Sunday's Program 7/24/11

Sunday's program was very nice. I had enjoyed it. I had spent the morning doing my services in the kitchen, and then took a little rest after lunch. I did some reading and a little chanting while waiting for the evening program. It was pretty quiet for most of the day. I had gone to the 12 noon Aarti to listen to the kirtan and take darshan of my favorite Deities Radha Ksiracora Gopinatha. I had felt blissful because Krishna had allowed me to make a Tulasi garland for Him. It was small and it was put onto His flute. He is so merciful to a fallen soul like me. I am only trying to please Him the best I can. I have read that trying to please Krishna isn't easy.

The rest of the afternoon sped by quickly and quietly. Guests started arriving around 5pm. I went upstairs to bring Tulasi downstairs. We do Tulasi puja in the evenings on Sundays. That makes me happy to see that. One of the matajis had asked me to do Tulasi Aarti for the program. I was honored to do that. Normally someone else does Tulasi Aarti on Sunday evenings, but I looked at it as maybe Tulasi wanted me to do puja for Her. Not sure why She chose me because Im no where near qualified to do this service for Her. But nontheless, I felt blissful doing Aarti for Her.

At 6pm there was a very nice kirtan. I had recorded it on audio and video. I went upstairs to the balcony to record the Aarti. I still got a pretty good view. I still need to work on trying to video record without shaking the camera so much. It's hard with a tiny camera. As I went back downstairs after the Aarti, I saw Gunagrahi Swami Maharaj in Prabhupada's room chanting. He saw me and smiled at me from a distance. He remembered me the last time I was here in Januarary. He reminds me of my own guru Maharaj so much. He is my other favorite guru Maharaj other than my own. My face had lit up when I saw Gunagrahi Swami Maharaj.

At 6:45pm, Gunagrahi Swami Maharaj gave a very nice class. I cannot go into details with it as he requested me to wait to post it until later so I will respect his wishes. But his class was nice and he gave a nice bhajan at the end. He played his unique instrument, I think it's called a bellfry. He often carries unique musical instruments I've been told. To me it seems like all guru Maharaj have their little trademark or uniqueness about them. I grew very fond of Gunagrahi Swami since he's been visiting Toronto. After his class I had the opportunity to speak with him for a few minutes. He was very happy to see me back in Toronto. I had asked him if he visits the Los Angeles Temple and he says he does. So now if I do move to the Los Angeles temple, I have something to look forward to. I will never forget the last time Gunagrahi Swami visited Toronto for the first time and he put a flower garland around me. That's how I started to grow very fond of him and a bit attached to him as well even though he isn't my guru. But it was so awesome to see him again. I heard he is coming back to Toronto August 11th. I cannot wait to see him again. After the last aarti I went to offer my obeisances to Gunagrahi Swami Maharaj. He said again he was happy to see me back in Toronto, and he even joked around with me a bit too because I said "please forgive me if I had committed any offenses." And he just joked around with me like my own guru Maharaj does too! Their personalities are so much alike. I love it. I thanked Maharaj for helping me ease the pain of separation from my own guru Maharaj since my guru Maharaj is away for a month on a Youth Bus tour of North America.

And before I went to bed last night, Mother Subhuddhi had a bunch of small Tulasis that she wanted me to bring upstairs to help take care of. Seems like Tulasi always wants me to do some type of service for Her. And I love it. I'm also helping to take care of 8 baby Tulasi plants from the gift shop so that She doesn't wither up and die. I had found her in the gift shop the one day in the windowsill and she was severely wilted so I took Her upstairs and gave Her water and have been taking care of Her since. She is doing extremely well now which makes me very happy to see.

Over all Sunday was very very nice. I hope This coming Sunday's program will be just as nice. I wonder who will be giving class this Sunday. I should check out Toronto's blog site to find out if is posted.