Planet ISKCON

By: ISKCON-London Communications

On Saturday 28th May, ISKCON-London had our first Open Day event of the year. Every year, we organise several Open Days during the summer months to welcome new and inquisitive souls to the Temple.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of ISKCON, and to increase the public’s awareness and appreciation of the movement, the theme for this year’s Open Days is “50 Years of Contribution to the Global Community”. Attendees start a journey of self-discovery and gain insight into topics including the science of the soul, attaining inner and world peace, mantra meditation, yoga and vegetarianism – many of these being new concepts for the attendees.

Whilst we welcome new guests to the Temple on a daily basis, the Open Days provide a structured series of interactive sessions for the public to learn about our philosophy and culture. It provides an opportunity to answer questions such as what goes on inside a Hare Krishna Temple, what are the Hare Krishnas’ beliefs and other questions that often cross the minds of passers-by or the spiritual seeker.

Our first Open Day of the year had over 80 guests attending, the majority who had never visited a Hare Krishna Temple before. They attended sessions based on the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, mantra meditation and a Questions & Answers Hub where they could stay for as long as they liked and ask questions to a resident senior monk. Attendees also had the opportunity to join the 6 Hour Kirtan in the Temple Room to put into application the power of chanting the holy names.

Feedback from attendees have been positive:
“I can’t wait to come for next one.”
“It was wonderful and peaceful.”
“I like the music and looking forward to come for Sunday programme.”

Attendees left with a complimentary copy of Higher Taste and a prasadam sweet and several attendees were interested in buying further books.

Looking to introduce a friend, family or colleague based in London to our beautiful philosophy? You can invite them to one of our Open Days.
Dates: 25th June, 30th July, 20th August, 17th September.

For more information or if you wish to volunteer, please email events@iskcon-london.org.

Your servant,
Bhaktin Natasha
ISKCON-London Communications Secretary

By Govinda caran das

Dear devotees,

Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

We just celebrated ISKCON’s 50th anniversary at the Sadhu Sanga Retreat last week. To thank all the sponsors and core volunteers who work for the retreat all-year, we have a tradition of gifting them a sweatshirt. This year, we wanted to do a very special design for the sweatshirt to commemorate ISKCON50.

The inspiration for the design came from His Holiness Romapada Swami Maharaja who had come up with the title “The Seven Petals of ISKCON” for his Gita Nagari retreat last weekend to discuss the seven purposes for which Srila Prabhupada founded ISKCON. The pun here is the fact that there are seven petals in the ISKCON logo, which can be taken to mean the seven purposes of ISKCON. (By the way, I’m curious to know who designed the ISKCON logo originally and if this pun is intended).

One of the things I’ve been having difficulty with is remembering the seven purposes of ISKCON – as they are a bit long. Modern companies have figured out that remembering the mission is important to ensure all the activities of employees are aligned with the mission of the organization. For e.g. Google leaders repeatedly emphasize their mission of “organizing the world’s information and making them universally accessible” over and over in meetings so that employees keep that in mind when developing any product.

So we thought of making it easy to remember the seven purposes of ISKCON through the design of the sweatshirt. To do that, we did the exercise of taking each purpose and boiling it down to its core essence to fit in just two words so that we can use that as a mnemonic to remember the whole purpose. Here is what we came up with based on Romapada Swami’s explanation of these purposes in this article http://www.dandavats.com/?p=11900

1. To systematically propagate spiritual knowledge to society at large and to educate all people in the techniques of spiritual life in order to check the imbalance of values in life and to achieve real unity and peace in the world. => *Spiritual Education*

2. To propagate a consciousness of Krishna (God), as it is revealed in the great scriptures of India, Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. => *Krishna Consciousness*

3. To bring the members of the Society together with each other and nearer to Krishna, the prime entity, thus developing the idea within the members, and humanity at large, that each soul is part and parcel of the quality of Godhead (Krishna). => *Loving Relationships*

4. To teach and encourage the sankirtana movement, congregational chanting of the holy name of God, as revealed in the teachings of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. => *Congregational Chanting*

5. To erect for the members and for society at large a holy place of transcendental pastimes dedicated to the personality of Krishna. => *Temple Construction*

6. To bring the members closer together for the purpose of teaching a simpler, more natural way of life. => *Farm Communities*

7. With a view towards achieving the aforementioned purposes, to publish and distribute periodicals, magazines, books and other writings. => *Book Publication and Distribution*

After doing this distilling exercise, our appreciation for Srila Prabhupada grew so much more as it helped us understand what a great visionary His Divine Grace is. Even when most of these purposes hadn’t manifested yet, Srila Prabhupada had such a futuristic vision with which he had encoded a spiritual blueprint for our Society in these purposes. Fast forward fifty years from then – still we are doing exactly just these things in ISKCON!

So we put these two words on the sides of each petal. And now, how do we easily remember these two words for each purpose? For that, we came up with an image for each purpose that helps us remember the corresponding two words easily – after all a picture is worth a thousand words. Putting all these together, this is the final design we came up with:

The front of the sweatshirt has a customizable design where each individual Temple/project can put their logo.

We printed 250 sweatshirts for Sadhu Sanga and 120 sweatshirts for Gita Nagari Memorial Day Weekend retreat and all of them were sold out! Since there is so much interest amongst devotees, we are making this design available for any Temple/project to customize it for their own congregation.

To start with, we’ve customized the sweatshirt for the first ISKCON Temple which Srila Prabhupada started at 26, Second Ave in New York in 1966 as a way of helping with the maintenance of the 26 Second Ave Temple as mentioned here: http://krishnanyc.com/iskcon-50th-anniversary. The designer of the sweatshirt, Mother Jaeme from ISKCON Laguna Beach, has kindly offered to donate 50% of the profits towards the maintenance fund for the 26 Second Ave Temple. Here is the link to buy http://sundaram.life/collections/apparel/products/iskcon-50-anniversary-hoodie this really high-quality sweatshirt. Please help spread the word: the more people buy, the less the printing costs are and the more funds we get for this holy tirtha in NYC.

Who wouldn’t want to get this beautiful sweatshirt, anyway?

And, next time, when you happen to stand in a long Prasadam line behind a person wearing this sweatshirt, you probably wouldn’t mind the wait – as it’s yet another opportunity to remember Srila Prabhupada’s greatness!

Hare Krsna,

your servant,

Govinda caran das.

Kirtan In The Blue Ridge Mountains (6 min video)
Indradyumna Swami: Krsna’s holy names resounded through the hills and valleys of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina at the recent Sadhu Sanga Retreat. Two thousand devotees relished each other’s association at one of ISKCON America’s biggest functions of the year, celebrating Srila Prabhupada’s arrival in the country 50 years ago.
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/KYNTnN

Muhammad Ali Talks About Meeting God (10 min video)
Kavicandra Swami: While distributing books in the airport of Chicago, me and other book distributers we would often meet with Muhammad Ali and we would stop him to give him a book. In 1974 I met him and gave him one of Srila Prabhupada’s books. In the beginning he thought that I wanted him to sign it but when I asked him to take it and give a donation, he immediately took out his wallet and gave a 20 dollar donation.
In many other occasions also he received Krishna conscious books from other devotees as he was quite friendly with all. Did he read them??
Judge for your self from this video where he preaches about God during a TV show, repeating almost verbatim Srila Prabhupada’s teachings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofUhct5Bk_g
Below is a brief description:
Muhammad Ali Talks About Meeting God.
A little boy asked Muhammad Ali, “I’d like to know what you’re going to do when you retire from boxing?” Ali’s answer couldn’t be more inspiring as he takes his time and gives this young fan an answer he’s sure to never forget. With news of Ali’s death, it is reassuring to know that he prepared for where he wanted to go. Ali said:
When I retire from boxing, I want to say something right here. Life is not really long. Let’s say the average person (is) 30-years-old. If you’re 30 years old you are not but about seven years old…how can I prove it? Add up all the seven, eight, nine hours you slept for 30 years. Out of all the years last night when you went to bed and woke up this morning, you don’t remember a thing. You’ve been unconscious for about eight years…if you’re 30-years-old you slept about eight years. Ok, how much traveling have you done in 30 years, from the television station to home, to another country, to another city, to school, to church…you’ve probably traveled two years your life just getting back and forth to where you’re going. So there’s eight years of sleeping, two years of traveling, There’s 30 years out of your life before you ever accomplish anything. How long do you sit in school? In America we sit in school from the 1st grade to the 12th grade. Six hours a day for 12 years, break it down, you sit in the classroom for three years! Without leaving. Ok, two years of traveling, eight years of sleeping, three years of school. Probably two years of entertainment. By the time you have children, by the time you have made a way for your children, by the time you’ve paid for your home you’re pushing 60-years-old. So…life is real short.
What am I gonna do in the next sixteen years? What’s the best thing I can do? Get ready to meet God. Owning real estate, going in business, teaching boxers…that won’t get me to heaven.
The boxing champ goes onto ask how many people in the audience believe in God, believe that a higher being is behind the earth, moon, the sun and the stars? Most raise their hands that they do. When he asks who doesn’t, not many go up. But Ali questions one of them. He holds up a glass of water and asks if she believes the glass made itself, if the tv studio and her own clothes made themselves. He talks about the moon and planets, and how someone had to have made them, and he believes that someone is God. Because of this, Ali’s mission is to help people because one day he is going to be judged. God is watching him, and he wants to do good. He said:
He wants to know how do we treat each other? How do we help each other? We need someone in the world to make peace. This is a test to see where will we spend this life, heaven or hell? This is not the life here. But your soul and your spirit never die. So God is testing us on how we treat each other and how we live to see where our real home be in heaven. So this physical stuff don’t last us so long. We don’t stay here. We’re just trustees. The most important part thing about life is what’s going to happen when you die. Are you going to heaven or hell?
Looking very serious, Ali talks about just how long forever really is, and the reality of burning in hell versus living in heaven for an eternity. It sounds like Ali has earned his way to the latter.

Our Japanese style cooking class is coming on Friday (10 June 2016) at 6pm till 8pm. Contact us now & save yourself a spot. Bookings essential, please email theloft.akld@gmail.com to book Cost: $20 Student ID $25 waged Please visit the Cooking class details!

The post Cooking Class on 10 June 2016 appeared first on The Loft Yoga Lounge Auckland.

A collection of short bhajans from Krsna Valley’s children namely Narada, Premavati, Tilakini, Arati and others.

The post Children’s Bhajanas appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

The post Daily Darshan: June 4th, 2016 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Gaura Nitai: Sign or coincidence? Fábri-Tóth Kriszta – The dharma of women? Vecsei Tamás – How to maintain determination without devotee association?

The post Answers to Questions appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Muhammad Ali in 1975 was received with a flower garland by a devotee of Iskcon during his visit to Frankfurt Trade Fair.

Bhaktitirtha Swami and Brahmananda prabhu with Muhammad Ali.
Bhaktitirtha Swami had a way of striking up a spontaneous friendship with celebrities such as Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali also shared the spotlight with Srila Prabhupada, at an anti-war peace concert Ali had organized.

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Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) in 1975 was pleasantly surprised when he was received by a devotee of the “International Society for Krishna consciousness” during his visit to Frankfurt Trade Fair with a flower garland and was gifted Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita.

Harinama under the rain in Sydney (Album with photos)
Kalasamvara Das: We’re chanting in the rain
Just chanting in the rain
What a glorious feelin’
We’re happy again
We’re laughing at clouds
So dark up above
Krishna’s in our hearts
And we’re ready for his love
Let the stormy clouds chase
Everyone from the place
Come on with the rain
We’ve a smile on our face
We walk down the lane
With a happy refrain
Just chanting
Krishna’s name
in the rain
Find them here: https://goo.gl/9GFeMc

[A disciple of Prakasananda Sarasvati to an assembly of disciples]: “In this age of Kali, one cannot attain liberation without taking to the devotional service of the Lord. In this age, even if one does not chant the holy name of Krsna perfectly, he still attains liberation very easily.”

Read More...

Lunch at 26 Second Avenue

June 4. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami: Lunch at 26 Second Avenue.
It’s amazing to think how, in the beginning of ISKCON in America, Prabhupada used to eat lunch with the devotees. He used to serve them prasadam. That’s mentioned in the Prabhupada-lilamrta and some devotees’ memoirs. Prabhupada would walk between the devotees seated on the floor and he would dish out the prasadam, just as our brahmacari servers do now in the temples. The devotees would see Prabhupada’s bare feet, and he would ask them what kind of prasadam they wanted. It’s inconceivable to us now! After a few weeks, some of the devotees learned to cook, and they then began to serve Prabhupada. But still, he used to sit in the midst of all the devotees. He was like a father with his family. He sat in one corner. I’ve been to 26 Second Avenue and I saw the room in his apartment where it took place. Prabhupada used to sit in a corner near a table where he kept his worshipable pictures, including a picture of Panca-tattva. Prabhupada didn’t have a special mat, but he just sat there, and devotees came out of the kitchen with hot preparations to serve the Swami and the other devotees. Prabhupada would look at the other devotees and encourage them to “Eat more, eat more.”
To read the entire article click here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=20490&page=9

 

By Madhava Smullen

Evo-Vrindaban members Krsna Nama das, Nitai Chandra das, Lila, and Chaitanya Bhagavat das begin planting this year’s strawberry patch in New Vrindaban’s Community garden.

With ISKCON celebrating its 50^th anniversary throughout 2016, ECO-Vrindaban – New Vrindaban’s self-sufficiency wing – is making many special efforts to honor Srila Prabhupada’s desires for the community.

One of these is to put a special focus on growing grains, which Prabhupada instructed his New Vrindaban disciples to do early on. “These duties are there in New Vrindaban, and we shall have to live there self independently, simply by raising cows, grains, fruits, and flowers,” he wrote in 1969.

“So we researched what grain best suited the local environment, and found that traditionally corn was grown here by Native Americans hundreds of years before European settlers,” says Garden Manager Nitaicandra Das. “It’s also being grown very successfully by locals today.”

To begin with in this first year, Nitaicandra plans to dedicate about five acres to corn production at the Nandagram farm recently acquired by ECO-V. He also aims to grow oats, barley, spelt, wheat, quinoa and amaranth in quarter-acre test plots.

In keeping with Prabhupada’s desires, a large variety of vegetables will be grown too, in the New Vrindaban community gardens. And of course, the Deity Flower Garden crew, headed by Vidya Dasi, will be busy producing tons of flowers for Sri-Sri Radha-Vrindabanchandra.

“Produce. Make the whole field green,” Srila Prabhupada said during a conversation in Vrindavana, India in 1977. “Therefore I am asking so much… ‘Farm, farm, farm, farm.’ That is not my program—Krishna’s program.” He even later added, “Krishna is the Farm Acarya. Baladeva is holding a plow, and Krishna is holding the calf.”

Another 2016 goal of ECO-V’s, that was also a priority for Prabhupada, is to teach its growing herd of oxen to pull carts.

“We now have a state-of the art ox training facility at Nandagram,” explains Nitaicandra, who serves as the ox trainer too. “My goal is to train our oldest ox team, Hari and Priya, to pull a cart and help transport vegetables and tools in the garden this year. By New Vrindaban’s 50^th anniversary in 2018, we aim for them to be ready to pull Prabhupada’s murti on a tour of Govardhana Hill.”

Ananda Vidya das and Lalita Gopi devi dasi serve the cows in a freshly painted goshala.

The cow care program is also getting special attention, with Ananda-Vidya, Lalita Gopi and other staff members freshly painting the milking goshala near the temple and insulating it to ensure the cows and their caretakers stay warm. The cows themselves are producing around twenty-six gallons of milk per day, which is made into butter and ghee for the temple and its presiding Deities and residents.

ECO-V Project Manager Mukunda Das, meanwhile, is also busy with offerings to Srila Prabhupada for ISKCON’s 50^th. He is renovating and re-purposing New Vrindaban’s former brick factory and milk parlor as facilities for cleaning, canning and storing vegetables and grains.

“We want to improve ECO-V’s capacity to supply ISKCON New Vrindaban with as much of its food supplies, and for as much of the year as possible,” he says.

The facilities are already being used, and will store this year’s harvest beginning in July; although the full conversion will be a multi-year project.

Chaitanya Mangala das reports on the above earth-based home built by devotees in Madhuban during the spring INV Board Meetings tour.

Another exciting effort is the restoration of special sites of Prabhupada’s pastimes. One of these is a small, off-the-grid, earth-based home built by devotees in Madhuban from Prabhupada’s own design. Prabhupada visited the home in 1974, appreciating the construction and the simple life of its householder residents. Sitting on a rocking chair, he said, “You should make thousands of these nice houses.”

“It’s in major disrepair right now, so we’ll start by assessing its condition, and preventing further decay,” says Mukunda. “Then we’ll gradually restore it as a sacred historical site, with a picture of Prabhupada on a rocking chair. It will be a place where visitors can spend a moment with him, and see what simple living in New Vrindaban used to be and what it could be again.”

In addition to its own local efforts, ECO-V is taking ISKCON 50 as an opportunity to support simple living throughout ISKCON. It will provide a grant for Kalakantha Das, the ISKCON Minister for Agriculture and Cow Protection, to travel to four farm conferences he has organized this year in South America, Europe, Asia and North America.

ECO-V will also sponsor the registration fees for fifteen devotees to attend the North American conference in Gita Nagari this August, and will send its own representatives to talk about New Vrindaban’s efforts.

These will likely be Nitaicandra and Mukunda, who are thrilled at the opportunities they’ll get this year to connect with Srila Prabhupada, by spending ISKCON’s 50^th anniversary serving a project so close to his heart.

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Caitanya-caritamrta Madhya-lila 22.83.

“krsna-bhakti-janma-mula haya ‘sadhu-sanga’
krsna-prema janme, tenho punah mukhya anga

Translation: “The root cause of devotional service to Lord Krishna is association with advanced devotees. Even when one’s dormant love for Krishna awakens, association with devotees is still most essential. (Cc Madhya 22.83)

“Sacinandana Swami was making the point that if we are in a humble mood, we will see our godbrothers and godsisters—people who are superficially similar to ourselves—as being more advanced. And that would fulfill the condition; sadhu sanga sato vare. He gave the example of the two of us; Superficially we appear to be equals. But he is thinking. ‘Oh, Giriraj Swami is more advanced than I am, I can learn from him.’ And Giriraj is thinking—and this part is true. ‘Sacinandana Swami is more advanced than I am and I can learn from him.’ In that mood we are getting sadhu-sanga.”

Kitan, Sadhu Sanga
Caitanya-caritamrta Madhya-lila 22.83, Sadhu Sanga

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 20 July 2013, Cape Town, South Africa, Spirit Matters Program)

Question: Do you have any nice words to remind us not to have doubt whenever we have fear or doubt?

There are two types of doubts. One type of doubt comes from sinful activity and attachment to sinful activity. The other type of doubt comes from intelligence because we are also investigating something and cannot just accept everything blindly. So, there is also a healthy doubt. In the third canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Kapiladev explains to his mother these two types of doubt. About the other doubt, the one coming from sinful activities, one senior vaishnava said that instead of thinking about my doubts, I think about my faults and when I try to improve my faults then my doubts go away!

About HH Kratu Maharaj: Kratu Prabhu was born in aristocratic Gujarati Gaudiya Vaishnava family on July 5, 1944.His first exposure to ISKCON happened in 1970, at St. Louis. He later joined full-time in 1974, in Toronto. He met his Guru, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada in 1976, from whom he received a direct order for preaching Krishna consciousness. He and his wife were initiated by Srila Prabhupada in 1977 in Toronto, Canada.

While in West, he worked as professional engineer for five years in Toronto.In Chicago he worked for Chicago temple as director of congregational preaching. He then became temple President of Vancouver temple in 1987. In 1993, he moved to Baroda, Gujarat and conducted college and school preaching. He also started a book distribution program by Bullock Cart for every town and village. In 1997, he became temple President of ISKCON, Delhi and continued house and pandal preaching programs.

In 2002, he became an initiating spiritual master in ISKCON and is ever since vigorously travelling and preaching all over the world and regularly visiting USA, Canada, UK, Europe and continuously preaching in India, conducting pandal programs, educational programs and devotional tours.


  Japathon-Congregational Mantra Meditation

Here is another way to have people pronounce the holy name with commotion and broadcast it to many thousands others who are listening! (4 min video)
There is this famous football player named Roy Krishna and every time he gets the ball the commentator tells his name, especially when he makes goals. Hear with how much intensity they pronounce the name of the Lord, unknowingly doing heaps of advancement!
[Sukadeva Gosvami to King Pariksit]: Even if he chants the Lord’s name jokingly or by chance, he and anyone who hears him are freed from all sins.
– Srimad Bhagavatam 5.25.11
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/gqQwls

The Gita teaches us that the soul’s amazing!
Though when I am trying to get up
I don’t feel very amazing.
It’s 20 before 3 in the morning—
I should get up before the alarm rings.
It’s 5 before 3 in the morning—
I should get up like I say I want to.
The alarm annoyingly rings at 3:15 am.
I want to leap out of bed like I used to,
though I’d rather sleep more.

I throw off the covers.
When I bow down to Prabhupada
I want to sleep, but I can’t, I must arise.
Feeling tired and not very amazing
I still push myself up, helped by the wood chest.
Walking to the toilet to relieve myself,
I say, “At least I’m up before 4 am.”

Back in my room I fold my bedding
thinking that even in my foggy condition
being alive and trying to wake up is amazing!

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A brand new exhibit of artwork from Kim Waters and Chris Murray’s classic 1980 book, Illuminations from the Bhagavad-gita, opened at the Museum of Sacred Art (MOSA) in Radhadesh, Belgium on May 28^th. The exhibit features all Kim’s original illustrations from the book, which is illuminated with translated verses from Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is.

ISKCON of Radhadesh, Belgium hosted the 2^nd European Yoga Congress from May 27^th to 29^th, sharing insights and techniques with thirteen different yoga schools from twelve countries. The seeds of the event were sewn in November 2014, when many different yoga organizations met at Yoga Vidya in Germany, Europe’s largest yoga ashram, to explore commonalities and possibilities for cooperation.

By Yudhistir Govinda Das

On May 28, 2016, ISKCON celebrated the 500th anniversary of Lord Chaitanya’s visit to Vrindavan at the famous Talkatora Indoor Stadium in New Delhi.

The Festival of Inspiration, which was attended by nearly 8,000 people from Delhi-NCR and other parts of India, saw the presence of several senior vaishnavas such as:

HH Gopal Krishna Maharaja
HH Bhanu Maharaja
HH Lokanath Maharaja
HH Navayogendra Maharaja
HG Basu Ghosh Prabhu among many others

The festival was inaugurated by India’s Union Minister for Tourism and Culture Dr Mahesh Sharma. While addressing the audience he praised the contributions of Srila Prabhupada for taking the message of India all around the world and congratulated the devotees for the 50th anniversary of ISKCON. He also spoke with appreciation for Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement.

The Hon’ble Minister later released a book on Vraja Mandala Parikrama authored by HH Lokanath Maharaja and was presented a memento by ISKCON India Chairman HH Gopal Krishna Maharaja.

The event showcased several presentations by national and international devotee artists who captivated the attention of the audience many of whom were donors and well-wishers of ISKCON.

Participants were treated to the likes of Bhaktivedanta Academy (Mayapur) who chanted mantras for bringing in auspiciousness and was followed by Dasavatar Odisi dance, Shadow Play on Bhagavad Gita by the students of IIT Kharagpur and Kirtan by the Mayapur International Preaching group along with talks by the visiting devotees.

The festival allowed the devotees to introduce Lord Chaitanya and Gaudiya Vaishnavism to many people who didn’t know about these subjects otherwise. The response, in terms of attendance and engagement, has been exceptionally good, beyond the expectations of the devotees.

The photographs of the event can be viewed by accessing the below link:

https://goo.gl/h5Z96j

Thank you.

Your servant,
Yudhistir Govinda Das

PS: Some other dignitaries who had confirmed their participation couldn’t make it due to the last minute celebrations organized by the BJP to celebrate their second anniversary in power.

Food for Life Vrindavan (http://fflvrindavan.org) is a humanitarian aid organisation officially recognized by the Indian government. For the last ten years, we have worked in the poorest villages in the Vrindavan area (120 Km south of New Delhi).

By Chandan Yatra Das

Panihati Chida-dahi Mahotsav, also known as the Chipped Rice Festival, is a yearly celebration of the pastimes of Srila Raghnnatha dasa Gosvami and Lord Nityananda Prabhu. This astonishing pastime took place on the banks of the Ganges at Panihati, which is about 1 hour drive from Kolkata airport. (Ask for ‘Panihati Boat Ghat’, Sodepur.) Lord Caitanya and His associates enjoyed many transcendental pastimes here. Chida-Dahi Mahotsav remembers how Lord mercifully reciprocated with His devotees by arranging, through Nityananda Prabhu and Raghunatha dasa, to provide an ecstatic feast of yogurt and chipped rice, along with various other nectar foodstuffs. At Panihati, Raghunatha dasa obtained interview with Nityananda Prabhu. Sitting on a rock, Lord Nityananda seemed as effulgent as hundreds of thousands of rising suns. Many devotees sat on the ground surrounding Him. Seeing the influence of Nityananda Prabhu, Raghunatha dasa was astonished. He offered his obeisances by falling prostrate at a distant place, and the servant of Nityananda Prabhu pointed out, “There is Raghunatha dasa, offering You obeisances.” Hearing this, Lord Nityananda Prabhu said, “You are a thief. Now you have come to see Me. Come here, come here. Today I shall punish you!” Continue reading "Panihati Chida-Dahi Festival and Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami
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June 13th — July 11th SadhusangaOnline.com will conduct a study of one of the most relevant sections of Srimad Bhagavatam for anyone regularly chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, the first three chapters of the Sixth Canto.

Topics:

How Can One Uproot the Desire for Sinful Actions?

How Candidates for Hell are Determined

Was Ajamila Fit to Go to the Hellish Planets Due to His Sinful Lifestyle?

How Can One Atone and Gain Freedom from Past Sins?

A Taste for Chanting Requires Freedom from Past Sinful Reactions

Suddha-nama, Namabhasa & Namaparadha

Instructions by Yamaraja, the Lord of Dharma

Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītaṁ

Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ

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By Krsnanandini devi dasi

Sometimes devotees, especially in the neophyte state, misunderstand the meaning of detachment and attachment. And we erroneously conclude that showing affection or attachment is “maya” or material. Warm, loving interactions with other “bodies” may be taken as unnecessary or even as an impediment to spiritual growth. However, such thinking is a great misunderstanding. When we recognize that all things, all people and all living beings in general (as well as their bodies) belong to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we will see that we have nothing to renounce and nothing to be detached from because it all belongs to Krsna. Then we will aspire to use everything in His service and treat all with loving care. Srila Prabhupada exemplified this understanding in all of his interactions with everyone. Whether famous or not, a dignitary or a child, he treated each person with a sincere heartfelt caring. Continue reading "Family Love and Affection: Very Necessary for Healthy Krsna-Conscious Families
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