Category Archives: Uncategorized

Hearty Welcome to HH Radhanath Swami!

Amidst a vibrant and colorful reception with kirtan and traditional vedic welcome by drawing flower Rangolis, offering arti & garlands and breaking of coconut, showering of flowers, HH Radhanath Swami arrived today at ISKCON Mayapur. Mayapur devotees in large numbers gathered lovingly to greet and welcome HH Radhanath Swami. Around 5000 devotees, attending the Kartik […]

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Religious Freedom in Danger in Russia: A Cause for Concern in…

Religious Freedom in Danger in Russia: A Cause for Concern in Europe.
Rome – A seminar, held on September 26th, 2017, in Italy’s House of Parliament, at the Sala del Refettorio, and organized in co-operation with MP Lacquaniti, has discussed the problems of religious freedom in Russia, a cause of serious concern in Europe.
The presentations were followed by a roundtable discussion on Religious Liberty in Russia, presided by Raffaella Di Marzio (LIREC, Rome, Italy); with the participation of members of various religious communities and human rights activists, including Fabio Pianigiani (Narada Muni das, ISKCON).
To read the entire article click here: https://goo.gl/jpuVVf

Krsna’s protection

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 19 February 2013, London, England, Srimad Bhagavatam 8.5.13) Krsna personally takes charge of the life of his devotee. Srila Madhvacarya mentioned that when a devotee says, “Krsna I’m yours!” then from that day on, Krsna will fully accept that devotee under his personal care. So in this way, Krsna is directly involved […]

Sivarama Swami: What they don’t tell you about death! (3…

Sivarama Swami: What they don’t tell you about death! (3 min video)
Srila Prabhupada: It’s not the person who has died, but the body. According to Vedic knowledge, the body is always dead. For example, a microphone is made of metal. When electric energy passes through the microphone, it responds by converting sound into electrical impulses, which are amplified and broadcast over loudspeakers. But when there is no electricity in the system, nothing happens. Whether the microphone is working or not, it remains nothing more than an assembly of metal, plastic, etc. Similarly, the human body works because of the living force within. When this living force leaves the body, it is said that the body is dead. But actually, it is always dead. The living force is the important element; its presence alone makes the body appear to be alive. But “alive” or “dead,” the physical body is nothing more than a collection of dead matter.
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/viuYSA

“One Day Krishna May Kiss You” Saradiya Dasi: Once I…

“One Day Krishna May Kiss You”
Saradiya Dasi: Once I asked Prabhupada, “Are there senses in the spiritual world?” Prabhupada looked at the audience and said, “Look at this little girl. She wants to go back to Godhead.”
And in the course of the answer, Prabhupada said, “One day, Krishna may kiss you.” At that, everyone in the audience laughed
To read the entire article click here: https://goo.gl/r2yQAY

The Most Sacred Walk (Album with photos) Indradyumna Swami:…

The Most Sacred Walk (Album with photos)
Indradyumna Swami: Yesterday we happily walked around sacred Govardhan Hill. Offering respects to the hill, the sadhus living there, the cows, the trees, the d…ust and the sacred water tanks, we purified our hearts on the path back home, back to the spiritual world.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/GRXLoR

In a galaxy far far away Luke Skywalker (Mark Hammel) gets…

In a galaxy far far away Luke Skywalker (Mark Hammel) gets Prabhupada’s books! (Album with photos)
Brajananda Das: This past weekend was the annual NYC comic con which I have attended the last 3 years. I met a lot of wonderful people there. In my album’s first picture is a nice fellow from Peru, he was very grateful to get the books. The second is from Dharmaraja, he gave a book to Mark Hammel who played Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars. The third is Kermit the frog (not the original one, hah). The others are a bunch of other great people who value knowledge. It was a successful, yet stressful weekend (NYC is a tough place to get around for this monk, especially if you’re hauling a lot of books and can’t park a big van near the event.) but Krishna always reciprocates, so it was well worth the endeavor. Hare Hare!
Find them here: https://goo.gl/hEhjVC

Tolerating phases of bad fortune

khalvāṭo divaseśvarasya kiraṇaiḥ santāpite mastake

vāñchan deśam anātapaṁ vidhi-vaśāt tālasya mūlaṁ gataḥ

tatrāpy asya mahāphalena patatā bhagnaṁ sa-śabdaṁ śiraḥ

prāyo gacchati yatra bhāgya-rahitas tatraiva yānty āpadaḥ

 

khalvāṭaḥ — a bald man; divaseśvarasya — of the sun; kiraṇaiḥ — by the rays; santāpite — on experiencing burning; mastake — of the head; vāñchan — desiring; deśam — some place; anātapam — free from heat; vidhi-vaśāt — out of his fate; tālasya — of a palm-tree; mūlam — under; gataḥ — went; tatrāpi — there too; asya — his; mahāphalena — by a big coconut; patatā — by falling; bhagnam — cracked open; sa-śabdam — with a great sound; śiraḥ — head; prāyaḥ — usually; gacchati — goes; yatra — wherever; bhāgya-rahitaḥ — an unfortunate person; tatraiva — there too; yānti — arrive; āpadaḥ — his destined suffering;

 

“A bald man’s head was burning by the strong rays of the sun. He decided to find some relief from the heat, and by the arrangements of providence he found shelter under a palm-tree. Even after finding relief with such great difficulty, a coconut fell on him, breaking open his head with a loud cracking noise. Truly, wherever an ill-fated person goes, his misfortunes follow him.”

— (Nīti-śataka of Bhartṛhari, Verse 90)
We sometimes go through phases of bad fortune when things keep going wrong, one after another. Whatever we do to set things right only makes them worse. Gita wisdom helps us understand that such phases deliver us concentrated doses of reactions to our past karma. To navigate such phases, or even to just survive them, we need patience and tolerance. Kneejerk reactions can cause aggravation, even devastation.

Does this mean that we fatalistically do nothing to solve problems? No, the Vedic tradition wasn’t fatalistic. For example, it didn’t ask the sick to just live with their pain; it treated them with a sophisticated branch of medical knowledge, Ayurveda.

Still, spiritual traditions the world over have been realistic enough to recognize that sometimes, despite our best efforts, nothing works. Such times call for not frantic action, but philosophical contemplation. To become contemplative, we need the capacity to tolerate distress – intolerance keeps us agitated, rushing from one apparent solution to another.

Unfortunately, our capacity to tolerate distress is eroded by modern thought. Most contemporary thought-systems operate on the foundational ideology of self-determination, which holds that we alone are the makers of our destiny. By our intelligence and efforts, we can stave off everything undesirable and attain everything desirable. Or so we are taught to believe. The notion that we are the controllers of our life is so central to our worldview that we define our success and even our self-worth in terms of our capacity to mold our circumstances to our will. Given such self-conceptions, uncontrollable situations don’t just frustrate us – they shatter us. No wonder mental health problems have risen with the spread of modernity.

If we wish to respond to difficulties intelligently, not impulsively, we need to challenge our debilitating beliefs about controllership. Gita wisdom offers a better understanding of our […]

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A worthy representative

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 18 September 2017, Mauritius, Arrival Lecture) In the spiritual world, devotees also offer aarti when greeting various personalities. This tradition manifested on this planet and in Mauritius too. When I travel, I see different cultures, sometimes more traditional and other times more modern. Sometimes simply, “How are you?” and that is all […]

Prabhupada life-story 08 – Journey on Jaladuta – Physically demanding, Divinely revealing

Audio Podcast :

http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/audio/Srila%20Prabhupada%20life-story/Prabhupada%20life-story%2008%20-%20Journey%20on%20Jaladuta%20-%20Physically%20demanding,%20Divinely%20revealing.mp3

 

Video :

The post Prabhupada life-story 08 – Journey on Jaladuta – Physically demanding, Divinely revealing appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Radha Kunda Seva: September 2017 Photos and Updates (Album with…

Radha Kunda Seva: September 2017 Photos and Updates (Album with photos)
Today is the first day of the holy month of Kartika! This is Srimati Radharani’s special month, the month most dear to Krishna. We hope this update finds you happily experiencing the sweet sanctity of this special month. We finished renovations to our prasadam distribution facility in Radha Kunda – new flooring, roofing, and walls. It is now a more welcoming space for the ladies who come here daily for hot, fresh, wholesome meals. It is common during this month to take up a vrata, or vow of austerity in order to reduce bodily demands and offer oneself in service and surrender to the Supreme Lord. At our ladies’ request, we will be simplifying the meals using only very basic spicing and vegetables. It is our great honor to be able to facilitate their sadhana or spiritual practices. You may have noticed that the tiles of the Lalita Kunda benches were chipping and badly in need of repair. Now they are covered with red sandstone! …a hardy and durable material which should stand the test of time and use. As usual, the daily cleaning continues. The Kartika crowds are already here! We are prepared for a month of festive chaos. Please browse our latest photos and join our efforts by visiting www.radharani.com. Your servants, Campakalata Devi dasi, Padma Gopi Devi dasi, Sri Arjuna dasa, Urmila Devi Dasi, and Mayapurcandra dasa.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/7B2Crg

Scientists are baffled by medieval link between Scotland and…

Scientists are baffled by medieval link between Scotland and India.
RESEARCHERS in Scotland and India have made the remarkable discovery that mediaeval property records written in Latin and Sanskrit have striking similarities.
Teams from Glasgow University and the University of Calcutta have proved that their two countries, some 6000 miles apart, developed very similar ways of recording property transactions, even though there was no known cultural link between Indian and European societies at that time.
With their knowledge of Latin and Sanskrit, the two teams combined to show that records in mediaeval Bengal and Scotland were devised in ways that used directly related vocabulary and philosophical concepts, and that even featured similar words, though no one knows how this happened.

The project was started in 2013 by John Reuben Davies and his team of Dauvit Broun, Katherine Forsyth, Sim Innes and Joanna Tucker from Glasgow’s Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies and Calcutta University historians Suchandra Ghosh, Swapna Bhattacharya, Sayantini Paul and Rajat Sanyal.

The British Academy has now agreed to back the continuation of the project which it approved in late 2013.

At the time, the Academy said: “The concept of gift is central to property-transfer in medieval Europe and India. Indeed, striking parallels exist between Sanskrit records of property-transfer from early medieval Bengal and contemporaneous Latin charters from Europe.
Source: https://goo.gl/2Q68Th

Mumbai Mitrotsava Talk via Skype, October 5, Carpinteria

“It is important that devotees take care of each other. Like anyone, devotees will have different aspects to their lives. There is the emotional, physical, social and spiritual aspects. So, we want to serve each other in the mood to give support in all these ways. Of course, for devotees, everything includes Krishna. We help […]