Iskcon Alachua, Florida. Sunday Feast and Festival Committee’s
first meeting.
Mukhya devi dasi: The new Sunday Feast and Festival Committee had their first meeting last week. It was decided the first order of business was prasadam, and everything related to it. Here are some of the discussion items to look for in 2016:
Four feast serve-out lines to decrease your time getting through the line.
A new improved larger Annadhan Board next to a new Volunteer Service Board on the back wall of the Temple room.
Devotees will be calling all families requesting they take one Sunday a year as their family’s day to help with the Sunday feast, either cutting -up, cleaning inside the kitchen or outside after the serve out.
Sakshigopal das is committing to having 30 feasts sponsored in 2016. We’ll be encouraging the community members to get the benefits of distributing prasadam the other 22 weeks. Families can join together on the same day to make it possible. Even individual items can be sponsored.
We will be holding another round of Quantity Cooking Classes to enliven devotees in the fine art of cooking in Radharani’s Kitchen
We will be meeting again soon to look at many other aspects of improving the Sunday Feast experience.

Govindas Asrama. (Album with photos)
Ramai Swami: Govindas asrama in Sydney has three kirtan and prasadam programs a week. The area is not very big but somehow 50-60 people squeeze in to participate in an ecstatic evening.
The crowd is mostly westerners with some coming from other parts of the world. At one recent program everyone heard about Gita Jayanti – Lord Krsna’s speaking Bhagavad-Gita to Arjuna 5000 years ago.
Find them here: http://goo.gl/nW1AH8

By Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami

Understanding the principles, then details become clear.

So basically what we would like to discuss, with the blessings from the assembled devotees and Maharaja, is that in approaching or understanding the Sadhana or the culture of Krishna consciousness there’s some basic philosophical points on which it’s all based and by understanding those then the rest of it becomes quite easy. If one understands the principles, then the details underlining those principles become clear and very practical, because otherwise we get caught up in details and we think that the details is the important element. Details of course are important. But what is more important is applying the details. This way one knows how to apply a principle in so many different situations, otherwise we will find in one situation we are performing an activity and it works very nicely but then we do the same in another situation it doesn’t work. That is because the principle behind it is not understood. If we understand the principle then the details are very easily applied. So this subject can be approached in so many different angles. So we will try one of them now.

Culture – measures one’s activities.

Basically we have to see what is the purpose, what is culture. So culture we were basically defining as that you have a philosophy by which one gauges or measures one’s activities and then performing one’s activities in line with that understanding. That is your culture. So culture isn’t just going to the opera or drinking your tea with your little fingers sticking out but culture actually is a lifestyle. It’s a way of thinking. It’s a way of living. So if we look at this it means that everything that we do has something behind it. So if you have a rule then there’s something behind that rule that it’s trying to establish. So the rule itself is not an end. The rule is actually just something to ensure that the purpose or the mentality is actually being attained. That is the purpose of the rule. Now one may look, “why do have to have rules in the first place”. So we have to go back a little bit to the spiritual realm. Everyone in the spiritual realm performs their activities because of their love for Krishna. They have pure love and based on that pure love they will manifest a particular form and they will follow a particular way of dealing or a particular culture that fits their Rasa. And if they act outside of that culture it becomes Rasabhasa and it doesn’t match the relationship they have with Krishna. Like the Gopis don’t walk up to Krishna and slap Him on the back the Cowherd boys do that. Mother Yashoda won’t do that either. She will come and embrace Krishna, sit Him down and feed him. So because of the Rasa that they have, that establishes the particular way they behave and what they do and this is based on their pure love. So here you have very natural environment where everything is spiritual. Spiritual living entities are interacting with Krishna in a spiritual way.

We come to the material world.

Now when we come to the material world, then we have a slightly different situation. We’re dealing with material elements and we’re not dealing in a spiritual environment. And the principle of being here in the material world is that we forgotten Krishna. So the whole idea, the purpose of the material world, at least Krishna’s purpose, is how to reform the living entities and bring him back to his service. Though of course the living entities have the independence to stay for as long as they like. But the actual purpose of the material world is that they come out. So if they’re going to come out that means if you want to be organized or function within the material world properly. You must actually be following a lifestyle or a culture that is close enough to the spiritual culture that you can actually interface with. And in this way you can get out when you decide. So Krishna’s idea is, even if you’re not Krishna conscious you should still follow Krishna’s culture. Though you may do it from material motives for Karma, for Jnana, for Yoga. But still the principles of Krishna’s culture – spiritual culture is to be put into place. But there’s a slight difficulty in doing this and that it because culture happens naturally in the spiritual realm because of the pure love and pure association. But here that won’t happen.

But here! We don’t have pure love.

We don’t have pure love. So it doesn’t spontaneously manifest to culture and we don’t have that pure association. We’re just basically associating with matter. So therefore, Krishna then takes this culture and establishes it in the Vedic literatures as a codes of conduct-set of rules, and these rules are called religiosity or religion (Varnashram). These are the codes of conduct on how one should behave and they are the codes of someone who is in pure devotion on how they would do things. But since we don’ t have that. We don’t know what to do. So therefore it’s made its rules so that we will follow them. Now along with these essential principles and rules that are for those who want to follow the spiritual culture in the material world as practice, which means you know the rule, you follow it and practice it in the material world. If you understand the purpose, you also develop the proper mentality, the spiritual mentality, and then you’re fit to associate with those who follow the pure spiritual culture. But there are those who want to be here and not follow that spiritual path. So they are follow the same culture but because they are not trying to go upwards in this path they’re just want to stay loiter on the path. Krishna says there’s only 1 path. You have Him at one end and Hell at the other and so the pious people were kind of stay in the middle. They don’t want to use the culture for Krishna. So they there are so many responsibilities they must take because Krishna’s not involved Krishna’s not the doer in the equation. So therefore you do something you must take the reaction. So all these things are written in. So for those who are the Karmis, the Jnanis, and Yogis there will be some extra rules for them. In this way, then because it’s meant for everybody, who is in the material world, Vedic rules and regulations or culture becomes very broad. But what is broad is not the principles but so many details. Because all details in the Vedic culture you can bring back to the basic Krishna conscious principles. But they manifest in a way that the materials doesn’t actually know that they’re spiritual. Like respect for authority: the whole idea is that we respect Krishna -The supreme authority! So that’s written everywhere into the whole Vedic culture but the materialist is he’s not interested in God. He’s interested in himself. So he wants to learn something. So the process is you must be respectful otherwise, if I’m not respectful who wants to teach me. So it’s for my gain I’m respectful. Then when I become qualified, I’m the teacher, I want that respect, right? That’s my whole goal either gross or subtle sense gratification. So I’m very happy with this principle of respect. But that’s not actually what it’s for. It’s for actually contacting the pure devotees respecting them and making advancement and coming to the platform of accepting the spirit of the leading devotees in the spiritual realm.
Prabhupad says that when one comes to the platform of advance devotional service then one follows in the footsteps of a particular devotee of Vrindavan. So that means this principle of accepting if someone higher than us is eternally going to be there even in the spiritual realm. Means someone has a mood of Vatsalya Rasa they will eternally be serving under Mother Yasoda, Nanda Maharaja, and Vrishabhanu Maharaja. That’s going on. You’ll never will be equal you always have that. So this principle must be established so that it’s working then so nicely.

Vedic literatures that has been approved for us by our Acharyas

So now what we’re looking at what we actually want to focus on is within that great body of rules and regulations that are given by the Vedic literatures then there are those that are recommended by the Acharyas. Especially because we ourselves are Rupanugas so Rupa Goswami has chosen from that what is important and as far as the principles and what are the purposes and their basic applications and Sanatana Goswami has taken those and also giving their purposes but also giving technical rituals to it. Like Rupa Goswami says: “you must chant Hare Krishna” and there must be a regulated amount. But he doesn’t get into fine details like: you have a bid bag and that has form and shape like lotus petals with four leaves, you have beads that 108th they go like a snake shape from big down to small, there’s the main Krishna bead which is bigger, and you don’t cross that. So Sanatana Goswami gives and that becomes the ritual. But the purposes of chanting the mood of chanting that is all given by Rupa Goswami and Sanatana Goswami and it connects the ritual to that. And then you have a very complete picture. So they have gone through all the various scriptures “nana-sastra-vicaranaika-nipuna”, and they have chosen what we are to follow. So when we mean Vedic culture we mean the culture that Krishna gives us to the Vedic literatures that has been approve for us by our Acharyas. So it’s Vedic. Vedic means that we follow the laws of God. Krishna has given laws. We follow those laws. Those laws are the Vedic culture. This is the basic principle and Prabhupad uses term Vedic culture. The Vedic culture is eternal so it’s not that it only works 5000 years ago or it only works when Lord Caitanya was here. No, It always works. It eternally works. But for what we want to get out of here the Acharyas drop off all the extraneous rules that are meant for the Karmis, the Jnanis and Yogis and keep the ones that are meant for the devotees. In other words, the devotee’s rules are the primary and the foundation. And then extra ones that are added on – those are dropped. So it’s a very clear process. It’s not just they picked something here and there at random. So when Prabhupada says Vedic culture, he means his culture he’s giving us in his books. And the examples are given in the books are given in the Bhagavatam, given in the Gita and given in the Chaitanya-Charitamrita. So we can see these books from the philosophical point, which is their primary purpose but we can also see them from the cultural point. Because if you have accepted this philosophy then you’re going to apply it in your life so there’s a culture of those also. And it’s systematic of those who are applying this philosophy. So Gaudia Vaishnava philosophy we see that it’s very nicely given in the Vedic literature especially the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Sri Caitanya-Caritamrita gives even more fine like coming down to the very detailed points for us. And if we understand this than what we see the body of Vedic literature we can also see the example what is given to us. And then it becomes very practical for us. Many times I’ve heard: “well is not practical, Vedic culture is not practical” or “where is the example”. Somebody will say: “or well, where is the example of it?” But example is given there in the Bhagavatam. We can see how people react. How they deal, just like Krishna says in the Gita: “tad-vini prani pateina parni pashneina sayvoy”. So then we will say this is nice. Ok and then we will try to do it. And how do we do this? Gita itself is the excellent example of this. Krishna speaking, and Arjuna has accepted him as his authority. Arjuna wants to know. Right? So Prani-pata has been attained. He has the desire to know. Then Krishna talks and Arjuna asks questions – pati-prashna. He doesn’t ask challenging questions. He is saying stuff like, – “Krishna you said this and you said that, I don’t understand “So this is very important. How when one hears things that seem contradictory how you asks that question. He doesn’t go – “ …you say this and now you say that this is sounds very contradictory. I think maybe you’re making a mistake here. You have to pick this or that. Don’t be confusing… you should be straightforward. … Krishna get it together!”. NO, But he (Arjuna) says: – “ it’s contradictory, so I don’t understand I’m not educated enough. So could you please explain how these two seemingly contradictory things are not contradictory? How they’re complimentary”. So the whole book is just questions and answers. Arjuna is constantly questioning because the purpose of questioning is to remove doubts and misgivings. That’s Anartha-nivriti, anarthas manifest as doubts and misgivings. When there’s a doubt then we can’t do it. When there’s no doubt then we do it. When there’s doubts were confused we’re not quite sure we get influenced. When there’s no doubt, we know what to do and we’re very fixed. So the whole book is showing us how to go through this and then after hearing the instruction one applies it and Krishna says at the end, “ you’re heard” and Arjuna says, “yes”. And so what is he going to do now he’s going to fight. He’s going to fight now thinking of Krishna. So we see how a student behaves and in the same time we see how a teacher behaves. Krishna is very gentle. He is very kind in his explanation but he’s very firm. He says things how Arjuna can understand them. But he doesn’t compromise and we see at the end after he’s finished explaining everything he asked him “Do you understand?” and he is willing to go through the whole process again if it means that if that will help his student. If his student understood fine if not he’ll go through the whole thing again. Re-explain it. That’s a teacher. So its patience, so he says the Brahman has all these different qualities, like patience, tolerance, forgiveness all these things. Why? Because otherwise how do you teach. So Krishna is giving the perfect example of how to teach. So like this just we see here in the Gita so many practical examples in the Bhagavatam so many more. Gita establishes us in proper consciousness by which we could approach the Bhagavatam. The reason Bhagavatam is written in this form it means the absolute truth is given to us in this form because this is the form that we require. We don’t have the intelligence. We don’t have the determination to just take straight from Upanishads or straight from the Vedic literature and understand the whole philosophy, understand the whole culture and the mentalities, just by its study and then apply it in your life.

Topmost Vedic philosophy – given to us in the form of stories.

Therefore, the absolute topmost Vedic philosophy and principles is given to us in the form of stories. And these stories are the interactions between the devotees in the Lord at every level of progress. And this is for us. It’s not for someone else. When they say, “ it was ok, Bhagavatam, pure devotees, 5000 years ago” but why are they pure devotees. This we discussed little bit last night, its because of their endeavor to please the Lord. We’ve seen in the Bhagavatam their exclusive approach the Lord for whatever it is. Bhagavatam says, “Whatever you want you want liberation, you want material facilities, you want to go back to Godhead you approach Krishna”. So we see examples of all this. Kardama went through so much austerity to approach the Lord for the wife. So he’s following this and because of this he becomes perfect. Because he went to Krishna’s process, approaching Krishna to get want he wanted. He didn’t use another process. Therefore it’s in the Bhagavatam. Puru-rava was even more how would you say – materially inclined. Kardama is a good Brahmachari first class Brahmachari. He is just knows I have attachments I need to get married but he follows very strictly the Sadhana and everything in fact one of Prabhupada’s very strong verses on Brahmachari behavior is found in the middle of this chapter. He is doing his yajnas and all that to please the Lord to get a wife and in the purport Prabhupada is talking about Brahmachari. Because he has the mentality he sees the Lord. One may ask well how was one can be a good Brahmachari and approach the Lord for a wife. Because he’s approaching the Lord so anything approaching the Lord is transcendental. Right? So the first principle I do these yajnas, I do these sacrifice, I do my Japa, I do my Sadhana to please the Lord. Once I please the Lord then okay I may be foolish enough that I ask Him for a marriage situations instead of going back to Godhead. When the Lord came he could have said, “All I want is you”. But we don’t see that. He just told Him I want a wife. But because he approached the Lord means he’s God conscious. And in this way then he attained to perfection, because he had approached the Lord in such purity the Lord himself came as his son. Not someone else but the Lord himself. Now you see here how a Brahmachari acts. The Prabhupada says the first class Brahmachari becomes a first class Grihastha. Here’s the example. How it is that it works? We may make up our own idea. But here’s the example of how it’s actually going on. And we see as Bhagavatam goes you get higher and higher levels. Then you get the story of Dhruva. He wanted a kingdom. He really wanted that. He’s approaching the Lord. So someone may also asks, “ Well, how is that if someone has material desire. How will they see the Lord?” It wasn’t that he was thinking the material desire in his meditation. He’s thinking of the Lord because He’s the one who he wants to ask for the desire. So when he’s (Druva) doing his meditation the desire is not part of it. Just like you see this person to make him fulfill your desire. You are completely determined, “I’m going to see this person. Once I see this person then I’m going to remember my desire and ask for it”. But after seeing the Lord he gave up that desire.
Then we see later Prahlada Maharaj. He never had any desire. He is just approaching the Lord of pure devotion. So that is a very special platform that he is on. So we see it as a Bhagavatam goes it shows more and more deep surrender and understanding. So we get to the 10th canto where we see the greatest surrender and understanding of the residence of Vrindavan. Then it goes to show how it’s going from there coming back down to the material world. It’s showing how it going up through the stages to get to that platform. Then it’s showing how these things transform. We see Krishna from there goes to Mathura goes to Dvaraka then 11th canto we discussing what’s happening after the material world and then coming back down to the kings and then finally to the kali-yuga. So it’s these things are being practically shown in the Bhagavatam. So the point here is that we do have the practical example of how to live. We do have the practical example of how to interact and that is the Vedic literature as given to us by our Acharyas, by Srila Prabhupada and Goswamis. So what Shrila Prabhupada says and the Acharyas say this is Vedic culture. This is what we mean by Vedic culture. The Prabhupad is always using word Vedic culture. Is this clear? This is kind of establishes where we’ll continue from.

5 levels of consciousness

Okay, so now if we want to look at what we’re dealing with in the culture in the form of rules and regulations. This is very important to understand what. Basically the living entity has 5 levels of consciousness (annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya and anandamaya) that they can function on. They can function on sensual platform, which is called annamaya. They can also function on the extended sensual platform which is called manomaya. Say if we’re working on our own senses then you don’t need much structure in society. Basically you work on the logic of the fish “ whoever is the biggest wins”. Like you see the animals. There is something to eat whichever is the bigger animal they get to eat it like that. Very simple and you don’t need a whole lot of cultural structure. But if you want to recognize: “Ok, I want to eat, you want to eat”. Then we need some rules. So then you have your platform of justice, your economics. In other words we cooperate together for economic development. And then if someone doesn’t follow this you have justice. And then you have your basic principles of morality: “don’t steal because it’s not nice. Someone else has it than you respect his right to have things. He shouldn’t steal from me either”. Like this, so that’s called pranamaya, or accepting life, accepting others. Then you have the next platform higher than that and is called manomaya or it’s also known as jnanamaya. Sometimes it’s misunderstood that they’re two different things. Manomaya and Jnanamaya are the same. Because Jnana means you have only an intellectual understanding and the mind has accepted that. The intelligence can say so many things but you can’t work with it until the mind accepts it. You know this is right. I’ve thought about it in so many ways but I can’t accept it. So you don’t actually have that knowledge. Until the minds takes it so therefore it’s called Manomaya or Jnanamaya meaning that the knowledge is there – means intellectual understanding only. So then on this platform you have 3 categories that fit into there. That is the religious codes given by God, means directly the Vedic codes – (varnasrama) and all those codes that goes with that. Then the second will be none Vedic religions and religious principles that are there that are coming down in some way through God. Then you have mental speculation it’s when someone makes up their own philosophies.
Then the next level above that is the platform of intelligence, where we understand we’re not the body that we’re the soul. That’s vijnana-maya. On that platform then we have basically the understanding, “ I am Brahman” and one who will act within that culture. But we don’t have understanding of the supreme Lord. So this is the platform the impersonalist. Then the top platform is called anandamaya. Anandamaya means the platform of relationship with the Lord. And relationship then gives happiness. This is very important to understand. So we become attached then on these levels. So the whole philosophy of Krishna consciousness and the Vedic literature can be a boiled down into this point. It’s all attachment and relationship. Everything ultimately goes back to this as we mention first there is the devotees affection for Krishna that’s their attachment and that creates the Rasa the relationship so based on your kind of Rati or attachment you have a relationship with Krishna. So the same principle comes down into the material sphere. It’s your attachment. Are you attached to the senses- annamaya, extended self gratification- Pranamaya, religious principles – Manomaya or the understanding I am Brahman – vijnana-maya?! That’s your attachment and based on that you’re going to act. And you’re going to try to get your taste from that your Rasa from that. That’s the principle. Now within this these 5 levels of consciousness you have a 3 basically pure situations of attachment. You have the spiritual which is the Anandamaya, you have the emotional or mental which is the middle of manomaya, the third level and you have the attachment to the senses Annamaya and those in between this second and fourth the Pranamaya and the Jnanamaya. These are just junctions between. They have qualities of both that which is above and below them so they’re like a a ah junction between them. So it is explained that the living entity has these 3 platforms then which they can get Rasa which they can get exchange between themselves and others. So if one understands this science then one can actually get oneself out of this material world at the same time being as satisfied as possible in relationships in the material world. And if one doesn’t understand this science it’s practically impossible to get out. Because we will not attain that. Krishna says in the Gita, that you perform your prescribed duties and perform them for him. And he has given details of prescribed duties done to the smallest little detail. Even how you brush your teeth, so you can connect it to Krishna. One may ask how do I connect it to Krishna. First is that, you can remember Krishna while you’re brushing your teeth. If you can’t do that at least you brush your teeth because Krishna said I should brush my teeth. So either from the side of ritual or from the side of remembrance one can remember or one follows that so that they can teach it to others. But in this way it’s connected to Krishna. So Krishna in 11 Canto tells Udhuva,” I’ve dictated so many rules just so everything that you do you can connect to Me”. So that is what the rules are for. This is the body of literature. So now we have to understand that those rules and the whole Vedic culture that is platform of Manomaya and that is platform of emotion proper material, pure material emotion. Pure emotion isn’t experienced on the platform on the senses. It’s just a sense with the sense object and we know that just like they’re saying, “one man’s food is another man’s poison”. So it’s how you perceive it . How your mind perceives it, if it is good or bad. Just like you go outside it’s cold. Somebody goes, “hah fresh brisk nice” and they’re very inspired to walk around and breath the fresh air. Someone else walks out saying, “oh it’s cold” and goes back inside. The same sense with the same sense objects have come in contact but because how the mind perceives it there’s something different. So we see that the senses are actually part of the platform of the mind. Then, also there’s another we may think will this middle level the Pranamaya or the platform of morality and all that is the real platform of Rasa. But there is actually just extending the sense gratification. I want facilities you want facilities let’s share these facilities. And we make rules how it should be shared, like there must be legislation there must be justice to see that it is being legislated. And in this way we try to become happy but still what is a yard stick. That’s the thing. There has to be a yard stick by which you measure morals.

The difficulty in the modern society

That is the difficulty in the modern society today because they are so much confusion. They have no yardstick. What was freedom of speech hundreds of years ago is different from today. Before freedom of speech mean you say whatever you like but you have to say it in some proper way. You have to behave nicely. You have to be a good moral Christian person and with that in mind say what you need to say. You have a brain. You though something you observe you say it. Nowadays, that’s not there . Just that I have a tongue and I can vibrate it that’s called freedom of speech. Therefore I can say things offend everybody, completely upset the culture completely undermine everybody else’s platform of existence morals and culture. That’s what it called “ freedom of speech”. So this Pranamaya or economics, like you see business means you buy something cheap and you sell it more expensive. That’s business. That’s it. It’s not something else. . I mean there’s many details of course but that’s the fundamental. If you attain that principle you make profit. You don’t then you might as well forget it. So now in that you can either follow the Vedic principles you get things people need sell it at a reasonable price and then in this way live. But now you take things people don’t need because they don’t need it they don’t think about it so you do advertise so they think about it and then charge them an exorbitant price because you made it like something prestige. So this is business so it fits into that Pranamaya. It fits into that level but it has nothing to judge against and so it creates difficulty. I do business but I don’t care for material nature. Then we have the pollution and all things. I do business they don’t care for the culture and therefore billboards can show anything. Do anything. So like this, “people don’t need it, I’ll force them to buy it”. You don’t need you don’t have money to buy a car or buy a house. But I advertise in such a way that you can buy it and then for the rest of your life you’re paying mortgages and this and that. Plus I make a profit off it. So in this way there’s no balance. So there’s this dissatisfaction because there’s no proper way that you can interface with others. Because it’s the Pranamaya platform is still Annamaya. It’s just we’ll work together. . We’ll pleasantly deal with each other. So we don’t offend each other. But the problem is this, there’s no exchange. Real exchange. It’s still selfish. I still have my agenda you have your agenda. We’ll compromise so the both of our agendas have win win. And this is the platform of business management. All the modern management books are dealing with business management. I have my agenda you have yours and we’ll cooperate and I respect you have yours. So he is trying to establish people properly on the platform of Pranamaya. Rather than get into Annamaya. But the real exchange comes on the third platform on the Manomaya platform. That is where actual emotional exchange takes place and it includes the lower. Emotion means you’re going to express your emotion it will be through something. There has to be seen otherwise, I’m experiencing emotion the other can’t feel it. The others experience emotion you can’t feel it. So there has to be a way to exchange that like friends who whack each other on the back or wrestle together or sit down and eat on the same plate or just do things together. That’s the medium through which they express the emotion they’re experiencing like mother with a child, feeding the child or dressing the child. They’re always fussing with the child. And then that is expressed so the senses and the platform of morals are automatically there within this platform of ethics in these rules.
So there Vedic culture is there to establish proper emotional stability in those persons who want to get to the spiritual platform. So by doing this, it establishes this 12 Rasas. There are the 12 Rasas meaning the 5 primary and the 7 secondary. And you follow the rules and regulations so that what you’re doing is very similar to the spiritual culture. Then you can understand Rasa and then it makes it very easy to work with the spiritual principles. But at the same time you must understand. It’s still is perverted. It’s still material. It doesn’t have direct connection. Just like Krishna dancing with the Gopis, there’s nothing to do with material lust. But the principle – you have a boy with the girl, that remains and how they will exchange. How they sit together and smile and all these different things that remains but now it’s a different thing. The modern thing is that everything comes down to the sensual platform. We think boy and girl just together we only think it is sensual aspect. The boy has his senses he wants to please them through the girl. The girl has her senses she wants to please also through the boy. So basically they kind of work together Pranamaya to respect each other, not move too fast until they worked it out: “ This one doesn’t mind this, that one doesn’t mind that” until you find the balance situation then each of them can enjoy their senses. But there’s still no sacrifice. There’s no sacrifice they are still have they agenda, “ Instead of doing it this way I’ll do it that way”. But the platform of Manomaya or religious principles or Varnashrama means sacrifice, for a relationships I must sacrifice. The husband must sacrifice for the family he must bring facility, he must protect. Those things are of a great burden. It’s a sacrifice. Because he does that there’s a taste in that, which is not gotten by just following your own agenda. The children must sacrifice they must behave in certain ways. Parents must sacrifice more. Right? The sacrifice is the greatest on the parent part. That’s why it’s a higher Rasa. That’s why they get more out of it. So in other words when we accept the Vedic principles as given by Acharyas and do them because they’re duty. Not because were attached to them. As what Krishna says, he spends the whole Gita basically telling Krishna do your duty. After telling him, he is a fool for talking about doing duties or running away from duties. Because he’s saying, “do the duty to please Krishna “ that’s reality. Doing a duty just for duty that’s no real meaning. So you do your duty because you’re supposed to do it. I may like it. I may not like it. The men may not like getting in the car and drive down an hour into town and then sitting in this crazy office with all these nonsense people for 5 days a week so he can get money. So he can maintain his house but he does it because of the relationship. It’s his duty. He wants to be a Grihastha. He has to somehow another been able to maintain it. So it’s a duty. So we see the tendency in the modern culture is to give up that sacrifice. Give up that duty so to remove far away from sacrificing for Krishna where I just do things for myself. So we came closer and closer just to the animal culture. Sophisticated, but we must also appreciate it there are very sophisticated animals also. Western culture are used to dogs and cats that are not overly sophisticated. But when you associate with other animals like elephants, parrots and cockatoos. They are quite sophisticated. Swans, they’re very sophisticated in their movements, in their dealings how they eat. So their culture is developing into higher quality animals. If you’re an Afghan, or you’ll Bull Terrier you’re still a dog. So this acceptance of the principles of the Vedic culture and doing it because it’s a duty that what makes sacrifice that makes for relationships. But now as Krishna pointed out, that’s not enough. It has to be done for Krishna. Then it actually becomes a life.

Follow the Vedic Culture – for spiritual or material result

If you want material world to work nicely for you, you have to follow the Vedic Culture. And if you wanted to actually have a spiritual result then you have to connect it to Krishna. So Krishna is recommending that. Otherwise, if we just have the culture without the philosophy, it’s sentiment. That’s the mind the emotions the sentiments all that. Prabhupada says, “you have religion but no philosophy, it’s sentiment”. Like you see many followers of the Vedic culture, Indians and that they follow very nicely they have faith in it. They’re getting the results. They have nice family relationships. Marriages don’t break up. Kids turn out very nice. The economically they are very well established. They have very good family relationships big huge families. And they’re all very emotionally satisfied. But it’s all sentiment because there’s no philosophy behind it or Prabhupada says if we have philosophy but no religion means we don’t follow the Vedic culture then we end up with mental speculation. So generally you think, “well the sentiment it’s just the – Karmis and the philosophy without the culture that’s just the- Jnanis, nothing to do with us”. But the point he is making means that the devotees have both. So if we just take the one we’ll end up a sentimentalists. You may have a nice emotional time. But we still won’t be satisfied we joined this movement because materially we can’t be satisfied. We want to be devotees. We want to know something more. At the same time if we just take the philosophy without the culture, we become impersonal. So it is the Karmis and Jnanis but devotional service can be affected by this. Kapila-muni explains this. Devotional service can be done in mode of ignorance, in the mode of passion, in the mode of goodness, so Krishna is recommending pure goodness. And this is by engaging what one is doing in Krishna’s service. Because if you do an activity for Him. There’s no desire. You understand He is the reason that is happening. He is the doer then there’s no misunderstanding there’s no ignorance. There’s no material desire. There’ s no passion. So we’re doing it out of duty. So it’s mod of goodness. So goodness what is the definition of goodness without passion or ignorance. It’s pure goodness. Though it maybe through the mechanical process that’s Sadhana. So we establish yourself on the platform of pure goodness by the mechanics of the Sadhana and the culture by this mentality. And with time by doing that by associating with the Lord and the devotees through this platform we’re enlightened and we become detached from the material energy. Then we find slowly that affection for Krishna naturally starts awakening within the heart by that spiritual association. Then whatever we’re doing becomes spiritual. This is the mechanical process of what we’re talking about. So when we say our devotional service is spiritual, this is mechanically how it works. That’s what Krishna’s telling in the 18th chapter of Gita. If he gives this, you perform your duty without attachment without thinking you’re the doer it means without false ego and without desire for results. So that means do your duty without any passion or ignorance. And then if you could remember the Lord then you yourself are situated in pure goodness. At least if it’s not you than it’s your activity is. And by associating with the Lord through these activities then we become purified. So this is what Krishna’s recommending.
If we have any difficulties on the emotional platform in other words the social platform, interaction with the others. It basically boils down that we are not following the proper rules for that interaction nor accepting the mentalities and the purposes for those rules that go with that. Just like a teacher is supposed to teach. So the basic principle is okay the teacher is the authority the students are learning. But there’s a mentality that goes with that. There must be compassion. If you see the picture of Prabhupad when he’s teaching Dwarakadeesh how to write. And Prabhupad sitting there at the desk and Dwarakadeesh is sitting next to him and Prabhupad is holding his hand. Prabhupada’s total attention is on how Dwarakadeesh is writing. It’s not somewhere else. Total attention is there. So that’s sacrifice by the teacher for the students must be there. Then we see we get an excellent result. That student gets full attention and they feel satisfied. They’re emotionally satisfied. And when they grow up they’ll be able to do the same for the next generation. But If you are thinking of the something else, this student will be thinking of something else too and when they grow up when they teach they’ll be thinking of something else. Their students will think of something else. The next generation will get worse than the last. But if full attention is there and that is because of duty this is how the teacher does. Out of compassion there must be patience. So many different things cause when you hold that hand and you move it they may move with you may not move with you. So many things you have to and it’s not you controlling. You are helping them. So this is the interesting thing when you understand the culture you see all the aspects that everybody sits and argues about they’re all contained in 1 place.

The purpose of accepting the authority

Is the teaching authoritative or is it democratic or is it liberal. These are the discussions that go on in educational circles. But all of those have to be there at one time, the one maybe prominent than the other. The teacher is the authority,” This is how you write the letter. You can’t make up your own letter And a has a particular way of how it looks”. That’s it. Some little variation, individually but if it’s not in the circle it’s not an A. That authority is there and working with the student is there and then that liberality, sometimes the student does this and that. You let it go for a moment then catch it. So when that all is there you have a good teacher and you have a good student. And what is the purpose of that, the student has full attention on these things and they learn the foundations by which they can learn higher subjects. That they can learn about Krishna. And the teacher has to live the example to do these things so he actually wants that this student goes back to Godhead. That’s what it says: “ Don’t become a mother a father, a teacher, a king or a demigod unless you can take your students or your dependents back to Godhead”. So that’s the purpose so when you have that purpose with following Krishna’s rules and then engaging these senses all in Krishna’s service, you have a complete spiritual experience and material experience. So basically what it means is if there is any difficulties we’re not following the rule or even if we’re following the rule because Rupa Goswami says, Niyamagraha- means either you’re not following the rules cause you don’t know why and that it looks stupid it’s not practical or you’re following the rules because it’s a rule. And you don’t know the purpose behind it and the mentality by which it follows. So either one of them are useless. Not following the rules means we fall on the platform of mental speculation. We have the philosophy but we don’t accept the rules. They don’t accept the religion so therefore it becomes mental speculation or accept the rule but I don’t know how to connect the philosophy and therefore it’s a sentiment. So generally if you look at look at difficulties that are there in establishing proper relationships and social interaction is simply because we fall in one of these 2 categories, we are either sentimentalist or mental speculations. Very few accept the philosophy accept the rules and know how to connect them together. And that is what the Bhagavatam is for. It gives the philosophy and in the philosophy there’s giving the story behind it. So you can see practically how it’s applied. Kardama Muni accepts the philosophy: “whenever I want, I approach the Lord”. What did he do? He didn’t just come for 2 seconds, “please Krishna give me this things”. He actually went to the austerity to please Krishna by the process of Sadhana to please the Lord, which means it has to be done in devotion. He wasn’t thinking of the wife all the time he was thinking of devotional activity. And then at the proper time then: “ okay what is your request? This is my request: “ I want to be able to serve you through this ashram. I’m not properly situated in this”. So that’s the practical application of it and you see it works very nicely. He was very qualified. He was the first class Brahmachari. His wife was very qualified. Because she wanted somebody who is qualified and it made a wonderful match. It goes into detail description their whole life and you don’t see any problems in their relationship. You don’t see any problems there and you see what is necessary. Some will say, “Grihastha life – there is nothing explains much”. But he even gets into how to conceive a child.
He was very austere controlled senses the wife has developed good submissiveness, good service attitude, because their son is going to take on the qualities of the mother. Mothers respectful. Mother has a good service attitude the son has that. Then that makes a good leader. He can be a good devotee a good leader.

Platform of reality is our spiritual interaction.

So the rules are written into the relationship for all these purposes and we’re just doing it as duty, because ultimately material nature is not the platform of reality. Platform of reality is our spiritual interaction. It means that the service for Krishna and ultimately that we remember Krishna and go back to Godhead. That is service. So Srila Prabhupada always says this just like a drama. But unless you do your part in the drama it’s not a very good drama. A good drama is when each person plays his or her part. Then it works very nicely. This then draws out the proper emotional exchange and with that naturally morals are practiced there and senses get taken care of. From dharma comes Artha, from dharma following religious principles comes economic development from that comes sense gratification. So devotees are wondering, “how to make the economic development”? Just by following dharma by accepting this, that will come. But we’re not doing it for that purpose that (Artha and Kama) will come automatically. If you eat you become satisfied. So you follow that but for Krishna, in other words we don’ apply our attention down from Dharma out to the Kama. We do the Dharma for Krishna then the Artha and Kama automatically come but also in connection to Krishna. So it’s a very interesting balance here. That one has to understand these codes. Then one understands why a Brahmachari must to do these things. One must see what is the mentality. Prabhupada explains in the purports. Many time someone may just say, “ that’s something else”. No, that is why it works. We may take hard-core philosophy and we may take hard care rules. But we have a tendency to leave what is in between, that what explains why they work what is the mentality and what is the actual application. We’ll take the rule of the Brahmachari but not the mentality of the Brahmachari. Because the Brahmachari is detached therefore he has nothing to deal with, he needs very little he has no responsibilities. So whatever free things he needs he keeps that’s it. It’s not just because he keeps a few things he is a Brahmachari. It’s because he has the mentality he keeps a few things then because there’s no attachments and because he’s on the bottom of the pile he is very gentle with everyone else. He cultivates this mood of submission to the teacher and so he is very gentle by nature and he’ll deal gently with everybody else. Like you see Narada Muni and everybody else when they’re dealing very gently and then that is the real Brahmachari. Right but we don’t take that part of it. We just take Brahmachari like this: cuts his nails, eats chunks of wood for breakfast, spits on woman, this kind of stuff and but we see that those never last as Brahmacharis. It’s just like a countdown, Brahmacharini ashram may be going on a betting how long a guy will last, “I say three moths… nah it’s not that long”, like that – because it’s not a Brahmachari life. It’s not the right mentality. That’s the thing so you accept the mentality you get the act application just, like in the spirit it’s going on a spiritual realm. The spiritual realm you have an attachment for Krishna that manifest your body “yam krodha-kama-sahaja-pranayadi-bhiti-vatsalya-moha-guru-gaurava-sevya-bhavaih” (Sri Brahma-Samhita 5.55). That according to that Bhava that’s the service you do you manifest the form. You have the friendship attachment towards Krishna you manifest cowherd boy body. You have a parental attachment for Krishna you manifest an older Gopi or an older Gopa body. So in the same way is you have a mentality here you accept all the principles of mentality of the rule, then it actually manifest the rule. In other words from subtle you get gross. Material world started out from false ego, false ego then went to intelligence then down like this until you get down to earth. So from subtle comes the gross: thinking, feeling and willing. You think it then you feel you become attach to it then you engage the senses and try to get it. There’s always subtle to gross.

That is why we are Rupanugas

So what happens is we have taken the philosophy and we’re taken the gross application but we haven’t taken what actually makes the gross application work. So that is Abhidheya that is the process of devotional service that is why we’re Rupanugas because our emphasis is on that. That is the process of pleasing Krishna, serving Krishna so that is the mentality. There’s a mentality behind it. There’s a ritual and there’s the purpose. So unless these 3 are understood or in place you don’t get the proper thing. You may have the right mentality. You may know the purpose but don’t perform the ritual properly. It’s not so bad. There’s no ego, we were just discussing this with Jayadvaita Maharaj. In the beginning devotees first started. You know, 26nd avenue, they didn’t know what was going on. But because they understood this is to please Krishna and they had the right mentality even although the ritual and the technique wasn’t so good it still functioned. Devotees were happy. But if we get the ritual without both of these others we won’t be happy. If you thrown out Manomaya or the rituals there then that only leaves us with Pranamaya and the Vedic literature doesn’t content, doesn’t have Pranamaya without Manomaya, it’s always connected. You have the main principles then you have the sub ones and then the ones below that and all that. They’re all connected in the line. So if you throw out the top principles then it’s very hard to actually put together something. So the tendency is to throw the whole thing out and then we fall back into our habits. We’ll have to take western paradigms to try to create some social situations. But what we have to do is accept the Vedic. Accept the mood behind the activity. The proper manifestation of the activity and what is the purpose and how it connects to developing love for Krishna. That combination makes it very strong and that is the wonderful devotee and the association that, we join the movement to find, that is it. One who understands this has the mood proper mood in performing an activity. They understand they are serving Krishna and they want pure love of God. Then it’s a complete package. And anything less than that doesn’t work. It’s not complete. And this is like Lord Caitanya says, is that until you understand relationship, process and goal or result you don’t actually know Gaudiya vaishnava philosophy. And then in this process, we have to know these parts. What is the ritual what is the purpose of that ritual what’s the mentality behind performing that ritual. When I say ritual I mean any activity it means how you take prasadam or how you run your household or how you deal with others. It doesn’t just mean religious ceremony in the temple. Because the idea of the Vedic culture that everything you’re doing is a religious ceremony. Taking care of your child and the houses part of the religious ceremonies. That’s why the Vedic culture is so special, because God is not just in the temple. God is in every activity that you do as long as you see the connection. So it’s very special. How you dress, how you behave, how you talk, how you interact with others. Krishna entered it through all these things. So we instead of rejecting and following the Niyamagraha in one-way or doing it fanatically, we have to understand why. Then it becomes gentle and very nice very tasty.

ISKCON Durban Goes Green.
“The temple itself has 521 bulbs. As of 1st November ALL temple bulbs are either energy savers or LED bulbs, including the florescent tubes.” ISKCON Durban temple is undergoing major restoration for the 30th anniversary next October. Not only are they restoring the temple to its original beauty, but they are making marked improvements. One in particular—that is both admirable and intimidating—is their Go Green campaign. This campaign is the brainchild of Vibhu Caitanya Das, Durban Temple President.
To read the entire article click here: http://goo.gl/Nrvqrk

“First Time 5-SMIS” Art Show (Album with photos)
Sri Mayapur International School’s students exhibit their paintings.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/ViqAJr

UK December Marathon: Counting up… (Album with photos)
The 100k effort ended yesterday. Today is the day of rest. With yesterday’s street scores we have reached 97,000… but fear not… there are many scores still to come in… its looking very positive. Final scores will be announced on Sunday.
Its amazing… how these books travel to every corner of the country, touching people’s hearts and changing their life… whether they realise it or not. This is the family business, the best job in the world. Bowing down to all the book distributors who went out this marathon - we could only capture some of you on camera… for the rest, Krishna definitely saw you All glories to your service!
Find them here: https://goo.gl/9nr2iT

Hope For The Best! (Album with photos)
Iskcon’s Food For Life Nepal begin to feed one more new school, Shree Jaya Bhadrakali Lower Secondary School.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/OJbIqS

The post Daily Darshan : December 25th, 2015 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Awakening the Light of Dharma: How to Uphold Dharma in the World Today.
On the 6th and 7th of November 2015 Radhanath Swami delivered talks at the international interfaith event Awakening the Light of Dharma: How to Uphold Dharma in the World Today. The event was held at the Jnana Pravaha Centre for Cultural Studies and Research, Varanasi. Spiritual leaders from the Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic and Jewish traditions explored ways to create greater awareness of the concept of Dharma in the public consciousness. They also discussed how this heightened awareness of Dharma would help address many of the crises we are facing today including environmental pollution, increasing economic disparity and abuse of women. Experts from the fields of environment, development and education also shared their thoughts.
To read the entire article click here: http://goo.gl/NAJfgc

The post The marathon festival appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

REVELATIONS —A comparative religious study between —-JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM and the VEDAS.
As you all know: 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s departure to the West. This book is dedicated to His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, ISKCON, in July of 1966.
The following scholar has praised the book: “It is rare to find a work which seeks to integrate Hindu and Jewish thought. The book is a rich interfaith exploration.” Professor Dan Cohn-Sherbok Dan Cohn-Sherbok is a rabbi of Reform Judaism, a Jewish theologian and a prolific religious author who has written and edited over 80 books which have been translated into Russian, Greek, Bulgarian, Hebrew, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Swedish, Japanese, Turkish, Persian and German. He is Professor Emeritus of Judaism at the University of Wales, Honorary Professor at Aberystwyth University and a Research Fellow at Heythrop College, University of London and the Centre of Religions for Peace and Reconciliation, University of Winchester.
“In this thought-provoking book the author shows how the concept of demigods was once integral to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He demonstrates how the existence of demigods can be compatible with the existence of a Supreme God, giving the Vedic religion as an example of this.” Michael A. Cremo Author of Forbidden Archaeology, Human Devolution, etc.
Michael A. Cremo is a researcher associate of the Bhaktivedanta Institute specializing in the history and philosophy of science. He is a member of the World Archaeological Congress and the European Association of Archaeologists and is an expert on archaeological evidence for extreme human antiquity.
I hope that this offering will be pleasing to his divine grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and that the devotees will derive great satisfaction by reading this book.
The printing is done in Vrindavan. You can get a copy from ISKCON Vrindavan,ISKCON Mayapur,ISKCON Juhu,ISKCON New Delhi and ISKCON Pandharpur.
Your servant Rasamandala das

By ISKCON 50 Global Office

Supporters and well-wishers of ISKCON who attended a 50th Anniversary gala event in Ahmedabad on 19th December sponsored over 12,500 Bhagavad-gitas as part of the December marathon in India.

Devotees at the Ahmedabad temple had organised an event to celebrate Gita Jayanti at Regenta Hotel, which was attended by over 200 business leaders. The event was hosted by Rajesh Karia, owner of Regenta Hotel, who is a member of the local congregation.

While releasing a special souvenir on the occasion, titled ‘A legacy of 50 years: a tribute to Srila Prabhupada’, Jasomatinandan Das, a senior disciple of Prabhupada, and President of the Ahmedabad temple described why the Gita was the foremost of scriptures and said, “At the age of 69, when most people retire from active life, Srila Prabhupada left the comforts of India and traveled across half the globe to create a spiritual revolution that changed the face of the world.”

“Today, ISKCON is the largest distributor of Vedic books in the world with over 500 million books placed worldwide,” said Romapada Das, International Coordinator for the 50th anniversary, who presented two short videos and spoke about the achievements of ISKCON in the last 50 years. “And the Bhagavad-gita As It Is by Srila Prabhupada is the one book that has transformed the hearts and minds of millions of people around the world by taking them closer to real spiritual life and engaging them in devotional service to Lord Krishna.”

Keshava Murari Das, President of the Rohini temple in New Delhi made an elaborate presentation about the worldwide activities of ISKCON. After his presentation, he urged the audience to support the December marathon and fill in sponsorship forms for distributing the Bhagavad-gita.

“This was the first time we had organised an event of this nature in Ahmedabad to mark Gita Jayanti,” explained Vishnu Nam Das, Vice President of ISKCON Ahmedabad. “It was inspiring to see the enthusiasm and willingness of our supporters in sponsoring Bhagavad-gitas after they heard the presentations of our speakers. Distributing 12500 Gitas in two hours from one single event is a record of sorts for Ahmedabad.”

For more information, please contact:

ISKCON 50th Anniversary Office: info@iskcon50.org

ISKCON Ahmedabad: hgdas.gkg@gmail.com
Your servant,

THINK 50!

By Brijabasi das

There is a Sanskrit poem describing the glories of the holy name which is quite well-known in ISKCON by the name “Sri Kevalastakam”. Each verse of the poem ends with “harer namaiva kevalam” (“Only the holy name of Lord Hari”). It appears in the songbook called “More Songs of the Vaisnava Acaryas”. Its authorship has been a mystery and it was described as “An Anonymous Sanskrit Poem”. Recently, while reading one of the old “Sajjana-tosani” magazines published by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in the late 19th century, I came across one interesting item, where the Thakura reviews this very poem:

—-
Sajjana-tosani, 7th year, 4th issue (July 1895), p.115.
“Samalocana” (“Book reviews”)
“Nama-kaivalya-sataka”

“We have received a small booklet entitled “Nama-kaivalya-sataka”, composed by Sriyuta Prabhu Nilakanta Gosvami. Each verse of the book ends with the line “harer namaiva kevalam”. To reveal the glories of the holy name in this way is the utmost duty of the descendants of the Lord. The composition is excellent. The mood is beautiful everywhere. The glories of the holy name are described in detail. If Prabhupada [Nilakanta Gosvami] could also explain the meaning of every sloka in the Bengali verse under it, it would be a special service to the community of Bengali women. Our tongue always sings the following two verses:

namaiva paramo yajno namaiva paramam tapah
jnanam yat paramam loke harer namaiva kevalam

trni-krtyam jagat sarvam rajate sakalopari
cid-ananda-mayam suddham harer namaiva kevalam

–-[end of review]—

While this review is very favorable, we should not probably altogether forget Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s warning as conveyed in the words of “The Harmonist”: “In the days of Thakur Bhaktivinode the number of devotees professing ‘Suddha bhakti’ in Bengal were very few. His appeals had to be made to the class of ‘Misra bhaktas ‘ and ‘Biddha bhaktas’ among whom he found supporters and sympathisers. The ‘Sajjana-toshani’ of that period did not altogether escape the influence of the views of these supporters. Thakur Bhaktivinode, himself the Pioneer ‘Suddha bhakta’, found it absolutely necessary to tolerate more or less this influence of ‘Misra bhaktas’ and ‘Biddha bhaktas’ within the movement.” (The Harmonist, Vol.25, #1, June 1927). However, “Kaivalya-sataka” seems to represent the glories of the holy name without deviations, which unfortunately were common among the vaisnavas of those times.

So, “Sri Kevalastakam” is not actually an “astakam” (eight verses), but a “Satakam” (a hundred verses). The author is a person named Nilakanta Goswami, who was a descendant of one of the Lord’s associates (since Bhaktivinoda Thakura calls him “prabhu-santana”, it most probably means that he appeared in either Advaita- or Nityananda-vamsa). He was born in 1847 A.D. (Asvini Purnima of the Bengali year 1254) in Boinchi, Dakshinpara, Bengal. He lived in Kolkata but ca. 1901 he left Kolkata for his home in Boichi due to the health issues. In 1913 his disiciple Saurindra-mohan Seal brought him back to Kolkata where Nilakanta Goswami continued working on his book on Rasa-lila. These are the bits of information about him that are available from his books.

I was able to find some of Nilakanta Goswami’s books. One of them, called “Panca-ratnam”, consists of five similar Satakas written by him. It was published in 1916 in Calcutta. Besides “Kaivalya-sataka” there are also “Matr-sataka” (a hundred verses glorifying the mother), “Guru-sataka” (a hundred verses glorifying the guru), “Dharma-sataka” (a hundred verses glorifying dharma) and “Viveka-sataka” (a hundred verses condemning ignorance). He also composed “Gaura-sataka” (a hundred verses glorifying Lord Gauranga). All the verses in each sataka have the same last line.

Besides these books he also wrote the following (taken from the advertisements in his book “Sri Krsna-lilamrta”):

– Sri Vamsi-vikasa (dealing with the appearance of Srila Vamsivadanananda Thakur. In Sanskrit with Bengali poetic translation);
– Bengali translation of the Kalki-purana;
– Pitr-stotra (a poem in praise of father);
– Abar Gaura (a Bengali poem glorifying Lord Caitanya);
– Satyam eva jayati (100 verses glorifying the truth and truthfulness), published in 1919;
– Pativrata (100 verses in praise of the wife’s faithfulness and chastity (with the examples of the great wives like Sati, Savitri, Sita, Gandhari and others), published in 1919;
– Sri Krsna-rasa-lila (Srimad-Bhagavatam verses with Sridhara Swami’s commentary in Sanskrit, Bengali translation and Nilakanta Goswami’s own Bengali commentary), published in 1921;
– Sri Krsna-lilamrta (in Sanskrit), published in 1924.

His publisher and disciple, Surendranath Sadhu, writes in his foreword to “Sri Krsna-rasa-lila” that in the early 1880s Nilakanta Goswami was an acarya of the newly founded “Visva-vaisnava-sabha” in Sarkar Lane, Kolkata. It was the same Visva-vaisnava-sabha that was co-founded by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in the April of 1885. In his articles in the Sajjana-tosani magazine (2nd and 3rd years) Bhaktivinoda Thakur describes the activities of this Visva-vaisnava-sabha, situated in Sarkar Lane, 66, Chorbagan, Kolkata. In one of them (3rd year, #41, p.43) he mentions Nilakanta Goswami as “The acarya of the Sabha who recited the sastra and delivered such a lecture that everyone became happy.” In his books Nilakanta Goswami is also called by his disciple publishers as “Bhagavatacarya” and “Maha-prabhu-pada”.

Our well-known eight verses were selected from different parts of the book:

#11 (“madhuram…”)
#39 (“abrahma-stambha…”)
#50 (“sa guruh…”)
#57 (“trni krtya…”)
#62 (“nihsvase…”)
#77 (“harih sada…”)
#89 (“aho duhkham…”)
#99 (“diyatam…”)

In the above-mentioned review of the book Bhaktivinoda Thakura quotes the verse #32 (“namaiva paramo yajno”) and #57 (“trni krtya…”).

December 25. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
Srila Prabhupada acknowledged that time wears away all things. Even Krishna’s places of pastimes in this world have become covered over, leaving little trace of His presence. Rupa Goswami expressed this in a cryptic message to his brother, Sanatana, in jail. Rupa Goswami’s note stated, “Where is the Ayodhya of Raghupati? Where is the Mathura of Krishna?” His meaning was that everything in this world changes, but if you keep your mind fixed on that which is eternal, you will be steady. This is good advice to anyone in anxiety over the temporary , terrible situation of material prison life. According to Rupa Goswami, even the dhamas within this world undergo change; therefore we should always meditate on the eternal essence of life. Just as Lord Krishna’s dhamas are eternal, Prabhupada’s pastimes have a similar quality; we should not be alarmed or doubt their validity. We may ask, “Where is Ayodhya? Where is Dwaraka, the city by the sea? Where is the Yadu dynasty? Where is the pious humankind whom Krishna came to restore? Where are the Pandavas or their descendents?” Although the spiritual pastimes of the Lord may disappear from our vision, they continue to exist for those who have perfect vision. Time is not greater than Krishna or Krishna’s pastimes. But because the material world is the kingdom of Maya, even spiritual edifices will crumble. The inner spirit is carried on by the parampara of living devotees.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=20490&page=3

Vanished Scenes?

Giriraj Swami and Rtadvaja Swami spoke at the Houston temple.

—————————–
“When I first went to the temple as a guest the devotees from Canada would always ask me, ‘When are you going to surrender?’ I would say, ‘I am an American. We don’t surrender. Surrender is for weak people. When people are strong they don’t surrender.’ The temple president said, ‘You are a fool. You are surrendered to so many things. You are surrendered to your family, your job, your friends your country.’ Even those of us that were part of the counter-culture had to surrender to the call of nature. We had to surrender to the urge to speak the urges of the mind, the urge of anger, the urge of the tongue, belly and genitals. And when any of those six knock on the door we must surrender. So, the devotees told me, ‘You are already surrendered. Now you just have to decide to whom you are going to surrender. Who has true value for you to surrender to?’ And they explained to me that it was Krishna.” —Rtadvaja Swami

Giriraj Swami Kirtan, Houston
Giriraj Swami Talk, Houston
Rtadvaja Swami Talk, Houston

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Gita verse-by-verse study Podcast

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A world-class show celebrating ISKCON’s 50^th anniversary entitled “Transcendental Journey: Krishna 50 Years On” is set to play at the iconic Sydney Opera House in Australia on Saturday August 20th, 2016. Transcendental Journey will repeat twice, with a matinee performance at 2pm and an evening one at 7:30pm in one of the Sydney Opera House’s state-of-the art theaters, “The Studio.

Introduction

By Taraka das

Recently I have travelled to a number of ISKCON centres. The place that stood out for me as welcoming and warm was New Vrindavan. Every devotee that I encountered said, “Haribol. How are you?” or similar or just smiled. This really warmed my heart as I have often been to a new place and devotees did not acknowledge my presence At all. I know I am not alone in this experience, and may even be guilty of ignoring guests myself from time To time.

The question to ask ourselves is – what impression do we give our guests? Devotees in our ranks are surrendering to distribute books on the street and are inviting people back to the temple for a festival or weekend program. Some Of the people they contact, actually take up the invitation. Some people read a book or go to one of our restaurants, or yoga classes, meet a devotee or read Something on the internet to find out about our temples. There are many ways people contact the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. So when they pluck up enough courage to visit a temple, and then they spend some money and time getting there and walk in the door, if they are ignored it may result in them never coming again. If they are met by a new devotee and told they should give up everything and move into the temple (I heard a new devotee tell an elderly couple this at his first meeting of them as the couple were putting on their shoes, oh so slowly. I knew they were regular attendees and home worshipers) this could also result in guests never coming again, or finding another place to go. Of course there are other experiences in between these two extremes.

It comes down to understanding the needs, interests and concerns of those whom we are “ministering” to. Some people need a lot of space when they come for the first time and don’t want to be bombarded with philosophy or interrogation, some people need to feel included and some require information and association.

In doing some quick research I found a PowerPoint presentation from a church website outlining various methods for church services that could be adopted by those wishing to share the “gospel”, which is what we are trying to do as a movement. It suggests a consistent approach for church services, with a trained team, with a strategy.

Thinking about having trained devotees, a strategy and consistency is important as the reason I was pushed to write this article was due to consistent behaviour, not so conducive to our mission. A senior devotee from Bhaktivedanta Manor told me when she visited two temples in Australasia,
(one temple she visited every day for a week), not one devotee approached her, although she was wearing Vaisvana dress and attending the program. This made my heart sink, and I Wondered if she was wearing saffron with a danda, would it have made a lot of difference? Had she been featured in BTG or any other publication, would it have made a difference? Are we really so busy or unhappy that we don’t have the time to smile or greet newcomers to our temples? It appears that it is not only the guests from the public that we can ignore, but our own devotees – our extended family members.

What are the obstacles we face as an organisation to this problem?

Some of the problems I see are that most devotees have a major duty to do within the organisation, perhaps pujari, cook, Manager, book distributor, teacher etc. When the devotees are doing their services, there may not be time to spend on a new guest, whether devotee or not. The other difficulty is that unlike Churches, our temples are open from 4:30 am to 9:00pm and this means guests can come at any time during this period. We have a variety of guests, from various backgrounds with a multitude of needs. Another challenge is that many devotees live on the property or in the building, so that means they live, worship, do seva (work), and socialise all in the same place. This causes the boundaries to be quite blurred and sometimes to “be on duty” twenty-four hours a day can be overwhelming, especially in times of stress, or Ill-health. And suffice to say, other factors.

What are some of the solutions? Having a point of entrance where all the people come into a building does help this situation because someone may be situated at a reception or information desk. Then the responsibility of greeting guests is predominantly the devotee’s responsibility who is at the desk. Make a strategy for greeting guests when there are a lot expected, like at Sunday Feasts or Festivals. Have a team of trained devotees who like greeting guests. This is not natural for every person, so best to engage those who like new people.

Train devotees to greet guests, and to learn how best to meet their needs. And finally, we are supposed to be happy Hare Krishna, that means, we can at least give a smile to new people, even if we don’t have time to greet them, and treat them like bhagavan.

More devotees should know about the holy town of Shukratal. Shukratal is the place where Shukadeva Goswami spoke the sacred Srimad-Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana) to Maharaja Pariksit 5000 years ago. It is located about half way between Delhi and Haridwar, a four to five hour drive, and about 86 kilometers before you get to Haridwar. The little town sits on the banks of the holy Ganga River, where it has cut a swathe through the rocky region. Pilgrims come to visit this holy town, but it is still gaining recognition though it plays a serious role in our tradition of the Bhagavatam. First of all, the village and the road to get to it are so small that they do not show up on most maps, so it is not easy to find unless you know how to get to it. But it is about an hour east of the city of Muzaffarnagar. Continue reading "Shukratal: Where Shukadeva Goswami Explained the Srimad Bhagavatam
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Today, most Vaishnavas make efforts to lead a theo-centric life. They struggle to remember that they are souls who are equal to the plants and animals, and that they are not their bodies, with the associated desires to exploit and kill the Lord’s nature. They try to remember that the universal soul or Supreme Soul is their friend who is in their hearts and who with love beckons them to turn away from violence and exploitation. Recent Vaishnava sages, like Prabhupada and his predecessors, envisioned the great contributions that the Vaishnava and genuine Vedic perspectives can make in a world of selfishness. They became Vaishnava activists and requested their followers to practice Krishna-centrism, which includes a non-anthropocentric relationship with His nature. Moreover, they urged their followers to propagate that view. There are more than half a billion Vaishnavas around the world. By Krishna’s grace and that of His divine nature, their struggles to have a deep ecological impact in the world will be successful. Continue reading "Deep Ecology and Vedic Culture
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For charity to be effective, in either a religious or a practical sense, it must be given to the right person in the right way.

#1: Who to Give to?

Donations are primarily supposed to be given to brāhmaṇas, not primarily to vaiṣyas or kṣatriyas. All śāstra concurs on this basic point. Brāhmaṇas are people who spend the vast majority of their time and energy studying and teaching, especially studying and teaching the Veda. Kṣatriyas are people who spend the vast majority of their time managing organizations, making and enforcing laws, etc. Vaiṣyas are people who spend the vast majority of their time dealing with resources and finances.

There is a very practical reason why brāhmaṇas are the primary recipient of charity in Vedic culture: they spend the vast majority of their time doing something extremely important for humanity, but which generates very little income or security on its own. Therefore the rest of society supplies them with protection and their basic, modest financial needs.

Simply put – you should give your charity to people who are dedicated to studying and teaching the Veda, not to those who are dedicated to management and resource generation

Simply put – you should give your charity to people who are dedicated to studying and teaching the Veda, not to those who are dedicated to management and resource generation – even if what they are supposedly managing or generating resources for is supposed to be eventually in support of the study and teaching of the Veda. Give the charity directly to the right person – the brāhmaṇa who is already dedicated to pursuing and distributing knowledge.

One can argue that donations should be given to a Vaiṣṇava, and this is even more important than giving to a braḥmana.

The truth of this statement rests on the definition of a Vaiṣṇava as one who constantly engages in viṣṇu-nāma-śravaṇa-kīrtana (satatam kīrtayanto mām), and as such studies, practices, and teaches the very essence of all the Veda, and is therefore the topmost brāhmaṇa and the most worthy of charity. By all means, if you want to donate to the handful of pure Vaiṣṇavas engaged literally in 24-hour kīrtana and śravaṇa, then your donations will be fantastically beneficial to you and to society.

By all means, if you want to donate to the handful of pure Vaiṣṇavas engaged literally in 24-hour kīrtana and śravaṇa, then your donations will be fantastically beneficial to you and to society.

But a vaiṣṇava acting within varṇāśrama due to inability to engage in 24-hour kīrtan, is not the topmost brāhmaṇa. He or she is whatever he or she is within the varṇāśrama scheme.

Vaiṣyas and kṣatriyas – be they vaiṣṇava or not – have the dharmic responsibility to generate and utilize their own power and resources for their projects. They are supposed to be giving the donations!

Donations should be given primarily to brahmaṇas and pure vaiṣṇava paramahaṁsas engaged in constant, mostly literal, kīrtan. As for what I mean by “primarily,” I mean that after meeting the needs of brāhmaṇas and paramahaṁsa-vaiṣṇavas, it is essential to next see that all women have their needs met. (Pregnant women are a special case,  they are in many ways even more important than brāhmaṇas.) Next one should see to the needs of children. Then to the needs of the elderly. Thereafter one should donate whatever remains from what one has set aside for charity to anyone and everyone, from any varṇa at all. This is the Vedic scheme. No other projects are to be begun or funded until all the kīrtan devotees, all the scholars, all the women, all the children, and all the elderly have all their essential needs satisfactorily met.

This is the Vedic scheme. No other projects are to be begun or funded until all the kīrtan devotees, all the scholars, all the women, all the children, and all the elderly have all their essential needs satisfactorily met.

#2: What to Give?

We also have to give the appropriate thing, otherwise our donation will not generate auspicious results for ourselves or society.

Basically we have to give food. Feeding brahmaṇas, or supplying them with resources to ensure they can eat, is a perfect form of Vedic charity.

Basically we have to give food. Feeding brahmaṇas, or supplying them with resources to ensure they can eat, is a perfect form of Vedic charity. We can also give clothing, cows (which was another type of food, milk, and farming), and some land and simple dwellings. On rare occasion we could give jewels or gold to brāhmaṇas, but they almost always pass these nonessential donations on to others, not keeping opulent things in their lifestyle.

In other words, in more practical and modern terms, the perfect charity is to give brāhmaṇas the modest resources they need to eat and live fairly simply, supporting their similarly simple families. Giving smaller, more regular amounts to genuine scholars, students, and practitioners of the Veda, is far better than giving large sums for ambitious projects to build elaborate temples and “spiritual disneylands.”

But “Prabhupāda, etc. etc. etc.”

I for one think that if we understand Prabhupāda in a way that contradicts what Prabhupāda represents, we are understanding Prabhupāda wrong. Prabhupāda represents Śrī Rūpa Goswāmī, for example. Śrī Rūpa Goswāmī says in plain ink in Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu, “Do not start huge projects.” Prabhupāda wanted to open temples around the world, yes, but this doesn’t mean we neglect the basic support and welfare of scholars, women, children, and elderly for the sake of erecting multimillion dollar buildings in every town and villiage.

We need bhajan-kutirs in every town and village.

“Oh, but the public won’t be attracted to a simple building…”

Oh, please. This is Maybelline-phillsophy. A fancy building is like a woman in high heels and lipstick: she attracts a certain type of man – the useless type. A nice warm, simple bhajan-kutir with real nāma-kīrtan and bhāgavat-śravaṇa is like a truly beautiful woman with a heart full of goodness and love.

“Prabhupāda wanted a big temple in Māyāpūra, with a planetarium.”

We already had a huge temple in Māyāpūra. Just make a planetarium in a hall and annex it. What is the need for a 90 million dollar project that competes with what the Roman Catholic Empire did at the height of their debauchery and spiritual disempowerment?

And even if you somehow feel you just have to do that in Māyāpūra, do you also have to do something similar in 7 out of 10 other towns and villages?

Conclusion

Giving money for the wrong things to the wrong people just makes a lot of people feel cheated.

Giving money for the wrong things to the wrong people just makes a lot of people feel cheated. It thus creates inauspiciousness for the donor, the donee, and the society in general. Giving money for the right things to the right people creates auspiciousness and happiness in this life and the next for the donor, the donee, and the whole world.

The “right things” are the basic sustenance of the right people, brāhmaṇas and vaiṣṇavas – people who devote the vast majority of their time to studying, teaching and practicing the Veda, in essence and detail.

Vraja Kishor das

www.vrajakishor.com

Harinam Sankirtan in Sydney, Australia. (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: By chanting Hare Krishna one fixes his mind always on the Supreme Lord. One example often given is that of the caterpillar that thinks of becoming a butterfly and so is transformed into a butterfly in the same life. Similarly, if we constantly think of Krishna, it is certain that at the end of our lives we shall have the same bodily constitution as Krishna. (Bhagavad-gita, 8.8 Purport)
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Bhakti Raghava Swami: As part of the on-going efforts to establish Varnasrama Colleges in different parts of India, IDVM-India will be inaugurating the ISKCON Varnasrama College (IVC) on Monday, January 4th, 2016 at the recently established Rural Community called “Sahyadri Goloka Dham” located near the Town of Hebri, in the District of Udupi, South Karnataka.

IVC will offer Weekend Retreat Courses to a limited number of interested devotionally inclined individuals during the entire month of January and invites anyone interested to contact its Coordinators, Sriman Kisora das at kisorakrsna@yahoo.com and Sriman Sri Rama das at +91 96 42 330011.

Sahyadri Goloka Dham rests at the foothills of the Western Ghats also known as Sahyadri Mountain adjoining a flowing river that feeds into the Sita River. The location can easily be accessed from Udupi Town itself or from Karkala Town, both approximately 30 KM away.

Visiting Faculty members will include the following: HH RP Bhakti Raghava Swami (Dharma Shastri), Sriman Kisora das (Carving, Agriculture), Sriman Prananatha das (Yoga and Health), Sriman Krsna Balarama das (Bee Keeping, Nature Study), Sriman Vivek Devarajan (Panchagavya Products), Sriman Raghu Mishra (Organic Farming), Dr Sreekumar.S (Cow Care and Grazing) and Sriman Venu Gopal das (Spoken Sanskrit).

The Sahyadri Goloka Dham project is overseen by Sriman Srinivas Pejathaya who hails from Mangalore itself and who can be contacted at +919019404030.

Vedic Deities Worshipped in Japan (28 min video)
There is a very important bridge of culture joining the countries of India and Japan. In the words of HE Mr. Yasukuni Enoki, Former Ambassador of Japan, “It is very important for the Japanese to know that in the bottom of Japanese culture, Indian culture is very firmly imprinted”.
Buddhist and Hindu deities of India are worshiped by the people of Japan. The 5th century Sanskrit script is revered in Japan and its letters denoting different deities, are considered sacred by the Japanese.
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UK Sankirtan Marathon: Almost there! (2 min video)
Sutapa das: Manor has reached 92,000 Books! We need 8,000 books distributed in the next 14 hours! Today midnight the 100k Effort Ends! Devotees have been distributing around the clock - someone texted me at 23.58 last night saying “prabhu, I need 1000 small books NOW!” I was happy to be woken up! Don’t worry prabhu they are coming to you!
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/kzrdE7

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Talk at Govardhan Ecovillage, Wada

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Martial Arts demonstration by Dina Dayal Prabhu (Album with photos)
Sri Mayapur International School students learn how to become powerful kshatriyas!
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Lasting Impression…
Today was a beautiful day in Bournemouth, UK. At one point Nandan stopped someone who had received a “Science of Self Realisation” some time ago. The man was so amazed by the pictures that he decided to get one of them tattooed on his back!
Prabhupada’s books leave a lasting impression in more ways than we can imagine!

TOVP: Work in progress (Album with photos)
Sadbhuja Das: As work is proceeding fast, we are already preparing for the next step to follow on regards of the temple sandstone windows.
Under Savya Sachi Prabhu’s guide, production of the GRC columns started, and by next week we will commence installing them on the temple walls, between the sandstone.
In these images you can see the finished product of the GRC columns.
We will keep you updated on this wonderful progress.
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As an offering to Srila Prabhupada during ISKCON’s 50^th anniversary year, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust is set to publish some of his books in two languages – Catalan and Quechua – for the first time ever. Catalan is spoken by around 9 million people in Catalonia; as well as in Valencia, the Balearic Isles, and Andorra.

ISKCON Durban temple is undergoing major restoration for the 30th anniversary next October. Not only are they restoring the temple to its original beauty, but they are making marked improvements. One in particular—that is both admirable and intimidating—is thir Go Green campaign. This campaign is the brainchild of Vibhu Caitanya Das, Durban Temple President.

December 24. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
Our business is to save ourselves by remembering Srila Prabhupada at the time of death. All his activities are worth remembering and passing on to others, at least for the next ten thousand years of Kali-yuga. It is distasteful to us if someone says, “Prabhupada is just one guru, and eventually he will be forgotten. There will be other gurus with other pastimes and the main thing is the message, not this person.” We don’t want to hear that. If we persist in being attached to Prabhupada, it can’t be inauspicious. Even if aspects of his pastimes were temporary scenes, nevertheless, being attached to Prabhupada in a particular setting will not go in vain. Krishna will recognize it, and He will transform our devotion into eternal benefit. Krishna will say, “Because you were attached to Prabhupada there, now you can be attached to Radha and Krishna and Prabhupada.” Somehow, Krishna can make it all satisfactory. It’s not wrong to remember our teacher, how he taught us, when he taught us, and who he was.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=20490&page=3