Planet ISKCON

US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard visited Sri Sri Radha Parthasarathi Mandir in New Delhi earlier this week for a darshan and arati of Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Parthasarathi. Later, Congresswoman Gabbard who was on a three-week tour of India on the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, met Gopal Krishna Goswami, Governing Body Commissioner and BBT Trustee.

Ilan Chester´s impressive musical pieces, have been lifted to a new dimension in a stage production, never presented this way before.

Since a long time, devotees of ISKCON Baroda were inviting Guru Maharaj to kindly visit ISKCON Baroda temple. Guru Maharaj mercifully agreed to visit ISKCON Baroda on the evening of 7th January 2015. Although his stay was relatively short(1.5 days), it inspired the devotees of Baroda and nearby places very much. It was a long(...)

Kadamba Kanana Swami will be visiting London next week. Programs at Bhaktivedanta Manor will be streamed live via Mayapur TV or the Bhaktivedanta Manor website.

Sunday, 10 January 2014;18:30 – 22:00; “Holy Name Fiesta”

Wednesday, 14 January 2014;7:30 am; SB 9.10.16

Friday, 16 January 2014; 7:30 am; SB 9.10.21-22

Monday, 19 January 2014; SB 9.10.23

These times are as per GMT.

Speaking With India’s Leading Industrialists
On December 13th, 2014, Radhanath Swami spoke at a program for over fifty of India’s leading industrialists on the terrace of the South Mumbai residence of Mr N.D. Desai the chairman of APAR group of industries.
Read the entire article here: http://goo.gl/YuJqRc

Omsk festival 2015, Russia (Album 59 photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Living entities are in the air, in the water, in the holes, everywhere. And the vibration of this sound is so powerful because it is spiritual that it will act even on the ants and the trees and birds and the bees, what to speak of the human beings. (Lecture on Bhagavad-gita, 5.17-24, Los Angeles, 1969)
See them here: http://goo.gl/llWo9m

Bhaktivedanta Manor.

The post Doing our duty in the wake of the great Jatayu appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Sankirtan Festival 2014/2015 in Simhachalam, Jandelsbrunn, Germany (Album 144 photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Devotional service is just like a seed, and if it is sown in the heart of a living entity, and if he goes on hearing and chanting Hare Krishna, that seed fructifies, just as the seed of a tree fructifies with regular watering. (Bhagavad-gita, 10.9 Purport)
See them here: http://goo.gl/C9jpA8

Sunday feast:at Iskcon Guyana Crane Temple, January 4, 2015 (Album 12 photos)
Srila Prabhupada: This chanting of Hare Krishna is welfare work for all sentient beings, even the worms, the microbes, the cockroaches. So many living entities are in this room and by hearing this vibration of Hare Krishna mantra they will be also derive benefit. (Lecture on Bhagavad-gita, 5.17-24, Los Angeles, 1969)
See them here: http://goo.gl/q8a7rC

Malacca Ratha Yatra - ISKCON Malaysia (Album 6 photos)
Srila Prabhupada: My dear Lord, when will My eyes be beautified by filling with tears that constantly glide down as I chant Your holy name? When will My voice falter and all the hairs on My body stand erect in transcendental happiness as I chant Your holy name? (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila, 20.36)
See them here: http://goo.gl/RPOAmr

Harinama in Guarujá, Brazil (Album 12 photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Although a Vaishnava is the most exalted person, he is prideless and gives all respect to everyone, knowing everyone to be the resting place of Krishna. If one chants the holy name of Lord Krishna in this manner, he will certainly awaken his dormant love for Krishna’s lotus feet. (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila, 20.25.26)
See them here: http://goo.gl/dmwNPb

A website for Srila Prabhupada (for non devotee audience) Prabhupada.net.
Hare Krishna Dear devotees,Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. We had a lot of feedback from devotees regarding the need of having an official website for Srila Prabhupada. One of the reasons is that when someone out there goes to look up Srila Prabhupada they end up getting all kinds of ritviks and other twisted websites, on him. So, with the blessings of the whole GBC body, we made a website for Srila Prabhupada (for non devotee audience). The website has been launched for a few months now. As far as coming up in the search, even if you search for ‘Prabhupada’ it still shows up at about number 15. According to our web team, we need your help. This website needs to get more ‘hits’ and more ‘links’ to get its rating improved and come up higher in ‘search’. Our humble request to the leaders: if all ISKCON preaching websites will put a button on their home page for more information on our Founder Acarya please click at ‘prabhupada.net’ that would help us a lot. We welcome your feedback.
Your ServantAkrura DasSPPC (Srila Prabhupada Position Committee) PS: We are working on a ‘devotee friendly’ website for Srila Prabhupada
(Founderacharya.com). Right now it only shows our booklet but we are working on the contents, in the background, to fully launch it soon.
http://prabhupada.net/

Huge plotting discovered about …escaping from the material world to reach Goloka Vrindavana, taking along as many others as possible! Here in this dated photo the known devotees while they are plotting :-)

The post January 7th, 2015 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.

2015 01 04 SB 10 54 48 Nature of False Ego Is Unnatural to the Soul Radhanath Swami ISKCON Chowp

Present day Humpi in Karnataka, India is located in the vast ruins of the Vijayanagara Empire, which flourished in the 13th and 14th centuries. The many stone temples, gardens, palaces and ancient market places are protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Of particular importance to Krsna and Rama bhaktas is the fact that Hanuman [...]

Chanting Hare Krishna attentively is easy.

Wanting to chant Hare Krishna attentively is not so easy.

- – – – = – – – -

Attention goes, and stays, wherever we put it. By its very nature, it goes wherever we will it to go. If this doesn’t sound like our experience, its likely we are hiding from and not admitting to our true wants and desires.

We can engage in exercises, disciplines, and techniques to help us tolerate and ignore our true wants and desires so that we can keep our attention focused on things we need to focus on (whether it’s meditation or whether it’s homework), but that is a very external, mechanical, artificial approach and will always be very limited and temporary in its success.  The real, true, best way to improve our attentiveness to meditation/chanting is to increase our desire to attain the objective of the meditation/chanting, and increase our appreciation for the singular efficacy of the meditative/chanting/mystical process.

In more specific terms, the best thing we can do for our attentive meditation on Krishna-nāma is to deeply hear about Krishna (sambandha), about the process to attain Krishna (abhidheya), and about the result of attaining Krishna (prayojana). This is the purpose of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. If we aren’t a studious type (or for some reason don’t read Vraja Kishor’s exciting renditions of Bhāgavatam as Beautiful Tales of the All-Attractive ;) ) then we have to find the rare soul who does understand and appreciate Bhāgavatam deeply, and engage in deep conversation with that person, about it.

When we understand the value of Krishna, and we understand the unique power and importance of Krishna’s name as the means of attaining a realized connection to Krishna, then chanting Hare Krishna attentively is easy. As easy as eating ice cream.

Tagged: Attention, Chanting, Concentration, Hare Krishna, Japa, Meditation

A very nice Japa seminar by Candramauli Swami based on Bhurijana prabhu's book "Japa".

(Published in Spanish devotee magazine "Mas Cerca" December 2014 issue) Sananda devi dasi: Why have you decided to specialize in devotee care? Gita Coaching: Because I have seen the need, and because I like devotees. We have festivals, we have Deity worship, we have books, we have educational programs, we have wonderful food, music, but devotee care is actually not very developed. So,

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, October 2014, Mayapur, India, Siksastakam Seminar: Verses 1&2, Part 1)

Question: Maharaj, you were explaining how each acharya practices the jewel of transcendental knowledge he receives from the predecessors and adds his personal touch. Sometimes we listen to different devotees and each adds their touch, so it is difficult to consolidate.

That is why you have a spiritual master. The spiritual master is your anchor and you follow your spiritual master. There may be different vaisnavas and they may have a different emphasis at different points in time which may sometimes confuse us. One may say that you must chant and another may say that you must distribute books! And yet, another may say that you must worship the deity. At the end of the day, you do not know what to do anymore but you have to choose one of these things, so who do you listen to!? Ultimately, the spiritual master will determine! This is where we say that all these things are there in spiritual life but for me, the order of my spiritual master is the jewel that I carry on my head, guru siromani, what he wants us to do shall be done!

Every year, Sydney devotees, Pratapana das and Jayasri dd, organise a gathering and dinner for all the Prabhupada disciples and senior devotees in the area.

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.3.23.

“One can achieve the highest position of spiritual life by serving the dust of the lotus feet of the pure devotee. So, what does serving the dust of the lotus feet of the pure devotee actually mean? In general it means to follow his instructions. If one is fortunate enough, it can also mean to actually serve his lotus feet. But it can mean to serve the devotees who have taken shelter of his lotus feet. So being the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant will please the devotee or the spiritual master and that in turn will please Krishna.”

——————-
Srimad-Bhagvatam 2.3.23 , Mumbai

During our 8-hour drive from Udupi to Hampi we passed through the town of Hari Hara and took darshan of the combined form of Visnu and Siva in the Hariharaesvara Temple. The left side of the deity is Visnu and the right side is Lord Siva. The temple was built in 1224 AD by Polalva, [...]

Bhagavatam-daily podcast:

Download by "right-click and save content"

The TOVP’s Dome Is Rising! (Album 5 photos)
Dear Prabhus,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
We have exciting news today!
The seventh level of the big Dome is going up now. And it will be completed by the start of the GBC meetings.
There are only two more levels remaining to finish this dome. At this amazing speed all the domes will be finished within six months.
Your servant,
Nitya-priya dd
See them here: http://goo.gl/21IP6k

Meet two glorious vaishnava families. These are the two sisters, Nirmala Devi and Ranga Devi with their incredible devotee husbands, Jitari and Devarsi Prabhus, along with their extremely talented and devotional daughters, Vani devi dasi and Nadiya. Every one of them is a great Vaisnava.

Arabian Ranches Harinaam 3 Jan 15 (Album 87 photos)
Srila Prabhupada: A Vaishnava should not try to minimize anyone else’s position. It is better to remain humble and meek and chant the Hare Krishna mantra. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 6.17.10 purport)
See them here: http://goo.gl/6hBtw0

One of my biggest disappointment after coming to the US is mainstream science. Modern science I realized is so much filled with gas, in order for it to have any crude shape it simply is packed with speculative ideas of the fertile minds of the so called scientists. Two pieces of evidence are tied together through stories laced with scientific jargon. Studying in a Land Grant university in the US and rubbing shoulders with these so called academia, I was anything but disappointed.

But this post is not about modern science. It is about Christianity. My other biggest disappointment is Christianity as a religion. Right from the early Christian era of the 1st century, there are so many holes in the religion that I am surprised that believers think the Bible is the true word of God. I am not against Christians or Christianity. I am just disappointed at how the Christian religion evolved and how it is practiced today by mainstream Christians. Living in the boundaries of the Bible belt, most of the people here practice the Christian faith. However, in the past decade, I am yet to find a person who is seriously Christian in the sense that he or she is connected with Jesus in a spiritual way. All I here is dogmatic fundamentalism. Jesus is the way, otherwise eternal damnation or a very watered down materialistic form of Christianity. Recently I heard from a born again Christian, such material Christians are called "carnal Christians". I have not personally met any Christian who is practicing austerity for purifying one's existence.

Anyways, my point is Christian religion is simply a platform for either finding fault or for instant gratification. Honestly, I find this very disappointing. I also grew up in an Islamic state for eight years or so and honestly I found many Muslims piously submitting to Allah. Of course there is the terrorist aspect of it but that is a minority. Majority Muslims take their faith seriously or at least this has been my personal experience.

I hope I am not hurting anybody's sentiment, if so my sincere apologies. I just wanted to express my views on the Chrisitan faith.

Hare Krishna

Tulsi speaks with senior sanyasi Gopal Krishna Goswami at the Sri Sri Radha Parthasarathi Mandir in Delhi and participates in an arotik ceremony at the Sri Sri Radha Parthasarathi Mandir in Delhi, inaugurated in 1998 by the former Prime Minister of India, Mr. Vajpyee.

Preaching program in Moscow, Russia (Album 71 photos)
Srila Prabhupada: May the glorification of the transcendental name, form, qualities and paraphernalia of the Supreme Personality of Godhead protect us from the influence of bad planets, meteors, envious human beings, serpents, scorpions, and animals, like tigers and wolves. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 6.8.27)
See them here: http://goo.gl/gMnnVl