We are waiting for an Indian couple (Priti and Vishal Nare) to
arrive who are sponsoring Satya Narayan Katha on this full
moon Saturday. The puja will start just before noon and it is
11:30 am. Satya Narayan Katha is said to have been mentioned
in the Rig Veda. The sages at Naimisharanya inquired of Suta
Goswami, the son of Romaharshana, about a means for
achieving their desires and ultimately moksha (liberation) in the
present age, Kali Yuga. It is an age of quarrel and hypocrisy, so
the means of deliverance must be very powerful. Suta says that
the same question had been asked by Naradji to Narayana, and
Lord Narayan had described the Satya Narayana Puja, saying
that if one observed it one full moon day every year for 4 years all
desires will be fulfilled and one will get moksha in the next life.
Two important parts of the puja are the reading of 5 chapters
about Sadhu, Lilavati, and Kalavati, and then it is imperative
everybody who attends the puja takes prasadam at the end.
	 Bhaktas (devotees in loving service to the Lord) do not ask Him
for anything, nor do they seek after liberation. Their prayer is only
to be always engaged in the His service. If wealth comes, the
devotee can use the wealth for preaching the glories of the Lord
far and wide. If wealth does not come, then the devotee takes it
that the Lord wants his personal purification. Yasyaham
unugrahami harisye tad dhanam sonaye . Sometimes in order to
show special mercy to His devotee, the Lord will take all material
opulences away, thus leaving the devotee with no other shelter
than the Lord.
	 Dave Besinger came by this morning to shoot the last bit of his
film for the documentary on the Temple. He is a University of
Utah student who is doing the temple as a film project. He filmed
several times including extensively at the Diwali function. He is
within a few days of having a final copy. Then he is going to do a
little more editing to produce from the footage a promotional and
fundraising piece for the temple. We'll put it on DVD and make it
available to past and future patrons.
	 Tomorrow, Sunday, Vai and I are going Los Angeles to deliver
some Sankheda furniture to Roshan and Kulwant Khandpur.
They live in Cerritos. Roshan and Kulwant have donated the
temple altar here, the Deities of Radha Krishna, Sita, Ram,
Laksman, and Hanuman, as well as Chaitanya and Nityananda.
They also donated the temple doors and numerous other items
to help us here. Everybody in Utah who enjoys the Krishna
temple in Spanish Fork owes a big debt of thanks to these two
wonderful devotees from Los Angeles. I always enjoy staying at
their home where the atmosphere and hospitality is unmatched.
They have a beautiful temple room  (mandir) in their home which
is the greatest place to chant your japa in the morning.
	  We will certainly take the opportunity to visit several of our other
friends in the area. Many of these friendships date back over
twenty years to the seven years in the 80's when I was in charge
of the Indian membership program in Los Angeles. We still get a
lot of financial support from these old friends and many of them
come up for visits during the year, most notably for the Annual
Festival of India in September.

Manoj, no we haven't observed Tulsi Vivaha (marriage of Tulsi to
Vishnu) here in Spanish Fork. We would like to do so in the
future as it is a wonderful festival.
	 Last evening 40-45 members of the Hobble Creek Latter Day
Saints Ward in Springville came for a tour. Ages were 12-50.
They arrived at 7 pm. I gave them the deluxe tour. One lady had
just read the Bhagavad Gita. She asked the most questions. It
turned out that her husband Brad is the supervisor at BYU of
John Murphy, the curator who is doing the special collections
archive of the Krishna temple.
	 As always, when we give a tour to Latter Day Saints, they remark
how similar our theologies are. One semantic difference I
generally point out is the definition of God. The LDS speak of
`becoming god.' There is a statement by the prophet Lorenzo
Snow, "As man is, god was, and as god is man will become."
When we speak of god, however, by definition, He is the one who
never became God (he was always God), and was never man.
God is defined by us (and , I think, most other Christians) as the
one who was always God. He is the one who created everything,
and was not Himself created, who influences everyone, but is
not Himself influenced, who controls all, but who is Himself not
controlled by anyone. When the LDS use the word "god", I just
translate that to mean "demigod." When I do this I can
understand exactly what they are saying and I can explain
Krishna Consciousness in such a way they can understand it
well.  The quote of Lorenzo Snow becomes, "as man is,
demigod was, as demigod is, man will become." The LDS
believe that a perfect Mormon can in his or her next life elevate
even to the position of creating and populating a universe, like
Lord Brahma. They perform ceremonies in their temple, just like
sradh, for the benefit of departed ancestors. They believe in
consecration, which is to say everything belongs to God and
nothing to us. Everything should be offered as a sacrifice to him
(yagna). With the Mormons you can talk about demigods, life on
other planets, ancient more advanced civilizations than others,
pre existence of the soul, and many other things without raising
an eyebrow.
	 Vegetarianism is a slam dunk. Joseph Smith says in his
Doctrine and Covenants Chapter 89, "eat meat sparingly, only in
times of famine or excessive cold." And in his revised version of
Genesis, he says one may eat meat only to save his own life.
Brighman Young prevented his followers in Missouri from killing
three rattlesnakes. He said, "If you cannot create life, then you
have no right to destroy it. "
	 This all is honored more in the breech  than the observance
(Utah is way high in meat consumption) but except for the beef
farmers themselves, you get very little opposition.
 	 Even after I had been talking for 1 and 1/2 hours the group
seemed reluctant to leave, obviously enjoying the ambiance.
Descending form the temple room, we served out  juice, papads,
and some fudge. Finally at 9 pm, everyone filed out the door
making a point of shaking my hand and saying how much they
had enjoyed the tour.

With the help of Dave Allred, we completed the poster for the
Bhagavad Gita Fest on Dec. 6th. I'll post it in the files section, as
I don't see how to send it as an attachment.
	 I asked Ed Austin of the BYU dance department if any of his folk
dancers could do their one Bharat Natyam number on the
occasion. They have a concert elsewhere that day, but he is very
eager to come to some of our festivals next year with the BYU
dancers. In fact, the choreographers for the one piece they do
have he met at our Himalayan festival in 2002, and subsequently
invited them from Los Angles to BYU to teach a Bharat Natyam
workshop.
	 John Murphy, the curator at BYU of the "Special Collections"
Archives, called two days ago. He declared himself and BYU
eager to archive the history of the Krishna Temple in Utah Valley.
He said "it is an important part of the history of the valley,
and it should be documented". He said BYU will go to all the
expense of preserving, documenting and categorizing all our
materials like old newsletters, newspaper articles, video clips
from TV newscasts, special documentaries etc. He also wanted
an aural  history of the founding of the temple, which could only
come from Vaibhavi or I.
I thought if we could do the aural history with a speech
recognition program, then we would have a transcript
which could form the basis of a book, "Krishna in Zion."
John wants to interview other members of the community as
well for their input, and determine if they have archive able
materials in their homes relating to the temple.
While the collection would be kept at BYU, it would be open to
any member of the public who wanted to do research, and BYU
would attempt to present it to the public as an exhibition as often
as practical.
	 Last evening one of the llamas (Rasa) gave birth to a grey and
white son of Wind, our main stud and star packer. Wind has
been thousands of miles in Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and Montana.
Everybody who has ever leased him has called him "awesome."
He is more a force of nature than an individual animal.  I have
seldom seem him at rest. He is always in constant motion in his
corral. His corral is right behind the kitchen, and whenever
anyone is coming or going he will come and lean over the fence
demanding that you give him an apple carrot, bread, etc.  He will
eat anything and come right back for more.
  	 Wind's cria was born in the middle of a chilly  night. For
this reason we are naming him "Nightwind".  This morning we
put a jacket on him and he is already running around trying
awkwardly to kick up his heels. Seems to be a chip off the old
block. The rest of the herd is doting on him.
	 Last evening Suny Patel, his sister Pinky, wife Bhagavaty,
children and parents Kantibhai and Santaben, returned from one
month in India. Pinky was married there to a boy named Vijay
who is studying pharmacy in Indiana. Even though both Pinky
and Vijay live in America, it was still cheaper for them to go to
India to get married than for all the relatives from India to come
here (and difficult also with the tightening of visas). They own the
local Days Inn and always put up our entertainers from out of
town free of charge. If they were not so kind as to do this,
organizing festivals would be much more difficult ( and
expensive) for us. I went to the airport in the temple van to pick up
their luggage, and bring it to the motel. The luggage for these 6
travelers filled the whole Dodge cargo van, and I don't think any
piece weighed less than 80 pounds. But that's what you do
when you go to India. Everything is so inexpensive you try to pack
up as much of the country as you can and bring it back.

Greetings Caruprabhu,

HARI BOL. HARE KRSNA!

I was wondering if there would be any TULSI VIVA
(TULSI Wedding) celebration function in the KRSNA
Temple....? It seems that y'day was TULSI VIVA.

Thanks! HARE KRSNA!

Manoj G. Kithany

======================================================
I live in a very small house.....but my windows look
out on a very large world - Henry David Thoreau

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The celebration of Gita Jayanti, the advent of the Bhagavad Gita,
is coming up on Saturday December 6th, at 6 pm. We'll have a
power point presentation of the highlights of the Gita, a drama
called the Scholar and the Boatman, a fire sacrifice during which
we chant in unison the 108 principal verses from the Gita, and, of
course lots of sumptuous vegetarian prasadam. For a dance, I'm
going to invite members of the BYU folk ensemble, who have
this year incorporated some Bharat Natyam into their repertoire.
Everybody is welcome to attend this event.
Beyond this I have written two more dramas we are producing for
next year. For Shiva Ratri, the drama is called Shiva and Parvati,
and at a later date, we have Bhima meets Hanuman, an episode
taken from the Mahabharata.
As you may know all our dramas are pre-recorded. Thus I am
asking for anybody with a good voice to volunteer for recording
the parts of Shiva, Hanuman and Bhima. We will need at least
two different males with deep voices to reflect the power of these
extraordinarily strong and powerful personalities.
Another service opportunity is to help in maintaining our web site
at www.iskcon.net/utah. Jiva, who did such a great job of creating
it, and maintaining it for years, is very difficut to contact at
present, and I am in urgent need of some posting for the above
mentioned festival and afterwards, once monthly updates. If
anybody feels they can help with this we will greatly appreciate it.
Finally, a clarification that any member of the group can post
notices. They come first to me for moderation. I will approve it for
posting if I feel it will enrich the site. Otherwise, if it is a
personal note or somehting we wouldn't want to send to all the
members of the group, I shall simply reply to you individually.
As members of the group you have the options to receive emails
whenever they are posted, or to receive a daily digest, or to
receive only special notices, or not to receive anything, but just
bookmark the site and log in to catch up whenever.
If you go to the site and do not see all the features (like photos),
it is because you either have not logged in with your yahoo ID
and password, or you are not a member and need to take a few
moments to join.

I received this account by e-mai from another devotee.

H.H. Sivarama Swami's offering for the 1994 Srila Prabhupada
Vyasa Puja gives one of the most profoundly moving and
inspiring insights into  Srila Prabhupada and the kind of effect he
has had all over the world.
You may have read it earlier, but this is one of those eternal,
timeless, electrifying masterpieces which one can relish over
and over again,

Dear Srila Prabhupada,

Please accept my humble obeisances at your divine lotus feet.
All glories to you on the celebration  of your appearance day.
While planning a composition for your offering , I was also
attending  to my regular correspondence. One letter stood out
among the others. I enclose it here , translated into English , for
your pleasure.


>Dear Sivarama Swami ,

Hare Krsna. Please accept my humble obeisances . All glories
to Srila Prabhupada. I hope you do not mind my writing to you. I
have never written to a spiritual master before. You do not know
me.
My name is Bhaktin Dora and I live in Pecs(Hungary).I am 14
years old , and I live at home with my mother and older sister. In
1992 I went to the Hare Krsna Festival with a friend. I was not
very interested , but I enjoyed the chanting and dancing
at the end. After it was over I bought a book , The Science of
Self-Realization. I do not know why , generally I never read. I think
it was because of the  chanting.
  I took the book home and cannot remember what happened to
it. One day my mother found it and was very angry
with me. She thought that I was reading this kind of thing.
You see, our family members are  all very strict Catholics. They
thought Krsna consciousness was some kind of
"brainwashing". Actually I wasn't reading the book, I had forgotten
all about it. Somehow, it just "appeared".
Anyway my mother was going to throw it away.
My grandmother , who is 68, was in the kitchen at that time. She
lives in the  apartment upstairs. She came in and took the book.
She looked at it and scolded me in a very heavy way. I thought
that would be the end of it. I
did not mind it so much as I was in a lot of maya at that time.
About a week later, I overheard a conversation between my
mother and grandmother. Granny was saying that this was not
an ordinary book. She said that  what Prabhupada
was saying is what Jesus Christ said and that Krsna is God. I
was very surprised. She said that we should listen to what
Prabhupada said and chant Hare Krsna because that was the
religion for this age. There was a lot of talk about how
Christianity was no more, and no one was following the
Bible, but what Prabhupada said was pure and perfect.
Things really took a turn from there .One day my grandmother
visited the nama-hatta center here and began to chant on beads.
She also began to buy Prabhupada's books one by one. She
was spending all her pension on buying what she called the
"beautiful, holy Bhagawatam".  Sometimes she could only
afford to eat potatoes, but she kept buying the books. The
devotees even came to her flat and helped her set up an altar.
When I went upstairs, they had taken all the pictures down, and
there were Krsna pictures everywhere.
That was really the beginning. One night, granny had a dream
about Prabhupada. Something really happened to her then. I
don't know what it was, but she began to get very enthusiastic.
Next she began to get the whole family involved. I mean, not just
me and my mother and sister, but her two sons, their wives and
six children as well as her brothers, sisters and relatives. Before
she used to carry a Bible with her and quote Jesus Christ.
Now she has a  Bhagavad Gita  and quotes "the good Lord
Prabhupada". She became a veritable transcendental terror.
Everyone in the family has to chant at least one round a day. In
addition, granny made everyone become a vegetarian including
my dog Sikra, and we offer our food to a picture of Prabhupada
and Lord Caitanya.
Now, I am also getting out of maya and chanting and reading a
little also.Where I go to school my friends inquire about Krsna,
as they know I am a devotee. The whole family goes to the
nama-hatta, all sixteen of us. During the Christmas Marathon,
we all tried to distribute Prabhupada's books. Even granny would
take books with her to the market and sell them to the vendors.
Everyone is afraid of her because she is fearless. They all think
she has gone crazy, but she does not care.
Now she is saving to go to Budapest to see the newly installed
Deities. She has heard that Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda
"came" to Hungary and are being worshipped there by the
devotees. She says she wants to see God just once in this life.
At this year's Hare Krsna festival, you were speaking to the
guests after the kirtana. You must remember my grandmother
because she came and sat right beside you and asked so many
questions. At the end when you stood to leave, she even kissed
your hand, remember ? I also wanted to ask a question, but
was shy. Could I please ask you now ? I hope you do not mind,
maharaja.
I want to know what kind of man Srila Prabhupada was. He
must be so dear to Krsna to have spread this message all over
the world. What are these books that changed my family so
much? How is it possible that he can speak so
powerfully through them? You must feel very fortunate to be his
disciple.How great a man he is. Sometimes when my granny
chants in front of a picture of Krsna she cries. How does
Prabhupada do that ? I want to cry like that too. Granny dreams of
Prabhupada, and sometimes she talks to his picture.
Although it says on the cover of the book that he passed away,
is Prabhupada really dead, or is he still alive? Do you think I can
meet him someday?
I am sorry that I have gone on so. I would like to be a good
devotee one day and help you and Prabhupada spread Krsna
Consciousness.
Please could you answer my questions ?

>Your servant,
>Bhaktin Dora
>
>
Sivaram Swami writes:

Srila Prabhupada, what is this brand of mercy that you gave this
old lady I just barely met, that you never gave to me ? She never
met you, never saw devotees, she is not even initiated by you.
What is this kindness that you bestow upon her, that you do not
give me, "your fortunate disciple?"
What am I referring to ? It is just this. After having come in
contact with you for just a few months, what inspiration did you
give this granny in that dream ? What did you move in her heart
that made her change her life in its final days ? That made her
turn against the current of banality and tradition and strike out
alone to change her world. No sympathy, no association, no
institutional support. Boldness I do not possess, changes I
do not have the strength to make.
Srila Prabhupada, I want to know what is that you say to her
from your picture when she talks to you ? I have so many
pictures. You do not speak to me through them.
Although I worship Deities daily, I continue to see them as
made of marble and wood. How is it this old lady has the
conviction that God has "come" to her country ? Why have you not
given such vision to me ?
Where did she get
the conviction that a pilgrimage to the city capital would yield the
final goal of her life ?
One last thing, Srila Prabhupada, how is it that when Dora's
granny chants in front of a picture, she cries ? How do you do it ?
I want to cry like that too. When will you give me that mercy ?
Srila Prabhupada, this is one letter , from one girl who  came in
contact with you. How many millions of such souls are there who
have yet to write ,who are directly experiencing  your mercy daily,
who read your books with implicit faith, whom you talk to in
dreams and pictures, whose lives you change abruptly and
reward with tears when chanting the holy names ?
How many people cross the boundaries of rules and
regulations by the strong boat of your mercy and practice and
taste Krsna Consciousness in a realm
beyond logic and argument ? I think these people are meeting
you every day. How will I acquire their good fortune ? When will
you one day  bestow some
of this special mercy upon me that you give to them ?
If I am not to acquire it directly, even after begging for it, then
I will serve such souls who have reached your mission. I will
offer them prasadam, give them your books and show them how
to practice. I will chant with them.
Thus I can hope to gain a new perspective of your greatness,
even though I may never fully understand it.
>Your
>insignificant servant,
>                Sivarama Swami

On Friday (10/31) Mala Mehta and her husband, mother in law,
brought their beautiful grey eyed son, Karan, for his first hair
cutting (Mundhan or Cuda Karana) to the temple. The fire
invoked for this ceremony is called "satya (truth)." Before
the first snip of hair the scissors are empowered by mantra to
represent the sudarshan cakra (razor sharp disc weapon) of
Lord Vishnu.
This weapon is death personified to the demoniac but a great
friend to the devotees. Benjamin Franklin once said that if you
want to make friends with somebody, start by asking them to do
you a small favor. Similarly, we ask the sudarshan to come and
cut this child's hair in his infancy. Thus the child becomes
known to sudarshan, and it is noted he/she comes from a pious
family.
The first cut comes over the right ear where kusa grass has
already been placed. Grass grows everywhere on the earth, and
so the hope is that wherever this boy wanders in his life he will
have the protection of Vishnu, whose razor sharp teeth are today
cutting this boy's hair.
	 Friday evening Jon Chavez arrived at the temple to stay on a full
time basis. He has been visiting for a couple of years now, and
spending most of his weekends at the temple. Jon is a musician
who plays the guitar, harmonium and mrdanga drums, and
sings. He loves the philosophy and is very good at one on one
conversations. He loves to do temple tours and book
distribution, and is very good at both. We are so pleased to have
him here on a full time basis. Temple residents are at present
myself, Vaibhavi, Tota Gopinatha, Sydartha and Hetu, as well as
forty llamas, 20 peacocks, three parrots, one cat and one pot
bellied pig.
	 Saturday after the morning program I hooked up with Bruce Hall,
the owner of the local sports store (MVP) and his assistant
manger, Scott,  for a 7 mile run along  River Bottom Road. The
first snow of the year had come Friday night, but the roads have
retained enough heat (it has been 70 degrees until just a couple
of days ago) they were very dry. It was a picture perfect run with
all the snow hanging on the trees and temperature 34 degrees.
As is most often the case, when I run with my local friends we
talked about the temple, its construction, the most recent festival,
and its future. The temple never ceases to be a topic of
fascination for lots of people.
	 Saturday evening Bankim, Karuna, Sydhartha Jai Krishna, Jai
the parrot, myself and Vaibhvai convened at Anjali Dasgupta's
home in Sandy for bhajans and kirtan. Vai, Syd and I drove the
1984 Toyota Camry which was donated by Sesh of Ogden
couple of years ago. Since I had another Toyota pick up recently
donated by Muljibhai of Vernal, I have been driving that and Vai
has used the Camry. I have ceased the habit of carrying the
Camry's key around and didn't inquire whether Vai had brought
hers. I just started the car up with a  little pocket knife (it does
that). This got us into a little trouble later on.
	  There were aside from Anjali her son Abhijit (who donated Jai
the parrot about 6-7 years ago-thus we always take Jai when we
go to their home) and his wife Nandita. From her recent trip to
India Nandita brought back beautiful anklets and nose ring for
Radharani, which were duly presented and much admired.
There were several other Bengali families present, including the
Sarkars and Mrnal and Seemita Chakravarty. It is always nice to
go to Bengali homes as our spiritual preceptors (Narrottama
das Thakur, Bhaktivinode Thakur, Sri Chaitanya, most of the
Goswamis, what to speak of Srila Prabhupada, were all from
Bengal. Thus we can sing the songs from our line of disciplic
succession among an audience which understands the Bengali
words, and for whom hearing them was a part of their childhood
and youth.
	 Bankim, who is also Bengali, and Jai Krishna did most of the
singing so nicely and Anjali herself sang one bhajan. After the
incredible dinner, the three  us got into the Camry to drive home,
but one tire was flat. Turned out neither Vai nor I had brought a
key. We couldn't get into the trunk to access the jack and the
spare. Our solution was to leave the car parked at Anjali's house
with the intention of coming back Monday with the key. Jai
Krishna had brought his mini van. He very kindly took us and our
paraphernalia (drum, harmonium, karats, parrot, etc.) home.

E-Mail from Rod's Assistant, Karmel

Caru,
Rod is not at Mountain View today,  I will give your e-mail to him
when he walks through the door on Monday.  It was truly our
pleasure to have you as a guest in the classroom.  I have had
students coming in all day telling me what a wonderful
experience it was.  We have  had several e-mails from the sites
telling us that this was the best class of the year.  Thank you
again for all of the time and effort you put into making this a
wonderful experience for all involved.
I have so enjoyed meeting you.  Rod holds you in the highest
regard, I do know why.   You have truly enriched my life.  Thank
you for all that you have given us.  Rod mentioned today that you
had asked him if he has awards and plaques.  He will never say,
however he has boxes of them for the last 20 years.  Rod and his
course have received almost every award and honor an
instructor can.  Rod is one of the only 2 instructors in the state
that is certified to teach this course. For all the years I have
worked for Rod and many before, Rod has been one of 100
instructors listed in "Who's Who" in American Teaching (never
out of the top 10). The classrooms you saw at Mountain View
and Pleasant Grove were built for  him and his program.  Several
instructors now use them, however, without Rod the program
would fold.  I have worked in almost every area of education in
the District, Rod is truly the Master Instructor.  Not only is his IQ
in the genius range, his heart is just as large.  Rod is the most
caring and concerned eductor I have ever met, he truly loves his
students and teaching. Without a doubt Rod is the most
dynamic, caring instructor I have worked with and I feel it a
privilege to work for him.  We both know that he does not need
me, however, Rod makes every one feel special.  Rod will
severely take me to task for telling you all of this, as he likes to
play the clown. Public recognition does not mean much to
Rod,he is more interested in the success of his family and
students.
Thank you again for sharing your wonderful speaking ability, and
cooking talents with us.  It was an honor to have you here.   We
hope you will be able to come again.
Karmel

The three classes at Mountain View High School today
(Thursday Oct. 30) were not at all for adult education, as I had
thought. The last time I did classes with Rod Jackman out of the
UVSC (Utah Valley State College) media center, it was for adults
and being video fed out to other high schools for evening
classes. This is much bigger. The three classes I teach today
are regular daytime  classes with 30-40 students from Mountain
View High in each class. Simultaneously each class was video
fed out to another six high schools. So that makes approximately
250 students per class and three classes means more than 750
students saw the classes.
	 Rod is the number one rated teacher in the state, and I am not
surprised. After the first class we went to the principal's
office where they gave him a credit card of the Alpine School
District no questions asked. We went out shopping to Macey's in
his Mercedes (which he bought from the temple 6 years
ago-sure enough we found a parking space right up front on the
first pass)
The classes are on health and nutrition, stress management
and meditation, so Rod will have nothing less than for me to
cook a meal while the class is going on. At Macey's we pick up
spices, potatoes, cauliflower, frozen mixed vegetables butter,
cherry pie filling, semolina, some chilis, all the fixings for a
salad with lemon tarragon dressing.
	 When we return to the classroom, Rod and his facilitator,
Karmel, produce two portable camp stoves, a couple of woks,
knives, spatula etc. Simple, but adequate.  The next class is
convening. There are 40 students (present at Mountain View with
as many as another 250 looking on from Orem High, Pleasant
Grove High, Lehi High, Timpview, Lone Peak etc.) and the class
is an hour and a half long. Rod introduces me as the greatest
spiritual leader since Mahatma Gandhi, I put on the apron
(unfortunately, by this time I already have several grease spots
on the nice kurta) and I enter the most incredible zone of at one
and the same time giving a cooking class, spicing the curry,
stirring it, and simultaneously boiling the sweetened water for
the cherry hallava, sautéing the semolina grains in butter, and
discoursing on vegetarianism, stress management, whatever,
Of course with so many irons in the fire I lose my train of thought
a few times, but the students remind me of what I was saying,
and believe it or not, we coherently move right along. Soon the
whole classroom is filling up with the delicious smells of a
vegetable curry and cherry hallava.
	 There is enough for everyone to get a decent portion of each.
Everybody at the other schools are complaining that only the
Mountain View kids are getting to eat!  We had forgotten to pick
up sugar and the pie filling was not enough to fully sweeten the
halavah, so that was a little grim, but the curry and salad are a
big hit.
	 After this class we go out again and this time remember the
sugar.  By this third class I am getting the drift of things and the
class, cooking, curry,  hallava, students' questions, and my
presentation are all very good. By this time the students at the
other high schools want to try the food so badly they jump into
cars, drive over to Mountain View, come in the door, and line up
with plates. The hallava goes over very well ( I had already
sweetened the hallava with enough sugar, and Rod walks up
and dumps the rest of the packet in-guess he wanted to make
doubly sure it was sweet enough this time and believe me, it
was).   When you can make this delicious meal for 40 people  in
20 minutes in a classroom WHILE GIVING A CLASS the kids are
realizing how easy this is. Rod suggests this is a good way to
impress your family or girlfriend, I say we have the Higher Taste
Cookbook here at the discounted price of $2.00. Within
moments I've sold 20 copies of the cookbook, two soft Bhagavad
Gitas at $5 each and two sets of chanting beads at $8.00.
	 The kids settle down after eating while Rod himself, having
watched me do it twice and who is a good cook anyway), throws
some more potatoes and cauliflower into the wok to make up
another batch for kids still coming in. Later, as I have brought 30
sets of chanting beads and the class is partially on meditation
and stress relief, I take the kids through chanting a third of a
round in unison. The lights are dimmed and I could feel
everybody relaxing and enjoying the peace of the chanting., The
class ended with Rod putting on the George Harrison recording
of "My Sweet Lord"  and everybody listening to it in the semi
dark.

This link will take you to a news article with great photo
published Oct 27 in the BYU Daily Universe
http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/46394

Tomorrow Thursday I go to Mountain View High School where
I've been invited by Rod Jackman (who teaches psychology) to
give three classes throughout the morning and early afternoon
on meditation and the benefits of a vegetarian diet. The class is
equipped with recording equipment and the videos will feed out
to evening satellite classrooms for adult education in various
locations.
	 I did the same thing with Rod a couple of years ago from the
media center at UVSC. In the classroom Rod is one of the
funniest human beings I've ever seen.
	 We made his acquaintance a few years ago when Dinesh
donated a Mercedes to the temple which we were to sell to help
raise construction costs. We advertised it for $10,000 in the local
papers. Rod looked at it and another which was half the price.
Dinesh's car was truly mint condition and in addition Rod figured
buying it from the temple would bring him good karma. Several
years later he can still be spotted running around town in this
gold Mercedes. He claims,  among other things,  this "good
karma" car opens up parking spaces for him. That's no small
benefit in growing Utah Valley!
	 Rod also patronizes the gift store, particularly with regard to
large animals. He has bought large rocking horses and
elephants and at the 2003 Llama Fest he took home a huge
camel.

		 namera smarana ara nama-sankirtana
   ei matra dharma jiva karibe palana

            "This is the only 'dharma' in Kali-yuga: chanting the
             holy name. Only this. This is the one 'dharma' the
             jivas in Kali-Yuga should perform. In all the Vedas
             it has been said, 'harinama-sara', the holy name is
             the essence."

             Hari-nama-cintamani
             cited from Sri Krsna Kathamrita Bindu (Issues 1-17)

      "My dear Krsna, please remind me to always chant your holy
name, please do not put me into forgetfulness. You are sitting
with-in me as Supersoul, so you can put me into forgetfulness or
into remembering You. So please do not put me into
forgetfulness.
       Please always remind me to chant, even You send me into
the hell, it doesn't matter, just so long as I can always chant Hare
Krsna"

       SPL to Devanada, Siksamrta Volume I, page 380

Hari Bol!
I would like to know if you have jobs at the present moment in your
temple.
Hope to hear from you soon,
your humble servant
Krishna Vilasini dd

      The crowd for Diwali on Saturday night was absolutely capacity-
around 500 coming and going. Perhaps half and half Indians
and Americans. There were many observances to get through:
Fire sacrifice, Govardhan puja, classical dance, drama,  worship
of the cow, the gala aarti of the lights, and the folk dancing, and
what to speak of the ubiquitous kirtans (chanting). Everything
moved along smartly from one to the next without any undue
delays. One might say that it was an orgy of spirituality.
      We did pass the "turban" and everybody responded generously
to the superb presentation of Alia and Shaheen.
      This  year for the go-puja, when we brought the calf in to the
temple room (via the elevator), we asked everybody to remain
sitting. This way the calf was visible to all. Pragna sang a
beautiful bhajan about Krishna the cowherd boy. It was easy to
follow and many joined. Adults came up one by one to offer the
aarti tray and put tika on the calf's head. Children stepped
forward, put their hands in the powder and then impressed the
hand print on the cow's back. I considered it moving.  It is sad to
reflect that millions of such gentle and generous animals (milk,
yogurt, butter, cheese, ice cream, sour cream, cottage cheese
etc) will meet violent untimely deaths each year in this country.
"We shape ourselves the joy or fear
of which the coming life is made
and fill our future's atmosphere
with sunshine or with shade."
      We forgot to turn the lights out during the main aarti. It would
have been more dramatic as many members of the crowd
offered candles and prayers for their loved ones at this time. Next
year. In fact, we welcome any suggestion from anybody who
thinks we can improve upon these already super events.
      Needless to say, the folk dancing was great fun and excercise
for everybody. Every year I am amazed to see  large numbers of
westerners dancing like native born Indians by the end of the
evening.     
      Daylight savings mercifully kicked in the morning after Diwali-a
blessing for the devotees who got to bed very late. The kitchen
and temple were disaster areas. Tyler, Jon, Josh, Caru, and Vai
rolled up their sleeves and not  only restored order and
cleanliness within a few hours, but also managed to cook for the
Sunday feast (there was NOTHING left after the previous night).
Good thing as there was a  sizable Sunday feast crowd to which
Jai Krishna gave a very good lecture and fielded a number of
excellent questions.
      Thanks to Yogi who did a lot of shuttle work for the dancers, and
put them up at his home, and to Springville Days Inn for
providing a room for them to change and refresh. Thanks to
Pragna, and Ramesh, Suman, Bipin, Vasanti, Dinesh, Kalpana,
Balarama, David Eddington, jai krishna, and Karuna, Jean
Bradford and many other volunteers.



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The crowd for Diwali on Saturday night was absolutely capacity-
around 500 coming and going. Perhaps half and half Indians
and Americans. There were many observances to get through:
Fire sacrifice, Govardhan puja, classical dance, drama,  worship
of the cow, the gala aarti of the lights, and the folk dancing, and
what to speak of the ubiquitous kirtans (chanting). Everything
moved along smartly from one to the next without any undue
delays. One might say that it was an orgy of spirituality.
	 We did pass the "turban" and everybody responded generously
to the superb presentation of Alia and Shaheen.
	 This  year for the go-puja, when we brought the calf in to the
temple room (via the elevator), we asked everybody to remain
sitting. This way the calf was visible to all. Pragna sang a
beautiful bhajan about Krishna the cowherd boy. It was easy to
follow and many joined. Adults came up one by one to offer the
aarti tray and put tika on the calf's head. Children stepped
forward, put their hands in the powder and then impressed the
hand print on the cow's back. I considered it moving.  It is sad to
reflect that millions of such gentle and generous animals (milk,
yogurt, butter, cheese, ice cream, sour cream, cottage cheese
etc) will meet violent untimely deaths each year in this country.
"We shape ourselves the joy or fear
of which the coming life is made
and fill our future's atmosphere
with sunshine or with shade."
	 We forgot to turn the lights out during the main aarti. It would
have been more dramatic as many members of the crowd
offered candles and prayers for their loved ones at this time. Next
year. In fact, we welcome any suggestion from anybody who
thinks we can improve upon these already super events.
	 Needless to say, the folk dancing was great fun and excercise
for everybody. Every year I am amazed to see  large numbers of
westerners dancing like native born Indians by the end of the
evening.
	 Daylight savings mercifully kicked in the morning after Diwali-a
blessing for the devotees who got to bed very late. The kitchen
and temple were disaster areas. Tyler, Jon, Josh, Caru, and Vai
rolled up their sleeves and not  only restored order and
cleanliness within a few hours, but also managed to cook for the
Sunday feast (there was NOTHING left after the previous night).
Good thing as there was a  sizable Sunday feast crowd to which
Jai Krishna gave a very good lecture and fielded a number of
excellent questions.
	 Thanks to Yogi who did a lot of shuttle work for the dancers, and
put them up at his home, and to Springville Days Inn for
providing a room for them to change and refresh. Thanks to
Pragna, and Ramesh, Suman, Bipin, Vasanti, Dinesh, Kalpana,
Balarama, David Eddington, jai krishna, and Karuna, Jean
Bradford and many other volunteers.

Dear Caru prabhu,

Dandavat pranams. There is also a setting that will allow non-members
to view the photo albums. I think this might be nice, given that some
people may have e-mail addresses, but might not be allowed to subscribe
Yahoogroups from them.

Ys., Rama Kesava dasa


On Monday, October 27, 2003, at 04:33  pm, caruutah wrote:

> Respected Caru
>
>  Do you have to be a member to view those (Diwali) photos?
>
> Regards
>  Kondal
>
> Dear Kondal,
> I believe you have to give user name and password  which only
> takes a few seconds, then you can view the pictures. Then you
> can either unsubscribe (also a few seconds) or go to a setting
> where you can elect not to receive individual emails from us, but
> to access the site and it's message board whenever you want.
> Or, of course you can continue to be  a member and receive two
> three times a week temple updates and even give your input.
> Regards, Caru Das
>
>
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>

Respected Caru

  Do you have to be a member to view those (Diwali) photos?

Regards
  Kondal

Dear Kondal,
I believe you have to give user name and password  which only
takes a few seconds, then you can view the pictures. Then you
can either unsubscribe (also a few seconds) or go to a setting
where you can elect not to receive individual emails from us, but
to access the site and it's message board whenever you want.
Or, of course you can continue to be  a member and receive two
three times a week temple updates and even give your input.
Regards, Caru Das

Just signed up for the group this evening. It's a nice facility for
sharing temple information. I checked out the Diwali pictures and
read the other posts. Thanks for taking the trouble to set this up.

Hare Krishna --

ys, Balarama Dasa

If you'd like to see the photos of the recent Festival of Lights
(Diwali) at the Krishna temple, they are posted at the following
address. Go to "Photos"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KrishnaKulture/
Next event Dec. 6, Sat, 6 pm, Gita Jayanti

Vaibhavi has arranged many strings of fairy lights on the temple
outside and inside. It should be beautiful for Diwali. Pat
Robertson, our neighbor will drop off the two calves, one male
and one female on Sat afternoon.  We'll put them in a pen with
hay and  bring at least one of them upstairs into the temple room
for  go-puja (cow worship) around 8 pm, just before the folk
dancing. Yogi and Pragna are bringing the sticks for dandiya
rasa, and the music on cassette and CD. Pragna, as always, will
make a wonderful Govardhan Hill to help celebrate Krishna's
pastime as Giridhari (the Lifter of the Mountain). She's going to
make Alou Tikki as well  for the feat, and anyone else in more
than welcome to bring a cooked preparation or some flowers
and fruits.
	 Yogi is kindly picking the two dancers (Alia and Shaheen) up
late Friday night at the airport and they'll sleep at his home.
But
around noon the next day we would like to have them driven to
the motel in Spanish Fork and then to the temple where they can
see the dance floor and take prasadam etc. Is there any
volunteer for that?
	 Last evening (Wed) Vai and I went to the home of Jai Krishna, &
his wife Kim in Orem, for a birthday dinner lamenting the fact that
I have so quickly passed 57 years in this life, and celebrating that
for 33 of those years, I have been trying to engage in Krishna
Consciousness, which is the process to stop the cycle of birth
and death. We had kirtan, bhajan in his wonderful temple room,
and then sat down to a picture perfectly prepared meal of dahi
bara, stuffed avocados, curry soup, and carob raspberry cream
cake. He was also so kind to present me with a silk dhoti for
doing pujas and special occasions. We can only hope 1) that I
can keep it spot free or 2) alternatively, some of our Indian
members (Dhirubhai, Bankim and Harshad  are talking about it)
open a dry cleaning business real soon!
	 This time of year a professor  of eastern religions (Christopher
Ling) at Utah Valley State college encourages his students to
visit the temple with a list of a dozen questions or so. We take an
hour or more with each student an they generally have
something to eat while they are here. Yesterday there were four,
the day before a couple, and we expect more to drop in today.
Many had also been to the festival of India in Sept. (also at Prof.
Ling's urging) and enjoyed it immensely. Although I have not
personally met Ling, he came to the Diwali festival last year and
enjoyed it.
	 We have put up several hundred posters for the festival and
advertised in the smaller Utah Valley papers, as well as the BYU
paper. Then it was mentioned in the newsletter, and as well we
sent out two e-mail reminders to over 2,000 recipients.
	 We received by e-mail attachments quotes from both Harris and
Nautel for a new solid state broadcast transmitter. Both ran
between $12,000 and $13,000. The Harris is $500 cheaper, but
the Nautel is considered as the Mercedes of transmitters.
	 Dinesh called to say the transfer of our construction loan from
Sun Trust to Bank of America is complete. Instead of it being a
loan directly to him, now it is a loan in the name of the Krishna
temple, and Dinesh is the guarantor. This will simplify the
paperwork considerably. Moreover, Dinesh bhai said that the
interest rate is only around 2% and there will be no annual
renewal fees. Good news indeed for the $110,000 loan.

Monday was an interesting day as one of the visiting devotees
from Chicago left the front gate open, and seven juvenile male
llamas ended up looking for greener grasses down the busily
traveled highway. Fortunately none were injured. They did find a
huge patch of brambles to walk through. After we spent time
herding them back onto the property, we then spent hours
snipping (?) all the brambles out of their wool. Some of them
literally had hundreds. Fortunately, Monday was the day the kids
come from Lightning Peak to help with the llamas, so instead of
training them everybody was engaged in clipping them. They
look like victims of a really bad barber, but they are free of the
brambles which can cause discomfort and even infection if they
pierce the skin.
	 We borrowed a transformer for the radio from a SLC station and
were thus back up on the airwaves with the radio station less
than 48 hours after we went down. Vai found a company today
that will build another for us for about $600.00. We are still
looking for a transmitter, which should cost around $12,000,
plus installation.
	 The mayor of Salem City, Randy Brailsford, called to say they
had located a generator for the radio station. Municipalities get
very low prices on surplus goods, so I believe they bought it for
us and we'll repay them. This will keep us on the air in the
future
whenever there is a power outage. There have been an
increasing number of those in the last year because of all the
new construction, thus creating a big drain on electricity. The
generator will also enable the radio station to continue
broadcasting messages and alerts to the local community in
case of an emergency which would knock out power.
	 Jean Bradford of the LDS church studios has lent us a projector
for the drama this weekend (Diwali). It is a huge machine which
weighs 100 pounds, is very bulky and has three lenses which it
took him 20 minutes to focus. Once focused it can be used
repeatedly as long as it is not moved. We may be able to buy one
like that from him or his brother Joel for $200, but I wanted to ask
if anyone has access to another projector which is smaller and
more mobile. If so, we would be interested in that for the extra
flexibility it offers. With a smaller projector, we could even take
our plays and dramas "on the road".
	 Morning classes are from the Brhat Bhagavatamrta by Srila
Sanatan Goswami. We're reading that the inhabitants of
Vrndavan are losing their lives in the absence of Krishna.
Krishna weighs going back to Vrndavan to console them against
the arguments of the inhabitants of Dwarka that he should
remain there with them. Everybody everywhere is attached to
Krishna. Lord Brahma has appeared and has asked Garuda to
take Krishna and Balaram to a replica Vrndavan created by
Visvakarma within the precincts of Dwarka City.

This was an artilcle on Vaibhvai printed in the Provo Daily Herald
last Saturday 10/18/03. There was a nice color photo of her
standing in front of the temple, but it wasn't posted on the
Herald's web site.


Local Leaders Vai Bhavi

Date October 18, 2003




Age: 57

City of residence: Spanish Fork

Full name of temple: Krishna Temple

How long have you led their religious organization? 15 years

What living person do you most admire?

My spiritual teacher. His service to the lord is unalloyed, that is,
no personal motivations, no other agenda. Such service is
joyfully performed. A saintly person thus inspired can elevate
others by his association. This is the highest benefit to society.

Spiritual qualities are not bound by religion. A saintly person
sees with equal vision all souls and makes no material
distinctions. The soul is not affected by nationality, creed, race,
gender or even species. Seeing the soul as equal in everyone
and everything he can benefit all.

What words do you live by?

Always think of the Lord, worship him and serve him with
devotion, being absorbed in full consciousness of him you will
return to him without doubt.

What is the most underrated virtue?

Underrated! In this age shyness. Such a quality is not enough
encouraged. Modesty, shyness, simplicity and self-control are all
aspects of natural humility that helps one develop good
qualities.

India's sacred texts the Vedas tell us that the Lord has six
qualities in full, and as minute parts and parcels of him, we also
have those qualities in minute quantity. Krishna (a name for
God) has all beauty, all wealth, all strength, all knowledge, all
fame and in the face of these, all humility. This humility is the
greatest charm and makes all other qualities attractive.

Who is the character from a religious text who you most identify
with? Why?

In an ancient Sanskrit text written 5,000 years ago a story is told.

Lord Krishna wanted to test his devotees and establish what is
the highest standard of love. On the pretext of having a headache
he asked the great sage Narada to travel throughout the
universe and find the cure. Krishna said that only the dust from
the feet of his devotee, put onto his head, would relieve the pain.

Narada first went to a great Yogi, meditating for years in the
Himalayas. His austerities were enormous and his dedication to
yoga complete. When asked for the dust from his feet to cure
Krishna's headache he was horrified. "Put the dust from my lowly
feet on the head of the Lord? I could never do that, I should go to
hell for such offense."

Next the sage Narada went to a highly elevated priest who was
expert in all the various rituals, fluent in chanting sacred Sanskrit
mantras and well-educated in the scripture. Again the answer
was "No, I could not offend the Lord in such a way. I should go to
hell for it."

After traveling throughout the universes in this way and finding all
the devotees of the Lord scrupulous in their conduct, he spoke
with a simple cowherd maiden "Gopi." She immediately took the
dust from her feet and offered it to Narada. "Are you not afraid of
going to hell for this?" he said. The answer was, "Please,
immediately cure Krishna's headache, heaven or hell, wherever I
am situated it makes no difference. I am only happy if the Lord is
happy."

The pure devotee asks not even for liberation but only for eternal
service.

Are religious leaders obligated to speak out or take a position on
current social and political issues? Why or why not?

Not obligated. However, a religious leader certainly may
contribute in many ways out of choice if there is some benefit
and spiritual priorities are not neglected.

A tree has unlimited leaves and by watering each leaf individually
one will become overburdened and meantime the tree will die.
By watering the root of the tree, however, all the leaves and
branches are automatically nourished.

There are unlimited social and political issues to address, each
an important leaf of the universal tree.

For the holy man, to water the root is the solution to everything.
That root is God consciousness.

If society is nurturing spiritual values then all social and
political
dilemmas can be solved. A society not rooted in Godliness will
not flourish.

We had about 30 visitors to the temple on Friday. There were
four families who had scheduled llama, temple tour and lunch,
and another family the same in the afternoon. The local yoga
teacher stopped by to purchase a lot of pictures for her studio.
We had a group of ladies in their fifties who stopped by while
doing the Nebo Loop on their motor bikes. In mid afternoon a
large number of teen agers came. Most everybody took
prasadam from the buffet.
	 Saturday among others an Indian family from Montana stopped
on the way to Vegas (the mother in law likes to gamble). They
are returning next Saturday and so will most likely come for
Diwali celebrations, sleep in the guest room, and continue home
Sunday. He is a psychiatrist who has visited before. We blessed
his new born son (August) whose name was `Jai." We
introduced him to Jai the parrot.
	 In this morning's Provo Daily Herald there was a feature on
Vaibhavi with a full color pictures and various quotes from her. I
should be able to get it from the internet and post it later.
	 The last two days a devotee couple have visited with us on their
way through to Los Angeles. He (Jnana Chaksur-who see with
the eye of knowledge)) has been very helpful fixing our broken
wheelbarrows and putting away the lawnmowers for the winter,
and she has helped a lot in the gift store. We are unpacking and
pricing in anticipation of Deeeali. Gerald is here cleaning the
bathrooms and kitchen in his humble way. He brought an
accordion for Jon to learn to play.
	 In the mail today arrived a cheque for $800 from Dain Rauscher,
which was a matching amount arranged by our dear friend
Shree Sharma, to be credited to the Vijaya Foundation.
	 We've had a lot of trouble the last two days with the radio
transmitter. I wouldn't blame our lessees if they only paid us a
fraction this month for all the down air time. We are off the air at
present and to get it back on have to have built a main
transformer which will take a week and cost between
$800-$2,000. As our transmitter is very old (from 1962)  we have
decide to buy a new one, which will cost about $15,000 including
installation. The old one can serve as back up. This investment
will keep us from losing revenue due to equipment failures. But
the expense will probably keep us from doing anything on the
amphitheater this year (2004)
	 The calendars (about 200 of them) are sealed into their
envelopes and ready to go out Monday.

Here is the cover letter for the calendar mail out. If ayone has any
comments or suggestions, please let me know asap, as I plan
to print it Friday am. Thanks

10/17/2003

Dear Members & Friends,

	 Enclosed please find the ISKCON art calendar for next year.
Please receive it as a small token of our appreciation for all that
you have done to support the temple efforts and events. May
these coming days, weeks and months bring the fulfillment of
your heart's best desires.
	 Below on this letter head is a schedule of Holidays for 2004.
Please mark them on your calendars, and, as far as possible,
plan your social events so you and your friends will be free to
come to the temple on these special days.
	 These festivals generally attended by large crowds are also an
opportunity to showcase the talents of our local community
members. If you or yours have a skill in the performing arts,
dance, drama, or music please call for an audition. We do have
a modest budget especially dedicated for local talent.
	 At every event a large quantity of vegetarian food is sold to help
finance the temple projects. Last year we had a wonderful boost
from members who brought food to the festivals, and either
merged it for sale with the temple cooked food, or sold it from
their own booth and donated all the proceeds.
	 Thank you once again for all that you have done, and in advance
for all that you will do in the future. The Lord takes note of even
the smallest services performed what to speak of the massive
help that many of you have rendered!
	 With all this talk of next year, let us not forget there are two
special events still to come in  2003: Diwali on Sat. Oct. 25, 6
pm, and Gita Jayanti, Sat. Dec. 6th, 6 pm.


February 15 Sunday 5 pm, Maha Shiva Ratri
March 6 Saturday 4 pm, Holi, Gaura Purnima
March 27 Sat. 5 pm, Ram Navami
June 5, Sat. 6 pm, 3rd Annual Himalayan Festival
June 19 Sun. 5 pm, Chariot Festival
July 17 Sat. 4 pm, 10th Annual Llama Fest
August 7 Sat. 6 pm, Good Karma Festival
Sept. 5 Sat. 8 pm, Krishna's Birthday Festival
Sept. 18 Sat. 4 pm, 18th Annual Festival of India
Oct. 23 Sat. 6 pm, Ram Vijayotsava
Nov. 13 Sat, 6 pm, Diwali, Govardhan Puja, Anna Kuta
Dec. 18 Sat. 6 pm, Advent of Bhagavad Gita

Warmest regards,



Caru das & Vaibhavi Devi

This week's happenings:

There is a llama-temple tour group coming tomorrow Friday at
11 am. 5-7 adults and 6-8 children for lunch.

A film student from Univ of Utah came by today (Thurs Oct. 16th)
to discuss doing a documentary on the Krishna Temple. He'll
initially film the Diwali festival with two cameras. He said he will
also help in the future with digital editing for the multi media
dramas we are now preparing for each and every festival.

I have received the 2004 calendars for all the members, and am
going to prepare a cover letter with next year's schedule of
events, and send them out within the next few days.

We sold three sets of sofas and chairs this week. Bankim was
very helpful in shipping one set to Seattle, and another will go to
Canada. Roshan has taken the third set as well as a dining set
for Los Angeles. Don't know whether whether we will ship or
deliver personally.

Our web site was needing some updates and Jiva has been
incommunicado, so I successfully attempted the changes
myself this AM. There is now an updated schedule for Diwali and
also the web site address for viewing the PBS show is now
posted. However, there are some more sophisticated
improvements I would like to make which are beyond my
powers, and I wonder if there is anyone out there who can do
them?

Karuna was listening to the live stream from La temple (maybe
she could post the address)during which Amal Bhakta was
giving the lecture. He spoke very highly of Utah temple to all the
La devotees.

We have put up about 500 posters for Diwali and I think we will
get a good crowd.

While I was postering at the Univ. of Utah on Tuesday, I saw a
building for sale right across the street from the main entrance at
Kinsgbury Hall. It was used for 27 years by a Christian religious
group which has purchased bigger faciliites. The asking price
was $349,000 for the 3500 sq foot building, which is not at all
doable by us, but still I couldn't help fantasizing about what we
could do with such a facility, right across the street from
campus--special meals  for Indian and other students, packed
Sunday (noon and then Spanish Fork in the evening) feasts,
shuttle for weekend retreats and the Sunday feast in Spanish
Fork, an end to our manpower shortages, close relations with
the U of U professors, a Krishna Sunday school for children,
cooking classes, daily book distribution on campus and a club
which could sponsor campus festivals, performers who come
from out of town for the Spanish Fork festivals could do another
show across from the U. There are many musicians who want to
come up from La and San Fran to give classes in tabla, violin,
etc, and this would be an ideal venu, etc.
Such a facility should also never take away from the Spanish
Fork efforts but only enhance, and add to what is already being
done.

The gift store has many new items which are being priced now,
due to a shipment from Sureshji and also Art and Culture and
India Arts. There is a very good selection of items.

Last evening a young lady who is a chemist from Nu Skin bought
saree, jewelry $61.00 worth. Although Caucasian, her name was
Krishna. She said her parents were hippies in the Haight
Ashbury. Her sister is named Karma. She has been to the
temple before on (you gusssed it )Krishna's birthday party!
Haribol, Caru Das

Yogi,
Thanks very much for the excellent suggestion of putting up a
poster for local talent with some offer of small monies. I have
tried it by mass email for certain big festivals, but didn't get much
response. I shall craft an announcement, and it will give another
avenue to attempt.
Thanks also for sponsorship of Diwali. Such sponsorships also
help to cover the advance costs of the festival, such as dancers
transport , dakshine, advertising etc.
One question.. if we opt for asking some small donation during
the event, do you see if as a passing of the hat around? When
and where would that take place? People are both upstairs and
downstairs most of the time.  Also, I would not want sponsors
and members to have to be approached for putting money into a
hat if they are already solid supporters.
What do you, or others, think?
Haribol, Caru Das 




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Yogi,
Thanks very much for the excellent suggestion of putting up a
poster for local talent with some offer of small monies. I have
tried it by mass email for certain big festivals, but didn't get much
response. I shall craft an announcement, and it will give another
avenue to attempt.
Thanks also for sponsorship of Diwali. Such sponsorships also
help to cover the advance costs of the festival, such as dancers
transport , dakshine, advertising etc.
One question.. if we opt for asking some small donation during
the event, do you see if as a passing of the hat around? When
and where would that take place? People are both upstairs and
downstairs most of the time.  Also, I would not want sponsors
and members to have to be approached for putting money into a
hat if they are already solid supporters.
What do you, or others, think?
Haribol, Caru Das

I see asking for money on small occassions, a obstical to your aim
of inviting every one to temple ,but surely you can announce the
figure of expanses incured and I am preety sure people will
participate in donation drive during each small festival. one more
suggestion we can put a permanent banner type of flyer in the
gurudwara and ganesh temple asking for local telent to participate
with little rewards of money I think this should be considered.
Just to mention include my name for DIwali sponserer.
Your's
Yogi shah



-- In KrishnaKulture@yahoogroups.com, carudas <carudas@e...> wrote:
> Most festivals we see a big advantage in bringing dancers, usually
from SF
> or LA, but this is costly. With airfares averaging $150 each and
dakshina at
> $200, it comes to $700 for two performers. Then we try to regain
the
> original costs by selling plates of prasadam for $ 5.00 and drinks
$ 1.00
> and then gift shop sales. We usually do make a good profit this
way, but I
> am wondering whether for some of the mid sized festivals (festivals
> contained indoors and limited to 400-500 people, Diwali, Ram
Navami, Shiva
> Ratri) whether we shouldn't charge a nominal admission fee of $1
per head
> just to cover costs of transport and dakshina. I think I would be
much more
> enthusiastic in all the poster putting up and running around
advertising the
> event if I knew that the cost of dancers would be covered in the
admission
> rather than in subsequent sales.
> Of course, the big questions are 1) would this too onerous on the
guests and
> 2) difficult to administrate
> Someone would have to collect the fee, and perhaps put a rubber
stamp on
> each person in case they have to go outside and come in again.
There would
> be a large sign with names of the Life Members who would of course
be
> exempt.
> A less intrusive option would be to have a large sign asking
people to
> voluntarily give something (suggested or not), but there would
still, I
> think have someone standing by to lend a presence to the
suggestion.
> Or, of course, the other option would be to skip any admission
fee, absorb
> the cost of dancers, and go on as we have been doing. Would
appreciate your
> thoughts on these or any other matters of concern.
> Your servant, Caru Das

Most festivals we see a big advantage in bringing dancers, usually from SF
or LA, but this is costly. With airfares averaging $150 each and dakshina at
$200, it comes to $700 for two performers. Then we try to regain the
original costs by selling plates of prasadam for $ 5.00 and drinks $ 1.00
and then gift shop sales. We usually do make a good profit this way, but I
am wondering whether for some of the mid sized festivals (festivals
contained indoors and limited to 400-500 people, Diwali, Ram Navami, Shiva
Ratri) whether we shouldn't charge a nominal admission fee of $1 per head
just to cover costs of transport and dakshina. I think I would be much more
enthusiastic in all the poster putting up and running around advertising the
event if I knew that the cost of dancers would be covered in the admission
rather than in subsequent sales.
Of course, the big questions are 1) would this too onerous on the guests and
2) difficult to administrate
Someone would have to collect the fee, and perhaps put a rubber stamp on
each person in case they have to go outside and come in again. There would
be a large sign with names of the Life Members who would of course be
exempt.
A less intrusive option would be to have a large sign asking people to
voluntarily give something (suggested or not), but there would still, I
think have someone standing by to lend a presence to the suggestion.
Or, of course, the other option would be to skip any admission fee, absorb
the cost of dancers, and go on as we have been doing. Would appreciate your
thoughts on these or any other matters of concern.
Your servant, Caru Das