Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #48 – Sādhus of Vṛndāvana

November 24th, 2025

Sādhus of Vndāvana [1]

 

A question recently came to my mind. I have lived here in Vṛndāvana for almost forty-four years. Why?

 

Of course, the main reason I am here is that my sevā, or service, is here. I help pilgrims, especially from abroad, to enter, understand, and experience Vṛndāvana.

 

I am also here because there are sādhus or saintly people that live or visit here and I benefit from their association. And that is the subject of this week’s Monday Morning Greetings.

 

Sādhu I

 

A friend shared his efforts during Kārttika to deepen his attraction for the holy name of Krishna. He described a moment of intense disappointment and frustration. Despite his effort to just focus on chanting, he was not getting what he wanted. He subtly told me that he was so desperate that he almost began to question the practice itself. At that point his heart suddenly opened. His  experience of the holy name became deeper than ever before.

 

The only thing separating us from a full revelation of God is our desire to embrace His grace. The sādhu’s extreme disappointment was only a reflection of his intense desire to be with Krishna and serve Him in the form of His holy name. I am grateful for such company.

 

Sādhu II

 

Another friend just arrived. Every year he spends the winter in Govardhana. His health is so chronic and debilitating that he can only leave his bed for five or six hours a day before again collapsing in exhaustion. We met and compared notes. He shared that although he is in more pain than ever before. his meditation on the holy name keeps on deepening. It confirmed for me a very important point — the holy name is non-different from Krishna. His appearance is therefore not ultimately dependent on one’s ability and effort to produce it. How else to explain meditation on the holy name increasing even when the body is ravaged with pain? The holy name manifests by its own will in response to one’s sincere desire to serve Krishna. The association of such devotees is priceless.

 

Sādhu III— A Remembrance

 

When word came to me that Śrīla Prabhupāda’s godbrother Akiñcana Krishna dāsa Bābājī was hospitalized and near death, I immediately rushed to the CFC hospital in Vṛndāvana. That was more than thirty-five years ago. Bābājī Mahārāja was famous for chanting the holy name non-stop day and night. Even Śrīla Prabhupāda described him as having no material desires and at the highest level of devotion.[2] Unfortunately, by the time I arrived he had already departed for Nandagrāma, the home of Krishna, where he would soon leave the world. As Bābājī Mahārāja had left the hospital only minutes before, the doctor was still in the room. I inquired from him about his patient’s condition. What he told me was astounding. Although Bābājī Mahārāja had been unconscious when the doctor put his stethoscope to his heart, he heard the constant repetition of the holy name. I didn’t doubt what I was told and years later it was confirmed. I was studying a book on classical meditation for a course I was teaching. It described that the perfection of chanting a mantra after years of concentrated practice is that the mantra becomes so deeply embedded in the subconscious that it continues non-stop without extraneous effort!

 

How fortunate to meet the sādhus of Vṛndāvana!

 

“The verdict of all revealed scriptures is that by even a moment’s association with a pure devotee, one can attain all success.” (Cc. Madhya-līlā 22.54)

 

 


[1] This is a highly edited entry originally published from November 25, 2019.

[2] “Śrīla Prabhupāda himself had spoken of Akiñcana Krishna dāsa Bābājī as nikiñcana, ‘having no material attachments,’ and paramahasa, ‘a swanlike pure devotee.’” From Akiñcana Krishna dāsa Bābājī’s obituary in Back to Godhead, June 1982.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #47 – What I Learned from Blind Hockey

November 17th, 2025

Paul[1] is a reasonably successful professional film maker who is based in Govardhan in the winter with his wife Kristina, who owns and manages several high-end boutiques in Toronto. Although Kristina by nature very much likes exquisite and fine things, the inner spiritual beauty of this outwardly rather unrefined Indian town captured her heart. She strongly wanted to stay. Anyway, they wound up as my neighbors, and we became friends. This evening, I am very much looking forward to Paul’s visit to show me the final cut of his new documentary Blind Hockey to get my input.

 

Blind hockey? I was as surprised as you. Although it follows the basic guidelines of traditional hockey like having five players and a goalie, here are a few of the adjustments made in the rules that makes it work:

 

The puck is larger (about 5½ inches in diameter), made of metal, and filled with ball bearings so it makes noise when it moves allowing players to track it by sound.

 

Teams use verbal communication constantly — calling “pass,” “shot,” etc. — to keep everyone oriented.

 

All players must have under 15 percent vision. The players are divided into three groups and classified based on their level of visual impairment:

 

  • B1 (red helmet): Totally blind (goalies must be in this category)
  • B2 (white helmet): 3-5 percent vision. Can barely recognize shapes but certainly not any details.
  • B3 (black helmets): Over five but under 15 percent vision. Everything is just a deep blur.

 

Teams are balanced so that both sides have a mix of players, thus ensuring fair play.

 

These are my realizations watching blind hockey.

 

Gratitude

 

Naturally when watching something like this, one begins to think how horrible it would be to be blind. It is just wonderful to see the beauty of the world and to be able to function independently with the help of clear vision. We, however, take our sight for granted. Watching blind hockey increased my gratitude for the vision God gave me and all the other gifts of God I take for granted.

 

Is Our Sight Worth It?

 

I wonder, however, if most of us would be better off devotionally without our sight. Imagine no more scrolling, wasting our time on social media, and for some even peeping at things we shouldn’t. Perhaps we would use that time in chanting and hearing about Krishna, rather than degrading our consciousness in frivolity. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam warns us in a poetic way how useless the senses can be.

 

“The eyes which do not look at the symbolic representations of the Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu [His forms, name, quality, etc.] are like those printed on the plumes of the peacock…” Bhāgavatam 2.3.22

 

And more than useless, our senses can degrade us. Is our sight worth it? Hmm?

 

Ultimately happiness is consciousness not things

 

There was a sociological experiment that compared the happiness of two groups over a five-year period. It involved those who had just become quadriplegics and those who had just became lottery winners. At the beginning those who became quadriplegics were naturally depressed and those who won the lottery elated. At the end of five years there was absolutely no difference in their happiness. What happened? My take: Those who won the lottery spent more of their time trying to control and enjoy the world which ultimately depresses the consciousness, while those who were quadriplegic were forced to spend more time developing a better mental approach to life. That type of work raises the consciousness. Watching Blind Hockey I got the impression that these visually impaired athletes were not any less happy than those with full vision reaffirming that ultimately happiness is more a matter of our consciousness than anything else.

 

I watched the film and gave Paul my feedback. I very much liked the film, but I had to frankly tell Paul that the audio was muddled and difficult to hear. It was just terrible. Paul is an accomplished professional who knows his craft. He therefore looked at me puzzled as if to politely question what in the world I was talking about? It suddenly occurred to me to raise my hand to the back of my ears to check my hearing aids. The casing wasn’t shut, so the battery was not activated. My hearing was impaired the whole time! We laughed hysterically. What an image. The hearing impaired sannyāsī watching blind hockey!

 

I enjoyed Paul’s visit. A good time was had by all.

 

And that’s what I learned from blind hockey.

 

 


[1] If you want to find out about Blind Hockey and other works by Paul Dombrovskis check his Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pauldombrovskis/ and https://pauldombrovskis.com/.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #46 – More Than Meets the Eye

November 10th, 2025

I found the 16th chapter of the Antya-līlā of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmta very intriguing.

 

The last eight chapters (14-20) describe Śrī Caitanya’s intense feelings of separation from the Lord at the end of His life. He is repeatedly described there as lapita— one who talks like a crazy man. We are told that His transcendental madness is so mysterious and deep that:

 

“Even though one is very advanced and learned, he cannot understand it.” Antya-līlā 14.5

 

The reason I found chapter 16 so intriguing was because within these last chapters, which exclusively describe the Lord’s transcendental madness, this chapter focuses on the glories of mahā-prasādam. My immediate reaction, “that’s an interesting subject, but why here?”

 

This post is my attempt to explain why.

 

After Śrī Caitanya tastes and then distributes Jagannātha mahā-prasādam to His confidential associates, He comments:

 

“These ingredients, such as sugar, camphor, black pepper, cardamom, cloves, butter, spices and licorice, are all material. Everyone has tasted these material substances before.”

 

“However,” the Lord continued, “in these ingredients there are extraordinary tastes and uncommon fragrances. Just taste them and see the difference in the experience.

 

“Apart from the taste, even the fragrance pleases the mind and makes one forget any other sweetness besides its own.” Antya-līlā 16.108-111

 

Let’s unpack what the Lord is saying here.

 

When foodstuffs are offered to the Lord and then accepted by His devotee as prasādam, the experience, even the sensual one, mystically far exceeds in relish and inner satisfaction the tasting of those same ingredients as bhoga, food not offered to the Lord.

 

The potency of devotional items to invoke a sensual and emotional experience far beyond what those same material ingredients can normally arouse holds true with any sense experience in relation to God.

 

For example, the apparently ordinary syllables of mantra can please the ear far beyond what any mundane poetry or musical composition can offer, or the vision of the Deity or a picture of the Lord can be experienced as far more beautiful that any sculpture or painting an artist can create.

 

Although in general such experiences depend upon one’s purity and devotion, by the mercy of Śrī Krishna most sincere devotees regardless of their level of devotion are occasionally blessed with such experiences to encourage their faith.

 

How exactly does this happen?

 

The śāstras reveal that when something is spiritualized by offering it to God, and approached with the right devotion, we imperceptibly start experiencing objects of devotion through internal spiritual senses. In other words, we are perceiving the same thing but experiencing it through a totally different apparatus and in a totally different way.

 

I love how this this phenomenon is so clearly described in Bhad-bhāgavatāmta.

 

“You should not consider devotional service merely an activity of the body, senses, and mind. It is in fact the eternal absolute reality, manifesting itself as the most intense ecstasy, beyond the material modes.”

 

Commentary: “ […] pure bhakti is never approached by material senses. Even though hearing is done with the ears, chanting with the tongue, remembering with the mind, and praying and other activities with the limbs of the body, these activities are not material; they are spiritual activities that can be performed only by a devotee’s awakened spiritual senses.” Bhad-bhāgavatāmta 2.3.133

 

Now back to my initial quandary—how does this extensive discussion of mahā-prasādam fit into the later chapters of the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmta describing Śrī Caitanya’s extremely intense ecstasy? This is what I theorize:

 

We are warned repeatedly in the later chapters that we can’t judge Śrī Caitanya’s transcendental madness by logic or scholarship. Although such emotions may look exactly like intense anxiety and erotic longing, they are factually a spiritual reality born out of prema-bhakti and thus beyond the modes of nature. In other words, it is so important to understand that there is more than meets the eye when engaging with and trying to understand spiritual phenomena. And what better way to be introduced to this fundamental principle than Śrī Caitanya’s explanation of the inexplicable glories of mahā-prasādam?

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #45 – A Sannyāsi Walks onto a Train and Meets a Girl

November 3rd, 2025

A Sannyāsi Walks onto a Train and Meets a Girl[1]

 

I can’t remember the exact train or time, but I do remember the girl. It was about two months ago on a crowded train from Washington, D.C. to New York. I got on early to get a window seat and, I hoped, sit by myself, and began to work. A few minutes before the train was about to leave, I saw a girl in her early twenties struggling to drag her suitcase down the aisle. She was visibly exhausted and stopped when she got to my seat. Some good Samaritans helped her load her luggage onto the upper rack, and she plopped down in the seat next to me. Seeing her condition, I guessed she didn’t have enough energy to go further. Otherwise why would she choose to sit down next to a fellow in robes and tilaka? Once she had slumped down into the chair, she searched her handbag for a snack. It was as if she needed to eat something just to get enough energy to survive her ordeal. Then she made a phone call. “I made it, Mom,” I heard her say. “I’m OK.” Well, there goes my privacy, I thought, and went back to my work.

 

The train was only five minutes or so out of the station when the girl asked me if I was a monk. We talked, and I heard her sad story.

 

She was a successful, athletic, gifted college student who had even managed to maintain her devout Catholicism in school, when she was ravaged by a severe case of chronic Lyme disease. She almost died twice, but her devoted parents stood by her side and nursed her to life. After a long bout fighting the disease, she finally had enough energy, barely, to go by train and visit her boyfriend in Albany. He was also a pious Catholic from New England, and he had the character and devotion to stay with her. I don’t remember the details, but she suffered hell and was still suffering. Only her faith in God carried her through her trials with even a glimmer of hope and purpose. I encouraged her faith, which she said not many people did, and offered a few words of wisdom from what I learned from my revered teacher. She was grateful and took my card. Yesterday I received a letter from her. I thought what she wrote would be meaningful for our Monday Morning Greeting audience.

 

Hello,

 

This is Grace, from the Amtrak train, back in early May. I’m so sorry about the long delay in messaging. I have been meaning to write but keep getting distracted. (One of the many things I’m working on :).

 

I wanted to keep in touch and tell you how much our conversation meant to me. I think you were right when you said God sat us together for a reason. As I mentioned on the train, I have been very sick with Lyme disease for many years now. It has tested me in many ways, but this experience has made me stronger both mentally and spiritually. It was such a blessing to talk to someone else who had an understanding of something greater. Many friends tell me they have no idea what to say to me, and many doctors similarly tell me they don’t know what to do for me. I know God has all the answers and can heal me. Still, I have prayed so hard for God to let me meet someone “who knows more than I do.” I definitely feel that prayer was answered by sitting next to you. It was amazing how little we discussed the details of the illness, yet I felt so many of my questions were answered.

 

It felt like a holiday having a conversation that lacked “small talk” and as I like to call it, “interviewing dialogue.” You seemed aware of my stress and physical ailment without me needing to explain it. I cannot tell you how happy and understood that made me feel. This may sound really silly, but I’m usually the “you” in conversations. Picking up on signs such as stress, mood, state, all while listening to the person. Receiving that sort of attention and understanding back was a true blessing I will always cherish.

 

Since our train ride, I’ve been focusing more on getting off medications and healing naturally. It is difficult. It takes a lot of persistence and prayer, but I know it’s what I’m supposed to do.

 

I’ve been finding a lot of answers through Ayurvedic medicine. It just kind of makes sense to me, if you know what I mean. I love all the warming spices—cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, turmeric, and others. I’ve been cooking more often and supplementing with many herbs and vitamins. I’ll often read about natural healing methods and great herbs, later to find it’s often used in Ayurvedic healing. I’m just trusting in God that what I find is what I’m supposed to do.

 

Lastly, I wanted to ask a few questions. You mentioned meditating and prayer to me. At risk of sounding cliché or stereotyping, does your meditation focus on breathing? Such as in yoga? Do you do yoga? I know there are different types. I’m finding my greatest struggle is the breathing. I’m having an incredibly hard time with it. I get tightness, headaches, stomach aches, etc. A lot of people talk about the breathing, but I haven’t found anything helpful yet. I’m not sure if you have any advice. However, if you have any input at all, I’d to hear it. I feel my inability to truly breathe may be inhibiting my healing process.

 

Lastly, I wanted to tell you again how happy I am to have met you. You opened up my mind to many new ideas as well as confirmed many of my own beliefs. It was so good to talk about God with another person. Thank you so much for the prayers. I feel my body getting stronger and know that God is working.

 

Please do not take the delay in this email as a lack of interest. I’ve written and edited it so many times and finally told myself enough is enough. I would love to hear back from you whenever you’re free. I’ll definitely do my best to reply much, much sooner. I hope you are doing well, and I’ll keep you in my prayers as well.

 

Thanks so much,

Grace

 

That’s about it. I am just happy that I can share with others what I learned in my studies and life and meet such good people as Grace. I also wanted to ask my audience to pray for her. Grace is a sincere soul who wants God and wouldn’t mind good health to serve Him. Thanks for listening.

 

 

_____________________________________

[1] This month uncharacteristically I haven’t been able to find time to write. In addition to my Kārttika vrata of chanting, I give nearly fifteen classes a week and many people visit me. For this week I therefore am posting this reprint from almost ten years ago from July 25, 2016. It is one of my all-time favorites.