Struck with Wonder and Gratitude!
All the best,
Ultimate Life Hacks from the Bhagavad Gita
All the best,The Holy Appearance Day of Srimati Radharani
Tuesday, August 25th is the holy Appearance Day of Srimati Radharani, the original feminine goddess and internal pleasure potency of Lord Sri Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Together They unite as the original divine feminine and masculine, and we unlimited jiva souls are expanded from Them. We can find joy in excavating our sacred connection with Them in love and service.
Srila Prabhupada explains that if you offer your sincere prayer into the hand of Sri Radha, she will recommend you to Him, saying, “this devotee is better than me, please accept her!”
Here are a few drops from the deep ocean of her qualities:
“Vrndavan’s queen brings limitless pure bliss to He whose face is Vrndavan’s splendid moon risen from the nectar ocean of bliss and love. She fills Vrndavan with nectar and she makes her beautiful friends again and again shed tears, and their bodily hairs stand erect in wonderful ecstatic love like her own.” --Vrndavan Mahimamrita
“I, a distressed soul, belonging to you, beg you with sweet words while rolling on the banks of the Yamuna!
Although I am unfit, an offender with a crooked mind, please bestow on me a fragment of the gift of service to you. This unhappy soul is not fit to be neglected by you, for you have a butter soft heart that melts constantly by the warmth of your compassion.” -- Srila Rupa Goswami, Stava-mala
Happy Radhastami!
All the best,
Rukmini Walker
A Letter To Our Future Selves
This piece is being featured in "The Emergence of Women's Voices in ISKCON" a written documentary of the voices of the first-generation pioneer women of ISKCON. Thirty-three authors speak about their relationships with Srila Prabhupada, what women bring to Krishna consciousness, and the importance of women's voices in ISKCON. My "Letter to our Future Selves" is featured in this book and book launch. Please scroll to bottom of this posting to learn more about this effort. Here is the link to the event on Facebook August 22-23: https://www.facebook.com/
A Letter to our Future Selves
by Rukmini Walker
written on June 20th, 2020
Click here to listen to the audio version of this piece.
[audio m4a="http://www.urbandevi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/A-Letter-to-Our-Future-Selves.m4a"][/audio]
Dear Vaisnavis of the future,
My deepest respects to you all. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Several years ago I attended a conference in Geneva, sponsored by the Global Peace Initiative of Women. A woman who was a high court judge in India spoke and explained a powerful metaphor.
She said that traditionally in India, most people lived in a joint family home. There was usually a courtyard space in the center facing inward, and a veranda around the perimeter facing out. The men would usually be on the veranda, talking about finance, politics, science, and the problems and affairs of the outside world.
The women would be in the courtyard cooking together, talking together, dealing with domestic problems, and healing the family’s illnesses with herbal remedies.
Some are trying to lead by facing out, looking for solutions from outside; and some are looking to lead, and heal community by facing in…
Of course, today, there are many women in leadership - in government, in finance, in science, and many other fields as well. In ISKCON, in the US today, there are six women temple presidents. In other countries, there are also women leading in different capacities, in different services. It seems that often women and also men who are spiritually advanced, have an ability to lead in a supportive, empathic way, rather than a controlling or domineering way.
It seems to me that this sort of introspective leadership would mean to lead as a sort of path smoother, or servant leader, trying to truly hear others and deeply appreciate each and everyone’s unique and diverse contribution to the whole. This inward-facing community-centered leadership seems to be a formula for developing what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr called, “the beloved community”.
He defined that beloved community, first of all, as one that offers radical hospitality to everyone; an inclusive family rather than an exclusive club; recognizing and honoring the image of God in every human being. Of course, we would extend that to include every living being.
I’m fond of a certain story about Srila Prabhupada. In the early days, a new devotee, who was also very young at the time, had a chance to serve Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada was staying for a few days in a house near New Vrindavan, and this young man was given the task of guarding the house from outside at night. It began to rain outside and the young man came into the attached garage to do his guarding service from there.
In a few moments, he felt a presence behind him in the garage. He turned around, and there was Srila Prabhupada standing behind him. He fell down and offered his obeisances. Then he rose and asked, “Is there any service I can do for you, Srila Prabhupada?”
Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes. You can go where I will not go!” The young man was bewildered. Srila Prabhupada had just come from Chicago; Dallas; Caracas, Venezuela; San Francisco, and before that Tokyo; soon he would be going on to New York, London, Paris, and Germany…
He asked, “But where is it that you will not go, Srila Prabhupada? You are going everywhere!”
Srila Prabhupada replied, “To the future! And by the way you treat the people there, they will know how much Krsna loves them.”
In other words, Krsna cares for us, for all living beings. He patiently travels with us as the Supersoul in our lost wanderings as we try to fulfill our separatist desires in so many species of life. When we feel distress, Krsna feels compassion for our suffering. "Tat te 'nukampam...", "anukampam" means “to tremble with” (SB 10.14.8). And He gives us the understanding by which we can come to Him.
As His aspiring devotees, how can we make our consciousness more like His, in the sense of loving and caring for others? What will enhance our Krsna consciousness and help us go deeper in experience and realization? What parts of ourselves do we want to carry into the future?
What kinds of interactions in our communities and beyond can grow into deep loving exchanges that sustain and build faith and trust?
On the path of Bhakti, we learn that at the center of all existence, there is a love affair, a dance between Radha and Krsna. The divine masculine - Sri Krsna, loving the divine feminine - Sri Radha, who is expanded from Him. She is His own pleasure potency. In effect, this is God loving God. And we are being invited to join that dance, to live and dance in harmony along with Them in eternity. To live in Bhakti, means to live in harmony with this “Rta,” or divine cosmic order.
Once, Srila Prabhupada gave an example: If you’re sitting on the bank of a still lake and you throw a pebble into the center of the lake, then harmonious concentric circles will radiate outward from that center where you threw your pebble. If you throw another pebble, and another one, and yet another one into that same center, they will all create harmonious circles generating out from that center. But if I throw a pebble to this side or that side, and you throw your pebble here or there, then so many interference patterns will form and begin to clash with each other.
In other words, if we act in this world, loving Krsna and serving Him in the core of our hearts, and at the center of our lives, then as many interests, goals or pursuits as we may have, can all be harmonized in peace and sustainability in Krsna. We can have community, family, art, music, intellectual pursuits, environmentalism, or so many other “isms” all offered into the center point of loving Krsna. And if we act out of self-centered ego, then we will clash - within ourselves, between ourselves and others, and in the world.
How does Srila Prabhupada describe the formula for peace? To understand that everything is owned and controlled by Krsna, that everything is meant for His pleasure, and that He is our dearest friend. (BG 5.29)
In his purport to Bhagavad Gita 4.24, Srila Prabhupada explains that,
Everything that exists is situated in the brahmajyoti, but when that jyoti is covered by illusion (maya) or sense gratification, it is called material. The material veil can be removed at once by Krsna consciousness… the Absolute Truth covered by maya is called matter. Matter dovetailed for the cause of the Absolute Truth regains its spiritual quality. Krsna consciousness is the process of converting the illusory consciousness into Brahman, or the Supreme. When the mind is fully absorbed in Krsna consciousness, it is said to be in samadhi, or trance.
How can we bring this mood of harmony into our hearts, into our communities, and into the world? We are eager to preach, but are we eager to appreciate and to truly hear others?
We are members of an institution meant for giving compassion to others, but are we each individually acting with compassion in our personal dealings? Or are we remaining on the neophyte platform judging and criticizing others? Offending others and becoming offended by petty things, making assumptions, taking things personally, and acting out of false ego? Are we trying to grow the seeds of Bhakti but instead getting tangled up in the weeds?
I was recently listening to a lecture given by Srila Prabhupada where he was comparing the practice of beginning or sadhana, vaidhi Bhakti to jumpstarting the engine of a car. We try to give our internal battery a jump by our daily practice. But real Bhakti begins when we develop a spontaneous taste for the practice, or when the car engine kicks in and begins to run on its own power.
If we want to carry these sacred teachings into the future, we must ourselves develop the taste for authentic Krsna consciousness. So many religious communities of different traditions exist on a kanistha, or beginner’s platform… judging or criticizing others over petty differences of understanding, or class or race or practice.
If we remain on this beginner’s platform, how are we any different? Perhaps we have an extraordinary theology, but if we don’t practice it with realization, how are we any better? How will we communicate to them how much Krsna loves them if we are not living and showing that love between ourselves and others?
Recently, we attended a funeral ceremony for a beloved devotee who had taken his own life. It has been a tragedy in this community. In the first days after the suicide, there were naturally many unanswered questions: “Why? How could this happen?” As well as much blame and finger pointing to others in leadership that, sadly, also extended out onto social media.
I feared that this mood of negativity would continue at his memorial ceremony. And yet after those first painful days, there seemed to be a shift. At his ceremony, each person spoke of him with such appreciation, telling stories of how kind, selfless, and lovingly serving he had always been. How he treated everyone of every community, both Indian and Western, young and old, new and seasoned members with such affection.
After the ceremony, there was such a sense of peace, of the community having come together. Afterwards, one older god brother of mine, said to me, “Why did we have to wait until after his death to appreciate him so much? Why didn’t we let him know while he was alive, how much we all loved him? Maybe this tragedy could have been averted, if we had let him know…”
We so often speak about higher levels of rasa, of brava and prema. But this kind of love is impossible to realize without first learning to act with appreciation and gratitude in this world. Our acarya, Srila Prabhupada was always so grateful. Even Lord Krsna is so grateful for any tiny service rendered.
In conclusion, dear Vaisnavis, I suggest that gratitude and appreciation are the two doors to the palace of Bhakti… and there is no back door. Can we be the change that creates the future and show the people there how much Krsna loves them?
Hare Krsna,
Your sister in service,
Rukmini Devi Dasi
The Emergence of Women's Voices in ISKCON is a written documentary of the voices of the first-generation pioneer women of ISKCON. In this anthology they pass the torch of wisdom and lessons learned to future generations. Thirty-three authors speak about their relationships with Srila Prabhupada, what women bring to Krishna consciousness, and the importance of women's voices in ISKCON. They tackle difficult issues with philosophy, reason, common sense, decades of personal experience, and Krishna consciousness.
The essays in this anthology will bring light to ISKCON members around the world. They are as applicable today as they were yesterday and can be used as a road map to move into the future. Many senior devotees have poured out their wise hearts here, having thought deeply about this topic. They knew Srila Prabhupada and lived under his roof."A must-read. Emergence opened a floodgate of emotion and gave me solace and wisdom." --Mathura Mandala devi dasi
Engaged Bhakti podcast with Rukmini Walker
featuring Rukmini Walker in an interview with Krishna Kishore Dasa
In this Engaged Bhakti podcast episode, Krishna Kishore Dasa (Dr. Christopher Fici) holds an enlivening discussion with Rukmini Walker on the meaning of women's empowerment in spiritual life and how we can understand and express the ideal balance of the sacred feminine and the sacred masculine in our everyday lives.
Please click on this link or on the image below to listen to the talk.
You can follow Rukmini on: https://www.facebook.com/rukmini.walker/; https://www.patreon.com/RukminiWalker, and Instagram under Rukmini Walker
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bdqk2JfN4Q[/embed]
The Engaged Bhakti podcast is hosted by Krishna Kishore Dasa (Dr. Christopher Fici). Krishna Kishore is a lapsed Catholic kid from Detroit turned Vaishnava/ambigious Hindu. Krishna Kishore spent five years studying and living as a monk in the New Vrindavan community in West Virginia and in the Bhaktivedanta Ashram in New York City, where he remains associated with The Bhakti Center community. At the Bhakti Center he helps to facilitate the Sacred Ecology Forum.
Journeying Beyond the Festival
an interview with Rukmini devi dasi
This year, ISKCON Toronto turned its biggest festival of the year in to a virtual one -- Festival of India. Celebrations took place over twelve days. Rukmini Walker gave the last spiritual seminar of the festival on the last day called, Journeying Beyond the Festival. She shared reflections about the mood of Ratha Yatra and the importance of "pulling the Lord back to Vrindavan by the ropes of our love."
To watch this inspiring seminar, please click here or on the image below:
Human Rights and UN SDG
In honor of International Woman's Day, here is a video that was written and created by a young woman named Sana Mittar. She lives in Delhi, India, where her loving family so kindly hosted me last February. This past year, Sana was the valedictorian of her high school graduating class at the Springdales School, in New Delhi.
Happy International Woman's Day!
All the best,Rukmini Walker
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndLX3cLKsSA&feature=youtu.be[/embed]
12 Truths I Learned from Life and Writing
Anne Lamott is one of my favorite Christian writers. She’s so humble, real, irreverent, funny and down-to-earth. I think we can all learn a lot from her about not taking ourselves and our walking of the spiritual path so seriously - I mean in a glum sort of way. I think a serious spiritual practitioner is also someone who can laugh at herself and her own foibles and at the absurdities of living in the material world. Take a listen and see if you like her TED talk as much as I did --> Click here or on the image below -- 12 truths I learned from life and writing (Anne Lamott | TED2017)All the best,Rukmini Walker[embed]https://www.ted.com/talks/anne_lamott_12_truths_i_learned_from_life_and_writing?utm_source=tedcomshare&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tedspread#t-903072[/embed]
Impressions ~ Urban Devi Nature Retreat, Huguenot, New York
~by Rukmini Walker
Last weekend we held an Urban Devi Nature Retreat in upstate New York. It was held at a thousand-acre retreat center on the bank of a lake. We gathered and sang kirtan by a bonfire at the lake each night, and we met inside by the fire in the lodge each morning. I led a workshop and guided meditations on Cultivating the Garden of the Heart.
Afternoons were spent boating on the lake, journaling, dreaming, sharing and doing restorative yoga, led by Lucero. Delicious prasadam meals were lovingly cooked and offered by the mother-daughter team of Elaine and Champaka-lata.It was a deepening, rejuvenating gathering of heart-opened women on the path of Bhakti. Some were new to the path, some more seasoned, but, I think, all of us left with a refreshed perspective on our lives in the cities where we live.Komala Kumari gave us a Bharata Natyam dance class where she taught us how these dancers offer respect to the earth before they dance. She also taught us the facial expressions (abhinaya) and hand gestures (mudras) that express the story and moods of the dance.Kumari also shared with us this beautiful recording of the Sanskrit verse (shlokam) she performed and taught us. Scroll down to the end of this blog to find the link to the recording and the English translation. Please listen to it and be transported to the divine realm of loving Krsna!
Also below is a recording of a song uplifting the gifts of women that Lucero shared with us and we all sang together, along with many photos of our time there together.Thanks to all of you who came and opened your hearts so wide.If you weren't able to make it this time, please plan to join us next September!All the best,Rukmini Walker
Here is a recording of the Sanskrit shlokam that Kumari shared with us:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri6Y7BFJIwU
Here is the shlokam in Sanskrit followed by the meaning:
Kastuurii-Tilakam Lalaatta-Pattale Vakssah-Sthale Kaustubham Naasa-Agre Nava-Mauktikam Karatale Vennum Kare Kangkannam | Sarva-Angge Haricandanam Sulalitam Kanntthe Ca Muktaavalim Gopa-Strii Parivessttito Vijayate Gopaala Cuuddaamannih ||
Meaning:1: Salutations to Gopala Who is adorned with the Sacred Marks of Kasturi (Musk) on His Forehead and Kaustubha Jewel on His Chest,2: His Nose is decorated with a Shining Pearl, the Palms of His Hands are gently holding a Flute, the Hands themselves are beautifully decorated with Bracelets,3: His Whole Body is Smeared with Sandal Paste, as if Playfully anointed, and His Neck is decorated with a Necklace of Pearls,4: Surrounded by the Cowherd Woman, Gopala is Shining in their middle in Celebration like a Jewel on the Head.
Here is the Women's song: https://youtu.be/_FVKUMAKtmg
And some photos of our time together:
Deepening my Relationship with The Goddess
Pranada Comtois
It’s the nature of spiritual practice, or sadhana, to move from head-to-heart to become harmonized. This is why it took me several years after I began my practice of Bhakti yoga, nearly fifty years ago, to really internalize certain concepts beyond theory and let them find a deep place in my being. This isn’t surprising since one such concept, and perhaps one of the most provocative, is that -according to Bhakti Theology- all souls (whether in a male or female body) are feminine!Ironically, females were oppressed in the Bhakti community where I lived and in response, for a while, I tried to suppress my own femininity. Even though we had all been taught that we are not our physical bodies, gender seemed to become an issue in many Bhakti temples. Throughout those struggles I absorbed myself in japa and kirtan,the main practices of Bhakti yoga. Quietly to myself, and out loud in groups, respectively, I chanted the ancient Hare Krishna maha-mantra, which addresses the Supreme Divine as both male and female.Although, at first my focus was on Krishna – the divine masculine – as my meditation progressed through the decades, Radha – the divine feminine and supreme Goddess—came to the forefront of my heart and awareness. Soon, pleasing her, serving her, and seeing her became my passionate, cherished goal.[perfectpullquote align="full" cite="" link="" color="" class="" size=""]As my practice continued, Radha revealed her beautiful qualities to me. She is patient, grave, affectionate, compassionate, gentle, grateful, merciful, respectful, etc. In fact, all souls possess the same goddess-like qualities at their spiritual cores. How I longed to awaken these within myself![/perfectpullquote]
One text describes: “Radha is the full power, and Krishna is the possessor of full power.” Gradually Radha, the Divine Feminine, showed me the formidable power of the feminine, for her love conquers the all-powerful Krishna!This divine vision of Goddess Radha overpowering God through love – knocking him off his throne – astonished me. I realized that the Goddess not only shares the throne at the summit of reality, she demurely controls it, as well as he who owns it! And she does so with the deepest compassion and pure love: a love that drives God mad.Each day my relationship with Radha – and understanding how powerful the feminine can be – deepens. Meditating on Goddess Radha has unlocked transcendental reflections in me as I begin to understand the awesome implications in declaring all souls as feminine: that we all have these qualities and this power of spiritual love, regardless of our biological genders. What a different world it would be if all people imbibed these powerful, divine qualities!We experience masculine and feminine in this world – however imbalanced – because they have a pure state in the spiritual world. Unfortunately, our experiences of masculine and feminine energies are but impoverished reflections of their spiritual source and oftentimes the world subjugates the female and accentuates the male.[perfectpullquote align="full" cite="" link="" color="" class="" size=""]The Goddess teaches us how to do away with inebriated concepts of gender by empowering ourselves with her divine qualities and her overpowering, pure love through service to our Divine Other.[/perfectpullquote]
This is the path of Bhakti, which I call “The Way of the Feminine Divine.” It is the means by which we achieve our full potential as spiritual beings. It is the way of the Goddess of Wise-Love, Radha, unto whom I offer my life each day in the service of helping others call Radha into their lives.Goddess Radha is the exemplar lover and the shelter of all affection. For me, she’s the transcendent goal. Whether in a male or female body and whichever gender we identify with, in our spiritual perfection – according to Bhakti – we’re all servants of the Supreme Goddess Radha!And what happens when we become servants of the divine goddess in the truest sense? We become spiritual lovers. We conquer God! We conquer our Divine Other with our love. Is there any greater potential for the soul? Not as I see it.This essay was originally published in GODDESS, When She Rules: Expressions by Contemporary Women, (Golden Dragonfly Press, Jan.2018)______________________________________________
Pranada Comtois is a devoted pilgrim, teacher, and award-winning author of Wise-Love: Bhakti and the Search for the Soul of Consciousness. Her writing sheds light on bhakti’s wisdom school of heartfulness with a focus on how to culture wise-love in our lives and relationships so we can experience the inherent, unbounded joy of the self. At sixteen she met her teacher A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami and began her lifelong study and practice of bhakti. The wisdom of her teaching grows from living for twenty years as a contemplative in bhakti ashrams, and another twenty years raising a family and running two multi-million dollar businesses. Pranada is an activist in women’s spiritual empowerment. She was the first to speak up for gender harmony in the modern bhakti tradition and successfully organized global steps against gender injustice. Her writing has appeared in Integral Yoga, Rebelle Society, Elephant Journal, Tattooed Buddha, and the books Journey of the Heart, Bhakti Blossoms, and GODDESS: When She Rules. She is a featured speaker in the film Women of Bhakti.Her debut, award-winning book, Wise-Love: Bhakti and the Search for the Soul of Consciousness is available here. Connect with Pranada on her website here.