South India 2012: Tirupati - Sri Sri Radha Govinda Mandir

It was a long 5 hour journey to Tirupati through lush farm lands and small towns with lots of speed bumps in the road - but the destination was well worth it! The Hare Krishna Lotus Temple was built 5 years ago and it is a beautiful blue with different incarnations of Krishna adorning the outside of the temple. They have a guest house and ashram connected to the temple and we stayed literally next door to the temple room and got to attend the 4:15 am worship ceremony that they hold daily! It was very nice to be up so early in the mornings and to see the gorgeous deities of Radha Govinda each day! The food was super spicy and so I had some digestive issues the first day and stayed back at the temple while everyone else hiked up 3000 steps to the top of a mountain to see a self-manifested ancient deity of Krishna known as Balaji. I was at first very sad to not be able to go on that pilgrimage but Krishna had other plans for me. I met a brahmana named Amita Krishna das who told me of a book called Lessons in Spiritual Economics from the Bhagavad-Gita and the man who wrote it, Dhanesvara das was at the temple on a tour of India promoting his book. I was able to do some service by using my video camera and tripod to do a short film for youtube to promote his book to a wider audience via cyberspace! Also he gave an amazing talk during the morning program that was on material consciousness vs. spiritual consciousness which left me with a change of heart and mind about my relationship with the Supreme Lord Krishna. He spoke of the fact that we are all conditioned to think we are the enjoyer and are always looking for ways to gratify and satisfy our senses which keeps our mind in a constant state of flux of who, when, where and what to do next to enjoy the material world not realizing that we will never be fully satisfied with that which is temporary and fleeting and thereby will not find true peace. When we become spiritually conscious we realize as Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita :

aham hi sarva-yajnanam
bhokta ca prabhur eva ca na tu mam abhijananti
tattvenatas cyavanti te

I am the only enjoyer and the only object of sacrifice. Those who do not recognize My true transcendental nature fall down.

Krishna is the Supreme enjoyer and we are the enjoyed. Only when we realize our true constitutional position as servants of God and live to satisfy His senses through chanting, hearing, praying, and offering our food to Him will we ever be truly at peace for only that which is eternal is real.