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Prem Yogi recently acquired a new Balarama mrdanga. He rang Krishna.com and asked them if they had anything lying around that they could supply him with, in order to avoid the standard 5-6 month waiting period for Ratna to make one up. Fortuitously they had a slightly used full-sized blue Balaram mrdanga that they sent over within a week. Tenacity pays off.

Prem Yogi with his new mrdanga

It was Prem's 25th birthday this week, and I wanted to get him something so I bought him a case for the mrdanga.

A mrdanga must always be transported and stored in a case. The mrdanga is understood as both Lord Balaram (Sankarshan) and Krishna's flute.

At the time that Lord Krishna was going to advent as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu He told everyone that he was about to incarnate on Earth. Then he told His flute that since He would be coming as His own devotee He would not be taking the flute with Him. Venu was very disappointed and begged to accompany Him, so therefore the Lord arranged for His flute to come as the mrdanga.

All the Lord's paraphenalia is manifested by Sankarshan, the first of the quadruple expansion of Sankarshan, Vasudeva, Aniruddha, and Pradyumna. This means that Lord Narayana's brahman thread, His shoes, and other personal paraphenalia are all manifestations of Lord Sankarshan. The nitya-dhama of the spiritual world, and the dhama that appear in the material world are all also manifestations of Lord Sankarshan. So the flute also is manifested by Lord Sankarshan. Venu is a form of visnu-tattva expansion, not jiva tattva, or some impersonal category. In spiritual life everything is personal.

So the mrdanga must be honored in this category. All of the paraphenalia of worship of the Lord, including the mrdanga, are sacred and worshipable by us. Our service to this paraphenalia is our sadhana.

So the mrdanga must always be transported and stored in a case. Consequentially, storing the mrdanga in this way protects it and extends its service lifetime.

Here's the case we got: Musical Instrument Transportation System (M.I.T.S) by UK's Protection Racket.

Made with double-stitched waterproof rip-stop bonded nylon called Racketex, this particular case is designed for a djembe, but perfectly fits the full-sized Balarama mrdanga, with a bit of room to spare.

The zips are heavy duty and strong.

Internally the case is lined with a dual-layer synthetic fleece (Propad and Propile) that wicks moisture away from the instrument, preserving the tonal characteristics of the drum. It also absorbs impacts, distributing the force of a blow across the entire body of the instrument.

Here's a shot of the mrdanga in the case:

And a shot of the case done up:

It has a carry handle and an over-the-shoulder strap. Conceived and designed in the UK, fabricated in China.

RRP: AU$99.95 (it went on special for AU$59.99 the morning that I went to get one! :-) )

Conclusion: Solid and well constructed using durable materials. Well thought out design. Nicely executed. It would have been a ten if it had a pocket for the tuning key to go in. (We need to look into something that attaches to the mrdanga strap to store that, actually). The new models have backpack straps and a pocket. This is the previous model that was being sold out.

Rating: 9/10

Today we hit Wellers Hill, a small suburb next to Ekibin.

It's a small suburb, and it's not hilly, it's a hill. There's no avoiding it - we had to go up and down it a couple of times to give the area some coverage.

Here's a shot of Vrajadhama doing his thing with the whompers:

And his wife Bhakticandrika came along this week too:

Julia is back from Spain. This is the first time I've seen her in a sari.

Acyuta Bhava and Campak Gaura are in Cairns helping Jagat-pati and Taruni. Jagat-pati is sick at the moment, and they need help with the restaurant. Campak is coming back today and Julia will go up for a week. Julia and Acyuta will be back at the end of this week for our Atma Yoga retreat in the Anzac Day long weekend. So no harinam next week while we're away on that.