Everyone loves ??

Everyone loves Jagannath. Though some of us find Him different looking we are nevertheless attracted to Him. This was very evident from the Rathayatra that we had in Queens, New York last Sunday. These deities are very different, because they were carved in New Jersey by Kalpavrksa dasa, our God brother, who is a very empowered devotee. Their very first public appearance was two weeks back, where they were brought to our Sunday feast hall. By some strange orchestration of events They came home from the Sunday feast and are presently being worshipped by us.Last Sunday They went on Their first Rathayatra. Rathayatra in Fall I thought? I began to agree with the Pandas in Puri for a minute, but the weather was far from windy, it was warm and wonderful.

So, it was a wonderful ride to Queens needless to say. I had to slide down and sit on the floor of the van so that I could hold Jagannath's lotus feet and prevent Him from sliding down the seat. On reaching Queens They mounted their chariot also made by Kalpavrksa Prabhu. The Rathayatra was part of a Peace march held by the Indian community there to commemorate Mahatama Gandhi's birthday on October 2nd. So, Mahatma Gandhi posthumously :-) lead the way, on this occasion. The star of the show was of course Jagannath. The kirtan party rocked the already colorful streets of queens with their sonorous voices and djembe beats. Jagannath Balabhadra and Subhadramayi, looked resplendent dressed in blue and red silks and mercifully let the devotees bind them with the seat harness ropes. An apt meditation in the month of Kartika. Krishna das our enthusiastic 11 year old was the helper to Jagannath's pujari (his sister). Again the personal aspect of worship taught by Srila Prabhupada accented the whole Rathayatra. All devotees marveled at the fact that they manifested locally. Devotees stopped by to talk to Jagannath. Some kids addressed Him as Jaggu, Jaggli. One Mataji quietly walked up to the Van where They were seated ready to go home after the long ride, thanked Them for coming and requested Them to be back next year, all as if conversing to a dear friend. After Their first Rathayatra, the Lords came back with a satiated smile. I was musing about how much They love the devotees and the locations They choose for Their outings and how merciful They are.. The whole incident was as if from Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita with Jayananda Prabhu working on the Rathayatra cart in the streets of San Francisco. I was reflecting on the past where I would try to serve the deities all by myself. After repeatedly hearing the glories of Jayananda Prabhu, I now understand that when service is shared with the goal of pleasing Krishna, it gets accepted by Krishna and is also very sweet.

In the past month I was thinking of starting a daycare from home and was wondering how the experience would be like. Some how things did not go as per our plan, and I am now babysitting 3 wonderful children, in addition to my own. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to see if its a dream or if its real that They mercifully accepted our meagre accommodation. I will miss Them when They leave. Service is like an umbilical cord that keeps us connected to the Lord and makes us alive and spiritually nourished. As I turn off the lights bidding Them to please sleep well I pray hard to Guru Maharaja to direct them to my heart where They can stay forever.

tava kathāmṛtaḿ tapta-jīvanaḿ
kavibhir īḍitaḿ kalmaṣāpaham
śravaṇa-mańgalaḿ śrīmad ātataḿ
bhuvi gṛṇanti ye bhūri-dā janāḥ

The nectar of Your words and the descriptions of Your activities are the life and soul of those suffering in this material world. These narrations, transmitted by learned sages, eradicate one's sinful reactions and bestow good fortune upon whoever hears them. These narrations are broadcast all over the world and are filled with spiritual power. Certainly those who spread the message of Godhead are most munificent.

Thank you Srila Prabhupada!

Reciprocation

The very first thing that I observed when I was new to the Gaudiya Vaisnava ways was the personal aspect of worship. How the Lord has a special plate, a bed and is treated like a person. In the Srivaisnava worship, as a child I would observe how they would make pots of Naivedya/bhoga and take the steaming hot container and place it directly in front of the Lord. No spoon, no water, no plate even...The ways of worship taught by our Acharyas felt so sweet and natural in comparison. Though we have incorporated the pancaratrika method of worship, there is a certain sweetness present in our worship which is not present in any in any other tradition, in my observation. Over the years quite a few times I have felt reciprocration from our deities on small insignificant things, but significant enough for me to understand that " Yes these deities are really present." Why the Lord would choose to interact with such an insignificant soul like me is a question which completely overwhelms me at times.
So we were busy making 4000 Khajas for our Rathayatra festival early this month. It was a hot and humid day, the kids, not to be left at home came along. Amidst settling their fights and trying to focus on the quality of Prasadam we were making, we were tired at the end of the day. The next step involved packing the khajas in small ziploc packs, labeling them and getting them ready for distribution. Khaja being a favorite of all devotees, I was worried about how to get the devotees to pack all the khajas without their taking any for themselves. Eaten up khajas meant more Khajas to make and we were running out of time. Thinking it would be unfair to both the devotees making the Khajas and the devotees packing them, I got back home and made some Khajas for the devotees who would be packing the Khajas in the Bhakti Vriksha the next night. That way the ones made for distribution would remain untouched.. The next day Khajas were packed and the devotees packing had their share. It was then that one devotee handed me my box in which i had packed some shukto prasadam for her almost a month back. I opened the box and to my delight found Khajas from Jagannath Puri Dham in there.. The Lord had reciprocated by making sure that all the devotees had prasadam straight from the Dham. Such is the speciality of developing a relationship and interacting with the Lord. Was just wondering what the Brahmavadis must be thinking but checked myself saying " I better not get there."

Sri Swarup Damodar insisted that this very swetmeat be fed to the Giriraja Goverdhan Sila given to Sri Raghunath Das Goswami by Caitanya Mahaprabu.
TEXT 303

ei-mata kata dina karena pujanatabe svarupa-gosani tanre kahila vacana

TRANSLATIONAfter Raghunatha dasa had thus worshiped the govardhana-sila forsome time, Svarupa Damodara one day spoke to him as follows.

TEXT 304

"asta-kaudira khaja-sandesa kara samarpanasraddha kari' dile, sei amrtera sama

TRANSLATION"Offer the Govardhana stone eight kaudis worth of the first-classsweetmeats known as khaja and sandesa. If you offer them with faith andlove, they will be just like nectar."

TEXT 305

tabe asta-kaudira khaja kare samarpanasvarupa-ajnaya govinda taha kare samadhana

TRANSLATIONRaghunatha dasa then began offering the costly sweetmeats known askhaja, which Govinda, following the order of Svarupa Damodara, wouldsupply.

TEXT

306

raghunatha sei sila-mala yabe pailagosanira abhioraya ei bhavana karila

TRANSLATIONWhen Raghunatha dasa received from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu thestone and the garland of conchshells, he could understand the Lord'sintention. Thus he thought as follows.

TEXT 307

"sila diya gosani samarpila `govardhane'gunja-mala diya dila `radhika-carane,

TRANSLATION"By offering me the govardhana-sila, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has offered me a place near Govardhana Hill, and by offering me the garlandof conch shells, He has offered me shelter at the lotus feet of SrimatiRadharani."

Time and again I feel so blessed to be part of such a wonderful and sweet process given to us by our Acharyas and Srila Prabhupada and pray that I always serve the Lord and His devotees.

Tasseography

Fresh herbs from Jagannath Vallabha Gardens!

Tasseography or Tasseomancy is the art of reading tea leaves. After a cup of tea has been poured, without using a tea strainer, the tea is drunk or poured away. The cup should then be shaken well and any remaining liquid drained off in the saucer. The diviner now looks at the pattern of tea leaves in the cup and allows the imagination to play around the shapes suggested by them. They might look like a letter, a heart shape, or a ring. These shapes are then interpreted intuitively or by means of a fairly standard system of symbolism, such as: snake (enmity or falsehood), spade (good fortune through industry), mountain (journey of hindrance), or house (change, success). Now Don't read this and wonder why I'm talking about Tasseography and about tea when we vow to not take any intoxicants,tea or coffee included. Nope, I'm not breaking my 4 regs here. The drinker of the tea in question here is transcendental and the message I received is transcendental too..Read on.. So, The Lord was sick all these days and my good friend Geeta Mataji wanted me to have something as a gift for our wedding anniversary, something that will stay as a reminder to serve our worshipable Lord Jagannath through thick and thin. So, she gifted me this cute teapot and tea cup to serve Jagannath some tea during His Anavasara and also handed me some fresh herbs right out of her Jagannath Vallabha Garden at her home. I promptly used it to serve the Lord some fresh mint leaves, rosemary and ginger tea with honey and squeezed some fresh lime, set out the table with some poda pitha, and cashewnut cookies. After the Lord was done drinking I drained the contents into another cup and tried reading the pattern, using my imagination, and I once again received the message so often repeated in the Bhagavad Gita. I felt privileged to serve the Lord and receive such confidential knowledge. I vowed to take this reading to heart and intensify my faith in rendering service to the best of my abilities. Here is the message for my future and my present, as read from the tea cup of the transcendental Lord:

ksipram bhavati dharmatma sasvac-chantim nigacchati kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktah pranasyati

TRANSLATION He quickly becomes righteous and attains lasting peace. O son of Kunti, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes.

Bhagavad Gita 9:31.

Au Naturel!

Ever since I saw the Abhay Charan series and how the devotees in the early days took Jagannath out for a day at the park, I have been envisioning taking my Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra out in our garden during summer. Have Them rest on a charpai, while we fan them gently with chamaras and peacock feather fans, feed Them natural, homemade mango ice cream, topped with golden yellow slices of mango. The surprising thing (well actually not so surprising, I guess my desire was strong) is that one of our local grcocery stores has in stock this very cute looking miniature charpai, just the right size for our deities. Will get it this summer...

Charpai- its a bed woven with jute ropes, found in the Indian villages, where they rest mid-day after a hard morning's labor.

Anyway, much before the arrival of summer, to honor Guru maharaj, on his Vyasapuja I decided to make some ice cream. Anyone who has served him knows how child like his tastes are. I still remember his words when he visited our home. The two of us, not even inititated then, were so excited that we did not even know how to serve him properly. We served him the focaccia and forgot the fork and the knife. While speaking to him about our then 18 month old daughter who liked to have a cup of ice cream every single day my husband was mentioning how she would gravitate towards the kitchen with bowl in hand, exactly at 3 PM asking for 'aakeesh.' Guru Maharaj heard us out patiently and after he was done with his dessert of lemon cake and apple pie, he turned around and said " If someone asks for ice cream at 10:30 in the night, will it be available ?" I felt as if I were Cassie of Dragon tales, slowly shrinking in size and as if I had turned into some microscopic entity, because on that day I had NO ice cream. Apologizing for the bad planning we bid him farewell with a heavy heart that summer night in 2004.

I like to meditate on the pastimes of the Lord in relation to the preparation, just my own small endeavor to replace my own lusty desire and bring Krishna into the picture. Jagannath loves jackfruit, so meditating on a pastime of His that I had heard, I decided to try out a tropical flavor of mango and jackfruit. Slicing some jackfruit, pureeing some I mixed up the mango pulp and added the cream, milk and sugar and fed it it all in my ice cream maker. Not so much a fan of ice cream myself I was happy with the resulting creamy rich and exotic flavor.

Anyone who has lived in Bombay or Bangalore knows that the best tasting ice cream in not Baskin robins but Natural. They have amazingly unique flavors including tender coconut- the best, watermelon, custard apple or sitaphal, sapodilla etc...Its eggless and Au Naturel! and what we made at home was one scoop better being prasadam.

Raghu Dasa:There was once a great devotee of Lord Ramachandra named Raghu Dasa. He lived in Puri under a big umbrella near the Lion Gate of the Jagannath temple. He was very famous and known among the people as the friend of Lord Jagannath. Once Jagannath came to Raghu and told him to go with Him to steal jackfruit from the Kings garden. Raghu said, "Why do You want to steal jackfruit? If You have a desire to eat jackfruit, then let me know and I will get a nice jackfruit for You." Lord Jagannath replied, "In this way I am getting everything from My devotee. In fact, I have everything. Mother Yasoda would feed Me so much butter and give Me pleasure. But still I go to the homes of others for the purpose of stealing butter. There is a special pleasure in eating stolen things. Today I want you to experience that pleasure of stealing. Please come with Me!" Helpless, Raghu agreed to the Lord's proposal and accompanied Him. Both of them entered the King's garden. Jagannath told Raghu, "You should climb the tree. I will stand on the ground. You will pluck the best and biggest jackfruit and throw it down. I will stand here and catch it. Then both of us will run away." Raghu followed the order of the Lord exactly as He had in¬structed. He climbed the jackfruit tree and located the best and biggest jackfruit and plucked it. "Jagannath!" he called out. "Are You ready?" Jagannath replied, "Yes! I am ready, throw it!" Raghu threw the jackfruit down, expecting Jagannath to catch it. But where was Jagannath? He had run away. No one was there to catch the jackfruit. It crashed to the ground, making a big sound and split open. When the King's gardener heard the sound, he understood that someone had entered the garden to steal jackfruit. He immediately ran to the spot and found the big jackfruit lying split open on the ground, yet he didn't see anyone around. When he looked up he saw Raghu Dasa sitting in the tree. The gardener immediately ran to the King and told him that Raghu Dasa was stealing jackfruit from his garden. "He is still there sitting on the top of the tree!" he told the King excitedly. The King could not believe that Raghu had entered his garden to steal jackfruit. So the King gathered his ministers and went to the spot where the gardener in¬dicated. He was surprised to see Raghu Dasa sitting in the tree and the jackfruit lying on the ground. On the request of the King, Raghu came down from the tree. The King asked Raghu, "My dear . Prabhu, if you desired to eat jackfruit, why have you gone to the trouble of coming to my garden in the middle of the night and climbing a tree? You could have told me. I would have picked the jackfruit and sent it to your house." Raghu told the King the whole story about how he was cheated by Lord Jagannath. Everyone enjoyed hearing the pastime of the Lord, and they all laughed. They glorified Raghu for his greatness. In this way, Raghu would have pastimes with Lord Jagannath in the mood of friendship. A devotee gave an eye witness account of one lila of Raghu Dasa with Lord Jagannath. Once during the Ratha-yatra, the Lords had taken Their seats on the chariot. After the King swept the road, everything was ready for the chariot to move. Thousands of people pulled the rope, but the chariot would not move. Seeing the situation, the British Saheva arranged for a powerful elephant to pull the chariot. Still the chariot would not move. The Saheva told Raghu Dasa, "Raghu Dasji, what kind of Lord is this? I have engaged elephants, yet this chariot will not move." Hearing this, Raghu climbed the chariot and went close to Lord Jagannath. He spoke into the Lord's ear. Immediately the chariot started to move. Saheva was surprised to see this. He told Raghu Dasa, "You are perfect and your Lord is also perfect." Wherever Raghu Dasa lived he would leave a pot full of prasada outside for anyone to take. He would take prasada from the same pot the animals and birds took from. This was his wonderful nature. He was very dear to Lord Jagannath.

For those who want to try this tropical flavor you need:

3/4 cup of whole milk

3/4 cup of sugar

1 can of jackfruit-

slice half the contents and puree half with some milk

1/4 cup of mango puree

2 cups of heavy cream.

whisk them all to together and feed it into your cuisinart ice-cream maker.
Highly fattening, try it- Remember we are not this body ;-)

The proof of the pudding is in the eating!

When the Lord of the Universe came home.

Nilacala Nivasaya, nityaya paramatmane

Balabhadra Subhadrabhyam, Jagannathayathe Namah.

Deity worship is like an arranged marriage where once you start serving the person, you eventually fall in love with them. Though we worship Jagannatha at home when these deities who are at our temple every weekend decided to come home for a 3 week stay, there was great joy at home. The devotees who were caring for Them went on a holiday to India and wanted Them to be cared and pampered for in the interim. So, They decided to come home and I considered it our great fortune. I was hearing in a class by HH Mahanidhi Swami that attaining Sri Kshetra or Purushottam Kshetra is so rare that it is also called as Durlabh Kshetra or Krandhan Kshetra. Durlabh Kshetra because the mood of separation from the Lord/beloved is the highest emotion that one can experience and it is more profound than actually meeting the Lord. Krandhan Kshetra because its a Land of tears where the Lord as Jagannath, Vrajendranandan Krishna, cries for His devotees, the Gopis in Vrindavan longing to reunite with them on the banks of the Yamuna river. Similarly the devotees who are in separation from the Lord signified by Caitanya Mahaprabhu are also crying, longing to meet with the cowherd boy of Vrindavan who has stolen Their hearts making them distraught and sleepless.

I also realized while serving them, what it is like to be a personal servant of the Lord or the spiritual master.As they say pujari seva is like a double edged sword where while it requires utmost attention, one must not assume that the Lord or spiritual master is dependent on us. It requires sacrifice and complete submission and working in a schedule that is suitable to Them. Your time is Theirs. They invade your life sweetly and slowly that They become the center of activities and only a fool will not be willing to let Them take over.