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Newsletter -- Krishna Janmashtami
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Warm greetings to you from India.
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I hope this message finds you well & happy.
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This is my first newsletter for 8 months -- it’s been pretty strange here and I’ve been in and out of hospital, or recovering, since the beginning of the year. Quite a contrast to my previous decades on Purusha, but I guess one’s jyotish or karma catches up with everyone sooner or later!
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I wanted to convey my thanks and appreciation for your continuing sponsorship support for the duration – it really has been vital, not to mention encouraging, given the costs incurred during this time. Fortunately I have medical insurance which covered most of the medical costs, but not the R & R!
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I hope to send you a personal email in the coming days -- as it is Krishna Janmashtami and I had a couple of new posts on my web site I wanted to send this newsletter also as it has such nice quotes from Maharishi and Maharaj (Dr Tony Nader).
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Right now I’m registered with DFAT for a repatriation flight back to Australia – this is month three, and even though I’ve received notifications from them, all flights are booked out in minutes and I’ve not been able to book any of the 10 flights from Delhi to Darwin.
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There are still 7000 Australian citizens in India waiting to return and so competition is fierce.
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I’ve received medical advice that I need to be a lower altitude, so I’ve been in Rishikesh for a couple of months until I secure a flight back to Australia, which will be a pleasant contrast after 22 years high in the Himalayas. I am fine and exercising regularly and have been quite active in my normal routine here while I maintain a holding pattern until something concrete happens regarding flights.
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On arrival in Australia I expect I will go to Lake George, SA, for a while and get registered as an Australian again.
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Once again, thank you so much for your support, and I look forward very much to hearing your news.
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--- Coping with Covid ---
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Some of you may know that one of my medical issues this year was contracting Covid.
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The press has been telling horror stories of covid in India!
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I promise you, I didn't end up on a funeral pyre in suburban Rishikesh.....
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Reluctantly going with friends for covid testing, we went to a government medical facility in Rishikesh - a government guest-house. My coughing friend tested positive and so did I, to my surprise, as I was asymptomatic.
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We were immediately detained, told we couldn't leave, and given a room while we endured our isolation for the next 2 weeks. My biggest challenge was that I had no-one to talk to! There were 200 other detainees who only spoke Hindi! My Purusha buddy was quite sick and spent most of his time in silence, lying on his bed. Even though food was supplied at the facility, much of it appeared to be thrown away in an area behind our residential block. Oppressive summer heat aggravated the overall situation.
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One morning I observed an extraordinary sight -- about 7-8 massive sows made their way grunting through the discarded food surrounded by a dozen or more piglets racing in all directions around their mothers. A large troupe of monkeys who lived in and around our facility, excited by the intrusion, jumped on the rooftops and swung around in the trees making their own calls. All the local dogs joined in the fray and barked excitedly at the spectacle, and the local crow population cawed at all the other animals.
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After more trials and tribulations we tested negative at the local hospital and returned to the ashram.
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pavitrāṇāya sādhūnāṃ vināśhāya cha duṣhkṛitām
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|dharmasaṃsthāpanārthāya saṃbhavāmi yuge yuge ||8||
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For deliverance of the righteous and destruction of the evildoers,
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with the aim of establishing dharma, I come into being age after age.~ Bhagavad Gita 4.8
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Kumbha Mela, 1966
Maharishi: When we understand intellectually, when we can conceive of the Absolute as taking a form or if we conceive the form of the Absolute, it is like the ocean, the same water, silent water, springing up as a wave or some other things of the sea—they are different, but the same water rising up as a wave.
So, Incarnations (Avataras) are the same water, the same material, of the Absolute, appearing as a form. The same sap appearing as a leaf.
We are talking of the form of the Absolute, but in Gita Lord Krishna has made this point very, very clear. Bluntly he said `The ignorant takes me to be taking a form. The unmanifested has taken a form, has manifested itself. This I am considered by the ignorant. That means even (though) I am in form, I am not manifested.`
The unmanifested in form, not manifested in form. The Absolute has not become relative. The unmanifested has not become manifested. Remaining absolute, it has assumed a form.
There is that caution given very clearly, that he has not become relative. Becoming relative means ceasing to be absolute. Becoming relative means ceasing to be this and becoming this. It is not becoming relative, it is remaining absolute, yet Absolute in form. And this is an Incarnation.
Absolute in form, that is free from any leshavidya or any trace of avidya, ignorance. It is all enlightenment, truth, the truth. Not the cognition of truth on the level of remains of ignorance, avidya, no leshavidya, but pure truth incarnate. Vedanta incarnate, Vedanta is the unity of life in absolute Being, and that incarnating...
Now this was the reason that the whole life story of Lord Krishna and all that is there, is for the people in Cosmic Consciousness to enjoy.
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To celebrate, some bhajans.
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Here's Uma Mohan on the Narayana Stotram:
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May Krishna bring you all blessings, worldly and divine.
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12 minute talk from Krsna Janmasthami:
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"On today, we reflect on the wholeness of the incarnation of Krishna for us in this generation, and pledge again to be together, to be strong. Not to allow anyone to divide us or shatter us, or create separation and division within our unity. Because any such value creeping in, only means one thing - removing Krishna from our life, removing Maharishi from our existence, ignoring the centuries and milleniums of the Holy Tradition of Knowledge as revived in its completeness in this generation. Therefore, in full unity and full glory of the unified value of Maharishi's consciousness, Krishna's consciousness, Guru Dev's consciousness, we pledge to be with them, to be them, as a group, as a whole, and not allow any confused minds or any lost thinking to create any sense of division in our understanding of the whole world, in particularly of our own understanding of who we are, who we are as an individual, who we are as a group, who we are as an Administration, who we are as Maharishi's Family.
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Gangotri impressions
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Some years ago I went on a trek from Gangotri to Tapovan, high in the Himalayas. Gangotri is one of the four main pilgrimage sites called the Char Dham which pilgrims to the Himalayas nowadays strive to visit in a rush of devotion during monsoon, but often end up exhausted and sick. In the traditional approach to the Char Dham …
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Einstein, Laozi, Rumi - wisdom of the ages
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Words from Albert Einstein:
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“I didn't arrive at my understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe through my rational mind.”
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“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. Matter is spirit reduced to point of visibility. There is no matter.”
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"Time and space are not conditions in which we live, but modes by which we think.
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Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, determined by the external world."
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“Time does not exist – we invented it. Time is what the clock says. The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
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Purusha sponsors are really precious! by creating a partnership of coherence in the world and supporting Purusha and their long deep programs. Please sponsor Purusha, their full time permanent commitment, the life of a recluse. Consider the words of Adi-Shankara:
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“Whosoever gives to someone who dedicates himself fully to the quest for enlightenment receives the benefits of this man’s acts and meditations without having to undergo the tribulations associated with his life. Truly fortunate is one who supports the ascetic, because he doesn’t have to leave the comfort of his home to fully gain the advantage of this man’s tapas (meditations).” - Shankara Dig Vijaya. Please click the image below to sponsor. Thank you and Jai Guru Dev.
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Payment advice: If you have a PayPal account, click the Donate button above and click the Send button on the PayPal page, login to your PayPal account, then type the amount you’d like to send and pay either from your PayPal balance, bank account or debit/credit card.
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No PayPal a/c? Use Wise per below.
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Cheaper than PayPal is Wise (formerly TransferWise): one small fee, with best exchange rates. Set up a free account here (you can download their app if you want, or use your desktop). You will need my account info, send an email to alawsonkerr[@]gmail.com (take out the brackets).
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