The ISKCON Deity Worship Journal
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The ISKCON Deity Worship Journal |
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June '99
Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu's story made my hair stand on end, especially when he described how the devotee told him to worship Lord Balaram, when he asked what to do with him. This is a wonderful article, and thank you very much for the inspiration it has given.
Aradhya devi dasi
December '98
I just recently had a chance to see the 2nd issue of Arcana. What a publication! This is printing at its best. [Dhanudhara was kind enough to share his copy with me here at Berkeley asrama.] Everything about the journal: text, layout and photos are entirely first-class. By comparison, other spiritual publications I can think of [which shall remain nanmless] take a second-place to this one. At least in terms of production and crisp design.
It happens that I have been involved in layout and production for over 20 years, and worked with the BBT - both in New York, and later in LA when they moved to the West Coast USA. I have also done commercial DTP work [on PC's and Macs] from about 1984 until now. I am telling you this just to indicate that I know good design when I see it.
[from Vasanta Dasa]
October '98
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Hare krishna. I am just writing in to say that I have already received my second issue of "ARCANA" and it is brilliant.
I like the new format and the wonderful coloured pictures and all the information. This magazine is indispensible to many devotees like myself who have such a great interest in Deity Worship.
Thank you very much for bringing out such a beautiful magazine. I pray that Sri Krishna will continue to bless this endeavour so that we will see more and more wonderful articles and pictures in future issues. Begging for your mercy,
Your servant
Bhaktin Sufen
acchedyo yam adahyo yam akledyo sosya eva ca
nityah sarva gatah sthanur acalo yam sanatanah
"This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, present everywhere, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same"
Srimad Bhagavad Gita 2:24
September '98
Dear Arcana devotees,
please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I would like to say few words about this new issue of "Arcana" Issue 2. I'm enthused and thankful to all you devotees who helped in this project, especially Dharma-gopta, Karunesa, my Guru Maharaja, Krsna-ksetra prabhu, and God-brother Talavana, who is very talented and dedicated.
Through this media we can find out so much about the process of arcana. I was thinking that arcana is exclusively deity worship, but now I can see much more. By careful selection of different very interesting topics, you give us the possibility of finding out about different aspects of the beautiful Vedic culture. This is very important, and exactly what we need. I personally feel more and more atracted and inclined towards Vedic culture. This magazine has become my window to this wonderful, real world.
Thank you.
your servant,Vaidiki dasi.
5 August '98
Congratulations to the second issue! It's made very attractive so that not only pujaris and pandits read it, but a larger group of devotees and congregational members would feel attracted to understand more of this most essential part of KC, namely understanding the worship the deities in a much better way. The color pictures are great but, unfortunately, the b/w photos are often too dark and unclear and some of the films are scratched. Anyway, it's a great magazine and a nice inspiration for our Krishna consciousness - something we seem to need more than ever before.
Gaura Lila das
Maybe you have a copy with this "dark pictures" mistake. Generally they are not so dark.
Talavana dasa, Managing Editor
20 June '98 
Hare Krishna,
What a great joy to find this magazine for those of us who have had the special mercy of worshipping the Deity. Thank you for sharing this info with us.
I am in Hawaii and help organize some of the Deity festivals here. At present we will be celebrating the anniversary of the installation of Sri Pancatattva. We are offering a flower outfit and would suggest an article on how to design and create this special type of dress for the Deity and what special calendar days is one to be offered, etc. Thank you once again!
Looking forward to more nectar from your transcendental minds, humbly,
Daiva das
Thank you for your appreciation of the Arcana Journal. Regarding your idea to have a special article on flower outfits: Good Idea! We are in the beginning stages of planning a whole special issue on Deity dressing, and this could be one of the articles, or an insert. We are expecting the major portion of the issue to be written by Ramabhadra Prabhu of NY temple, longtime pujari and world-class dresser and teacher-of-dressing -- with numerous color photos, examples both of good and not-so-good dressing.
Krsna-ksetra Dasa
23 Jan '98
Arcana Deity Worship Pages is a great site for all devotees to relish. Those stories of and interviews with Pujaris from all over the world are very nice
All glories to your service to Sri Guru & Gauranga. Jaya Srila Prabhupada.
Your humble servant,
Dasanudasa bhakta Vinod
17 Jan '98
Dear Arjunanatha Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I took a look at the site for the Arcana Journal. It looks good. The pages are easy to read and the graphics load nicely.
One thing I noticed in the original and also with this edition was the spelling errors. Might I suggest you find someone who is able to proof your articles before they go to print. This would add a polish to the final product which is lacking when small errors like this are found.
I could possibly help if you like, so long as you give me enough time to do it. Otherwise most of the errors would have been picked up by a good spellchecker. Do you use one?
I hope you don't mind me pointing these out. It is always best to present ourselves as professionally as possible so I am offering these suggestions as a means to improve what is already a very good effort.
Your servant,
Aniruddha dasa, ISKCON Melbourne, Australia
[We do have a team of sanskrit and english editors using spellchecking software but these errors were put in the Web edition only by your WebServant using a simple text editor.
All offers of help are welcome - especially sourcing articles - and we will be following this one up.
List of errors now corrected - Ed.]
16 Jan '98
Jay! Definitely it's a good idea to put Arcana Journal on the web. Here in Russia we have got first translated issue and it's very popular. Maybe some Russian web-servants will get inspiration and make web-arcana in Russian. [work is now in progress - Ed] My Netscape does not support the diacritics properly. What's the problem? But when I try my Internet Explorer 3, everything works... how can I tune up my Netscape?
good luck!
your servant
Kirticandra das Rostov, CIS
The choice when using these diacritics for the Web is to code them either like this: "Ka" (direct characters) or like this: "KŠa". Neither display correctly in all browsers; We used direct characters. This works well with Internet Explorer 3 & 4, and Netscape 4.
There is an explanation of compatibility on the home page now, with links to upgrade your browser. Unfortunately the Macintosh cannot use the diacritic font at all. We are aware of this problem, and investigating solutions such as using other fonts or Adobe PDF files - Ed.
11 Jan '98
Dear Arjunanatha Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisanaces.
I did not even know that the Arcana Journal will now be available so widely! What wonderful news! I have always regretted that it has such a limited circulation.
Your servant,
Dhyana-kunda dasi
We are always investigating ways of increasing Arcana Journal's availability, and are now offering secure on-line subscriptions to the printed edition through Krishna Direct - Ed.
© International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust
1998