The power of collective protest

I would like to use this site to acknowledge all the efforts that contributed to today’s storm in the Indian parliament, the Lok Sabha. The furore was caused by the attempted ban of the Bhagavad-gita as an ‘extremist’ literature in the town of Tomsk, Siberia.

Yesterday I raised the issue during a reading of the entire Bhagavad-gita with 400 participants and 150 online. I asked them to sign the petition of protest. Simultaneous protests were taking part in India and in other parts of the world.

The attempt to ban the Gita in Russia – nationally – through the aegis of a local court is extremely misguided. I am very happy that Indian politicians have responded in outrage to the attempted censure of the holy book of the Hindu faith, to the point of the speaker of Parliament having to close proceedings.

Report here: http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/12/19/uproar-at-call-in-russia-to-ban-gita-idINDEE7BI0D120111219

Media Ethics: How the mighty fall – and how we love reading about it

I have been following the recent Leveson Inquiry into media ethics and the role of the police in the ‘phone-hacking’ events. Here’s the background info:

The Prime Minister announced a two-part inquiry investigating the role of the press and police in the phone-hacking scandal, on 13 July 2011.

Lord Justice Leveson was appointed as Chairman of the Inquiry.  The first part will examine the culture, practices and ethics of the media. In particular, Lord Justice Leveson will examine the relationship of the press with the public, police and politicians.  He is assisted by a panel of six independent assessors with expertise in key issues being considered by the Inquiry.

The Inquiry has been established under the Inquiries Act 2005 and has the power to summon witnesses.  It is expected that a range of witnesses, including newspaper reporters, management, proprietors, policemen and politicians of all parties will give evidence under oath and in public.

It will make recommendations on the future of press regulation and governance consistent with maintaining freedom of the press and ensuring the highest ethical and professional standards.

After the ‘phone-hacking’ and use of private detectives by the now defunct News of the World newspaper, the inquiry was set up to investigate other cases of  media intrusion and possible police collusion. Notable celebrities have been telling their stories of shady characters intruding into their privacy, bribing friends or colleagues for juicy gossip, or hiding in bushes with long-range lenses for that saucy snap.

People who are famous got to be that way with the help of media exposure. So when it helps them become loved by the public, they love the media. When it reveals too much, or shares unhelpful details of their personal life, or acquires stories by unscrupulous means, they hate it. The newspapers, on the other hand, and their happy-snappy camera people, say that it is ‘in the public interest’ for their readers to be able to read about the latest goings-on in the world of the rich and famous.

Having helped to create someone’s fame, so to speak, the newspapers often feel they have a right in creating their infamy, too. Thus, like all things in the material world, there is an ‘arc of fame,’ from the time a person does something outstandingly well in sport, politics or entertainment, and attracts favourable attention; right through to the time when they do something wrong and come crashing down in the eyes of the public. Newspapers help to establish both fame and infamy, they know that, and so they feel a certain power over an individual – especially someone they’ve helped.

The News of the World did a lot of good in its time, no doubt. The newspaper exposed dodgy politicians, scandalous clergy, bent coppers, and all manner of crooks, from pound-pinching swindlers to paedophiles – all were named and shamed by the newspaper in its long history. More than anything, it was probably that public service which made them feel invincible and which made them feel they could cross a line of moral propriety. They knew the public liked them because of their crusades against injustice. Even the police were on their side.

And that was the problem. Although the facts are still murky and no-one wants to own up, the police would share certain stories with the paper, and the paper would follow them up with their own hired private detectives. A powerful crime-fighting combination. Only it wasn’t a legal combination, and that was the problem. Newspapers operate for profit and the police force must never be in collusion with media, government or church. So when it became known that those same private eyes were spying on the rich and famous – for no other reason than salacious gossip – the newspaper became unstuck. Indeed, it wasn’t even anyone rich and famous that finished them off in the end; it was the hacking of a young girl’s phone, a young girl who had been murdered. This one incident was enough to disgust the very same public, and as more details of other nastiness became known the newspaper curved through its own arc of fame, crashed, and closed its doors forever.

The revelations of just how far the News of the World had gone in its quest for stories, faked or otherwise, became the news for other newspapers, and then it was discovered those other, more respectable papers, had also been involved in illegal news-gathering. The accusations and counter-accusations became an almost daily occurrence and the story ran and ran. Somewhere along the line, the very subject of the ethics by which media ran its business became the essence of the discussion. Shrinking sales figures due to internet news provision had caused newspapers to take desperate risks in their bid to attract readers. And while printing unsubstantiated stories with no supporting facts, and creating stories entirely from imagination are not unusual practises, the desperate newspapers had gone to even greater lengths to provide ‘news in the public interest.’

That was essentially the issue. The public liked to read not only about the great and the good, but also how the great and good aren’t actually that great or good in real life. Stories about the actress found in bed with the bishop, or the politician found hunting men on Clapham Common, or the eccentric behaviour of the aristocracy – all titillated the readers and sold newspapers. Unfortunately the great British public just loves a good scandal, particularly when it involves someone slipping on a banana skin – or the social, political, moral or financial equivalent.

Somehow, discovering that people who are ‘better’ than us, richer than us, more famous than us; or just cleverer than us, are actually worse than us in real terms – is very reassuring. It makes us feel not so bad about our under-achievement or our relative lack of fame or education. We shouldn’t really be insecure, but we are, and we need to feel safe about who and where we are. Journalists know this and shamelessly prey on it, writing stories in just the right way to capture our attention and give us that warm fuzziness. And by buying the papers we pay them to do that. So in the great debate about media ethics, we should also look within – because our choices helped to create the ethical dilemma.

 

Chakram Reviews

Sales of our album Chakram are very healthy and the reviews have started to come in. The Vaishnavas seem to like it. Here’s a sample from ISKCON News in the USA:

http://news.iskcon.com/node/4031

And here is a rather amusing review from Sitapati Das in Australia:

In 2000 I was washing dishes in a kitchen in Wellington, New Zealand, listening to one of my favorite kirtan tapes. A visiting devotee from the UK said to me: “Who is that you’re listening to?“, so I told him: “Dude, that is like Krpamoya“, because in New Zealand we speak like we’re in Los Angeles.

He gave me a puzzled look. “Why are you listening to him?” Now it was my turn to give him a puzzled look: “Because he’s like, awesome“. Now his look turned pensive. “Hmm, I never thought people around the world would listen to his kirtan on tape. To us he’s just this guy who leads kirtan at the Manor.“

In millenial New Zealand Krpamoya was the name of a guy who lead an awesome Janmastami kirtan on a highly sought-after tape that was copied and passed around kirtan afficianado circles. The energy of the kirtan was palpable – it was massive, with a powerful bottom end provided by a lot of mrdangas, and Krpamoya effortlessly moved between melodies with a fluid grace and a voice that was liquid gold.

It was awesome.

Now fast-forward to 2011, and Krpamoya has released a studio album “Chakram”.

All I can say is: “What happened?“

No, I’m kidding.

But while I’m kidding around… there’s a famous scene in the mockumentary This is Spinal Tap where the band are being presented with historical reviews of their albums and asked for their reaction to them. The reviews become increasing brusque until they reach the point of a single, dimissive sentence. Here’s my Spinal Tap review of Chakram: “Can’t wait for the movie to come out, can’t listen to the album without it“.

The album opens epic. It’s not a stretch to imagine the opening track as the extended mix of the opening credits to a BBC program. The dramatic drums and the sound of swords being drawn evokes the ITV series “Robin of Sherwood”, and Clannad’s album Legend, the sound track of the same.

Now I have a confession to make: Legend was the first record I ever bought, and I wore that thing out listening to it.

There are no sleeve notes for Chakram, no credits or musician listings. For some reason I imagine Krpamoya and Jayadeva (was he involved?) locked in a studio somewhere, and discovering a movie sound effects library, and just going nuts.

I couldn’t find the right context to listen to the album. But driving back from Sydney overnight (a 900km drive), I discovered the missing piece – a quest epic enough to warrant the soundtrack of Chakram.

Chakram, like Gaura Vani’s music, and like Akhanda Nam, is an interpretation of kirtan. Where Gaura Vani draws from a diverse base of traditional Indian and contemporary Western musical forms to create a familiar yet fresh pop experience, and Akhanda Nam draws on the esoteric with the idea that the more alien it is the more authentic it must be (or is that “the more authentic it is, the more alien it must be”?), Chakram draws on a different cultural base to find its unique take – the Indian movie soundtrack.

This is a kirtan album produced by the spirit of AR Rahman.

In the correct space to process the whole thing, as I drove through the Celtic Country of Northern New South Wales on an epic quest, I was able to fully savour the flavours of Chakram.

The opening track has all the hallmarks of an epic movie soundtrack, and a contemporary one at that, with the right kind of processing applied to the female vocal (Krpamoya’s daughter Tulasi?). That track is begging for a techno / dubstep remix. I’m serious. Listen to it.

Although there are no liner notes, I know that Chakrini provides vocals on the album, because Krpamoya was giving me a guided tour of the Manor when we ran into her, and she talked about it.

The second track on the album is a version of Narottama das Thakura’s Sri Rupa Manjari Pada flawlessly executed by Krpamoya and Chakrini as a harmonised duet. Each of their voices are gold, and together they are priceless. Harmony (disparagingly referred to as “Horror-mony”) is frowned upon by purists. However, Western music is based on harmony, and Western ears and minds are developed to appreciate, and even require it; and western ears will find much to be pleased with here.

The song is carefully scripted and has a pretty standard arrangement. Many times interpretations of traditional songs founder on the fact that the structure is plain. It’s the same thing repeated several times. If you don’t speak Sanskrit, then it all sounds like gibberish, so the only thing you have to appreciate is the melody. And if that is just repeating, well then it’s boring.

The titles of the songs on the album are all in English, but the songs are all in non-English languages.

However, a careful listening reveals several very interesting and emotionally provoking tweaks in this version of Sri Rupa Manjari Pada. There are points where the harmonies diverge in an interesting fashion, creating and resolving tension in interesting ways. You may not understand the words, but you can feel the rasa. One of the verses has a 6/8 phrasing that gives it a staccato feel that sets it apart from the rest. Small tweaks like this combine to create a very subtle yet powerful effect.

It’s slick in its sound, and slick in its production.

Krpamoya has an interesting interpretation of the song “Ajna Tal” following this, which he titles “Dancing in the Streets“. The opening to this song uses space and reverb, with a woman’s voice, to paint an aural picture with a palette of raga. Moving through the Northern New South Wales countryside at sunrise, it makes a perfect sound track.

Krpamoya has eschewed the traditional instruments associated with the musical tradition that he is reinterpreting for a contemporary audience – for example the mrdanga drums, and instead uses the sound effects that he found in the movie sound track library. I’m kidding again. The Song “Ajnal Tal” (Dancing in the Streets) is traditionally performed with a 6/8 feel. This is hinted at by a drum – is a darbuka or similar goblet drum, or a bodhran, or both? Here’s where liner notes would provide a clue. Whatever the drum being used, it is skillfully woven into the background, and doesn’t at all sound out of place while driving through Celtic Country. Nor does it produce the “wtf?” experience that western audiences, conditioned to 4/4 pop music or 3/4 ballads, typically have when a hardcore head-wobbling Indian 6/8 rhythm kicks in. It remains true to its roots while remaining subtle and non-confrontational.

Another track that deserves a special mention here is “Let the Bee of My Mind Fly to the Eternal Lotus”, traditionally known as “Krishna Deva Bhavantam Vande“.

This track begins with another soundscape painted with a female vocal (this time I believe Krpamoya’s daughter Jahnavi), and an innovative use of space, reverb, and ambient effects. Whoever produced this has some serious mad skills and sensibilities. The colours of the raga are intriguing also. The meaning of the mantras is obscure (liner notes!), but the music conveys the emotional message without the necessity of rationality. When Krpamoya begins to sing the song, it is the perfect resolution for the tension created by the opening scene.

The next track – “Father, what is Spirit?” – is the only English track on the album and is a spoken word piece where Krpamoya gets a little preachy, but in a delightfully English way. It’s kind of “Hinduism as presented by C.S. Lewis”. And I think Krpamoya, aside from his musical contribution, is kind of like the C.S. Lewis of ISKCON. Maybe the movie that goes with this album is kind of like a Narnia movie, but I digress.

The album, once I got past the epicness of the opening track and found the right space to experience it in, was a very rewarding experience. The guest vocalists are superb. The production is impeccable and the arrangements are reinterpretations into contemporary western musical vocabularies that remain faithful to the originals.

Verdict: Get the album, go on an epic quest and play it as your personal sound track. Alternatively, add it to your existing collection of movie sound tracks and C.S. Lewis spoken-word records.

Disclaimer: In the interim between hearing the Janmastami kirtan and listening to Chakram, I visited the UK and met Krpamoya, staying with him and his family at their home in a quiet cul-de-sac in the English countryside. They all have red hair, and one of them is Jahnavi, the violinist in As Kindred Spirits. Musical ability runs in the family as much as devotion does.

Update: Apparently the CD comes with a 16-page booklet. I should have downloaded the *other* torrent. (Actually, I got a complementary copy, which didn’t include the liner notes.)

You can check out the musicians, the producer, the engineering, and all the technical specs here.

An elderly saint’s song of lament: Indu Yenage Govinda

Raghavendra Swami was a follower of Sripad Madhvacarya and lived from 1595 until 1671. Indu Yenage Govinda is a much-loved song that he sang shortly before he passed away. It is in the Kannada language of Karnataka. The song is a lament for time on earth wasted in material life. Expressions such as this are just as common as exultant songs of praise to Krishna. They are based upon the very real feeling, as death approaches, that: ‘I could have done more. I was given a precious chance to achieve perfection but I wasted my time.’

Raghavendra Swami’s leaving the world was extraordinary in that he simply walked into his own samadhi tomb and assumed the lotus position. Many years later, during the time of the British Raj in India, the local district collector, Sir Thomas Manroe, came to the small village of Mantralayam and visited the tomb. His purpose, however, was not devotional. In 1812 the East India Company had passed a rule that when a temple or shrine had no living owner, the property would be seized by the government. By 1820 the tomb and accompanying temple of Raghavendra Swami had no owner and the British official had come to arrange for its transfer of ownership.

“Where is the Swami?” asked Sir Thomas Manroe to the villagers, and the locals pointed him to the tomb. He took off his shoes and entered the structure. As the villagers and priests gathered around they saw a curious sight. The British government man was speaking to someone inside the tomb. They could see him asking questions but no-one could hear the replies. After some minutes the gentleman came out and with a smile said: “Well, that all seems to be in order. I’ve had a charming conversation with the Swami who speaks excellent English by the way, and he assures me that he is the owner of this place.”

Some weeks later, Sir Thomas was promoted to governor of Bellary and was therefore in the extraordinary position of officially approving his own account of the story. He came to understand that Raghavendra Swami had indeed passed on 150 years previously, but also knew that he’d had a conversation with him that day and noticed that: ‘His face was glowing…’

There are many such miraculous stories of Raghavendra Swami, but here is a rough translation of the song and two film versions of it, one old and another more recent:

Oh Lord Govinda, Mukunda, Lord of Indira (Lakshmi) please show me your lotus feet today.

Oh one with a beautiful face, son of Nanda, personification of bliss, who lifted the Mandara mountain, Lord of Indira…

I got engulfed in worldly bondage and suffered a lot. I did not see the way ahead, and despaired in the world. Oh Krishna, divine father, please consider me your child and do not count my shortcomings.

Oh Hari, out of sheer ignorance I led the life of a coward and did not show deep, strong devotion. I did not see you. I did not sing your glory. Oh charioteer Krishna, I beseech you.

During my lifetime I was a mere burden on the world. I lost my way and became like wicked people. There is nobody to protect me now. It all depends on you.

Oh brave Venugopal, please help me cross over this world of repeated deaths and births.

BBC all set to abolish BC and AD. Why? Its PC!

 

I don’t think I can take any more. As a man who teaches the ancient Indian text known as the Bhagavad-gita, wears strange flowing cotton robes and adorns his forehead with yellow clay, I have enjoyed – for quite some years – the benefits of living in a country which supports equality and social ‘diversity.’ I have lived or visited other countries where my appearance or message would be enough to get me locked up. In fact, I used to get locked up quite regularly here in England. That was until political correctness arrived over here from somewhere in the USA. At first it was a welcome visitor, a message from a country not so steeped in ancient prejudice and cultural chauvinism.

But enough is enough. Even a virtue when carried to an extreme can become a vice (say the ancient Greeks). When my country’s establishment (yet ever so leftist) broadcasting corporation begins to arbitrarily eat away at the history of the very country I live in with an attempt to change the very language I use – that is enough.

But since time is short, even for ranting, I will allow journalist Melanie Phillips to say it for me. It is surely worth a read:

 

One of the most sinister aspects of political correctness is the way in which its edicts purport to be in the interests of minority groups.

This is despite the fact that, very often, they are not promulgated at the behest of minorities at all, but by members of the majority who want to destroy their own culture and who use minorities to camouflage their true intentions.

The latest manifestation stars once again that all-time world champion of political correctness, the BBC. Apparently, it has decided that the terms AD and BC (Anno Domini, or the Year of Our Lord, and Before Christ) must be replaced by the terms Common Era and Before Common Era.

Actually, this edict seems to have been laid down merely by some obscure tributary of the BBC website rather than from on high.

Nevertheless, the terms CE and BCE are now increasingly finding their way onto news bulletins and on programmes such as University Challenge or Melvyn Bragg’s Radio Four show In Our Time.

The reason given on the website is that, since the BBC is committed to impartiality, it is important not to alienate or offend non-Christians.

Well, I am a Jew, so I am presumably a member of this group that must not be alienated.

It so happens, however, that along with many other Jewish people I sometimes use CE and BCE since the terms BC and AD are not appropriate to me.

But the idea that any of us would be offended by anyone else using BC and AD would be totally ridiculous.

How could we possibly take offence, since these are the commonly used and understood expressions when referring to the calendar?

Moreover, I most certainly would not expect society in general to use these Common Era terms rather than BC and AD.

Indeed, I would go much further and react with undiluted scorn and disapproval to any attempt to do so.

That is because I feel passionately that a society should be allowed to express its own culture – and this attack on BC and AD, fatuous as it may seem on the surface, is yet another attack on British culture and the Christian underpinnings which provide it with its history, identity and fundamental values.

The impulse behind changing such established terms – obviously as familiar to us all as the names of the days of the week – is part of the wider desire to obliterate Christianity in British culture.

The fact remains, however, that whatever terms are used the British calendar is calibrated from the birth of Jesus.

As Ann Widdecombe remarked, whatever next – abolishing the calendar itself on the grounds that it too therefore offends non-Christians?

The reasoning behind this linguistic legerdemain is entirely spurious. There is no evidence whatever that any non-Christian group is offended by BC and AD, nor that they would like them to be replaced.

Even if they did, it cannot ever be right for minorities to seek to replace fundamental majority cultural expressions or values with their own.

To do so has nothing whatever to do with impartiality – indeed, quite the reverse. For what about the need not to offend or alienate Christians?

To ask the question is to realise how far we have travelled down this invidious road. For Christians in Britain are now routinely offended and alienated – indeed, positively harassed, and with their religious rights denied – and all in the Orwellian cause of promoting ‘diversity’.

In the latest example, police have threatened a Christian cafe owner with arrest – for displaying passages from the Bible on a TV screen which are said to incite hatred against homosexuals.

Why stop at a TV screen, one might ask. For in such a climate, it is hardly frivolous to wonder how long it will be before the Bible itself is banned.

At the weekend, a campaign was launched by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, to press for greater legal protection for Christians against such attacks.

The pressure on individual Christians, however, is merely part of a far wider onslaught on Western culture through the hijacking or censorship of language.

Thus Christmas has been renamed in various places ‘Winterval’.

Last week, it was reported that Southwark council has renamed its Guy Fawkes fireworks display ‘The Colour Thief: A Winter Extravaganza Celebrating the Change of the Seasons’.

This ludicrous gesture is presumably aimed at being more ‘inclusive’ of Catholics upset by references to the 17th-century Popish gunpowder plot.

What it actually does is exclude Britons by airbrushing out part of their history.

Even more bizarre are the latest edicts by so-called ‘equality’ experts, who say that  the traditional black garb of witches in children’s stories leads to racism (yes, seriously).

Witches should therefore be given pink hats, and fairies dressed in dark colours.

Meanwhile Anne O’Connor, an ‘early years consultant’, advises that ‘white paper’, especially in schools, provokes racism since it does not reflect the range of hues of the human race.

Maybe Ms O’Connor needs especially strong spectacles. Has anyone ever seen a human being with skin as white as paper?

And finally, teachers are told they should be ready to lie, if necessary, when asked by pupils what their favourite colour is and, in the interests of good race relations, answer ‘black’ or ‘brown’.

Can you believe this? What on earth has our society come to when grown individuals in receipt of public money descend to such mind-blowing imbecility?

Calling children as young as two ‘racist’ is simply grotesque. Helping them ‘unlearn’ negative associations with dark colours is to try to brainwash them in ways reminiscent of Soviet Stalinism.

But then, political correctness is all about dictating what people are permitted or forbidden to say as a way of controlling and reshaping a society and its values.

Look at the way the Labour leader Ed Miliband has refused to call people who defraud the welfare system ‘benefit cheats’.

He has condemned abuses of the welfare system and said they must be stopped. So why does he say he cannot accuse the people who behave in this way of being ‘cheats’?

The answer is surely that political correctness means you can’t criticise anyone who does wrong if they belong to a group of people who are considered marginalised or oppressed.

This is effectively to give such groups a free pass for any bad behaviour. And anyone who dares criticise is accused of ‘demonising’ such groups.

This means, of course, that those who criticise such bad behaviour are themselves demonised.

Indeed, they can be positively victimised and even threatened with their lives by vicious campaigns on Twitter or the internet – all on the grounds that they have ‘demonised’ some ‘victim’ group or other.  If this wasn’t so terrifying, it would be hilarious.

The result of this hijacking of the language is that debate becomes impossible because words like rights, tolerance, liberal, justice, truth and many more have come to mean the precise opposite of what they really do mean.

The result of this inversion of right and wrong is that morality itself has been reversed or negated. Politically correct language is thus a way of shifting the very centre of moral and political gravity.

So what was once considered far-Left has become the centre-ground; and those who stand on the real centre-ground are now dismissed as extreme.

The attack on BC and AD is merely the latest salvo in the war of the words, part of the defining madness of our time.

 

Autumn Flower Nrsimhadeva Darshans

Nasturtium

Sweet pea, purple Cyclamen and Blueberry leaves

Chrysanthemum

Fuschia, Petunia and Valerian

Potentilla

Our Spiritual Retreat: Indoors and Outdoors

Sometimes being on a spiritual retreat can include getting messy…Buckland Hall was the setting for the recent gathering of the Leicester Vaishnava community.

I have just been on a spiritual retreat at Buckland Hall in the Brecon Beacons in Wales. I have been there several times and it never disappoints as a venue for weekend breaks. Its a great place for a quiet weekend away, and the natural beauty surrounding the large Victorian house uplifts the spirit. But this particular weekend wasn’t all quiet, although there were definitely quiet moments. Around 70 ISKCON members from Leicester made for lively company and much discussion. I was helping to lead some morning sessions, but managed to join in with a highly spirited group of youngsters when they went out for an energetic aerial assault course!

Sometimes people challenge me as to the value of retreats, since those who are leading a spiritual life can do so anywhere, and don’t need to leave home to do it. Whilst I agree with that viewpoint in principle, I would also say that there is great value to changing one’s environment occasionally, spending dedicated time in reflection, and joining together with others of similar mind.

The first session I led was about the value of dharmic morality as a foundation to life generally, and spiritual life in particular. Often in Gaudiya Vaishnavism we focus on transcendence to the occasional detriment of morality, forgetting that our God is the law-maker of the universe, as well as being the enchanting flute-player. While converts to Vaishnavism may bring their Judaeo-Christian value system with them, and refer to it to guide many life choices, the so-called ‘second generation’ of our devotees don’t have that. It is therefore essential that parents give their children a value system for life, which includes values of personal and social morality, as much as they help them develop their innate love for God. Indeed, loving God, or professing love for Him, without following His laws is no love at all. In the case of Gaudiya Vaishnavism such premature profession of love for God, accompanied by immorality, has plagued the entire sampradaya for around 400 years. Its up to us to get it right.

Getting to grips with wax crayons while on spiritual retreat

We did an artistic session on ‘How I came to Krishna’ which involved drawing the events and realisations that brought us to faith in Krishna. I don’t think I have used wax crayons to make a picture for around 40 years – it was surprising how fulfilling 15 minutes with wax crayons can be! The first afternoon saw everyone out of the building, visiting either a farm or the aforementioned assault course. Lots of fresh country air for the city-dwellers and courage-building 50 feet up in the air on a zip-wire. I never quite imagined myself climbing a telegraph pole being whipped by the cold wind on a Welsh hillside, but I did it  - and lived. Another group of young devotees, far more intrepid than I, got extremely cold and messy on the so-called ‘Gorge Walk,’ which turned out to be a polite name for walking, crawling and splashing through sticky brown ice-cold mud.

On the second day we focused on the ‘Eleven Elements of Bhakti’ from the Bhaktisandarbha, and on the last day a conglomerated list of Vaishnava life principles from the Upadeshamrita. Oh, and there was plenty of kirtan and fine prasadam.

Bhaktivedanta Manor’s Janmashtami keeps growing

The sign reads: ‘Blue Field’ and there were at least 50 acres worth of fields in other colours, too.

For a well-photographed slide show of this year’s enormous Janmashtami festival at Bhaktivedanta Manor near London, England, please go to:

http://davidc.zenfolio.com/janmashtami2011

Thank you to photographer David Crick for a really active day capturing everything.

Rounds

Daily darshan: Real lotus bud all the way from Chennai – offered to Narasimha in England

I chanted my rounds this morning on the cricket pitch, walking round and round the perimeter,

My fingers clicked round and round the beads. Above me, summer swallows cried in circles in the sky,

Above them an old Hurricane flew overhead, roundels visible underwing,

Higher above, blue rain clouds sprinkled perfectly round drops of water,

Higher still, the Sun, chariot of fire, describing the perfect shining arc,

Above them all, He who frees us from the great round wheel of samsara.

Clips from Chakram

Some clips from Chakram are now on soundcloud:

http://soundcloud.com/kripamoya