December 5th-8th

NYC
Rotten apple. Please forgive my cynicism.
When I am in New York, I realize how many wonderful desires I have stored in me that just need the right environment to come out. New York is that environment for all my disgusting desired to manifest. All glories to the devotees that live there. I prefer the forests of New Vrindaban. When I left my first temple I was actually on my way to New York to live with the brahmacaris there, as they were starting their new ashram. On my way, I stopped in New Vrindaban, started milking the cows, working in the garden, painting the temple, the first festival of inspiration came along and now its been over five years. Krsna saved me. I don’t know if ill ever be qualified to live there and preach.

We have a few stories in New York. It was supposed to be a one and a half day trip. Turned into Four. Krsna’s mercy.

Day one started with lunch prasadam at the home of “VBD”(for those in the know). Lots of jokes and discussion about sharing KC with the youth today. We pay the entry fee for New York City Land and arrive to 26 2nd Ave for the Tuesday Evening Program. Its always nice to associate with the New York devotees, they have a certain “city” way in which they carry themselves, talk, think, and overall relate with others. A bit different than West Virginia. The Brahmacari’s here are a very special class of Vaisnavas. The are a exemplary due to being brahmacaris in New York, over the age of thirty, preaching at colleges, filled with humilty, talent, faith, compassion, sincerity, seriousness, and quite scholarly. We hold their lotus feet and pray for their mercy upon our country wildness.

We are all old friends and many of us are direct Godbrothers. Together we chanted, danced and fell unconscious(after prasadam).

On Wednesday Chaitany Prabhu went to Union Square with Kerel and Chris. Later the next day we found out that while they were there a young man was stabbed to death just a few meters from where they were chanting. We hope he was aable to her the chanting of the holy names at his death.

As Chaitanya left for sankirtan I asked him to double check on the car. He called me a bit later an said that the car was gone. Where it had gone no one knew because it was properly parked in a designated area. I said let us figure it out later, go on chanting. In the evening we all met at Brooklyn’s Sri Sri Radha Govinda Mandir. At the request of the local Vaisnavas we cooked the evening feast in one hour and fifteen minutes flat. Dhal rice, subji, halavah. Salad, dressing, and drink. We ran up stairs for kirtan and a wonderful class given by HH Chandrashekar Maharaja. Maharaja is from New Vrindaban . We Pray that he will one day return from the city life and retire to the forest. I guess in Kali yuga somethings are backwards. Maharaja told many stories from Gita Mahatmya. Even Elephants are liberated by half a verse what to speak of us! We chanted and chatted into the late night hour with Ananta Prabhu and Akincina Krsna Prabhu. Expert kirtaniyas!!!!! We always long to hear the sound of their kirtan and participate along side them if they so bless us. I think that Brooklyn temple kirtans are preventing New York from being submerged completely underwater due to sinful acts. All glories to Satya devi for maintaining the Brooklyn temple. She needs help- everyone go and help serve Radha Govinda! Perfection of life. We make it to the ashram and sleep at 2am. Luckily Mangal arati is at 6:15am.

Today we get on top of the car thing. We find out it was towed, but we can’t get any information unless we know the license plate number-which we didn’t. While chanting gayatri mantra I had the rememberance: It’s on the parking ticket you got in Philadelphia. Thank God for parking tickets. The have many uses. We look up online what has happened and find out that last year the devotees(other than me) used this vehicle to come to NYC . While here they got three tickets in a matter of three days. Each ticket was left unpaid and the total amount due for tickets was four hundred dollars plus three hundred and fifty dollars for the towing! Our hearts were struck and we immediately called Gita Nagari and Penn state and cancelled our programs for the next few days. Who knew, we might be in NYc for a lot longer than we expected. Who knows what Krishna had in plan.

Luckily, Chaitany Prabhu’s father is a lawyer and taught him the art of getting out of any trouble. Within a few hours of phone calls we find out that we get off with out paying for anything as long as we show certain documents about Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Another moment of “who would have thought bankruptcy could save us again!” With a few phone calls, faxes, a couple mile walk, and a train ride we arrive at a crowded, loud NYC parking attorneys office. We spent a total of five hours there. We chanted, read, prayed, and mostly watched the same 15 minute news rerun over and over again. At four thirty the lawyer called us in and says we don’t have to pay but we need more documents and we have to come back tomorrow and go through the whole process again. He hands me a paper and says” here take this to the marshal before five and she wont sell your car tomorrow. Its just two blocks up.” I check the clock and it’s four forty five. At that time our friend Tara calls us and says “I am waiting outside for you and can take you to the next place”. We go down stairs and Tara drives up in a stretch limosine. As we enter the limosine in our dhotis and chaddars everyone looks at us in surprise and confusion. “Is that the Dhali Lama?” We end up getting stuck in NYC traffic so I renounce the limo and run not two blocks but ten in the freezing cold evening air. I head up the building to a closet like room on the 11th story of a hundred. I just make it in as some one locks me into the office. I passed the paper work on in just the nick of time. For the next half hour Chaitanya and I cruised around NYC in our limosine. What irony is it that for half the day we are dealing with car issues and as a reward we are living the dream of many people out there and cruising in a limosine around soho area. Chaitanya almost stuck his head out of the sunroof remembering the movie ”BIG”. Tara dropped us off at the asram and we all came into take darshan of Sri Sri Radha Murli Dhara. Tara has this realization which was proven true: Whenever I am in the city if I have the desire to take darshan of the lord, if I don’t hesitate and immediately act on it I will always get a perfect parking spot in front of the temple. If I hesitate, I can drive around for hours and never find a close spot. This evening he wanted to take darshan and even with the stretch limosine he got the very front parking spot right on first avenue! He’s got devotion which is reciprocated with. Its hard to get parking in NYC.

The next day it was the Disappearance day of HDG Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. Brahmacari’s hold this day to be very special. We all felt that the primary reason why our car was towed(despite our negligence of government rules) was so we could spend the day with the other Brahmacaris. There are not so many brahmacaris in America these days so it was quite a memorable sanga. Tight morning program, excellent class by HG Yajna Purusa Prabhu, a quick 26 degree walk to take darshan and pray to Srila Prabhupada at Thompson square park. It was indeed there that Srila Prabhupada fulfilled the desire of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. Puspanjai and a few hours of Realizations, guru puja, and kirtan. When it is just the boys sometimes things get a bit wild. Despite the urgency to leave and get the car issue taken care of we stayed and absorbed our selves in eternally benefiting activities knowing that if Krishna has so sanctioned we will get the car back if not we wont. At three oclock we headed to the office. And within two hours everything was squared away and we were off to the impound lot. The impound lots guys were tough looking yet very compassionate to us. Kirhsna sanctioned our departure. We head to the asram threw all our belongings in the car and leaft as quickly as possible! NYC see ya later! We returned to Pricenton and stayed the night at Tara Prabhu’s.