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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 26 June 2015, Gita Nagari, USA, Srimad Bhagavatam 3.25.8)

At the time of initiation, even if the vows are taken sincerely, how deep is our sincerity? Even in the best scenario, when the disciple from the heart very sincerely says, “I am going to give my life!” How deep is that sincerity anyway!? By the definition of Kunti devi:

janmaisvarya-sruta-sribhir
edhamana-madah puman
naivarhaty abhidhatum vai
tvam akincana-gocaram (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.8.26)

Kunti devi points out that unless one is materially exhausted; unless one has no more attachment to one’s position on earth; unless one is sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaḿ (CC Madhya 19.170) – free from all sense of designation, of deriving some prestige from birth, from learning, from wealth, from beauty and all these things; unless one is free from these things, how can one even have sincerity.

So here we are and many changes have to be made. The spiritual master has to invest more and more, plant more and more seeds in the heart of the disciple, make that disciple increase his commitment to Krsna otherwise, we just go on automatic pilot. The tendency to go on automatic pilot is very natural because everything becomes routine.

In the beginning, it is brand new. It is so exciting and then, “You know, just finished chanting rounds from yesterday, actually. God, it has started already again. Whew. Will it ever end… and what is the result of this chanting?”

The result is more chanting and it will never end! It goes on eternally. If you think about it, is that what we really want? Do we really want to chant eternally? Whew. Sixteen rounds… Ping! Finished! Very convenient. But, we have to go in-depth, to get out of this shallow state of consciousness where emotions are just happening on the mental plane…

Srila Bhaktsiddhanta Saraswati Thakur explains how we are hovering on the mental plane because when the spirit soul becomes embodied, that spirit soul goes in a dormant state and the natural functions of thinking, feeling and willing – which are actually the functions of the soul – gets stolen by the mind. The mind takes over these functions of thinking, feeling and willing and all our experiences are on the mental platform. The mind likes this and the mind does not like that. Sankalpa vikalpa – accepting and rejecting. The mind is always hovering on the mental plane; that is actually the case.

The soul – where real thinking, feeling and willing is meant to take place and where such feelings are deep and meaningful – is in a dormant state and then, śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya (CC Madhya 22.107), by hearing and chanting and devotional service to the holy name, the soul gradually awakens. That is the business of the spiritual master, to somehow or other awaken some eagerness in the disciple, to take it a step further.

We can never be routinely engaged in devotional service. Pure devotional service is a very high level. It is not so easily attained. It takes a great effort. It is like we are wanting the highest and wanting it for free, if possible, “You know, I mean cannot. Do I really have to chant sixteen rounds? Cannot do it. Chanting. I will try…”

The number of rounds is not the issue. The number is not the focus. It is not about the number. It is about the absorption. It is about the energy that we put into our activities. It is where we make Krsna a priority. This is there where we breakthrough.

Kirtana Mela 2015 Moscow (18 min video)
Beautiful melody of the Hare Krishna mantra during an arotika with candles.
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/aGfHrF

http://bit.ly/1IKkYWx

The post Varnasrama series, Eger: First day’s session appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Jaladuta Yatra is coming up on the 13th!
Get to know the Schedule for the Mega Festival in Kolkata, the birthplace of Srila Prabhupada! Hare Krsna!
Read the entire article here: http://goo.gl/pMeGNj

The first mega kirtan festival at Jagannatha Puri entitled as “Chant for Change” attracted more than 10,000 people on the idyllic and historic sea beach at Jagannatha Puri. Held very near to the Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s beachside statue at Swargadwar, the festival had the crowds chanting, dancing and drowning in the nectar of harinam sankirtana.

Pujari for Villa Vrindavana
Villa Vrindavana Pujari Departiments is looking for devotees with Brahmana Initiation and with a genuine sincere desire to offer personal service to Sri Sri Radha Vrajasundara, Sri Jagannatha, Sri Baladeva , Srimati Subhadra, Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=18844

If the outcry over the killing of Cecil the lion tells us anything, it's that people are capable of genuine moral outrage at the needless killing of animals. And good for them.

Dear devotees here is a short film of Govinda Maharaja by Syama-gopala. If you like it, vote for it so that it can win a film award—so that chanting Hare Krsna can win a film award. Running at Number 2 and need more votes. http://bit.ly/1JNAHJz

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“Not many are aware of the fact that the ancient kings of Indonesia, in particular that of the Majapahit Kingdom, were devotees of Lord Vishnu," started his inaugural speech the senator of the Legislative Council of Indonesia, Dr. Shri Gusti Ngurah Arya Wedakarna Mahendradatta Wedasteraputra Suyasa III, who attended the Festival of the Chariots held  in Denpasar, Bali on 19^th of July, 2015. 

Teak wood is a naturally grown wood from Myanmar (previously Burma). This wood is known for its superb stability, good strength, easy workability, resistance to bugs – and most of all, its outstanding resistance to decay. It basically will last forever. This wood will be used for all windows and doors in the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

So who says animals are not capable of remembering each other and have emotions? The amazing story of three horses reuniting after 4 years.

An angellic-looking choir, trained by the famous Italian Gregorian chanter, Fabrizio Mastroianni, sing Gregorian, Hebrew and Sanskrit (Govindam Adi Purusham) chants at the opening ceremony of the Bhaktivedanta Institute's international conference, Life And Its Origin, at the Protomoteca Hall, Rome. November 12th 2004.

Scientific materialism is essentially a philosophy of death. Its philosophical delusions literally block the mind of a scientist from being able to recognize that this human being is worth more than the collection of its parts.

Today, modern science is backing up what ancient Indians have known for centuries—that turmeric, and curcumin in particular, has many astounding uses.

Hare Krishna! Divine Darshan for Ganga Devi (Flood in Mayapur 2015)
Flood has been on everyone’s mind for awhile now, as we experienced record amount of rain throughout July. But most of us thought it’s too early, previous times it was at the end of September back in 2007 and 2000. It is a grand Mayapur ‘tradition’ that every 7-8 years Ganga Devi is coming to visit Sri Sri Radha Madhava and Ashta Sakhis, Sri Panca-Tattva and Sri Prahlad Nrsimhadev. So it’s official, Ganga Devi is in the temple room now getting a divine darshan. She also visited TOVP construction site to see the latest construction progress and we hope She is very happy by our humble efforts to please Lord Caitanya and Srila Prabhupada. If She would follow her regular schedule, next visit will be in 2022, the year of Grand Opening of the TOVP. Below we have pictures taken yesterday and today of the TOVP surrounding area and some shots of inside the Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Temple. Be amazed!
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=18840

Never Stop Chanting video goes high on MusicBed Film Festival - need votes!
We have submitted our short doc video “Never Stop Chanting” to the MusicBed Film Festival and it’s doing very good. We’ve reached the top but then got overrun by another contender.
Currently it s an uphill battle for the #1 position in a People’s Choice category. Winning at the festival would be a nice chance to get Prabhupad’s message across!
Here is the link for our submission that we need help in voting up:
https://goo.gl/hJrGaj

Chant For Change Attracts 10,000 Plus At Puri Beach The first Mega kirtan festival at Jagannatha Puri ‘Chant for Change’ attracted more than 10,000 people on the idyllic and historic sea beach at Jagannatha Puri.Held very near Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhus beachside statue at Swargadwar,the festival had the crowds chanting ,dancing and drowning in the nectar of Harinam Sankirtana.It was held on July 17 th, a day before the first Navakalebar Rath Yatra festival to offer a prayer to Their Lordships to bestow Their mercy to fill everyone’s hearts with feelings of gratitude and selfless servitude,individually and globally. The stage for the event was a beautiful Pandal erected on the sands of the Oceanside beach against the backdrop of a beautiful deities of Jagannatha Baladev and Subhadra.There was an accompanying LED screen displaying appropriate Darshans and themes as per the Kirtana. Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=18837

I sat next to Zack on the plane back to So Cal, counting money. I had sold about 200 zines for 2 bucks each, and Inside Out had sold some shirts and Shelter had paid us something from the tour, so altogether I made about $600. I put it all back in its envelope and put that envelope in the seat pocket in front of me. We were all pretty jazzed that we had made any money at all from doing something so fun.

I fell asleep.

We landed in LA. Mom and dad picked me up at the airport, and we drove Zack back to his mom’s apartment in Irvine. On the way, dad asked if we made any money.

“Yeah!” Zack and I said.

“He made a lot more than me,” Zack said, “Because he’s a ‘zinester. You should’ve seen him selling those zines. You would’ve been proud, he was really hustlin’ out there.”

Meanwhile, as everyone laughed, I checked every pocket and looked into my big shoulder bag from India (got it from the devotees on tour I guess) trying to remember where I had put the envelope with the cash in it.

You know that feeling when there is some possibility that something went wrong, and you slowly realize that its not just a “possibility”?

“Oh fuck.” I announced, attempting to eloquently sum up the entirety of the issue without having to actually say what happened.

“What happened?” dad asked.

I really didn’t want to say. So I just said, “…shit…”

“You lost the money?” dad asked rhetorically.

“I lost the damn money.”

“You left it on the plane?” he asked.

“I left it on the plane,” I groaned, “in the freaking seat pocket.”

Everyone groaned.

“How much was it?” dad asked.

“Six hundred.”

“Six hundred dollars?!”

“Six hundred dollars.”

“Wow. I’m impressed.” he said.

“You’re impressed that I lost six hundred dollars?”

“No,” he said, “I’m impressed that you made six hundred dollars.”

Zack started laughing.

“Four hundred from zines,” I explained. “Eight hundred from the tour and shirts, split four ways. So six hundred altogether.”

There was silence for a few moments.

Then Zack cracked a joke, “Hey, now I made more than you!” 

Everyone was laughing. Me too. I didn’t give a damn that I lost six hundred dollars. I just felt embarrassed to be so obviously distracted and irresponsible. My head was still up in the clouds, flying in a holding pattern. There was no schedule for its landing, no gate for it to pull up to. I was becoming a Hare Krishna. It was just a matter of a few weeks ‘till Ray would show up in San Diego with a van and some people to play drums and bass, and then I would become one of them and exit the material world.

How could I possibly focus on anything else?

An excerpt from the first draft of
Train Wrecks and Transcendence:
A Collision of Hardcore and Hare Krishna

by Vraja Kishor
VrajaKishor.com

Hare Krishna! TOVP: Kalash Mock-up View
This past week Vilasini, Head Architect for the TOVP, and Parvata Muni visited the fabrication plant of McCoy Industries. A full size mock-up of a section of the Kalash was to be shown. This mock-up is made from polished stainless steel coated with titanium nitride, and from this we will determine which fabrication methods will be used. This coating is a ceramic gold like substance that is very resistant to weathering. A skeletal structure behind the sheeting holds everything in the correct position and is connected to the tubular structure at the top of the dome. The overall height of the Kalash from this level is about 49 feet (15 meters), and at a height of 263 feet (80 meters) above the ground level, the engineering and structural integrity is of paramount importance.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=18833

Hare Krishna! TOVP: New Materials – Burmese Teak Wood
Teak wood is a naturally grown wood from Myanmar (previously Burma). This wood is known for its superb stability, good strength, easy workability, resistance to bugs – and most of all, its outstanding resistance to decay. It basically will last forever. Burmese teak wood is exported all over the world for its quality. Sadbhuja Prabhu personally travelled to Myanmar to negotiate the best price and pick the best quality of wood. This wood will be used for all windows and doors in the Temple.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=18826

23.07.2015 H.G.Uttama Sloka Prabhu_SB-5.26.30

One of the defining delusions of our society is the equalization of lust with love. People who feel physically attracted to each other assume that are in love. But often their attraction is nothing more than lust.

A kirtan led by Surya Nandini Dasi.

Srila Prabhupada disciple Surabhir Abhipalayantam Das, who was the design coordinator for ISKCON’s flagship Indian temples in Vrindavana, U.P. and Juhu, Mumbai in the 1970s, has passed away. He left due to liver cancer on July 30^th in the sacred land of Vrindavana, surrounded by devotees. All were chanting along to a recording of Srila Prabhupada’s kirtan.

One of the defining delusions of our society is the equalization of lust with love. People who feel physically attracted to each other assume that are in love. But often their attraction is nothing more than lust – this becomes apparent in due course of time when due to familiarity the hormones are no longer secreted and where one was irresistibly fascinated earlier, one starts feeling bored at best or even irritated if other incompatibilities are discovered.

While there are various ways in which love and lust can be differentiated, one prominent way is in terms of their effects on us. We all have a lower side – something within us that impels us to be selfish, shortsighted, and exploitative. And we also have a higher side – a part of us that wants to be selfless, far-sighted, and sensitive. Lust springs from our lower side and brings that side out further. It makes us want to control and dominate others for the sake of our enjoyment. Thus, lust objectifies others, reducing them to their bodies, and reducing their bodies to contours and crevices meant for our pleasure.

In contrast, love springs from our higher side and brings that side out further. When we love someone, we want to become the best that we can be for the pleasure of that person. Thus, love inspires us to combat and control our lower side.

Of course, lust too wants us to put on a better face for impressing the other person, but because the feeling itself is superficial, coming from our body-mind setup, it doesn’t inspire any positive change below the surface. Rather, it impels us to put on a good façade so that eventually our lower side can get a free hand to dominate and manipulate others for our pleasure. Gita wisdom explains that our higher side corresponds with our spiritual essence, our soul. The soul being a part of God is filled with godly virtues. However, it is presently covered by the body and the mind which are filled with negative impressions from past indulgences. These impressions are the source of our lower side. Prominent among these impressions is lust. While lust promises immense pleasure, it rarely lives up to its promise – despite the fantasy it may fan in our mind, it can do nothing to alter the body’s limited capacity for indulgence. Being thwarted thus, lust goads us into believing that the elusive pleasure will be ours if we just seek newer, baser forms of indulgence. Thus, lust pushes us down the slippery slope of degradation. No wonder the Bhagavad-gita (03.39) warns that lust is an enemy that deludes and degrades us.

Findings in brain research also point to the difference between lust and love. When people feel lust, MRI scans show that those areas of their brain light up that are usually lit when they feel emotions of possessing and controlling, as when they desire to get a new cellphone or a new car. In a contrast, when people feel love, those areas of the brain light up which are usually lit when they feel emotions of caring and sharing.

Gita wisdom explains that love in its purest form emerges from our soul, whose nature it is to love the supreme soul, Krishna, and to love everyone in relationship with him. The more we strive to manifest this love by practicing bhakti-yoga, the more the lust that covers and obscures it becomes purged. As we learn to love Krishna, we start relishing a profound non-material enrichment in his remembrance – an enrichment that frees us from the lust-driven need to dominate others for our gratification. Thus, by striving to develop a loving relationship with Krishna, the foundation of even our worldly relationships shifts from lust to love, thereby making those relationships more stable, more positively transformational and more fulfilling.

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In the village of Panihati, Raghunatha dasa obtained an interview with Nityananda Prabhu. Sitting on a rock under a tree on the bank of the Ganges, Lord Nityananda seemed as effulgent as hundreds and thousands of rising suns.

About 6 years ago ISKCON acquired land in this village and made a wonderful temple. The village was also the residential quarters of Raghava Pandit, a dear devotee of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

 

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 06 April 2015, Durban, South Africa, Ratha Yatra Lecture: The secret of spiritual advancement)

It is said that the spiritual master is very pleased when the devotees chant the holy name and play musical instruments. The playing of musical instruments is our tradition; it is not about being a musician. Some of us may be more musically inclined than others; that is a fact but every member of the sankirtan movement is meant to learn a little bit of how to play a musical instrument, a little beat, and simply chant Hare Krsna. When we just chant like that, it does not matter what melody, it is just ultra-positive and it is a simple thing to do. So if you want to know one of my secrets, it is doing just that! It is not that I am such a great musician, in fact I am a terribly bad harmonium player compared to some others, there are many others who are much better than me, but I like to sing and I realize that this singing is giving me positive energy. These are inspirational things we have to look for!

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