Maggie's Veggie Deli in Donegal, PA!

I just wanted to give a promised shout-out to Maggie's Vegetarian Deli, featuring all organic, locally grown foodstuffs, located just off the PA Turnpike, exit 91 into Donegal, 5 miles or so up a very scenic drive on Route 711 North.

The New V. Brahmacari Ashram contingent representing at BT Swami's Samadhi installation stopped at Maggie's on the way back from Gita Nagari and feasted....with the cherry on the sundae being the first customers ever to receive a free bowl of tofu ice cream for dessert. Devotees are once again opening doors.

Highly recommended for a bonafide stop-off on your way to or back from Gita Nagari and beyond.

"Blessed by the best..."

dadāti pratigrhnāti
guhyam ākhyāti prcchati
bhuńkte bhojayate caiva
sad-vidham prīti-laksanam

Offering gifts in charity, accepting charitable gifts, revealing one's mind in confidence, inquiring confidentially, accepting prasāda and offering prasāda are the six symptoms of love shared by one devotee and another.

The whole experience of being in person and in service for HH Bhakti-Tirtha Swami's Samadhi installation last weekend at Gita Nagari can be summed up in one word...ecstatic!
The association of Vaisnavas relentlessly pursuing the theme of sharing loving exchanges was ecstatic!
Seeing and chillin with the boys from the Manhattan ashram was ecstatic!
Personally seeing the quiet splendor of Gita Nagari for the first time was ecstatic! Radha Damodara ki jai!
Stepping inside Maharaja's humble, majestic samadhi and praying harder than I ever had before was ecstatic!
Hearing HH Jayapataka Maharaja tell the about various mystical and esoteric pastimes of Lord Jagannatha was ecstatic!
Making sure (almost) everybody shared the love of veggie-soy shish-kebobs was ecstatic!
Sleeping in by "accident" on Sunday morning was ecstatic!
HH Radhanath Maharaja's Sunday Bhagavatam class, about taking on a mood of service in responsibility in our spiritual lives as a way to make the best advancement, was super-ecstatic!
Being crammed in little ol' Honda Civic Dasa with four New V. brahmacaris and one "garden boy" was also quite ecstatic!

The Transcendental Hustler racks' em the night before in Pittsburgh

The Fews rock in the free world

Loving exchange

HH Jayapataka Maharaja spreads the love

HH Bhakti-Tirtha Swami Maharaja ki jay! May we always remember you are always with us, quite literally. May we strive to follow in your exalted footsteps and become ideal Vaisnavas so we can turn right around and save this planet!

Spiritual Fitness

HG Partha-Sarathi Das is rare-in his humility, dedication, sincerity, and compassion. Having met him at this year's Festival of Inspiration at New Vrindaban, playing kirtans with him, watching his worship his awesome Nrshinga Silas, sharing encouragement on the paths ahead, I was struck once again by the fact that even though I've never met this person before in this life, like so many other devotees, I felt like I've been intimate associates with him for lifetimes.

He is also rare because he is currently serving his third tour of duty in Iraq as a soldier in the United States Armed Forces. As of my last communication with him, he is in an undisclosed location, suffering from unwell health, but he is alive, in the spirit of devotion, and spreading the Holy Name, even in the most hellish of hellish environments.

You may or may not agree with the politics of his personal lifestyle choice, but it doesn't take anything to pray to Radha and Krsna for his well-being and safe return. He has many years ahead of loving devotional service that we all need to be part of.

This is the first in a series of articles written by Partha-Sarathi Prabhu about his experiences as a devotee fighting in Iraq...

Spiritual Fitness
By Partha-sarathi dasa


Today is the day prior to my moving up north to Iraq. It is also the day of the prayer breakfast that I was invited to speak at. I gave a power point presentation that I titled Spiritual Fitness. The intent of my presentation was to heighten awareness of spiritual life and to introduce soldiers to the basic teaching of Bhagavad-Gita. I decided to use four verses

I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts. Bg 10.08

The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My service, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss from always enlightening one another and conversing about Me. Bg 10.09

To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me. Bg 10.10

To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance. Bg 10.11

Being in the Army physical fitness is the main focus. We teach soldiers’ everyday how to kill, but we never teach how to die. Being soldiers we live with the fact that every mission might be our last and how the chance of death is everywhere. It is a cold, hard fact that stares at us everyday. Spiritual Fitness is needed everyday. We should encourage and remind each other that God is there with His hand out reaching for us, making opportunities for us to come to Him. I could see as I was explaining these points that it was an intense feeling among the soldiers. They were completely focused.
As I ended my slide show, and asked if anyone would have an objection against us chanting the Maha Mantra. To my surprise they agree and I put a slide on the computer with the Maha Mantra so they could sing along. I closed my eyes and prayed to Krsna to allow these men and women feel the power of chanting His name.
As the tempo of the kirtan increased, I saw most had huge smiles on their faces and those who didn’t, were nodding their heads in time to the beat. Finally I finished and put my final slide up, a picture of Krsna holding a chariot wheel and charging after Bhishma. The captions said don’t waste this life. Chant and live a sublime life.
Everyone then enjoyed their food and I set up my book table and answered some questions. More and more soldiers instead of eating where at the book table taking free books. The Holy Name grabbed onto their hearts. Just as one works muscles to better perform in combat, chanting Krishna’s Name is working the muscles of the brain. This is true fitness… spiritual fitness.
The Absolute Truth is Sri Krsna and loving devotion to Sri Krsna exhibited in pure love is achieved through congregational chanting of the holy name, which is the essence of all bliss.
CC Adi 1.97

Srimad-Bhagavatam Meditation: 8.7.44

It is once again time for a guided meditation on the ripened fruit of the tree of Vedic knowledge, the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

I humbly ask you to read first the translation and Bhaktivedanta purport to today's verse, the 44th verse from the 8th Canto, 7th Chapter.



tapyante loka-tāpena
sādhavaḥ prāyaśo janāḥ
paramārādhanaḿ tad dhi
puruṣasyākhilātmanah

̣It is said that great personalities almost always accept voluntary suffering because of the suffering of people in general. This is considered the highest method of worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is present in everyone's heart.

Deep within my unconscious. the fear of what needs to be gone through, of what needs to be done, to fully have the realization of this verse lurks like a hungry crocodile, waiting to chomp down on my big comfortable elephant-leg.

It very rarely bubbles to the surface, because if I am expert in anything, I am expert in hiding myself. At the slightest tings of distress or discomfort, looking for the nearest secluded location to sleep it off. Any tendency to future bloom is instantly retracted.

But I misunderstand again...the real meaning of renunciation, of austerity. Prabhupada simply says in the purport that the true realization of this verse is to simply engage in this process of Krsna consciousness for the welfare of the whole world. Nothing else pleases the Lord more.

It is not a matter of cutting off, of whipping oneself, or working or fasting into sickness. This is life?

As my boy Balarama Chandra says "For me as an "American boy", following the regulative principles, chanting my 16 rounds, reading each day, speaking pleasantly, keeping good relationships, and sharing Kc with others is hard enough. I don't know what else I can do? All the American comforts keep calling me, emailing me, text messaging me, and standing before me with folded hands begging "how can we serve".

Dancing and singing and soaring while others sit in traffic jams and offices with stale coffee, relishing the transcendental surprise, clean, fresh air, stepping out on a limb, not sitting in a self-mediated stupor, learning to truly help others, feeding their souls. Breathing deep...

Everyday I pray to discover a little bit more and more about what it really means to live.

Only by bliss, knowledge, and realization can one reach the point of humbly and effectively spreading the mission of sankirtana-yajna, even at the expense of personal comfort and happiness, which is all I've ever known. There is no other way. Any other way dries the heart, and causes it to crumble.

New Vrindaban Bloggers Unite!

Hear ye! Hear ye!

The long and sometimes exhaustive efforts of His Grace Madhava Ghosh Prabhu have finally bore fruits.

Now, all at one time, in one sparkling package, you can check out the exploits and insights of the very vibrant and dynamic New Vrindaban Blogosphere.

Check it all out at www.newvrindabanbloggers.org