Planet ISKCON

After an absence of more than fifteen years, Hare Krsna Food For Life has reopened in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 26 December 2015, Cape Town, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 9.19.26) 

I was reading Chanakya Pandit’s Neeti-Shastra. It was a long time ago that he wrote it, when he said ‘Which family has no blemish? Which family is not scarred by some scandals?’

In every family, there are some stories… Like, I have this uncle and his wife was a professional prostitute. What to do!? She got pregnant and he married her. The whole family, whenever they see her, it is always like, ‘There she is!’ She does not care but they will never ever forget that once she was a professional prostitute! That is how it is… We sort of do it behind the back of my uncle but some people want him to see their disapproval. It is somewhat of family entertainment.

Okay, now I put it on the table, ‘Oh my God, really? In your family, Maharaj? We always thought that you were from a respectable background and now we have to hear this? Oh gosh, Maharaj has gone down one level in public estimation, on this day.’ But as Chanakya Pandit explains, every family has some stories, something is there to tell, that is the situation but then we all try to sort of cover it up and keep it quiet.

The other day, I was talking to one devotee, devotee X, who was explaining that their family last name is the same as one of the people in the history of America who made an attempt to kill the president. It took him until he was forty-three when he finally asked his mother, ‘Does our family have any connection with so and so?’ And his mother just went like ‘We do not talk about that!’ Another blemish on the family. So it is interesting these things. In every family, there are some stories…

Sannyas initiation of HH Krishna Kshetra Swami (45 min full HD video)
We have been there with two professional cameras and we shoot everything in all details.
The editing is been done with great care and I guess it could be used as a documentary to represent the Initiation ceremonies in Vaishnava culture.
Watch it here: http://goo.gl/YRQ9KL

Gita Verse-by-verse Study Podcast

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Holy Name Meditation Podcast

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Prahaladananda Swami, Bhakti Charu Swami, Radhanatha Swami and Giriraj Swami participated in the questions and answers session.

“Getting things done is important. But the spirit and the unity of the community is what will give substance to what you get done. We can build a temple but people are not going to be Krishna conscious beyond a certain level due to the temple. They are going to be Krishna conscious by the quality of the association they get when they come to the temple. In one purport Srila Prabhupada writes that the purpose of developing all these temples is to give people the opportunity to associate with devotees. And the quality of their association with devotees is what is going to be important. In Mayapur, with the Temple of Vedic Planetarium coming up, there are going to be millions of people visiting from all over the world to see the temple and experience the atmosphere of Mayapur. But what is really going to open their hearts to receive the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the quality of the association of devotees they get when they come.”

— Radhanatha Swami

GBC College Q and A, Eco-Village, Wada

Bhagavatam-daily Podcast:

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Srimad-Bhagavatam has been reprinted in Spanish after being out of stock for four years!
ISKCON Founder Srila Prabhupada’s masterwork the Srimad-Bhagavatam has been reprinted in Spanish after being out of stock for four years, to the delight of the Spanish-speaking world. Why has it taken so long? Well, for one, the once-struggling Spanish and Portuguese branch of Prabhupada’s publishers the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust has been on a decade-long climb back to success and sustainability, during which it had to focus on smaller books for mass distribution.
Read the entire article here: http://goo.gl/9sAvN4

Gaura Purnima 2015 at ISKCON Chicago (Album 142 photos)
Srila Prabhupada: In the Adi Purana Krishna tells Arjuna: “Anyone who is engaged in chanting My transcendental name must be considered to be always associating with Me. And I may tell you frankly that for such a devotee I become easily purchased.” (Nectar of Devotion, 12)
See them here: http://goo.gl/FHhtJY

Hare Krishna! Vanipedia to Translate Prabhupada’s Gita Introduction into 108 Languages
Vanipedia manager Visnumurti Das explains that the print edition of the Gita, in which Prabhupada’s spoken introduction appears, has only been translated into 59 languages so far. “Compared to the Bible’s 520 languages,” he says, “We see that there is still a lot of scope for expansion.” Twenty-four 8-minute audio clips of Srila Prabhupada’s 3 hour-and-12-minute spoken introduction have been matched with endearing slides of Srila Prabhupada to create videos and are already posted to Vanipedia’s Youtube channel with English subtitles.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=16055

Hare Krishna! Visit of Chief Minister of UP to ISKCON Vrindavan
Honorable Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Shri AkhileshYadavji came for darshan to the Krishna Balaram temple, ISKCON Vrindavan on 11th February, 2015. He was scheduled to come to Govardhan for some work, but as a pleasant surprise, he added darshan of ISKCON Vrindavan to his program only 3 days back. It was his personal decision to have darshan in ISKCON Vrindavan, which he said, he had last visited only in his childhood.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=16052

Hare Krishna! BBT Only Day
How can we Celebrate BBT ONLY DAY? BBT is requesting all GBCs, ISKCON centers and BBT directors to bring to the attention of all of ISKCON this very important letter that Srila Prabhupada wrote. Therefore it is important to emphasize and commemorate “BBT ONLY” DAY on March 14. We humbly request that ISKCON Temples promote BBT Only Day according to the availability of resources and manpower.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=16046

Hare Krishna! Failing to Succeed
The Brahma-vaivarta Purana describes a beautiful story of a brahmana in South India who wanted to offer sweet rice (khir) to his Deities but couldn’t afford the ingredients. So he decided to offer the sweet mentally. In deep meditation, he collected all the ingredients and cooked it. After the preparation was ready, he wanted to cool it down before he offered it to Krishna. After a while he touched his finger to see if the sweet rice had cooled down. It was still hot, and to his surprise his finger was burnt by the sweet rice! Because of his devotion in preparing and testing the khir, even though only in his mind, the Lord happily accepted the offering and soon brought him to Vaikuntha, His eternal abode.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=16043

On February 19^th and 20^th 1966, ISKCON’s Founder-Acharya Srila Prabhupada spoke an introduction to his Bhagavad-gita As It Is over the space of two lectures. Volunteers for Vanipedia.org, the dynamic online encyclopedia of Srila Prabhupada’s words (vani) are planning to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of these talks by making the audio available on Youtube with subtitles in 108 plus languages by February 20^th 2016.

The post January 9th, 2014 evening bhajans at Karuna Bhavan appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

A short deocumentary about the ToVP featuring Indian actress and parliament member Hema Malini.

Archaeologists working in Nazareth have identified a house dating to the first century that was regarded as the place where Jesus was brought up by Mary and Joseph.

The morning hours are the most conducive for spiritual practice since the mind can peacefully flow toward the spiritual goal. However, just as early morning road works slowed down my car, mental agitation can similarly inhibit the strength of one’s spiritual connection.

ISKCON Founder Srila Prabhupada’s masterwork the Srimad-Bhagavatam has been reprinted in Spanish after being out of stock for four years, to the delight of the Spanish-speaking world. It’s been a lot of work. Proofreader Gauravani Dasi in Mexico and designer Govinda Damodara Das in Argentina marathoned for sixteen-months nonstop to get the proofs ready.

Hare Krishna! Labeling Body Parts
People have assumed that intelligence is linked to the ability to suffer and that because animals have smaller brains they suffer less than humans. That is a pathetic piece of logic, sentient animals have the capacity to experience pleasure and are motivated to seek it, you only have to watch how cows and lambs both seek and enjoy pleasure when they lie with their heads raised to the sun on a perfect English summer’s day. Just like humans.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=16039

Parikrama in Varsana 11.03.2015 (Album 175 photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Pure devotees chant the Hare Krishna mantra, and simply by hearing this chanting from a purified transcendental person, one is purified of all sinful activities, no matter how lowborn or fallen one may be. (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila, 3.126 Purport)
See them here: http://goo.gl/2NmbHc

Hare Krishna! Congregational Preachers Awarded
Every year ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry awards those devotees around the world who have done an outstanding service in the area of congregational preaching. This is done during the Gaura Purnima festival in Mayapur, where several of ISKCON leaders and preachers are gathered at that time of the year. During this 2015 Annual Award Ceremony, devotees who have pioneered, maintained and supported congregational preaching programs were formally recognized and offered appreciation for their efforts in pleasing Srila Prabhupada’s preaching mission.
Read the entire article here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=16035

The post March 12th, 2015 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Wonderful Kirtan by Vraja Krishna in Mayapur dedicated to Bhakti Tirtha Swami (10 min video)
Watch it here: http://goo.gl/sbkbMn

Gaur Poornima Festival Evening Lecture – Radhanath Swami Maharaj

I’ll start by sharing my English treatment of Bhāgavatam’s 4.1.2 through 6 – a section that involves marriage between twin siblings and, if examined with care reveals the essence of Rādhā and Krishna’s parakīya-bhāva.

With his wife’s approval Manu allowed his daughter Ākūti (inspiration) to marry the sage Ruci (desire), on the condition that Manu and Śatarūpā would raise the couple’s boy as their own son.

Ruci – a blessed progenitor with great spiritual realization and exalted meditations – produced twins with Ākūti. They named the boy Yajña and the girl Dakṣiṇā, because inspirations (ākūti) and desires (ruci) are fulfilled when they lead to efforts (yajñā) that successfully invoke rewards (dakṣiṇā).

The boy was Viṣṇu himself, and the girl was an expansion of Goddess Bhū, Viṣṇu’s consort. Manu was delighted to raise the extremely brilliant boy in his own home. Ruci was delighted to raise the girl. After being raised separately, their eternal, unstoppable love brought them together in marriage, and they were delighted to produce twelve children.

This  illustrates the essential principle of parakīya-bhāva. Parakīya is the most exalted form of love because it destroys all obstacles. In fact it enjoys expressing its unstoppable force by having obstacles to destroy. Parakīya is most famously manifest in Krishna-līlā. Krishna doesn’t marry the Gopīs. They are married to other men. Why? So that parakīya can express its power by destroying that obstacle to their love.

As is the case in this example,  obstacles to love very often take the shape of social restrictions. For us, social restrictions have real utility, but for liberated beings, the only purpose of social restrictions is to facilitate their play. The ultimate reason for social restrictions is to facilitate the play of divinity. The  byproduct of social restrictions is that they benefit conditioned beings. The concept of marriage originates in not in the need for stable child rearing, etc. It originates in the desire of the Supreme to express a love so powerful that it will destroy everything else, all other conventions, all restrictions. So marriage originates to facilitate the parakīya mood of Krishna and Rādhā. As a byproduct, marriage becomes the basis of svakīya-rasa, and as a more remote byproduct marriage generates social conventions that happen to be very helpful and useful in the lonesome world of cause and effect.

In this particular case, with Yajña and Dakṣiṇā, parakīya-rasa is not literally the sense of being unmarried. Yajña and Dakṣiṇā duly married with Brahmā, Manu, Śatarūpā, Ākūti, and Ruci’s blessings. In this case, however, the essence of parakīya manifests by breaking the social convention that siblings must not marry.

The purpose of this convention for ordinary souls is to keep family life sane and safe, and, even more practically, to keep human DNA healthy. Yajña and Dakṣiṇā are not human beings. In essence they are Viṣṇu and Bhū / Krishna and Rādhā, and even in appearance they are born amongst the supreme, super-human gods. Their mother was a supra-human because she was the immediate daughter of Manu, and their father was super-human because he was created directly by Brahmā. They lived at the dawn of universal time, when there were barely a few beings in the entire world capable of organic reproduction. For all these reasons, they had no practical need to observe the convention against marriage between siblings. Further, they were intentionally seperated at birth (due to the forethought of Śatarūpā) and were not raised as siblings, so their romantic mood never changed into the mood of being siblings. Thus they could take the opportunity to enjoy the extreme bliss of parakīya bhāva by expressing romantic love so strongly that all rules and conventions standing in its way were destroyed.

- Vraja Kishor

www.vrajakishor.com

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 26 January 2015, London, England, Lecture at Matchless Gifts)

If we see ourselves as a master, “I am trying to be master. You are all my dogs,” then what will we get? A world where nobody trusts each other and everyone is thinking, “Who is going to exploit me next?” It is a world where everyone has defense mechanisms – a world with walls, a world with locks, a world full of strangers.

That has to change. It can change only when we take up spiritual life! We can only become really close to each other when we all serve the same Supreme Lord Krsna. Then we can be bound as brothers, sisters and friends. When will that day come – the day when we need no more keys?

Now you need a phone because you are in a city full of strangers and at least you can call a friend. But what if everyone is your friend? Then you would not need a phone.

I remember when I used to walk around in India. I was alone and had no money. I would just walk up to some house and ask for some water. They would give me water and offer me a meal as well!

This is culture – the culture where we see the whole world as one big family, not a world of strangers but a family based on real friendship, being real well-wishers of each other. We are all actually desiring this. This is what we are hankering for. We want such a world because everyone feels strange in a world full of strangers.

Gita Verse-by-verse Study Podcast

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Holy Name Meditation Podcast

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