Author Archives: Dandavats

Do …barbers exist?
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Hare KrishnaVaisnava dasa: How can you say that,” asked the surprised barber. “I am here, I am a barber and I just worked on you!” “No!” the customer exclaimed. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did there would be no people with long dirty hair and untrimmed beards like that man outside.” “Ah, but barbers do exists! What happens is people don’t come to me.”

An ethical scorpion
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Hare KrishnaKunja Bihari Devi Dasi: Although they speak about universal love and brotherhood, the non-theistic moralists, like their immoral brothers, are unable to appreciate others as anything more than dull matter. Their perception is limited to the external body, and the relationships they form with others are similarly skin- deep—shallow, short-lived, and ultimately prone towards exploitation. Since they identify themselves as temporary matter, there is no reason for them to perform truly selfless acts.

After the Disappearance of Sri Guru
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Hare KrishnaBy Gour Govinda Swami

“Krishna is My life. Now My life has gone out. I cannot see Krishna, I cannot find Krishna.” He cried piteously when Haridas Thakur disappeared. “Krishna is so merciful. He gave Me the association of such a dear devotee who was always with Krishna. But now he disappeared, so I cannot feel the presence of Krishna who is My life. I am without life, I am without life.” That is how one should cry.

After the Disappearance of Sri Guru – Part Two: The Dark Period
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Hare KrishnaBy Gour Govinda Swami

Still, after the disappearance of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, a black period was there. Who fulfilled Mahaprabhu’s prediction? Bhaktivinode Thakur started. Because India was blindly following the West, he thought that the books and teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu should be presented in English‚ and that this science should be taught in the Western world.

How is Space in Srimad Bhagavatam Different from Space in Modern Science?
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Hare KrishnaBy Rsiraja Das

Material and spiritual “sciences” are different because their roots are different. But the underlying principles of space and position are similar and can be understood in a similar manner. By understanding how atoms in material space are nodes of a tree emanating from Ksirodakasayi Visnu, we can understand how the soul is an atom emanating from Krishna. Ksirodakasayi Visnu is in each atom not physically but semantically: to understand the atom, we must know the root from which it emanates. Similarly, Krishna is in all of us not physically but semantically: if we know how we are connected to Krishna, we fully know ourselves.

December marathon 2016 — VrindavanDham
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Hare KrishnaBy bhaktin Anya

Every day thousands of people from all over India come to Vrindavan. Especially over the last few years the number has been increasing very rapidly. I was surprised to see that the people didn’t know much about the extreme sanctity and transcendental value of the place they were in. In this way I had a nice opportunity to speak about Vrindavan. I used to say: “Do you know that you are very fortunate? Do you know why? It is because you are in the spiritual capital of all the three worlds. Everyone who comes to Vrindavan gets special benefit.” Like this I was addressing each family. And after that we had nice discussions about Bhagavad Gita and the philosophy of Krishna consciousness. Sometimes some persons refused to take a book because they considered themselves contaminated. Yes, nowadays, even in India, people are inclined to do many kinds of nonsense such as drinking liquor or going to nightclubs and so on.

Unity In Diversity – Thanks To Kalindi The Cow
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Hare KrishnaBy Janananda Gosvami

Chanting Hare Krishna with a completely fixed goal. No consideration of who’s who – off the bodily platform. One goal – Save Kalindi! No material thoughts or motives. It felt like Samadhi – deep Krishna consciousness. A memorable event – an eternal lesson. If only we could feel like this at every moment. Prabhupada did. When we realize it’s an emergency then we may feel the urgency. Spending our lives quibbling over bodies and things is not gonna help us in the long run.. We have got the greatest service in the world, all of us – to get the temperature back to normal. We have the medicine, take it give it to others and work together despite all the differences. While massaging the body of the spiritual master let us not fight over it. Let’s do things the way Prabhupada would be happy. He is standing next to us at every moment. If only we could realize it.

Our Temples
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Hare KrishnaRadhanath Swami: Our temples, it is so very important that we learn the science of properly giving and receiving the association of devotees. Actually every guest that comes is Krishna’s specially invited guest. And it is our duty to give them every possible opportunity to make spiritual advancement. It is the first priority.

Krishna Krishna!
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Krishna-kumara Dasa: To my surprise, the girl was spontaneously drawn in, like iron to a magnet, and grabbed a book. The boy followed suit and grabbed the other book. I briefly explained who I was and what the books were all about. They both took a book, and she gave an exceptionally large donation. She eagerly asked, “You said ‘Krishna Krishna!’ right? I’ve been learning about Krishna in my ‘Hindu Gods & Goddesses’ class, and I LOVE Him! He’s my favorite.”

The Right To Know – The Vaisnava Way
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By Kesava Krsna Dasa

As a world body, how do the members of Iskcon – the devotees – deal with truth telling or the revelation of sensitive information in a vaisnava way, among themselves? Some believe there should be no restrictions while others urge caution due to aparadha. Is there a balanced way? It normally takes a trustworthy official statement to put a matter to rest. In between the official statement and an incidental cause for emotion and betrayal, our vaisnava approach to how knowledge or information should be revealed, is tested. If the brahminical quality of truth rules in all of our dealings and interactions with other devotees and the public, then to what extent should truth be revealed – in different circumstances – that could possibly cause loss of faith, betrayal, hurt, emotional reactions and so on?

Celebrating the New Year’s Eve with Jagais and Madhais – Lord Nityananda’s Outreach
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Hare KrishnaBy Daamodara Dhananjaya Das

Just imagine, we are on one of the most happening streets of a modern and a rich city like Ahmedabad (Gujarat) on the New Year’s Eve at 11.00 pm, while the whole country is eagerly waiting for the clock to cross its 12. There’s so much rush that it is barely possible even to move and everyone is singing and dancing, on some extrinsic song of a C grade Hindi movie, at the top of their voices and wearing weird masks, projecting their true demoniac qualities within and above all, they are SEVERELY INTOXICATED. And in such an environment if we suddenly see a group of devotees; bright-faced, peaceful, joyous, smiling, singing and dancing, decently dressed in a traditional Vaishnava attire, distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books and Mahaprasadam, what could be our instant exclamation? OUT OF PLACE? NA-NA. That’s exactly what our JOB is! We are here to permeate through the most impenetrable orchestration of Maya, with the help of the weapons of Harinama, Mridanga-Karatala, Mahaprasada, Srila Prabhupada’s books and genuine CARE & LOVE towards the fallen conditioned Jagais and Madhais. And that’s exactly what His Grace Muralimohan prabhu and his group practically did. By the mercy of Lord Nityananda, they acquired the brilliant idea of jeopardising their tolerance, purity and steadfastness, to get into the herds of the wildest of the cranks, just for the sake of trying to break through the indestructible clenches of Mayadevi and to make them chant “Hare Krishna”, at least once.

Auspicious beginning of Year 2017 with Go-Puja at Mumbai
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Hare KrishnaBy Subhananda Hari Das

Go-puja was performed for global auspiciousness in Mumbai under the auspices of ‘Om Sri Surabhi Campaign’ on 1st January 2017 at Madhav Baug Goshala, located in Lakshmi Narayan Temple compound. Located in the heart of South Mumbai, the Goshala not only provided us a break from busy city life but more importantly provided us an opportunity to serve Mother Cow and worship her. The Gir cows of the Goshala were very nicely taken care by Mr. Mahesh Yadav and family, who kindly allowed us to perform the ceremony. The program started with the Harinam, followed by Tulasi Arati. Go-Puja was performed by His Grace Prem Nimai Prabhu, founder of ‘Gopal Dham’ Project in Orissa.

Iskcon Prison Ministry – Guaranteed Success
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Hare KrishnaBy Bhakti-lata Dasi

Bhakta Joseph Galesburg: Hare Krsna Mother Bhakti-Lata, I would like to first thank you for all you have done for me. The books, magazines, encouraging words, the opportunity to correspond with Ram Tulasi dasa – everything. You have been so very helpful to me, and I cannot thank you enough. I am truly and forever blessed for having met you, and am eternally in your debt. I am doing my best to keep my thoughts, words, and actions functioning solely for our blessed Lord. I am chanting (stronger every day), studying Srila Prabhupada’s books, and ever seeking ways to engage others in Krsna Consciousness. I have given up entirely my TV (way too distracting and so distasteful), and seek my enjoyment in reading about the pastimes of Lord Krsna and Srila Prabhupada. I have also found a necessity in learning all that His Diving Grace has taught about eating a non-meat, non-violent diet. It seems that the best way to start conversations about Krsna Consciousness with others is by challenging our diet choices.

“Give More Than You Take”
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Hare KrishnaBy Indradyumna Swami

Samskaras are Vedic purificatory ceremonies for advancing in spiritual life. One of them is vivaha-samskara, the wedding rite. Our spiritual master said that in this material world a boy naturally desires a girl and a girl naturally desires a boy, and they come together in holy matrimony to make it sacred, and they advance in material prosperity and spiritual prosperity together. I think that is a nice definition of love: “to be concerned about the needs of your beloved.”

Importance of worshiping the holy cow
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Krishna always taught about importance of cows through his actions. His love for cows is also seen from his pastimes he performed in Vrindavan. Krsna is also known as “Gopal”- “one who brings satisfaction to the cows”. When Krishna taught a lesson to the king of heaven Indra by lifting Govardhan, Embarrassed Indra asked for an apology and gifted a cow to please Krishna.