Summary: The month of kartik allows us to go deeper into spiritual practice. It gives us a certain permission to think about the astakalya-lila which is generally not accessible to devotees. At our Vraja-mandala parikrama we bring new devotees all the time so our practice remains on a very introductory level. Deeper levels of meditation and absorption require increased amount of tapasya (austerities). For example in the month of kartik the devotees renounce many types of foodstuffs, eat only once a day, sing continuously, in other words they really try very hard to come closer to the consciousness of pure devotees. For those who are coming from the general lifestyle, doing their jobs, coming to Vrindavan and getting deeply absorbed is undoubtedly very difficult and for those who come for the first or second time to Vrindavan this is simply impossible. But for our own purification we are reading the Bhajana-rahasya and trying to make some small moves into the right direction.
