An Urban Devi event with Amrita-keli Devi Dasi

Description: When COVID social distancing became our new reality, the Alachua devotee community brainstormed ways to stay connected. This led to the creation of Nectar Talks, an interview podcast focused on digging into the depths of what keeps devotees inspired for the long haul. When I joined the team in 2020, I had no idea how this service would continually heal my misconceptions of worth and work as a devotee. Triumphs, tests and failures, both within the movement and in one's own devotional path, were never off limits for discussion. Yet devotees unfailingly crystallized their experiences in realizations that brought them (and the interviewing team) closer to Krishna. I will be sharing how interviewing Srila Prabhupada's disciples directly informs and reshapes my impressions of what Bhakti looks like, how it manifests over many decades, and why I never have to give up hope for myself in this process.

Bio:

Amrita-keli dasi met the Hare Krishnas as a 14-year-old while visiting her sister at the University of Florida in Gainesville. At 17, she interviewed and experienced a 'day in the life' with the Krishna House devotees for a religion project. On the ride home, she felt sure the Hare Krishna people knew God. Determined to live near devotees, she studied Cultural Anthropology at UF from 2005-2009 and became a volunteer at Krishna Lunch and Krishna House. She moved into the ashram in 2008, studied Bhakti Sastri in Vrindavan in 2010, took initiation, and moved to Jacksonville to serve as the Hare Krishna chaplain at the University of North Florida in 2012.

In 2015, she and her husband Lila Kishor das opened the Bhakti House, where UNF Krishna Club students could live in an ashram, deepen their practice, and serve together while finishing their degrees. The ashram residents graduated and moved on to other projects, and Amrita-keli and Lila Kishor welcomed their first of two children in 2018. After the COVID lockdown and Lila Kishor's journey through cancer, they craved closer association and emotional healing. They moved to Alachua, FL in 2022, where their children now attend Bhaktivedanta Academy and Amrita-keli teaches 4th-6th grade.

Urban Devi is a monthly interactive women’s discussion circle that seeks to make spirituality accessible to women in the 21st century. Each session will focus on a theme based on topics that are of importance to women and will offer insight and practical applications from the practice of Bhakti Yoga.