In Light of Day

On the weekend I went on a casual walk on a local country road.  It was in the late evening, lit only by house lights, street lamps, and stars.  I took a course of a couple kilometres through two neighbouring villages here in Belgium.  It was quiet, but while passing an old barn there was a strange noise and awkward ambience.  The smell surrounding the place reminded me of a pig farm we would daily drive by back at home, sometime in my childhood.  There are no pigs in the area but I know the smell belongs to cattle for the slaughter, who wreak something special due to their selective diet.  I let the thought settle, continuing the walk, only to have a short flashback reminder on the return trip home. 

A Moment?

I was late to the Bhaktivedanta College Poetry Club.  All I could think about was how much exists in a moment, as the weather changes from sun to snow in the same day.  I had to be somewhere so quickly and so many things were moving in my mind. 

Our Gosala Burned Down!

Dear devotees,
Last night our Gosala (cow barn) here in Radhadesh burnt to the ground. One cow was locked inside but managed to escape with only minor burns. The cause of the fire is still unknown though there is a suggestion of it being an electrical fire. There is nothing left of the building and the cows don’t really have great shelter at the moment. Additionally, one of them is pregnant (the one that had escaped from inside the building as it was burning down). We have 2 cows and two bullocks (oxen) and a baby on the way. I urge members of the ISKCON community to show some compassion and help us build this building back up off the ground. Please click the link and scroll down to donate.
Your servant, Madhavendra Puri dasa.

DONATE!

Obscure October (Audio Entry)

This is the obscure month of October.  We decided to do it in an audio entry because we are so lazy…

Another Jumping June

It was another jumpy June.  I was still in Radhadesh for the beginning of the month.  Our final assignment was due but I had finished it a couple days earlier.  I used the time packing items, scanning papers and living up the lingering time in the spiritual safe haven.  I decided since my last trip to India that the trick I would adopt for travelling is “wheels”.  Try it out yourself some time.  

Mighty May

May was a mighty month.  We were still finishing off our course on the History of Vaishnava Thought, with Gopal Hari Prabhu.  We were looking into the four major Vaisnava sampradayas, their founding acaryas and Vedantic approaches from the different schools.  It was naturally a very fulfilling course.  

ISKCON Higher Education (Lecture)

I was asked to give the Sunday public lecture in New Govardhana.  Someone suggested the audience will mostly be local devotees so I decided it would be interesting to introduce some of the course material that we studied in Bhaktivedanta College for the last couple of years.  Time was short so most of the focus went to the first year of study despite the introduction.

10th Graduation of Bhaktivedanta College

[This was an article on the Bhaktivedanta College graduation 2012.  It was later edited and published for their website.]  

Interesting April

We started the interesting month of April with Lord Ramacandra’s appearance day.  The day was filled with splendorous celebration, bringing Radhadesh alive for the lingering in of spring.  Syamananda Prabhu directed an amazing drama about the exile of Rama, the cast being many of Radhadesh’s finest.  

The Belgian Sect Agenda (Sociology of Religion)

[Feedback suggests an ambitious and interesting essay question. Despite making many striking points the essay seemed to lack a lot of the requested material. Being my first public research assignment to date I obviously didn’t include many things that are usually expected. Some sections were incredibly vague, confusing and otherwise. There was also apparently supposed to be a review of some already existing literature. The writing style used was probably better directed for narrative, having a natural, poetic flair. Mark: 56 C+]