Texas Faith 126: How do we forgive?
→ Nityananda Chandra Das' Blog, ISKCON Dallas

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

Three days after police found the body of 17-year-old Ivan Mejia in the woods in Garland, his father, Flavio, offered forgiveness to those responsible for the young man’s murder. It was the family’s first public statement.

Two of Ivan’s classmates are in custody for the murder, something police say occurred because of a fight over a girl.

Forgiveness is central to so many faiths. But how do we forgive? And what does forgiveness do for the one who forgives and the one who is forgiven? Can true forgiveness come so quickly as the Mejia family offered it, or must it come through time and grief?

Below is Flavio’s statement.

First, we want to thank you on behalf of our family for
respecting our privacy and our silence. We want Ivan to be remembered as a good servant of society who sought the well-being of others and gave a friendly hand in very humble ways and without pretensions. Also he held in high esteem his faith and his passion for Jesus.
It is because of the faith that we profess and that we instilled in Ivan that we hold no grudge toward the people involved in this unfortunate event. We pray for their families because we understand that just like us they are going through a very unpleasant time. We thank God for his strength, for his care
of our family. We thank from our heart our congregation El Lugar de Su Presencia, the community, friends and relatives who have been of help and blessing in these moments that are so difficult for our family.
We have the certainty that our Ivan lived each moment of his life impassioned by his Creator and we know that he did it as a good soldier of Christ. Like the word says in 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith.”
Thanks for your attention. We bless you in the name of Jesus.

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

In the Vedas is said that the beauty of a saintly person is their forgiveness.  It is the quality of those who trying to advance their spiritual consciousness.  It is described that that the chief of all demigods, Brahmā achieved that post because of his superb quality of forgiveness.  Krishna, God Himself, becomes please with those who are forgiving. 

This quality of forgiveness is realized when one understands that God is the supreme controller.  One should not be upset with the instruments of one's own karma.  So for one's own pains a person should be tolerant.  This is personal forgiveness, if others are harmed a person should do their part to protect. This is especially in regards to those who are in leadership, who have the duty and nature to protect others.  Such persons should not avoid corrective methods for the abusive behavior of the unrepentant. 

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

Lord Chaitanya’s Moon Is Rising
→ simple thoughts

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Dear Maharaj/Prabhus,
Please accept my humble obeisances,
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

This clip was taken from a Harinam in London the day before Gaura Purnima.

It is interesting to note that in the beginning the young people are really just interested in goofing around to the kirtan, but later they start reading the mantra and join the kirtan.

Lord Caitanya is very merciful and the Holy Name has the ability to liberate one and all, the goofers, the chanters and the devotees.

Sankirtan leader is Govinda Prabhu,

Your servant
Parasuram Das

Street Sankirtana Must Go On
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Dear Maharaj/Prabhus,

Please accept my humble obeisances all glories to Srila Prabhupada,
Harinam in Chinatown London, March 2014.

HG Giridhari Prabhu leads the chanting.

On that particular day there was a choice of 5 Harinam parties in and around London.

Enjoy the movie,
your servant
Parasuram Das

New Vrindaban Boards Sign Gas Leases for Utica Shale
→ ISKCON News

The boards of ISKCON New Vrindaban and ECO-Vrindaban, the two landholding entities in New Vrindaban, voted on February 20th and February 23rd, respectively, to sign leases for the Utica Shale, a deep natural gas formation.  In 2010, both boards signed similar leases for the Marcellus Shale.  As with that decision, this one was fraught with controversy.

Temple Profile: Kiev, Ukraine
→ ISKCON News

Today, Ukraine is all over the news for the civil unrest in its capital Kiev. But devotees are safe, and doing what they can to assist those affected. The crisis has, however, affected the Bhakti Sangam festival, which draws thousands of devotees and is the biggest ISKCON festival in the Ukraine and one of the biggest in the world. The festival was held every September in the Crimean Peninsula on the coast of the Black Sea, an area which became Russian territory in late February.

What comes before Winter??
→ TKG Academy

Scare crows and Autumn wreaths were a part of our learning about the Autumn or Fall Season. What happens during this time of year that a scare crow is used for? Harvest!  Pumpkins, Other winter squashes, Corn, Nuts, Berries, Apples, Pears, Hay . . . They all must be protected from the many kinds of birds. We also learned about  changes taking place in Nature – How leaves change from green to golden yellows, reds and browns before swirling down in the brisk autumn wind to the multicolored ground. This section included a series of Social Studies lessons about the European Pilgrims and Native Americans.

Reflections on Navadwip Mandal Parikrama
→ Mayapur.com

Dear devotees of Lord Gauranga, please accept our most humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to Sri Navadvipa Dham! All glories to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Navadvipa Candra! We finished our most amazing and blissful  Sri Navadvipa Mandala Parikrama Silver Jubilee Celebration on 11th March in a great union of the parties […]

The post Reflections on Navadwip Mandal Parikrama appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Live broadcast today: 2nd annual Bhaktivedanta Swami Lecture
→ Jayadvaita Swami

 

bsl-title-2014_webToday the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Africa will broadcast the second annual Bhaktivedanta Swami Lecture, to be given at WITS University, Johannesburg, by His Holiness Devamrita Swami.

The event will go live at 6:25 pm in Johannesburg. That’s 5:25 in Belgium, 4:25 in London, 12:25 in New York.

Other worldwide timings here:
http://tinyurl.com/BhaktivedantaSwamiLecture2014
Link to live stream: BSL_poster_2014
http://streaming.wits.ac.za/live/index.html.

You can also see the video made in advance to promote the event.

The Bhaktivedanta Swami lecture highlights the teachings of Srila Prabhupada and their relevance for Africa and the world today.

The lecture is now on YouTube.

The post Live broadcast today: 2nd annual Bhaktivedanta Swami Lecture appeared first on Jayadvaita Swami.

Cosmos Ep2: Some of the Things Molecules Do
→ The Enquirer

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Review of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, Episode 2: “Some of the Things Molecules Do”

This episode had a few brilliant moments, but we had to sit through a whole lot of hot air in between each. I started watching the series saying I was comfortable accepting that a TV Series like this is not a scientific document, but an evangelical piece on behalf of the church of science. Still, since a core tenant of the church of science is the sacred nature of evidence one would hope that even a TV series aired on FOX would take some trouble now and then to demonstrate its logics or present its evidence, rather than simply asserting that such things exist and are acceptable beyond reasonable doubt.

In Episode 2, the show is starting to feel like its relying too much on Tyson’s persuasive charisma and the “wow” effect of computer graphics. Still I’m hoping that this will just be the worst episode, and the rest will be better.

Dogs and Bears

It starts off a little dull, with Tyson at a camp fire explaining how breeding can cause variation within a species. He calls this “evolution by artificial selection.” I don’t know, I think a more eloquent term is “breeding.” He jumps from the explanation of breeding to saying that all life as we know it evolves from simple inert molecules, without so much as a nod to the huge distance he jumped. As if showing that wolves can be bred into dogs, or that bears can change fur color (variation within existing species) is somehow perfectly valid evidence that an inert, dead molecule can somehow transform into a viable, living organism, and that this organism can change into complex life, changing entirely from one species to another.

Sorry Mr. Neil, as handsome as you are and as smooth as your voice surely is, I would raise my hand in your class and call “bullshit” on you. Anyone on any side of the evolution issue whose thought about this with minimal sincerity will honestly admit that evidence for modification within a species is not acceptable as evidence of one species becoming a different species, much less for something without any life at all becoming something alive.

DNA

liked the next part of it, though. The weird-mercurial Spaceship of the Imagination (Still, I think “Spaceship of Factual Proof” would be a better spaceship for exploring science) shrinks smaller and smaller, ala 1966 SciFi Classic Fantastic Voyage, and eventually enters into the nucleus of a cell within the egg of a brown bear. There we get a really, really cool animation of proteins walking along girder like molecular structures – and an amazing animation of DNA.

Fantastic stuff. Loved it.

Eyeballs

Then it got stupid again.

Dr. Neil says that silly people think an intelligent being must have created life on the basis that life is too complex to have arisen by random chance. “Take the eye for example”… OK STOP. Why take an eye for example? Take the damn proteins and DNA you just showed us in a nucleus for example! Forget the eye. Look how amazingly complex that stuff is! No, Tyson wants us to take an eye for example — and sets out to demonstrate that the human eye really isn’t complex at all. Its a simple thing that just had a whole lot of time to become complex by little simple steps. He goes back to some bacteria who somehow (“randomly”) develop a trait that allows them to vaguely sense light, and this simple stuff that is photosensitive just became more and more specialized and perfected over time.

OK, neat. But I’m still freaked out about those little cities with construction workers you showed us 15 minutes ago all inside every singe nucleus of every single cell in my body, Neil. Remember that stuff you showed us about DNA – what an amazingly sophisticated, eloquent code it is for building a life form? And remember that amazingly NextGen animation of that protein-machine that pulls a DNA strand apart without damaging it, and then each side of the DNA replicates the missing side??? HOLY FUCKIN’ SHIT Neil!!! That stuff was awesome! I can’t focus on your whiz bangs about eyes right now, cuz I’m still dizzy over how cool that stuff inside the nucleus was.

So wait, tell me again, what’s so simple and randomly-constructable about a bacteria powered by these kinds of natural robotics, which somehow develops a photosensitive area in its body?

Please Neil… just because you’re backed up by graphics that make it look like everything you say is actually happening right before our eyes, and just because you say, “Its not a myth, its a scientific fact” – the left side of my brain ain’t buyin what you’re trying’ to sell in Episode 2. As soon as you let us peak inside the nucleus of a cell it became perfectly obvious that there’s nothing “simple” or “random” about even the simplest thing in nature – and the rest of your arguments just rang hollow in comparison to that roaring crescendo you (perhaps inadvertently) orchestrated.

PS

It’s not just “complexity” that warrants the theory of a sentient origin of life. Its the principle of “inertia” as well. In other words, evolution means that things change. But things will not change from a settled state unless acted upon by an outside force. So evolution implies an outside force set a settled condition in motion.

Further, adaptation and so on indicates movement towards some goal. It appears obvious that life wants to exist and survive – this is the fundamental motive of evolution, is it not? Survival? (According to prevalent theories). But insentient things have no motives - by definition. Since a motive is required for change, evolution cannot originally be driven by an insentient origin. There must be will acting upon the system, spurring it to change.

- Vraja Kishor

www.vrajakishor.com


Cosmos Ep2: Some of the Things Molecules Do
→ The Enquirer

maxresdefault

Review of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, Episode 2: “Some of the Things Molecules Do”

This episode had a few brilliant moments, but we had to sit through a whole lot of hot air in between each. I started watching the series saying I was comfortable accepting that a TV Series like this is not a scientific document, but an evangelical piece on behalf of the church of science. Still, since a core tenant of the church of science is the sacred nature of evidence one would hope that even a TV series aired on FOX would take some trouble now and then to demonstrate its logics or present its evidence, rather than simply asserting that such things exist and are acceptable beyond reasonable doubt.

In Episode 2, the show is starting to feel like its relying too much on Tyson’s persuasive charisma and the “wow” effect of computer graphics. Still I’m hoping that this will just be the worst episode, and the rest will be better.

Dogs and Bears

It starts off a little dull, with Tyson at a camp fire explaining how breeding can cause variation within a species. He calls this “evolution by artificial selection.” I don’t know, I think a more eloquent term is “breeding.” He jumps from the explanation of breeding to saying that all life as we know it evolves from simple inert molecules, without so much as a nod to the huge distance he jumped. As if showing that wolves can be bred into dogs, or that bears can change fur color (variation within existing species) is somehow perfectly valid evidence that an inert, dead molecule can somehow transform into a viable, living organism, and that this organism can change into complex life, changing entirely from one species to another.

Sorry Mr. Neil, as handsome as you are and as smooth as your voice surely is, I would raise my hand in your class and call “bullshit” on you. Anyone on any side of the evolution issue whose thought about this with minimal sincerity will honestly admit that evidence for modification within a species is not acceptable as evidence of one species becoming a different species, much less for something without any life at all becoming something alive.

DNA

liked the next part of it, though. The weird-mercurial Spaceship of the Imagination (Still, I think “Spaceship of Factual Proof” would be a better spaceship for exploring science) shrinks smaller and smaller, ala 1966 SciFi Classic Fantastic Voyage, and eventually enters into the nucleus of a cell within the egg of a brown bear. There we get a really, really cool animation of proteins walking along girder like molecular structures – and an amazing animation of DNA.

Fantastic stuff. Loved it.

Eyeballs

Then it got stupid again.

Dr. Neil says that silly people think an intelligent being must have created life on the basis that life is too complex to have arisen by random chance. “Take the eye for example”… OK STOP. Why take an eye for example? Take the damn proteins and DNA you just showed us in a nucleus for example! Forget the eye. Look how amazingly complex that stuff is! No, Tyson wants us to take an eye for example — and sets out to demonstrate that the human eye really isn’t complex at all. Its a simple thing that just had a whole lot of time to become complex by little simple steps. He goes back to some bacteria who somehow (“randomly”) develop a trait that allows them to vaguely sense light, and this simple stuff that is photosensitive just became more and more specialized and perfected over time.

OK, neat. But I’m still freaked out about those little cities with construction workers you showed us 15 minutes ago all inside every singe nucleus of every single cell in my body, Neil. Remember that stuff you showed us about DNA – what an amazingly sophisticated, eloquent code it is for building a life form? And remember that amazingly NextGen animation of that protein-machine that pulls a DNA strand apart without damaging it, and then each side of the DNA replicates the missing side??? HOLY FUCKIN’ SHIT Neil!!! That stuff was awesome! I can’t focus on your whiz bangs about eyes right now, cuz I’m still dizzy over how cool that stuff inside the nucleus was.

So wait, tell me again, what’s so simple and randomly-constructable about a bacteria powered by these kinds of natural robotics, which somehow develops a photosensitive area in its body?

Please Neil… just because you’re backed up by graphics that make it look like everything you say is actually happening right before our eyes, and just because you say, “Its not a myth, its a scientific fact” – the left side of my brain ain’t buyin what you’re trying’ to sell in Episode 2. As soon as you let us peak inside the nucleus of a cell it became perfectly obvious that there’s nothing “simple” or “random” about even the simplest thing in nature – and the rest of your arguments just rang hollow in comparison to that roaring crescendo you (perhaps inadvertently) orchestrated.

PS

It’s not just “complexity” that warrants the theory of a sentient origin of life. Its the principle of “inertia” as well. In other words, evolution means that things change. But things will not change from a settled state unless acted upon by an outside force. So evolution implies an outside force set a settled condition in motion.

Further, adaptation and so on indicates movement towards some goal. It appears obvious that life wants to exist and survive – this is the fundamental motive of evolution, is it not? Survival? (According to prevalent theories). But insentient things have no motives - by definition. Since a motive is required for change, evolution cannot originally be driven by an insentient origin. There must be will acting upon the system, spurring it to change.

- Vraja Kishor

www.vrajakishor.com


New Vrindaban’s Transcendental Throwback Thursday – 03/20/14
→ New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

NV TBT 03-20-14

New Vrindaban’s Transcendental Throwback Thursday – 03/20/14.

Each week we highlight an earlier era of ISKCON New Vrindaban.

This week’s challenge: Despite a slight blurriness, there are four devotees whose faces are recognizable and two with their backs to the camera. How many can you identify?

Extra Credit: What is the special name of the place they are in?

Post your guesses on the “who, what, when, where & why” in the comment section at the New Vrindaban Facebook Page.

Technical stuff: We share a photo Thursday and confirm known details Sunday. Let’s keep it light and have a bit of fun!

Special request: If you have a photo showing New Vrindaban devotees in action, share it with us and we’ll use it in a future posting.

Tuesday, March 18th, 2014
→ The Walking Monk

Toronto, Ontario

Incidents Do Happen

Nick and I left the ashrambefore retiring for the night ‘to get some rounds in’.  By that term we don’t mean we’re playing golf or anything of the sort.  We are referring to having our fingers go a revolution or more on our mediation beads while reciting mantras.  And in the process, we are walking.

A good progressive walk we did in terms of speed, up Bloor Street West to Christie Pitts and back in one hour. 

Nick has been fairly occupied as of late in the care of Tulasi, the sacred plant so commonly honoured in Vaishnava ashrams and temples around the world.  He’s also doing extra kitchen duties, filling in for one of our monks who slipped and fell on the kitchen floor, landing on his right hand and leaving him incapacitated. 

Accidents and incidents do happen, even in a spiritual environment.  Currently, our community in Toronto is quite shaken up about losing a dear member.  Mayapur Chandra was a young man whose body was recently found outside in the snow.  He passed away from hypothermia.  He had a lot of young friends who feel a great loss in the community. 

It was this evening that a grievance counselor by the name of Rajnish from amongst our community took the group of mourners through introspection and prayer.  The support system is well in place, and in an effort to help boost the morale, I had made a special dedication through a 9 Devotions workshop this evening before ‘getting some rounds in’. 

I wish to give a special moment of reflection to honourMayapur Chandra for his kind, sharing ways.

May the Source be with you!

6 KM

Monday, March 17th, 2014
→ The Walking Monk

Oshawa, Ontario

In Rick’s Class

I arrived early at Durham College’s room where Rick conducts his classes.  I sat down waiting in the room with just a few students who are also early and who had made themselves comfortable along the classroom’s edge.  As the trickling in of students trailed on, there was a continuation of gravitating to the outer seats where they opened up to their individual computer gadget or book.  Book?  Yes!  Surprise!

Rick came in.  It’s always great to see him.  By now, the middle portion of the room filled in.  Rick gave the intro to the students about the guest speaker and mentioning about my pilgrimages across countries.  More so, he wanted me to speak about the Krishna culture.  I was to convey how Krishna devotees theologically see the world through our lens.  Whether we accept or reject other paths to the absolute.  What do we as a group struggle with amongst ourselves, and how do we solution this?  There were other points he wished me to cover.

They were a good group of students, really attentive, and especially so when I began to speak about our challenges in recognition of a divorce rate that should and could be lowered within our community.   I mentioned that we started to give attention to the problem, “Faith and family should run together relatively smooth.”  I explained that secularism and materialism have imposed a major shakeup to the family unit.  In other words, I was taking a strong position for spirituality being a major component within relationships.  “Spirituality is supposed to build up your sensitivity, tolerance, patience, love, and togetherness.”  It has been observed that many people take to the spiritual track to gain stability in their lives and that by partaking in community activities aim to achieve enhanced harmony.  We all need a good support system.

In any event, questions came.  Time spun by very quickly.  I was just about to do a demo on the drum, the mrdanga, and then to chant, but the hour zipped by in a flash and the next guests came in, two young male members of the Mormon Church.  They were absolutely amiable.  We exchanged handshakes and words of goodwill.  Of course, spiritualists should support each other and not see each other as adversaries, even if from a different denomination. 

May the Source be with you!

6 KM

Supreme Detachment of the Supreme Enjoyer
→ The Enquirer

[Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.3.19-23 - Uddhava speaking to Vidura]

In Dvārakā, the All-Attractive enjoyed all desirable things as a follower of Vedic and popular custom. Yet, being the soul of all, he was unattached to all of it, and fixed in a philosophical outlook.

This is the premise that Uddhava elaborates on in the rest of the section: that the Supreme Enjoyer is also the Supreme Renunicant.

The point made here is that Krishna did interact with sense objects, following the normal Vedic customs and even following mundane popular customs. However, he was unattached to these interactions, due to his enlightenment.

The next two paragraphs will elaborate, first by explaining how he truly enjoyed,  then by explaining his renunciation.

To hear his words — expressed with affectionate, smiling glances — seemed like drinking nectar. His character was flawless and the very home of beauty and grace.

Krishna does not enjoy external sense objects, he enjoys love and affection. He is renounced from external objects and attached to the pleasures of internal sensations of love. He enjoys by sharing his internal energy (love) with others.

Thus he shared joy with this world, with other worlds, and most especially with his family, the Yadus.

He shared his internal love with the normal world, and also with the higher beings on other words, but most importantly and most intimately of all he shared love with his intimate companions, who appeared as members of his family.

Among those companions the most intimate of all were his queens…

Among them he shared the most special joy with his ladies, enjoying intimate moments with them in the relaxing opportunities of the night.

I can only direct the reader to the Sanskrit poetry here (3.3.21). It is impossible for me to do it justice in English. The poetic repitition and play on the word kṣaṇa is astonishing.

While enjoying like this for many dozens of years, he certainly did so with the fullest sense of detachment from the ordinary sexuality of ordinary couples.

This makes the point that Krishna’s interactions with his queens, family and so on, is not an affair of a bewildered soul grasping towards external objects and situations to fill a void of unhappiness within. His romantic interactions with his queens, for example, was essentially not  the same as the romantic interactions of ordinary couples because his queens are a manifestation of his own internal potency, and the romantic exchanges with them is expression of the internal energy (love). In the case of ordinary couples, on the other hand, the participants see themselves externally – as objects and subjects of material energy, and their expressions are not acts of joy but acts of hunger. Krishna’s romantic deeds are nothing like this, although of course ordinary romance cannot but imitate the external form of his divine romance.

Fate controls sense objects, and fate controls those who enjoy such objects. How can anyone be dedicated to the Master of Unity, if they have serious ambitions to unite with such sense objects?

Uddhava makes a concluding argument and statement simultaneously.

Uddhava’s argument is that even the devotees of Krishna (those “dedicated to the Master of Unity”) are devoid of interest in sense objects that are under the control of material fate; so what to speak of the person they are devoted to!? He certainly cannot be an external sense object, nor can he be interested in enjoying such things.

Uddhava’s statement is that if anyone wishes to participate in this exchange of spiritual, internal pleasure and joy with the All-Attractive, he or she needs to reduce and eventually eliminate their interest in pursuing external pleasures within the realm of karma / fate.

- Vraja Kishor

www.vrajakishor.com


Supreme Detachment of the Supreme Enjoyer
→ The Enquirer

[Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.3.19-23 - Uddhava speaking to Vidura]

In Dvārakā, the All-Attractive enjoyed all desirable things as a follower of Vedic and popular custom. Yet, being the soul of all, he was unattached to all of it, and fixed in a philosophical outlook.

This is the premise that Uddhava elaborates on in the rest of the section: that the Supreme Enjoyer is also the Supreme Renunicant.

The point made here is that Krishna did interact with sense objects, following the normal Vedic customs and even following mundane popular customs. However, he was unattached to these interactions, due to his enlightenment.

The next two paragraphs will elaborate, first by explaining how he truly enjoyed,  then by explaining his renunciation.

To hear his words — expressed with affectionate, smiling glances — seemed like drinking nectar. His character was flawless and the very home of beauty and grace.

Krishna does not enjoy external sense objects, he enjoys love and affection. He is renounced from external objects and attached to the pleasures of internal sensations of love. He enjoys by sharing his internal energy (love) with others.

Thus he shared joy with this world, with other worlds, and most especially with his family, the Yadus.

He shared his internal love with the normal world, and also with the higher beings on other words, but most importantly and most intimately of all he shared love with his intimate companions, who appeared as members of his family.

Among those companions the most intimate of all were his queens…

Among them he shared the most special joy with his ladies, enjoying intimate moments with them in the relaxing opportunities of the night.

I can only direct the reader to the Sanskrit poetry here (3.3.21). It is impossible for me to do it justice in English. The poetic repitition and play on the word kṣaṇa is astonishing.

While enjoying like this for many dozens of years, he certainly did so with the fullest sense of detachment from the ordinary sexuality of ordinary couples.

This makes the point that Krishna’s interactions with his queens, family and so on, is not an affair of a bewildered soul grasping towards external objects and situations to fill a void of unhappiness within. His romantic interactions with his queens, for example, was essentially not  the same as the romantic interactions of ordinary couples because his queens are a manifestation of his own internal potency, and the romantic exchanges with them is expression of the internal energy (love). In the case of ordinary couples, on the other hand, the participants see themselves externally – as objects and subjects of material energy, and their expressions are not acts of joy but acts of hunger. Krishna’s romantic deeds are nothing like this, although of course ordinary romance cannot but imitate the external form of his divine romance.

Fate controls sense objects, and fate controls those who enjoy such objects. How can anyone be dedicated to the Master of Unity, if they have serious ambitions to unite with such sense objects?

Uddhava makes a concluding argument and statement simultaneously.

Uddhava’s argument is that even the devotees of Krishna (those “dedicated to the Master of Unity”) are devoid of interest in sense objects that are under the control of material fate; so what to speak of the person they are devoted to!? He certainly cannot be an external sense object, nor can he be interested in enjoying such things.

Uddhava’s statement is that if anyone wishes to participate in this exchange of spiritual, internal pleasure and joy with the All-Attractive, he or she needs to reduce and eventually eliminate their interest in pursuing external pleasures within the realm of karma / fate.

- Vraja Kishor

www.vrajakishor.com


Gaura Purnima at the Bhakti Centre
→ Ramai Swami

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We had the pleasure of attending two Gaura Purnima festivals, one at the Bhakti Centre on the Gold Coast and the other at Brisbane temple.

Lord Chaitanya manifests the audarya bhava, or the most munificent and merciful aspect of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The program schedule at the Bhakti Centre was very well attended and the devotees enjoyed an evening of kirtan, lila, drama, abhiseka and wonderful feast.
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To be or not to be… vegan?
→ KKSBlog

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 01 October 2013, Melbourne, Australia, Srimad Bhagavatam 2.3.1)

More and more devotees are becoming vegan because they say milk is not pure; so much cruelty to the cows is involved now. But Srila Prabhupada was not fanatic about this. Srila Prabhupada felt that milk was very important, that we needed it for finer brain tissue development. Even in America, when the milk was adulterated with Vitamin D which might not have been of a vegetarian source, Prabhupada said, “Don’t worry about it, just take it. We need to take milk.” So, Prabhupada sometimes seemed to be quite pragmatic in these matters.

Now they say, “But it is worse than ever. Now, we do better to become vegans.” Well, I respect these devotees but personally I feel that even if a cow is kept in a hellish condition and being mistreated, it’s a bad thing. It is bad!

cute calvesI’ve seen here in Australia, many cows waiting to be put on the train. Calves, all in a pen, locked up. I was chanting japa early in the morning, there was nobody around, just these calves… something in me felt like… I sort of felt an urge to let them escape. But there was nowhere for them to go to. I felt like letting them out but they had nowhere to go! The whole planet is a prison for them. There is not a free inch of space for them. Wherever they go, they will be caught – so hellish, absolutely hellish!

But, at least if we take their milk and offer it to Krsna, they make eternal benefit! Although their suffering is hellish, it is temporary. If we don’t take their milk, we may bring some relief to them; a few, tiny drops of relief to their temporary suffering.

We don’t take their milk, okay… (booming voice), “If everyone becomes vegan and like millions and millions of people in the world don’t drink milk, then the milk industry will feel it and milk consumption will go down and less cows will have to suffer for all this. That reduces the temporary suffering of the cows! Yay! We got some temporary benefit for the suffering of those cows.”

But what if we take the milk and offer it to Krsna? We give those same cows eternal benefit that cannot be destroyed by anything. Let devotees take all the milk, as much as possible, and offer it all to Krsna! In this way, give the cows as much eternal benefit as possible. The rest of the world should become vegan (laughing). We should have lots of milk, lots of it and we give milk sweets to the vegans!

Gaura Purnima, March 16, ISKCON Silicon Valley, Mountain View, California
Giriraj Swami

03.16.14_04.GauraPurnima_ISV03.16.14_03.GauraPurnima_ISVGiriraj Swami spoke during the evening part of the celebrations.

“Srila Prabhupada, at the age of seventy, and at the order of his guru maharaja, crossed the ocean and sat down under a tree and chanted Hare Krishna. He said that anyone could take Krishna consciousness to anywhere in the world by the same method. You just go to a park in the center of the town, sit down under a tree and chant Hare Krishna. And—this is Srila Prabhupada’s own words—’Immediately people will think, Who is this crazy fellow sitting and chanting in the town square? And they will come around to find out about this crazy fellow.’ Then you tell them about Bhagavad-gita and Krishna consciousness. So, this is continuing by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy. All we have to do is take it and distribute it. This is the mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu—that you should taste the nectar of the holy name, taste love of God and distribute it—share it with others.

Gaura Purnima, ISV, 2014