Planet ISKCON

Spring is almost here, and therefore we have the Holi- The Festival of Colors, this is also the appearance day of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. In Kali yuga, Lord Krishna appears as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to propagate the Congregational chanting of the holy names. Therefore, what better way to celebrate Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's divine appearance day than to chant the holy names with our heart and soul. This year Holi was on March 16, Radha Madhava temple had arranged for 12 Hr Kirtan from 6am - 6pm. Our founder Acharya Shrila Prabhupada says, “Whenever there is congregational chanting of the holy names of the Lord, Gaura Narayana, the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His incarnation as Lord Chaitanya, immediately appears and is worshiped by sankirtana-yajna.” Read more ›

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Srimad-Bhagavatam class in Krsna Balaram mandir.

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Srila Prabhupada's visit to Atlanta was a most memorable one for all of the devotees who had gathered to be with him. He became visibly overwhelmed by the magnanimous presence of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai, the presiding Deities of Atlanta, and by the fervent, unconditional devotion pouring forth from the more than three hundred disciples surrounding him. Read more ›

Have a look in the "battlefield"! Read more ›

Short Answer: It signifies the burning of the impurities of our heart and the subsequent realization of our spiritual glory.

Answer: Let’s first understand the significance of festivals themselves.

In traditional Vedic culture, festivals served a purpose that has been almost forgotten nowadays. They were primarily meant to bring humanity closer to divinity; they served as occasions for people to put aside their worldly preoccupations and focus on the Lord and His glorious deeds, as connected with the specific days of the festivals. Without knowing this spiritual purpose, people nowadays seek only material fun through festivals and miss the internal enrichment.

The festival of Holi, celebrated on the last day of the bright fortnight of the month of Phalgun, offers an excellent opportunity to regain what we have missed for long.

Let’s now come to the bonfire.

  The history of the bonfire dates back to millennia, when the demon king Hiranyakashipu ruled and terrorized the universe and considered God, Vishnu, and His devotees to be his arch enemy. When the demon saw that his own son, Prahlada, had become a devotee of Vishnu, he became enraged and decided to kill Prahlada. But Lord Vishnu protected Prahlada during all the assassination attempts. In despair,

Hiranyakashipu ordered his sister, Holika, who had been blessed with immunity from fire, to take Prahlada into fire and burn him to death. She complied, but to the dismay of the demon, Prahlada came out of the fire, unscathed, being protected by Lord Vishnu, whereas Holika was reduced to ashes. Why? Because she had been given that blessing by Brahma with the condition that it shouldn’t be used to cause harm to others. This burning of Holika is commemorated by the bonfire and by the name ‘Holi’.

The significance of this historical narrative is immense. Prahlada signifies our godly, serving, selfless nature; Holika, the ungodly, exploitative, selfish tendency that covers our original nature. When gold is placed in fire, the impurities melt away and the purified gold emerges, shining brighter. Similarly, the purifying Holi bonfire signifies the burning away of our superficial, lower tendency and the re-emergence of our essential, higher nature.  When our pure nature re-emerges, we realize our identity as spiritual beings, as souls, who are sac-cid-ananda, eternal, enlightened and ecstatic. Realizing our identity as the beloved children of the infallible Lord, we become free from fear and full of joy.

Prahlada emerged triumphant from the fire by dint of his unflinching devotion to the Lord. Similarly, we will emerge successful through all the fire-like trials and tribulations of life by developing unflinching devotion. Just as Prahlada developed devotion from his devotee-guru Narada Muni, we too can develop devotion by learning chanting of God’s holy names from a contemporary devotee-guru.

With this devotional training, when we light the Holi bonfire, then the sacred fire will illuminate us not just externally, but also internally.

1966 March 17:
"Ekadasi. Received letter from Salvation Army Finance Secretary. At once went to see him. The result is favourable by the Grace of the Lord. In the evening two ladies and one gentleman came to see me. There was some discussions."
Prabhupada Journal :: 1966

1968 March 17: "In San Francisco State College I delivered a lecture and the students enjoyed the atmosphere very much. They stood around me after the meeting was over. One girl questioned why I am against meat eating, and she was very satisfactorily replied."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968

1968 March 17: "Today I lectured and held Sankirtana in the local YMCA and they all danced and sang with us and the scene was very pleasing. So I am very much hopeful that this movement can be spread all over the whole world simply by the performance of Kirtana and a little lecture on the principles of Krishna Consciousness."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968

1970 March 17: "Roy Ramananda has given open instruction that it does not matter what is the social or ecclesiastical order, if one is fully Krishna Conscious, he can act as Acarya. So follow this instruction and show the world how man and woman can be united for the service of the Lord."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

1970 March 17: "All of you just make a very rigid plan for opening hundreds of centers in every nook and corner of the European countries. Surely the people will feel very happy as soon as they come in touch with our movement. Execute this responsibility and Krishna will be very happy upon you."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

1971 March 17: "My Dear Jayadvaita, so far changing the wording of verse or purport of 12:12 discussed before, it may remain as it is."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1971

1974 March 17: "That Narayana comes in the form of daridra to receive our service is against our philosophy. Daridra is daridra and Narayana is Narayana. Narayana demands service directly not through daridra. There is no need of rendering service to the daridras in order to reach Krsna."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1974 March 17: "It will be a great pleasure for me if you can come and live with me for some time. You are 79 years old and I am also 78. I wish that in the fag end of life if you and I together can preach Krsna Consciousness all over the world, people will be benefited and all problems of the world will be solved. That is my conviction."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

Sally Aggarwal visits NV

One elderly American lady and two younger ladies wandered into the lobby of Sri Sri Radha Vrindabanchandra temple the afternoon of Thurs. March 13, 2014.

Parampara prabhu inquired: “Good afternoon, ladies. May I help you?”

One of the younger women replied, smiling, referring to the elderly American lady, “You know, this lady is very special to your Hare Krsna movement!”

Parampara didn’t understand what she was referring to.

“Yes, this is my mother, Sally Aggarwal! She sponsored Srila Prabhupada on the Jaladuta from India in 1965!” she proudly declared.

Parampara was very happy to  accompany Sally, her daughter and her daughter’s friend on an adventure to the goshala, where they had fun seeing the three new little bull calves and some of New Vrindaban’s milking cows.

Sally spoke of how humble Srila Prabhupada was when he stayed with them in their small apt. in Butler, PA, where he had to sleep on the couch.

She recalls, “At first, we would, of course, cook meals for the Swami and ourselves. But our apt. was so small that after a short time, we had to get the Swami a room at the local YMCA. Even so, he used to come to our apt. every day and cook delicious meals for the whole family! What a treat!  It was a very special time. But I did feel bad taking service from him.”

Sally spoke about how Srila Prabhupada expressed a strong desire to go to New York. She told Parampara that Srila Prabhupada’s main goal at the time was to distribute many books to the American people.

“He told my husband, Gopal, and myself that his original idea was to come to America, distribute his books and then return to India.  As a matter of fact, he had left a trunk of books with us for 10 years, so we finally asked some devotees here from New Vrindaban to come and pick them up. I realized much later that I should have kept those books. If I had, I’d be a millionaire by now!” Sally laughed at this thought.

Caitanya Bhagavat das took the opportunity of Sally’s visit to give her a copy of the DVD “Your Ever Well-Wisher”, in which she appeared, since she had heard about this movie, but had never seen it. He gave her a Bhagavad Gita as well, for which she was very thankful.

Soon after the Swami had arrived in Butler, PA, Sally was concerned that people in the small town would think he was weird. So, in a motherly and protective mood, she went straight to the local newspaper, Butler Eagle, and arranged for an article, so people would know more about him.

Sally described another very amazing time in their lives.  “When Srila Prabhupada was leaving his body in Vrindavan, India, both my husband, Gopal, and I had the unbelievable fortune to be at his side.”

New Vrindaban was very fortunate to have a special and very fortunate lady, Mrs. Sally Aggarwal, drop in for a visit.

Kripamoya Prabhu at Kirtan Mela Mayapur 2014 Day 2

Answer Podcast

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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 14 March 2009, Korsnas, Sweden, Srimad Bhagavatam 3.2.15)

Question: Are the faults that we see in others simply a reflection of our own faults or is there something else to it?

Not always but it can well be. If one is a liberated soul, when one sees faults in others then one sees real faults in others, faults that are there. If one is a conditioned soul then there are two options. One option is that everything one sees is coloured by the glasses of one’s false ego. The false ego gives us coloured glasses where everything is coloured by them. In that case, we see faults in a person and we add a little colour from our own false ego to it as well. Thus we make faults into something more than what is really there. We take what is there and then add something. That is looking at faults through false ego. The other option is that there are no faults at all, and that we just project with our false ego faults onto someone.

So these possibilities are there for the conditioned soul – first is that there are real faults but they are coloured, and other times there are no faults but they come from projections of our false ego. But in the case of a liberated soul, he sees things as they are because he is completely sober and he can see right through you and he sees everything at the glance: the faults, the good qualities – but with compassion, with unlimited compassion.

 

 

 

Krsna, who is expert at embracing, sports with Radha in the forest groves or in the caves of Govardhana. Thus He is known as Rama.

Srila Jiva Goswami

Gaura Purnima is a Gaudiya Vaishanva festival that celebrates the divine appearance of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Navadwipa, India. Gaura Purnima means “Golden Full Moon”. The name signifies that Lord Caitanya took birth at time of full moon and He blesses everyone with the moonlike rays of His teachings. Festivities at ISKCON Delhi include a shobha-yatra (parade) with utsava murti of Sri Sri Gaura Nitai on Juhu beach followed by Sringar-arati and lecture on the glories of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprasad. The evening festivities consist of maha-abhishek of Sri Sri Gaura Nitai, Sri Gaura arati followed by dinner prasada for all. Read more ›

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Lecture Podcast

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1966 March 16:
"Dashami. No letter received. In the evening there was meeting. The attendance was three. Joan was kind enough to get my books sixteen sets from Paragon Book Gallery. The books are brought and kept in stock. No expenditure. Income $3.00 by contribution."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1966

1969 March 16: "When India was divided into Hindustan and Pakistan there was good opportunity for the Hindus and the state religion should have been declared Krishna Consciousness. In the name of secular state, the leaders are deliberately violating all the principles of India's original spiritual culture."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969

1969 March 16: "My Guru Maharaja put more stress on publishing books and magazines, and temple opening as a secondary consideration. It is more important to create devotees than to construct temples. Unless you have devotees, the temples will remain vacant."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969

1969 March 16: "So there is no more scarcity of anything - let us begin the job. We shall print at least four books yearly, and 50,000 magazines every month. We have now staff, editorial, printers, binders, and managers - and Krishna will be financier."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969

Mahaprabhu was a beautiful child, and the ladies of the town came to see Him with presents. His mother's father, Pandita Nilambara Cakravarti, a renowned astrologer, foretold that the child would be a great personage in time; and he, therefore, gave him the name Visvambhara. The ladies of the neighbourhood styled him Gaurahari on account of His golden complexion, and His mother called Him Nimai on account of the 'nimba' tree near which He was born. Beautiful as the lad was, everyone heartily loved to see Him every day. As He grew up He became a whimsical and frolicsome lad. After His fifth year, He was admitted into a pathasala where He picked up Bengali in a very short time. Read more ›

1970 March 16: "When the large Deities are installed, the small Deities should be worshiped as Vijaya Vigraha which means this pair of Deities may go outside the Temple with sankirtan party in a small car, not always, but conveniently. In due course of time, I shall let you know the details."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

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1971 March 16: "I am very glad you are carrying on your programs for spreading Krsna consciousness with great enthusiasm and good response. But we must not lose our own status of advancement in Krsna consciousness. Everything must be done very intelligently."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1971

1974 March 16: "I am pleased you have been preaching and people are sympathetic. Our movement is unique, from all countries they are joining and becoming Vaisnavas by chanting Hare Krsna mantra, and refraining from the pillars of sinful activities. This was Lord Caitanya's desire."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1974 March 16: "Due to the mismanagement of the demon class, food is not available. The people are very disturbed. If we distribute prasadam to the hungry people of India, at our centers as well as in the villages, we will win over the whole country and the whole world."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

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15-03-2014 The Glories of Lord Caitanya, ISKCON Mayapur, West Bengal, India.MP3