Monthly Archives: October 2013

Srila Prabhupada Visits New Vrindaban – June 24th, 1976. Excerpt from Hari Sauri’s Trancendental Diary. Because of his continued heart palpitations Srila Prabhupada did not feel well enough to take his daily walk. Instead he remained in his room and talked for a while with myself, Pusta Krsna and Kirtanananda Maharajas. Still, for the sake […]

2013 Mayapur Gurukula Jhulan Yatra with H.G Jivadaya Prabhu playing his chinese flute

“So you continue in this way, always thinking of Krsna, chanting 16 rounds, reading the books, and doing your daily chores all on behalf of Krsna.”Letter to Hladini Devi Dasi28 January, 1973

Today is the Vyasa-puja day for my spiritual master, Bhaktimarga Swami.  I remember many years ago admiring his humility in offering respect given for him to Srila Prabhupada, his desire to see Srila Prabhupada glorified instead of himself, and that was when I first thought of him as a potential spiritual master for me.  In […]

Sitting through the wonderful seminar with His Holiness Kadamba Kanana Swami. And of course at the end there will be a wonderful Kirtan as usual from him.

VICARU DAS BHAKTIVEDANTA MANOR ISKCON UK Sri Pariksit said: “O brahmana, how can the vedas directly describe the supreme Absolute Truth who cannot be described in words?” The vedas are limited to describing the qualities of material nature, but the supreme is devoid of all these qualities, being transcendental to all material manifestations and their […]

VICARU DAS BHAKTIVEDANTA MANOR ISKCON UK One day Krishna and balarama were playing at the place called yashoda kunda with their friends, but it was time for them to come home to take their lunch and mother yashoda sent Rohini: you go to get Krishna and Balaram. Rohini came and she said: “Krishna, Balarama, please […]

BG 05.29 House is burning down, still happy? 2013-07-26

Our culture often reduces character to image, wisdom to sound bytes and self-worth to net-worth. Being goaded by such a superficial environment, people frequently, even feverishly, aim to look big. They want to appear to be belonging among the best, even to be the numero uno. The Bhagavad-gita (16.15) characterizes such obsession with appearances as […]

Every endeavor requires land, capital, organization and labor. Just as in business one requires a place to stay, some capital to use, some labor and some organization to expand, so the same is required in the service of Krsna. The only difference is that in materialism one works for sense gratification. The same work, however, […]

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.47.64-66 during the morning program at the ISKCON Dallas temple. “Although the gopis are the most worshipable devotees in existence, they worshipped Uddhava as a dear friend of Krishna’s. So, when one develops such purity of heart, although one is most exalted, one feels oneself to be ordinary […]

Lord Chaitanya states in the Chaitanya Charitamrita that the “root cause of bhakti is sadhu sanga”, which Srila Prabhupada translates as the association of advanced devotees. Read more ›

The music is from the album “The Hanumen – Manipuri Hare Krishna” Read more ›

Please visit our new website for Srila Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold!

The Deity of Sri Sri Radha Kalachandji is the oldest Deity form of Krishna found outside of India (500 years old). Read more ›

The post October 5th, 2013 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.

In addition, we discovered this month that maintenance at Sakhi Kunda is being managed by an organization called Tirtha Vikas Trust. We are attempting to contact their people in order to find out if they will allow us to clean and renovate there. Meanwhile, the cleaning, gardening and beautifying at Radha Kunda continue. Read more ›

Niranjana Swami — Kirtana with disciples at Bhakti sangama — September 19, 2013

But oh if you could see, the change you’ve made in me, That the angels in the skies, were envious and surprised, That anyone as nice as you, would chance with me. [Rodriguez]

On our way to Varna for a public program, we stopped at the historic site of Nesebar, an ancient town on a peninsula just off the Black Sea coast. Nesebar dates back to the 11th Century and at one time had over 35 churches on the small peninsula measur…

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

Castle and Apples

Toronto, Ontario

I took 5 people with me today to show them a trail unknown to them.  It was a brief trek to Casa Loma.

Our ashram where I live is in a unique location. It’s one kilometre from Queens Park, half a kilometre from Yonge Street, parks are all around.  The museum, a world class, is also just one kilometre away.  Ravines are within a two kilometre distance.  The country’s largest university’s limits are within a short walk.  And then there’s Sir Henry Pellat’s home, Casa Loma, which means in Spanish, Hill House.  It has 98 rooms and over 30 toilets.  There’s an oven large enough to cook an ox, they say.  The house was built for his wife, Lady Mary Pellat.

Sir Henry Pellat was not noted for his walking, but his running.  In 1879 he won the men’s 1500 metre or mile run at the US national championship.

In any event, there was Casa Loma.  Our walking/chanting group took a moment to look at this masterpiece of a castle as we dreamt away.  “What a gorgeous Vedic temple this would make,” as we gawked at the largest private residence in the country.

Onward we went to new streets of charm where you find those old red brick 19^th century homes.  As we walked past the York tennis court, the edge of the property bore a golden delicious apple tree.  I shook a branch, the apples fell, we picked.  As a routine I chant a quick mantra as a way to offer such organic fruit to Krishna.  We ate with relish.

A security man from inside the building caught us on screen.  It was still early and dark.  He saw us, some in robes, he rushed out to the scene.  Suddenly, he halted and said, “Oh, it’s you, yeah go ahead, take them all,” he said in the tone of absolute kindness.  Relieved he was that we were neither pranksters nor thieves, and rewarded we were having a real gift of sweet fleshiness in our palms and then our mouths.  Thievery is not our game, but I’ll admit that we are greedy to hone in on all the treasures of the morning, the greatest of them all being the chanting on our lips and the company of bhakti yogis.

10 KM

It is relatively easy to accommodate those who accommodate us. It is much more difficult to accommodate those who don’t accommodate us. The Bhagavad-gita reveals how Krishna is supremely accommodating. Therein, Krishna outlines various spiritual paths custom-made for people with varying inclinations, thereby expressing his desire to get everyone to start off on their spiritual […]

The impersonal conception of the Supreme Absolute Truth, as described in this [twelfth] chapter, is recommended only up to the time one surrenders himself for self-realization. In other words, as long as one does not have the chance to associate with a pure devotee, the impersonal conception may be beneficial. In the impersonal conception of […]

Here Then And Now

Toronto, Ontario

Yesterday I trekked amidst trees.  Today I took to pavement with concrete buildings on both sides.

I can’t say that scenario number two, or today’s scene was anything less interesting.  Pedestrians are playing out their lives in their own natural way, conversing a bit, flaunting, or just moving from one place from another in their own individual way.

I time machined my way back to a hundred plus years and imagined the situation then.  People would be milling around, clothes would be dark and folks would be less risqué in their style of fashion.  Both men and women wore hats, there would be a sharing of space with horses.  There would likely be a courtesy, but not necessarily a warmth of exchange with that Victorian air about it.  There was optimism and talk about business and the family.  You might find people speaking of the Bore War, and Canada’s participation in it in Africa.  The pace of life would be slowed down compared to what it is now.  In the business district a stride would be more of a strut where as in the residential area it would be more of a stroll.

In 1905 there was a great fire.  It had razed many buildings demolishing many of them.  But people resilient as they are or were shot everything up again.

All this imagery I superimposed onto the current background of the existing urban setting of Toronto.  I couldn’t imagine a monk in saffron walking at that time – the turn of the century.  There wasn’t the kind of freedom then as there is now.

I had actually been walking with a member of the Krishna community when the flashback hit.  I had been urging him to settle down and formally tie the knot with his common-law wife.  The idea is to make commitments in life that encourage sacrifice.  The idea is to build a team of two, maybe three or four or more (as in children).  The idea is that love should be more firmed up and less whimsical.  The idea is that the relationship should have a spiritual base.

Funny thing is here I’m fast forwarding now using my walking partner as the subject.  I believe he appreciated my suggestions.  After pressing the rewind button and then the fast forward one I decided to press play.  Here we are, let’s live in the moment, get real, follow dharma (duty), and adhere to the wishes of guru and Krishna and make progress.

8 KM

As many will remember, the Toronto Hare Krishna Centre participated in the annual Nuit Blanche Festival Nuit Blanche – an all-night arts festival which transforms a huge area of downtown Toronto into a giant contemporary art museum. Last year, we pres…

It is customary for devotees to walk around the town of Vrindavana. There is a parikrama path that goes around the town. This path is one street over from the ISKCON temple. It usually takes two to three hours to go around Vrindavana. The parikrama path is 10 km (6 miles). Some of the places passed on the way are: Mohana Ter, Kaliya Ghata, Madana Mohana Temple, Imli Tala, Sringara Vat, and Keshi Ghata.

The main day that people do parikrama of Vrindavana is on Ekadasi (the eleventh day of the waxing and waning moon). It is customary to do this walk with bare feet, which is fairly painless, even for one who never walks in bare feet. Read more ›

There was a time in ancient India when man spent his surplus wealth in serving the Deity form of God. God is omnipotent and hence the belief is that He resides in His Deity form to show mercy and compassion to His devotees. In reciprocation to God’s love, devotees show their love by dedicating whatever they get as surplus in service to Him. This relationship of expression of love of giving gifts to God was the hallmark/essence of vedic customs, rites and rituals. Thus the fully satisfied man was a good steward of fellow living beings and nature. In such an enriched environment, there was no poverty, crime, exploitation, animal slaughter, greed, lust, pride etc – things we take for common today was not even heard of in ancient vedic culture.

Remnants of such culture can be seen even today where pious Hindus give gifts to the Deity form of the Lord. While the external rituals remain, the inner meaning of love is lost. Unless we revive our inner feelings of love for God we will not be satisfied in life. We will not be good stewards of fellow beings and nature. Our hearts will only be filled with exploitative tendencies of greed, lust, fear etc.

Feeding the poor, building orphanages or schools or hospitals might be the band-aid solution to solving social ills but the root cause solution is to clean the ecology of our own hearts from materialistic tendencies of greed, lust, pride, fear etc.

I will end this post in the spirit of Gandhi’s birthday reminding us of his words – “Be the change that you wish to see in this world“. The change within us can come about only if we revive our original culture of giving our surplus to God in an exchange of unmotivated gratitude, devotion and love.

Hare Krishna

Prabhupada: If halava is made nicely, actually it is best. So prepare all these things. Offer to Krsna and devotees, and at last you take. Don’t take first. Give all, as much as you like, then you take. Susukham kartum avyayam. It is such a nice movement. It is simply pleasing. To execute, it is simply pleasing. Read more ›

Jacksonville Beach is the same place where Lord Jagannath loves to take His annual stroll down the Jacksonville, Florida, USA, beach, benedicting hundreds with His big smile. His happy devotees chant smokin’ kirtans during the entire procession! Read more ›