Author Archives: Dandavats

Carrying Forth Our Inherited Legacy
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Hare KrishnaBy Mayapur Communication Office

His Grace Udayananda Prabhu recalls Srila Prabhupada’s final days: “One day Prabhupada said, ‘I’ve given you this big ISKCON movement. If you can, please expand it.’ He said, ‘At least maintain it. Don’t let this decrease.’ Then he said, ‘Please cooperate,’ as he said so many times before. And then Prabhupada started to cry. Everyone in the room started crying. That was probably the most painful moment of my life, to see Prabhupada cry. So we have this movement. It’s Prabhupada’s movement. We have the good, we have the bad, and we have the ugly. But we just have to be determined to never leave the ISKCON movement. We just have to always try to push it forward. If there’s a problem, push it forward. Because when you leave ISKCON, you make Prabhupada cry. So let’s make Prabhupada happy and push on Krishna consciousness to every town and village”.

Shared Statement of the GBC Body & HH Hridayananda Das Goswami
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Hare KrishnaBy the GBC Corresponding Secretary

On October 15th and 16th, HH Hridayananda Das Goswami and HG Brahma Tirtha Prabhu met with the GBC Body and a special subcommittee to discuss some mutual philosophical concerns and Krishna West. The committee members included the GBC Executive Committee–Bhakti Charu Swami, Madhu Sevita Das & Bhaktivaibhava Swami–as well as Sivarama Swami, Radhanath Swami, Guru Prasad Swami, Prahladananda Swami, Badrinarayan Swami, Bir Krishna Das Goswami and Praghosa Das.

Second GBC College Residential 2017 Completed
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Hare KrishnaBy GBC College Staff

Within the scenic, spiritually surcharged Govardhana Ecovillage outside of Mumbai, India, some two dozen participants from various parts of the world attended the Zonal Supervisor Course’s second and last residential session. We enjoyed the company of leaders from India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Italy, Hungary, Latvia/Lithuania and Kenya, including four sannyasis – desirous to improve their skill-set to better serve Srila Prabhupada’s mission. The course was also graced by the teaching of two GBC members.

Krishna-kripa remembers Sadaputa
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Hare KrishnaBy Prishni devi dasi

Krishna-kripa dasa is known for his blissful engagement traversing the planet singing the glories of the Holy Name. But three decades ago he began what may appear to be a very different kind service with the Bhaktivedanta Institute: In 1988 he visited the San Diego branch and offered to engage his BA in Computer Science from Brown University, in its scientific preaching mission. The San Diego BI team – Sadaputa, Drutakarma, and Madhavendra Puri Prabhus – invited him in. He soon became a dedicated assistant of Sadaputa Prabhu, working hand-in-hand with him as he published many of his 9 books and dozens of articles on a wide range of topics dealing with science and the Vedic tradition.

Exploring the Bhagavad gita; Philosophy, Structure and Meaning
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Hare KrishnaBy Ishvara Krishna Das

I would like this work to be considered a contribution not only to the study of the Bhagavad Gita, but to the emerging field of Comparative Theology, as once the structures of great theological works could be articulated, these could be compared, contrasted and grouped together, thereby offering a unified sense of pluralistic spirituality which may serve as an alternative to materialism. Originally, Greek philosophy was inseparable from Greek religion, and only gradually was it articulated as a universal philosophy. Similarly, this work may further a slight step in this direction, in that it emphasizes the Bhagavad Gita’s philosophical nature, relevant also in a non-Hindu context. Examining many of the available academic editions, one realizes that they offer an introduction followed by a verse translation; the present edition joins the few editions which render the text divided into sections, and add a commentary; I hope that this approach proves to be useful. Let me conclude by quoting the Bhagavad Gita itself: “This is a royal science, a royal mystery, the supreme purifier, experienced directly, it conforms to dharma, pleasant to act upon and eternal.”

ISKCON Govardhan Ecovillage receives the IGBC Green Village Platinum Ratings
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Hare KrishnaBy Anand Caitanya das

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has established Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), with a vision to enable sustainable built-environment for all and facilitate India to be one of the global leaders in sustainable built-environment by 2025. With a modest beginning of 20,000 sq.ft of green footprint in the country in the year 2001, today over 4,205 IGBC green building projects, amounting to over 4.61 Billion sq.ft are adopting IGBC green building rating systems. This in turn has enabled India become one of the top 5 countries in the world in terms of largest registered green building footprint. The Green Building Congress 2017 was the 15th annual flagship event of IGBC and is the largest event on green buildings in Asia. Over 3000 participants attended this event with over 150 leading National and International experts shared their thoughts and perspectives on sustainable built environment.  The Congress also hosted World GBC Board Meeting and Annual Members Meet. The event attracted participation from several countries including Singapore, Srilanka, Hong Kong, Australia, China, UK and USA. Shri Gauranga Das was also one of the master speakers of the conference and shared about the Sustainability Initiatives at Govardhan Ecovillage.

Hare Krishnas’ new temple takes environment into account
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Hare KrishnaBy Danae King

On a recent sunny morning, Dr. Piyush Gupta was gazing across a broad expanse of land just west of Hilliard. Many might just see a dew-covered field dotted with groups of trees, but Gupta can imagine a large, white stone temple rising up from the ground. The site, just off Walker Road, is the future home of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness Columbus, of which Gupta is a council member. ISKCON is a society for Hare Krishnas, who believe meditation can purify one’s consciousness. The society, located in a small house near Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center since the 1980s, purchased the more than 50 acres of land in March 2016, and plans to start building on it soon. The land is just one sign of the vibrant, growing Krishna community in Columbus.

Day Three of GBC Meetings: Education and Expansion
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Hare KrishnaBy Anuttama Dasa

Ujjain, India; October 11—Zonal Supervisors, an important leadership role created by the Governing Body Commission (GBC) to improve management in ISKCON around the world, was the first topic of today’s GBC meeting. Working directly under an individual GBC member, a Zonal Supervisor assists that GBC member by supervising a number of temples and projects within a particular geographical zone. Currently most GBC members directly oversee all the temples in their zones. Some GBC members have intermediate managers under them, with different titles such as “Regional Secretaries” who oversee a group of temples. But, there is no standard process. One problem is that sometimes a GBC member may have dozens of temples under them directly. Being stretched so thin puts a lot of pressure on individual GBC members, and has led some local leaders to complain they lack sufficient guidance and presence of their GBC representative.

Second Day of GBC Meetings Explores Improved Means of Decision Making
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Hare KrishnaBy Anuttama dasa

The second day of the Governing Body Commission (GBC) Mid-Term Meeting began with a report of a one-year study of how to improve the effectiveness of GBC meetings. Members were presented with a 94-page document or “Meetings Manual,” and a second 23-page guide on “Decision Making.” Both texts were drawn from research conducted by the GBC Strategic Planning Team (SPT). In preparing the manuals the SPT underwent a detailed analysis of Srila Prabhupada’s teachings on management as well as a review 40 professional studies and books on meetings and decision-making. Vraja Vihari Das, a SPT member, led a morning series of plenary and small group discussions to introduce the two documents. The GBC discussed the advantage of creative arguments (open mindedly exploring a variety of positions) vs. attached arguments (only wishing to push one’s own agenda or opinion, and thus shutting down other possible solutions, or sources of information).

ISKCON Governing Body Commission Opens Mid-Term Meetings
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Hare KrishnaBy Anuttama Dasa

The Mid-Term Meeting focuses on strategic, organizational and development issues, whereas the Annual Meeting focuses primarily on proposals for new legislation to become ISKCON Law. This morning’s meeting began with an update on the progress of the GBC Organizational Committee (Org Dev). Org Dev’s role is to serve the devotees of ISKCON by building ISKCON’s administrative capacity; understanding that while ISKCON has grown substantially in its first 50 years, its administrative elements have not kept up. Org Dev reported it is working on multiple issues.

How I came to Krishna consciousness
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Hare KrishnaBy Niranjana Swami

We never experienced anything else in Prabhupada’s presence other than his burning desire to give Krishna, and that’s what captured our hearts, and that’s what makes us want to make this life successful by doing something to make Prabhupada smile. And if some day we can become so blessed to be able to do that which he wants us to do, then that’s the only reason why we live in this world. There is nothing else.

Saradiya is at Srila Prabhupada’s Lotus-feet
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Hare KrishnaBy Vaikunthanath das

It is a miracle of good fortune that Srila Prabhupada’s disciple, Saradiya dasi, should leave her physical body on the very day of the Sri Krsna Saradiya Rasa-yatra (October 5, 2017). She left at 6:15 a.m. San Diego time. The time zone in India is twelve and a half hours ahead of California, so it was 6:45 p.m. in Vrindaban at that moment. The moon rose at 6:03 p.m. in Vrindaban. So Saradiya left her body just as the moon was rising above the horizon in Sri Vrindaban Dham.