Flashbacks 4

After three months in Johannesburg, I received a phone call that would change my life. I was invited to San Jose, California, where Bhakti Sudhir Goswami had organized an ashram.

Bhakti Sudhir Goswami

He planned to started a publishing house dedicated to the teachings of Shridhar Maharja, to be called Guardian of Devotion Press. Ours was an intense collaboration. Over the years we went from one IBM selectric typewriter and a transcribing machine to owning our own Heidelberg KORD offset press with all the latest technology of the 1970s. We produced a number of titles on transcendental life according to the school of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. We even printed a full-color national magazine, called the Harmonist, which was well-received by authors and intellectuals such as Tom Robbins. In this time, we published "The Search for Sri Krsna, Reality the Beautiful, Sri Guru and his Grace, The Loving Search for the Lost Servant, The Golden Volcano of Divine Love, and Subjective Evolution of Consciousness.

Our books have since been translated into Spanish, French, Russian, German, Chinese, Turkish and many other languages and reprinted many times over from California to London to Australia.

We were gratified to think that both Prabhupada and Shridhar Maharaja would be pleased.

Flashbacks 3

After spending a good while in India, I traveled to the London Center, Bhaktivedanta Manor in the winter of 1982. While my friends assured me that it never snowed in London, it turned into the coldest winter since Napoleon invaded Russia back in 1812.

Bhaktivedanta Manor had been donated to the Hare Krishna movement by George Harrison of the Beatles. I had the opportunity to play guitar in his basement studio, where some of the devotees recorded transcendental music.

I wasn't able to stay long: It was invited to Johannesburg, South Africa, to participate in some educational yoga programs that had been organized, and I was happy to escape the freezing climate.

After three months in Johannesburg, I received a phone call that would change my life. I was invited to San Jose, California, where Bhakti Sudhir Goswami had organized an ashram.

Bhakti Sudhir Goswami

Flashbacks 2

After his passing from this world, my path led me to India, to the Caitanya Saraswat Math.

Sri Caitanya Saraswat Math, Koler Danga, Nabadwip, West Bengal, India

Sridhara Maharaja and Prabhupada were old friends: they had a close, affectionate relationship. As an advanced Mahabhagavata Vaishnava, Shridhar Maharaja was considered to have the deepest understanding of Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy, where Prabhupada was a prodigy of entrepeneurial prowess. Prabhupada was responsible for bringing Krishna Consciousness to the Western world. Shridhar Maharaja maintained the purity of vision.

From left to right: Bhakti Sundar Govinda Maharaja, Bhakti Rakshak Shridhar Maharaja, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Pay attention and you will note Govinda Maharaja in the lower left hand corner. After consulting with Govinda Maharaja and quite humbly begging him for admission, I was granted sacred thread  initiation from Bhakti Rakshak Shridhar Dev Goswami, who gave me the name "Mukunda Mala Vilasa."

Flashbacks 1

My journey to Angkor Wat

Heads of Brahma at Angkor.

really began really last year.  I want to explain a little about my life, before we take the journey together. So please be patient. What you read here may shock and surprise you.

My name is Michael Dolan. Long ago, in the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s, I was deeply involved in yoga studies. In Los Angeles I studied at the Bhakti Center of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. I was accepted as a disciple of His Divine Grace, A.C. Bhaktivdenta Swami in 1976.

Srila Prabhupada, Bhaktivenda Swami

After his passing from this world, my path led me to India, to the Caitanya Saraswat Math.

Sri Caitanya Saraswat Math, Koler Danga, Nabadwip, West Bengal, India

Maps of Angkor

The goal of this personal pilgrimage is to reach Angkor Wat and document some of its wonders.: Here are some photos of Angkor and links to interesting pages.

We'll be visiting Angkor with a film crew and a group of scientific experts, sanskritists, anthropologists and guides to answer a few questions. Angkor Wat is a miniature replica of the universe in stone and represents an earthly model of the cosmic world. The central tower rises from the center of the monument symbolizing the mythical mountain, Meru, situated at the center of the universe. Its five towers correspond to the peaks of Meru. The outer wall corresponds to the mountains at the edge of the world, and the surrounding moat the oceans beyond.

Was the holy ground at Angkor part of Greater India from the time of the Mahabharata War? How did the people live and what was their peculiar view of Cosmology? How did the Vedic observatories erected there function? What happened to the Angkor civilization, and why did it disappear? Is it possible that strange visitors from other planets established these highly advanced observatories?  So these and many other questions will be probed in our journey and later developed in a film documentary we're putting together.  Discovery Channel here I come.

Here are some links to the must see temples of Angkor.



General Information.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/668

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat


Nice Video on Angkor from National Geographic

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/ancient-mysteries/angkor-wat-temples

New discoveries of lost city with laser technology.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/18/lasers-lost-city-angkor-wat-cambodia

General Info

http://www.livescience.com/23841-angkor-wat.html

Kiev and Moscow Posters

http://testlpgenerator.ru/mahayogi/

Above is the link to the poster for the talks I'll be giving in Kiev, Ukraine, courtesy of VedaLife. I'll be discussing the ancient wisdom traditions of India, meditation, subjective evolution of consciousness, and the science of self-realization. Below is the poster for talks in Moscow.

Before and After

Before and After.

Before

This is me back in 1982.  A very serious young brahmachari and writer. Working together with Bhakti Sudhir Goswami and friends we put together Guardian of Devotion Press. Here  I'm typing up taped transcripts for a book we were working on. Among our publications were works by our Guru Maharaja B.R. Shridhar: Search for Shri Krishna, Reality the Beautiful, Shri Guru and His Grace, The Golden Volcano of Divine Love, The Loving Search for the Lost Servant, and Subjective Evolution of Consciousness. We also published a full color magazine called The Harmonist, very well received by writers like Tom Robbins, and editors such as Eric Utne of the Utne Reader. We also published a book called Guardian of Devotion, which chronicled the life of B.R. Shridhar and the meaning of the Gayatri mantra. At the same time we re-issued a classic by Bhaktivinod Thakur, called "The Bhagavata," as well as other titles.

The photo below shows me, on the right, with my old friend Bhakti Sudhir Goswami years later, discussing philosophy at the Bamboo House in Chiang Mai Thailand, in 2013.  So this is 31 years later.  I'm disguised as my alter ego "Captain Panic." We're talking about the need to continue publishing books like Subjective Evolution. After so many years, I was delighted to renew our friendship.

After