Please Remind Me
→ Japa Group

Simply our prayer should be, “My dear Krishna, please remind me to always chant Your Holy Name, please do not put me into forgetfulness. You are sitting within me as Supersoul, so you can put me into forgetfulness or into remembering You. So please do not put me into forgetfulness. Please always remind me to chant, even You send me into the hell, it doesn't matter, just so long as I can always chant Hare Krishna.”

Letter to Devananda 1968

The power of purity
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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 04 October 2013, Melbourne, Australia, Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.9)

Srila PrabhupadaPrabhupada many times said, “A society of cats & dogs.” Some of his favourite sayings were rascal and cats & dogs. Prabhupada had the power to call people rascals because in front of him, everyone could realize, “I am a rascal.”

Ravindra Svarup das brought a professor of Hinduism who was introduced to Prabhupada. Prabhupada asked him what the definition of Hinduism was. The professor said, “That is hard to say.”  Prabhupada turned to Ravindra Svarupa, “What would you call that… Cheating!”

Prabhupada said, “That is right, cheating!” Professor cannot give a definition of Hinduism. Then, in moments, they had serious argument. They were raising their voices to each other and then Brahmananada, who used to be a wrestler, he came up to the professor and said, “You better get out of here before you make more offences!” 

The professor looked at him and got the point. He just got up and left. Twenty years later, Ravindra Svarup das met the professor. He said, “Oh, do you remember when I met Swami Bhaktivedanta!” Ravindra Svarup was about ready to sink into the ground. Then the professor said, “You know, he was right!”

So that is the power of purity. Then one can say rascal and one can do so many things.

“Permanently Infected,” Vyasa-puja Evening, August 18, New Dvaraka, Los Angeles
Giriraj Swami

SP_VP_LA_GRS_in_Prabhupada's_roomDevotees met in Srila Prabhupada’s quarters in the evening for an intimate sharing of Srila Prabhupada memories.

“My parents invited a family friend who was a psychologist. She came in my room and began to inquire, ‘Tell me, Glenn, did you feel that your parents didn’t love you?’ ‘Which parents?’ I asked. ‘I have passed so many lifetimes, and in every lifetime I have had different parents.’ It went on like this for some time, and she left the room. Then I overheard her speaking with my parents. ‘I am sorry, I but I don’t think there is anything I can do.’ Then I realized that she had come to ‘cure’ me. When I related this incident to Srila Prabhupada here, he responded, ‘Yes, you have been permanently infected; you can never be cured.’ ”

Sril Prabhupada Vyasa-puja Evening

ISKCON Alachua: where every single aspect, from flower decorations, to cooking, pot washing and more, is done out of love!
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Mukhya devi dasi: The Summer Festival season is winding down, ending with our most beloved Radhastami Festival on Tuesday, September 2, 2014. Is it possible that every year these celebrations get better and better? That's how it seems to me. More devotees coming on board using their time and talents, new people taking on services, increasing the quality and results. For a few hours, we were swept away to the spiritual world, kirtans in every corner with devotees taking part in a variety of transcendental engagements. There were devotees glorifying the Lord in dance, drama and song, in sumptuous prasadam and Deity worship and many expressions of loving service. Read more ›

How is the world a lila of the Pursha avatara? Is it a virtual reality manufactured by him with chosable scripts for us?
→ The Spiritual Scientist

From Muralidhara Prabhu:

I wonder how the realisation of this material world being a lila of Purusha Avatar will fit into the illusion concept. Can we say that the world is a Virtual Reality (the dream world of MahaVishnu) with the characters having the capacity to write their own script?

Can we reconcile this to the inverted tree concept of Chapter 15?

Answer Podcast

Former Neighbours star Erin Mullaly, right, is now heavily involved in the Hare Krishna community
→ Dandavats.com

Erin Mullaly: “I started volunteering at a not for profit cafe down in Cronulla and from there I was introduced to more and more of the spiritual aspects in terms of self realisation and higher purpose and I found that really attractive and interesting. “I think it is sort of balancing my life out you know of somewhat materialistic with the money and the name and stuff so it is rebalancing.” Read more ›

Saturday, August 23rd, 2014
→ The Walking Monk

Brampton, Ontario

2nd Annual

In between the two installments of trekking today, I had the pleasure to partake in Brampton’s 2nd Annual Ratha Yatra at downtown Gage Park.  “When a teenager,” I told the crowd, “way before I heard the word ‘Krishna’, I relaxed at this very park at the gazebo in the shady trees.”  Ron Casir, a friend, and I, hitchhiked one summer throughout southern Ontario looking to find ourselves.  I never would have believed that I’d be in this spot again, bald and wearing robes, 43 years after my moderate hippie phase. 

Since then, the park has been spruced up (I still see the same spruce trees, though).  The area around has been built up.  After all, the world in which we live is always changing.  The mayor of the city, which is now at the half a million mark, showed up.  Susan Fennell seemed to be all smiles.  My god-brothers, Kaliyapani and Gaura, also came to lead in the kirtans.  A special feature, undisputedly, was the drama of “Little Big Ramayan”. 

The organizers were happy, expressing a double increase of attendance from last year’s modest 500, it grew to twice that size.  Our route for the standard procession was ‘in the round’.  Four revolutions on this circular sidewalk constituted the journey of joy as participants pulled the chariot by rope.

One local guy, James, who came for the bulk of the program, came to see me, offered the greatest handshake, saying, “Thank you, and please pray for me.”  I thought he was going to cry.  I believe he did, at least internally.  Tears were dripping on his heart, he had such a good time.  Then James asked a group of us, “Do you guys know the Beatles?” and one of our members, Vaishnava, sang, “We love you, yeah yeah yeah…”  James corrected him saying, “No it’s, ‘she loves you’.”  And my response to that was, “No it’s ‘we’, in relation to you and us.  We prefer, ‘we love you’”.  At that point, James got it.

May the Source be with you!

11 KM

Friday, August 22nd, 2014
→ The Walking Monk

Toronto, Ontario

The Good About Kali


Sad for me to hear from a family lawyer, who’s a member of our community, that few people remain content in their relationships.  In her own words, “People don’t seem to learn from their past mistakes.”  She indicated that whatever personal weakness that an individual may admit to, he/she will not make the endeavour towards correction, hence, the same short coming spoils the chance for a relationship to work the next time around.

Separation/divorce is rampant, and it’s a challenge that faces every community across the board, across the globe. 

When I saw a park bench in the course of today’s trek, a grafiti’d message sprayed on to the bench read, “Sick Earth”.  I wasn’t sure how to interpret that line because sick in today’s language means, ‘it’s cool’.  If we take it to mean that the world is malfunctioning or is dysfunctional, I think this would be a more accurate assessment.  Patience and tolerance of character we lack, and it is a sure sign of the times.  We say, in devotional circles, “We are in the Kali Yuga (age of darkness).”  People are slow to inner development. 

At the same time that we languish in the conditions of today, we can also recognize the true optimism of the current day.  In our discussion this morning, after I took my personal short but sweet head clearing walk, the few monks and I reflected on the Kali Yuga’s strongest feature.  The sages of Vedic tradition say that through song of the right sound one can encounter ultimate hope and peace. 

May the Source be with you!

4 KM