India’s Top Businessmen Visit ISKCON Juhu’s Nilachal Vedic Village
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(Photo names left to right) H.G. Radharchana Mataji (MC), H.G. Surangi Mataji (wife of DN Pr.), Ms. Manju Gupta (Chairman of Lupin group of companies), H.H. Guruprasad Swami Maharaj (Vice chairman of GBC), Sri Balkrishna Goenka (Chairman of Welspun group), Sri Ashok Goel (Chairman of Essel group), H.G. Devakinandan Das (GBC minister for Fundraising & […]

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Ratha Yatra Makes History in Sao Paulo, Brazil
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photos by Bhakta Ronaldo Canale and Lourieni Corrêa.   On December 6, 2022, Iskcon Cidade São Paulo held another Ratha Yatra, which took Sri Sri Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra to Avenida Paulista, where thousands of people watched and followed the parade of the Deities. Despite the unpredictability of the weather, roadblocks that could have prevented […]

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Standing Against Gender-Based Violence
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November 25, 2022, marks the UN’s International Day to End Violence Against Women.  This year, ISKCON’s Vaishnavi  Ministry will join the UN’s global 16 days of activism against gender-based violence As Vaishnavas, we are mandated by our scriptures and tradition to protect the vulnerable and those placed in our love and care, including “the brāhmaṇas, […]

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Our Seven Mothers
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Our Seven Mothers.
“Our own biological mother; a guru or wife of our guru; a queen or head of state; brahminis, or wives of our teachers; the cow; one’s nurse, and finally, Mother Earth. Manu Smriti says,“The gods dwell where women are honored and respected”.Perhaps that’s why there are so many problems in the world today. So, first of all, our own mother, our first guru, the one who gave us birth. Srila Prabhupada writes in his commentary to Srimad Bhagavatam that, “only fools are ungrateful to their benefactors”. (SB 1.16.26-30, purport)


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Cleanliness In The Home
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By the Minister of Deity worship

When articles are mildly contaminated through contact with impure items such as food remnants, they may be purified in the following ways: gold, silver, conch shells, jewels, stones, and spoons are purified by water; yajïa utensils, such as the sruk and sruva (wooden ladles), by rinsing with warm water; other yajïa utensils by scrubbing with kuça grass and water; an äsana, bed, and vehicle by water; and grains, deerskin, cloth,4 thread, linen, fruits, flowers, grass, and leaves by washing them in water if extensively contaminated, or simply by sprinkling if the contamination is slight. Continue reading "Cleanliness In The Home
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JAPA AND FAMILY RESPONSIBILITY
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A friend recently wrote to me looking for a solution to a dilemma he found himself in. One of his spiritual mentors was heavily pushing him that he should start chanting 64 rounds a day. Our friend obediently started doing that, but very quickly found that if he did so it was not possible for
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Kaliya Krishna Dasa Disappearance
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Srila Kaviraja Goswami writes (Chaitanya Charitamrta-lila Adi 11:37.) that Kaliya Krishna Dasa Thakura was one of the principle devotees of Nityananda Prabhu. He knew nothing other than the lotus feet of Sri Nityananda Prabhu.

According to Srila Kavi Karnapura’s Gaura-Ganodesha-Dipika (text 132.), he was one of the 12 gopals in Vrindavana, and in the pastimes of Krishna in Vrindavana was known as Labhanga, one of Krishna’s cowherd boy friends. Here he is refered to as Kalah Krsnadasa or Kalakrsnadasa.

On the twelfth day of the dark moon in the month of Caitra, Sri Kaliya Krishna Dasa Thakura disappeared from this world. This is not the same Kaliya Krishna dasa who accompanied Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to South India. At present, Kaliya Krishnadas’s descendents live in different holy places in Bengal.

His birthplace is in the Bardhaman (Burdwan) district of West Bengal within a short distance from the Railway station at Katwa, at the village called Akai Hatta. This village is situated on the old king’s road between Nabadwipa and Katwa. Akai Hatta is a very small village.

Life Beyond Cultural Shame
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Life Beyond Cultural Shame.
A Second Gen’s Perspective on Never Have I Ever.
By Gopika-kanta (Gopika Sharma)
I remember leading the Bhakti Club at Rutgers University. The Western students loved the kirtan and embraced our genuine attempts to explain the practice of mantra meditation in an impactful way. The Indian kids? Their feelings of judgment made my insides shrivel. I hated feeling looked at by my own people as if I was less because I finally was doing the hard work of figuring out the value of my culture. But why do we have to live life like this? It feels like we either embrace our Western ideals while disregarding our cultural and religious roots, or we don’t disregard our culture but just respect it from afar, engaging with religious practices in an uncommitted or lukewarm manner.


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UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Lecture – Bhagavad Gītā as a Source Text for Pedagogical Modeling
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HG Garuḍa Prabhu, PhD (Harvard) ACBSP, presented a lecture on November 8th for the Cambridge Philosophy of Education Seminars series at the University of Cambridge with the following title:    Bhagavad Gītā as a Source Text for Pedagogical Modeling   The abstract for his talk reads as follows:    The seven hundred philosophical poetic verses
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Dear Bhagavatam!
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Dear Bhagavatam!
When there is no other glimmer of light
And the clouds of illusion cover my power of sight
Your every word illuminates my path from within
And You give me the faith to let my journey begin
When the unceasing rain of this world starts
It drips through the holes in the ceiling of our hearts


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Do devotees need to take care of their emotional health? (video)
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By Chaitanya Charan Das

Do devotees need to take care of their emotional health? - The Monk's Podcast with Mahatma Prabhu. Healthy Devotees, Happy Devotees. It is no secret that our physical and mental well-being has a crucial influence on the quality of our daily life and our efficiency in devotional service. Continue reading "Do devotees need to take care of their emotional health? (video)
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Monday, November 14, 2022
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Toronto/Atlanta

Back to Argentina

When I boarded Delta Airline enroute to Atlanta, as a stopover for Buenos Aires, I had a little chat with the flight attendant. I remarked that customs were so long and so slow. “Unacceptable!” I said.

Her remark, “It’s always like that here (Toronto). I love the city, but the airport…” And as she said this her eyes were rolling. I thought to lodge a complaint next time I had the chance, regarding an improvement in service that could happen at the Toronto Airport. Afterall service is everything in the regular world as well as in the world of bhakti, the spiritual. A big price tag is put on the ways of convenience.

When on the plane I had the pleasure to read from Satsvarupa’s book, Prabhupada, about the first Chariot Festival in San Francisco:

The report came back. “It was great! It was wonderful! It was a beautiful day, they said. And Swamiji listened, moved by his disciples’ descriptions of the celebration. Many hippies had joined the large procession. Mukunda, Haridasa, Hayagriva, and some of the women had been on the cart, and the instruments, including Yamuna’s playing on the harmonium had been amplified. Everyone in the streets had liked it.”

It’s always good to hear good news even if from the past.

In Atlanta, I boarded Delta once again to find myself in a middle seat. On either side was already seated an uncle and a niece. “Would you like to sit together?” I asked. “No, it’s okay”, they replied and ended up talking through me anyway.

May the Source be with you!


 

Sunday, November 13, 2022
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Hamilton / Oakville

Shelter

This Sunday was exciting. Sundays usually are. One of the reasons is that I get very busy with people. Today, it was three locations, so that makes it three presentations. The theme for all these venues, in addition to chanting sessions and prasadam (blessed food), was the topic of “shelter.” The first gathering was actually in the Conference Room of ISKCON Toronto. There I presented a borrowed story about shelter and the nature of a cat or a dog. Perhaps you have heard it before?

A dog thinks, “Here is my master. He gives me shelter, feeds me, loves me and will do anything for me, and asks nothing in return. My master must be god.”

A cat thinks, “Here is my master who gives me shelter, feeds me, loves me and will do anything for me, and asks nothing in return. I must be god.”

The above story definitely received some resonating responses. The real essence of the topic was not so much to do with the difference between the two pets, but what it truly means to take shelter. We can think of a turtle whose shelter is actually its shell. There is this example in The Gita about the turtle who draws its limbs within its shell when there is danger.

We are all in danger of the attacks by maya, illusion, and so the ultimate protection is in humility, at the lotus feet of the Lord. Let’s face it, there are animal shelters, homeless shelters, women’s shelters, bomb shelters, etc. There should be. There are also maya shelters, offering protection from life’s illusions. Maya is hot, Krishna is cool. Let us go under His shade, His shelter.

May the Source be with you!

 


Saturday, November 12, 2022
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Brampton, Ontario

The Kind and the Not So

Road rage is very much on the rise. On the previous night, while on the freeway, two drivers involved in a collision were almost at each other’s throats in a shouting match, blaming each other for the accident. They used unholy terms. Not surprising is that this overall “etiquette” on our roads is on the rise. Too many cars. Not enough roads. Levels of speed are up. More and more motorists cut each other off. Check out the words kama, krodha and lobha in the scriptures and where these traits lead us and a full-blown picture is created. I forgot to mention the frequency of honking. It’s bad!

This Saturday evening Vallabha Hari and I witnessed some nasty elements as we walked along Davenport, which was formerly The Ancient Trail, tread by our indigenous people. We had just participated in a beautiful night at Rita and Hatesh’s home. “Beautiful” because I got my asparagus. The chanting was lively amongst the ten or so families. We also enjoyed reading together from Hari Sauri’s Transcendental Diary about our guru, Prabhupada, and how he kept his cool as he arrived at the airport while customs officials carried on in a negative demeanor. I would give credit, however, to the customs people of today (the above-mentioned was in 1976, when he came through the Toronto Airport). While folks in the servant category these days are a little kinder, the people behind the wheel have become very rajasic (passionate).

May the Source be with you!

4km