Preparing for the flight to Vraja has reached the stage of controlled chaos. I am now at the point at which Malati would be a nervous wreck if she were around. She flew in a bit in advance, good for her. I'm in the middle of wrapping together Madhurya Kadambini for press. Jagadananda Dasji has done a fine job editing the text, and Rasaraja Dasji has kindly organized the printing. Below, a sample of the cover for the book. Still a bit in need of work, but the concept is there.


Yes, and then I'll need to wrap together a glossary as well, and a couple of diagrams to illustrate some of the more technical and structured content of the text. We are looking forward presenting the text to Baba. He wrote me in a letter a while back that these books, if we'll endeavor to publish them in English, will be a matchless asset for the audience of devotees in the whole world for all time to come. Shastra-seva is close to Baba's heart.

Malati sent me the details concerning tomorrow's solar eclipse. That, as we know, is an inauspicious event, as Rahu, a being of darkness, swallows the light of the sun, casting his shadow on the world. Here in Helsinki it'll be a partial eclipse, roughly a quarter of the sun will be covered. A reminder for all, if you do watch it, don't watch with your bare eyes to avoid eye damage.

In Vraja, I hear, it'll be a full day's project. Up early in the morning and finishing Thakur-seva, then putting Thakurji again to rest, only to awaken at evening. Once the eclipse is over, one is to also bath and change clothes, and also to wash all archan paraphernalia. One may take a bit of prasad right after the morning seva, but if at all possible, that should be followed by full fasting until the evening.

I'd like to thank everyone who's donated to the upcoming Lake of Flowers Kartika-project — we've covered a bit over half of the material expenses involved. If someone is in the mood of helping out with the rest, we certainly won't mind. We're looking forward collecting some 20 hours of video and 30 hours of audio during our stay there, which approximately doubles the current archive.

Those of you who are wondering what's happening with the Lake of Flowers DVDs, I still haven't gotten to polishing and mastering them in the way I'd have wanted. I'm looking at wrapping that up by the end of the year, December should leave me good time to work on it.

Two thirds done, one third to go. Back to Madhurya Kadambini. Argh, and it's Monday morning, so presumably back to all other work as well.