Dr. Divya Svarupa, Dr. Ravi P. Singh, President, NIOS, Hanumatpresaka Swami. 2018 Feb–May, NIOS USA–South America Tour This is a ...

Journey to the South—Feb to May 2018

Dr. Divya Svarupa, Dr. Ravi P. Singh, President, NIOS, Hanumatpresaka Swami.
2018 Feb–May,
NIOS USA–South America Tour

This is a report of the NIOS, Añjana Suta Academy, tour of North and South America from 12 February to 2 May. We went through six countries and changed residence twenty-two times. We lectured at three different universities, enumerable Yoga and cultural institutions and conferred with dozens of scholars, doctors, adults and children.

We have decided that we—Tom Brown (Monkey), eternal associate of Hanumatpresaka Swami (Prof. Huber Hutchin Robinson)—should write this report, because you can see that basically only a madman would attempt and realize this tour.
Tom Brown (Monkey).
We started from our NIOS offices in Murfreesboro, Tennessee at 7am, but after 45 minutes of fighting with Greyhound understood that their bus was canceled because of snow in Chicago. This created a catastrophe since we had to be in Atlanta at 10am the next day for a meeting with important officials from the Brazilian Embassy about our Visa status.

Air tickets were $25,000+ to get from Nashville to Atlanta at the last minute, but Miss Manjari Singh—our NIOS President’s (Dr. Ravi P. Singh’s) daughter—and His Holiness Rtadvaja Swami discovered Botique Airlines. It is government subsidized to get air travel to places the big–money airlines don’t go. We recommend it. Only $100 and only hand baggage—we were in the air in an eight–seater with a baseball player and a movies star by 5pm. We stopped over in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

We stayed in Atlanta at the ISKCON cultural center and did programs at the Georgia Tech and the ISKCON temple. Then on to Richmond, Virginia for programs at Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Virginia and, as always, programs with ISKCON community on education development and regular cultural events. Next stop Houston in transit to Mexico and Peru.
ISKCON Houston Cultural Center.
In Peru we were hosted by Alejandro Salazar of Cultural Foundation Sattva doing promo programs for Art and the Sacred at the Jesuit Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University in Lima and the Temple of Understanding in Chosica. Speakers included: Ramon Mujica, Member of the Cervantes Foundation in Spain and former director of the Peruvian National Library; Hector Bejar, on faculty of five universities in Peru and member of the United Nations committee against poverty et al.
Ramon Mujica, Director National Library, Peru.
Professor Hector Bejar, Lima, United Nations.
We also finished the Spanish version of the Art and the Sacred promo video with award winning Director, Oscar Natars of Integro.


The Pope comes from Jesuit tradition, the Director of the Harvard School of Divinity is Jesuit. The Jesuits today form the largest single religious order of priests and brothers in the Catholic Church. As of 2016 the society had 16,378 members, 11,785 priests, and 4,593 brothers and scholastics. It takes 7–17 years to become qualified as a priest, so from the Vedic perspective we could say that they have about 12,000 Sannyasis worldwide.

Lima travel was Callao, Wilson, Chosica, Callao, then one night each in Cusco, La Paz, Cochabamba and Sao Paulo. In all these places we had packed audiences of scholars, Yogis, priests with excellent questions and offers of academic and financial support for NIOS and ASA.

In Campina Grande, Brazil, we learned and taught for five days at the ISKCON GBC College for training Zonal Supervisors. Of course, we consider ISKCON as one of the most important agencies for helping NIOS accomplish its goals of extracting classical culture for modern use. We see many good and bad things in the development of ISKCON as a cultural institution and we were able to address those at the symposium. There were forty students in the training sessions, five teachers and ten organizers. ISKCON now reports one million members; the training of Zonal Supervisors—with technical administrative talents and pure motivational attitudes—is essential. A separate report is in the current issue of Viplavah, A Journal of the ISKCON Ministry of Education.

Then, Air Something changed our ticket to some impossible arrangement so that we would miss our Air Turkey flight to Buenos Aires, so we had to re-book to go a day earlier, find some place to stay in Sao Paolo, sit for three hours in the airport (as usual) and then do wonderful programs in Buenos Aires, Cordoba and Mar de Plata in Argentina. Of course, ISKCON temples and enumerable lectures and seminars to packed audiences on Srimad Bhagavatam.

Continued development of relationship with the Jungian community. We co-presented, SCIENCE, PSYCHE AND SPIRITUALITY: the Encounter of Carl G. Jung with the Mysticism of Ancient India with Professor Maximillian Peralta of the Jungian Society of Cordoba.



Had a long interview with the translator of the Red Books of Jung in Buenos Aires. All want to participate in the NIOS magazine, Solaris, and the symposium, Art and the Sacred in Lima in October.

You are getting tired of reading this.
We are getting tired of writing it.
We were getting tired of living it.

So… head down, deep breath… Lima (Callao, Wilson, Chosica), Mexico City, Houston, home… back to the Boro.

Eye infection (still not recovered). Program at the powerful university in Mexico City on Art and the Sacred. Cultural Program at the ISKCON Mexico center on the International Day of Dance showcased: Manipuri and indigenous Mexican dance, two excellent tenured professors, and many programs of education development with ISKCON faculties.
Prof. Dolores Chavez,
Organizer in Mexico.
Tangible results:
  • $5000 in donations
  • Art and the Sacred promo video in Spanish and English.
  • Organized promoters and presenters in Peru, Mexico, Chile etc.

Plans:
  • Develop our magazine, Solaris
  • Develop symposium in Peru in October and Chile in November
  • Develop the ISKCON Ministry of Education Journal, Jayam, in South America and Viplavah in North America.

Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa as they are given in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land.

Thank you. Please give us your perspectives on this little report.
Hp Swami dba Tom Brown

0 comments: