Once Yamuna-devi, in the temple, in the presence of Prabhupada and the devotees, who were chanting japa, stopped her japa to write down some realizations. Seeing her Prabhupada asked, “Yamuna, have you finished your rounds?” She replied, “No, Srila Prabhupada. I have two rounds to go.” Prabhupada said, “First finish your rounds before you write."
-Satsvarupa das Goswami

I am recording my own morning as if it were important. We have to think that way. But don’t be so serious about your self-importance. Devotional service is important, but not the little bit that I add to it, although that is important to me. Taking a break from this communication now to look at the new book, Appreciating Navadvipa. Remember to avoid fault-finding. Find your way back to Caitanya-caritamrta.

(Satsvarupa das Goswami - Basic Sketch Book)

SLOKA OF THE DAY:

Bhagavad Gita As It Is -
Chapter 5 Text 12
yuktah karma-phalam tyaktva
santim apnoti naisthikim
ayuktah kama-karena
phale sakto nibadhyate

yuktah--one who is engaged in devotional service; karma-phalam--the results of all activities; tyaktva--giving up; santimn--perfect peace; apnoti--achieves; naisthikim--unflinching; ayuktah--one who is not in Krsna consciousness; kama-karena--for enjoying the result of work; phale--in the result; saktah--attached; nibadhyate--becomes entangled.

TRANSLATION

The steadily devoted soul attains unadulterated peace because he offers the result of all activities to Me; whereas a person who is not in union with the Divine, who is greedy for the fruits of his labor, becomes entangled.

JOURNAL:

Srila Prabhupada ends his purport with this statemnt; This is the secret of Krsna consciousness--realization that there is no existence besides Krsna is the platform of peace and fearlessness.

On this, the twelfth anniversary of the attack by terrorist on the World Trade Centers in New York (where Srila Prabhupada started his work), I invite all my readers to turn to the Audio Offerings page of this blog and listen to Sri Satsvarupa's das Goswami's talk on how we should respond to terrorism.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK (from sdgonline.org):

PICTURE OF THE WEEK (from sdgonline.org):

 Have a team of
all devotees like the champion
basketball team of gurukulis
in Vrndavana, and it’s a form
of preaching Krishna consciousness.

Satsvarupa das Goswami

PICTURE OF THE WEEK (from Krishna.com):

 

I can remember Srila Prabhupada speaking about Srimati Radharani in the summer of 1966 at 26 Second Ave. in New York City.

I always remember Prabhupada on Radhastami because I received first initiation from Prabhupada on this day, September 23rd, 1966. Prabhupada’s qualifications for initiation were very easy in those days and so I could have been initiated at the first initiation in ISKCON which was on Janmastami day 1966. But I didn’t feel ready for the surrender of my so-called free activities. It seemed too much to give up and so I passed up the initiation.

But a few days after that I began to regret that I didn’t get initiated. Then I heard from one of the devotees that Prabhupada was planning to hold another initiation in two weeks on the occasion of the appearance day of Srimati Radharani. So then Prabhupada began to explain to us something about Srimati Radharani.

He said that on Janmastami we had to fast all day until midnight because Krishna is very strong and hard. But on Radhastami we would only have to fast until noon because Radharani is soft and kind.

I therefore decided that I would ask Prabhupada if I could get initiated  on Radharani’s appearance day. What had seemed too hard two weeks previously on Krishna’s birthday now seemed easier under the protection of Srimati Radharani.

 An excerpt from Srila Prabhupada’s Presentation of Srimati Radharani 

by Satsvarupa dasa Goswami

Heavens to Betsy!

“Heavens to Betsy! I can’t slow
down enough to say I’m cold and the
stars are out. They never went to the moon–
even one star, although millions exist. How can
they say there is no life? I swam warm summers
in the canal behind my parents’ home in
Avalon and looked up into the immense distance
in the summer of ’66. O Swamiji,
I hear your voice even in my parental home,
I want no more LSD, and no more to identify with the
body. He had an oceanic smile, but
the Harvard grad student couldn’t see it.
No. We live in our own world of swami adulation. We couldn’t expect them
to follow us.”

Satsvarupa das Goswami - Last Days of the Year (December 1994)

SLOKA OF THE WEEK:

Mukunda-mālā-stotra 26
tattvaḿ bruvāṇāni paraḿ parastān
madhu kṣarantīva mudāvahāni
prāvartaya prāñjalir asmi jihve
nāmāni nārāyaṇa-gocarāṇi

tattvam — the truth; bruvāṇāni — which speak; param — supreme; parastāt — beyond everything superior; madhu — honey; kṣaranti — dripping; iva — as if; mudā — joy; avahāni — bringing; prāvartaya — please recite; prāñjaliḥ — with joined palms; asmi — I am; jihve — O tongue; nāmāni — the names; nārāyaṇa-gocarāṇi — which refer to Lord Nārāyaṇa.

TRANSLATION

My dear tongue, I stand before you with joined palms and beg you to recite the names of Lord Nārāyaṇa. These names describing the Supreme Absolute Truth bring great pleasure, as if exuding honey.

JOURNAL:

In his purport Satsvarupa das Goswami writes; The honey within the holy name is remembrance of Kṛṣṇa. That is why chanting the name brings ecstasy. As Śrīla Prabhupāda writes, "The more one chants the names of Kṛṣṇa, the more one becomes attached. Thus service by śravaṇa and kīrtana, hearing and chanting about Kṛṣṇa, is the beginning. The next process is smaraṇa — always remembering Kṛṣṇa. When one is perfect in hearing and chanting, he will always remember Kṛṣṇa. In this third stage he becomes the greatest yogī" (The Matchless Gift, p. 89).

Sanatorium by SDG

Swami Syama said he was honored to serve at the sanatorium, and he considered it the cutting edge of preaching in the Krsna consciousness movement. When devotees who were sidelined with injuries proved that they could continue their sadhana, or just continue to try, they were setting the best example.

Satsvarupa das Goswami - Sanatorium


JOURNAL:

I have finished reading Sanatorium and personally found it to be well worth the time. The flow between prose and poetry can be seamless at times; a wonderful technique that I have not seen used in any other novel.

My copy was censored twice by using cartoons to block the offensive paragraphs. The second of these cartoons depicted the censor as an Arab terrorist. How this is less offensive then the mention of male genitalia I'm not sure. I did a little research and have read the "bad parts" on-line. The book would certainly not be censored by the secular world.

Overall I enjoyed this novel and would recommend it. It could be a great preaching tool for approaching a non-devotee. If any of my readers have read it I am curious to hear your reactions to this controversial piece of literature.

Sanatorium by SDG

Swami Swims medicates, I mean meditates, and all the subpersons slowly move on a muddy river. They come from his heart. They are different parts of himself.

. . .

There's my story, how I jumped out the window of a four-story building. I broke both my heels. The left ankle is still a cause of great dismay. Unfortunately, that's not a spiritual story, because all I had done before jumping out the window was read a karmi edition of the Isopanisad. It did give me the impression that there was no difference between matter and space, and so I could jump out the window and not be hurt. I also thought the afterlife was blue.

Satsvarupa das Goswami - Sanatorium

JOURNAL:

Ahh, fiction. We never know if the character is speaking or if the author is speaking through the character. Are the above sections a form of self confession? Is the first how our author feels about his writing? Is the second true, just a bad rumour, or made up out of whole cloth? We the reader will probably never know.

I do find it entertaining writing and that is the point of writing fiction; to entertain.

Sanatorium by SDG

She wasn't wearing devotee clothes but rather a T-shirt that revealed her firm, ample breasts, and she wore tight dungarees. She . . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
Braja dasa was resolute now.

Satsvarupa das Goswami - Sanatorium


JOURNAL:

CENSORED!
My copy of Sanatorium, which I bought from Google Books for my phone, is censored. Instead of the offending paragraph I have a bad cartoon of two dogs rejoicing in the anonymity of the Internet. From the tone of this novel, and considering who the author is, I find myself more offended by the censorship than I do anything I have read so far.

Sanatorium by SDG

I just learned that Sid Ceasar
will be "live" on Larry
King Live tonight but
it's 10 P.M. I have to
pee now and chant japa.
Harer nama harer nama.

I wish my urge to chant
was like my urge to pee-
I'd be a mahatma.


Satsvarupa das Goswami - Sanatorium

JOURNAL:

Snicker :-) Snicker

:-0 !!!

Sorry, your right. That's not funny.

snicker :-) snicker

Fear Over Love

by Satsvarupa das Goswami

I think this is it, but
I'm not sure it sounds
like "Ornithology." *

They turn to the master
and your Higher Power (as
in Twelve Steps) will help you climb out
of the anxiety gutter.

Don't be afraid your
girl will leave you and you'll
be with God.

O God, I want You as
my lover but I don't know
if I'll ever get that far.

They say your to love to overcome fear
is through warm buckets
of water.

And be a tilaked
man who attacks
the canvas with a gentle
passion. Let the
mobiles hang gracefully
like men on Mars and Svarga
and in Yudhisthira's court.

* "Ornithology", a jazz composition by Charlie Parker.
Here is a link to hear the tune; http://archive.org/details/Ornithology

(from When the Saints Go Marching In, 2006)

Sanatorium by SDG

The adult Boy Scout master said, "Does this sanatorium belong to a certain religion?"

The county dormitory chief hesitated and said, "Yes, this was built by the Hare Krsna religion." Some of the Boy Scouts began to titter and sing the Hare Krsna Mantra. The inmates joined in with them and sustained a kirtana for about one minute.

Satsvarupa das Goswami - Sanatorium

JOURNAL:

This scene in the book reminds me of how my friends and I would act when we would see the Hare Krishnas on the street. The devotees always smiled at us even though we would be teasing them. At the time I thought they were just humoring us kids but now I realize that at eight or nine years old I was chanting Hare Krishna and enjoying!

PICTURE OF THE WEEK (from SDGonline.org):

My drawing for today is “Writing and Drawing, 1999.” It shows five portraits of the artist writing and drawing with his pen. On one page it says, “We want a K.C. rooted tree, and from that you can write your trees and branches of poems with your pen. Root is sravanam-kirtanam.” Another shows a self-portrait drawing a picture of Radha and Krishna: “Are you going to keep on drawing? Why not?” It’s another way to aspire for Krishna conscious service. They are behind-the-scenes sketches of the artist with pen in hand and it gives us an insight as to his personal working character.

(Satsvarupa das Goswami 4-17-12)

JOURNAL:

Reading Sanatorium is like looking at this self-portrait of the author. I am not very far into the book but I have to wonder how many of the characters are just different aspects of S.D.G.'s own personality.

Sanatorium by SDG

Tim: "Yeah, but you weren't told you had a short lifeline."

Swami Swims: "Even if he told me I had a shorty, Prabhupada said that if you clapped your hands while chanting, all the lines can get rearranged."

Satsvarupa das Goswami - Sanatorium


JOURNAL:

The problem with fiction is that you never know if what you read is true or not. I have even read fiction that listed the author's qualifications after the story was over - and these were fictional too. So, take the above quote with a grain of salt. I would like to think Srila Prabhupada said something like that but I don't really know. What I do know is that I am enjoying Sanatorium very much.

I Read Banned Books

In the dream he fought hard against the mob. Always outwitting them as Billy the Kid in the Old West. Finally he was trapped by the biggest one with the knife. In desperation and sharp thinking he said, "If you come a step closer I'll wake up from this dream."

Satsvarupa das Goswami - Sanatorium



JOURNAL:

Growing up it was fashionable to read "banned books". Recently I ran across a copy of Satsvarupa das Goswami's book, Sanatorium, which was banned by ISKCON. Naturally, I have started reading it. I read his book of poetry, When the Saints Go Marching In, which is frowned on, if not banned itself, and enjoyed it very much. So now I have started Sanatorium.

S.D.G.'s writing has always been important me. I read the Japa Reform Notebook and discovered his journals early in life. He was the official biographer of Srila Prabhupada and an editor and contributing writer of Narada-Bhakti-Sutra. His textbook, Readings in Vedic Literature, is the best of its kind. I have read a lot of his work, be it poetry, instructional or fiction. I have also read his critics' complaints about him.

I myself will not judge a devotee of Lord Krishna. I know that his writing connects me to Prabhupada and Krishna, helps me with my japa and entertains me with its earthy connections. I can relate to the struggles he writes about and I don't mind him being human. In fact, it helps me.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK (from sdgonline.org):

JOURNAL:

Sometimes I am asked why I still read Satsvarupa das Goswami's books. They say, "Don't you know that he fell?"

I, too, am a fallen human. SDG brought me Krishna Consciousness when I most needed to hear how a disciple of Swamiji lived; what a bramacari did with his life. "Human at best" is the best that I can do and I don't mind that SDG is also a human.

SLOKA OF THE WEEK:

Nārada Bhakti Sūtra 51
anirvacanīyam prema-svarūpam

anirvacanīyam — beyond description; prema — of mature love of God; svarūpam — the essential identity.


TRANSLATION

The true nature of pure love of God is beyond description.

JOURNAL:

Satsvarupa das Goswami writes in his purport; Although prema-bhakti is beyond words, whatever can be conveyed by authorized devotees is appreciated by those who are sincere and faithful. Krsnadāsa Kavirāja says, "Just try to hear these topics with faith, for there is great pleasure even in hearing them. That hearing will destroy all miseries pertaining to the body, mind, and other living entities, and the unhappiness of false arguments as well." [Cc. Antya 19.110]

(In case you don't know, the edition of this scripture that I am working with is the offical ISKCON edition. Here is a quote from the introduction by Satsvarupa das Goswami; In 1967, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda translated and wrote purports for thirteen of the eighty-four aphorisms (Śrīla Prabhupāda called them "codes") of the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra. In 1989, at their annual meeting, the Governing Body Commission of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness suggested that I complete the book.)