Planet ISKCON

On the occasion of Srila Prabhupada’s appearance anniversary, an excerpt from a poem I wrote:

Dear Srila Prabhupada,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to your divine lotus feet. All glories to the timeless bhakti legacy that you so tirelessly shared with us.

This year I gained a significantly deepened appreciation of how inconceivable your struggle was and how incredible your success was. I had the opportunity to write the text for a small photo-book about your life-story entitled “Prabhupada: The Moments that Made the Movement.” While I have read, heard and spoken about your remarkable life many times, writing enabled me to plumb unexplored depths in my appreciation of you.

Contemplating the defining moments of your life reminded me forcefully of the magnitude of the mountains that confronted you and the Everests that you still scaled. By trying to put in words how you took Krishna’s message of love to all the inhabited continents of the world, I felt myself coming closer to you – the saint who simply loved Krishna and who wanted the whole world to love Krishna.

In the early days of my bhakti practice, your biography Prabhupada Lilamrita was the book that inspired me the most. Each year as I practice bhakti, I on one hand appreciate more and more the spell-binding luminosity of spiritual love. But on the other hand I also realize more and more the desolate darkness of self-centered desires that crowd and cloud my heart. On many occasions of discouragement and disappointment, reading the last five chapters of the first volume of Lilamrita and the first five chapters of the second volume have provided me immense encouragement. Writing and thereby meditating on how much you struggled to give the bhakti legacy to us puts my small struggles in receiving and sharing that legacy in perspective.

In fact, it was after reading Lilamrita for the first time that my resolve to dedicate my life to your mission became solidified. I still remember how after reading it I prostrated myself in front of your picture in the book and begged for your mercy to overcome my many conditionings so that I could serve you lifelong. Writing about your amazing life brought intense memories of those honeymoon days in bhakti and kindled the flames of my devotional desires.

On this auspicious day, I seek your blessings to re-dedicate myself to sharing the message of love that you brought to me – and millions of fortunate souls before me and after me.

Your servant,

Chaitanya Charan das

The post Offering to Srila Prabhupada – Meditating on your life for dedicating my life appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Sri Krishna Janmastami Abhishek in Mayaur (Album with photos)
A wonderful abhishek was performed for Sri Sri Radha-Madhava the evening of Sept. 5, 2015
See them here: https://goo.gl/NZEkqL

Sankirtan Prabhu, who departed on the auspicious day of Janmashtami after a sustained battle against cancer, was a frontline fighter in Lord Chaitanya’s army. He was on the frontline in striving to share bhakti wisdom in China, despite the many restrictions and obstacles there. While that service is glorious, I, as an author, appreciated most his frontline outreach through writing.

I first had his association in a student-teacher relationship when he was one of my Bhakti-shastri teachers in Pune. Thereafter, when he started writing, he very kindly started treating me like a friend, sharing his plans and challenges in writing and seeking my inputs. Though English was not his first language (as it is not mine either) he strove vigorously to share the universal spiritual truths he had learnt in this contemporary lingua franca.

The feature that struck me most about his writing was what could be called its inter-disciplinary scope. He brought bhakti wisdom into a mature dialogue with the yoga tradition in his book Bhakti-Yoga Pilgrimage and with contemporary psychology in his other writings. Drawing pertinent points eclectically to address various current concerns, he then insightfully illumined the underlying issues with the light of aptly distilled devotional insights. Overall, he was one of the pioneers in our movement in striving to penetrate the huge and largely untapped self-help genre of writing.

With a heavy heart at the departure of a fellow author and friend, I seek his blessings for continuing in my own small way the literary legacy of our tradition.

The post Appreciating Sankirtan Prabhu’s frontline literary outreach appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Hare Krishna! Car maker’s great-grandson, a Krishna disciple, to speak at Houston Hindu celebration
If not for bad timing, Alfred Ford might not have been booted from the family home. But the young great-grandson of auto magnate Henry Ford chose to announce his conversion to the Hare Krishna movement just as Detroit newspapers trumpeted the Hindu spiritual awakening of Elizabeth Reuther, daughter of United Auto Workers Union president Walter Reuther. Fords and Reuthers mixed as well as motor oil and water, and even a bit of guilt by association was too much for the Ford clan. “They kicked me out of the house,” Ford said of his angry parents. Within a few years, the familial crisis subsided, and today Ford, sometimes known as Ambarisa Das, has become an international ambassador for the Hindu-based teachings for the late Abhay Charan De, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=19693

Please view the following galleries: • Day Darshan • Night Darshan • Abhishek • Samskaras The auspicious Janmashtami day in Mayapur was packed with spiritual events. The day started with stunning mangal arati darshan. Next, there was katha on Lord Krishna’s birth by HH Bhakti Brihat Bhagavat Swami and HG Jananivas Prabhu. Not just the altar […]

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Hare Krishna! Madhudesha commemorates Jaladuta anniversary
Madhudesh Yatra, celebrated the 50th anniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s visit to the country with a programme in a port city in the country on 3rd September 2015. After Srila Prabhupada departed Kolkata in August 1965 on board the Jaladuta, the ship docked in Colombo, Cochin and a port city in Madhudesha on 3rd September, before arriving in Boston. The special program was celebrated in a factory on the banks of an international canal. Several hundred people attended the celebration which featured kirtan, aratik, a lecture on Srila Prabhupada’s life, and how he stopped in Madhudesha on his way to Boston.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=19687

Bhagavad Gita presented to Raju Srivastva famous comedian of India

Janmashtami 2015 Festival (Album with 82 photos) Janmashtami celebration at New Govardhana, San Diego. September 5, 2015 See them here: https://goo.gl/t0RJQF

ISKCON Delhi has acquired the Chipiwada temple where Srila Prabhupada stayed and distributed Back to Godhead magazine back in the 1950s, and plans to turn it into a museum for the ISKCON founder. Jaya Prabhupada!

The post Bh. Alexey asks for advice on how to communicate our commitment to KC, and what my experiences are in that regard appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Hare Krishna! Iskcon Devotees
Honestly the devotion and dedication by the Devotees of ISKCON is too exemplary and beyond any words to describe. Please accept my infinite humble pranams to one and all GURU MAHARAJS, and the Devotees who are serving and who have WISELY carrying out their life to SRI SRI RADHE KRISHNA,in the SriDham, I am spell bound by their Dedication towards SRI SRI RADHE MADHAV, GURU MAHARAJ, even in FLOODS, [leave alone normal day, daily duties] doing the duties with utmost LOVE , AFFECTION AND CONCERN in preparing the koil for timely pujas, decorating the LORDSHIPS AND GURUMAHARAJ,with ornaments, attires, flowers . Even in early morning, during the day and night devotees do the duties, perfectly instructed by SRI SRI GURU MAHARAJ.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=19677

Anuttama das: My granddaughter, Revati age 11 leads Kirtan with Krishna Das, Jai Uttal, CC White, & away on stage at the Omega festival in upstate New York (2 min video)
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/P4tiwT

Auckland, New Zealand: Vyasa puja of Srila Prabhupada (Album with photos)
See them here: https://goo.gl/p138JY

Hare Krishna! Radha Kunda Seva – August 2015 Photos and Updates
By the Radha Kunda Seva team
The new kitchen facility we rented has been working well for serving their daily meals. And we’ve continued to use the Lalita Kunda temple facility for the once per month feast for the widows. Our ladies are well-fed and happy. Our 68 ladies are now nearly 80% sponsored! 53 of them! Thank you! Progress is being made on opening our Padma Charitable Trust Bank Account and the acrylic latex painting work at Sakhi Kunda is nearly complete. Meanwhile, cleaning and garden maintenance are continuing through rain and heat, clouds and shine. Please browse our latest photos and join our efforts
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=19674

Elearning Course For Learning Sanskrit Vocabulary
This is a new eLearning course that we have launched for learning Sanskrit Vocabulary
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=19671

IDVM celebrated Janmashtami in Mukramabad village (Album with photos)
Janmashtami festival celebrated by IDVM (ISKCON Daiva Varnasrama Ministry) at a village of Maharastra on 5th September.
See them here: https://goo.gl/5dLav9

This bit is getting edited out of my memoir, Train-wrecks and Transcendence: My collision of Hardcore and Hare Krishna. I’m editing it out for the sake of brevity and focus, but I don’t want it to just disappear immediately into oblivion, so here it is as a post.

Issue Four of Enquirer also published a letter from one of the most outspoken anti-Krishna voices in the scene.

 …I feel your zine is a total waste. [My zine] In Memory Of was pretty much anti-everything included in your zine, esp. Cappo.

Religion is for the weak-minded. The “Supreme Being” just does not exist except in books. Anyone who puts their faith into a “Superior Being” is mentally insecure and/or afraid of everything.

Here is a sample of the less pompous sections of my reply:

Don’t think that religion only happens in Bible studies. If your religion doesn’t come from a pulpit, it comes from your TV, your friends, your magazines, your records, or from the crazy little ideas that pop up in your mind… (which are nothing more than habitual responses to environmental and genetic stimuli).

You are very religious (just a different kind of religion). You have firm faith in what you believe, but there is no actual substance behind your arguments against the existence of non-material reality or its source, the Supreme Living Entity. Throughout your entire letter, not once did you provide a single argument for anything at all. You just shouted accusations. Any religious zealot can do that… Do you expect me to accept the religion you are so forcefully proselytizing simply because you said so? Isn’t this what you profess to be against?

You put tremendous faith into a “supreme being” – your fantasy image of yourself as the strong-willed John Mayne combatant of religious weak-mindedness. In this way you put your faith into a person “who just does not exist,” except in your head.

The opening article, “Atheism: What’s it Doing in Hardcore?” was a similarly bold counter-attack on the enemy – describing atheism as another type of religion, whose tenants undermine many of the most important values of Punk Rock, like individuality, and equal rights for humans and animals. Atheism, I argued, describes life as an unintentional, chance combination of chemicals and electricity – which would mean that there is no real substance to personality, emotions, or any other aspects of individuality. And if individual life has no real meaning or purpose, I argued, there is no compelling reason to protect it or improve it.

Vraja Kishor

www.VrajaKishor.com

The post Daily Darshan – September 9th, 2015 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

The Double Chackra 2015 by Dhanur Veda, Polish Tour

Hare Krishna! The spiritual world is conducted by the internal potency – Radharani
Srila Prabhupada: Radharani is the pleasure potency of Krsna. As we understand from Vedic literature, Krsna has many varieties of potencies. Parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate [Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport]. Just like the same example, as a big man has got many assistants and secretaries so that he hasn’t got to do anything personally, simply by his will everything is done, similarly, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has got varieties of energies, and everything is being done so nicely. Just like this material energy. This material world, where we are now living… This is called material energy. Bahir-anga-sakti. The Sanskrit name is bahir-anga, external energy of Krsna. So how nicely it is being done, everything in the material energy. That is also explained in the Bhagavad-gita, mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-caracaram: [Bg. 9.10] “Under My superintendence the material energy is working.” The material energy is not blind. It is… On the background there is Krsna. Mayadhyaksena prakrtih [Bg. 9.10]. Prakrti means this material energy. Similarly… This is external energy. Similarly, there is another energy, which is internal energy. By the internal energy the spiritual world is being manifested. Paras tasmat tu bhavah anyah [Bg. 8.20]. Another energy, para, superior, transcendental, the spiritual world. As this material world is being manipulated under the external energy, similarly, the spiritual world is also conducted by the internal potency. That internal potency is Radharani.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=19665

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 15 August 2015, Vrindavan, India, Bhagavad-gita 17.1)

Worship of the spiritual master goes beyond offering a flower and offering some incense. It goes beyond one’s own worship to the point of pleasing the spiritual master. The other day I was thinking, “Chant sixty-four rounds?” Then I thought, “That would be nice but wouldn’t it be nicer to make sixty-four devotees!

What would be a nicer offering – sixty-four rounds or sixty-four devotees? Of course, one does not necessarily exclude the other. One can chant sixty-four rounds and then make sixty-four devotees! But sometimes, rather than chant sixty-four rounds, maybe we should somehow or the other, spread Krsna consciousness.

So what does it mean to worship the spiritual master? When Srila Prabhupada received the order from his spiritual master to preach in the English language that was understood, in those days, to mean that he should preach to the English speaking world. But Prabhupada took it quite far. He could have just done some preaching in the Western world but Prabhupada filled that order to the maximum.

He extended not only in terms of language, from English to over seventy languages in which his books are translated. He also expanded it by traveling the globe. He expanded it to ultimately take it that his mission was to deliver the entire world – simply based on the words, “Preach in the English language!”

So where does it begin and where does it end – this worship of the spiritual master?

Lovely reciprocation of people to a London Harinama (3 min video)
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/Sva5Qk