i made it. and now?

j just found out, that the last day of my vow was the 26th of september, not today the 27th.

anyway, i did it.

what now?

it was just too nice to just say good bye to the holy name.

it was even to short to say: "there were ups and downs."

time simply passed too fast. have to go on getting up early. have to listen to the holy name.
by the mercy of krishna and the vaishnavas it will be possible.

i would like to thank the following supporting good souls for their comments:

thomas from taxas, especially your comment citing the dalai lama was very inspiring for me. let s keep in contact!

ananda mohini from new zealand: thanks that you put a link on your blog. hope you paul will also be able to go on getting up and chant early...;-))

param from nienburg: my friend and elder godbrother. what do i have to say except vanca kalpa....?

arun prabhu from mayapur for wishing me luck.

and last but not least, i would like to thank the chakra team for putting my blog on chakra.org. thank you so much.

Let us chant: HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE

and see, how the holy name will help out. ah, and yes, those, who are familiar with the german language will still find me on my old blog
prasadamcases daily wahnsinn.

or check out my youtube chanel. (english language)

i wish you all the best!
your servant
dandadhrk dasa, ISKCON cologne, germany.

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three days to go and then?

almost one month over. time (krishna) is running fast.

then, it seems i have restabilized my spiritual life, whatever my spiritual life means.
at least i started to chant hare krishna regulary.
bhakti busana swami said, that it is very nice to do an experiment like this. because: krishna is the time. he can do and undo things, if he desires.
he can give more time for spiritual activities.
that would be very nice.

i am about to think about a blog: "prabhupadasbookseveryday" or somthing. since kartik is soon approaching, that would be another nice vratta. just to read one verse of prabhupadas books for one month.

actually, i am reading one verse every morning.

i mean reading and reading is a difference, right?
If you would ask me, what i read this morning....somthing about sivas prayers to vishnu, but what was the point in prabhupadas purport?

can t remember.

there is much more to go deeper into it. our philosophy is so nice.

going deeper into it....of course along with chanting hare krishna before six!

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bhakti busana swami tells a story

in his sunday feast class maharaja had made a point, that every living entity has to fight for his survival. he said, that when you see a forest from far, you tend to think, that this forest looks very nice. but when you come close, and observe in detail what is going on, you see, that every entity is eaten by another entity.
later on, when we took prasadam,i emphasized maharajas point by telling, that i often go into the eifel, which is a big and beautiful forest, where i am living. somtimes, while strolling, i saw advertisments like: "young bull meat to sell!" they have their bulls on the grazing land which they slaughter. externally it looked quite peaceful seeing the bulls grazing, but in detail, it was quite a hellish place. to even deepen that point, bbswami told the following story:

once, maharaja was guest in a devotees house somwhere in india. maharaja was peacefully sitting in the garden close to the swimming pool, when his attention on chanting was suddenly distracted. he saw, that a mouse had fallen into the pool and was fighting for her life. she tried to climb out of the water but was not able to pull herself out of the water. she now was about to drown and harrowingly die.
bbswami immediately took a twig of a tree and reached out to the mouse, who with last power climbed onto the stick, so maharaja could pull her out. it seemed,he saved her life.
the little mouse was still shaking of her near death experience, when suddenly a big falcon rushed out of the sky. with his mighty claws, he grabbed the poor mouse from the stick. only seconds later he was again gone up into the sky ready to finally kill the poor mouse and have her for lunch.
there is simply no place in this material world, which is safe.

prabhupada said, we shoud chant, like a child is crying for his mother.

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mercy day

yesterday we went to the sunday feast to the cologne temple nearby, where we are living. there, one of the most senior devotees of our movement, and actually the first german devotee, bhakti busana swami, was giving the class.

after the class was finished, i sneaked into his room, where i happened to take prasadam with him.

i told him about my little chanting experiment, and he said , that he also has to chant his rounds even before mangala aratic, because after mangala aratic, his busy day starts, and there is not much time left for chanting.

amazing! i thought, only householders have a hard time getting there rounds together!

maharaja mainly preaches in south america, where he is gbc along with guru prasada swami.

maharaja briefly told me about the problems in the south america yatra, mainly arousing, because the devotees do not chant their rounds and follow the morning program.

when we chant our rounds, that is like watering the bhakti lata bija, our devotional creeper. our spiritual life is starting from there, maharja added.

i felt encourged very much by his association.

that was definitely the spiritual highlight of the week.

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steady

this body ist considered in the mode of ignorance.

that is definetely true.. each morning, i get up, it takes quite a time, my the subtle body wakes up and becomes fit for chanting hare krishna. after four rounds oft warming up, im getting more into it.

srimati mataji useses a "kirtan box" that is a little unit, where srila prabhupada constantly is chanting the maha mantra. i have a small one too.
if you turn down the volume as much as possible. it is still so loud, i could never sleep.

ok, no kirtan box.

and no surya namaskara. my back was hurting after doing it one time.
actually i did it quite a long time.

don t know what happened to my body in the meanwhile.


after three weeks getting up early and chanting my rounds before six, i can say, that simply doing this helps me to stay somhow connected to krishna. that s all so far, as i can perceive it. probably, there is much mor benefit....

lets see, how the next week will be.

there will be this mad shift from 3:30-11:30 p.m.

how much will i be inspired to start chanting my rounds after midnight, after coming from work?

or getting up, after having slept three hours?

that will be a challenge. one of the thousands and thousands to come.

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srimad bhagavatam, 24,4,36

i read this vers after chanting this morning:

My Lord, as the supreme directing Deity known as Aniruddha, You are the master of the senses and the mind. I therefore offer my obeisances unto You again and again. You are known as Ananta as well as Sańkarsana because of Your ability to destroy the whole creation by the blazing fire from Your mouth.

PURPORT

Hrisikesendriyātmane. The mind is the director of the senses, and Lord Aniruddha is the director of the mind. In order to execute devotional service, one has to fix his mind on the lotus feet of Krishna; therefore Lord Śiva prays to the controller of the mind, Lord Aniruddha, to be pleased to help him engage his mind on the lotus feet of the Lord. It is stated in Bhagavad-gītā (9.34): man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī mām. namaskuru. The mind has to be engaged in meditation on the lotus feet of the Lord in order to execute devotional service. It is also stated in Bhagavad-gītā (15.15), mattah smritir jñānam apohanam ca: from the Lord come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. Thus if Lord Aniruddha is pleased, He can help the mind engage in the service of the Lord. It is also indicated in this verse that Lord Aniruddha is the sun-god by virtue of His expansions. Since the predominating deity of the sun is an expansion of Lord Aniruddha, Lord Śiva also prays to the sun-god in this verse.

Lord Krishna, by His quadruple expansion (Vāsudeva, Sańkarshana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha), is the Lord of psychic action — namely thinking, feeling, willing and acting. Lord Śiva prays to Lord Aniruddha as the sun-god, who is the controlling deity of the external material elements which constitute the construction of the material body. According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura, the word paramahamsa is also another name for the sun-god. The sun-god is addressed herein as nibhrtātmane, which indicates that he always maintains the various planets by manipulating the rainfall. The sun-god evaporates water from the seas and oceans and then forms the water into clouds and distributes it over land. When there is sufficient rainfall grains are produced, and these grains maintain living entities in each and every planet. The sun-god is also addressed herein as pūrna, or complete, because the rays emanating from the sun have no end. For millions and millions of years since the creation of this universe, the sun-god has been supplying heat and light without diminution. The word paramahamsa is applied to persons who are completely cleansed. When there is sufficient sunshine, the mind remains clear and transparent — in other words, the sun-god helps the mind of the living entity to become situated on the platform of paramahamsa. Thus Lord Śiva prays to Aniruddha to be kind upon him so that his mind will always be in the perfect state of cleanliness and will be engaged in the devotional service of the Lord. Just as fire sterilizes all unclean things, the sun-god also keeps everything sterilized, especially dirty things within the mind, thus enabling one to attain elevation to the platform of spiritual understanding.

after getting up, my gross and subtle body are actually always quite jammed up.
i think, i will do surya namaskara excercise from now on before chanting, and thus pay obeisances to the sungod and hoping to get the benefit of controlling the mind a little more. if you are not so familiar with the excericse, here you can nicely see, how it goes.

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steadiness

before i make any further jumps into the ocean of devotional service, i want to become steady in my chanting. so far, i got up every day at three or four and finished my rounds before six. well done.

step by step.

that was one of the necterean advantages of travelling book distribution. we always used to find out the best places in town, a park or a nice forest for example, would crush down at night and get up early to chant our rounds. that was freedom. after all book distribution was ok, but i think we should have had more focus on internal development, more focus on chanting. you were a hero, when you made big, even if you were a puffed up fool, like i was every now and then.

anyway.

it s all about inner development. right now, i feel quite comfortable with my vow.  like to go on. and who knows, maybe i will even chant one round more later on?

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