Prabhupada Letters :: Anthology 2014-10-06 09:49:00 →

1975 October 6: "Our principle is to simply repeat what is there in my books. We need not give up the association of devotees simply because there is a difference of opinion how to preach. If your conviction is strong, convince the others. But living outside the association of devotees will not be beneficial to your Krsna consciousness."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1975

Will Bring Us Closer To Krsna
→ Japa Group

Attentive chanting can be daunting at times....it's so very easy to let the mind go into other realms of thought. Something that happened yesterday that's stuck in our mind - something that's coming up in the future or something going on around us now.
The solution is here and it's easy....whatever your thinking about ignore it and just start to listen to what your chanting.
Listen very carefully to what your chanting and do that for the next round and then the next and keep going and don't stop.
Attentive chanting will bring us closer to Krsna - it will allow us to feel the Lord's spiritual energy once again.

Visit to Goswami Academy, October 1, Houston
Giriraj Swami

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Student: How was Krishna made? How did He come?
Giriraj Swami: Listen very carefully, because this is a very difficult subject. There are two kinds of realities: material and spiritual. Material things have a beginning and an end, and spiritual things have no beginning and no end. A very important book describes Krishna as anadir adir — He is the origin of everything, but He has no origin. This is hard for us to understand, because everything in the material world has a beginning and an end, so we think that Krishna must also have a beginning and an end. But He doesn’t. For example, your father was created by his father, and his father was created by his father. If you keep going back, eventually you will come to someone who is the original father but He has no father. That is Krishna

Talk with Students at the Goswami Academy

What it Means to be Self-Satisfied, September 28, Houston
Giriraj Swami

1538Lord Caitanya and Rupa GoswamiGiriraj Swami read and spoke from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 9.151, during the Sunday program.

“Krishna is situated in everyone’s heart, and if one desires something, Krishna fulfills one’s desire. If the living entity by chance or fortune comes in contact with the Krishna consciousness movement and wishes to associate with that movement, Krishna, who is situated in everyone’s heart, gives him the chance to meet a bona fide spiritual master. This is called guru-krsna-prasada. Krishna is prepared to bestow His mercy upon all living entities, and as soon as a living entity desires the Lord’s mercy, the Lord immediately gives him an opportunity to meet a bona fide spiritual master. Such a fortunate person is fortified by both Krishna and the spiritual master. He is helped from within by Krishna and from without by the spiritual master. Both are prepared to help the sincere living being become free from material bondage.”

—Cc Madhya 19.151 purport

Sunday Talk

Mayapur Master-plan
→ Ramai Swami

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Omkara das, a town planner and Yadurani devi dasi, an architect, head up the Mayapur master-plan team. For the last two years they have been working on finishing documents that will outline the development of the town of Sridhama Mayapur.

The GBCs of Mayapur regularly meet with the leaders and managers to discuss issues and strategies that will help advance the vision Srila Prabhupada had for Mayapur. By his mercy and the mercy of Sri Sri Radha Madhava, Panca Tattva, Lord Nrsimha, may it come to pass.
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New Vrindaban Daily darsan @ October 5, 2014
→ New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

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Beyond the material world dominated by the three modes of nature is the splendid divine ocean of bliss that is the bija syllable of the Kama-gayatri mantra. In that ocean is a wonderfully beautiful island. In that island is the realm of Vrndavana, and in a secluded place of Vrndavana is an enchantingly beautiful forest garden. In that garden are Sri Sri Radhika-Krsnacandra, the two great treasures of intense transcendental bliss. Please worship Them with great devotion.

[Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrindavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, Sataka-3, Text-11 Translation.]

Please click here for more photos ….

We are all Hare Krishnas now, meditation goes mainstream
→ KKSBlog

By: Brendan O’Connor

Article from the Sunday Independent

Gradually they are coming out the woodwork. And suddenly it seems that half the people I know are secretly meditating. They range from casual transcendental meditators to practically full-blown Buddhists or Hare Krishnas.

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(The Beatles were taught meditation by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1960s)

And the strange thing is that these are not hippies or crusties or drop-outs or people living alternative lifestyles on an ashram-inspired commune near Sligo. Just regular blokes, a few of them quite senior in what they do. There are thrusting business types and entrepreneurs and generally pretty serious people. These are not people who go for reiki or acupuncture or any of the other usual trappings of the “I’m not religious but I am a very spiritual person” lifestyle. They are fairly practical people. And meditation is just one of their tools, a technology for modern living.

I have a theory on one thing that does bind them together. They are fathers of young children. And I have a theory that fathers of young children will do anything for a few minutes of peace and quiet. For some of us, it’s the warm embrace of the Sunday papers enveloping you, for others it’s a run, for some it is sitting in a shed tinkering with something. But seemingly for more and more guys, it’s meditation.

And you can see why. Because it’s not really acceptable in these days of superdadism to blithely announce that you are heading out for a game of golf. If you are not working, you are supposed to be ministering to your kids, or smothering them, as said children probably experience it.

But heading off to meditate is completely acceptable, because it’s like maintenance. It’s like pulling into the garage to fill your tank. It’s like eating, almost. Eating chicken soup for the soul. It has to be done. And you can hint darkly that it is to everyone’s benefit that you get to do your daily meditation – or sitting and doing nothing, as it’s also known.

Sitting down to empty the mind may have been construed in the past as having a little rest. But not any more. This is because we live in an age of mindfulness, when it is recognised as everyone’s God-given right, in the First World, to tune in, turn on and drop out for a while. Or sit there breathing as you might call it.

I was reading somewhere recently that while we might think of Hare Krishnas as a marginal cult, their influence on the world we live in now is enormous. The view seems to be that while the religion has not succeeded in the mainstream as such, the ideas have. Everywhere you look there is watered down Hare Krishna-ism, from the kinds of foods we eat, to the notion of sustainable, community-based living, to the whole mindfulness thing.

It seems we are all a little bit Hare Krishna now. Do you practise yoga? Are you a vegetarian? Do you believe in karma? Do you believe in positive vibes through social media? Then, my friend, you might just be a little bit Krishna-conscious.

Even the Hare Krishnas themselves are living regular lives these days. After the usual sex scandals and so on that plague most cults and religions, many modern Hare Krishnas live what they call “householder lives”, meaning they don’t chant in airports anymore, instead leading lives of devotion and spirituality while holding down jobs, wearing regular clothes and raising children.

I am toying with the whole meditation idea as a way of dealing with stress and getting a bit of a guaranteed sit-down, but it kind of bothers me that it would be the equivalent of someone who doesn’t believe in God praying to him just for a bit of quiet time. Or going to Mass to get a break from all the noise.

Is it really right? Is it OK that we take the trappings of spiritual techniques, just to use them as accoutrements of the modern world? Or is it actually no harm to use these ancient techniques purely as technology, without actually buying into the whole thing?

Or worse, do the Hare Krishnas and the rest of them know something we don’t? Do they know that the more people they can get to chant or meditate or not eat meat or do the yoga, even if those people just do it for well-being and buns of steel, the more people they bring a little closer to Krishna.

Will we all end up in saffron robes some day?

Read the original article on the Sunday Independent website.

Robber’s Market
→ travelingmonk.com

Mumbai’s “Thieves Market,” deep in the heart of the city, gets it’s name from notorious robbers of yore who would peddle their stolen goods throughout the market. More tame in modern times, the bazzar teems with items of antiquity like furniture, paintings, lamps, old photos, silverware and more — attracting collectors, tourists, locals and the [...]