Free Writes Rainstorm The weather was warm and dry for our entire program at the meeting on July 6th. The devotees had just finished honoring Krsna prasadam when a windstorm arrived, blowing the leaves on the trees. But the devotees managed to finish their prasadam. Then suddenly from the sky heavy rainfall came down. There […]

Radha-Govinda Krsna-dasi dressed Radha-Govinda in new outfits yesterday. I asked her what was the color scheme of the dress, and she replied that it was gray and yellow. Later Baladeva told me he thought it was silver and yellow. For myself, I thought it was green and yellow. At any rate, They look very beautiful […]

Hasya Hasya refers to Krsna’s laughing pastimes. Once, the cowherd boys told Krsna to close His eyes and open His mouth and they would give Him a sweet. Krsna obeyed, but the boys put a flower in Krsna’s mouth. The joke was on Krsna. Once, Krsna disguised Himself as Radharani’s husband, Abhimanyu. He entered Radharani’s […]

Rhyming Poetry Kala-kantha dasa has published a book of poetry, All That Lies Between. It is a collection of rhymed, metrical verses in English. The poems are devotional, well-structured and particularly Prabhupada/Krsna oriented. I am impressed and satisfied with the poetry. But in his introduction he has made a derogatory remark about free verse poetry. […]

Free Writes Rupa Gosvami/Sanatana Gosvami/and a Beautiful Young Girl We heard a tape recording of 1966 of Prabhupada telling a delicious transcendental pastime. He said Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami lived as mendicants in Vrndavana. They resided under a different tree each night. One morning Rupa Gosvami was thinking that if he had some ingredients […]

Free Writes Bhisma’s Passing Away In our out-loud reading at mealtimes, we are hearing the Second Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam. It is very technical about the creation of the cosmos. We find it less interesting than the First Canto, which is filled with juicy sections such as Maharaja Pariksit’s punishing Kali, who he found beating a […]

Free Writes Chanting Out Loud In Sacinandana Swami’s new book, The Living Name, he recommends chanting japa out loud so that you can hear the Names. This is the standard teaching that Prabhupada gave. For months, I have been chanting silently in my mind, fearing that out-loud chanting would prevent a headache. I know of […]

Free Writes Guru Our Nurse Practitioner knows that we are Hare Krsna devotees. He looked it up on Internet and discovered I was a guru. He asked me how long it took to become a guru. I told him it takes many years. There are many qualifications for a guru, as stated in the scriptures. […]