Blog Posts

Guidelines When Facing a Health Crisis

6/25/2024

I had come to Krishnuv Dvur, the farm outside of Prague, to stay for one month - with the mission of going into hiding to compile the manuscript for my next book entitled "The Vanaprastha-Ashrama - Meeting Death with Joy". Jaya Gopinath Mataji and her family welcomed me in their house - I usually stay with them and have meanwhile developed a nice friendship with her, her husband and their three daughters.
I settled into a good routine of not showing up at the temple from Monday to Friday; simply getting up, chanting most of my rounds, and after breakfast I was glued to my computer for 6 to 7 hours, working on my book. In the early evening I went for a one-hour walk in nice nature, getting some exercise and refreshing my brain.
On the weekends I would go to the morning program and mix with devotees, accept invitations for lunch and have private meetings with devotees. I also offered a few classes and took part in special events such as HH Bhakti Vaibhava Maharaja's Vyasa Puja with his personal presence, and the Ratha Yatra in Prague. Amazingly enough, during this one month I managed to put the preliminary manuscript for the whole book together which will have around 300 book pages. I never expected it to go so swiftly! In this way, I spent a productive month in wonderful association.

When we don't hand over our titles and positions

5/23/2024

Simhachalam in Germany is for me the BEST place to celebrate Nrsimha Caturdasi - a MUST in my yearly schedule. Even Mayapur can not compare to this....! In this rural community situated in the Bavarian Forest, around 3 hours away from Munich, the devotees serve big Lord Nrsimhadeva in a devoted way, and His appearance day is celebrated in a grandiose style over 5 days. It is one of the main festivals - not only within Germany, but in Europe. Many devotees assemble from the neighboring countries such as Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland and even all the way from the UK. This year we had the good fortune to welcome many saintly personalities: HH Sacinandana Swami, HH Candramauli Swami, HH Jayadvaita Swami, HH Bhakti Vaibhava Swami, HH Bhakti Mukund Swami, HG Krishna Premarupa Prabhu, and many young generation kirtaniyas.

When we become fat

5/16/2024

In the beginning of May I had an opportunity to visit Karuna Bhavan, a rural community in Scotland. I had heard a lot about this temple embedded in the beautiful nature of Scotland and always wanted to come here....

A wife is not his possession

5/9/2024

For many years I was contemplating the idea of visiting the Vaishnava community in Cardiff - I had met several times a nice group of devotees in Mayapur who come from this part of England. Now, in the beginning of May, I finally found an opportunity to do so.
Wales seems to be a bit of a conservative region of the UK - they even speak some old celtic language here: all public signs are in English and Welsh! Also the devotees seem to be in a more traditional mood - most of them are disciples of Sivarama Swami and Devamrita Swami.
They have a new temple project, renovating an old part of a building and extending it further into a new temple. There are a lot of young Western bodied people coming to the temple, with around 8 brahmacharis living in the ashram and traveling on Sankirtan. So the mood is vibrant and has a youthful spirit.

Why are we losing so many devotees?

5/2/2024

It was nice to return to Cologne which has served me as a base in the Western world for many years now....
I arrived in the morning of Ram Navami coming all the way from Durban in South Africa - just in time to join the celebration in the same evening and meet all the devotees again. After offering a few programs over the following days I moved on to London, visiting the temple at Soho Street.

When we cannot forget and forgive

4/16/2024

On the 9th of April I returned to Durban after giving the devotees a one-week break after the Ratha Yatra, and to now offer some programs.
In Durban, the main temple is the Sri Sri Radha Radhanath Mandir - a very beautiful temple with gorgeous Deities, nice gardens, exotic trees and bushes and a fish pond surrounding the entire temple. There is also another big temple with Lord Jagannath at the other end of the city. I was well taken care of in the Radha Radhanath temple and offered a variety of programs. I also visited the Jagannath temple and gave a seminar on the topic of "The Power of Forgiveness" - an always relevant topic for one and all...

"False Ego? What's that? I don't have that...!"

4/9/2024

I have fond memories of my time in Cape Town when I was a child...
Now I had the opportunity to visit again as a preacher...

I don't want children

4/3/2024

For many years I had heard about the glories of the Ratha Yatra Festival in Durban - a 4-day event which takes place traditionally every year over Easter. This year, I finally had the opportunity to take part. We had HH Indradyumna Maharaja, HH Bhakti Caitanya Maharaja and HH Bhakti Marg Swami with his famous drama group gracing the event.

My connection to South Africa

3/27/2024

My connection to South Africa goes back to my childhood. My parents were very adventurous travelers - in 1968/69, when I was ten, they traveled with us three kids for one year around the Southern part of Africa. I didn't go to school for a whole year and never even noticed the fact that I missed a year - I returned to my old class.
Just after Christmas of 1968 we left our home and traveled by car from Germany to Lisbon in Portugal. We loaded our car on a big ship which took us within 2 weeks to Angola, stopping over at the tropical islands of Madeira and Sao Tome. When we got off the ship in Luanda/Angola, the rainy season had not finished yet, and we traveled in a very adventurous and almost life-threatening way through the jungle towards Namibia - in a car which was not meant for such travels....!

A lazy and lousy way of serving prasadam

3/8/2024

My time in Mayapur during January and February was intense and blissful. As always, I offered six courses over 6 weeks, concluding with the seminar on the false ego which is always very popular. We observed beautiful festivals in Mayapur - the Pushya Abhishek, Vasanta Pancami celebrating the first day of spring, Advaita Acarya's appearance and Lord Nityananda's appearance. The highlights were the opening of the Nrsimhadev Wing of the TOVP and the Maha Abhishek of the large Pancha Tattva Deities in the beginning of March, attracting large crowds of devotees to visit the holy dham.
During my entire stay in Mayapur I spent most mornings between 6:30am and 8am in the Pancha Tattva courtyard, offering leaflets to invite devotees to the courses and distributing my books. I had a blissful time there, connecting with many nice devotees and meeting people from all around the world who I had met before, and distributed lots of books. Book distribution to devotees - in some ways maybe even more important and blissful than to non-devotees...!