Author Archives: Dandavats

Innovative Outreach Event for celebrating ISKCON 50th Anniversary
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Hare KrishnaBy Daamodara Dhananjaya Das

On account of the 50th Anniversary of ISKCON, we, at ISKCON Ahmedabad, have been working together as team, for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada. Under the kind guidance of HG Jashomatinandan Prabhu (ACBSP) and by Krishna’s mercy, our core committee, while churning for the nectar, derived at an amazing and innovative idea of conducting an outreach program for the top-notch corporate tycoons, based in and around Ahmedabad. We had two prime factors to validate this event. 1. ISKCON’s 50th Anniversary and 2. A new temple project at our Gaushala.

Ambitious renovation project for the LA temple completed
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Hare KrishnaBy Madhava Smullen

It was a truly uplifting and festive time for ISKCON of Los Angeles from August 4th to 7th recently, with celebrations for both the 40th anniversary of the city’s Rathayatra festival, and the 50th anniversary of ISKCON in full swing. The ISKCON of LA property looked fresh and beautiful for the festival, with temple president Svavasa Das and his brother Naikatma Das completing an ambitious renovation project just in time. All the windows were replaced and the temple, Govinda’s buffet and kitchen buildings sandblasted and re-stuccoed. The temple entrance received a face lift, with new ornate wood decor, a beautiful stone tile entryway and a grand maroon canopy. The area in front was also re-designed with drought resistant landscaping and stone tile work to handle the increased flow of foot traffic for festivals and general increase in daily visitors.

Kick Out Darwin
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Hare KrishnaBy Urmila Devi Dasi

The doctrine Of evolution is difficult to hide from. It is so pervasive in textbooks of science, geography, history, and literature that the reader, numbed by repetition, hardly notices the constant drone. Our children need help to remain awake to spiritual life amidst this sleepy cloud of propaganda. We need to teach them the truth. And we need to show them, clearly and specifically, how evolutionists are lying. Does it really matter? Is it important for our children to know the origin of life and the universe? Perhaps they can be clear about spiritual life without bothering to think about Darwin one way or the other. But can they? In most standard modern versions, evolution links tightly with the outlook that all order, law, and life come about by chance. But spiritual life means connecting with the Supreme Spirit, Krishna, who is a person directing the cosmos and giving the seed of life. Also inherent in most of today’s evolutionary views is the notion that life is a complicated organization of matter. But spiritual life begins when one understands that the self, the essential living being, is irreducibly spirit, always distinct from matter.

Surat Mayor unveils Prabhupada plaque in a public park and plants a tree for the 50th anniversary
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Hare KrishnaBy Romapada Das,

The Mayor of Surat, Mrs. Asmitaben Shiroya planted a tree on 14th August in the Trikam Nagar Chowpathy Park in Surat and unveiled a marble plaque with Srila Prabhupada’s name to commemorate the 50th anniversary of ISKCON’s first public Harinama procession in New York, exactly 50 years ago to the day in August 1966. The event which was organized by the Hare Krishna Dham preaching centre in the city of Surat attracted 500 devotees who sang the Hare Krisha mantra while walking down the city centre to arrive at the public venue where the Mayor delivered a rousing speech.

A Caravan of Blessings
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Hare KrishnaBy Beige Luciano-Adams

Temple president Svavasa Das, who has overseen the event in Los Angeles for 30 years, described a network of consecutive festivals throughout the U.S. connected by a caravan of devotees who truck the collapsible chariots from city to city. “Ours is the largest in the West,” he says, meaning outside India. “Around the world everyone knows about this one. People come from all over.” Here the festival plays to its mixed audience with a mélange of ancient ritual and contemporary festival atmosphere, with chanting, yoga and cultural music and dance blending with children’s activities and vendor booths during the free feast. The continuation of a centuries-old Hindu sect, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) was founded in the U.S. in 1966. Today the organization includes hundreds of centers and affiliated vegetarian restaurants — like Govinda’s Natural Foods, the one attached to the temple in Culver City. To celebrate its silver anniversary, ISKCON is extending the festival this year, starting Thursday with chanting and seminars at the temple, which organizers expect will draw thousands of participants.

Janmastami
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Hare KrishnaBy Braja Vilas das

The name Madhava is a very prominent name for both Lord Vishnu and Lord Krishna. Srila Prabhupada has translated Madhava in his Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam in many ways: “Husband of the goddess of fortune,” “Master of all energies,” and “He who appears in the Madhu dynasty.” As a name of Vishnu, “Ma” refers to Laksmi and “Dhava” means husband or consort. In reference to Krsna, Madhava is usually explained as coming from the root “Madhu”. “Srila Sanatana Gosvami has explained the various meanings of the word Madhava as follows: Madhava normally indicates Krsna to be “the Lord, who is the consort of the goddess of fortune, Laksmi.” This name also implies that Lord Krsna descended in the dynasty of Madhu. Since the spring season is also known as Madhava, it is understood that as soon as Lord Krsna entered the Vrndavana forest, it automatically exhibited all the opulences of spring, becoming filled with flowers, breezes and a celestial atmosphere. Another reason Lord Krsna is known as Madhava is that He enjoys His pastimes in madhu, the taste of conjugal love.” (SB 10.15.2)

Learning from a Tree
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Hare KrishnaBy Kripamoya das

50 years ago, our founder and acarya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada planted a seed. He brought into existence a society whose specific name he chose and whose specific shape he carefully formed. The original group of early followers might have been bemused to learn the name of the organisation typed up on the deeds of incorporation: the International Society for Krishna Consciousness – ISKCON. There were no assets to speak of and with only one room in a back street of New York there was no way it could be described as even the New York State Society for Krishna Consciousness, what to speak of the American Society for Krishna Consciousness. And international? What a preposterous and utopian idea!

First Jagannath Ratha yatra Kediri, East Java, Indonesia
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Hare KrishnaBy Hari Narayana das

In the 11th century AD, emperor Majapahit, ruling from Java, spread his kingdom upto Madagascar Island. During his rule, Kediri, in East Java, was famed as the centre of vedic culture, from where all the great sages appeared who are revered till the present day all over Indonesia. Archaeological findings in 2007 revealed a rich vedic cultural heritage of the region. Detailed stone images of Lord Narasimha deva, the half-man, half-lion incarnation of Vishnu; Lord Visnu Himself seated on His bird-carrier Garuda; Ganesha, Harihara and many other similar specimens takes one on a time travel into the past….giving a vivid picture of what Indonesia was like back then. All these images and statues are now kept in the local Majapahit Museum.

Be A Monk?
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Hare KrishnaBy Krishna Monks

Would you care to know a long-forgotten secret, not even guessed at by the greatest thinkers of the modern era? It’s a simple truth that’s been continuously shrouded by the relentless, disquieting whirlwind of madness presently sweeping over the entire world. It’s this: there is no happier lifestyle than that of a celibate monk! Or, more broadly understood, accepting a simple life, beginning with a lifestyle of celibacy, for the purpose of increasing one’s love for God leads to greater happiness. This path can be taken up by any person in any walk of life. Here, however, we will examine some of the benefits of life as a monk. Monks aren’t all quiet and distant. The typical image is that of a person living alone in the forest, or away from the commoners, and having no excitement in his expression. That is one type of monk. But there are various traditions imbued with diverse moods. For example, the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, which is being carried forward by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, fosters a mood of joyful song and dance, and colorful festivity, even among its monastic order. Such a disposition reflects the basic understanding that spiritual life is vibrant and celebratory, not staid or stagnant.

My experience at this year’s Woodstock Festival in Poland
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Hare KrishnaBy Syamanandi Dasi

Woodstock is not for us. It is not for the devotees; it is not for the volunteers. It is not for our own spiritual advancement; it is not for our immersion in Krishna consciousness. It’s not. Krishna’s Village of Peace at Woodstock is wholly and entirely for the benefit of those who attend. It is about the hundreds of thousands of young adults who walk through our site. It is for the hundreds of thousands of people who relish the hot prasadam, who dance in the kirtan tent, who ask questions they didn’t know they had as they explore Vedic philosophy, Srila Prabhupada’s, astrology, yoga, and Indian culture. It is about their exposure to Krishna. It is about awakening in them their innate desire to know the Lord and to say his Holy Names and to sing his glories. Every day I was there, I felt insanely blessed to be in the presence of such exalted souls, souls who had traveled so far over multiple lifetimes to arrive here and experience and interact with Krishna consciousness in such an innocent, ecstatic way. The looks on their faces as they chanted the mantra for the first time, the way they danced with abandon, and their pure inquisitiveness were all incredibly inspiring. Their appreciation and love for Krishna increased my own, tenfold. And that is the most amazing thing about Woodstock.

Instructions to the Mind
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Hare KrishnaBy Urmila Devi Dasi

O mind, I grasp your feet and beg you with sweet words: Please cast away all hypocrisy and develop intense, unprecedented love for my spiritual master, Vrajabhumi, the people of Vraja, the Vaishnavas, the brahmanas, the Gayatri mantra, the holy name, and the transcendental shelter that is the fresh young couple of Vraja, Radha and Krishna. O Mind, don’t concern yourself with the pious and impious deeds described in the Vedas. Rather, intently serve Shri Shri Radha-Krishna in Vraja. Always remember that Lord Chaitanya is the son of Maharaja Nanda and that my guru is most dear to Lord Mukunda.

Disease of Envy
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Hare KrishnaBy Bhakti Vijnana Goswami

Here in this material world, everyone is envious of someone else. Even in religious life, it is sometimes found that if one devotee has advanced in spiritual activities, other devotees are envious of him. Such envious devotees are not completely freed from the bondage of birth and death. As long as one is not completely free from the cause of birth and death, one cannot enter the sanātana-dhāma or the eternal pastimes of the Lord. One becomes envious because of being influenced by the designations of the body, but the liberated devotee has nothing to do with the body, and therefore he is completely on the transcendental platform. A devotee is never envious of anyone, even his enemy. Because the devotee knows that the Lord is his supreme protector, he thinks, “What harm can the so-called enemy do?” Thus a devotee is confident about his protection.

Krishna is always victorious!
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Hare KrishnaBy Krishna Kshetra Swami

“The Radharamana temple as embodied community”: Details about the daily worship at the ancient Radharamana temple in Vrindavana. “I spent four months living next door to the temple, because I had learned that [ISKCON’s founder] Srila Prabhupada had instructed some of his pujari disciples to study how they do deity worship there,”. “No one had really done that yet, so I thought, let me do this as a service for ISKCON. While there, I was able to get a copy of their daily worship procedure, which is only eight pages long and is in handwritten Brajabasha Hindi.

Love of God-Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Jesus Christ – 2nd Avenue
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Hare KrishnaBy Dr. Graham M. Schweig

His Grace Garuda Prabhu is a disciple of A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada and known as Dr. Graham M. Schweig, at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies of Christopher Newport University in Virginia. Garuda was one of the first ISKCON devotees to pursue a formal education. He saw a great opportunity to reach educated circles by inaugurating the field of Vaishnava studies. He earned his doctorate in Comparative Religion from Harvard University. Recently, Princeton University Press published his thesis under the title “Dance of Divine Love- India’s Classic Sacred Love Story: The Rasa Lila of Krishna.”

Bhaktivedanta Hospital & Research Institute attains NABH Accreditation – A hallmark of excellence in patient safety & quality
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Hare KrishnaBy Madhavananda Das

Our Founder Acharya A. C. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada often emphasised that health should be a key priority for all of us. In today’s age, everyone is talking about holistic health which means taking care of the needs of the body, mind and soul. This was the vision of Bhaktivedanta Hospital & Research Institute when it was founded 18 years ago. With inspiration from and under the guidance of HH Radhanath Swami, the 80,000 sq. ft. Bhaktivedanta Hospital was established at Mira Bhayandar, a suburb near Mumbai, in 1998. Today, it is the only hospital in the whole of Maharashtra that provides its patients holistic healthcare services based on true awareness and understanding of the needs of the body, mind and soul. Recently, it achieved the hallmark of becoming an NABH accredited hospital offering world-class super speciality service.

La Reunion: Three Day Padayatra Celebrate ISKCON’s 50th Anniversary
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Hare KrishnaBy Narasimha Tirtha Dasa

La Reunion Island is located southwest of Mauritius and forms part of a region of France. The La Reunion padayatra lasted a total of three days and traveled through the towns of Saint Pierre and Saint Louis located in the southern part of the island. The organizers were myself, Narasimha Tirtha Dasa from Mauritius, APREVA (Association Pour le Rayonnement des Enseignements Vediques Authentique) and a group of nama-hatta devotees from the island lead by Bhakta Jean Marc. In total we were a group of 15 devotees, all grhasthas including one young child, a baby and two teenagers. There were some devotees who stayed throughout the padayatra and others who joined from time to time during all three days. We set off on July 15th which coincided with the auspicious occasion of Lokanath Swami’s vyasa puja. A group of 10 of us started at the front of the Saint Pierre Municipality building; we then proceeded to walk for 3 hours in and around the town of Saint Pierre. I led the first hour of kirtana, thereafter we all took turns to lead kirtana during the padayatra. All of Bhakta Jean Marc’s nama-hatta group carried maha-mantra banners, and Srila Prabhupada posters throughout the walk.

Chariot Inauguration Ceremony Commences Countdown To First Festival Of India In Nigeria
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Hare KrishnaBy Atmarama Das

In the final countdown to the much anticipated first-ever Festival of India in Nigeria, hundreds of thrilled Indians and Nigerians witnessed the colourful Chariot Inauguration Ceremony which took place at the expansive compound of Gaurapad Charities, an ISKCON affiliated Non-Governmental Governmental Organization (NGO), at Maryland, Lagos on Sunday the 31st of July 2016. The three towering, beautifully decorated Chariots are the central spectacle of the Festival of India which has an unforgettable impact on the minds and hearts of its countless visitors and active participants in major cities worldwide. In celebration of ISKCON’s 50th year anniversary, devotees in Nigeria have planned for this year’s Ratha Yatra Festival to be an “international media event for distributing Lord Jagannatha’s Mercy, centred around Vaisnava seva, preaching and entertainment.” The proposed venue for the 2016 Festival is the historic landmark Tafawa Balewa Square, Race Course, Lagos Island where the Governor of Lagos State, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode is participating as the Chief Host.

It’s not so hard to learn Sanskrit, says Bhanu Swami
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Hare KrishnaBy Tan Sin Chow

Sanskrit is Greek to most people but for Bhanu Swami Maharaj (pic) the ancient language is a cinch to master. The Canadian of Japanese descent said the sacred language of Hinduism may seem complicated but it was easier than most languages because it was phonetic-based. “There are vowels and consonants but you only have to memorise 60. Reading it is easy. It is unlike the character-based Chinese or Japanese languages where you have to remember 6,000 to 10,000 characters,” said the scholar, 67. However, he said that while Sanskrit words were pronounced exactly as they were written, “it can also be difficult as there are many conjugation and declension of nouns and verbs”.