Planet ISKCON

The Origin of Secrets and their Reflection in the World

I am finding the subject of secrets very rich, deep and important. The existence of secrets is all-pervading, and it all begins in the spiritual world, where its true purpose is to facilitate the loving pastimes of Krishna and his devotees. For example, Krishna’s relationship with Radha and the gopis, while suspected by a few, is a secret kept from Krishna’s parents, which intensifies their love and the passion of their meeting. The fear of separation and being found out intensifies the emotions and value of being with one another. Everything in that world is according to Krishna’s desire, even those who appear to create so-called impediments to Krishna’s secret love rendezvous with his greatest lovers.

The distorted reflection of these secrets is found in the tabloids or in rumors and secrets of movie stars and other famous people. Every person has some secret they don’t want others to know, as do families, communities, nations, religious groups or institutions, and ruling powers in any organization or government. Keeping secrets is the business of the false ego which thinks of friends and enemies and endeavors to protect our false sense of material identity from harm or criticism. We also criticize others to protect our secrets and divert attention from ourselves.

In this world there are ordinary, special, and the greatest secrets of all, as hinted about in the Bhagavad Gita, and then expanded upon in the Shrimad Bhagavatam and Chaitanya Charitamrita. While the most secret and confidential knowledge of Krishna’s Godhood and the means to obtain him need to be the basis of our lives, there are other secrets, the ignorance of, or lack of application of, create many problems in our ordinary lives and in spiritual practices. We might know these secrets in theory and yet not apply them in our own lives. One of the most important secrets is widely known, though often difficult to apply, and revolves around our relationship with ourselves.

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ISKCON Auckland NZ: 50 years on! (Album with photos)
Kalasamvara Das: Main Street of Auckland New Zealand was closed down tonight for a maha Harinam and Rathayatra. celebrating the 50th anniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON movement .With over 200 hundred devotees!
Find them here: https://goo.gl/sh7CSK

As a part of Incorporation Day celebrations, the Manor hosted esteemed members of various religious organisations for a discussion about devotion (bhakti) in Vaishnavism and Christianity. On Thursday 14th July, individuals from BAPS Swaminarayan, the Interfaith Network UK, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and various churches from around the region, gathered at Srila Prabhupada theatre to hear guest speakers Rev Kumar Rajagopalan, from the London Baptist Association and Saunaka Rsi Das from the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. The event was co-chaired by the Bishop of Bedford, Richard Atkinson and Nitin Palan of Hindu Matters in Britain. Reverend Kumar spoke in depth about his journey into Christianity from a devoid Hindu background. He elaborated on the life experiences that led to his identification with the church and Jesus Christ. Reverent Kumar also shared the lessons he had learned from the Bible and the manner in which his devotion to God had progressed from a simple “transactional” relationship, in which he prayed for certain material benedictions and God delivered them, to a desire to abandon himself to God and be “consumed” by God. Continue reading "Bhakti in the Christian and Vaishnava Traditions: A 50 Anniversary Event at Bhaktivedanta Manor, UK
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Major newspapers and TV channels across four continents covered the 50th anniversary of ISKCON’s incorporation on 13th July with positive stories that reached out to millions of people around the world. The BBC UK, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the Chicago Tribune, the Times of India and India’s government-owned DD National TV gave extensive coverage to the history of ISKCON, the achievements of Srila Prabhupada and local events happening in their area. BBC London broadcast a two-minute clip about the 50th anniversary on a prime-time news slot. Titled ‘Hare Krishna celebrates 50 years in London’, the news story covered devotees handing out 5000 cupcakes, showed harinama processions on Oxford Street, and featured interviews with devotees who live professional lives while practicing bhakti-yoga at home. It concluded with positive comments from several passers-by. Continue reading "Mainstream media across four continents cover Incorporation Day stories in a big way
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ISKCON-Delhi: Celebrating ISKCON’s 50th Anniversary (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: The tapasya of chanting and glorifying the name, fame and attributes of the Lord is a very easy purifying process by which everyone can be happy. Therefore everyone who desires the ultimate cleansing of his heart must adopt this process. Other processes, such as karma, jnana and yoga, cannot cleanse the heart absolutely. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 6.2.12 Purport).
Find them here: https://goo.gl/LORLIC

Many devotees ask how we are to understand the Ulta, or Bahuda - return Ratha-yatra in Jagannath Puri? If (as Gaudiya Vaishnavas state) we consider the Gundica-yatra, or Ratha-yatra to respresent the ecstatic emotions of the residents of Vrindavan taking Krishna home from Kuruksetra. How do we then understand the return Ratha-yatra? Is it a festival celebrating taking Krishna away from Vrindavan? There are two sides, two answers, that can be offered to this question. To understand them, one first needs to consider something about the nature of Sri Jagannath Puri Dham. Continue reading "Understanding The Return Ratha-yatra
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The ISKCON/TAIWAN yatra celebrated the 50years of the establishment of ISKCON by holding a grand retreat at the resort in Daxi which is about 50km from the capital Taipei. Devotees from all over Taiwan and visiting devotees from HongKong,China and Philippines attended this 2 nights 3 days celebration.The hall was decorated nicely with a Murti of Srila Prabhupada and posters all over the hall highlighting the achievement of ISKCON worldwide in last 50years. The celebration was organized under the leadership of HH Giridhari Swami and HG Krishna Baldeva Prabhu. Continue reading "Iskcon Taiwan Celebrates 50 Years Of Iskcon
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Bhaktivedanta Players: New rendition of Mahabharata, 2016 (64 min video)
The Bhaktivedanta Players perform a very brief version...

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Happiness, an Inside Job at EY London (video)
Mankind’s pursuit for happiness is never ending. Although we live in a finite world, our desires are infinite. What is our understanding of happiness?
An evening of exploring happiness from a Vedic perspective with His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami, a renounced monk and travelling teacher for over 40 years, renowned all over the world for his depth of spiritual knowledge and practice.
This was an interactive seminar with an opportunity to ask questions and consider how we can better understand our role in creating our own happiness in our personal and professional lives.
Watch it here: http://goo.gl/N45UXQ

My Greek “odyssey”
An introduction: “Because the Mayavadis are great offenders and atheistic philosophers, the holy name of Krsna does not come from their mouths. I have come here to sell My emotional ecstatic sentiments in this city of Kasi, but I cannot find any customers. If they are not sold, I must take them back home. I have brought a heavy load to sell in this city. To take it back again is a very difficult job; therefore if I get but a fraction of the price, I shall sell it here in this city of Kasi.”
CC Madhya Lila Chapter 17 Texts 143-145

Preaching in UK.
In a span of 7 days, HH Jayapataka Swami took part in several festivals and gatherings in England; the Birmingham Snana Yatra and Panihati festivals, the Bhaktivedanta Manor’s Panihati festival, the Fundraising of Sri Krishna Haveli Project with HH Sivarama Swami Maharaja, the Maha Bhakti Vriksha convention in East London, amongst others
To read the entire article click here: https://goo.gl/GlMXsX

The Speaking Tree, a weekly spiritual supplement published by the Times of India with a coverage of 10 lakh copies, covered the 50th Anniversary of ISKCON in a near full-page story.
The story documents the movement’s history as well as the ongoing celebrations.

Gita verse-by-verse podcast

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Answer Podcast

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Over  fifty years ago in September 1965, an elderly Indian monk stepped off the piers of New York harbour wearing orange Indian robes and sporting a dignified vaishnava tilak mark on his forehead. He was carrying just seven dollars, a few sets of clothes and two trunk-loads of books.  The aristocratic looking monk was A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who had been sent by his spiritual master from India to preach the message of the Bhagavad-gita to the western world. 

The miracle of Srila Prabhupada!
“Yes, from the very beginning I went to New York because I thought that Krishna Consciousness is the most important idea in the world, so let me go to that place, New York, which is the most important city in the world, and if I am able to do anything for Krishna and my Spiritual Master, even I am at the fag-end of my life, at least let me try for it there.

During its ISKCON 50 festivities this month, Indonesia added some rich local culture to proceedings as its over 5,000 devotees focused on uniting together to serve Srila Prabhupada.Celebrations included a brahmachari sankirtan party touring with a Prabhupada murti through the thirty-two ISKCON temples, centers and Namahattas on the island nation; and a youth camp bringing together youth from across the island of Bali. The highlight, however, was the International Leadership Sanga (ILS) and the Bhakti Festival and Rathayatra from July 5^th through 10^th.

For fifty years, the Hare Krishnas have been a part of life on Oxford Street. Today the organisation marked its half centenary doing what it's known for. Putting on a colourful spectacle in the heart of London - and sharing food. Jo McDermott from the BBC reports.

Bill Epstein

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 2008 Amsterdam, Netherlands, Lecture)

There are devotees who live in the temple and relate to the world, and there are devotees who live out in the world and relate to the temple. Both these two situations are acceptable but in both cases one must devote their life cent percent to Krsna!

“Srila Prabhupada’s incorporation of ISKCON was more than just a gesture of creating a non-profit, it was an act of defiance, a stake in the ground against the atheists to say that this is Krishna Consciousness and it is here to change the world.” – Yogeshwara Das On the 13th of July 1966, 50 years ago, Srila Prabhupada received the certificate stating that ISKCON was officially incorporated. After having braved the tumultuous sea for thirty-five days, and two heart attacks aboard the Jaladutta, Prabhupada arrived in America with only $7 in his pocket and nowhere to stay. A year later, he had opened the first temple in a storefront on 2nd avenue New York and ISKCON was established. Devotees around the world gathered on Tuesday 13th July 2016 to mark the occasion and express their gratitude to Srila Prabhupada, for changing their lives. Continue reading "‘Oh Happy Day’: Bhaktivedanta Manor Celebrates Incorporation Day
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Scenes from our great Sunday program in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. (Album with photos)
A wonderful program with hundreds of great de...

What if the soul is the body’s source of life and consciousness, as the sun is the universe’s source of heat and light? What if life doesn’t come from a perishable, chance combination of material elements? As a photojournalist exploring Mumbai, these musings coaxed me from blaring car horns and teeming streets to some curious transcendent possibility. The mythical, irrelevant idea of jivatma began delicately to undermine what had been for me a lifetime of hidden hopelessness: what’s the point of life, of peace, of accomplishment of anything if everything is a fleeting combination of elements? Why distinguish evil from honorable, orderliness from mess? And why work so hard? More than a consoling theory to save me from confusion and gloom, without my intending it, the plausibility of jivatma gradually changed my perception. Early one morning, before Mumbai’s bustle began, I watched a bullock cart lumber up to one of the city’s most popular sweet shops. Immediately, four robust men from the shop began unloading the cart’s six twenty-gallon aluminum containers of fresh milk Continue reading "Resolved to Live The Life of The Soul
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“Who’s the Girl with Krishna?”
Yesterday Parama Karuna, Mathuradhis and I were at a mall in San Jose reading about Radharani in the Nectar of Devotion. Srila Prabhupada (and Srila Rupa Goswami) was talking about how devotional service is greater than Krsna because it attracts Him and that the symbol of devotional service in the highest degree is Radharani.
So when we were about to distribute books again Parama turned to me and said, “Isn’t it amazing that no one here has heard of Srimati Radharani?!” Around us was the mayhem and madness of last minute shoppers bustling and jostling for last minute Christmas presents in their last minute nightmare before the clock struck twelve and the gifts they forgot to get turn them into pumpkins. It was obvious that the Hladini Shakti was not foremost on their minds.
But then Mathuradhis met a couple who were more thoughtful. They bought a book from him and went on their way. I saw them walk past me with the book in their hands and mused that I had wanted to stop them a few minutes before they met Mathura. Somehow I had missed the opportunity but Krsna hadn’t.
I guess this couple wanted to know more because moments later they were standing next to me discussing between themselves the pictures in that book. So I poked my head into their conversation and asked if they understood those pictures. A conversation ensued.
We covered the usual topics of karma and reincarnation and what Christmas means to a monk but then the girl asked me a question that stopped me in my tracks. The book they had only had pictures like changing bodies, karma and such. There were no pictures of the Spiritual World but our conversation had led me past the demigods to the real Boss, the real CEO in the sky, Krsna and His eternal abode of Goloka Vrndavana. And this lady, Sally, suddenly asked me out of the blue, “Who’s the Girl [with Krsna]?”
It seems like the secret is out. Is it really that no one knows about the real CEO in Vrndavana, Radharani? Where did Sally find out?
We may think that our efforts to give some knowledge in this world are in vein that no one really reads the books let alone understands them. We may pacify ourselves by reading the Nectar of Devotion and learning that the devotional service we are performing is attracting Krsna and therefore any other result is irrelevant. But it seems that there is some tangible result as one person yesterday inquired into Someone that even we the ones who have the most faith in trying to preach to a forgetful society may not have realized was out there preaching with us.

Sravanam Kirtanam Festival Italy 2016 (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Many people come and inquire whether they have to ...

KK Bindu #379: How the spiritual world is manifested in the material world in the holy Dham.
The latest issue of Sri Krishna-kathamrita Bindu e-magazine was just released.
This edition includes:
* TEN CONCLUSIONS OF BHAGAVAD-GITA – His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada presents a summary of Krishna’s words to Arjuna.
* UTILIZE YOUR GREED – Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja speaks of the importance of spiritual greed.
* THE DIVINITY OF KRISHNA?S ABODE – This fresh translation done especially for Bindu, presents Srila Jiva Goswami’s explanation of how the spiritual world is manifest in this material world in the holy Dham.
* MAKE YOUR BHAJAN KUTIR – Another fresh translation from Srila Prabodhananda Saraswati’s Vrindavan-mahimamrtam (2.67). It can be downloaded here: https://archive.org/details/bindu379

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The Phoenix is a cyclically regenerated bird: it obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor; sometimes decomposing leads to rebirth. TKG Academy may be one such example. Srila Prabhupada desired good education and training for ISKCON’s children. He thus established Gurukulas, beginning with the Dallas Gurukula in 1972. He gave instructions for the proper care of the children, their practices and the contents of their studies. Unfortunately, imperfections in the execution of those instructions by some immature followers, to say the least, led to the failure of the program and its closure. Many lives have been negatively affected. However, visionary leaders in our society rose from those “ashes”. Gurukula education isn’t all evil. Past mistakes should be used as learning experiences and ailments should be amended. Taking the essence of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions and applying them according to time, place and circumstances can lead to wonderful outcomes. Continue reading "TKG Academy reborn out of Dallas Gurukula – Our Humble Offering to Srila Prabhupada
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ISKCON Auckland New Zealand: Preparations are starting for a great weekend, celebrating Srila Prabhupada’s 50th anniversary of ISKCON.
Friday night: Maha Harinam plus Rathyatra
Saturday: Abhishek of SriSri Radhagiridhari
Sunday: VIP guests, Abhishek of Srila Prabhupada and lots more!

Woodstock Ratha Yatra in Poland (Album with photos)
Indradyumna Swami: The day before Woodstock we did our first of 4 Ratha Yatras through the crowds. Like us, the people who joined sang Lord Krishna’s holy names and danced in ecstasy. Such is the mercy Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/Nkbq0X

Celebrating Iskcon’s 50th in Colorado -Denver, USA (3 min video)
Yesterday evening we were very fortunate to be visited by the Kishori Yatra, a Krishna youth ladies’ Summer bus tour. They sang this song, “The Atlantic,” about Srila Prabhupada’s coming to America.
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/bdAx7M