Newsletter December 2022

Dear Friends of Sri-Sri-Radha-Madana-Mohan,

Please accept our respectful obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Let us pause for a moment and remember some events from the past month in Goloka Dhama:

In early November, on Gopastami, Srimati Radharani again showed Herself to us in the "Subal-vesh," cowherd clothes of Krishna's intimate friend Subal Sakha. Subal exchanged clothes with Radharani to enable Her to leave unnoticed from Her mother-in-law's house, Jatila, in Yavat and see Krishna, who was eagerly waiting for Her at Radhakund. - The end of this pastime is particularly sweet, for when Radharani appears at Radhakund in the disguise of Subal's cowherd clothes, Krishna does not immediately recognize Her. He first thinks that Subal's effort to bring Radharani to Him has failed and He becomes very sad. - Today He was not supposed to get darshan from Radharani. - Radharani immediately understands that Krishna thinks She is Subal and happily plays the game of hide and seek; now She can personally experience how much Krishna longs for Her, but, unable to keep up the disguise for long, Krishna's pain of separation softens Her heart and so She reveals herself to Him.....

After Gopastami, the last five days of the holy month of Kartik soon come up. These five days are once again very special. Whatever devotional service we perform on these five days is considered as if we had performed that service every day during the entire Kartik month. During these days, many devotees gathered in the temple to chant the Damodarastakam-prayers and the subsequent kirtans. Many lamps were offered to Radha-Madana-Mohan and many prayers were said. Also a 6-hour kirtan took place again, the 2nd one in this Kartik month.

In mid-November HH Bhakti-Prabhava Swami visited us and explained in a one-week seminar the stages of development of devotional service, starting with shraddha (faith) up to Krishna-prema (pure love of Godhead).