Author Archives: Dandavats

We Are All God’s Children
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Hare KrishnaBy Indradyumna Swami

Yesterday we participated in “Color Splash” a multi-cultural festival in Durban, South Africa. Various ethnic groups showed off the best of their music, dance and theater. It began with a parade along the beachfront with Zulu warriors, Scottish bagpipes, boy scouts, a marching band and of course our blissful harinama. At the festival site we were prominent with kirtan, prasadam distribution and a Holi festival; throwing colored dyes to the accompaniment of a blissful kirtan. My address on social cohesion – a hot issue in South Africa – was well received. I stressed that social harmony will only come to the people’s of South Africa when everyone realizes what they have in common. That essential truth is that we are all God’s children – brothers and sisters in the real sense.

New Raman Reti’s first Community Development Conference
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Hare KrishnaBy CDI Team

Along with the recently completed Community Survey, the objective of this conference was to create a platform that allows the community’s voice to be heard, deepen our relationships, and build a shared vision for New Raman Reti going into the future. This exciting event took place at the Alachua Woman’s Club, Sunday, December 3, 2017, from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm. and followed by sumptuous lunch Prasadam. The overall Vision of the Community Development Initiative (CDI) is a loving and well connected family of Krishna devotees, spiritual aspirants, and friends fulfilling Srila Prabhupada’s Mission. Both senior and second generation devotee speakers facilitated the conference with presentations on New Raman Reti’s history and the survey results. They also invited further feedback from the audience on how to enrich our already amazing NRR Community. An important community event.

Sant Tukaram’s Dehu Dhama and Pune Yatra
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Hare KrishnaBy Chandan Yatra Das

Sant Tukarama (AD 1609-1650) was a saint-poet of towering stature. Tukarama was among the most prominent saints to have come out of the holy land of Maharashtra. He hailed from the village of Dehu, near Pune, and was born in the Warkari community who are devotees of Lord Vitthala (or Panduranga). Srila Prabhupada occasionally referred to this great saint, “The great saint of Maharashtra known as Saint Tukarama was also initiated by the Lord Caitanya. Saint Tukarama, after initiation by the Lord, over-flooded the whole of the Maharashtra Province with the sankirtana movement and the transcendental flow is still rolling on in the southwestern part of the great Indian peninsula.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam – Introduction)

From Aligarh to ‘Hari’garh!
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Hare KrishnaBy Mohan Sunder Das

From West Virginia to New Vrindavan; Lord Krishna has spread His causeless mercy through Srila Prabhupada in every part of His creation. Now, it was time for Aligarh to become Harigarh. Lord Sri Hari sent His representative, HH Kratu Das ji Das Ji Maharaj to carry out this most auspicious task and materialize or better so spiritualise the words of Lord Chaitanya and Srila Prabhupada who prophesied the existence of Krishna’s temple with the echoes of Harinaam in every town and village of the world.

Prabhupada Marathon Message
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Hare KrishnaBy Giriraj Swami

This is parampara. Srila Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami and all the Gosvamis wrote books for the enlightenment of the general populace, and that instruction and practice came down through parampara to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, who wrote many books and instructed his disciples to write books. And Srila Prabhupada faithfully followed those instructions and also wrote many books. In fact, it is inconceivable that anyone could write so many books in such a short time. Srila Prabhupada came to America in 1965, and from the very beginning in New York City he was selling his books. Years later, when devotees were doing research about Prabhupada’s life, they went to some bookstores where he had sold his books, and the shopkeepers remembered, “Oh yes, a very nice Indian gentleman came, and he would always give us samosas.” He would give them samosas when he went to sell them his books.

Prison Outreach Preaching from ISKCON Alachua
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Hare KrishnaBy Saranga Thakur das

200 inmates on death row will get to see the movie “Hare Krishna! the mantra, the movement and the Swami that started it all”. At first the Chaplain seemed reluctant to allow us to show the movie, but with a letter from Yadubara and the years of goodwill we’ve developed, he agreed. His staff have offered advertising and technical help including spreading our posters around to all the buildings and even allowing the movie to be shown to the 200 guys on death row. And excitement is building around the showing of the movie. One of the students was concerned that the posters aren’t up yet so he made some of his own, just to make sure it was sufficiently advertised.

All India Launch of the Movie, “Hare Krishna! The Mantra, the Movement and the Swami who started it all”
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Hare KrishnaBy Gauranga Das

In India, the movie was officially launched in Delhi on the 12th November 2017 by the Vice President of India, Mr. Venkaiah Naidu. Dr. Bibek Debroy, one of world’s well known economist and Indologist, executive members of India’s planning commission (NITI Aayog) and Chairman of Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council participated as the guest of honour. This film is going to be released all over India in PVR cinemas starting from 15th December 2017 onwards and is an opportunity to spread Srila Prabhupada’s life and his glorious teachings, his profound work and ISKCON’s mission to each and every house and person of India. We request all ISKCON devotees to inspire their family members, relatives and friends to go and watch this movie by pre-booking the tickets online in their nearby theatre through the link provided in this post.

Is it better to choose a guru born in a brahmana family?
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Hare KrishnaBy Purushottam Nitai Das

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura met with opposition when he had taken his disciples for braj mandal parikrama because many temple priests of Vrindavan were of the opinion that he should not have given brahminical threads to those who were not born in a brahmana family. But Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura gave reference of various scriptures and proved that one should be considered a brahmana not by birth but by qualities. He quoted verse from Srimad Bhagavatam wherein sage Narada tells Yudhisthir that even if one is born in the family of a sudra but acts like a brahmana he should be accepted as a brahmana and if one is born in the family of a brahmana but acts like a sudra then he should be considered a sudra. “If one shows the symptoms of being a brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya or sudra, as described above, even if he has appeared in a different class, he should be accepted according to those symptoms of classification.” S.B. 7.11.35. If anyone is living as per the guidelines of the scriptures, is chanting the holy names of the Lord with love and sincerely following the four regulative principles of no meat eating, no gambling, no intoxication and no licit sex should be considered a saintly person and he is fit to become a guru. Chaitanya Mahaprabh says “It does not matter whether a person is a vipra [learned scholar in Vedic wisdom], or is born in a lower family, or is in the renounced order of life – if he is a master in the science of Krsna, he is the perfect and bona fide spiritual master.”

First Class Dialogue with Scientific and Scholarly community – Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami’s Matchless contribution to the BI mission
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Hare KrishnaBy Subal Shyam Das and Jaganmohini Devi Dasi​

This year (2017), on Nov. 24th, Friday, disciples, servants and well-wishers of H.H. Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami will be celebrating his 80th Vyasa-puja. On this most auspicious occasion, for the pleasure of all Vaishnava community, we recall one of his vital contributions to the BI-scientific mission which was visible since the inception of Bhaktivedanta Institute by the blessings of Srila Prabhupada. Today we would like to emphasize on this aspect, namely, Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Maharaj’s unique approach of first class dialogue in dealing with scholarly community. He adopted this even while he was preparing and arranging the first international congress on ‘Life comes from Life’ before Srila Prabhupada’s departure in 1977 at Vrindavan and Srila Prabhupada was indeed very pleased with it.

ISKCON Govardhan Eco Village Won the Aqua Excellence Award 2017 in the XI World Aqua Congress
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Hare KrishnaBy Anand Caitanya das

Every year the Aqua Foundation Group organizes the World Aqua Congress (WAC) on a theme related to environment and invites excerpts of papers from speakers from all over India. During the XI World Aqua Congress, this year, ISKCON Govardhan Ecovillage (GEV) was awarded with the prestigious Aqua Excellence Award in the category of ‘Green Housing – Social Sector’. Jadu Thakur Das, Head – CSR, GEV received this award from Dr. Vandana Shiva, the famous author, activist, pioneer and Scientific Advisor. The Award Ceremony was conducted during the Inaugural Session of XI World Aqua Congress, cantered on the theme of ‘Water & Environment’’ on the 9th November 2017 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The conference was attended by various corporate heads, Government authorities, university professors, NGOs etc.

The Networking Tree of Lord Caitanya
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Hare KrishnaBy MCO staff

The devotees rent an auditorium and many devotees from ISKCON Mayapur come to participate in the program. They perform dances, musical presentations, and dramas, and senior devotees speak. There is also kirtan and prasadam distribution. During the month of Kartik, the Bhakti Vriksha Department conducts Damodara Programs, in which attendees hear about Damodara lila and offer lamps. In 2016, the Damodara Programs were so successful that the Mayapur Bhakti Vriksha Department engaged over 100,000 people in offering lamps to the Lord. All of these programs are very effective for attracting the local people to become a part of Mayapur’s Bhakti Vriksha.

A Remarkable Experience in Wellington, New Zealand
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Hare KrishnaBy Bhakta Mukesh

HG Chaitanya Charan Prabhu’s First Visit to Wellington. HG Chaitanya Charan Prabhu needs no introduction. From Australia to America he has given talks on spiritual subjects at universities like Princeton and Cambridge and companies like Intel and Microsoft. This time, it was New Zealand’s fortune to welcome this spiritual scholar of ISKCON’s leading intellectual body to the capital city of Wellington. The highlight of this visit was his intriguing seminars to the Wellington’s Journey of Self Discovery (JOSD) and Bhakti Sastri students and the wider Vaishnava community.

A Belated Appreciation Of Srila Prabhupada’s Spiritual Daughter And Disciple – HG Gayatri Devi Dasi
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Hare KrishnaBy Amarendra Das

While in Gainesville, Gayatri convinced countless students and young people to join Krishna consciousness. Simultaneously, she made more true friends than I can ever recount. However, it was after we moved to the Los Angeles in July, 1982, that Gayatri’s true character fully blossomed. In addition to the hundreds of friends that Gayatri had made in Gainesville and all over the world, including and especially Srila Prabhupada’s sister, Pishima (who often referred to Gayatri as her “daughter”) she made hundreds of new friends on the West Coast, and developed a special bond with devotee children. She was also the “Inventor” of the modern version of Gauranga Potatoes, and is famous for the renowned “4:00 offering” that she would cook everyday for Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai when the Gainesville Temple was located on Depot Avenue.

Meet the Hare Krishna monk running one of the best vegetarian restaurants in Cardiff
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Hare KrishnaBy Carly Squires

Atma has won several food awards, including The Observer’s ‘Best ethical restaurant in Britain’ title, and it also provides space for healthy living activities such as yoga and meditation. “We are called the kitchen religion, because we place a lot of emphasis on food. Everything we see, tough and smells affects our consciousness and how we think and feel. Everybody’s got to eat. You know you have come to the right religion when you have got a big plate of food in front of you.” The cafe, which closed the doors at its previous Church Street location in April, advocates the principal of ahimsa – a belief, central to the religions of Hinduism and Buddhism, that all living beings have a spark of divine energy and that to hurt others is ultimately the same as hurting oneself.