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How can we know there is life before death?
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Talk at Melbourne
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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 16 July 2012, Modra, Slovakia, Lecture)

In so many ways, maya (the illusory energy) is infiltrating our lives. Maya is everywhere. They say maya is a witch. For the male, maya takes a female form and for the female, maya takes a male form. In this way, maya has only one purpose which is to bind the living beings. Different chains are being used; chains of greed, chains of anger but the strongest chain of all is known as mayy āyuṅktām anugraham (Srimad Bhagavatam 3.14.11), the chain of sex! That is maya’s most powerful weapon because that makes us think that the material world is a place to enjoy.

Kirtan At The House Of Venkata Bhatta (10 min video)
We reached the place where Lord Chaitanya stayed for four months when He was hosted by Venkata bhatta at Srirangam.
Had a sweet kirtan there. Watch it here: https://goo.gl/2AaELg

SB 03.06.06 No Insurance for Brahma 2015-01-12

Lecture – Srimad Bhagavatam 3.6.6 No Insurance for Brahma 2015-01-12 Melbourne

SB 03.06.03 Beep, beep, beep, Where’s the worm? 2015-01-09

Lecture – Srimad Bhagavatam 3.6.3 Beep, beep, beep, Where’s the worm? 2015-01-09 Melbourne

SB 03.06.01-2 Time, the number one terrorist 2015-01-08

Lecture – Srimad Bhagavatam 3.6.1-2 Time, the number one terrorist 2015-01-08 Melbourne

SB 03.05.51 Emotionally involved in the movie 2015-01-07

Lecture – Srimad Bhagavatam 3.5.51 Emotionally involved in the movie 2015-01-07 Melbourne

Krishna.com – “the temple on the web” – has discovered an unexpected but surprisingly effective way of introducing spiritual seekers to Krishna consciousness – through its online store. Krishna.com, launched in 1996 as the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust’s official website and staffed almost entirely by second generation devotees, has two distinct sections.

Snana Yatra 2015 at the ISKCON-London Radha-Krishna Temple.(Album with 60 HR photos)
See them here: http://goo.gl/wtK1k9

One of many miraculous encounters UK devotees had whilst out touring the country distributing Srila Prabhupada's Books. James Bird, who is from the sunny south coast of England explains to us how his entire life changed just from reading a chant and be happy.

Every day we experience a small miracle. Last week, on our way to Torquay, the driver lost his bearings and we accidently parked up in Paignton, a small neighbouring town. As we got onto the high street, we realised we were in the wrong place!

Auckland New Zealand: Friday night Harinam (Album with photos)
Along with Harinam we distributed 600 pieces of krsna prasadam
See them here: https://goo.gl/Xr7oNX

Initiation ceremony in San Jose, Costa Rica (Album with photos)
May 31, 2015 we had a nice fire ceremony for the inauguration of the new preaching center of San Jose, Costa Rica. Six new devotees took initiation and on that occasion. Guru Prasad Maharaja and Bhakti Bhushana Maharaja were present.
Read the entire article here: http://goo.gl/QTb8V4

On June 2^nd, 2015, the ISKCON 50 Global Office launched an International Briefing Pack to help centres around the world plan their local celebrations for the 50^th Anniversary. The briefing pack provides a list of potential events and ideas so that local temples will find it easy to customise and plan what they wish to organise for their regions.

Launched in 2000, Festival of Inspiration kicked off the “spiritual retreat holiday” template that is so common throughout ISKCON today, and with its packed roster of seminars on a broad range of topics, it remains one of the most popular and unique.

This year, new employee training begins with a daily 6:30 a.m. yoga class, The Economic Times reports. 

The post Answering the question of Srikrsna Gauranganitai on why Krsna did not protect the Vaisnava recently abused in Vraja in the way he protected Draupadi in a similar situation appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Harinam - Tel-Aviv, Israel (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Fire will act, regardless of whether handled by an innocent child or by someone well aware of its power. Similarly, one may or may not know the power of chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, but if one chants the holy name he will become free from all sinful reactions. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 6.2.18 Purport)
See them here: https://goo.gl/Czmdfx

Hare Krishna! Various Significance of Founder Acharya
Since Srila Prabhupada’s passing away in 1977, the GBC has sought to codify ISKCON’s ongoing relationship with its founder. The GBC wants to preserve Srila Prabhupada’s legacy and ensure that future generations do not lose sight of Prabhupada’s historical, religious, philosophical and institutional stature — as well as his importance in the personal spiritual development of every ISKCON member. Srila Prabhupada himself took on the title of Founder-Acharya (acharya meaning one who “teaches by example”) and mandated that it be placed on all ISKCON Temples and publications, as well as all publications of his Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. Prabhupada was concerned to ensure that ISKCON remained firmly fixed on teaching and upholding the standards of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, as originally presented by the 16th Century saint Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and handed down through a chain of spiritual preceptors to Srila Prabhupada, and from him to the ISKCON society.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=17741

On Thursday, May 21st we spent more time on office and tour related work and then prepared for the TOVP presentation in Pavitra Gaura’s home that evening.

The devotee congregation in Charlotte is quite large and there are several Bhakti Vrksha programs going on weekly. Around 50 devotees came and after a puspa abhisheka of the Padukas and receiving the Sitari on their heads, they all sat to listen to Radha Jivan and Jananivas prabhus. After the presentation pledges started coming in and in the end almost $100,000 was pledged. Prasadam was then served.

The post TOVP Daily Tour Diary Day 71 – Charlotte, North Carolina TOVP Program appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

http://bit.ly/1Ma6aUr

The post Thursday’s pictures appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Hare Krishna! Reveal the Beauty of Vraja
The exultation of being at Govardhana filled me with joy as I absorbed the beauty of this land. But then we got a little closer, explored a little deeper, and we felt sobered. Sobered by the poverty. Sobered by the scattered and piled trash. Sobered by pollution streaming into the sacred waters. It was with sadness that we discovered the troubles beneath the beauty. All the stories we’d heard of Govardhana, the mental imagery that drew us to move to this ancient land, became like jeweled sparkling pictures in broken and moldy frames. In helplessness, we sat at Radha Kunda. And we prayed. How could we, insignificant and overwhelmed, make a difference? How could we reveal the beauty of this famed and sacred land, so that in time, for future pilgrims and long term residents, there’d be no troubles to discover?
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=17735

BY SIMHESWARA DASA

Click on this link for a video of an aerial view of our temple.

SEBERANG JAYA - And at the Temple Project at Prai, Penang, we only have another about 80 days to complete more than 80  items of temple opening work. Pray for and help us. And on 29th August it is Balaram Purnima which will coincide with our temple opening. Kumbha Abhisegam will at 1 p.m.

The entire opening and Sri Sri Radha Krishna Installation ceremony will.commence at 6am. Detailed and official invitations will be sent soon.

Ir. Rupa Ragunatha Dasa on site visit to check the technical aspects of the dome strength

The ISKCON youth of Malaysia are working hard on developing the Srila Prabhupada gallery at our temple and they now have a brochure to inform everyone of what the gallery is and why they do it, dedicated to the Founder Acharya of ISKCON, HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. Anyone who is interested to contribute or make any kind donations to the gallery is most welcome. The donation scheme is as follows:

Jaladutta sevak RM108
Thompkins Square Park sevak RM1008
Bhaktivedanta sevak RM5001
Prabhupada sevak RM10,008
Bhaktisiddanta Saraswati sevak RM 20,001

BY SIMHESWARA DASA

KUALA LUMPUR - The past week was full of action. When asked why he printed a daily spiritual newspaper entitled Nadia Prakash, Srila Sarasvati Thakura replied, "If an insignificant city can produce five daily newspapers, then why can't we publish a newspaper every 'Second about the eternal, ever-fresh transcendental activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His unlimited spiritual planet, Goloka Vrindavana?" We can see how popular the Person Lord Sri Krishna is from the preaching news around the world. So a newspaper every second about HIM is no exaggeration. Every split of a second there is mention of His name, pastime activities, form, place and qualities.

In Malaysia we have the following report of preaching activities for the past few days.

Abhishek at Sri Jagannatha Mandir, Kuala Lumpur

On 2nd June Their Lordships were bathed and Their pastime of getting cold, isolated and cared for till public appearance again for Their Chariot festival in Kuala Lumpur, Bukit Mertajam and Johor Bahru simultaneously.

Youth from various parts of Malaysia visiting Sirosuka Dasa at our farm in Lanchang

The Lordships at the farm

Youth Camp participants  at the farm

Our green youths at New Godruma Dhama farm attending a week's youth camp from 1st to 5th June will be held at our farm. Activities will include Gita & moral uplifting classes, sadhana (mangala arati prayers, mantra chanting and yoga), Palanquin procession, teambuilding excercises, visit to National Elephant sanctuary, boating and swim at waterfalls.And most of all not to forget, participants will be taught about importance of agriculture and take part in practical farming such a planting trees and cultivating vegetable plots. A longer camp is scheduled for Nov-Dec holidays.

While reporting on our activities I just got news of Sabah earthquake. As the Srimad Bhagavatam mentioned, there is danger at every step in this material world. samasrita ye pada-pallava-plavam mahat-padam punya-yaso murareh bhavambudhir vatsa-padam param padam padam padam yad vipadam na tesham For those who have accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the shelter of the cosmic manifestation and is famous as Murari, the enemy of the Mura demon, the ocean of the material world is like the water contained in a calf's hoof-print. Their goal is param padam, Vaikuntha, the place where there are no material miseries, not the place where there is danger at every step

Sri Jagannatha Mandir, Kuala Lumpur is taking part in the Global Indian Festival from 3-7 June. For all your spiritual needs, books, CDs, posters, etc. you can visit our booth.

The post Daily Darshan – June 5th, 2015 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Hare Krishna! O, Hare, O, Krishna, kindly accept me again. I am fallen in this material world!
It is said that the souls in the spiritual world are nitya-siddha, eternally liberated souls, and no one falls from the spiritual world. The souls in the material world are nitya-baddha, eternally conditioned – thus they can never become liberated – and that their conditioned state is anadi, or without any beginning; But it is also said that we conditioned souls have fallen from our original position we can regain our original Krsna consciousness and in so doing go back to Godhead. How to harmonize this.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=17732

Bhagavad-gita is Raja Vidya and Raja Guhyam which means the King of Knowledge and the King of all secret. Its mean for everyone, everyone can read it and will get purified, many people will testified that Bhagavad-gita change their life completely.

Kavicandra Swami Guru Maharaja explain what we need to have to understand Bhagavad-gita and what we can get when we read or hear Bhagavad-gita.

Faith and not envious is the key item to understand Bhagavad-gita. Faith is mention in various verses, it is said that we need to hear with Faith. People may can memorize and learn Bhagavad-gita but without faith he will only speculate and never reach the true meaning of Bhagavad-gita. And, if people come and hear Bhagavad-gita even if he doesn't know anything about Bhagavad-gita, if he hear without envy he will get a chance to understand Bhagavad-gita.

After we read and practise Bhagavad gita we can feel the change that happen to us. Arjuna free from his doubt after hearing Bhagavad gita, we also can free from our doubt of spiritual life and have Krishna as our leader, that lead us out from this material world.

Bhagavad gita is so valuable, the more we read it the better it get.

Please hear the audio for better understanding.

Hare Krishna.

In Bhagavad Gita 6.47 its stated: And of all yogīs, the one with great faith who always abides in Me, thinks of Me within himself and renders transcendental loving service to Me – he is the most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all. That is My opinion.

Bhagavad Gita 9.27

yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam

Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform – do that, O son of Kuntī, as an offering to Me. http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg

Most significantly for ISKCON members perhaps, Vatican Council II redefined how the Catholic Church sees and engages with the non-Catholic religious traditions. Thus, it was appropriate that ISKCON representatives took part in a series of events hosted by Catholic organizations in Washington, D.C. from May 19-24 celebrating the 50^th Anniversary of Vatican II.  

The Supreme is defined in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as janmādy asya yato ’nvayād itarataś ca, or, “The origin of everything is the Supreme Brahman.” Therefore the origin of lust is also in the Supreme. If, therefore, lust is transformed into love for the Supreme, or transformed into Kṛṣṇa consciousness – or, in other words, desiring everything for Kṛṣṇa – then both lust and wrath can be spiritualized.

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
kāma eṣa krodha eṣa
rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ
mahāśano mahā-pāpmā
viddhy enam iha vairiṇam

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world.

http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/37

Śrī Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī did a lot of revolutionary, controversial things. All of them were done to hammer home specific philosophical points that were extremely relevant to the audience he was dealing with in early 19th century Bengal. Adoption of Sanyassa and Saffron, for example. Wearing of the “brahmana’s thread” and śikha. He did this to boldly and vividly demonstrate the point that a Vaiṣṇava can play any social role.

He also completely changed the description of the Paramparā, causing a huge controversy that persists to this day. “Paramparā” means, literally, “higher and higher” and refers to the “one after another” succession through which a school transmits its values and ideas. Bhaktisiddhānta described the Paramparā in terms of the major teachers who influenced the development of his branch of the Gauḍiya Vaiṣṇava school. Most people, however, think of “paramparā” solely as dīkṣa-paramparā, and take the word dīkṣa to mean the official acceptance of a student by a teacher (instead of the deeper meanings, “transmission of light/knowledge.”). These people accuse Bhaktisiddhānta of falsifying a paramparā for nefarious reasons. Such people, in my opinion, are utterly unimpressive, and merely wish, for whatever reason, to cast mud on a great person. Bhaktisiddhānta simply wanted to emphasis that what is important in a school is not their official membership in a family tree (seminal or ideological). What was important to a school were the ideas and values themselves. Therefore he identified the paramparā not as the family tree of his lineage, but as the idealogical tree – showing the major teachers.

To set the record straight, the dīkṣa paramparā of Śrī Bhaktisiddhānta Varshabhanavi Daitaya Dāsa is as follows (as told by Akincana Krishna das Bābājī, who learned it from Dina-bandhu dasa Bābājī, disciple of Gaura Kishor dasa Bābājī and thus guru-bhai (“godbrother”) of Śrī Bhaktisiddānta):

Bhāgavatam 4.12

athāyajata yajñeśaṁ
kratubhir bhūri-dakṣiṇaiḥ
dravya-kriyā-devatānāṁ
karma karma-phala-pradam (10)

As a king, Dhruva conducted ceremonies to give generous charity as a means to worship the Lord of Sacrifice who is the essence of all wealth, all rituals, all gods, and all endeavors, and who bestows the fruits of all efforts.

sarvātmany acyute ’sarve
tīvraughāṁ bhaktim udvahan
dadarśātmani bhūteṣu
tam evāvasthitaṁ vibhum (11)

By this fiercely powerful devotion he worshipped the Flawless Supreme Soul in all Souls, and was able to actually see the Supreme Soul as the soul of all things.

Dhruva’s version of “sacrifice” (yajña) was not slaughtering animals.

Where does the idea of slaughtering animals as sacrifice even come from anyway? “Sacrifice” means to give up something important. Animals are extremely important because they are our natural “cars” (think Horses, Bulls, Elephants, Camels, Donkeys, etc), ploughs, protectors, and food sources (even for vegetarians, think of milks and eggs, for example). Animals are natural wealth. The idea of killing them in a Sacrifice was a way of saying, “I am giving up what is important to me, because I trust that you (the gods to whom the animal was sacrificed) will take care of me.”

Its a bit of a bad idea though, since the animal is not exactly just an insentient bit of wealth, but is also a living creature who doesn’t want to get killed.

There are far better ways to offer sacrifice (yajña). Dhruva’s way was to give enormous amounts of wealth away to his citizens, on behalf of Viṣṇu. He would hold a huge, delightful festival and ceremony honoring Viṣṇu, with kīrtan and Viṣṇu-kathā. Then he would give fabulous wealth to all the attendees, with utmost respect.

Instead of offering the wealth into a fire, he was offering it to his citizens. What is the point of a fire, anyway? The fire is a way of removing something from our world and transferring it to a different state/world. (Fire transforms matter into energy). So fire is a bridge, symbolically, from humanity to the gods. Sacrificing something into a fire is like giving it in charity to a god. Dhruva’s idea, however, was to give it more directly to god by giving it to people.

Kuvera had previously explained to him (texts 5 and 6) that Viṣṇu is the essence of all beings. So, by offering his service and wealth to his citizens (or whomever happened to attend his festivals) he was directly sacrificing his enormous wealth to Viṣṇu.

So, by serving people, Dhruva was serving Viṣṇu. Do note, that he did so explicitly. He called them to Viṣṇu-kīrtan and kathā and then served them in Viṣṇu’s name, in the “fiercely powerful” (as befitting his warrior personality) consciousness that “these people are, essentially, Viṣṇu.”

The result of this practice, is that he actually was able to see Viṣṇu in everyone.