Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Radhika Raman's Mayapur Seminar on Jiva Goswami's Sat Sandarbhas



Lately I have been listening to an amazing and philosophical seminar of His Grace Radhika Raman Prabhu.  For those who do not know Radhika Ramana Prabhu is a wonderful Vaishnava scholar who did  home school at the Boise temple.  He started college at 13, valedictorian at 17 of Boise State and a PhD in theology from Oxford by 22.  He is now a very young tenured professor in Utah.  Please check out the series!

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

The Twelve Month Sandwich - Going on 8 years





In an effort to compete with Sabjimata Mata's and Kurma Prabhu's delicious prasadam blogs, I hereby submit our twelve month sandwich.


There are five main cooks who are always involved. The first one is Gaurachandra; on His right side stands Nitaichand, and on His left side stands Gadadhara. Cooking nearby is Advaita, and Srinivas is holding the spatula. Sweet Mrdanga sauce is mixed in with spicy kartals - all accompanied with side orders of conch and bells. All the demigods headed by Lord Brahma line up to get an opportunity to relish this sandwich. In fact the flavor of this sandwich conquers the flavor of millions upon millions of curd sabjis. Lord Shiva, Sukadeva Goswami, and Narada Muni are all there and are choked in ecstasy to get but just a taste.


This sandwich is what we have had the pleasure to honor for the past twelve months: the ISKCON sandwich. During Srila Prabhupada's time he established a program of spiritual purification by which one can make steady progress in Krishna Consciousness. It was nicknamed the ISKCON sandwich, a Krishna conscious program of bhajan, kirtan, artik, and class every morning and every evening. Many devotees eager to rapidly expand Krishna Consciousness asked Srila Prabhupada if it was ok to miss the evening program in the event of late evening book distribution and other such outreach functions. However, when such late activities were decreased, the habit of returning back to regular programs in the evening also waned. Instead of live chanting during the Gaura Artik, more often it would be found that there was simply a tape playing. This one slice sandwich was not enough to fill up the spiritually starved soul. Therefore, the devotees decided to return to the healthy diet of the double slice, Mangal mustard, Gaura Artik greens, and a class every few days for proper nutrition.


We have seen many health benefits to this diet given by Srila Prabhupada. Even our restaurant customers are finding new energy in their spiritual attraction. Before, if they ventured into the temple in the evening, they were greeted only by an electronic kirtan - hardly enough to encourage one to start singing with full lungs. But now we are serving the real organic kirtan, fresh from the hearts of the devotees. And as they say local is more healthy, these local lungs are inspiring to hear for all who enter. So whether you are at home, at the gym, watching TV, or out on book distribution make sure to get some daily doses of the ISKCON sandwich. Thank you.


-posted July 23rd 2008, Now we are going on 8 years!