Planet ISKCON

Ratha Yatra: let’s explore what this ancient festival offers to modern minds the world over as they, like us, seek to evolve as better beings.

Eidlitz’s finds himself in India during World War II. There was a beacon of light in the midst of untold darkness: a German-born Vaishnava sadhu happened to be in that same camp.   

Twice the number of Americans believe that humans were created by God in their current image than there are those who believe in natural evolution.

Ramadan is  widely observed by Muslims around the world with fasting from sunrise until sundown. That creates a potential dilemma for Muslim players at the World Cup.

https://flic.kr/s/aHsjZk3AAb

The post Scenes from Timisoara Romania appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Crossing beyond Lord Visnu’s illusory potency maya, distrusting women and frightened of their company, an intelligent man will choose to live very humbly in the land of Vrndavana.

[Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrindavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, Sataka-2, Text-70, Translation.] 

Please click here for more photos

Please view the following galleries: Gundica Marjanam Ratha Yatra Gallery At the Rajapur’s Sri Jagannatha Temple, Their Lordships getting dressed in nice outfits and adorned with beautiful ornaments and flower garlands. Amidst a roaring kirtan and in big procession, They are seated on three different chariots. They come to Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir and shower […]

The post Pulling the Lords chariots appeared first on Mayapur.com.

The post Ramabhadra asks a series of question from Upadesamrta, including “How do we serve Radha-kunda?” appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

The post July 1st, 2014 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.

The post Ratha Yatra Gallery appeared first on Mayapur.com.

The post Gundica Marjanam appeared first on Mayapur.com.

We Must Accept High Cost of Cow Protection, Says New Minister

By: Madhava Smullen ISKCON News on May 15, 2014

A devotee working with oxen at the Bhaktivedanta Manor New Gokula farm

We can have successful cow protection projects in ISKCON. But only if we’re willing to accept the high cost of violence-free milk, and of caring for cows and their handlers.

That’s the message that Shyamasundara Das, the recently appointed Global Minister for Cow Protection and Agriculture, is bringing to communities around the world.

In an age of convenience and cheap dairy products, he says, it all comes down to one thing: how important is cow protection to us?

Shyamasundara Das received his new title at the Annual General Meetings of ISKCON’s Governing Body Commission in Mayapur, West Bengal earlier this spring. He took on the service after former Global Minister Balabhadra Das resigned due to health issues.

Prior to that, Shyamasundara had overseen the Goshala (cow shelter) at Bhaktivedanta Manor near London in the UK since 1992, a position which he still holds. Under his leadership, the Manor’s herd  has grown to fifty-seven cows and bulls, and is producing 40,000 liters of milk and logging about 3,000 ox hours a year.

                                                                     Devotees take a tour at the Bhaktivedanta Manor Farm Conference

For the past six years, Shyamasundara has also served as European Minister for Cow Protection and Agriculture, and has toured ISKCON’s European farm communities, reminding them of the importance of cow protection and agriculture. His efforts have been set against a global decrease in energy and investment in such projects around ISKCON.

Through his tours, though, many European farms that were giving up cow protection have reactivated their projects and are now milking cows and working oxen. These include Radhadesh, Belgium; Simhachalam, Germany; Villa Vrindavana, Italy; Govindadvipa, Ireland; and New Mayapur, France.

Now, expanding his role as Minister for Cow Protection and Agriculture to a global one,  Shyamasundara will spend his first year surveying and understanding ISKCON cow protection projects around the world.

He will then will take one month off a year from his service at the Bhaktivedanta Manor Goshala to travel around the world with his message.

He will naturally continue to vist Europe, holding the seventh annual ISKCON European Farm Conference in Simhachalam, Germany from September 16^th to 18^th, and looking to inspire the 30 or so leaders from all over Europe expected to attend.

But he also plans to visit a different continent every year, to encourage struggling communities to reactivate their cow protection and agricultural projects, as well as to work with ISKCON’s larger cow protection projects and assist them in coming to exemplary standards.

                                                                                                  Devotees milk cows at New Gokula

In Europe, Bhaktivedanta Manor’s New Gokula farm, and New Vraja Dhama in Hungary, which have similar-sized herds, are already extremely successful.

In the US, Shyamasundara also sees Gita Nagari in Pennsylvania and New Vrindaban in West Virginia as premier projects he wants to work with.

With 28 milking cows, 19 retired cows and oxen and 14 calves, Gita Nagari produces around 600 gallons of milk a week, has its own creamery and sells much of its yield to neighboring city temples. New Vrindaban, meanwhile, has 47 cows and oxen including six milking cows, and is attempting to use only protected cow milk in meals served at its temple.

Then, of course, there’s India. Shyamasundara plans to spend some time every year visiting the country, as ISKCON Founder Srila Prabhupada hoped goshalas there would set an example for others around the world.

While a lot of work is yet to be done to achieve this goal, Shyamasundara hopes that the goshalas in two of the most sacred places in India – Mayapur in West Bengal and Vrindavana in Uttar Pradesh – will develop to the point where they do set examples that ISKCON communities everywhere will follow. Mayapur in particular, with its plans to build a city for 50,000 people, will be a major focus.

      Shyamasundara Das (center, writing) at the first annual ISKCON farm conference in 2008 in Krishna-valley, Hungary.

To all these projects, Shyamasundara is delivering his own “inconvenient truth”: if we want cow protection, we must accept the cost.

“Homegrown, Hare Krishna milk is six times the conventional price,” he says, explaining that this cost includes building and maintenance of a goshala, personal care to the cows, milking cows by hand rather than machine, and supporting people to care for the cows.

“Volunteers play a significant role in our cow protection projects, but the heart of them are people we maintain,” Shyamasundara says. “If you want stable cow protection, you have to have stable people. And stable people come if you meet their five needs: they need housing, work that’s satisfying for them, some social life, they need to be able to fulfill their children’s needs, and they need to be able to accumulate assets of some sort.”

Accepting all these costs will guarantee a successful cow protection program, Shyamasundara explains. And that’s important, even if it means reducing (but not stopping) milk use to be able to afford it. As Srila Prabhupada advised, “take as much milk as possible.”

Shyamasundara compares it to when gasoline prices skyrocket. People don’t stop driving, but they accept the situation, and adapt to it by cutting back on their gas consumption.

“It’s going to take a gradual negotiation and weaning process to get people to accept these higher economics,” he says. “It’s a slow process. But I think gradually, the message is being accepted.”

                               Devotees discuss veganism versus ahimsa milk at ISKCON’s European Leaders Meetings in 2013

Just as important as accepting the price of protected cow milk is ISKCON’s responsibility to work oxen, according to Shyamasundara, even if it’s a major inconvenience for those of us used to the ease of the modern world.

“If we don’t make arrangements for oxen to work, we’ll be inadvertently making arrangements for tractors and other transport means to replace them,” he says. “So it’s going to require very bold, brave leadership.”

To keep local leaders focused and inspired to do something about cow protection, Shyamasundara plans to continue former Global Minister Balabhadra Dasa’s work in establishing regional representatives for cow protection and agriculture around the world, who will visit and encourage communities in their continents more regularly than he is able to.

Shyamasundara’s long term plan is to have all local leaders in ISKCON ask their communities for a plan on what to do about cow protection and agriculture, and how to do it. He would also like to see all major temples – especially in India – use their resources to work out an economic plan to ensure that every drop of milk they use comes from their own cows.

“I find it daunting, but very exciting to be part of the incredible dilemmas that Srila Prabhupada left us,” says Shyamasundara. “We have a mammoth task to establish cow protection and agriculture in a vastly declining society. Prabhupada was such a brave man and said such far reaching things. And it’s a challenge. But I like working with bulls, and I like cows. It suits my nature. So I’m happy to play this role, and I’m excited to be part of this element of his mission.”

How Jagannath Rath Yatra Began in Puri and around the World? Adi Kesava Prabhu

Listen audio...

This talk is a part of the "Fascinating Mahabharata Characters" series. To know more about this course, please visit: bhakticourses.com

BY SIMHESWARA DASA

LANCANG - I told you that we are always getting visitors at our New Godruma Dhama farm. For the past week we had Kisora prabhu from Indonesia, Kurma Rupa prabhu from Care for Cows, Sophat prabhu from Cambodia and many local guests. Today while most of us from the farm were at the Sri Jagannatha Mandir, Kuala Lumpur to attend the Jagannatha Ratha Yatra, we had a very unexpected guest. Only Gopesa Govinda prabhu, Bhakti Rasa prabhu, Vrndavan Candra prabhu, Siro Suka prabbhu and a few others stayed back at the farm.

This guest is someone you surely would not be able to guess. He is someone of the nature of a personality in Krishna lila. He is very light but can be very heavy and who can moves things around. He can be very merciless. Of course in Krishna Lila the personality of the nature I am describing was eventually subdued by Lord Krishna. So you would have got it by now whose nature I am talking about.

As soon as I heard of this personality and what he did to our farm buildings me and Sevananda prabhu had to immediately take off from the Ratha Yatra and rush to the farm. About 3 properties got partially destroyed. 

Gopesa Govinda prabhu and Bhakti Rasa prabhu who witnessed the whirlwind informed us that he was merciless. He tore apart strong roof materials and some parts of the structure of Sevananda prabhu's house, our general restroom and the farm bungalow.

By Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga's mercy no one was injured as Bhakti Rasa Prabhu and Gopesa Govinda prabhu were able to immediately shift the physically handicapped Vrndava Candra prabhu and Siro Suka prabhu from the farm bungalow (which is temporarily being used as devotee care home) to a safer location.

Tomorrow we will begin renovation and repair works.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 08 June 2014, Stockholm, Sweden, Srimad Bhagavatam 2.5.14)

I used to think, before I came to Krsna consciousness, that now I would join a movement of very like-minded people and that I would feel very intimate friendship. Then, I was shocked to see that that person who I kind of detested for his views, he also had joined! (laughing)

I thought, “How is this possible? Not this guy! How is it possible that he became a devotee!?” Well, because of the universal nature of Krsna consciousness, people of all kinds, from all walks of life, even from opposing world views, can join the Krsna conscious movement and therefore it is not always easy to have that kind of intimate friendship with everyone. We do not!

Some devotees never get beyond colleagues. We do have some friends also, in this movement. With colleagues, it can get very impersonal and very distant with virtually no affection; and therefore we can feel alone, especially if we have not deeply developed our relationship with Krsna. If we have deeply developed our relationship to Krsna, then there we find a satisfaction that nourishes us even when we are alone with people. Then once one is nourished in that relationship, one has to bring it back down to the social platform and begin to develop real relationships with people. But without first going up to Krsna – and first up to Krsna means developing a relationship of attachment to Krsna, intimate interaction with Krsna and always feeling that he is interacting with you – without that, we are on the normal social platform! Then we will only be able to deal with people who are kind of like-minded, and others remain strangers even when they chant Hare Krsna. Then we are a movement of strangers with a few friends because how many people can you relate to, anyway?

When we go up in attachment to Krsna and really interact with Krsna closely at every moment, and we bring that down into our relationships with others, then we can become like Prabhupada! He had that capacity. He was not limited by his social background and he could be completely relevant to hippies in America although they were culturally so different and in such a different stage of life and so on… Prabhupada was so relevant and that is what I am talking about because he went to the root of the things. Yes, unless we have that, we will just still be alone because we will just still associate on the level of like-mindedness and the normal social dynamics will still apply. That is what I see and it is all over the world. Loneliness is becoming an issue in our movement…

Public program in Timisoara Romania on June 28th.

The post Introduction to Bhakti-yoga (Part 2) appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Bhagavatam class in Romania (English only).

The post The sages curse the princes of Dvaraka appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.