My introduction

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna!

Please accept my obeisance to you, Swami Gaurangapada, for you are to some of us a wonderful and most desired person for association. I have listened to your pronunciations of the three mantras here and on a couple of your videos found on the Youtube website. Hearing Nityananda, Gauranga, and the Mahamantra in your voice was a sweet experience and I felt blissful during it.

For a couple of days I was doing Nitaai Japa Kriyaa at the 0 level which is just chanting Nityananda and Gauranga naam 1,080 times each on mala. I crave more and more chanting and so I want to move up to level 2 or 3. So therefore I will take up fasting from grains on both Ekadashis in each month.

Four months ago I completely stopped consuming meat and fish. Ever since giving up those things, I have not contemplated returning to meat/fish and the sight of them is almost repulsive. Eggs are hard to abstain from because they are in so many things today, but I do not eat eggs the way that most Westerners do. Someday though, which would be when I leave my parents' home, I can totally give up anything with eggs because I do not want my specific diet to be a burden for my mother because she would have to be very careful about what she buys for the family. I do not consume alchohol and never will. I do not use tobacco or narcotics. The only intoxicant that I ingest is caffeine because it is found in tea and coffee. I have read that it can be painful (physically) to suddenly abstain from caffeine and so what I want to do is give up caffeine gradually; reduce the use of tea, coffee, and anything with caffeine further and further down each week over time until eventually it is totally given up. As for sexual activity, I do not indulge in it with anyone and I am not married (and do not want to get married). Right now I am trying to control the sexual sense at my young age (21 years old) and it is difficult. Last month I lasted 6 days without contemplating anything sexual and not gratifying myself. Right now I am trying at it again and at the moment I am almost at the third day. I have learned in The Yogi Science of Breath a technique to move the reproductive energy up to the chest or brain. This technique removes sexual arousal because the energy it brought upward away from the sex organ. To help improve my determination in Brahacharya and the spiritual path itself, I stopped watching television in late August and ever since then I have not turned on my television. Because of this, I have more time for sadhana. Sexual thoughts have drastically reduced too. Television is not ideal and it is no benefactor.

Gaudiya Vaishnavism is the path that I want to follow. Tears flowed from my eyes when I first heard the name Sri Krishna Chaitanya being sung on an mp3 file. At first I thought I was just being emotional but I soon found the Vaishnava texts and material in general about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to be compelling. I wanted to deny all of it and just be an impersonalist so much but I finally gave up and decided to have faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Krishna is All-Attractive and my experience so far is that this is not a mere meaning of his name. He is indeed All-Attractive and I cannot resist the Lord. I cannot resist Him and I cannot resist His expansions, forms, incarnations, etc.

I own a copy of Bhagavad Gita As It Is and my copy is the abridged edition that is copyrighted 1968 & 1972. Most of the translations and purports are original and not changed. I agree with others that the writings of Srila Prabhupada and any Guru should never be changed because their writings, which are what they intended to write, are their teachings. Last night I started to read Caitanya Caritamrita online and I am loving it.

I understand that there are prophecies about Lord Chaitanya in previous scriptures. Some of these I have looked into and I like what I saw. But to be honest, I do not find it to matter to me that he was prophecised in the texts because I would believe in Him even if there were no prophecies; He is too Attractive and compelling.

My thanks go to the Lord for bringing me to your websites and my thanks go to you, Swami Gauranga, for posting everything. Your service is to me the best service that anyone is doing in this world at this moment.

My obeisances also go to the Vaishnavas in the community. Your association is desired, no matter how sinful you may think of yourself, for I am also full of sin and very far from perfection.

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