Planet ISKCON

Answer Podcast:

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Answer Podcast:

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Srimad Bhagavatam class at ISKCON Melbourne
Lecture Podcast:

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Bhagavatam-daily Podcast:

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The post Daily Darshan – June 2nd, 2015 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Srimad Bhagavatam class at ISKCON Melbourne
Lecture Podcast:

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Hare Krishna! 50th Anniversary briefing pack launched to help local temples plan celebrations
“There are five features that have been identified for the fiftieth anniversary,” said Pancharatna Das, a member of the Executive Committee of the 50th Anniversary. “They are: celebrate events, educate the world, accelerate our mission, appreciate ISKCON and motivate achievements. The briefing pack provides different ideas and celebrations that can be organised against each of these five features. Hopefully, local temples can pick and choose what they want according to resources available with them, so that every centre can feel a part of the global celebrations.”
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=17686

Bhagavatam-daily Podcast:

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Our school here in New Zealand is situated in beautiful, peaceful surroundings just 100 metres away from the Radha Giridhari temple in North West Auckland. 

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 27 May 2015, Sydney, Australia, Srimad Bhagavatam 7.10.23)

This morning, I listened to the sankirtan scores being announced. It was very nice. I was very happy to hear that books are going out. But, what if I get a little cynical or sceptical, and I say, “Well, how many people are there in Sydney and how many books did you distribute? If you go at this pace, it is going to take forever to get books out to all the people of Sydney! How are we going to make an impact? Are we actually changing the city… and what about the country? So, is our mission successful?”

We have to take it that our mission is successful and that it does not depend on material calculations! This kind of material calculation does not apply – so many books going every day and the population is this number therefore mathematically, it would take an average of so many days before we can finally reach the people of Sydney, and then we hope that they all surrender! No, it is not like that because the ancient story of the sparrow who had lost her eggs in the ocean, applies. The sparrow had threatened the ocean, “If you do not return my eggs, I will drink your water!” The ocean did not care but Garuda cared! Garuda was attracted by the sincerity of that sparrow, and then Garuda threatened to drink the water of the ocean.

So this ‘Garuda principle’ is there. If we endeavour to spread Krsna consciousness, that attracts the causeless mercy of Krsna and then Krsna will do it. Ultimately, Krsna will do it! When the Lord is attracted by the service of the devotees, the Lord intervenes and then it starts happening!

Maha Harinam in Ljubliana-Slovenia (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Krishna-sakti vina nahe tara pravartana:unless one receives special power of attorney from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he cannot preach the glories of the Hare Krishna mantra. (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, 7.83 Purport)
See them here: https://goo.gl/FJ1zmh

Hare Krishna! Daytona Beach, FL Festival of Chariots – Rathayatra
Last Saturday, May 23rd, we had another wonderful Rathayatra festival at Daytona Beach. We started at the Holiday Inn with kirtan led by Vishvambara Prabhu. Bhadra Prabhu then spoke to all of the assembled devotees about how important it was for each one of us to engage as many people in pulling the Rath cart and joining the kirtan as possible in this Rathayatra since so many devotees had other engagements that day. He inspired us by reminding us that we are all preachers in this Krsna consciousness movement, so it is our duty to bring people to this Krsna consciousness movement
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=17681

Hare Krishna! First Jagannath Ratha Yatra in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia
The annual Isen Mulang cultural festival or the New Year festival in Palangka Raya is held to commemorate the anniversary of city. The festival highlights the cultural diversity of the different communities from various part of Central Kalimantan (Borneo). This year on May 18, 2015 Palangka Raya celebrated its 58th anniversary and received special Mercy from Lord Jagannath. Lord Jagannath along His brother Balaram and Their beloved sister Subadra Devi on the Ratha yatra participated in the Isen Mulang Festival. The Ratha Yatra gave special colour to the festival because of the beautifully decorated chariot and the fired up melodious Hare Krishna Maha Mantra kirtan.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=17678

Food for Life Global joins Yogathon event
The United Nations declared June 21 as World Yoga Day on December 11 last year, following a proposal by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During his visit to the United Nations in September last year, Modi had urged the world community to celebrate Indian Yoga at the international level and that June 21 be declared as the World Yoga Day.
Read the entire article here: http://goo.gl/yYIjKA

Celebrating Iskcon’s 50th Anniversary! Don’t miss out!
The Global Office for the 50th Anniversary Celebrations of ISKCON has appealed for volunteers who can serve on the International Team for this milestone event in the history of ISKCON.
Read the entire article here: http://goo.gl/AiB9xv

Ganga puja celebrations (Album with photos)
On 28th evening, devotees at ISKCON Mayapur celebrated Ganga puja festival. Also known as Ganga Dussehra, the day marks the descent of mother Ganges to earth. Hundreds of devotees gathered at Prabhupada Ghat to worship Mother Ganges and take bath in Her holy waters.
The program started off with melodious kirtan. Then to the delight of all the assembled devotees, there was katha on the descent of mother Ganges by HG Pankajanghri prabhu and HH Bhakti Purusottama Maharaj. Following the lectures, a grand arati was performed for mother Ganges. Devotees were also distributed small leaf plates containing flowers and a dipa, so they could also perform their own worship. Not to forget the final part of Vaisnava events (if you guessed prasadam, that’s right), delicious Mayapur mango prasadam was served to all the devotees.
Ganges in Mayapur is very dear to Srila Prabhupada. He wished to have a nice ghat in Ganga so that devotees can offer proper worship to Mother Ganga. You can now please him, mother Ganges and Vaisnavas by sponsoring for Ganga ghat development at Mayapur. We have a wide range of services that you can choose from and you can contribute from as low as Rs 1000.
Read the entire article here: http://goo.gl/1ftYL2

Panihati celebration at Sri Mayapur International School (Album with photos)
On 31st May afternoon, children at Sri Mayapur International School hosted a beautiful Panihati Festival. The children had taken a lot of time and effort in painting clay pots with amazing art work. They then filled the pots with delicious chipped rice, kheer, yoghurt, fruits, and other tasty treats.
The pots where all offered to Sri Sri Gaura Nitai, and then auctioned off to the highest bidder. This entire effort was fun for the children, and also helped to raise funds for the school.
Aside from the auction, the students gave various entertaining performances, such as dance, drama and music. There was also katha on Panihati festival by HH Bhakti Purusottama Maharaj.
See them here: http://goo.gl/juZssY

viṣān mahāgneḥ puruṣāda-darśanād  asat-sabhāyā vana-vāsa-kṛcchrataḥ mṛdhe mṛdhe ’neka-mahārathāstrato  drauṇy-astrataś cāsma hare ’bhirakṣitāḥ

My dear Kṛṣṇa, Your Lordship has protected us from a poisoned cake, from a great fire, from cannibals, from the vicious assembly, from sufferings during our exile in the forest and from the battle where great generals fought. And now You have saved us from the weapon of Aśvatthāmā.

http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/8/24

Amazing attitude of great devotees for always asking for trouble to come. Mostly we prayer for no trouble, our problem to be solved, our enemy to be killed, and to get rich.

vipadaḥ santu tāḥ śaśvat tatra tatra jagad-guro bhavato darśanaṁ yat syād apunar bhava-darśanam

I wish that all those calamities would happen again and again so that we could see You again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths.

http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/8/25

My answer: what he makes of the opportunity he has.

The post Hári Zoltán asks what his chances for initiation are in this life appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

http://bit.ly/1FXdP8r

The post Sadhavo Hrdayam Mahyam’s Book Launch at the Manor appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Vedic, vaishnava marriage ceremonies in Iskcon Budapest (Album with photos)
Triyuga Das és Viola Simon Vrajaloka devi dasi
Bh. Rátkai Gergő( Bhaktivedanta Könyvtár) és Bhn. Adrienn ( HoLi Hai /Hópihe)
See them here: https://goo.gl/dMylYg

Under the Kadamba tree with Kadamba Kanana Swami (Album with photos)
Devotees from ISKCON New Govardhana - Sri Sri Radha Govardhanadhari, Australia have bhajans and Krishna katha in the park.
See them here: https://goo.gl/7yAttB

At a recent Harinama in Moscow, as we were chanting, we met this lovely Mataji from MATHURA, India! She blessed all of us and left a donation for Lord Jagannath, Who came out of the columns of the devotees and Himself approached the Mataji, which stood at 20 meters away from us, so she got His darshan. :-)

This week we discussed disgust. Or should I say we were discussing the phenomena of being disgusted. It seems that we all get disgusted by something – at least sometime. Some of us are disgusted by Brussels sprouts; for others it’s Marmite that brings on the feeling of nausea.

Disgust means: ‘A strong distaste; nausea; loathing, a repugnance caused by something offensive; a strong aversion.’

That’s a pretty intense emotion, and for a good reason. Disgust protects us from eating the wrong things, such as food that is stale, putrid, or poisonous. Or it protects us from walking into harmful situations. Its a good emotion in the long-term, too, helping us to decide moral choices that will lead to beneficial conditions for ourselves and those that depend on us. So let’s not knock disgust. Being disgusted can be good for you.

The teachings of the Vedas have it that there are two movements of the mind: sankalpa and vikalpa. The first, sankalpa, means to make a willed, mental determination to have something, to enjoy something, to be someone. It means to want something very strongly because you think it will make you happy.

Vikalpa, on the other hand, means to reject something, to move away from something, to break a relationship or affiliation with someone. It means to understand that something is no longer to your liking, that it won’t make you happy.

Sankalpa allows you to begin a chain of events, a chain of actions, that will ultimately bring about the state of happiness you imagine. Vikalpa makes you take action to prevent something happening, or to begin a chain of actions that will separate you from longterm sadness, unhappiness or pain.

Both sankalpa and vikalpa begin with an imagination of a future state closely followed by strong remembrance of a past event when there were feelings of happiness or pain. We remember the taste of ice-cream on a hot day last summer – and move towards the ice-cream van today; we remember the sickening turbulence of a previous plane flight – and become filled with the anxiety of apprehension as we board the stationary plane.

Every soul that’s got stuck in a material body – from a single-celled microbe up to a complex human being – is coming up with sankalpa and vikalpa every minute. Its the movement of the flickering mind that propels us to eat, to protect, to move out of harm’s way.

But there’s always a chance that we might become confused. We might forget, for instance, that drinking too much alcohol on a Saturday night gave us pain and nausea on the Sunday morning. The memory of past pleasure dominates the memories of past pains and we drink too much yet again – and repeatedly suffer. This is called maya. This happens again and again until we realise, through much painful experience, that material pleasure always results in trouble of some kind. That’s when the next level may arise within us. It’s called nirvinna, or disgust. Not nirvana. That’s a different word. Look at the spelling.

Strong Aversion

Nirvana means being liberated and nirvinna means being disgusted. Being disgusted makes us permanently reject something. If something disgusts us, even something we were previously fond of, we avoid it.

Of course, a philosopher might say that if you feel nirvinna it might help you on the way to nirvana. Certainly being disgusted with the false, temporary happiness provided by material pleasure will make you stop trying to enjoy it and as a result you’ll become detached from the material world. That will help you change the way you look at the world and what you want from it. You’ll change the parameters of your sankalpa, and move towards a type of happiness that will be more permanent.

But just being disgusted at the world may not take you further in spiritual life. In and of itself, disgust is just one facet of our response to repeated disappointment in material life. And just being free from desires for material enjoyment doesn’t bring you closer to being reunited with Krishna.

In His conversation with Uddhava, known as the Uddhava-gita, in the 11^th Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, Lord Krishna says as follows:

“My dear Uddhava, because I desire that human beings may achieve perfection, I have presented three paths of advancement – the path of knowledge, the path of work and the path of devotion. Besides these three there is absolutely no other means of elevation.”

“Jnana-yoga is recommended for those who are disgusted with material life. Those who are not disgusted with material life, having many desires yet to fulfil, should seek perfection through the path of karma-yoga.”

“If somehow or other by good fortune one develops faith in hearing and chanting my glories, such a person, being neither very disgusted with nor attached to material life, should achieve perfection through the path of loving devotion to me.”

Srimad Bhagavatam 11.20 6-8.

So whatever our condition, whether we are fully disgusted with material life, or whether we have many desires left to fulfil, we can choose bhakti and move closer to the joy of Krishna consciousness.

Iskcon Russia: Photos from the amazing holiday at Bhaktivedanta Ashram. Brahmotsava Sri Sri Gaura Nitai. 20 years! (Album with photos)
See them here: https://goo.gl/ISFddF

Harinama in Sokolniki Park, Moscow (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: One who chants the Hare Krishna mantra develops bhava, ecstasy, which is the point at which revelation begins. It is the preliminary stage in developing one’s original love for God. (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, 7.83 Purport)
See them here: https://goo.gl/Wj8C4S

For those who care for Cows!
You all may be aware that the Govt of Maharashtra has recently banned cow slaughter and beef intake in any form. The move has raised many controversies and doubts among the society. The High Court of Maharashtra has demanded an explanation as to how cow is special. They seek that other animals also to be brought under the cover, if the cow has to be. Kindly find the two URLs as reference points for the controversy besides many more:

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/why-ban-only-slaughter-of-cows- bulls-what-about-o ther-animals-hc-to-maharashtra-government/538295-3-237.html

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/why-ban-only-on-slaughter-of-cows-a nd-bulls
-hc-asks-maharashtra-govt/article1-1334455.aspx

Srila Prabhupada never encouraged anybody be emotional or sentimental in their following of dharma. Therefore, ISKCON followers are best placed to answer these kind of doubts and questions raised by High Court. We have been demanding this kind of bill since long, now that it has been implemented it is the duty of our every member to support it in different ways it needs to be. I urge the intellectuals and cow lovers of our society to take the opportunity to protect mother cow & bull - dharma personified.

The write up needs to address the following issues: 1. The unique position of cow in human society (or how it is different from other animals)

2. Does the state government have the right to define what its people eat or the latter is an individual’s right to privacy and private choices?

3. Material and spiritual benefits of cow protection.

Those who have contacts with the media are welcome to post it directly or you can simply sign up on the following link to join in the discussion forum to discuss further on such a topic. Stay connected with us as we explore further means to make our voice audible: http://goo.gl/Jj3SFK

Hare Krishna! Remembering Gauri
Despite the agonizing pain of the body and the emotional trauma of leaving the world we hold so dear, the devotee who remains fixed in concentration upon the lotus feet of the Lord achieves the highest perfection of returning to the spiritual world. How Gauri drew closer and closer to Krsna in the final stage of her life is wonderful evidence of the efficacy of the process of devotional service. Here some of the devotees share their memories of Srila Prabhupada’s dear book distributor, Gauri-devi dasi.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=17675

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The post Radha Damodara appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Hare Krishna! Prabhupada Festival 2015 in Los Angeles: A transcendental experience!
The Prabhupada Festival has emerged as one of the largest and most cherished festivals held at New Dwarka, drawing a diverse group of followers, newcomers and interested persons with a desire to learn about, glorify, and remember His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Among the many unique attributes of this festival is the dedicated team of second-generation devotees working together under the guidance and direction of senior Prabhupada disciples in order to plan and organize this two-day festival. Next year, the Prabhupada Festival will host a very special event to celebrate its 25th year.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=17672

The post Daily Darshan – June 1st, 2015 appeared first on Mayapur.com.