Australian Winter 2006
Hi Hello Haribol to all my friends both new and old and to all my family members both material and spiritual. Welcome to the Winter 2006 sevamrta e-news. Issue 2, July 2006.
Halfway through 2006, unfortunately not half way through the work, the worst/best is yet to come, and we find ourselves hard pressed to find time to update or upload to poor ole
Sevamrta.com. TAFE studies this year in Web Design are finally what I always wanted to study (kinda sorta; online database architecture and management is the exact goal). And now, after three years of preliminary computer studies in such things as MS Office, some web design, and lots of the "get you off the hook" business stuff, like legal information for IT professionals (what that's got to do with me is anybody's guess) and how to deal nicely and securely with clients, (hmmm, coulda used that a while back) my karma sees me getting closer to the "goal of life" if not the goal of life.
Nevertheless, we've managed another set of 10 Srila Gour Govinda Swami lectures for fans and disciples to relish.
A small flurry of activity with new members joining our Dezign Devil community site (designers and developers; nothing at all to do with the devil, except for being deep in the valley of Maya) plus beta testing for Wufoo and two days per week of work for Webzone has seen the last holidays dedicated to much work on these fronts despite Sevamrta.com crying out for more attention. It's clearly a case of "too many committments that are too hard to keep", if I may quote Billy Joel, but I guess that's just my favourite modus operandi.
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LECTURES:
As previously mentioned, ten new mp3 lectures of His Divine Grace Srila Gour Govinda Swami were recently uploaded to the Srila Gour Govinda Swami lectures page.
These include:
- Radha Prema Guru Ami Sisya Nata
- Significance of Gundica Marjana Part 1 and Part 2
- Give up Pride then you can Develop Prema
just to mention a few. Srila Gour Govinda Swami lectures are always great to hear, whether you've heard them before or not; actually I think they get better if one gets repeated exposure to them. They augment the advice we hear from other vaisnavas.
Of course, taking their advice is another thing but at least while engaged in hearing one is not engaged in nonsense activities that create even tighter bonds to this material realm of birth, death and suffering.
Whilst on the note of suffering, it looks like India and Pakistan are set to "explode" at each other's throats again. Srila AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada always maintained that the 3rd world war would begin in India. Looking more and more like a probability than a mere possibility. Suffering may well become a constant companion before long. Gather sukriti while you can in case things change dramatically soon. Listening to lectures should help.
Click the link to view the new lectures
If you use a version of squirrel mail (unsuitable for using links in emails) you will need to copy and paste this link into another browser page.
http://www.sevamrta.com/sggs.com/lex.html
SGGS Lectures
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IMAGES:
My friend and senior godbrother Jai Krsna das prabhu has given me a digital set of his initiation photographs here at the ISKCON New Govardhana temple in October 1994 (if memory serves me well). To my knowledge, Jai Krsna is the only Srila Gour Govinda Swami disciple to ever take initiation at New Govardhana. I'll be happy to stand correction if I am wrong on that issue.
The original photographs are more than 10 years old and are of good digital quality, quite large and in need of resizing for use on the web plus some, having sustained some surface damage, will need a bit of "photoshopping" to render them suitable for distribution. The shots themselves are really nice. Hopefully they will be online within a week at sevamrta Srila Gour Govinda Swami images page. The combined weight of the Jai Krsna initiation images is currently more than 8 megabytes so a fair bit of editing will need to be done before they're on the web, but be hopeful. We still have a few of Manjumedha devi dasi didi's photos to upload. Shouldn't be too long before they're online.
If you have some photographs that relate to HDG Srila Gour Govinda Swami, that you wish to share with the worldwide family of brothers and sisters please feel free to contact me (tarunkrsnadas / mr terrible) so that arrangements can be made for uploading. I am very happy to give credit to donors.
Click the link to view existing images
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http://www.sevamrta.com/sggs.com/pix.html
SGGS Images
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UPDATES:
Not a lot other than the lecture uploads. I have noticed that the opening sevamrta page doesn't render properly when viewed using Opera 8.5 or Opera 9.0 (not popular browsers) so I added a redirection to a special page for browsers that don't handle advanced CSS as it's beyond me to edit this page for Opera display. Easier to redirect to a separate page. Should anyone use a browser such as Safari or whatever that doesn't render correctly, I would be grateful if they could let me know. Screen shots of the error would be excellent if possible. NB: Warrior (a java browser) cannot display any advanced css. I am aware of this and recognise that probably nobody that visits sevamrta.com is likely to use this browser so I won't bother setting a redirection, although my Opera redirection will possibly take users to the separate page.
Hopefully lots more SGGS mp3 lectures and bhajans will become available soon as more and more devotees realise the unique contribution that HDG Srila Gour Govinda Swami has made to the evolution of the human race. We are all in his debt whether we knew him or not, for he has given mercy to those below the lowest of the low and thus lowered the threshold for entry onto the path of spiritual life; speaking from experience, this is a fact. Who else could have instructed us this way giving such clear, insightful directions.
Click the link if you like to think.
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http://www.sevamrta.com/
Sevamrta Home Page
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WTF : WHERE'S THE FUTURE?
Looking at the situation around the world, it is apparent that it won't take too long before the pot boils over, with so many hot spots around the world ablaze with political passion. I kinda look forward to it and also hope that a "stay of execution" will be maintained, due at least in part, to my being a pleasure seeking being who adamantly abhors pain of any kind.
Hopefully Krsna will be merciful and permit us to live on simply but peacefully as a community of sane (well semi-sane) devotees after all the demons and aliens have annihilated each other.
I have been doing a bit of work along with John Jennings helping to publish a quarterly (hard copy) newsletter for the Murwillumbah Community Centre. Been fun and have met some amazing people not the least of whom is Deb Marks the coordinator of the MCC. Denise Cusack of Job Futures approached Deb recently and asked Deb if she wanted a team of people to produce the MCC newsletters. Deb told me, just the other day, that she replied that she wants me on that team. No rest for the bloody wicked .... lemmie tellya dudes. Still I appreciate the accolade.
Your future:
If you're good with computers and are looking for a direction ... you could possibly do a lot worse than choose an interest in online activity of any description, but due to personal bias, hopefully spiritual.
Have a look at what other devotees have accomplished,
Vedic Literature Database: Bhaktivedanta VedaBase, if you don't mind the 14 Mb download you can download the entire VedaBase for offline viewing (make sure you gat the decryption key first), if you wish, or read any part of it online.
Cooking with Kurma: Cooking With Kurma - Recipes. Hungry? Try some of these tasty dishes. Even if you're not hungry, Krsna might be hungry. Cook up a storm.
Pankaja's is working with a new site nowadays: Krsna Consciousness. Lots of downloads available here.
Regarding High Topics: Unconventional Teachers.
A special link that might interest Neily prabhu: Experience Festival. According to these guys this is the time to not only come together ourselves, but a time to be bringing the entire world together in spiritual brotherhood.
Mayavada Website: Nihilism. In case you missed this really cute one from the sevamrta newsletter archive link. Based on the Wikipedia style of exposition. Good for a chuckle.
This is by no means anywhere near an exhaustive list and in no way politically motivated. Just some of MY faves.
Haribol from your servant and well wisher
tarunkrsnadas.
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COMMENTS and CONTACT:
User research is probably the one most valuable "resource" available to any endeavour. Feedback regarding the user experience can precipitate changes that might otherwise hinder performance for long periods, unnecessarily.
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A new, very secure email reply php contact system is now in place on the sevamrta contact page(s) as well as my other sites. This makes communication much more convenient for both webmaster and client since the email address of the website always remains hidden so that the mailbox doesn't fill up with spam, which can result in the accidental deleting of bona fide contact emails when the number of unwanted emails is quite large.
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