I wanted to share this simple and heartfelt appreciation that Harishyama Prabhu from Chicago sent me regarding the 24 Hour Kirtan. It’s a thank you to everyone who participated this weekend in any one (or all) of the many different services that made such a special offering possible.

“I was very inspired by the kirtan yesterday and I realized that’s the big thing missing in our community here. I’m going to start organizing more harinam and encourage everyone to play and sing… no matter how bad it is in the beginning… thank you for planting that seed of inspiration.” 

This coming weekend we will have our Community Refresh. I’m excited, like I’ve heard many of you are, to discuss some details of what we want to do next together and develop a collective vision for how to make that offering to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. 

Yet for me, Harishyama Prabhu’s timely appreciation is a powerful reminder of what the purpose of our community always has been and always should be.. no matter who is or isn’t a part of it. We are serving, we have a sanga, a community.. to the extent that we are united in our desire to develop our own relationship to the Holy Name and to give others the opportunity to do the same. That relationship is available to us because of the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and so we take his example and teachings as the prime guiding force in understanding how to fulfill this purpose. 

When this is clear, then so is everything else. When this is forgotten, misunderstood, misapplied.. then everything we do amounts to nothing but more frustration. 

Thank you again to everyone who helped bring this back into sharp focus this weekend. 
Param Vijayate Sri Krishna Sankirtanam! 

For you,
Deva Madhava das

Each of us in the community may be making some effort to share the love with the world in various ways, as we are inspired. One of these ways that a number of us are attempting is to share books on spiritual topics. To encourage each other in this service here’s a collective count:
 

A community that serves together stays together, grows together and happies together! The next couple of months bring us some fun events to strengthen our relationships and deepen our connection with the Divine. 

Please use below buttons to fill out a Google Form to express your interest in the wide variety of services available. Do not hesitate to let us know if you have any ideas, questions or concerns: events@theharmonycollective.org
 

While we aspire to serve Sri Sri Radha and Krishna eternally in Vrindavan, where familiarity and sweetness predominate, we will not develop the strength of Love needed to live in that realm before we develop the fortitude and character exemplified by Sri Rama. 

The famous 24 Hour Kirtan of ISKCON’s Krishna Balarama temple in Vrindavan began today, 33 years ago. Today also marks the celebration of Dussehra, the anniversary of when Sri Rama defeated Ravana in battle. As congregational chanting is the most powerful spiritual process we can take up to counteract the otherwise overwhelmingly negative effects of our present age, it’s no coincidence the worlds most famous Kirtan began the same day history’s most reviled villain was brought down by the greatest hero anyone has ever known. 

In the list below I’ve shared the dark qualities of Ravana. On this special occasion, please say a prayer that Sri Rama will help you see how all the bad can be driven out of our being by dedicated chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. Take time to consider how the bad qualities of Ravana still rear their ugly heads in your life, and what your connection to the Holy Name has done so far to invite the light of Sri Rama in. Happy Dussehra 

Kama (lust), Krodha (anger), Lobha (greed), Moha (attachment), Madha (arrogance), Matsarya (hatred and jealousy), Manas (perverted mind), Buddhi (selfish intellect), Chitta (exploitative will) and Ahamkara (false-ego).

For you,
Deva Madhava das

Each of us in the community may be making some effort to share the love with the world in various ways, as we are inspired. One of these ways that a number of us are attempting is to share books on spiritual topics. To encourage each other in this service here’s a collective count:
 

A community that serves together stays together, grows together and happies together! The next couple of months bring us some fun events to strengthen our relationships and deepen our connection with the Divine. 

Please use below buttons to fill out a Google Form to express your interest in the wide variety of services available. Do not hesitate to let us know if you have any ideas, questions or concerns: events@theharmonycollective.org
 

24 responses is 4 more than my high goal of 20! Thank you to everyone who participated in the community survey. We received a lot of helpful feedback and there is a clear consensus on certain important considerations which will help us all move forward together in our service to Sri Guru and Gauranga.

I’ll share a summary of the survey results at the upcoming Community Refresh and we’ll have some focused discussion around key ideas that came out of there so please make plans now to attend that event if at all possible. You matter! Your input matters! As we come up on THC’s 5 year anniversary it is an ideal time to examine what we’ve done and what we’d like to do. It wouldn’t have been the same without you and it won’t be the same without you

Thanks again to all those who cared enough to share on the survey and I hope to see all of you some time over the next few days with Hari Parsada Prabhu giving wonderful Katha through wednesday night.

For you,
Deva Madhava das

Each of us in the community may be making some effort to share the love with the world in various ways, as we are inspired. One of these ways that a number of us are attempting is to share books on spiritual topics. To encourage each other in this service here’s a collective count:
 

A community that serves together stays together, grows together and happies together! The next couple of months bring us some fun events to strengthen our relationships and deepen our connection with the Divine. 

Please use below buttons to fill out a Google Form to express your interest in the wide variety of services available. Do not hesitate to let us know if you have any ideas, questions or concerns: events@theharmonycollective.org
 

I remember sitting on the plane, practically ready to buckle my belt for take off. The pilot comes over the intercom and instead of giving the usual spiel about flight duration and weather conditions, he shocks us all by saying ‘this flight has been canceled and rescheduled for late this evening.’ I was the only one happy.. as I could tell by the cries of distress and anger that moved through the other passengers.. I was happy because I was the only person who had a spiritual master he could come back to the airport with later that evening I so wanted to spend those few extra hours with my Guru Maharaja, but had resigned myself to getting on my early flight… until the flight was mysteriously rescheduled!

I was remembering this incident yesterday as the Grand Rapids VegFest organizers told us there was no way we’d be able to fit the Ananta trailer into their venue. We’d sent them all the specs needed, but they failed to tell us we’d have to come in early, before others set up, in order to have the 20′ trailer and truck make it safely inside. I was disappointed, but also grateful. After all, we had a box of Srila Prabhupada’s books to distribute just in case, and we’d be able to make the flower shower for Sri Sri Radha Kunjabihari now that we didn’t need to stay in GR until 5pm.

They say if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans. In my experience, we all end up smiling when we listen close enough to hear His.

For you,
Deva Madhava das

Each of us in the community may be making some effort to share the love with the world in various ways, as we are inspired. One of these ways that a number of us are attempting is to share books on spiritual topics. To encourage each other in this service here’s a collective count:
 

A community that serves together stays together, grows together and happies together! The next couple of months bring us some fun events to strengthen our relationships and deepen our connection with the Divine. 

Please use below buttons to fill out a Google Form to express your interest in the wide variety of services available. Do not hesitate to let us know if you have any ideas, questions or concerns: events@theharmonycollective.org
 

Sweeping the courtyard of Radha Damodar Temple, Srila Prabhupada would cry loudly in the middle of the night, ‘He Rupa?! He Jiva!? He Santana!? Please give me your mercy!! My Guru has given me an impossible task, without your blessing I cannot fulfill it!’

Can you imagine how Srila Prabhupada must have felt returning to this same temple of Radha Damodar in Vrindavan a decade later, with nearly a hundred disciples from all over the world, to sit and hear discourse from him on Srila Rupa Goswami’s magnum opus, Bhakti Rasamrta Sindhu?! And during the month of Kartik no less!

If you are intrigued at all by this moving image, please join me in listening to this very same lecture series over the coming weeks as we approach the holy month of Kartik, mid-October. Follow this link in ISKCON Desire Tree and notice the first 15 lectures at the top and the last 8 at the bottom. As you listen try to hear not just what Srila Prabhupada is saying, but where he’s saying it and why. If you heard one a day beginning now you’d complete just before beginning your Kartik vows, which would have a new life in the wake of that transcendental sound.

For you,
Deva Madhava das

Each of us in the community may be making some effort to share the love with the world in various ways, as we are inspired. One of these ways that a number of us are attempting is to share books on spiritual topics. 
 

A community that serves together stays together, grows together and happies together! The next couple of months bring us some fun events to strengthen our relationships and deepen our connection with the Divine. 

Please use below buttons to fill out a Google Form to express your interest in the wide variety of services available. Do not hesitate to let us know if you have any ideas, questions or concerns: events@theharmonycollective.org
 

If you have not yet done so, we invite you to complete The Harmony Collective Community Survey. The survey will close end of day Sunday, 15th September. If you consider yourself a part of The Harmony Collective community in anyway, your input is valuable!

Happy Vamana Dvadasi! Yes.. today is yet another ‘Krishna’ Holiday. I wrote a fun poem for this occasion last year, I wanted to share with you today. It’s about the time Krishna came as a small brahmana boy to trick Bali Maharaja. But it’s also about how a formerly self proclaimed atheist from America like me who had no faith in even stories from the bible growing up somehow came to feel convicted that this story of a dwarf stepping across the entire universe is not only useful but also true! For most of us, from our place of current experience.. the descriptions of the higher realms of Krishna Consciousness can seem exaggerated or fanciful. There is a special power though in these Holy Names we say in the maha-mantra. In the satisfaction I feel in saying them anything becomes possible, including my recognition of the impossible. 

THREE NAMES

some say they are stories
fables told
to help the young safely follow the mold
and give the old something to do
telling these stories to me and you

so by one of those, it goes
there was one brahmana boy
who himself was sized more like a toy
when he asked the king for three steps of land
the king scoffed, then smiled, and waving his hands

gestured to the heavens
‘These are mine you know!?
In fact everywhere you look,
anywhere you could go…
all that you might see, it belongs to me!
So why take only steps? And even then, just three?’

‘Three is plenty’
said the brahman boy
whose smile revealed to a fearful few His ploy
indeed in a sudden two steps
the king’s property was covered
but that doesn’t describe it 
the fact is it was smothered

the earth 
the heavens
above and below
anywhere known
there was now nowhere to go

the boy asked wryly
‘Where can I put my foot now?
There isn’t anywhere left to go somehow?’

‘One place remains unclaimed by you
and I ask you take it so my words may stay true’
the good king said all this 
as the envious looked on in dread

‘Please Lord take me,
please place your foot on my head’

yes it seems a very cute tale 
to anyone who’d hear it
but nobody could ever bother to truly believe it
unless they’d ever begun to sing a certain three names
then for them; like the king who gave three steps
life has never been the same

Hare Krishna Rama

Our community survey will close on Sunday, 15th Sept. If you have not already done so please set aside about 30 minutes to complete this survey. If you consider yourself a part of The Harmony Collective community in anyway, your input is valuable!

 

Each of us in the community may be making some effort to share the love with the world in various ways, as we are inspired. One of these ways that a number of us are attempting is to share books on spiritual topics. 
 

A community that serves together stays together, grows together and happies together! The next couple of months bring us some fun events to strengthen our relationships and deepen our connection with the Divine. 

Please use below buttons to fill out a Google Form to express your interest in the wide variety of services available. Do not hesitate to let us know if you have any ideas, questions or concerns: events@theharmonycollective.org
 

We Won! I got a big smile out of Siddha Hari prabhu sharing an email with me this morning saying we’d won the award for ‘Best Meditation Center’ in Ypsilanti. A little digging lead me to quickly see its more or less a scam and they just want us to buy a trophy from them that gives the title only their company has conspired to confer on us in hopes that we might spend the $200 on having the physical plaque for display.

Yesterday morning though, when I stepped outside to pick some flowers for Giriraja, a well to do older man stopped his car and rolled down his window.. ‘I look forward to driving by your place whenever I can, just seeing it I feel uplifted.’ Though its always sweet to hear, this might have been the 15th or so such experience for myself, and I know other devotees have had the same. It’s amazing actually, as people in general can’t be bothered to talk to their neighbors these days but some are ready to stop traffic to let us know they like what they see from us so far. Most people aren’t exactly sure what we’re doing at The Harmony Collective, but they’re pretty sure it’s something wholesome, beautiful and ‘good.’

As I consider my own answers to our community survey and I see the responses coming in from others, I’m understanding we are ready for ‘them.’ We as a community are ready to step out into our locality, look people in the eye and say ‘we’ve got something good, can we share it with you.’ Naturally we do that through the classic methods of harinama and book distribution. But those occasions are a ‘join us’ approach. The next phase is to ‘join them’ and meet people where they’re at.. using our intelligence and faith to bring Sri Guru and Gauranga with us into environments Srila Prabhupada expected us to bring Them but we as a community and larger devotee society have yet not been able. The benefit is mutual, of course people are looking for Krishna and we can share Him.. but we’re also looking for a wholesome community to live in aren’t we? Wouldn’t it be nice to cater a dinner with the city police or fireman? Have henna booths or flower necklace stands at the school fair? Volunteer as mentors in the local boys and girls club? The attempts to make an isolated oasis of Krishna Bhakti in the West have all failed fantastically. An integrated approach to Krishna Consciousness that harmonizes the world around us with the world we are developing inside of us is what Srila Prabhupada calls for over and over again. I for one am excited that Krishna has given us so many resources now to answer him.
 

Each of us in the community may be making some effort to share the love with the world in various ways, as we are inspired. One of these ways that a number of us are attempting is to share books on spiritual topics. 
 

A community that serves together stays together, grows together and happies together! The next couple of months bring us some fun events to strengthen our relationships and deepen our connection with the Divine. 

Please use below buttons to fill out a Google Form to express your interest in the wide variety of services available. Do not hesitate to let us know if you have any ideas, questions or concerns: events@theharmonycollective.org
 

The community survey is a long time coming and I hope it’s something we can do yearly. My hope is that this survey acts a focal point for conversation around what we want for ourselves and our service today and into the future. It’s part of developing a deeper culture of respect and responsibility, and reinforcing a healthy atmosphere of critique and growth.

If you in any way feel the Harmony Collective is an important part of your life please give us all 20-30 of your focused minutes to share your heart and mind on the important elements we address there in.
 

Each of us in the community may be making some effort to share the love with the world in various ways, as we are inspired. One of these ways that a number of us are attempting is to share books on spiritual topics. 

As an effort to encourage and enthuse each other we would like to begin sharing a count of how many books are shared on a weekly basis within the community. 

If you would like to join this effort and need some books to share or any kind of assistance, and if you would like to share your count with us, please reach out: events@theharmonycollective.org
 

A community that serves together stays together, grows together and happies together! The next couple of months bring us some fun events to strengthen our relationships and deepen our connection with the Divine. 

Please use below buttons to fill out a Google Form to express your interest in the wide variety of services available. Do not hesitate to let us know if you have any ideas, questions or concerns: events@theharmonycollective.org