Is So Sublime
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"The chanting of the holy names of Kṛṣṇa is so sublime that if one chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra offenselessly, carefully avoiding the ten offenses, he can certainly be gradually elevated to the point of understanding that there is no difference between the holy name of the Lord and the Lord Himself."

Nectar Of Instruction 5

Who are we really?
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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 30 July 2014, Swiss Retreat, Switzerland, Candramrta and Chandradoya Nataka Seminar, Part 4)

krsna-and-the-gopisWe don’t know our eternal identity in the pastimes of Krsna at present. You never know how much of our eternal identity is coming through in our current identity. Maybe that brahmacari with the tattoos on his arm is a gopi in the spiritual world! Who knows? (laughter) It’s hard to say who is whom at present.

Now we are not really accessing our eternal identity and are acting according to a conditioned one. The pure functions of the soul are now temporarily covered by sleep. The soul is in a dormant state and the mind has taken over the functions of thinking, feeling and willing. Thinking, feeling and willing comes from the mind now, whereas originally these are from the soul.

In the spiritual world, we have no mind. What a relief! That is reason enough to go there!

 

 

 

Children from Bhakta Prahlad School run by HG Yamuna lila Mataji in Iskcon Pune perform Krishna lila (video)
→ Dandavats.com

Youth preaching at Pune has broughtforth hundreds of dedicated youths from various Colleges and all these students are gradually becoming trained as preachers of Krishna consciousness. Not only do these youth preach to other youths ; they also preach to children, congregation devotees and youth alike. Read more ›

Greetings from the New Vrindaban Gardens: Harvest & Changing Seasons
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The late summer has brought us a bounty of vegetables and a mountain of work preparing for the fall.  The teaching garden is filled with fall colors as the mums, calendula, daisies, and lilies have begun to bloom.  As the summer flowers and vegetables have completed their season the beds containing annual flowers (one that do not grow back in the spring) are being cover cropped. In the photo above daikon radishes are growing around daises yet to bloom. Other cover crops in the teaching garden include vicia vilosa (winter legume), wheat, and rye.

In the Garden of Seven Gates it has been all about harvesting, building, and planting.  Yes, I said planting; this time of year it is difficult to keep up the same early summer pace in the garden. Weeds start to win the epic battle with the garden, some plants start to struggle, and just keeping up with the harvest in a daunting task all its own.  However, to really get the most of your garden don’t miss out on the often forgotten benefits of fall planting.  In early August we seeded cabbage, spinach, lettuce, radishes, and beets which all love the fall weather and are fairly quick to harvest (none more than 60 days). At the end of August we seeded for our winter greens high tunnel with many of the same crops and added kale. The buckwheat field is now filled with an infinity of beautiful radish greens. In the terraces where vegetables like tomatoes and sweet potatoes were growing it is now cover cropped for the fall and will return early in the spring.  For weeks we had beautiful fields of giant sunflowers, the seeds are now drying to be shared with the community. Their former home is now a field of rye.

With more green beans to come, squash harvest, greens, and amaranth we still have a lot of picking to do. The test plot of giant golden amaranth has proven not only to be sustainable (no irrigation, no fertilizer, no pesticides), beautiful (most plants are over 9 feet tall filled with seeds) it produced an incredible bumper crop of amazing gluten free complete grains.  Which will be harvested after the first frost.

Another exciting harvest this year was sweet potatoes. This is a crop I suggest for everyone that can create some form of raised bed in their garden. When planted under the right conditions a single plant slip yields 8-10 lbs of sweet potatoes. We had enough to set up a “grown on site” sweet potato fry booth at the Festival of Colors.  We had a wonderful response and were very excited to share our harvest with people from many different communities.

As the New Vrindaban gardens transition to fall I will leave you with a quote from Rose G. Kingsley….. “In the garden, Autumn is, indeed the crowning glory of the year, bringing us the fruition of months of thought and care and toil. And at no season, safe perhaps in Daffodil time, do we get such superb colour effects as from August to November.” The Autumn Garden 1905

by Kacey Orr, New Vrindaban's Head Gardener

Bliss In Budapest
→ travelingmonk.com

ISKCON’s center in Budapest is a charming temple situated near the center of the city. Devotees run a popular vegetarian restaurant downtown and are much appreciated for their daily Food For Life prasdasam distribution. Both locals and tourists watch with interest when devotees perform regular harinam samkirtan and book distributors are a regular sight on [...]

Harinamas in Bosnia, Sarajevo — Zagreb, Croatia — Novosibirsk, Russia — Perth City, Australia — just watch Lord Chaitanya’s movement expanding! (4 videos)
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Oh, how glorious are they whose tongues are chanting Your holy name! Even if born in the families of dog-eaters, such persons are worshipable. Persons who chant the holy name of Your Lordship must have executed all kinds of austerities and fire sacrifices and achieved all the good manners of the Aryans. (Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.33.7 Purport) Read more ›

Prabhupada Letters :: Anthology 2014-09-29 13:05:00 →

1967 September 29: "Your service attitude for Krishna and your sincere attempts at being advanced in Krishna Consciousness will work with you and make your life more and more glorious and a happy state. I've nothing new to instruct you, the same old instruction namely constant chanting and attentively hearing the transcendental vibration Hare Krishna is the only process for self realization in this age."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1967

Prabhupada Letters :: Anthology 2014-09-29 13:04:00 →

1967 September 29: "The secret of success in the matter of Krishna Consciousness is devotion to the Lord and the Spiritual Master. So I am sure that even if I am not physically present before you, if you follow the above principles, still you will be able to execute all spiritual duties in the matter of Krishna Consciousness."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1967

Prabhupada Letters :: Anthology 2014-09-29 13:03:00 →

1967 September 29: "Regarding your dispute in your mind as to remaining a brahmacari, grhastha or becoming sannyasi, there is nothing to be bothered with. Anyone who is in full Krishna Consciousness and is dedicating his life for Krishna is already a sannyasi even if he is a married man. If you like you can become a householder and I've no objection to that."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1967

Prabhupada Letters :: Anthology 2014-09-29 13:00:00 →

1967 September 29: "Please know it that I do not approve anyone's separation who are married by me. If they disagree, they may live separately, but there cannot be divorce. When one is separate, one may fully devote in Krishna, but no more marriage. If this is not followed, I will not take part in anyone's marriage in the future."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1967

Prabhupada Letters :: Anthology 2014-09-29 12:54:00 →

1972 September 29: "I am especially happy to hear that you have got one Chinese boy there who is doing some translating work. Yes, the Chinese-speaking portion of the world is very huge and it requires to infiltrate gradually, especially by distributing my books widely in Chinese language. So his service is the greatest to Krsna."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

Prabhupada Letters :: Anthology 2014-09-29 12:49:00 →

1975 September 29: "The women devotees, they also come to Krishna. I cannot deny them. If the brahmacaris and sannyasis become steady in Krishna consciousness, then there is no problem. Whenever there is a young woman, we should remember Haridasa Thakura and we should think that these beautiful gopis are meant for the enjoyment of Krishna."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1975

Meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and welcoming him to the US!
→ Dandavats.com

Tulsi Gabbard: Today I was very honored to have the opportunity to meet with Prime Minister Modi, where I presented him with a gift of my personal copy of the Bhagavad Gita. Nothing could have been more special and valuable to me than this Gita which I have had with me since a child, and which I took shelter of in the war zones of the Middle East, and upon which I placed my hand when I took the took Congressional oath of office. It is said that the greatest gift you can give someone is that which is of the greatest value to you, because it is a personal sacrifice to give up something which is very dear to you. So my presenting of my personal Bhagavad Gita to the Prime Minister was my way of expressing just how deep my affection and love is for India, for the Prime Minister, and for the people of India who he represents. Read more ›

The Cleaning of New Vrindaban’s Sacred Kundas
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New Vrindaban’s replica Radha Kunda up on the replica of Govardhan Hill got a fresh lining at the end of this summer of 2014. It’s called “Rhino”, a type of cement which hardens into enamel, and is guaranteed for 30 years not to leak. This took two weeks, and lots of time and energy to shovel all the muck at the bottom. After seeing the beauty of Radha Kunda, and understanding that Lalita Kunda is also leaking, Gopisa Prabhu suggested that we also line Lalita Kunda and Shyama Kunda. Read more ›

Ιnstallation of samadhis in Krsna Valley, Hungary (Album 42 HR photos)
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As soon as you offer yourself to be enjoyed by Krishna as servant, according to His order you serve, then immediately you are in the spiritual world. If you want to remain in the spiritual world, this temple is the spiritual world. We are not living in Melbourne. This temple is not Melbourne. It is Vaikuntha. It is Vrindavan. So if you stick to this temple service, Krishna's service, then you are not in this material world. Melbourne, June 25, 1974. Read more ›

Lord Chaitanya’s Sankirtana movement in Macedonia (Album 107 photos)
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Indradyumna Swami: Macedonia, a landlocked country of 2 million people, is located in southeast Europe. It is bordered by Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Albania. It is the birth place of two famous personalities: Alexander the Great in ancient times and Mother Teresa in recent history. ISKCON has a small community of sincere and dedicated devotees with a temple in the capitol, Skopje. They kept us busy during our 3-day visit with temple programs, harinam and a public program in a prestigious hall in the city. It's wonderful to witness firsthand how Lord Caitanya's movement is truly spreading to every town and village in the world. Read more ›

Sunday Harinama in New York city (Album 30 photos)
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To say nothing of the spiritual advancement of persons who see the Supreme Person face to face, even a person born in a family of dog-eaters immediately becomes eligible to perform Vedic sacrifices if he once utters the holy name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or chants about Him, hears about His pastimes, offers Him obeisances or even remembers Him. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 3.33.6 Purport) Read more ›

Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Uma Bharti: Ganga will be made model river for the world
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New Delhi : The Ganga will be made a 'model river' for the world, Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Uma Bharti said Friday. Speaking on the government's plans to clean and rejuvenate the river, Uma Bharti said government is making short, medium and long term goals for cleaning the river. "India will be a model of development, and Ganga will be a model for all rivers," she said. The water resource minister said all tributaries of Ganga will also be cleaned. Read more ›

Ecstatic Flower Festival in Iskcon Detroit (2014) (Album 97 photos)
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Photography Courtesy: Arjun Bhattacharyya & Vitaliy Grytsyuk. The materialist thinks that persons engaged in Krishna consciousness are crazy fellows wasting time by chanting Hare Krishna, but actually he does not know that he himself is in the darkest region of craziness because of accepting his body as permanent. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 3.28.10 Purport) Read more ›

As yogis become bhaktas at their topmost stage does that mean we should practice yoga before bhakti?
→ The Spiritual Scientist

From Raj:

Although Arjuna says that it is difficult to control the mind 6.34), in the latter slokas, Lord Sri-Krishna explains how one can attain such arduous dhyana-yoga through diligent practice.
Also, in Srimad-Bhagavatam (SB 11.14.31-46), Lord Sri-Krishna explains the same process to Udhava.

Undoubtedly, Devotees are the supreme yogis of all (6.47), but to attain such a state of unflinching devotion/concentration, one should have a control mind. Therefore, dhyana-yoga looks like a precursor to Bhakti-yoga; since through dhyana-yoga one can transcend the gross-&-subtle senses so as to be determinately/resolutely situated in the process of Bhakti forever.

Answer Podcast

How can we stay open to new ideas without weakening our convictions?
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From Vaishakh R

Very often it happens that discussions invariably bring in topics of spirituality and what follows is each one defending his views. Usually such discussions end without any conclusion but nevertheless brings to the table a pool of new ideas.
Sometimes these new ideas affect one’s conviction, especially when it’s not possible to reconcile with them satisfactorily. So how does one remain steady, at the same time not considering oneself closed out to new ideas?

Answer Podcast

Changing ashram
→ KKSBlog

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 24 June 2013, Czech Summer Camp, Srimad Bhagavatam 8.2.33)

CartwheelsSometimes, household life is compared to a deep dark well in the scriptures. It maybe that one is a brahmacari or brahmacarini and then one feels, “I cannot do this anymore. It is time to get married.”

Some people, when they get married, it is like they go to a deep dark well and dive in head first! They think, “Oh, now I am changing ashram, now I am really going to do it and go straight down to the bottom.” But that is not intelligent.

Generally speaking, in these wells – I have seen many in India – they usually have some brackets inside that are made like levers so that maintenance work can be done. So there is no need to go to the bottom; one can keep a strong spiritual culture. In fact, that is the idea, that in the brahmacari or brahmacarini ashram we are cultivating good spiritual habits and then we maintain them in our household attachment. Because after all, we do not forget the long-term goal. All right, we want something in this life but, we cannot risk that we lose our opportunity for going back to godhead.

In some letters or in some other occasions when speaking about the household ashram, Srila Prahbupada made statements like, “Fifty percent less chance of going back to godhead,” or sometimes even stronger statements. So what can we say? The grhasta ashram is also meant for going back to godhead, all the ashrams are meant for that purpose and that is what we are doing.

Yesterday we had initiations but initiation into what!? Initiation into the process that takes us back to godhead! So that should be our result. We should always act in such a way that we are faithfully on the path back to godhead, from the very beginning of spiritual life.

When we are new and when we accept the four regulative principles, sixteen rounds, we are under the directions of the spiritual master and other spiritual authorities, then we are on the path back to godhead and we must stay there our whole life – no detours in the forest or in the hills, no vacations. No we must stay within the boundaries of Krsna consciousness.