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300 lines
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300 lines
9.6 KiB
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title = 'Sriman Dasa Interview'
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date = 2024-02-21
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draft = false
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tags = ['interview']
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{{< rawhtml >}}
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<div id="buzzsprout-player-14550327"></div><script src="https://www.buzzsprout.com/2320027/14550327-sriman-dasa-on-hare-krishna-and-the-iskon-of-va.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-14550327&player=small" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
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{{< /rawhtml >}}
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----
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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In this episode I'll be interviewing the head of the ISKON of Virginia, Sriman
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Dasa. ISKON stands for International Society for Krishna Consciousness, which is
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the organization that leads the Hare Krishna movement. I've known Sriman since
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the summer of '22 when I started organizing shows at the heavily-affiliated
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Govinda restaurant directly across from the ISKON temple.
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---
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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When was the ISKON of VA founded?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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That was done in 2016.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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So rather recent.
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**Sriman Dasa**
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Recently. Real ISKON was set up in 1966 actually.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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I read that, isn't there a temple in West VA?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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Yes, many major city have temples and especially in WV there is a big temple
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with 200 acres of land. That was built in the 1970s.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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Is it still active?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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Yes, very active, and they have a guest house and many people visit all the time
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and stay there overnight. Very enjoyable. They have cows. They found some oil in
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the land. Lot of visitors. They were suffering one time financially, but now
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they have no problem.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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You're a religious leader, right?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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Yes, I am president of this organization here. ISKON of Virginia.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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What led you to this position?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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That was because for many years I had been practicing. Being from India, born
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and grew up. In India it's very common for Hindus to go to temple and become
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servant of G-d. There are many paths in India. When I came here [in 1970, there
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were no other temples beside ISKON. When I went first to Chicago I found a Hare
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Krishna temple and went there. Then I moved to Atlanta, and there was also a
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Hare Krishna temple there and I started going there. From there I moved to
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Baltimore and DC -- all those places. Slowly I started going. In those days,
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those were the only temples we had. Now we have many temples. I met different
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Hindu religion priests and many other people, but by then I was convinced that
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Hare Krishna was the proper way of philosophy presented about Krishna. That's
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why I continued.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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How is Hare Krishna different from the religion you grew up practicing?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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Other religions that I was aware of in India believe all the demig-ds as well
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as Krishna are on the same level. They do not have a differentiation. They were
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not openly pointing out what the goal of life should be. In Hare Krishna, they
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say Krishna is supreme ... of G-dhead and that the goal of the life should be to
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develop love for Krishna. There are many demig-ds people in India follow and
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they are representative of G-d-law. It's just like president of the govt.
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Secretary is in a different department. If you serve the secretary, you may get
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some benefits, but if know the president you can get around anything.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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Have you ever seen visions of Krishna?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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I haven't seen the G-d yet, but I look back my life and over the life I've been
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materially much better and spiritually making progress which gives me comfort in
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my life. Even though I'm 80 years old, at this age, I'm a happy person. Better
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than all my 80 years behind. Normally people when they get old, they have less
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happy days. Disease, not happy with the children, not happy with the govt, they
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don't have enough money to survive. But in my case, I enjoy every moment of it.
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It looks like G-d is praising me and giving me what I want.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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You said you first came here from India to Chicago. What were you doing for a
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living?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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I came from India as a student and went to University of Tennessee and did my
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masters degree. At that time I was struggling a bit financially. I didn't have
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money when I came from India. But luckily within 3 months I got permission to
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work within the university; then I never had problems financially. Then I did my
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masters and started working a little bit part-time.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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Didn't you say you got a PhD?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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No, I did not finish it. I did the coursework and when I was supposed to do a
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dissertation I decided to move forward and work in the outside.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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What were you during your PhD in?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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It was a NASA-related project, laser technologies and optical technology and
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searching for meteor trails falling from the sky. I was doing some mathematical
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model research. It was an interesting project. But I was successful to proving
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my master thesis. My advisor was very happy. He came one day when I finished and
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lifted up the paper and said, "you made my life."
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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How'd you transition from that to becoming a religious leader?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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Oh really this was developing on the side, just like my regular job as an
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engineer continued there and there, different companies. And religiously went to
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this temple that temple. In the beginning not too much into it, but more and
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more I got involved. But slowly I got into the service more and started cleaning
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pots and pans and mopping the floor and praying and those things developed as I
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continued with it.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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But how'd you stop being an engineer?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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I did not stop, I just wanted to balance out work and life and slowly I decided
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sooner or later I should quit the job and go on my own business so I have more
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freedom. So I only worked in America as an engineer for 14 years of my life.
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After I quit I started my own real estate business and then had more time. Do
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whatever I want, just go to temple. So it worked out really good, good
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combination.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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Aren't you a landlord now?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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Yes, yes. Means I got rid of most of my property. Live more simple life. More
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I'm more concentrating here (the temple) & my sadhyna. Everyday I have to put
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spice at least 4 times in the sadhnya. Go out and feed the homeless people.
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People whoever come we offer them, we preach, we discuss.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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What does it mean to be Krishna of Consciousness?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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Krishna Consciousness means we all have a consciousness thinking what we think
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inside. Somebody have a consciousness for his family, somebody has a
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consciousness for his nation, somebody has a consciousness for himself, and
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Krishna consciousness means we think about Krishna, a supersoul inside. We are
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the soul, we are part of it. Clearly which is given in the Bhagavad Gita we try
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to develop in our consciousness so that we more become apart of it. If you say
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"I'm American" -- then as soon as you say "I'm American" you feel that you're
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part of America. Even if you're born in Africa and you live in America,
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naturally your consciousness is in Africa. This is only one aspect of
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consciousness. So Krishna Consciousness is trying to relate yourself as a
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servant of Krishna.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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Does the religion believe in free will?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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Oh yeah, that's why we are here. We have a free will. That was the main
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fundamental situation we had that's why we wind up in this material world.
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Otherwise we live in a spritual world, with Krishna, serving Him. Take a family
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for example, you have four children. Krishna is your father. One guy say I'm
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going to Africa, one guy say I'm going to New York, and father is in Richmond.
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Time goes by, nobody wants to come and say "hello" to his father and they've
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forgotton. One guy who was living in New York he keeps in touch with the
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Richmond father & mother and once a while, weekend comes by, he says "how can I
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help you?" So he becomes a loving child. The other guys are not getting too much
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health. And the father says, "let them". That's a free will example. We have
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forgotten our relation with our father. We have decided to go away from him.
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That's why we have ended up in this material world. We think we are happy, but
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no, if we go to our father we will be much happier. Like when the New York guy
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goes to his father in Richmond. Father is happy, mother is happy, they take care
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of each other. And that is our duty as Krishna of Consciousness, to go back to
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home and become servant of Krishna.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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We're in the age of Kali Yuga which means the furthest from Krishna, right?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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Not furthest, we are in the material world, but Kali Yuga is such a situation
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that is forgetfulness and mind is not intelligent. Two days back you probably
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can't remember what you ate. That's why this formula that is given, Hare Krishna
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mantra, is very powerful. It has a spiritual vibration, and when you sing that
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mantra, the mantra connects you directly to Krishna. It penetrates this planet
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and goes to the spiritual plane and to Krishna -- that powerful. When we call
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our cellular phone to Africa, that is what's happening. Spatial frequency takes
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you to Africa. Same day when you chant Hare Krishna, it has a spatial frequency
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that connects you to Krishna.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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What does the mantra mean in English?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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It's a prayer.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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There is no translation?
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**Sriman Dasa**
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Maybe not, but you can say it's a quick prayer. That's it? Thank you for coming.
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**Leonard Francis Coogan**
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Yep, thanks for agreeing to this.
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