Tonight's Harinam was great. At first our group was quite small only about ten of us. A few more devotees showed up about a half an hour later so there was at least 15-20 of us. We spent two hours chanting Krishna's Holy Names and dancing. I tried a little dancing. I was dancing a slow pace but my back started hurting me after awhile so I had to stop dancing. I tolerated the pain though after I stopped dancing and just continued to chant Krishna's Holy Names.
As we chanted and danced a group of young kids came in and danced with us and they seemed to have enjoyed it. A few other people did as well. I love to observe how people react to us especially the people who have never even heard of us before.
Toward the end of the harinam around 7:30pm I took up an attempt at book distribution again. I tried to distribute Self Realization and Bhagavad Gita. I didn't have any luck tonight unfortunately but I wanted to at least try to please Srila Prabhupada a bit more. I hope he was at least pleased that I tried to distribute his books. However I was afraid of committing an offense about preaching about Krishna to others who don't believe. I trying to be very careful of that. But the people that I have spoken with tonight were inquisitive so I guess it was not an offense for me to answer their questions about Krishna. They were polite with me too and didn't argue. Even this one elderly gentleman who said he believes the scientists theory about life, he was still nice. I told him it's okay and that he can believe what he wants to believe and I wished him a good night and he said the same with me. This one other gentleman who looked like he was slightly older than me asked me a few questions and I answered him the best I could. He thanked me as well for telling him the information. Then I spoke to this one girl who was my age. She was listening to me but was quiet. She thanked me for explaining who our group of chanters were. The people that I had spoken with tonight I gave them all cards that advertise our temple. At least I distributed those yellow cards and it has Krishna's Holy Names on them.
So I hope I pleased Srila Prabhupada and Krishna tonight. I am still trying to get off this same spiritual platform I am on and I do want to advance more. I even chanted more rounds today I had chanted 24 rounds and I hope they were quality rounds to Krishna.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
An Afternoon At the Beach: Venice Beach Los Angeles California
Today was an interesting day and a relaxing one as you might say. The weather outside was very sunny but very chilly. I think it is going to warm up by the end of this week I hope.
I attended the morning program as I always do without fail. I love attending Mangal Aarti and seeing Krishna and His devotees. When one leaves the temple you can feel the difference. When you're out spending time with famil members who are not Krishna Conciousness you'd miss being in the temple. I know I do.
I also did my service as well from 9:30am till 12:30pm. My dad arrived shortly after that. He had brought my grandfather's bicycle. It's not that old of a bike and it's a mountain bike. My dad had to lower the seat and pump air into the tires for me. I think I will take the bike for a spin tomorrow after lunch. I found a shopping center today that I want to check out to see what's around in case I need to get something.
But anyways, before I left to visit with my dad, I went to grab some lunch prasadam. We had chinese prasadam for lunch yum! I love chinese food too. And it was not spicey at all thank goodness even the maha prasadam was awesome too. Not spicey. Just the way I like it. Thank you Krishna. Krishna has been so kind to me even though I don't deserve His kindness, but I totally welcome it.
My dad and I left the temple around 1:30pm and headed off for Venice Beach. It's not too far from the temple about 4 miles. It'd be a long bike ride there though. I'd be better off taking the bus there or something at least. It'd be nice to spend time at the beach and chant some rounds. I might just do that one of these days. Of course Venice Beach is not so great of a place as there are some pretty strange people around and homeless people as well. But it seems okay I don't think much really happens there. My dad and I walked up and down along the sidewalk where are these little shops. They are all pretty much the same. Dad said he wanted to watch the sun set at the beach so we did that. It got really cold after the sun had set. And before we headed back I saw a devotee! He was wearing a saffron dhoti. I was going to say Hare Krishna to him but he was too far away for him to hear me. That brightened my day seeing a devotee too at Venice Beach! Then I also saw a wall hanging picture cloth that looked very familiar. It was some sort of Goddess and I noticed Lord Siva was on it too. The lady told me it was Goddess Kali. I have seen pictures of Kali but not like this one which was why I did not recognize Goddess Kali. And I also saw another cloth wall hanging with they symbol "Om" on it. And Krishna says He is the symbol "Om". So I did see some KC things out on Venice Beach despite the other weird stuff they have there.
But my day out on the beach made me realize again how scary this Kail Yuga is because even my dad was saying there is a lot of crazy minded people out there and it will only get worse in the years to come.
I thank Krishna for letting me learn about Him in this life! I know I may have to come back here a few more times probably but hopefully not too many more...because this material world is scary! I hope Krishna will let me stay in His service in the lifetimes to come.
I attended the morning program as I always do without fail. I love attending Mangal Aarti and seeing Krishna and His devotees. When one leaves the temple you can feel the difference. When you're out spending time with famil members who are not Krishna Conciousness you'd miss being in the temple. I know I do.
I also did my service as well from 9:30am till 12:30pm. My dad arrived shortly after that. He had brought my grandfather's bicycle. It's not that old of a bike and it's a mountain bike. My dad had to lower the seat and pump air into the tires for me. I think I will take the bike for a spin tomorrow after lunch. I found a shopping center today that I want to check out to see what's around in case I need to get something.
But anyways, before I left to visit with my dad, I went to grab some lunch prasadam. We had chinese prasadam for lunch yum! I love chinese food too. And it was not spicey at all thank goodness even the maha prasadam was awesome too. Not spicey. Just the way I like it. Thank you Krishna. Krishna has been so kind to me even though I don't deserve His kindness, but I totally welcome it.
My dad and I left the temple around 1:30pm and headed off for Venice Beach. It's not too far from the temple about 4 miles. It'd be a long bike ride there though. I'd be better off taking the bus there or something at least. It'd be nice to spend time at the beach and chant some rounds. I might just do that one of these days. Of course Venice Beach is not so great of a place as there are some pretty strange people around and homeless people as well. But it seems okay I don't think much really happens there. My dad and I walked up and down along the sidewalk where are these little shops. They are all pretty much the same. Dad said he wanted to watch the sun set at the beach so we did that. It got really cold after the sun had set. And before we headed back I saw a devotee! He was wearing a saffron dhoti. I was going to say Hare Krishna to him but he was too far away for him to hear me. That brightened my day seeing a devotee too at Venice Beach! Then I also saw a wall hanging picture cloth that looked very familiar. It was some sort of Goddess and I noticed Lord Siva was on it too. The lady told me it was Goddess Kali. I have seen pictures of Kali but not like this one which was why I did not recognize Goddess Kali. And I also saw another cloth wall hanging with they symbol "Om" on it. And Krishna says He is the symbol "Om". So I did see some KC things out on Venice Beach despite the other weird stuff they have there.
But my day out on the beach made me realize again how scary this Kail Yuga is because even my dad was saying there is a lot of crazy minded people out there and it will only get worse in the years to come.
I thank Krishna for letting me learn about Him in this life! I know I may have to come back here a few more times probably but hopefully not too many more...because this material world is scary! I hope Krishna will let me stay in His service in the lifetimes to come.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Martin Luther King Day Ratha Yatra Parade King BLVD Los Angeles
Yesterday we went out on Ratha Yatra for the Martin Luther King Day parade. Apparently here in LA this parade is a big event like Macy's parade almost so it was recorded on T.V. A helicopter flew over head I think it must have been a news helicopter filming it from high above.
We left the temple around 10am. I almost didn't go but Krishna made the arrangement for me to go. All the mataji's cars were taken up so I had to ride with the men in the red van I didn't have much of a choice. It didn't bother me at all. I sat in the front seat next to Ganesh Prabhu who was driving the rest sat in the back seats. that way I was at least separate from them in the back.
We arrived there at 10:30am and we had to help set up the cart by putting fake flower garlands around the cart to make it colorful so that people would notice it. The Deities were small but big enough for people to see Them. We started moving a bit around 11:15am but we stood there for what seemed like more than an hour! We were pretty much in the middle of the parade I think. The parade for us started probably a bit after 12pm. It was a good 4 mile walk from where we started all the way to Crenshaw BLVD. They have a street that is called "King BLVD" and "Martin Luther King Jr. blvd" so that is why they had the parade route there.
When the parade started the women in the front wanted to dance but me I can't dance worth a penny and I had my back pack on me so I really couldn't anyway. I decided to help pull the cart. It didn't hurt my back this time pulling the cart mainly becasue this cart was smaller and many of the men were pulling it so it felt quite light and I didn't have to pull as hard like the one Ratha Yatra I was at in Columbus Ohio.While I helped to pull the cart I observed the people watching the parade.Many of them were having a good time. And as we did our kirtan most of them loved our kirtan and were dancing with us and waving to us. A few of them even ran over to our cart to dance with the devotees. Some gave us a thumbs up too. It was quite amazing. As I was walking along pulling the cart I was thinking "All these people did pious activities in their past life. They are now able to see the Deities of Lord Jagannatha who is Lord of the Universe. These people are so fortunate and they will get benefit in their next life." It made me realize just how many people out there who have not even heard of God's original name "Krishna" which is so purifying, beautiful, and powerful. This is why we do this so that people will get a chance to hear the name "Krishna." And no Krishna is not a different god, He's always been the same God that we've worshipped, we've just forgotten His original name and our relationship with Him. I think His name Krishna is much more beautiful than just calling Him "God." He does have many names besides just "God."
There were some people holding up signs about God as we kept going. One sign read "Humble yourself before God" Another sign read "Jesus is the Only Way" Or "Jesus is our only Savior" Yes Jesus is our savior as he went out to preach about God's message. Yes Jesus did die for us to make us realize our position with God but as a result he was crucified because the demoniac people did not want to listen to him or believe what he had to say. It goes to show you how cruel this world is.
But anyways this one gentleman who was holding a sign about Jesus was giving us a thumbs down. Now if he's being so religious why is he showing so much hatred to others especially to the devotees who are chanting God's Holy Names? He's not really being a Christian because he's not showing kindness to everyone like Jesus had. Jesus tolerated everyone and every religion out there and he was very forgiving as well.
For the rest of the parade however most people enjoyed the parade and liked us too when they saw us. As I had pulled the cart I had turned to look at the Deities it was so nice to see Them there watching everyone and I knew They were very pleased. Lord Jagannatha are so merciful.
I thank Lord Jagannatha for letting those people out there yesterday to see Him to get purified.
After we got back to the temple, it was 2:30pm. We all went to have prasadam which was great. I was exhausted so I went to take a nap for an hour then went to the 6:30pm aarti and then the Bhagavad Gita class. The verse we went over last night was BG 9.34.
Over all I had a great time being out there chanting Krishna's name and pulling the cart for Lord Jagannatha.
Here are some photos of the event.
We left the temple around 10am. I almost didn't go but Krishna made the arrangement for me to go. All the mataji's cars were taken up so I had to ride with the men in the red van I didn't have much of a choice. It didn't bother me at all. I sat in the front seat next to Ganesh Prabhu who was driving the rest sat in the back seats. that way I was at least separate from them in the back.
We arrived there at 10:30am and we had to help set up the cart by putting fake flower garlands around the cart to make it colorful so that people would notice it. The Deities were small but big enough for people to see Them. We started moving a bit around 11:15am but we stood there for what seemed like more than an hour! We were pretty much in the middle of the parade I think. The parade for us started probably a bit after 12pm. It was a good 4 mile walk from where we started all the way to Crenshaw BLVD. They have a street that is called "King BLVD" and "Martin Luther King Jr. blvd" so that is why they had the parade route there.
When the parade started the women in the front wanted to dance but me I can't dance worth a penny and I had my back pack on me so I really couldn't anyway. I decided to help pull the cart. It didn't hurt my back this time pulling the cart mainly becasue this cart was smaller and many of the men were pulling it so it felt quite light and I didn't have to pull as hard like the one Ratha Yatra I was at in Columbus Ohio.While I helped to pull the cart I observed the people watching the parade.Many of them were having a good time. And as we did our kirtan most of them loved our kirtan and were dancing with us and waving to us. A few of them even ran over to our cart to dance with the devotees. Some gave us a thumbs up too. It was quite amazing. As I was walking along pulling the cart I was thinking "All these people did pious activities in their past life. They are now able to see the Deities of Lord Jagannatha who is Lord of the Universe. These people are so fortunate and they will get benefit in their next life." It made me realize just how many people out there who have not even heard of God's original name "Krishna" which is so purifying, beautiful, and powerful. This is why we do this so that people will get a chance to hear the name "Krishna." And no Krishna is not a different god, He's always been the same God that we've worshipped, we've just forgotten His original name and our relationship with Him. I think His name Krishna is much more beautiful than just calling Him "God." He does have many names besides just "God."
There were some people holding up signs about God as we kept going. One sign read "Humble yourself before God" Another sign read "Jesus is the Only Way" Or "Jesus is our only Savior" Yes Jesus is our savior as he went out to preach about God's message. Yes Jesus did die for us to make us realize our position with God but as a result he was crucified because the demoniac people did not want to listen to him or believe what he had to say. It goes to show you how cruel this world is.
But anyways this one gentleman who was holding a sign about Jesus was giving us a thumbs down. Now if he's being so religious why is he showing so much hatred to others especially to the devotees who are chanting God's Holy Names? He's not really being a Christian because he's not showing kindness to everyone like Jesus had. Jesus tolerated everyone and every religion out there and he was very forgiving as well.
For the rest of the parade however most people enjoyed the parade and liked us too when they saw us. As I had pulled the cart I had turned to look at the Deities it was so nice to see Them there watching everyone and I knew They were very pleased. Lord Jagannatha are so merciful.
I thank Lord Jagannatha for letting those people out there yesterday to see Him to get purified.
After we got back to the temple, it was 2:30pm. We all went to have prasadam which was great. I was exhausted so I went to take a nap for an hour then went to the 6:30pm aarti and then the Bhagavad Gita class. The verse we went over last night was BG 9.34.
Over all I had a great time being out there chanting Krishna's name and pulling the cart for Lord Jagannatha.
Here are some photos of the event.
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