Rama-chandra's Festival Day.

This is a beautiful image of Lord Rama-chandra from Thailand. Traditional Thai art is always so exquisite, whether it is dancing, architecture, paintings or sculpture; I don't think I've ever heard any Thai music, but imagine it must be similarly so.

Anyway, here is Lord Rama-chandra for His appearance day, today. And as it is the perfect day for dipping into the great classic The Ramayana, I wonder if you've seen the version by Ranchor Prime - "Ramayana; a Journey"? (You can see it here.) It's an abridged version, telling the basic story very well, with beautiful accompanying pictures; good for both adults and children -these stories are so good for children!

Here's an amusing tale of how Sri Valmiki came to write the Ramayana:

"Millions of years ago, according to the Vedic sources, the Supreme Lord appeared on this planet as the Warrior, Rama-chandra, in order to execute His will and display the pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As is stated in the Bhagavad-Gita, "From time to time I come, in order to vanquish the demons and rescue the devotees."

The pastimes of Lord Rama are revealed in the famous Vedic scripture, The Ramayana, written by Sri Valmiki. Before being empowered to write the Ramayana, Valmiki had been a plunderer; but by the grace of the great saint Narada, he became a Vaishnava - a worshipper of the Personality of Godhead. Narada had first asked Valmiki to please chant the name of the Lord, but Valmiki replied that he would not. He was a murderer, so what had he to do with the chanting of God's names? Narada then asked him to meditate on his murders, by saying the name of "Mara" which means Death. Valmiki agreed to this and meditated on Mara. By rapid repetition of the word "Mara, Mara, Mara", he found himself saying "Rama, Rama,Rama" and by the power of reciting the holy name of God, his heart became purified".

From A Handbook of Krishna consciousness, by Satsvarupa das Goswami.

A Happy Rama-navami to you all! And may you not have to be tricked into chanting the holy names on this day!

Our Youthful Guest.

Small temples like ours are always delighted when the occasional senior devotee visits. Refreshed by their classes, their kirtans and the opportunity to discuss questions about our spiritual lives, we return to our work with greater enthusiasm.

For Gaura-purnima this year, our guest may have lacked the dignity of grey hair and wrinkles, but his youthful buoyancy and Vaishnava behaviour were attractive features at our festival.

Gopal Hari is twenty-two, and was born and brought up in a Vaishnava family and the temple atmosphere of the Boise temple, in North America, started and run by his parents. He is the younger brother of Dr. Ravi Gupta, well-known in ISKCON for his regular column in Back to Godhead magazine which he wrote in his teens.

Gopal is following in his brother's footsteps, currently studying for a PhD in Science and Religion at Oxford University. His thesis will be about Divine Action as revealed in Shrimad Bhagavatam.

Gopal gave two very nice classes about Lord Chaitanya over Gaura-Purnima, which you can listen to here. Unfortunately we don't have adequate recording equipment to have recorded his wonderful kirtans, but I'll post one of his Oxford kirtans in the next post.

Lord Nityananda

Lord Nityananda was instrumental in spreading the message of the sankirtan movement in Bengal. He is renowned for His mercy and for making pure love of God easily accessible to everyone through the chanting of the Holy names. He is very easy to approach:

"Simply by talking of Nityananda Prabhu one awakens one's love for Krishna." - Chaitanya-caritamrta.

"Sri Chaitanya said:"If anyone even once chants the name 'Nityananda' they will become purified and I will immediately accept that person as My own."'" - Caitanya Mangala.

You may like to listen to Srila Prabhupada singing the beautiful song "Nitai-pada-kamala" - the Lotus Feet of Lord Nityananda. And his description of the song (purport) here.