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NEW VRINDABAN – Rain forced the “Festival of Colors” at the Palace of Gold to run inside the community center on the compound on Sunday, and the expected weather also led the festival to become a two-day event.

Because of the rain expected on Sunday, the festival opened a day early on Saturday for a day of fun.

It continued on Sunday, but with none of the outdoor vendors at their booths. Yoga and dance took place inside the community center, and food was being served in the area.

The “Festival o

Monsoon season is upon us, or so it seems. Rain has been coming down with not much of a break. It certainly makes for cooler weather, easier to work with, especially relevant to the current practice I'm having with our drama crew. Nevertheless, for some of the roles played out, a good sweat is the outcome. It is a good workout.

Before we start rehearsal, we do some warmup exercises, but to take it easy this morning, I asked my sound man, Chaitanya, to play Holtz’s composition “Neptune: The Mysti

It works quite well for me when Gabriel takes the lead on his guitar. There were seven of us sitting on top of the mound in the park, poised to begin kirtan, when I asked him to strum away. Out of that spontaneously came a fresh new melody and then the receive-and-respond chanting process began. Oh, we had fun, and reverence at the same time. The name is non-different from the Lord.

An hour and a half lapsed and it was time to retire for the day. Rain was also about to descend. I stayed on at t

I get so much joy from being with the group of Ukrainian/Russian bhakti yogis. Today was about a year ago when Igor opened up his backyard to a host of us for the regular “devotee thing” — chanting, philosophizing, dancing, eating blessed food, etc. This group shows a lot of love and they were most enthusiastic to listen to the topic of “The Ills of Gossip.” It’s subject that resonates with most people. The consensus of people in general is that rumor mongering is one of the worst practices.

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