Blogs

Just finished installing our live video in our temple room. Rupa Madhurya Prabhu of Rupa.com was the brains and I was the brawn of the project. This is me setting up office about 30 feet up in our temple room. It took a lots of trials and errors as there are so many minute things that can go wrong.

The soul takes on a material body and mind, with an ego that says, “This is me.” The false ego (“false” because we have a real spiritual identity beyond physical forms) or our material “I” defines itself by what it thinks it possesses--what is mine, our “mys”. This “my-ness” is the basis of all problems the soul faces in the material world, including our problems in dealing with other persons, or souls also conditioned by “my-ness”. It is interesting how “my-ness” sounds like minus, since our material conceptions of identity can only exist if our spiritual identity is forgotten (the soul minus its true eternal identity is a forgetful soul habituated to living under the conditions or laws of matter.)

I received this very sad news last night after the Damodarastaka prayers. That His Holiness Jayapataka Swami in the hospital as a result of suffering two brain haemorrhages. Last night the devotees at the temple performed kirtan late into the night in prayer for HH Jayapataka Swami. This is a photo of Jayapataka Maharaja offering blessing to my wife. So much he has done in the service of Krishna, opening temples, transforming hearts, and compassionately distributing Krishna in the form of His Holy Name.

The Bhagavat [scripture]tells us that
both the rising and setting sun
decrease the lives of all, save those
who are endeavoring for Krishna.