Author Archives: Dandavats.com

The Real Gift.
Nandini Mataji: At Borivali Station, I was distributing books. Taking a break, I sat on the bench. Nearby I saw an educated young man standing. So I went and showed her the books. While talking to him, I smelled that he was little drunk. He happened to be working for a big company Mahindra & Mahindra tractors. He was a young man of only 24. He opened up showing his distress. No one listens to anyone. Everyone is selfish. He went on and on venting out his distress. Finally, I told him the glories of reading this book and that it has the solution for all problems.
The man gathered courage and took the Gita and promised that he will surely try. However, I gave him by mistake a hindi Bhagavad Gita instead of Marathi Bhagavad Gita. I also gave him our Temple card and number. After few days. He met me again at Borivali station. He looked more peaceful. He came and told that by mistake he had taken the Hindi book instead of Marathi. But nonetheless, he read few pages. And really he felt very good. Since that day, he said he hasn’t taken any drink. He said he had promised his girlfriend and also his family member that he won’t drink in future. Just by taking that book and reading few pages I felt so good. He thanked me and left. He said that this is real gift‐ to give this message of Gita instead of gifting pens and water bottle.

Tight Knit Group (Album with photos)
Indradyumna Swami: Our last stop in New Zealand was Christchurch in the south island. Sti…

Today’s program: Book and prasadam distribution at Besakih Temple, Bali. April 3, 2016.
We distributed 5000 glasses rosela water, 3500 prasadam cakes.
Happy seva with friends and Russian devotees.
Srila Prabhupada: If by the tongue you chant Hare Krishna mantra, and by the tongue you taste prasadam, you will be perfect, simply by executing these two things. London, July 12, 1973.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/XypmbZ

April 4. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami: The New Hip Crowd.
The new group from The Paradox was young and hip, in contrast to the elder, more conservative uptown people who had been attending Prabhupada’s classes. In those days, it was still unusual to see a person with long hair and a beard, and once such people started coming to the Swami’s meetings on the West Side, some of the older people were alarmed. As one of them noted: “Swami Bhaktivedanta began to pick up another kind of people. He picked them up at the Bowery; or some addicts. And they came with funny hats and grey blankets wrapped around themselves, and they startled me.
To read the entire article click here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=20490&page=7

How to instantly win people’s hearts?
Point out the good qualities of their children, or even their pets. How to make people dislike you? Insult or harm someone dear to them.
Similarly, the most grievous way to block the Lord’s mercy is to have contempt or irreverence for those who love and serve Him, especially those sacrificing to teach others about spiritual life. If we offend Krishna by insulting His dear sons and servants, we will fail to feel the ecstasy of love of God when we chant His holy names, as in the maha-mantra: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
—Urmila Devi Dasi

Powerful dynamic preaching in Hong Kong (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: In the Adi Purana Krishna tells Arjuna: “Anyone who is engaged in chanting My transcendental name must be considered to be always associating with Me. And I may tell you frankly that for such a devotee I become easily purchased.” (Nectar of Devotion, 12)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/S6aUmy

Recipe – Peanut Butter Cookies (5 min video)
There is this specific statement in the Padma Purana: “A person who honors the prasada and regularly eats it, not exactly in front of the Deity, along with caranamrita [the water offered to the lotus feet of the Lord, which is mixed with seeds of the Tulasi tree], immediately can achieve the results of pious activities which are obtained through ten thousand performances of sacrificial rites.
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/l2G8BT

Scenes from the Nandagram- Farm Community, Gujarat, India (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Our centers are like the oasis …

Preaching program in Moscow, Russia (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Pure devotees chant the Hare Krishna mantra, and simp…

What kind of devotees we are making?
Subhaga Swami: Srila Prabhupada wanted all his disciples to become gurus. To spread Lord Caitanya’s message to every town and village many gurus are needed. The guru should be an elevated person, beyond material attraction. That is not easy. We must understand we can never, never, never be happy here [in the material world], despite our dreams. Srila Prabhupada said this movement is for building character. We should be introspective to see how well we are doing. We are tested. At every moment, we are tested. By surrender to Krishna, one develops all the good qualities. The advanced soul worships everyone, seeing them as all souls, part of God, who are differently situated because of their karma. Ideally a man should not see his wife as an object of sense gratification. There is a saying that a brahmacari sleeps like a dog, eats like a bird, meditates like a crane, and bathes like a crow. Prabhupada gave the ideal thing and wanted us to implement it. “It is good to have a big temple,” Srila Prabhupada said, “but we have to see what kind of devotees we are making.” Srila Prabhupada said if the purity is not there, everything is lost. Without hearing and chanting about Krishna, maintaining our temples will become a burden. Sometimes we are given so much responsibility in devotional service, and that is so there is no room for maya. India is fast changing [losing its culture]. ISKCON is to save India. A brahmana is very truthful and will tell everything. A brahmana is also very pure. Krishna sees our pure devotion. He does not ask about our social position before admitting us into His spiritual kingdom. A devotee was reading the verse describing the demoniac qualities, pride, arrogance, anger, etc. One devotee said to Prabhupada, “So many of us have some of these qualities.” Srila Prabhupada replied, “They will have to go.” Bhaktivinoda Thakura once sat on the floor of the train when there were no seats. He did not say, “Get up. Don’t you know who I am? I am the magistrate.” He was humble.
To read the entire article click here: http://goo.gl/oqUI1t

April 3. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami: James Greene.
James Greene, a thirty-year-old carpentry teacher at Cooper Union, was delving into Eastern philosophy. He lived on the same block as The Paradox and began hearing about the Swami from Harvey Cohen and Bill Epstein, while regularly taking his evening meal at the restaurant.
James: It was really Harvey and Bill who got things going. I remember one evening at Mishra’s in which Swamiji was only a presence, but did not speak. Mishra’s students seemed more into the bodily aspect of yoga. This seemed to be one of Swamiji’s complaints.
His room on 72nd Street was quite small. He was living in a fairly narrow room with the door on the one end. Swamiji would set himself up along one side and we were rather closely packed. It would have been no more than eight feet wide, and it was rather dim. He sat on his thin mattress, and then we sat on the floor.
We wouldn’t chant. We would just come and he would lecture. There was no direction, other than the lecture on the Bhagavad-gita. I had read a lot of literature and in my own way I was looking for a master, I think. I have no aggression in me, or go-getting quality. I was really just a listener, and this seemed right – hearing the Bhagavad-gita – so I kept coming. It just seemed as if things would grow from there. More and more people began coming. Then it got crowded and he had to find another place.
To read the entire article click here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=20490&page=7

Amazing Harinam in Hong Kong, China Island (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: All glories to the chanting of Hare Krishna m…

Walk Acros Detroit.
Next month we will once again be lead across the once of the most fascinating cities in the country – Detr…

Sannyasa initiation for Ambarish prabhu (Bhakti Ratnakar Ambarish) (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: We are not afraid of maya because Krishna is there. Krishna says, “My devotee will never be vanquished by maya.” Maya cannot do anything if we become strong. And what is that strength? Chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare loudly. (Lecture on Bhagavad-gita, 3.6.10, Los Angeles 1968).
Find them here: https://goo.gl/aPWs1d

Hare Krishna Festivals UK – Colchester Festival – 31st March 2016 (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: O my Lord! Persons who…

Spiritual leader shares passion with locals (2 min video)
“A high-ranking leader within the Hare Krishna movement is visiting Dunedin.
He’s travelling the globe to celebrate 50 years since the spiritual practice was introduced to the western world.
And he’s sharing his own unique journey from marine to monk.”
Indradyumna Swami: An interview with Dunedin TV, in New Zealand that was seen by 150,000 viewers. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to Sri Krsna Sankirtan!
Watch it here: http://goo.gl/eRdNsq

Harinama in Barnau, Russia (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: “One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and ready to offer all respect to others. In such a state of mind, one can chant the holy name of the Lord constantly. (Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi-lila, 17.31)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/nqEVb9

Harinama in Barnau, Russia (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: “One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and ready to offer all respect to others. In such a state of mind, one can chant the holy name of the Lord constantly. (Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi-lila, 17.31)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/nqEVb9

Kirtan Forever (4 min video)
Indradyumna Swami: Sacred Sounds festival last week at New Govardhan, Australia.
Srila Prabhupada: “In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy the only means of deliverance is the chanting of the holy name of the Lord. There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way.” (Brhan-naradiya Purana)
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/zWZkPX

HG Hrdaya Chaitanya Prabhu a member of our GBC body met India’s PM, Narendra Modi, yesterday at Brussels, Belgium.

April 2. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami: Bill Epstein.
Harvey Cohen and Bill Epstein were friends. Harvey was a freelance artist and Bill worked at The Paradox. After Harvey had been to Prabhupada’s place at Dr. Mishra’s yoga studio a few times, he came by The Paradox and began to describe all about the new Swami to Bill and other friends.
Bill: I was working at The Paradox one night and Harvey came to me and said, “I went to visit Mishra and there’s a new Swami there, and he’s really fantastic!” Well I was involved in macrobiotics and Buddhism, so at first, I couldn’t care less. But Harvey was a winning and warm personality and he seemed interested in this. He said, ‘Why don’t you come uptown? I would like you to see this.’
So I went to one of the lectures on 72nd Street. I walked in there and I could feel a certain presence from the Swami. He had a certain very concentrated, intense appearance. He looked pale and kind of weak. I guess he had just come here and had been through a lot of things. He was sitting there chanting on his beads, which he carried in a little bead bag. One of Dr. Mishra’s students was talking and he finally got around to introducing the Swami. He said, “We are the moons to the Swami’s sun.” He introduced him in that way. The Swami got up and talked. I didn’t know what to think about it. At that time, the only steps I had taken in regard to Indian teachings were with Ramakrishna, and this was the first time, to my knowledge, that bhakti religion had come to America.
To read the entire article click here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=20490&page=7

Is Mark Twain pleased with the devotees? (Album with photos)
Indradyumna Swami: Dunedin is the second largest city of New Zealand’s South Island. It has a population of 120,000, 10 per cent of whom are students studying in the town’s universities. After a visit to Dunedin in the mid-1890s, the American writer Mark Twain said: “The people here are Scots. They stopped here on their way to heaven, thinking they had already arrived.” Jahnava-mata dasi has developed a thriving temple in the town with a number of activities, including a daily lunch program that is very popular at a local university. During our short stay we held harinam, did both a radio and television program and finished with a very successful public festival. I think Mark Twain would be pleased to know that for a day and half, Dunedin was just like Vaikuntha!
Find them here: https://goo.gl/JY9yVM

Nyastadanda Jayanti 2016 – videos of our recent Annual Festival at Dandabhanga.
Srila Prabhupada: We should take any lila of Krishna as Supreme. The Vrindavan lila, Krishna’s lila with the gopis, is the most confidential lila. We should not entertain this confidential lila unless we are liberated. It is very difficult subject. And because they cannot understand what is Krishna’s lila, they imitate, they fall down. Vrindavan, August 11, 1974.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/sPbHDv

Ratha Yatra – Durban, South Africa – 2016 (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: You expand the empire of Krishna consciousness….

Hollywood Movie Filming At The Temple – Extras Needed!
Last month, the Toronto Hare Krishna Temple was contacted by a local production company that is working with Hollywood-based filmmakers for an upcoming big-budget movie set to be released in 2018. They were scouting locations for a film shoot and came upon our building and fell in love with it! They contacted the temple to see if they could shoot a major scene of the movie at the temple this spring.
We have been given permission to share that the movie is a futuristic zombie-apocalypse story and it has one key scene which takes place wherein the main characters take refuge in a temple only to find that it’s monks are also zombies! The movie producers want the scene to be shot at our temple!
Needless to say, the Toronto Hare Krishna Temple spent the last several weeks carefully combing through the script of the movie to ensure that there was nothing that would portray our faith in a negative light. Having given the green light, we are happy to announce that the production company has given us a chance to ask our own community members if they would like to play roles as background extras in the movie. Some extras will also be dressed as zombies!
To read the entire article click here: http://goo.gl/4nTnLB

A new Sannyasi for Iskcon: Bhakti ratnakara Ambar Swami.
He accepted the sannyasa order today (1 April 2016) in Vrindavana by H…

Students Join Nairobi Hare Krishna Training Centre.
The new ‘Hare Krishna Training Centre’ in Nairobi, Kenya, has become a popular accommodation destination for local students, who are chanting, studying Srila Prabhupada’s books, and following the four regulative principles of Krishna consciousness. The idea germinated when manager Govinda Prema Das and others began trying to follow Prabhupada’s instructions to reach out to local Africans, rather than Hindus. “It is an African country,” the ISKCON founder told Brahmananda Das, who was preaching in Nairobi in 1971. “They are the proprietors. We should be preaching to them.” Later that same year, he wrote to Chyavana, “I am very pleased to hear that the African boys are becoming serious devotees.”
To read the entire article click here: http://goo.gl/gHIhgB

Please Remember – 5 min. hip-hop musical video based on Sri Isopanisad Mantra 17.
vayur anilam amritam athedam bhasmantam sarir…

Album of beautiful photos from ISKCON Vrindavan’s Boat Festival 2016
Srila Prabhupada: “My heart is always burning in the fire of material existence, and I have made no provisions for getting out of it. The only remedy is hari-nama-sankirtana, the chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, which is imported from the spiritual world, Goloka-Vrndavana. How unfortunate I am that I have no attraction for this. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 5.1.22 Purport)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/Mgs2j9

April 1. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami: The Paradox Restaurant.
The Paradox, at 64 East 7th Street on the Lower East Side, was a restaurant dedicated to the philosophy of George Ohsawa and the macrobiotic diet. It was a storefront below street level with small dining tables placed around the candlelit room. The food was inexpensive and well-reputed. Tea was served free, as much as you liked. More than just a restaurant, The Paradox was a center for spiritual and cultural interests, a meeting place reminiscent of the cafes of Greenwich Village or Paris in the 1920s. A person could spend the whole day at The Paradox without buying anything, and no one would complain. The crowd at the Paradox was a mystical congregation, interested in teachings from the East. When news of the new Swami uptown at Dr. Mishra’s reached The Paradox, the word spread quickly.
To read the entire article click here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=20490&page=7

Is there a scientific explanation for “changing bodies”?
Question: Is there any scientific explanation for the concept of changing bodies? Could a spirit soul transfer to a completely different universe or dimension? Does the soul remain in the body after death for any amount of time?
Our Answer: Anyone can prove to themselves, using scientific methods, that they perpetually remain the same conscious entity while the body perpetually changes. It’s simply a matter of hypothesis and observation. Depending on what kind of science you accept as valid, the Bhagavad-gita gives a thoroughly scientific explanation of transmigration of consciousness through different bodies, especially in the eighth chapter. You may also want to examine Dr. Ian Stevenson’s three thousand case studies of children remembering past lives.
To read the entire article click here: http://goo.gl/eAm79a

Gaura Purnima in Slovakia (Album with 48 photos)
Srila Prabhupada: In this Age of Kali, the process of worshiping Krishna is t…

The family of vaisnavas.
Kadamba Kanana Swami: The family of vaishnavas is somehow or other our support. Prabhupada made this movement a very personal one. In the beginning, we overlook how important relationships are because we are not used to it. In the material world, when a relationship does not work, you just cut it off and try another one… then another one and another one.
Now I’m not talking just about friendships. So many friends came and went in our lives in the material world but spiritual relationships are very different. Spiritual friendships are different because devotees are very rare. Therefore, devotees are precious and the relationship with the devotee is precious and once broken it is difficult to repair; not like a broken pot that can be glued back together.
Therefore with devotees we cannot just afford the mentality that if it does not work, get rid of this one and get another one! Because the day will come when we will need all the devotees. The day will come when we will very much depend on devotees because the vaisnavas are sustaining us in our spiritual life and without them it becomes so difficult. The day will come when all artificial behavior in our relationships will have to go because that cannot sustain us and time will test us. As they say, “It all comes out in the wash!” It means that sooner or later, it has to get real.
To read the entire article click here: https://goo.gl/0dZkqZ

ISKCON.Pakistan’s Gaura Purnima celebration, March 2016 (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: When loud chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra is performed all over the world by those who follow in Your footsteps, all living entities, moving and nonmoving, dance in ecstatic devotional love. (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila, 3.72)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/kMdkI5

Ratha Yatra – Durban – 2016 (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: My Lord, the moving entities who have heard Your loud sankir…

ISKCON Communications Conference 2016.
On the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of ISKCON we have a very interesting and rich Conference with many known speakers:
– Srila Prabhupada The Greatest Communicator by Anuttama prabhu
– How to discuss and resolve controversial and sensitive issues in ISKCON by Kaunteya prabhu
– ISKCON and Interfaith by Radhika Ramana prabhu
– Video Skills for High Impact Communications by Krishna Lila dasi
– Preaching, Undue Influence and Religious Freedom – Panel Discussion by Shaunaka Rsi, Prof. Raffaella Di Marzio and Maria Cristina Carratu
– First Draft Screening of Joy of Devotion and Feedback session by Krishna Lila dasi
– ISKCON Communications Europe report by Mahaprabhu dasa
– Communications Reports by participating Yatras
– 50th Anniversary report by Madayanti dasi
– Outing to Florence. We will meet interesting people and visit amazing places.
To read the entire article click here: https://goo.gl/9eT7jY

March 31. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami: “I Have to Execute My Duty”
Prabhupada is discussing the real meaning of going to a sacred place in India.
One should go to a sacred place in order to find some intelligent scholar in spiritual knowledge living there and make association with him. Just like I … My residence is at Vrindavana. So, at Vrindavana, there are many big scholars and saintly persons living. So one should go to such holy places, not simply to take bath in the water. One must be intelligent enough to find some spiritually advanced man living there and take instruction from him and be benefited by that. If a man has no attraction for hearing from learned people there, he is considered to be an ass. (He laughs.) So, the whole civilization is moving like a civilization of cows and asses. Everyone is identifying with the body … Yes, you want to speak?
Woman: In the places known as secret places –
Prabhupada: Sacred. Yes.
Woman: Is it “sacred” places?
Prabhupada: Yes.
Woman: Isn’t it also a fact that there is more magnetism because of the meeting of saints and more advanced people?
Prabhupada: Oh yes. Certainly. Certainly. Therefore the place itself has got some magnetism.
Woman: Yes, and when –
Prabhupada: Just like at Vrindavana – that is practical. Here I am now sitting in New York, the world’s greatest city, such a magnificent city, but my heart is always hankering after that Vrindavana.
Woman: Yes. (Laughs.)
Prabhupada: Yes, I am not happy here.
Woman: Yes, I know.
Prabhupada: I shall be very happy to return to my Vrindavana, that sacred place, but then, ‘Why are you here?’ Because it is my duty. I have brought some message for you people. Because I have been ordered by my superior, my spiritual master: “Whatever you have learned, you should go to the Western countries and you must distribute this knowledge.” So, in spite of all my difficulties, all my inconveniences, I am here because I am obligated by duty. If I go and sit down in Vrindavana, that would be good for my personal conveniences – I shall be very comfortable there and will have no anxiety, nothing of the sort, but I have taken all this risk in this old age because I am duty-bound. I am duty-bound, so I have to execute my duty despite all my inconveniences.
To read the entire article click here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=20490&page=6

ISKCON New Govardhana – Sri Sri Radha Govardhanadhari – Byron Bay Bhajans – 30 March 2016 (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada…

Easter Crowds at Iskcon New South Wales, Australia (Album with photos)
Ramai Swami: At Easter, many people go on holidays and …

Solar Powered Cow Protection.
Solar energy will power the International Society of Cow Protection’s center.
We have installed 103 solar panels on the south facing roof of the main ISCOWP building which are projected to supply 90-100 per cent of our energy needs. We have one more permit to receive before we are at temporary power at which time we will begin to see the actual output of the amazing energy from the sun. During the day we will use the solar for the electricity we need and the excess will go to our local electrical company which will act as our batteries. At night time they will send us back the electricity that we need for evening time. Different times of the year we will be earning more and other times we will be earning less. Once a year they will reconcile our account. And if we have an excess they will pay us back for it. The way Florida net-meters is that everything has to be on one meter, so along with the main building we have tied in the garage/canning and drying/workshop building and once the new barn is completed it will tie into the system also. The goal of our system is to have enough electricity for the ISCOWP center, the multipurpose building and maybe for the new barn. The benefit to tying in everything together is that in the future we can add solar panels to the two roofs of the multipurpose building and the new barn if we need them. When a cost effective battery comes on the market, our system is designed to be connected to it.
To read the entire article click here: http://goo.gl/sXdtyk