YOUNGSTOWN - There are only a few spots open for the Prajalpa Retreat that will be taking place at the Econolodge Convention Room #2 in Youngstown,Ohio, October 20-26.
This retreat center is nestled deep within the city limits of Youngstown, far from the spiritual trivialities of a more natural surrounding.
The week-long seminar will focus upon living a true “fringie” lifestyle without the guilt commonly associated with leading a double-life.
- TREAT yourself by taking time to focus on your relationship popular culture, the building block of good prajalpa.
- RELEARN how to properly speak English without an affected Bengali accent and head-wobble.
- DISCOVER all the popular culture you missed out on when you moved into a temple. This Prajalpa Retreat will host a Seinfeld Marathon!
- BRIDGE the gap between where you are in your spiritual life and where you want to be in your material life.
- CONNECT deeply with devotees who are serious about improving their prajalpa.
In the past, Prajalpa Retreats have met with great success. Many devotees didn’t think twice about shelling out the nearly $800 to do something they do for free everyday.
“The Prajalpa Retreat in Flint, Michigan can not be compared to any other event that I have ever attended through many years,” related Anarthanandini devi dasi. “Except, perhaps, that one time when a few bhaktins and I sneaked out to Atlantic City and blew nearly a grand in a weekend. Those were fun times.”
Bam-bambole das, a confessed Prajalpa Retreat junky relates, “I have been prajalpaing for nearly a decade, but the retreats have finally shown me how the karmis really do it. It has had a profound effect on my material life. I have had so many failed businesses, but I now feel that I could host Prajalpa Retreats of my own and it would be very much successful.”
However, the Prajalpa Retreats are not without controversy. Manava das Goswami, one of the most outspoken opponents of the retreats, said, “These retreats are nonsense money-making schemes. You do not need to pay nearly $1000 to learn how to watch TV, gossip and engage in activities in which so many are naturally expert. Simply by practicing prajalpa, better prajalpa will effortlessly come to you.”
The Youngstown Prajalpa Retreat will cover all the regular topics common to Level One retreats, but will also add a few new surprises, including: How to Quote Srila Prabhupada to Fit Your Needs and Krishna Wants You to Be Rich.
While Wednesday will feature the much-anticipated Seinfeld Marathon, Thursday will feature Retreat favorite Harry-katha by Harry Anderson, star of the hit 80’s sitcom Night Court.
Prasadam will be arranged through the Taco Bell across the street and the vending machine in the lobby. Just offer it to Shiva or something.
The Prajalpa Retreat will wind down on Sunday night following the Steelers/Giants game on Fox TV. Go Steelers!
Prajalpa Retreat, Level 2 will be taking place in April of 2009 in Parking Lot C at the Sunoco Oil Refinery in South Philadelphia.
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12 responses so far ↓
1 Rati // Sep 26, 2008 at 10:59 am
Hahahhahhaha!!! Is there any type of sliding scale. Like if someone can’t afford the full fee, but maybe has some awesome prajalpa?
2 bull // Sep 26, 2008 at 12:36 pm
night court!!!!
3 Dwija // Sep 26, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Very funny Eric. Maybe we could also make lots of money by staging similar retreats. Or has Iskcon totally cornered the market on that one?
Something that surprised me was the topic of “How to Quote Srila Prabhupada to Fit Your Needs.” I felt sure that most Iskconites would already be expert at this due to their many years of practice. Or am I still living under the illusion that anyone actually bothers to quote Srila Prabhupada anymore?
4 budbuba-budhi dasa // Sep 26, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Aw, man! I had some more suggestions I came up with just today, I was gonna send them to you when I saw you already posted the article. Oh well, maybe I’ll come up with something else. Funny article though…
5 chatsky // Sep 26, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Okay! Now your back on track with real funny stuff! Bravo!!
6 Boy-R-D dasa (not the chef) // Sep 26, 2008 at 9:28 pm
RELEARN how to properly speak English without an affected Bengali accent and head-wobble. Now this one is really important. If you spent a lot of years in ISKCON, you might find when you talk, you speak a funny style of English. It really cost me. I was interviewing for a job with a major corporation about 20 years back, but speaking in broken ISKCONese English cost me the job. That was the last thing the interviewer told me is I talked funny.
7 Mandakini // Sep 27, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Hilarious!!! Sadly, my life seems like a prajalpa retreat more often than not. Ah well, at least it’s free ;0)
8 asta sakhi // Sep 27, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I think you will need a followup session to “RELEARN how to properly speak English without an affected Bengali accent and head-wobble.” It’s a hard one to shake simply because everyone else is doing it (at the temple), and it so clearly indicates spiritual advancement.
9 NiceLikeAnything dasa // Sep 28, 2008 at 3:54 pm
“RELEARN how to properly speak English without an affected Bengali accent and head-wobble.”
This is so much very offensive and not funny. This is so very much being not a good thing, to make some writing like this.
I am not knowing why you are making some statement that devotees are doing talking like this. I know I am not so much doing this and I have been in Sanga of Vaishnava’s more than twenty years past.
Sometimes, yes, admittedly, head may wobble, little bit, during talks…
But speaking is most normal…
I easily can say speaking style is not making any change after two decades time serving devotee of Lord Sri Krsna.
10 Devak // Sep 28, 2008 at 4:03 pm
There was one person who was really into prajalpa in a big way. Do you know who that was?
Srila Prabhupada
Ever go on a morning walk with him? With every step on the beach, he gave forth pearls of prajalpa. His every word was recorded for posterity.
The consequence is that a lot of his words have come back to haunt ISKCON. Oh well.
11 lgh // Sep 30, 2008 at 4:07 pm
There’s something about those Taco Bell chapatis that just don’t seem right.
12 Boy-R-D dasa (not the chef) // Oct 2, 2008 at 12:59 am
Taco Bell chapatis are made with Grade A lard
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