Planet ISKCON

Saturday evening in Moscow.

The post Taking responsibility for ISKCON and its mission appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

By Tarini Radha Devi Dasi

When we try to memorize a Shloka, it keeps reverberating in our minds, leaving no room for the devil. First it is a challenge to memorize it and when that is done, it becomes a pleasure to just keep repeating it. A mother, memorized verses and songs as she cooked, while another learnt from a sheet stuck on the tiles of the wall as she washed the utensils. And there was another devotee that would stick up the Shloka on the front part of his motor bike and learn as he drove. There are devotees that would teach Shlokas over the phone and I am sure devotees eager to keep their minds busy with transcendental vibration would have found so many other ways. Continue reading "Slokas Why memorize them?
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Holi celebration in Iskcon New Zealand (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: “Although Kali-yuga is full of faults, there is still one good quality about this age. It is that simply by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted to the transcendental kingdom.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 12.3.51 Purport)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/y6C8XM

The post Daily Darshan: April 17th, 2016 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

A small video of my thought’s on a recent debate on culling badgers to prevent bovine TB; and the duality of bubble talk, whilst hiding the fact that their only aim is to cull the cow’s to make money

Hare Krishna

Ramanavami celebration in Kiev, Ukraine (Album with 48 photos)
Srila Prabhupada: In the Padma Purana, Krishna says, mad-bhakta yatra gayanti tatra tisthami narada: “O Narada, I am present wherever My devotees are chanting.” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila, 17.132 Purport)
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NBS#35 Daksa, Sati and Lord Shiva.
Beginning with the fourth canto, this issue covers about Goddess Sati, a chaste wife, who decided to give up her body and not associate with anyone who blasphemes her husband.
We pray that this issue brings some pleasure to the devotees of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
NBS # 35 Features:-
1) Daksa Curses Lord Shiva
Conversation between Maitreya and Vidura
2) Real Reason For The Enmity Between Lord Shiva And Daksa
His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
3) Glories Of Lord Mahadeva
Conversation between Lord Brahma and Narada
4) Sati Quits Her Body In The Assembly Of Daksa
Srila Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakura
This issue can be viewed through these links:
ISSUU: https://issuu.com/nbsmag/docs/nbs_35
Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/doc/309236267/

Practicing Love.
Ananda Dasi: When we ask ourselves the question ‘Why do we exist?’ we begin the search for meaning in our lives. If we accept that we exist not just in this life span, but beyond, that question brings us to face the very core of ourselves.
The answer that the teachings of Bhakti give us is that we exist to be in relationship with the source of our existence. That is, we are part of Krishna eternally, exist eternally and the deepest and most satisfying part of our being is to exchange pure love with Him. This is called prema bhakti – the sweetest and most complete type of love.
To love anyone you have to know them, and so the practice of bhakti is the path of reawakening our knowledge of, and love for, Krishna. It’s a combination of the science of the soul, the universe and divinity, as well as the practical application of love in action – literally doing things to express and nurture spiritual love.
In other words, we practice love. Everyday.
But why? Why do we need to practice love if it is part of our inherent nature? Because we have forgotten. Maya, the energy of Krishna’s that creates the material world, covers our true self and we get so involved in this life and this world that we only have a faint sense that we are missing something.
To practice loving Krishna we use head, heart, and hand. We can read and study about His nature and personality, we can express our heartfelt feelings to Him in prayer and contemplation, and we can make beautiful things to offer Him or assist others in their service to Him.
Krishna, who is attractive to all, is drawn to love as bees are drawn to flowers. If we give time everyday to the practice of bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion, the yoga of love – we will feel our love for Krishna blossom. It will happen, because love, by nature, is expansive. And Krishna’s love is more expansive and more unlimited than any other love. It is known as ‘anandambuddhi vardhanam’ – an ever increasing ocean of joy.
Love can never be forced but it’s always there if we want it – both to give and to receive. The choice is always ours.

Amazing preaching took place this morning in New Gokula, Vancouver BC! 35 students of a Christian college came to hear about our philosophy and asked a lot of intelligent questions. Jay Govinda Prabhu had a talk and they all got maha prasadam!!!

April 17. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami: Michael Grant.
One serious newcomer was Michael Grant. Mike was twenty-four. His father, who was Jewish, owned a record shop in Portland, Oregon where Mike grew up. After studying music at Portland’s Reed College and at San Francisco State, Mike, who played the piano and many other instruments, moved to New York City, along with his girlfriend, hoping to get into music professionally. But he quickly became disenchanted with the commercial music scene. Playing in nightclubs and pandering to commercial demands seemed particularly unappealing. In New York he joined a musicians’ union and worked as a musical arranger and as an agent for several local groups.
Mike lived on the Bowery in an A.I.R. loft on Grand Street. It was a large loft where musicians often congregated for jam sessions. But as he turned more and more to serious composing, he found himself retiring from the social side of the music scene. His interest ran more to the spiritual, quasi-spiritual and mystical books he had been reading. He had encountered several swamis, yogis, and Southside spiritualists in the City, and had taken up hatha yoga. From his first meeting with the Swami, Mike was interested and quite open – as he was with all religious persons. He thought that all genuinely religious people were good, although he did not care to identify with any particular group.
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Michael Grant

Asha a few hours before she left. Read her story.

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Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad-Bhagavatam 9.10.20.

“Ravana is the personification of lust. All of us conditioned souls are also afflicted by lust, anger, greed—the six enemies. So, externally we have enemies that we must contend with and internally we also have enemies like these six. And the method for fighting both the internal and external enemies is the same. That is we fight according to our ability, thinking of the Lord and depending on the Lord’s mercy. Because without the Lord’s mercy we cannot be successful in any endeavor including fighting the internal and external enemies. This principle was not only espoused by our spiritual master but it was also practiced by him”

Rama-navami, Los Angeles

When we examine the path of our life, we may note that we became the person we are today through a judicious combination of education, the kindness of others, intelligence and hard work. It all adds up, and we are the sum total of all the choices and efforts we’ve made. But then there’s the life-changing power of sheer luck. Something happened to change the course of our life, some random happening that was nothing of our own doing. A meeting with someone that re-directed our life for the better. Call it the mysterious Hand of Fate, Providence, or just being in the right place at the right time.

When Max Eisen looked at his life he could only reflect on the miraculous series of chance encounters that saved his life several times over. As a boy of only 15 he was arrested in Hungary and taken to Auschwitz concentration camp where he was sent to work until the point of exhaustion. Starved and physically injured by an SS guard, he was saved by the kindness of a fellow prisoner, a doctor, who treated his injury and then engaged him as a cleaner inside the infamous camp hospital. In that living hell, he came to learn of the depths to which humans can stoop.

Separated from sixty relatives, all of whom perished, he was forced on a death march in January, 1945 to Ebbensee camp, some 600 kilometers away. He was finally rescued in the closing days of the war when an African-American army tank battalion, the 761st, liberated the camp.

When I met Max at a family wedding, two years ago, his book was still a work in progress. Although he’d been tirelessly travelling and speaking to groups and organisations about his experiences, he’d never completed a written version of his story. I am delighted to learn that his book By Chance Alone, published by Harper Collins, will be launched on 19th April.

It is a sad fact that anti-Semitism is on the rise. In the name of being anti-Israel or anti-Zionism,  many are speaking words that have not been heard since the 1930s in Europe. Even some who are considered intelligent are denying the severity of the holocaust. The generation who survived the holocaust are all too few in number, and it is essential that we hear from them. Democracy is a very fragile thing, and it is all too easy for the same extremes of political thought to arise once again. We should understand where that leads.

At 87, Max Eisen is a living witness to one of the greatest atrocities in history. His book is a testimony of his courage and survival, and of how he coped with the painful aftermath of liberation, a time of physical and psychological healing.

 

Here are photos and recordings of Kadamba Kanana Swami from the Sunday Program on 10 April, taken at the Sri Sri Radha Radhanath Temple in Durban.

KKS_DBN_10April2016_SundayProgram_Kirtan

KKS_DBN_10April2016_SundayProgram_Lecture

 

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The post Some Jains say that Krishna is still living in hell – is this true? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

​Ram-Navmi class at ISKCON, Nasik

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The post Daily Darshan: April 16th, 2016 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

By Bhakti Tirtha Swami

Imagine that your doctor has just informed you that you have a serious case of cancer or AIDS, and you are going to die in three months. If this were your fate, how would you live each of your last days differently? This reflection helps remind us that we can never be certain how much longer we will remain in this material body. Therefore, we must not procrastinate or have a weak list of priorities. Important things essential things must be done now! We must live each day in readiness to depart if our appointment with death arrives. The exercise is to imagine that you are dying right now, and can see what you are leaving behind and the effect that your death will have on others. What are your last thoughts? What are your regrets? What things you have left undone? You should do these things today. Continue reading "Essential Technologies For Empowered Management
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Varnasrama series.

The post Meeting with the Russian Varnasram/farm committee in Moscow (English/Russian) appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

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By Vraja Bihari Dasa

No sooner do chanters begin their meditation session than the mind becomes restless, digging into past memories, running again and again over present worries, and exploring the future. Much of this mental life is fantasizing about all the ways we can enjoy and all the ways we can suffer-reliving experiences, painful or pleasant,and planning endlessly. Anything but being present while we’re chanting. We have to wonder why chanting makes the mind so defiant. To answer that question takes us to the crux of our identity: we are pure spirit souls who originally served God in the spiritual world with love and devotion. When we left His shelter and decided to enjoy independently of Him, we began to face the endless complexities of this world. Complexity is almost synonymous with struggle when you’re dealing with matter. Krishna states in the Bhagavad-gita (15.15), “The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.” Continue reading "Chanting Challenges
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The post Who is Vishnu – who is Krishna – what is their relationship? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Mechanics of Spirituality.
Sutapa das: When we neglect to invest quality time and attention into performing these simple acts of devotion, we start tending towards the religious more than the spiritual. Here are some classic symptoms of mechanical spirituality:
I ‘fit in’ my practices as opposed to prioritizing a suitable time of day
I ‘multi-task’ my practices as opposed to giving them exclusive focus and attention
I have no serious plans (or desires) to increase and enhance my practices
I look for excuses and justification to neglect my spiritual practices
I have no quality remembrance of the goal while performing my spiritual practices
The mind frequently wanders during my practices, and I happily let it travel.
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KK Bindu #373 Released. KK Bindu #373 includes: Translations of various acaryas on a verse of Vedanta-sutra.
The latest issue of Sri Krishna-kathamrita Bindu e-magazine was just released. This issue includes:
* Remain Foolish – From a letter by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
* No Returning Back – A fresh translation done especially for this issue of Bindu of five different acarya’s commentaries on Vedanta-sutra (4.4.22). It can be downloaded here:
https://archive.org/details/bindu373