Planet ISKCON

Lecture Podcast:

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Bhagavatam daily Podcast:

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The post Bhagavatam-daily 276 – 11.13.9 – To think we are what we are not is our foundational illuson appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Q: I have been reading your “A Simple Gita” and there are many things I like about it. For example, the very clear and modern language, which makes me think about what Krishna says in a slightly different way, which makes the message sink in better.

For example, I like how you have replaced the word “lust” with “selfishness” in chapter three. Of course both words are useful. “Lust” connotes the strong desire for sense objects. “Selfishness” is more general and explains a bit less of the mechanics, but is a term much more widely understood.

A: Thank you!

The term in chapter three is काम (kāma) which is one of the four goals of life, indicating happiness or pleasure, but as it is used in this content, a negative context, it refers to selfish conceptions of pleasure. Kāma (“lust”) is actually defined as a selfish conception of pleasure.

ātmendriya-prīti-vāñchā — tāre bali ‘kāma’

“Kāma” is known as self-centered desire”

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, ādi-līlā, 4.165

Q: However, I don’t know why you use the word “nirvana” in several places. For example in verse 2.72, in fact Krishna uses the word “brahma-nirvanam”, which Prabhupada translates as “the spiritual kingdom of God”. You translate it as “the supreme spiritual peace (nirvana).”

A: I think you’ve answered the question yourself. I use the word nirvana where Krishna uses the word nirvana.

Q: Also, you translate 4.35: “You will see that all living beings are within you, and that you are within me.” Whereas Prabhupada translates: “…you will see that all living beings are but part of the Supreme, or, in other words, that they are Mine.” All living beings are within Arjuna?

A: 4.35 says: येन भूतान्यशेषाणि द्रक्ष्यस्यात्मन्यथो मयि – yena bhūtāny aśeṣāṇi drakṣyasy ātmany atho mayi

The word yena refers to the subject Krishna was discussing, knowledge.

Bhūtāni aśeṣāni means “in endless creatures” / “in all living beings.”

Drakṣyasi means to see.

ātmani means “in the self.”

So bhūtāny aśeṣāni drakṣyasy ātmani means “seeing all creatures within yourself.” It means seeing unity with all creatures. Seeing every creature as we see our own self. Seeing no divisions between oneself and others.

Then the line conclues, atho mayi.

Athaḥ means “then” or “thus”

Mayi means “in me”

So this means that by seeing the self within all creatures, we will see Krishna everywhere.

The fuller meaning is that all there entities, Arjuna/the self (ātma), Krishna/God (“mayi”) and all creatures (“bhūtāny aśeṣāni”) are all unified, and one sees all three in all three.

It’s quite difficult to express it succinctly in English. In the next revision of A Simple Gītā, I will look at this verse carefully again and see if I can make the English include more of the full meaning, without rambling on too much.

CC daily Podcast:

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Radhanath Swami offers heartfelt observations about the "eye camps" he organizes in the holy land of Varsana, India, where the impoverished are treated for various eye diseases. Doctors from all over the world who provide this service free of charge, amazingly, consider their acts as their own humble efforts to "see" God. A video produced by Karuna Productions. (www.karunaproductions.com). Photography by Rasacharya Das, Hilary Tapper.

Hare Krishna! Rath Yatra in Kisumu – Kenya
The Lake shore city of Kenya –Kisumu, celebrated its annual Rath Yatra on the 18th of July, coinciding with the Puri Rath Yatra, and IDD- UL-FTR. Taking advantage of the auspicious date, the Kisumu devotees organized the festival in less than a week. 127 devotees travelled from the capital city Nairobi covering a total distance of approx.355kms to participate in the event. Kisumu devotees are known for their hospitality and very delicious Prasadam that was served three times a day at the temple premises to everyone who was present days before the festival started and after as well.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=18581

Music by Gunagrahi Das, Hungary. A video by Blaiseus.

Credits for album trailer: Video production by Sasha Cherkasov. Music by Jahnavi Harrison. Come Chant with Us! www.callandresponsefoundation.org

A super dynamic and happy Harinama in Prague, Czech Republic (5 min video)
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/AMY3Vl

Hare Krishna! Prime Minister of India Extends his Good wishes for the Kolkata Event
Devotees can book their seat at Netaji Indoor stadium through our website: www.iskconkolkata.com Also humbly request to take the 4 or 5 print out of the attached poster and paste it on the most prominent places in your temple and temple notice board so that devotees can come to Kolkata. At Kolkata we are trying to make arrangements within our humble means so that devotees are comfortable when they come here. We are very hopeful that devotees from all over India will book their train tickets immediately to reach Kolkata by 12th August night so that they can attend the Grand celebration at Netaji Indoor Stadium on 13th August 2015. They can book their return tickets on 14th August morning.

Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=18578

Music by Guna-grahi & Kirtan for the Soul. Video by Blasieus. 

The Temple of the Vedic Planetarium (TOVP) in Mayapur, West Bengal, India, will undoubtedly become one of the wonders of the world in beauty, architecture, design, and sheer size. This beautiful animated view of the TOVP provides a window into that reality.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 11 May 2015, Brisbane, Australia, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.42)

Yesterday, at the Sunday program, I mentioned that chanting changes us internally and it awakens our love for Krsna and because of that, our whole perception of reality changes. Then our whole perception of the maha-mantra changes. In the beginning, we think that the Hare Krsna maha-mantra is very powerful but then later on, we realize that it is much more powerful than we ever thought it was. Srila Prabhupada had that understanding and therefore he had full conviction when he chanted under the tree in Tompkins Square Park. He had no doubt that all the hippies and other people will become devotees. Now in Tompkins Square Park, there are bums living there because it is on the Lower East-side, a run down part of New York. Still today, bums sleep in the park but they like to chant Hare Krsna because there is a desire tree in the park.

I went to Tompkins Square Park many times and the last time I went, I prayed to the tree. Some people are big tree-huggers but I am not a tree-hugger. But then, at Tompkins Square Park, I thought, “This tree will do it.” So I hugged the tree, put my head on the trunk and said a little prayer. I prayed for strength to spread Krsna consciousness. I turned around after finishing the prayer and there was a boy standing under the tree who asked me, “What do I have to do to become a monk like you?” And I realized, “This is a desire tree! There is no doubt about it!” What do I have to do to spread Krsna consciousness? Just take shelter of the tree in Tompkins Square Park, take shelter of the holy name and everything will come, it will automatically spread. That is the gift I got from the desire tree in Tompkins Square Park…

When a great vaishnava graces a particular place then that place changes, it becomes transformed by his presence. So Prabhupada turned that tree into a desire tree simply by chanting under that tree. By Prabhupada’s potency, that tree has become a desire tree just like so many places on the planet wherever Prabhupada went, they became transformed. If you go to these places, whether you know it or not, you will be touched by it.

So even the bums in Tompkins Square Park chant Hare Krsna, not on japa, but whenever they see you, immediately they say, “Hare Hare! Hare Krsna! Krsna Krsna!” They say it so many times, not once but they keep on repeating it because of the desire tree. If you live in a park with a desire tree, what can you do!? That park has been blessed by the dust of Prabhupada’s feet. Staying in that park makes one chant Hare Krsna even when one is totally in the mode of ignorance, it does not matter. That tree is definitely transcendentally potent for all and everyone.

Dublin Festival Temple Bar (Album with 43 photos)
For one month we are staying in Ireland putting on a hall festival every Thursday. Here are the pictures from Dublin festival. There was dance, drama, a talk, a fired up final Kirtan with everyone dancing, followed by delicious Prasadam. We met many lovely souls and look forward to the next festival in Cork!
See them here: https://goo.gl/Cl8NBr

https://youtu.be/CzRHDO72bfM

The post Presenting the last stage of the renovation works appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Hare Krishna! Why Is the Bhagavad-gita So Pessimistic?
Here’s my short four-point answer: • The Bhagavad-gita is not pessimistic, but realistic; the reality is that the pleasure-pain balance of the world is tilted heavily toward the pain side. • Even if we still consider the Gita philosophy pessimistic, that pessimism is only initial, not final. In its conclusion, the Gita offers a supremely optimistic message. • Even the best worldly optimism pales and fails in front of the longing of our heart, a longing fulfilled only by the vision of reality offered by the Gita. • The Gita doesn’t teach us to reject this world for the spiritual world, but to harmonize this world with the spiritual world. Let’s look at these points systematically.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=18574

Ray Cappo was on the east coast getting Shelter ready for the hordes of Youth of Today fans. I was on the west coast doing Inside Out and Enquirer zine. Between the two of us, and a few others like Kalki of Razor’s Edge, Krishna was pushing into the hardcore scene in a huge way. But in December of ’89 the scene pushed back for the first time. Maximum Rocknroll, the biggest zine in hardcore punk, delivered an issue called “Inside Ray Cappo and the Krishnas” with a creepy infinity-mirror photo of Ray on the cover and 15 no-line-spacing-tiny-font packed pages tearing Hare Krishna to shreds and then shredding those shreds.

I bought a copy while at a show at the Gilman Street Project in Berkley. There was a five page interview with Ray called, “Ray of Yesterday Meets Ray of Tomorrow: It’s Enough to Make me Start Drinking!!!!!” followed by a ten page article called, “The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing But The Truth, So Help Me Krishna?”

The more I read, the more I wanted to fall into a crack into the earth.

Compared to the “Whole Truth…” article, Ray’s interview wasn’t too bad. It was basically just an argument between him and Tim Yo. Usually Tim sounded a lot smarter than Ray, but Ray had his moments too – especially considering that his expertise in Krishna consciousness was the result of hardly a year of familiarity with it. The worst part was where Tim embarrassed Ray for thinking that his body was completely different from the body he had been in as a child.

The “Whole Truth…” article was more like several articles and interviews stitched together in a rambling frankenstein of nausea. It started off with a woman’s story of intrigue about how her husband Ed had become brainwashed by the Krishna cult and how she turned to ex-Hare Krishna’s to successfully get him out. Then MRR interviewed Ed and the ex-Hare Krishna’s who had helped him “exit” ISKCON. These guys convincingly depicted ISKCON as a deviant and dangerous branch of an otherwise admirable religious and philosophical movement.

Then we heard about the deceitful fund-raising practices pervasive in ISKCON, called saṁkīrtan (making it a deception not only of the public, but of ISKCON members as well – since actual saṁkīrtan was nothing of the sort). This was followed by a long list of serious crimes the Krishna’s and their leaders had been convicted for: huge drug rings, illegal possession of firearms, murder, and child molestation, to name a few.

Next the ex-Krishnas talked about the sexism rampant in ISKCON, saying there was a hierarchy considering cows more important than women: “Man-Cow-Woman-Dog.” They explained that ISKCON leaders encouraged physical “discipline” of women, quoting the former ISKCON guru Bhaktipāda who said, “There are three things that get better when you beat them — your dog, your wife, and your drum.”

Finally – there was a section on how mind-control and brainwashing work, and how deprogramming worked.

I felt like I was in the vortex of a black hole as I stood on the sidewalk outside Gilman, flipping from one emotion to the next with exhausting speed. One moment I was fucking furious at MRR for giving such a “one-sided story.” The next moment I was pitifully embarrassed to be a a spokesman for such a freak-show circus of lunatics. How the fuck would I manage to explain all this shit to all these kids who were getting interested in Hare Krishna because of me? Then I felt like vomiting or crying because I didn’t even know how much of what I read was true, or to what extent – maybe it was bad enough that I myself would have to get the fuck out? By the time we were heading for the car to go home, I had wound up feeling less like a human being and more like a growling wolf backed into a corner, bearing his fangs and posed for a battle to the death.

Over the next few weeks, though, I realized that nobody in the straightedge crowd seemed to really cared much about what Maximum Rocknroll had printed. I think MRR was just too fucking hard to read – disorganized, rambling, and way too unpackaged – the underbelly side effect of crust-punk ideals of anarchy and anti-capitalism. And straightedge kids didn’t really seem to care much what the crusty Berkley punks had to say, anyway. After all, they were just crust-punks with their constant bitching and moaning. Yeah, the issue phased people – but not half as much as it phased me. The thing that disturbed them the most, I noticed, was the sexism. More than the drug-running, abject exploitation and mind-tyranny, straightedge kids were disgusted by the sexism MRR depicted in Hare Krishna.

As for me, the whole thing set me off balance. Devotees assured me the people behind MRR were “envious demons,” and the ex-Krishnas interviewed were just “too weak to make it at devotees” and came up with all these things as excuses to justify their weakness.

I wasn’t dumb enough to believe any of that crap.

Instead I just steeled myself to the ugly reality that a good percentage of ISKCON was really fucked up in a big way. But even if a diamond is covered in shit, I reasoned… just wash off the shit and take the diamond. Devotees assured me that the vast majority of all the insanity MRR revealed was a thing of the past, and ISKCON was now making strides forward to reform themselves and represent Krishna and Prabhupāda more purely.

I could buy that, it seemed true.

I decided I would be one of the guys helping the reforms.

– Excerpt from an early draft of
Train Wrecks and Transcendence:
A Collision of Hardcore and Hare Krishna

by Vraja Kishor

VrajaKishor.com

Hare Krishna! My Experiences And Associations With Srila Prabhupada
Bhakti Caru Swami: They asked Srila Prabhupada, ‘Why are you converting the Christians into Hindus?’ Prabhupada’s response was, ‘No, I am not converting Christians into Hindus or Muslims into Jews. I am simply making better Christians out of Christians, better Jews out of Jews and better Muslims out of Muslims, better Hindus out of Hindus. Prabhupada is situating them in their perfect identity. Jesus came and spoke. Who is a Christian? A true follower of Jesus Christ is a Christian. And what did Jesus preach? Jesus simply spoke about God, the Father. Who is God the Father? Are there many Fathers? Are there many God, the Fathers? There is only one God, the Father. So that God, the Father is Krsna. Who is Allah? Is there any difference between God, Allah, Krishna, Jehovah? So we have to understand that essential truth. If that essential truth is properly understood, then there cannot be any conflict between different religions.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=18571

The post Daily Darshan – July 22nd, 2015 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Hare Krishna! Celebration of Lord Jagannatha Rathayatra Festival in Canberra, Australia
By the mercy of Their Lordships Sri Sri Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra and His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada we had wonderful Lord Jagannatha Rathayatra in Canberra, Australia on 18 July 2015. The Hare Krishna (ISKCON) Canberra devotees along with local community members celebrated Rathayatra Festival seeking the blessings of Their Lordships. Fortunately 18 July 2015 coincided with this year’s actual date of Lord Jagannatha Rathayatra at Sri Ksetra Jagannatha Puri Dhama; especially this year marking the first Rath Yatra with Nabakalebara Deities at Jagannatha Puri. Please find below Rathayatra photos and videos.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=18563

6 Hours Kirtan by HG Agnidev Das on 12th July 2015 Part 1

I set out to do a second issue of Enquirer – this time without all the dot-matrix stuff that was all over the first issue. My dad now had an actual laser printer for the text, and I used a photocopier more than a prehistoric photo-editor to make the graphics. Using a typewriter I wrote “enquirer” in lower case – enlarged it a zillion times on a xerox machine, and then shrunk it down to the size I needed. It made a really cool, grainy, rough-edged effect, so I did the same thing with “inside out” and it stuck as our logo.

Next to the sideways logo on the cover, which was an orange, thicker stock paper, I border-taped a flash-obscured photo of me moshing with a guitar at Che Cafe, below a drawing of Krishna holding a lotus flower while moshing on the hoods of a many-headed dragon. I was never shy to put my pictures and my bands in my zines.

Violence on the Dance Floor was a couchy explanation of how ego is the ultimate root of violence. Equality was a three page article explaining how spirituality generates equality amidst diversity. This one had an inset about Black Power / White Power which always wanted to transform into the lyrics of a song but never quite made it past a demo years later.

Black power / white power
What power is in your black/white skin?
The skin that yellows in the grave.

This was followed by Mantra Six of Īśopaniṣad (with Sanskrit lettering I hand-moused pixel by pixel, dot-matrix style): “He who sees everything in relation to the Supreme Lord, who sees all entities as His parts and parcels, and who sees the Supreme Lord within everything, never hates anything nor any being.”

Towards the end of the zine I also printed this lyrical rap on the subject of equality:

Equality,
is a reality.

Look within yourself to find the unity you seek.

Not along the edges.
Not in the skin.
It’s at the core of your existence, untouched within.

Find it.
Know it.
And share it with the world, ‘cause man we gonna grow in it.

*Truth*

Joe Hardcore: Open Minded Liberal or Biased Rascal Sap? was a half-page rant about how un-punk it was to censor punk, even when the censored subject was traditionally un-punk, like religion. I followed this up with a full-page rant about how straightedge itself was nothing short of a secular religion. On the next page I debated the modern mechanistic theory that consciousness is a property of matter, and printed a conversation between David Shapiro and Śrīla Ācāryadeva on true strength. A Fad? was a two page article saying that, regardless of whether or not Krishna was becoming a hardcore fad, the fact remained that it was an ancient Vedic philosophy deserving serious attention.

In the centerfold was the ISKCON painting of Krishna showing Arjuna his infinite-headed “Universal Form,” with an explanation of Krishna’s statement, “Time I am.” This shared the page with a short sermon entitled Death – which made much of the point that even Atheists have to succumb to a higher power: death.

Stambha dāsa (a favorite of Ray and I) got two full pages devoted to edited transcriptions of his hip and intelligent lectures. Then, I gave three pages to my friends in bands answering the question, “What is the need for a spiritual dimension in life?” Sergio (the bassist of Amenity) said that people should get down the the essential truths common to all religions and use that as a way to change themselves, because all social change begins within. Mike Madrid (the singer of Against the Wall) answered that spirituality is much bigger than hardcore, but most of the best hardcore bands are spiritually motivated. Mike D (the singer from Amenity) answered that there is obviously truth beyond human conception, and human beings ruin themselves when their lives are completely out of touch with that.

The zine closed with a two page article called Spiritual Life: A Cop Out? explaining that religion may or may not always be a cop out, but this doesn’t change the fact that the essential topics of religion are crucial to examine in life.  The big inset quote in the article read, “Just because 99% of so-called religion is completely bogus, that doesn’t affect the fact that we have to find out who we are, Why am I here?”

I gave two pages to explaining the lyrics of No Spiritual Surrender and a new Inside Out song called Land of the Lost.

On the last, orange page, was an article entitled The Truth.

“There is no Absolute Truth.”

A breeze barely strong enough to scatter her hair moves the leaves; on the tree as well as the ground. The sunlight quickly makes its way to her face and is again cut off behind racing clouds. She’d heard this countless times before. “There is no Absolute Truth,” the other half of the conversation would tell her; always with that peculiar righteous air, as if, “you poor fool, you’ve been so mislead. The Truth is that there is no Truth.”

– Excerpt of an early draft of
Train-Wrecks and Transcendance:
The Collision of Hardcore and Hare Krishna

by Vraja Kishor dās
vrajakishor.com

Indian thought is sometimes deemed fatalistic, as holding that everything is destined by past karma, thereby leaving little room for human initiative. While Indian literature is filled with diverse thoughts – some of which may be fatalistic – the bhakti literature, which is among the most influential Indian literature, offers a far more nuanced and empowering outlook to life.

Ancient echoes of modern concerns

The Ramayana features an emotionally and intellectually riveting conversation about the interplay of destiny and human initiative. This conversation occurred at one of the epic’s defining moments: the moment when Rama, who was about to be crowned as prince regent, was instead sentenced to forest exile for fourteen years.

While Rama gracefully accepted the exile as the will of destiny, his faithful younger brother Lakshmana was outraged by the injustice and called for rebellion. Rama calmly responded that he considered his exile the will of destiny and so intended to accept it. He said that nothing else could explain how his stepmother Kaikeyi who had loved him like her own son and whom he had served like his own mother had suddenly become so malevolent towards him. Rama hadn’t done anything to offend Kaikeyi and certainly didn’t deserve to be exiled. Yet his exile was the boon that Kaikeyi had extorted from her husband, the monarch Dasharatha. Rama deemed obedience to his father his duty – a duty that he intended to follow unflinchingly.

If some of us find Rama’s deference to destiny too docile, we may be intrigued to know that so did Lakshmana. Rather than ascribe Rama’s exile to destiny, he sought to lay the blame on the human actors involved: Kaikeyi’s scheming and, more importantly, the king’s complicity. He alleged that the king had become infatuated with his beautiful wife and so had abandoned his duty to protect his own son. To Rama’s deference to destiny, the incensed Lakshmana countered that only the impotent accepted injustice passively as the will of destiny; the strong fought injustice to protect their rights – and the kingdom was Rama’s right. Lakshmana’s arguments may make us feel that his is an intriguingly modern voice railing against the fatalism prevailing in those times.

Seeing through the stereotype of fatalism

Significantly, Rama was not fatalistic, as was evident from his dynamic response to other adversities such as the abduction of his wife Sita. He didn’t passively accept her abduction as an act of destiny. When she was abducted, he had no guards, servants or royal resources for finding her. He could well have seen his destitute condition as the arrangement of destiny and passively accepted Sita’s abduction. But the thought of such passivity didn’t even cross his mind.

To the contrary, he always discharged his duty of protecting her actively, even proactively. Throughout their stay in the forest, he always ensured that either he or his brother were at hand to protect Sita. And the moment he discovered that she was missing and found signs of a scuffle that pointed to her abduction, he immediately started searching for her. To rescue her, he formed an unlikely alliance with monkey forces, marched hundreds of miles through difficult terrain and fought against a formidable foe who had bested even the gods.

If Rama responded to Sita’s abdication so resourcefully, even forcefully, then why did he accept his own exile so passively? If he didn’t ascribe Sita’s abduction to destiny, why did he ascribe his own banishment to destiny? Because the defining decider of his responses was the consideration of not destiny, but duty. For Rama as a husband, the protection of his wife was his prime duty and he didn’t even consider abandoning that duty in the name of destiny, no matter how difficult that duty was. For Rama as a son, obedience to his father was his prime duty – a duty he did even if it required renouncing his right to the kingdom.

So the Ramayana’s message is not that we passively give in to destiny, but that we gallantly stick to duty. And if in the course of duty, some inconceivable calamity strikes, we can attribute it to destiny – and continue to do one’s duty.

Throughout the bhakti literature, this subtle relationship between right, duty and destiny plays out fascinatingly. Let’s analyze events from two other jewels in the bhakti library: the Mahabharata and the Srimad Bhagavatam. 

Destiny doesn’t rationalize passivity

The Mahabharata depicts and decries an attempt to abuse the concept of destiny for rationalizing one’s own passivity. Before the fratricidal Kurukshetra war, Vidura urges his brother, the blind Dhritarashtra, to correct his son, the evil Duryodhana. The stubborn prince refused to grant his cousins, the Pandavas, their due half of the kingdom. Vidura warned that Duryodhana’s obstinacy would cause the extermination of the entire Kuru dynasty.

In response, Dhritarashtra invoked destiny to justify his passivity. He argued that if destiny willed that their dynasty be destroyed, who was he, a tiny mortal, to stop the workings of almighty destiny?

Vidura responded by reminding the king that destiny determined the results of our actions, not our actions themselves. We all need to do our duty – that will bring auspiciousness in our life in all circumstances. If our destiny is favorable, then the auspiciousness will manifest immediately. If our destiny is unfavorable, then we will have to undergo some unavoidable reversals, but our dutifulness will create positive karmic credits that will shape a brighter future for us.

An agrarian analogy can illumine this point. For farmers, plowing the field is the duty, whereas the occurrence of timely rains is destiny. Both are needed for a good harvest. Destiny determines whether the plowing will yield harvest, but it doesn’t determine whether the farmers plow or not. If they don’t plow, then even if the destiny is favorable, rains will cause the growth of weeds, no crops. Significantly, this understanding of the dynamics of duty and destiny is empowering: It offers impetus to do duty even when destiny is unfavorable. Though the farmers’ may get no harvest when destiny is unfavorable, still their diligent performance of duty will create positive karmic credits that will contribute to their positive future destiny. Thus, the execution of duty doesn’t go in vain, even when it doesn’t produce any result.

So, the question Dhritarashtra should have asked was not whether the war was destined or not but whether he was doing his duty or not. As the king, it was his duty to ensure that justice was done for all his citizens, what to speak of his own nephews, what then to speak of nephews who were fatherless and for whom he was expected to act like a surrogate father. To let his son continue the atrocious exploitation of his nephews was a grievous dereliction of duty on Dhritarshtra’s part. Vidura rightly reproached his brother for not only abandoning his duty but also for falsely invoking destiny to whitewash such abandonment.

Destiny as a check against unrighteousness

A pastime from the devotional classic, Srimad Bhagavatam, depicts the right use of destiny in an argument. When Vasudeva and Devaki, who later became Krishna’s parents, got married, their wedding procession threatened to become a funeral procession. Devaki’s cousin brother Kamsa had been driving the chariot of the newly-weds. On hearing a celestial prophecy that Devaki’s eighth son will kill him, the benevolent-seeming Kamsa turned violent – he grabbed his sister by her hair and raised his sword to decapitate her.

Vasudeva tried to check the vicious Kamsa by reasoning with him. One of the arguments he used centered on destiny: If destiny had decreed Kamsa’s death, then nothing, not even killing Devaki, would stop destiny from taking its course. Why then should Kamsa accrue bad karma by committing a triple sin: killing a woman, killing on a sacred occasion of marriage and killing his own sister?

Vasudeva could well have turned the same argument of the inescapability of destined death to Devaki. He could have asked himself: If she was destined to die, why should I strive to prevent it?

Why didn’t Vasudeva argue thus? Because his focus was not on destiny but on duty. It was his duty to protect his wife and he was going to do his best to protect her, while knowing that destiny would determine whether his effort would be successful or not. But destiny didn’t decide whether he would do his duty or not – that was in his hands and he did it resourcefully and fearlessly.

Kamsa, on the other hand, was giving up his duty by attempting to assassinate his sister. So Vasudeva reminded him about destiny to get him back on the path of duty or to at least stop him from doing the very opposite of his duty – killing the very sister he was dutybound to protect.

Duty comprises the best response to destiny

While the relationship between free will and destiny is complex, it can be summed in the broad principle: what happens to us is destiny, how we respond to it is our free will. And we can choose the best response by sticking to our duty, as given in scripture and guided by the bhakti tradition. Here it’s important to note a significant difference in different connotations of the word ‘duty.’ Nowadays, the word is often used in the sense of a burden, something that one is expected to do or something that has to be done. So if someone exhibits stellar qualities and does something extraordinarily positive, we laud it as “going beyond the call of duty.” In the bhakti tradition, ‘duty’ refers to the Sanskrit concept of dharma, which in turn conveys activities that bring out our best and enable us to fulfill our potential and harmonize with our innate spiritual nature. Doing one’s duty, in this sense, is not about stoically carrying a burden allotted by others, but about resourcefully unleashing one’s potential by making scripturally-guided choices and in the process manifesting laudable qualities.

Consider, as an analogy, a card game: Destiny decides the hand we get, while a sense of dutifulness guides us to the best use of that hand. Claiming that there’s no such thing as destiny is like claiming that we have full control over the hand we get – patently untrue. In the game of life, we all get different hands; we are all born with different sets of talents and resources and throughout our life we face different challenges based on our individual situations.

For Rama as an obedient son, his duty was to serve his father. He would normally have done so by accepting the post of prince regent and eventually of the king. But when extraordinary circumstances conspired to have him banished, he stuck to his duty, albeit in a drastically different form – not as a prince, but as an ascetic. And he attributed those extraordinary circumstances to destiny; inconceivable, inexorable destiny had moved his stepmother to express such uncharacteristic greed for power.

Rama rejected Lakshmana’s call for rebellion not because he was fatalistic and feeble, but because he was resourceful and courageous enough to do his duty even when it was exceptionally difficult. To Lakshmana’s charge about the king’s motivation, Rama pointed out that their father had acted not because of infatuation but because of obligation: he had long ago promised Kaikeyi two boons and was honor-bound to grant them, even when doing so caused him heartbreaking agony. Rama stressed that the king’s readiness to do so demonstrated not his weakness but his truthfulness.

Rights don’t trump responsibilities

Rama’s refusal to seize his right to the kingdom by sacrificing his responsibility as a son is instructive. Though something may be our right, it may not always be right for us to claim it. Considerations of our rights need to be balanced with deliberations on our responsibilities. We live in a culture that frequently champions rights and downplays responsibilities. Parents often find it extremely difficult to raise children who feel that they are entitled to lots of things without feeling that they need to do anything to get them.

John F Kennedy’s exhortation, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country,” was a call to shift the focus from rights to responsibilities. Such a shift comes much easier when we have a spiritual conception of life, when we understand ourselves to be souls and see life from a multi-life perspective wherein results for dutifulness are guaranteed, but not always in this life.

When we are faced with problems, we can deal with them better if we approach them with a positive attitude, focusing, for example, on how the glass is half-full, not half-empty. Illustrating how spiritual wisdom engenders positive outlook, Rama responded to his banishment by stating that he didn’t see any cause for distress: He had the satisfaction of ensuring that his father’s word is honored; he had the joy of facilitating the enthronement of his younger brother, who was like a son to him; and he had the opportunity for spiritual growth by the association of sages in the forest, an opportunity that he would otherwise have got only towards the end of his life when he retired to the forest. Thus, Rama’s spiritual vision grants him extraordinary positivity. He accepts the adversity of banishment not with hand-wringing and teeth-grinding, but with dignity and determination, looking to make the best of the situation.

That Rama ascribed the adversity that befell him to destiny is significant because he is God himself – he is the Lord of destiny. He had descended as an avatar not so much to demonstrate his supremacy as to demonstrate the life of an ideal human being. And he did so by exemplifying how to respond to adversity with maturity. If we focus too much on our rights, we may end up beating our head against a wall, trying in vain to get things which we think are our right but which have been taken away by unchangeable circumstances – by the will of destiny. On the other hand, if we focus too much on destiny, we may end up doing nothing at all, thereby depriving ourselves of our authentic rights and letting the world walk all over us. Acceptance of destiny is not a recipe for sentencing oneself to weakness and helplessness; it is the pathway for the most constructive channeling of our energies.

The sense of dutifulness can help us in our spiritual life too. In our devotional practices, if we focus too much on our rights – especially if we imagine and expect that higher spiritual happiness is our right because we are practicing bhakti-yoga – then, during the dry phases of our spiritual life, we will sentence ourselves to dissatisfaction and doubt, worrying unnecessarily whether bhakti works or not. By cultivating dutifulness, we can practice bhakti steadily till we eventually relish the higher happiness that comes from purification and the mercy of the Lord, who is pleased by our selflessness.

To conclude, the bhakti literatures teach not fatalism but pragmatism: the sound practical intelligence that refuses to buy the lie that everything is in our control. By remembering that there is much we cannot control, pragmatism urges us to focus our energy on those things that we can control.

Nowadays many people suffer from depression, inferiority complex and suicidal urges. A major reason for such psychological problems is an underlying misconceptions about controllership: they are led to believe that they can control everything and when they can’t control things, they think that something is intrinsically wrong with them and sink into self-flagellating thought patterns. That’s why a proper understanding of destiny can be salutary; it can prevent dissipation of our energy in fruitless fantasies or lamentations, and can channelize it towards growth-inducing choices.

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The monistic Theory of Division states:

“Brahman is like the sky. Parts of the sky can be divided by being contained within pots. When the pot is made of ignorance, the Brahman within is an individual (jīva). When the pot is made of knowledge, the Brahman within is the master of illusion (Īśvara), God.”

This theory is illogical and based on over-extended metaphor. Since Brahman is supposed to be indivisible, it is an over-extension of metaphor to compare it with the divisibility of the sky. Brahman’s indivisibility renders the theory illogical, for how can a pot divide an indivisible thing?

Some monists reply that the division is just an illusion. This remains illogical because Brahman is the essence of reality itself. How can reality itself be subjugated by illusion?

The monistic answer to this question is that reality itself is essentially an illusion (māyā). Proponents of this answer are described as members of the School of Illusion (māyā-vāda). Although this school picks and choses a handful of Vedic statements to support their claims, it cannot be considered a truly Vedic school because it contradicts the fundamental Vedic principle that consciousness (brahman) is the essence of reality, not illusion (māyā). It is also an illogical school because illusion cannot exist without consciousness – it is a particular condition of consciousness – so illusion cannot logically be more primordial than consciousness. However, members of the school rarely mind being called illogical, since they are, after all, in the School of something fundamentally illogical: illusion.

– Excerpt from
This is Gauḍīya Philosophy:
Part 1 – Fundamental Realities

A rendering of Śrī Tattva-sandarbha
of Śrī Jīva Goswami

by Vraja Kishor dās
vrajakishor.com

Ever since I heard a recording of someone singing it at Rādhā-Ramaṇa mandīr in Vṛndāvan, I’ve been charmed by the opening verse of Krishnadās Kavirāja’s Govinda-līlāmṛta.

श्री गोविन्दं व्रजानन्दं सन्दोहानन्दमन्दिरम् ।
वन्दे वृन्दावनानन्दं श्री राधासऩ्गनन्दितम् ।।

The bold syllables are held twice as long as the few that are not in boldface. The meter is nice because it is so languid, slow, relaxed – so many long syllables. The pattern is also quite unusual, 17 syllables per line. 17 is prime and doesn’t divide evenly, so the second half of each line has one more syllable than the first – each line is 8 syllables in the first half and 9 in the second. This gives it a sort of “tilt” on its symmetry which is beautifully balanced in a curvy way – a lot like Krishna’s own tri-bhanga way of standing.

The word ānanda / nanda appears so much, and the sound of “n” joining “d” is so pervasive through the entire thing – it really is a beautiful sound and a real joy to recite – even from a purely sonic and linguistic point of view.

The meaning is exquisite, though its impossible to convey the beauty of it in English.

Śrī Govinda is Braja’s bliss;

the home of concentrated bliss.

Praise to Brindabana’s bliss;

Who finds bliss in Śrī Rādhā’s company.

The name Govinda itself indicates bliss – “the one who supplies and nurtures bliss.” This being, Govinda, is the “home” of concentrated bliss. It is special bliss, concentrated. The spiritual bliss of Brahmānanda is the same in substance but is diluted and latent. In Govinda this brahmānanda becomes concentrated, activated, exalted, excited beyond limits.

The use of the word “home” is interesting too. The word is mandir, which is also used for temple. Govinda is the temple of concentrated bliss.

Kavirāja addresses Govinda first as Vraja-ānanda, then as Vṛndāvana-ānanda. What is the difference? Vraja is the entire 12 forests of Goloka, but Vṛndāvana is one of those forests, where rāsa-līlā happens on the bank of Yamuna, especially in autumn. So, the conentration of Govinda’s bliss becomes thickest and most intense there, in Vṛndāvana.

Yet, the final line is really profound and expresses the mystery of bhakti. Govinda is the source of bliss, but what good is it to be only the source of bliss? One also wants to taste bliss! So Govinda’s bliss exists as a distinct entity – his śakti, Śrī Rādhā, who allows Govinda not only to be the source of all bliss, but also the enjoyer of all bliss.

Govinda gives bliss to everyone – but he finds bliss in Śrī Rādhā.

Vraja Kishor dās

VrajaKishor.com

Tulsi Gabbard (U.S. Politician and devotee of Shri Krishna) met leading members of ISKCON Radhanath Swami and Vaisesika Prabhu!

Hare Krishna! The Krishna-Approaching Body
Ravindra Svarupa dasa: As soon as I am desiring something, immediately my body is formed. Immediately a particular type of body begins to form, and as soon as I am mature to change, my next body I get according to my desire. Therefore we should always desire Krsna. Then from this life, the Krsna-approaching body or the spiritual body will be formed. The more you become sincere servant of Krsna, the more your body becomes Krsnaized, electrified. Therefore advanced Krsna conscious person is considered to have a spiritual body. The same example, as I have given several times: just like iron rod. You put into the fire, it becomes warmer, warmer. The more it is connected with fire, it becomes warm, warm, warm. And at last it becomes red hot, so that at that time, if that iron is touched to any other thing, it burns. It does not act as iron; it acts as fire. Similarly, by this Krsna consciousness, continuous chanting, you will make your body spiritualized.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=18560

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Latest album of beautiful photos from the Hare Krishna Festival Tour in Poland
Indradyumna Swami: If public opinion were to gage the popularity of our festivals I’d like to think we’d get, “ten out ten.” Both on the streets when we do harinama and at the festivals, people show their appreciation with great enthusiasm. What more could a devotee ask for?
“Incessantly they discuss the narrations of Sri Krsna ’s pastimes which bestow pure devotion. Overwhelmed with ecstasy they preach the Maha-mantra throughout the earth when Gaura descends to destroy the sins of the age of Kali.” [ Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, Susloka Sarakam, verse 77 ]
See them here: https://goo.gl/SsDYTy

Written by Bhakta Matthew

From the very start, Villa Vrindavan, in the region of Tuscany, on the outskirts of Florence was a wonderful backdrop for a weekend of glorifying the Lord through the chanting of His holy names (11-12 July). With peacocks roaming the grounds and not a cloud in the sky, we eagerly awaited the start of the festival.

Devotees young and old, gathered in the blazing Italian sunshine at the Machiavellian castle to sing and dance and to partake of the sweet nectar of Lord Caitanya’s Sankirtan movement. The beautiful spacious temple room rocked and swayed through kirtan after kirtan performed by some of the greatest kirtaniyas in the world. Included in this eclectic mix of musicians were Madhava, Ojasvi, Manu, Cintamani, Radha London Isvara and of course HH Kadamba Kanana Swami, who sung his heart out and had most of the temple room on its feet dancing in complete ecstasy.

The kirtans continued on well into the wee hours of the morning, and so, as the night shift crew were on their way to bed, the devotees started to assemble for mangala arati, so in this way there was an almost continual presence for their Lordships Radha Vraja Sundara, Gaura Nitai and Jagganath, Baladev, Subhadara. Then, after guru puja, the devotees were able to taste more sweetness as HH Kadamba Kanana Swami gave  two very nice Srimad Bhagavatam classes. There was also a seminar on vaisnava songs given by HH Gaura Vani Swami which was very well received by the devotees.

The stunning gardens and views from the villa made it a nice spot for devotees to relax, make new friends and to honour the exquisitely prepared prasadam, and yes, there was even pizza and pasta on offer. So the weekend passed blissfully into Monday and as the majority of the devotees departed for home, serenaded by ecstatic kirtans from local temple devotees, those that remained were treated to a very informal and intimate kirtan session with Maharaj on the grass in the sunshine.

There was also an initiation ceremony for our newest godsister, Chandra Koti Devi Dasi. She was formerly called Claudia, and is an expert cook. Devotees were also thrilled to be able to take darshan of the new baby calf in the Goshala. All in all, it was a fantastic weekend, filled with Vaikuntha vibrations at the amazing Villa Vrindavan in Italy, which I heard described on more than one occasion as being like a Heavenly Planet.

The recordings and photos are courtesy of Bhakta Matthew and Bhaktin April who are from Karuna Bhavan in Scotland.

Audio

KKS_ITA_Villa_Vrindavan_11 July 2015_SB 2.1.11

KKS_ITA_Villa_Vrindavan_11 July 2015_Kirtan

Photos

Visit flickr to see the full slide-show.

2nd day - New Zealand Kirtan Festival 2015 (19.7.15) (Album with photos)
Devotees immersed in joyful singing and dancing in front of the beautiful Sri Sri Radha Giridhari @ ISKCON Hare Krishna Auckland Temple during the 2nd Day of the 3rd New Zealand Kirtan Festival 2015! Haribol :)
See them here: http://goo.gl/eipBkU

Varnasrama series.

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