Websites from the ISKCON Universe
Does semen from men contain souls in it? or men has the ability to create, carry souls with in them in the form of semen? Or soul only enter when female release egg and semen enter into it to make a life?
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The post Why are the Ishopanishad verses called mantras? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
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The post How can women be encouraged to get a sense of success in their home responsibilities? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
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The post Do women-devotees always have to be homemakers? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
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The post Were women always housewives in Vedic culture? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
By Satyaraja Dasa Honesty and truthfulness, then, are two essential elements of humility. They manifest as one's ability to honestly assess oneself, to recognize and admit one's own faults and defects as a conditioned jiva, and to admit the truth of one’s compromised situation. Sadly, many of us try to create a false image of ourselves, both to posture, to convince ourselves of our own greatness, and to manipulate others into believing that we are great, too. Only through internal honesty can we begin to make real progress in spiritual life. Thus, to clean out the conditioning that has accumulated in the heart over many lifetimes, one has to first recognize its presence, to admit that it is there, and then to do the needful -- to remove it in all earnestness. Without such truthfulness, how can we make tangible progress in developing humility? Continue reading "Least But Not Last: A Few Words on Humility
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Raman Reti Apartments Vrindavan.
An exclusive Iskcon UK development for UK devotees, members and patrons. Conveniently located very close to the Krishna Balaram Temple inside the parikram path next to BB Govinda Swami and Indradyumna Swami. Only 2 Units left!
Apartments are designed with many “green” features to help preserve the Vrindavan environment and are as Vastu compliant where practical within the constraints of the building site.
The post What was Prahlada Maharaja, a Krsna bhakta, Narayana bhakta or Nrsimha bhakta? appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.
By Keshav
On Friday, December 4, 2015, members of the ISKCON Toronto Temple Council were invited to attend an official “Meet-and-Greet” with the Toronto Police. Aimed at bringing together members of the Toronto Police with leaders from the South and West Asian communities, the event was held at the beautiful headquarters of the Toronto Police, located at 40 College Street, right in the heart of downtown Toronto.
The event saw close to 100 attendees from all different communities and organizations. The highlight was the attendance of Police Chief Mark Saunders. He addressed the crowd with a nice speech about how the Toronto Police deeply value the contributions of community leaders.
There were also speeches and presentations from other groups and community leaders. The host then invited any attendees to come forward and introduce themselves and their organization. We had a chance to introduce our temple, what we do and the ways that we serve the community at large!
With that, the event continued with mingling over food and refreshments. Very nice connections were made and we are looking forward to attending future events with the Toronto Police!
More photos: http://iskcontoronto.blogspot.it/2015/12/south-asian-leaders-meet-and-greet-with.html
A visit to ISKCON New Govardhana - Sri Sri Radha Govardhanadhari (Album with photos)
Oh, how glorious are they whose tongues are chanting Your holy name! Even if born in the families of dog-eaters, such persons are worshipable. Persons who chant the holy name of Your Lordship must have executed all kinds of austerities and fire sacrifices and achieved all the good manners of the Aryans. (Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.33.7 Purport)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/ellkM5
December 9. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
Anyone who studies Prabhupada’s books becomes educated in the most important subject. Whenever a follower of Prabhupada hears a discussion of God-consciousness, he spots contradictions or a “poor fund of knowledge” wherever it occurs. Even a young brahmacari can note the flaws in the presentations of learned theologians or clergymen. Theologians are puzzled as to “why bad things happen to good people.” Some of them theorize that God may be all good, but He is not all powerful. Some say that God cannot have a form, or that God exists only in human relationships – but one who knows Srila Prabhupada’s teachings can see this is a poor fund of knowledge. One of the benefits of a good education in any field is that one easily handles opposition from prejudiced or ignorant persons. Sometimes Prabhupada would be challenged, “What is your faith?” Prabhupada usually replied, “It is not faith, it is fact.” He also said, “You may believe or not believe, that is a different thing.”
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Bada Hari Prabhu Kirtan
Friday, 13 November
Maharaj took his leave of Vraj and the sunburnt plains of North India and headed for the lush, tropical delta of Bengal in East India. Specifically to the Holy Dham of Mayapur, home of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and his intimate associates. When driving from Kolkata airport to Mayapur, one gets a real glimpse of the Bengali countryside. It hasn’t been hit so hard by industrialisation so it looks quite similar to how it would’ve been 500 years ago. Even from a material perspective, it’s an attractive place – flat as a pancake, covered with a carpet of green and liberally sprinkled with coconut and palm trees, huge lakes and shimmering rivers. One can easily imagine the Lord in his childhood frolicking about in these fields and taking dips in the rivers.
Of course, the material world is never so simple! So for us mere mortals, one also had to deal with mosquitoes, the humidity and a bewildering array of creepy crawlies. Maharaj arrived late in the evening and was provided with his regular room at the end of the senior brahmachari ashram. Not surprisingly Maharaj was pretty tired and swiftly took rest.
Saturday, 14 November 2015
Disciples, admirers and friends came to see Maharaj the next day. It was good to see that he had recovered from his shingles but he also mentioned various health issues he had to deal with. A lot of it was just down to the ageing process and Maharaj accepted it in a naturally philosophical manner. His room was in a good location with plenty of sunshine coming through and a balcony which had a direct view of the TOVP domes. A magnificent sight. When asked what his plans are in Mayapur, there was an instant come back, “Meetings, meetings and more meetings!!” He is a key member of the Mayapur development committee but one sensed that he was doing this service more out of duty than relish!
At lunchtime, Maharaj was with a host of disciples namely Nimai Prabhu (his personal servant), Tulasi Prabhu (a wonderful disciple from Bulgaria), Pradyumna Prabhu (a family man and disciple from Germany) and Sridhar Prabhu (a disciple and electrician from South Africa). Maharaj was giving them all advice for their spiritual lives and he asserted the point of being the ten percent that does ninety percent of the work in the movement.
He also encouraged his grhastha disciples to move to Mayapur and the value of going there, particularly to Sridhar Prabhu who was abroad for the first time. Sridhar had decided within a day to come to Mayapur, got an instant visa and even though he had trouble with customs and was only here for three days, he stated that he wouldn’t have given up this moment for anything.
Soon the mood became lighter as Maharaj and his disciples had a conversation about the different nations and their varying national characters! Maharaj found the Germans to be more polite than the English, particularly in airports. There was also talk about the crime rate in Vrindavana, some devotees looked a little concerned but Maharaj pointed out to try and see Krsna in everything, just keep looking for Krsna and we will be fine. Then he spoke at length to Sridhar Prabhu about life in South Africa.
I also asked Maharaj about his meetings in Mayapur and he talked about the immense work needed to develop the Mayapur city complex. Quite mind boggling; there was talk of nodes, transport links, housing, electricity, water, etc. as well as liaising with the Indian government and especially the local government. No mean feat, indeed! We talked about dealing with the locals, I mentioned how the Vraj locals seem to have more of an edge to them than the Nawadvip locals. Maharaj laughed, “That’s what you think!”
Shortly after, a tall Czech devotee came and identified that he doesn’t really feel like he gels with the Czech temple and struggles with reconciling his Czech identity. Maharaj made the point that whatever body we have will stay with us and will colour how we are seen by the world. Maharaj is always the ‘Dutchman’ even though he has been living in different countries for decades now. At the same time, depending on one’s nature, one will thrive in a certain type of temple. For example, the Czech culture has that old Soviet style authority about it which permeates the mood of that temple. It will resonate with some but not with others.
In a similar vein the Manor temple in England has a certain corporate flavour to it and this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea either. He said this while grinning at the British guy in the group… myself!
HH Kadamba Kanana Maharaj ki Jai!
True Education
In response to my article, Accusations Against Rāgānugā Sādhana, someone asked:
Who is the source of the “accusations” you are responding to?
An ISKCON Sannyāsī recently said these things while doing an otherwise excellent job of explaining the subject during a seminar.
It seems to me that ISCKON leaders are very cautious about allowing devotees to feel that they have experienced high states of spiritual bliss or elevation.
Rāgānugā-sādhana has nothing to do with experiencing a high state of spiritual bliss or elevation. All that is required is a strong and clear desire to achieve a certain type of friendly, parental, or romantic love for Krishna. Rāgānugā is a practice for conditioned jīvas, by which we can eventually attain those three types of relationships with Krishna. It is not a perfected state. A person in the perfected state is known as a Rāgātmikā. A person who is not in the perfected state, but strives for it, is known as a Rāgānugī.
In the early days of the Hare Krishna movement, the “hippies” of that time may have been more inclined toward “imaginative ecstasy” based on cultural conditioning, drug experiences, etc. Maybe that is why leaders caution against it?
Maybe.
In general the assumption that you have achieved something monumental only goes to demonstrate that you really don’t even comprehend what “monumental” truly means. And thinking myself “advanced” is a fairly sure sign, most all of the time, that I don’t really even know what “advanced” truly is.
If one experiences some ecstatic feelings during kirtan, how can such feelings/visible actions be accommodated and honored without pessimism? Is there any precedent for how to regard such displays in a congregational setting? I feel like the default perception might be a pessimistic one.
Love (bhakti) produces emotions – so its no surprise that practices of love (bhakti-sādhana) would often produce emotional responses in the practitioner. In fact, we should be extremely skeptical of our practices if they don’t.
Real bhakti is called bhāva-bhakti, and it produces real emotions continuously and very powerfully. Bhāva-bhakti is the initial stage of perfection in bhakti-yoga. It is “sudurlabha,” a very extremely rare accomplishment. Safe to say that basically no one that we see practicing bhakti is at that stage. Out of a few million practitioners, I estimate, I would expect to find 1 who has attained bhāva.
However, the two stages preceding bhāva (ruci and āsakti) also consistently produce relatively profound emotional states. And even in the stages preceding these, the same results begin to dawn occasionally. So, even the new practitioner should expect to occasionally experience significant emotional responses from their devotional practices.
In Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu, Śrī Rūpa Goswāmī explains that Bhāva can be “approximated” by people who have not actually attained it. This approximation is called an abhāsa. He says there are two types of bhāva-abhāsa: The first is an intentional imitation with ulterior motives (prati-bimba bhāva-abhāsa). The second is a genuine reflection of bhāva, which comes as a result of the power of bhakti (chaya bhāva-abhāsa). By contact with the powerful practices of bhakti, and with deep practitioners of bhakti, some “shadow” of that power falls on our heart, and even that shadow moves our emotions as powerfully as our more profound conventional emotional experiences.
So, when we encounter or experience an emotional response to our devotional practices, in kīrtan for example, we simply need to assess if it is an intentional imitation or not. Intentional imitations are done to become famous, get respect, get money, get attention, and so on. These should be discouraged, and rooted out from the family of practitioners, because they only disturb the communal garden of bhakti. If it is not a nefarious imitation, we should be happy and welcome it as confirmation that the practices we are engaged in, and the guru and saṅga in which we engage in them, are genuine and empowered.
Vraja Kishor das
www.vrajakishor.com
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Baker Extraordinaire: Amber Borsotti!
Mandakini devi dasi: Sydney-born Amber Borsotti was two years old when she was first introduced to the Hare Krishna Vedic lifestyle. Three years later she was enrolled in New Govardhana gurukula where she remained for the next six years before relocating to New Nandagram, Victoria.
Amber returned to Murwillumbah when she was 15, settling into householder life by the time she was 16. A busy and dedicated mum, she has five children ranging in ages from four to 17.
With the family growing up, Amber and her husband, Leonardo, considered some working options. They finally agreed to venture into the bread-making business. Amber had entertained four passions in life: architecture, psychology, fabrics and food. Having produced quality bread on the farm in earlier years, friends and family members had often urged her to “go into food”.
Months of hard work followed as the couple researched equipment and painstakingly developed their own special recipes. The result is an impressive home bakery and an outstanding product called ‘Levadura’, which consists of organic, artisan sourdough (a much healthier and tastier alternative to commercial bread).
When a retail opportunity opened up at Uki Farmers Market at the end of September, Amber and Leonardo took the initiative, and on their first outing ended up selling their entire stock.
Production has since increased from 50 to 90 items twice a week, and still there is a demand for more.
The bread is naturally leavened, requiring Amber and Leo to “rise” at 1.00 am on Wednesday and Saturday mornings to prepare their batch.
Variety being the spice of life, alongside the basic loaves there is much to choose from. For example, savoury loaves like Olive, Rosemary and Pecorino; Dark Euro-style Rye with Caraway and Fennel; and Vegan Fruitful Loaf and Sweet Spiced Rye and Fig, to name a few. Melt-in-themouth croissants and chocolate scrolls, as sampled by the author, must be tasted to be believed.
Academic Excellence.
Syama Sakhi devi dasi: The Bhaktivedanta Swami Secondary School at New Govardhana, Iskcon Australia, is intent on creating an environment of academic excellence, Krishna conscious goals and understanding, and meaningful character development. To these ends, this year the gurukula has invited various guest speakers to the school and taken students to different events outside of school. This allows students to broaden their understanding of this world and their role in it.
One such event students attended was the GRIP leadership conference for secondary schools. GRIP is an independent organisation that exists to train and develop leaders with a special focus on school students and the educational sector. Hence, our school captains, Anjali, Gaur, Bimala, Balaram, Lakshman, Suniti and Kalindi received the opportunity to attend the GRIP leadership conference that took place on the 26 October at the Tweed Civic Centre.
The aim of the one-day conference was to inspire secondary school students to take up effective leadership roles in their schools. Through topics like, ‘How to improve your public speaking skills’ to ‘How to make your events more dynamic’, the conference offered our students a chance to broaden their leadership skills. It also enabled them to meet many other teenage students from across Australia.
The whole event was excellent. The students experienced their first professional conference and made valuable contributions throughout.
We are hopeful that through such training offered by the gurukula, the students will be able to develop excellent leadership skills valuable to their life inside and outside of school.
By Nanda Priya Nivedita Devi Dasi
While the rescue face for Chennai’s recent flood is over here comes the most difficult phase – the after math. Battered by rains, Chennai is now looking for relief- Relief from not just the heavy showers and a flooded city, but looking forward to hygienic food, shelter, clothing and medical assistance. It’s now that Chennai needs you the most.
Help the helping hands – Like the rest of the city, ISKCON Chennai is also waking out of the shock and reaching out to the people with nourishment, medical aid and personal needs. ISKCON Chennai volunteers are tirelessly trying to help all the affected places. Over 6000 plates of Prasadam are being distributed everyday. Besides distributing in public shelter houses, the volunteers are moving even into streets still knee deep in water and giving the Prasad door to door. A total of 30,000 plates of Prasadam have been distributed. We want to expand that to more areas in Chennai adding items like water, bed sheets, mosquito repellents, new clothes, tooth paste, brush etc.
Preventing any epidemic is a need of the hour. ISKCON Chennai has organised a medical camp in residential areas surrounding the temple. The doctors, the corporation cleaners are in need of basic utilities like gloves , face masks etc. Supply of medicines to the people is essential as well. With your donations ISKCON Chennai can do much more!
Not to forget that the Chennai temple has suffered heavy damages in the current flood situation.Estimated losses to the temple are very large.We request devotees and well wishers to come forward and help us for these loses as well.
Your servant,
Nanda Priya Nivedita dd
By Dharma-setu das Shortly after getting married my wife and I visited my grandmother. She was 82 years old at the time and had been married for over 50 fifty years, my grandfather had passed away around 10 years previously. One evening our conversation led to her reminiscing some of her experiences in marriage. She shared that my grandfathers policy was to always to resolve a disagreement before the end of the day - don't sleep on an argument he would say - "always forgive one another". If you sleep on a dispute it gets buried, issues build up and create an inimical mood. Always forgive one another, no one is perfect, forgive them for their shortcomings, forgive yourself for your shortcomings, and move on. Continue reading "3 Pieces of Helpful Advice for Marriage in Bhakti
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Vijaya Dasa (Book Distribution Minister @ Iskcon) Prabhupada December Marathon (10 min video)
There is no doubt about it, to distribute books is our most important activity. The temple is a place not for eating and sleeping, but as a base from which we send out our soldiers to fight with maya. Fight with maya means to drop thousand and millions of books into the lap of the conditioned souls. Just like during war time the Bombs are raining from the sky like anything. (Letter to: Ramesvara — Bhaktivedanta Manor 3 August, 1973)
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/j631AF
BLUE HOME MUSIC CAFÉ
First there was the Blue Home Recording Studio. Then came the Blue Home Artworks Gift Shop. Now enters the Blue Home Music Café.
“Blue Home” is the brainchild of a fairly new New Vrindavan resident, Jesse Hanson, who is assisted and supported in the endeavor by Lilasuka dasi, his wife, a long-term resident of New Vrindavan. Residents and visitors to New Vrindavan used to have fun shopping at Jesse’s Blue Home Artworks Store, which was packed with original handcrafted products. Sometimes, shoppers would be content to come in and hang out, sipping ginger brew and munching on one of Dharmakala’s World’s Best Cookies.
The Blue Home Artworks Store recently closed. However, the “Blue Home” name lives on in Jesse and Lilasuka’s current Blue Home Music Café. Jesse is a lifelong songwriter and musician, who used to offer recording services at his Blue Home Recording Studio in Pittsburgh, PA. So he felt the Blue Home name would be appropriate for a homey music café in their newly-built house in the New Vrindavan area.
Jesse and Lilasuka are very interested in contributing to the re-creation of a wonderful village atmosphere in New Vrindavan, where so many of their friends are living. This desire, fueled by their strong love of making music and potentially inspiring people on their respective spiritual paths, gave birth to the Blue Home Music Café. They recognize that there are many talented songwriters and musicians in the local community. They also want to encourage artists and performing artists to hone their skills, and to give community members and guests the opportunity to appreciate the culture abounding in New Vrindavan.
The Café’s debut, Saturday, November 7, was received very well as a neighborhood event. The second café on November 21, was as lively as the first, well attended by people of all ages. They hope to continue this music-and- veggie-soup trend every other Saturday. The event features a variety of music performed by local, New Vrindavan area, musicians or performing artists.
What they say… About Blue Home Café:
Katherine, who happened to be spending the night at the Palace Lodge, dropped by the Blue Home Music Café, and commented, “Thanks for your warm and delicious welcome.” She sipped the veggie soup, while relaxing in Lilasuka’s new overstuffed armchair.
A fellow musician/percussionist, Devala (Leon) commented:
“Thank you for inviting me, these are the events that make a village…!”
This sparked a bit of “village” talk:
Lilasuka replied: “I love the ring of that word- “village”! It’s so homey. Thanks, Devala.
Plus, I love the village we live in.”
To which Devala responded: “I like that word also very much. We can say “when you are from the same village, everyone knows your name.” It brings people together.”
One young lady, who wasn’t able to attend, but who is an excellent singer, albeit sometimes suffering from “stage fright”, so is hesitant to perform at the Blue Home Music Café, offered this comment:
“So sad we missed it! Can’t wait for the next one! Do the musicians play up in the balcony? That’s a good cure for stage fright! Haha!”
Another person kindly wrote:
“We are looking forward to it. Please let me know what I can do to help. Was very nice to see and hear all the visitors in the pictures you posted.”
By Vaisesika Das All wondrous phenomena showing power, beauty, grandeur or sublimity, either in the material world or in spiritual, are but partial manifestations of Krsna's divine energies and opulence. He is the supreme cause of all causes & the essence of everything living or non living. Anything extraordinarily opulent, beautiful and glorious should be considered as a fragmental manifestation of Krsna's splendor. All things are existing due to Krsna's entering into them as supersoul. Krsna is supreme object of worship. The Bhagavad Gita has long been a source of inspiration and guidance for the world. In this class we will explore how to adopt the spiritual habits from this great book and how they will transform your life and bring you wisdom, happiness, and fearlessness. Continue reading "Spiritual Habits from the Gita
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By Keshavananda Dasa If we are Krishna Conscious, any type of occupation will suit me and we shall always be satisfied. Therefore, I recommend you to read books more and more and try to understand the subject matter from different angles of vision and be always discussing it with your godbrothers even while you are working at the press. Letter to Bhargava -- Los Angeles 13 June, 1972: So I am requesting all of my students to read my books very seriously every day without fail. In this way, if your mind becomes absorbed at least one or two hours daily in the transcendental subject matter of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita, and other books then very easily you will make your advancement in Krishna Consciousness. I am very much stressing at this point that all of my students shall be very much conversant with the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness, and that they should read our books very diligently at least one or two hours daily and try to understand the subject matter from varieties of angles. Continue reading "Srila Prabhupada’s books – Simple yet Deep
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By Dhananjaya Das "We have to thank George because this would never have happened if he hadn't agreed to donate this property." George was an honored guest, but he wasn't expected to say anything. But before he spoke, Olivia stood up and said, "I am deeply touched by what I've heard and seen tonight, and I feel impelled to say that George has got true friends here, and I feel happy for him. And I feel happy that I didn't miss the opportunity to witness this amazing gathering." Shyamasundar and Mukunda presented George with a little Prabhupada murti with a Prabhupada hat and glasses and a bead bag and a little book rest and a miniature size Bhagavad-gita, a little vyasasana and a sannyasi danda, and a little pair of kartals and a little pair of glasses. It was cute. George cradled Prabhupada and said, "I'm going to take Prabhupada home with me tonight." It really touched him. He said, "I didn't want to say anything, but I feel I've got to. First of all, I feel ashamed that I never participated in this campaign." George hadn't given any support, either verbally or in the press or in any other way. He said, "But I was following it on television or in the papers. I knew what was going on. In the back of my mind I thought if it didn't work out, if you had to close the Manor, you could move over to my place in Henley and take over Friar Park—that could be your new temple." Continue reading "One more applause for George
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TOVP construction activities increase as new space becomes functional (Album with photos)
Sadbhuja Das: We have been working on building a workshop for the GRC production located next to the Prabhupada garden.
All machinery, materials and devotees have moved to the new location, equipped with a gantry crane, office and a big storage area. Production has commenced at full speed.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/FK4f6X
December 8. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
Harvey Cohen came to room 501 to visit the Swami who had impressed him at Ananda Ashram.
Harvey: The room he occupied was a tiny office in the back of the Yoga Society in uptown Manhattan. I began to go there regularly, and we sat facing each other on the floor in this little office with his typewriter and a new tape recorder on top of two suitcases. And there was a box of books he had brought from India and a color reproduction of dancing figures which he looked at often. I told Swami Bhaktivedanta that I was an artist, and he asked me to please paint the picture of the dancers, which he explained was of Lord Caitanya and His disciples. The painting was called “Sankirtana.” Whenever I came to visit him, Swami would always be happy to see me. I told him about myself, and we chanted Hare Krishna together in his room many nights that winter. I would get the train uptown from my apartment to go see him.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=20490&page=3