Sit Properly

In Krishna consciousness, dreaming about the Krishna is a very auspicious thing. Also in Krishna consciousness, serving the devotees is often seen as more glorious than serving the Lord. So naturally, one can draw the conclusion that my dream about zombies and Madhava Gosh is pretty much as auspicious as I’m going to get.

The setting of this spectacular display of unconscious storytelling was indeed in Madhava Gosh’s house at New Vrndavana. The background was that the movie 28 Days Later was real and parts of it were filmed at New Vrndavana. Being that it was real meant that zombies were real and they were attacking. But these were somehow the zombies left over from filming 28 Days Later.

In this particular movie, the zombies run after you. In traditional zombie movies, the zombies are slow and lumbering. Since I only dream about traditional zombies, this dream nixed the running zombies in favor of the lumbering variety.

The zombies were attacking and entering Madhava Gosh’s house. But we weren’t really all that freaked out. See, these zombies didn’t seem to be too much of a threat to us, only a mere annoyance.

And that’s the feeling throughout the dream. Annoyance. Gosh was directing people through his house so that they could hide from the zombies, but there wasn’t terror. Just annoyance.

I actually woke up a few times annoyed that I was dreaming this and hoping that I wouldn’t fall back asleep and continue with the nocturnal narration. But that thought was soon met with Zzzz’s and it was back to work avoiding the annoying zombies. Clearly, in my half-sleep delirium, I didn’t realize just how incredibly awesome this dream was.

Nobody died or really much noticed that New Vrndavana was overrun with zombies. Yeah, we were annoyed, but ducking upstairs (Gosh’s dream house has a second floor) did the trick.

The zombies got into the house, but the annoyance factor woke me up again and, being 6am-ish, I stayed awake.

It was weird/fun/annoying to see New Vrindaban’s woods and groves crawling with zombies. That makes it.. New Vrin-ZOMBIE!!
Best. Dhama. EVER!

As mentioned, I spent a few days in New Vrndavana for Radhastami. I took a few pictures, which you’ll see below.

It was a great time and Sarah seemed to enjoy it too. Rati and Dwija were wonderful and I even got to meet Dwija’s parents. Woo!

The festival itself seemed pretty dead, though we did our own thing for the feast. But Sri Sri Radha Vrndavana Chandra were, as always, beautiful.

Here are the pictures… (they might look odd if you’re viewing this on Planet ISKCON, not sure – if they do, just go directly to my blog).

And here are Sarah’s pictures and a little write up.

I’m heading, with my friend Sarah, to New Vrndavana for the weekend. We’ll be staying at Rati and Dwija’s, who already have a packed house. I might even be sleeping in a van!

I’m really hoping that this isn’t my last time at NV before moving to Seattle. Hoping that I can get back for five day or a week before I leave at the beginning of October.

And hopefully when I’m in Seattle, I’ll be able to get back to New Vrndavana sometimes. It’s a weird little place and sometimes there is a healthy balance of love and hate, but really, it’s mostly love.

And I guess that’s my post for the day. I’ll send pictures back from New Vrndavana, I bet. Haribol!

This morning Madhava Gosh, Soma and I took a walk behind Rati and Dwija’s at New Vrndavana to the Peter Crow cemetery. Now, while this isn’t a devotee cemetery, it was pretty cool.

Gosh knows I’m a sucker for old cemeteries, so when he asked if I wanted to check it out, I jumped at the chance.

On the walk there, Gosh told me about how they used to plant corn and make hay on surrounding hills. Also, he said that this place was called Mahavana. There are twelve forests in Vrndavana, India and this being New Vrndavana, at one point, the devotees named twelve areas after the forests of Vrndavana.

At New Vrndavana, the best known ones are Bahulavana (where the old temple – but not the old, old temple – is), Talavana, Vrndavana (where the old, old temple is), Madhuvana (where the old Jaganatha temple was – just before you get to the palace). The area where the cemetery lies is Mahavana (meaning “large forest”).

The cemetery was from the early 1800’s and was pretty run down. Neat though. Took a bunch of pics, though my camera was funky. You’ll see.

As we were walking back, I asked Gosh (pronounced “Ghosh,” btw) what the large hill over yonder was. “Govindaji Hill,” he said. There was going to be a temple on the hill, circa 1975. They leveled the ground and even laid a cornerstone with a deity of Ananta-sesa inside of it. But the temple was never built.

I was told to follow the ridge and it would take me there. We counted some cows in a pasture below us and then parted ways. The walk along the ridge was great. Wonderful views. I got a bit winded walking up the hill though it was really worth it. You could see where the ground was level. This would make an amazing place for a temple. Such a shame that they never built it. Of course, by now, it would be abandoned and falling down.

Down from Govindaji Hill was the place where Srila Prabhupada gave his Bhagavat Dharma discourses. I walked down there, passing Sky Bear’s old trailer and outhouse (near the pump house) and walked up a lane to where this white bus that was used for the Rainbow Gatherings. However, it was on this spot where Srila Prabhupada sat. Amazing. Srila Prabhupada was HERE!

There’s a monument to it as well. There are a few monuments around Bahulavana that explain that Srila Prabhupada was here and a bit of what he did.

I then walked down to the Bahulavana, poked my head into the temple and wished that it would somehow all come back. The place is run down and basically beyond repair. Nevertheless, I have an attachment to it that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. This is New Vrndavana to me. The temple now, even though Radha-Vrndavana Chandra are there, is simply not New Vrndavana to me. I don’t know why though.

Well tomorrow I’m back on the road. The rest was much-needed, but it’s time to get down to it. Tomorrow I ride roughly 325 miles. Luckily it won’t be too cold. I’ll hit some rain and it will take a hell of a long time, but by tomorrow night, I’ll be in a motel in Indiana along US Route 6.

Anyway, I took 108 pictures. Some of them are pretty crap, some of them are lovely.
You can check them out here.

New Vrndavana Accordion Ensemble Reunites for North American Tour

NEW VRNDAVANA, WV — The New Vrndavana Accordion Ensemble announced their first tour in decades Monday at a rehearsal in the Palace Lodge as a throng of fans crowded near the legendary Palace of Gold.

The group, which led the Sunday feast program with a live performance of its hit “In Vrndavana’s Fields and Groves,” officially broke up in 1992, most of the members pursuing solo careers.

Click here to read the exciting news.

Bhaktipada, the guru of New Vrndavana until 1993/94, who seems to have been getting some mention as of late, named many devotees some pretty freaky names (among other freaky things).

In Krishna consciousness, when devotees take initiation, they receive a new name, a name of Krishna with the suffix “das” or “devi dasi” (male or female) which signifies them as a servant of Krishna, God.

So here are a bunch of names that Bhaktipada and his era came up with. These were done after his 1987 expulsion from ISKCON.

This is, of course, not to lessen the horrible and insane evil perpetrated by Bhaktipada while inside and outside of ISKCON. Things like molesting small boys, forcing pre-pubescent girls to marry older men in their 30’s, arranging murders and generally being, well, Bhaktipada.

Keep in mind that many of these devotees are great people. None of the kids had a choice of their names (obviously). This is in no way poking fun at the devotees who received these names.

Please also keep in mind that these lists are not definitive. Names are missing and possibly some other details are incorrect. If you find errors, please leave a message in the comments. Thanks!

At first, like any ISKCON guru, he gave normal names like
Braja Kumari devi dasi
Lokanatha das
Jagannatha das
Remuna devi dasi
Cintamani devi dasi
Daya devi dasi
Yamuna devi dasi
Krsna das

However, he often couldn’t be bothered with the troublesome task of actually picking out his own disciples names, so the older boys in the ashrama (and others) helped pick out the names for him. So if it was someone they didn’t like, they’d pick a typically undesirable name.

At any rate, as the older boys left, the names went downhill.

Kid’s named after food:
Kitri
Jalebi (whose father, long before she was born, was married off by Bhaktipada -while still a “pure devotee” and guru in good standing in ISKCON- to an 11 year old. Bhaktipada’s youngest arranged child marriage was to a 9 year old, again, while still a “pure devotee” and guru in ISKCON.)
Halava
Puri (not the town)
Yogi Bar (there was a Yogi Bar energy bar factory in Gita Nagari)
He also threatened to name Kaladri’s twins “Rice” and “Oatwater”

Sanskrit/English initiation names:
Up until this point, there were varying degrees of normal Hare Krishna names. For some reason, Bhaktipada thought it would be cute to mix East and West. Many of these happened on Christmas Day, 1988, when they installed the Jesus murti next to Srila Prabhupada.

Dutiful Rama
Sita Love
Bhakti Joy
Shanti Peace
Laxmi Honest
Radha Grace
Sachi Hope
Arjun Surrenders
Jesusananda

Kid’s English names
During the Summer of 1988, Bhaktipada began giving newborn children English names.

Joyful
Peaceful
Sweet Sound (a boy whose nickname became “Sweetie”)
Mercy (he may not have named either Mercy’s – there were two – but it was definitely due to his wacky influence)
Zeal
Krishna’s Marathon (seriously, they just called him Marathon for short, but now they call him Martin. He was born and named in 1985 after his mother did really well on the Christmas marathon)
Pious
Harmony

Full English names from initiations
At the next initiation, roughly half a year later, Bhaktipada went full swing with the English names. These continued, interspersed with sanskrit names, through 1994.

Equanimity devi dasi(mother of Zeal)
Gentle Love devi dasi
Faithful Love das
True Love devi dasi
All Love das
Wonderful Love das
Merciful devi dasi
Serene Heart devi dasi
Nectar devi dasi
Spirit Soul das
Truthful das
Serenity devi dasi
Good Hope das
Strong Faith das
Pure Bliss devi dasi
True Peace das
Sister Piety devi dasi
Kind Heart devi dasi
Christian Charity devi dasi
Lasting Peace devi dasi
Joyous devi dasi
Patience das
Faithful das
Careful Love das
Sincere Heart devi dasi
Sincere Praise devi dasi
Humble Heart das (he technically wasn’t given this name at initiation, he already had a nice sanskrit name, but there were confessions at New Vrndavana and he was given this name because his confession was humble. The name didn’t really stick, most devotees went back to calling him by his original sanskrit name.)

Sannyasa English names (anyone know if there were more?)
Peaceful Swami (or Brother Peaceful)
Purity Swami
Devotion Swami

Sannyasini English names (sometimes called “Smommy” hehe – Bhaktipada was initiating women sannyasis as early as 1987)
Eternal Love Swami (the mother of Gentle, Faithful and True Loves)
Holyname Swami
Supreme Truth Swami
Compassionate Swami
Surrender Swami
Steady Swami
Joy Divine Swami

And that’s about all I could come up with (after talking to five or six devotees). If anyone has any other info about initiations or even rumored ritvik initiations, I’d love to hear it.

Happy Gaura Purnima to you and yours!

[Taken in the house of Rati + Dwija on Gaura Purnima, 2008]

And in honor of such a festive event, here’s quite a great class given by Varsana Swami sometime in the 80’s. You’ll dig it lots.

Haribol!

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Wow! What an incredibly weekend! I’ll tell you about some of it.

I pulled into Rati and Dwija’s lovely little house around 8:30. From then till 2am, we sat and talked. There was a break for the Damodarastikam, of course (it being the month of Damodar and all). Their deities are beautiful! Jaya Nitai-Gauracandra!

It’s sometimes strange to stay at a devotees house because of the weird “standards” issue. Every devotee has slightly different standards. Sure, we know of all the standards, these tiny rules and regulations we should be keeping, but usually those are anywhere from impossible to impractical. So, at the last minute, some devotees will try to implicate standards they don’t normally keep and it becomes this awkward and rather schizophrenic situation. That and it’s just lying.

Thankfully staying with them was nothing of the sort. I was comfortable and having a blast.

Often when talking with devotees, it’s hard to be honest. It’s hard to be yourself. But with them, I could just be me. I think it’s hard to relate what I’m exactly talking about here. I felt at home and at ease. Hey, thanks!

Like I said, we were up till 2am. It’s been since Seattle that I’ve been up that late just talking.

Saturday was Govardhana-puja. We woke up and continued discussions – it was like a summit! Discussing world problems, devotee problems, community problems. No real solutions, but addressing (and ranting) about the problems is a great first step, no?

Today was also the day I was to hang out some with Gokula and Kunji. I’ve known Gokula for eleven or twelve years now, though we’ve only recently been back in touch. Kunji is her ridiculously awesome four year old. I drove over to their apartment and passed a lovely afternoon. Kunji is into transformers, darth vader and vampires, which sounds oddly like a four year old version of me – throw in 80’s synthpop and you’ve got a match!

The evening was spent at the temple for the festival. I saw a few folks I recognized. Was thrilled to see Lila-suka Seva and Lotus – I wish I could have hung out more with all of them. Madhava Ghosh found me and that made for even more great conversation. I kind of live for that.

Ghosh doesn’t know this, but he was the first devotee I met on my first visit to New Vrndavana. He looked like this wildish West Virginian, and talked about Nrsmhadeva and the sphinx. It was wild and totally sold me on the place, I’ve been in love with it since then.

Saturday night, again up till 2am. Same deal.

Sunday, my all too sad last day, was again spent talking. More about solutions this time. You know, digging around for what Srila Prabhupada really wanted. I compared the ideal of Prabhupada’s vision for a community to an anarchist community. There is little, if any, difference.

It was from Sunday’s conversations that a lot of ideas formed. It was a pretty big day for lots of reasons. More on that later. Some of it anyway.

There was a lot that I didn’t get to do and I really wish I could have stuck around for longer. Heck, I didn’t even buy gamshas! Hardly what I’d call a wasted weekend, of course. But much too short.

New Vrndavana dhama ki jaya!

Sometimes, in Krishna consciousness, we do things a certain way because “that’s how they do it in India.” Our culture originates there and sometimes certain things carry over that don’t really seem to make sense to outsiders (or even to us if we really think about it).

Things that don’t really have a spiritual benefit. Like only eating off of stainless steel.

It’s cleaner, right? Sure is – just as clean as anything what now with the invention of soap! Even so, I will pretty much only eat off of stainless steel.

And don’t forget Bollywood movies, brass trinkets and anything with a “Made in India” sticker on it!

And what about Gamshas? Ah, yes, the towel of the demigods! Are they really all that great? Honestly, I’ve used a gamsha since becoming a devotee and have rarely used anything else. Maybe at the occasional motel…

But really nothing more. Even when I stay at a friend’s house, I’ll bring a gamsha. I like it! It packs really neatly and it’s small. It also dries really quickly. And no lint! I hate lint.

Oh sure, some of my friends giggle, “why you using that Krishna towel!?” And if they ever try it out, ohh they generally hate it. I’m pretty sure you have to be a practicing devotee to really get the gamsha.

Nikki started using gamshas for a bit and hated them. She switched back to regular towels – a big fluffy gray one. Oh but when she was backpacking for the summer, what did she request? That’s right.. THREE of my gamshas! She even paid me for them!

Yeah, once you go gamsha, you never go back.

I need new gamshas. I’m down to one (never replaced the ones I sold to Nikki). And look at it…

It’s pathetic. But it’s lasted me at least five or six years. Can hardly beat that, huh.

Why the crap am I posting about this? Well, I just wanted to let the readers know that I use a gamsha and I’m not ashamed! And now, faced with this breath-takingly important crossroads, I choose to take a stand and buy a few more gamshas when I’m at New Vrndavana. Yeah, I could go back to big fluffy karmi towels chalked full of mode of badness and MAYA!!

But I know better.

And remember, kids… karmi towels are Satan’s fluffy fingers!!