Author Archives: Dandavats

Insights from Krishna conscious classes
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Hare KrishnaBy Krishna-kripa das

I share wisdom from the books and letters of Srila Prabhupada. I include excerpts from Satsvarupa dasa Goswami’s Begging for the Nectar of the Holy Name and Vaishnava Compassion, as well as his online journal. I share inspiration from a lecture by Bhakti Charu Swami. I share notes on a class by Yogesvara Prabhu on Bhagavad-gita. I include some realizations from Ramabhadra Prabhu, president of Radha Govinda Mandir. I also share notes on the morning classes at The Bhakti Center given by Adi Purusha, Shyamananda, Karuna Gauranga, Vasudeva, Murali Gopal, Natabara Gauranga, and Mahosaha Prabhus, and also by Bhakta Josh and myself. “Do not let even one minute go by without doing some sort of service for Krishna. Because as soon as there is a little gap of Krishna Consciousness, immediately maya makes an attack to grab us again. So keep up with your … engagements and always think of Krishna so that maya will not have a second’s opportunity to try to conquer you. And Krishna gives all assurance that the sincere devotee will never know defeat.”

Money
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Hare KrishnaBy Luke Vanderlinden

The American people have demonstrated by their election of Donald J. Trump into the office of president that the greatest significator for success in our modern age is wealth. As the popular saying goes, “Money makes the world go round.” In this way, the deluding potency of the Supreme Lord lulls souls into a false sense of security, thinking that their material assets guarantee perpetual comfort and happiness. However, sastra warns against cultivating such a worldly mentality, as it disables us from taking shelter of the Lord’s mercy.

Maya: The World as Virtual Reality
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Hare KrishnaBy Krishna-kripa das

Selected quotes from Sadaputa Prabhu’s upcoming book “Maya: The World As Virtual Reality” “This is ironic, since the very feature of consciousness that disqualifies it for many modern philosophers is the starting point for meditative disciplines that try to realize the self by discriminating it from nonself.” “Whether we use quantum theory or classical Newtonian physics, it is clear that no known computer or process of computation will enable us to predict what billions and billions of molecules will do. Physicists have taken it as a matter of faith that all of the molecules in nature move according to their equations, and in this sense, physics can be viewed as a branch of theology.” “The phenomena studied by parapsychologists seem to radically violate the known laws of physics. If they are real, then physics will have to undergo fundamental modifications, and this is a daunting prospect for many scientists. Nonetheless, the laws of physics have been modified in unexpected ways many times in the past, and it will not be surprising if this also happens many times in the future.”

Sustainable Cow Protection
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By Kurma Rupa Das

If a family keeps a cow and calf and has a few acres of land, a vegetarian diet is easily sustainable. I know a family in Colorado whose cow gives nine gallons of milk a day and she lactates for four to five years. They have enough land for the cow and her offspring to graze on and even with several months of winter they can easily maintain their cow. (see CFC News July 2010). If you mean to ask will protecting a family cow produce enough income to maintain herself and provide for a family of five people with urban habits, then no, it won’t. In an agrarian setting cows actually give more than they take. However, when one tries to produce milk for commercial purposes and requires expensive farming equipment (tractors, bailers, combines, silos etc.) has to pay outrageous prices for veterinary aid, purchase homogenization and pasteurization equipment, conveyances to transport the milk to urban areas and so on, sustainability becomes a problem. In short, what makes cow protection unsustainable today is urbanization and consumerism.

Synthesising Science and Religion
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Hare KrishnaBy Vaishnava das

Lets face it: we are tiny tiny organisms on a speck of dust we call the Earth which floats in the unimaginatively vast realms of space. Can we really work it all out on our own? In cosmic terms, are we not like ants?…And, can an insignificant insect ever be able to comprehend human politics? So how can humankind be absolutely sure there is no cosmic hierarchy, beyond what our tiny brains are able to perceive, or our eyes, telescopes and microscopes can see? But to be fair science doesn’t claim it has Absolute Knowledge. Rather it is a process…BUT that process focuses largely on observable matter, detectable by our imperfect senses, or instruments we invent. I argue that spirituality is a type of science which has methods and results which go beyond matter and our traditional five sense experience.

O Resident of Kailash!
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Hare KrishnaBy Indradyumna Swami

“Just as the Ganges is the greatest of all rivers, Lord Acyuta the supreme among deities and Lord Shambhu (Siva) the greatest of Vaisnavas, so Srimad-Bhagavatam is the greatest of all Puranas.” [ Srimad Bhagavatam 12.13.16 ] Mount Kailash, 22,000 feet (6,705 meters) above sea level, is a special and sacred dhama because it is there that Siva meditates deeply on Lord Krishna and meets with great sages like Narada. It was at Mount Kailash that the Ganges descended with great force from the spiritual world to the material world and was caught by Lord Siva in his matted locks. “The demigods observed Lord S’iva sitting on the summit of Kaila-sa Hill with his wife, Bhava-ni-, for the auspicious development of the three worlds. He was being worshiped by great saintly persons desiring liberation. The demigods offered him their obeisances and prayers with great respect.” [ Srimad Bhagavatam 8.7.20 ] Kailash is also known as Mount Meru, the center of the universe. Throughout the ages it has been called by various names including Jewel Peak, Lotus Mountain, and Silver Mountain. The city of Kuvera, the treasurer of the demigods, is said to be near Mount Kailash.

Unconditional Surrender
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By Akruranatha das

Saranagati is the chief symptom of a devotee. Saranagati should be complete. The symptoms of it are there. One should have firm faith, drdah visvas, that “avasya raksibe krsna”, Krishna will protect me. If you have no faith, you cannot achieve the goal; asraddhadanah purusah… says the Gita: You’ll have to come back in this mortal world. The Vedic siddhanta is that everything is based on firm faith, sastriya sraddha. Saranagati, unconditional surrender, is the life of the devotee, through which the most difficult to achieve krsna-prema is obtained, by the mercy of the magnanimous Gauranga. To be akincana, to have nothing in this world that you call yours, is one symptom of saranagati. Atma-samarpana is the same as saranagati… Only a fully surrendered devotee sees Krishna; otherwise, He’s covered by yoga-maya. Those who are fully surrendered are very dear to Krishna. Krishna has not given prema in His Vraja descent, but as Gauranga he gives it freely. He teaches saranagati: Take full shelter of the holy name, then you’ll get prema, through offenseless chanting… 4 things develop pride and prevent from surrender: janma, aisvarya, sruta, sri. So one must become akincana.

Krishna consciousness and the youth
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Hare KrishnaBy ISKCON’s Congregational Development Ministry

Youth Engagement- Interview with Daru Brahman Das (Social Worker, Care and Assistance, Mayapur) The thing about young people teenagers, in my experience, they won’t go anywhere they don’t feel wanted so we have to somehow convey that we really want and value young people. And has to be real because they can suss. You know, they are going through so many changes in their bodies, in their minds, relationships, their roles, their thinking, they need a place where they can just be and be real and be accepted. We really need to convey that to them, we really need to find the good qualities in the youth we have and really need to build on those, we need to be in a mood of appreciating people and we need to have respect for the Youth. The other thing is that we live in a community with very high ideals and most of us know or some of us know that we can’t reach those ideals immediately and the youth need to be accepted. So it’s the kind of double-edge situation, is difficult for people to live here knowing they don’t reach those ideals unless they feel accepted with their faults. We don’t need to focus on them but we need to give a place for members coming to you who can’t reach those high ideals, who are on the way to them, are interested in getting to them. We have to appreciate, especially in the youth, the fact that they choose to be here, they want to be part of Iskcon, they want to search Srila Prabhupada, they will have something in them that brings them here, whether is the history with their family or something they discovered, some realization etc.

The Magic of Sri Rama in the Magic Circle – preaching program at Clifford Chance LLP headquarters
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Hare KrishnaBy Sri Radharamana dasa

The day before the start of a three day festival native to India, Clifford Chance LLP hosted their very first employee Diwali celebration; probably the first across any global Law firm. Over 75 top lawyers and business services staff congregated at the Headquarters in Canary Wharf, London on 27th October to understand and extract spiritual wisdom from the pastimes of Lord Rama. Clifford Chance LLP is a multinational law firm headquartered in London, and a member of the “Magic Circle” of leading British law firms. It is one of the ten largest law firms in the world measured both by number of lawyers and revenue. It has 36 offices across 26 countries and approximately 3,300 lawyers. In 2013/14, Clifford Chance had total revenues of £1.36 billion, the highest of any firm in the Magic Circle in that year. Clifford Chance’s main practice areas include Corporate, Banking and Finance, Capital markets, Real estate, Tax, Pensions and Employment amongst others.

Of Saints and Critics
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By Madhavananda das

Mahattama (“especially great person”) — A mahattama sees whatever good qualities others have and magnifies them, not seeing even the smallest fault. Viswanath describes their attitude, “This person has stolen my cloth because he is cold, and though he has a weapon, he doesn’t attack me because he is merciful. He is virtuous.” Ati-mahattama (“extremely great person”) — An ati-mahattama sees good qualities in others even where there are none. Their attitude is, “In this world there are no bad people. Everyone is good.”

HSBC Global Headquarters, London, hosts Bhakti Charu Swami
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Hare KrishnaBy Sri Radharamana dasa

The central question explored at the event revolved around what wisdom from the Vedic philosophical tradition can be used to provoke thought in the workplace to positively impact the life of millions. In doing so, the event focused on the topic ‘Being At Our Best.’ While lamps are used in the festival to encourage one on a journey of darkness to light, ‘Being At Your Best’ is central to achieving this virtue. The story of Diwali illustrates the need to be inwardly and outwardly balanced to enable satisfaction of the self. While Diwali is an epic of trials and tribulations, the pastimes of Sita & Rama demonstrates how to remain peaceful amidst the volatility of life, and in doing so become healthy, wealthy and wise. Diwali prompts respect and responsibility towards both others and oneself in carrying out prescribed duties at work and in wider life.

Receiving the Blessing
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Hare KrishnaBy Ravindra Svarupa Dasa

Srila Prabhupada took especial pains to bestow his vakya through the medium of written English and to publish those writings in book form. Prior to embarking from India in 1965 on his solo expedition to the West, Srila Prabhupada, working virtually alone, had composed and published, in three hardback volumes, his English-language translation and commentary on the First Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam. He brought boxes of these books with him aboard the Jaladuta, and they accompanied him on the voyage of over 9,000 nautical miles from Calcutta to New York. There he began to gather, organize, and deploy the necessary and spiritual resources—material, human, and spiritual— for their eventual distribution and reception worldwide.

Appointment of Global Duty Officers by the GBC
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Hare KrishnaBy the GBC Nominations Committee

Srila Prabhupada said that a GBC member could have “thousands of secretaries,” and in keeping with this principle the Governing Body has designed new posts for senior devotees to be engaged in assisting the GBC expand the oversight of the Society’s development. One such post is that of Global Duty Officers (GDO), who help the Governing Body and its members by taking up important services giving support and leadership in fields such as preaching initiatives, educational programs, administration and legal matters. They can assist and serve in special projects commissioned by the GBC, assist GBC Standing Committees, assist Global Ministries, assist committees involved in the Strategic Planning Network, and attend and serve during GBC meetings. At their half-yearly meeting in Mumbai in October the GBC Body appointed the following devotees as Global Duty Officers, for a renewable one-year tenure.

ISKCON Youth Forum Ahmedabad – A Youth Wing of ISKCON Ahmedabad
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Hare KrishnaBy Sakshi Mohan Das

ISKCON Youth Forum (IYF) is the youth wing of Sri Sri Radha Govind Temple, a branch of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). IYF is aimed towards nourishing the hearts of today’s youth with the sublime message of the scriptures and helping them flourish in their lives in a wholesome manner. Happiness and the true fulfillment of the soul and unending success have been the goals of humanity from eternity. The purpose of life is a life of purpose and what makes a life valuable is the perfect blend of knowledge, skills and values. Most of us simply go through life but in the pursuit of going through life, we forget to grow through life. Therefore the reality is” one cannot upload love, one can’t download time, one can’t google all of the life’s answers therefore one must actually live some of his life.

50th Anniversary of ISKCON celebrated at House of Lords
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Hare KrishnaBy Sri Radharamana dasa

Bhakti Charu Swami travelled in from India to present the keynote speech. His Holiness began by reflecting on his privilege in being present at a historical place of British Parliament where many significant decisions had been made throughout history that affected the entire world. His Holiness described the objective behind ISKCON and the many sacrifices made by Srila Prabhupada in its establishment. In detailing the prediction of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, His Holiness demonstrated how Srila Prabhupada inundated the entire world with a spiritual revolution that places a solution to all problems of life and the world through devotional service to Lord Krishna. His Holiness shared some of his intimate moments with Srila Prabhupada to exemplify the magnanimity of the Founder-Acharya. Out of love for Srila Prabhupada, His Holiness once expressed how he wished that he could’ve served Srila Prabhupada when he was alone in the beginning days in New York. Srila Prabhupada affectionately responded saying that he was never alone since Krishna was always with him. His Holiness described how ISKCON came to the UK and requested for all people to seriously consider the message of Srila Prabhupada for the upliftment of each individual and mankind.

The Call of Dharma at EY Headquarters, London
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Hare KrishnaBy Sri Radharamana dasa

The ‘Call of Dharma’ marks the evening of a daylong celebration across the firm which included Diwali prashadam sweets distributed to all UK and Ireland EY offices along with festive cards and animated media wall messages. In the spirit of the festival, EY hosted a ‘dress colourful’ day across UK and a lunchtime Bharat Natyam performance at the UK Headquarters. With over 100 professionals in attendance at the evening event, His Holiness explained how one can take lessons from the story of Diwali and reflect them in our professional lives. Due to huge demands, the event was streamed live via the ‘Veda London’ page on Facebook where people in their thousands, from all over the world, tuned in to watch the keynote speech. His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami explained how the Ramayana literally documents the ‘Journey of Lord Rama’ to exemplify ideal character and virtues through the history of Lord Rama’s journey for global peace and prosperity despite life’s various challenges. Diwali appears as the summation of that journey. In explaining the Call of Dharma, His Holiness used various examples to describe the dormant nature of the living entity and subsequent Dharma, which when followed, grants permanent peace and prosperity.

Lord Jagannatha lights up light festival of Banding, Indonesia
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Hare KrishnaBy Hari Narayana Das

The annual Bandung Light festival to commemorate the anniversary of Bandung city this year was celebrated on October 09, 2016. The grand festival was attended by most people in Bandung. This public festival was a chance for the devotees to introduce the Hare Krishna movement in Bandung. As Srila Prabhupada mention in his letter that “The time is fast approaching when we will have to perform such public kirtana in all the important cities of the world. Here also, in the Expo, they have performed kirtana for two days, and it is wonderfully successful.” (SPL to Yamunä, July, 1968). The devotees did ratha yatra on the festival and this was the third Jagannath Ratha-yatra held in Bandung.

Recognizing the BBT/BBTI for Their Service to the TOVP
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Hare KrishnaBy the TOVP team

The entire TOVP Team wishes to publicly take this opportunity to recognize and thank the managers and devotees of the worldwide BBT/BBTI for their cooperation and service to the TOVP project since its beginnings in 2009. To date over $1.7 million has been given by the BBT/BBTI to the project, a most significant amount. Many devotees are unaware of the financial commitment made by the BBT/BBTI to fund the construction of the TOVP. This is in accordance with Srila Prabhupada’s instructions that the BBT utilize the profits from the sales of his books to fund temple construction and other projects throughout the world. It is most laudable that this directive of Srila Prabhupada has been maintained and such a large financial commitment has been directed to the TOVP year after year. We could not have come to the point of our current construction without these funds. And based on future financial projections we feel we will realize our common goal to together celebrate the Grand Opening of the TOVP during Gaur Purnima 2022.

Diwali message from UK Prime Minister
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Hare KrishnaBy Theresa May

“I am delighted to send my very best wishes to everyone celebrating Diwali, a festival which holds such significance for so many people. Indeed, right across the world, lights decorate the streets, flowers adorn homes, treats are served and presents exchanged – all marking the triumph of light over darkness. But the festival of lights isn’t just relevant for Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists. It is relevant to all of us, those of all faiths and none. We can all learn from the example set by Lord Rama, whose return from exile is marked by these 5 holy days. That epic story teaches us about building strong families and communities, shunning wrongdoing and evil, and choosing the right path. It promotes the values of service, responsibility, unity and tolerance. We need those values more than ever as we build a country that works for everyone – a country where no matter what your faith, your beliefs or your background, you can reach your full potential. In Britain’s Indian communities, we can see the good that can be done when people’s talents are unleashed. I think of all those running their own businesses, taking risks and working hard so that they can provide for their families and take on staff. I think of all those public servants whose hard work and dedication makes our hospitals, schools, police forces and armed forces what they are today. I think of the volunteers who give up their own time to look after elderly neighbours or help provide food for families who are less well off. These people are the backbone of our communities. And I will be so proud to highlight the achievements of British Indians next month when I make my first official visit to India as Prime Minister at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, celebrating the relations between our countries and our shared ambitions for the future. As we start the Hindu New Year, it is an occasion for people to reflect on the 12 months that have passed and look to the opportunities ahead. So as friends and families come together, in reflection and celebration, let me wish you all a Shubh Deepawali, and send my good wishes to Sikhs celebrating Bandi Chhor Diwas too.”

Diwali Forever stamp released by US Postal Service
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Hare KrishnaBy Indian express

A Diwali stamp was launched here by the US postal service, capping seven-year-long efforts by Indian-Americans and influential American lawmakers to commemorate the festival of lights. The stamp was unveiled at the Indian Consulate at an elaborate “first-day-of-issue” dedication ceremony on Wednesday. The US Postal Service (USPS) commemorated the Hindu festival of Diwali by dedicating the Diwali Forever stamp. The stamp shows a photo of a traditional ‘diya’ lit against a sparkling gold background and the words ‘Forever USA 2016’ written below. The ceremony was attended by Consul General Ambassador Riva Ganguly Das, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Diwali Stamp Project Chair Ranju Batra, USPS Vice President for Mail Entry and Payment Technology Pritha Mehra, India’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri and eminent Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra.

ISKCON UK Child Protection
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Hare KrishnaBy Daksina Devi Dasi

As an offering to Srila Prabhupada for ISKCON’s 50th anniversary, Bhaktivedanta Manor, the Global Headquarters for ISKCON Child Protection, hosted a child protection training seminar for more than 20 leaders, GBC members, temple presidents and ISKCON charity trustees from across the UK. The training was delivered by Paul and Derek from RWA Child Protection Services and the Manor Child Protection Team. Ray Wyre Child Protection Services are an independent child protection specialist organization that, for the last eight years, have been assisting the UK Regional Director, Daksina devi dasi, in an advisory capacity. This intensive one-day training was the first of its kind in the UK, where leaders gathered to learn about all aspects of child protection, including what child abuse is, the mindset of offenders, how to prevent child abuse and how child abuse is dealt with within ISKCON.