A Birthday Speech (I Haven’t Given)
When I was 19, I sat up in my bed one night and tangibly experienced reality — the impossibly infinite magnificence of existence itself. I could literally see and feel divinity saturating, permeating, being everything — even the most hum-drum of all stuff — like the walls I sat up to stare at.
Since then I haven’t been normal.
Of course, I was never “normal,” but this amazing experience made my abnormalities escalate radically. There is such a deep feeling of happiness in truly experiencing reality — it is euphoric like a sustained, breathtaking, almost “orgasmic” wholeness. Suddenly my normal experience of life felt like a small box with very little inside. I lost interest in everything else and pretty recklessly threw my life on whatever tracks seem to lead towards this divine experience.
The good news is that I have gotten somewhere on those tracks: I have been able to have this sort of experience with increasing regularity and increasing depth. The bad news, especially if you are my relative or old friend, is that it’s hard to relate to and easy to misunderstand me, because my spheres of interest intersect with most everyone else’s only momentarily and in ways always connected to mysterious spheres of things people often aren’t conversant in. I am not proud of my inability to connect with the “normal” level of reality. I realize that it is a hallmark of immature personal evolution on my part. Over the years I have improved, becoming able to interact with normal reality more and more fully while simultaneously having a satisfyingly deep spiritual experience of it.
But still, certain things that particularly challenge me. Unfortunately, these things are quite ubiquitous in today’s world. I dislike these things not because they are “evil” in and of themselves (which they definitely aren’t), but because the way that we usually deal with them is markedly antithetical to the profundity I experienced at 19, exacerbating the shallowness and disconnectedness of our live. Sports is one — but it’s not so bad, since at least it can be healthy and has lots of good side effects. A more annoying dislike is our obsession with being sexy. Often I feel like being a member of the Human Race in this day and age is like being a dog who is in heat 12 months a year, non-stop. Sex is wonderful, and the love of children is probably the single most inherently joyful thing in this world, but the way we are obsessed with being sexy profoundly “short-circuits” and reduces our ability to truly experience reality. Eating meat disturbs me far more then the “lets always be sexy” thing. To me meat eating symbolizes the short-circuited, short-cited mentality of putting one’s own wants before the needs and rights of other people and other living things. The fourth and worst of my pet-peeves: getting drunk. For many people it seems impossible to relax or have a decent time without drinking. This really disconnects us from reality and stunts our perception.
These four dislikes present challenges to my relationships. I don’t hold anyone in contempt for being immersed in these things, but I want people to know why I don’t have fun with such things.
Yesterday, I turned 44. Surely old age will pose increasing challenges to my health, maybe the fact that I was jet-lagged and quite sick at my birthday party is symbolic of that. But other than the worry that perhaps my body and mind will not remain operable, I am nothing but eager to turn 45, 55, 85, and hopefully even 108. “Age before beauty,” because age can give wisdom, wisdom is the key keeping the gates of reality, and within the gates of reality lie true beauty in its most opulent and abundant form.
I am thankful to my parents, and my aunt and uncle and their son and his nice girl-friend for making the effort to celebrate my birthday, which is merely a symbol of how deeply they have always made themselves and their resources lovingly available to help me, a blind-fool in pursuit of something abstract.
I am thankful to my mother-in-law, who called me from Japan twice with so much love in her voice.
I am thankful to my many, many superb friends who expressed birthday blessings towards me in such gracious ways.
I am, most of all, thankful to my wife for giving me her trust, her very heart, and for giving me four children who are unfailing sources of inspiration and anchors for my wayfaring life.
Above all else, always and forever, I am thankful to the Supreme Reality, whom I affectionately know as my Rādhā and Krishna.
Finally, I ask the forgiveness of everyone whose life my non-conformity has made more difficult than it already needs to be.
——–
[0]:I was “straight-edge” — no drugs were involved.
[1]: My exposure to Hare Krishna began just prior to this experience, and probably triggered it.
The area of Radha Kunda, Shyama Kunda and Govardhan Hill is the topmost holy place in the universe. It has been recorded that about 10 million people visit Govardhana on Guru Purnima day alone. Education and trash cans are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what it will take to keep this holy place clean. To match the cleanliness and beauty standards of New York City’s Central Park, we will need a small army of sanitation workers, tree care experts, gardeners, drivers, park rangers, and more, all taking care of Govardhana. Right now we have about 30 local brajavasi’s (mostly widows) working to keep a few areas in Radha Kunda clean. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see 2,500 people working to keep all of Govardhana area clean, beautiful, and organized in many different departments, including relief for the poor and elderly? We don’t need to control the government. We just need to organize the care of Govardhana.
Are we His servants, or is He ours? Read more › 
Living beings who are entangled in the complicated meshes of birth and death can be freed immediately by even unconsciously chanting the holy name of Krishna, which is feared by fear personified. SB 1.1.14 
The event which took place in the temple premises at Umuebulu 2, Etche LGA (Nigeria) saw people from all walks of life. Including devotees from far and near trooped in to the premises to have a glance of the young pupils. The father of the day, Prabhu Hariha Das, appreciated the teachers and the school committee for instilling Krishna consciousness into the young ones despite the fact that most of them are children of non-devotees. In the same vein, the Chair lady of the occasion, mother Kapasuni Devi Dasi, encouraged the children never to forget Krishna conscious activities and always be studious even as they go on long vacations. Also speaking was the master of ceremony (MC) Prabhu Bhadra Das, who commended the children and the teachers for a good job. 
My dear King, although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still one good quality about this age: Simply by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted to the transcendental kingdom. SB 12.3.51 
At the St James Junior School in London, the number of students wanting to learn the language has grown by leaps and bounds. 
Simply because I chanted the holy name of the Lord in the association of devotees, my heart is now becoming purified. Therefore I shall not fall victim again to the false lures of material sense gratification. Now that I have become fixed in the Absolute Truth, henceforward I shall not identify myself with the body. I shall give up false conceptions of "I" and "mine" and fix my mind on the lotus feet of Krishna. SB 6.2.38 
Krishna-valley / New Vraja-dhama is more than 250 hectares of typical Mid Europian rural area, located in Hungary about 30 Kms from the well known tourist place Lake Balaton, in a beautiful natural environment. New Vraja-dhama is the transcendental realm of the world’s most beautiful deities Sri Sri Radha-Syamasundara. Please visit Krishna-valley for a spiritual journey. 
The District Forestry Office is working on a plan to make a peacock sanctuary. The team of the environment activist raised various issues related to deforestation in Vrindavan. They were particularly concerned about recent reports about peacock deaths in the district. The DFO assured the team that steps are taken to protect the peacocks in Vraja. As per the forest office, they are also working to make a “monkey safari,” for which they have already sent a proposal to the government. Once the project is approved, monkeys from Vrindavan and other places will be translocated to forest land in Farah, between Mathura and Agra. Monkeys have become danger for trees, birds, peacocks and even for the humans. 
One who chants the holy name of the Lord is immediately freed from the reactions of unlimited sins, even if he chants indirectly to indicate something else (sanketya), jokingly (parihasya), for musical entertainment (stobha), or even neglectfully (helana). This is accepted by all the learned scholars of the scriptures. SB 6.2.14 
As a fire burns dry grass to ashes, so the holy name of the Lord, whether chanted knowingly or unknowingly, burns to ashes, without fail, all the reactions of one's sinful activities. SB 6.2.18
etävän eva loke 'smin
puàsäà dharmaù paraù småtaù
bhakti-yogo bhagavati
tan-näma-grahaëädibhiù
Devotional service, beginning with the chanting of the holy name of the Lord, is the ultimate religious principle for the living entity in human society. SB 6.3.22 
Therefore it should be understood that one is easily relieved from all sinful reactions by chanting the holy name of the Lord and chanting of His qualities and activities. This is the only process recommended for relief from sinful reactions. Even if one chants the holy name of the Lord with improper pronunciation, he will achieve relief from material bondage if he chants without offenses. Ajamila, for example, was extremely sinful, but while dying he merely chanted the holy name, and although calling his son, he achieved complete liberation because he remembered the name of Narayana. SB 6.3.24