Vyas Puja

I got up late this morning, missing a lot of the Vyasa Puja activities at the temple. I had gone there for Janmastami evening, intending to only stay a while and come home early. I know my energy levels and was intending to respect them, but kept running into devotees and having interesting conversations so suddenly it was 11:30 and that was so close to midnight I stayed. It was a positive experience, though the amped up music hurt my ears. Which made for a late, albeit wonderful, evening, but physical reaction kicked me hard this morning.

The whole experience was tempered by knowing about the bombing in Manipur (Manipur CM condemns grenade attack on ISKCON.) The sad thing is we live in a world where this is not enough brutality to crack the headlines. Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israeli wars all have more interest, and the Jon Benet Ramsey obsession is dominating the news this morning.

I was going to school north of Boston the day Srila Prahbupada landed in Boston. Only 50 miles, but a world separated us. Now, more than distance separates us; he’s left this planet in his vapu form and his vani is still eluding my frail comprehension. On this day in 1968 he wrote a letter : "My idea of developing New Vrindaban is to create an atmosphere of spiritual life where brahmacaris and sannyasis, and vanaprasthas, will live independently, completely depending on agricultural produce and milk from the cows." This concept seems to have been eluding not only NV, but ISKCON as a whole. You are still way ahead of us, Srila Prahbupada.