My friend, Leka, posted this picture on a forum a few days ago. It depicts the Arati ceremony which plays a big role in Hindu ritual service. He took it in the Radha Gopinatha temple in Vrindavan, India when we visited there earlier this year. It reminded me of my 5 months in a Hindu [...]

Ever since I came back from my retreat, people have asked: So did it live up to your expectations? Did it yield what you anticipated? Questions like this make me smile. I don’t smile at the interviewer, neither do I think these questions are inappropriate. From a Western point of view, they are extremely normal. [...]

Zinfo, a Dutch ‘alternative’ news site, recommends the movie Samsara which is broadcasted tonight in the Netherlands. It tells the story of a Buddhist monk who after spending three years in solitary meditation returns to the material world and falls in love. As I’ve understood it, the message of the movie is to explain that [...]

My mom asked me: “Is there always a serious mood or do you have some fun as well?” Being back from my retreat, people asks me questions like this. I like it. They force me to evaluate my experiences and to better understand them. So is monastic life dead serious or is there fun as [...]

I got the sweetest seat in the airplane. It was right next to the window and had no seat in front of it. My long legs stretched out while I found myself being engaged in a conversation with my neighbor. What had he been up to in Finland? Where did he go and did he [...]

I’m still in India for a day and some hours. I just found a broadband internet cafe a little bit of loi bazar. Most hindus who have visited Vrindavan will know that loi bazar is the shopping street to get dhotis, saris, and many other devotional items. But I didn’t come here for shopping. Alright [...]

As some of you might have noticed my website has been going on and offline for the past few days/weeks. I hope all is corrected now. My last post was sadly lost in the transition. Still, there is always Google video.

For some it may come as a surprise, for others it is nothing new; Tim will go on an unpaid leave for 6 months, of which he spends about 5 months in India and the United States.
Why? I’ve been engaged in Hinduism for many years now, sometimes more intensely than others. But I’m convinced that [...]

I remember reading Prabhupada’s book with the same name. And I knew. This was what I was looking for. I wasn’t going to run away from myself and be afraid of the world. I knew to become stronger and to face the world properly I would need to look inward.
As usual the world works quite [...]

“Gaudiya Vaisnavism is a very open minded tradition. It tells is to do our own thing, prefacing this with knowledge of what it is that we are to begin with. Know you are spirit not matter and fly as high as you can in the sky of your heart, embracing the association of advanced devotees [...]