Report from Ecuador Premadhama 26/2/12

Office GM:

Hare Krishna
our humble obeisances
Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay
Srila Atulananda Acarya ki jay
Sunday Chat of Vrinda family ki jay.

Dear devotees, from Premadhama Mandir we send our obeisances to the entire community and a special greeting from Gopal Krishna Prabhu who is here monitoring this week’s Sunday chat. Gopal Krishna Prabhu is the director of SEVA Ecuador, one of the major protective missions of Guru Maharaj in Ecuador and now said, also supplier of avocados (avocados) to bring happiness to all the devotees.


The correct understanding of Vaisnava philosophy is backed by some of Guru Maharaj’s advice: to be willing to preach in a way that not only for others to know the philosophy but for others to fall in love with the preacher, that the person wants to be your friend for the rest of their life and primarily serve the devotees. If devotees are happy with your service then rest assured that your spiritual life is on track. Guru Maharaj emphasizes personalized sankirtan.
The motto is: "not only deliver a book but encourage with your behavior so that the person wants to read the book and be your friend" in that sense it is more important than selling a book. Make contact with the person and ask for their email and establish a connection for life
In terms of custom sankirtan, after a while, you'll have a whole list of friends each time seva launches a new product, you report it to all your friends about it, email is key.

If you manage to get an email from a person and that person is interested in your message then you will have someone you can preach to for a long time, for years and you can invite them to Vaisnava Academy events, inbound tours to India, send promotions of Seva, inform them of new publications, music CDs, etc.. Connect them to many programs like House of wisdom, Volunteering, spoon revolution, etc. If you have more information about the person for example they are a doctor you can connect them to the network of conscious physicians. If they are psychologist you can put them in contact with Oida Therapy. A professional in general can be connected to the House of Wisdom. Also you can connect to them to the office of Guru Maharaj and occupy them in a service such as translation, editing, video editing, etc.. Guru Maharaj does this every day, all the time, in the city he is in at present.

Vrinda mission offers many services so many of them we forget, for example, yesterday, a devotee did a drawing of Krsna, really beautiful, Visvarupa prabhu Bogota, realistically beautiful, a very sweet face of Krishna. Gurudeva connected him with the conscious art school and asked him to draw a whole series for kids page, damodara.de, an important community service of Vrinda.

Gurudeva always ask: What are we doing for the children? What programs are being organized? It is a daily theme. Well, by some chance Guru Maharaj has a large audience of children in all conferences, including at the head of his conferences.
Children running, playing happily with happy parents who forget that Gurudev is giving a lecture on philosophy. Gurudev says in a humorous form: it is my karma, but his statement reminds us that in all yatras there should be a systematic program for children. In some of Guru Maharaja yatras visits, I saw that it is there. For example in Venezuela Azulita they have a program for children, devotional figure drawing and painting. That requires some attention as blank pages, many colors, one that encourages the drawing, some drawings of damodara.de downloaded and printed, a special area for Children with healthy sweets etc. It can even be more sophisticated with a devotional film like little Krsna or Osmosis Jones.


On this tour of Guru Maharaj, Gurudeva found that in almost every yatra children do not know the movie Osmosis Jones. Guru Maharaj said it was a movie that all children should see unless it's like a conference, after seeing osmosis jones, any child is very clear on the effect of consumption of meat in his own body and can explain it to others.


Well, this was a short introduction on the report of the recent tour of Guru Maharaj through Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. His Divine Grace is in good health. He is always surprising everyone with renewed energy and enthusiasm. There is a large group of devotees accompanying him around 20 to 30 devotees; something new for this tour is the presence and ongoing training of the group of devotees of the CBA. CBA is the Brahminical Gathering Center.

The CBA does not have an office in a specific location. It is a traveling group of devotees with specific roles visiting the temples, they are servants of the temple, and the temple is enriched by a visit from the CBA. The traveling group consists of mother Mohana, Prabhu, Hari Sankirtan, Madhumangal Prabhu, Prabhu Thakur, mother Vedavadi. They are being trained personally by Guru Maharaj to train local CBA, presidents of temples and Sannyasis. Thus, leaders are also part of the CBA. The CBA has specific services for example:

1. Mother Mohana is a financial professional, she has the role to train up leaders in accounting and management standards in the temples.

2. Hari Sankirtan Prabhu, media and professional journalism's role is to train the devotees as activists, it is a broad field that it includes establishing ministries to train devotees to use all promotional tools such as the use of the passport, etc. .

3. Madhumangal brother of sweden yatra, is part of Hari Sankirtan prabhu’s team that looks at ways to promote and raise the standard in the temples in the areas of activism, and everything sankirtan and the CBA. Prabhu won the marathon in December 2011.

4. Vedavadi D.D., has a role in evaluating the fiscal and accounting and treasury systems that are transparent in the temples. She has a group of assistants.

5. Prabhu Thakur, lawyer by profession, has the role to set and raise standards in all farms, connecting them with the volunteer program, train leaders to offer more services and to make every self-sustaining farm have a strong commitment to the environment, organic and active.

6. Acintya Prabhu, Professional in Statistics, has the role of promoting all the materials of SEVA, as director of Seva Colombia, has the role of bringing the nectar to all the temples, and establishing training of sankirtan as well as more Seva shops. The Prabhu won the marathon in Colombia.


The CBA is a body of support for the temples, they work for temple. Considering that Vrinda mission has over 100 temples so you can imagine the importance of a CBA and the great efforts made by them to travel to visit each center. Guru Maharaj gave specific service areas. For example: Madhumangal prabhu is in charge of Pasto, Ipiales and Ecuador, Hari Sankirtan is all South America, Thakur prabhu now accepted the challenge of traveling to all the temples also. Acintya prabhu is Colombia, Vedavadi mother works mainly in Colombia and Ecuador, Mother Mohana also Colombia and Ecuador.

In Ecuador Vrindavan manifested a CBA meeting where everyone shared the instructions given by Guru Maharaj. Guru Maharaj gave them a travel itinerary to each of them. This tour of Guru Maharaj is primarily meant for training of this group. Some details of the CBA for better understanding:

It is self funded, each CBA collects for their own tickets, but also accept donations,

It is a group of devotees in continual training and expansion, they now travel with Guru Maharaj and represent Guru Maharaj's instructions. All Sannyasis and temple presidents are CBA. CBA is not an independent group, it is part of the office of Guru Maharaj and they report to Gurudev through mother Mohana. Mother Mohana is the traveling group secretary and spokesman of the CBA as well as the communication link with Guru Maharaj's office to report progress of the group. Each CBA is independent and represents all the roles of the CBA, so there is continuous training including, for example:

Tahkur prabhu, on his next visit to the temples of the south will represent and implement the roles of other CBAS, the group will visit temples not as a group, but as an independent member. And reinforce the role they see necessary in coordination with the other CBA .You may receive a temple visit from all CBAS at different times, a temple that would be very lucky, but because of the distances and costs, you may only receive a visit from a CBA.

The CBA should receive full support from the local leader of the community. Their primary role is to train, encourage the group with all instructions of Guru Maharaj. For example, they will see if the temple is current in the payment of taxes to the government, to check that there is a good Sadhana, Chats reading of Guru Maharaj, have all the materials of Seva, etc..
So, you can see the importance of such a service that the CBA will be doing.

Guru Maharaj completed a marathon record within nearly five hours and from very early on Srila Gurudeva gave the meditations for the project of House of wisdom: Sounds to heal. Guru Maharaj revealed his deep philosophical meditation for all those people who are in difficult moments of life such as a deadly disease. The project is very nice. It includes the production of a set of music CDs that combine several sounds from mystical traditions with spiritual messages to encourage people. It is music for relaxation and inspiration with messages. The production team of this material is the Seva Ecuador, including Vidya Tirtha Prabhu and Prabhu Vaisnava, a promise to produce this work in a marathon a month or two.

So soon we will have much nectar, this material is very important for all projects of House of Wisdom, in reality there were many attempts before but with little result or poor quality. The themes of sounds that heal are:

1. What are we?
2. What is our nature?
2. What is the purpose of life?
4. Why do we suffer?
5. How can we be happier? (And healthier)
6. How can we live our spiritual nature in everyday life?
7. How can we connect with our own source of happiness?
8. How can we truly help the people we love?
9. How can we use every day of life to the fullest?
10. How can we heal the pride, anger, envy, lust, sloth?
11. How can we stay pure in an environment so polluted?
12. What is most important in this life?

Those were the themes of this morning
Guru maharaj goes to the farm Gaura dham in Yaruqui.
Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

The dangers of self absorption 2/19/2012

Dear devotees,

This morning I want to explain something about a particular phenomenon...

That is called "being absorbed". This phenomenon is a big problem for the cooperation of people in the world. One can take it with a joke, because it seems to be funny ... but in practice it is more sad than funny. Because, to be absorbed means that one becomes so important to themselves that one is unable to see the importance of others.

It is a symptom of some kind of "present illness" that makes you not realize what others perceive, but it's almost obvious. The absorbtion inward is almost a type of drug, because it makes one intoxicated. One who has a self-absorbed attitude closes himself so much that every time someone else does not share his same opinion, he devalues him and gets angry about it. You know, the levels of perception toward each other can become quite serious, to the point that there are materialistic people who only think about the profit they earn from harming others. Fully imperialist mentality. As the empires think that the protection of their interests gives them the right to kill, injure or mistreat others. This is very common among politicians and administrators in the world today. Sure, very secretly in many cases ... but this is how it manages the world of Kali Yuga.

All this is an abominable situation. Of course, if you look at the profile of each of these people is completely absorbed. They only move in the circle of their own benefit. But why talk of dirty politicians? They are far from us and not even care about what we are saying ... and if they knew it would be worse, he would take care of us and put us out of his way ... as we are not good for his false prestige.

(For the materialist who does what he wants even if it means hurting others also want to maintain a false appearance).

In that way we can prove that this consciousness only makes people materialistic. And all this only comes from becoming self-absorbed, self-absorbed as he is unable to see the deep end and sensitivity of others, you live practically exploiting:

The resources, knowledge, beauty of others, levers, etc.. And all exploitation is justified from the same "self-absorbed philosophy."

A self-absorbed person sometimes wants to have a teacher just to increase their prestige, but it holds only up to the time when the Guru directs him to someone more important than himself, Krishna. And of course, Guru insists that Krishna is the highest and it is he who must be served. This trend can also be called self-absorbed... which means that he does not give value to what happens to others ... and that creates a kind of wall that serves the same purpose as the Berlin Wall ....

A wall in the middle of the whole city, preventing the passage of people from one sector to another. Similarly, the wall of the absorbed person does not allow entry of others in their life. And it's not healthy at all for those of who make such a wall, much less who tolerates it being done. The wall of self-absorbed person's ego is almost impossible to be destroyed by others ... For it is the same self-absorbed person who thinks that wall is good and holds it with cheap philosophy and excuses to keep away from others.

The person thinks he or she has made a world apparently that is good ... and is located behind this wall to protect the alleged wrong that others can do. And that, my dear devotees is not unreal. It's not something that only happens between politicians or materialists ... This happens also within us. Among these church leaders ... even between a temple and a leader. It sometimes occurs among sannyasis ...

We can not say, oh, it's just among the people "rare" in the world that these things happen, they and their self-absorbed character ... No. We can not think that we are healthy that we are no longer affected by the bad influences. That's a real illusion. Well, that tendency to become absorbed occurs between the grhastas, between men and women, between husbands and wives, between parents and children ... spiritual sibling. And this is a disease so dangerous that can destroy the spiritual life. Generates only one end and that is on the floor after you have created an island, or rather, a prison for yourself, an engrossed product of this nature, where any instruction from Srila Prabhupada, or any message of Srila Sridhar Maharaj cannot go there .. The only thing that remains there is Paramatma, who is so merciful that He does not abandon the conditioned soul even in the most terrible circumstances. But what does Paramatma do? He says in your ear, you're alone ... How long will you remain so locked in your prison of fantasy? But, the person is so lost, that his mind just says, no, I'm just ...there are "bad" people that have created this, I am defending the attacks of others ... The others do not respect me and appreciate me ... But if we remember what Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, if we can not maintain this attitude

Trinad api sunicena taror api sahishnuna

amanina manadena sada kirtaniyah harih

The Lord said: One who thinks himself lower than the grass, who is more tolerant than a tree, and who does not expect personal honor yet is always prepared to give all respect to others can very easily always chant the holy name of the Lord." (Adi-lila 17.31)

Why would a blade of grass be more important than you? I will explain:

-A blade of grass is not opposed to the spiritual life, however your false ego is giving constant opposition to the spiritual life. It's like a joke: the best way to commit suicide is getting on the false ego and launching from there :). Or the other joke: That is the false ego: It's the little Argentine everyone carries within himself :) Or Venezuelan or etc.

But in reality, it is very serious ... If I tear this blade of grass in two it is not going to complain ...it will not put conditions and says I no longer want to serve. This is very useful and very submissive, but not false ego. To be more insignificant than a blade of grass is very significant. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu did not say it in vain. He was very clear, very supportive. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the solidarity in a person ... He teaches us to work together with others for a higher cause, he teaches us to work selflessly and sacrifice, because if there isn't selflessness and sacrifice, then there is nothing. And that is where the false ego says, careful, careful with that ... Keep your distance ...And that means keeping distance away from the Godhead, the spiritual master of Sadhusanga ... It becomes a trench that encloses us and takes us back to pool of the material world.

And those who have sought Vaishnavas to save us from the material ocean ... we fall back on our own. But when one is absorbed, even one comes to think that he does not like many devotees visiting their temple ... because a lot of work ... And I wonder ... Your temple? Is it really your temple? Or they say, going to meetings is boring, because no one pays attention to my advice ... being preoccupied since i'm not recognized or glorified or something. In other words, living together is a great purification, coexistence because one has to see the limitations that one has in appreciating spiritually consecrated persons.

The scriptures confirm 'sadhu-sanga', 'sadhu-sanga' -- sarva-sastre kaya lava-matra sadhu-sange sarva-siddhi haya (CC.Madhya,22.54). Even a moment's association with a pure devotee can bestow upon a perfection in devotional service ... Imagine, just a moment, a second in partnership with a pure devotee.

That is the teaching that Srila Prabhupada gave us ... that we associate with the Sadhus, for a single second of their company solves everything. Because when we are in the association of devotees utsaha is there and it is a great, great enthusiasm that allows one to be determined to leave the material world and one is then determined to sacrifice and become qualified to go to the spiritual world.

So we start the day like this. Everyone has discretion and intelligence, we all have to protect our service areas, etc ... It is very necessary. We must not become zombies without judgment. We must actively participate and take into account the difficulties that arise, but at the same time, we need submission and obedience to tolerate that we are not alone in the world ... that we share with many people. One does not learn in isolation from others. One truly learns when he prays, begs, is humble, and collaborator.

Rich people look to alienate themselves away from it all with the excuse of protecting themselves from alleged thieves. But they lose any connection to the outside world. Lost in thought is the greatest poison, because one begins to think that one is the most important. Sure, there's something real that you are the most important for yourself because you depend on the process of self-realization. That's why you have to take care of yourself, of course not turn inward ... Rather than sharing, learning, giving the whole others.

For example, Why does marriage exist? So you don't become completely self-absorbed ... In the words of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura: To learn you have to share and realize that you are not alone. But it seems that this does not happen very often in modern marriages. Srila Sridhar Maharaj said something beautiful, when you see things from a negative view of oneself that attracts a lot of good things. But when you only think about the good things you've done or that you have it only attracts bad. You even become insensitive to others. You have to become humble, because humility and austerity are the qualities of a Brahmana.

It is said that there are three things in life that one should never give up:

-Tapas, dana and Yajna. You can leave all the family and take sannyas, leave the work to devote to study, give up your desire for something higher. But one should never give up: Tapas: austerity, Dana: Generosity, Yajna: The sacrifices.

Because this is what keeps human culture moving. That is why the problem of the self-absorbed just look for those who appreciate what they do, not those who have any criticism or comment differently then theirs. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur said that those who only tell us good things about oursleves are not really your friends, however those who are showing you all the things left to overcome and fix, those are your true friends. They will even risk losing your smile. Everytime one heara something that they do not want to hear you immediately change your face ... and it hurts others, they are looks that can kill. And ultimately, if we don't change our absorbtion and attitude we can lose the association of devotees ... and who loses the association of devotees, loses all.

In Krishna consciousness we have the concept that everything belongs to Krishna and therefore we must protect and enthuse all to bond and participate in devotional service which purifies everything. And to the extent that devotees care that of which belongs to Krishna, Krishna himself becomes very happy. Well, my dears, that's my message for today. To those who still remain skeptical of everything said here, I recommend you read it all many times until you understand that we are only an infinitesimal portion of all. As such, we appreciate everything and everyone around us. Today I am going to Vrindavan, our paradise in the jungle of Ecuador, where we continue to expand the glories of Srila Prabhupada. Gopinath Gauranga Radhika ki jay! I leave all my affection and organize a nice Sunday festival for all the souls that are thirsty for Krishna Bhakti. Jay Srila Prabhupada!

Your always well-wisher,

Swami B. Aloka Paramadvaiti.

Love is the most precious gift. 2/5/2012 Bogota

Dear devotees.

Let me share with you a meditation. The spiritual master is very sad when he sees that the devotees doubt that Krishna is the supreme enjoyer, and they are attracted to worldly things, how to enjoy things or accumulate things, when devotion is the most beautiful and the largest and the nostalgia that one feels in this world is the lack of love of God and lack of love one can give to others in God's name.

When devotees are not happy in Krishna Consciousness or not communicated with the messages of his spiritual master, there is always sadness. Perhaps this sadness helps us realize that this world, here, is not the world where we want to be. When a parent is concerned about the welfare of his son, or husband does not know where the wife goes, when the bonds of affection are put into question ... When Maya grabs us and makes us compare the association of devotees with the association of those who want to be the enjoyer, with no room for Lord Krishna in their priorities, when life does not have a course ... one becomes vulnerable to any speculation.

One can understand why so many people in the world is poisoned foolishly against the good of their own family or their health, simply because they do not know where to allocate the huge potential of affection in their heart. Maya can grab one at any time and when one becomes attached to Krishna and service to it, one can turn away from Maya too. Therefore, never put your back to Krishna or to the spiritual master because there will be defeat again.

Love is the finest, the most precious to reach. But if you want to enjoy excluding Krishna, you get only a mirage that always stays elusive and can never be reached. And this illusion is so tremendous that it may accompany you life after life after life ... and also in different species such as penguins in love :), that after having an egg, one has to stay warm by keeping the little egg between their legs, while the other is 4 months away eating.The other penguin has stopped everything to protect the little egg ... and if the other penguin has not perished it will newly returned after 4 months to see the baby peguin. They sacrifice, fasting and fasting ... All this for the love that they have, because obviously they feel this love ... if not then what is the purpose of returining. All this is an example of the anxieties of love in this world. But when you love Krishna you can love everyone. And that's a feeling so intense that one can live when you give your heart to Him. And that love is born in Krishna and Krishna is satisfied. Krishna, the lover of all souls forever ...

That is our simple preaching and simple invitation to all people ... so they can find true happiness and meaning in life. And sharing the faith, sharing the gifts one has received from his spiritual master is the highest gift one can receive, that's what makes life a joy, not to accumulate money and compete for a status quo, to enjoy the inconsiderate senses.

I wish you all, dear spiritual children and spiritual friends of my soul, to be highly absorbed in preaching and to care for the people Krsna has sent you to protect. If I could take care of you all more, I would ... but God also cares for those who care for themselves. Sure, the devotees have to care for one another, but sometimes others cannot take care of you all the time, then you have to take care of yourself from Maya always singing:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Hare Krishna Krishna hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare.

This is my short Message for you from Bogota.

Sometimes we are sad because someone falls in Maya or happy because someone came out of maya

And when we are more concerned about caring for others that’s when we are able to leave our Maya. I wish you a very happy day of Sri Nityananda, the original Guru. He came to break the dam of divine love to let it overflow which Mahaprabhu came to give. And that love is what we should be preaching everywhere, the love that Sri Nityananda is giving us. Take care of that love forever and share it with all those around. I send you a hug from the heart. Sri Nityananda Prabhu ki jay!

Srila Prabhupada ki jay!

Your always well-wisher

Swami B. A. Paramadvaiti.