Mutual Respect

 

 

Today our chanting party went through a Muslim village. While there is some basic disagreements over certain theological issues the "hindus" and the muslims get along very well in this area. There is mutual respect. 500 years ago there was a muslim ruler here who tries to stop the congregational chanting of Hare Krishna. He had his soldiers harass, intimidate, break the instruments of, and ultimately threaten with death those that were openly chanting like this. When Sri Catianya Mahaprabhu heard about this he was transcendentally enraged. As a result He instructed all of the devotees to make torches and prepare for a very large congregational chanting party to go through the streets to the Chand Kazi's (the local ruler) house. An apparently unlimited amount of people showed up and began the beautiful Harinam Sankirtan party with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gracefully and ecstatically dancing along. When they reached the Chand Kazi's house there was some philosophical discussion and ultimately Sri Caitanya convinced the Chand Kazi that they were worshipping the same Lord. At that moment the ruler announced that for all time to come his descendants would never disrupt the sankirtan party.

The Lords pure spiritual form

During this auspicious month which in Sanskrit is called kartika, we sing a song every evening entitled damadorastakam. The whole song is quite sublime and esoteric so I will not go into the details of the song except for the first line. The song starts by saying namamisvarmam sat-chit ananda rupam. Namamisvaram means that I offer my obeisances and respects to the supreme lord. Next is sat-chit ananda rupam meaning that person who has a form of bliss, knowledge and eternity. While our bodies are made of all sorts of temporary material elements the lords beautiful form is sat- eternal; chit-full of sentience; and ananda-full of bliss. These are some basic qualities of the Lord's existence as revealed by great sages and spiritual literatures.

One of the important points in this verse comes from the word rupam which means form. This indicates the lord is not some formless entity but instead has a form that is composed of sat-chit and ananda as opposed to temporary material elements. Later in the song it is described how the Lord's pure devotees are awash in oceans of bliss simply thinking of the lords beautiful form. The best way for that form to be revealed to one is through sincere chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra.

The good new is that our actual self is qualitatively one with the Lord. One of the differences between the Lord and the eternally individual living entities is that the Lord is never conquered by illusory energy while we are conquered by that energy. So when we meditate or contemplate on the pure qualities of the Lord we also wash away the material contamination and even in this body can realize the true nature of ourselves as eternal, fully sentient and full of bliss.

In one sense that is why we are always striving to live forever (or at least longer), always desiring to know and always searching for happiness. Death, ignorance and misery are actually foreign to our real spiritual nature. When we truly realize this fact then we become qualified, by the Lord's mercy, to enter into eternal transcendental activities with the Lord. The great souls can experience this in their heart even in their present body.

HARE KRISHNA!

A friends passing and the start of our yatra

Yesterday, a person that I used to distribute books with in the Smoky Mountains left his body due to cancer. When he found out he had cancer he immediately knew how to prepare his consciousness for this inevitable event. Spiritual life prepares one for life and the death of the body. He immediately moved here to the Holy Land of Mayapura and focused exclusively on his spiritual life. The last few months he was bedridden and not able to take care of himself. There was, however, constant medical care in addition to spiritual care consisting of reading spiritual literatures (mostly the pastimes of the Lord) and melodious chanting of the Hare Krishna Mantra. Yesterday at 1:30 he left his body surrounded by 40 or 50 devotees chanting their hearts out to help him with his departure. It is said in the Gita that if one dies a natural death thinking of Krishna his eternal soul will certainly return to the spiritual world.

 

SO after his departure the devotees were both joyous and griefstricken. Grief stricken because we have lost a good friend and joyous because he lived and died in such a way that he was able to be transferred to the spiritual world after his death. After his departure there was a cremation ceremony on the bank of the Ganga. It was again a joyous and difficult situation.

 

Also today about 3000 devotees arrived from Mumbai and the place is buzzing with the transcendental sound of the holy name. We will be visitng many of the Holy placers where the incarnation of Krishna named Lord Caitanya exhibited his activities. The essence of the yatra will be lots of devotionally infused Kirtan (melodious chanting). I will try and post some pictures during the excursion.

Mayapura!

We finally arrived in Mayapura.

The spiritual abodes of Vrindaban and Mayapura are considered to be nondifferent in spiritual value. Vrindavan requires a higher degree of purification to appreciate. Mayapura however is considered to be audurya dhama which means the most magnanimous holy place. It is much easier for neophyte devotees to appreciate the presence of the Lord here in Mayapura.

 

Yesterday we walked to the Ganga. Bala has heard many stories of great sages and rsis living on the banks of the Ganges so he was in awe when he was finally was able to personally visit the Ganges River. He was telling me so many stories as we were walking there.

 

It is also the month of Kartika. This is a month where whatever devotional service is performed is amplified in its effect many thousand times over. When you add that to the benefit of being in Mayapur, the good fortune only increases. In fact it is so much easier to focus on our japa and kirtan mediation here as well as our spiritual studies.

 

In the book entitled Nectar of Devotion there is a list of 64 primary qualities of the Lord. One of those qualities is compassion. The Lord is the most compassionate and that compassion is available to anyone who willingly accepts. Of course one must know how to properly identify and accept that compassion. One of the ways in which the Lord is compassionate is by giving these holy sites like Mayapura and Vrindavan because it is in these places where one can easily and swiftly realize the absolute truth. There are many other qualities of the Lord and I will present many of them in later blogs.

 

Hope all is well!

 

Please go here for the temple webcam:

 

http://www.krishna.com/mayapur

 

 

 

Hari Bhakta and family

 

 

We had some old friends come to the temple here in Chowpatty. We used to live near Hari Bhakta and his family in Columbus and New Vrindavan. Hari Bhakta's wife Gopi Lila has been undergoing chemotherapy for her cancer. She looks very weak. They are leaving today to go back to the states so that she can recover from her chemo treatment. Their two kids Gopal (9) and Vrinda (4) are very animated little kids and Bala was able to get along with them very well. We wish them well back in the states and pray for Gopi Lila's quick recovery.

 

Documentary

Here is an online documentary on the temple that we are staying at here in Mumbai.

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3085872670599696508

 

 

We are leaving Mumbai for Mayapura West Bengal on Wednesday or Thursday…

Land of extremes

 

 

Parts of India are frozen in time while others are moving fast forward with modernity. Here in Mumbai most of the modern amenities of the west are available, accompanied with lots of advertising. Simply go into the villages, perhaps a hundred miles hinterland, and you will find many villages even without electricity! This is just one example of the extremes that are located within India. In India you have some of the cleanest places and some of the dirtiest places (literally and figuratively). You have extremely enlightened folks and also debased people, both on levels beyond the westerners imagination. India is indeed a polarized and dynamic country.

 

We are living in the Radha-Gopinatha Mundira temple complex. Here there are over 100 brahmacharies (resident celibate monks) in addition to the several hundred (even thousand)congregational members that come here daily. On Sundays there are thousands of Krishna's devotees here for the weekend programs. There is a unique difference between out exchanges here in the temple complex and those outside. Those inside and most that visit the complex live very strictly by the principles of Bhagavad Gita.

 

One of those beginning principles in the Bhagavad Gita is to see every living being equally as a spirit soul (atma) part and parcel of the Supreme Lord yet eternally individual in existence. Additionally the philosophy is that one is to serve the Lord and his devotees. The result is a vibrant atmosphere where everyone is concerned about each others well being. When this atmosphere is coupled with the glorification of the Lord's qualities, especially by chanting of the maha mantra Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Ram Rama Rama Hare Hare, an ecstatic experience is undertaken. This is not some sentimental or will o' the wisp experience but tone that is very practical and most importantly nourishing for the soul and its natural godly qualities.

 

This is the extreme experience that India has to share with the world.

 

Srila Prabhupada ki jai!

 

 

 

pictures

 

Here is a link for with our pictures there will be many more to come so please bookmark it:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/floridarushes/

In India for a week

 

 

 

We have been in India for a week already.

 

Today I visited with a friend named Govinda and my son the school here called gopals garden. These kids a learning a balance of devotional and regular academic subjects. They were very respectful and treated Bala as a close friend right away. Bala reciprocated the feeling. After lunch Bala and I went to a Maharastrian forest just outside of Mumbai. Bala wanted to see some tigers but we only saw monkeys. While walking down a path we saw a temple of Siva in the middle of nowhere. It was nice to get out of the bustling city of Mumbai and made me look forward to our next stop in Mayapur, which is mostly countryside and forest

At Radha Gopnatha Temple in Mumbai.

So we are her in Mumbai staying at the famous Chowpatty Iskcon temple. Every time I come here I am amazed at the care and attention given to the resident and guest devotees alike. It is certainly a priority to make everyone feel that their needs have been met both materially and spiritually. Somehow my jetlag is a little more difficult to overcome than usual. Maybe I am just getting older.

 

I see so many new faces here at the temple in addition to the stalwarts that have been here for many years. It is hard to believe that I have not been here for almost eight years. The entire temple room is completely renovated with intricately carved teek wood all around. Additionally they have acquired more buildings in the area for guests, office space and residents. It is a very well run program.

 

We just taught Balagopal how to wash his clothes by hand. He had fun wringing them out and then hanging them on the line. He has been waking up at 4:00 every morning so we have been taking him to the morning program with us. There are about 150 people in the temple for the morning program every morning from 5:00 till 9:00. It is a fantastic way to wake up!

 

I will post some pictures of the temple later

We made it…

 

Krishna kept us hanging in suspense until the end.

 

We were scheduled to leave for Mumbai on Monday the 1^st of October and on the previous Friday morning they still had not even opened up our visa package in Houston. They could not even find them (our passports) at the embassy. This meant that in order for us to make our flight they would have to process them in the morning and send it out overnight to New York so that we could pick them up between our connecting flights. If we missed our flight we would have to pay up to $600 in fees to change the ticket! Thanks to an old friend Sarvabhauma and Nadia Kumara we had our visas in time to board our flight in New York on the 1^st. They went out of their way and were persistent with those that worked at the assembly. With a tad bit of anxiety we arrived at the International airport after a domestic plane ride, three subway rides, a quick stop at the temple to pick up our passports, a taxi ride, a long walk to find the bus station, and finally a bus that brought us to the airport (in rush hour traffic) within minutes of the cutoff time for our international flight. SO I am writing this on the plane flying over Iraq on my way to India . This is my five year old son's first trip to India, my wife's second and my 6th trip to India (although the last time I was here was 8 years ago).

 

I am planning on keeping some type of blog/journal while I am in India. I am not going to be writing to anyone in particular so if you are reading this some things I will write you will be able to relate to and some not. Mostly I will be expressing thoughts and realizations inspired by the often transcendental Indian atmosphere and other times I will simply recount our journeys. Additionally, I will post some pictures and some videos as well.

 

If for some reason I do not write for a while feel free to encourage me by dropping me a mail at gaura.nitai.rns@gmail.com . I will be connecting some easy to remember domain names to the blog as well. One will be gauranitaidas.com and the other will be ericallenrush.com. Also, please do not bring these writings to your English teacher for correction. The punctuation, spelling and grammar may not always be at standard. However you can bring any philosophical comments to your philosophy teacher for analysis.

 

Hare Krishna!

 

Gaura-Nitai Das

Aka

Eric Rush

Going to India!!!

Hello Friends and Family,

 

I am about to embark on a journey to India and want to start a blog to document my thoughts and adventures there. Somehow it seems that the Lord has made every opportunity for us (my family) to go whereas in the past, that is the seven years that I have been married, it has been practically impossible. In fact it is almost as if I am being pushed to go this time. Many factors here in Alachua have contributed to this realization 1. Loss of teaching job 2. Having to leave our rented house 3. Availability of resources to purchase tickets (sponsorship) 3. My son not being able to go to either of the devotee schools this year 4. And there are several other reasons as well. We leave New York on a direct flight to Mumbai on October 1^st. We have purchased a ticket that allows us to come back anytime we like so the duration of our trip to India is not at all finalized.

 

We will stay at the Chowpatty Radha Gopinatha temple in Mumbai for about a month. In early November we will take a three day train ride from Mumbai to Mayapur (via Kolkatta) with over 2000 other friends from the temple in Mumbai. On November 5^th Radhanatha Swami will take over 2000 of us to several places and Mayapur in addition to other places in Bengal. That will last for ten days and after that we will stay in Mayapur for a while. The rest is up in the air.

 

So for those of you who are interested I will try as much as possible to post about our trip. Our goal on this trip is to purify our hearts so that we can serve and enliven those around us in the future.

 

I hope that you are well.