Dear Brijabasis,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

As we do twice a year, the board members of ISKCON New Vrindaban and ECO-Vrindaban will meet face to face November 1st & 2nd, 2014.

In our ongoing efforts to improve communications, we are organizing a weekend of open presentations and discussions.

We humbly invite all New Vrindaban residents and well-wishers to participate.

Weekend schedule

Saturday, November 1st. 

10:00 am to 1:30 pm: Department Head Presentations for 2014 (under the Lodge)

1:30 pm to 2:30 pm: Lunch Prasadam (at Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s Temple)

2:30 pm to 4:30 pm: Community Dialog (under the Lodge)

6:00 pm to 7:30 pm: Srila Prabhupada Sangam (at his Palace)

Sunday, November 2nd.

10:00 am to 1:00 pm: New Vrindaban Tour (various locations around the Community)
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm: Sunday Program & Feast (at Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s Temple)

We would be honored if you join us throughout the weekend and look forward to seeing you then.

Hare Krishna!

Your servant,

Jaya Krsna das
ISKCON New Vrindaban Community President

From Aartee Mataji

Did Srila Prabhupada authorize his worship through his Deity?

Answer Podcast

From Jaya Krsna Prabhu

It increases bodily identity; it is not a part of our tradition; it is simply a wastage of money

Answer Podcast

From Keshava Kashmiri P

you made one point which says that brahman is the transitional realization (like a coast or negative y-axis) ,whereas bhakti towards bhagavan as ultimate realization ( + ve y-axis )
does this transition indicates that one can only get bhakti ,when one first goes through brahman realization .cant bhakti be obtained directly without going into brahman level . brahman level , i guess requires dominance of jnana ,in contrast to bhakti ,where jnana is subservient to bhakti . does this transitional realization ,indicates that bhakti can be obtained only when we have jnana .can't bhakti be obtained directly .is it not independent

Answer Podcast

All New Vrindavan Residents are invited to an Open Meeting of The New Vrindavan Advocacy Sanga.

Tuesday, Oct 21st  in the Lodge Hall

6 pm sharp.

Prasadam will be served at 8pm. 

The topic of discussion is for New Vrindavan resident devotees to 

1) voice our concerns in a supportive atmosphere

2) help clarify Community residents’ heartfelt issues. 

3) help shape the agenda for the upcoming public joint NV Boards/GBC meeting at the end of the month

We’d like to make it very clear that the New Vrindavan Advocacy Sanga is Not part of New Vrindavan management.  Rather, it is a group of devotees who have regularly gathered to discuss 

1)  how to improve the lives of all New V devotees and 

2) how to improve the relationship between the New V management and New V residents.

Respectful analysis, constructive criticism and forming practical positive proposals has been the format of our meetings.

The following is a list of the participating members of the Sanga during the last year:

Lilasuka, Jesse

Chaitanya Bhagavat

Nityodita

Vyasasana, Lokadrsti

Madhavananda 

Gaura Shakti

Sankirtan

Priti 

Srimati

Hoping to see you there!

NVCAS Members

 

1967 October 17 : "One who reads Brahma Samhita very scrutinizingly can understand everything of Krishna without any fault. I recommend all my students read Brahma Samhita very carefully."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1967

1967 October 17: "He deliberately disobeyed me and instead of opening new centers he delivers his nonsense sermons amongst his God-brothers which are all against our principles. He is undoubtedly a good soul, but he has been attacked by maya; he thinks too much of himself - even at the risk of disobeying his Spiritual Master."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1967

1971 October 17 : "I am very pleased that Indira Gandhi is now personally well known to you. For your presence only she has given special order for our devotees stay in Delhi. Certainly this is a good achievement."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1971

1971 October 17: "If you can make the MPs and government officials members of our society it will be a great service. Our movement is so important. Without taking to it, no other method, political, social, religious, or cultural, can give any relief to the present chaotic condition of the world."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1971

1972 October 17 : "Yesterday evening the Chief Minister of Assam came to see me and I have requested him to write a letter to the Chief Minister of Maharastra. I hope this will be advantageous for your purpose."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

1973 October 17: "This is the deficiency of our movement. Only mediocre men are joining and not the very intelligent class. I do not wish to increase more centers. The more we distribute books, the more we get solid ground of preaching work."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1973

1973 October 17 : "It was our temple, so how can they sell? This is illegal. Let it go on for the time being, and we shall see later on. They cannot go outside the clutches of Krsna consciousness. Yes, do not attempt to open any more centers."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1973

Escaping the Association of False Saints

Kapila explained: “Intimate association binds the soul, but experts know that the same intimacy applied towards saintly people opens the doorway to liberation.

One what criteria can a person be evaluated as “saintly”? Kapila explained, “You can recognize a ‘saintly person’ by the ‘ornaments’ they wear: tolerance, compassion, friendship with all creatures, enmity towards none, serenity, and honesty. Deeper than these ornaments, you can recognize a ‘saintly person’ by their essential nature: their entire being is firmly fixed in devotion to me. For my sake they are willing to sacrifice their own deeds, their own friendships, and even their own families.”

Canto Three (25.20–22)

The hallmark of such determination is that they are willing to sacrifice anything and everything for it.

But not at the expense of others. We have seen so many people run away from their families by putting on saffron halloween costumes and claiming to be sannyāsīs or brahmacārīs seeking the Absolute Truth, when in fact they were simply seeking to get free from the burden and stress of the responsibilities entrusted to them by the Creator. We ourselves have been guilty of this. But real saints do not behave in this manner. We did not see Kardama, for example, leave to the forest until his son was grown and promised to take care of Devahūti. We do not see Śrī Rūpa, for example, leave his family without first arranging for their welfare by giving a huge amount of wealth into their accounts.

Selfishness which dons the garb of “saintliness” is the most pernicious and disgusting of all. Better to be an honest drug addict than a deceptive “saint.”

To associate with false saints is worse than associating with materialists, for the association of a false saint directly destroyed ones interest and trust in the path of saints, bhakti, whereas the association of materialists merely inclines one towards materialistic pursuit if one is particularly weak. We should avoid false saints as we would avoid persons carrying a terrible, contagious disease.

In avoiding the false saints, we should not ourselves become a false saint by enjoying the garbage of criticizing them. Silently, patiently, calmly, honestly, and without enmity, we should arrange to avoid the intimate association of false saints, simply by not taking their example, advice, or instruction very seriously at all.

Please share your realisations with other devotees from around the world...simply send me an introduction message and I will be happy to make you a member:

rasa108 ::_::{.at.}::_:: gmail dot com

ys

Rasa Rasika dasa

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 03 November 2013, Vrindavan, India, Srimad Bhagavatam 10.09.12)

Mother Yashoda showed a mood of unalloyed dedication to Krsna. Even when Krsna became upset that Mother Yashoda was not attentive to him, still Mother Yashoda was only interested in Krsna.

It is said that mother Yashoda was stirring the yogurt and trying to make butter. At that time, Krsna wanted to drink milk from her breast. So Krsna came up and grabbed the stirring stick and held it so that she could not stir. Then she could see, “Oh! He wants attention!” Attention naturally meant Yashoda’s love. She took him upon her lap and then he began to drink her milk. Just as this was going on, the milk on the stove boiled over. It has been asked, “Why did mother Yashoda not just ignore that, since Supreme Personality of Godhead was seated on her lap? Why she give attention to that milk on the stove?”

Because, all along Mother Yashoda had personally taken up the mission to boil that milk because it was milk from the special cows that were eating special grass. From that milk, she wanted to make special sweets so that her son will stop the activity of stealing from others. Actually, she was only putting him down in the mood of trying to act for his wellbeing.

So never ever was there a moment when Yashoda was not fully dedicated to Krsna’s interest. She had no other interest than the interest of Krsna. This is indeed the level of surrender that the devotee is meant to attain.

 

It is the duty of the mahatmas to chant the Hare Krishna mantra and try to spread it all over the world to the best of their ability. Unfortunately, society is in such an uncivilized state that there are so-called mahatmas who are prepared to kill cows and children and stop the Hare Krishna movement. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 10.2.37 Purport) Read more ›

In the biggest congregation of Odissi dancers, 555 dancers from across India and abroad matched steps to perform the complete five-phase repertoire of classical Odissi for 28 minutes for the feat on December 24. The dancers started with "Mangalacharan," followed by "Batu," "Pallavi," "Abhinay" and "Mokshya." The colourful show held at the Kalinga Stadium to flag off the week-long International Odissi Festival was organised by the Department of Culture in collaboration with a cultural associations.

Yesterday we went to Goluka, in the Vrindavan countryside near the Yamuna river. There we heard the pastimes of Krsna killing the Putana witch and sereral other demons. But mostly we focused on Mother Yasoda binding the Lord with her love. Hearing the Damodar pastime in the very place that it happened had a special [...]

ECO-Vrindaban (ECOV), the self-sufficiency wing of ISKCON’s New Vrindaban community in West Virginia, USA, is on the lookout for a general manager to oversee its steadily expanding operations. Today ECOV has a herd of 48 cows, oxen, and calves, in contrast to the 300 it started with at its inception. This may at first seem like a step back, but it’s actually an intentional move towards a far more sustainable model.

The search for meaning lies at the essence of being human. Like other non-human beings, we too struggle for existence. Like them, we too are driven by our biological drives to eat, sleep, mate and defend. But we also have at our core a need to make sense of it all: “Why do I exist? Why does anything exist? What is the purpose of it all?”

What usually swallows us is not incomprehension but distraction.

Art, literature, science – these are all ways in which we try to find meaning. Through them, we create islets of comprehension amidst the pervasive ocean of incomprehension that threatens to swallow us. Of course, what usually swallows us is not incomprehension but distraction. Desires for petty pleasures keep us from seeking lofty insights. We sometimes look for meaning, but when we catch sight of pudding, the body drags us towards it and buries us in the oblivion of momentary sensory stimulation.

Pudding of course is a metaphor for all superficial indulgences that keep us from pursuing meaning. The Bible phrases this human vulnerability well: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Our perennial weakness is presently further aggravated by our technology-powered culture of mass distraction.

Perhaps the greatest impetus to seek meaning is the reminder of our mortality: “How can I sit salivating over a pudding when death is swooping down on me relentlessly?” Unfortunately, the culture takes away that impetus too by offering us yet another new-looking pudding: browse a new channel, surf a new site, try a new game. Gita wisdom compares our situation to goats that despite being on a slaughter line stay docile because they are given some grass to munch.

The tragedy of our settling for pudding is that we miss the meaning - and mess the pudding. 

The tragedy of our settling for pudding is that we miss the meaning - and mess the pudding. Despite our frenzied pursuit of material sensations, we are increasingly miserable even materially with rising rates of stress, anxiety disorders, depression, addiction and suicide – maladies that animals don’t suffer from.

If we wish to seek meaning, Gita wisdom stands ready to assist us. In fact, it (07.03) welcomes us by lauding us as cutting edge thinkers, one among millions who have had the courage to seek meaning. The Gita explains that our quest for meaning attains fulfillment in love, a love that trumps our mortality. We are at our core undying souls meant for immortal love. And the perfect object for our love is the all-attractive, all-loving Supreme Person, Krishna. All of existence is meant ultimately to prompt us to open ourselves to his love and to offer him our love.

When we learn to love him by practicing bhakti-yoga, the meaning we relish is so fulfilling we can’t but wonder why we settled for pudding for so long.

 

 

 

 

The first day of the conference at Kanpur was indeed a day of inspiration and planning for the near future. Prominent ISKCON leaders addressed the audience which consisted of communication personnel from different parts of the Indian subcontinent. Devotees were also given the opportunity to give detailed reports on their communications efforts at their respective centers.

2060 cardiac patients were closely examined during the experiment for 4 years before the scientists published their research in journal Resuscitation.

Seekers often ask, “Meditation is supposed to be rejuvenating, but I sometimes find it boring, even tiring. Why is that?”

In India, Africa and other traditional cultures women do all their daily routine with their babies attached to their bodies. Here, an orchestra with Western professional musicians perform Ode to Joy by Beethoven wearing Nati Notes wraps.

Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead: A Summary Study of Srimad-Bhagavatam’s Tenth Canto by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For most of us the term ‘Supreme Personality of Godhead’ is somewhat unusual. I know when I first encountered it I was bemused, wondering just who or what is a ‘Godhead’? Why not just God? Consulting the dictionary I discovered that Godhead means the ‘essential being of God’. This is precisely what Prabhupada intended to convey with his use of the term. There may be many names and forms of God, but Krishna is the original. He is the Supreme Being, the source of all other beings and indeed everything else in existence. One might take issue with this assertion, but a careful analysis of the facts should put the mind at rest. The Sanskrit word Krishna (Krsna) simply means ‘all attractive’, which surely must be God’s main attribute. All beauty, power, wealth, knowledge, wisdom and whatever else we find attractive have their source in him. This is what it means to be great, which most people will agree is the right word to apply to God.

Prabhupada’s book ‘Krsna: The Supreme Personality of Godhead’ shows that greatness in all of its splendour. A summary of the tenth canto of the Bhagavata Purana, it chronicles the activities of Krishna when he appeared on earth 5000 years ago. From his mystical ‘birth’ in the sacred township of Mathura, to his life in the celestial city of Dvaraka lying within the ocean, we hear of many wondrous deeds. Great demons are slain, barbarian armies of many millions are destroyed, and the hand of many a beautiful princess is won. But over and above all of this are the divine displays of love between Krishna and his devotees. It is said that God will reciprocate with us in whatever way we desire, and this is demonstrated by Krishna as he takes on his many roles. Whether acting as a delightful infant, a perfect son, a dear friend, a dashing lover or a mighty hero, Krishna’s focus is always on pleasing his devotees. Although he is God he makes it clear that nothing gives him more pleasure than to serve his own servants. In these accounts we discover that God is not some old bearded man sitting in heaven, passing judgment on us sinful wretches. Far from it, he is eternally youthful, the very essence of grace and beauty, of gentility, humility, kindness, sweetness and love. Of course, he can also be pretty fierce and unassailable. It all depends on how one approaches him. He is ready for anything. Those who want to fight with him will get the opportunity. Krishna will go along with that quite happily, but don’t expect your head to remain on your shoulders for very long. God’s greatness includes very great power.

I have read this book many times and found something new each time. Deep, transcendental knowledge fills every page. I won’t say it is not a challenging read. Prabhupada laces the narrative with much philosophy to help us understand the profound significance of Krishna’s activities. Really Krishna has no interest in material enjoyment or politics or anything else that generally moves us mortals. His only interest is divine love, giving it to us and receiving it back. This is the secret of understanding Krishna. Each of us are meant for that love and we can begin to experience it as we turn these pages. Gradually our envy of God is dispelled as we realise that better than trying to take his place is to become his loving servant. Then he gives himself to us. It is true that God cannot be conquered by any power, but he agrees to be conquered by love, the greatest power.

This is a truly wonderful work, but to better understand the philosophical concepts it espouses I would also recommend that you read Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Then you can dive deeply into the divine ocean of Krishna’s transcendental pastimes, and leave behind this mundane sphere of struggle and pain.

View all my reviews

С большой радостью мы встретили самый чудесный и самый благоприятный месяц Картика. С легкой руки Радха Дживаны прабху, команда сбора пожертвований для ТОВП подготовила лампадки для предложения Божествам от имени тех, кто пожертвовал «Золотые Кирпичи».

Мы составили список, в котором уже есть около 700 имен и полагаем, что к концу Картики список расширится. Митра Вринда дд и Ниргуна дд, две веселые сестры, которые неустанно принимают и фиксируют все пожертвования согласно с требуемыми законом нормами, пошутили, что во время «Дамодараштаки» мы будем петь «Донорс Сахасра Наму». («Тысяча имен спонсоров» – прим пер.).

Преданные объясняют, что предлагая лампадку Господу мы выражаем свое горячее желание служить Ему, лишь с помощью которого можно подчинить Кришну. И мы предлагаем лампадки от имени Золотых спонсоров Радха-Дамодаре, Шри Шри Радха-Мадхаве, Ашта-сакхи, Господу Нрисимхадеву, Шри Панча-таттве, Туласи деви и Шриле Прабхупаде. Искренне надеемся, что все Они дадут нам веревочку любви, которой мы свяжем Кришну в нашем сердце.

Пожалуйста внесите свой вклад, примите участие в кампании “Золотой Кирпич”: http://tovp.org/news/fundraising/donate-a-golden-brick-campaign/

---

The post Подношение на Каритку appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

The post Radhanatha Swami’s Bhagavatam class in Tirupati appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

The post Lord Ramacandra’s vow and on set backs really being service opportunities appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

The post October 16th, 2014 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.

The aged and wise are special – irreplaceable constituents of any family or society, what to speak of a spiritual movement. While many may have knowledge, the seasoned spiritualists bring something special to the table.

Lecture Podcast

 

"Even while engaged in various activities, devotees whose minds are completely absorbed at Your lotus feet, and who constantly hear, chant, contemplate and cause others to remember Your transcendental names and forms, are always on the transcendental platform, and thus they can understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 10.2.37) Read more ›

On the eighth day of the waning phase of the damodara month the appearance day of Radha Kunda is celebrated by the residents. Bathing in Radha Kunda is especially benefical on this day. By this one gains the favor of Radha, by which one gains the favor of Krsna. Radha Kunda appeared at midnight. People go to Radha Kunda and offer prasadam, garlands and pumkins (gords) into the water, then at midnight take bath in Radha Kunda and then bathe in Syama Kunda. Many people like to bathe at a ghat where Lord Nityananda's sakti, Jahnava Mata used to bathe. But wherever you go you better get there early as thousands of people/devotees will be there. And bring some warm clothing for afterwards, as it is sooooo "cooling". Read more ›

Indradyumna Swami: Yesterday we went to Gokula, in the Vrindavan countryside near the Yamuna river. There we heard the pastimes of Krsna killing the Putana witch and sereral other demons. But mostly we focused on Mother Yasoda binding the Lord with her love. Hearing the Damodar pastime in the very place that it happened had a special significance. And the kirtan afterwards? It was out of this world! Read more ›

Sundar Nitai Prabhu Srimad Bhagavatam 10 72 41 46

With their backs to the camera, it’s difficult to see who the two devotees are. Same with the horses. Hopefully someone can ID them.

This week’s challenge: Where and when was this photo taken?

What to do: Post your guesses on the “who, what, when, where & why” in the comment section at the Brijabasi Spirit website.