being taught, by a monk, the basics of how to read a book!

Most of the discussion centred on how to best help society, and how to rise above material sense enjoyment. All those present agreed that material sense enjoyment is ultmiately meaningless, not fully satisfying, and a distraction from their higher, spiritual aspirations, but they did not know how to control it. Devamrita Swami explained that by experiencing the higher taste in spiritual activities, they will no longer feel so attracted to the lower, material pleasures. At one point, the new student protested “but isn’t it natural, I mean we have these bodies, right, we have these senses, so we should try to satisfy them?” Devamrita Swami pointed out that this argument was based on a misunderstanding of the real purpose of our body and senses - our senses are actually not meant for our own enjoyment, they are meant for engaging in spiritual activities.

We finished with a tasty carrot cake and cream, lovingly prepared by Sukanthi Radha dd.

On May 18th I gave a talk for the Bhakti Yoga Club called “The meaning of yoga.” There were nine persons present, including myself and a couple of the other club organizers. Mainly, I described the dhyana yoga process but we also discussed karma yoga, jnana yoga and bhakti yoga. I recommended the bhakti process as the best (of course).

Some of the students had some misconceptions about bhakti yoga, considering it to be only suitable for a certain type of person, so I tried to clear up those doubts. One student thought that bhakti yoga is only for people who are into loving all of Gods creatures and hugging trees etc, whereas he is more interested in martial arts. I explained to him that Arjuna was a warrior and that Krishna taught him bhakti yoga on a battle field in between two opposing armies.

We also had some discussion about the nature of the self and whether or not there is anything higher than the self. A common misconception about the self is that “I am everything” and that therefore “there is nothing higher than me.” I explained that, whereas such ideas are quite popular these days, and although such ideas might make us feel good about ourselves if we believe in them, there is really no substantial basis to these ideas and it is better to acquire some real knowledge of the self. That knowledge can be found in the Bhagavad-gita and it can be realized through the process of bhakti yoga.

By the end of the discussion the questions turned more to the specifics of the bhakti yoga process. Most of the students who came for the talk already had a Bhagavad-gita As It Is, so I recommended that they read that to find out more about what bhakti yoga is.

We ended with prasada - some halava from Govinda’s.

There are three different types of suffering

1. Suffering due to the body or mind
2. Suffering due to other living entities
3. Suffering due to natural disturbances

Recently I have been dealing with types 1 and 2:

1. I went back to the doctor about my knee. I found out I had an infection there and I needed to use the crutches for another week. Using the crutches made my whiplash worse too.

2. I was attacked by some small living entities. Somehow I managed to get head lice. At the same time, my room at the temple became infested with some kind of biting bug that you can’t see but it makes you very itchy. I threw out the mattress and the bed and that seems to have solved the problem.

Despite these difficulties, I can’t really complain. Krishna is actually very kind. I surely deserve much worse karma than this, considering all of my previous sinful activities. It is only due to the small service that I have rendered to my spiritual master that my suffering is reduced.

Sanatana Goswami asked Lord Chaitanya:

“Who am I? Why do the threefold miseries always give me trouble? If I do not know this, how can I be benefited? Actually I do not know how to inquire about the goal of life and the process for obtaining it. Being merciful upon me, please explain all these truths.”
Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya Lila 20.102-3

Lord Chaitanya replied that “Lord Krishna has bestowed His full mercy upon you so that all these things are known to you. For you, the threefold miseries certainly do not exist. Since you possess Lord Krishna’s potency, you certainly know these things. However, it is the nature of a sadhu to inquire. Although he knows these things, the sadhu inquires for the sake of strictness.” So Lord Chaitanya went on to explain the position of the living entity and told Sanatana that although a living entity has the facility to live in either the material or the spiritual world, when he comes to the material world he suffers the threefold miseries of material existence because he is influenced by nescience, which covers his constitutional position. Not only did Lord Chaitanya explain our fearful condition in material existence but he also explained how to become free:

“When the living entity is attracted by the material energy, which is separate from Krsna, he is overpowered by fear. Because he is separated from the Supreme Personality of Godhead by the material energy, his conception of life is reversed. In other words, instead of being the eternal servant of Krsna, he becomes Krsna’s competitor. This is called viparyayo ‘smrtih. To nullify this mistake, one who is actually learned and advanced worships the Supreme Personality of Godhead as his spiritual master, worshipful Deity and source of life. He thus worships the Lord by the process of unalloyed devotional service.”
Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya Lila 20.119 (quoting from Srimad Bhagavatam 11.2.37)

Lord Chaitanya further described and categorized various transcendental forms of the Lord and then he gave information about our eternal relationship with Krishna (sambandha), the process of devotional service (abhideya), and life’s ultimate goal – love of Godhead (prayojana).

At least one good thing has come out of my recent material suffering – I have become more motivated to reflect on these important topics, to engage more seriously in the process of devotional service, and to attain the goal of life.

A couple of days ago I fell down, literally. I was on my way to the physiotherapist, to get some more treatment for my whiplash injuries, when I tripped over the pavement and flew through the air before landing hard on my knee. Ouch! So instead of going to the physio, I went to the doctor and he sent me for x-rays. Fortunately, the x-rays showed no signs of fracture but it is still quite painful and the doctor told me to use crutches until my knee gets better.

Now I am suffering with multiple injuries. I am realising how much I take the various working parts of my body for granted when, in reality, any one of them could stop working properly at any moment and cause so many difficulties. And there I was, thinking myself so independent.

The good news is that devotional service can be performed in any condition. My bodily activities may be more difficult now, but I can use this struggle as an opportunity to take more shelter of Krishna. I expect bigger tests in the future. One day this body will come to an end. My current small struggles are like preliminary exercises to help me pass that final test.

The prasada and book table at the Uni of Queensland went well yesterday. We sold all the samosas and carrot halava and sold about 6 books, including 2 Bhagavad-gitas. A lot of students were interested in our society and took fliers, and some of them signed up for the email list. The samosas were a big hit and many students asked us to do this every week.

The table, the cooks, the organizers, and the sales persons.

Here’s an update on the KC@uni project.

Last weekend I met with Janaka, the organizer of the UQ Bhakti Yoga Club and we talked about organizing some talks/discussions once a week at UQ. We also decided to do some more advertising for the club activities. Currently there is a yoga class once a week. Up until this week the only advertising was done through the club’s email list but on Monday we put up some posters around the St. Lucia campus. I took one of the old posters that I made for the Southampton uni Vedic Society several years ago, and I made some changes to the text. You can download the poster as a word document here.

I went along for the yoga this Wednesday and four other people came. Next week the yoga class will happen in one of the busiest parts of the campus, on the grass near the library. We are doing this as part of diversity week and it is advertised in the diversity week poster. Hopefully it will attract some more people to join in.

We have booked a room on campus for the talks and discussions that start from next Thursday. I have made a poster/flier to cover the rest of the semester. You can see it below. The poster was originally made by Candidasa for use in Southampton and I just changed the text to advertise the UQ events.

On Monday we have a food stall on campus for diversity week. We will sell some prasada snacks and we’ll also use that as an opportunity to advertise our club and make contact with potential members. We’ll have some books on the stall too.

I am still collecting names and email addresses of interested students at Griffith Uni. Until we have a club there, I will invite those students to the UQ club. I am starting to get some contacts at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) too.

An article from The Times Online reports:

“There are 7.3 million MP3 players in Britain, and the under-40s now account for most sales of audiobooks. Book downloading websites are being created to meet the growing appetite for digital audiobooks”

I checked the website for the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust – www.krishna.com - to see what they had on offer. There were some audio books but I would like to see more of them, especially more recordings of Prabhupada’s books complete with purports. None of the recordings were instantly downloadable from the internet, making them less accessible to today’s impatient iPod generation who would rather not bother with such antiquated delivery systems as the post.

BBC Audiobooks believes that its digital book business will double every 12 months for the next few years and said: “The market for audiobooks on CD is not necessarily a growing market. But downloads are growing massively. We have found new audiences for our titles through the downloadable audience.” (source: The Times)

For anyone who has the patience to wait for the postal delivery, I highly recommend the Complete Bhagavad-gita in mp3, narrated by Dravida dasa. You can buy it here from the USA and here from Europe.

I always carry that one on my (non-iPod) mp3 player.

I have been thinking about how to introduce Krishna consciousness to university students in Brisbane. I’ve had some experience of doing this at universities in the UK and that seemed to go quite well. Universities in Australia seem to work in pretty much the same way as UK unis so I will try to use the same approach that I used in the past and organize meetings through a university club/society.

The benefits of being recognized as a bona fide uni club or society are numerous: free use of university rooms, some financial support, advertising on the university websites etc.

Last Saturday I got to know some of the students from Griffith Uni who come to the temple and we talked about establishing a Bhakti Club there. Some devotees from the temple are already doing prasada distribution at Griffith twice per week and I went with them on Tuesday so that I could meet some other interested students. I am still in the stage of collecting the email addresses of interested persons and when there are enough of us we can set up the club.

This week I found out that there is already a Bhakti Yoga Club established at the University of Queensland. They are doing yoga there with one of the teachers from AtmaYoga Brisbane. That is a good start. The next step would be to organize some talks and Bhagavad-gita discussions and maybe some mantra meditation workshops or mantra jams (musical jams using mantras and a variety of musical instruments). I have contacted the organizer of the club to see what can be done.

I plan to use this blog to write about my experiences with this KC @ uni project and I have created a new subcategory for it under the bhakti yoga catgegory.

According to this BBC article , some social scientists now claim to be able to measure happiness simply by asking people how happy they are.

They have identified three vital ingredients for a happy life:

1. family and friends
2. religion or spirituality or philosophy of life
3. having goals embedded in your long term values that you’re working for, but also that you find enjoyable

Looking at my own life, I can see some truth in this. As a child I had a family but hardly any friends and I definitely had none of the other two ingredients. I was quite miserable. Then I took up Krishna consciousness and suddenly I had all of the happiness ingredients in full. Since then I have been happier.

However, as the article points out, in this world there are also ingredients or events that can lead to unhappiness. One moment a person may be happy and the next they are miserable and then they may become happy again until the next misfortune.

In the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna advises Arjuna how to deal with this situation:

O son of Kunti, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed. Bg 2.14

O best among men [Arjuna], the person who is not disturbed by happiness and distress and is steady in both is certainly eligible for liberation. Bg 2.15

The BBC article concludes that most people have a limited set range of happiness and “you can’t take a grouch and make him giggle all the time.” In other words, you are born with a certain allotment of happiness and you can’t do much about changing it. Therefore Krishna’s advice is appropriate. What is the use of becoming disturbed or elated about something you have so little control over?

There is, however, a different kind of happiness, beyond the limited set range that comes with our material bodies, that we can experience
in full, regardless of our material circumstances, and it is never-ending. I am talking about the spiritual happiness that comes through devotional service. As Srila Prabhupada writes in his purport to Bhagavad-gita 9.2:

“The process of devotional service is a very happy one (susukham). Why? Devotional service consists of sravanam kirtanam visnoh [SB 7.5.23], so one can simply hear the chanting of the glories of the Lord or can attend philosophical lectures on transcendental knowledge given by authorized acaryas. Simply by sitting, one can learn; then one can eat the remnants of the food offered to God, nice palatable dishes. In every state devotional service is joyful. ”

Try it now by chanting

Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna
Hare Hare
Hare Rama
Hare Rama
Rama Rama
Hare Hare

Back in Wales after a month in Mayapura, I am feeling spiritually energized.

In my first week in holy Mayapura I was busy with meetings about researching ancient Indian astronomy and cosmology. The meetings were very successful and we now have some more researchers working their way through the vast amount of material available in India.

Then my spiritual master came there and asked me to cook lunch for him. So for my second and third week there I spent most of my time trying to figure out who’s kitchen to borrow each day, choosing and buying the ingredients, cooking lunch, packing lunch and sending it over to my spiritual masters’ room, cleaning up, waiting for the remnants to come back, cleaning up the tins that the lunch was packed in, and then finally having my own lunch. That took up most of my day. On some days Shital did most of the cooking and I got some time to do my other services. I also got some help from Siromani, Amrita, and Dina Dayala on other days. Thank you to Sharon, Prijata and Monica for letting us use their kitchens.

In my fourth week I was able to relax a bit more and I finally made it to the Ganges. I know of nothing more refreshing to body, mind, and soul, than bathing in the holy waters of the Ganges at Mayapura. I spent time there with some Godsisters from New Zealand who I hadn’t seen for a couple of years. I was glad to see how nicely they are maturing in Krishna consciousness due to their dedicated devotional service.

During my month in Mayapura I stayed in three different buildings so I had to move twice. I suppose there is no escaping my constant moving, even in such a holy place as Mayapura.

Here are some of the things I realized while I was in Mayapura:

• Simple living is so conducive to spiritual life.
• I am always happy in Mayapura, even when I am physically sick.
• I do not want to live outside the association of devotees.
• Service to the spiritual master is an extremely potent and purifying process of self-realization.

I am hiding out in my room. The last time I stepped outside my room I detected a strong odour of a fish being cooked and the distinct sound of Rugby match commentary coming from downstairs. This room is not exactly a comfort zone either as it is screaming out for decoration and none of the furniture matches and there is not enough space. If only I was truly transcendental I could easily tolerate al these things. Oh well.

I will be moving out next weekend. My brother’s girlfriend has just moved in with him, so I will rent her house. I can’t really afford it but I am desperate for a kitchen that doesn’t have the grease of cooked dead animals and hair of a cat called Jasper all over it (as is my current situation). I don’t know how long I will stay at the next place. It should be for at least one month. If I get any of the jobs I have applied for I will try to get a mortgage and buy a place.

Life is not easy. It used to be that a woman would grow up in her parents house, then get married and live with her husband, and then she would stay at home to keep the place nice and have children and look after them. That’s pretty rare these days. Now that we are ‘liberated’ we have to struggle to earn money, just like the men. Even when the husband is around, one income is often not enough for comfortable living. Even when there are children, the mother feels the need to go to work because she can earn more than the cost of child-care. Then there are the single mothers. Add to that the intense social and psychological pressure to look like a supermodel. What a struggle for existence. Is it really worth it?

Whatever position we have in this world: man, woman, rich, poor, black, white, fat, thin - there is bound to be material suffering. That is the nature of the world. Just try to make the best use of a bad bargain, as my old friend Tribhuvannatha Prabhu used to say. Whatever you have, try to use that for Krishna’s service, remember Krishna, and go back to Godhead where you belong.

I just watched part one of a two-part television programme called “Preachers to be.” It followed the journeys of trainee preachers in three of the UK’s largest religions: Islam, Christianity and Hinduism. The preachers-to-be representing Hinduism were two Hare Krishna students based at Bhaktivedanta Manor near Watford. The emphasis of their training was on becoming qualified Brahmanas and thus being allowed to serve the deities on the altar and perform a wedding ceremony and other rituals within the temple. In contrast, the training of the Christian and Muslim preachers emphasized people skills and interacting with the community.

The programme showed a student Imam speaking on his own radio show and going out to meet people. He also had to give a sermon, on which his teacher offered him some constructive feedback. The Christian trainee had to learn how to deal with conflict in the community and how to minister to people and serve out communion. And the Hare Krishnas? The students were not qualified to do anything much because they were not Brahmanas yet. One monk explained how he was not allowed to cross over the line separating him from the altar. Many of the scenes were inside the temple room. There were some strange shots of a monk sitting close to the wall and facing it, rocking slightly and chanting. One of the students, a celebate monk, was shown alone in the library as a festive wedding was going on in the temple room. The one time that a student went out on the streets, he was visiting Indian shops, trying to raise money. Something that the Hare Krishna students were trying to learn, but apparently failing at, was how to organize themselves and others.

A preacher has to be a shining example of whatever he/she represents, and for a Hare Krishna that means developing the qualities of a Brahmana, but if a preacher wants to reach out to others, then he/she also has to know where the world is at and what the people want. The impression that this programme leaves me with is that the Muslims preachers are keeping up with the world around them, and the Christians are making a good effort too, but the Hare Krishnas are quite isolated.

In the programme, Sanatana Goswami dasa, one of the trainee Hare Krishna priests, faced a board of seniors to decide whether or not he was ready to become a qualified Brahmana. They criticized his weak points and failed him. As the programme was ending, the narrator asked “will Sanatana be allowed to become a Brahmana or will he leave Hinduism behind?”

This programme did not give an accurate depiction of most of the Hare Krishna preachers that I know, or of the training they received. Perhaps the title of the programme is misleading. I know many successful preachers who do not perform wedding ceremonies or serve on the altar but they do reach out to people and help them. After watching this programme, I would say that the Hare Krishna students at Bhaktivedanta Manor are being trained more as priests than as preachers. Sadly, the viewers are unlikely to know the difference and may take this style of training as representative of the training methods used in the Hare Krishna movement and in Hinduism in general.

For information about another type of training for preachers in the Hare Krishna movement, visit www.bhaktivedantacollege.com

For anyone interested in finding out what some other full-time or part-time Hare Krishna preachers (in the real world) are up to, I recommend a visit to the following blogs:
www.mayapurforum.net/namahatta/
www.sitapati.info
www.deltaflow.com

My time away from Slovenia turned out to be longer than I expected. After the camp in Serbia we decided to go back to Hungary for Radhastami as my spiritual master was there again. The whole two and a half weeks was a great adventure but pretty exhausting.

The festivals at the Hungarian farm were blissful as ever. On festival days the kirtans usually last for at least four hours in the morning and at least four hours in the evening. The temple room is beautifully decorated and the super-attractive deities, Radhe Syam, are offered the most opulent yet intimate worship. This is perhaps the closest I have come to experiencing the atmosphere of Vrindavan.

The Serbian festival was a great success with over 200 devotees in attendance. While travelling to different countries it is interesting to see how the culture of Krishna consciousness mixes with the local culture and temperament of the people. From my observations it appears that Serbians are people of the heart and they are not at all afraid to express their emotions in a most enthusiastic, animated and open way. They are very warm and friendly and this created a close family atmosphere throughout the whole camp.

It took a little adjustment for me to go from the neat, synchronized, and disciplined devotion of the Hungarian yatra to the flowing, expressive, and individual devotion of the Serbian yatra, and back again. But in all places it was clear that everyone’s heart can become fully satisfied by chanting, dancing, and feasting in the association of devotees. Thanks to the Krishna consciousness movement, even a Welsh woman like myself to can feel quite at home in Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, and all other places where Krishna is being glorified.

I didn’t get a chance to update my blog while away. Now that I am back, I have a lot of work to do but I plan to write something every few days.

Last night we celebrated Lord Balarama’s appearace day at the temple in Ljubljana with lots of chanting, dancing and feasting. The three guest speakers, Bhakti Vikasa Maharaja, Krishna Ksetra Prabhu and Trai Prabhu sat on a makeshift triple vyasasana and told pastimes of Lord Balarama.

One young devotee came back to the temple after six weeks of being lost in the illusory energy, Maya. Her comment: ‘Maya is so powerful.’ But she couldn’t completely forget Krishna and she really missed the devotees. We were all so happy to see her again and this added to the festive atmosphere.

This morning Trai Prabhu gave Srimad Bhagavatam class at the temple. He is a disciple of Srila Prabhupada who came to Krishna consciousness in 1970 in America. He was a member of the famous Radha Damodara travelling book distribution party.

After class we went for harinama in the city centre. Tonight Trai Prabhu is giving Krishna book class. Tomorrow we have Sunday Feast. There is always so much to do in bhakti yoga. Every day is like a festival.