My wife and I once spent winter in Jagannath Puri, a beach town on the east Indian coast, home to the famous Jagannath temple, aka Sri Mandir. Not even Wikipedia knows exactly how long Jagannath has been worshiped in Puri, but the most recent temple there was built in the eleventh century. There's some history there. It's our favorite place of pilgrimage. It's also a booming, Jagannath-conscious tourist trap.
People come from all over India for the Sea Beach air, conch shell souvenirs, t-...
Dallas Morning News,
Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.
Texas Monthly has a profile in its current issue of West Texan Christian Wiman, who has edited Poetrymagazine for the last decade in Chicago. The story describes his journey...
I was chanting japa around the fountain at the Alachua temple with Mahatma Prabhu. He told me a few things about chanting:
"This mantra is dangerous. It will make you want to renounce the world." And,
"We hold back from surrendering because we're afraid of pain, like the dentist is going to hit a nerve or something. And so we don't surrender in our chanting."
Then he asked me, "What's worse—meat eating, or namaparadha (offenses to the name of God)?"
I said, "Well, my knee-jerk reaction is that...
As ancient warriors would saturate their arrows with mantras so that they would produce extraordinary and supernaturally lethal effects when released, we have to saturate ourselves with mantras every morning or our activities will not have such a great effect.
Sivarama Swami is absolutely right when he says chanting while sitting is best. Chanting while walking requires navigation, and that takes energy and focus away from the Holy Names.
For instance:
On a recent beach japa walk I saw a large, unleashed dog headed my way, one of those "I'm-mad-as-hell-about-being-so-ugly" breeds. People walking unleashed dogs is a pet peeve of mine (get it?), and especially when those people's pets resemble man-eating gargoyles. This particular creature's...
I live by the beach. Whenever it's low tide, I chant my rounds up and down the shore. Our beach isn't popular for swimming — no soft sand, only endless dunes of broken seashells, which can easily puncture bare feet. It attracts only locals; dog walkers, shark tooth collectors, and a few fishermen.
Except in the coldest or stormiest weather, you'll see half a dozen guys, some as tanned as sun-dried tomatoes, parked there in folding chairs, with coolers full of light beer and bait, shoving PVC...
Dallas Morning News,
Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.
Recently, we discussed comments that Jon Meacham made in an address to SMU’s Perkins School of Theology. Now, here’s something else from Meacham, the former Newsweek editor,...
(this blog is recorded on the full page: quick time player needed; works best with Firefox)
43 years ago, from out of the blue
a radical change took over me
everything else fell away:
girlfriend, college, bad habits,
giving away my possessions
spiritual thirst became my life
ancient wisdom informed me
the forest my classroom study
my heart yearned for truth
my prayers to transcend the world
I thought, “I must become a monk”
Shri Chaitanya answered me
thru Prabhupada’s loving disciples
the...
By the mercy of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and my Guru Maharaja, I received the inspiration to serve the ISKCON Prison Ministry. On Vyasa-puja day, while chanting myjapa, the inspiration came to me to serve in the prison ministry. Interestingly enough, at that time I didn't even know the prison ministry existed.
I researched the internet, saw on the web site a request from IPM for volunteer pen pals. I thought this was an easy service, one I would enjoy and could do from the...
11 weeks 15 hours agoMy wife and I once spent winter in Jagannath Puri, a beach town on the east Indian coast, home to the famous Jagannath temple, aka Sri Mandir. Not even Wikipedia knows exactly how long Jagannath has been worshiped in Puri, but the most recent temple there was built in the eleventh century. There's some history there. It's our favorite place of pilgrimage. It's also a booming, Jagannath-conscious tourist trap. People come from all over India for the Sea Beach air, conch shell souvenirs, t-...0 Comment(s)161 Reads
11 weeks 1 day agoDallas Morning News, Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box. Texas Monthly has a profile in its current issue of West Texan Christian Wiman, who has edited Poetrymagazine for the last decade in Chicago. The story describes his journey...0 Comment(s)157 Reads
12 weeks 2 days ago(this blog is recorded on the full page: quick time player needed; works best with Firefox) 43 years ago, from out of the blue a radical change took over me everything else fell away: girlfriend, college, bad habits, giving away my possessions spiritual thirst became my life ancient wisdom informed me the forest my classroom study my heart yearned for truth my prayers to transcend the world I thought, “I must become a monk” Shri Chaitanya answered me thru Prabhupada’s loving disciples the...0 Comment(s)229 Reads
12 weeks 5 days agoBy the mercy of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and my Guru Maharaja, I received the inspiration to serve the ISKCON Prison Ministry. On Vyasa-puja day, while chanting myjapa, the inspiration came to me to serve in the prison ministry. Interestingly enough, at that time I didn't even know the prison ministry existed. I researched the internet, saw on the web site a request from IPM for volunteer pen pals. I thought this was an easy service, one I would enjoy and could do from the...0 Comment(s)162 Reads