It's a bit warm here....

It's hot. Really hot. HOT!!!! Not much to do when it's over 120° F/50° C. All you can do is stay inside. You either go out (to shop or visit temples/friends) in the morning or the evening. From 11am-5pm it's near suicide to be outside.

Just outside the windows of our apartment is a garden in the neighbor's yard. We have a great view of a big mango tree there. I will be going to Ohio in 4 days to visit my family, and I am already missing those little details about Vrindaban that make it a fantastic place to live. For example, watching young monkeys play in the garden early morning (before it gets hot around 6 am), or checking out the Male peacock who also comes almost every day to strut around and show off his beautiful feathers just incase any peahens are looking. I also love seeing the faces of the different saintly Vaisnavas as they perform parikrama (circulatory walk around the city of Vrindaban bare foot...it takes around 2 hours at a leisurely pace).

The traditional Indian calendar is based on the moon cycles, so there is a lot of variation of dates of Holidays as opposed to a sun based calendar. Every three years there is an extra month called Purusottama month. This month is an especially great time for performing religious vows and austerities. Everyday there are thousands of people performing the circumabmulation of Vrindaban. Whole families do this, and many of them come from great distances to do Dandavat parikrama (circumambulating by performing a series of full-body prostrations one after another in a line). The town is full of the hustle and bustle of pilgrims and saints performing their extra religious vows ever day of this month. It's a kind of devout hustle however, and I find it quite inspiring to see so many people drawn to Vrindaban, the place of Yugal Kishor (Radha and Krishna). Actually during the different lunar months of the year, different incarnations of the Lord are meant to be worshiped. The presiding deity of the Purusottama month is Radha Krishna. That is why Vrindaban is so popular during this month, because it is the place of Radha and Krishna!

Today I rode my bike up near the ISKCON temple to pick some fresh curry leaves to make some of my famous sweet and spicy eggplant pickle for Radhacharan to take with him to Poland (he's going to visit his family while I am in the States). In the alley near MVT, I met a little abandoned calf with a small wound on her right front knee. After some difficulty in getting anyone to help me, Radhacharan came up on his bike to assist me in getting that calf onto a riksaw with me. I got a lot of funny looks from people, riding with a cow on my lap, but what the heck! We took her to the Care for Cows Gosalla and named her Priti (which means love in Sanskrit).