The Diary of a Travelling Abhijit -- USA : October 02-15, 2007.

0648, October 03, 2007
Royal Pacific Resort, Orlando, Florida

Background Music : Narration of Sri Brahma Samhita (with translations) by H. G. Dravida Prabhu.

This is the first time since I left office (Pune), that I have got some time to write. I left Pune office at 1600 in a taxi (Innova) and reached the Mumbai International Airport at around 2030. Along the way I heard lectures by H. G. Chaitanya Charan Prabhu. At the airport, I read “Salted Bread” by H. G. Sarvabhavana Prabhu. More about this book some other day.

It is my first time to the US, or for that matter, to any other foreign country. I love to travel and a few years ago I was madly fascinated about foreign travel. I used to gorge on travel documentaries on TV channels like The National Geographic and the Discovery. I used to long for traveling all over the world... so much so that it hurt. Such is the evil of material desire. To become mad for something external which one knows without doubt that even if achieved, is going to last for only an insignificant fraction of the time spent in obtaining it. On the contrary, spiritual desire itself is its fulfillment! Immediately. Because the process and goal of the spiritual path are both the same –- always remember Krishna and never forget Krishna. All visible manifest activities in devotional service are a side effect of this essential principle -- always remember Krishna and never forget Krishna.

I was quite relaxed all the way through. Even at the airports, where the documents are checked a lot of times by the airport authorities. Generally, such checks evoke a feeling of nervousness similar to the one that one experiences before an academic examination. Its as if I have just traveled from Pune to Mumbai or Delhi, not thousands of miles away from India. Well, that’s how it should be ideally, and I am glad it is so with me. But still, I must say, that I am quite impressed. Not by myself, but by this glorious unparalleled Krishna Consciousness movement started by none other that the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Gauranga and distributed indiscriminately by His purest servant and lover Srila A. C. BhaktiVedanta Swami Prabhupada.

I reached Orlando after changing my flight at New York city. At the John F. Kennedy International Airport (NYC), I had time enough to chant quite a few rounds. Rest of them I completed on the flight. At Orlando airport, I found that my luggage had gone to Atlanta and was coming from there in the next flight. So we waited at the Orlando airport for an hour or so. I used this good opportunity to take quite a few snaps. I must say that it’s an impressive airport. After a 30 minute cab ride (with a very talkative and informative cab driver), we reached the Royal Pacific Resort at the heart of the Universal Studios. I had come to attend a 3 day technical conference.

The hotel is quite beautiful. The construction is old style and more like a castle than an ultra modern super structure. I’ll let the snaps do the talking about that. 1900 to 2100 we were supposed to be at a ballroom where the various exhibits were setup and food was laid out. If one can call it food.

I was greeted by a strong un-ignorable aroma (stench) of some eatables. When I went close, I saw a roasted pig lying on the table. Also heard someone mention beef. All this quite put me off. After hanging around for a few minutes I returned to my room and caught up on my sleep. I woke up today at 0415 and after a bath started chanting at 0437. After finishing chanting at around 0630, I started writing this diary.

Abhijit
0730, October 03, 2007

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0558, October 05, 2007
Royal Pacific Resort, Orlando, Florida

After I wrote my last diary entry (on October 03), I went to the conference area and executed my various professional duties. These included visiting the various “innovation exhibits” and attending the various lecture sessions. I think this conference was very helpful to me professionally and perhaps to most others who attended. My vision of what my company does has expanded. Also, I now have a much better feel of what innovation is. In fact, that’s not surprising because innovation is one such thing that is understood more and more with experience. It has surely motivated me to actively start looking out for innovative ideas myself. Apart from that, the sessions by the leaders of the company like the CEO and heads of the various business units have given me a feel of how important it is for all of us to be innovating continuously and always executing efficiently to keep our company in a strong position in our business market. All this was a reminder to me once again that I am part of an important strategic operation that is running the company and battling against the various forces that naturally oppose our progress in the highly competitive environment of modern international business of which I am a small part of.

As is quite obvious, such conferences are full of the mode of passion. And mixed to a large extent with the mode of ignorance. I find that in this technical conference, it is accepted as a matter of fact that enjoyment means liquor. And perhaps meat eating is considered like breathing air. No second thoughts. The last two days I hardly found anything that I could eat. Both these days I had bread crumps, half a bun, salad, some sauce, cheese, and butter for lunch. Even in that I am not sure whether I have eaten what I am not supposed to. Rest of the “food” was quite unmentionable. Thanks to my mom who had sent with me a lot of home made snacks -- chiwda, gul poli (jaggery roti), laddu (sweet balls). Apart from this H. G. Chaitanya Charan Prabhu had given me some cookies too! With all this support, I am doing quite fine here in this land of illusion and delusion. And I am beginning to understand what it means to eat just 3 slices of salted bread every day for 730 days in a prison where rats weighing 5 kg are hosts rather than guests. My most humble obeisances to the Russian devotees who took unimaginable pains so that Lord Chaitanya’s mission could flourish all over the world. How dear will they be to the Supreme Personality of Godhead? And what can be a more successful life than that? (For more, read “Salted Bread” by H. G. Sarvabhavana Prabhu).

Its very easy to get carried away with the rest when in such a hostile (to Krishna Consciousness) environment. Everyone (most) is eating meat and drinking as if that’s the most natural thing to do. Apart from this mode of ignorance, the mode of passion is the norm throughout. This is a very high profile technical conference. A lot of the best talent from the company is here. Plus yesterday there was a keynote lecture by a co-founder of one of the most successful and in-the-news company now-a-days. The day before yesterday we heard from our CEO. All these people are very attractive materially. They have achieved what young technologists dream of. Technical accomplishments, fame, wealth, respect. And they still have the motivation for doing more. All this and the general setting -- the 5 star hotel, the swimming pools, the grand halls, the stylish presentations, the engineers turning up in shorts, the awards and recognitions, the bright lights, the energetic music, and so on… -- totally makes one forget the goal of life.

This trip to the US and especially to this high profile conference has opened my eyes to Prabhupada’s instruction of “Chant 16 rounds and follow 4 regulative principles”. If it were not for these regulations, I would not have been able to remain very Krishna Conscious for long. The 16 rounds of Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare are the life force of a practicing devotee. This is what keeps one rooted to where one belongs. This is what reminds us of the goal of life. This is what immunizes us from the forces of Maya. And to the extent we take shelter of these nectarean Holy Names, to that extent we will be safe. Otherwise, it just takes one uncontrolled sense to carry us away on a journey of no return. Just imagine, in this conference, just how easy it is for one to just pick up a piece of meat and taste it? How easy it is to just take a sip of wine? How easy it is to switch on the TV behind the closed door of the hotel room and indulge in unbridled sense gratification? No one will no the difference and no one will really care and most probably one will get encouragement for doing all this! In such a dangerous place, one can easily plant in oneself the seed of sense gratification which looks quite harmless in the beginning but will quite soon grow into a wild creeper that entangles one in the inescapable web of uncontrolled desires for sense gratification.

This is the last day of the conference and thankfully soon I will return to a more conservative lifestyle. I’ll still be in the US for another 8-9 days but surely it wont be in such an extravagant setting. Moreover, the coming days hold a lot of promise. I will be meeting devotees! Let me tell you that that is a really happy feeling. I am also very eager to go to a temple and take darshan of my dear Lord Krishna. I really am looking forward to that.

Just to conclude this diary entry, I must say that events in the last week or so have given me a lot of food for thought. Just before coming to the US, I had attended a team building workshop which I found quite wonderful. And then this conference which was also quite good professionally. It wont be uncommon that I would have to attend such events as I keep growing in my professional career. I have to now learn how to handle the bombardment of the mode of passion from such events. How to take away from these only that that will help me professionally and yet will also enhance me spiritually, or at least wont hurt me spiritually. This looks like quite a tough problem. But I am sure I will find someone to discuss this with. ISKCON has no dearth of devotees who are doing great materially and yet are quite untouched by it as is evident by their spiritual exploits.

Hare Krishna!

Abhijit.
0715, October 05, 2007.

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0942, October 06, 2007
Hartsfield International Airport, Atlanta, Georgia

I am sitting in a noisy terminal of this massive (and the world’s busiest) Atlanta airport. All the noise is coming from that most annoying one-eyed modern guru – the television. And whats more, its blaring out its most useless and distracting shows – the news. In the last one hour or so I have heard about a sportsperson owning up some illegal activity which might cost the athlete some Olympic gold medals, about a 15 year old girl attempting to escape the police pleading (screaming) innocence all the while, about a bill that is being considered in the parliament whether to pass or not, about how better to avoid junk email, about whether a particular insurance company was right in not paying the insurance money to some of its customers who had had an auto accident… I wanted to chant my remaining 5 rounds here but its just not possible with this most irritating TV show blaring. I will chant on my next flight to San Francisco that will take off at 1110. The good news is that I have just put on loud music on my ears – kirtans! Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare!

But the last 24 hours have been great! I checked out from the Royal Pacific Resort and checked my yahoo mail the first time after leaving Pune. After that I waited in the hotel’s lobby for H. G. Balaramacharya Prabhu. There was a period of crisis in between when I lost his phone number and thus was only depending on Krishna’s mercy for the both of us to meet without much confusion. As it so happened, I was standing out of the hotel when Balaramacharya Prabhu came and somehow recognized me. We had never met before. Perhaps he saw that I was the only lost looking guy around and guessed that this would be Abhijit :-) Or perhaps Krishna told him from within his heart. With devotees one never knows. Anyways, while waiting for him, I was immersed in reading the book “Salted Bread”… all my mental acrobatics about “how to balance material life and spiritual life?” came to an end. I cannot explain how reading the book caused this to happen… but it did happen.

(I just stopped listening to the kirtans because I don’t want to miss the boarding announcement…)

I was very happy to be with a devotee. We didn’t know each other before this meeting but as it always happens amongst devotees, it felt as if we were old friends.

(started playing the “Festival of India” video. just couldn’t bear the news!)

Balaramacharya Prabhu took me to his house where he stays with two others. One of them is an ISKCON devotee – Ram Prabhu - and the other one also accepts Krishna to be the Supreme though he is not associated with ISKCON. Well, not yet :-) Balaramacharya Prabhu’s association might change all that. I had a bath and guess what? A hot steaming dinner Prasadam was getting cooked! After offering it to the Lord, both of us honoured it. And it really was nectar. It really was.

Can things get better? Devotee association in Orlando, Florida? Well, as a matter of fact, it can. How about a visit to H. H. Trivikrama Swami Maharaj? Yes! Balaramacharya Prabhu took me to the house where Maharaj stays presently. I offered obeisances and he asked me whether I have any question and if not whats the use of coming to a Sanyasi. :-) Well, then I did ask him about the question that was on top of my mind a few hours ago. How to handle the bombardment of the mode of passion. He answered that one can do our work sincerely without getting feverish about it. And always remember this one line – we are eternal but this material world and material body is temporary. He said a few other things too but I wont go into the details here.

I was really feeling very peaceful and relaxed as soon as I was with Balaramacharya Prabhu. It was as if I was back in home territory where it is very normal to be Krishna Conscious. After coming back to the house I slept. Got up today at around 0350. After having a bath we all went again to where Maharaj stays. We attended the Mangal Arati and then left for the Orlando airport. Balaramacharya Prabhu and Ram Prabhu were really rally nice to me and they quite expertly tolerated me. Humble obeisances to them.

(Will continue later.. perhaps in the flight. 1030)

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0637, October 07, 2007
Oakwood Mountain view, California

The sky has just started to light up. I have completed my 16 rounds and am ready for the day. It promises to be a wonderful Sunday since I am going to meet H. G. Jai Nitai Prabhu. He has kindly offered to take me to the Berkeley temple and also give me a tour of San Francisco.

I just want to mention one point. Devotees practicing in the US are very special. The culture here (or the lack of it) is not at all conducive to the mode of goodness. For some reason women here in general like to roam around in shorts (very short shorts) and in general like to flaunt their bodies. Even if they are not very attractive. I am quite perplexed about this. Men here cover more of their bodies than women do. This is my general observation. So far I have stayed in a 5 star hotel and most of the rest of the time on international airports. Perhaps that’s why I have had such observations. Let see what I observe in the next week where I will be leading a more normal life of going to office everyday. Apart from this, the food here is also so much in the mode of ignorance. I took some peanuts on the aeroplane and its ingredients mentioned “onion and garlic powder”. I have started looking at the ingredients of packaged drinking water too! One never knows what they will put in that.

The locality around Oakwood is quite charming. Havent explored it yet but this is my first impression. The whether is also very nice and a little bit chilly. I enjoy this kind of whether.

That’s it for now. More later.

Abhijit.
0653.

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1925, October 09, 2007
Oakwood Mountain view, California

Last Sunday was a very special day. I left my Oakwood apartment around 0730 and walked to the Mountain View Caltrain Railway Station which is about a 10 minute walk. Then I managed to buy a one-way ticket to San Francisco from the vending machine. I inserted in it a $20 bill and got the ticket and the $14.25 change. I had never bought a ticket from a machine before :-). Here was another instance of how faith is required in almost all day-to-day activities. If I had not put faith in the vending machine, I would never have got a ticket.

I boarded the 0819 train. It was quite a comfortable ride. After 1 hour and 14 minutes, at around 0930, I was in San Francisco. I then called H. G. Jai Nitai Prabhu. He came in around 15 minutes. I spent the whole day with him till 2045 in the evening.

Jai Nitai Prabhu is a disciple of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. He is a cab driver. He has a deep understanding of philosophy and his knowledge about spiritual subject matters is extensive. He is a joy to be with. He is soft spoken and grave and light hearted and very wise. He reads a lot and has a deep sense of gratitude towards his spiritual master. He is a Vaishnava. Jai Nitai Prabhu had been working all night the previous night and still he came. He is now-a-days working 6 days-and-nights (with rest in between ofcourse) a week with only Sunday night off. He has to handle the bad association of the typical cab drivers and other similar people he has to interact with. And yet, just like a lotus that grows in the dirt and that remains dry even if there are drops of water on it, Jai Nitai Prabhu is a lotus who is living in the spiritually bankrupt big American city of San Francisco and who is quite untouched by the bad association of the other practitioners of his vocation. What a sweet and touching setting.

Jai Nitai Prabhu offered me a ride through the city of San Francisco. We went to the Golden Gate Bridge and I took a lot of snaps from different vantage points. We saw the very famous Lombard Street and also a monument called the Palace of Fine Arts. We also visited a garage for some errand he had and also visited the place where Jai Nitai Prabhu parks his cab every day after work and then takes his own car to his house in Concorde (if I remember the name right).

We also had lunch together. In a veg restaurant! The restaurant is run be a Chinese (I think) owner who is a disciple of a female guru who has apparently done tapasya in the Himalayas. Their philosophy is close to Buddhism. But at least they seem to believe in vegetarianism. We ate “Tomato Fish” and “Eggplant Curry”. The first dish is actually made of veg ingredients packaged in the shape of a fish and wrapped around in a sea-weed to give it the fish flavour. Jai Nitai Prabhu likes this dish very much though I am not mad after the “fishy” flavour. But I especially enjoyed the eggplant (brinjal) curry that I ate with rice. All the while we were there I could see two ladies on another table. One of them was quite elderly and was wearing a Saree.

The Saree did catch my attention a couple of times. And then suddenly Jai Nitai Prabhu realized that these two were devotees whom he had met earlier! We went over and said Hare Krishna! The elderly lady was… hold your breath… the one who has been taking care of cleaning Srila Prabhupada’s Samadhi in Vrindavan for the last quite some years – Her Grace Parvati Devi Dasi Mataji! She is ofcourse a disciple of Srila Prabhupada! It was such a privilege to talk to her. The other Mataji was also no less. She was Her Grace Nirakula Mataji, the wife of His Grace Vaisesika Prabhu – an accomplished book distributor and a Prabhupada man! Both Prabhupada disciples ofcourse. She invited me to the San Jose temple on Wednesday. Vaisesika Prabhu is currently temple president of the San Jose temple. Ofcourse I will try to go.

We also went to the Berkely ISKCON temple – New Jagannath Puri. It is not too big but it is a very beautiful temple. It has got the deities of Sri Sri Gaur Nitai, Sri Sri Jagannath Baladev Subhadra (carved by His Grace Shyamsunder Prabhu), and Sri Sri Radha Gokulananda. We attended the Bhagavad Gita lecture there and then left the temple at around 2015. We reached the San Francisco Caltrain station at around 2045. I said goodbye (Hare Krishna) to Jai Nitai Prabhu and then boarded the 2100 train back to Mountain View. It was around 2240 by the time I reached Oakwood. I was a bit sad that the Berkeley temple doesn’t seem to have a big congregation and also there are not too many Brahmacharis living there. Even preaching activities like Harinaam, college preaching etc. are not going on very strongly. Because there are no Brahmacharis. I really want that everyone realizes the value of Krishna Consciousness and all ISKCON temples should be teeming with enthusiastic devotees all the time. They say that the Los Angeles temple has lot of Brahmacharis.

The last two days were quite eventless. I went to office in the morning, worked a bit, and came back to Oakwood. On Monday I went to lunch with a colleague here to an Indian restaurant where I got aloo-gobi (without onion and garlic) and chapattis. The office is a 20-minute brisk walk away from Oakwood. The whether here has been quite gorgeous these last few days and it really enhanced the pleasure of my San Francisco trip.

Mountain View is a suburb and is quite a laid back place. There is no hustle bustle of city life here. That one can find in San Francisco. So, I was pleasantly surprised with the surroundings. They are quite charming. Only thing missing is Krishna Consciousness. And therefore, its not such a nice place after all :-)

Hare Krishna!
Abhijit.
(Final touches on October 10, 2007, 0815-0839)

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1635, October 13, 2007
Symantec Office, Mountain View, California

Well, if last Sunday was special, today was no less so. I tend to get so much mercy from above that I am ashamed of myself that I am not advancing in devotional service at all despite the mercy. I better rectify the situation and not let go by this wonderful opportunity of going back to the spiritual world. Anyways… Before going into today’s details let me just quickly recap what I did the last few days.

Wednesday, we went on a team lunch here to an Italian restaurant. I managed to find a pizza that had just the right ingredients. One of the other good things about this trip, among the many others, was that now everyone in my Mountain View team knows that I am seriously following ISKCON. I think that’s good preaching for starters. Soon I hope H. G. Vaisesika Prabhu (president of the San Jose Temple) and his army will march into Mountain View and conquer this particular stronghold of Maya. They are making big plans already!

On Thursday, I went for dinner at a colleague’s place. And guess what, we talked a lot about Krishna Consciousness! He is married and with a kid and believes that he is a ‘paapi’ or a sinner because he drinks and eats meat and so on. He was very receptive to what I was telling him and even when I tried to change the subject, he persevered with more questions on Krishna Consciousness and my involvement with it. He did express his desire to someday lead a purer life. I suggested that he can as well start tomorrow! 5 minutes of Hare Krishna chanting every day. I don’t think he will start so soon but hopefully Prabhupada has planted a seed of devotional service in his heart making me the instrument.

On Friday evening, i.e. yesterday evening, I went to meet my elder cousin brother in San Carlos. He is a big shot in the Software industry and is very good at what he does. He is a nice guy, in the colloquial usage of the phrase. I like to spend time with people who are good at what they do because that way I can learn a lot from them about how to achieve my goals efficiently. Most of the techniques and thought processes they apply can be easily applied in our lives and can be directed towards attaining our spiritual goals. Just before coming to the US I had asked His Grace Chaitanya Charan Prabhu about whether we should learn some things from the materialists or not. He replied that we definitely can. In fact, a lot of times materialists are more serious about achieving their material goals than devotees are in achieving their spiritual ones. So, we can learn from the materialists their organization skills and so on. Anyways… My cousin brother stays with his wife, mother, and two kids. They are very rich. They have been staying in the US for a long time. They eat meat and drink wine quite often. They are considered inside our family circles as very high class people.

Later that night, at around 2245, I boarded a caltrain to Lawrence. I reached Lawrence at around 2315 where a couple of devotees had come to pick me up. One of them, Vipul Sutrave Prabhu, I know from Pune. The other, Gourav Malhotra Prabhu, also lives near where Vipul Prabhu stays, and he was kind enough to bring his car to pick me up. As soon as I met him I apologized for bothering him at that odd hour of the night. But just as a true Vaishnava, he was very tolerant and forgiving. That night I slept at his place.

The next day started at 0450 for me when Gourav Prabhu woke me up. After we were done with our bathing, at around 0520 we started Mangal Arati! Gourav Prabhu stays alone and does Mangal Arati everyday at around the same time. Need I say more? I found him to be very mature and rooted very deeply in Krishna Consciousness. I consider it my great good fortune that I now know him. He is aspiring to get initiated by His Holiness Romapada Swami and is also in regular touch with His Grace KrishnaSmaran Prabhu. For those who know H. G. KrishnaSmaran Prabhu, this much introduction of Gourav Prabhu will be enough :-) I will write more about H. G. KrishnaSmaran Prabhu some other day. One thing I can say is that the seriousness about Sadhana that I perceived in the life of Gourav Prabhu is most probably due to his association with His Grace KrishnaSmaran Prabhu. I have a very very high regard for H. G. KrishnaSmaran Prabhu. What to speak of me, great stalwarts like His Grace RadheShyam Prabhu also has tremendous respect for H. G. KrishnaSmaran Prabhu. In fact they are good friends of each other.

Vipul Prabhu soon arrived and after the Narsimha Pranam and Tulasi Arati (yes!) we chanted our rounds. At around 0730 we left for the San Jose ISKCON temple. Sri Sri Radha MadanMohan! It’s a small temple but boy, it is alive and well! From the moment I entered to this moment I am feeling its strong spiritual vibes. When we entered, Brahma Samhita recitation was going on. We also read a long purport of one of the verses of the Brahma Samhita by His Divine Grace Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur Srila Prabhupada. We recited a Vaishnav Song by Srila BhaktiVinod Thakur. Then we recited select Bhagavatam verses before the Bhagavatam class.

H. G. Vaisesika Prabhu, a Prabhupada man and the current temple president, gave the class. On verse 1.8.28. His Grace AmoghaLila Prabhu was also there. He is also a very senior Prabhupada disciple. It was a beautiful class. Short and sweet. Then we had Guru Puja! And then we had an ecstatic kirtans! And Dancing! It was feeling like heaven! Ooops! Sorry! Like Goloka! :-) In fact, all throughtout the time I was in the morning program, I was feeling out of this world. Vaisesika Prabhu’s voice is very nectarean. His singing is sweet. He is just too good!

After that? Prasadam! While honouring the delicious Prasadam, I talked with H. G. AmoghaLila Prabhu. He told me (in some context) that our endeavheors should be targeted towards eventually making people read Prabhupada’s book. I thought that was quite a striking point. Later he revealed some quite fascinating aspects of his life. I told him that I am very glad to have met the great heroes in Prabhupada’s army that I had only heard of so far in India. These devotees are so exalted that one cannot even imagine how much they have served, and are serving, Srila Prabhupada. But they are so humble. One particular Brahmachari was visiting the temple today and he seemed quite laid back and not so much in the foreground. But then I found out that he lives in a van full of books (for around 6 years now) and goes around the country distributing Prabhupada’s books! Recently he had been to Los Angeles where he distributed around 2000 books. Today he was going to go to Stanford and Berkeley Universities. I was very much fascinated by this glorious devotee. His name is H. G. Parameswar Prabhu and he is a disciple of H H Radhanath Swami.

I talked to him for quite some time before we left the temple. I have also taken his email id and will surely keep in touch with him. I cannot tell you how much I get touched by devotees who undertake such glorious services for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada. I told him that this is what I would really like to do in my life – go out and spread the movement all over the world. I told him that I am similarly touched by H H Indradyumna Swami Maharaj who also is a traveling preacher. I realized that the greatness and depth of person is known only when he speaks. I was feeling so blissful just to be with Parameswar Prabhu. He told me that he doesn’t think there is any other way that he would like to spend his time. Distributing books is the best preaching. That’s why Vaisesika Prabhu has so much potency. Because he has been a leading book distributor. I could have gone on talking with him for hours and hours and not got bored. In fact I am sure that had I a few days more in the US, I would definitely have spent a lot of my time with him traveling in the van and distributing books. He has invited me to join him and I am eagerly looking forward to that opportunity. Krishna willing, I will also someday be able to become a traveling preacher.

I also got the opportunity to talk a bit with H. G. Vaisesika Prabhu. It was mainly about some errands I had been assigned by devotees of the Pune temple. We also talked a little with H. G. AmoghaLila Prabhu. Apart from that, I took email ids of a few other devotees who come to the temple there. I will surely keep in touch with them. Then we returned back to where Gourav Prabhu stays and after a little time he took me to the Lawrence station from where I boarded the train to Mountain View.

In the train, one girl who was my one year junior in IIT Bombay recognized me, and then we talked a bit. She stays with her husband in Mountain View. Anyways, it was just a 5 minute meeting. Just like the ones described in the Bhagavatam. People come together for some time and then go on their own separate ways soon thereafter, never to meet again. After that I walked to my office and here I am, writing this diary entry. I couldn’t have asked for a more successful US trip. I met so many devotees, young and old, that I am now feeling a bit dizzy. I pray that these connections that I have made in the last few days help me remember the glorious lineage that I am fortunate to belong to and thus propel me forward in devotional serive so that I can also really feel part of this glorious family that is sincerely serving Srila Prabhupada.

Only yesterday I read H. H. Indradyumna Swami Maharaj’s Vyasa Puja offering to Srila Prabhupada and there he mentions in all humility, addressing Prabhupada, that the qualification of “your servant” doesn’t come easily. Similarly, if I have to become a real servant of Srila Prabhupada, I better pull up my socks and delve deeper into the mood of serving him. More and more. Deeper and deeper. Gradually losing all consideration of my own body, mind, and intelligence, and ultimately making them one with the will of my divine master – Srila Prabhupada.

1828
Abhijit.

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