While the alarm clock buzzed, in unison every bone and muscle screamed at me: “You haven’t taken even a short break for twenty days! ” Yes, I had been “on the burn,” since I left HH Giriraja Swami’s place in Santa Barbara, California, May 24. Now, three continents later, June 13, at the flat of Candidas das, in Manchester, UK, the body demanded I pay the price.
In the Bhagavad-gita (6.17), Lord Krishna advises: “He who is regulated in his habits of eating, sleeping, recreation, and work can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.” Amidst the first rays of the morning, I knew exactly what leisure activity would satisfy my heart and mind. Next to me, radiant with beauty, waited Pure Delight. Within easy reach, all 18 volumes sat on a shelf--Srimad-Bhagavatam. Soon I would have this unexcelled spiritual text back in my arms.
I showered, exercised, and chanted my 16 rounds of the mahamantra. Then gently I took in my hands the Bhagavatam Tenth Canto volume one. Affectionately cradling it and turning the pages, I knew life doesn’t get any better than this. Now nothing can do me any harm. My eyes hungrily devoured all the type--both the Sanskrit and English; my tongue and lips happily enunciated the sounds of every word; my parched mind determinedly drowned in the verses and Bhaktivedanta purports. I begged Lord Krishna, may the glorious Srimad-Bhagavatam saturate and elevate my abysmal consciousness.
“Bhakti, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects. One is freed from all material designations, and one’s senses are purified simply by being employed in the service of the Lord.” (Narada Pancaratna, quoted in Cc. Madhya 19.170)
How wonderful a companion is the cream of Vedic literature--how sweet it is! And Srimad-bhagavatam is a the perfect low-maintenance partner. You simply pay a few hundred dollars for the set, and it’s yours for life, never to say goodbye. Not only is the thrill permanent, but also, with each passing year and reading, the delicious taste intensifies. Sometimes when you’re a bit in illusion, the Bhagavatam does seem to tell you things you don’t like to hear. But in saner moments, you know it’s true.
My trip of devotional service around the world began on the plane from Australia, Friday, May 18. After arriving in Los Angeles eighteen hours later, on the same calendar day, I gave class Saturday morning, and hosted a gathering that night. Sunday morning I gave class again and sat with HH Gopal Krishna Goswami for an initiation ceremony. At noon I gave Gaura Prema das and his wife Nitai Prema dasi the gayatri mantra. They said they were eager to serve the Deities--not just to have the brahmin label, so I agreed to the temple’s request for their second initiation. Then I drove down the highway two hours to San Diego for the Sunday evening program. After an overnight at the abode of Sikhi Mahiti das and the morning program, I returned to Los Angeles. Unlike last year’s trip to San Diego, this time no cars crashed into us.
The Los Angeles temple community was now packed with senior Vaishnavas, flying in for the annual Bhaktivedanta Book Trust management meeting. Meanwhile all day long, a steady stream of disciples, aspiring disciples, and well-wishers kept me busy in Krishna’s service. Finally, I caught up with the temple president Svavas Prabhu at his office, for a review of my disciples in Los Angeles. As always, there was good news and bad news. Yes, the jiva soul, part of the Supreme Soul, has its independence, to use or misuse. From the behavior/misbehavior analysis we moved on to outreach strategies. Svavas Prabhu expressed his desire to personally cultivate and develop young Americans, in a setting specifically for them--of course, that was music to my ears. The senior ISKCON leaders in North America are such wonderful personalities, but if they don’t “wade into the water”--immerse themselves in contact with the people--then what will be the future of ISKCON there?
On Tuesday morning, May 22, I retreated an hour and a half up the road to Giriraja Swami’s house, near Santa Barbara. He took one look at my weary bodily machine and called for his disciple who was a professional masseuse and acupuncturist. My visit to Maharaja’s place allowed me about thirty hours to unwind, before returning to Los Angeles Wednesday night. Giriraja Swami and I chatted about vital Krishna conscious topics, especially about the preeminent role of Srila Prabhupada’s books. Since he was a retired Governing Body Commissioner of South Africa, I sought his advice on management there, now that I had been requested to do that service.
When you’re young and green, often you think you know almost everything--you’re going to reinvent the wheel and turn the world upside down. Maturity tempers that brashness with the wisdom that others may actually know something valuable. Nevertheless, as my Godbrother HH Sivarama Swami relayed to me, “We may think that now, with all our decades of experience, we can direct younger devotees so they’ll avoid repeating ISKCON mistakes of the past, but actually not all of them will listen cent percent--even our own disciples . . . ” To at least some degree, some of them will have to repeat at least some elements of the past. In other words, despite our attempts to counsel, a significant number of the juniors will feel compelled to do things “all their way” and get burned. The senior leaders won’t be able to completely eradicate that syndrome, but at least they can conscientiously work to minimize it--without dampening the youthful enthusiasm that is so important for powering the future.
For two days straight, I accompanied Giriraja Swami on his almost daily ritual of walks on the beach. As the tide of the Pacific Ocean moved in, he chanted and I did my pranayama breathing: out with the Los Angeles smog, in with the fresh sea breezes--just as the doctor in Puri, India, had instructed me. Right before my departure, arrived HH Indradyumna Swami, “the hardest working man in Krishna-festival business.” Flying directly from Eastern Europe, he sought a much-deserved rest at Giriraja Swami’s abode. I was unashamedly envious--he had scheduled thirty precious days of recuperation there.
For an hour we talked the “sannyasa talk.” An esteemed Godsister, Urmila Mataji, traveling to an airport in Italy with HH Bhakti Tirtha and me, quipped that as soon as householder devotees meet, they talk about their children, and whenever sannyasis meet, their first topic is traveling. So yes, Indradyumna Swami and I talked about traveling--in relation to preaching and health. We both noted that as the years go by, the body takes longer to recover from intercontinental jaunts.
Regretfully I had to tear myself away--I was supposed to give class the next morning in Los Angeles. But before I could get out the door, Indradyumna Maharaja embarrassed me, pointing out I had not written for my website since September of last year--eight months ago. “Your fans, like me, are wondering what’s going on.” Red-faced that Godbrothers were bothering to read what I wrote, I promised I would get back into it.
The final day of my visits to Los Angeles is always the most intense. I gave Bhagavatam class again on Thursday morn, chanted, danced, breakfasted with the senior leaders, and conversed privately with some of them about pressing ISKCON or BBT matters. Throughout that day were more discussions with devotees--last-minute personal meetings always seem to manifest out of nowhere, the closer is departure time. Friday, at 5 am, I left for the airport.
I had sought a midday flight, so I could finish my rounds before traveling. Remember, I do publicly instruct that devotees should mold their life around attentive chanting--shouldn’t I walk my talk? But this day was the first of a big holiday weekend in the USA; therefore I had no choice in flights. Even at 5 am, travelers crammed the airport. In a quiet corner before boarding the flight, though physically exhausted, I managed to chant a few rounds. Five hours later I would disembark, into a packed schedule of university speaking engagements--my first visit to Canada in fifteen years.
(to be continued)
