Hare Kṛṣṇa Dearest Guru Mahārāja,
Daṇḍavat Pranaam
All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda
All glories to Your Holiness
All glories to Śrī Śrī Gaura Nitāi
Guru Mahārāja, I like to seek your blessings at your lotus feet in memory of your 74th Vyāsa-pūjā. I pray and seek your blessings to stay away from Vaiṣṇava aparādhā, Nama aparādhā and do my sādhana and keep to the regulative principles so that your health and well-being does not deteriorate.
It has been a very different year since your last Vyāsa-pūjā that we had in Brisbane in the house of an aspiring Bengali disciple, His Grace Mayarāṇī Mātājī (born in Māyāpur). I am feeling very positive even though we are living in this material world that we as a family are moving little forward in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are no where near high quality and never will be, but there has been progress. Some of these I like to share with you for your pleasure:
1) My wife, Śrīrādhā Śāntirupa Devī Dāsī and I have started doing 5am japa walks of 5km most of the days for about 1 hour where I manage to cover between 5 to 8 rounds of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa māhā-mantra. The rest I cover in the bus on the way to work and back. Weekends is still a little struggle especially since we got busy in service at the temple and newly established bhakti Centre.
2) We are also studying Bhakti-śāstrī with devotees from ISKCON Sydney and have finished Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā and working through Śrī Īśopaniṣad. It is quite a struggle juggling service, sādhana, family and studying but we are slowly pulling through. I try to wake up by 4am to do about 30-45 minutes study to catch up. There is also a twice a week Bhakti-vaibhava study group happening which is open to all but we chose to first finish Bhakti-śāstrī before attending any other course.
3) I got a service to do fortnightly dressing for Śrīla Prabhupāda at Brisbane temple, but the quality of dressing has much to improve
4) We celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary this year in January 2023 and seek your blessing to do service together for as long as we live and healthy.
5) We continue to cook for Śrī Śrī Gaura Nitāi once a fortnight, where I help with the cleaning and finishing. The local pujari wants us to take Brāhmaṇical initiation this year as we are serving Śrī Śrī Gaura Nitāi in Deity kitchen, but we are not sure we can cope with the strict requirements of daily deity worship and strict sādhana.
6) My daughter, Kayshinie got entry to university near our home to study physiotherapy. She has also taken up some paraphernalia service at ISKCON Brisbane temple and helps a bit at the Bhakti Yoga Centre. She is also learning Carnatic vocal and flute.
7) My son, Guhanesh is in his final year of school and has nearly completed his grade 8 in tablā and is trying his best to stay focused in his studies while helping us in various services at Bhakti Yoga Centre. He loves singing Narasiṁha ārati song and playing mṛdaṅga at kīrtana.
8) We are trying to keep your well-wishers and disciples of Your Holiness as one effective working group to meet every month and do a joint contribution to one of the many services you want to please Śrīla Prabhupāda. Last count there are 22 of us in Brisbane and Gold Coast, including His Grace Ikṣvāku Dāsa Prabhu and His Grace Ganathosītā Mātājī who are living in Murwillumbah, NSW. Some devotees attend very regularly and some are very quiet and like to be to themselves.
9) We are working to maintain and grow a 2-month-old Bhakti Yoga Centre, which is 8 minutes’ drive from our home. I am the treasurer, book shop coordinator and my wife helps with the accounting, kids class during Saturday feast and cooking seva from time to time. We currently managed to run 2-3 Saturday evening feast and Sunday morning Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class. We also started a kīrtana session on Sunday evening every fortnightly recently. We are working closely with disciples of His Holiness Indradyumna Swami, His Holiness Kadamba Kānana Swami, His Holiness Mahā Viṣṇu Swami and His Holiness Rādhā Govinda Swami plus some well-wishers who are professional accountants and doctors. We are having challenges in getting recognition as an ISKCON Australia affiliate organization, please bless us we stay united and focus and build a new set of devotees community at this new premises. Here is a link in Facebook of the Centre (20+) Bhakti Yoga Centre - Brisbane | Brisbane QLD | Facebook.
10) At work as an internal audit manager, I am trying to learn the ropes of mentoring, health and safety management and reconciling with indigenous people of Australia under my member body and pray I can use these skills in cultivating and working out of my comfort zone for the pleasure of you, Śrīla Prabhupāda and Śrī Śrī Gaura Nitāi.
I like to also thank you very much for blessing a new japa mālā for me with the help of His Grace Mahā Varāha Prabhu and His Grace Śyāmananda Prabhu (Prahalad Desa GBC, disciple of His Holiness Gopal Kṛṣṇa Swami). We are all motivated by your continuous messages, outreach and through your self-example of finishing Bhakti-vaibhava recently despite your physical challenges.
This year with a good number of devotees, we are working to hold your Vyāsa-pūjā at the ISKCON Brisbane temple and invite devotees. Please bless us this goes well and we like to share with you video/photos later. I like to also work with your disciples here to start up a Tamil, Telugu and Spanish Bhakti-vṛkṣa group fortnightly or weekly at the Bhakti Yoga Centre with preachers like His Grace Gupta Gokul Dāsa Prabhu who have just migrated from Kṛṣṇa-kathā Deśa and His Grace Ikṣvāku Dāsa Prabhu. We desire to also invite you to Brisbane in your planned next trip to Australia, as being the 3rd largest city in Australia and probably 3rd or 4th largest ISKCON community, we have not been able to host you and your disciples for many years after His Grace Murāri Hari Prabhu fell ill.
Please advise us if you can see we are not aligned with your desire and mood. It is a very big ISKCON family Śrīla Prabhupāda has left us in terms of variety and quality and we are trying to tolerate, be respectful and humble without comprising professional ethics, transparency and legal compliance.
Yours in the service of Śrīla Prabhupāda
Dāsanu Dāsa
Gaṅgeśvara Caitanya dāsa