Sunday, March 13 is the Appearance Day of Sri Purusottama das Thakura. "From birth, Purusottama dasa was merged in the service of the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda Prabhu, and he always engaged in childish play with Lord Krsna." — Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi 11.39 The Sunday Feast program will begin as usual at 11:30 AM.  

Sunday, March 20 is the regular Sunday Feast, beginning at 11:30 AM.  

Monday, March 21 is Amalaki Ekadasi (Break fast 06:02-10:06). Fasting from grains and beans.  

Tuesday, March 22 is the Disappearance Day of Sri Madhavendra Puri, a great disciple of Madhvacarya who was the spiritual master of Advaita Acarya, Paramananda Puri and Isvara Puri, the guru of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu. Sri Madhavendra Puri discovered the beautiful Gopala Deity hidden on Govardhana Hill in Vrndavana, and installed Him in with great festivity. His extreme development of the mood of separation from Krsna was his great contribution to the science of devotional service.

We are training several oxen for farm work. Three of these oxen moved with Krsna Caitanya from North Carolina and several oxen are locals.  We are training oxen to follow voice commands with the hopes that they will be able to do such things as plowing and wagon transport.   We have been working in the garden with the oxen to prepare the ground and make seed beds.  We planted several rows of spring vegetables, such as snap peas, lettuce, swiss chard, spinach, carrots, and beets. We also had a very exciting morning on the day of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta appearance.  The New Talavan Gurukula joined us in the garden, and we held a small demonstration of how oxen work in the garden to make rows for planting.  The children learned about how potatoes grow, and even helped us to plant one hundred pounds of potatoes.  Planting went very quickly with all of their enthusiastic help.  Many hands make light work.  Thanks very much to Mother Kalindi, for her service and bringing her bright-faced children to the garden.

Gaura-Purnima Update  

Gaura-Purnima, the blessed Appearance Day of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, is coming up soon! On Friday, March 25 we are planning a grand festival at the Temple. We want to offer 108 delicious vegetarian preparations, cooked with devotion, to the Lord. Sign up to offer your home-cooked specialty to Lord Gauranga!    We also desire to offer new outfits to our beautiful Deities, Their Merciful Lordships Sri-Sri Gaura-Nitai and Sri-Sri Radha-Radhakanta. The outfits are being made in Mayapur and to get here in time, have to be picked up by March 2. To do this, we need a donor or donors to underwrite the cost of the outfits plus shipping, a total of $1,800.  

Thanks are due to several devotees for their kind donations. By their mercy, we are now past the halfway point for the Guara-purnima outfits! But we're not there yet! We still need contributions to reach our goal.   Offering new outfits to Their Lordships is a very important service that is usually performed only twice a year, on Janmastami and Gaura-Purnima. This is an opportunity to get some special mercy. You will certainly receive the blessings of Their Lordships for the entire year. Plus, in recognition of this valuable and important service, the Deity outfit donors will receive some wonderful Deity decoration maha-prasadam at the Gaura-Purnima celebration on March 25! If you want to donate, please contact us right away, or to donate securely with a credit card, click here:  

Donor Services  

Srila Prabhupada writes in the Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila 16.31 Purport: "Formerly Sanskrit schools first taught grammar very thoroughly, and this system continues even now. A student was supposed to study grammar carefully for twelve years in the beginning of his life, because if one is expert in the grammar of the Sanskrit language, all the sastras are open to him." Srila Prabhupada wanted all his disciples to become expert and qualified brahmanas. Brahminical culture may not be a requirement for becoming a pure devotee, but it does make us qualified to benefit society in so many ways. When there is peace and prosperity in society, people naturally become inquisitive to understand Krsna.

Therefore we are inspired to offer individual instruction in Sanskrit, Vedic Astrology (Jyotish), Vedic Music (Sangita), Graphics & Web Design based on the Silpa-sastra, Creative Spiritual Writing and other brahminical arts. The instructor is a professional musician and recording artist, a professional writer and publisher, and former Department Chair of Mayapur Gurukula. Please contact Dasanudas Prabhu for details.

The Deities are so beautiful! The backdrop depicting Govardhan Hill reminded me of Vrndavan. All of us were ecstatic the entire time we were there! After hearing the ecstatic kirtan, our kids were chanting Hare Krsna all the way home. We look forward to visiting again very soon.   All glories to Srila Prabhupada for establishing such a nice farm project, your servant,   B.P.

Introduce your friends to New Talavan Times!

Email us the email addresses of friends who would like to receive this weekly bulletin, and we'll add them to our list.