Monthly Archives: October 2013

“Am I really free?” We may get this situation when we try to change ourselves for the better and realize how difficult it is, realize how easily we tend to relapse to old habits and attitudes. The subject is complex with many nuances, but a general answer is: We are free to choose our desires, […]

Please share your realisations with other devotees from around the world…simply send me an introduction message and I will be happy to make you a member:rasa108 ::_::{.at.}::_:: gmail dot comysRasa Rasika dasa

Every day we do the same thing; get up, shower, have a morning program and go on samkirtan. It’s been going on like that for 40 years, to be exact. But we never become bored, tired or satiated because it’s devotional service to the Lord and always new and fresh. And it always will be! […]

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila, 22.62. ‘sraddha’-sabde — visvasa kahe sudridha niscaya krishne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krita haya TRANSLATION By rendering transcendental loving service to Krsna one automatically performs all subsidiary activities. Such confident, firm faith favorable to the discharge of devotional service is called sraddah. PURPORT Firm faith and confidence are called sraddha. […]

Every year HG Candidasa Das puts together and co-ordinates the offerings of the disciples and well wishers of my Guru Maharaja HH Devamrita Swami. This years offerings are available online here: http://devaswami.com/writings/from-disciples/vyasa-puja-offerings-2013 As always I am inspired by the amazing outpourings by my God Family if only my words were so inspiring but for what […]

The Food For All band took to the stage last Saturday at the famous Half Moon, for a sold out gig in honour of a wonderful devotee and singer Maharani Devi or as the world knew her Polystyrene, singer with X-ray Specs. Maharani left her body a few years ago due to cancer, but she […]

It was with great delight that my Guru Mahraja HH Devamrita Swami came and gave class at Bhaktivadanta Manor which was warmly received and as always inspirational: It was also an wonderful time having my Guru Maharaja lead Kirtan The temple president Sruti Dharma Prabhu took the time to show Maharaja the George Harrison Garden: […]

In life, always, there are two things (1) form and (2) substance. In other words form represents the external act or ritual and substance represents the inner meaning behind it. Ideally the inner meaning should drive the external word, act or ritual. Otherwise the act in itself has little meaning.

Today in ISKCON, whatever little I have seen, initiation is taken seriously by aspiring devotees only up to when they get it. Of course, I don’t want to generalize but there is this tendency also among devotees today. They practice Krishna consciousness seriously to the point of initiation and then after initiation, spiritual life becomes hackneyed. But real spiritual life begins after initiation. Also, I have seen initiation is seen as a social status symbol within ISKCON and devotees have a sense of air around them. Such behavior actually is contradictory to the inner meaning of initiation.

Once initiated, the devotee actually must become more humble and tolerant and in fact aspire to seriously take the position of servant of the servant even if it is difficult. But initiated devotees (even so called senior devotees) lack the mental discipline to reject all forms of adoration, profit and distinction (materialistic qualities) thus beginning the road for downfall. So yes initiation is a serious commitment externally to practice our sadhana and internally to remain humble servants in the hands of Guru and Krishna.

Below is a transcript from a lecture about initiation given by H.H.Radhanath Swami. He captures the idea very nicely.

We should know that initiation in itself doesn’t mean anything. Real initiation does not mean getting a name, sitting in front of a fire, and throwing some grains in the fire. That is not initiation. There are many people who get initiated who never got initiated…not really! It’s not something cheap. But in Kali Yuga everyone wants something cheap. 

Prabhupada said don’t try to keep your guru like your dog. Don’t think your guru is just a picture to put on the wall and say this is my guru. It’s the way most people are. What does initiation mean? It means the willingness to surrender your life to following the instructions of the guru. If you are not willing to do that, initiation is a farce. It means nothing. Then we should never encourage anyone to get initiated unless they are living a life sincerely to follow the instructions. It is better to remain a congregational devotee without an initiation. 

Getting initiated means following the four regulative principles strictly, if you are not following the four regulative principles strictly in this sampradaya and get initiated, it is a farce. It means nothing. If you are not willing to chant 16 rounds everyday it’s a farce! It means nothing! It’s a show bottle! It’s nonsense! We are not concerned with such show bottle nonsense cheap things. We are concerned something with substance. You are not going to back to Godhead because you are initiated. You are going back to Godhead because you surrendered to Krishna through surrendering to his pure devotees through the parampara and part of the process of that surrender is to accept initiation but it is not the end of itself. 

To initiate means to begin – its beginning a higher realm of surrender if you do it right. If you don’t do it right it does not mean anything. If you are not willing to put your own ego aside to hear from the words of your guru and follow, then forget about initiation. 

Initiation means a formal vow that I am going to put my ego aside and I am going to humbly follow you throughout my life with faith and if someone is actually living according to that principle then he will make real spiritual advancement and whatever spiritual advancement you make all of those connected to you will share the benefits from your spiritual advancement and eventually you will become a pure devotee – definitely! And at that time all of your descendants and all of your forefathers will be liberated for so many generations.  

– H.H.Radhanath Swami, lecture – Uttara Mother In Krishna Consciousness

8 year old Jude cycled 62 miles from Oxford to London for the Ahimsa Dairy Foundation, promoting cruelty-free milk production. Read more ›

Bhandirvan where Radha and Krishna were married by with Brahma as the priest, Mansarovar, a lake made of Radharani’s tears and Baelvan where Goddess Laxmi performed tapasya to enter into Raas-lila. Read more ›

Our 3rd annual Chariot festival big success with loads of new faces. It wouldn’t have been possible without your support and blessings. Read more ›

VIEW WITH FULL SCREEN. CLICK ON ARROWS AT THE BOTTOM.

“Glory to the Sri Krsna sankirtana, which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years and extinguishes the fire of conditional life, of repeated birth and death. This sankirtana movement is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the benediction moon. It is the life of all transcendental knowledge. It increases the ocean of transcendental bliss, and it enables us to fully taste the nectar for which we are always anxious.”
Siksastaka Read more ›

“John and his wife were very kind upon me when I was staying at Tittenhurst Park as their guests. I always prayed for them to Krsna for understanding this great movement. Please inform him this message on my behalf. I have dreamt something very nice about John which I shall disclose in proper time. In the meantime, please ask him to cooperate with this movement as you are doing, and he will be very happy.”(Srila Prabhupada letter to George Harrison, February 16, 1970) Read more ›

Beautiful Villa Vrindavana, an oasis of peace. Hare Krishna
Read more ›

SKCON Nairobi has been actively promoting the ideals of Krishna consciousness since 1973, through college programs, a vibrant Sunday feast with Sunday School for the children, book distribution, and harinam sankirtana. There is an active congregation of 350 devotees. Find the Nairobi temple on Facebook as ISKCON Nairobi. Read more ›

Cusco, often spelled Cuzco, is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region as well as the Cuzco Province.

Cusco was the site of the historic capital of the Inca Empire and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1983 by UNESCO. It is a major tourist destination and receives almost 2 million visitors a year. Read more ›

ECO-Vrindaban Board Meeting Minutes – 9-29-2013. Mission Statement: ECO-Vrindaban (ECOV) is dedicated to cow protection, sustainable agriculture, self-sufficiency and simple living — all centered around loving service to Sri Krishna, as envisioned by the ISKCON New Vrindaban (INV) Founder-Acharya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Participating Board Members: Anuttama, Chaitanya Mangala, Kripamaya, Madhava Gosh, […]

H.G Saci Suta Dasa kirtan

Nicole’s Day

Toronto, Ontario

Today we had another birthday in the ashram, it was Nicole who took the honour on this fine day.  Born in the Philippines and in her early 20’s, she has captured the hearts of all the ashram dwellers with her fine devotional qualities.

We have a kind of family atmosphere in the ashram and when it is someone’s turn to be recognized it becomes moments of lightness and gratitude.  Manish is an outstanding artist who designed a gorgeous card for all of us to contribute our tribute to her.  Kanad is our main cook these days and he made a cake with an outstanding icing, at least that was the consensus.  And my input was, well, it was not an out of the way gift, but I encouraged her to come on that early trek with us as we chant our japa, mantra meditation, which is the ultimate medication.

Let’s face it, we are all imbalanced in some ways in this dark age of Kali.  Our guru, Srila Prabhupada, in his brilliant delivery of  7 purposes of the bhakti devotional technique expresses the need to check the imbalanced lives of today and the root cause of the problem is emphasis goes so much to ‘me’ and not ‘we’.

I was delighted that Nicole be part of our small troupe on the street.  As of late she has come to like the process of chanting while on the feet.  I do wish her the best on this day and in this life.  She carries a real sweet attitude that rubs off onto others.  It’s contagious.

While she spent a section of her day with family and friends, some of the boys and I made our way to Dundas Street and the Bhakti Lounge run by a devotional stalwart, Mangal Aarti by name.  There we had staged our latest drama production, Gita: Concise, to a small group.  This was an important venture for me because the lounge attracts among a diversity of people, the artistic types.  One chap completed his four year course at Ryerson U in theatre arts, and Melinda is an actor and dancer who very much liked the drama.  In fact, her comment at the end of the presentation was that she wants to read up on the Gita now that she saw the rich concepts that the philosophy contains.  The actors too had a great time at this humble venue wherein was included a tasty vegan meal of kofta, veggie rice and halava.  It was a good day at these two places of bhakti.

8 KM

Answer Podcast

Giriraj Swami gave class to devotees and guests in the Darshan Room in Dallas. “This magazine had an article on the 25th anniversary of the Woodstock festival, with profiles of one hundred people who had been at the original Woodstock. There was a little photo of each, with a brief description of what they experienced then […]

There are many possible motives for suicide. Saintly people sometimes commit suicide to attone for some serious mistake or as …

Continue reading »

“I am very glad to learn also that you are feeling joy while chanting the mantra Hare Krishna. Yes, it is exactly like this. If anyone chants this mantra in good faith and in simple understanding, then surely this transcendental vibration will act imme…

POWER IS ALWAYS DESCENDING

By Mayapur dasa

Power is always descending.

All history books show that Monarchy was the established system of government across the globe, from Asia to India, Africa and Europe.

Until relatively recent times, guid…

The Radha Krsna Temple, or now more commonly Radha Krishna Temple, was the headquarters of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in London from the late 1960s. The Temple came to prominence when The Beatles, and especially George Harrison, started to publicly express their interest in Eastern philosophy and Krishna consciousness. The Radha Krsna Temple is also the name of an album of devotional music issued by the Temple on The Beatles’ Apple Records label, produced by Harrison Read more ›

(me at 14)January 28th, 2002Sometimes I feel like 14, other times I feel like 3 1/2, other times I feel like 75. So many things to make me feel young and child-like… so many things to make me feel old and withered. Some things I wish I had never seen…

Shopping Cult @ Oxford Circus
Episode Two of Parasociology Series.
http://youtu.be/mz-D8AxREcw

The Cult of Shopping | Parasociology at Oxford Circus
www.youtube.com
Nicolas Riddihough is a world wide researcher into the science of Parasociology which he introduces to us with clarity and insightfulness. The second episode… Continue reading →

24-12-2012 SB 8.6.21-28, Churning the Milk Ocean, Cape Town, South Africa om namo bhagavate vasudevaya! om namo bhagavate vasudevaya! om namo bhagavate vasudevaya! Reading from Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 8, Chapter 6, “The Demigods and Demons declare a Truce”, text… it says 20 here; I was told it was 21. Is this correct? Or is Devotee: […]

When Possible

Toronto, Ontario

When possible I like to run errands on foot.  I did so today.  On a side street off of Davenport, I was approaching one of those cement mixer trucks parked next to one of the 180 condo high rises going up in the city.  The truck was parked on the sidewalk that I was on.  I was just prepared to cross the street to the other sidewalk when the driver of the truck came out from behind the steering wheel, jumped onto the sidewalk and then came to see me.

“Excuse me,” said the man with the hard hat and other safety gear, “my name is Andy.”  He stretched out his hand for a handshake which I happily obliged.  “I was wondering if you could pray for me.”

“I sure will, Andy.  Are you going through stuff?” I asked.

“Yes, I am, so please pray for me.”

“I will do that.”

Andy returned back to his post, back to work.  I noticed some of his coworkers took a side glance at Andy and the man of the cloth momentarily.  Not sure what they were thinking, but it’s good they were thinking.

At Davenport I had to cross the four lane expanse.  Traffic was crawling along.  I hadn’t yet made it fully across, half way actually, when a motorist rolled down his window and said excitedly, “Hey!  I danced with you guys last Saturday!  I can’t believe it!”

“At Nuit Blanche, at Queen’s Park?” I asked while standing by his car’s side.

“Exactly!  You were singing.”

“Hope you had a good time?”

“Yeah man!  It was a blast!”  I finally got across to the sidewalk and was at peace within, thinking about how crossing a street can bring magic.  Of course the robes made a difference in terms of getting noticed and having some interaction.  People must get tired of seeing blue denim.  Sometimes I’m referred to as the moving traffic cone.  Once I was called an orange bear.  At least it was the clothes that attracted and initiated short but meaningful exchanges.

5 KM

This was the story never told By one who cared not for the world’s gold. One of the idle and wise, A beggar with unfathomable eyes. One who had nothing but dreams to give To men who are eager to labour and live. For the world in its wisdom deep and dim Had taken all […]

Gokul is a nagar panchayat in Mathura district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located 15 km south-east of Mathura. Read more ›

Yesterday after arriving in Skopje, Macedonia we drove several hundred kilometers southwest to Ohrid on the Albanian border. It is said that Ohrid is the, ‘meanest town in Macedonia.’ Local tradition says the Devil created Ohrid. The saying goes that when someone challenged that the town is so beautiful the Devil smiled and replied, “Yes, […]

The post October 9th, 2013 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.