adi kavi das

Giridhari those are some sweet pictures. I joined ISKCON at the San Diego temple and haven't seen those Deities in years, Sri Sri Radha and Giridhari. All I have left is some memories and a picture on my wall. They are the sweetest Deities!

No he wasn't discouraging me. The devotees in class were happy afterwards and ran up to talk to me. It was only years later that I realised why I was so attached to a nasty she-hog, because I wasn't attached to serving Krishna and my spiritual master. Gour Govinda Maharaja could and did read my mind word for word in his classes, from things I was thinking right then and there to things I had done or even thought about before. His female disciples were jealous because he mostly only did this for the men. When my guru went to retire from family life, before going to Vrndavana and finding Srila Prabhupada, half of his village came to watch. Srila Prabhupada said he was born a devotee. He married at the request of his mother and only had sex seven times, once for each child, in his life. His grandfather was a yogi who left his body at will. One time some sannyasis were complaining that Gour Govinda Swami was being allowed to take sannyasa, being a newcomer to ISKCON. Srila Prabhupada said to them, "He was born a devotee, you are the new men". Another time a sannyasi called Gour Govinda a "boy". You know how they call new devotees boys sometimes? Anyway Srila Prabhupada said,"You mean Gour Govinda? He is old enough to be your father." He saw the International Society for Krishna Consciousness sign in Vrndavana and walked in. He wanted to talk to the leader. He wanted to take sannyasa. As soon as he went up to Srila Prabhupada Srila Prabhupada said,"I will give you sannyasa." He told my guru maharaja to make disciples all over the world, build the temple in Bhubaneshwar from nothing, and translate his books into Oriya, all of which my guru did.

Here is the address: Bhakta Jerry ISKCON Prison Ministry 1716 Lunt Chicago, IL 60626 I have just started writing to prisoners and I have three who wrote back. One is a famous murderer who they wrote a best selling book about who said he got so much out of Srila Prabhupada's books. More in one hour of reading than five years of reading other things. He was very happy to get some mail from this fallen devotee, me. Another was a bhakta from twenty years ago and knows a mutual acquaintance, Madhuha Prabhu. Somehow he is back in jail I hope he becomes a little serious. He liked an article in Back to Godhead and I contacted the author who is now writing to him about it since he asked about it. My third person really wants to have Krishna Consciousness explained to him he is new to the entire philosophy but believes in reincarnation and seems very interested and sincere. I don't write my own address on the letters I use the Prison Ministry's and when I get a response the letters are forwarded to me. It is an ecstatic service I look forward to this very much and there is a list right now that Bhakta Jerry has in need of devotees to write to. Bhakta Jerry also said that they need articles for the IPM (ISKCON Prison Ministry) newsletter so any devotee who wants to try his hand at writing something and hasn't gotten published by Back to Godhead yet can start out here, at the IPM! If lots of devotees would just write to just one or two prisoners think of how enlivened we all would be. I don't get to preach much so sending out the few Back to Godheads and letters I have done lately is the most ecstatic thing I am doing. I can't wait for new letters to arrive, the only problem is I don't want to take on too many devotees. We are all fallen devotees and being sent to prison is very heavy and just what some people might need in order to force them to surrender. I'm sure if you want a specific type of person, for example, if you want a low security inmate or someone already familiar with devotional service, and you ask Bhakta Jerry he will be able to help link you up with someone. Men write to male prisoners, and women devotees write to females, and you don't have to give out any information you don't want to, there are several devotees around the country who might be closer to you than Chicago. My own personal feeling is that these people have plenty of time so I take it slowly with them as far as seeing how sincere they are about Krishna Consciousness. I don't necessarily accept everything they say, and the ministry sends them literature so all we have to do is write. :namaskar: Hare Krishna!