Tuesday, May 20th, 2014
→ The Walking Monk

Kenora, Ontario

Kenora the Good

Jen is a jem.  Her partner, Dan, and her, took us up in their home for the night.  Jen, good soul that she is, networked and organized a gathering in Kenora’s outdoor pavilion.  The event entailed a walk from this huge marquee, to the town’s icon, Huskie the Muskie, a massive steel and fiberglass image of a fish.  This stunning statue symbolizes the real attraction of the area – water, and a lake known as Lake of the Woods.  In a town that heralds a banner saying, “We love our lake”, you can also be assured that people love people. 

About 50 of them, some of them families, all newcomers to the bhakti yoga scene (and our first time to hold any event here), took to the walk, then my talk, and then to the drum and then to the chant.  Jen arranged for djembes and a drumming circle.  I projected mantras into that circle and the people responded so nicely.  Brad, the maintenance man to the pavilion, came to me tearfully.  He asked if I could offer a prayer for his boss.

Such gentle people. 

And for wildlife today – an eagle, a seagull, a crow and a pelican pair brought excitement to the eyes.  The Mink Bay Trail was our little escape from the world humans have made.  I won’t be sarcastic though when I say that I credit humans for the upkeep of this sweet trail. 

May the Source be with Kenora!

6 KM

Initiation Ceremony, May 19, Houston
Giriraj Swami

06.houston-initiation-2014051901.houston-initiation-2014051908.houston-initiation-2014051907.houston-initiation-2014051910.houston-initiation-2014051902.houston-initiation-2014051903.houston-initiation-2014051905.houston-initiation-2014051909.houston-initiation-20140519———————–
Rtadhvaja Swami, Gunagrahi das Goswami, Hanumat Presaka Swami, Radha Raman Swami, and Giriraj Swami spoke at the ceremony. Prabha Ajmani became Krishna Priya dasi, David Garvin became Dayal Nitai dasa, Ravi Jadhaw became Radha Vinod dasa, Ganesh Pillai became Gauranga Chandra dasa, Anish Pillai became Nilamadhava dasa, and Mohini Patel became Madhuri Radha dasi—and Kalpataru dasi received second initiation.

“Regarding being inattentive while chanting the holy name, Srila Prabhupada, in an initiation lecture in Los Angeles, said, ‘While you chant, you hear also. You don’t turn your attention to anything else—mechanically chanting and thinking of something. Thinking of Krishna is all right, but if I think something which is not in Krishna consciousness . . . Best thing is that I shall chant Hare Krishna and each word I shall hear; then it will be very much effective. Yes.’ These instructions are very simple. There is nothing that Srila Prabhupada said or that I have said that a child cannot understand. But the challenge is the application, and that requires good association. It is up to us to seek that association and place ourselves in such association that is favorable for always remembering Krishna and never forgetting Him—for speaking only about Krishna and nothing else, for tasting only Krishna prasada and nothing else.” —Giriraj Swami

Rtadhvaja Swami
Gunagrahi das Goswami
Hanumat Presaka Swami
Radha Raman Swami
Giriraj Swami

Shadow of Samadhi
→ Seed of Devotion

The teacher training weekend with Sondra and Raghunath began with us all sitting in a giant circle, knee-to-knee. Each of us were sharing how the past month had gone. For most of us, the month had been rough, even dire. But we were here.

When my turn came, I said, "I have been reflecting how progressing through the 8 limbs of yoga seems like so much work, it's all about my endeavor to work my way up to samadhi [complete absorption]. It seems so overwhelming, so exhausting.

"But bhakti yoga is the path of grace. Bhakti turns the entire system of yoga on its head, because it's not about my endeavor any more. The endeavor is mainly there to show that hey, I care." I looked around the giant circle of aspiring yogis. The words just came out of my mouth: "So really, I could experience samadhi right here, right now."

"Okay, do it, right now," Raghunath challenged almost playfully. Everyone laughed.

My heart pounded. I raised my arms, closed my eyes, and called out the holy name:

"Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare."

While I had been chanting, the laughter had died down. In those moments, I felt the Lord's presence in my heart.

I opened my eyes. I folded my palms to my two teachers.

Thank you, Raghunath, for opening the path of grace, even if for only several moments.


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Dropout prevention
→ Servant of the Servant


Every year, over 1.2 million high school students drop out of high school in the United States. This is a significant number especially considering the advanced educational system in the US. Without a high school diploma, it is practically impossible to be economically self-sufficient. It is in this situation, these desperate young adults engage in social ill activities such as substance abuse, illicit sex (leading to abortion), crime etc. It does not stop there; these activities have a chain effect impacting other people, families and the bigger community.  They become unproductive citizens spiraling down more and more into poor decision making to the point where they destroy their lives. Because we live in such a competitive society, students who stay behind due to various reasons end behind and just cannot catch up with rest of society. 

Poverty, broken homes, and abuse are seen as strong predictors of high school dropouts. However, the number one reason kids’ dropout is because they become disconnected with their peers, teachers and counselors. Disconnected youth is the singular immediate cause for students to not return to school. With poor attendance against them, they eventually stop going to school. This disconnection exists because they feel that nobody cares about them. They feel parents don’t care or their friends don’t care or their teachers don’t care etc. This makes sense because as young adults, we all need social and emotional support. We need mentors and care-takers that we know we can turn to at the time of need. Rarely will we find a young student motivated from within. Although it sounds simplistic, this is a complex social problem. 

More and more the culture becomes materialistic, more and more people go inward to just operate on the platform of use, abuse and neglect. Gone are the days where the individual is appreciated for his natural qualities (the Varnashrama system was designed to appreciate every individual for their natural self and not based on some artificial economic monetary system).  The psyche is wired spontaneously (in subtle ways) to use and abuse things, money and people for promoting selfish interests. Such tendencies manifest in an individual right from puberty or perhaps even earlier. As the material culture advances, we will find our civilization becoming more and more impersonalistic. Video games, computer technology, political correctness, box stores like Walmart, cookie cutter city planning strategies, Government secularism etc are subtle manifestations of impersonal material culture. In these environments, you will find minimal human interaction and even if there is it is not intended for personal engagement of the individual. It is intended for fulfilling some other cause or purpose more important than the individual. Disconnected youth dropping out of school is but a natural product of this sort of impersonal culture. 

If we want to reverse this trend, we need to reverse our impersonal tendencies and connect more with the people at a personal level. We need to build families, communities and societies based on human interaction and scale. Bigger the city, scarier and lonelier it feels. So we need to reverse this trend of bigger is better and bring it back to a human scale where every individual matters no matter how big or small the individual may seem. This sort of reversal is possible only if we understand that each individual is as valuable as the other and not meant to be used for our personal motives. 

This can happen only if we see the deeper picture that every individual, animal and plant is part and parcel of God. When we appreciate everyone is part of God, then neglect and abuse can never be common place in our society. Therefore what is missing for these dropout kids is that they need to be appreciated because they are children of God and that they are as important as anybody else. When we have such sanctity of vision, our disposition toward other people, animals and plants will be of personal care, respect and love. 

This is the ultimate message of Bhagavad Gita – to see all beings as part of Krishna and Krishna as part of all beings - thus - we will always be connected to everyone and Krishna at a personal level. We will no more have spiraling social problems instead everyone will be happy – sarve sukhinah bhavantu!

Hare Krishna 

ISKCON Continues to Bring Aid to Flooded Balkans
→ ISKCON News

ISKCON devotees are assisting people affected by the catastrophic floods that have ravaged the Balkan countries of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Crotia. NPR, which called the floods the worst in a century, reported that three months of rain fell in just a few days. This caused the river Sava, which flows through all three countries, to burst beyond its banks and sweep through towns and villages.

Inspiring Day of Communications for ISKCON UK and Ireland
→ ISKCON News

Over thirty devotees from the UK and Ireland attended a special ISKCON National Communications Training Day at Bhaktivedanta Manor, UK.Taking part in a series of innovative and interactive workshops, the group learned about why engaging with the media matters, what makes a good news story and how compatible the worlds of spirituality and media really are.

Preaching in Rathtala, Krishnanagar
→ Mayapur.com

There was a Kirtan Mela Program at Krishnagar Rathtala on 09-05-2014, Where 18 devotee took part including 15 foreign devotees. This program was specifically for the purpose of collectively chanting of Hare Krishna mahamantra with different musical instruments, where  more than 500 Krishnagar local inhabitants joined in that assembly. The whole campus was full of local […]

The post Preaching in Rathtala, Krishnanagar appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Dhubulia Bhakti Vriksha
→ Mayapur.com

Under the banner of Sri Mayapur Local Preaching, there was a huge Bhakti Vriksha Nagar Sankirtan Program on 14-05-2014 at Dhubulia town. Total 30 devotees from Mayapur including 7 foreign devotees participated. At one of our Bhakti Vriksha member Sri Sambhu Putatunda’s house, the local Bhakti Vriksha members received the devotees with throwing flowers on […]

The post Dhubulia Bhakti Vriksha appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Revelation is the complement, not the replacement, of reason (Countering Scientism 1)
→ The Spiritual Scientist

Suppose your mother makes a magnificent cake as a surprise for you. Suppose also you have a colleague who is a fanatical advocate of scientism – the belief system that science alone can answer all questions.

If you asked questions related to the cake, your colleague would summon a battalion of science specialists. For example, dieticians to answer questions about calories and nutritive values of the cake’s ingredients; chemists, about the bonding of those ingredients; mathematicians, about the equations describing the behavior of the involved fundamental particles.

Yet none of them would be able to tell why the cake was made. For that, you would have to ask your mother. Suppose your colleague rejected such an “unscientific” source of knowledge and instead adjudged: “Because science hasn’t found the purpose for which the cake was made, it has no purpose – it just happened.”

How would your mother’s respond to such dismissal of her labor of love by a “just-happened” hypothesis?

Disbelief, dismay, outrage.

Suppose instead that your mother, being a levelheaded lady, dismisses the hypothesis and calmly informs: “Today was the day twenty-seven years ago when your first tooth emerged. To commemorate that day, I wanted to make something soft and sweet and special for you – hence this cake.”

There’s no way the world’s best scientists would have been able to figure that out. Does their inability invalidate this information?

Not at all; it still remains valid and valuable.

A similar dynamic applies to the study of the universe. The world’s best scientists according to their specialties determine what it is made of and how it works. Their intellectual zeal notwithstanding, they won’t be able to find out the purpose of the universe. And this inability is not their fault – it’s the fault of the overzealous proponents of scientism who have unfairly cornered scientists with such out-of-syllabus questions.

To know the universe’s purpose, we need to turn to the maker of the universe: God. He offers answers through revelation in the form of scriptural wisdom. Revelation thus grants us access to vital information that unaided reason cannot reach.

Skeptics may object, “By accepting revelation, you will end up rejecting reason – the source of all our scientific knowledge.”

Such alarmist objections stem from a stereotyped conception of revelation as opposed to reason.

But actually it is reason that helps us recognize the need for revelation and to comprehend it.

Going back to your mother’s purpose for making the cake, you would still need reason to understand her “revelation.” Your pet dog, lacking the reasoning faculty, wouldn’t understand it.

Thus, reason and revelation work in tandem to further our quest for knowledge.

 

Hungarian yatra sends 4 devotees, 7 seats car and 1000 euro to help Sarajevo devotees’ prasad distribution (Album 9 photos)
→ Dandavats.com

Floods are slowly getting better, but water is leaving all the mud, trash, dead animal bodies, infections, mosquitoes, and horrible smell behind. Real problems are just about to begin for all the people who have lost everything. Therefore, our prasadam distribution has just begun! Hungarian yatra sent us 4 devotees, 7 seats car and 1000 eur. They will come on friday and serve with us untill the end of May. Big thanks goes to all devotees and communities in Slovenia, Nederlands, Belgium, Simhacalam-Germany. Indian ambassador in Hungary, Mr. Malay Mishra also gave his contribution. Big thanks to our local devotees who neglected their daily duties, took days off work and coming to serve day and night with their small and big children! Thank you all! Read more ›

Mahabharata: The Eternal Quest Gets Awarded
→ ISKCON News

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
→ New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

NV TBT 05-22-14

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.

Bhagavatam is the most authoritative scripture
→ The Spiritual Scientist

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

 

Spiritual Gender?
→ The Enquirer

GopisQ: 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.