Websites from the ISKCON Universe
Sankirtana Das disciple of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is a sacred storyteller, workshop leader and author of Mahabharata: The Eternal Quest. The book was recently awarded Finalist in 2014 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. He is interviewed by Lilasuka Devi Dasi, Communications Director at New Vrindaban.
New Vrindaban’s Transcendental Throwback Thursday – 05/22/14.
Each week we highlight an earlier era of ISKCON New Vrindaban.
This week’s challenge: Can you identify all six devotees in this photo?
What to do: 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.
From Steven
They care only for God and devotion to him - and not a bit for others. Isn't that narcissistic?
From Steven
Atheists say that religion deprives people of sex which is basically a natural drive.
From Steven
Some people say that belief helps people to be positive and confident, so that is good. What they believe in is not important. So belief in God is not needed - just belief in belief is.
As the Vedas, being vast in scope, have many prescriptions for those interested in fruitive action and impersonal realization, instructions for the devotee is not easy to extract. In order to clearly show the real meaning which is revealed here and there in the Vedas, the sattvika puranas have been given. Among the sattvika puranas, the Srimad Bhagavatam is the best, most explicitly explaining the highest import of the Vedas. Thus the Bhagavatam and the Pancaratra scriptures, which confirm the same conclusions, are counted as authoritative knowledge.
Chaitanya Shikshamrita, Bhaktivinoda Thakura
Q: Many people say the soul doesn’t have a gender.
In some context, the soul may not have a manifest gender, but inherently it is shakti and therefore essentially feminine by constitution.
A feminine entity can express herself in masculine ways, or visa versa, so the soul can sometimes exhibit a male form without changing the fact that fundamentally it is a female thing.
Q: Krishna says he is param purush (supreme male). But at the same time soul is not prakriti (material energy / female), it’s marginal energy.
All energy of the purusha is prakriti. But we can subdivide it into three categories: para-, apara-, and parāpara-prakriti. The spiritual reality is manifest through para-prakriti, the material reality through apara-prakriti, and the conscious entities (“souls”) through parāpara-prakṛti. Therefore the soul is prakṛti, specifically it is “marginal” prakṛti, or parāpara-prakṛti.
The term prakriti is synonymous with śakti (energy). pra-krti means “the fountainhead of doing.” It is the power that enables a cause to produce effects.
Purusha (śaktimān) establishes the essential nature of masculinity. Prakriti (śakti) establishes the essential nature of masculinity.
It is a little misleading to say, “prakṛti is feminine,” because it sounds like we are ascribing femininity to it. Quite the opposite is true. The female gender is the ascription, due to its similarity to the nature of śakti / prakṛti. In other words, female gender is denoted as “female” because it bears some essential trait in common with the essential trait of the actual female entity, śakti. As mentioned before, the essential trait of śakti / prakṛti is that “it is the power enabling a cause to produce effects.” Prakṛti enables the puruṣa to expand. So, another synonym of prakriti is strī (a word used to denote the female gender, which literally means, “that which grants expansion.”) This facility for expansion is the essence of femininity, which the “female” gender emulates beginning with but not limited to its biological role in reproduction.
All of existence besides the original cause, Bhagavān, is a product of either para-, apara-, or parāpara-prakṛti. Therefore everything in creation is fundamentally feminine. This simply means that everything has the fundamental nature of facilitating the expansion of bliss of the Original Person.
The female biology does not have a monopoly on this essential trait. Any biological gender can act as śakti. For example, the boys of Vṛndāvana expand and facilitate Krishna’s desire to make his bliss more elaborate and fulfilling by enhancing the value and rarity of the time he spends directly with the original female manifestations of śakti, the girls of Vṛndāvana. All quantums of prakṛti expand the bliss of the Original Being, but some do it through masculine forms, others through feminine forms, and still others in neuter forms. Thus all are fundamentally feminine, but can express that femininity through masculine, feminine or neuter vehicles, depending upon the specifics of the role they like to play in the līlā of Bhagavān’s ānanda.
Q: When souls go back to godhead, do they get spiritual bodies with a gender according to their natural Rasa?
Yes, they get forms that facilitate their cherished desires. It is the same principle that operates in the material reflection of reality. A soul develops and exhibits a bodily form that matches and facilitates its cherished desires (in the material reflection, we have the inescapable caveat “as far as possible”). So, in the spiritual realm, we exhibit a form / “body” that facilitates our specific treasured desires to please Krishna.
Q: The souls in madhurya rasa [romantic relationship to the divine], do they always get female form like that of the gopis?
As far as those souls directly and explicitly in Mādhurya Rasa, yes. There could potentially be some exception: perhaps in the case of mohinī-mūrti – a feminine direct manifestation of Bhagavān, but mohini-mūrti is an aiśvarya-avatāra who is not open to forming very intimate, egalitarian relationships with souls so that is ruled out. Sometimes the gopīs jest that a flute is masculine (by grammatical gender), yet Krishna always kisses it. However, most of the time, they describe the flute as feminine. And objectively speaking, it is neuter. So really, there is no literal exception to the principle that all souls directly in mādhurya-rāsa exhibit feminine forms. The flute might be seen as an example of a neuter entity directly in Mādhurya Rāsa, but because the flute does not exhibit a form that expresses sentience (although possessing sentience), it is directly in śānta-rāsa, and that śānta-rasa is engaged as a tool for mādhurya-rāsa. So the flutes mādhurya-rasa is indirect.
In indirect mādhurya-rasa, any of the three genders (male, female, neuter) can participate. In this sense, every resident of Vṛndāvana is in Mādhurya Rasa. All of Vṛndāvana is focused on the parakiya mādhurya rasa of Rādhā-Krishna. Even Krishna’s male friends are focused only on augmenting the excitement of Rādhā-Krishna’s romantic līlā. Even Krishna’s mother and father do what they do only to play a key role in facilitating the sweetness of Krishna’s mādhurya-līlā with Rādhārāṇī. Therefore although in a sense they are in sakhya or vatsalya rasa, actually that sakhya or vataslya is a tool to serve the fundamental mādhurya rasa shared by every molecule and atom of Vṛndāvana Dhāma.
Everyone and everything, trees, flute, peacocks, peacock feathers, monkeys, vines, pathways, sun and moon, boys and girls, men and women, hills and valleys, rivers and pools… everyone and everything in Vṛndāvana is immersed in Rādhā-Krishna’s mādhurya-līlā.
This question is based on this Gita-daily article
Those who judge a horse by its harness can't harness its potential
Audio
This talk is a part of the "Fascinating Mahabharata Characters" series. To know more about this course, please visit:
bhakticourses.com
Krsnadas Kaviraj Goswami is saying that the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is just amazing, and the more one tries to logically understand it, the more amazing it is. I like to call this verse, the open invitation to the Caitanya Caritamrta. I see this verse as an important verse because it shows us the proper attitude by which we are meant to look at the life of Lord Caitanya. We are looking at his mercy and that is what we are trying to uncover, more and more.
paśu pākhī jhure, pāṣāṇa vidare (Song: Parama Karuna by Locana Das Thakura)
It is said that the animals (paśu), the birds (pākhī), will chant, and the stones (pāṣāṇa vidare) will melt in the chanting of the holy names. Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur said that even when a bird chants the holy names of the Lord, that bird will go back to Godhead. So, although Prabhupada told us, ‘No parrot-like chanting,’ still, the parrots get the mercy when they chant!
Graduation Ceremony was held in the temple room on May 21st. Led by bhajans by the students, each child recieved a Certificate of Merit, displaying key Vaishnava qualities they possessed. How sweet it was to hear the teachers glorify these young boys and girls, noting their achievements in the class.
At the end, His Grace Nityananda Prabhu and His Holiness Rtadhvaja Swami spoke words of blessings.
Have a great summer!
On Wednesday, May 21, TKG Academy students, teachers and parents ended the school year with Field Day- teambuilding games and fun in the sun!
We built a human pyramid, ultimate frisbee, soccer and played partnered activities designed to test one’s trust in the other.
Take a look at the pictures!
Gadadhara Pandit Dasa is a most unlikely monk. A video by Contessa Gayles.
With Green Living City the innovator Broekbakema (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) states that intensifying the existing city can only be accomplished by building it vertically instead of the common breadth expansion of cities. The Green Living City is literally developed in the vertical direction by stacking a mix of functions, including the public space.
Bhaktivedanta Manor Photo Compilation 2014 Read more › 