Our songbird is back/Vår sångfågel är tillbaka

EN: Our songbird Johan is back from Switzerland. He played some nice tunes in the kitchen accompanied by Nash on drum. Meanwhile, Sadhuji were speaking on the phone with Vasudev. Tomorrow, Vasudev and Brahma are finally coming back from Berlin.

SV: Vår sångfågel Johan är tillbaka från Schweiz. Han spelade några fina låtar i köket ackompanjerad av Nash på trumma. Under tiden pratade Sadhuji i telefon med Vasudev. Imorgon kommer Vasudev och Brahma äntligen tillbaka från Berlin.

Cooking course/Matlagningskurs

EN: Hello everybody, today was a very hot day in Gothenburg. This evening Sadhusangananda gave a cooking class. He hade a delicious apple chutney and puris, to the satisfaction of the Nimai house residents and our guest.

SV: Hej allihop, idag var det en varm dag i Göteborg. Ikväll höll Sadhusangananda en matlagningslektion. Han gjorde en läcker äppelchutney och puris, vilket tillfredställde Nimaihusets innevånare och vår gäst.

Imlitala news / Nytt på Imlitala

SE: Ett litet blidreportage om hur det ser ut på Imlitala just nu.

EN: Some pictures showing what is going on in Imlitala right now.

Report

report from berlin

report from berlin

Brahma and myself was invited some months ago to make an exhibition here in Berlin. So we made some paintings to present at the event and now we are here in the 30 degrees of sunshine. We are staying at the main center for conscious art here in Europe called the Kuruksetra ashrama stationed in the middle of Berlin. The exhibition was arranged by Govinda Vilas who is a very fine devotee of Krishna and is the son of another great artist and devotee, Haladhara Prabhu. The story behind our trip here is that Govinda had contact with a company called Mannheimer Swartling, a big lawyercompany, to whom he had already sold some paintings. They wanted to promote some swedish artists and make an exhibition for a celebration they were going to make.

We went there together with Govinda and another great artist and devotee, Ambarish Prabhu, who has made incredible temple constructions in Southamerica and has organized many other projects related to Conscious Art. Our appearance differed somehow from the other guests who almost unexceptionally wore black suit and tie. We presented the principles of conscious art to those who came to listen. One of them was the ambassador of Sweden =)

The paintings will be up until july when we come back to Berlin for a great festival in the Kuruksetra Ashram with Gurumaharaj and so many other fine fine devotees and friends. (will be the 10th of July, if you want to come, just contact us)

For one more week we will stay in Berlin and make Sankirtan (distribution) with the Nimai comic. Here are many many artists, in one street i met with six artists, one after the other, when distributing the nimai comic! And it is a very openminded atmosphere, sometimes maybe little too openminded but anyhow, itś very nice. And here in the next days is going to be a karneval of culture. Will be perfect to present the Nimai Comics!

We will also learn more about conscious painting from Goloka Voigt.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Spiritual books and cookies/Andliga böcker och kakor

EN: Below is a picture I took in a professional photo studio. The girl is reading the spiritual book "Unknown India" by Walther Eidlitz. She is also eating spiritual cookies. You can come to the Nimai House if you want to do the same. =)

SV: Bilden nedan är tagen i en professionell fotostudio. Tjejen läser den andliga boken "Den glömda världen" av Walther Eidlitz. Hon äter också andliga kakor. Du kan komma till Nimaihuset om du vill göra det samma. =)

Safe electricity/Säker el

EN: Today one electrician came to do something about our dangerous arrangements in the kitchen. Another electrician who controlled the Nimai House some weeks ago told us he understood why we believe reincarnation. After the guy who came here today had fixed the problem, we discussed life over a cup of tea.

SV: Idag kom en elektriker för att göra något åt våra farliga anordningar i köket. En annan elekriker som som kontrollerade Nimaihuset för några veckor sedan sade att han förstöd varför vi tror på reinkarnation. Efter att killen som var här idag hade fixat problemet, diskuterade vi livsfrågor över en kopp thé.

The endless variety of spiritual food/Den ändlösa variationen av andlig mat

EN: Spiritual food is vegetarian dishes cooked with love and offered to God. =)

Today Nash made a new kind of dish. We call it "paiflette", because it resembles both pizza and tartiflette. If you come up with a better name for it, please write a comment.

SV: Andlig mat är vegetarisk mat lagad med kärlek och offrad till Gud. =)

Idag lagade Nash en ny rätt. Vi kallar den "paiflette", för den liknar både pizza och tartiflette. Om du kommer på ett bättre namn på den, skriv gärna en kommentar.

Mrdanga & Banana

SE: Här är Svayam Rupa das när han lär sig spela mrdangan och bli en väldigt efterlängtad extra mrdangaspelare. Du kan också lära dig spela mrdanga, webadressen till skolan är: mrdanga.wordpress.com.

EN: Here is Svayam Rupa das as he is learning to play the mrdanga and becoming a very much welcome extra mrdangaplayer. You too can learn to play, just like Svayam Rupa das, the adress to school is mrdanga.wordpress.com.


SE: Dessutom så hittade jag det här i frysen idag, ville bara dela med mig av de märkliga upplevelser man kan ha i ett brahmacari ashrama ibland.

EN: Also, i found this in the freezer today, i just wanted to share the wonders of living in a brahmacari ashrama.

Vad händer? / What is going on?

SE: Nästan halva personalen är bortresta på cArt-vernissage (consious art) i Berlin tillsammans med våra vänner där. Schemat fortsätter som vanligt bortsett från att cArt-workshops kommer vara inställt 23:e och 30:e Maj, för att sedan fortsätta som vanligt.
Schemat ser annars ut så här:

måndagar: Stängt
tisdagar: 18:30-21:00 vegetarisk matlagningskurs
onsdagar: 18:00-22:00 cArt terapi
torsdagar: 18:30-21:00 Bhagavad-Gita kurs
fredagar: 16:30-18:00 Harinam någonstans på Göteborgs gator
19:00-22:00 Filmkväll
lördagar: 17:00-22:00 Lördagsfest
söndagar: Stängt

Varje dag utom måndagar är det dessutom ett morgonprogram med musikmeditation och läsning ur Srimad Bhagavatam klockan 07:30. Alla är välkomna.

EN: Almost half of the Nimai-House staff is on consious-art vernissage in Berlin. But our daily activities will continue as normal except for the cArt-workshop on wednesdays which is cancelled on the 23:rd and 30:th of May.
Otherwise, this is how our schedule looks:

mondays: closed
tuesdays: 6:30-9:00pm: vegetarian cooking class
wednesdays: 06:00-10:00pm: cArt-workshop
thursdays: 6:30-9:00pm: Bhagavad-Gita class
fridays: 4:30-6:00pm: Harinam somewhere in the streets of Göteborg
7:00-10:00pm: Movie night
saturdays: 5:00-10:00pm: Saturday feast
sundays: closed

Also, every day besides mondays we have a morning program at 7:30am with music meditation and reading from the Srimad Bhagavatam. All are welcome.

Lyrics / Sångtext

SE: Den efterlängtade texten till spoonrevolution-rappen av Syamananda Das. Skriv ut, ta med nästa lördag, och sjung med.

EN: At last, the lyrics for the spoon-revolution rap by Syamananda Das. Print, bring next saturday and sing along.

Refrain
Put the fork down, put the knife down

put the spoon up, revolution!

No bloodshed, no destruction

If you want peace, just follow the instruction

Verse 1

Each and all, get the meatballs out ya mouth [=out of your mouth]

The industry knocked you down, let's go another round

And this time, if we stay healthy and all that

Refuse to give up, the enemy falls flat

Actually it's all simple; Stop eating animals

All from the flesh to the crap in the candybowls

We're getting dragged through the school of blind teachers

And that's why we need the shield of nine secrets

Open your eyes don't you see where it leads

Are gonna [=going to] face the truth or flee the field

Skip the piece of meat and eat a meal of peace

Join the Spoonrevolution and quit the evil deeds

Do it now, come on, why do it later?

Things are messed up, we gotta [=got to] change our behaviour

So instead of exploiting mother nature

Elevate your consciousness to the plane of dedication

Refrain

Verse 2

Living beings in cages fed up on GMO diets

All a madness, but we don't need no riots

We simply need to know what not to eat

Especially three things; Eggs, fish and meat

So get that off of your plate as soon as possible

And move on, you removed another obstacle

Get out of ignorance, you don't know what it's all about

You would puke if you entered the slaughterhouse

Most meateaters would not be able to kill

They don't see the whole picture which is crazy and ill

They just go to the store and pick it from the shelf

Only caring for the pleasure of themselves

While kids [are] starving, the grains are exported

To the west; Destruction of the rainforrest

So take part in the revolution three times daily

And follow in the footsteps of Paramadvaiti

Refrain

SE: En Liten videodemonstration också ifall du missat den.

EN: A small demonstration if you have missed this song.

I onsdags anlände vår vän Manah Siksa devi från Umeå för att besöka oss i några dagar och förgylla vår tillvaro med sina underbara poetiska sånger.

This wednesday our friend Manah Siksa devi arrived from Umeå to visit us for a few days and play some really nice songs.

Harmony School of Conscious Art Presentation

What inspires me is to use art as a language to communicate a balanced consciousness. Right now me and Vasudeva is working on the "cArt Therapy" project. We have a cultural center in Gothenburg and we organize art workshops every Wednesday. Conscious art is to externalize our internal feelings, thoughts and desires to somehow get a clue about whats going on in our inner world. As we all can see there is a natural beauty in nature. The sunsets over the vast oceans, the gigantic mountain ranges, the beautiful birds and flowers etc etc. So, naturally we all have more or less an appreciation for the aesthetics. Therefore it is of great importance for our inspiration, in whatever we do, to decorate our, homes and public places with fine arts.
Art is more than a show of prestige. It´s a more subtle way to give something to the onlooker of your picture. Just as you visit some friend you get a glass of juice or some nice refreshment. Similarly you receive something when you look on a painting. You receive a feeling, a thought and the art even has the tremendous power to arise within you a desire which manifests in an action. As we can see in the commercial world how they are using the art in a sometimes destructive way, “The harmony school of conscious art” want to unite artists and art lovers that are using the art in a constructive way Using the language of art to critizise the exploitation and glorify the dedication and in this way promote the ecology, beauty and harmony of life.

Fast Food Chain by Mark Henson, a fine example of conscious art.

A description of the painting by the artist:

A warped "figure 8" defines the sections of the painting. A starving skeletal figure reaps the earth.
At the center a vortex sucks in life and spews out lines of sterile products. A small boy in shopping cart points his toy gun at Mom as she shops.

Below, Mother Nature's champions, virus, bacteria, the only predator left capable of bringing balance to our overpopulation are poised for a feast. The purple spheres, "AIDS", the hotdogs are ecoli bacterium, the striped snakes are Ebola, and the green globs are amoebic dysentery. The golden balls are man-created retrovirus weapons, loosed on ourselves.

Humans look like a gourmet treat. The predators attack the closest humans, while authority figures rattle their useless weapons at the coming onslaught. Politicians, preachers, the media, the military, are all focused on the symptoms rather than the causes of the problem.

Our needless and self-evident rush to procreate and consume fill the right quadrants full of tenements with a population out of control as religious leader proclaim that man has a special privilege to destroy everything.

Imlitala

EN: Here are some assorted pictures of the progress at the Imlitala ecological farm.

SE: Här kommer lite blandade bilder ifrån vår ekologiska gård.

harinam clip

EN: A really nice video clip from our harinam yesterday.

SE: Ett fint videklipp ifrån gårdagens harinam.




EN: And a video in two parts of Nashs monologue about the Bhagavad Gita during yesterdays feast.

SE: Och en video i två delar av Nashs monolog om Bhagavad Gita som han höll under gårdagens fest


Part 1 / Del 1


Part 2 / Del 2

cArt terapi och tidningsfrossa / cArt therapy and comic-fever

SE: Gårdagens terapi var prioritetsterapi, där man skulle dyka djupt i sitt inre för att ifrån de tre dimensionerna tänka, känna och vilja analysera det allra viktigaste. Ett exempel på en sådan analys syns här under.

EN: Last nights cArt therapy was the "priority therapy" where we dived deep into our inner most to analyse the most imortant in the three dimensions of thinking, feeling and desiring. An example of the result of this therapy is seen below.

SE: Dessutom har vi fått nimaitidningar med fina färgomslag, så även om du redan har del 1 och del 2 finns det nu ingen ursäkt att inte köpa dem igen.

EN: We also received our nimai comics with color printing on the covers, so even if you already own part 1 and 2 there are no more excuses not to buy them again.

Atman

Tänk er vilken ofantlig mängd "jag" känslor det finns bara på den här planeten. Jag som sitter och skriver här känner en genomsyrande "jag" känsla. Även du som sitter och läser... men vad är egentligen jaget?

Vem är jag? Vad är jag? Vad har jag för natur? Är jag kroppen? Är jag sinnet? Är jag svensk? Är jag man eller kvinna? hmmm...
"Jaget" kallas i vediska termer för atma. Atman är en väldigt liten, fragmentarisk individuell andegnista som består av tre energier, nämligen: Sat (evighet), Cid (medvetenhet) och Ananda (Lycksalighet).

Detta förklarar genast alla levande varelsers iver att leva och vara lyckliga.
Ingen vaknar på morgonen och börjar planera hur de ska bli så olyckliga som möjligt. Det är inte Atmans natur att vara olycklig.
Döden är inte heller våran natur. Men ändå tvingas samtliga i denna värld möta döden.
Atman är evig. Men om atman "jaget" är evigt, vad är det då som händer vid döden?

Reinkarnation är en väldigt logisk sak igentligen.
Observera bara hur allt i denna värld rör sig i cykler; dagen och natten, vintern och sommaren, planeterna, elektronerna runt atomkärnan, ja, hela galaxen rör sig i en enda stor spiral.
Studerar man fysik i skolan så får man lära sig om hur all energi rör sig cykliskt. Inte bara fysiska saker har denna cykliska natur. Man kan även uppleva hur känslor som tex lycka, olycka och händelser som vinst och förlust, ära och vanära o.s.v. Allt går upp och ner. Högkonjuktur, lågkonjuktur, tidvattnet o.s.v. o.s.v.

När solen går ner över horisonten och kastar sina sista ljus över oss kan vi förstå att detta inte var den enda och sista dagen som har varigt. Ännu en gryning kommer dagen efter och avslöjar sina hemligheter för oss.

Med andra ord så är denna värld vi lever i inte vårat hem. Våran situation i denna förgängliga värld kan liknas vid en fisk på land. Fisken kan försöka ordna det mysigt och bekvämt för sig. Mjuk fotölj. Nyaste TV spelen osv, men det kommer vara något som fattas för fisken.

När den eviga Atman, lockad av planer på självisk sinnesnjutning gör sin entre i detta samsara (kretslopp) får han en finfysik kropp och en grovfysisk kropp. Lockad av att sinnesnjuta av sinnesobjekten i denna skuggvärld faller själen djupare och djupare ner i mörker. I okunnighet. Denna lilla gnista av liv har nu begränsats av den materiella energin och slavar för sin egna överlevnad i en aldrig bestående tillvaro.

Det finns inget mörker som inte kan lysas upp av ljus. På samma sätt finns det inga frågor som inte kan lysas upp av svar.

Dö för att leva. Låt det falska egot av självintresse dö så att vårat gyllene ego av dedikation kan leva.

EN:

Just imagine how many "I" feelings there are on this planet. Me sitting here feels permeated by this "I" feeling. And you reading this feel the same too... but what is really this "I"?

Who am i? What am i? What is my nature? Am i the body? Am i the mind? Am i Swedish? Am i a man or a woman?

The "I" is in Vedic terminology called the "Atma". The Atma is a very small, fragmentary, individual spiritual spark consisting of three energies, namely; Sat (eternity), Cid (consciousness) and Ananda (bliss). This explains the strive of all living to live on happily. Nobody wakes up in the morning and starts making plans for how to become as unhappy and miserable as possible.
The nature of the Atma is not unhappiness neither is death. But still all are forced to face it.

The Atma is eternal. But if the Atma, or the I, is eternal, what then happens at the point of death?

Reincarnation is really quite logical when you think of it. Just observe how everything in this world is moving in cycles; day and night, winter and summer, the planets, the electrons and even the entire galaxy. If you study physics in school you learn that all energy moves in cycles. But not only physical things has this cyclical nature, we can experience how emotions, like fortune and misfortune, honour and dishonour, wins and losses, all are constantly ascending and descending.
When the sun casts its last rays of light upon us as it disappears below the horizon we can understand that this is not the only and last day that ever was. Yet another dawn will come to reveal its secrets to us.

In other words, this world is not our home. Our situation in thistransient world is like that of a fish on dry land. The fish can do its best to make things comfortable, with soft furniture, home electronics and so on, but something will forever be missing.

When the individual Atma, lured by plans of selfish sense gratification makes its entry in this samsara (cyclic flow) he recieves a subtle and gross body. Attracted by the sense objects in this world of shadows the light of the soul descends deeper and deeper into darkness. Into ignorance.
The minute spark of life is now limited by the material energy and slave to its own survival in this never lasting existence.

There is no darkness that cannot be illuminated. And in the same way there are no questions that cannot be illumintaed by answers.

Die to live. Let the false ego of self interests die so that our golden self of dedication can live.

SE: Ursäkta den sena uppdateringen, här kommer lite bilder ifrån Imlitala plus en bonusfilm från lördagsfesten.

EN: Please excuse us for the late update, here are some pictures from Imlitala and a bonus movie clip from this saturday feast.

EN: Above: This is a very special experiment to plant a living "truly" (read more about "trulis" here) using Salix.

SE: Över: Detta är ett speciellt experiment med att plantera en levande "truly" (läs mer om "trulis" här) med Salix.

Veckans nyhetsbrev

cArt

SE: Här är en liten bild ifrån kvällens "cArt workshop". Dagens terapi var "sinnesfrids-terapin" där vi utforskade våra skulder i livet och hur vi skulle åtgärda dem.

EN: Here is a picture from tonights cArt workshop. The therapy of today was the "peace of mind" therapy where we explored our debts and how to settle them.

Nimaihuset öppet igen / The Nimai House is open again

SE: Nu är vi tillbaka efter en fantastisk festival på Imlitala och ikväll är det "consious art-terapi" på schemat. Här är en liten summering med bilder av äventyret.

EN: Now we are back after an amazing festival in Imlitala and tonight we have "consious art-therapy". Here is a small summary of the adventure by pictures.