Planet ISKCON

My dear Madhudvisa Prabhu,

I am feeling your separation so much right now. My mind is flooded with memories of our service to Srila Prabhupada together, not the least of which was our meeting in the last months and remembering his glorious qualities and activities.

All the circumstances surrounding your departure were auspicious. As was your desire, you lived through Ratha-yatra in Los Angeles and sang before all three carts. Then, just two days later, while your caregiver chanted Hare Krishna by your side, you departed—with a smile on your face. You were a great pioneer and champion of Ratha-yatra. During last year’s procession we discussed the importance of following Srila Prabhupada’s instructions in regard to Ratha-yatras, and in our last meeting in your room at New Dvaraka, six weeks ago, you told me how Srila Prabhupada sent you from Juhu to Australia and you introduced Ratha-yatra there:

“I thought, ‘Australia sounds like a pretty good place.’ So I went down there, and it was great. Immediately I decided that we had to have a Ratha-yatra. One leader said, ‘No, no. We’ve got all these books. We have to sell these books. We have a whole warehouse of books here.’ But I said, ‘Yes, we will sell all those books—don’t worry. We’ll hold a Ratha-yatra and we’ll make devotees and all these devotees will sell all the books we can get.’

“Then I said, ‘We are going to make the whole country into one temple. The whole country is going to cooperate, and we’re going to have this Ratha-yatra, and then we are going to sell books.’

“So we started organizing a Ratha-yatra. ‘You need money for Ratha-yatra,’ I told the devotees, ‘a lot of money. We’ll collect a lot of money and use it for building the Ratha-yatra cart and for publicity and for everything like that.’ So we started collecting money like crazy.

“We built a big, beautiful Ratha-yatra cart, and meanwhile we were saving money, too, because we were looking for a temple. They didn’t have any temples down there—just two small centers—and we needed a big temple, a big establishment. ‘But we can’t afford two,’ I realized. ‘We can get one, so let’s get one.’ So I started collecting money for a temple. I didn’t care if it was in Sydney or Melbourne; they were equally good. But we decided to have the Ratha-yatra in Melbourne. So, we collected money and built a Ratha cart. Melbourne was, and still is, an intellectual kind of place, with several universities. And there is a lot of interest in Krishna consciousness—they embrace Krishna consciousness.

“Anyway, Prabhupada decided for me to go to Australia—that it would be a good idea—so I went, and that was great.”

When you left Juhu, it was a loss for us. But I can see, in retrospect, that you went on to do even bigger and better things in Australia.

Now I am deeply lamenting your loss, but I know that you have gone to do greater service. And I hope that just as we met in New Dvaraka, after your serving in Australia and my serving in Bombay, and were reunited in service to Srila Prabhupada and the holy name, we will be reunited again, in service to Srila Prabhupada and sankirtana, and that again, as brothers, we will relish devotional service under Srila Prabhupada’s guidance and shelter.

In separation,

Your eternal servant,

Giriraj Swami

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 14 September 2013, Durban, South Coast Hall Program, Class “Living in truth”)

In one verse, the whole message of Srimad Bhagavatam is summarized. So, I am saving you from the trouble because the Bhagavatam is 18 000 verses long. So you pay attention, just for one moment, to catch this one. This is a shortcut to 18 000 verses. So that helps. It has been identified like that: as the one verse that sheds light to all the other verses – paribhasa-sutra – in a condensed form.

ete cāḿśa-kalāḥ puḿsaḥ

kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam

indrāri-vyākulaḿ lokaḿ

mṛḍayanti yuge yuge (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.28)

 

“I appear again and again, millennium after millennium, in so many forms, as so many avatars, but in this form of Krsna I am bhagavan svayam. I am – svayam – the Supreme Lord Himself – the Original Supreme Personality of Godhead, from whom everything emanates, who is the origin of all other forms and the origin of everything that exists. That original personality am I – Sri Krsna.”

That is the essence of Srimad Bhagavatam; the conclusion of all the 18000 verses.

God is great, and we are most insignificant servant of God. Our business is to give service to God. When you come to this stage, then there will be shanti. Otherwise there is no possibility of shanti....He knows, "Krsna is there. Whatever I need, He will supply." And Krsna said, yoga-ksemam vahamy aham, tesam nityabhiyuktanam: [Bg. 9.22] "Those who are constantly engaged in My service, I take care how to supply their necessities of life." Then why shall I disbelieve Krishna if I am Krishna conscious? Let me do my duty as servant of Krishna, and whatever necessities are required, He will arrange for them. If you become confident about this thing and completely engage yourself in Krishna consciousness, that is the stage of shanta

- Srila Prabhupada, Dec 30 1974

Of the nine processes of devotional service, the most important is to always chant the holy name of the Lord. If one does so, avoiding the ten kinds of offenses, one very easily obtained the most valuable love of Godhead. Chaitanya Caritamrta Antya Lila 4.71 Read more ›

With guest appearance by Bhakta Harpo Marx.....

Once upon a time I was on the internet for hours and hours and hours... And I realized that I lost my way, and looking around I found myself --- "TRAPPED! -  TRAPPED ON THE INTERNET!!!!!  - This is awful!  No way out...... What am I going to do..... 



WAIT! ... OMG I hear someone digging... They're coming to rescue me!!!!

THEY'RE GETTING CLOSER!!!


AND CLOSER!!!!







Award winning book by Sankirtana das -  www.Mahabharata-Project.com

By chanting Krishna’s names, one will be transferred to the supreme planet, Krishnaloka, without a doubt. Bhagavad-gita 8.7, Srila Prabhupada Read more ›

From Sushant Kulkarni

Answer Podcast

(English/Russian)

The post Skype conference with disciples discussing my upcoming visit to Moscow and a variety of questions and their answers appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Once upon a time there lived a group of monks in an old monastery in the forest, near to a large city. In years gone by the religious order had been so esteemed, with positions in the royal court, so much so that no person would ever pass by one of their temples or ashrams without visiting to pay most humble obeisances, to offer foodstuffs and donations and to prostate themselves in front of the deities. But for a very long time now the religious order had declined, many people who lived in the Cities, towns and villages were so caught up with pleasing themselves that they had forgotten all about the monks. The only devotees left were these scattered old monks, ageing and diseased. And the monks in each monastery were considered by each other to be the last of their order. Read more ›

From Anuj Agarwal

Purport to mantra 17 of Sri Isopanisad mentions following -  "This mantra verifies the fact that the living entity exists after the annihilation of the material body." How does the mantra verifies this fact? Also how does this mantra text defeat mayavada philosophy?

Answer Podcast

Tarun-krsna whether the Vraja-vasis love Vraja more than Krsna, Asutosa about chanting to free one of offenses and Gadagraja about overcoming the unwillingness to hear.

The post Peter asks about the golden age of Kali-yuga, Daksina about being a Yamaduta appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

From: Praveen Nayak (Pandurang Charan P)

Answer Podcast

From: Anuj Agrawal

Purport to mantra 17 of Sri Isopanisad mentions following - "This mantra verifies the fact that the living entity exists after the annihilation of the material body."

How does the mantra verifies this fact? Also how does this mantra text defeat mayavada philosophy?

Answer Podcast

From Madan Govind P

We carry out our sadhna everyday & as you mentioned Krsna reveals himself gradually though realization of the same might be sudden. How do we know on ongoing basis we are making positive progress & Krsna is indeed reveling gradually or there is a need to get into introspection to find out what is working & what is not.

Answer Podcast

The post August 6th, 2014 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Madhuvisa prabhu has given a beautiful class in Los Angeles just a few days ago. This is the video recording by Mayapur.tv Read more ›

Vinode Vani devi dasi first met the devotees in 1970 while working for college credit at the University of California, San Francisco Hospital. She used to walk past the Hare Krishna Temple every day on her way to work and gave donations to the Harinama party in downtown San Francisco, receiving Back to Godhead magazines and sticks of incense in exchange. Being interested in Buddhism at the time, she did not visit the Temple, as she had heard that the devotees were into feasting - she was into fasting! In her hometown of Houston, TX, Vinode Vani prabhu again received BTGs, this time from Dharma-Bhavana das who was going door-to-door. Encountering BTGs once again sparked a fire in her heart, leading her to read every BTG in the University of Houston library. Within days, she went to the Houston Temple, where she met Ananga Manjari devi dasi and many other devotees. After visiting the temple for a week, she shaved up her husband and they moved into the Temple in December 1971. By early summer 1972, they were initiated. Read more ›

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. In Kali-yuga, if this Vedic maha-mantra is chanted regularly and heard regularly by the devotional process of shravanam kirtanam, it will purify all societies, and thus humanity will be happy both materially and spiritually. Srimad Bhagavatam 4.18.14, Srila Prabhupada. Read more ›

Kirtan – Madhava Das

1958 August 6: "You should not indulge in any organization under the influence of unauthorized person. Instead, kindly learn the science from the authority and make your life enlightened. The League of Devotees is an organized effort to render this service to the human society without any pretentious conventions."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1947-64

1970 August 6: "We are going to popularize our Sankirtana Movement by following strictly in the footsteps of Lord Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu and distribute Krishna consciousness literature throughout India and the rest of the world. All of our resources are used for this purpose. Our Society is intended for the intelligent class of men, so you are invited to join."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

1970 August 6: "Now all my disciples must work combinedly and with cooperation to spread this Sankirtana Movement. If you cannot work together then my work is stopped up. We must give up the fighting spirit and use our intelligence to push ahead. If we work hard for Krishna without personal ambition, then we are assured of success."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

1972 August 6: "We are not very much for owning buildings, our real business is to preach and propagate Krishna Consciousness widely. So concentrate on this work, sankirtana and book distribution activities. I am more interested in preachers than builders and decorators. If we spend our whole time simply to earn money to pay for big, big buildings and decorations, what is the value?"
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

1972 August 6: "Regarding your questions, just like we also change different bodies, similarly Brahma also changes his bodies. But exactly how to paint his bodies, that you have to ask Brahma, I cannot answer."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

1972 August 6: "Now you read our books, that is sufficient of study, not that lifelong you have to study Sanskrit. Simply read our Sanskrit wherever it appears in our books and teach these slokas to the devotees. Do not waste time by studying Sanskrit independently of our books."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

1973 August 6: "Another Book fund account had been opened in the Overseas Bank, is this correct? If so what is the amount there, that I also want to know, and who is jointly signing checks in this account? Please immediately transfer it to the Building Fund Account and let me know all these points in detail, this is absolutely necessary."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1973

Yogyakarta is renowned as a centre of classical Javanese fine art and culture such as ballet, drama, music, poetry, and puppet shows. It is also a place of academic learning. The city is named after the Indian city of Ayodhya from the Ramayana epic.

Devotees from all over Indonesia attended the first Rathayatra parade there, which was organised to participate in a local city festival. At the start many speeches were made by persons such as the Governor and local Mayor.

 

Very interesting questions and answers from Mahatma dasa's Japa question and answer session in Leicester UK.

(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.)

[This is republished from August 5th 2014, which I publish today, on Father's Day, as my tribute to my father. Though he was the tragic figure of his worldly drama, I know he loved me and did his best to raise me. He went to the temple at my first wedding, loved prasad, and said Hare Krishna frequently to shock his friends and acquaintances about the strange group I was part of. So he was blessed in many ways.]
[An interesting fact is that other than a few baby pictures with my parents, I only have the above picture and one other of them together during my childhood, and they both show my father pretending to be attacking my mom--but in fact, that was the nature of their relationship. I also have no pictures of my father and I. Life leaves us many clues!]
August 3rd will be the death anniversary of my father who, as we devotees say, “left his body” in 1986. “Leaving our body,” means someone, the soul, has left the physical covering behind and moved on. I don’t remember many dates, but this one is etched in my memory—along with a few birthdays, and my wedding anniversary (very important date for you those of you who are married). When I was with my mom in her last days in 2010 I obtained his death certification and some family memorabilia—presently of interest only to me, as the last surviving blood member of my family. This should tell us something about such memorabilia!

My mom was a collector, and saved even her baptism certificate, though she was an unbeliever, brought up by a strong religious mother, and, as fate would have it, had a Hare Krishna son! We are strongly karmically connected to our parents and children. Part of a successful life is to make peace with our past and current life—since our present is very much a reaction to our past, and our present choices becomes our future. Thus, part of bhakti is cutting the worldly cords of attachments by attachment to the spiritual via the “cords” of our beads which we use to chant the maha-mantra, as well as all the practices of devotional service.

I wanted to at least say a few words about this day to honor the lessons I learned from my “dear old dad,” though mainly to share some perspectives in dealing with the death of loved ones. Though the soul is eternal, due to our bodily dress, we calculate the age of the body. So he isn’t really old in a physical sense, but he died when he was 65—you could say he retired his body to ashes (he was cremated) at the age of retirement, since he was tired of living.

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