Govinda has answered my prayers ! praise be to the Lord !

[Faithful servant108]

Hari Bol !

You may remember me..from my previous post a while back about my parents kicking me out.It seems like the Lord does not want me to live in a temple to escape my problems....but wants me to confront it and learn universal compassion for my fellow Man who are sufferring...those who are burdened with debt and those who struggles with the 9-5 syndrome.

I have gotten a New Job. I shall be working at a Four season Hotel in California as a Front Desk Supervisor. The Hotel which Im working for is connected to the United States Air Force which will allow me become an honorary member and work with them.... it will not only give me extra pay but also allow me to travel certain months of the year to broaden my horizons.

I have discovered Srila Prabhupada back in 2007 and I have secretly become a follower of Lord Caitanya at heart. Yet I am still a novice and newbie when it comes to the scriptures and the Vedic way of life.

I have yet to have meet a devotee of the Lord. I have yet to touch an authentic version of the bhagavad Gita and The srimad bhagavatam. I have yet to have eaten a Krishna prasadam made with true devotion.

With my newly assets and status...I desire to finally meet a genuine temple who is not corrupt and with good intentions who will show me this true glrorious path which I've discovered through the mercy of the Lord. It also seems like Krishna wants me to become a householder...With this great new flow of income I'm about to receive..I am greatly confident I can be responsible and provide a house, a nice garden and dwelling for a family and also donate to the cause of spreading God consciousness throughout the World.....therefore I seek a devoted vaishnava wife and a genuine temple in the future.

I am young...(only 24 years old).... yet eager.. I'm very grateful for my Gurus ... Srila Prabhupada and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur to have given me to great gift and priveldge. I humbly give my obediences to them.

Any advice regarding my circumstance would be appreciated.



- Jaya Prabhupada

[Krsna Das]

Hari Bol....

Please accept my pranamas at your feet.

You have taken the correct decision. Now remain in the Grihastha-Ashrama and serve the Lord with all thy heart.

May the blessings of vaishnavas be on you, and also pray that I am able to serve you spiritually in any manner, to please the Lord.

Radhe !

[Ashvati]

Awesome, I'm glad you found work. In my opinion, temple life is for retirement, but I can respect those who choose to or wind up living it young. As far as finding a wife, well, I can't much help you there aside from telling you to make friends with a lot of girls and sooneror later one of them will turn out interested in you and vaishavism if she's not practicing it already.

[sambya]

im happy to hear this from you ...good to see things have turned out positvely for you . jai

considering our age ( evn im 24) its not suprising that you become indicisive about how to shape your future --specially a spiritual future .

there's one nice book by a prominent gaudiya vaishnava acharya -- madhurya kadamvini by vishwanath chakravarty thakur which describes the stages of bhakti . the first stage is utsahamayi( the enthisiastic stage ) when the sadhak is very eager to learn and thiks that he has mastered most of it . next comes ghanatarala(solid-liquid) when his bhakti sometimes solidifies and rises and sometimes wanes . the third stage is vyuda-vikalpa(decisive stage) when one ponders over what he wants to do do with his precious human birth .
i believe that most sadhaks have a combination of all the three stages in varying proportions . therefore what you felt was very natural .


another word of advice i would like to share with you . never attach yourself with a particular temple or a particular institution or a particular person (except your guru of course ) . because all three have imperfections which might show up at any moment and leave u confused . it wiser to attach yourself to an ideal - a bhava . say attachment to krishna , to gita , to vedic culture . all these r ideals . attachments to these does not bring in heartbreaks . they help one to progress quickly .

best of luck . god be with you always ....

radhe radhe..........

[Krsna Das]

Madhurya-Kadambini !! ....... Hari Bol....I ma so glad to know that youa re reading such a high class book on Vaishnava Philosophy.

My pranamas to you.

[sambya]

Madhurya-Kadambini !! ....... Hari Bol....I ma so glad to know that youa re reading such a high class book on Vaishnava Philosophy.

My pranamas to you.

haribol prabhu .....haha

actually when i was still in school i purchased the book out of enthusiasm . but quite obviously i didnt understand most of it , so the book was shelved . years later i took it out for a second try . this time i understood the meanings clearly , and now i must say that i have not yet come across such a beautifull explanation of bhakti yoga(the path that i follow) .

the stages of bhakti , the ways of sadhana --- what is mentioned there is simply beutifull and detailed . being born in bengal and being spiritually inclined i cant help myself from looking up to guaranga in awe and reverence . this has led to to many interesting places and books -- including charitamrita , hari bhakti vilasa(parts of it) etc . im yet to touch bhaktirasamrita sindhu though . heard of its glories many a times .actually the sweetness of chaitanya movement is irresistable, though i might not agree to modern GVs at some places .

my dandavats to you too...

gurugauranga jayatu....................

[ScottMalaysia]

I desire to finally meet a genuine temple who is not corrupt and with good intentions who will show me this true glrorious path which I've discovered through the mercy of the Lord.

Try the Gaudiya Math (www.purebhakti.com), run by Narayana Maharaj, a close friend of Srila Prabhupada. They are far less fanatical than ISKCON, not requiring that you chant 16 rounds every day before they'll give you initiation. They also do not have all the controversy that has plagued ISKCON (gurukula abuse, problems with gurus etc).

You could also check out the Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math (http://www.scsmath.com/), but I don't know much about them at all. This is just to show you that there are Gaudiya associations apart from ISKCON.

[LALKAR]

Namaste FS108,

Good News from you, May you meet Om person soon