St. Louis/Chicago devotees, mid seventies, anybody out there? Options

[0dayalu0]

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My friend why do you put this picture of my lowly self in this place?

meta is into manboobs... he's also into miniskirts (gamshas)... i always thought his intense focus on efficient lota usage was for sadhanic brahminical cleanliness reasons but then i found out there were other reasons he wanted a squeaky clean butt

Bhagavan Acarya and Kundara were my two dear friends of that period. Does anyone know where they are?

[0dayalu0]

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Tapati might remember that in this St.Louis Temple there was a stairway going upstairs between the kitchen and the altar. In that stairway, on the walls or ceiling were painted these cute, quite corny pieces of spiritual art. Things like lotus feet…Nitai-pada…‘Lord Nityananda’s lotus feet are a shelter where one will get the cooling moonlight of millions of moons’. These ‘Nitai’s lotus feet’ were also seen by me in the cellar and I think upstairs too. Maybe Tapati painted them or maybe Makanlal. I didn’t know that much of Nityananda then. These were curiosities to me then.

[Tapati]

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Tapati might remember that in this St.Louis Temple there was a stairway going upstairs between the kitchen and the altar. In that stairway, on the walls or ceiling were painted these cute, quite corny pieces of spiritual art. Things like lotus feet…Nitai-pada…‘Lord Nityananda’s lotus feet are a shelter where one will get the cooling moonlight of millions of moons’. These ‘Nitai’s lotus feet’ were also seen by me in the cellar and I think upstairs too. Maybe Tapati painted them or maybe Makanlal. I didn’t know that much of Nityananda then. These were curiosities to me then.

I never went on that stairway so I didn't know about the art. There was quite a little cult of Nitai in St. Louis, Makanlal preached that it was only by Lord Nityananda that one received the mercy of Lord Chaitanya, so we had these rip-roaring kirtans where we chanted "Nityananda!" over and over. (What a tongue twister that was.) Therefore it doesn't surprise me to hear that there were these images. We were always invoking the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda. It was rather sweet.

I don't have to hold the beliefs to appreciate the spirit that went behind them.

[Kalisurfer]

Tapati,

Did you know of a Bramachari in St. Louis by the name of MahaMuni das? He was a Vietnam vet and had that sergeant military mentality as a devotee and used it as a sankirtana leader; he eventually got married and lived in Detroit before moving to Washington, D.C., where he was in charge of the small preaching center in the city. He was the first devotee to teach me how to put on a dhoti!

You mentioned in an early post about the whereabouts of Dakshinevari devi dasi. Just wanted to say that she and her husband lived in the Potomac, Maryland temple when my wife and I lived there in the mid to late 80’s. She had a daughter at the time and her husband was full time cook but eventually became attracted to Kirtananda and the whole Christian robe scene in New Vrndavan, where they all eventually moved. I believe that experience split up the marriage and she and her daughter eventually found a home in Alachua, Florida.

[0dayalu0]

Tapati,

Did you know of a Bramachari in St Louis by the name of MahaMuni das? He was a Vietnam vet and had that sergeant military mentality as a devotee and used it as a sankirtana leader; he eventually got married and lived in Detroit before moving to Washington, DC where he in charge of the small preaching center in the city. He was the first devotee to teach me how to put on a dhoti!

Wow! I knew Maha Muni so well. He held my hand once as a doctor lanced my thumb without anestesia. I was chanting loudly! Big and tall, he was like my big brother.

[Tapati]

Tapati,

Did you know of a Bramachari in St. Louis by the name of MahaMuni das? He was a Vietnam vet and had that sergeant military mentality as a devotee and used it as a sankirtana leader; he eventually got married and lived in Detroit before moving to Washington, D.C., where he was in charge of the small preaching center in the city. He was the first devotee to teach me how to put on a dhoti!

You mentioned in an early post about the whereabouts of Dakshinevari devi dasi. Just wanted to say that she and her husband lived in the Potomac, Maryland temple when my wife and I lived there in the mid to late 80’s. She had a daughter at the time and her husband was full time cook but eventually became attracted to Kirtananda and the whole Christian robe scene in New Vrndavan, where they all eventually moved. I believe that experience split up the marriage and she and her daughter eventually found a home in Alachua, Florida.

The name MahaMuni is quite familiar so I know we were there probably at the same time, I just can't picture a face. (Really, they were so strict with me I was afraid to even look at the brahmacharis much, I only saw them in my peripheral vision, in passing. If it weren't for that one photo, I wouldn't know any of their faces at all, and I still can't match the names up with the faces.)

It doesn't entirely surprise me if the marriage didn't last forever. I hope she and her daughter are doing well in Alachua. Dakshinevari had a great sense of humor and a very forthright personality; I miss her.

[Bhaktavasya]

I remember Maha-muni from Chicago (Evanston) very well. One time on sankirtan, at the O'Hare airport, Mahamuni was trying to sell a guy a book while i was standing near by. I can't remember why he waved me over, maybe to keep the guy there for another few minutes, but he motioned me over and said to the guy, with a straight face, "This is my mother, Bhaktavasya", I smiled obligingly and the guy did a triple take; I was younger than maha-muni and didn't feel the least bit insulted because it was a humourous break from the increasingly boring routine of pinning flowers on people's lapels or blouses and hitting them up for a donation.

Like Tapati, i have a special place in my heart for the Chicago temple in Evanston. For a while i was the only woman who would go out to the airport with the men, Mrgendra, Tripurari, Devananda Pandit (who i had the great misfortune to marry a few years later), Manu-suta, and a bunch of other men from BBT and other temples. I always had the lowest 'score' but i liked going out because i felt claustraphobic in the temple. After a while Samharina came to Chicago and i had a female buddy to go out with. then Karna-Karna and Madhavi came along to form the women's party.

Mostly i have good memories of the women there, Subhada, Damayanti the cook, Janavi (another 'sankirtan woman'), Danistha, Lekhashavanti, and even the notorious Krishna Mayi (who was later banished to St. Louis temple for getting caught stashing away a hundred one dollar bills....she was publicly exposed and humiliated, which i thought was a crime in itself as some of the leaders were already just taking what they 'needed' out of the temple funds without any guilt or blame assigned).

Tapati, you said that when you were there the women would chant on the balcony, but that must have been implemented after i left there at the end of 1976, because while i was there the women had the right side of the temple, the men the left, just like in Toronto temple. And the feasts...both men and women would crowd the ktichen on feast days cooking and cutting up together all day.

Those were the days of the 108 different savories and 108 different sweets. Prasadam intoxication and mega weight gain!

[0dayalu0]

I remember Maha-muni
Those were the days of the 108 different savories and 108 different sweets.

I'd be cooking away for those kinds of marathons. Intense and estatic as I remember the kitchens of those days.
I got charge of St. Louis kitchen because Radha Damodar Traveling Party, which I was a part of (since 1976) under Tamal Krishna, Tripurari and Drystadyumna Swamis, got authority over it as their center of operations sometime in early 1977. I was then doing preaching and cooking in a RDTSKP house in Louisville. I was trained to do various services. I could and did lead kirtans and bhajans, cook for the Deities and also preach and collect on the lots. When I arrived into St. Louis, I think in late June 1977, there were many devotees I didn’t know, but came to, who were either from that temple or Chicago temple and then became under RDTSKP. Certainly many were displaced by the change in jurisdiction and moved elsewhere. It is amazing how some of us on GR are interconnected by people and events
St. Louis was a cauldron of many tests for me. Besides being cook from 3Am to 9AM, from about 11am til 5 or 6 pm I used to go out with incense and BTGs. I remember I used to collect between 60 and 100 dollars in change every day. Three times I was beaten up and robbed. Twice in the same place. A Kroger supermarket parking lot. It was all black people. Many times over the years was I sent to preach in the black areas because I was a nickel and dime man not one of the big airport collectors. I liked people too much and I didn’t care about the money that much, I just turned it in. Once in that lot a very large, very black man, after I had given him my sample offering stick, He smashed me square in the face, knocking me out on the hood of a car and robbing me. Another day there, a band of 6 or 7 black youths with sticks surrounded me and took turns hitting me till they managed to get my purse and incense, I was pretty bloody. Yet another time when I was coming back to the temple on a bus, I was attacked on a public bus by a large drunken black who was after my incense. I fought back and the driver called the police who caught him and nicely drove me back to the temple, being as I was bruised and bloodied again. Krishna, Krishna raksa mam… Maha Muni cleaned me up and took care for me in each of these events. He also told me the intimate particulars regarding the suicide of Gopijanavallabha Swami. Later that year, in late October I was made the personal servant of the then Jagat Guru Swami, now Narasimgha Swami and I was with him in Minneapolis when Prabhupada left the world.
Sri Govinda and Sri Leka I saw last in California, 1996. They lived in a motor home. They became my friends by way of BR Sridhar. They had been to my home here to visit in 1992. I could find them if I tried. Tapati mentions Danasila. Well…being a brahmacari since 1975 and I was in Dallas temple in August 1978 and I fell in love with her and we were engaged for about 5 months. She had left Chicago temple, and married some Muslim guy, separated from him and had his child with her at that time in August 1978. We used to go out collecting and preaching but we didn’t collect too much together. Tamal Krishna had her sent home at Christmas 1978, to separate us and that was the last time I ever saw or heard of her.
Uttama Sloka who I think had something to do with Chicago temple I met when I got to LA in late 1979. I played a lot of guitar with him. We were good friends. I was around many temples and devotees since June 1974. And since 1996 when I visited California, I haven't seen even one of the multitudes of my godbrothers and godsisters. But this part of my life also serves Krishna in some other way. Maybe love in separation, maybe. I was actually only in Chicago once during it’s Ratha Yatra in 1977.
I must say this: Hari Nama initiation is full initiation in the Gaudiya line, I was engaged in intimate services because of my natural abilities, submissiveness and eagerness to serve in every temple I travelled to. Gayatri Diksa serves Hari Nama we have heard and may not be necessary at all, Gauranga preached the chanting of the Name can give us everything, that brahmana is a stage before vaishnava and that Krshna's name is sung eternally and spontaneously in great love by the residents of Krishna's abode.

[Tapati]

Tapati, you said that when you were there the women would chant on the balcony, but that must have been implemented after i left there at the end of 1976, because while i was there the women had the right side of the temple, the men the left, just like in Toronto temple. And the feasts...both men and women would crowd the ktichen on feast days cooking and cutting up together all day.

It was in New Dwaraka that we were on the balcony during class, and in the back of the temple or balcony during kirtan, which was quite a shock to me as I was used to the Chicago system of side-by-side. I never connected with the deities there in the same way I did with Kishora-Kishori because they were so far away.

[Tapati]

Sri Govinda and Sri Leka I saw last in California, 1996. They lived in a motor home. They became my friends by way of BR Sridhar. They had been to my home here to visit in 1992. I could find them if I tried.

I knew them both in Chicago and New Dwaraka, I stayed with them when I was pregnant and homeless and Sri Govinda got my airline ticket when I tried the first time to leave my abusive husband. (I chickened out; I was to go to Hawaii by myself with my baby and just couldn't go off into the unknown like that.) I used to babysit their daughter Kishori.

Uttama Sloka was temple president of Evanston temple after Sri Govinda. When he came he brought various devotees from Canada with him.

[Kalisurfer]

Wow! I knew Maha Muni so well. He held my hand once as a doctor lanced my thumb without anestesia. I was chanting loudly! Big and tall, he was like my big brother.

The Maha Muni connection is a real surprise. He was living in Detroit when I first started coming around seriously to the temple in 1981 and then when I moved to Wahington DC a few years later, he had also moved to that city, so our lives crossed paths twice in that period of time. I love your hospital story, for that sounds just like him, being present in a time of need, something that probably carried over from being a combat sergeant in Vietnam! In D.C., he ran a city preaching center, which at the time housed a few married couples and around 8 Brahmachari’s. The main focus of the preaching center was Sankirtan, Harinam and 3 weeknight classes with prasadam. When the changes in the whole ISKCON guru issue came to a head in the late 80’s, he became burnt out on all the problems and changes taking place. He resigned his position, got a divorce from his wife and then started a sales job while living outside with some other disaffected devotees. I remember him making a stealth visit to the Potomac, Maryland temple during the day in 1987. I just happened to be walking in the Parking Lot at the time he pulled in and we had a long talk on all the things happening in ISKCON and all the changes taking place at the temple at the time. You could tell he was in a state of mental anguish about certain issues in his life, but he would not say what exactly was bothering him, since we always had a relationship where he was the senior devotee teaching me the ways of devotee-hood, and I was newly married and fully involved in temple life. That was the last time I saw him and am unsure what ever became of his involvement with ISKCON or devotees. I had fond memories of him; he was always very friendly towards me, kind of like a big brother, so I hope he is doing well wherever he may be.

[Bhakta Jim 1979]

After I left the Hare Krishna movement in 1979 I typed up a memoir about my experiences, trying to make some sense of it. I kept the manuscript but never revised it. It was more therapy for me than something to publish.

I have been writing a book on e-books, including where to find free ones, how to make your own, what to use to read them, copyright issues, etc. I got the idea of taking that old typewritten MS and revising it for publication as an e-book. In the process of doing that I thought about people I hadn't seen for thirty years and it made me wistful and sad. I used Google to look up their devotee names and found that quite a few of them are still in the movement, and that sadly some of them had been involved in scandals, and in one case I know of had committed suicide. These people have been very much on my mind lately. They are some of the finest people I've ever known.

For my own peace of mind only, and NOT just for the book, I would be interested in knowing about the current status of the following people. I knew them all at the old Evanston, Illinois temple from 1978-79. I was just Bhakta Jim, a fringe devotee who only got serious at the end of that period. For the record, I WAS pretty serious, donating half my income and my savings, going to morning and evening programs every day, living close to the temple, and participating in the Bhakta program on weekends. I was hoping to be initiated by Tamal Krishna. I got out through deprogramming.

Men:

Praladanandana dasa
Sivarama Swami
Dharma-prana dasa
Rasabehari dasa
Gopi-jana-vallaba Swami
Chakri dasa
Lomasha Rishi dasa
Pragosha dasa
Triupurari Swami
Tranakarta dasa

Women:

Misrani devi-dasi
Pashupati devi-dasi
Sadbhuja devi-dasi
Guru-charana-padma devi-dasi

Children

Mekhela (Pashupati's daughter)
Nakula and Sahadeva (Mother Dianne's twin sons)

Of course there were many others I have forgotten, but I want to hear about them too.

Thank you very much.

[Sita]

Men:

Praladanandana dasa
Sivarama Swami (in Hungary -- I'm sure you've found him as he has a big presence on the web and does festivals and stuff)
Dharma-prana dasa
Rasabehari dasa
Gopi-jana-vallaba Swami
Chakri dasa
Lomasha Rishi dasa
Pragosha dasa (still around somewhere distributing books!!!)
Triupurari Swami (up in Oregon, with Gaudiya Math people, he's a guru)
Tranakarta dasa

Women:

Misrani devi-dasi
Pashupati devi-dasi
Sadbhuja devi-dasi
Guru-charana-padma devi-dasi (in the UK, around the Manor, married to Kripamoya)

Children

Mekhela (Pashupati's daughter)
Nakula and Sahadeva (Mother Dianne's twin sons)

Of course there were many others I have forgotten, but I want to hear about them too.

Thank you very much.

[Bhakta Jim 1979]

Men:

Praladanandana dasa
Sivarama Swami (in Hungary -- I'm sure you've found him as he has a big presence on the web and does festivals and stuff)
Dharma-prana dasa
Rasabehari dasa
Gopi-jana-vallaba Swami
Chakri dasa
Lomasha Rishi dasa
Pragosha dasa (still around somewhere distributing books!!!)
Triupurari Swami (up in Oregon, with Gaudiya Math people, he's a guru)
Tranakarta dasa

Women:

Misrani devi-dasi
Pashupati devi-dasi
Sadbhuja devi-dasi
Guru-charana-padma devi-dasi (in the UK, around the Manor, married to Kripamoya)

Children

Mekhela (Pashupati's daughter)
Nakula and Sahadeva (Mother Dianne's twin sons)

Of course there were many others I have forgotten, but I want to hear about them too.

Thank you very much.

Sita,

Thanks for your answer. I have found traces about several of the devotees listed. One I forgot to mention is Karana-karana devi-dasi, who was Dharma-prana's wife at the time.

I read about the suicide of Gopi-jana-vallabha Swami here:

http://www.indiadivine.org/audarya/hare-kr...abha-swami.html

He was running the Bhakta program with Prahlada when I was in it. Nicest guy ever.

I read about Praghosa having a tumor and getting chemotherapy.

Tranakarta has a Facebook page where he describes himself as a Bears fan. He was married to Sadbhuja when I knew him but she moved back to the temple after they had some disagreement. It looks like he married someone else.

I think Pashupati devi-dasi married Chaturatma das. I met Chaturatma in Texas when I participated in the deprogramming of Misrani devi-dasi, because he was originally going to marry her. We both thought he looked like Robert Redford. Looks like they're both in Florida and Pashupati had some kind of operation recently. I hope she's OK.

It looks like Misrani, thirty years after her deprogramming, is back with the Hare Krishnas, or at least attending Sunday feasts. I can't say I'm happy about that, but it's her life.

[Brainiac]

Isn't Praghosa the current GBC for UK?