CC-daily Podcast
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Hare Krishna! Conviction
Doubt is the motor of the modern mentality, the indefatigable engine that drives the spirit of our age. Doubt was honored with an early recognition in the essays of the Renaissance courtier Michel de Montaigne: “We are, I know not how, double within ourselves, with the result that we do not believe what we believe, and we cannot rid ourselves of what we condemn.” During Montaigne’s time, religious wars of unbearable cruelty rent Europe. The absolute certainty of the raging antagonists began to taint conviction itself with bad odor.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=16966

Hare Krishna! Conviction
Doubt is the motor of the modern mentality, the indefatigable engine that drives the spirit of our age. Doubt was honored with an early recognition in the essays of the Renaissance courtier Michel de Montaigne: “We are, I know not how, double within ourselves, with the result that we do not believe what we believe, and we cannot rid ourselves of what we condemn.” During Montaigne’s time, religious wars of unbearable cruelty rent Europe. The absolute certainty of the raging antagonists began to taint conviction itself with bad odor.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=16966

Bhagavatam-daily Podcast:

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ISKCON extends its support to ban on slaughter of cows
“The cottage industry through cow protection and cow rearing is a wonderful model for rural development,” ISKCON spiritual leader Radha Nath Swami Maharaj said in a statement issued. He said in the statement that with little investment, even a simple farmer owning a cow could manufacture products by using animal waste. Apart from medicinal benefits, utilising cow’s waste products could generate revenue and this in turn, could help maintain the animal.
Read the entire article here: http://goo.gl/ioYCva

Wonderful vaishnavas perform parikrama in the Holy places (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Krishna is dancing - you have seen - similarly, our position is simply dancing with Krishna and being happy. That is our position. But we have to come to this material world to enjoy independently of Krishna. Therefore we have been captured by the illusory energy. Hyderabad, April 23, 1974.
See them here: http://goo.gl/iZxkKQ

Material existence, when subjected to a hard look, seems futile. A lion pounces on a deer and rips it apart. What terror and trauma the deer must be undergoing during its last moments as it watches itself getting caught and cut and consumed!

On observing such brutality, naturalists such as Darwin posited that the struggle for existence was nature’s innate feature. Given the severity of this struggle, he held that only the fittest could survive. However, he didn’t get it quite right – actually, even the fittest can’t survive; they too end up on the losing side in the struggle for existence. That they may die a little later than the less fit doesn’t change death’s inescapability.

Contemplation on this harsh nature of nature begs the question: What is the point of it all? Struggle, struggle, struggle, and then die – is that all there is to existence?

Struggle, struggle, struggle, and then die – is that all there is to existence?

No, there is more, declare the world’s great wisdom-traditions. Vedic wisdom explains that at our core lies an immortal being, the soul. That soul is the real person. The soul within you is the actual you and the soul within me is the actual me. And this soul has an eternal relationship with the supreme soul, God, Krishna, who is the all-attractive Supreme Person. By redirecting our love from temporary things to our eternal Lord, we can raise our consciousness to the spiritual level of existence, which being immortal is beyond the meaninglessness of mortal material existence.

Srimad Bhagavatam (11.09.28) outlines how the Lord didn’t feel satisfied after creating various nonhuman species, but became satisfied after creating the human form with its capacity for spiritual perception. This verse appears in a section of the Bhagavatam that deals with the importance of the human form, not the process of creation. This non-creationist context points to the verse’s thrust – not chronology, but teleology.

Krishna felt satisfied after creating the human form because humans alone can fulfill the purpose of creation. That purpose is to provide a facility for souls to rise from the temporary world to the eternal world. The human faculty for metaphysical enquiry, which is our unique gift, makes us seek meaning in life. Such a search if pursued unsentimentally forces us to admit that our present life is rendered ultimately meaningless by death. If we still persevere in our search, then we look for some meaning that survives and transcends death. That search, when guided by the wisdom coming from God-given scriptures, enables us to progressively realize our spiritual identity and ultimately attain eternal life with Krishna.

Thus, for the soul entrapped in pointless-seeming material existence, the human form offers the intelligence to understand the point of it all. Put another way, the human form makes all of material existence meaningful – souls in nonhuman forms need to evolve by transmigration to the human form, wherein alone they can realize their spiritual identity and thus transcend material existence’s meaninglessness.

As the need for meaning keeps nagging materialists, they try to construct a colossal edifice of meaning through material society, friendship and love. 

Unfortunately, many humans neglect their privilege of metaphysical enquiry and devote their lives to pursuing material pleasures. As the search for meaning keeps nagging such materialists, they try to construct a colossal edifice of meaning through material society, friendship and love. But the whole edifice comes crumbling down when the Grim Reaper comes calling. Thus, though material existence inclusive of the human form is ultimately meaningful, still this meaning eludes those humans who live non-spiritually. So, the responsibility to make our existence meaningful by living spiritually rests on each one of us.

Pertinently, the next verse (11.09.29: arthadam anityam api) indicates that though human life is mortal, like life in all other species, still it holds the potential to grant a meaningful fruit – the fruit of eternal existence. And the verse urges us to not waste time in pursuing the bodily pleasures available in all other species, but to forthwith pursue the spiritual fulfillment available only in the human form, thereby making our existence supremely meaningful.

From the holy day of Janmastami – September 5^th -- this year, devotees wishing to take initiation from an ISKCON guru will be required to first pass the ISKCON Disciples Course. The course grew from the ISKCON Guru Seminar, created by the GBC Guru Services Committee in 2008 to educate those taking up the service of guru in how to be effective in caring for their disciples.

Hare Krishna! Sri Khira Chora Gopinatha Temple at Remuna
The famous temple of Sri Khira Chora Gopinatha, the Krishna Deity who stole condensed milk (Khira), also known as amrta-keli, for His most-beloved devotee – Sri Madhavendra Puri, lies in a small pastoral village named Remuna in the Balasore (Baleshwar) District of Orissa. Remuna is called Gupt Vrindavana because Sri Gopinatha had many pastimes here in the mood of Vrindavana with His intimate devotees.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=16963

Hare Krishna! Sri Khira Chora Gopinatha Temple at Remuna
The famous temple of Sri Khira Chora Gopinatha, the Krishna Deity who stole condensed milk (Khira), also known as amrta-keli, for His most-beloved devotee – Sri Madhavendra Puri, lies in a small pastoral village named Remuna in the Balasore (Baleshwar) District of Orissa. Remuna is called Gupt Vrindavana because Sri Gopinatha had many pastimes here in the mood of Vrindavana with His intimate devotees.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=16963

Prince Ea: An Apology Letter to Future Generations.

Amsterdam - known for being one of the largest street markets in the world, orange coloured everything, and its yearly Kingsday festival with music concerts, street performances, and lots of intoxicated people. So what better way to spread Krishna consciousness, than to bring it to a large mass of people, in their time of celebration?

To expand ISKCON’s outreach mission Srila Prabhupada offered sannyasi (renounced monk) initiation.
Thus ISKCON’s Ministry for Sannyasa Service has established a website to provide
information about potential sannyasis to the ISKCON community and to get
feedback in order to help in the candidate's training.

Answer Podcast:

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Answer Podcast:

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Answer Podcast:

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Answer Podcast:

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New Vrindaban's Festival of Inspiration is only two weeks away, and it's a big one -- the 15th anniversary! There will be exciting and inspiring presentations by ISKCON’s best speakers; top-quality entertainment from dramas to stand-up comedy; rip-roaring kirtans; and mouth-watering prasadam, and much more!

ISKCON's Govardhan Ecovillage is saying that rearing these animals would add much more to the economy rather than killing them.

 Bolivians feel for a meal to be a good meal that it must be prepared "with love, dedication and proper cook time."

The post Sunday’s festival recording – all 5+ hours of it appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

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The post Interfaith Dialogue appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

The post A devotee becomes more and more opulent as he increases his devotional service to the Lord appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Srila Prabhupada in Saint Moritz, a popular ski resort!
By the standards of many it was breathtaking, but not to Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada was very regulated. It never mattered where we were. His life continued like clockwork and his schedule remained constant. One morning Srila Prabhupada put on his warm saffron-hooded coat and prepared for his morning walk. “We will go for a walk,” he said. “Shall we see how cold it is?” Since we were on the ground floor, His Divine Grace opened the sliding glass door to walk onto the verandah which led to the great outdoors. Suddenly a whistling blast of ice cold air filled the entire condominium. It was blizzard-like. “Ooohhh, this is much too cold!” Srila Prabhupada exclaimed with his eyes opened wide. Whenever I witnessed these childlike expressions, my heart melted with joy. Srila Prabhupada exuded the innocence of a child.
Read the entire article here: http://goo.gl/m7iGGm

The Bhaktivedanta Academy - Living Vedic Culture & Philosophy
Photography By H.H. Indradyumna Swami. A Traveling Monk. The following pictures depict the sacred place I was fortunate enough to grow up in the one and only Gurukul in Sridham Mayapur lead by one of the purest, most genius intellects of the world H.H. Bhakti-vidya-purna Swami. A disciple of the founder Acharya for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. This is an offering unto Him, by whose grace we can go back home back to Godhead (Sri Goloka Vrindavan).
Watch it here: http://goo.gl/K03nvW

Holi D.C. – Not Just Another Color Festival!
With a profusion of secular “color runs” and “color festivals” everywhere these days, it’s hard to find one that stands out. But Holi D.C., beginning with its conspicuous moniker – it purposely retains the festival’s original spiritual name rather than calling itself “Festival of Colors” – is decidedly unique. “We don’t want to water down the spirituality behind the festival,” says media coordinator Christy Freer, a kirtan singer, yoga teacher and lawyer who has been part of the ISKCON community in Potomac, a suburb of Washington D.C., for about two years.
Read the entire article here: http://goo.gl/hfZPck

Memories of Srila Prabhupada narrated recently at Iskcon Vrindavana (video)
Watch it here: http://goo.gl/OZjaio

The post April 24th, 2015 – Chandan yatra Darshan- Day 4 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

19.04.2015 H.G. Bhurijana Prabhu_SB-5.19.13 PART 2