Every year during the lunar month called "Kartik" I go to stay in the Village of Radha Kund where my Gurudev lives. This is a special month of the year, because the results of any religious activities that you perform during this month are magnified 1,000 times. If you perform those religious activities in Braja Dham, or the place where Radha and Krishna lived and performed their pastimes, then the results are magnified 10,000 times!
Of course for those people who are focused on trying to obtain direct service to the divine couple, Radha and Krishna, we are not actually interested in "benefits" of such religious activities. We simply want to please Radha and Krishna.
My Guru puts a particular stress on performing what is known as "Niyam Seva". This means that during the month of Kartik (actually for traditional Gaudiya Vaisnavas this starts the Ekadasi before Kartik and runs until the last Ekadasi of Kartik month...so It's technically a few days different....) that one takes particular vows and follows them for a whole month. It means that one should follow a schedule, and do exactly the same thing every day.
The holiest place for a Gaudiya Vaisnava is Braj Mandala, where Krishna used to live. Out of the 12 forests/Vanas of Braj, Vrindaban is considered to be the best. Out of the area of Vrindaban, Govardhan is considered to be the best. And in the are of Govardhan, Radha Kund is considered to be the best. Therefore Radha Kund is the topmost sacred place for all of the Gaudiya Vaisnavas, and that is where my Guru says we should perform Niyam Seva.
I don't take so many particularly heavy vows...my main vow is to increase my chanting. During Kartik I chant a minimum of 1 lakh names (100,000 names or 64 rounds). I also attend Kunja Banga Kirtan (which is only sung during the month of Kartik). That is a collection of songs about what Radha and Krishna are doing in the kunj prior to Mangal arati. It is about how everyone is trying to wake them up, offer arati and then send them back to their separate homes before anyone in their families notice that they are gone. This actually starts around 2:55 a.m., so it's a bit of an austerity to take that as a vow to go ever morning no matter what! I also eat only once a day (after sunset) and eat no grains during that moth. Hmmm....what else? Well I don't wear any shoes for that month, bathe once a day in Radha Kund (the small holy lake that the village is named after) and I attend several lectures a day. Basically that's it...I mean my schedule is pretty full from 2:30 a.m. until about 8 p.m., but I have to admit that I did have "feeding chipmunks with roasted peanuts" scheduled in there as well!
I had the great fortune of being able to stay a house that belongs to some friends of mine, Ananda Hari and his wife Braja Kishori, who live in America. They purchased a small house, not far from the Kund (the small lake) about a year ago with the plan to eventually move there permanently (hopefully sooner than later!). It's a small house with a nice small garden with the Samadhi of Srila Narahari Sarkar Thakur in it. It has the wonderful advantage of being very close to the Kund, but at the same time very quiet.
After returning home after Kunja Banga Kirtan (around 4:30 a.m.), I would basically spend the entire day alone in the house/garden (with the exception of going out to buy flowers/vegetables in the market during the morning) until around 4 p.m.. I tried to spend as much time as possible as to make an intense focus on my spiritual practice during this month, so I was also doing some extra internal meditation as well. In the evening I would attend the lecture and speak briefly with a friend or two afterwards (but briefly as I had to go home and cook dinner...remember I wouldn't eat my only meal until approximately 7:30 p.m. each day.) The first week and a half I was there my husband was in China. Then he joined me there for almost 2 weeks, and then returned to china for another 2 weeks. It was a very solitary month for me without much contact or conversation with people (other than myself!).
There are a few things that I really liked about this month, but I think I will write a separate entry about them.
