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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)
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?
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.
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
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.
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 08 June 2014, Stockholm Sweden, Sunday Feast, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.5.14)
When Srila Prabhupada came to Germany, he met Sacinandana swami’s father. His son had just become a devotee and Sacinandana Maharaj’s father asked a question to Prabhupada,”How can a crocodile survive in the Rhine?” Srila Prabhupada’s answer was, “It is not required to wear this dress. One can also be in plain clothes and be a devotee.” So, there are many quotes on this story, some a little dramatic. Then Sacinandana Maharaj’s father was very impressed and said, “Oh, your guru is very intelligent.” Because Prabhupada understood that question, ‘A crocodile in the Rhine!’
We see that many spiritual traditions in the world have two sides to it. One monastic side, a priestly class, that wear some kind of uniform, some dress standing for spirituality that distinguishes them from the world and gives them their spiritual identity. The other is the secular feature. So, I think that the Krsna West approach to Krsna consciousness is going to be the secular feature of the movement, and best, and has always been because it is not a new invention. It has already been there, now it is just that the idea is formalised a bit more. You already know about the Krsna West because most of the time you are dressed in the Krsna West uniform, so the secular aspect.
Now the secular aspect of Krsna consciousness – Krsna consciousness is a transplant, it is ‘A crocodile that has been put into the Rhine’. It is another culture, not a tradition. The dress, well what is our idea of the Vedic dress? The kurta as Hridayananda Maharaj rightly points out, is a Muslim invention and the cholis are not exactly Vedic. But saris and some sort of dhotis or whatever, that sort of goes back to a more traditional thing. The chaadhar – very traditional! So it was born out of another culture. The clothes, they come out of a culture. This was born out of a culture that had tried to regulate sexual activity and therefore was not ‘putting it’ some much out into the public. Therefore, certain parts of the bodies were nicely covered. This (sannyasa) cloth is different! Tight jeans kind of displays whatever is there, right! Or when ladies walk around with tight jeans and tight t-shirts with nothing under it and chant Hare Krsna at the same time! Hare Krsna is nicely chanted but the dress is of a different culture, a culture that deals with sexuality in a different way.
Now, when I brought up this argument to Hridayananda Maharaj, he pointed out, “Yes, I am not saying we should wear those kinds of clothes, I am talking about wearing sattvic Western clothes, something in the mode of goodness.” All right, nice, better than those other clothes which incite passion. But I can imagine that many people in the world could relate much easier to Krsna consciousness if it was not in such an oriental religious guise; you know, if it was a little more integrated. For those people, it is good. But I also think that as all traditions of the world show the monastic aspect of spiritual tradition, there are those people who are full time dedicated to it, without having to compromise with society. They are withdrawn from society. They are spending all their time with their spirituality and they become the spiritual leaders, the inspiration for the secular practitioners. So, I think that is, in my estimation, the best we can expect from Krsna West with all due respect to the efforts that are out there. I think it is nothing new, it sounds more dramatic than it is.
I am a sannyasi by vow, the vows are strict! I find that if we just dressed in jeans and in regular clothes then I would find that a burden. I find that if I would just let my hair grow and a little beard, I would sort of lose a certain amount of self-discipline. I find that even every once in a while when I shave my head, it reconfirms my self-discipline. So, I find I get benefits from all these practises on a personal level and therefore I am quite convinced that it is beneficial!
(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.
Once again their Lordships Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra descended with the spiritual world and their associates and devotees to bless all the living entities in Venice Beach. Giriraj Swami attended the festival and hosted a questions-and-answers session, posted below.
“We are persons. When the soul leaves the body, the body is dead—it is just a bag of chemicals. So, that personality that animates the body is the soul. The soul is active when it is in the body, and the soul continues to be active after it leaves the body. It is a person when it is in the body, and after it leaves the body it is still a person. And Krishna is the Supreme Person. He never enters a material body. He always exists in His original, blissful, spiritual form. Our goal is to revive our loving relationship with Radha and Krishna. As far as karma is concerned—we don’t care for karma. The pains and pleasures will come and go. You can’t stop them.”
tasyaiva hetoh prayateta kovido
labhyate yad bhramatam upary adhah
tal labhyate duhkhavad anyatah sukham
kalena sarvatra gabhira-ramhasa
“Persons who are actually intelligent and philosophically inclined should endeavor only for that purposeful end which is not obtainable even by wandering from the topmost planet down to the lowest planet. As far as happiness derived from sense enjoyment is concerned, it can be obtained automatically in course of time, just as in course of time we obtain miseries even though we do not desire them.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.18)
Devi Citralekha ji's, a devoted to Krishna soul, visit to Mayapur. Read more › 
Indradyumna Swami: Polish Woodstock came and went so quickly! The organisers say 800,000 people attended. We chanted, danced and distributed prasadam ( 126,000 full plates ) until we could no longer stand on our two feet. Kirtans went on until 4 am each morning in a tent filled constantly with hundreds of people. Many thanks to the 700 devotees from Russia, Ukraine and all over Europe who gave their hearts and souls to sharing the blissful life of Krsna consciousness with hundreds and thousands of festival goers. Certainly the lives of those people will never be the same, and neither will ours. It was a dream come true. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! Read more › The post Citralekha Bhagavat Saptaha appeared first on Mayapur.com.
The post August 5th, 2014 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.
For the past several months I am writing detailed memoirs of Srila Prabhupad, and there is a large chunk of history missing. From June 1971 through all of 1972 I traveled with Prabhupad as secretary, and I sent almost weekly newsletters, describing whatever Prabhupad was doing at the time, to Karandhar in LA, who would copy and include these descriptions in his regular BBT Newsletters, mailed out to all temples.
The old BBT Newsletters seem to have disappeared, even the Bhaktivedanta Archives do not have any copies.
So I am appealing to all devotees: If anyone has--or has a lead to--any BBT Newsletters from the period June 1971 through December 1972, will you kindly let me know? Read more › 
MATHURA: The National Green Tribunal has pulled up the Mathura district administration for not ensuring proper cleanliness on the Govardhan Parikrama Marg, causing hardships to pilgrims visiting the holy site. Read more › Why would there be lust and anger in someone hearing rasa-lila, can grhstas advance in KC and whether just service to guru without advancement allows one to go back to godhead?
The post Prema-rasa asks about the differences in humility at the practicing and perfected stages appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.
“One who chants Krishna's name and constantly remembers Him, even though living in this material ocean of nescience, is like the lotus, which is born in the water but is untouched by it: it's position is transcendental. This great soul is capable of liberating all the suffering residents of the hellish planets. (Varaha Purana) Read more ›