Date: 5/15/23

Dear Bhakti Ranjana dasa,

Please accept my blessings and well wishes in remembrance of my Divine Masters.

Since your phone call yesterday I reread your email (below) and have carefully considered all the points you made in both your email and phone call.

I appreciate your desire to render some service to the Deities and Devotees of our Math. As you have fond remembrances of myself and Srimati Lila Sundari Devi we also have fond memories of you and your generous help to our mission during the time you stayed with us.

During that time I accepted you as my disciple [Bimalananda dasa] and regarded you as a father regards his son. In that spirit I did all I could to give direction to your spiritual life in the line of my Sri Guru Parampara. The purpose of this direction was to save you from the repeated cycle of samsara. Unfortunately, you rejected that direction and you rejected me as your guru. The justification for the action you took is stated in our scriptures as follows.

Srimad-Bhagavatam (5.5.18):

gurur na sa syat sva jano na sa syat
pita na sa syaj janani na sa syat
daivam na tat syan na patis ca sa syan
na mocayed yah samupeta mrtyum

“Even a spiritual master, relative, parent, husband, or demigod who cannot save us from repeated birth and death should be abandoned at once.” What to speak of ordinary things, even the guru, may have to be abandoned. One may even have to give up one’s own spiritual guide, as in the case of Bali Maharaja, or one’s relatives, as in the case of Vibhisana.… Read More...

Date: May 8, 2023
Subject: Re: Bhavananda’s testimony presented as equal to that of Srila Prabhupada.

My dandavats to you Maharaja.

You wrote:

Please forgive me for being unwilling to argue about the matter.

That’s one way of dodging these questions I presented to you in my previous email challenging your use of citations from Bhavananda in your book (Prabhupada’s Kirtana Standards).

How do you suppose Bhavananda, promoted as a guru within ISKCON and widely accepted as such, persuaded others to have homosex with him?

I’ll tell you what I suppose. You tell me why I’m wrong. I suppose he presented himself as acharyam mam vijaniyan and/or saksad hari, in other words non-different from Krishna. Therefore, pleasing him by satisfying his perverse sexual appetite would please Krishna, Prabhupada, etc. That’s what I suppose. Am I wrong? If so, please cite the “historical testimony” of sources you consider reliable that refute my supposition.

Please forgive me for being unwilling to argue about the matter.

I’m a sucker for such pleas. Especially when I was just about to throw this blow at you with my next email.

You wrote (May 5, 2023):

I’ve carefully considered your concerns. I’m not going to go back and forth about it.

My proposed response:

Spoken like a true tyrant.

It is a succinct expression of your personal opinion but I am left to wonder what shastric support you rely upon for your position.

Persuasion, the method Srila Prabhupada used that was so successful in establishing our faith in him, can be a long and messy process.… Read More...

Date: May 4, 2023 (Sri Nrsingha Caturdasi)

Dear Sripada Jayadvaita Maharaja,

Please accept my humble obeisances in remembrance of my Divine Masters.

On Apr 1, 2023, at 4:28 AM, Jayadvaita Swami wrote:

Regarding my citing Bhavananda: Regardless of his history, he heard first-hand instructions from Srila Prabhupada, and I regard his testimony as reliable, despite his later falldowns. My citing him has nothing to do with his status in ISKCON and so on. In the book I cite a number of other devotees who’ve had various problems or who no longer follow their vows. For the same reason: I don’t think their problems knock out the value of their historical testimony.

Suppose I am a reader of your book who knows nothing about Bhavananda and I ask you ”Who is Bhavananda?” What will your answer be?

Today we are celebrating Sri Nrsingha Caturdasi and the life of Sri Prahlada, one of the twelve mahajanas, whose historical testimony I accept as reliable. Perhaps by his grace I feel no need to read or hear the historical testimony of Bhavananda and believe it is a black spot on your book; one you would do well to eliminate.

In a recent letter to a friend I wrote this.

In my opinion Jayadvaita Maharaja’s book has been spoiled with his citations from Bhavananda and others.

I see dramatic conflict between his book’s stated purpose and the purpose it has come to serve.

The stated purpose is in the title: Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards, which invokes spiritual authority, the lifeblood of the Vaishnavas and their siddhanta.… Read More...

Date: 2/16/23

On January 27, 2023 I posted “Paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam!” which contained the following text from my email to Srimati Govinda Nandini Devi dasi.

“When I first viewed the video you sent me of your street sankirtana (attached to your email of 12/9/22) I didn’t positively recognize you. I just viewed it again and see that you are playing a harmonium, chanting and looking very energetic, happy and still youthful.”

Yesterday (2/15/23) I received an email from Srimati Govinda Nandini Devi in which she corrected my misunderstanding as follows.

“Today I was at Harinama after a long break. I recorded a video for you so that you wouldn’t confuse me with other young energetic mataji. (Smile) Earlier I sent you a video of Camila playing the harmonium. I am also in this video, but in the background. I will attach photos and videos to you. I play the tambourine in Harinama.”

Included with her email was the photo below.

Unless I am again mistaken, she is pictured playing the tambourine.

Therefore, I issue the following correction.

This sentence-

“I just viewed it again and see that you are playing a harmonium, chanting and looking very energetic, happy and still youthful.”

should read as follows.

“I just viewed it again and see that you are in the background, chanting and looking very energetic, happy and still youthful.”

Swami B.K. Giri

Hari Nama on a street in Moscow.

January 27, 2023

Dear Srimati Govinda Nandini Devi,

Please accept my blessings and well wishes in remembrance of my Divine Masters.

I hope I will hear from you soon that your health has recovered.

When I first viewed the video you sent me of your street sankirtana (attached to your email of 12/9/22) I didn’t positively recognize you. I just viewed it again and see that you are playing a harmonium, chanting and looking very energetic, happy and still youthful.

Once I was with Srila Sridhara Maharaja who was speaking with us on his veranda as his kirtana party was returning from morning sankirtana around Navadwipa. As the group came nearer to us and the chanting grew louder his attention was being drawn more and more away from us and towards the sankirtana party. By the time it entered the gate of the Math Srila Sridhara Maharaja was becoming more and more joyful and animated. Finally he broke his talk on the present topic and told us (paraphrasing) ”I cannot dance any more, but in my heart I am dancing.” He was so much pleased to hear the kirtana party.

My feeling was similar while watching and listening to the video of your kirtana group and seeing everyone in a very happy mood. It brought joy to my heart. Obviously it had the same effect on many others. What is not so obvious is how it not only gives joy to the hearts of devotees but plants, awakens and nourishes the seed of devotion in others.… Read More...

Date: 1/21/23

Good morning Darren,

I would like to further the thread of our conversation. I hope you will indulge me.

According to ancient Vedic scriptures — such as Bhagavad-gita and Sriman Bhagavatam — the current age we live in is known as Kali-yuga. It is a very inauspicious age characterized as follows:

ŚB 1.1.10

प्रायेणाल्पायुष: सभ्य कलावस्मिन् युगे जना: ।
मन्दा: सुमन्दमतयो मन्दभाग्या ह्युपद्रुता: ॥ १० ॥
prāyeṇālpāyuṣaḥ sabhya
kalāv asmin yuge janāḥ
mandāḥ sumanda-matayo
manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ

Synonyms

prāyeṇa — almost always; alpa — meager; āyuṣaḥ — duration of life; sabhya — member of a learned society; kalau — in this Age of Kali (quarrel); asmin — herein; yuge — age; janāḥ — the public; mandāḥ — lazy; sumanda-matayaḥ — misguided; manda-bhāgyāḥ — unlucky; hi — and above all; upadrutāḥ — disturbed.

Translation

O learned one, in this iron Age of Kali men almost always have but short lives. They are quarrelsome, lazy,misguided, unlucky and, above all, always disturbed.

Due to these characteristics of the Age of Kali, meditation — in the manner of a yogi sitting still in the forest in a fixed position for hours at a time — is not recommended as a means to God realization. You must be well aware of the difficulties involved since you told me you have no time to visit us due to work and other obligations.

Our first obligation in the human form of life is to know ourselves and our relationship with Krishna (God). Unfortunately, like you, most people think they either have no time, or very little time, to fulfill that obligation and natural instinct.… Read More...

Date: 12/9/22

Good morning Darren.

Yesterday you raised an interesting question asking if I thought Kenny wanted to be a millionaire, an ambition of yours.

In reply I told you ”You might be surprised.” But I was actually answering the question a little differently than you might think.

I assumed your ambition to become a millionaire was due to your thinking it would bring you some measure of happiness. This is what everyone wants and is seeking through various means. More precisely, what everyone wants is sat, cit, ananda: eternity, knowledge and bliss. My reply about Kenny, ”You might be surprised.” was not meant to directly address his ambition to become a millionaire but, rather, the reason one wants to become a millionaire. It was meant to mean ”Just as you want eternity, knowledge and joyfulness, so does he.”

Another of your ambitions is to create a ”peace center” and I agree with you it should be done with the intention of encouraging the development of internal peace, not external cessation of conflict, which can never be achieved in this world. But peace is secondary to the most primary innate desire of the jiva (soul). What every jiva is seeking is pleasure. That is the principal ambition of every jiva and lies at the heart of every action he takes.

Peace is not pleasure. Peace is the absence of pain. It would be better for you to create a ”pleasure center”, although I would not call it that as it will be mistaken for something that is entirely mundane and sinful.… Read More...