Planet ISKCON

Hare Krishna! Pishima: Srila Prabhupada’s sister
Srutakirti das: Srila Prabhupada said. “She tells me she is eating just a little bit, but she keeps on gaining weight. You don’t know anyone who keeps on gaining weight without eating, do you?” “Yes!” Srila Prabhupada said. ” She has to be eating very much. She tells me she is not eating, but I know she is eating. She complains to me about her health, that she doesn’t feel well. I told her, ‘You are so fat. How can you be healthy?’ She said, ‘I don’t know how. I am hardly eating at all. I don’t know how I am so fat?’”
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=16257

A video by Inci Mutlu Milano.

Due to computer failure I cannot post podcasts today. Apologies. SRS

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The post March 19th, 2015 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

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Question: What is your relationship to ISKCON?

ISKCON is not a monolith. There are great sādhus in ISKCON, there are jerks in ISKCON, and there is everything in between. It’s not black and white. So how shall I answer a question about my relationship to it?

ISKCON is an idea, a social abstraction, a concept… a concept of community. But a community is not an entity to itself so much as it is a collection of individuals. I concern myself with my relationship with the actual individuals, not with their social abstractions into various groupings. My relationship with the great sādhus of ISKCON is that I remain in the shelter of their feet, striving to please them and experience their happiness with me. My relationship with the common, innocent ISKCON devotee is that some of them are my dear friends, whom I would give all my energy and time for, and who would do the same for me. Others are unknown to me. My relationship to them is nonexistent. Others approach me asking questions or whatever, to them my relationship is to work as hard as I can to serve their needs. My relationships with the belligerent or weird and dysfunctional is that they are also Brahman (rays of the supreme spirit) and also “sādhu” in some extended sense – and I should respect them as such. But for my own sanity and for their happiness as well, I should keep out of argument and therefore keep my distance from them in an unpretentious way.

My relationship with the social abstractions of ISKCON is basically nil, especially since I live in Japan, where ISKCON is not prominent. Once or twice I visited ISKCON’s center in Tokyo, and experienced great friendship and devotional bliss there. I have no relationship with the managerial structure or government of ISKCON, (GBCs, Sannyasis, Temple Presidents, etc. etc.). I agree with some their decisions, disagree with some, and really find no need to get involved in any positive or negative capacity. I hope I never will.

I’m interested in relationships with great sādhus, dear friends, and sincere people – their social nationality (ISKCON or not, etc) really doesn’t make a difference to me.

Q: How does Krishna benefit all living entities by being the supreme enjoyer?

Very nice question!

Why are you attracted to a beautiful woman? A darling child? A cute puppy? Have you ever thought about this?

I have thought about it and come to the conclusion that consciousness needs something to be conscious of. We need something to love – to state it another way. We are not happy without having something or someone we can love. It is the nature of consciousness itself that it is incomplete if it has nothing to be conscious of. This is why we need something to attract and absorb our focus, our attention, our love.

The seer (consciousness) is incomplete without the seen (something to be conscious of).

This is why Krishna manifests so much beauty and charm, and becomes the “Supreme Enjoyer.” The term “Supreme Enjoyer” means “Supreme Beloved” / “Supreme Focus of Attention.”

Krishna not merely seen, he is also the seer. He makes himself an object of our consciousness to benefit us, because he loves us. But primarily he is the original seer and we are the original seen. Because of this, he also, let’s say, “wants a cute puppy.” He also needs something worth seeing. He also wants and needs someone to love. This is why we exist, and this is why we also possess the potential for infinite beauty and charm.

So, there is a reciprocal circuit between Krishna and us. We are his beloved, he is our beloved. We are his lover, he is our lover. He is the seer and we are beautiful to be seen by him. We are the seer, and he is beautiful to be seen by us.

Svāhā and Agni produced three children from their pride. They named the boys Pāvaka, Pavamāna, and Śuci and gave them the task of consuming the offerings sacrificed into fire.

Svāhā (“Self-Sacrifice”) represents the sacrificial offering. Her marriage to Agni (“Fire”) represents an offering given to fire. Their three children represent what fire proudly does to any offering given to it: Fire is bright and pure (pāvaka), so it purifies anything it touches (pavamāna), destroying the impurities and leaving only the pure, energetic essence – a brilliantly clean entity (śuci).

These three boys fathered forty-five other forms of fire. Thus, including their three fathers and their grandfather, there are forty-nine types of fire. When spiritualists put offerings into fire during a fruitive Vedic sacrifice, they utilize these sacred fires by invoking their names.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 19 January 2015, Bhaktivedanta Manor, England, Srimad Bhagavatam 9.10.23)

Srila Prabhupada reached out even in his old age. In the extreme heat in Dehli – I do not know if you have been in Delhi, in the hot season, it is when the brain starts to cook in your skull – Prabhupada just collapsed due to the heat wave but still, he was just tirelessly trying. Why?

“Such an old man, he could have stayed home; stayed in Vrindavan. Radhe… Radhe! Sweet, Krsna… Krsna. The holy dham. Just be absorbed in chanting the holy name. Why bother going out?”

Prabhupada travelled and went all around the world. When Prabhupada came to New York, he got a cold. There is a series of lectures where you can, if you listen to the tape, you can hear how the cold develops. All the stages of the cold, you can hear it, how Prabhupada was going through it from lecture to lecture.

Then one of the devotees was saying, “Oh Srila Prabhupada, please just take some rest. Do not travel. You know, just rest.”
Prabhupada said, “No, no.”
The devotee says, “You do not have to travel.”
Then Prabhupada says, “I do not have to travel!? If I do not travel, then who will deliver you?”

That is a fact. So see, because Prabhupada, at an age when everyone else stays home and nicely retires, he did the opposite, then Krsna empowered him. This is the principle – Krsna will empower us. Krsna will provide us the things that we need. He will provide us the strength that we need and this is the only way that this movement will be successful, by extraordinary generosity. This is the only way that we will ever be peaceful in our own spiritual life!

Gita Verse-by-verse Study Podcast

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Bhagavatam-daily Podcast

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Online Music School
We are an online music school that primarily offers 1-on-1 mridanga and harmonium lessons via Skype. Currently we are offering free trial lessons to anyone interested. Included is a short introductory video of our school. I would be happy to provide more information, or answer any questions you may have about our program. Thank you.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=16253

CC daily Podcast:

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Hare Krishna! The unique position of Lord Shiva
Srila Prabhupada explains, “The living being can never possess attributes like Shiva, Vishnu or Lord Krishna. A living being can become godly by developing the seventy-eight-percent transcendental attributes in fullness, but he can never become a God like Shiva, Vishnu or Krishna. He can become a Brahma in due course: – Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.28 purport”
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=16250

Harinama and Ocean of nectar in Kathmandu, Nepal (Album 45 photos)
See them here: http://goo.gl/jQ6wFE

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

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Hare Krishna! The Times: March/Campaign For The Yamuna: An Epic Opportunity
The disheartening implications of the Yamuna crisis and the heartening networking of environmental and devotional groups in the campaign to save it have brought upon us a great opportunity. At this moment over 50,000 Yamuna enthusiasts march to Delhi with a prediction of 100,000 by the 22nd of March, Brajabasins, Sampradayik and Vyasa acaryas, yogis, agricultural union members, dancing children from Maan Mandir, Barsana, to secure a long term mandate in government policies to allow India’s most sacred and famous river, the Yamuna to return, unimpeded to the Homeland of Braja.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=16247

Carefully selected moments from ISKCON’s International Navadwip Parikrama 2015 (21 min video)
This twenty-one-minute video shows carefully selected moments from ISKCON’s International Navadwip Parikrama 2015. The event took place on 22-28 Feb, and was organised by the ISKCON World Headquaters at Mayapur Dhama. Mayapur TV cameras followed the pilgrimage, and requested BhakTV to produce a short video taster for the Internet. The video is not a day-by-day account. It covers the opening day and the final day of the week-long event. It provides a flowing narrative that is woven into the landscape. This includes chosen, easily digestible snippets from lectures given by senior members at some of the many sacred spots that punctuate the dusty trails, across West Bengal’s endless green paddy fields. “Editing this video has given me a strong desire to do the actual walk next year … on my own two feet.” Vasudeva Das, BhakTV.
Watch it here: http://goo.gl/AzWOHg

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Krishna Mountain, Excerpt 20th-29th min. (from a 60min documentary) (9 min video)
BhakTV: Twenty-five kilometers west of the Indian holy town of Mathura in North India, amidst twelve forests in the land of Braj, is a long, narrow, and intriguing hill. Roughly ten kilometers long and barely a couple hundred meters wide, Govardhan Hill enjoys the odd privilege of having throngs of pilgrims walk around it day and night, seven days a week, summer and winter, three hundred-sixty-five days a year.
Watch it here: http://goo.gl/7Ftb67

Mayapur Village Kirtan (3 min video)
Yesterday I ventured into the village temple on Taranpur Road. It was their annual seven-day festival, in the wake of Gaura Purnima. Two days were set aside exclusively for nama kirtan but, as fate had it, I arrived at the very last performance on the second night. It was soul-stirring…
The next evening I was back for more , this time with an assistant, two HD cameras on stands, a GoPro on steadycam, and suitable lighting equipment.
Watch it here: http://goo.gl/DrQMHV

Once in a Lifetime Darshan - TOVP tour brings bliss in Iskcon Dallas (Album 51 photos)
See them here: http://goo.gl/BZJacd

Hare Krishna! Appeal for volunteers: 50th Anniversary celebrations
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. “The celebrations are being planned across six continents in 75 countries, and are being organised by a team of volunteers,” explained Romapada Das, the International Coordinator for the 50th Anniversary. “But we need more volunteers to ensure that these festivities create the maximum impact around the world.”
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=16244

Hare Krishna! Freedom through the Holy Name
Srila Prabhupada: The human being has a particular type of business. That business is to study and discuss the bhagavata life. That is our natural business. We should try to understand Bhagavan, God. The relationship between Bhagavan and the bhakta, or devotee, is called bhagavatadharma. The business of human life is very easy: Simply hear about Krishna. Krishna is Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and we are part of Krishna. Suppose I have forgotten my home. I left my home a long time ago and have forgotten my father. So if somebody reminds me, “Do you know such-and-such gentleman? He is your father. You were playing in such a way, your father was helping you …” In this way, if he simply talks of my father, I will remember my home. Similarly, we have forgotten our relationship with Krishna. If we simply hear about Him, then we will remember.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=16240

Srila Prabhupada, Our Founder-Acharya Seminar - HG Suresvara Prabhu (video - seminar)
Watch it here: http://goo.gl/fp5tM3

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Bhagavatam Stories Day 01 01 by HH Bhakti Charu Swami on 2014-12-25