Prabhupada Letters :: Anthology 2014-07-09 14:58:00 →
Prabhupada Letters :: 1971
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Via Skype conference July 8th. (English/Russian)
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The Great Vishnu, transcendentally situated in a place beyond winning and losing
Three weeks ago I was in Cologne, Germany. We were celebrating the 10th annual Hare Krishna chariot festival there. For four hours we sang and danced our way round the town in the sunshine while members of the team threw rose petals from the top of the wagon, and another handed out smoking sticks of incense. The locals loved it.
It was a Saturday, and the German football fans were getting ready to watch their national team play another game in the sun. Luckily the fans were happy enough to take part in our singing as our procession passed them, standing in groups or filling the pubs noisily to bursting point. They may not have been so accurate with their choice of lyrics to sing back at us, but they cheered us on.
Last night those fans would have been enjoying something close to religious ecstasy, with their 7-1 defeat of Brazil. And last night the Brazilians would have been feeling, no doubt, considerable pain of loss, as their national team passed into football history as losers of the greatest defeat of the World Cup. What an upset for such a footballing nation.
Yet although football is a religion for some, it does not contain all the ingredients that a religion does. Religion, ultimately, is to help us not to become too depressed in our sad moments, and not too elated during our happy ones. Too much of emotional extremes – and not being able to cope in between – is one of the factors leading to stress; and from stress comes depression.
With 53 million prescriptions for depression being handed out in the UK in 2013, there’s an awful lot of people that could do with something to help them get through life. I don’t know what its like in Germany for depression (although there’s probably significantly less depression nationally this morning) but no doubt its comparable. So without medication what is the solution for stress-induced depression?
Religion can also be a cause for mood swings – especially when the religion is the man-made type – as many religions are, but genuine religion, as found in the Bhagavad-gita, will always take us above the ups and downs of life, the winning and losing and the happiness and distress of changing fortunes.
So the people of Brazil can change their fortunes immediately – or their perceptions of their fortunes – by taking to the other thing they like to do, singing and dancing in the streets, and by adding the Hare Krishna chant to their music.
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Spiritual Fun Coming Up This Summer in New Vrindaban:
Two Festivals and A Seminar:
1. Lord Jagannatha’s Ratha Yatra/Festival of the Chariots on Sat. July 19, 2014.
2. Then, the 4th Annual Pushpa Abhishek on Sat. July 26, 2014.
3. On Pushpa Abhishek weekend July 26/27, our esteemed guest His Grace Gauranga prabhu from ISKCON Chowpatty, Mumbai, will give seminars Sat. and Sun., speaking on “Lessons on Vaishnava Relationships” from Gaura Lila .
Srimad Bhagvatam Class – His Holiness Candramauli Swami – 26th June 2014 – 6.05.24
This talk is a part of the "Fascinating Mahabharata Characters" series. To know more about this course, please visit: bhakticourses.com
One need only be firmly convinced by the spiritual master that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If one decides this, he can make further progress by thinking of Krishna, chanting of Krishna, and glorifying Him. There is then no doubt that such a fully surrendered devotee will receive the blessings of Lord Krishna”
Srila Prabhupada, Chaitanya Charitamrita, 2.11.51 purport.
Hare Krishna,
It is our great pleasure to announce that Iskcon Perth’s Gita Group would be commencing another series of Bhagavad Gita Introductory Course this month. The course will run over 5 weeks (1.5 hours each Saturday) and will cover BG’s most important and essential topics in brief.
As we can all see the modern day society is groping with problems of all sorts. We do not know where and how to find solutions. And because of these disturbances of mind caused by ethical and social conflicts, indecisions, confusions, material miseries and sufferings etc, the life has become filled with restlessness, dissatisfaction and unhappiness. As we shall see, the Gita helps us make intelligent decisions in every sphere of our life. Bhagavad Gita is also an ultimate guide to step by step spiritual advancement. It contains words of wisdom and practical teachings that contain the answers to the above-mentioned condition of the present-day individual.
Many people in the past have sought help from this book in various aspects and fields of their life and have become successful in understanding themselves, the Supreme and the Supreme Dharma. Hence we encourage you all to please and register for this course and benefit from this timeless wisdom of Gita.
Bhagavad Gita Intro Course
19th July to 16th August
Day and time: Saturdays, 5 to 6.45pm
Venue: ISKCON Perth, 155-159 Canning Rd, Kalamunda
Course Fee: $25 for 5 sessions including prasadam (payable on or before the start date)
You are welcome to circulate this email to your friends and colleagues who might be interested to join the course.
For registrations please call or email-
Punya Sloka 0402 883 883
Raj Kiran 0410 159 789
Rupavati Radharani 0400 883 841
ip.gitagroup@gmail.com
Regards,
Gita Group
The Lismore City Council committee in charge of the Festival of Lanterns asked the devotees from the Bhakti Centre to participate in their parade by bringing Lord Jagannatha on His Rathayatra chariot.
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 16 April 2014, Durban, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.7.34)
Transcribed by Radhadyuti dd
Our strength is not brahman-tejas (brahminical power). Our strength is to carry the mercy of Sri Caintanya Mahaprabhu. That is our strength. Our strength is to, somehow or the other, chant Hare Krsna and induce others to chant Hare Krsna. To become great qualified brahmanas is not so easy. Srila Prabhupada describes in his purports to the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam that it is an emergency in this age of kali. Therefore for the sake of emergency, we give positions to people although they are not really qualified; we give them positions of brahmanas, we give them positions of sannyasis. Prabhupada said we do this because we need leaders in society. We need leaders! But what is their qualification?
So, this is something to take upon our head: Our acute lack of qualification and the urgency to become more qualified. We have just been given these positions out of emergency and that for once in our life, we should begin to embrace the principles very seriously and not only four regulative principles but also the principles of vaisnava behaviour and so on. Because that is a brahmana; brahmana means principled life and that is a great challenge for us because it means that we have to change. So Krsna consciousness means a great commitment to change and we are given the systems by which we can change.