Recap, up to date.

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i was trying to keep this as a day to day thing but it's not really possible as the days blend here, but when i have my internet i will be more inclined to write and post every evening. but here's a recap to get everyone up to date on what's been going on.


we arrive in mathura at 4am and waited for transportation to mathura for 2 hours, by the time we got to govardhana we had enough time to get in our rooms and than arati started. I quickly changed cloth and went to arati, i have some attraction to Sri Sri Anu Giriraj and felt inspired to attend arati. promptly after that i passed out. due to lack of sleep and other travel factors the rest of the govardhana trip is kind of a blur, i wasn't really planning on writing about parikrama, it's really a spiritual thing and therefore individual, if we could get the same experience through reading there would be no need to travel to the holy sites. B.P. Tirtha Maharaja spoke wonderfully at each site usually telling about mahaprabhus journey through that area.
the lord teaches by example and only by the mercy and under the direction of the devotees should we try to make these pilgrimages. one story was told of one man told that he went to vrindavana and saw only stool, and the reply was that because that man didn't go with sadhu to that holy place he only saw stool. we are very finite, we need the direction of the saints to have proper mood so that we may get some vision some day by the mercy of the lord..

i'm not sure what day it was but the day we got to vrindavana i was standing under a ledge at the temple with a bunch of devotees and i felt something hit my head, by the time i could look up i saw a monkey running away with my glasses, i didn't even have time to realize my glasses were off my head before i saw the monkey sitting there teasing me. that happened maybe 2 minutes after i was told that i had my glasses on and shrugged it off thinking MY glasses will not be taken, sure enough they got took. by the mercy of the devotees who worked towards getting my glasses back they were returned to me, only slightly chewed on and bent. after that we went to some close parikrama spots as it was afternoon.
The next day we went to varshana, lalita's place and nandagram all very close.
varshana is beautiful, i got some video and pictures and so much mercy while i was there.
then was lalita's place, very high spot in our line.
by the time we got to nandagram i was feeling feverish, as was the schedule of my illness, mornings fine and afternoon fever, but i powered through it by gurudeva's mercy.
the next day we went to man other places but i can't remember any names.. only radha raman temple, i got a video of that class. oh we also went to where the rasa lila happened and some other garden, all very high places, if i go back to northern india i will collect some dust from these places.
my moms digital camera was stolen from my pocket in loi bazaar vrndavan, i don't care about the camera but some pictures on there i really wanted and didn't put on my computer. i can accept that there is some reason for me not to have those pictures and i was told we should accept everything coming from dham basis or brijbasis as coming from the lord, because even though we cannot see, that world is transcendental and all are bhakta so in this way i will accept and understand that krishna has taken that away from me.
and mom, it was a crappy camera, you didn't like it either, it was slow and obnoxious.
the last day we did full parikrama around the whole of vrindavan, i did do most of these parikrama barefoot cause i was tired of taking care of my shoes, but i discovered if your dancing or running it's easier and less painful than walking for some reason.
i was disturbed the last couple days in vrndavana and my mind was becoming very offensive, i was ready to get out of the holy dham.
i had indigestion on the way out of vrndavana, i puked before leaving the temple and right after i got on the train and laid down but got everything expelled from my gut and was ok when i woke up.

when we got to kolkata i had to pack and leave for navadwipe later that day, the plan was to take the train with tirtha maharaja but prasadam in kolkata is late a lot so we missed the train that was after prasadam.
after parasadam the rest of the russian devotees arrived and i was able to sneak in to two darshanas with them and gurudeva to bask in that merciful association.
i thought i was going to take the bus with the russians but have to stand the whole way to nabadwipe (2-3 hours) but was able to get in the back of Avadhuta Marahaj's tata sumo.
the first day of navadwipe i got seperated from the main group cause i ran ahead thinking i knew where to go, but didn't so got a little frantic, i called sushen prabhu and was told they were in mayapur already, i jumped on the wrong boat cause i was still kinda frantic so it took a bit longer to get to mayapur, but when i did i walked as fast as i could and quickly caught up to the devotees, so much relief coming in the association of the devotees.
Janardana maharaja and Ashram maharaja gave a wonderful talk about Srila Swami maharaja Prabhupada and his relationship with Gurudeva and Gurumaharaja. Janardana Maharaja also seized the opportunity to glorify Siddhanti Maharaja, it was very heartfelt and sweet.
at Yogapitha Tirtha Maharaja lead an ecstatic kirtan for a long time, there's a video of it that i hope to get from the devotees. there were many more ecstatic kirtan throughout the parikrama, after we made it to the last spot and heard the katha i speedwalked ahead to the ghat to get home, i was tired and my stomach was rumbling.
i got to the math and had a nice visit with my dear godbrother ananda vigraha and than went to the restaurant here and had vegetable chow mein, a vegetable cheese sandwich, a butter paratha and a paneer paratha, oh and some sandesh and a rasagulla. washed it all down with a cold can of 7up and went to sleep.
i couldn't wake up this morning, i'm ok with that, i ate a lot last night and i need to catch up on sleep.
today was ekadasi fast, yesterday was actual ekadasi day but today was fast, i love ekadasi prasad and ate a lot for lunch.
before lunch i went to paramotala and bought a dhoty and a thin summer chadar, when it heats up here i don't wear a kurta i just throw on a chadar.
that's pretty much up to date, i'll probably at some point in my life come back and read all this stuff and add comments to my blog about stuff i remembered that i didn't put in my original posts.

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