Aug 18, WATFORD, ENGLAND (SUN) — Respected devotees of Lord Shree Krshna! Please accept my Namste, All glories to you, your family and His Divine Grace.

I have been privy to topics and emails discussed by the Patron Council at Bhaktivedanta Manor. The Patron Council is a board of "patron donors" that has been making the final executive and directive decisions for the Hare Krishna Temple in Watford for many years working in close cooperation with Srutidharma das and Pranabandhu das.

I want to inform the devotees worldwide of what I see as some serious deviations of the decisions made by the Council Members. The Patron Council of Bhaktivedanta Manor has decided to legally separate the Temple from ISKCON. In the very near future, the Bhaktivedanta Manor will become an independently owned and privately managed Charitable Trust, with no legal obligations to ISKCON, Srila Prabhupadaji and GBC, and this is giving me a serious pain in my heart.

Aug 18, UK (SUN) — There is growing concern amongst the Bhaktivedanta Manor community that there is some secret arrangement that allows the convicted child abuser, Gauri das, to receive the same salary and benefits that he was getting while a Temple President.

Can Kripamoya prabhu please set the record straight and tell the devotee community just what financial benefits are being paid to this un-repentant thug?

Aug 18, AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS (SUN) — So, what should a devotee do? Let all the non-Vaisnava, non-sampradaya, non-initiated, non-pure bhakti kirtan performers go to hell? Very nice. Very compassionate. Very prthivite ache jagat adi gram sarvatra pracar haibe mor nam.

Fortunately, the above sentiments were not the sentiments exhibited by the one true, pure Vaisnava who had enough compassion and faith in guru and parampara to come to yavana-mlecca land, the land of the demons, the land of the killers of cows and brahminical culture, the land of the people totally written off by the neophyte Vaisnavas in India of the time.

Aug 17, FORT WHITE, FLORIDA (SUN) — I have followed with interest the recent dialogue about the apparent rise in popularity of Kirtan in the modern world amongst various yoga groups and professional musicians. I had wanted to make comment in this regard and was trying to Google (and thereby source the reference) a quote I remember hearing about how Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur felt that, "...the sound of the impersonalists chanting the Holy Name is like a thunderbolt to Krishna's Heart..."

What first appeared in my websearch was the following article by Sita-pati das Prabhu, which I strongly feel accurately encapsulates and represents the Mood and Teachings of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur about the Holy Name in a manner that is very germane to the present discussion. May we kindly remember that foremost consideration of any erstwhile Divine succession is to closely follow the line of the predecessor Acaryas like Srila Saraswati Thakur, lest all may fall away once again into the pit of imitationism.

Aug 17, FORT WHITE, FLORIDA (SUN) — By Locanananda dasa, originally published in May 2000.

Let me first offer my prostrated obeisances unto the lotus feet of that supreme swan-like devotee of the Lord, our spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, by whose mercy the fallen souls of Kali Yuga may taste the sweetness of the narrations of the pastimes of the Lord and His pure devotees. As the bonafide representative of Sri Vyasadeva, he composed a mountain of transcendental literature to enlighten the entire human society, explaining even the most confidential truths regarding vaisnava philosophy.

His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada displayed all of the symptoms of an empowered jiva soul, working tirelessly to distribute the transcendental message of love of Godhead throughout the world. It is therefore the duty of his followers to preserve the legacy and protect the honor of such a great spiritual personality whose every moment was dedicated to the spreading of Krishna consciousness.

Aug 17, ALACHUA, FLORIDA (SUN) — August 16th, 2008, full moon, Lord Balarama Ki jai!

Have just completed a review of all the BTG publications since 1944, so far into 1977, from within the DVD, 60 Years of Back to Godhead. One thing stands out for me the most, and that is the all-blissful, meditative, and simply very happy faces of the devotees on hari nam sankirtan, which used to be the hallmark of the Hare Krsna movement. Nothing compares to the joyfulness exhibited by the sankirtan devotees, worldwide. Indradyumna Swami, in his latest article entitled "Times have Changed", which is now posted on Dandavats.com, wrote:

"Yes, the times have definitely changed, and the reason is the devotee's enthusiasm for chanting the holy names. Because we chant for long hours every day, the devotee's are always in a joyful mood. I sometimes lament that, for whatever reason, there is not as much kirtan in our movement on a daily basis as there used to be. Kirtan is central to happiness in every devotee's life."

Aug 17, WASHINGTON, DC (CNS) — No 'Yahweh' in songs, prayers at Catholic Masses, Vatican rules.

In the not-too-distant future, songs such as "You Are Near," "I Will Bless Yahweh" and "Rise, O Yahweh" will no longer be part of the Catholic worship experience in the United States. At the very least, the songs will be edited to remove the word "Yahweh" -- a name of God that the Vatican has ruled must not "be used or pronounced" in songs and prayers during Catholic Masses.

Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Paterson, N.J., chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Divine Worship, announced the new Vatican "directives on the use of 'the name of God' in the sacred liturgy" in an Aug. 8 letter to his fellow bishops.

Aug 16, VRINDAVAN, INDIA (SUN) — When I was a Christian I once read a verse in the New Testament that struck me deeply, and then years later I again found a similar statement in Rupa Goswami’s play Vidagdha Madhava. Saint Paul said something like, we preach about Jesus because in this way we carry the scent of Jesus to others. In a similar vein, Rupa Goswami said in the introduction of his play:

“Although the poetry in my play is not very beautiful, the wise will take delight in it, for it bears the scent of Lord Hari. What wise man will not bow his head and respectfully drink well-water that has washed a Salagrama.”

Both Saint Paul and Rupa Goswami were authorized in their own unique way to carry the flavor and scent of their beloved Ista devas because they had an authentic relationship with their worshipable Deities firmly established. Why did Paul preach and write about the glories of Jesus and why did the liberated associates of Lord Caitanya write books? Only such authorized devotees can deliver this scent of their worshipable Dieties so that we neophytes in this world can begin to realize that God is real and present when we hear about Him through His authorized representatives.

Aug 16, AUSTRALIA (SUN) — "Everything must be judged by the result."

Take an army of one guru's disciples, add a few stalwart disciples of another (new kid on the block) guru, throw in some handfuls of followers of some not-as-glamorous gurus, and what do we have?

We clearly have and can judge, the results of an overwhelming Great Guru Hoax, perpetrated since 1977.

Aug 16, MUMBAI, INDIA (DNA) — A review of the book, A Blue Hand: The Beats In India by Deborah Baker, Penguin Viking, 246 pages, Rs499.

To my generation, the presence of the Beats in India had long been confined to two references. While R. Parthasarathy had recounted the alleged response of Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky to Indian English poetry (“If we were gangster poets we’d shoot you…”), Keki N Daruwalla had satirised our postcolonial dependency on Western recognition, remarking how he stood “bowled by Indian culture and Indian hemp” ever since Oppenheimer quoted from the Gita and Allen Ginsberg and the psychedelics discovered “cow and Krishna”.

Aug 16, ALACHUA, FLORIDA, USA (SUN) — I’m writing to invite you to join me in celebrating Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa Puja with an offering to his Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. By joining Friends of the BBT or by sponsoring one of our projects, you can offer direct service to Srila Prabhupada’s core mission of publishing and distributing transcendental literature.