In2-MeC

Wellington, New Zealand
17 November 2003

At 7:00 this morning I flew in a cramped two-propellor airplane from Tauranga to Wellington, a city situated on the southern end of New Zealand's North Island. (The main land mass of this country consists of two long islands that lie end to end, separated by a strait; the cities I have visited so far are located on the North Island, but in a few days I shall fly down to Christchurch, the biggest city on the South Island.) The weather in Wellington is colder, clouder and rainier than any place I have seen in this country. In these travels I have been steadily moving south. Thus it is getting colder, because I am coming closer to the South Pole. If you look on a globe-map of the world you'll see that New Zealand is not so far away from Antarctica. I expect in Christchurch the weather will be even worse than here.

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Yesterday I gave a Sunday feast program at the Tauranga preaching center, which is called "Gauranga." If you know the Amsterdam temple, then you can imagine this Tauranga center, which is a similar sort of storefront and very near the same size. But the Tauranga center doesn't have an upstairs floor like ISKCON Amsterdam. "Gauranga" in Tauranga is newly opened and most people in the area still don't know about it, but yet there was a nice amount of guests who all chanted and danced at the end.

My dear friend Jaya Tirtha Caran Prabhu, who lives in Katikati near Tauranga, gave me a Saligram shila. Now I have six Saligrams plus one Govardhana sila. Others have offered to give me silas but I refused, considering that as a traveling sannyasi I have quite enough. But Jaya Tirtha Caran told me that this particular sila, a small Ananta-sesa, spoke to him to say He wanted to go with me. So how could I refuse? Besides, I am already worshiping a Laksmi-Sesasayi sila, who is Laksmi, Narayana and Ananta-sesa combined. The new little Ananta fits nicely together with Laksmi-Sesasayi on Their Kurma-asana; I don't have to increase my present worship because I've already been worshiping Ananta.

This sila is very special because He comes from Damodara Kund, a pond near the border of Nepal and Tibet. Damodara Kund is the source of all the silas in the Gandaki River. When the Himalayan mountain ice melts in the spring, floodwaters rush from Damodara Kund into the Gandaki, pushing thousands of new silas into the river.

It is very difficult to visit Damodara Kund. When devotees go to Nepal to find Saligram silas they look for them in the Gandaki, which flows south through the Nepali Himalayas into India where it joins the Ganga. Along the Gandaki are resthouses where one can stay overnight. But to reach Damodara Kund you have to walk for four days through total wilderness...no resthouses, no villages, just sand and bare rocks with jagged mountains all around. The region is restricted also, so one has to get special permission from the Nepali government to go there. That permission involves paying a thousand US dollars for a "trekking fee."

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Anuraga-valli

The Vine of Love

deharbudani bhagavan yugapat prayaccha
vaktrabudani ca pnah pratideham eva
jihvarbudani krpaya prativaktram eva
nrtyantu tesu tava matha gunarbudani

Please give me millions of bodies and millions of mouths in each body. By your mercy place millions of tongues in each mouth. O Lord, may Your millions of transcendental qualities dance on those tongues.

kim atmana yatra na deha-kotyo
dehena kim yatra na vaktra-kotyah
vaktrena kim yatra na koti-jihvah
kim jihvaya yatra na nama-kotyah

What is the use of a soul that does not have millions of bodies? What is the use of a body that does not have millions of mouths? What is the use of a mouth that does not have millions of tongues? What is the use of a tongue that does not chant Your millions of names?

atmastu nityam sata-deha-varti
dehas tu nathastu sahasra-vaktrah
vaktram sada rajatu laksa-jihvam
grnatu jihva tava nama-kotim

O Lord, may I perpetually have hundreds of bodies and may each body have thousands of mouths. May each mouth have millions of tongues, and may each tongue chant millions of Your Holy Names.

yada tada madhava yatra yatra
gayanti ye ye tava nama-lilah
tatraiva karnayuta-dharyamanas
tas te sudha nityam aham dhayani

O Madhava, whenever, wherever, or whoever chants Your names and pastimes, there may I with millions of ears eternally drink Your nectar.

karnayutasyaiva bhavantu laksa-
kotyo rasajna bhagavams tadaiva
yenaiva lilah srnavani nityam
tenaiva gayani tatah sukham me

May I have millions of ears and millions upon millions of tongues. Then, O Lord, I will eternally and happily hear and chant Your pastimes.

karnayutasyeksana-kotir asya
krt-kotir asya rasanarbudam syat
srutvaiva drstva tava rupa-sindhum
alingya madhuryam aho dhayani

May I have millions of ears, millions of eyes, millions of hearts and minds, and millions of tongues. Hearing about, seeing, and embracing the ocean of Your handsomeness, I will drink its sweetness.

netrarbudasyaiva bhavantu karna-
nasa-rasajna hrdayarbudam va
saundarya-sausvarya-sugandha-pura-
madhurya-samslesa-rasanubhutyai

May I have millions of eyes, ears, noses, tongues and chests, so that I may continually taste the nectar of Your handsomeness, Your sweet sounds, sweet fragrance, and Your embrace.

tvat-parsva-gatyai pada-kotir astu
sevam vidhatum mama hasta-kotih
tam siksitum syad api buddhi-kotir
etan varan me bhagavan prayaccha

May I have millions of feet to go to Your side. May I have millions of hands to serve You. May I have millions of intelligences to teach that service. O Lord, please grant me these boons.

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There is some mode of goodness fun waiting for you at this website:

http://www.peta.org/feat/meatrix/

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