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.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
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.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
An Amazing Sunday Feast Class By Nirantara Prabhu
Wow what an AMAZING class Nirantara Prabhu gave today! He was scheduled to give the Sunday Feast class. It was one of the best ones I have ever heard from him! He is just so inspiring.
He went over a few verses in the Bhagavad Gita Ch. 3. He explained about how we can get real freedom since tomorrow is Martin Luther King day and Martin Luther King spoke about freedom. We can get real freedom by chanting Krishna's Holy Name and get eternal freedom in the spiritual world where there is no birth and death. He also spoke about his realizations with chanting Hare Krishna and also about Srila Prabhupada's books. He had us chant the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra really loud quite a few times I thought that was pretty fun. Nirantara was being ver humourous tonight and I loved it. He reminded me so much of my own guru maharaj. Nirantara also asked us how many of us offer our food to Krishna everday and also chant rounds everyday and he had us raise our hands at the questions. A lot of what Nirantara said really hit the nail on the head. I cannot wait to hear his next webcast on Wednesday. He will be leaving for India for a month sometime this week. I sure will miss his classes an webcasts while he's away. I love him to pieces and I hope he will hurry back. In the mean time I can listen to his lectures on iskcondesiretree.net at least. :)
At the end of class Nirantara Prabhu gave us all blessings and prayed to Krishna for us. He's so kind and humble just like my guru maharaj is. :)
He went over a few verses in the Bhagavad Gita Ch. 3. He explained about how we can get real freedom since tomorrow is Martin Luther King day and Martin Luther King spoke about freedom. We can get real freedom by chanting Krishna's Holy Name and get eternal freedom in the spiritual world where there is no birth and death. He also spoke about his realizations with chanting Hare Krishna and also about Srila Prabhupada's books. He had us chant the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra really loud quite a few times I thought that was pretty fun. Nirantara was being ver humourous tonight and I loved it. He reminded me so much of my own guru maharaj. Nirantara also asked us how many of us offer our food to Krishna everday and also chant rounds everyday and he had us raise our hands at the questions. A lot of what Nirantara said really hit the nail on the head. I cannot wait to hear his next webcast on Wednesday. He will be leaving for India for a month sometime this week. I sure will miss his classes an webcasts while he's away. I love him to pieces and I hope he will hurry back. In the mean time I can listen to his lectures on iskcondesiretree.net at least. :)
At the end of class Nirantara Prabhu gave us all blessings and prayed to Krishna for us. He's so kind and humble just like my guru maharaj is. :)
Different Characters: Hollywood Harinam Saturday 1-14-2012
Last night's Harinam was interesting. It seems like everytime I go to Hollywood for the harinam something always interesting happens. This time I saw people dressed up in different cartoon characters. These people do get paid for what they are doing. They ask for tips after you get their picture taken with them. The new characters I saw this time were Snow White, Woody from Toy Story, Zorro, and Cookie Monster from Sesame Street. Snow White and Dora the Explorer really loved our harinam kirtan. Especially Dora. She kept coming back to us and dancing with us. Snow White even tried getting Woody to dance with us too. Other people who were not dressed up even became ecstatic and joined in with dancing with us. Oh and I forgot to mention I also saw Batgirl too. I think Hollywood is pretty cool to do a harinam because you can see all kind of interesting people and best of all they can hear Krishna's Holy Names and get benefit for just hearing His Names.
Toward the end of the harinam I suddenly noticed that down this one street across the street, a whole bunch of people on bicycles came out. There were HUNDREDS of them! And they were riding their bikes right in the middle of heavy traffic on the street we were on! There must have been a bike Marathon or something.
And at the end of our kirtan it was really ecstatic. Most people go out to bars and get themselves drunk on a Saturday night. But us devotees? Well we do something a lot more fun and something that's better than getting drunk. We go out at night and throw a party for Krishna by chanting His Holy Names and dancing. that's what you call REALLY having a good time when you are remembering God and glorifying Him and not thinking about yourself but of Him.
These harinams are really inspiring me, and I love seeing different things happen at our harinams. Tomorrow is our Martin Luther King Day Ratha Yatra. I look foward to it and I hope that I can walk those 4 long miles without my back hurting me.
Toward the end of the harinam I suddenly noticed that down this one street across the street, a whole bunch of people on bicycles came out. There were HUNDREDS of them! And they were riding their bikes right in the middle of heavy traffic on the street we were on! There must have been a bike Marathon or something.
And at the end of our kirtan it was really ecstatic. Most people go out to bars and get themselves drunk on a Saturday night. But us devotees? Well we do something a lot more fun and something that's better than getting drunk. We go out at night and throw a party for Krishna by chanting His Holy Names and dancing. that's what you call REALLY having a good time when you are remembering God and glorifying Him and not thinking about yourself but of Him.
These harinams are really inspiring me, and I love seeing different things happen at our harinams. Tomorrow is our Martin Luther King Day Ratha Yatra. I look foward to it and I hope that I can walk those 4 long miles without my back hurting me.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Feeling More Obligated to Guru
Lately I've been feeling more and more obligated to my guru Maharaj. At times I could almost even "hear" his voice not only in my head but more importantly in my heart. Last night I felt kind of bad because I didn't go to the harinam,but I was so tired from the ArtWalk Harinam that I had to go to bed early. We arrived late the other night at 10pm, and I was exhausted. So I felt that my guru Maharaj would want me to rest the next day after a late night like that so I took it to heart with it.
Today however I feel more rested so there is another harinam tonight in Hollywood which I will go to as I know it would please my guru Maharaj and I can "hear" him say "You should go out on harinam". If anything interesting happens Im sure he would love to hear about it so I will email him if anything interesting comes up.
Maharaj would often encourage us in Toronto to go out more. Here it's a bit easier due to regular programs they have here harinams every week, programs every week, and Bhagavad Gita classes every night except for Tuesday night as they have a maha mantra kirtans.
Hopefully I can talk with the temple president about book distribution. It's mostly the men who go out on book distribution daily here I never hear or see any women doing it. My guru Maharaj says I don't have to worry so much about book distribution and to focus more on assisting devotees, but he also said if I can do more service then go for it, and book distribution is one of them. They have a Vaisnavi program for women here but it doesn't involve book distribution, and I can never go to it anyway because it's in the morning when I have service to do in the kitchen.
Friday Feb. 4th there will be a sankirtan seminar class at 10am. I might ask the prabhus in charge of the kitchen if I can go to it and then later on that day there is a group book distribution at 1pm which I plan to attend if Krishna will let me.
All these things keep popping up in my head and that is why Im feeling so much more obligated to my guru Maharaj in wanting to keep on pleasing him and Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada said that if we really want to please him distribute books. Also I feel like I'm still stuck on the same spiritual platform and Srila Prabhupada said that is not good because one could falldown. So I am trying to push myself just a little bit more with service. Getting out is one major step for me which is why I tell myself to go to harinams just to get out and get used to being around alot of people.
There is also a qoute that I read by Srila Prabhupada. I still have a hard time dealing with this qoute though and understanding it. Srila Prabhupada says "If we feel separation from Krishna and the spiritaul master then we should just try to remember their words of instructions, and then we will no longer feel separation. Such association with Krishna and the spiritual master should be by vibration, not by physical presence. We should give more stress on sound vibration of Krishna and the spiritual master then we will feel happy and won't feel separation."
But at least lately I try to "hear" Maharaj speak to me through my heart. It's still a challenge at times but then other times when something familiar comes up or if it's something I know that would please Maharaj that's when I can almost "hear" his instructions." It's just that I am so used to seeing my guru Maharaj almost all the time, and I miss him alot as a result and I still do. It may take me years to get used to being quite a distance away from my guru Maharaj. I have to keep reminding myself that I may be 3,000 miles away from my guru Maharaj but I am still under his protective wing and always will be for life which is another reason to feel more obligated to him. I hope I will be able to "hear" his instructions through my heart in the months coming up.
Today however I feel more rested so there is another harinam tonight in Hollywood which I will go to as I know it would please my guru Maharaj and I can "hear" him say "You should go out on harinam". If anything interesting happens Im sure he would love to hear about it so I will email him if anything interesting comes up.
Maharaj would often encourage us in Toronto to go out more. Here it's a bit easier due to regular programs they have here harinams every week, programs every week, and Bhagavad Gita classes every night except for Tuesday night as they have a maha mantra kirtans.
Hopefully I can talk with the temple president about book distribution. It's mostly the men who go out on book distribution daily here I never hear or see any women doing it. My guru Maharaj says I don't have to worry so much about book distribution and to focus more on assisting devotees, but he also said if I can do more service then go for it, and book distribution is one of them. They have a Vaisnavi program for women here but it doesn't involve book distribution, and I can never go to it anyway because it's in the morning when I have service to do in the kitchen.
Friday Feb. 4th there will be a sankirtan seminar class at 10am. I might ask the prabhus in charge of the kitchen if I can go to it and then later on that day there is a group book distribution at 1pm which I plan to attend if Krishna will let me.
All these things keep popping up in my head and that is why Im feeling so much more obligated to my guru Maharaj in wanting to keep on pleasing him and Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada said that if we really want to please him distribute books. Also I feel like I'm still stuck on the same spiritual platform and Srila Prabhupada said that is not good because one could falldown. So I am trying to push myself just a little bit more with service. Getting out is one major step for me which is why I tell myself to go to harinams just to get out and get used to being around alot of people.
There is also a qoute that I read by Srila Prabhupada. I still have a hard time dealing with this qoute though and understanding it. Srila Prabhupada says "If we feel separation from Krishna and the spiritaul master then we should just try to remember their words of instructions, and then we will no longer feel separation. Such association with Krishna and the spiritual master should be by vibration, not by physical presence. We should give more stress on sound vibration of Krishna and the spiritual master then we will feel happy and won't feel separation."
But at least lately I try to "hear" Maharaj speak to me through my heart. It's still a challenge at times but then other times when something familiar comes up or if it's something I know that would please Maharaj that's when I can almost "hear" his instructions." It's just that I am so used to seeing my guru Maharaj almost all the time, and I miss him alot as a result and I still do. It may take me years to get used to being quite a distance away from my guru Maharaj. I have to keep reminding myself that I may be 3,000 miles away from my guru Maharaj but I am still under his protective wing and always will be for life which is another reason to feel more obligated to him. I hope I will be able to "hear" his instructions through my heart in the months coming up.
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