Sit Properly

Last evening, I invited DJ over for prasadam. It was warmed up left overs from Janmastami, but it also served as my feast for Prabhupada’s appearance. I made all this food and wanted to distribute some. I need it to eat, of course, but what’s the point in making prasadam if you can’t share it?

I wanted to make rice to go with it, so I did, but since I only have two burners and was making three preps, I had to get a little creative:

I put the channa masala on top of the cauliflower/tomato sabji and the rice on the other burner. It worked out pretty well, actually. I was surprised.

And then DJ came over. It gave me a chance to serve out. Last year, at New Vrndavana I was serving out for nearly every meal. There was definitely a blissful quality to it, but there were times that I didn’t get to eat when I wanted to. Lesson in detachment. It was wonderful. Though maybe next time, I’ll see if I can get out of it.

Anyway, DJ ate…

And then we talked about religion. We talked about Christianity (he’s a converted Mennonite) and Vaisnavism. I read some Prabhupada quotes – especially the one… “Religion without philosophy is sentiment, and philosophy without religion is mental speculation. They should be combined, philosophy and religion. Then it will be perfect.” We talked on that for a bit. It was nice to agree. And it was nice to talk to someone about religion. I miss talking about Krishna consciousness. Sad lil ol’ me!

I mentioned yesterday that I would be watching some of the Following Srila Prabhupada Series. I said that I had watched Volume One and I would be watching Volume Two.

I watched Volume One and was impressed. It was nice to see the old footage arranged chronologically. But that was about it. Just ok. Nice to see, but nothing I’ve not seen before.

Yesterday, I put in Volume Two and to my surprise there was audio commentary by the devotees! They were commenting on it as they were watching it. Well, it then occurred to me that Volume One probably had the same thing!

Anyway, I watched and listened to almost the whole thing yesterday at work. It was great! Definitely get these!

I went home and put in the first one and there was audio commentary by the devotees on that one too! The reason I had missed it on One and not on Volume Two was that on Volume Two, the commentary was the primary audio track. On Volume One, it was the third (on both it there are two other audio tracks – one is music and one is lectures by Srila Prabhupada).

I can’t say enough nice things about this set. They’re wonderful. I can’t wait to watch the other two volumes I have. And Volume Five was just released! It’s going to be an eleven part series.

There is one complaint that I have though. These are new transfers (I think) and they’re poorly done. When the camera moves too quickly or the movement on the screen happens too quickly a LOT of pixilization appears. This is also easily correctable, though does make the process a bit longer. I’m of the school that believes that no pixilization is acceptable. They still have access to this source material and NEED to PROPERLY digitally preserve it. I hope that this is corrected because it would be a real shame if this were it.

All that said, this problem is easily eclipsed by the content. While it would be nice to not see pixilization, it doesn’t detract from the images, the innocence and the beauty of the stories.

My favorite footage so far was of Janmastami at Old New Vrndavana in 1970. That and the early Berkeley and San Francisco stuff. But really, it’s all wonderful.

Even if you’re not a devotee, I think you can really gain something from this. And you will definitely get a really good glimpse at who Srila Prabhupada really was.

You can buy these at krishna.com. And please do.