Brijabasi Spirit

From the VedaBase:
San Francisco
17 March, 1968
68-03-17
My Dear Hayagriva,
Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated March 9, 1968. I have come back to San Francisco on the 8th March, and while I was in Los Angeles for two months, I received the balance portion of Bhagavad-gita edited by you. […]

(The following letter is published courtesy of Samba, eldest son of Hayagriva. He has discovered this and about 70 other previously unpublished letters from Srila Prabhupada in his father’s effects. They are written mostly to Hayagriva himself and his wife Shyam, as well as to Kirtanananda and others)
Tridandi Goswami
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Founder-Acharya:
International Society for […]

UNTITLED
By Hladini Devi Dasi
Madhuvana ‘74
 

O yes!…You know!!!
You know better than I!!
!

But still I feel I must
…make You see!

I know…
 

You care!!!
You care more than anyone could ever care!!!
 

But still I feel I cannot
…repay Your love!!!
 

I can taste Your mercy
…in […]

by mrupa
Dropping down from the main road just in front of the old one-room school house next to the lagoon and across from the old forge, the first few yards of dirt road is both the beginning of the driveway to Mr. Snyder’s homestead along the top of the ridge, and the pathway to Vrndavana […]

Written by Hrishikesh (Henry Doktorski)
Many thanks to MG for posting the photograph of Radhanath Swami with United States Congressman from West Virginia Alan Mollohan and other guests and dignitaries. If I am not mistaken, that is West Virginia House of Delegates member Thais Blatnik behind him.
Exact date of photo was May […]

The current RVC temple was opened in 1983 with a lavish installation ceremony that was well attended and publicized. At that point, it still seemed that New Vrindaban would become the successful place of pilgrimage in the West that Srila Prabhupada had envisioned.

This is a picture from the installation festivities showing Radhanath Swami giving […]

By Hladini Devi Dasi
O-Dirt—You’ve been plaguing my life since time immemorial!
O-Dirt—I know you’ve become attached-But PLEASE GET OUT OF MY LIFE!!!
I’ve consulted the most ardent authorities as to how to rid myself of you-
But I turn my back, and you are once again embracing my torn and ragged self.
WHAT MUST I DO??? To become free […]

by mrupa
In the earlier days, Mud was a personality in its own right in the universal form of the dhama.
Mud was almost all pervasive; it didn’t only live behind the cow barn, but one step out of any doorway. A throughway of it ran down the middle of Bahulavan and poured down two driveways […]

This is a letter to Srila Prabhupada, written by Hladini d.d. but never mailed…
Now some time after Mother Hladini left this planet, Vahna, her husband, found this 2 page, hand written letter among other things that he’d kept, like photos , etc.
Vahna has allowed me to copy it and just now Mother […]

by Hrishikesh
On November 2, 1986 , deities of Rama, Sita, Lakshman and Hanuman were installed at the New Vrindaban temple. Land of Krishna reported: (97)
For several weeks beforehand, the excitement of the event was in the air as devotees prepared to receive Their Lordships. All the mothers in the sewing room were working […]

by mrupa
circa early ‘70s
Bahulavana Prasadam Room, Ekadasi:
Picture the large front room of the old Bahulavana temple just before the little walkway into the temple room.
Picture devotees in work clothes and old saris sitting around the walls honoring prasadam, while Kutila brings out the serving pots.
One of the main preps is made from the government food […]

by Hrishikesh 
More altars were built and more deities were sculpted and molded. Bhagavatananda Das sculpted two nine-foot tall bas-relief statues of Jaya and Vijaya, the four-armed gatekeepers of Vaikuntha who hold the four symbols of Vishnu: conchshell, disc, club, and lotus flower, which were installed adjacent to the front doors of the temple.
 On January 6, […]

by Hrishikesh
Installation of the Deities.
The Brijabasi Spirit reported: (93)
“Radha-Vrindaban Chandra, Gaura-Nitai, and Gopala Nathji were placed on Their altars, which had been drilled with nine small holes. In the holes were placed nine precious jewels of the nine major planets. They were then filled with turmeric. A yantra—a small piece of gold plated copper, inscribed […]

by Hrishikesh
On July 4, 1983 , a “temporary” temple for Shri Shri Radha-Vrindaban Chandra was dedicated which dwarfed many United States ISKCON temples in beauty, size and craftsmanship. The building was constructed in less than ten months; the temple room, which covered 5,000 square feet of floor space, was constructed in less than three months, […]

by Dulal Candra das (written for a memorial held by his family)
audio is available at:
http://dulal.podomatic.com/entry/2007-11-26T07_55_38-08_00

Dear Friends,
I say friends not because we have ever met, but because of the close friendship I had with your intimate relative and friend, a kind soul I knew as “Taru”: devotee, writer, public speaker, humorist, ascetic and […]

In May 1972, Kirtanananda Swami received a message to meet Prabhupada in Los Angeles, wherein Prabhupada ordered him to return to New Vrindaban and take over the management. Prabhupada had heard disturbing reports that the farm was not faring well and there was some talk of closing it down. Up to that time, the […]