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).

Radha Ramana's Appearance Day

May 2nd, Today was the appearance day of the Deity of Radha Ramana. Aproximately 500 years ago Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami, a close associate of Lord Caitanya and one of the famous Six Goswamis of Vrindavan, travelled to the Kali Gandaki River. In those days, making a religious pilgrimage was a trying experience as all travel was done by foot. A poor pilgrim (or a religious renunciate) often travelled with very few (or no) supplies, begging or receiving charity from the villages he passed through on the way. To travel from Vrindavan to Kali Gandaki River these days is still a long trip. From Delhi you can catch a 15 hour train to Gorakhpur in Northern India. From Gorakhpur you take a 3 hour bus ride to the Nepali border. From there it's a 10-14 hour bus ride to Katmandu. From Katmandu you take another 8 hour bus ride to the town of Pokhara, which is located at the foot (or is it feet?) of the Anapurna mountain range of the Himalayas. From Pokhara you have to arrange a "trecking permit" these days, and then you have two main options of how you can proceed: you can start walking; or you can take a 1/2 hour harrowing flight up the mountains to reach the high village of Jomsom. When we went, around 8 years ago, we only had enough money to fly one way...so we flew up, walked up to the famous pilgrimage place of Muktinatha (one day walk), and then turned around and walked almost all the way back down, which took us around 6 days. The Kali Gandaki River is a very famous pilgrimage place. The main reason is that in the River there are very special stones, known as Salagram Silas. A Salagram Sila is a black stone that, according to the religious texts of India, is considered non-different that Lord Vishnu. There is a story how Lord Vishnu was cursed once to take the form of these stones in the Gandaki River. The stones are all kinds of different shapes and sizes and they have natural markings, which indicate which incarnation of Vishnu this stone is. When a deity is carved, there must be a special "Pran Pratista", or installation ceremony that invites the Lord to come and reside within the deity. Salagram Silas however need no special ceremonies. The Lord is already present there, and can be immediately worshiped.

So, back to the story.... Gopal Bhatta Goswami walked to the Kali Gandaki River from Vrindavan. It must have taken him months and months to get there. On top of that he visited a place called Damodara Kunda (a small lake), which is a few days hike beyond that of the Muktinatha temple where we visited. When Gopal Bhatta wanted to perform his afternoon prayers he dipped his water pot into the River to retrieve some water for his ablutions 12 of these sacred Salagram Silas jumped into his pot. Gopal Bhatta, in a fit of extreme humility, returned the Silas to the water (thinking himself unfit to worship them), and made a second attempt to retrieve water. Much to his surprise, the same 12 Silas jumped into his pot again. Figuring this as the divine will of the Lord he accepted these 12 Silas and eventually returned to Vrindavan. Every day he would worship his Silas according to the rules and regulations laid down by the scriptures, and he was quite happy to do so. One day a wealthy merchant donated some clothing and ornaments to each of the Six Goswamis to be used in worshiping their deities of Radha Krishna. Gopal Bhatta Goswami accepted the charity and then was lamenting that he would be unable to utilize it in the service of his Salagram Silas. He then began to cry that although Vishnu had appeared to him in the form of the Salagram Silas, He did not appear to Gopal Bhatta in his most personal form of Krishna. Gopal Bhatta longed to worship the form of Lord Krishna and lamented all night long. The next morning when he went to perform the worship of his Salagram Silas he discovered that his Damodar Sila (Damodar is a name of Krishna) had turned into a full form of Krishna. This is the deity of Radharamana.Once Padmanabh Goswami the head priest of the Radha Ramana temple told me that Radha Ramana just popped like a piece of popcorn. He also mentioned that there are chakras, or natural markings, to prove that he was once a Salagram Sila on Radha Ramana's back.

Every day on the anniversary of this day, the deity is bathed in full view of the public with many auspicious substances. Water from the Yamuna River, milk, yogurt, ghee, honey, and green coconut water are just a few of the substances. It was incredibly crowded in the temple, but I managed to squeeze in the front for a pretty good view. After the Abhiseka, or bathing ceremony, was complete, they began to pass out cups of the sweet milky drink, known as caranamrta...literally means "Nectar from the Lotus feet", to all of the devotees who were watching. It was like nectar! We filled a liter bottle and took it back to our friend Nanda, who is house ridden due to advanced stages of MS. She was elated at the surprise treat! All glories to Sri Radha Ramana!

P.S. For an amazing panoramic photo of the Muktinatha area check out: http://www.pbase.com/svami/image/59318797/original

Chandan Yatra

April 21st was the first day of Chandan Yatra here in Vrindaban. This is a festival when the deities in all the temples are adorned with Chandan, or sandalwood paste. The reason for this festival is that this paste, when applied to the forehead or body, is very cooling (Did I mention that it's around 115º F here?) The temples decorate the deities of the temple with Chandan for 21 days.

The first night of the festival is always the best as the major temples in town cover their deities entirely with sandalwood paste. Radhacharan and I decided to go into town in the evening to visit some of the temples.

Our first stop was Radha Ramana temple. First of all, I think that I should mention that we rode our bikes on the Parikrama path instead of down the main road through town. This is a small road that goes around the entire town of Vrindaban, and is near the Yamuna river. It generally is much less crowded of a road to travel on during busy festival days, and the air is usually fresh, with a gentle breeze from the river. The road into town is generally too small in the city for two cars to pass, so it causes major traffic, congestion and pollution. Even on a bicycle I have been caught for 20 minutes trying to make my way through a massive and messy block of cars, camels, riksaws, motorbikes and cows. Yesterday, however, even the Parikrama road was busy (so I can't imagine how insane the traffic must have been on the main roads through town!!) As we cut into the town from a small alley that would lead us to the Radha Raman temple we saw hoards of people running/riding riksawa, sitting in cars etc. going from one temple to the next to see Krishna decked out in sandalwood paste on this special day.

When we finally made it to Radha Ramana's temple we were directed to enter from the back entrance by some security staff (hired for this special day only). When we entered the temple we were surprised to see a sprinkler suspended from the ceiling spraying the people in the middle of the temple room. I was of course totally paranoid that Radhacharan might fall, as there were several inches of water on the marble floor...but he made it up and down the steps without a hitch. Radha Ramana was wearing an outfit made entirely out of sandalwood paste. He was also out in front, much closer than usual, and it made for an intimate viewing experience.

After enjoying the cool water being sprayed, we and decided to continue on to the Radha Gokulananda temple, which is just down the road. Gokulananda, Radha Vinode, Radha Vijay Govinda, and the Govardhana Sila which Lord Caitanya personally gave to Raghunatha das Goswami over 500 years ago were adorned with Chandan there. The deity of Mahaprabhu, worshiped by Srila Narottam das Thakur stands to the left side.

After this we continued to the Radha Gopinatha temple, and then on to the Radha Syamasundara temple, the temple of Srila Syamananda pandit. They are usually the most beautiful in the the whole city on this day, but unfortunately they don't allow photos to be taken.

Radhacharan was a little overwhelmed physically by dealing with the massive pushing crowds (many many people come from out of town for this event, and most people who live in town are also out at this same time). He started to look a little shaky, so we decided to return home (on the parikrama road of course). We had a pleasant, quiet ride home, and then came back and drank lassis, a cooling yogurt smoothie.

There is always something interesting going on here!

A Visit to Belvan

Some old friends from Poland, Rasikendra and his wife Padma, are visiting here in Vrindavana, and last night we decided to go to Belvan this morning. This village on the other side of the Yamuna River, is the place where Lakshmi (the wife of Vishnu) came to perform austerities so that she could take part in the Rasa Lila dance with Lord Krishna. Unfortunately for her, because she was too attached to her position (of being the Goddess of Fortune, and the high rank of being the wife of Vishnu) she was never actually allowed entry into this confidential pastime of Krishna...the Rasa Dance.

Our reason for going there is that next door to the Lakshmi temple is a Gosalla that some of our cows from "Care for Cows" have been shifted to (do to a lack of space at our other facility.) I called our friend Pawan, who lives at that gosalla and manages it, to arrange a bullock cart to meet us on the other side of the Yamuna. It's a long walk to get to the Village, and with Radhacharan (Rafael) on crutches, it would impossible for him to join us, so Pawan arranged everything for Radhacharan's sake.

After crossing the Yamuna by boat, we boarded the bullock cart, pulled by Tilak, one of our young bulls from Care for Cows. I had previously been on a cart pulled by Tilak, and I tried to explain to my husband and our friends that Tilak is actually still being trained...so sometimes he doesn't do things exactly right. For example, if he is passing by the house of the driver, Omi, he will try to go there (because that's where he gets to eat nice fresh grass) and will pull the cart off the road, much against the driver's desire. Within the first five minutes of the ride, Tilak had to pull the cart up a small incline. In protest Tilak sat down, much to the embarrassment of the driver, and to our great amusement.

When we arrived at the Belvan Gosalla we called over Prem Sagar, who is a famous bull from Care for Cows. Prem is famous for his unbridled affection for humans. He is a quite large bull, but if you approach him he will immediately start to lick your face, without fail. It's quite amusing for the villgers, because they never saw such an affectionate and unaggressive bull before. Because Prem grew up around very affectionate humans who constantly brushed and petted him, Prem is just a big old softee. Our friends were quite amused by him.

After meeting the cows, and feeding them some spinach that I brought for them, we took a short walk to sit under some big trees at the back of the Laksmi temple. It was so hot out, but underneath those trees it was so pleasant and cool. Pawan calls this his "A.C. room". Then we continued on to the Yamuna river (which is another part of it, higher up and very clean...before the sewage of Vrindavan is "deposited" in it). Radhacharan decided that he wanted to take a swim in the river, so he removed his pneumatic boot/cast and went inside. I have to admidt, it was the happiest that I have seen him since the accident. Although he goes out daily to Care for Cows, and sometimes into to town on his bicycle...this was the first serious outing he had been on, and he felt very free in the water.

Afterwards we returned to the Gosalla, and sat in Pawan's sparse little room and ate some grapes and apples together that I brought. A little girl from the village, Puja , came into Pawan's room. Often the village kids come to visit him because he sometimes gives them candies or cookies. This is something that is totally unavailable there...so they have developed a real affection for him! We gave her some grapes to eat, and she was very shy in front of us. First of all, I am 100% sure that it was the first time she ever saw white people up close in her life, and secondly another 100% that it was her first time ever eating grapes.

On the way over to Belvan, Radhacharan had gotten into his head that he would like to eat Brijbasi Rotis. Brijbasis are the village people who were born in the area of Braj Mandal, or the Place where Krishna used to live. Rotis, or Chapatis, are a flat bread cooked on a griddle, and then placed in a fire to puff up. Pawan at this time asked this little girl (in the yellow dress) if she would make us some rotis, and she agreed and took us to her house.

Because it is harvest time for Wheat and Barley, all the men in the village were out in the fields, and only women and children were around. When we arrived at Puja's house, flanked by all the children in the entire neighborhood, the ladies at the house were quite surprised to see 4 white people visiting. They asked if we would like some water (which is a polite thing to ask guests in India...even if a person is poor, they can at offer water to a guest), but Pawan said to the ladies that his friends would like to eat some rotis. (I must add here, that in the village, this is not really rude. In older days of India...which still holds true in the village to this day, it is considered that the arrival of an unexpected guest is like Vishnu himself has come. Therefore it is with great happiness that a household serves a guest, and actually desires to feed them and take care of their needs.) The ladies of the house were so surprised and flustered at the arrival of their "foreigner" guests however that they just kept looking at us, and trying to decide which of the two of us ladies was married to which man, and none of them made a move to the kitchen. After watching the local kids showing off for us for quite some time, we decided to go next door to Omi, the driver's house. When we went there, Omi was quite proud to have us as guests, and started to make some lassi, which is a cooling drink made with yogurt and sugar. After a few minutes Puja came over and said that our rotis were ready, so we returned to her house, with Omi and the pitcher of lassi he made for us.

We were fed some puris (fried breads), potato stuffed puris, and a spicy dhal (bean soup) with potatoes. While we started on this (which was previously cooked) the ladies made fresh hot rotis for us. A brijbasi roti is totally different from the type of roti that is served in restaurants and houses all over India. It is much thicker, and more substantial. I have eaten tons of rotis before, and I have to say without a doubt these were the best I have ever had in my life. There is something quite different in taste and texture of a roti cooked in a regular kitchen on a gas stove, then to a village roti cooked over an open fire (fueled by wood or gobar patty). The natural fuel adds immensely to the taste of the food.

After eating (and drinking the lassi provided by the very pleased Omi), I took some pictures of the children, and the woman making the rotis. Then we left with Pawan and returned home by bullock cart.

All in all it was a really wonderful day. The hospitality of these "poor" villagers is much more cultured and kind then from the richest of city people. In cities, everyone wants something from you. Even here in Vrindavana it's a little crazy how people treat us (white people) as if we are walking wallets. Once I went to a little shop to buy some sugar and the owner of the shop (whom I had never met before) asked me to bring him a wrist watch then next time I went to "my country". I told him to get lost. But in the village, those people didn't want anything from us, they were really happy to serve us. It was without motivation. The next day, Pawan told us that all of the ladies in the village separately approached him and asked that he bring his "friends" to THEIR house next time!

All glories to Village culture!

So, please excuse my super belated entry!

On Feb 11th, while in Shanghai China, Rafael was hit by a car and had his ankle severely broken. He was due to fly to Bangkok the next day and stay for 8 days. The hospital in Shanghai wanted to perform immediate emergency surgery, but as the cost was estimated at $10,000 USD he decided to return to India for the operation. The doctor in Shanghai put a temporary cast on him and he returned to his Hotel around 11pm.

He somehow made it to the airport early the next morning and Thai airways immediately rescheduled his second leg of the flight so that he would fly from Bangkok to Delhi the same day. He arrived in Delhi on the 12th night, and on the 13th we checked into a very good hospital, Max Hospital in Noida, a suburb of Delhi. Actually the Indian Surgeon, Dr. Sanjay Sarup, said that the cast put on by the Chinese doctor was done so poorly that it made Rafael's foot swell up like a blown up rubber glove! It was at this point that we realized that it was a damn good thing that he didn't have the surgery done there! As the foot was too swollen at that point for surgery, we returned to Vrindavan on the 15th to wait for the swelling to go down. We returned on the 19th evening, and on the 20th morning his surgery was performed. The procedure took around 3 hours, and in order to "piece" his ankle back together the surgeon placed 8 screws, a metal plate, and a piece of bone from his hip into the ankle fractures.

When I was called into see him in the recovery room, even though he was totally out of it he showed his true form. He opened his eyes and looked at me and said "Excuse me Ma'am do I know you?" and then he proceeded to tell me that he was hungry and was lamenting that they wanted to keep him on a liquid diet for the rest of the day. When the anesthesia wore off, he was in serious pain even though he had a painkiller drip administered. He told me later that it was the worst day of his life. The day after the surgery the pain was greatly reduced, and I began to see the effects of the semi-narcotic painkiller manifesting in amusing anecdotes. Because the hospital allows an "attendant" (family member) to stay with the patient in the room I was with him the entire time and would sleep on the provided couch at night. After 4 days we returned home to Vrindaban.

The Hospital was very small and modern. We were very pleased with the facilities and service there...and of course the price. There were only 6 rooms on his floor, and three nurses on shift. We took a double room to cut down on costs (the surgery is charged on a sliding scale according to the type of room you get...so to stay in a single room would've made the surgery much more expensive) but the other bed was empty 3 out of the four days we were there!

Now Rafael is doing quite well...his spirits are always up, and he is recovering nicely. He will have the staples from the surgery removed this upcoming week, and then we will get a report from the Doctor on how he is progressing. He is getting quite sick of laying in his bed however, and makes a daily journey to the Gosalla that we do service at "care for cows" which is five minutes down the street from our place. The workers bring him there and back on a flat bed riksaw, and he really looks forward to his time outside everyday, and the chance to be licked by small calves!

Actually this gosalla takes care of injured and abandoned street cows from Vrindavan, so there are many cow patients who are in a similar situation as Rafael, so he feels right at home. We have several cows who have also been hit by cars and sustained broken bones. Our Vetrinarian for the cows also had a look at Rafael when he arrived with the cast!

People ask me all the time...what in the world do you do there?! To be quite honest, sometimes I don't have enough time in the day to do what I want! Radha Charan and I get up around 4:30-5:00 am to chant Japa, which is chanting a mantra that consists of names of God on beads. We do this for aproximately for one hour, and then we get ready to go to the Gosalla (cow shelter) which is a 2 minute bicycle ride down the street. At the Gosalla we feed the two baby deer, Radhika and Janardan, milk by bottle. After this we continue to chant, but with some interruptions from different four legged friends who want to be petted, brushed, fed etc. I return home around 7:30 am, while Radha Charan makes some deliveries (by bicycle) of milk to some of the Gosalla donors who live in the neighborhood. After this I clean the house, and then do puja (worship) of our deities at home. This takes around an hour. Part of the morning worship is making a food offering, so including cooking, this can take up to 2 hours (depending on what I cook of course!) After this we do "mantra smaranam", which consists of silently chanting some mantras given by the Guru at the time of initiation. This takes approximately 40 minutes. On average we manage to eat our breakfast between 10-11am, and finish (after some talking) around noon. After this, Radha Charan works on the computer for a few hours. I clean up after breakfast and puja, read, chant, or do whatever else I need to (other fine wifely chores like laundry etc!) around 4 pm twice a week I have a bengali lady who comes to give me a massage. It is very helpful for my cervical spondylosis that causes pain in my neck. She's such a super skinny lady who is so damn strong it's amazing...and a bit of a nut too. She charges 50 rupees ($1.25) for an hour and a half massage...so I can somehow afford to get twice a week! At 5 pm we return to the Gosalla to feed the deer their evening milk, and sit for more chanting. We leave approximately around 6-6:30, make evening milk deliveries, and eat dinner. On some evenings we go into town to visit some of the old temples. If we have some friends visiting, we will go earlier into town to show them around, and then eat later after we return. Our evening worship of our deities is done between 9-10pm, and then we "put them to rest" for the evening. We manage ourselves to go to sleep around 10:30 pm.... That's our average day.

I suppose for some it's not so terribly exciting, but the majority of our activities are based more on internal meditation...rather than external activity...so I suppose you can't really understand the full intensity of our day without understanding the mental focus that we strive for each moment.

Radha Charan is going to China tomorrow morning, and I will be making a trip to the Nepal border...to get stamped out of India (I will spend the night in Nepal, and then return the next day), so I won't write for a week or so. Wish me luck!

Nityananda-trayodasi

Today is the Birthday of Nityananda Prabhu. Five hundred years ago, Caitanya Mahaprahu, a direct incarnation of Krishna was born in West Bengal. His brother Nityananda (literally means "eternal bliss"), is an incarnation of Krishna's brother Balaram....and today is his birthday. What? God has a brother? Actually Nityananda, or Balaram is an expansion of the Lord (which means that he is also God.) There is much philosophical reasoning as to why the Lord would expand himself into two...but to make it easy I will just say that he does it for fun.

How fun is it to create a really groovy looking place, with all kinds of creatures and interesting places, and have to enjoy it alone? Lord Caitanya had many normal "human" associates, but none understood him in the same way that Nityananda did.

To celebrate Nityananda's birthday today I cooked a big feast for him. Here is a picture of our altar with the feast being offered. I am only sorry that Radha Charan cut off some of the preparations on the photo so you can't see them all!

I made 9 subjis (vegetable preperations): peas,eggplant, milk curd in tomato sauce; Dudh lau (Indian squash cooked in milk); aloo postho (potatoes with a white poppy seed sauce); Palak paneer (spinach with milk curd); Cauliflower, potato, pumpkin, tomatoes and milk curd; barbari postho (beans in white poppy seed sauce); palak bora (spinach with fried mung bean fritters); chana tamatar (chickpea and tomatoes with ginger); methi aloo (fenugreek leaves with potato)
*
pea kachoris (indian savory pastry) and dhaniya (fresh coriander) chutney
Rice
Buckwheat
Kheer (sweet rice pudding)
Gur Sandesh (a sweet made from milk curds and date sugar)
Chocolate cake (what's a birthday party without a cake?)

Today we fasted until noon (which wasn't a problem for me since I was busy in the kitchen untill 1pm!). Today we will not eat any grains (in honor of the holiday), and will consume the feast tomorrow.

It took five hours of cooking to produce this feast...wish you were here to try some of it!

Some old friends from Poland are in town, and in the evening we went together to Nityananda Vat, an old temple near the Yamuna river to have darshan (which literally means to "see with respect") the deities of Gaura Nitai (Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda) there. This is the place where Nityananda sat under a banyan tree when he visited Vrindavan around 500 years ago. There was a group of bengali Vaisnavas singing beautiful bengali songs about Lord Nityananda, and we were invited for a big Harinam (singing party) that will go through the old town of Vrindavan tomorrow, and then return to the temple for a feast. I love those big Harinams with Bengalis...it is always so wonderful to see so many Vaisnavas together who, using singing as their medium, dive so deeply into the worship of God with such love and emotion.