On the 9th of May when departing from Houston to Tucson, the doors of the plane did not close properly. After waiting for around 45 minutes all passengers had to get off the plane again and wait for the next one. Even though it was annoying I nevertheless was glad they noticed it on the ground and not in the air.....
A couple of weeks earlier one machine of the same Southwest Airlines had some incident when in the air. Some part of the motor had broken off and smashed a window of the plane. The passenger sitting near that window had some parts of her body being sucked out through the window because of the pressure change in the cabin. She later died.
A pretty terrifying scenario to imagine......
After hearing this I was not so sure whether I should go for a window seat!
Thus I was glad we had been saved from a bigger calamity. I stopped over in Las Vegas for an hour - the gambling capital of the world. Even in the airport gambling machines are everywhere. I couldn't help but noticing how so many Americans are heavily over-weight - more than any other nation of the world. It shows how sense gratification does not give any deeper satisfaction, and thus people are compensating by eating excessively, which becomes people's main and only source of pleasure in life. And it is indeed a very low and flickering pleasure, followed by great discomfort and health hazzards. Some people were so huge - I had never seen such big human bodies before in my life.
Approaching Tucson, when looking out the window I could see that Arizona is indeed a desert state. Empty desert land, with sometimes gigantic mountains. Only rarely could I detect a township. The vastness of the continent reminded me of Australia. As a brahmacarini I was once driving from Sydney to Perth - right through the middle of Australia, the desert called Nullarbor Plane. It had taken me around four full days of driving....
A pretty terrifying scenario to imagine......
After hearing this I was not so sure whether I should go for a window seat!
Thus I was glad we had been saved from a bigger calamity. I stopped over in Las Vegas for an hour - the gambling capital of the world. Even in the airport gambling machines are everywhere. I couldn't help but noticing how so many Americans are heavily over-weight - more than any other nation of the world. It shows how sense gratification does not give any deeper satisfaction, and thus people are compensating by eating excessively, which becomes people's main and only source of pleasure in life. And it is indeed a very low and flickering pleasure, followed by great discomfort and health hazzards. Some people were so huge - I had never seen such big human bodies before in my life.
Approaching Tucson, when looking out the window I could see that Arizona is indeed a desert state. Empty desert land, with sometimes gigantic mountains. Only rarely could I detect a township. The vastness of the continent reminded me of Australia. As a brahmacarini I was once driving from Sydney to Perth - right through the middle of Australia, the desert called Nullarbor Plane. It had taken me around four full days of driving....
Our ISKCON temple in Tucson is mainly centered around the activities of a nice Govinda's restaurant, which is located on the temple property. Behind the temple building are a number of nice little houses where devotees live, surrounded by beautiful gardens. The temple room has an attractive little altar with everybody on there: Sri Sri Radha Govinda, Giriraja, Sita, Rama, Laxman, Hanuman, Nrsimhadeva, Gaur Nitai and Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra. A nice team of serious devotees are living together to inspire and support each other in their services and spiritual practice. I even met one devotee from Kathmandu/Nepal who is well known to me - he had moved here a couple of years ago. Mother Sandamini, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, serves as the caring and nurturing mother to all devotees and truly creates a family atmosphere. She is hard working and reaches out to everyone in affection, with spiritual strength and vision. Recently Suresvara Prabhu, also a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, joined the community and adds another spiritual dimension to the atmosphere, with his strong preaching on Srila Prabhupada being the Founder Acarya.
On the temple property is also a birds' sanctuary with a variety of birds and also a peacock-couple, their famous calls reminding us of Vrindavan.
Even though it was only beginning of May, the thermometer climbed up to 40 degrees Celsius. Thank God I had an AC in my room! The nights were refreshingly cool - the desert climate is like this: with very dry and hot days, and cool nights.
Also here I had come to offer the seminar on sheltering relationships. Even though she is always on such a busy schedule, Mother Sandamini attended all sessions very eagerly and expressed her appreciation for the presentations, contemplating practical steps towards the application of it. I could detect that the seminar affected a few people's hearts on deeper levels. Mother Sandamini had arranged a nice card where most of the participants expressed their heartfelt appreciation and gratitude for the seminar - a sweet and affectionate response to my humble efforts of serving the devotees. Every temple needs such caring mothers!
On Saturday evening I participated in the weekly harinam through downtown. I was in for a culture-shock! I couldn't believe in what crazy ways people were trying to show off and be different and unique! Main thing is being different - no matter how absurd the methods are! I felt like a Bangladeshi village girl discovering America. People in the streets had crazy hairstyles in bright rainbow colors and most unusual ways of covering their bodies. It resembled a crazy circus. I remembered how even in Australia in the desert towns we can find especially unusual personalities. It almost seems that only with such mindset can one survive in such environment. And of course, such places are often good for preaching - the Hare Krishna people blend in well, and nobody objects so easily....! In fact, people are open to our life style and philosophy, since they also might not fit into the usual materialistic mind-set and way of life.
On harinam I distributed invitation cards stapled to a lolly-pop. It was not easy for me to find somebody who seemed half-way sane to receive the invitation! Everybody seemed to be drowning in tama guna....
The most amazing thing I saw on harinam - which I had never seen anywhere else in the world, even not in movies - were cars with four wheels, which suddenly stopped in the street, and the driver did some alterations from inside the vehicle which activated all kinds of hinges. And all of a sudden the care had one wheel hanging in the air and was driving only on three, with the entire car sitting at an angle. Rather bizzar! I hardly could believe my eyes! What a useless endeavor to make such kind of conversions and adjustments - for absolutely no other purpose except showing off! All I could think of is "Welcome to America....!"
On the 16th of May I flew off to Los Angeles....
Your servant, Devaki dd
On harinam I distributed invitation cards stapled to a lolly-pop. It was not easy for me to find somebody who seemed half-way sane to receive the invitation! Everybody seemed to be drowning in tama guna....
The most amazing thing I saw on harinam - which I had never seen anywhere else in the world, even not in movies - were cars with four wheels, which suddenly stopped in the street, and the driver did some alterations from inside the vehicle which activated all kinds of hinges. And all of a sudden the care had one wheel hanging in the air and was driving only on three, with the entire car sitting at an angle. Rather bizzar! I hardly could believe my eyes! What a useless endeavor to make such kind of conversions and adjustments - for absolutely no other purpose except showing off! All I could think of is "Welcome to America....!"
On the 16th of May I flew off to Los Angeles....
Your servant, Devaki dd
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