Author Archives: Candidasa dasa, UK

GD visit day 3: part-2, evening in Cardiff
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Evening Soul Talk in Cardiff Soul Centre. One notable guest was Taj, a lady doing a PhD in marketing. She was kicking the advertising for the soul centre into high-gear. Being a marketing guru (as GD called her), she knew how to create a whole portfolio of offerings, membership schemes, advertisements, press releases, etc. The Soul Centre has already benefited enormously from her expertise.

GD??(TM)s advice:

??oeOur duty is just to keep on trying to present Krishna consciousness to the people, even if there seems to be no success. Very soon people will become more desperate and suddenly there will be a huge demand. Just like when the Iron Curtain came down. It was so sudden. It surprised everyone, even the CIA. A similar thing can happen anytime. From one day to the next everyone may suddenly want to practice Krishna consciousness.??

My new phone served me well. It enabled all the communication that allowed me to better serve my spiritual master throughout the day. I managed to chant 35 rounds throughout the day. Long car trips be thanked.

After the program we drove down to Swansea for futher adventures in Krishna consciousness.

GD visit day 2: advice
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Gurudeva was riding in a small Toyota in Los Angeles. Mukunda and Carana Renu were in the back seats. They were stopped at a traffic light when a SUV slammed into the back of the car. The driver had taken his eyes off the road and didn??(TM)t notice the red light and stopped car. The SUV hit them so hard that you could read its license plate number on the rear bumper of the Toyota. Thankfully no one was seriously injured. No visible human damage.

Taking advice from David (a qualified nurse), I tried to arrange a doctor??(TM)s appointment for Gurudeva??(TM)s whiplash, but failed on the first few attempts. Damned be NHS bureaucracy!

Cooked:

  • wild/rice
  • spinach salad with carrot strips and tomatoes
  • french green beans
  • mixed vegetable curry with coconut milk
  • split mung dal soup
  • broccoli and pea samosas
  • peppermint tea

(GD??(TM)s comment: Hare Krishna ??¦)

I ironed a whole load of washing. I also re-scheduled a discussion with the various people that come to Vedicsoc. It had to be arranged around the only doctor??(TM)s appointment I could get at such short notice. A private doctor.

We took a taxi to a nearby private hospital. They, unlike the NHS, they were happy to see (paying) patients. Their doctors give generous 15 minute consultations (10 minutes is normal), or will even talk to a patient for 30 minutes (for double the price). All the staff were smiling and friendly – for good money, no doubt.

GD gave me some advice on how to conquer the PhD interviews:

I told the tale of my barely passing my end-of-year interview.

GD:

??oeDon??(TM)t see everything so negatively, the main thing is you passed, right? They are sharks. Don??(TM)t be a submissive momma??(TM)s boy, they won??(TM)t appreciate. Take a course in ps ychology of sales, law (both salesmen and lawyers need to anticipate possible objections and present arguments to make the sale/defined their clients), assertiveness, presentation, debating and/or negotiation.??

Other snippets of advice:

??oeIt??(TM)s not a teacher??(TM)s job to adopt the paradigm of the student. The teacher opens the student up to new paradigms. If someone asks for complex details, first give them the overall framework, only then do they have something to slot the complex details into. For example: you don??(TM)t entertain someone without knowledge who asks a really intricate computer question. They wouldn??(TM)t benefit from, or even understand the answer.??

Gurudeva visit day 1: arrival
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My spiritual master Devamrita Swami arrived. He noted that the temperature was 5 C, the coldest he had experienced in over a year.

David drove us to my flat. He also gave advice about the best course of action to treat Gurudeva??(TM)s whiplash injury from a recent car crash he was involved in.

Upon arriving Gurudeva remarked:

??oeA rebounder! Just what I need??

I had bought a rebounder (miniature trampoline) the week before. Besides being great exercise, jumping on it also loosens up tight muscles (such as those resulting from a whiplash injury) and clears the lymphatic system. A good exercise programming consists of half an hour of bounding every second day with 4 minutes of lying down afterward. The rebounder is really convenient, too. It??(TM)s right there. So, no more excuses not to exercise.

Cooked:

  • wild/rice, rocket leaf salad + baby tomatoes
  • braised summer veg (almost added eggplant, but remembered at the last moment that GM doesn??(TM)t like it and left it out)
  • bengali sak (spinach)
  • peppermint tea
  • broccoli & pea samosas
  • David made a huge, super-healthy beetroot cake which GM consumed liberally throughout his visit

(GD??(TM)s comment: silence)

I had a conference paper rejected a few days before. I therefore spent the rest of the day rewriting the paper and submitted it to another conference for peer review.