Tulsidas, the famous Hindi poet, has sung:

corko chode sadhko bandhe
pathikko lagaoe phansi--
dhanya kalijug teri tamasa
duhkh lage aor hasi

"The real thief is set free, and the sadhu is handcuffed, while the passerby is hanged--all glories to Kali Yuga! Such is your great joke that it generates both pity and laughter at the same time."


In this age of confusion, rascals disguise themselves as saints and plunder the foolish populace, while at the same time accusing the real sadhus of being cheaters. These rascals use the wealth turned over to them by fools for their personal sense gratification, but they cleverly convince others that their sense gratification is divine and for everyone's benefit. They ridicule the devotees use of money in the service of Krsna (especially for the building of temples and the worship of the Deity) as being a criminal waste. Such rascal leaders of religions and welfare organizations are like the thief who escapes in the night by accusing the innocent.


Yours
Dinesh

A great joke that generates both pity and laughter at the same time

I had this thought If someone cooks for me it would save sometime for sadhana but it will end up mostly like the story below.
............

Once a renounced spiritual master presented his neophyte disciple with a copy of the Bhagavad-gita, instructing him to study the book all the time. The disciple, eager to imitate the advanced status of his guru, entered a cave in the Vindhya hill and there read the gita day and night.


Now, while the disciple took rest, a mouse who lived in the cave nibbled at the pages of the holy book, leaving the edges ragged. The disciple was very upset about this. He went down the hillside to a village and found a kitten, which he brought back to the cave to deal with the mouse.


But the kitten required milk. So the disciple managed to find a pious farmer who willingly parted with one cow. Next the would-be renunciate constructed a cow-shed with materials that he begged from here and there and laboriously dragged up the hillside.


Even after building the shed, the disciple found it too difficult to maintain the cow alone. At last he found a young villager who was willing--simply for three meals a day--to tend the cow.


But now the aspiring anchorite was faced with the duty of cooking thrice daily for the cowherd as well as preparing his own meals. This meant he had to visit the village at least once a day to beg sufficient foodstuffs and firewood and then bring it all up to the cave. The villagers were less supportive now that his possessions had increased. One of them even mocked the dis- ciple, saying, "You've become a busy householder. Why do you persist in this charade of renunciation? Get married and work like the rest of us!"


Finding it impossible to meet his requirements otherwise, the disciple did just that. As his family grew, so did his needs until at last he lived in a comfortable villa on a large tract of land as the owner of many animals and the employer of many servants.


After the guru became aware that his disciple had abandoned the cave, he traced him to his new home and was astonished to find him amidst all the trappings of worldly existence. "Now what does all this mean?" he demanded of his disciple.


"Oh Divine Master," came the reply, "this, my family and property, is for the gita study you ordered."


The scriptures enjoin: yaavannirvaaha pratigraha--"accept only that which is essential for serving the Lord." This means that a devotee centers his life's needs around Krsna and not around himself. He is concerned neither with excessive gain or excessive renunciation. Indeed, if an aspirant on the spiritual path becomes selfishly inclined even in the matter of renuncia- tion--i.e. his vanity is displayed in his show of detachment from the world--that selfishness is very liable to mislead him into accumulating excessive material possessions in the name of maintaining his spiritual life. Another way that material attachment creeps into the life of a renunciate is through attraction to material knowledge. If pride is fostored through mastery of the scriptures and through philosophical erudition, that knowledge is only material and will result in the falldown of the student into material entanglement.


Yours
Dinesh

Family for the Gita

We see the world as a reflection of our mind

 

Srila Prabhupada's Former family

Radharani De; Srila Prabhupada holding eldest son Prayag Raj; Gaura Mohan De; other family members

Srila Prabhupada, his brother, and three of his children-Prayag Raj, Mathura Mohan and Sulaxmana.

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami-Chippiwada Delhi 1964-5

Srila Prabhupada's original typewriter

Planning the journey at Srila Rupa Goswami Samadhi side

Meeting Sumati Morarji - owner of the steamship company

Ato Tompkins Square Park - New York

Prabhupada's Passport 

Here's Srila Prabhupada's entry stamp for his second visit to Australia on April 1 1972

1971 continued: This is a special entry:

top right: Srila Prabhupada's entry and exit stamps from his one and only historic visit to Moscow

The entry is 20/06/71 and the exit is 25/06/71

Here some interesting entries into Srila Prabhupada's passport. It was issued in 1971 and expired in 1974.

Srila Prabhupada's 1971-1974 passport

Note that on the page on the right Srila Prabhupada lists his father as Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura

Prabhupada's first visit to Australia is stamped May 9 1971

 

Here's a black and white of Srila Prabhupada installing Radha Gopinath in Sydney at the old Paddington temple on his first visit to Australia in 1971

Next to Prabhupada, dressing the Deity of Gopinatha is Bali Mardan prabhu, the first person to bring the Hare Krishna Movement to Australia. On the far right is Dipak das, a Texan and one of the early recruits.

Srila Prabhupad Horoscope

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Pictorial Presentation of Srila Prabhupada Memories

good write up!

keep writing.

YS
SRGD

I have a long way to go!!!