Sit Properly

Today I woke up on the floor of the Really Really House. It was in a spare bedroom. Cole stayed here when she first got back into Berkeley.

We both got up and walked to Cole’s house. We slept at the Really Really because Cole’s roommates were having a party. See?

Today was the Ratha-yatra and I was pretty excited. First, however, was breakfast. Cole made some amazing blueberry pancakes…

And Josh came over to help eat them.

We finished up, showered and headed to the BART station to find our way to the city.

The BART system is actually really simple. I got that pretty quickly. But the Muni system, San Francisco’s bus/subway system is pretty foreign to me. The buses turn into subways and vice versa. Sometimes. It’s pretty crazy.

On the Muni to near Golden Gate Park, a nice fellow in a Hogwarts (Harry Potter) shirt sat down next to Cole. Seemingly on cue, she ripped into Harry Potter and all the people who read it. She was vicious and wouldn’t let up. I was the only one who saw the guy in the Hogwarts shirt, and so I was defending people’s choice in reading habits.

A lot of my friends read it and I honestly find nothing wrong with it. It’s not my thing, but if people dig it, that’s great. Cole thought otherwise and wouldn’t let it go.

This went on for a good solid ten minutes. I can’t imagine what this poor boy was thinking. Finally, he got up and moved. I then told Cole that he was wearing a Hogwarts tshirt and was obviously moving because he was offended.

Cole felt really bad, got all red and we had to console her. He got off at the next stop. I would have too.

Dear stranger in the Hogwarts tshirt, I tried. I tried.

Anyway, we reached the Ratha-yatra site around 11:30am. I could hear the drums and kartalas (hand cymbals) and then finally saw the carts.

This was my second San Francisco Ratha-yatra. I think the one in 2004 was a little bigger, but not much.

Radhanatha and Danavira Swamis were there…

And I found Lacie and Alex as well.

This Ratha-yatra always brings out the strange folks and that’s why I love it so much.

The procession finally got started and we danced and chanted (I chanted more than danced) the winding route through Golden Gate Park.

Lacie decided to help pull one of the carts and I joined in after snapping a pic of it.

I walked a bit ahead of the middle cart (Subadhra’s) and Lacie somehow found herself in the middle, right next to Radhanatha Swami. I couldn’t resist taking a few pics. I took three hoping one would turn out, but all three did. Here’s the best one.

Lacie, I’ll send you the larger versions when I get a chance. Until then, enjoy the tiny ones.

At every festival there is always at least one super duper enthusiastic devotee who runs around trying to get everyone to be as super duper enthusiastic as he is. Today, this was our hero:

We got to the festival grounds and as the deities were carried from the carts, this old fellow was offering fully prostrated obeisances. It was amazing and really touching to see. Who was he?

Lacie, Cole, Josh and I hung out for a bit. It was great. I’ve told a few of my friends that I was really really apprehensive about meeting Lacie. From her blog, I had formed an opinion of her that was unfair and simply incorrect. I was wrong and happily so. I thought that she was stern and intense and amazingly unfun. Again, I was wrong. She’s definitely intense and it’s great. But not mean or unfun or anything bad. I’m so glad that I got to meet her.

The day had to come to a close, so we said our good-byes.

It was on the way home that I decided two things. I was probably going to end up moving to Berkeley and that I needed to leave it tonight.

Strange, huh?

Cole and I got some Chinese food and then she walked me to the station. My train arrived, we hugged farewell and I was off for my transfer in Sacramento.

On the way there, there was a girl a few seats away from me. We both got off in Sac. She made some phone calls and seemed almost panicked or confused. I made a few phone calls myself. They announced that the train was coming and she asked me if this was the train to Seattle. I said that it was and we walked out to the platform together.

They were assigning seats and we wound up sitting next to each other. I was kind of happy about this. While a big seat all to myself is nice, conversation is nicer.

And tomorrow we’ll see how that goes.

Night night, folks!

Oh today! Well, yesterday, really.

Since I’m vegan, I tend to remember things based upon what I was eating at the time.

Molly and Mandy dears slept in a bit so I trekked to Wild Oats to get water and some black berries. And then to Jamba Juice to get a smoothie. I walk back home… well, to Molly’s home, which is my home away from home till Thursday.

The troops were up and I shared some wonderful blackberries with Mandy. And then we went to Sage’s Cafe. Sage’s Cafe was amazing. Breakfast! It was most definitely on par with Macy’s Cafe in Flagstaff, which, if Nikki’s* reading is a big big deal, huh?

I got a Milk Shake! A MILK SHAKE! Being vegan, we love milk shakes more than you. Always. Teehee! And then I got Breakfast Tacos. They gave the burros at Macy’s a definite run for their money. Mandy and Wayde got flapjacks and Molly got nothing because of her poor lil tummy. *Happy thoughts for Molly’s tummy*

From the cafe, we went to Liberty Park and walked around a bit. We checked out a museum that’s in Brigam Young’s old house. Nice digs, sir. The museum housed Utah folk art. Some of it was really fun.

The museum was great. I bet there are places around where I live like this. But when you’re traveling, you tend to notice such things. I like little town museums.

In this park, there’s a little section with tiny carnival rides. Swings, Marry-Go-Round, etc. Without much thought, I, with the rest of them, got a ticket for the ferris wheel. Mandy and I climbed on and it spun us up. We got to the top and it stopped to let on other people. I nearly lost it. I had figured that heights would suddenly not bother me anymore because I flew and didn’t die. Smart Eric. At the top I grabbed Mandy’s arm and said “Serious, do me a favor, don’t rock it.” It must have been so incredibly difficult to not rock it. My request was silly. Why go on something like this if you can’t rock it a bit?

But suddenly I was ok with it. It’s not a amazing feat, of course. The ferris wheel was small. Really small. But I conquered it! Woo!

More walking around the park later….

And we decided that today would be a good day to go to the temple. The Krishna temple, I mean. So we drove the hour or so (thanks, Molly) to the temple.

It was Sunday, so the feast was on. We got there and they were finishing Nrsmha Prayers, the last prayers of the evening. Everybody filed out and I took some pictures of the deities.

And then I went downstairs to look at some books in the store and to take prasadam. I ate a bit and talked to this new devotee, Brandon and an Indian fellow a little younger than me named Sunil. Great people. So nice. And it was great to be around devotees. I was happy. Yay!

I bought about $120 worth of books. Including one for Jeff about Warfare in ancient India.

This temple has llamas and cows. So we went out and said hello.

Hi!

Oh and llamas…

And the Molly Lllama!

It was a much lovely day.

*Nikki is supposed to be out of cell and internet range/connection for two weeks while she works in Sequoia National Park in California. If you have a moment, send some nice thoughts/prayers her way. It can be a bit dangerous out there.

Have you ever just been in a quiet mood. It’s not really a bad mood. But then, it’s not really not a bad mood. But mostly, it’s just quiet. And I was quiet.

I think we skipped breakfast. It wasn’t till 11 or 12 that we actually got around to leaving the house. We headed, then, to an Indian restaurant downtown. Something “of India.” It was good. A little expensive, but really worth it.

After eating, we walked to the Zion bookstore that Ryan told me about. It’s three floors of new, used and rare books. Very fun. You’d think that I’d be burned out on bookstores… actually I thought that I would be. But I’m not. Just burned out on me running one, I guess.

I found a few old Prabhupada books and even a Bhaktipada book. But I purchased a little leaflet from the Sri Chaitanya Matha about the holy name. A lot of quotes from Bhaktisiddhanta and references from sastra. Great stuff. Only $1.

Keep in mind, this entire time, I’m hardly speaking a word. I think it’s bothering my guests, so I try to force conversation, but it’s just awkward, so I let it go.

After a stop at a Scottish store, we drive back home to wait for the Iceburn show. I’m pretty stoked about this. We watch a couple of episodes of Spaced and Mandy takes a little nap and finally we’re off.

The show is being held in the moronically named club called “The Venue.” The Canadian band Bowling for Soup is playing in the bar area, Iceburn, God’s Revolver and Stella Brass are playing in the first floor area.

Generally, I hate club shows. Just the idea. Sure, there can be great shows put on anywhere, but clubs just piss me off. And this one didn’t fail at that.

When we first attempted to go in, some no-dick security guards, fresh out of bootcamp, I’m sure, told me to empty my pockets. They told Mandy and Molly to empty theirs as well, but to no event. I had a pen in my pocket and no-dick told me “I’m going to have to keep the pen.” I honestly thought he was joking. He turned me around, opened my back, made some amazingly intelligent comment about me having a lot of notebooks and attempted to send me on my way. “Could I have my pen back?” “Find me after the concert.” “What? Are you kidding me? Oh that’s just ass.” And I walk away. Pissed.

I hate clubs. I hate security guards. Period. I understand that there isn’t a DIY venue in SLC, so in this case it was a necessary evil. But why do necessary evils have to be so fucking… EVIL?

So I lost my $4 pen to some poor little man trying to compensate. Thanks. Explode in hell.

Anyway, the show itself started with God’s Revolver. They do a sound check and we wait for more people to show up. At this point, there’s only 30ish paying. But as they filter in, it was something really neat to see. Most of the kids were 30 to 40 years old. Most of them were hugging each other like they haven’t seen each other in nearly a decade. For Stella Brass and Iceburn, they haven’t played together in about ten years. It explains a lot. It’s not just a reunion show for those bands, but a reunion show for the kids too.

I’m not usually a fan of reunion shows. 99% of the time they’re done for money, so they drag their wrinkled asses back on stage to pretend they’re still 20 years old. No thanks. But this show was quite the different case. I can’t begin to count the hugs. It was wonderful.

God’s Revolver played and they weren’t bad. The lead singer tried to pull off a stage persona, failed, but was really fun anyway. Tight band, sort of a rock & roll with lots of changes and stops. I dug it.

Right when Stella Brass started to play, a handful of really young kids come in. I think they’re with Iceburn. But it was great to see them. They were totally rocking out, but not in an obnoxious 8 – 10 year old way. They were sincerely into the music.

Stella Brass was good. You can tell that they had a varied career, a lot of different styles. Some were really my thing, others weren’t. The last song they played was brilliant. I’d love to get a recording of that.

For the first two bands, I hung back. But for Iceburn, I wanted to be up front. So I made my way through the 150ish or so kids and stood up front. Iceburn started with a sax intro from “Burn” or “Fall,” I can’t remember which. When they did this, the whole crowd fell silent. It was like some huge religious experience. Something big was happening here. And my god, it was. Without any stage banter, they went from song to song sometimes switching members, sometimes with a sax. They played through most of the Firon 12″ and then played “Poem of Fire.”

I then remembered just how hard it was to dance to something with constantly changing time signatures. But these guys were tight. They haven’t really played with this line up in fifteen or so years. It was like 1994, I swear. I figured that they were only going to do stuff from Firon, but they broke into “Iron I” (or is it called “Fe”?), played most or all of it and then went back into Burn/Fall. At one point they had to saxes on stage!

The whole thing was so worth it. It was even worth losing my pen over (though, it doesn’t excuse it).

I got some video of it. Here’s a clip from “Poem of Fire.”

If I was in a bad mood, this cleared it up. It was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. Iceburn played for about an hour, totally kicking our asses. Amazing.

We came back to the house and mostly just slept. Highlight of the trip so far. Brilliant.

I got the ambition to have a sikha again. For the less-informed, a sikha is one of those Hare Krishna pony tails. Most are fairly long and are tied in a knot at the end.

I haven’t had one in 11 years and I kinda miss it.

See?

So.. you’ll see to your right that there is a poll. Please vote. Yay! Finally something WORTH voting for!

Is my sikha just right, too fat, too thin, too high or too low?

Want another look?

So… what do you think?

I used a typical (for devotees) stainless steel cup measuring 2.75 inches across. That’s what a lot of devotees use, but to me, it seems a tad too big. But then, maybe that’s because it’s just starting.

So what should I do? Help!

-

And as a special “thank you” for helping me out, here is a class by Varsana Swami from the late 80′s about the importance of Nityananda. It’s one of the best classes I’ve ever heard. Most of it comes from Caitanya-bhagavata. Great stuff.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This class will only be up for a short time. Hurry!

-

edit: This was taken in 1999, the last time I tried to grow out a sikha. It lasted for a few hours.

I’m huge now. Wow.

About eleven or twelve years ago, I came across a book called the Radha Krishna Nectar Book. Basically “everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Radha and Krishna, but were afraid to ask.” It’s a huge nearly 300 page xeroxed book about Radha and Krishna.

Ever since I saw it, I wanted my own copy. And for years and years it was out of print. But, thankfully, Nectar Books has reprinted it and here it is!

Guess who’s thrilled?!

It’s a “collection of ancient songs, prayers, mantras, lists, charts, transcendental miscellany and assorted nectar-tidbits form Sanskrit and Bengali sources.” Much of it is from the writings of the Goswamis of Vrndavana.

The table of contents gives a quick run down of what you’ll find within:

Topics About Radha-Krishna and Their Friends – As you can imagine, there’s a ton of fun to be had here! Everything from what the markings on Their feet mean to Radhika’s yearly traveling schedule. From detailed descriptions of the gopis and gopas to a list with stories of Krishna’s disguises to fool Radha!

Topics About Lord Gauranga – Now, the lila of Caitanya isn’t as cute as that of Radha and Krishna, but it’s pretty intense. We’ve got a few really early songs, a bit about how Radha and Krishna unite to become Lord Gauranga, more songs, a couple of essays about instruments in the kirtana and a list of kirtana-mantras sung during Gauranga’s time.

Nama-stotras – Prayers in Glorification of Holy Names – You want lists? Well here you go! Twelves names of Lord Caitanya, 108 names of Radha, 108 names of Krishna, 108 names of Radha-Krishna, etc etc etc!!

Other Prayers – A lot of songs by Ray Shekhara (that’s not Ray like the English name… It’s pronounced sort of like “Roy”.. but with kind of an “a” sound). My favorite is Sri Sri Madhuraastakam… I’ll type that out someday.

Daily Pastimes – Stuff about deity worship in Vrndavana, and one of the greatest bits in the whole book: Asta-Kaliya-Seva. It was compiled by Dasaratha-suta Dasa, the editor of the book, from three books by Rupa Goswami, Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami and Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakura. It describes how the gopis closest to Radha spend their day. Sweet does not begin to describe it.

The book is rounded out with some essays and poems by Dasaratha-sura Dasa as well as maps of places where Radha and Krishna’s lila takes place.

Some fun tidbits:
Krishna has two parrots. They are named Daksa and Vicaksana. Daksa means “the clever one” while Vicaksana means “the particularly clever one.” Cute! He also has a dog named Bhramara, which means “bumblebee.” CUTE!

There’s a great song called Sri Chaurastakam by an unknown Vaisnava author. It’s Eight Prayers Glorifying the Divine Thief (Krishna). It starts out praising Krishna for stealing butter and the poison of Kaliya, then he praises Krishna for stealing the distress of His parents, and the life of the demons and the poverty of Sudama. He steals the bewilderment of Arjuna as well. The last verse is really sweet because Krishna steals everything from those who have just attained His service.

Most devotees definitely understand that.

Bliss!

Devotees, I am seeking advice!

I’ve been mulling over in my head what to do about deities. My beautiful Jagannatha deities sat in a box for years because I didn’t think I could worship them enough. I have also been very very all or nothing. That’s not a good quality to have, I don’t believe.

When it would come to deity worship, it was either full arti everyday or nothing at all. That’s just silly. I’m not running a temple. I’m a wee little bhakta living in a crap town in the middle of nowhere. My standards would not be temple standards. I’m still coming to terms with this.

However, I really would like to have a nice altar. My altar now is this:

It’s nice and quaint. But it’s too high for actually sitting and chanting in front of it.

What I’d like to do is get a table like this (from Ikea):

That would make it lower. And would fit nicely where the altar is now. The bookshelf upon which the current altar fits would be moved across the room and would fit there as well. There’s room. Not much though. 200 sq ft, remember?

With this new altar (if it happens), I’d like to get Gaura-Nitai deities. Now herein lies the problem.

I very much like the romantic notion of deities just appearing before you. You know, someone gives Them to you. It’s nice. It beats answering “Well, I just bought them at Krishna dot com.” I want it to *mean* something. This is probably a hang up. Actually, it definitely is. Krishna is in His deity form no matter if bought Them from a website or traveled to India to get Them. But still…

I was thinking, if I am going to purchase Them, to get Them from Krishna dot com. In particular, these Gentlemen:

They come with two sets of clothes and are really quite beautiful.

I would also get a little temple for Them. Something like this:

or this:

I believe it should accommodate (if not, there’s a bigger size). This little temple isn’t, of course, necessary and may just be my “all or nothing” tendencies coming to the surface.

There would be a nice wall hanging behind it and hopefully some sort of curtain or shade, etc for at night. It’s what I’d like. This altar, though bulky, would be fairly portable for when I move.

So… the advice I’m asking is mostly about the deities. What should I do? Buy or wait for Them to appear? Help help!

Just what it says. It’s Aug 19, 2007. Who is going?

I’ll be there.

Anyone care to meet up?