Author Archives: Dandavats.com

Interview-Gunagrahi Maharaj – 1968 Buffalo NY (audio)
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Interview-Gunagrahi Maharaj – 1968 Buffalo NY (audio)
Gunagrahi Swami: “One thing I noted, something that struck me was, the devotees were disciplined and happy while I was undisciplined and unhappy.”
Mitra Dasa: One of the best interviews I’ve collected so far. In Buffalo New York he was friends with Trivikram, Bhurijan, Jagadish and several others before they joined the temple.
Listen to it here: https://goo.gl/KSbGul

Sutra’s for happy life by “Shri Gaur Gopal…
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Sutra’s for happy life by “Shri Gaur Gopal Das” in Jodhpur, India (Album with photos)
On the 20/05/2017 Gaur Gopal Das spoke on the topic “Sutras for a Happy life” at an event organized by Kokoon and Fascino ( Jeetendra Surana and Pankaj Surana). The event was attended by industrialists, the business community, officers from the defense, bankers, and doctors.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/DswUy5

Ratha Yatra at Wintersun Festival, Murwillumbah, Australia…
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Ratha Yatra at Wintersun Festival, Murwillumbah, Australia (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Krsna and the sound vibration “Krsna” are nondifferent, so if one loudly vibrates Hare Krsna, he will be able to think of Krishna immediately. This process of chanting is the best process of self-realization in this age; therefore Lord Caitanya preached it so nicely for benefit of all humanity. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 3.24.35 Purport)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/Cvpn2u

Niranjana Swami – Kirtan at Gauranga festival, Ukraine –…
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Niranjana Swami – Kirtan at Gauranga festival, Ukraine – 9-Jun-2017 (video)
Srila Prabhupada: Worship of the Lord, whose name is like the sun, for just as a slight appearance of the sun dissipates the darkness of night, so a slight appearance of the holy name of Krishna can drive away all the darkness of ignorance that arises in the heart due to greatly sinful activities performed in previous lives. (Sri-Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila, 3.62)
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/jrpLH7

Initiation ceremony at HH Giriraja Maharaj’s ashrama…
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Initiation ceremony at HH Giriraja Maharaj’s ashrama yesterday (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: If one offenselessly utters the holy name even imperfectly, one can be freed from all the results of sinful life. (Sri-Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila, 3.61)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/OWpTtU

Jagannath Puri (Album with photos) This is it! History in…
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Jagannath Puri (Album with photos)
This is it! History in making … You get to see these pictures only once in a year! These are rare, extremely rare! Behold the jaw dropping & the most fascinating blissful pictures from Lord Jagannath’s transcendental SNAN YATRA MAHOTSAV 2017 Jagannath Puri, Orissa.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/K9N900

The role of faith in devotional service
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The role of faith in devotional service.
Faith is the unflinching confidence that upon attaining one thing — Krsna-bhakti — one is provided with all other desirable achievements. Absolute faith, unflinching faith, rests in Krsna-bhakti onl…

Earning or “L”earning? (5 min video) Is Earning Money…
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Earning or “L”earning? (5 min video)
Is Earning Money better than Learning? – Gaur Gopal Das – Motivational Video.
“The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money.”
“It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy.”
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/MpxPNI

Shri Jagannath Ratha Yatra “Festival of the chariots” parade in…
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Shri Jagannath Ratha Yatra “Festival of the chariots” parade in New York City on Saturday June 10th 2017. If you’re in the New York City area please join this wonderful event. Hare Krishna!
Starts: June 10 2017 @ 11:30am
Ends: June 10 2017 @ 7:00pm
Location: Fifth Avenue to Washingon Square Park
Starting at 5th Ave. & 45th St. Manhattan, New York City.
Please assemble by 11:30am, The parade proceeds down Fifth Ave to Washington Square Park at the Campus of New York University. The colorful Festival of India will be celebrated at Washington Square Park from 2pm – 7pm.
Festivities
Saturday June 3th – Snana yatra
Friday June 9th – Rath Yatra preparations: If you’d like to volunteer to help for this festival,
please contact 347-849-2485. Tasks includes cutting vegetables/general kitchen preparations,
cleaning various parts of the temple and stringing flower garlands. Your service is heavily appreciated! Time: 11AM-8PM @ 305 Scermerhorn St
Saturday June 10th – Rath Yatra 45th street and 5th Ave start time 11:30 am
Sunday June 11th – Maha Sunday feast and Sri Sri Radha Govinda and Lord Jagannath in a flower dress. Maha kirtan and bhajans will progress throughout the evening.

Don’t believe everything you think!
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Don’t believe everything you think!
Vaisesika das: During the summer months, thousands of people visit scenic Pacific Beach in San Diego, California, some of them staying for a week or longer in the pricey rental apartments that line the shoreli…

“Consumption” (6 min. video)
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“Consumption” Video for the day by His Grace Mahatma Prabhu (6 min video)
We can look at consumerism as an addiction, we can look at it as a disease and we can at least acknowledge that the disease is there, or the potential to be addicted…

All India Padayatra In Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, South India,…
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All India Padayatra In Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, South India, June 9, 2017 (Album with photos)
By Acarya Dasa
Anantha: On April 14th we reached Thiruvananthapuram, formerly known as Trivandrum. It is the capital and largest city in the state of Kerala. The city’s name comes from the presiding deity of the ‘Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple’, who is also known as ‘Anantha’ (one who reclines on the serpent, Anantha). It is said that the deity was originally 18 miles (28 kilometers) long and it would take devotees three days to do parikrama (holy walk) around the Lord. After hearing the prayers of His devotees, the Lord reduced His size to 18 feet (0.3 meters).

A friend from Gujarat

We took darsana of the Lord and the pujaris there helped us arrange our accommodation. We stayed there for a few days doing sankirtana at the beach. We even gave our Lordships, Sri Sri Nitai Guarsundar, a dip in the ocean. One day while doing sankirtan in some part of the city, a gentleman approached us. He was very happy to hear us singing the maha-mantra. I spoke to him and told him about our Lordships and how we started our padayatra from Dwaraka and coincidently he was from Gujarat. He was really surprised, “Wow! So you all are coming from my home town. Jai! And the Lord also came to give us darsana”, he said. He was so happy that he invited us to his home for sankirtana and prasadam. This gentleman had five brothers all of whom attended our sankirtana program the next day. One of them was named Rakesh, and he was blind. He told us he had once heard a recording of Srila Prabhupada singing the maha-mantra. He then started to sing in exactly that manner. We were so happy to see him singing for the pleasure of Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar. The Lord showers his mercy on each and every one of us. The family gave us a donation of 7000 rupees and they also took a Bhagavatam set.

Book scores for Kerala

Since entering the district of Kerala on April 6th, we have distributed so many books. It was amazing, anyone who we tried giving a book to would wait, listen to us and then usually after seeing the book they would buy it. To date we have distributed:

5776 Maha Big Books

694 Big Books

4698 Small Books

Total books distributed: 11315

Anandi Gaura Dasa

Anandi Gaura Dasa joined our padayatra party in Nagpur last month. He is very enthusiastic. In South India we have a lot of challenges with language since the majority of people speak Tamil or English but not Hindi. Anandi Gaura Dasa was a great help; he translated from Hindi to English to everyone I spoke to. He also distributed a lot of books: 598 maha big books and 168 small books.

Matsya Avatar Dasa & Uttamnarahari Dasa

Other devotees who also distributed a lot of books were Matsya Avatar Dasa and Uttamnarahari Dasa. Matsya Avatar Dasa distributed 505 medium books and Uttamnarhari Prabhu 486 medium books.

All the padayatris did book distribution. Our book distribution was done to such a large scale that we had to constantly order new sets of books and as soon as I would order them they would get finished. This was all the mercy of the Lord, these were all chamatkars (miracles) and we, padayatris were nimitta-matram (just instruments). We spoke to Lokanath Swami about the book distribution. He was very happy, he said, “Keep going on, support each other and serve the Lord.”

We also attended a one-day Jaganath ratha-yatra (chariot festival) in Trivandrum where we distributed the following number of books:

230 Maha Big Books

60 Small Books
Find them here: https://goo.gl/T57ADV

Hollywood actress Marie Avgeropoulos visits Vrindavan and starts…
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Hollywood actress Marie Avgeropoulos visits Vrindavan and starts a campaign for its underprivileged girls.
The campaign aims to raise funds to support the education of a thousand more girls at the three Sandipani Muni Schools in Vrindavan, Lord Krishna’s birthplace. During her week-long visit, Marie spent her time trying to understand and document the problems underprivileged Brijabasi girls face. Her six-part documentary series on her experience will be released by Without Exception Films through an online campaign this month and will premier during a series of fundraising events in Los Angeles starting with one hosted by Marie herself on June 15th.
To read the entire article click here: https://goo.gl/KaoHnw

Historical film of Iskcon’s first Rathayatra in Kolkata (5 min video)
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Historical film of Iskcon’s first Rathayatra in Kolkata (5 min video)
12th July 1972, the 1st Kolkata Rathyatra in Iskcon history in the birth city of Srila Prabhupada. This Rathyatra was organized with the hard work of His Holiness Jayapataka S…

Being right and being true
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Being right and being true.
Twenty years ago, I lived in a small and simple ashram with fellow bhakti-yoga practitioners. I used to talk for hours with a friend, a deep and soft person, about philosophy, life, spiritual practice, and the fine tuning o…

Panihati Cida-dahi Festival. Wed. 2017-06-07. Raghunatha dasa…
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Panihati Cida-dahi Festival. Wed. 2017-06-07.
Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, who later became famous for his renunciation, was previously a householder and wanted to join the personal association and service of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu at Jagannatha Puri. However, his father prevented Raghunatha dasa from doing so. After several failed attempts, Raghunatha dasa heard that Nityananda Prabhu had arrived at Panihati. In order to receive the Lord’s causeless mercy, Raghunatha dasa went to see Him.
When Nityananda Prabhu saw Raghunatha dasa, He ordered him to prepare and serve all His associates chida-dahi, flat rice mixed with yogurt. In order to please the Lord, Raghunatha dasa immediately carried out His order by preparing and distributing large quantities of chida-dahi to the Vaishnavas, as well as hundreds of others who had arrived on the spot upon hearing that a festival was on at Panihati. Finally, Lord Nityananda blessed, and ordered His associates to bless, Raghunatha dasa, that he would be successful in attaining the personal association and service of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Panihati is located near Kolkata. Many devotees from Mayapur and Kolkata assemble and jointly conduct kirtanas and massive
prasada (sacred food) distribution to the thousands of pilgrims who arrive for the festival.

Srila Prabhupada: My Guru Maharaja used to say that this material world is not fit for living for any gentlemen
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Srila Prabhupada: My Guru Maharaja used to say that this material world is not fit for living for any gentlemen. He used to say, “no gentlemen can live here.” So these things are not understood by the non-devotees, how much pinching this ma…

Exciting Plans Afoot for Spain’s New Vrajamandala. Yadunandana…
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Exciting Plans Afoot for Spain’s New Vrajamandala.
Yadunandana Swami’s first move is to invite capable devotees to build up the New Vrajamandala team. (“Without a good team, you can’t be successful,” he says.) Already, Sabda Brahma Das, who previously worked at a bank, has been named the new treasurer; while retired post office manager Rafael Vasco is the accountant and temple commander.
The team’s top priority is to improve Deity worship. For this, they have calculated the minimum cost to maintain a good standard of worship, including pujari maintenance, which will bring steadiness. They’ve already secured sponsors, funding, and some new pujaris, and are looking for a head pujari to oversee the department.
To read the entire article click here: https://goo.gl/5peLJR

Panama Ratha-yatra 2017 (Album with photos) Srila Prabhupada:…
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Panama Ratha-yatra 2017 (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: The Lord’s holy name is called sravana-mangala. This means that one receives everything auspicious simply by hearing the holy name. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 2.7.15 Purport)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/oZMxTE