Planet ISKCON

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.

Tagged: ISCKON, Relationships, Society

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.

Tagged: Beauty, Consciousness, Krishna, Seer and Seen

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.

Tagged: Bhagavata Purana, Fire, Fire Sacrifice, Sacred Fire, Vedic Sacrifice

(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!

"The name is as potent as Kṛṣṇa is. We have a tongue, and if we use this tongue to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, we shall immediately come directly in touch with Kṛṣṇa, because the name Kṛṣṇa and the person Kṛṣṇa are not different. We may think that Kṛṣṇa is far, far away, but in fact Kṛṣṇa is within us."

From Teachings Of Queen Kunti
Let There Be Calamaties

When, by His grace, the Lord puts His devotee into difficulty, many lessons are to be learned. In the following days I will humbly try to share the realizations I got during my recent bout with cancer. “One who, at the time of death, chants the holy name, ‘Krishna! Krishna! Krishna!’ will not have to [...]

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

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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

The post Radha Govinda asks about Prabhu-datta-desh, Radhika giving up attachment to partners and Zeyneb about svarupa appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

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

The post March 18th, 2015 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.

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

“A person who has developed detachment can give up the bondage of material society, friendship and love, and a person who undergoes great suffering gradually becomes, out of hopelessness, detached and indifferent to the material world. Thus, due to my great suffering, such detachment awoke in my heart; yet how could I have undergone such [...]

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From Rambhadra Priya P:

The question is based on Srila Prabhupada's purport to Bhagavatam (2.6.20)

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(this blog is recorded on the full page: quick time player needed)

[reprinted from 4-15-2012] Every year I’m so inspired by the feeling of spring as I watch its gradual unfolding like the stages of a lovely flower, from bud to full blown petal perfection, or a step by step, most profound, yet accessible concert, which carries one to a moving experience, difficult to convey to others. While the basics of earth, plants, flowers, trees, insects, animals, wind, sky, clouds, sun, moon, and stars are obvious, how they affect and teach me by the power of Krishna’s seasonal changes, can be challenging to express in fresh ways. This is my challenge every year as I am stirred by spring and the various natural transformations, yet because I have the desire to share something meaningful with you, making the endeavor to serve and give, I find new inspiration. This is what has come to me:

The cultivation of spiritual life is like setting different small parts of special lenses in place which enables us to view life from a new and deeper perspective. Beginning with the premise that there is a God, we are eternal souls having a relationship with Him, and that this is a purposeful universe gives us insights completely different from thinking consciousness is simply chemical, electrical reactions, and that life has no meaning. As quantum mechanics in physics has taught scientists that the act of observing something changes the phenomenon being observed, life reflects back to us according to our faith or belief about existence. This can be expressed in the words of Krishna in his Bhagavad Gita [4.11],

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Answer: Let’s consider the answer in three different ways.

1. Once a person read a novel for the first time in his life. On coming to know that the novel was written by an author, he asked, “Where is the author in the novel?” The above question is quite similar to that. The answer obviously is that the author is not in the novel; he created the timeline, the storyline and the characters in the novel, but he exists outside it. Similarly, God created time, space and everything, including all of us, who live within time and space, but he himself exists outside the fabric of time and space. So everything that exists within time and space needs a beginning, a cause, but God who exists outside it, needs no cause, for he is the cause of time and space; he exists outside the chain of creator and created.
2. The Vedic literatures provide us the definition of God: sarva karana karanam. “He is the cause of all causes.” This definition implies that, while tracing back the origin of all the things around us, the point where we stop is God. If God were to have an origin, then that origin would be God. Because even according to pure logic, the source of everything cannot have a source. So this question is itself illogical as it originates in an illogical understanding of the term, God.
3. Modern science has confirmed that our universe has a beginning, that it is not eternal. Most current scientific theories propose the origin of the universe to be a singularity, a point of infinite density, infinite temperature and infinitesimal size, a point that is beyond all conceptions of space and time, a point that is mathematically indescribable and physically unrealizable. And science has no reasonable answer to the question of where this singularity came from. Thus even so-called rational science cannot avoid ascribing inconceivable (we could say “irrational”) attributes to the origin of everything, but it is ascribing them to a lump of matter instead of God. So materialistic science and spirituality both require us to accept on faith their version of how the universe originated. But let’s examine: which faith is more reasonable? Does a lump of matter organize itself into a building or does an intelligent person organize lumps of matter into a building? All experience points to an intelligent person. So isn’t it logical that the organization, structure and harmony in the universe – the cosmic building we live in – require a Super-intelligent Person, not just a super-energetic lump of matter?

To summarize, no one created God because he exists outside the chain of creator and created, he is by definition the causeless cause of all causes and he is the most reasonable conception of the origin of everything.

 

 

 

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Often I find myself struggling to think of new things to say about Japa that haven’t been said already – I try to use quotes from Srila Prabhupada or senior devotees and occasionally video and audio but still it can be a struggle.
Actually, the whole reason I started the Japa Group all those years ago was because of a quote I read where Srila Prabhupada was saying that we should write each day about our realisations in Krsna consciousness.
I don’t have many, but I have a few about Japa and one thing is for sure – we need to take Japa very seriously and make it the priority in our day over everything else.