Hello

this is exciting!

Transcript

Dear Vishakha Devi, how Jai Sri website will help those who are desperately seeking some

purpose and meaning in life?

Well, thank you for this opportunity to share, Haridev.

The vision of Jai Sri is actually to nourish those who are attracted to the message of

Srila Govinda Maharaj and Srila Sridhar Maharaj. So this website initially came about, and this is

going back more than 10 years now, I would say, maybe around 11 or 12 or 13 years ago.

You were maybe like 15 years old, maybe younger. It was when I moved out of, no,

when was it exactly? I can't say. It was at least 10 years ago, around the period when I started

traveling. I moved out of India and started traveling. And actually originally it happened

because I was going through many recordings of Srila Govinda Maharaj because I was working on a

biography of Srila Govinda Maharaj and I was going through many of the old recordings in the archives

and I collected this incredible amount of content from the talks of Srila Govinda Maharaj and it was

so much and most of it wouldn't really be suitable to be included in the biography,

but it was such wonderful content and I thought, what am I going to do with this? And so then I

had the idea to publish these articles. So for a few years I was publishing fresh articles every

week coming from these tapes of Srila Govinda Maharaj or videos. I would transcribe them,

then edit them, prepare a nice excerpt, shorter or longer, a different lens with some theme.

And so for some years I was doing that every week. And so you could say the vision kind of

evolved over time and it came to the point where I felt that I wanted this to, originally I was

thinking I wanted this website to focus on Srila Govinda Maharaj and his unique nature,

his specific message, his mood, his style. I wanted to emphasize that. But later as the

project evolved, I began to feel that this was something that could be like a haven for those

who are sincere, aspiring members of Sita Shri Nisar Swamma. And so eventually I started including

articles of Srila Sita Maharaj also. He's the founder of our mission and our beloved Param Guru,

grandfather Guru and the object of Srila Govinda Maharaj's devotion and service. And so it evolved

into that. I wanted it to be something that stood for what is Sita Shri Nisar Swamma. What is the

message of Srila Govinda Maharaj? What is the message of Srila Sita Maharaj? What are their

principles and ideals and their mood? Because the religious world is a jungle actually.

There's so many different versions of what is what. And it's the same when you zoom in on

Gaudiya Vaishnavism. And I feel that what we have coming from Srila Govinda Maharaj and Srila

Sita Maharaj is very unique, very special in the sense that they are very purely upholding

what is the message of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, Srila Rupa Goswami and ultimately

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. I feel that their presentation of Krishna Consciousness and the

purity of their presentation as well as personal conduct and Vaishnavata is unparalleled. And so I

feel it is a paramount importance to highlight their position and their presentation of Krishna

Consciousness. And so now what I'm feeling about this website is that I want it to stand for that.

For someone who wants to dive into what Sri Caitanya Saraswati Thakur is, who is Srila Sita Maharaj,

who is Srila Govinda Maharaj, for them to find that there's like a reservoir, there's a treasure

chest of that in this Jaya Sri. And as I said, this is a vision that's been evolving. I began

with kind of just a hazy idea of like, oh, I have these leftover talks. I have all this content

lying around. Let's use it. Started with this kind of vague, lazy idea in a sense and evolved

into something more specific. So now I feel my vision is also evolving because in the current

circumstances of our vision, I find there's a lot of fragmentation. I find there's a lot of division.

There's a lot of confusion over what Sri Caitanya Saraswati Thakur is.

And I feel our mission is branching out in different directions, which has a positive aspect,

but there's also a negative aspect. And that I feel in some cases,

what is the real vision and ideal of Sri Caitanya Saraswati Thakur has been lost.

And so I feel now it is more important than ever to make very clear

what this mission is, you know, who are the founders of this mission and what is their vision and ideal

around Krishna consciousness. So I feel like I'm feeling now more than ever how important this

website actually is, more than it was perhaps when I first began it, because I'm feeling now

we're almost like at a crisis point in this sea of confusion over what is what and who is who.

And so I feel more than ever it's very important to highlight

the position of Srila Govinda Maharaj and Srila Sita Maharaj, because I feel that for anyone

who is sincerely seeking to progress in an authentic way in Krishna consciousness,

becoming acquainted with them and their message is almost, you know, indispensable.

That is my personal feeling, and this is also what Sudarshan was saying yesterday, right,

that it's not just optional. And I may sound fanatic in saying that, but with the experience,

this is what I'm saying honestly and confidentially to you, that I feel that it is an actual

necessity for someone who wants to progress authentically in Krishna consciousness to become

acquainted with them on some level, to take shelter of them in some way,

to take shelter of their message, or at least give some honor to them, acknowledge their position

in some way. And I don't feel that we have that kind of resource available online at least,

not a clear defined, we don't have a clear defined resource online that fulfills this need.

You know, if someone's, if someone who doesn't know anything about Srila Sita Maharaj and Srila

Govinda Maharaj and Srila Sita Maharaj, like is there a place for them online where they can go

and connect with that in an accessible way? You know, we have a lot of things scattered here and

there. And mostly it's like content for people who already know what this is, and they're kind of

supporting their faith with bits and pieces here and there. But there isn't like one clear resource

where someone can dive in and kind of find like a beginning and progress from that point and kind

of grasp what this mission is, right? There are many who appreciate Srila Sita Maharaj. You know,

there are many, there are many missions in Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Many, there are many

Gaudiya Vaishnavas around the world who give special honor to Srila Sita Maharaj.

But generally they don't recognize the position of Srila Govinda Maharaj.

And actually, in order to really appreciate Srila Sita Maharaj and really receive his mercy,

it's necessary to also appreciate the position of Srila Govinda Maharaj because he was so dear

to Srila Sita Maharaj. And Srila Sita Maharaj was very clear that his line was continuing to Srila

Govinda Maharaj. He was unequivocally clear about that. And so I feel that's also important to

emphasize not just one or the other, but both of them, to honor both of them and their relationship

and to demonstrate you can't actually have one without the other, right? And that also is

something that is lacking. That clear understanding is not so clearly being made in an online way,

at least, you know. We have many great preachers in our mission and there's a lot of wonderful

things happening in our temples. But in terms of having that represented in a clear and dignified

and accessible way on the internet, which is the way to communicate in this day and age,

that I don't think we have. So I feel this website, it's in a bit of a shambles at the moment.

But it has so much potential. And with your kind help, I think we can make something very beautiful.

And so it's just a matter of organizing the content more clearly, of course, developing content,

having a more accessible design and layout, presentation, all these things.

I think that with that type of approach, something very beautiful and very helpful

can come out. So I'm very grateful for your interest in supporting this project and I'm

excited to see what will come out of it. And I think, and should I say, I think it's a

good idea. Then just maybe, should I go into some more specifics maybe? So I'm talking about

lectures in article form, in transcript form, in audio form, in video form, and then also kirtan,

recordings of Shila Govindamarj and Shila Sheetamarj. And it would also be nice,

one thing which I wanted to do, but I didn't really have the know-how as to how to do it,

is to include photos. And I have already an amazing collection of archive photos of both

Shila Govindamarj and Shila Sheetamarj. And it would be very nice to have that made available

too, in an accessible, friendly way. And I think all of these things combined will help newcomers

to get a real sense of who these divine personalities are and what their message was

and feel a connection with them, which is, you know, a genuine spiritual connection to really

make that connection more easily accessible.

So I think, I think that's it. Yeah, that's it. So

amongst all these different formats of content, like lectures, audio, video,

so which one is the one that is more important in terms of which one will communicate and convey

the message of Shila Gurudev and Shila Guru Maharaj in a way that the audience will understand

and

easily? Well, I mean, I think, I think text articles is the way to start. And already

there's so, there's many articles on there already. So I think it's just a matter of,

you know, laying out the site better and formatting things better so they're more

accessible in organizing it. There's already a lot of articles. I think that's probably the

first thing, the thing of priority to have a clear archive of the articles

of Shila Guru Guru Maharaj and Shila Sheetha Maharaj.

Thank you. How about the order, the hierarchy, or the classification of the transcendental knowledge

that Shila Gurudev and Shila Guru Maharaj are bestowing upon us?

Do you think Jaishri should implement some sort of,

should share this content in an organized way so that both the devotees and newcomers

understand clearly the sambandh again and the entire philosophy?

That sounds like a good idea to me. Because actually, like as I'm speaking, I'm thinking,

you know, and you know, originally my idea was this is for the devotees. But now as I'm speaking,

the vision is evolving. I'm like, hang on, I want newcomers to, they should be accessible to

newcomers. It should be for persons who, who don't know anything about who Shila Guru Maharaj and

Shila Sheetha Maharaj are, and may not even know that much about Krishna consciousness. So

as we're talking, I'm thinking, yeah, you're right, this should be made accessible

to those who, perhaps not absolute beginners, but those who are at a beginner level.

And so yeah, from, from, you know, in response to you said, yeah, I think you're right, there should

be some structure like that, where perhaps there's like introductory level articles and talks,

and then intermediate or something like that. In some way, it should be friendly to new people,

as well as enlivening to mature practitioners, as far as possible.

That's, that's a great idea, because maybe even people that have been for decades in the mission,

they're probably not really know what Shila Guru Dev and Shila Guru Maharaj are about.

Well, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, there's a, I would say there's a good number of practitioners who

follow, you know, they have their emotion and their sentiment and attachment and devotional

mood, but they may not have so much clear understanding about what our Guru stand for

in a more substantial sense. And that's actually necessary for, for developing our faith,

as mentioned in Chaitanya Charitamrita. We need to develop our understanding of the

Siddhanta and that will make our faith in Krishna more firm and more strong. So yes.

Do you think the idea of the website being there

for souls that are desperately looking for an answer, to be able to provide an answer

quickly, clearly backed by Shastra, by Guru? I don't know. I mean, I suppose we can see how

it flows, because remember, we also have this other website, Govindanet, and the vision with

Govindanet.com is that that is, that is really geared towards newcomers, that for people starting

at the absolute beginning. And so I suppose my vision would be that people could start with

Govindanet and then when they want to go deeper, they can go to Jayashree. But maybe I'm over

complicating it. Maybe it would make more sense to merge it into one. I don't know. But on the

other hand, we could keep Govindanet as like, purely introductory, but also make Jayashree

more accessible to total newcomers as well. We can see how it flows, I think.

I think if we try and do too much, we may not do much at all. We might diminish the impact.

I think if we make the focus on existing devotees and perhaps beginners,

we make that the full, like a more of a mature presentation. And then as it evolves, we can see

how perhaps we can add something that's more friendly to total newcomers. I think that I feel,

I feel better about that. I don't think I want to spend too much energy thinking about total

newcomers for the Jayashree project. It's meant to be for someone who has some level of understanding

already. And then also, perhaps I should mention Jayashree. The reason I chose that name is because

it was the name of the publishing house that Srila Govindamars established for printing the

Govindamars established for printing the books and magazines from Sri Tathya Nisaraswama,

because Srila Govindamars became responsible for all the publishing of the, from a very young age,

we were hearing that in the program today with Alita Madhava, like from his early 20s,

he was responsible for all these publications. And that was the name, Jayashree, or sometimes

it was written Saraswata Jayashree. So it's a name that was very dear to Srila Govindamars.

Srila Govindamars also uses that word in his, in the Mat Shloka that he wrote,

describing what is the Mat and what it stands for. And the word Jayashree generally means a

victory flag. And then in that Shloka, Srila Srimad-Gita Maharaj is describing

the victory flag of the Mat, flying high and proclaiming widely the glories of the,

of this Mat, of all Mat. However, there's also a deeper meaning in that Jayashree

can mean ultimately a name for Radharani. And so there's also a hint of Radhadasya,

the service of Srimad-Gita Maharaj, which is the ultimate end of our Sampradaya.

So just to add something about the significance of that name, Jayashree,

and I thought to keep it alive, you know, Gurudeva would be very happy about that.

Yeah. And I'm also feeling like, you know, we could have,

like make it a resource where you can access, like content. Make it a resource where you can

access content in an organized way that's related to important teachings and texts of

Gaudiya Vaishnavism. So like, like for example, our meeting, like we could, we could have a page

where we were like listing different important Gaudiya Vaishnava texts, you know, whether it's

Upadesha Amrita or Prapana Jeevanamrita or the books of Gurudeva Param Guru Maharaj and then we

have, or like what we're going through today, Param Maitreya Dharam and Inoy, we can have like

the headings and then you click and there's links, like it's like kind of like a course that you can

have like an online course, Upadesha Amrita course, and like including links to talks about

these books, you know, so like someone can, someone's looking for a talk on Brahma Samhita,

you know, there's a link they can easily access and all the talks on Brahma Samhita are there.

You know, like a place where devotees can learn about our Gurus and also access their message

in an efficient way. That's also what's coming to me now as well.

I think what you just said is kind of like the goal of the project in a nutshell.

What do you think about, and this is just a creative two cents idea,

like a manual. There are questions that

we all have that are probably in the books already.

Imagine a section of why do I feel lost or how do I deal with drugs or what happens when I get

disencouraged. We can put that on the Govinda Net. Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah, we can also

develop that website. Yeah, I mean, once we like Jayashree is kind of like in an emergency

situation now. But when we're, if you're, you know, if you're, you finish that and you're like,

you're not totally fried and you still want to do more, then that would be amazing because I would

love to develop Govinda Net too. And Govinda Net, you can have free reign, you know, you can do it

however you want. So all of these things we can put there. Like that's a nice idea.

Like basic questions that are dealing with daily life and the daily struggles of the practitioner.

We could have like a Q&A section on that. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for the clarification

of the purpose of Jayashree and GovindaNet.com. That question, that idea is a perfect fit for

GovindaNet.com. Yeah. So I can understand where Jayashree is going towards. How do you feel about

that name GovindaNet? I don't like it because it's a net. GovindaNet.com. Yeah. Yeah, I used that

name on the suggestion of one, one gentleman. He was, he was involved with web stuff, but I was

never that sure about it. And I've asked a couple others, they also didn't like it.

So I would, I think also I want to change the name. Something, maybe using an English word,

English words. It doesn't have to be Sanskrit. Yeah. So that's another thing to think about too.

Yeah. GovindaNet.com sounds in-house. It doesn't sound like it's fulfilling the purpose of the

website. Yeah. It's not a lovely name. It actually sounds cool. But maybe not for absolute beginners,

huh? It's like Allah, AllahNet.com. That's a bit weird, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Govinda sounds better than Allah.

All right. Oh yeah. We can also think about that,

another name. So we'll redesign that, that site too. Okay.

Okay. Oh, this has actually been really clarifying for me as well.

Like what is Jayashree about? And are you happy with that name, jayashree.org?

I am happy with that name. Okay. But it's because you've chosen it. I mean,

thanks to Ananakrishna Prabhu, I have kind of become acquainted with the brand.

The brand. Yeah. He's really into the Jayashree brand. Yeah. Really nice work.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm happy about that name, Jayashree.org. But GovindaNet, I agree.

Well, going back to the emergency, Jayashree. So we understand the goal.

We understand why it's important. We understand what problems it's going to solve.

We understand who it is for.

Now let's kind of sketch out the what a little bit so that we make sure we're

looking at the same thing. Sketch out the what? Sketch out the what. The what? Oh, okay. What? Yeah.

And actually,