Planet ISKCON

The post Sunday night’s kirtan reaches dancing pitch and brings Prince Island’s police, for the second time appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

The post How the eternal treasure of Goloka becomes the yuga-dharma appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

The post Last seminar on the modes of nature and specifically, how to transcend them appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Vrajvadhus Kirtan @ cultural event on Radhastami

Kirtan + Dinner
Wednesdays & Sundays 6pm
Each evening will introduce a fresh topic for contemplation interwoven with music, mantra and meditation.
Wed 1 Oct Jumping Power for Life’s Hurdles
Sun 5 Oct What is Kirtan?
Wed 8 Oct Chant 4 Change
Sun 12 Oct Roots of Kirtan
Wed 15 Oct Intro to Yoga Psychology
Sun 19 Oct Being for Real in a World of Labels
Wed 22 Oct Sweeter and Smoother Relationships
Sun 26 Oct The Heart of Yoga – 6 Hour Kirtan*
Wed 29 Oct Happy Heart Everyday Wednesdays
Wednesdays $10/$5 for students w ID
Sundays Koha

Yoga + Kirtan + Dinner
Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Sundays 5pm
A warm-up 45 minute Vinyasa Flow Yoga Class to free the body, then fly high into the Kirtan Programme at 6pm.
Tuesdays & Wednesdays $12
Sundays Koha

Drumming Workshop + Dinner
Tuesday 7 & 14 October 6pm
Learn introductory techniques to the Mridanga, a two-sided clay drum originating from India. If you have your own mridanga please bring it, otherwise some will be available.
$10

Jam Night Kirtan + Dinner
Tuesday 21 & 28 October 6pm
Bring your ukulele, tambourine, guitar, your own voice, come clap your hands, any instrument welcome! or sit back and absorb the Kirtan. Open for everyone.
$10

*6 Hour Kirtan! + Dinner
Sunday 26 October 5pm–midnight (includes 1 hour dinner interlude)
Indulge in the ultimate sound experience. A variety of Kirtan leaders & bands will lead us through a non-stop evening. Come by for as much as you can, for what promises to be an awesome night!
Koha

BY GAURAVANI DASA

KUALA LUMPUR - "Then the Bhattacarya asked Caitanya Mahaprabhu, "Which item is most important in the execution of devotional service?" The Lord replied that the most important item was the chanting of the holy name of the Lord.

PURPORT: There are nine items to be executed in devotional service. These are enumerated in the following verse from the Srimad-Bhagavatam (7.5.23):

sravanam kirtanam visnoh 
smaranam pada-sevanam
arcanam vandanam dasyam
sakhyam atma-nivedanam

Hearing the glories of the Lord, chanting, remembering, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering worship in the temple, offering prayers, becoming a servant of the Lord, becoming the Lord's friend, and sarvatma-nivedana, offering oneself fully at the lotus feet of the Lord — these are the nine devotional processes. In The Nectar of Devotion, these are expanded into sixty-four items. When Sarvabhauma Bhatttacarya asked the Lord which item was most important, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu immediately answered that the most important item is the chanting of the holy names of the Lord — Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare." - CC Adi 6.241

BY GAURAVANI DASA

KUALA LUMPUR - "My dear Lord, I have no problems and want no benediction from You because I am quite satisfied to chant Your holy name. This is sufficient for me because whenever I chant I immediately merge in an ocean of transcendental bliss. I only lament to see others bereft of Your love. They are rotting in material activities for transient material pleasure and spoiling their lives toiling all day and night simply for sense gratification, with no attachment for love of Godhead. I am simply lamenting for them and devising various plans to deliver them from the clutches of maya." (SB 7.9.43)

SB 01.15.36 Golden age starts in the heart 2013-01-30

Lecture – Srimad Bhagavatam 1.15.36 Golden age starts in the heart 2013-01-30 Melbourne AKA “blind stupid short lived and unhappy” One can neutralize the effects of Kali by keeping oneself fully under the supreme care of Lord Krishna.

SB 01.15.35 Attachment to Desires 2013-01-29

Lecture – Srimad Bhagavatam 1.15.35 Attachment to Desires 2013-01-29 Melbourne The Lord as a magician is eternally existent and is never vanquished in any circumstance.

The following is adapted from Google’s invitation to the talk:

People usually try to avoid death—both the topic and the event. And why should we contemplate death and dying—how can we profit? As a friend of our speaker said shortly before his death, “When you get this close to death, you see that it is not what you thought. All our life we fear it, but when you are this close you see that it is not the end; it is a portal to opportunities beckoning us, beyond which we are able to see our true existence and nature—that we are all actually entities that don’t pass away. It is not something negative or destructive; it is the opposite of that—hugely life affirming. Life is for learning lessons, and death is our best instructor to teach us the most important of lessons, because it reveals the essence and purpose of our life and throws a light on our real spiritual nature.”

In this talk, Giriraj Swami, author of Life’s Final Exam, will present experiences of people who left their bodies in a heightened state of consciousness, so that we can use their valuable insights to make the best out of the rest of our lives.

Bio:

Giriraj Swami is an author, spiritual leader, and founder of the Bhaktivedanta Hospice and the Vrindavan Institute of Palliative Care in India, whose mission is to provide patients the best possible physical, emotional, and spiritual care. He currently resides in Carpinteria, California, and lectures throughout the world on Vedic philosophy and practice.

When we fuel our car, we expect the fuel to last for a particular distance. If we get a low fuel signal prematurely, we will check if the indicator is malfunctioning.

We need to check similarly whenever we get an “I am hungry” signal between mealtimes. The hunger signal may be coming from not the depleted body but the tempted mind. The mind’s craving is a pseudo-hunger that masquerades as hunger.

The hunger signal may be coming from not the depleted body but the tempted mind.

Pseudo-hunger can mislead us because we want eating to be not just a filling activity but also a fulfilling activity. And there’s nothing wrong in wanting our food to taste good. We, unlike cars, are conscious, so we can’t equate our eating with putting the petrol pipe into a car’s fuel tank. Indeed, much of human culture centers on preparing, serving and savoring good food.

Nonetheless, pleasure is a supplementary purpose of eating – its primary purpose is nourishment. So, our pursuit of satisfaction in eating needs to be subordinated to or harmonized with nutrition. When we eat only to enjoy, we tend to eat too much or too opulently or too frequently, thereby disturbing the very bodily balance that eating was meant to restore.

What makes matters worse is the popular culture that aggressively glamorizes the taste of fast foods and other less-than-healthy eatables. Such ads aggravate the pseudo-hunger signals within us, eventually sentencing us to the increasingly widespread malaise of obesity and its associated health issues.

How can we unmask pseudo-hunger?

By its untimeliness and selectiveness.

Pseudo-hunger can be identified by its untimeliness and selectiveness.

If we feel hungry long before a mealtime, especially after we have eaten adequately at the previous meal and haven’t thereafter done anything unusually draining, then what is pushing us to grab a snack is pseudo-hunger. And if we feel pushed towards a pizza or a pakoda rather than just something to fill the stomach, then again the pusher is pseudo-hunger.

We can check our feelings better when we situate ourselves above them instead of being caught in their flow. The best way to raise ourselves above our feelings is by philosophical education and devotional meditation. Philosophical education helps us understand our actual identity as spiritual beings, souls, who exist above our bodily cars. And devotional meditation links us with God, Krishna, the reservoir of all happiness, and yields spiritual satisfaction, thereby making unhealthy bodily pleasures redundant.

Of course, education and meditation do much more than protect us from pseudo-hunger – they fulfill our heart’s hunger for lasting love by uniting us with the supremely loving and lovable person, Krishna. The Bhagavad-gita (06.17) declares that those who strive in their activities to be yukta (materially regulated and spiritually connected) eventually transcend all miseries.

The post Questions and answers at the Bhakti-fest on Sunday appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.