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Hare Krishna Prabhus!

Please accept my humble obeisances, All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to Srila Acaryadeva! During the weekend of December 14- 19th Srila Acaryadeva visited New Vrindaban. On Saturday December 15th 2007, at 8:30pm, in the presence of Sri Sri Gaur-nitai, and the assembled Vaisnavas I was given initiation! Mahalakshmi devi dasi. Here are the details surrounding the rest of the visit…

On Friday afternoon, I met Srila Acaryadeva, Sadaputa Prabhu, and Brahmatirta Prabhu at the Pittsburgh airport. It is a long trip back to New Vrindaban, and I enjoyed having the association of such esteemed devotees. They were arriving for the ISKCON ACADEMY of ART and SCIENCES conference. As we were driving down the road, Srilq Acaryadeva said,” So you getting initiated… when do want to do it?” I had been told be Arya that He had said he wanted to do it Friday night- but I said, “I don’t know- how about tomorrow?”

Srila Acaryadeva was in high spirits in the association of his god brothers. The mood changed as we arrived in New Vrindaban. Shortly after we arrived at the home of Srila Acaryadeva’s hosts- who would arrive? Garuda Prabhu. Due to the constant banter and bickering between the two Godbrothers- the atmosphere then went from “high spirited” to absolutely hilarious- and remained so for the next 72 hours. The devotees at New Vrindaban were anxious to have the association of Srila Acaryadeva, and a crowd started to gather as news spread of his arrival. The darshan went on until 10:30-11:00pm. Srila Acaryadeva spoke about the origin of specific Christian theological points and common misconceptions about the “historical” Jesus. The following morning, Srila Acaryadeva gave Srimad Bhagavatam class.

Following breakfast- Srila Acaryadeva, Bharata dasa, and I went for a long walk along the country roads of New Vrindaban. We had gone out several roads leading toward Talavan, and we were walking on the main road near Bahulaban when it started to gently rain, so we decided that we’d better start walking back. The wind started up, and one thing led to another- and we were walking briskly down Hare Krishna Ridge through sleet and a freezing rain storm.

It was very cold and as pellets of ice bounced off his face, Srila Acaryadeva explained that because he was from California he was enjoying the weather. In my opinion, it was almost intolerably cold. The snow and freezing rain would continue for the rest of the afternoon and early evening.

After our walk Srila Acaryadeva attended the second half of Saturdays conference, and I went home to get ready for my initiation. It was freezing, and had been raining, so when I left my apartment to go to my car to pick up Srila Acaryadeva at the temple- I was trying to be fast, because I didn’t want to be late… I slipped on the ice- and fell into a mud puddle, I messed up my sari and smashed my knee… it was swollen. I thought I was going to have to go to the hospital. Like the White Rabbit in Alice In Wonderland- I couldn’t be late. I couldn’t be late… I was going to be late… to meet Gurudeva… Oh no!!! So I got in the car, and drove up to temple to meet and pick him up- whoa! I wasn’t late, the meeting hadn’t ended… thank Krishna.

However, As soon as I walked into the temple, I started to cry. My knee really hurt, and I had messed up my sari… and his was supposed to be one of the happiest days of my life, but it was turning out to be a disaster… when the meeting ended, I was still a mess. Yatiza got a towel and wiped the mud off of my sari, Brahmatirtha Prabhu helped me before Maharaja came out of the meeting. When the meeting had ended Brahmatirta told Acaryadeva of my mishap… I put ice on my knee and they took my car up to the house. I told them that I would be up in a little while… I thought the initiation was canceled. Arya said she called Acaryadeva and told him that we should reschedule. I thought it was rescheduled.

I went up to the house and devotees started to show up. So Srila Acaryadeva said, Well are we doing this initiation? I said definitely! I was sad because I had already told some of the devotees at the temple that we were going to reschedule for the following day. I had calmed down and the sari wasn’t that big of a deal- but my knee really hurt and I had it elevate and iced the entire time.

Acaryadeva and Garuda went into the study… It definitely wasn’t the run-of- the mill Hare Krishna initiation… there was no Kartals or Mrdanga- it was a charming party with wonderful live classical music. People moved around the room chatting and catching up with one another. Yaitza played 3 or 4 Mozart pieces on the cello- it was beautiful. Garuda and Maharaja returned from the study, and Garuda prabhu said, “Send up the smoke” Gurudeva announced, “Ladies and gentlemen- the pope has been chosen” And the Garuda prabhu said, After much deliberation We have chosen a NAME!!” So I said to Garuda, “what is it, aren’t you going to tell me?” He shouted- “Swami! She’s trying to get me to tell her!” So the two of them sat down and proceeded with several minutes of witty banter regarding how they chose the name, and the list of things that were suggested, mostly Sanskrit jokes- when Malati interrupted and said, “can’t you just get on with it? I mean, really…..” the then Maharaja said, Ok without further ado- lets’ get on with it! Should I say something about diksa, Malati? it was unanimous- he gave an amazing lecture lasting for 45 minutes.

then he gave me my vows
I said that I would abstain from Illicit Sex, Intoxication, Meat eating and Gambling… And I vowed that I would chant a minimum of 16 rounds of the Maha-mantra everyday. Rati helped me by putting on my neckbeads…

Acaryadeva gave me my beads and my name, saying… “drum roll please… your name will be Mahalakshmi devi dasi“- chuckling- he said,”get it? mega-bucks!”( So afterward, I asked Garuda, so what where the other choices? He said, “well Maharaja wanted to name you Shirley, but I wanted Good-golly-miss-molly.”) I looked at Malati, and it appeared as though a sigh of relief had come across her face when He said my name… Mahalakshmi…

We had a lot of fun. We joked around for a while, took prasadam, and later Maharaja and Yaitza played the overture to Handel’s Messiah. Maharaja played a Casio key board brought by Rukmavati (no piano was available). Maharaja and Yaitza played other pieces, Garuda said it was “SSOOOOOO BAAAAAADDDD!” and “The worst he had ever heard”- he had only thought about jumping out the window three or four times… And then Srila Acaryadeva said, Mahalakshmi tell your Uncle Birdie to shut up… and then we had an estatic kirtan.