Disappearance

Sadness abounds

Ironic

Today, on the appearance day of Srila Vaman Maharaja, Uma didi's diksa guru, we held the very first Srila Narayana Maharaja Gurudeva Disappearance Day programme at Paramanda Puri and Braja Kishori's house in Murwillumbah, where Uma didi was preparing to celebrate the appearance of her dear Gurudeva, after receiving news that our beloved Srila Gurudeva, Srila Narayana Maharaja, left us at about 3am Puri time.


Tears abound



There was hardly a dry eye to be seen and about 40 devotees somehow dropped whatever they were doing and came to attend. A 24 hour kirtana will be held at Mahaprabhu's house following tonight's Uma didi programme at Dina and Braja's. Be there if you can.


Must go ... time to sweep the kunja ...

Joy to all beings

RedCrossHall

Brilliant

Last night's programme at the Red Cross Hall was fabulous. We had a pretty good turnout even if the devotees possibly outnumbered the guests merely because so many devotees attended.

Raghulekha's singing was superb, as was Chandramukhi's and Mehkala didi's. Chandramukhi encouraging a positive mood in my approach to bhakti really set things in motion for me; aw fanks mate.

Uma didi's message was (in a nutshell) that since all material endeavour merely ends in death and misery no matter how much you might be enjoying right now, better to focus on spiritual life because that's where the real love and joy is found. I couldn't agree more.

Despite the fact that my material body is well and truly on the way out with problems that severely limit the amount that I can do, I DO feel more fortunate than ordinary people that may be "blessed" with good health and energy levels, ample wealth, etc, because I get the love of my Srila Gurudeva and the sweet association of all the devotees.

Like I said to one dear friend as we sat nibbling on some yummy caramel sweets, "Krishna is our well-wishing friend, Srila Gurudeva loves us, we are on this bhakti-margha chanting the holy name of the Lord. How good is THAT? BRILLIANT!

Joy to all beings

Uma Didi

Come hear beautiful wisdom

After surviving the quasi-vertical swamp at Gopali's we now get to hear Uma Didi's wisdom right in the centre of town with a special programme at the Red Cross Hall on Monday evening.



Joy to all beings

Merry Christmas

What a week.

With Uma Didi visiting from India (more on that in another post, later), our local hare krishna community has been caught up in a flurry of activity rather than a flurry of snowflakes.

Although I didn't attend Uma Didi's programme yesterday (Chrissy day) there was still much to do and I didn't get to wish everyone a Merry Christmas on this here blog, except for the "tongue in cheeky" Happy Christmas greetings of Christmas eve; anyway I'm taking the opportunity now to wish everyone a Merry Christmas even though it's boxing day.

Is that Marquis De Queensbury rules boxing, Thai kick boxing, shadow boxing or just plain putting things in boxes, perhaps the carcasses of those who didn't survive the excesses of Christmas day? The mind often boggles, especially on boxing day.

For hare krishna devotees, there is little in the way of excess and even Christmas, which, although a western tradition that is difficult to eradicate in my somewhat otherworldly mind, is more of a time to catch up with family rather than to imbibe and indulge.

As I recently pointed out to my Aunty who has been a Catholic nun for most of her 85 years on Earth, Christmas is a time of loving and giving so for hare krishna devotees everyday is Christmas day.

wuv ya

Joy to all beings