Hidden from view, the heads are attached to bodies that extend meters underground.

Gundas (thugs) attacked a temple at the sacred birthplace of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s associates Vasudeva Datta and Mukunda Datta in Chittagong, Bangladesh in the middle of the night on July 8^th, brutally injuring the ISKCON devotees who were staying there. The attack is being erroneously reported by various anti-Muslim/rumor-based websites as both a Muslim and a terrorist attack.

Truth be known, my interest in “cool” was not a strong motivation. My quiet motto while travelling was that I was “looking for the place that was looking for me."

Hare Krishna! The Creation and Dissolution of the Material World
Urmila Devi Dasi: Beyond the material sky, further than we can see with our eyes and beyond the universe, there is an unlimited span of spiritual sky generally known as the brahmajyoti. Within this effulgence there are innumerable spiritual planets, and they are known as the Vaikuntha planets. Each and every Vaikuntha planet is many, many times bigger than the biggest universe within the material world, and in each of them there are innumerable inhabitants who look exactly like Lord Vishnu. These inhabitants are persons directly engaged in the service of the Lord. They are happy in those planets and are without any kind of misery, and they live perpetually in full youthfulness, enjoying life in full bliss and knowledge without fear of birth, death, old age or disease.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=18473

A beautiful video about Mayapur dhama.

Interest in Bhakti-Yoga is rising in Turkey, an Islamic country with few devotees and no official ISKCON presence. With the increasing popularity of yoga in general in Istanbul, and yoga studios popping up everywhere, Nrismha Krishna Das and his wife Krishna-Mala Dasi established their own studio, Gouranga Yoga, in the capital city in 2013.

20.000 policeman to ensure a peaceful Rathayatra in Baroda, tomorrow (Album with photos)
Other newspaper articles that have come out before the Rathayatra festival in Baroda.
See them here: https://goo.gl/UzyrDM

Bhakta Jason Starkey from Dallas, Texas, enthusiastically expresses his reasons for donating to the TOVP and why everyone should. (2 min video)
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/RIJpwS

The post Daily Darshan – July 17th, 2015 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Mangal Arati Of Sri Sri Radha Gopinath;6th July 2015

The Modern Approach

By “modern approach” I mean the way the guru-diciple dynamic is implemented in most of the Gauḍīya Maṭh and ISKCON.

We start out with a relatively advanced practitioner of bhakti, who attracts from the masses a few people who take bhakti  seriously enough to become novices.

The relatively advanced guru continues to reach out to new people, and his (or her) novices do the same. Thus the number of novices becoming dependent on the guru begins to escalate. Meanwhile, the original novices become more serious as initiates.

The original initiates advance, but more slowly because they receive less attention from the guru, who has more people to focus on. Some more novices become initiates, and all the novices and initiates continue attracting new novices from the masses – all of whom require the attention of the relatively advanced guru.

Because the guru’s attention is divided to so many people who need and vie for it, s/he cannot manage to find the time to understand and resolve the specific problems and doubts some of his/her initiates and novices face. Thus, some of them become confused and start to drift away.

Many of the confused initiates drift away from direct connection to the guru, fending for themselves, looking for a new guru, or blending back into the masses. The guru continues to reach out to new novices. Some become initiates, but initiates are very unlikely to progress past an intermediate level, due to the lack of personal guidance and attention available from the guru who must reach out constantly to so many new novices, thus everyone remains prone to the probability of being confused and wandering off.

A Better, More Traditional Approach

Traditionally, gurus did not accept more disciples than could fit under their roof – literally. This has many powerful advantages, and in the long term generates much more powerful results. The approach works even when the guru in question is not completely advanced at first.

It begins in the same way, a relatively advanced bhakti-yoga practitioner reaches out to the masses, or somehow attracts or is sent by destiny a few interested persons to become novices.

The guru helps the novices become better practitioners, Initiates. The difference from the previous model is only that the guru does not continue to look for new novices, he or she simply focuses on helping the few novices who are already in his or her care.

When the initiates start to gain solid realizations (as “intermediates”), they can gradually begin to help novices of their own.

To take the initiated disciples to an advanced level of bhakti-yoga practice the original guru himself/herself must become even more advanced. The advanced disciples can then shelter a few novices, and expansion of the Gauḍīya family begins to multiply.

The size of the family grows exponentially, the older members do not continually find themselves focused on the problems of raw novices, they find themselves guiding advanced practitioners, and therefore they themselves become extremely advanced and perfect the bhakti-yoga practice. The likelihood of members leaving is much lower because each member gets the attention and understanding they need, since each guru only has a few disciples in his or her care.

The essential difference between this approach and the model currently in use by most is that in this approach no single guru accepts more than a few disciples, instead each concentrates on their own advancement and on making those few in their care very advanced and capable of taking care of their own disciples.

– Vraja Kishor dās

VrajaKishor.com

Tagged: disciple, Guru, guru-disciple

The observance of Gundica-marjana, the washing and cleansing of the Gundica temple, takes place on the day before Ratha-yatra, in preparation for the arrival of the Lord.

The history of Ratha-yatra goes back thousands of years, to a previous age, but for us, the specific significance of the Ratha-yatra and the cleaning of the Gundica temple was shown by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu when He was residing in Jagannatha Puri five hundred years ago. In His transcendental mind, the temple of Lord Jagannatha in Nilacala represented Dvakara, or sometimes Kuruksetra, and the Gundica temple in Sundaracala represented Vrndavana. And for Him, the Ratha-yatra was the process of the residents of Vrndavana meeting Krsna at Kuruksetra and bringing Him back to Vrndavana after a long separation.

Gundica is the name of the wife of King Indradyumna, the great devotee who wanted to have darsana of Nila-Madhava and who, in separation from Nila-Madhava, arranged to have a deity carved—ultimately resulting in the appearance of Lord Jagannatha, along with Baladeva and Subhadra. Marjana means “cleaning,” as we sing daily in the Gurvastakam: mandira-marjanadau. The spiritual master engages the disciples in cleaning the Lord’s temple (tan-mandira-marjanadau yuktasya bhaktams ca niyunjato ’pi).

In Jagannatha Puri, eight days after the Ratha-yatra is the return Ratha-yatra. Thus, for eight days Lord Jagannatha (Krsna), along with His brother, Baladeva, and sister, Subhadra, stay in the Gundica temple.

Four days after the first journey (yatra), Laksmi, the goddess of fortune, the eternal consort of Lord Jagannatha, comes to see the Lord. Srila Prabhupada explains, “Lord Jagannatha has left His wife, the goddess of fortune, and gone to Vrndavana, which is the Gundica temple. Due to separation from the Lord, the goddess of fortune decides to come to see the Lord at Gundica. The coming of the goddess of fortune to Gundica is celebrated as Hera-pancami.” (Cc Madhya 14.107 purport) Hera means “to see” and refers to the goddess of fortune going to see Lord Jagannatha. Pancami means “the fifth day,” referring to this pastime taking place on the fifth day of the lunar cycle.

The goddess of fortune, jealous and angry because her husband has been away for so long and thus has neglected her, comes with her maidservants to the Gundica temple to force the servants of Lord Jagannatha to bring Him back to Nilacala. “When Lord Jagannatha starts His car festival, He gives assurance to the goddess of fortune that He will return the next day. When He does not return, the goddess of fortune, after waiting two or three days, begins to feel that her husband has neglected her. She naturally becomes quite angry. Gorgeously decorating herself and her associates, she comes out of the temple and stands before the main gate. All the principal servants of Lord Jagannatha are then arrested by her maidservants, brought before her, and forced to fall down at her lotus feet.” (Cc Madhya 14.133 purport) Finally, they promise to bring their master, Lord Jagannatha, back to Nilacala.

Once, on the day of the Hera-pancami festival, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Svarupa Damodara Gosvami, and Srivasa Thakura had a deep and intricate discussion about different types of mana—transcendental egoistic pride and jealous anger manifested in different consorts of the Lord—because the mana exhibited by the goddess of fortune in bringing her maidservants to subjugate her husband’s servants and oblige them to bring Him back was unprecedented.

Other than the eight days between the first procession and the return procession, the Gundica temple remains empty, and as you can imagine, during the rest of the year it accumulates all sorts of dust and dirt. Especially with the open style of architecture in India, in which the temples are exposed to the outdoors, they can become very dusty and dirty. So in preparation for the Lord’s arrival at the Gundica temple, Lord Caitanya asked permission from the authorities for Him and His devotees to clean the temple. The authorities were most respectful to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His followers, most obedient, and they replied, “Yes, whatever You like we will arrange. Cleaning the temple is not a fit service for You, but if it is Your desire, we shall supply whatever You require—waterpots and brooms.”

The superintendent of the temple delivered a hundred waterpots and a hundred brooms, and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu engaged hundreds of devotees in cleaning, and He personally took part Himself. He swept straw, dust, and grains of sand into one place, gathered it all in His cloth, and threw it outside the temple. Following His example, all the devotees also gathered piles of dust and straw and sand and threw them outside. Thus He and His associates removed all the debris that had accumulated in the temple complex over the past year.

During the process, Lord Caitanya would observe each devotee—how well each was cleaning—and if someone was cleaning well, He would praise him, and if someone wasn’t cleaning so well, He would correct him. Srila Prabhupada remarks that Lord Caitanya was showing how an acarya must train devotees, correcting and encouraging them as appropriate. Mahaprabhu also instructed the devotees by example. He collected so much debris from the temple that His pile was larger than all of theirs put together.

After throwing out all the debris, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates cleaned the temple a second time, looking for finer grains of sand and dust that they might have missed. Then they thoroughly washed the temple. With hundreds of devotees throwing hundreds of pots of water, they cleansed the ceiling, the walls, the floor, and everything else. Sri Caitanya Himself personally washed the sitting place of Lord Jagannatha with His own two hands.

Even then, Lord Caitanya was concerned that dust would again come into the temple, and so He had His devotees clean the area outside the temple as well—throw water outside the temple, so no new dust would come in.

In the course of the cleaning, Lord Caitanya took off His own garment, the top piece of His sannyasa dress, to clean the temple. Srila Prabhupada remarks that this shows how serious He was to clean, that He even used His own cloth to mop the rooms and polish the Lord’s throne. And Sri Caitanya-caritamrta says that in the end the temple was so clean and pure and cool and pleasing that it was just like the pure mind of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself—and the minds of the devotees were similarly purified.

Srila Prabhupada has commented that if you clean the temple, you clean your heart; if you polish the deity’s paraphernalia, you polish your heart. And the activity of cleansing the Gundica temple is taken as not only a process for cleaning a temple complex, but also as a metaphor for how we should go about cleaning our own hearts. The temple was cleansed to make it a fit place for the Lord to reside. Similarly, each of us has to clean his or her heart to make it a fit place for the Lord. Of course, the Lord always resides in the hearts of the living entities (isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese ’rjuna tisthati), but we want our hearts to be worthy places for Him to stay and enjoy His pastimes.

Srila Prabhupada has discussed elaborately, with reference to his own spiritual master’s comments, how the cleansing of the Gundica temple is a metaphor for cleaning the heart. We read from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila, Chapter Twelve, “The Cleansing of the Gundica Temple”:

TEXT 135

ei-mata puradvara-age patha yata

sakala sodhila, taha ke varnibe kata

TRANSLATION

Outside the gateway of the temple, all the roads were also cleansed, and no one could tell exactly how this was done.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

In commenting on the cleansing of the Gundica temple, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, as the world leader, was personally giving instructions on how one should receive Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, within one’s cleansed and pacified heart. If one wants to see Krsna seated in his heart, he must first cleanse the heart, as prescribed by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in His Siksastaka: ceto-darpana-marjanam [Cc Antya 20.12]. In this age, everyone’s heart is especially unclean, as confirmed in Srimad-Bhagavatam: hrdy antah-stho hy abhadrani. To wash away all dirty things accumulated within the heart, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu advised everyone to chant the Hare Krsna mantra. The first result will be that the heart is cleansed (ceto-darpana-marjanam). Similarly, Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.2.17) confirms this statement:

srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah

punya-sravana-kirtanah

hrdy antah-stho hy abhadrani

vidhunoti suhrt satam

 “Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramatma [Supersoul] in everyone’s heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who relishes His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.”

If a devotee at all wants to cleanse his heart, he must chant and hear the glories of the Lord, Sri Krsna (srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah). This is a simple process. Krsna Himself will help cleanse the heart because He is already seated there. Krsna wants to continue living within the heart, and the Lord wants to give directions, but one has to keep his heart as clean as Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu kept the Gundica temple. The devotee therefore has to cleanse his heart just as the Lord cleansed the Gundica temple. In this way one can be pacified and enriched in devotional service. If the heart is filled with straw, grains of sand, weeds, or dust (in other words, anyabhilasa-purna), one cannot enthrone the Supreme Personality of Godhead there. The heart must be cleansed of all material motives brought about through fruitive work, speculative knowledge, the mystic yoga system, and so many other forms of so-called meditation. The heart must be cleansed without ulterior motive. As Srila Rupa Gosvami says, anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam [Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.11]. In other words, there should not be any external motive. One should not attempt material upliftment, understanding the Supreme by speculative knowledge, fruitive activity, severe austerity and penance, and so on. All these activities are against the natural growth of spontaneous love of Godhead. As soon as these are present within the heart, the heart should be understood to be unclean and therefore unfit to serve as Krsna’s sitting place. We cannot perceive the Lord’s presence in our hearts unless our hearts are cleansed.

COMMENT by Giriraj Swami

We have just read the general part of the purport; the rest contains a detailed analysis of the specific types of dirt that may sully the heart and which we must detect and remove. But the main process, by which the heart is cleansed (ceto-darpana-marjanam) is the chanting of the holy names of the Lord (sri-krsna-sankirtanam). And the chanting should be done in a proper mood, in the mood to cleanse the heart and purify it of material desires. A material desire is a desire for anything other than to serve and please Krsna. Any other desire should be thrown out. But to throw out these other desires, we require a process, and the process is hearing and chanting about Krsna. Although material desires are there, we should have the intention to remove them. In other words, it is not an offense to have material attachments; it is an offense to maintain them. Although attachments are there, as devotees we have the intent to free ourselves from them, and we adopt the method by which we can be freed: hearing and chanting about Krsna (srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah).

If we are sincere in our intention, the Lord within the heart will help us. He is suhrt satam, the well-wishing friend of what Srila Prabhupada calls “the truthful devotee.” Sat means “truth,” and the truthful devotee is without duplicity. He chants and hears with a sincere intention to cleanse the heart and make it fit for the Lord. He has no duplicity. He does not make a show of being a devotee in order to achieve some selfish purpose—to get money or followers or adoration or anything else for himself—but he sincerely tries to cleanse the heart, and he works hard at it. We read in the description of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His devotees just how hard they worked. They did a lot of cleaning—sweeping out dust and dirt and sand and straw—and a lot of carrying and throwing water.

When we first come to associate with devotees and hear their instructions and read Srila Prabhupada’s books and develop faith in the process of pure devotional service to Krsna (uttama-bhakti), we may have bad habits. Nowadays almost everyone has bad habits—even in India. And the main sinful activities, the pillars of sinful life, are eating meat, fish, and eggs, taking intoxicants, engaging in illicit sex, and gambling. So we have to give those up. And we do.

But even after following the standard practices of devotional service, there may be subtle contaminations in the heart that we also have to cleanse. And so in the pastime of cleaning the Gundica temple, Lord Caitanya cleaned a second time, so that the finer pieces of dust and sand missed the first time were finally removed. In the same way, we may have bad habits, attachments to gross sinful activities, that we have to work hard to overcome; and we may actually become free from them. But even then, there may be more subtle bad habits with which we must contend.

Let us take the case of a new person who first begins to engage in temple activities. He will come to the Sunday feast, to various festivals, and take prasada, hear, chant, and start to work on his bad habits. He will want to become like the other devotees, a serious practitioner. He will work on his gross bad habits, and he will give up smoking, drinking, eating meat, and associating with women in an irreligious way. Eventually he will be ready to move into the temple and live with the devotees, chanting sixteen rounds, following the regulative principles, and attending the temple programs. But then his authority will say, “It is very nice that you are staying with us and engaging in the practices of Krsna consciousness, but you should also develop a healthy service attitude. I notice that at the Sunday feast you are very eager to sit and take prasada but that after the feast, when it is time to clean up, you are nowhere to be found. You must also develop a proper service attitude.” The devotee will take the instructions to heart, and then after the Sunday feasts he will always be there, ready to clean. And he will be very energetic and enthusiastic in his work.

But then his authority may notice something else—that the person is cleaning but making a big show of it. He wants others to see him so he will get recognition and honor and praise. So the authority will say, “Prabhuji, it is very good that now you are staying after the feast to clean up, but we see that you do it in such a way as to call attention to yourself, so that people will see that you are working hard and give you recognition and praise for being such a good devotee. You should work on that.”

As we progress in devotional service, we find more and more subtle contamination, and we have to keep cleaning. Lord Caitanya, after that tremendous effort in cleaning the temple the first time, cleaned the temple a second time, to take out the finer dirt. So we have to constantly be cleaning, because until we are completely liberated there is always some contamination. We progress through the different stages—sraddha, sadhu-sanga, bhajana-kriya—but there are taints that remain all the way up to the stage of bhava. Of course, the disturbance is much less after anartha-nivrtti—much less—but still it is there, and we have to keep chanting and hearing.

In His instructions to Srila Rupa Gosvami, Lord Caitanya used the metaphor of the seed of devotional service, the bhakti-lata-bija. He said that after you receive the seed you must become a gardener and plant the seed and water it by hearing and chanting, and you have to make sure that no weeds grow alongside the creeper, because if weeds come they will drink the water meant for the plant, and they may become so strong that they can actually choke the creeper of devotion. Sri Caitanya further instructed that you have to surround the creeper with a fence, so that no mad elephant can enter. If a maddened elephant enters a garden, it can trample and uproot all the plants, and then all the effort put into carefully cultivating the garden will be lost.

The weeds are the material desires in the heart. We have to remove the weeds so that the creeper of devotion can flourish—and ultimately attain shelter under the lotus feet of the Lord. And the mad elephant is vaisnava-aparadha, offenses against devotees, which destroy everything, all of our spiritual progress. And the fence that we construct around the creeper to protect it is the circle of pure devotees. We have to stay within the circle of pure devotees.

We find the same process in the cleansing of the Gundica temple. Not only did Caitanya Mahaprabhu clean the temple twice, but He cleaned the roads outside the temple, so that no new dust would enter. In other words, we must act to keep maya—bad association—at a distance. Otherwise, even though we have received the bhakti-lata-bhija, the seed of pure devotion, and planted it and watered it by hearing and chanting, there is still a chance that weeds will come and grow and make the creeper weak. Then, in a weakened state, if we commit vaisnava-aparadha, through bad association, everything will be spoiled.

The weeds are material desires, and there are many varieties. Sri Caitanya-caritamrta discusses some of the different kinds of weeds, and we have to be able to identify them. Lord Caitanya states that the weeds may look just like the creeper, and we must recognize them and keep them apart from the creeper. Thus the discussion of the different types of weeds—the different types of dirt—is important. We must be able to distinguish pure devotional service from mixed service and from other processes altogether. And because we are conditioned and our consciousness is not completely cleansed, we may not be able to see things clearly, and we may make mistakes—we may take a weed for the creeper. But actually, the weed is unwanted; we want only pure devotion. Artha means some desirable gain, and anartha means the opposite: something that is undesirable, or unwanted.

Under all circumstances, we must continue the process of hearing and chanting—the process of cleansing the heart—which in Lord Caitanya’s discussion with Rupa Gosvami is compared to the watering. Lord Caitanya informs us that if we water the seed it will sprout and become a creeper that grows stronger and stronger and taller and taller, until it pierces the coverings of the universe, penetrates the impersonal Brahman effulgence, and ultimately attains the shelter of the desire tree of the lotus feet of Krsna—because every creeper needs shelter, and the shelter for the creeper of pure devotion is the lotus feet of Krsna in Goloka Vrndavana.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu instructs that even after the creeper attains ultimate shelter in the spiritual world, Goloka Vrndavana, still one must continue the process of watering, the process of hearing and chanting. Thus we learn that even while living in the material world, by one’s consciousness, by one’s devotion, one can be in the spiritual world. That is a very advanced stage, but it is possible that even while living in the material world one can reach the lotus feet of Krsna in Vrndavana. And we further learn that even after attaining that exalted position, one continues the process of hearing and chanting. One never stops. Therefore Srila Prabhupada often said that in Krsna consciousness the means and the end are the same. The means is hearing and chanting about Krsna (sravanam kirtanam visnoh) and serving Him, and the end is also hearing and chanting about Krsna—and serving Him with love. It is not that we adopt the means of hearing and chanting to achieve some end and then when the goal is reached we abandon the process. The whole process is eternal.

The service of the spiritual master is also eternal. It continues even after liberation, even in the spiritual world. Srila Prabhupada was once walking with some disciples in Mayapur, and they came to an embankment. One of the disciples climbed up on the embankment and then reached out his hand to help Srila Prabhupada climb up and walk over it. But when Srila Prabhupada got to the top he abruptly withdrew his hand from the disciple’s hand and walked ahead, completely ignoring the disciple. Then Srila Prabhupada said, “That is what the Mayavadis do. They take help from the spiritual master to become liberated, and then when they think they are liberated, they think they don’t need the guru anymore.” One may think that he needs to hear and chant to attain liberation—which is true—and that he needs to serve the instructions of the guru to become liberated—which is also true—but that when he is liberated he will stop hearing and chanting and the entire process of devotional service. But it doesn’t work like that. In fact, the process is such that the devotee wants to hear and chant more and more—and all the more after liberation.

Srila Prabhupada remarked, “When you are completely liberated (paramahamsa), you can do anything and you won’t be affected by it.” So a disciple said to Srila Prabhupada, “Well, then when we are liberated we can have sex and it won’t affect us.” Then Prabhupada told a story. A king liked to ride in a boat along the bank of a river. He liked to stay near the riverbank, and he engaged a servant on the bank who would pull the boat, sometimes dragging it through the reeds and other plants and things that might come in the way. The king became so pleased with this humble, attentive service that he offered, “Now you can ask from me whatever you want.” The servant replied, “I would like to have cushions along the riverbank, so when I pull the boat I will have a soft surface under my feet.” This, of course, was a foolish request, because the man didn’t have to pull the boat anymore. He could have had anything, but he was so used to thinking in terms of pulling the boat that he asked for a facility to pull the boat. So the disciple who said, “Wow, when we are liberated we can have sex,” had such a limited (and base) conception of happiness that he could think of nothing beyond material sense-gratification—like the boatman could think of nothing beyond pulling the boat. That disciple hadn’t realized that there is another, higher standard of pleasure in Krsna consciousness. Thus Srila Prabhupada concluded, “When you are liberated, you will relish a spiritual pleasure that far exceeds any pleasure of this material world, and you will no longer care to experience sex life.” In other words, when we are liberated we will relish that pleasure of hearing and chanting about Krsna and remembering and serving Him even more.

Bhaktya sanjataya bhaktya: bhakti comes from bhakti. The means and the end are the same. The means is chanting and the end is chanting. The means is bhakti, sadhana-bhakti, and the end is bhakti, prema-bhakti. It is not that we adopt the means to achieve some end and then when we reach the goal we abandon the means. Bhakti means to serve Krsna, and the whole process of devotional service, the whole process of sadhana-bhakti, is meant to purify the service. We do not want to give up the service. We want to please Krsna, and we want to purify our service so we can please Krsna more. We want to purify it more and more so we can please Krsna more and more, and the desire to serve and please Krsna never ends. It just increases. And so our effort to serve Krsna better ever increases, and it continues even in the spiritual world. There are no anarthas then—only pure bhakti—and pure pleasure.

As the acarya, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu showed us through the example of cleaning the Gundica temple how to clean the heart and make it a fit place for the Lord to reside. The Lord is already there, but because of the material contamination, we cannot fully appreciate His presence. We can’t see Him, and we have difficulty hearing Him. But He is there, and He wants to reciprocate with us. He wants to give us direction from within. But to be able to receive His direction, we have to cleanse the heart (ceto-darpana-marjanam), to remove the contamination. Then we will see that He is there—and He will speak with us.

Once, a devotee told Srila Prabhupada that some people say that God instructs them from within and that therefore they don’t need a guru. Srila Prabhupada replied, “God will talk with him? What is the condition? That is stated:

tesam satata-yuktanam

bhajatam priti-purvakam

dadami buddhi-yogam tam

yena mam upayanti te

‘To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.’ [Bg 10.10] So first of all see whether he’s twenty-four hours engaged in God’s service with love and faith. Then you can understand, ‘Yes, God is talking with him.’ But if he has no preliminary qualification and if he says, ‘I can talk with God,’ he is a nonsense. God talks with devotees, sincere devotees who are engaged in God’s service.”

Srila Prabhupada continued, “And the person who is constantly engaged in God’s service, unless he’s trained up by a spiritual master, how can he be engaged? Without a spiritual master, one cannot be engaged in devotional service, and without devotional service, nobody is eligible to talk with God.”

So Krsna can talk to us—and He wants to talk to us—but we have to be qualified. We have to cleanse the heart so that He will talk to us, to give us direction and guidance. And so we have to be constantly engaged in His service, beginning with chanting and hearing and remembering. That process will cleanse the heart and make it a fit place for the Lord to reside, and create the condition in which the Lord can guide us—back home, back to Godhead—to the ultimate shelter of His lotus feet in Vrndavana.

Hare Krsna. Are there any questions or comments?

Dharma dasa: When I first started to try to perform devotional service, it seemed easier, and things came easier. It seemed to feel better, or the atmosphere seemed better. Then it seemed that as time went on, it got harder. You would think it would get easier, but instead it seems to have gotten more difficult. The level of feeling I had before doesn’t seem to be there. Is that because the anarthas are coming out? Is it because weeds are growing and we are watering the weeds and that is inhibiting our receptiveness or our feeling?

Giriraj Swami: Dharma Prabhu has asked a very good question, that in the beginning, when we first come to the association of devotees, we seem to relish Krsna consciousness more, and it seems so easy and natural, and then later we don’t relish as much, and the process seems more difficult. Is it because of anarthas that were there that are coming to light, or is it because we have cultivated weeds along with the creeper?

The answer could be either—or both. But one thing is that when we first come to the association of devotees, we tend to have great respect for them. When I first joined I thought all the devotees in the temple were very advanced. I took them as pure devotees. That attitude of respect and appreciation for devotees is very congenial for spiritual advancement. But then familiarity breeds contempt.” You get to know them better, and you see things in them that you didn’t see before. And you see the things as faults, and you get disturbed. Eventually, you may even think, “If this is what being a devotee means, I don’t know if I want to be a devotee.” Of course, that is common to all traditions and groups. Christians have told me that they say the same thing: “If this is what being a Christian means, I don’t want to be a Christian.”

The process of finding faults in devotees and becoming absorbed in the faults—whether they are real or not—is very harmful for spiritual life. It creates a serious disturbance in the heart. And when we are disturbed, we can’t chant and hear and remember properly—so we don’t relish.

But the other is also possible, that there were anarthas of which we were unaware and that through the process of purification we become conscious of them. His Holiness Sacinandana Swami discussed with me once that we tend to have a linear conception of progress in Krsna consciousness. We think that we start here and go straight there and end up at the lotus feet of Krsna in Vrndavana. He told me that he has a dear friend who is a Christian priest or monk, who said that within their tradition they see progress not as a straight line but as a spiral. You are going forward, but in the process there are ups and downs. And it is not as easy as we might have imagined.

Maharaja gave the example that you are walking on the path back to Godhead, chanting your rounds and enjoying the journey, and suddenly you come to a fork in the road. Now, you didn’t know there would be a fork, and you don’t which way to go. You have to consider, “Should I go to the left or to the right?” Anyway, you make a decision, and you go on chanting, and then suddenly there is a landslide. Boulders and rocks cascade down the mountain, and suddenly you find yourself buried. “Oh my God! How did I get into this position?” With great diligence and effort and care you have to remove all those rocks and stones, and you have to get out from under them. “Thank God!” You walk a little further, and you are chanting, and then suddenly the natives who had been hiding in the bushes come out to attack with and arrows and spears. “Oh my God. I didn’t know they were going to be here.” And then you have to retreat. You have to find some shelter. You have to get some weapon. You have to defend yourself from the attacks. So you are making progress, but things happen along the way that you didn’t expect.

In the early days, devotees would chant down the street and call out, “We’re going back home, back to Godhead! Going back home, back to Godhead!” The idea was “Just join us, chant with us, be happy—and you will go back to Godhead.” And that is true. But there may be obstacles along the way. And depending on our purity, depending on our diligence and vigilance in our practice, it may be more or less difficult to overcome them. But there will be ups and downs, and in the end we will be successful—as long as we remain faithful in our practice of pure devotional service. It is like climbing a mountain: Your goal is to reach the top of Mount Everest, but there are so many peaks and valleys along the way. So you go up, and you come down, and you go up . . . but the general trend is you are going up, and finally you will reach the top—you will reach the goal.

So under all circumstances, we have to keep association with pure devotees. The association of pure devotees will help us in any condition. There is a verse in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta that states that the association of devotees is the root cause of devotional service (mula haya) and that even after one develops love for Krsna, the association of devotees is still essential.

krsna-bhakti-janma-mula haya ‘sadhu-sanga’

krsna-prema janme, tenho punah mukhya anga

“The root cause of devotional service to Lord Krsna is association with advanced devotees. Even when one’s dormant love for Krsna awakens, association with devotees is still most essential.” (Cc Madhya 22.83)

The association of pure devotees is a constant factor. If we stay in the association of more advanced devotees, we will continue to be associated with the process of hearing and chanting, the process of devotional service, and that will see us through whatever may happen, and we will reach the final goal. And even in the spiritual world, in Goloka Vrndavana, we will be in the association of pure devotees. And we will be hearing and chanting about Krsna.

Hare Krsna.

Nityananda dasa: One thing that I personally feel encouraged by . . . I feel the way Dharma felt, that there are times when you feel discouraged in your Krsna consciousness. In my case, I found that when I preach and reach out to people and see the excitement in them . . . because when I first joined there was real excitement. There is no doubt about it. I was ecstatic. My hairs were standing on end. I didn’t know anything about the process, but it excited me because I saw an opportunity, a great opportunity that was well beyond me, something that I was going to get that I didn’t deserve. It was going to be really great, and I was looking forward to it.

And then engaging in it, you find the difficulties that you have to cross over. They can become distractions, but then when we preach we find that others are getting so much excitement and we realize that it is simply because we are losing sight of the opportunity that we lose our enthusiasm. But when we see the opportunity clearly in front of our eyes every day as we walk . . . Like it is said, the process is ever fresh; every time you should see something new. If I walk into this temple, it is not like I should see the same things I saw the last time I came. I notice something new whenever I see the deities. I feel they look more beautiful than ever. I have never seen them so beautiful. Whoever dressed them this morning must have love, and they are so loving in showing us such wonderful forms. Like that, we feel this ever-freshness in what we are doing. And in my case it is the preaching that helps me keep that. It is like Srila Prabhupada said, “Preaching is life.” If you feel alive, then you preach. And if you preach, you feel alive. That is our process.

Giriraj Swami: Excellent. Nityananda Prabhu says that when he joined he had the same experience as Dharma Prabhu: everything was so full of life; everything was fresh and exciting. As Srila Prabhupada says in a purport to the Bhagavad-gita, “One enjoys life with a thrill at every moment.” And then after a while one has difficulties, and you don’t feel the same. But the one thing Nityananda Prabhu does that really keeps him enlivened and enthusiastic is preach, because when you meet people in the world and you see how they are suffering, how they are looking for something, and then you give them Krsna consciousness and you see how they respond—that they feel they are getting what they were looking for—in that dynamic there is great encouragement, great enlivenment, and then everything is fresh.

Of course, the experience of preaching is always fresh, because there is no stereotypical way to preach. You can’t do it mechanically, because you are dealing with another person, an individual. You might think that you know what to say, but the person may respond in an unexpected way, and then you have to respond. So you have to be alive and alert and conscious; it can’t be scripted. There can be some basic idea of how to introduce the topic, but once you start to interact with people, you have to be prepared for any reaction, and then you have to respond. So you have to be alive. You have to be alert. You have to be conscious—Krsna conscious.

Srila Prabhupada once said in a lecture, “Preaching is the best way to be Krsna conscious, because when you preach, people will ask questions, and to answer, you will have to think of Krsna.” So you have to be Krsna conscious. Nityananda Prabhu has given the best answer: one who has life will preach, and conversely, one who preaches will have life. Thank you, Nityananda Prabhu, for that answer, and thank you, Dharma Prabhu, for your question—perfect question, perfect answer.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

[A talk in Dallas on April 28, 2007]

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Rasa Rasika dasa

As the most sacred month of Purusottama draws to a close, our minds turn toward Purusottama-ksetra, Jagannatha Puri, and the celebration of the Ratha-yatra and other related festivals there.

Jaya Jagannatha!

—Giriraj Swami

Ratha-yatra Address 4.13.13 Dallas

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Srila Prabhupada’s devotion.
One is often devoted to one’s family, country, occupation, charity or a social justice, yet hardly any relationship in the material world is free from some degree of selfishness. Our loyalty and fidelity remain intact as long as we receive something in return, be it attention, adulation, care, physical closeness, or financial and moral support. As soon as these wane, then the relationship wanes too. Srila Prabhupada explained that the so-called affection for family, society, country, or even approaching God for the fulfilment of one’s material desires, consists of different phases of sense gratification. Desire and action cannot be negated but when this desire is changed for the satisfaction and selfless service of the Lord, it is called devotional service. The devotee (one who is devoted) serves God as God desires. The life of Srila Prabhupada epitomises pure devotion to the Supreme Lord. The process that he taught and exemplified is known as bhakti yoga − the science of pure love of God.
Read the entire article here: http://goo.gl/n9p9vS

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Between Hari Nama Sankirtana and the mercy of Giriraja Govardhana, the European summer becomes a transcendental one. It is so simple to transform a material situation into the spiritual world, all by the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and the holy name.

Krsna resides in his own abode, sometimes known as Svetadvipa or Gokula, bhaje svetadvipam tam aham iha golokam iti yam (Brahma-samhita 5.56). Krsna is surrounded by wish-fulfilling Surabhi cows that produce oceans of milk. The earth is made of touchstone and everywhere, there are desire trees. The opulence of the entire spiritual world is present when Krsna descends to the material world. In our worship, we are trying to be transparent to that spiritual situation. The devotees have provided all this opulence for Krsna, but even all the opulence of the material world is just a spark of His splendor.

 

Hare Krishna! CHAD (Chapter a Day) Kids in Seattle Pledge a Silver Coin ($11,000) for TOVP
On Sunday, July 5th, at the last TOVP presentation of the North American Tour, the CHAD (Chapter a Day) kids group of the Seattle, Washington temple dove into the ecstasy of the fundraising frenzy and pledged $11,000 (Silver Gratitude Coin) for the TOVP. This is a wonderful example of young Vaishnavas learning how to sacrifice and offer the fruits of their work to the service of the Lord, even before they have the fruits to offer. May they be blessed with Lord Nityananda’s mercy.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=18469

Brilliant promo video for the Goloka Fest (4 min video)
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/4ohn2n

A 1936 poetic offering of Srila Prabhupada’s discovered in the British Museum Library.
Several times Srila Prabhupada mentioned to Yamuna and others that the Adore Ye All poem again prompted his Guru Maharaja to request Srila Prabhupada to preach in the English-speaking countries. After hearing the poem, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta told his editors to “publish anything he [Srila Prabhupada] writes.” He also commented that “Here is someone who will be able to defeat the impersonalists.”
Read the entire article here: https://goo.gl/TkJWRp

The post Material time, spiritual time and its effect on conditioned and liberated souls appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Harinama in Turin, Italy (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s transcendental mission is to distribute love of Godhead to everyone. Anyone who accepts God as the Supreme can take to the process of chanting Hare Krishna and become a lover of God. (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, 4.41 Purport)
See them here: https://goo.gl/QKmv8J

Archival footage of the Ratha Yatra festival in Puri, 1937.

Hare Krishna! Gundica-marjana
Giriraja Swami: After throwing out all the debris, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates cleaned the temple a second time, looking for finer grains of sand and dust that they might have missed. Then they thoroughly washed the temple. With hundreds of devotees throwing hundreds of pots of water, they cleansed the ceiling, the walls, the floor, and everything else. Sri Caitanya Himself personally washed the sitting place of Lord Jagannatha with His own two hands. Even then, Lord Caitanya was concerned that dust would again come into the temple, and so He had His devotees clean the area outside the temple as well—throw water outside the temple, so no new dust would come in.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=18465

The post Daily Darshan – July 16th, 2015 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Srila Prabhupada: “Ultimately, we must all fly our own airplane.”
Srutakirti dasa: “ I am still trying to find my way back to the airport”
…Finally, in apparent disgust, Srila Prabhupada said, “All right, you just chant your sixteen rounds, follow the four regulative principles and do any damn thing you want.” That is how this rare room conversation ended. Our most magnanimous leader gave them permission to serve him in whatever capacity they could. Again it was evident that Srila Prabhupada considered us all volunteers in his transcendental army. It is up to us to decide how quickly we want to get the mercy and make advancement by serving our spiritual master according to his desires. Daily, we choose what, and how much, we are willing to do in the service of our Guru Maharaja. Once in his quarters in New Dwaraka, Srila Prabhupada said, “Ultimately, we must all fly our own airplane.” Srila Prabhupada, I am still trying to find my way back to the airport. Without you in front of me it is very difficult to find my way. You have given us all the tools necessary to engage in devotional service, but I do not think I will ever be qualified to fly my own plane back to Krishna.
Read the entire article here: https://goo.gl/tzDDRx

Hare Krishna! Hope Against Hope
Srila Prabhupada: The different groups of atheist thinkers have different kinds of plans in the brain and they are exhibited in different patterns of godlessness. One set of atheistic nation thinks on it in a different way and all of them clash at a point of overlapping circles caused by the ‘Daiva’ way. This is so because none of these thoughts of different groups is beyond the range of direct perception of the material sense without any spiritual knowledge. Therefore the quality of such different thought is always the same but the varieties are presented in multi-colourful attraction for the foolish mass of people. We have already discussed this point at length in our article ‘All Compact in Thought’. The mass of people are themselves blind to see everything in their true perspective and they are now made to follow similar blind leaders under various political arrangement. They are made to follow either of the above multi-colourful ideals sure to be failure in the long run and therefore they are made to hope against hope in a practical way.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=18462

Greeting Deities & Guru Puja – 05.07.2015

Hare Krishna! Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s commentary on the story of Ekalavya.
In his book of essays, entitled Upakhyane Upadesa, “Instructions in Stories” (Gaudiya Mission 1936), Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura gives the following commentary on the story of Ekalavya: The translation from the original Bengali is by H.H. Bhakti-caru Svami. To many people, Ekalavya’s devotion to his guru is ideal, but there is a special consideration…What was Ekalavya’s fault? That should be considered. Wearing the mask of guru-bhakti (devotion to the guru), Ekalavya actually revolted against his guru. Whether his guru was actually considering him to be disqualified by birth in a low-class family, or was simply testing him– for whatever reason–when his gurudeva refused to teach him the art of Dhanur Veda, it was Ekalavya’s duty to accept the instruction of his spiritual master.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=18456

A nice relaxation music by Jayadev Richardson. Footage of cloudy midsummer twilight Lake Saimaa.

A choir piece by Zoltan Bakaja (Syamasundra Das, SRS).

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