You Simply Hear
→ Japa Group

"Chanting. You simply hear. When you say "Hare Kṛṣṇa," you try to hear the very sound, "Hare Kṛṣṇa." That's all. Nothing more. This is meditation. Your tongue and your ear should be engaged in sounding this transcendental vibration, "Hare Kṛṣṇa." Best meditation."

SP Lecture Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Madhya 6.254
L.A. January 8, 1968

We must have some fun!
→ KKSBlog

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, October 2014, Mayapur, India, Siksastakam Seminar: Verses 1&2, Part  1)
radhadeshmellows_2012Burning material desires may manifest in various ways. One way is that we think of sense objects. Another way may be that we do not think of sense objects – as devotees, we can come to a stage where we do not allow our mind to think of sense objects, so we do not think of sense objects – but then, the blazing fire of material desire manifests in dissatisfaction. And for a long time, we are dissatisfied. When a devotee is not happy, that is dangerous, because we need happiness. A devotee MUST be happy! That is very important. We should not just ignore that, su-sukhaḿ kartum avyayam (Bhagavad-gita 9.2). It must be joyfully performed; you must have some fun in spiritual life. It is important that everyone, not only the mahabhagavats – the topmost vaishnavas are having all the fun – and for everyone else, it is just duty, duty, heavy duty spiritual life; that cannot not last, for how long can one do so? Then one will surely embrace the material energy so we must also cultivate some fun. Part of this Kirtan Academy (in Mayapur) is for that; to just have some fun – have some kirtan; that is great fun.

 

ECOV Oversees Multiple Cow Protection Improvements in 2014
→ New Vrindaban

By Madhava Smullen

“Krishna by His practical example taught us to give all protection to the cows and that should be the main business of New Vrindaban,” Srila Prabhupada wrote to his disciple Hayagriva Das in 1968, leaving little doubt as to the community’s focus.

Since then, New Vrindaban has always protected cows. But this year, the Eco-Vrindaban organization – which looks after 640 acres of rolling green forests and pastures – has renewed its focus, overseeing multiple improvements in the quality of cow care.

To begin with, a higher budget and a larger number of experienced devotee staff have been assigned to the community’s 48 cows, calves and oxen. The team, consisting of longtime program overseer Ranaka, inspirational guide Varshana Swami, ox teamster Daivata, caretakers Radhanath and Ray, and milkers Anandavidya, Lalita Gopi, and Radhapriya meet every month.

One major step they’ve made this year has been to increase medical care, proven by the case of milking cow Shankari, who fell and broke her leg on the pasture in March.

In the world of commercial dairy farming, this would mean an instant death sentence. Shankari’s devotee caretakers, however, spent $10,000 to give her the best veterinary care available at the OSU veterinary hospital in Columbus, Ohio. There, she received an X-ray, surgery to fix the break, and a high-quality cast. Now, she’s walking again, healing in her own private pasture.

In April, older cows Bahula and Kalindi developed eye cancer and were brought to OSU for an operation to remove the infected eyes. Radhanath then washed their wounds daily and applied localized penicillin when Kalindi developed an infection. Since then, both cows have healed.

Besides immediate medical needs, ECOV’s cow caretakers add other personal touches too. Head milker Anandavidya is doing a trial run on the product Fly Predator to rid the cows of bothersome flies. “The company sends you the larvae of a particular species of fly, which eats the larvae of the pest flies,” he says.

Meanwhile his wife Lalita Gopi has spent a lot of time cutting back the thorny wild rose bushes in the field next to the milking barn so that the cows don’t hurt themselves.

The milking cows can also look forward to a clean and cosy winter this year. Radhanath and carpenter Vyasasana Das have extended the feeding aisle in the milking barn to accommodate twice the number of cows, and created an enclosed “loafing area” where they can lie down in a clean, comfortable, hay-covered space. 

There are also plans to create a new drainage system for the “hospital pasture” next to the milking barn where pregnant cows and calves are kept. This will prevent the cows from getting hoof rot, which can be extremely painful and is caused by too much time in mud.

The devotees caring for the cows also need to be cared for, and there are hopes to insulate the milking barn by this winter to keep the milkers warm.

“I was there last winter, and it’s brutal!” says part-time milker Radhapriya. “By the time you’ve finished milking it’s like you don’t have feet anymore. No matter how many socks or how many layers of clothes you wear, you just can’t stay warm!”

That hasn’t stopped the milkers from working hard. Anandavidya and Lalita Gopi are now milking nine cows – twice as many as last year – in the mornings and evenings. That means double the milk too, with an average of thirty gallons every day. In the afternoons, Anandavidya makes butter, yoghurt and panir from the milk, providing most of the dairy for the Deities, devotees and the community Govinda’s Restaurant during offpeak times.

 The focus on cow protection at New Vrindaban has encouraged other devotees and guests to help with the cows too. Milking times are advertised as part of the temple schedule, so devotees occasionally come to milk, wash, feed or brush a cow. And South Indian brahmana Venkat Chalapati brings a group of guests nearly every morning for Go-puja and a chance to milk a cow.

“Lalita Gopi says that everyone should milk a cow at least once in their life,” Radhapriya enthuses. “And she’s right. When you spend time with cows, it automatically transports you into a relaxing, sattvic environment. You can go into the barn all stressed out, and being with the cows just makes it better. It slows you down – cows are not going to rush for anything!”

To add extra incentive for guests to visit, devotees have made the milking barn more attractive by painting Rangoli designs in the interior, and adding landscaping, freshly painted fences and a swing bench flanked by large, ornate flower pots to the exterior.

Of course, it’s not just the cows that are being cared for. Exciting developments are also afoot for oxen. Vyasasana Das is currently rebuilding an old barn in the Bahulaban area where the animals will be kept and trained separately from the main herd. The first floor will include spacious stalls for each ox and a tack room for equipment, while the second floor will be a hay loft. Outside there’ll be a training yard and holding area, with grazing pastures beyond.

Six bull calves between the ages of one month and one year – Pundarikaksha, Priya Darshan, Amani, Harichand, Nandi and Ishan – are already residing in Bahulaban and beginning their training to be oxen. Varshana Swami and Daivata Das, who worked with oxen in New Vrindaban’s early days, are leading the program.

The oxen are currently walking with a training yoke so that they get used to working together in pairs and learning commands. After that, they’ll start pulling a rope, then a chain and then a sled carrying firewood. Next, they’ll train for all the stages of breaking up soil until it’s fine enough to plant in – first plowing, then discing, and lastly harrowing.

Finally, when they’re two years old, the oxen will be ready to tackle the real precision work -- pulling a cultivator between rows of crops. Varshana Swami hopes that they’ll make their first appearance at the community’s Garden of Seven Gates by next summer, and will be in serious production mode the summer after that.

Oxen, Varshana Swami feels, symbolize the kind of spiritual community Srila Prabhupada envisioned in New Vrindaban. “When you hitch two oxen together, the team dynamic kicks into play,” he says. “And Krishna is attracted where there’s teamwork, where there’s synergy, where there’s harmony, where everybody’s working together.”

“Which is,” he concludes, “What we here at New Vrindaban call the Brijbasi Spirit.”

Join us with your family & friends for this Sunday, December 14th,2014 from 11:00am to 2:00pm. Hear and associate with Her Grace Kamala Gopi Devi Dasi.
→ ISKCON Brampton


Sunday Love Feast

When?
Sunday,Dec 14th,2014
Program starts at 11 am

Where?
6 George Street South
Brampton, Ontario
L6Y 1P3, Canada
Park underground(free) @ City Hall
Phone:416-648-3312

New! Listen
Click here to listen to previous class recordings on our blog
Make a Donation
 Srimad Bhagavatam 7.11.35
yasya yal lakṣaṇaṁ proktaṁ
puṁso varṇābhivyañjakam
yad anyatrāpi dṛśyeta
tat tenaiva vinirdiśet
Translation
 
If one shows the symptoms of being a brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya or śūdra, as described above, even if he has appeared in a different class, he should be accepted according to those symptoms of classification.
 
Program Schedule
11.00- 11.15      Tulsi Puja                                           
11.15 - 11.30     Guru Puja                                            
11:30 –11:55     Aarti & Kirtan                                      
11.55 - 12.00    Sri Nrsingadeva Prayers                  
12.00 – 1:00     Vedic discourse
  1:00 –  1:30      Closing Kirtan
 
IB Monthly Sankirtan Festival(MSF)
This Sat from 11.00am-1.00pm
We encourage everyone to come out and participate and make Srila Prabhupada happy as this service is highly recommended by His Divine Grace.

For more details please  call us @ # 416.648.3312.

"In this age, chanting of Hare Krishna Mantra is the prime business of the devotee, and preaching of this Hare Krishna Mantra by outdoor Sankirtana and propagation of literature is our more important business. Side by side, Deity worship is recommended, but when there is a question of accepting one of them, we shall prefer to accept chanting of Hare Krishna Mantra first."
Srila Prabhupada(Letter to Hamsaduta – Hamburg 5 September, 1969.)
 
COMING UP AHEAD

Saphala
Fasting.....................on Dec 17th,2014
Breakfast.................on Dec18th,2014 b/w 7.46am-10.44am

Every fortnight, we observe Ekadasi, a day of prayer and meditation. On this day we fast (or simplify our meals and abstain from grains and beans), and spend extra time reading the scriptures and chanting the auspicious Hare Krishna mantra.

Bhakta Santa is coming to town
on Dec 25th 2014 from 11am-1.00pm at ISKCON Brampton

Celebrate Holidays with us with your family and friends.Do register your kids with our Sunday School teachers so we may reserve surprise gifts for them.

**Details of the program will be posted shortly**


ON GOING EVERY SUNDAY
Indian Classical Dance Classes
For more info please do contact Syamesvari Devi Dasi at the temple or write to syamesvaridasi@yahoo.com.
The dance is performed mainly with the theme of Infinite love of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna.

 
Sunday School

To register,contact us
Email:sundayschool108@gmail.com
Call:647.893.9363

The Sunday School provides fun filled strategies through the medium of music, drama, debates, quizzes and games that present Vedic Culture to children. However the syllabus is also designed to simultaneously teach them to always remember Krishna and never forget Him.
The Sunday School follows the curriculum provided by the Bhaktivedanta College of Education and Culture (BCEC).
 

Please note that ISKCON Brampton is a nut free environment in order to support those with allergies. Your cooperation is appreciated.
 
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Chant and Be happy!

Art of Kīrtan 4 – Example
→ The Enquirer

Here is a super basic example of the basic structure for using all three speeds of the 3-beat (half, normal and double speeds). Start off with the half speed, let it speed up and slow it back down. When you are ready, switch it to normal speed and let that consistently and gradually build speed. Then, switch it to double-speed. Let that build speed, and then break it back down to half-speed and repeat 24-hours a day.

Continued from Part 3


New Issue of “Imprint” Reports BBT Africa Successes
→ ISKCON News

The latest effort from the African branch of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust – which has been publishing ISKCON Founder Srila Prabhupada’s books in various African languages since 2009 – is the e-magazine “Imprint.” The magazine, which released one issue last year but is becoming a regular quarterly with this November’s issue, is intended to communicate all the latest developments of the BBT Africa.

Launching of the Srimad Bhagavatam Gifting Chain Project in Mumbai
→ ISKCON News

“The Srimad Bhagavatam Gifting Chain Project” is a unique idea inspired from the purport by Srila Prabhupada to the first verse of the first chapter of the first canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, where Srila Prabhupada referring to the Matsya Purana, states that anyone who makes a gift of this great work on a full moon day attains to the highest perfection of life by returning to Godhead.

A compilation of Govardhana silas from around the world (Album…
→ Dandavats.com



A compilation of Govardhana silas from around the world (Album 68 photos)
Srila Prabhupada: At every step there is danger. Therefore, because the Krishna consciousness movement provides the opportunity for the human being to get out of this material world simply by chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, this movement is the greatest benediction in human society. (Srimad Bhagavatam, 9.7.7 Purport)
See them here: http://goo.gl/uuz2Wx

Braja’s Life – Go-seva And Growing Your Own Food.. (Album…
→ Dandavats.com



Braja’s Life - Go-seva And Growing Your Own Food.. (Album 26 photos)
The brajabasi’s wealth are their cows or buffaloes, they store tons of hay and grow sweet 2 leaved clovers which they harvest and cut using a special hand cutting machine, ladies who don’t have land to grow grass for their cows go to distant fields and collect green grass for their cows. And their is no end to their seasonal vegetable gardens, all fresh and GMO free. Hare Krishna!
See them here: http://goo.gl/ZgLPYn

The More We Distribute, The More We Get, December 1, New Dwaraka, Los Angeles
Giriraj Swami

SPinParkThe members of the Krsna consciousness movement are not at all interested in so-called meditation in the Himalayas or the forest, where one will only make a show of meditation, nor are they interested in opening many schools for yoga and meditation in the cities. Rather, every member of the Krsna consciousness movement is interested in going door to door to try to convince people about the teachings of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, the teachings of Lord Caitanya. That is the purpose of the Hare Krsna movement. The members of the Krsna consciousness movement must be fully convinced that without Krsna one cannot be happy. Thus the Krsna conscious person avoids all kinds of pseudo spiritualists, transcendentalists, meditators, monists, philosophers and philanthropists.

—SB 7.9.44 purport

Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.9.44, LA

Greatest benediction!
→ Servant of the Servant

How is the Krishna Consciousness Movement the greatest benediction in human society?

At every step there is danger. Therefore, because The Krishna Consciousness Movement provides the opportunity for the human being to get out of this material world, simply by chanting the Hare Krishna Mantra, this movement is the greatest benediction in the human society.

- Srimad Bhagavatam, 9.7.7 purport

Chant for purification
→ KKSBlog

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

kingsday_2014Currently, our chanting may not be so complete, in the sense that it is free from any form of anartha or aparadha, and done in a full transcendental knowledge. But all chanting will help in purifying the dust from the heart to different degrees. Ceto-darpana-marjanam (Siksastakam 1).  We begin our chanting as a process of purification. Therefore, our first motive in chanting is for purification and this should be our approach: we do everything for purification.

Someone said to me, ‘I have no taste for chanting, so I gave up chanting. I cannot do it anymore – I have done it for years and I just had no taste for it and therefore I just can’t do it anymore!’  So what do you say to someone like that, especially after they have chanted for many, many years? I was thinking of what to say and after some thinking I said, ‘Look, for you it is too late, as you have chanted for too long! You are a devotee and there is nothing you can do about it; whether you chant or not, you are going to be a devotee. But there are two options for you: either you are going to be a happy devotee or you are going to be an unhappy devotee. And if you don’t chant you are going to be an unhappy devotee. But if you chant you can be a happy devotee!’

So we chant for purification; it is not about, ‘I have no taste!’  So much talk is there about taste, a higher taste, and that is good because we want to get there, to chant with a higher taste, but at the same time, chanting with a higher taste is quite high. Maybe sometimes we are chanting with some higher taste but to chant with a higher taste all the time is high. Therefore, for most of us, we go back to that platform of looking for purification, again and again, that should be there – looking for mercy and purification. Look for more purification and if anything more comes – some moments of higher taste – that is a bonus, that is extra, but that is not what should drive us, ‘Oh, I am chanting and still no higher taste!’

Maybe not, maybe not in this life, maybe the next life! Maybe not in the next life, but maybe the life after that, or maybe after a hundred lives, the higher taste will come. So, chant for purification because the mercy is so great, the gift that comes is so great, that is worthy of all efforts.

 

Texas Faith 136: A cup of coffee and other holy rituals
→ Nityananda Chandra Das' Blog, ISKCON Dallas

Dallas Morning News,
Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

Every faith has its rituals. Hopefully these help put us in the mind of being with God and make us more present in our prayer.
Our lives have their little rituals too.
In a recent article,Rabbi Patrick “Aleph” Beaulier wrote about the ritual of a morning cup of coffee.
The coffee is a pleasure certainly, but it is also a moment set aside, at best, for a little peace, perhaps silence and reflection. These moments apart are important to our lives as people of faith, as people who are trying to draw ourselves nearer to God. We have our rituals in our religious ceremonies too, often freighted or filled with symbolism and intended, in their own way, to draw us away from the run of our thoughts and into the peace we hope faith will bring.
How can our little daily rituals bring us closer to God? How can we make sure that, in everyday moments, we are building our path to the divine?
 












NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

In the Bhagavad Gita Śrī Krishna states in the ninth chapter that the art of doing everything for His sake is the perfection of yoga. In fact this is the perfection of life. To be 24 hours a day engaged in consciousness of Krishna, God. Our daily habits play a huge role to cultivate this consciousness. Upon waking a bhakta first chants the Lord’s holy names and bows with his head down before even leaving the bed. Followed by an early morning shower to not only keep the body clean but to refresh one’s consciousness. Kirtan and prayers begin at the temple at 4:30 am followed by a 2 hour session of meditation. Then again there is kirtan at 7 am followed by a class on the ancient Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. The bhakta follows a similar program in the evening as well, creating a sandwich of transcendental experiences.

 
Speaking of sandwiches this brings up another related topic. Everyone has to eat but food is not simply something for the belly, food is often a practical means to express love. Who better to love than the supreme loveable, Krishna? God is the root of everything, by watering the root all the leaves can be satisfied. Therefore the bhakta does not eat any food that cannot be first offered to God with love. Thus they abstain from eating animals. So not the act of eating can be a spiritual engagement but even the shopping, the cooking, and prep work as well. This is the art of Bhakti, to learn the ancient and blissful science of doing everything in the service of God.
 





To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.