Planet ISKCON

I just listened to a wonderful lecture of Śrīla Prabhupāda wherein he explains how our present body is decided.  It is our own creation, our own painting.  Done with the colors of the three modes that we associated with in our previous lives.   By associating with the nature of ignorance one is granted birth among the animal species.  By association with the nature of passion, material progress, one is granted birth in among humans, and by associated with the nature of purity, goodness, and clarity one can take birth among the demigods.  Higher than that is one’s very own Godly spiritual form which one attains by association with the nature of God.   The consciousness we are absorbed in at death will be the paint that designs our new life.  Our society functions mainly on the platform of passion and ignorance (rajas & tamas) and it is rare to find someone attracted to goodness, what to speak of being situated in it.   However the bright side is that one’s Godly nature is easily revived by Krishna Kirtan.  It is fun, easy to do, and a person can directly perceive its benefits.   

Here is the quote:

Śrīla Prabhupāda: That we have explained that you have to accept another body. And there are 8,400,000 different forms of body. And you will be awarded one of the bodies out of the 8,400,000.

The body is awarded according to your karma or action. We are acting in three modes of material nature. Some of them are acting in goodness, some of them are acting in passion, and some of them are acting in ignorance. So there are three different modes of activities. Now, when you mix up three, three into three, it becomes nine. And again if you multiply nine by nine, it becomes eighty-one. So it increases in so subtle division of the mixture of the three qualities.

Just like the painter. He knows how to mix the three original color, namely blue, yellow and red. The red color represents passion, and the yellow color represents ignorance, and the blue color represents goodness. So as the color painter, er, painter knows how to mix and make varieties of colors, similarly, the three modes of material nature being mixed up, they are represented in so many different forms of body.

So at the present moment, in your human form of body, you are also mixing the same qualities in your different desires. That means you are creating your next body. So at the time of death the thoughts and the activities which will be prominent within your mind, you will get a similar body in next life.

Therefore the intelligent man should be very cautious to get the next body. We can get the body like God; we can get the body like the dog. Therefore the best intelligent person should try to endeavor to get the next body like God. That is Krsna consciousness movement, that you endeavor in this life so long you are alive to get a body like God. That will solve your all problems, namely birth, death, old age and disease. 75/02/16 Mexico City, Bhagavad-gita 2.16

Answer Podcast

Distraction is the enemy of the Japa chanter. By concentrating on the sound and focusing on the Holy names we can defeat this enemy with the sound of Krsna's names.

1966 May 9:
"Panchami. The whole day I did not go out. In the evening there was meeting the attendance was large, 14 ladies and gentlemen attended. But the collection poor only $5.00 Never mind it is growing."
Prabhupada Journal :: 1966

1970 May 9: "All these things do not sound very nice. So I am very much anxious to know what is the actual situation because I can sense that he wants to introduce something in my absence which is completely against Krsna Consciousness."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

1972 May 9: "Now I want that we shall concentrate on making our devotees Krishna conscious and ourselves becoming Krishna conscious, and not be so much concerned with expanding ourselves widely but without any spiritual content. Just like boiling the milk, it becomes thicker and sweeter."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

1972 May 9: "So he is just like my younger brother, we call him by nickname Gabu. His elder brother's nickname was Subida, and he was calling me Moti, so we were so intimate that he would not go in perambulator without me. We would not separate even for a moment. But he is now dead and gone."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

1973 May 9: "So inhabitants can be engaged in such a small manufacturing enterprise as well as farming to become self sufficient. But we should not be business minded. Our main business is to develop our dormant Krsna Consciousness."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1973

1974 May 9: "Your letters are a great pleasure for me to read that in one year 4,169,004 total books were bought by the temples from BBT. That is the nature of the spiritual energy, it is always increasing if we just apply our energy."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1974 May 9: "Your entering politics is good. Leaders must be ideal men so others will follow them. So make propaganda on this basis. We are Krishna Conscious candidates, so our political propaganda must be 100% Krishna Consciousness."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1974 May 9: "I cannot close my eyes when I see things going wrong, money mispent, things not used properly. But if you can relieve me of worry of management it will be a great relief for me. Krsna will give you more and more intelligence on how to do this if you sincerely endeavor."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1975 May 9: "Do not be discouraged. Simply follow all of the rules and regulations very carefully. This is most important. Without these things, there is no spiritual life."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1975

What about: eating veg fake meat dishes, non-alcoholic beer, special treatment for non-practicing children of devotees, non-sadhaka seniors giving class and gurus who do not directly guide their disciples.

The post Bhakta dasa asks: How to respond to a senior Vaisnava criticizing one’s guru appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Two of the older cows in the herd, around 20 years old, Bahula & Kalindi are white faced. As older white faced cows are prone to do, they developed eye cancer. Last month they were transported to the OSU Veterinary hospital for an operation that would remove the affected eyes.

Bahula had surgery on April 3rd & has been healing nicely. She recently had her stitches taken out on April 21st & has returned to pasture.

Kalindi had surgery on April 8th & developed an infection in her eye. After a week of regularly cleaning the wound twice daily & being  treated with antibiotics, her wound is now healing nicely.

By Gunacuda Dasi Read more ›

11-04-2014 SB 1.2.7 Causeless Knowledge and Detachment, Ramesh Prabhu’s Home, Tongaat, South Africa.mp3

The post May 9th, 2014 – Darshan – Chandan Yatra – Day 8 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

ISKCON Guyana would like to offer two padayatras by the end of 2016, the year of the fiftieth anniversary of ISKCON. Read more ›

Distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s books in the East African country of Kenya has reached an all-time high, with 54,399 books distributed during the December marathon of 2013 by just three small temples: Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa. The score catapulted Kenya to the number seven country in the world during the marathon.

A young women becomes a nun. She travels to Brazil to work with poor children and then returns to Italy to live quietly in a convent in Milan. Now she is the star of Italy’s version of the TV show “The Voice.”

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Kadamba Kanana Swami is NOT in South Africa but in the United Kingdom currently. He visited Cape Town from 28 March to 04 April (read all about part one by clicking here) and again from 07 to 12 April. We have a legitimate reason for the delay in this post as a backpack containing the recorder with the recordings, camera with all the photos and laptop was stolen. Thankfully, all media was shared prior to the great theft which has been recovered now and is presented to you below!

In part two of his visit to Cape Town, on the occasion of Rama Naumi, three devotees received initiation. Herman, Vera and Fallon are now Hari Vilas das, Nilachala dd and Vasanti dd, respectively. These devotees are special for various reasons. Hari Vilas das is part of the preaching team at Stellenbosch University who are translating Srila Prabhupada’s books into Afrikaans. Nilachala dd is a student at Stellenbosch University and came to Krsna consciousness through the Bhakti Yoga Society program. Vasanti dd was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth and doctors thought that she would never walk. However, not only can she walk but she can dance as well! On 21 December 2010, Vasanti dd met Kadamba Kanana Swami in the city centre of Cape Town where he was distributing books. She bought a book from him from which led to her coming to the temple and reawakening her Krsna consciousness.

In addition to the Rama Naumi celebration, Maharaj went out on harinam with the devotees, did a university preaching program and a program at the house of HG Medhavi Prabhu (ACBSP). As mentioned above, Maharaj is in London and will give the morning class tomorrow (10 May) at Bhaktivedanta Manor (7:30 am; GMT+1). A live steam will be available via their website.

Later in the day, he will participate in the Birmingham 24 hour kirtan which starts at 2 pm (GMT+1) and will continue until Sunday. This festival will be broadcast on mayapur.tv. On Saturday, Maharaj will lead kirtan from 6-7 pm and on Sunday from 5-6 pm.

Audio

KKS_CPT_SA_08 April 2014_Rama Naumi_SB Lecture 9.10.2

KKS_CPT_SA_08 April 2014_Rama Naumi_Initiation Lecture

KKS_CPT_SA_10 April 2014_Stellenbosch_University Program

KKS_CPT_SA_11 April 2014_Stellenbosch_SB Lecture 1.2.22

KKS_CPT_SA_11 April 2014_House Program_Lecture

KKS_CPT_SA_11 April 2014_House Program_Kirtan

 

Photos

If you cannot view the slide-show then please visit flickr.

 

 

People at Sanur Beach, Bali, Indonesia enjoying the colorful harinama procession.

The pain was too much for her to deal with! Better become a Hare Krishna and renounce the material world! :-) Read more ›

"Krishna is offered foodstuff in goodness. The foodstuffs in the modes of goodness are wheat, rice, pulse (beans, peas), sugar, honey, butter and all milk preparations, vegetables, flowers, fruits, grains. So these foods can be offered in any shape, but prepared in various ways by the intelligence of the devotees. The ingredients are always the same as above, whether you fry them, boil them, bake them, powder them, or whatever way they are combined or cooked, the idea is that they must come from this group of foodstuffs. So you can make your own recipe if you like, so long as the ingredients are within this group. This foods group is stated by Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita, and we follow accordingly."
( Srila Prabhupada letter, Los Angeles, 13 November, 1968)

 

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Here are the pictures from the Surabaya (East Java) Ratha-yatra held on the 4th of May at the town's 721 birthday celebration. Read more ›

Spiritual Teachings: Radhanath Swami at TEDxLondonBusinessSchool 2014

I had arrived at New York's JFK Airport and was immediately struck by the hundreds of cars all around the airport.I asked my friend who had come to pick me up, "How exactly are all these cars be sustained once the fuel supply is over?"

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