Monks in Manhattan / Celibate in Chelsea

I offer this preview review from Satsvarupa das Goswami ‘s Facebook blog and below this excerpts from a letter he sent me critiquing the novel, minus his cautionary advice. "SDG wrote Nov.26: I am almost finished Jnanagamya’s Monks in Manhattan. It is one of the best novels I have ever read. I skipped two nebulizer treatments to read it and got a headache from reading too much. It is a fascinating, heartwarming, Krishna conscious story of a man and woman who fall in love and by the end of the book they have a Vedic marriage and agree to live by the [bhakti yoga] principles. The portraits of the man Ram and Shannon are terrifically portrayed. They are so real, lovable and human, and their interaction is dynamic. I can’t wait to write to the author to tell him how much I loved the book and hope he publishes it to share it with the world." Further comments from SDG: Dear Jnanagamya, (JDA) It is a wonderful book! I loved it. It is a heart warming, fascinating, Krsna conscious novel. It is one of the best novels I have ever read. The dynamics of the couple Ram and Shannon are fascinating and terrifically written. You are a great writer. The plot is intriguing and leaves the reader on, step by step. You have done an amazing job and have to be congratulated on it. I was sorry when the book ended. Now do what you can to publish it and get the word out to the world. Satsvarupa das Goswami is a preeminent disciple of His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. He is a prolific writer, author of the authorized biography of Srila Prabhupada in six volumes, and over one hundred books, novels, and essays on Krishna consciousness philosophy and devotional life. His nearly daily blog appears at sdgonline.org . These comments from a spiritual teacher held in awe and reverence for my entire devotional career pleased and surprised me. May Monks in Manhattan’s readers also find the same mer

Monks in Manhattan is a love story set in a parallel world closely resembling ours, or mine, and maybe yours. It revolves around a three sided love affair, a man, Ram Das, a poor by choice monk struggling with celibacy and his desire to attain pure devotion, a woman Shannon, a billionairess tycoon materialist, and Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They meet in an advertising agency, ADMen & ADWomen, Shannon has recently acquired though her corporation the Van Locke Group. She has decided to look in on it to assess valuable and valueless employees. She plans to spend a week assessing the performances and weeding out non-producers. Ram is employed as a creative director for strictly pro bono work at Shannon’s new agency. He appears in his devotional garb on Ekadasi, a special day according to the phases of the moon. They literally collide on the street and again in the office, and as Ram ‘preaches’ things get hot but Shannon is curious. An SNT (sorry, no timer) herself she has never been exposed to the spiritual conceptions that make up Ram’s world. Hiding her real identity, wealth and power as best she can, while Ram plows through everything she thought she never wanted to know about the Hare Krishnas the couple become ‘attached’ to each other. Shannon reveals to Gopal, Ram’s friend who she really is, materially, not spiritually. Spiritually she hasn’t got a clue. But Gopal warns her not to reveal this secret to Ram least he flee to India in pursuit of higher levels of renunciation. “Wait! No-No-No! Don’t, don’t tell him anything about your financial benefits…your well-off-ness, your richth...wealthches. Is it a word, no? Talk about Krishna. Let Krishna arrange a time for Ram’s enlightenment on your financial status . . . your money thing, I promise you, from the bottom of my heart, I know Ram, it’ll totally confuse him. Trust me. Even if he likes you, loves you, can’t live without you, he’ll run far away. Ram’s friend, the prostitute Lowetta, provides him with street wise smarts about ‘relationships’ when his and Shannon’s collapses in a slapping argument in the Metero-politician Mvsevm’s Ancient Asian Avatar Art Annual Advertised Affair Annex. All this transpires just before a traffic accident kills the Messenger, Ram’s previous life’s (Lotus’s) murderer. A transcendent miracle takes place as Ram and the Messenger recognize each other as who they were in their pervious lives. Fun and games evolve as Shannon seeks to reconcile with Ram. She meets Lowetta who she at first takes to be a girl friend of Ram consider in his Celibate in Chelsea act to be bogus. Lowetta sets her straight as to Ram’s genuine purity of heart, as does Gopal, too, when Shannon decides to pursue Krishna, as well as Ram, after a past life regression session during which she discovers she was Ram’s Guru, Master Lin, in Ram’s pervious life as Lotus. Sorting all this out leads to deeper levels of questioning into the highest forms of loving exchanges between the Divine coupe Radha Krishna all in accord with the philosophy of the Gaudya Vaisnaves coming from the teachings of the Goswamis. The foundation of the Krishna Movement. After steady attempts to remake her life with the potency of the chanting of Holy Names of God Shannon wins Ram’s heart. Despite his indecisive position on marriage, with the help of a prank marriage proposal produced by office characters, the 3-J’s, who were bent on dissolving the couples relationship for Shannon’s good, our couple decide to wed after outrageous situations. All that remains is to overcome Ram’s attachment to poverty when he is confronted with Shannon’s wealth. She cleverly overwhelms him with humility and tact and he resigns himself to being a rich woman poor husband. Thinking he would be cursed by all the gurus and God if he let the opportunity to help Shannon use her good karma fortune in krishna’s service They are married and the fun is in the details.

JDA/ Jnanagamya das/ John Partin JDA, Jnanagamya das was born John J. Partin, Jr. in 1947 on Miami Beach, Florida, the son of John Joseph Partin, Sr. the son of Irish immigrants settled in Montgomery, Alabama, and Leona Elizabeth White from Vermont of French Canadian, and Native American stock, her paternal grandfather was a Native-American chief named White Cloud; her father, a calvary soldier had shortened the family name to White.            JDA attended Catholic parochial schools in Miami, excelling in catechism memorization, he had a paper route, was a school crossing guard, a Star Boy Scout, and rode his bike across dangerous streets. In 1960 his family moved to Tallahassee where his father worked as a lobbyist. An influential man, he was once described as ‘Senator’ Partin from Southern Bell. At Leon High School JDA studied drama under Broadway star Mina Cubbon, (Faye Dunaway’s dramatics teacher) and took the romantic lead in the senior class play. He graduated with a BFA from Florida State University, majoring in painting, logging equal credit hours in cinematography in 1970. He won first place in the University’s first film festival with In Lieu of McLuhan, a satire on media hype co-authored with and staring his friend Robert MacNaughton. He won two second places in subsequent years at this festival for Legend of the West and Flyboy, Oh Boy! JDA credits his introduction to Krishna consciousness in 1971 to his college friends Robert MacNaughton, now Rupa Vilas dasa and Carol Hopke, Chandrika devi dasi, who had joined the small Hare Krishna temple in Tallahassee. After much resistance the perfect logic of ISKCON’s founder-acharya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and the Bhagavad-gita, As It Is convinced him to join the Krishna movement. Rupa Vilas went on to write the ‘Lives of the Vaisnave Acarya’s Series.            As a devotee JDA took on menial tasks in New Orleans and Dallas temples such as cleaning, carpentry repairs, roofing, and door to door book distribution in addition to attending daily classes and meditation sessions that required his regularly rising at 3:45 a.m.  In 1972 he was initiated and given the spiritual name of Jnanagamya das, (pronounced; ghee-yana-gam-ya das) the servant of the Goal of Knowledge, God, Krishna.  JDA’s 42 year span of service has seen him wearing multiple hats directly and indirectly involved with ISKCON: teaching, book distribution party leader, temple manager and board member, advertising creative director, magazine production manager, publisher, off-Broadway actor, Street theater actor-manager, video producer, Japanese garden designer, truck driver, architectural designer for Vedic temples, residential and commercial properties, real estate sales and development, elementary and secondary school teacher. He served for four years (1995-‘99) as Creative Director-Designer of the ISKCON-Hinduja Glory of India Expo in New Delhi, designing and producing animatronics and multi-media shows, as well as traditional painting and sculpture galleries. In 1977 he married Mahamaya dasi, nee Emily Boehm, daughter of David A. Boehm, American Editor-developer and publisher of The Guinness Book or World Records. Mahamaya has authored two books, Srila Prabhupada is Coming! and Ganga Safari, which explore the culture of the Hare Krishna movement from a woman’s and mother’s perspective. Their son, Rasa Acharya das, is a practicing devotee and cinematographer. See his work at www.rasafilms.com   JDA lives today at ISKCON Mayapur, W.Bengal, India where he teaches, writes and complains whilst chanting and being very happy. He can be contacted at: jnanagamya@yahoo.com Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare,   Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare,