After camping out on our land for seven months while building our home, we are now comfortably situated in our thirty foot diameter yurt. We have telephone service, so I am now able to be on the internet at home rather than needing to go to an internet café eight miles away. We don’t have electricity, so I power the laptop and printer off of our vehicles. At night, I work by oil lamp light.

While I still have some finishing work to do here at home, I am now launching my new ministry here in Hawaii. My wife, Geraldine (Jahnava), and I are working on my autobiography, Saffron: An American Siddhartha, which has been twenty years in the making. I will post the manuscript on my website. We’re also planning for me to teach classes at a yet to be determined location. The yurt is set up to host smaller, more intimate meetings along with office space for me to meet with my clients.

I will have a full ministry of spiritual teaching, life coaching, weddings and networking. I am updating my PR materials and website. Check for further updates: www.stevebohlert.com. Aloha.

I wish you the all success with your ministry, it sounds like you have a good plan in place and it's all going to come together. I am sure you will help many people there.

Be it successful for all concerned.
Radhe Radhe!

To remember Radha Krishna always and never forget them is the purpose of following the rules and regulations of regulative devotional practice. Once one attains this realization, “the devotees reject a rigid, fanatical adherence to the injunctions and prohibitions and according to their individual qualification give up some of the injunctions and begin to practice some items of devotional activity that were prohibitions previously.” Sri Chaitanya Sikshamrita, p 49.

I resigned my position as a renounced leader of ISKCON and disciple of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami in December, 1974 due to the large scale unethical practices that were going on in the name of Krishna consciousness. ISKCON was the support system that allowed me to live a renounced devotional life and preach throughout the world.

I was and I am still a disciple of Srila Lalita Prasad Thakur, my siddha pranali guru who told me to return to the West and preach. I never gave up my love for Radha Krishna or my basic beliefs. I reintegrated into a Western lifestyle, eliminated unnecessary or undesirable Indian cultural externals and sought alternative means of preaching The Path of Love.

This led me to a three year, seminary education with an ecumenical group of progressive Christian seminaries in the San Francisco Bay area, The Graduate Theological Union. In 1991, I received a Master of Divinity degree and was ordained in the United Church of Christ.

I was the pastor of three Midwestern churches from 1991-2002. I found Christian beliefs to be compatible with my beliefs: God is love, love God and your neighbor, show this by working for peace, justice and the integrity of creation, etc. I taught persons to be disciples of Jesus and to live as he lived. Therefore, I say, “Realize your full potential, live life abundantly and love extravagantly.” as well as, “Love is the answer.” When I described my spiritual life, I said I practice the presence of God. For me that meant Oming and remembering Radha Krishna.

In the last three years since I left the church, I revived my devotional practices that were so abruptly interrupted in 1974 and am continuing from where I left off only in a manner that is conducive to my life now.

I have also not changed what I believed in the church. My Christian beliefs and my Radha Krishna beliefs live in harmony within me and are both part of the eternal religion, The Path of Love. They complement one another. Christianity is more incarnational and Radha Krishna devotion more transcendental.

And so, in my ministry, I am Steve Bohlert, M.Div. / Subal Das. In churches I can preach and teach from a Christian perspective, and on my own, I can teach devotion to Radha Krishna. I am able to minister to a wide range of persons due to my wide range of personal experience.

I feel I am especially well positioned to help other former members of ISKCON and similar organizations. I know the pain, anger, sense of betrayal, etc. that devotees go through when their guru or guru’s organization does not live up to what it should be. I’ve lived a long, full life and made peace within myself. I help others to do the same.

Saffron Subal's Autobiography interesting read for hearing about the "old" days. Hope it will be finished soon and published in full.

Mini excerpt: The two other devotees left, and I was in Vrindaban alone once more

image=http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/pictures/croc_01.jpg

Our Protectacow internet site is working to put up 72 letters written to Subal prabhu, Krishna devi and Dinesh. From 1967 to 1974. The letters are not strictly speaking about cow protection as our usual post, but show Prabhupada as loving father type person to his disciples, as well as many good instructions on marriage.

I will post a link somewhere when i get them all together and posted.

I hope Subal prabhu won't mind?

Nice letter halfway through the bunch of 72..............

Los Angeles
8th July, 1969

My Dear Subala das,

Please accept my blessings hundreds upon hundreds of times for your successful attempt. I appreciate your service very much. Now organize the center in Philadelphia very nicely as you have got a good place, and it will be my pleasure to visit whenever there is an opportunity. Now you will have good assistance in the persons of Lalita Kumar and Gopinatha, and if you require more men, you can ask Tamala Krishna and he will help you. The LA center is now specially meant for training devotees and dispatching them in different centers wherever they are required. So open correspondence with Tamala Krishna, and I also will tell him to assist you as far as possible.

Regarding your arrest by the police, it was Krishna's desire, so that it is now authoritatively admitted that we are not guilty. You can take a certified copy of the judgement. This will help not only your center, but other centers also. It will be of considerable aid in getting permission from the police. You take this copy immediately and make several photostat copies, and send to every center and one copy to me. Get mrdangas and karatalas from New York. Keep our books and magazines sufficiently, and make propaganda. You are now a veteran devotee, so you can help others and yourself nicely. Simply you have to execute the principles very rigidly and faithfully. Then everything is there, and all success is at your command. Regarding you taking a job, I hope if you properly execute your activities, you will have no lack of money. In the beginning there may be a little hardship, but everywhere it has proved successful. I have information from Brahmananda that last month they collected about $2,400. So after all, it is all Krishna's money. When He sees us very faithful and trustworthy, He gives up His money for expenditures. Simply pray to Krishna that you may be able by His Grace to serve Him nicely. Our prayer of the Hare Krishna Mantra means addressing Radha and Krishna for being engaged in Their service. Hare Krishna means ``Oh Hare, Oh Radharani! Oh Krishna! Please engage me in Your service so that I can get relief from the service of Maya.'' Just like a person resigns from an inferior quality of service and accepts a superior quality of service, similarly, our prayer to Krishna is to give us relif from the inferior quality of service to Maya, and to be engaged in the superior quality of service to Krishna. Service we have to render, and the whole process is to accept the superior quality of service in Krishna Consciousness. I hope this finds you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Dear metamorphosis prabhu,

Not only would I not mind, but I would consider posting those letters to be a great service. I have started collecting what letters I could and inserting them into my autobiography. I certainlly don't have 72. I find them very helpful in jogging my memory and setting the context for my actions. My wife recently read my manuscript and made editorial comments which I am working to change. However, I am also lauching my ministry in Hawaii. I will post the manuscript on my website as soon as I can and let folks here know when it's up. It does deal with the "good old days", 1967-74. I would be happy to exchange links with you. Thank you.

Starting next Sunday, I will have a booth at the Pahoa Sunday Market at which I give persons a chance to stop by and meet me. I am available there for spiritual guidance and life coaching which includes the option of using sidereal astrology and/or the Zen Tarot. My availability for wedding ceremonies can also be discussed.

I am planning an on going series of devotional yoga classes based on the teachings of Sri Krishna Chaitanya as presented by Bhaktivinode Thakur, the Bengali devotional giant who first introduced Chaitanya’s teachings to the West. His book, Sri Chaitanya-Shikshamrita, forms the basis of the teachings. They are presented in a way that is easily understandable and applicable to our lives here and now. This is a practical and uplifting means of realizing our relationship with God and entering into the transcendental pastimes of Radha and Krishna, the divine couple. The path is simple yet sublime. Love is the answer.

I don't have a location for this class yet. If anyone is interested in discussing Sri Chaitanya-Shikshamrita here, I can start a topic devoted to that subject and we can have a go at it. Jai Radhe!

If not discussing, i am interested in hearing

I appreciate your association and wish i lived there amoungst you in your paradise location.

That would be great. Go ahead!

Thank you. I will start that new topic shortly.

I have started that topic here.

Well here is the link to the collection, it is a huge pile of letters! If there are any mistakes in the editing on my part please tell!

Dear metamorphosis prabhu,

Thank you very much for posting those letters. I have blogged them to my webpage, Steve's Musings. I will add a link in another place also when I get the manuscript up. I have also made them available offline on my computer since I look forward to reading them and I don't want to tie up the phone line. I haven't read most of them in over 30 years, and some I have never read.

As I said I The Path of Love topic, I will try to get the manuscript up on my website soon, before I make too many more changes.

I have added about half the manuscript of my autobiography, Saffron: An American Siddhartha to my website stevebohlert.com here. Enjoy. I will start a new topic for any comments, suggestions, etc. here. I am interested in feedback.

The rest of Saffron is now posted on my website starting here. My wife and I had a talk today and decided that I would work on finishing the book as my main project at this time.

5:44 PM The cow is the most important animal for developing the human body to perfection. www.google.com/search

12:03 PM Letters from Srila Prabhupada to Subala, Krishna devi and Dinesh from 1967-74 stevebohlert.com/Saffron3.htm Go here to Subal's page


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Stats from Protectacow since this morning! How are things in the Ministry Subal Prabhu? Is there a group of devotees there in your paradise island? My friend from childhood is going to vaca. at some place there, where there is a community of free thinkers, devotees, rasta men and surfers, bikinigirls,etc. sounds cool. Please tell how things are going. Thanks for your association and activities for so long.

http://www.punaridge.org/doc/factoids/Hawaii/HawaiiFig3.jpg

Dear Subalaji,

Dandabat pranams. Good luck with your ministry. Perhaps it is for the better that we are seeing such a variety of preaching missions in Lord Caitanya's wake. My only hope is that the infighting between different missions will diminish.

Subal, if you happen to need assistance in preaching to those bikinigirls...

My ministry is going quite well here, although it is a slow start since I still have work to do around home finishing up certain projects. I'm not getting much writting done yet either. Here's an example of a day of ministry yesterday.

I got up around 5:30, chanted a couple of rounds, had a big breakfast and went to the Pahoa Sunday market arriving by eight. This was my fourth week there, so I'm a "regular" and have a reserved booth and don't have to be there at seven any longer. However, I got there to find out that the wind had blown the whole market down over night. I picked through the rubble of my booth organizing the aluminum pipes that the tarps are hung on so they could be put back up again. Called my brother in NY and did some produce shopping. By 8:50, I was setting up in another booth that had been reconstructed. I did a couple of Osho Zen Tarot readings, talked with other vendors and left around 12:30 because I was tired of my signs blowing down.

Went home, unloaded the truck bathed and headed down to the beach where there was the usual assortment of Rastas, pot sellers, women in bikinis, men and women not in bikinis, gays, children, devotees, a great drum circle, dancers, palm trees, surf, etc. I talked to people and took part in the drumming for a couple of hours. Went home, and after dinner my wife read out loud to me from Satsvarupa's book Prabhupada as she's been doing lately as background for my book. I fell asleep on the couch and was up again at 3:00 this morning.

Saturday, my wife and I went to a Bob Marley birthday celebration out in the bush. We saw a group of devotees there who looked like they might be approachable, but I decided to wait. Some of them were at the beach yesterday also. We drummed together but didn't talk. There are at least three groups of devotees here, but I don't think I'd be welcomed by any of them, so I stay away. I'm not interested in getting caught up in the in-fighting and politics, but I'm open to those who are open to me. I'm taking things slow, getting to know the scene here. The 60s are alive and well in South Puna. We're loving it here. Sometimes we go watch the lava flow down the mountain at night from the East Rift Zone on the map above. It's a few miles away from here.

My wife just called from work to tell me about an incredible thing that happened this morning. She broke her rule of never picking up men hitch-hikers. The guy she picked up was the devotee from the Bob Marley festival that I had thought of approaching. They talked a lot and were on the same wave-length. He's supposed to call tonight and maybe get together. Unfortunately, he has to leave the island soon. Things are magical around here.

On the way back from the Marley fest, my wife was driving the car and a couple of women around my age asked her for a ride. She agreed. We got to talking and one of them was in New Vrindaban with me in '80 and knew my ex-wife who was a devotee there. This woman was a fringe devotee for many years and had even been to Vrindaban.

I've met all kinds of people here: a whale & dolphin telepathic communications researche; a UFO expert; a spiritual healer and counselor; the United Church of Christ Conference Minister and many other wonderful persons on the spiritual path of life which we are able to walk together in peace and harmony. May it be so.

cool! Keep up the "good" work! I am always interested in your pastimes and efforts to make this world better, for all.

What ever happened to Krsna dasi and Dinesh? Do you know? Where are they and what are they doing?

The devotee turns out to be a new Narayan Maharaj initiate. We went to his place last night and talked for a while. We may go to the Hilo temple to celebrate Nityananda Prabhu's appearance day.

Last I saw Dinesh, he was a homeopathic healer in Berkeley and Krishna Devi was living in Bodega Bay, CA. That was years ago and I don't know any present details.

Thanks again, and for this update, atleast i know something since the letters, i take it that they area broken up now, living apart.

Letters to Subal, Krishna devi and Dinesh, written by Srila Prabhupada "67"- "74"

Yes. They separated quite a while ago. Dinesh and I later became friends when he was living in Berkeley.