Dear Blog Reader

I’ve thrown up on two separate Janmastamis (Krishna’s appearance day) with no sickness before or after. Nothing but the intensity of the day gave my innards a little more than they could handle. But I remember beaming with a smile after both incidences. It felt more like I’d graduated from college than gotten sick to my stomach.

Tomorrow, with Balarama’s appearance day.. we begin festival season. It’s a joyous time of year for sure and yet it’s a different kind of pleasure we’re seeking as bhaktas and it’s always helpful to have a reminder of that in this world of eat drink and be merry morality.

Our pleasure is actually the pleasure of Krishna.. when He and His representatives are happy, we are happy automatically. And luckily They’re very eager to see us happy, but right now, They know that it means we need some purification.. we’ve gotta be cleaned off before we can really see and be our true selves. A party might not have the same ring to it when ‘purification’ is the theme; but that’s only if we are still confused about where real happiness comes from.

For you,
Deva Madhava das

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Dear Blog Reader

Remember that song ‘Hey Ya’? Aside from being very catchy.. it had a great line: ‘If nothing is forever, what makes love the exception?’ The singer was saying as much to try and leave a romance, but in doing so he was also calling out the truth of real love by speaking to it’s mundane expression that we’re all much more familiar with. Love means two.. you and someone who all your attention, affection and activity can be given to always. That really is the special element of love; that it continues always where as any other experience comes and then goes. But who amongst us can accept the burden of so much attention? Who in our lives have we met that we can genuinely give all of ourselves to without having to consider our own protection or position to some degree? This natural fear, inspired by the fallibility of everyone we’ve ever known, keeps us from experiencing the true, unreserved, selfless nature of love.

The Spiritual Master is that person we can give all of ourselves to.. the person that can accept all our effort and attention and return to us in kind a clear experience of our own loving self. On the upcoming full moon, Wednesday the 14th, we celebrate the Supreme spiritual Master, Krishna’s brother, Balarama, who is the original and eternal Guru expression of the Divine. By His grace, if we are sincere in our prayer and faithful in this possibility, he will connect us with that person able to inspire the best version of ourselves. Because they’re free of the unwanted elements of conditioned consciousness, the bonafide Guru can bestow the grace of pure clarity and focus to us that are symptomatic of actual love.

I’m sharing this today so you can begin your meditation and anticipation for the special event. Whether you are searching for Guru or searching for a deeper connection with your spiritual master, we are all in need of Balarama’s mercy if we hope to one day truly serve Krishna. I invite you to let this focus guide your reading, chanting and service these days leading up to our special kirtan event on the 14th so on that blessed day you can really recognize something, or rather, someone to celebrate.

For you,
Deva Madhava das

Collective Counting

Service Opportunities

Upcoming Events

Dear Blog Reader

Remember that song ‘Hey Ya’? Aside from being very catchy.. it had a great line: ‘If nothing is forever, what makes love the exception?’ The singer was saying as much to try and leave a romance, but in doing so he was also calling out the truth of real love by speaking to it’s mundane expression that we’re all much more familiar with. Love means two.. you and someone who all your attention, affection and activity can be given to always. That really is the special element of love; that it continues always where as any other experience comes and then goes. But who amongst us can accept the burden of so much attention? Who in our lives have we met that we can genuinely give all of ourselves to without having to consider our own protection or position to some degree? This natural fear, inspired by the fallibility of everyone we’ve ever known, keeps us from experiencing the true, unreserved, selfless nature of love.

The Spiritual Master is that person we can give all of ourselves to.. the person that can accept all our effort and attention and return to us in kind a clear experience of our own loving self. On the upcoming full moon, Wednesday the 14th, we celebrate the Supreme spiritual Master, Krishna’s brother, Balarama, who is the original and eternal Guru expression of the Divine. By His grace, if we are sincere in our prayer and faithful in this possibility, he will connect us with that person able to inspire the best version of ourselves. Because they’re free of the unwanted elements of conditioned consciousness, the bonafide Guru can bestow the grace of pure clarity and focus to us that are symptomatic of actual love.

I’m sharing this today so you can begin your meditation and anticipation for the special event. Whether you are searching for Guru or searching for a deeper connection with your spiritual master, we are all in need of Balarama’s mercy if we hope to one day truly serve Krishna. I invite you to let this focus guide your reading, chanting and service these days leading up to our special kirtan event on the 14th so on that blessed day you can really recognize something, or rather, someone to celebrate.

For you,
Deva Madhava das

Collective Counting

Service Opportunities

Upcoming Events

Dear Blog Reader

I have a request for you. I’ve been working to create a community survey the last few weeks and want your input on the kind of questions you’d like to see there. I hope this can develop into a guideline for a yearly review that we take part in together to reorient and refine our efforts to serve Srila Prabhupada and each other. Please email me at deva@theharmonycollective.org with any and all suggestions.

Once we have the survey out, probably 2 weeks from now, we’ll have a big gathering to review it together in the fall so keep an eye out for those details.

For you,
Deva Madhava das

Collective Counting

Service Opportunities

Upcoming Events

Dear Blog Reader

I have a request for you. I’ve been working to create a community survey the last few weeks and want your input on the kind of questions you’d like to see there. I hope this can develop into a guideline for a yearly review that we take part in together to reorient and refine our efforts to serve Srila Prabhupada and each other. Please email me at deva@theharmonycollective.org with any and all suggestions.

Once we have the survey out, probably 2 weeks from now, we’ll have a big gathering to review it together in the fall so keep an eye out for those details.

For you,
Deva Madhava das

Collective Counting

Service Opportunities

Upcoming Events

Dear Blog Reader

And suddenly.. we have a farm! And a pond.. and cows?! It’s been 3 years now that we’ve had an active conversation in our community around having some land in a rural setting. The benefits are many and include a deeper connection to Mother Earth, the security that comes from personal food production and most of all, more opportunity to serve Srila Prabhupada’s vision for Lord Caitanya’s movement. All these elements will be discussed and developed much more in the future so I won’t say more about them here. 

What I’d like to instead draw our attention to is the importance of desire in spiritual life. Krishna says in 4.11 of Bhagavad-Gita that He’s giving each of us exactly what we want, always. Now that may be tough to hear when we’re experiencing the many pains of this world. After all, who among us has ever prayed to suffer? But He explains further in Bhagavatam 3.30.5 that we are actually attached to our difficult condition and in a perverted way find happiness in the hell of conditioned habits. 

What does this have to do with our new farm? For many of us in the community, the possibility of a farm has represented one of the final pieces of the material puzzle needed to make a Krishna Conscious picture of life. With land and cows we would be engaging with one another on a, literally, down to earth level and so we sensed the implications: we’d need to go deeper with each other than we ever have if Krishna was going to let that happen. 

Now, as he often does, Krishna has called our bluff by giving us all the chips! By putting this beautiful 10 acres in our lap He’s saying, ‘Oh yeah.. community huh?! Let’s see..’ 

So let’s show.. let’s sow and reap from the engagement available on this land not just the fruits of trees and vines.. but of love and trust and practical interdependent relationships. Let us allow the excitement and opportunity this resource offers, to give us the momentum we’ve needed personally, to break out of old ways and tired habits that no longer (if they ever did) serve us. 

For you,
Deva Madhava das

Support the Rainbows

Collective Counting

Upcoming Events

Service Opportunities

Dear Blog Reader

And suddenly.. we have a farm! And a pond.. and cows?! It’s been 3 years now that we’ve had an active conversation in our community around having some land in a rural setting. The benefits are many and include a deeper connection to Mother Earth, the security that comes from personal food production and most of all, more opportunity to serve Srila Prabhupada’s vision for Lord Caitanya’s movement. All these elements will be discussed and developed much more in the future so I won’t say more about them here. 

What I’d like to instead draw our attention to is the importance of desire in spiritual life. Krishna says in 4.11 of Bhagavad-Gita that He’s giving each of us exactly what we want, always. Now that may be tough to hear when we’re experiencing the many pains of this world. After all, who among us has ever prayed to suffer? But He explains further in Bhagavatam 3.30.5 that we are actually attached to our difficult condition and in a perverted way find happiness in the hell of conditioned habits. 

What does this have to do with our new farm? For many of us in the community, the possibility of a farm has represented one of the final pieces of the material puzzle needed to make a Krishna Conscious picture of life. With land and cows we would be engaging with one another on a, literally, down to earth level and so we sensed the implications: we’d need to go deeper with each other than we ever have if Krishna was going to let that happen. 

Now, as he often does, Krishna has called our bluff by giving us all the chips! By putting this beautiful 10 acres in our lap He’s saying, ‘Oh yeah.. community huh?! Let’s see..’ 

So let’s show.. let’s sow and reap from the engagement available on this land not just the fruits of trees and vines.. but of love and trust and practical interdependent relationships. Let us allow the excitement and opportunity this resource offers, to give us the momentum we’ve needed personally, to break out of old ways and tired habits that no longer (if they ever did) serve us. 

For you,
Deva Madhava das

Support the Rainbows

Collective Counting

Upcoming Events

Service Opportunities

Saturday afternoon our community lost one of our best and brightest. Atharva Kharkar passed away due to complications arising from his leukemia treatment.

As I consider Atharva and my relationship with him, which I’m happy to say became a friendship these last few years especially, the first thing I find myself wanting to tell people is that more than anyone else in my personal life, Atharva lived to the standard of first class intelligence.

Srila Prabhupada spoke about the intelligence spectrum from first to fourth. A first class person, like Atharva, heard something good and was immediately willing to apply it to his life. A fourth class person remains unable and more often unwilling to apply good advice even after repeated personal experience that harms them when they go against that wisdom.

Atharva would not necessarily be quick to accept.. he was careful to understand and his questions always carried a weight with them, almost a warning that with this inquiry he was also extending his trust and faith to you. When he felt sure though, that was that.. like a line in stone it became a conviction for him he was willing to live with and die for.

At one point they gave him morphine in the hospital. ‘Dad?!’, he called to Prafulla Prabhu, ‘Dad?! My legs are floating.’ Prafulla explained to Atharva he was just a little off from the intense drug.. he was high for the first time in his life. Once he understood the situation, Atharva firmly said, ‘No more morphine; no matter what comes I want to face it honestly, not in a daze.’

Jayapataka Swami said of all the photographers whose work he’s seen, Atharva’s was his favorite. Here’s the last one he made.. it’s about Mother Ganges:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxyJ2CFjPNs

His viewing memorial is today: 
Tuesday, 9th July 2019 
1:00 – 3:00 PM
LJ Griffin Funeral Home
42600 Ford Rd Canton, MI 48187
(Carpooling recommended due to limited parking)

If you are reading this you are welcome and wanted at the service. During his last hours Atharva was in and out of alertness and sometimes he would speak aloud while dreaming: ‘I want to go home, I want to go to Harmony Collective.’

For you,
Deva Madhava das

Support the Rainbows

Collective Counting

Upcoming Events

Service Opportunities

Saturday afternoon our community lost one of our best and brightest. Atharva Kharkar passed away due to complications arising from his leukemia treatment.

As I consider Atharva and my relationship with him, which I’m happy to say became a friendship these last few years especially, the first thing I find myself wanting to tell people is that more than anyone else in my personal life, Atharva lived to the standard of first class intelligence.

Srila Prabhupada spoke about the intelligence spectrum from first to fourth. A first class person, like Atharva, heard something good and was immediately willing to apply it to his life. A fourth class person remains unable and more often unwilling to apply good advice even after repeated personal experience that harms them when they go against that wisdom.

Atharva would not necessarily be quick to accept.. he was careful to understand and his questions always carried a weight with them, almost a warning that with this inquiry he was also extending his trust and faith to you. When he felt sure though, that was that.. like a line in stone it became a conviction for him he was willing to live with and die for.

At one point they gave him morphine in the hospital. ‘Dad?!’, he called to Prafulla Prabhu, ‘Dad?! My legs are floating.’ Prafulla explained to Atharva he was just a little off from the intense drug.. he was high for the first time in his life. Once he understood the situation, Atharva firmly said, ‘No more morphine; no matter what comes I want to face it honestly, not in a daze.’

Jayapataka Swami said of all the photographers whose work he’s seen, Atharva’s was his favorite. Here’s the last one he made.. it’s about Mother Ganges:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxyJ2CFjPNs

His viewing memorial is today: 
Tuesday, 9th July 2019 
1:00 – 3:00 PM
LJ Griffin Funeral Home
42600 Ford Rd Canton, MI 48187
(Carpooling recommended due to limited parking)

If you are reading this you are welcome and wanted at the service. During his last hours Atharva was in and out of alertness and sometimes he would speak aloud while dreaming: ‘I want to go home, I want to go to Harmony Collective.’

For you,
Deva Madhava das

Support the Rainbows

Collective Counting

Upcoming Events

Service Opportunities