Krishna: The Original Avatar
→ Dandavats.com

Hundreds of millions of adherents of the Hindu faith will gather together, around the world, in temples and homes, to celebrate the advent of God on Earth. This festival of the birth of Krishna is known in Hinduism as Janmastami. According to the popular understanding, Krishna took birth in the town of Mathura, located in Northern India, 91 miles South of New Delhi, approximately 5,000 years ago. This year, the celebration will take place on Sunday, August 17. Read more ›

Harinama in Moscow 16 Aug 2014 Arbat St (Album 44 photos)
→ Dandavats.com

Chanting gradually diminishes the propensity to sin and simultaneously purifies the consciousness. As the inclination to commit sinful activities vanishes, taste for the holy name appears, though a faint residue of previous sinful activity still lingers on in the consciousness. The receeding sinful reactions leave an odor of sinful habit (papa gandha), but the chanter's contact with the name engenders a strength of willpower and a purity of mind that overcomes this clinging smell of sin. Read more ›

Janmastami invitation and preparations at Sri Jagannatha Mandir, ISKCON Malaysia HQ (video and photos)
→ Dandavats.com

The arrival of massive packages of roses and other beautiful flowers at Sri Jagannatha Mandir KL (SJMKL) past 2 days , made the hearts of devotees leap in joy as the long awaited celebration, Janmastami is truly very close now. With only one day before the auspicious day, devotees and huge number of volunteers gathered at the temple to participate in various activities in preparation to welcome the grand event. Gorgeous garlands were made out of the fresh and fragrant flowers which would adorn the merciful lordships, huge and colorful Rangolis were painted on the temple floors to add excitement to the glorious celebrative atmosphere and pots were drawn with beautiful designs and were painted colorfully. Read more ›

Summer festival tour in Poland spreads the benediction of Lord Chaitanya’s movement (Album 71 photos)
→ Dandavats.com

Indradyumna Swami: We are on the home stretch of our summer festival tour here in Poland with just 10 days left to go. One can only marvel at the sincerity of these devotees who have kept up such an intense pace for almost two months now. In appreciation for their services Lord Caitanya is giving them a genuine taste of the nectar for which we all hanker. Sri Krsna Samkirtan ki jaya! Read more ›

**Updated Schedule** Birthday Bash! Sri Krishna Janmastami – Aug 16-17, 2014
→ The Toronto Hare Krishna Temple!

From Saturday, August 16th and Sunday, August 17th, the Hare Krishna Temple will be celebrating the biggest birthday party of the year, Lord Krishna's appearance day - Sri Krishna Janmastami!!!!

The programs on both Saturday and Sunday will both begin at 4:00pm and will be full of kirtan, bhajans, discourses and more! On Sunday, the highlight of the evening is the countdown to midnight! The momentum builds as the abhisheka (bathing ceremony) is performed and the Temple is filled with wonderful rocking kirtan, at the stroke of midnight, the Deity doors will open and their Lordships Sr Sri
Radha Ksira-Chora Gopinatha will be revealed in a stunning flower outfit! It is truly a festival NOT to be missed!

On Sunday, August 17, free street parking will be available for festival attendees, located on Pears Avenue, a 2-3 minute walk from the temple. A schedule for the eventful day will be up shortly. Please stay tuned!

The schedules for both days are as follows:

Sunday, August 17, 2014
(subject to change):

3:00pm - 6:00pm: 3 Hours of Kirtan and Bhajans
6:00pm - 6:30pm: Arati
6:30pm - 6:40pm: Welcome and Announcements
6:40pm - 7:30pm: Class by HH Bhaktimarga Swami
7:30pm - 8:00pm: Drama by Funskool
8:00pm - 8:30pm: Arati
8:30pm - 8:45pm: Bhajan
8:45pm - 9:40pm: Conch Abhiseka
9:40pm - 10:00pm: Jewels of Bhagavad Gita
10:00pm - 10:30pm: SP Presentation 
10:30pm - 11:00pm: Drama Presentation by HH Bhaktimarga Swami
11:00pm - 12:00am: Maha Abhisheka
12:00am - 12:30am: Midnight Arati
12:30am - 1:30am: Vegetarian Feast



ISKCON Toronto Vyasa Puja Book – Submit Your Offering!
→ The Toronto Hare Krishna Temple!

ISKCON Toronto’s 2014 Congregational Vyasa Puja Book

Hare Krishna,

Please accept our humble obeisances.    All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

The appearance day of Srila Prabhupada is a very special occasion for all ISKCON devotees.    Srila Prabhupada appeared on Nandotsava – the day that Nanda Maharaja had a big festival to celebrate the birth of Lord Krsna (Sri Krsna Janmastami).   This year, Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa Puja falls on Monday, August 18th and celebrations will be from 11am-3pm at ISKCON Toronto.

This day is known as Vyasa Puja because the spiritual master is a representative of Srila Vyasadeva who is the author of the Srimad Bhagavatam.    Vyasa Puja offerings are made by devotees who write and present personal messages to the spiritual master.   The Governing Body Commission (GBC) for ISKCON has stated that every devotee in ISKCON should write an offering to Srila Prabhupada on Vyasa Puja.  Therefore, as a new initiative at ISKCON Toronto, we would like to encourage all devotees in our community to write a personal letter, in the form of an offering to Srila Prabhupada for this year’s festival and, to further facilitate this process, we will be making a special ISKCON Toronto Vyasa Puja Book for 2014.   This book will be presented to Srila Prabhupada on the day of Vyasa Puja.   Following the program, the book will be on display for devotees to read all the offerings by devotees of our community.  Please note – doe to time constraints during the festival, we will not be able to have everyone read out their offerings during the main festivities.  However, devotees are welcome to privately do so before or after the festival.

In order to facilitate this whole process, pre-printed pages have been prepared and we are asking devotees to hand write offerings onto these specially-designed pages.   The maximum length of the offering is one page per person.   If you wish to type your offering, you can obtain a template here: http://tinyurl.com/SPofferings - typed offerings must be emailed by 8:00am on August 16th.  We will print out these offerings for you.   The hand-written offerings can be submitted in person at the temple, in the designated drop box, up until 11:00am on August 18th. Hand written offerings are encouraged.

We humbly encourage you to please take this opportunity to honour Srila Prabhupada with a personal offering!  Hare Krsna!

Your Servants,
The Toronto Hare Krishna Temple


Guidelines for Your Written Offering:

  • Write your offering in the mood of a personal letter to Srila Prabhupada.  Write in a style as if you are addressing Srila Prabhupada directly (e.g. “Srila Prabhupada, it is by your mercy that I have come to Krsna consciousness.”)
  • The Vyasa Puja offering is meant for glorifying the spiritual master.    So offerings need to be made in that mood and not be used as a platform for airing one's grievances.  
  • You may wish to read the previous year’s Vyasa Puja offerings made to Srila Prabhupada by various senior devotees around ISKCON.    It may give you some ideas of how to express yourself.   These can be found here: http://prabhupada.krishna.com/homages
  • It is a courtesy to start your offering with Srila Prabhupada’s pranama mantras; we have already printed these onto the official pages.   A suggested opening is as follows: “Dear Srila Prabhupada, Please accept my humble obeisances.   All glories to you on this auspicious occasion of your Vyasa Puja.” 
  • The main content of the offering should glorify the role that Srila Prabhupada is playing in your life as well as express your indebtedness to him.   You may also include reports about your spiritual growth, how you are meeting challenges and how you are carrying out his orders.    
  • To end the offering it would be nice to show one’s appreciation and desire to please, by some nice phrase such as “Your Humble Servant” or something similar.
  • If you have any questions, concerns or challenges, feel free to write to us at SPofferings@torontokrishna.com 
  • Please note, the temple reserves the right to not publish an offering if it is deemed inappropriate.


Submission Requirements and Deadlines

  • Hand-written offerings must be submitted no later than 11:00am at ISKCON Toronto on Monday, August 18, 2014
  • Typed offerings must be emailed to SPofferings@torontokrishna.com no later than 8:00am on Saturday, August 16, 2014


Krsna Janmastami Bhakti Centre
→ Ramai Swami

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In ISKCON, Krsna Janmastami is celebrated around the world sometimes on other days than in India. This is because the calculation of the planetary systems is different in that particular area. Countries east of India generally observe it the next day.

Some of the temples, however, observe it on the same day as India or even have two days of celebrations. At the Bhakti Centre on the Gold Coast the devotees decided to celebrate Janmastami on the same day as India and it was a wonderful occasion with many guests attending.
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Unity In Diversity – A Community Creates The TOVP
- TOVP.org

In celebration of Sri Krishna Janmasthami and Srila Prabhupada Vyasa Puja Part Two of the film series documenting the construction of Prabhuapada’s flagship project Temple of the Vedic Planetarium in Mayapur, West, Bengal, India, has been released.

While Part One entitled “The Cosmos out of the Rice Fields” explores the history and start-up of the project, Part Two of the series focuses more on the community behind this ambitious project, and points out that it is just as much selfless dedication, respect, and cooperation than bricks and marble that have been the main building blocks of the development.

Executive producer: Alfred B. Ford
Director/Producer: Dr. Krisztina Danka
Photography: Filip Cargonja, Denes Doboveczki
Sound: Stipe Kristic, Gyula Szarnyas
Editing: Szabolcs Guth
Studio: Karuna Productions (www.karunaproductions.com)
Music: BB Govinda Swami, Gaurangi Dasi, Gunagrahi Das

The post Unity In Diversity – A Community Creates The TOVP appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

Srila Prabhupada Vyasa Puja – Monday, Aug 18, 2014
→ The Toronto Hare Krishna Temple!

In the wake of celebrations for one of our biggest festivals of the year, Krsna Janmastami, we will be celebrating one of the most important festivals for us as Hare Krishnas - Srila Prabhupada's Vyasa Puja starting at 11am on Monday, August 18, 2014.

The Vyasa Puja festival is always held the day after Janmastami and the festival honours the appearance of our spiritual master His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada - Founder Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

The program will begin at 11:00am with an abhisheka of Srila Prabhupada (bathing ceremony of a small Deity of Srila Prabhupada) and will continue with the arati, flower offerings (pushpanjali) and the reading of pre-written offerings from devotees in our community.  We hope to see everyone at this very important and sweet festival!

Sri Krishna Janmastami, August 17, 2014
Giriraj Swami

Lord Krishna's divine appearance

Today we are coming together to celebrate Sri Krishna Janmastami, the appearance of Lord Krishna in the material world. On special occasions such as this—we’ll soon be celebrating the pastime of Mother Yasoda binding Krishna with ropes, and then Krishna lifting Govardhana Hill—unless we know who Krishna is, we won’t know what to make of these seemingly fantastic stories.

The scriptures give different explanations of why Krishna, the all-loving, ever-blissful, Supreme Person appears. The Bhagavad-gita (4.8) states, paritranaya sadhunam, vinasaya ca duskrtam/ dharma-samsthapanarthaya, that He appears to deliver the devotees and to annihilate the miscreants and to reestablish the principles of religion. Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.33.36) explains further, anugrahaya bhaktanam, manusam deham asthitah/ bhajate tadrsih kridah, yah srutva tat-parobhavet: “When the Lord assumes a humanlike body to show mercy to His devotees, He engages in such pastimes as will attract those who hear about them to become dedicated to Him.”

So, who is this Krishna? Is Krishna just a concept or, as some people think, is it that the impersonal One assumes the form of Krishna, or Rama or Shiva or Ganesh or Durga, and you can worship any form and in the end merge into the oneness? To avoid such misunderstandings, we have to know who Krishna is, and that begins with the Bhagavad-gita and then the first cantos of the Bhagavatam. Ultimately, Srimad-Bhagavatam gives us a picture of the spiritual world, what life with God in the spiritual world is like. We read about Krishna, how He comes home from tending the cows, and we read that we can live with Him forever in a loving relationship in the most splendorous land of Vrndavana. And we become attracted and think, “Oh, I want to go there; I want to experience that life.”

That is why Krishna comes, specifically in His humanlike form—to show mercy to His devotees so that by hearing about life with Krishna, we become attracted to Him and inspired to dedicate our lives to Him.

But we should not think that Krishna is there only in the spiritual world; Krishna is everywhere, and if we surrender to Him, we can get the same benefit here in the material world that the pure devotees get in the spiritual world.

If you read the Krsna book or otherwise hear about the pastimes of Krishna, you’ll find that almost every day some demon was coming to Vrndavana to cause trouble. But did the residents of Vrndavana come rushing out with their ploughs and sticks to attack the demons? No. What did they do? They took shelter of Krishna. And what did Krishna do? He protected them. So when we hear these stories, we should think, “Wow—Krishna is so kind to His devotees. Even in the midst of the worst calamity, if we just take shelter of Him, He will protect us. All I need to do is surrender to Krishna.”

So Krishna appears for that reason, and we can make the purpose of His appearance successful by hearing about His pastimes and dedicating ourselves to Him.

Hare Krishna.

Your servant,

Giriraj Swami

Srila Prabhupada Describes the New Vrindaban Atmosphere as “Exactly like Vrindavan” – June 1969
→ New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

New Vrindaban Prabhupada 1976

Srila Prabhupada takes darshan of Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Nath at the original New Vrindaban farmhouse, June 1976.

“Here in New Vrindaban the atmosphere is exactly like Vrindavan. They are performing the routine activities from 4 am. in the morning till 10 pm. at night. The aratiks are going on several times daily as you have seen in Vrindavan.”

Click here to read the rest of the letter.

Thanks to Vanipedia for the source material.

Oil Plus Water Equals?
→ TKG Academy

Some things just don’t get along well with each other.  Take oil and water as an example, you can mix them together and shake as hard as you like, but they’ll never become friends…..  or will they?

Upper Elementary students learn about solutions and different substances’ ability to mix by observing a jar of water, oil and food coloring.

Students note their observations down, changing variables and asking different questions.  The bottles of liquid are turned upside down, swished around, and watched.  Which is more dense?  The oil or the water?   Why do they stay separate?  How does the food coloring react to the mixture?

I ask visiting student Kana his observations on the experiment.  His exuberant and vehement reply:  “Mother Vrinda Priya is the best teacher in the world!  Even simple science ideas are so fun with all of her experiments!”    What about the experiment?  What did you learn?

“The oil molecules are larger than the molecules that make up water.  So oil is less dense than water and will always float to the top.  No matter how many times we turn the bottle around.”

In this TKG Academy classroom, oil plus water equals 10 year old kids looking forward to their next day at school.

 

Seek Shelter In The Chanting
→ Japa Group


"Everyone is thus advised to seek shelter in the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra and remain engaged in his own occupational duty. There is no loss in this, and the gain is tremendous. Even from a material point of view, everyone should take to chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra to be saved from all kinds of danger."

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.6.3

Community Vyasa Puja Book in Mayapur Waiting For Your Offering
→ Dandavats.com

Every year, on the day of Srila Prabhupada Vyasa-puja, we see a beautiful work done by hundreds of devotee hands. It is an invaluable gift to the Mayapur community from our dear His Grace Padma-lochana prabhu, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, who lived among us for many years. This is not an easy task at all. A team of enthusiastic and committed devotees start working on it months ahead. From reminding the community members to submit their offerings to collecting them, arranging them in order, designing the layout and the cover-page of the book, to securely binding hundreds of well decorated pages together in an attractive publication, is certainly a commendable service. Read more ›

Balaram Jayanti & jhulan Yatra @ ISKCON Punjabi Bagh (Album 57 photos)
→ Dandavats.com

ISKCON Punjabi Bagh had a humble beginning in 1984 as a small temple and was shifted to its present premises on 15th July 2005. ISKCON Founder Acarya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada always desired to establish the deities of Sri Sri Krishna Balaram in Delhi. Fulfilling the desires of Srila Prabhupada, under the guidance of HH Gopal Krishna Goswami Maharaj, the deities of Sri Sri Krishna Balaram were installed on the auspicious occasion of Radhastami in September 2007. This feat gave the temple the special status of being the ONLY Krishna Balaram temple in Delhi! Since then it has become one of the most popular temples in West Delhi! Indeed the deities are world famous for their exquisite beauty. Read more ›

Saturday Harinama in Tel Aviv, Israel (Album 26 photos)
→ Dandavats.com

As one practices bhakti, he finds materialistic endeavor to enjoy wealth and women repulsive. He follows the path of righteousness, being satisfied in his service to the Lord. He accepts only what is favorable for executing devotional service and rejects that which is unfavorable. He has absolute conviction in all situations that Lord Krsna is his protector, savior and maintainer. He is free from attachments to the body and the notions of 'me' and 'mine.' In a humble state of mind, he constantly chants the holy name of the Lord. Such a person is never again inclined to sinful activities. Read more ›

The brahmana and Lord Badrinatha
→ Dandavats.com

Once a god-brother asked Srila Prabhupada: "How do we attain Krishna?“ Srila Prabhupada's answer was immediate: "By your anxiety.“ My god-brother was amazed: “Is anxiety not something material that has to be given up?” Srila Prabhupada clarified: "Not that kind of anxiety! Material anxiety is a product of the false ego. Be anxious for Krishna, not yourself. Be so eager to attain Him that all other anxieties fall away!” Read more ›

24 Hr Kirtan In New Vrindavana 2014 (Album 199 photos)
→ Dandavats.com

As faith in the Lord's holy name becomes firm, the propensity to sin is totally extirpated. All previous sins are then dissolved, and the heart shines with positive purity. Sinful activities sprout from the seeds of sinful desire in the heart, and the sinful desire seeds are rooted in ignorance; these three (ignorance, the seeds of sin and sin) are the source of all suffering for the conditioned soul. Not being able to bear the sufferings of His dependent parts and parcels, the Lord in His infinite compassion gives them help through the process of bhaktiyoga by which the lust to enjoy the senses is driven from their hearts. Read more ›

Aug. 15, 1969: Young Hare Krishnas on the corner draw attention
→ Dandavats.com

"Hare Krishna -- a way of life for these intense young people" "Well, needless to say, a lot of Buffalonians don't dig it. All these weirdly dressed kids downtown, or in front of the fountain at UB's Norton Union. ... Of course, their neighbors love them -- clean, quiet, asleep by 10 p.m.; the sort of young people who if they read, read scripture, if they write, write about Krishna, if they paint, paint Krishna followers." Read more ›

Preaching program and Parikrama in New Vraja Dhama, Hungary (Album 63 HR photos)
→ Dandavats.com

If a devotee meets or even just sees the face of an unrepentent doubter of the power of the holy name, he should immediatly plunge himself, fully clothed, into the Ganges for purification; if the Ganges is not nearby, he should bathe in some other pure water. In the event that this also is not possible, he should purify himself by bathing mentally. Read more ›