Vraja-Mandala Lament - A Writer's Parikrama
I wrote this book in January of 1993 while taking a writing retreat at Samik Rsi’s house in Stroudsburg, PA. Guided by all the parikrama books I could find, I imagined myself going from one lila-sthali to another. As I wrote, I lamented my lack of qualification to enter the rasa of the eternal devotees of Radha-Krsna.
Visnu-rata Vijaya
This story is inspired by a section in Lord Cai-tanya’s teachings to SanStana Gosvami, as found in Caitanya-caritSmrta. In the Madhya-llld chapter, “Explanation of the Atmarama Verse,” Lord Caitanya tells the story of Narada Muni’s conversion of the hunter, Mrgari, into a first-class Vaisnava.
Upstate - Room to Write
I seek assurance that what I am doing is important. I just read in the ISKCON World Review of devotees chanting in Sarajevo and being attacked by a gang with knives. Certainly the devotees think it’s important to chant and give out food there. In the same IWR I read of the important one hour long TV show put on by ISKCON scientists and how they sold many books and stirred controversies against Darwin’s theory.
Under the Banyan Tree
In the summer of 1966, in a small storefront on 26 Second Avenue on New York City’s Lower East Side, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada opened a temple for the worship of Radha and Krsna. A few young people stepped forward to become his disciples.
The Worshipable Deity and Other Poems
Our poem has a point —
the name and form of Krsna,
the instructions of the Gita
from a straightforward friend.
The Week Beofre Gaura Purnima
“Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” Such strong emotions, such naked pain in the words of this spiritual song. It is a song not to be trifled with. Believers have to live in the world with non-believers who make fun of the most sacred things. One motivator made a slogan, “Sacred cows make good steaks.” They don’t know what they are doing, said Lord Christ to his father; please forgive them.
The Voices of Surrender and Other Poems
The poems in this book rarely employ meter or rhyme, and other standard poetic devices are also lacking. Perhaps a sharp literary critic will say my work cannot be considered poetry. Even so, I think they are poetic writings, communications that will help readers to remember Krsna and become Krsna conscious. If the poems accomplish that, then I don’t care so much what literary critics consider. I am publishing them for my disciples.
THE STORY OF MY LIFE 1
I began my autobiography about a month ago and finished approximately one hundred pages. I used the old method “that starts from the cradle and drives you to the grave.” I was up to my twenty-fourth year, close to my time of meeting Srila Prabhupada and completely changing my life.
THE STORY OF MY LIFE 2
I begin this second volume of my autobiography by summarizing my Journal and Poems, written in 1985–1986. Because writing is so important to me, it forms a crucial part of my life story; to walk you through my books is to share with you my most-cherished activity. Srila Prabhupada used to say, “If you want to know me, read my books.”
THE STORY OF MY LIFE 3
This is the third volume of The Story of My Life. In Volume One, I alternated chapters of my early days in ISKCON (the International Society for Krishna Consciousness) with a chronological history of my pre-Krishna conscious life. Twothirds through the book, my pre-Krishna conscious life ends, and it’s all about my career in ISKCON.
