Author Archives: Admin108

India in Greece or Truth in mythology “The affinity between the…
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India in Greece or Truth in mythology
“The affinity between the Greek language and the old Parsee and Sanskrit is certain and essential. The use of cognate idioms prove that the nations who used them to have descended from the same stock. That the religion of the Greeks emanated from an Eastern shore no-one will deny. We must therefore suppose the religion, as well as the language of Greece to have been derived, in great part, largely from the east”. Dr Prichard – Physical History Of Man.
“The whole of this state of society, civil and military, must strike anyone as eminently Asiatic; much of it specifically Indian. Such it undoubtedly is… these evidences were but the attendant tokens of an Indian colonization with its corresponding religion and language… the whole of Greece, from the era of the supposed godships of Poseidon and Zeus, down to the close of the Trojan war was Indian in language, sentiment and religion, as well as the arts of peace and war.” – Edward G Pococke.
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Pupils try tasty alternative to white bread A healthy…
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Pupils try tasty alternative to white bread
A healthy alternative to “nasty” cheap white bread is on the menu for hundreds of Northland schoolkids thanks to a $10,000 donation all the way from Singapore. Food for Life founder Buddhi Wilcox had been wanting to make chapati – a thin pancake of unleavened wholemeal bread – for the students for years. Founded in 2012, the organisation provides free, nutritious vegetarian meals weekly to more than 1000 Whangarei schoolchildren. Unfortunately making chapati is quite time consuming, with it likely taking a volunteer five or six hours to make the number required. “The whole idea for me was at the schools a lot of the kids are just used to having cheap nasty white bread,” Mr Wilcox said. “This (chapati) is a staple diet in India and it’s part of a good balanced meal.” Normally the commercial chapati making machines were very large, though Mr Wilcox managed to find a small one less than 2m long online from the United States.
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Hare Krishna! BBT Draft Editorial Policy BBT Global…
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Hare Krishna! BBT Draft Editorial Policy
BBT Global Communications: During Srila Prabhupada’s physical presence, all of his books were edited before publication. For some of these books – Sri Isopanisad, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, and the First Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam – his editors, with his approval, undertook a second, revised edition. Apart from this, during his lifetime his editors made various minor revisions. And Srila Prabhupada himself sometimes directed that some particular word or sentence be revised. Srila Prabhupada, however, many times expressed his disapproval of “needless change.” And on one notable occasion (in Vrindavana on June 22, 1977) Srila Prabhupada expressed strong disapproval of changes that “rascal editors” had made to his books, and he directed that these changes be reversed.
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Hare Krishna! ISKCON 50 Festival in Houston Celebrating the 50th…
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Hare Krishna! ISKCON 50 Festival in Houston
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s arrival in America, fulfilling his Guru Maharaja’s instruction and the 50th anniversary next year of the incorporation of the International Society For Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Many wonderful presenters have committed to attend, including, Bhakti Caru Swami, Giriraja Swami, Romapada Swami, Mother Rambhoru Devi, Bhaktimarga Swami, Vaisesika Prabhu, Gunagrahi Goswami and Mother Radha Devi. Join us, for not-to-be-missed kirtans, sadhu sanga, classes and seminars, great prasadam feasts, international special presentations, product and service displays, outreach and sankirtana networking and much more celebrating the first 50 years of Srila Prabhupada’s mission. There will also be special programs for children.
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Hare Krishna! Did Indra help the construction of New Vrindavana’…
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Hare Krishna! Did Indra help the construction of New Vrindavana’ s Govindaji Mandir?
Varsana Swami: A few days later, after the water had drained out of the footer, Bob and I went back up to Govindaji Hill and continued the footer exaction. To our surprise and delight, the rock broke out easily this time. I cannot say definitely that it was because of the lightning because standing water will also loosen layered rock. The excavation for the footer of Govindaji Mandir was completed in time so that the community was able to conduct two simultaneous installation ceremonies. There was a grand installation ceremony in Bahulaban for the cornerstone of Govindaji Mandir, the first of the seven temples that Srila Prabhupada had envisioned in New Vrindaban. There was another cornerstone ceremony for Srila Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold.
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Varnashram – the Foundation to Deepen our Chanting In former…
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Varnashram – the Foundation to Deepen our Chanting
In former times the Varnashram system was practised with so many detailed rules and regulations, many of them being connected to all kinds of karma kanda rituals. In our modern days it is certainly impossible to re-introduce this kind of understanding of Varnashram, and there is also no need for it. Nevertheless, the basic principles of Varnashram can be extracted and will always be very relevant for any civilized human society. These principles are simply part of Krsna’s system in order to create stability and harmony in this world, and to support our spiritual practice.
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Mayapur Hera Panchami Drama in Bengali held at the Gundicha…
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Mayapur Hera Panchami Drama in Bengali held at the Gundicha Temple (17 min video)
2015 Hera Panchami Drama in Bengali language held at the Gundicha Temple located inside the Sri Pancha Tattwa Temple in Mayapur. A very pleasing drama to watch even if you don’t speak Bengali. A major event, held in the courtyard of the temple, is what makes the Hera Panchami Festival in Puri pretty famous. The event is held on the arrival of the chariot of Goddess Laxmi. Once the chariot arrives a little damage is caused to the chariot of Lord Jagannath to signify Goddess Laxmi’s anger on the lord for leaving her alone in the temple. This event is watched with great fun and excitement by the devotees. After the event, the Goddess Lakshmi is brought back to her temple via Hera Gouri Sahi. Video capture, editing and uploading to You Tube by Pandava dasa
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/zq0lX5

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Hare Krishna! Care for Cows Care for Cows, Vrindavan Staff: You…
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Hare Krishna! Care for Cows
Care for Cows, Vrindavan Staff: You may be concerned with the future of Care for Cows after the passing of Kurma Rupa Prabhu but please rest assured that his great work will continue on for many years to come as per his wishes. Go-Seva ki jaya! Before leaving this mortal world, Kurma Rupa requested his right-hand man and long time go-sadana manager, Keshi Nisudana, knowing his keen sense of propriety and judgement, along with his selfless dedication and management skills, to continue to lead his team in maintaining all the beloved cows. As you all well know, the Care for Cow’s ground-staff cannot do this alone. You, our kind-hearted sponsors, are an invaluable part of the Care for Cow’s team. Only with your continued support can we provide all the inhabitants of Care for Cows, now and in the future, with the nourishment, shelter, medicine, and love which they so greatly appreciate and sorely need.
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Hare Krishna! Prabhupada is jumping! Madhudvisa dasa: This is…
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Hare Krishna! Prabhupada is jumping!
Madhudvisa dasa: This is another precedent: “We can jump, we can dance, we can play the mridanga, and now we can also lead kirtan, because here, this lady is doing it. Prabhupada asked her to do it.” Everybody was in total euphoria. Shyama Devi led the most melodious kirtan. It went on and on. Srila Prabhupada was dancing, and she was dancing, and it built up and was the most fantastic experience that all the devotees could have had. Before the dust even settled from the kirtan, a devotee was on a phone saying, “Prabhupada is jumping!” “What do you mean he is jumping?” “You don’t have to do the swami step anymore. Prabhupada is jumping up and down. Kirtan was going on. Prabhupada was jumping up and down.” And Brahmananda said, “Well, how do you do it? How do you jump?” “You just jump up and down. Just be ecstatic. Put your hands up in the air, and just jump as high as you can.” Brahmananda told Boston, Boston called Montreal, and in a matter of hours the whole country was jumping. Kirtan has never been the same since.
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Oxford University digitizes old paintings of Vedic Deities …
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Oxford University digitizes old paintings of Vedic Deities
University of Oxford has posted digital versions of 110 Kalighat paintings of Vedic deities and others from 19th-century Calcutta on its new online portal “Digital.Bodleian”.
Digitized Kalighat paintings from 19th century Calcutta, created as inexpensive souvenirs for Hindu pilgrims visiting the famous temple of Kali; These paintings were acquired by Sir Monier Monier-Williams for the Indian Institute Library and Museum at Oxford as a result of his third fund-raising trip to India in the winter of 1883-1884. During this trip, he secured the help of various regional authorities in obtaining local art and craft works and sending them to Oxford.
View them here: http://goo.gl/HrP0qC

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Hare Krishna! Mayapur Flood Day – 2 Over night the Ganga has…
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Hare Krishna! Mayapur Flood Day – 2
Over night the Ganga has risen quite a lot. Many areas cannot be reached without a boat now. Water level is increasing every hour, in front of Gada building the water is around 4.5 feet, and in the Mayapur temple hall the water is around the waist line. Bengali news channels are informing that in the districts of Nadia and 24 Parganas the flood level is expected to increase dramatically, as some small up stream barrages broke due to heavy water load and to expect this water to make its way here. The weather report says due to the depression which moved from Bangladesh to West bengal, we should expect very heavy rain for next 48 hours. Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal chief minister, said that the flood situation in the state is out of control. A huge big thanks to MayapurTV for continuing to broadcast mangal arati during the immense challenges arising from the flood. Devotees attended the arati standing in knee deep Ganga water.
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Hare Krishna! Tribute to Surabhi Prabhu Samba Das: It was cold…
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Hare Krishna! Tribute to Surabhi Prabhu
Samba Das: It was cold winter morning of January 1982, Bhavabhuti Prabhu President of ISKCON Guwahati summon me to his room, he asked me to go to the Airport to pick up H.G.Surabhi Prabhu. The construction of Guwahati temple was in progress and Surabhi prabhu was coming to give his input. I was in touch with ISKCON Mayapur since 1974 but I joined as fulltime only in 1980 and was a new 2 year old Brahmachari at that time. I was quiet enthusiastic that I am going to drive “the Surabhi Prabhu” viswakarma of ISKCON, by this time I had already heard about him from Bhavabhuti prabhu. I arrived at the Airport on time inspite of the old Indian Army Janga jeep threatening to stop here and there. Surabhi prabhu’s personality was very neat, impressive tall around 6ft high, fair skin, slim and the saffron colour of his Sannyasi robe reflected on his face.
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Hare Krishna! Huge chariot pulls in crowds for city Hare Krishna…
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Hare Krishna! Huge chariot pulls in crowds for city Hare Krishna festival
The 90ft chariot carried the Deities of Lord Jagannatha (Krishna), his sister Subhadra, and Lord Balarama – accompanied by music, singing, and dancing. The event began with an inauguration ceremony attended by city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby and community leaders at the Hare Krishna Centre, in Granby Street. The procession then made its way to Cossington Park, Belgrave, arriving in the afternoon for a free festival offering free vegetarian food, music , drama and family entertainment for up to 10,000 people. For Asha Shaunak, 70, of Evington, the Festival of Chariots is a particularly special day. She said: “My family originate from near the holy city of Puri, in eastern India, where the festival began over 5,000 years ago. “I’ve lived in Leicester for more than 40 years and if fills me with such pride that we have it here too, thousands of miles away.”
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Hare Krishna! If There Is Only One God Why Are There So Many…
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Hare Krishna! If There Is Only One God Why Are There So Many Religions?
As the saying goes: “history is but a set of lies commonly agreed on by historians” In relation to religious historians this issue is even more acute, primarily because of the almost blanket ban on accepting any religious history that is not based on sense perception. The so-called ‘enlightenment consensus’ strictly adhere to their rule that nothing beyond gross matter and three dimensional space can be recorded. In reality this means that the enlightenment consensus lobby generally dismiss every other source of information and in the case of the vedic version it is dismissed as mythology. Sir William Jones the renowned lawyer, linguist and philologist while having some appreciation for India was unfortunately scathing about the beliefs and pramana system of the vedas. He referred to them as charming but fictitious embellishments and mockingly wrote about Bhisma being born of Mother Ganga and Bhima being born of the wind etc.
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Everywhere Was Ecstasy! (7 min video) Indradyumna Swami: All…
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Everywhere Was Ecstasy! (7 min video)
Indradyumna Swami: All throughout the Woodstock festival Krsna’s Village of Peace was teeming with tens of thousands of people exploring all we had to offer: kirtan, dramas, books, yoga, shops, exhibits and a tent where they could inquire from senior devotees. Our Ratha Yatra Cart traversed the entire Woodstock site numerous times each day. Colourfully dressed, devotees seemed to be chanting and dancing everywhere in ecstasy. Over 150,000 plates of delicious prasadam were distributed. We cooked more than 38 tons of foodstuffs! As the festival drew to a close I meditated on a verse by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati:
“The fortunate town of Navadwip remains on the earth. The seashore remains. The city of Jagannath Puri remains.The holy names of Lord Krsna remain. Alas! I do not see anywhere the same kind of festival of pure love for Lord Hari. O Lord Caitanya! O ocean of mercy! Will I ever see Your transcendental glory again?“
[ Sri Caitanya Candramrta, Chapter 12, text 140 ]
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/F4gGZs

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Hare Krishna! New Book: Vraja-mandala Darsana “Through the…
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Hare Krishna! New Book: Vraja-mandala Darsana
“Through the spellbinding pages of Vraja-mandala Darsana, Lokanath Swami will take us on the traditional parikrama of Vraja-dhama, following in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya and our beloved acaryas. We will hear, see, smell, taste and feel the twelve timeless forests of Vrndavana” – HH Radhanath Swami
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New Book: Vraja-mandala Darsana “Through the spellbinding pages…
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New Book: Vraja-mandala Darsana
“Through the spellbinding pages of Vraja-mandala Darsana, Lokanath Swami will take us on the traditional parikrama of Vraja-dhama, following in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya and our beloved acaryas. We will hear, see, smell, taste and feel the twelve timeless forests of Vrndavana” – HH Radhanath Swami
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Hare Krishna! When people danced to ‘Hare Rama, Hare Krishna’ in…
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Hare Krishna! When people danced to ‘Hare Rama, Hare Krishna’ in Beijing
The “prasadam” were fresh grapes, cookies and tiny condiments in wrappers. The devotees were mostly young Chinese. And, it was a rare interactive session held by senior members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Beijing on the Bhagvad Gita combined with insights into yoga on Saturday afternoon. On sale outside the auditorium was a new version of the Gita in Chinese. Copies of the “Bu Jian Fan Ge” in Chinese or “Bhagvad Song” sold rapidly from the counter as visitors picked up their copies for the price of an entry ticket at 200 yuan (Rs 2000). In the auditorium, musicians from India played the mridangam, flute and harmonium as trained singers sang “bhajans” and the well-known tune of “Hare Rama, Hare Krishna” associated with devotees of Krishna.
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Hare Krishna! Kinds and degrees of illicit sex Urmila Devi Dasi:…
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Hare Krishna! Kinds and degrees of illicit sex
Urmila Devi Dasi: Certainly we Gaudiya Vaisnavas, members of ISKCON, should know what is sinful and what is not. In the ultimate sense, “sin” is anything that is not done 1) for Krishna, 2) with a desire to please Him without wanting anything in return, and 3) without any interruption in the service. Such pure bhakti is the nature of the soul, and anything contrary to that, or less than that, is untruth and sinful. But sin is of different kinds and degrees. Just as one cannot say that because a cat is an animal and a dog is an animal that a cat is a dog, so one cannot say that because two things are both sinful that they are the same kind of thing, or to the same degree. Murder is a different kind of sin than is stealing, and there are degrees of both, with different types and severity of consequences. First degree murder is of a different degree than manslaughter; and manslaughter is a different kind of sin than armed robbery with a deadly weapon, which is of a different degree than burglary.
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