Day 1 of Sabbatical
Thursday 16/1/2007
I just started the second half of the sabbatical at Bhaktivedanta Manor yesterday evening. My parents dropped me off on a really quiet Monday evening at the Manor. It felt weird saying goodbye to them even though it is only for three months. Seeing Sunny and Mick again was really good, whilst Raj straight away gave me something to look forward to, mentioning how I may be involved in university programmes. Everything is nicely set up here with sleeping arrangements, central heating and hot showers so there are no excuses for me to not wake up early and do things properly.
That being said, today I have had a splitting headache. Rikin suggested that it might be because I have not had enough water during the day and have become dehydrated because of all the heaters on all the time. The morning programme was good. Rikin suggested to me that I write up a brochure for the sabbatical like a university or gap year prospectus - so already I am being given service opportunities. Bhuta Bhavana told me just two days ago that if we are not engaged constantly with projects then we will become lazy and more susceptible to lust, so it is great that now the days will be packed with things to do in Krishna's service. The Shrimad Bhagavatam class went on a little late with questions and answers stuck on the issue of whether God listens to the prayers of non-devotees. The conclusion was that God listens to all prayers from everyone, but is more likely to reciprocate and fulfil the desires of the devotees, since they are surrendered to Him.
We had an introductory welcome by Gauri (Temple President), Shruti Dharma and Sita Rama prabhus. They gave an insight into how we will be in touch with so many different types of people from different backgrounds and different viewpoints while we are at the Manor, and so it will be a tougher challenge to practice Krishna Consciousness effectively here compared to India. We were then given an introduction to the ashram rules and principles by Jiva Doya prabhu. He commented that we will be given more chance to share what we have learnt in India with people here and so it is an exciting time ahead.
I just started the second half of the sabbatical at Bhaktivedanta Manor yesterday evening. My parents dropped me off on a really quiet Monday evening at the Manor. It felt weird saying goodbye to them even though it is only for three months. Seeing Sunny and Mick again was really good, whilst Raj straight away gave me something to look forward to, mentioning how I may be involved in university programmes. Everything is nicely set up here with sleeping arrangements, central heating and hot showers so there are no excuses for me to not wake up early and do things properly.
That being said, today I have had a splitting headache. Rikin suggested that it might be because I have not had enough water during the day and have become dehydrated because of all the heaters on all the time. The morning programme was good. Rikin suggested to me that I write up a brochure for the sabbatical like a university or gap year prospectus - so already I am being given service opportunities. Bhuta Bhavana told me just two days ago that if we are not engaged constantly with projects then we will become lazy and more susceptible to lust, so it is great that now the days will be packed with things to do in Krishna's service. The Shrimad Bhagavatam class went on a little late with questions and answers stuck on the issue of whether God listens to the prayers of non-devotees. The conclusion was that God listens to all prayers from everyone, but is more likely to reciprocate and fulfil the desires of the devotees, since they are surrendered to Him.
We had an introductory welcome by Gauri (Temple President), Shruti Dharma and Sita Rama prabhus. They gave an insight into how we will be in touch with so many different types of people from different backgrounds and different viewpoints while we are at the Manor, and so it will be a tougher challenge to practice Krishna Consciousness effectively here compared to India. We were then given an introduction to the ashram rules and principles by Jiva Doya prabhu. He commented that we will be given more chance to share what we have learnt in India with people here and so it is an exciting time ahead.
posted by Muser at 10:53 AM
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