Planet ISKCON

"The Lord and His name are one and the same. This will be understood clearly when the coverings in your heart are removed. By chanting without offenses you will personally realize that all perfections come from the holy name...."

The True Nature of the Holy Name
A Letter from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura

The arrival of devotees from around the world - among them senior devotees like Niranjana Swami, Radhanath Swami and Malati devi dasi has added to the already spiritually sweet, enlivening atmosphere of ISKCON Tirupati. ISKCON News readers able to read the highlights of initiatives adopted through these meetings over the next few days.

Cyclonic Storm Hudhud raged through the province of Andhra Pradesh on India’s East Coast on October 12^th with wind speeds of 109 mph, causing what initial estimates say could be as much as 70,000 crore rupees (11 billion US dollars) in damages and killing at least 84 people.

The Latest ISCOWP News is now online

Some Articles
Be a Vegetarian/Krsna Dairian & Stop World Hunger
Part 1: Cow Protection and Vegetarianism
Part 2:  Diet Change Can Save the World

Our Father the Bull
Part 1: How Green is Your Tractor?
Part 2: Oxen Can Save the Planet.

How the Cow and Bull Benefit our Society
Part 1: Cow Dung and Urine, a Bio Resource
Part 2: Cow Manure is an environmental Hazard, Or is it?

Violence to the Cow and Bull Creates Violence to Humankind
Part 1: Why September 11? Animal Slaughter= War.
Part 2: The Cause of Animal Slaughter is a Godless Society

Two days ago we celebrated the disappearance day of Srila Narottam das Thakur. What better place to observe the event than in Vrindavan, where he lived for many years studying under Srila Jiva Goswami with his dear friends, Srinivas Acarya and Syamananda Pandit. Emotions were running very deep in the devotees hearts during the celebrations.

Indradyumna Swami: Two days ago we celebrated the disappearance day of Srila Narottam das Thakur. What better place to observe the event than in Vrindavan, where he lived for many years studying under Srila Jiva Goswami with his dear friends, Srinivas Acarya and Syamananda Pandit. Emotions were running very deep in the devotees hearts during the celebrations. Read more ›

The post October 15th, 2014 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Lecture Podcast

ISCOWP's primary concern is to present alternatives to agricultural practices that support and depend upon the meat and dairy industries' slaughter of innocent animals, specifically the cow. To this end, ISCOWP presents the practices and philosophy of compassionate cow protection which includes dietary change supportive of cow protection and training oxen (male cows or steers) to replace farm machinery and thereby show an alternative to their slaughter. The tenets of cow protection are universal and nonsectarian, available to all regardless of race, creed, or nationality. Read more ›

Внешняя и внутренняя кирпичная кладка
Сооружение главного алтаря
Строительство алтаря для Господа Нрисимхадева
Начало изготовления глиняного мурти Шрилы Рупы Госвами
Мост Шрилы Прабхупады
Вид ХВП с Навадвипы

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The post Последние новости со стройки в Октябре appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

From today’s Bhagavatam class.

The post How the personified Vedas attained the perfection of gopi bhava appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

The post Sivarama Swami’s Bhagavatam class in Titupati appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Our relationship with Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is eternal. Nitya-siddha Krishna-prema. The pure souls are eternally in love with Krishna. Simply by chanting the Hare Krishna mantra one revives his original relationship with God and thus becomes so happy that he does not want anything material. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 7.7.39 Purport) Read more ›

For the last 3 years we have been arranging this procession and feast at his bhajan kutir in Radha Kunda where he wrote Caitanya Caritamrita! Read more ›

Lecture Podcast

According to our old guide on Braj cooking, Sunil Goswami from the Radha Vallabh Temple in Vrindavan, Krishna enjoys unlimited varieties of sweets made by Srimati Radharani and Yasoda Mayi . This season past the wonderful imarti, the cousin of the jalebi, made in Braj during navratri. Exactly 2 weeks after, not a single piece of imarti could be found anywhere. The present time brajabasi sweetmakers are piling up the nectarine chandrakala (my favorite), two puri's folded at the ends with ground cashews, other nuts, spices and sugar......deep fried in cow's ghee. Following season which is Diwali, the gujjia another mouth-watering sweet will fill up the sweet boxes. You can try making these fab sweets for your Deities at home. Read more ›

Damodarastakam Guru puja

Answer Podcast

Answer Podcast

Lecture Podcast

1968 October 15: "So many rascals and fools employed in the government service deride Krishna. They think He was black and therefore low-born. In this way, how much they have become degraded. If you try to criticize, do it very carefully. But we must speak the right thing."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968

1968 October 15: "They keep some spiritual master as pet dog or cat. He is misguided and without any knowledge in our line neither he is ready to accept any bona fide instructor. But our mission is to preach Krishna Consciousness so let us try to help him as far as possible."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968

Revati-raman Das, the president of ISKCON Tirupati, invited the GBC to have their midterm meeting in the temple complex. Tirupati is famous as the home of Lord Venkatesvara where more than 30 million pilgrims come to take His darshan every year.

There are many places of pilgrimage for Krishna devotees, especially in India. Devotees visit them to become inspired in their spiritual lives. Devotees of Krishna observe the appearance of Radha Kunda, also known as Bahulashtami. This Wednesday, October 15, 2014 the Hare Krishna Centre will be celebrating this auspicious occasion beginning at 6:00pm and will include kirtan and a wonderful discourse.

"...Chanting is very simple, but one must practice it seriously."

Chaitanya Caritamrta Adi 7.32 purport

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 23 September 2012, Durban, South Africa, Radhastami Lecture)

Wherever in this world there were great manifestations of love between Radha and Krsna, not only was it an extraordinary experience for those who were present there, but actually that entire place also became transformed.

Various places in Vrindavan, where Radha and Krsna had great exchanges of love, are very potent with powerful mercy that becomes available to us as well. The appearance of Radha-kund, the lake of Srimati Radharani, is a most special occasion, as it is said that Radha kund is the most sacred space in the entire universe – because it is made of liquid prema, pure love of Radha and Krsna who perform many pastimes on the banks of those sacred waters.

In the tenth canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, there is a little anecdote given by Visvanath Cakravarti Thakur on appearance of Radha-kund. Krsna, at one point, killed the demon Aristasura that appeared in the form of a bull. Aristasura was a demoniac personality who took the form of the bull and came to kill the residents of Vrindavan, but then Krsna killed him. At that point, the innocent young gopis said, ‘Ah Krsna, do not touch us now, O killer of a bull! Alas, even though Aristasura was a terrible demon, still he was a male cow, so you will have to undergo atonement, just as Lord Indra did after killing Vritasura. But how can you purify yourself without taking trouble of visiting every single holy place in the three worlds?’  Krsna replied to them, ‘Why should I have to wonder throughout the entire universe? I will at once bring all the countless pilgrimage places here and take my bath in them. Just watch!’

Lord Mukunda struck his heel on the ground and said, ‘This is the water from the Ganga River coming from the Patala region! Now, oh holy places, all of you, please come here!’  When the Supreme Lord had spoken these words, all the holy places appeared before him. Krsna then addressed the gopis, ‘See, all the holy places!’ But the gopis replied, ‘We don’t see them, as you have described!’  Then the presiding deities of all the holy places, joining their palms in supplication, spoke up, ‘I am the salt ocean, I am the ocean of milk, I am the river Sindhu, I am the Tamraparni, I am the holy place Pushkar, I am the river Sarasvati. We are: Yamuna, Godavari and Reva rivers, and also the confluence of rivers at Prayag! Just see our waters!’

Then, after purifying himself by bathing in their waters, Lord Hari became quite arrogant and said, ‘I produced a pond that contains all the various holy places, whereas you gopis never executed any religious duties on this earth for the pleasure of Lord Narayana!’  Then Srimati Radharani addressed her gopi friends as follows, ‘I must create an even more beautiful pond, so please go to work!’  Having heard these words, the gopis saw that Aristasura’s hooves have dug a shallow ditch just west of Sri Krsna’s pond and at that nearby spot, all the gopis started digging lumps of earth. In this way, a divine pond manifested in an hour. Krsna was astonished to see the lake they had produced! The gopis wanted to make a human chain from Manasi Ganga and fill the lake with its waters with help of buckets, but Krsna was thinking that this would take too long. So, he ordered all the holy waters to enter into Radharani’s kund.

Thus in Vrindavan, we have Syama-kund and Radha-kund, divine lakes of Krsna and Srimati Radharani. Such eternal places that exist in the spiritual world are manifested within the material universe by the divine arrangement of the Supreme Lord in order to make his mercy widely available. These places are evenly accessible, at least to a degree, to the conditioned souls like us  – and that is just extraordinary! Such is the inconceivable mercy of the Lord!

 

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.9.18.

“Everybody is offering Krishna prayers and worship, and He appreciates it and accepts it. But He enjoys more when He forgets that He is God and reciprocates with intimate, confidential associates who also forget that He is God. This is the special feature of Vrindavan. In His original form of Krishna—who is the unlimited supreme—He allowed himself to be bound by ropes by Mother Yasoda. Still, within that pastime, or lila, He also manifested His unlimited potencies. But her love for Him was so intense that His display of mystic power did not eclipse her conception that He was her son. He manifested His unlimited potencies to test her determination—and to show the world that He is God—but she always maintained the conviction that He was her son.”

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Kirtan
Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.9.18

Sringara-vat is just off the parikrama marg, not far from Kesi Ghat. It is a site of Radha and Krsna’s eternal pastimes and the first place that Lord Nityananda visited when He came to Vrindavan. Our parikrama party, now numbering close to 400 devotees, absorbed the mercy of Srngara -vat with many hours of kirtan [...]

From Vighnesh P

Answer Podcast

Answer Podcast

It is essential that one constantly associate with pure devotees who are engaged morning and evening in chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. In this way one will get the chance to purify his heart and develop ecstatic pure love for Krishna. (Nectar of Devotion, 17) Read more ›

The Deepavali Damodara Festival had always been one of the highly anticipated festival by devotees of Sri Jagannatha Mandir KL each year and this time around, this festival’s grand launch was held at Kandiah Hall, Brickfields Kuala Lumpur. A popular local political figure, Dato Dr J. Loga Bala Mohan, Deputy Minister of Federal Territories was invited to grace the launch of Deepavali Damodara Festival. The launch took place on 6th October 2014, before the commencement of Damodara Masa. Read more ›

The Kartik Challenge! I nominate my disciple Janava Mata and her husband Dina Dayadra along with Emma from Brighton to sing the 3rd verse of Damodarastaka in aid of Radha Krishna Records! Continue reading →

The post October 14th, 2014 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.

And how it differs from Gaudiya Vaisnavas’ perspective of Balaji and Govinda.

The post The general spiritual perspective of Balaji’s devotees of their Govinda appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.