Planet ISKCON – Page 1545 – Websites from the ISKCON Universe

Two Wonderful Harinams
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2 wonderful Harinams led by His Grace Sakshi Gopal Prabhu and His Grace Krishna Kirtan Prabhu, this is what makes London the best place in the world to be.

CC Antya 3.67: “On this earth there are many living entities,” the Lord said, “some moving and some not moving. What will happen to the trees, plants, insects and other living entities? How will they be delivered from material bondage?”

CC Antya 3.68: Haridāsa Ṭhākura replied, “My dear Lord, the deliverance of all moving and nonmoving living entities takes place only by Your mercy. You have already granted this mercy and delivered them.

CC Antya 3.69: “You have loudly chanted the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, and everyone, moving or not moving, has benefited by hearing it.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Yours Humbly
Parsharam Das

The strength of Japa during a dentist visit
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So it’s been an interesting week
One that has increased my appreciation for the chanting of the holy names of Sri Krishna and the amazing benefits it brings.
The Dentist:
Yes another visit to the dentist and finally they decided it was safe to go ahead with the extraction of the tooth, they explained the difficulty of the procedure; however it did not prepare me for the hour of pulling and drilling of the tooth before it became free from the socket.
Dentist’s are a strange place were glad their there but in reality no one really wants to go and this indeed could be added to the many horror stories of dentistry misery; however sitting back in the chair my thoughts were initially focused on soothing sound of the mahamantra then meditating on Radhasthami. Prompting some confusion with the staff in attendance as I was too relaxed given the procedure.
Well it was soon over and indeed I felt fortunate that my time indeed was not wasted and my head was buzzing with the amazing pastimes as spoken of by the many devotee’s who have spoken on the subject.
The anaesthetic wore off and the hour long battle that took place started to let me know along with a little swelling; what to do? Amazingly the answer was simple in times of distress there is no greater activity than chanting the holy names of Sri Krishna; the mahamantra soon soothed the pain.
My mind however started to ponder:
The tooth through association had become very much attached to me so much so that despite the fact it was starting to crumble and suffer the pangs of deterioration it truly didn’t want to leave; the persistence of an expert dentist indeed eventually extracted it.
We are ourselves attached to the material world, so attached indeed that even when difficulty comes the body starts to pain we remain convinced by our staying things will work out; so life time after lifetime we make the same mistakes binding us more and more to the material world.
The expert Spiritual Master assisted by expert devotees enter into the battle to convince and guide us in such a way that we eventually become extracted from material suffering and return to our constitutional position in the spiritual world.
It’s a battle and as were slowly guided and our eyes are opened from the darkest of ignorance to the spiritual light we begin to see the wisdom in the words spoken to us; we see the beauty of their guidance.
It takes time and due to attachment to our material self we sometimes have to be dealt with roughly to awaken us to the dangers were in.
And like the dentist who at the time is not very popular, once the procedure is finished and healing is done we become grateful and thankful for their work.
And so over time we see and become thankful to the great mercy shown to us the Spiritual Master and devotees for relieving us of the suffering we ourselves have inflicted by our insistence on association with material nature.
Well that’s the thoughts on how fortunate I am to have devotee association and the Mahamantra to focus on especially at times of distress.
But as always I would like to hear your thoughts and realisations because they truly do inspire me.
Hare Krishna

Transform, Enrich, Inspire Your Summer Euro Bus Tour Strikes Again!
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To give you a glimpse of what the Euro Bus Tour is like, here are some of the highlights of the 2014 summer tour: Italy - Villa Vrindavan (Florence) Sravanam Kirtanam festival with a visit with H.H. Kadamba Kanana Swami, Villagio Hare Krsna (Bergamo) with H. G. Pancajangari prabhu, and Prabhupadadesh (Venice) harinam and cultural programs Vienna, Austria – Preaching center cultural program and harinam Lugano, Switzerland – Lake and alpine adventure activities Czech Republic – Padayatra across southern Czech with a visit from H.H. Lokanatha Swami Hungary – Budapest harinam, visits and kirtan with H.H. Sivaram Swami and Krishna Valley visit Croatia – Pula, Rijeka, and Rovinj beach activities, harinams and visits with H. H. Chandramauli Swami Slovenia – Yatra summer camp with a cultural program and Zagreb harinam Lord Balarama’s Appearance day and pizza party at Villa Vrindavana Read more ›

Croome Court weekends and Rathayatra at Pershore Plum Festival, UK (Album 83 photos)
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"As a result of chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, one makes such great advancement in spiritual life that simultaneously his material existence terminates and he receives love of Godhead. The holy name of Krishna is so powerful that by chanting even one name, one very easily achieves these transcendental riches." (Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, 8.28) Read more ›

Tree Planting in Mayapur
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The BSF Kalyani had organized a tree planting program in Mayapur. This was done in the banks of Ganga to protect from erosion. They had planted approximately 100 baniyan trees at Prabhupada Ghat. The IG of BSF joined with the Sri Mayapur Gurukul boys. The BSF School children, BSF force, and the ISKCON management participated in the joint program. The members of ISKCON were Gauranga Simha Das, Madhava Gauranga representing the Gurukul, security department head Bhakti Swaroop Das, and tourism head Gopijana Vallabha Das. The children performed a cultural program creating awareness to the public on the importance of having trees and the need to protect them and not cut them down for wood. Read more ›

Radhasthami in Nanda Gram temple, Nigeria
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This year Radhasthami was celebrated in grand style in Nanda Gram temple, Nigeria. Devotees all conversed in the temple very early and observed the normal fasting. Lectures on Radharani was given by the temple president, His Grace, Nataraja Das, and other speakers like prabhu Caitanya prema and Bhadra Das all spoke on the topic. There was Bhajans, Drama, dance, cutting of Radha cake and delicious prasadam for everybody. Read more ›

September 4th, 2014 – Darshan
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The post September 4th, 2014 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.

The nature of a devotee
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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 04 August 2012, Stockholm, Sweden, Bhagavad-gita 11.8)

A devotee is not only interested in seeing Krsna himself. Of course, a devotee wants to see Krsna, but he also wants everyone else to see Krsna. He wants the whole world to see Krsna. Therefore, Yudhisthira, the elder brother of Arjuna, performed the rajasuya sacrifice. It was a sacrifice that could be performed by a powerful king and it meant the coronation of that king as the emperor. So Yudhisthira performed that sacrifice but he used it so that Krsna was glorified as the Supreme Lord, in the presence of everyone. That was his real purpose for that sacrifice, so that the whole world could hear, ‘Yes, Krsna is the Supreme Lord.‘

So this is the nature of a devotee. A devotee wants the whole world, everyone, to know the glories of Krsna.

The pure devotee is para dukha dukhi. He is feeling the suffering of other living beings. He is compassionate and he understands that in the absence of Krsna, there is only suffering – sugar-coated suffering and straight suffering, but suffering nonetheless. Suffering from acute agony or suffering from emptiness.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Can you point out anything that is not right?”

“No.”

“Then why are you not happy?”

The emptiness of a life without Krsna is also suffering. So in this way, we see sugar-coated suffering or suffering in its raw form. The pure devotee in compassion wants others to know Krsna because nothing else can satisfy the heart.

Krishna Kirtan at Malahide Community School, Dublin, Ireland (1 min video)
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Devotees visit regularly as part of the school's Comparative Religion programme, talking about Hare Krishna philosophy and practice and sharing the gift of Kirtan... in which we often see the students self-consciously singing with big smiles on their faces! Read more ›

Swiss Mountain Retreat, 28 July – 5 August 2014
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It has been a while since the last travel update of Kadamba Kanana Swami which was his participation in the Radhadesh Summer Festival. Since then, Maharaj’s tour of Europe continued until he departed to Mayapur, India. Over the next few days, we will present to you recordings and photos from the remainder of his European summer tour.

Report by Bhakta Shiv

The morning after the Radhadesh Summer Holi festival, Kadamba Kanana Swami travelled to the great mountains of Switzerland. A group of roughly sixty devotees congregated to hear nourishing classes and kirtans centred around Gaura-lila which were given by Sacinandana Swami and Kadamba Kanana Swami.

The first days were most enticing as Kadamba Kanana Swami spoke from the Caitanya-candramrta, a book by Srila Prabhodhanda Sarasvati, in the morning and the Sri Caitanya-Candradaya-nataka, a book by Kavi Karnapura, at some of the evening classes, whilst planting the question, “Who am I really?” in everyone’s mind. Sacinandana Swami spoke on the principles by which we develop and shield our sraddha (faith).

A few days into the retreat, Kadamba Kanana Swami began giving classes in German, as you will notice in the recordings below, to accommodate the audience. Midway through the week, a full day dedicated to kirtans was arranged, where all the devotees came together in the tent and sang together. Unfortunately, Sacinandana Swami became severely unwell during this week and therefore had to slow down, however he still came down to give a few nectarean kirtans and classes.

On the second last night, a trip to Vrindavan was arranged as Kadamba Kanana Swami guided everyone through the streets, mood, and culture of Vrindavan with a slideshow of pictures put together by Bhanu Nandani Mataji. Then Bhanu Nandani Mataji gave an update on how the Brij foundation was developing over the past year, supporting many Brajabasi widows. The last evening both Swamis gave some final concluding thoughts for everyone to take away.

Then for the next two days, Kadamba Kanana Swami stayed at the Zurich temple where he gave the Sunday love feast class and in the evening, he led really ecstatic rocking kirtans that got everyone dancing and not wanting to leave so much so that when Maharaj actually stopped everyone continued singing, not leaving the temple room and so Maharaj continued on with the kirtans.

Photos

Please visit flickr to see all the photos

Audio

We apologize for the quality of the recordings. Due to heavy rain and noise from the tent heating system, some recordings are not of great quality. A few classes are in the German language only.

Bhajans

Bhajans – 29 July 2014

Photos

Audio

Bhajans

Classes

Candramrta and Chandradoya Nataka Seminar

Sunday Feast – Zurich – 3 August 2014