Jahnava Nitai Das, Author at Bhaktivedanta Ashram

Lord Jagannatha Performs a Miracle for Boney Cow

Posted by Jahnava Nitai Das | Jul 13, 2024 | 2,927 views

Here is one of our favorite bulls we were trying our best to save for many months. Because of his extreme skinny condition when he first arrived we called him “Boney Cow” when talking amongst ourselves, and the name stuck. It was not the best name, but it was the easiest way to understand who we were talking about visually. If I asked someone “Have you seen boney cow,” everyone knew who I was talking about even if they didn’t pay attention to all the cows and bulls who come through each day.

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Gotra: Preserving the Sacred Link to Forefathers and Vedic Sages

Posted by Jahnava Nitai Das | Jun 30, 2024 | 3,970 views

The word gotra literally means “that which protects cows”, and in general refers to a stable that protects a herd of cows from the weather and from wild animals. Likewise the family lineages of rishis and forefathers are also metaphorically called as “gotras”, as they are “protective stables” that guide and watch over humanity, which is likened to a herd of cows.

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Orphan Kapila Muni Meets the Ashram Bulls for the First Time

Posted by Jahnava Nitai Das | Jun 22, 2024 | 643 views

Kapila Muni is a young golden coloured bull calf who has been coming to our ashram for around 7 months now. When very young Kapila Muni’s mother died from a snake bite and he was abandoned on the street all alone. Somehow he found our ashram and has been sleeping here every day since. From the first day he came we have made sure to feed him extra so that he could become healthy and strong.

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Broken Leg’s Journey: A Bull’s Tale

Posted by Jahnava Nitai Das | Jun 20, 2024 | 1,748 views

Here are three of the smaller street bulls we have been locking up for the last week so they don’t end up being sacrificed during the Eid festival. Today we finally let them free to be back on the street. They did not like being locked up in the day, but it was for their own good.

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The Last Photo I Took of Dayalu Baba

Posted by Jahnava Nitai Das | Jun 12, 2024 | 334 views

This is the last photo I took of Dayalu Baba, 14 days before he departed. Seeing it makes me sad because it foreshadows what was to come, with him walking away as he leaves us.

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Farewell to Chandan Prabhu: A Beloved Mridanga Player and Devotee

Posted by Jahnava Nitai Das | Jun 7, 2024 | 1,869 views

Yesterday (June 6th), another of our friends, Chandan prabhu, a long time devotee at Dayalu Baba’s ashram, passed away, just 10 days after baba had left. He was a professional mridanga player, and would always be there to help in the ashram and perform kirtan. I had known him for around 15 years, and his father was the one who sold us the farm land which we gave to Dayalu Baba for him to grow rice and sustain his ashram.

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Sri Dayalu Baba Enters Maha Samadhi at His Ashram in Odisha

Posted by Jahnava Nitai Das | May 29, 2024 | 3,850 views

Yesterday (May 28th) at 10 am one of the great hidden sadhus of Odisha left his body and was placed in samadhi at his ashram in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha. Dayalu Baba had spent many decades roaming the forests around the sacred Ratna Giri mountain in the Salandi Reserve Forest and performing severe sadhana. He was a disciple of a great local saint named Rama Baba, who’s samadhi is now located in Jharkhand.

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Ashram News and Notes (April, 2024)

Posted by Jahnava Nitai Das | Apr 11, 2024 | 4,526 views

Recently we heard that one of the senior sadhus of this area who stays at the ashram in Chakratirtha had fell and hit his head, so we went to see how he was. He is now between 102 and 103 years old and due to his age has difficulty walking down steps.

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Update on Eye Operations for 102 Year Old Sadhu Brahma Chaitanya Das

Posted by Jahnava Nitai Das | Dec 7, 2023 | 3,351 views

Back in February we had written about a senior sadhu in our area, Brahma Chaitanya Das, who needed to have cataract operations on both of his eyes, as due to his advanced age of 102 years he was no longer able to see clearly. Now that it is all complete we are able to inform you of the final update on everything.

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From Yamadeepam to Jack-o’-Lanterns: Tracing Halloween’s Hindu Origins

Posted by Jahnava Nitai Das | Nov 4, 2023 | 5,008 views

Unknown to many is the fact that Halloween is actually descended from the ancient Hindu worship of the god of death, Yama, and a festival called as Yamadeepam, held each year on Dhanteras day, which falls roughly in the same week as Halloween.

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