Syamarani didi - Nirjala Ekadasi, Humility --- LA, May 2012

om ajnana timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah
"O Gurudeva, you are so merciful. I offer my humble pranama unto you and am praying from the core of my heart that, with the torchlight of divine knowledge, you open my eyes which have been blinded by the darkness of ignorance."

  

More shorthand notes -

Syamarani didi
Nirjala Ekadasi
Humility
LA, May 2012

"We are being scorched due to indifference to Krsna. Indifference is solved by bhajan - reading about Krsna, hearing about Krsna, chanting, praying to Krsna, etc.

"Why should we be MORE insignificant than a blade of grass? Grass has natural ego; our ego related to our body is not natural, because we are not this body. It is illusion.

"A tree with no fruits and flowers still stands tall; a tree with fruits and flowers bends over. Similarly, a proud person with no good qualities stands tall. A humble person laden with good qualities bends over in humility.

"If we even correctly criticize someone - our criticizing comment is correct - we go where they are destined to go [for doing whatever bad thing you are criticizing them for.]

"Once, Gurudeva asked Damodara Maharaja, "Who is superior, you, or your stool?" Damodara Maharaja answered, "Me, of course." Gurudeva said, no, your stool is superior, because it can say, 'I was once a nice sweet of cake, but by association with you, I became stool.'

"Nirjala Ekadasi, Nirjala is God, not a day. Gurudeva said, 'If you have any defect in Ekadasi, chant, pray, weep.'

"Take carnamrta on Ekadasi. When doing acamana on Nirjala Ekadasi, only touch water to your lips, don't take any in. Even young boys in India follow Nirjala Ekadasi.

"Day before Nirjala Ekadasi, take no water and have only 1 meal.

"'Chant, and everything will be okay." - Gurudeva"

Syamarani didi - Gangamata Goswamini, Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana --- Los Angeles, May 2012

om ajnana timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah
"O Gurudeva, you are so merciful. I offer my humble pranama unto you and am praying from the core of my heart that, with the torchlight of divine knowledge, you open my eyes which have been blinded by the darkness of ignorance."

 

Class by Syamarani didi; my shorthand notes -

Gangamata Goswamini
Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana
LA, May 2012

"All of us ladies should follow Gangamata Goswamini. [Gurudeva said we should be like her, I remember.]

Gangamata Goswamini was a princess around the time of Srila Rupa Goswami. She wanted to marry only Krsna. She arrived in Vrndavana after Rupa, Sanatana had already left, when Ragunatha Goswami was still present. She was initiated by a Haridas Prabhu (not Haridas Thakura).

[Prabhupada spoke on the asta satvika bhavas during Syamarani didi's harinama initiation, saying they are our goal in chanting.]

"Haridas put Gangamata Goswamini - Sacidevi - at age 16, under the care of another lady disciple of his, who was 50 years old. He told her would supply her with nothing material. Sacidevi took only what she needed to maintain her life. She was very chaste. She recorded things from her Gurudeva in her heart.

"At age 50 she was told to go to Radha Kund. Her guardian lady passed on, so she went to her guru and asked him what she should do. He told her he would soon leave, and instructed her to go Puri to find the place of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya and do bhajan.

"Many years later, after the Ganga flowed to her lotus feet, after a king and his associates took initiation from her, Gangamata Goswamini had them built a temple at the place of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya. Just see how guru and Krsna arrange all for us if we simply chant, preach, and do bhajan.

Srimati Gangamata Goswamini

"Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana was born in Orissa by Chilka Lane. This is where Krsna and Balarama - Jagannath and Baladev - bought milk from an old lady on their way to fight for the king of Puri, and gave her Their rings [said to show them to the king who would come by later with his army; when the king discovered that, as he had prayed, Jagannath and Baladev would help him win the fight, he gave the old lady a palace.]

"Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana was expert at vyakarana - Sanksrit grammar. He studied all Vedanta in Udupi. He went to Puri and there met Radha Damodara Prabhu, who came after Syamananda Prabhu and took initiation from him. Then he went to Vrndavana and took shelter of his siksa guru, Srila Vishvanatha Cakravarti Thakura.

"He read all of Srila Jiva Goswami's Sandarbhas. He defeated many. Gurudeva wants us to be scholars.

"Gaudiya are in the Madhva line because Laxmi Tirtha gave diksa to Lord Nityananda and Madhavendra Puri.

"How can we practice defeating people [in spiritual debate] and giving classes? - give classes at colleges and events, repeat what you have heard in harikatha."

 Srila Vishvanath Cakravarti Thakura

Syamarani didi - Sri Siksastakam verse 2-3 - LA, 2012

om ajnana timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah
"O Gurudeva, you are so merciful. I offer my humble pranama unto you and am praying from the core of my heart that, with the torchlight of divine knowledge, you open my eyes which have been blinded by the darkness of ignorance."

 

 

Here are more of my notes from the 2012 Gaudiya Girls Tour with Syamarani didi:

"10 offenses to the Holy Name - Srila Prabhupada would discuss these at initiations and ask his disciples to recite them.

"All names of Krsna and His plenary portions are powerful, but the most direct ones are more powerful - Krsna, Govinda, versus Nrsingha, etc. The highest names of Krsna are the ones associated with Srimati Radhika.

"We have to become Prahlada, Gangamata Goswamini, etc. before we can be gopis. Ultimately we want to be gopis. We want Vraja Krsna, not Devakinandana.

"If we want something while chanting, nama will give us that thing and then go away - a person, money, etc. Nama is like a desire tree.

"'Samsara dukha jaladhau...

 O Caitanya Candra, I am drowning in the ocean of ignorance in a net, chained by wicked desires, getting bitten by the crocodiles of lust, anger, greed, etc. Please save me!

"If we are remembering this verse while chanting, this is good. Acknowledge that we can't control our minds.

"9th offense to the Holy Name - innocent and ignorant versus envious and aggressive. We do sankirtana for the ignorant. Prabhupada said, it's a risk we take for Mahaprabhu. Even if we are handing out Gopi Gitas; Prabhupada said, if they start thinking that Radha and Krsna are ordinary boy and girl, this is OK. It's a start.

"Innocent and ignorant won't make offenses when they read it. But WE can! We must pray to the pastime potency to protect us and to help us understand. Consciously guard against the 10 offenses. How can we become free from offenses? Chant more!

"How can you tell them Krsna is God, if you have no potency to convert them? Gurudeva has the potency.

"What we say to the people does not matter; they either have the sukriti or not.

"Gurudeva said, pray to whomever can help you while you are chanting.

"Make your japa and mantras priority - when you put small pebbles in a jar first, then the big rocks can't fit. But if you put the big rocks in first, and then the small pebbles, the little pebbles slide in-between the cracks and it all fits.

'If after this class you repeat what I'm saying, it will go in your heart. If not, it will not.'
- Srila Gurudeva

Srila Gurudeva and Syamarani didi

Hear, chant, study

Srila Bhakti Prajnana Keshava Goswami Maharaja

“"You should attentively study the spiritual magazines.
As you get time you must study and discuss Kalyäna
kalpataru, Prarthanä, Caitanya-caritämrta, and so on. You
will be able to attain all perfection by offenselessly chanting .
Sri Näma reveals Himself when one hears, studies
and discusses sastra. The anarthas that you have at present
will not become prominent if you intensely perform
sravana and kirtana.”"

 - from "Association of Sadhus in the Form of Sastras" by Srila Bhakti Prajnana Keshava Goswami Maharaja, Rays of the Harmonist, no. 9, Winter 2001