iMonk | September 2005

Calcutta, West Bengal, India — Thursday, September 15th

Return to California

Today I return to California. The last two weeks in the holy association of Srila Gurudeva in Navadwip and Calcutta have been great. After four months in Russia and the Ukraine, it has been good to return to India to spend a short time with Srila Gurudeva before returning to California.

The last six months have been one festival after the other: two months in India for the Gaura Purnima festival, and four months in Eastern Europe during the summer for the Harmony festival in the Ukraine, the EthnoLife festival, the Mysterious India festival, and the Vaishnava festival in Moscow, and the Vaishnava festival in Saint Petersburg.

But today I must leave Srila Gurudeva's holy lotus feet. And just like my retrograde journey last year, I fly back in time: from a guru-centric world where everything is automatically properly adjusted, to an ego-centric world of misconception...

San Jose, California — Friday, September 16th

Perspective

I got this email today from Damayanti Devi Dasi (one of only three Westerners to celebrate Radhastami with Srila Gurudeva in Navadwip on Sunday) who returned to England earlier this week:

Dear iMonk,

It's a funny thing — I just noticed that Radhastami was on September 11th.

To all the mundane people in the world, that date meant something completely different. While we were celebrating and honoring that day (or trying to anyway!) as one of the most sacred, special and happy days of the year, well the rest of the world was probably in mourning or something over a pile of dead bodies.

Thank God I'm a crazy Hare Krishna!

Damayanti Devi Dasi

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