Author Archives: Dandavats

Latest developments of Iskcon Alachua community
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Hare KrishnaBy Mukhya Devi Dasi

The State of the State – your tithing dollars at work! Wow, we are already half way through 2017, so here’s a peek at what your tithing dollars are allowing us to do at the Temple. We have spent the past 16 months working on securing development permits for Phase II of our master plan, which includes building guest cottages around the pond. It’s been a long and tedious process, where every department of county regulators comes over to have a look and give opinions on what we want to do. Thank you to all of our donors and tithers, your generous contributions make these projects possible. Please encourage your friends to support our temple; we are here to serve you!

Mindful Leadership – Radhanath Swami Speaks at the Bank of England
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Hare KrishnaBy Administrator

If you met someone in the heart of London’s financial district and told them a monk was speaking at the ‘Old Lady’ of Threadneedle Street, they might be in disbelief. Although he hasn’t had a bank account or signed a cheque since 1969, and to the humour of the hundreds that attended when he admitted that, Radhanath Swami spoke at the Bank of England on Wednesday 22nd March 2017. Founded in 1694, the Bank of England is a public institution responsible for maintaining the monetary and financial stability of the United Kingdom. It serves as the model on which most modern central banks have been based.

Lord Jagannatha graces India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi
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Hare KrishnaBy Bala Govinda das

On Tuesday 27th JUNE, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Netherlands of his three-nation tour after concluding his visit to the United States. During the visit, Prime Minister Modi was meeting the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, King Willem-Alexander and the Indian Diaspora in The Netherlands. The ISKCON Hague leader Syamasundara das, Chitra devi dasi, bhn Sandjli Bisesser, bhn Reeshmi Chitan and bh Ashis Autar had the opportunity to meet the Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in the Royal Residence city. When the Prime Minister arrived at his hotel “The Crowne Plaza” there was a row of fans, huge yelling crowd lining the way cheering and glimpsing. The security was tight, but our ISKCON member Bhn. Sandjli was not going to let this opportunity slip by and gifted the Prime Minister a chadar/shawl on which Lord Jagannatha was present. The Prime Minister deeply appreciated the gift with clasped hands & thankful words and during his warm welcome he walked with the Lord waving his hands.

Yoga of the Tongue
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Hare KrishnaBy Vaisesika Dasa

The most important and uncontrollable sense is the tongue. If one can control the tongue, then there is every possibility of controlling the other senses. The function of the tongue is to taste and to vibrate. Therefore, by systematic regulation, the tongue should always be engaged in tasting the remnants of foodstuffs offered to Kṛṣṇa and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Although one may conquer all of the other senses, as long as the tongue is not conquered it cannot be said that one has controlled his senses. However, if one is able to control the tongue, then one is understood to be in full control of all the senses.

Transcendental Pastimes Of Lord Jagannath
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Hare KrishnaBy Jagannath Das

After giving up the company of the Vraja-gopis, Vrajendranandana performed His pastimes in Dvaraka. When Sri Kṛṣṇa visited Kurukshetra during a solar eclipse, He was accompanied by Baladeva, Subhadra, and other Dvarakavasis. At Kurukshetra, Kṛṣṇa again met the Vrajavasis, especially Srimati Rādhikā and His beloved sakhis. Bhakti Charu Swami recently visited Dubai and on 26th June 2017, Maharaj gave a very nectarian class on the sweet pastimes of Lord Jagannath.

Simple Living — High Thinking
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Hare KrishnaBy Iskcon Sweden

“Simple Living — High Thinking” is a Strategic Partnership project involving youth workers and youth from 5 partner organizations from Sweden, Belgium, Hungary, Slovenia, and Czech. All the organizations are active in youth work, connected with areas of self-sustainability, healthy lifestyles, and youth employment. The partners expressed their mutual interest in creating a network based on strong partnerships aimed to connect more and exchange the good practices in relevant areas of their work.

Bhakti Yoga
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Hare KrishnaBy Ravindra Svarupa Das

Always remembering Me, one should perform all his duties for Me without becoming impetuous. With mind and intelligence offered to Me, one should fix his mind in attraction to My devotional service. All of one’s love and affection should be devoted to pleasing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is not indicated here that one should try to relish selfish satisfaction in devotional service, but rather that one should be attracted to the Lord’s own satisfaction, which one achieves by faithfully executing the order of a bona fide spiritual master coming in disciplic succession from Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself. Attachment to one’s own satisfaction, even within devotional service, is materialistic, whereas attachment to the satisfaction of the Lord is pure spiritual emotion.

Srila Prabhupada and His Palace
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Hare KrishnaBy Madhava Smullen

Prabhupada’s Palace was the first Samadhi to be completed for Srila Prabhupada in the world. To this day, it remains the only one of its kind in the West, a renowned Smriti Samadhi, or memorial shrine to ISKCON’s Founder-Acharya, and a monument to the love between Prabhupada and his disciples. Today, as the crown jewel of New Vrindaban, Srila Prabhupada continues to reside in his Palace, embodied through both his murti form and his instructions. There, his sincere followers can still associate with him. And that connection cannot be underestimated. As Srila Prabhupada himself reminded the devotees during his 1976 visit, “I am already living here… because you are all desiring it.”

Me and my garden: ‘At 5am, I go to the temple to chant. It’s how I get ready to work’
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Hare KrishnaBy Erica Crompton

Bhakti Vinode, head gardener at Krishna Eco Farm in Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, on past lives and plants with souls. “I have been on the farm since 1989, having first been to a Krishna farm in Watford in 1981. Back then, I was living in a squat and hanging around the West End of London, drinking and getting into trouble. But the Krishna way of life gave me a new goal, rather than always thinking about where I could get my next fix from. I live right next to the farm in Lesmahagow. We’re on a long, winding hillside. We’ve converted the old farmhouse at the top of the hill into a function hall. Farther down the hill, there are two ashrams, one for the men and the other for the women. We have a walled garden and a herb garden, and some lawns for recreation. Four greenhouses sit on the side of the hill, and there’s also an orchard. The hill carries on into the village, where the farm owns a handful of houses.”

Bos Indicus Conference
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Hare KrishnaBy Sri Krishna Purushottam Das

The keynote speaker was renowned Indian politician Dr. Subramaniam Swamy. He professed his sincere commitment to offering support in the enactment of a national law, based and backed by the Constitution of India, to give full protective rights to cows in India. Dr. Swamy strongly suggested that all spiritual organizations in India must work together and promote the cause of cow protection. Among other comments, Mr. Sunil Mansinghka ji, from the Go-Vignan Anusandhana Kendra, Nagpur,  suggested that ISKCON should become the International Society for Krishna and Cow Consciousness. 

Notice Of Approaching Death
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Hare KrishnaBy Bhakti Prabhava Swami

I made a seminar presentation, in which I shared my experience of attempting to help terminally ill devotees to prepare for death, I asked the seminar attendants the question: “What would you do if you were told you have terminal cancer and you have two or three months to live?” Some devotees replied that they would go to Vrindavan or Mayapur to prepare for leaving their body. Others said that they would chant constantly and hear Krishna Katha without interruption. Bhakta Pol was able to visit the holy dhamas and intensify his sadhana and association with devotees because, until his sudden heart failure, he was in reasonably good health. But a person suffering with advanced cancer is generally not able to perform these activities. Therefore, Hamsagati Krishna Das, who left us at the age of sixty-one, reacted differently to the news of his imminent death.

Banabehari Mandir
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Hare KrishnaBy Haripriya Devi Dasi

“My alarm clock rings. It is 5:00 a.m. on a summer morning in Saranagati Village, and it’s almost time for mangal arati. After getting ready, I step outside into a crisp and quiet morning. Picking a flower from our garden for Their Lordships, I jog up the hill on the way to my favorite place, Banabehari Mandir. Once at the top, I look down towards the ashram and see dim yellow lights shining through the early morning mist. Coming up to the beautiful stained-glass tilak door, I lightly knock—and almost immediately, my favorite voice answers, ‘Haribol! Come in!’ Slowly opening the door and stepping in, I say, ‘Haribol!’ From the kitchen I hear, ‘Oh, choti Haripriya! I’m so happy you are here! I’ve been thinking of you!’ Yamuna walks around the corner with a warm smile. She wraps me up in a tight embrace, and I squeeze my eyes shut and hug her, cherishing every moment in her arms. After a few seconds, Yamuna takes me by the hand and leads me towards the temple room. Before entering, she taps the hanging chimes, which ring in a high, sweet pitch. Wafts of incense mixed with the fragrance of flowers meet my nose. I hear Dina behind the Deity curtain, humming beautiful tunes as she prepares for arati. On this and every time I come to Banabehari Mandir, I think, ‘This is what the spiritual world must be like. I am home.’

The Walking Monk passes through Steamboat Springs on his journey across the U.S.
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Hare KrishnaBy Audrey Dwyer

It takes about three pairs of shoes to walk across the United States. At least that’s according to Bhaktimarga Swami, a 63-year-old Canadian born monk (formerly John Peter Vis) who has embarked on a transnational marathon walk of 3,000 miles across the United States from New York City to San Francisco on the Old Lincoln Highway. Met with incredulous stares from passersby, this man, who follows the monastic lifestyle of the Hare Krishna order, dresses in an orange robe and he typically walks up to 20 miles or more each day on roads that range from heavy traffic to remote lands. All the while, he walks with a purpose.

Crown Prince of Udaipur Rajasthan His Highness Prince Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar visits Melbourne Temple
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Hare KrishnaBy Sukadev Das

It was our great honour to receive the visit by Crown Prince of Udaipur Rajasthan His Highness Prince Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar who comes in the lineage of great king of Mewar (Rajasthan – capital is Udaipur) Maharana Pratapa and great devotee Meera Bai. I had the opportunity to receive him to our temple, took him around our temple area including our Tulasi house, he was very impressed with how Tulasai Maharani was well cared and looked after in Melbourne (cold place). As we were walking from Tulasi house to our new kitchen I asked the Prince in a quest to find out how much he knows about ISKCON, in a response he said by pointing out to rose flower bush ‘who doesn’t know ISKCON, just like everyone knows rose flower similarly ISKCON is well known to all’. I also gave him the tour our new kitchen along with Darpan, Nitin from Victorian Parliament who were accompanying the Prince. Darpan and Nitin who were highly instrumental to organise the grant of $500k from Victorian Government for our new kitchen. They were all extremely impressed with our new kitchen. Prince (owns 5 star hotel in India) commented ‘this is far better than any of our hotel kitchens, temple of Lord Krishna deserve such a nice kitchen to distribute Krishna Prasad to everyone’. They all had darshan of our Deities, took them to Srila Prabhupada house, naively I asked him to sit on the floor of Srila Prabhupada house he happily sat and listen to the glories of Srila Prabhupada for about 15 min, during our discussion he commented generally ‘Brahmanas are by birth’, at the end of our discussion he agreed that Brahmana is by action (characteristics and qualities) not just by birth. Finally they all honoured fruits and juice from 4pm offering and left happily.

New Vrindaban Kids’ Camp Makes Spirituality Fun
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Hare KrishnaBy Madhava Smullen

“We never thought a spiritual event could be so much fun – we would love to come again!” wrote one family after attending the Children’s Summer Camp in New Vrindaban last year. “Wonderful event – we can’t wait till next year,” wrote another. “Our son says he will miss New Vrindaban very badly.” These families are in luck. After the very well-received first New Vrindaban Children’s Summer Camp drew around 25 families from up and down the East Coast, organizers Sundari Dasi and Mercy of Gopal’s Garden Preschool are turning it into an annual event.

Tirupati Yatra – Sri Venkata-ksetra
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Hare KrishnaBy Chandan Yatra Das

Tirupati is the place of Lord Sri Venkateswara Swamy, who is the all-pervading Lord of the Universe also known as the Lord of the Seven Hills. Tirupati is one of the holiest places of pilgrimage where Lord is worshiped in the mood of awe and reverence. Tirupati is the home to the world’s richest temple, where thousands of pilgrims visit daily to take darshan of Sri Venkateswara Swamy, also popularly known as Balaji. The magnificent temple of Lord Venkateswara Swamy is located on the 7th peak, Venkatachala (Venkata Hill) of Tirumala. It is by the Lord’s presidency over Venkatachala, that He has received the appellation, Venkateswara (Lord of the Venkata Hill).