Festival of the Chariots on the Island of the Gods
→ ISKCON News

"The International Society for Krishna Consciousness for Indonesia has been celebrating Ratha-yatra festival for twelwe years,” Bala Krishna das head of this year’s Ratha Yatra committee says. "Every year the festival changes its location, moves from regency to regency within Bali. Now, after twelwe years, we have reached a full circle, and the festival arrived back in Bali's provincial capital Denpasar."

Govindas Adelaide
→ Ramai Swami

Iskcon-Adelaide-Sri-Sri-Radha-Syamsundara_600x398ISKCON-Adelaide-2

Govindas Restaurant in Adelaide in situated in the temple itself to the left as you walk in. At the moment it is open only three nights a week but it is proving so popular that the devotees want to increase to more days.

The management has a plan to build a bigger temple room at the back of the property and once that is done they will expand the restaurant size and significantly improve the decor.
ISKCON-Adelaide_320x480ISKCON-Adelaide

Our Own Worst Enemy
→ Karnamrita.das's blog

Author: 
Karnamrita Das

(this blog is recorded on the full page: quick time player is needed; works best with Firefox or Explorer; if you are using Google Chrome it will automatically play, so if you don't want to listen, mute your speakers.)
photo sb10062705q-002_zpsf892a8d5.jpg
Stuck in an airport with a delayed flight I struck up a conversation with a business person:
“You want to know a secret?’
“Maybe?”
“I’ll take that as a yes. You are often your own worst enemy.”
Getting his attention, he turned toward me and said: “I think many people know this.”
“True, but there is another part to this secret: Most people don’t do anything about this, and aren’t motivated to change, or believe they can.”
Reaching into my computer case I take out some writing I did.
“What papers do you have there?”
“I wrote a blog on the topic of being our worst enemy, and what to do about it…want to read it?”
“Sure, looks like we have a few hours to kill, and besides, [the clincher, I guess] the Wi-Fi is down.”
“Let me know what you think.”

Our Own Worst Enemy

As I was thinking of the topic for this blog I found a graphic illustration to demonstrate what I wanted to say. Every week I go shopping to pick up organic veggies at a garden supply shop about 20 minutes from here. Sometimes there is a beautiful, young, though full grown, German Sheppard dog. Though he used to lazily lie around the shop, and then come closer wagging his tail to get petted, now he has taken up the startling, and for some, frightening, habit of barking loudly at shoppers—which hasn’t been real good for business. As a result he is now kept in a cage in the corner.

read more

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
→ KKSBlog

(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!
→ Dandavats.com

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 ›